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Fulani herdsmen under the aegis of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria on Tuesday demanded the head and other body parts of one of their colleagues who was killed during a clash with farmers in Ugala, Yala Local Government Area of Cross River State. The slain herdsman, identified simply as Buba, was said to have been beheaded, during a fight between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in the community on Sunday. Several other persons sustained injuries in the fracas. The Vice Chairman of the MACBAN, Alhaji Abdurrahman Abdul, who led a delegation of herdsmen on a visit to the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone Six, Calabar, Mr. Abubakar Marafa, said three other members of the association had been declared missing since the incident happened. He told Southern City News that Buba was on his way to rescue one of his shepherds who was allegedly attacked by farmers when the  incident occurred, adding that the Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben ...

A 16-year-old pupil of the Government Secondary School, Tunga, Niger State, Faith Galadima, who was impregnated by the school’s vice principal, Mohammed Mohammed, has given birth to a baby boy. The teenager was delivered of the baby at Injita village, Munya Local Government Area of Niger State. The VP had allegedly slept with the pupil sometime in March this year, putting her in the family way. Mohammed was arraigned in court on April 4, 2017 and is standing trial on two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a child, and impregnating a female pupil. The accused was remanded in the prison custody for three months after he pleaded not guilty to the charges. The presiding magistrate, Fatima Auna, had granted the VP bail in the sum of N1m, which she said was in line with sections 35 and 36 of the 1999 constitution, and sections 341 and 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The victim, who narrated her ordeal to journalists on Tuesday, said that she gave birth to the bab...

A gang of five children aged between 12 and 14 have been caught at Idofin Elega, Abeokuta, Ogun State, for burglary. The children allegedly scaled the gate into a shop in the community around 12am on Friday. They reportedly carted away foodstuffs from the shop, but were caught by members of the Oodua People’s Congress in the area. The kids were subsequently handed over to the police at the Adatan station. A video clip of the incident was shared on  Facebook  by one Bola Alao-Ogbu on November 5. While being questioned in Yoruba by residents, the children blamed their action on maltreatment and hunger. None of them reportedly lived with their parents. One Musa, who identified himself as the leader of the gang, said he fled from an Arabic school, where he lived, due to maltreatment. He said his friend, Oloyede, brought the idea of the burglary. Musa said, “Oloyede and I were passing by one day. He pointed at the shop and suggested that we should go at night...

Delhi shut all primary schools on Wednesday as pollution hit 70 times the World Health Organization’s safe level, prompting doctors in the Indian capital to warn of a public health emergency. Dense grey smog shrouded the roads of the world’s most polluted capital, where many pedestrians and bikers wore masks or covered their mouths with handkerchiefs and scarves. The US embassy website showed the concentration of PM 2.5 — the microscopic particles that are the most damaging to health — topped 700 early on Wednesday morning, 70 times the WHO guidelines on long-term exposure, before dropping slightly. “When I came to Delhi in 1984, the air in the city was clean. But today when I left at 4 am for work I could barely see anything,” said Jeevanand Joshi, a roadside tea seller. “This is not fog, this is smoke, and it is certainly making us sick.” The Indian Medical Association declared a public health emergency, urging administrators to “curb this menace”, while the E...

Ten suspects on Monday escaped from a cell of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Bayelsa State Police Command in Yenagoa, the state capital. However, out of the 10 escapees, five were said to have been re-arrested in Yenagoa and Agbura, on the outskirts of the state capital, on Tuesday. It was learnt that the re-arrest of the five suspects followed an order of a manhunt by the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Asuquo Amba. It was learnt that some inmates of the SARS detention cell, led by one  Touch-Touch , cut the iron protector at the toilet in one of the cells and escaped through the ceiling of the building without being noticed by operatives on duty. The incident, which was said to have occurred at about 10pm on Monday, was discovered when a security official of the Yenagoa Local Government Area, raised the alarm on noticing strange persons jumping into the council’s premises from the SARS headquarters. It was learnt that two of the fleeing suspects were arres...

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday banned fresh recruitment by all Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, except by presidential approval. He said this was to manage a rising personnel expenditure that was expected to increase to 12 per cent in 2018. He disclosed that overhead cost would also rise by N26bn in 2018 or 12 per cent increase. Buhari spoke when he presented the estimates of the 2018 budget to a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives in Abuja. The President laid a budget size of N8.612tn before the legislature for 2018, an increase of N1.7tn from the N7.44tn appropriated in 2017. Buhari, who wore sky-blue Hausa native attire and a matching cap, addressed lawmakers for 1hour and13minutes amid applause and intermittent murmurs by senators and members of the House. The President said he had released up to N450bn out of the N2.2tn budgeted for 2017 capital projects as of the end of October. He promised to raise the im...

The police in Delta State say they have arrested a commercial sex worker who allegedly stabbed her client to death during an argument at Destar Hotel, Asaba, the state capital, on July 18, 2017. The spokesperson for the police command in the state, DSP Andrew Aniamaka, said on Friday in Asaba that the police responded to a distress call from the hotel after the incident. He said the suspect had been taken into custody. Reports said the deceased was a father of four. In a statement, Aniamaka said, “A day after the incident, the ‘C Division’ in Asaba carried out preliminary investigation on the case and transferred it to Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation Department. “As I speak to you, homicide detectives have commenced full investigation into the case with a view to unravelling what actually transpired between the suspect and the victim to establish culpability.” News Agency of Nigeria reported that the hotel had been deserted following the incident, an...

The Ugandan police are in search of a man, Molly Ekwang who was alleged to have killed his 59-year-old mother over food on Wednesday night. The police spokesperson, Mr David Ongom Mudong, confirmed to  Daily Monitor  in a phone interview that the 20-year-old suspect killed his mother, Molly Ekwang, on Wednesday at around 8 pm. Police said the suspect went back home drunk and asked his mother to give him food but his mother told him to wait as she organised to serve it. According to eyewitnesses, the son was impatient and allegedly said he would kill his mother and moments later, he beheaded her. We are looking for him, when we get him he will be arrested and charged with murder,” Mr Mudong said. Mr Jasper Ojok, one of the relatives, said: “Ekwang used to have frequent quarrels over food with his mother.” “The suspect recently beat up his grandmother over food, the man likes food a lot and he also takes marijuana. He was in jail for four months for beat...

The police in Nasarawa State have confirmed the arrest of a 25-year-old woman, Mwuese Keleve, who allegedly murdered her three-day-old child in the Kadarko area of Keana Local Government Area of the state. The Police Public Relation Officer, DSP Idirisu Kennedy, who hinted this in an interview with Northern City News on Thursday in Lafia, said the command on Monday received a report about the corpse of a baby found in a river in the Keana Local Government Area. He stated that police detectives on Tuesday arrested the suspect who turned out to be the mother of the dead child. The police image-maker said the suspect had confessed to committing the crime, but did not give any cogent reason for killing the baby. Kennedy told our correspondent that as soon as the police concluded their investigations, Keleve would be charged to court. His said, “Based on the report from the preliminary investigation, the woman is sane and has admitted to committing the crime.” The suspect’s h...

SEVEN months after Mr. Chikwendu Ibekwe died in the police custody at the State Criminal Investigation Department in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, his family is still crying for justice over his death. It was learnt that the family rejected the sum N310,000 offered to them by the police as compensation for Ibekwe’s death. Ibekwe, a 42-year-old vulcaniser, who hailed from Umuobiakwa Nsirimo in Umuahia South Local Government of Abia State, was arrested on April 6, 2017 for allegedly buying a stolen tyre. It was gathered that the deceased was initially detained at the Ubakala Police Station before he was transferred to D7, where he reportedly died after falling sick. The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Geoffrey Ogbonna, had in an interview with  Southern City News  in April said that the deceased was arrested because the vehicle of a kidnapped victim was traced to his workshop. Ogbonna added that while in detention, the deceased became aggressi...

A 13-year-old girl from Ilefunfun, Magbon, Badagry, Lagos State, has allegedly fled with a boyfriend who lives in Ilogbo, Oko Afo, a neighbouring  community. The Senior Secondary School One pupil, Lawal, reportedly eloped with the boyfriend, identified simply as Akin, on October 22 and had yet to return home. PUNCH Metro  learnt that a friend of the girl, known as Kemi, hooked her up with Akin, who is said to be an  okada  (motocycle) rider. It was said 21-year-old Akin and Lawal had met in a church on the day, from where she took her away. Our correspondent gathered that the case was reported at the Morogbo Police Division, but the police had yet to track Akin down. The father of the girl, Isah, a dock worker in Apapa, stated that Kemi and Akin’s parents had frustrated efforts to find his daughter. He said, “I have been searching for her for two weeks. I went to my workplace in Apapa. When I came back, her siblings told me that she went to Holy Ma...

Success Nwogu, Ilorin Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has observed that Nigeria’s economy is not booming yet. He made the observation at the 52nd Annual Service of Songs of the 1st ECWA Church, Ilorin, the Kwara State capital. Obasanjo, who spoke in Yoruba during the church service, urged Nigerians to be patient, adding that the current hard time would not last. “This current hard time will not last. The economy is not booming. Everyone is feeling the heat but people should be patient. The small and large scale business owners are all feeling it. It is normal for people to experience hardship as a result of the current economic challenges. People should be patient; it will not last.” The National Bureau of Statistics had on September 5 announced that the Nigerian economy was out of recession. NBS said that in the second quarter of 2017, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 0.55 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms which indicated the exit of the economy from rece...