Lagos set to auction 53 vehicles impounded for one-way drive

The Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit (Taskforce) has concluded arrangements to auction vehicles of 31 traffic offenders already convicted by the court for driving against oncoming traffic as well as 22 automobiles that were abandoned for over six months after their arrest.

Chairman of the Agency, CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi disclosed that owners of the impounded vehicles who abandoned their cars have contravened the Lagos State Transport Sector Reform Law 2018, stating that public notice has been issued for owners of both the court forfeited and abandoned cars to identify their vehicles at the Agency’s car parks in Ikorodu and Bolade, Oshodi.

“At the expiration of the one month verification exercise, the Agency shall apply to court for an order of ‘Public Auction’ where members of the public would have opportunity to buy any of these vehicles,” the Chairman said.

Egbeyemi clarified that the owners of the vehicles forfeited to the government pleaded guilty before Magistrate Omobola Salawu of the Lagos State Mobile Court at Oshodi after their arrest for driving against traffic.

He affirmed that in addition to forfeiture of the vehicles, each traffic offender was sentenced to 100 hours of ‘Community Service’ at any public institution.

The Chairman, however, maintained that with the State government’s zero-tolerance for violation of the law, the Agency would continue to prosecute traffic offenders until sanity was restored on state roads and law abiding citizens were allowed to commute without being impeded by unlawful individuals.

Meanwhile, CSP Egbeyemi also confirmed that over 7,350 impounded motorcycles were presently in custody of the agency for plying restricted routes, including highways and bridges across the State.

He stated that the Agency was awaiting further directives from the government in respect of the impounded motorcycles, disclosing that the motorcyclists were apprehended around Agege, Pen-Cinema, Apapa, Ikorodu, Mile 2, Obalende, Oyingbo, 2nd Rainbow, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Ojota, Maryland, Yaba, Oshodi, Ikorodu Road, Apongbon, Ikeja and Iyana-Ipaja.

- PM NEWS

Benin-based Pastor Solomon accused of sexual abuse of children

Benin-based Pastor Solomon Folorunsho, who said he is on a self-proclaimed mission to help humanity, creating the International Christian Centre for Missions (ICCM), is facing accusations of physically and sexually abusing children seeking refuge in his church’s camp.

The camp he runs in the ancient city claims to provide accommodation, medical care and education for 4,000 children, “most of them orphans”, as well as 500 widows and missionaries, using funding from local institutions, NGOs and churches abroad.
But witnesses according to an AFP report — children, their relatives, former missionaries and social workers — paint a far darker picture of the pastor and the treatment of those in his care.
“At first he’s very subtle, quiet — like somebody who wouldn’t hurt a fly,” one former church worker said of the charismatic preacher. I loved him, I loved his charisma.”

But during months of interviews, witnesses detailed how those living at his 30-hectare (75-acre) facility frequently go hungry and thirsty and endure atrocious hygiene conditions.

Some of the Boko Haram children who ended up in Solomon’s camp

All accused the pastor of physical abuse, while some accused him of sexual harassment.
Pastor Solomon, aged in his 50s, admits having problems with food and sanitary conditions in the camp but denies any mistreatment.
“There is no bad treatment here. We don’t do abuse,” he told AFP.
“Feeding them is a challenge… but we don’t have anything to hide. We are helping humanity.”
Concerns about the camp have a long history. Three years ago, the UN children’s agency UNICEF sent an assessment team to the site, who filed a report with damning conclusions.
“Pastor Solomon runs this camp as if it is his ‘kingdom’. He controls the movement and actions of every person in the camp through a group of ministers and specially selected children,” the team wrote in the confidential report, seen by AFP.
The UNICEF investigators said what they saw, coupled with interviews with children, caregivers and NGO workers, prompted “strong concerns regarding the possibility that Pastor Solomon may be engaged in sexual activities, or at a minimum, displaying grooming behaviours with girls in the camp”.

Oshiomhole and wife with Pastor-Solomon

Witnesses also told AFP that around a dozen young girls work for the pastor as his personal servants and receive preferential treatment.
“A girl who refused to work for him was punished and starved. When he beat you, he wouldn’t stop until you bled seriously,” said Rahila, a 16-year-old girl who left the camp several months ago.
“He had names that he called different girls… He would comment on the size of my butt, and he would say our chests looked like pineapples or stuff like that,” she said.

He had names that he called different girls… He would comment on the size of my butt, and he would say our chests looked like pineapples or stuff like that,” she said.

All the witnesses’ names have been changed to protect their identities.
Other children and adults said that those who upset the preacher were treated brutally.

“I was always hungry, there was never enough food or water. When we complained we got beaten with anything he could lay his hands on,” said 12-year-old Hauwa.

Pastor Solomon with Governor Obaseki

“No one leaves Pastor Solomon without a scar — whether it is psychological or physical,” a former follower told AFP after hesitating at first to talk about his ordeal.
Convincing people to talk about their experiences with Pastor Solomon is a painstaking task. Some have refused to speak out for 20 years.
“Most of the girls were coming from poor homes. They would sleep with him and in exchange he would pay for their school fees,” said a former female follower who was at the church in the late 1990s.

She said her going to the authorities about the abuse she experienced and witnessed was out of the question in a country where powerful men are rarely brought to justice.
She was also scared of juju, the traditional black magic widely feared by people in the region.
“I was scared to talk. He uses juju, people told me I would die.”
Evangelical preachers draw fanatical followings across the deeply Christian south of Nigeria. Pastor Solomon’s power stems greatly from his beliefs.
“He says he’s sent by God. To confront him is like confronting God himself,” a former church worker said.

Those who have served under him and lived in the camp say the pastor uses the fear of devil to keep people in line.
On the church’s website, in a short biography entitled “I Saw Jesus” — translated into six languages including Russian and Chinese — he claimed that he was saved from Satan by God himself.
Pastor Solomon’s International Christian Centre for Missions has expanded hugely since he founded it in 1990 with just a dozen young female followers.
In 1992, he set up the first “Home for the Needy”, taking in poor children whose parents entrusted them to his care on the promise of an education.

A former missionary said the pastor would sometimes misrepresent the children as orphans to raise sponsorship in Europe or the United States.
Ten years later, the church had grown to more than 200 branches, with missionaries and preachers working across southern Nigeria and funds coming from evangelical churches abroad.
“He was always browsing the internet to look for church organisations all over the world” to target for donations, the missionary said.
“He would send pictures of us or of the children, asking us to look sad. He was saying that white people are so emotional.”

But it was the Boko Haram jihadist insurgency more than 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) to the north of Benin City that caused a surge in the numbers at the camp.
As the violence displaced millions of people and grabbed global attention in 2013, Pastor Solomon’s group turned its attention to children in the conflict zone of northeastern Nigeria.
“The pastor’s people came (to Maiduguri) and convinced parents to send their children to Benin City where they would have a good education, with free food,” said Rakiya, who allowed five of her six children to go.

“At the camp, parents would be given bags of rice, bus fare, jerrycans of palm oil and the like. So when they returned to Maiduguri they would tell other parents ‘Benin is good’,” she said.

– No records –
No records are publicly available about how many children were brought from northern Nigeria to the camp.
Pastor Solomon told AFP that the Nigerian army and the intelligence service “have a copy of the register”, but this could not be verified.
UNICEF and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) wanted to set up a programme to reunite children from the camp with their families, but were denied access to their identities.
“At this time, camp management has been unable/unwilling to provide this information,” UNICEF said in its report.
UNICEF maintains that it passed on the report to local authorities in 2016 to make them aware of the “concerns”.

But nothing appears to have been done.
On the contrary, Pastor Solomon had full support of former Edo governor Adams Oshiomhole, now head of Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress.
“With the former governor, we once had a good relationship,” Pastor Solomon told AFP. “When parents wanted to get their children back, he would give them money, he would give them a gift.”
Today, while denying any accusations of maltreatment, the pastor admits that the huge influx of children placed a major strain on the camp and that the church struggles for money.
Camp workers have told local media that to feed the estimated 4,000 children and 500 adults at the camp costs hundreds of dollars a day — and that does not include medicine, water, education and clothing.

“We also have a problem with hepatitis, measles, chickenpox and scabies; we don’t have enough accommodation for them, this is a big challenge,” the pastor acknowledged.
Witnesses said that children sleep on mats on the ground in huge hangars without adult supervision, relieving themselves in the forest, complaining of hunger and thirst and not washing, and that many have died in the disease-ridden conditions.

– ‘It’s our responsibility’ –
While conditions keep deteriorating at the camp, some European and US evangelical groups still send donations and materials to Nigeria.
The congregation of German pastor Gunther Geipel — who describes Pastor Solomon as a “friend and brother” — is one of them.

Geipel dismisses the allegations against the pastor as “tales” from “jealous people”.
“I cannot imagine that this is true,” he told AFP.
AFP put the allegations against Pastor Solomon and his camp to Edo State commissioner for social affairs Maria Edeko, who took up her duties several months ago.
She said she had never heard of the UN report or accusations of abuse and poor conditions at the camp but insisted they would be investigated.

She confirmed the authorities did not have access to the camp registry.
“From now on, I can assure you that my ministry will be on top of the situation. We need monitoring,” she said. “It’s our responsibility.”

- PM NEWS

Five persons rescued as another building collapses in Lagos

Five persons have been rescued after a two-storey building collapsed in Ojuelegba area of Lagos state.

The building located at Rufai street, off Makinde street in the area collapsed in the early hours of Friday.

The state government announced the incident through its Twitter handle.

“5 people were rescued from a two storey building which collapsed in the early hours of today, Friday October 25, 2019 at Rufai Street, off Makinde Street, Ojuelegba,” the tweet read.

It said the Lagos state emergency management agency mobilised its workers to the scene of the incident to rescue those trapped in the debris.

The state government asked residents and commuters in the area to remain calm as its agencies carry out their tasks.

“LASEMA swiftly activated the Lagos Emergency Response Plan for all first responders to move to the site of the collapsed building,” it read.


“Lagosians within the vicinity of the incident have been enjoined to stay calm and allow emergency responders to do their job. The collapsed building has now been brought down to ground zero and the area is now safe.” 

At least four persons were reported killed after a house built on a hill collapsed in Isheri, Magodo area of the state a few days ago.

- THECABLE

The Lagos state police command has invited Boniface Igbeneghu, a lecturer of European languages at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), over the sex-for-grades video, according to PUNCH.

Igbeneghu, a pastor of Foursquare Gospel Church, was recorded by a hidden camera in a 13-minute video documentary released by the BBC Africa Eye on October 7.

He appeared to be sexually harassing an undercover journalist who posed as an admission seeker.

The lecturer had invited her to his office for a number of tutorials, before delving into sexual conversations with her.

In a letter signed by Yetunde Alonge, deputy commissioner of police, the lecturer was asked to report at the D10 section of the state criminal investigation and intelligence department, Yaba.

Alonge, however, said Igbeneghu has not honoured the invitation despite the fact that it was sent through the university.

“We are still waiting,” the newspaper quoted the deputy commissioner of police as saying.

Due to the widespread condemnation that greeted the video documentary, the university suspended Igbeneghu and Samuel Oladipo, a lecturer in the department of economics, implicated in the video.

The Foursquare Gospel Church also asked Igbeneghu to step down from all “ministerial assignments”.

The church dissociated itself from the conduct of the lecturer.

- THECABLE

10 conditions you must fulfil to obtain UK tourist visa

To apply for a travel visa to United Kingdom requires the following documents:

 A: Filled out and signed United Kingdom tourist visa application form
 B: Original, signed Nigeria passport with at least 6 months of remaining validity.
 C: Passport Photo: 2 Include a passport style photo, with a white background, taken within the last 6 months. You may also choose to upload a photo to your order for us to print. There is a surcharge associated with this service.
 D: Visa application form. Visa application form filled out in detail(block letters) and signed by the applicant.
 E: Itinerary. Copy of round trip tickets or itinerary.
 F: Property papers. Property papers if possible
 G: Bank Statement. Copies of bank statements from the past 3 months.
 H: Employment Letter. A letter from your employer/school (on business letterhead, with contact details), stating that a leave of absence has been granted and that you will be returning to your current job. If you are self-employed, include a copy of your business license and tax return. If you are retired please submit proof of your retirement fund.
 I: Hotel Reservations. Copy of the Hotel Reservations, OR
 J: Personal Invitation. If visiting friends or family, you must provide letter of invitation with the contact information of the host and visitor, purpose and duration of the visit, confirmation of accommodation including the address, signature and date. You will also need to provide proof of the host’s status in United Kingdom ie. copy of their United Kingdom passport’s information page, or, if they are not a citizen of United Kingdom, copies of their United Kingdom residence permit and their national passport’s information pages.

PM NEWS

Mourinho to become Arsenal manager

Former Manchester United boss, Jose Mourinho could reportedly be back to the Premier League as Arsenal manager, according to The Times.

The former Chelsea manager’s last job was in Manchester United where he was sacked last November.

The Portuguese, however, could return to the Premier League as several reports are linking him to Arsenal.

The 56-year-old was seen at the Gunners Europa League match against Vitoria SC
 Arsenal are having a difficult start to the Premier League this season as they are currently 5th in the table.

The newspaper reports that manager Unai Emery could be sacked if the North London club don’t make the Champions League next season.

- DAILY POST

Atlanta-based Nigerian Abegunde jailed for $15m cyber fraud

US Federal prosecutors said an Atlanta, Georgia-based Nigerian, Olufolajimi Abegunde has been sentenced to more than six years in prison for his role in an internet fraud scheme that stole an estimated $15m through computer and wire fraud.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Memphis, Tennessee, said on Thursday that the 32-year-old Abegunde was sentenced Tuesday for wire fraud, the second Nigerian to be sentenced in less than a week. Last week in Missouri, another Nigerian, Segun Prosper Otaru was also jailed for cyber fraud.

After his arrest last year, Abegunde lied to Nigerian officials that his arrest was based on mistaken identity and asked for help to get him out of the FBI jaws.

But court documents showed otherwise.

Prosecutors said the Atlanta resident and several other people created fake business emails and profiles on dating websites to trick victims into sending money to bogus bank accounts. Funds were laundered and wired to destinations in Nigeria, Ghana and some other West African countries.

The scams caused about $15 million in losses for victims.

Abegunde’s role was that he helped launder money through a compromised business email of a land title company located in Bellingham, Washington, and a real estate company in Memphis, Tennessee.

The case against Abegunde by US Department of Justice:

 A citizen of Nigeria residing in Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to 78 months in prison yesterday for his role in an international cyber fraud scheme, announced Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant of the Western District of Tennessee.

Olufolajimi Abegunde, 32, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sheryl L. Lipman of the Western District of Tennessee who also ordered Abegunde to pay $57,911.62 in restitution to the victims of his offense. Abegunde and Javier Luis Ramos-Alonso, 29, were convicted in March after a seven-day trial in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Ramos-Alonso previously received a 31-month sentence for his role in the scheme.

Abegunde and Ramos-Alonso participated in a criminal organization in which members “spoofed” emails and created fake profiles on dating websites in order to fool victims into sending money to bogus bank accounts under the control of members of the conspiracy. The proceeds would be laundered and subsequently wired out of the United States to destinations including West Africa. The organization as a whole is believed to have caused more than $10,000,000 in damage to U.S. citizens and businesses.

The evidence presented at trial showed that Abegunde, who received an MBA from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, engaged in black-market currency exchanges over the life of the conspiracy. Purporting to hold himself out as a legitimate businessman, Abegunde claimed association with a business entity that was not yet operational in late 2017, so for his primary source of income he relied on his off-the-book currency exchanges. Through this network, Abegeunde played a key role, along with Ramos-Alonso, in laundering fraud funds from an Oct. 3, 2016, business email compromise (BEC) of a land title company located in Bellingham, Washington. The proceeds of another BEC perpetrated in July 2016 upon a real estate company in Memphis, Tennessee, also moved through parts of the same criminal organization.

Abegunde, who faced numerous account closures from banks in the United States, used a complicated network of third-party bank accounts to disguise his illicit activity. The proof at trial established that Abegunde told people that he could not receive payments into accounts that could be “tracked,” and that he preferred to engage in cash transactions because they were easier to clean and “eliminated the risk.”

In addition to his financial activities, Abegunde also engaged in a conspiracy to commit marriage fraud. Abegunde was married during his studies at Texas A&M, but divorced his wife in 2016 to marry a U.S. service member through whom he could obtain immigration and health care benefits and also open new bank accounts. He continued to live with his first wife in Atlanta while his U.S. service member wife was deployed to South Korea. While incarcerated and awaiting trial in the Western District of Tennessee, Abegunde continued his conspiratorial activities, trying to convince his fake spouse, who has since filed for divorce, to refuse to testify against him. Abegunde also engaged in witness tampering by sending a self-written Motion to Dismiss bearing his former attorney’s name and professional attestation. The evidence at trial established that Abegunde drafted and sent the motion, which his attorney expressly did not authorize, to his faux spouse in an effort to deceive her into not testifying against him.

Five other individuals have pleaded guilty to being involved in the scheme. Additionally, several foreign nationals are awaiting extradition to the United States to face trial. Others are still at large.

Accomplices of Abegunde:

Alexander Duimont

 Andrew “Andy” Jackson

 Ayodeji Olumide Ojo

 Babatunde Martins

 Benard Okorhi

 Brianna Lee

 Brianna Morrison

 Carolina Nkomo

 Christian Hinds

 Dana Brady

 Daniel Elya

 Daniel Roberts

 Dennis Miah

 Dr. Dennis Brown

 James Dean

 James “Jim” Roy

 James Yorke

 Javier Luis Ramos Alonso

 Joey Hammond

 Jon Bunyan

 Marc Richards

 Maxwell Peter

 Olufolajimi (FJ) Abegunde

 Peter Maxwell

 Rob Phantom

 Sandra Lin

 Sherry Jupiter Martinez

 Sual Derrell

 Sumaila Hardi Wumpini

 Tammy Dollan

 Tammy Henry

 Victor Daniel Fortune Okorhi

- PM NEWS