News
How reckless driving wasted 30 lives in Anambra market
Market leaders at Building Materials International Market, Bakery Market and other markets in Ogidi Idemili-North Local Government Area of Anambra State have again drew the attention of Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo to incessant deaths in front of Building Materials Market along Onitsha-Enugu federal highway.
The market leaders while briefing newsmen, said over 30 traders have lost their lives to hit-and-run vehicles at rush hours while many have sustained excruciating injuries from accidents on the express due to lack of pedestrian bridge in the area.
Another very disgusting issue the market leaders raised was the atrocities being perpetrated by the officials of the Anambra Road Traffic Management Agency (ARTMA). They accused ARTMA officials of roaming around the market with POS machines extorting money from customers whom they didn’t give proper directions as to where they should park their vehicles or provided road signs.
The Building Materials International Market (BMIM) President General, Chief Jude Nwankwo, called on both the Federal and State Government to expedite construction of a pedestrian bridge across the Enugu/Onitsha Expressway, saying that over 30 persons which include traders, customers, and passers-by have lost their lives while trying to cross the ever busy highway flanked by several markets.
Chief Nwankwo, Patron, Anambra State Market Amalgamated Traders Association (ASMATA) urged members of the Anambra State House of Assembly who recently entertained a motion on siting pedestrian bridges at Obodoukwu Junction Ogbaru, Regina Celi, Awka and TRACAS Onitsha to consider including the Building materials market axis as one of the places that needs urgent attention to forestall further loss of lives in the area.
“I must commend the robust and proactive State Legislatures we have now in the House of Assembly and also laud His Excellency, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, Solution Governor for the massive infrastructural development going on at various parts of the state including his successes in the area of security.
“There is a serious need for a pedestrian bridge across this market expressway. We have about six major markets here: BMIM, Bakery International market, Synthetic fabrics International market, Importers Zone Building materials market, Provisions & Cosmetics market, and various major plazas around this axis. These result into a surge during morning and closing hours as people try to access or leave these markets.
“Many lives have been lost, no fewer than 30 persons have died without counting those injured or sometimes hospitalized. Let the State Government or Federal government build a pedestrian bridge here; many of those who died were breadwinners and people’s relatives.
“I also want to use this opportunity to remind Gov. Soludo to consider the reconstruction and tarring of these Building Materials to Ogidi High Court road which we created. The reconstruction of the road will decongest the gridlock often experienced at this BMIM/Site expressway junction,” Nwankwo said.
Also, the PG Synthetic Dealers Association, Ogidi market, Chief Sunday Muofunanya said that it high time a pedestrian bridge is constructed in the area to boost the market activities there.
“The economic situation of Nigeria is stressing the people so oftentimes people may be rushing to meet with some things and lose focus, sometimes the brake of a vehicle may fail to result to accident and if such happened during rush hour in the front the markets, the Carnage will be much.
“I also want to plead with the State Government to fulfill their promise by putting a stop to street trading and driving all street markets into their permanent site, especially those markets that had long moved into their permanent site. It will increase the IGR and control of markets in the hands of good leaders,” Muofunanya said.
According to the Chairman of Importers zone Building Materials Market Ogbunike, Oyi LGA, Mr Tobenna Igboanugo, coming from Awka the road is sloppy at this end, and it is always risky to cross the double lane at rush hour because the population is so much.
“I wish they could relocate the pedestrian bridge at Tarzan junction Nkpor to this place because it is underutilized over there but will be more useful here.
“I also plead with His Excellency to direct the Ministry of Works to commence palliative work on this Site to Ugwunwasike road to ease traffic or completely reconstruct it with drainages because any road without drainage is a waste of resources as water will find its levels.
“Governor Soludo should also sanitize the roads from illegal revenue collectors scaring our customers. They wear ATMA uniforms with POS machines to extort money from unsuspecting motorists, charging them for wrong parking without providing alternative space but they collect bribes from vehicles plying one-way against traffic which is very dangerous,” Igboanugo alleged.
Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Governor of Oyo State, on Thursday, finally threw his hats into the ring by declaring his intention to run for president in 2027, with a message – history beckons.
The governor, whose ambition has been a matter of speculations for months now and who had teamed up with forces angling to force President Bola Tinubu, out of power, told a teeming crowd in Ibadan on Thursday that time had come to reset Nigeria.
At a mega-rally to announce the alliance between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the Allied Peoples’ Movement, (APM), Makinde, expressed worry over the dwindling fortunes of Nigerians, vowing to engage Nigerians to end the drift.
Hear him: “Without a multi-party system, there is no democracy. Where is our multi-party? Where do we go from here? We have been pushed to the wall.
“They calculated and self-opposition cannot unite but I am here to say that the opposition is the everyday Nigerian. This is the time for all us to ensure Nigeria works for us. This is the time to confront it fears. It is time to engage as citizens and not spectators.
“For the opposition political parties, this is the time to unite and work in unity and give our nation the much reset it needs. The time to reset Nigeria is now. Ibadan is the city of warriors. The first grand alliance is formed. The PDP and APM is formed. This handshake will allow us to field candidates from presidency to state Assembly. And so, I declare my candidacy for office of the president of Nigeria.”
Eyo Ekpe, a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), on Wednesday, gave a detailed account on how operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) manhandled him on Monday.
He told reporters that he was at sea on why he should fall victim to the assault against his person and eventually arrested given that was not right person directly involved in the information the agency sought.
Some operatives of the EFCC who invaded the hospital, had whisked Ekpe away after firing teargas to scare away the workers, patients and visitors to the hospital, following what appeared like a fracas the ensued over what it claimed was a routine duty in the facility.
Ekpe, Deputy Chairman of the hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee (MAC), described how an operative had first entered his office to make inquiries on why the hospital was yet to give a response to an EFCC inquiry over a medical report linked to a suspect facing trial.
He detailed how he briefed the operative that the said response was being prepared and even went ahead to show him the draft of a letter in that regard, which needed to go through the gamut of official endorsement before being released.
Hear him: “The head of that internal medicine department looked at the report and also discovered that the name of the doctor that signed the report is not a member of staff of that department.
“I had prepared prepared a response to the EFCC on Monday, May 11, 2026, based on the findings. When the EFCC operative visited my office the next morning to collect the document, I told him that the response was ready in draft. I even showed him the draft, but told him that the document still needed approval from the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital before it could be officially signed and released.
“He pretended to have accepted that. He left, but later later returned with another armed operative and informed me that I was under arrest. I asked him why. I was not the one that issued the medical report. My name is not on the medical report. The report was not issued from my unit.
“But he said I would get the answer when I get to their office. I then asked him to at least wait for my staff member who I sent on an errand before joining them. But they refused.
“They started pushing me. They dragged me out of the office. Then I began to cry while they were dragging me. They had warned me not to speak. They had taken my phone. My cry as they were dragging me, attracted the workers to the scene, who enquired what was going on, but because they ordered me not to speak, I couldn’t say anything. They had their guns.
The members of staff of the hospital initially blocked them from taking me away. They then made a call. After that I saw many masked and armed men came violently, broke the protector, threatening the people that were around and people ran away.
“They picked some staff that were still by me. they dragged me and other staff, five of us into their van downstairs. By that time they discovered that the gate of the hospital were locked. So, they drove towards the gate and packed and the commotion continued. We were inside the van.
“I was so emotionally and psychologically traumatised that I couldn’t even look out of the vehicle to see what was happening outside. But I know that teargas and live bullets were shot. That’s all I can say for now.”
Joyce Abdulmalik, of the Federal High Court, Abuja, heard on Wednesday, how Zenith Bank raised alarm over the huge transaction in one of its branches by Abubakar Malami, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF-MoJ).
The bank said it immediately filed a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) in respect to the transactions, during its appearance in the ongoing trial of Malami, his wife, and son over allegation of massive looting of funds belonging to the Federal Government during his tenure.
Mashelia Bata, a compliance officer with the bank, who appeared as witness in the case, where Malami, et al, are facing a 16-count charge bordering on alleged money laundering to the tune of N8.7 billion, to which they pleaded not guilty, gave the testimony while being questioned on the bank’s roles in the matter.
Details of the testimony conveyed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), stated how the compliance officer who was cross-examined by Adebayo Adedeji, lawyer to the defendants admitted that the deposits in the account statements complied with the guidelines of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Arguments had stretched when Adedeji, opposed Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), lawyer to the EFCC, who had asked the witness to explain the meaning of a suspicious transaction report, stressing that there was no ambiguity in the term.
However, Okutepa, in response, maintained that section 215(3) of the Evidence Act did not preclude him from re-examining the witness while urging the court to allow the question for proper explanation.
After Abdulmalik, agreed and overruled Adedeji, the witness told the court that banks were required to alert the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) about fund deposits coming in a repetitive pattern, adding: “Any deposition of funds seen in a pattern or repetitive, you must escalate it to the NFIU.”
-
Columns4 weeks agoAbike Dabiri: Did Obi raise a monster or you’re drunk on Tinubu’s poisoned chalice?
-
News3 weeks agoJandor: Tinubu didn’t endorses Hamzat *I’ve briefed President on my ambition
-
Columns4 weeks agoBe the hero that saved Nigeria! Open letter to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar
-
News2 weeks agoBREAKING: Makinde, Turaki, lose! *S’Court affirms Wike’s PDP leadership
-
Columns4 weeks agoNow VDM has become Sowore’s nemesis, does Peter Obi need anther advocate?
-
Features2 weeks agoJim Nwobodo: The Sun shines, thrills, at ‘The Vanguard Awards’
-
News1 day agoTinubu to African leaders: Copy Nigeria, produce your way out of poverty
-
News3 weeks agoADC: Fight, scatter them! *Presidency goads Kogi lawmaker on Mark’s leadership