News
Homes used as kidnap havens, to be converted to police posts, residences
Buildings seized for being used as havens for criminal activities are now to be converting to police bases or residences, instead of demolishing them, if the new proposal by the Anambra State Police Command, sails through.
Ikioye Orutugu, Commissioner of Police, who canvassed for the new arrangement on Wednesday, told reporters that it made more sense putting such buildings to good use than pulling them down or setting them ablaze.
The police boss spoke against the backdrop of the burning down of big edifice in Nkpo, a community in Idemili North Local Government to the state, said to have provided a base for criminals and hideout for kidnappers, as part of the major breakthroughs by the command in recent times.
Three kidnap people including a medical doctor, were said to have been smoked out from the building, which was instantly torched in line with the Anambra State 2025 Homeland Security Laws, which empowers the state government to demolish any property used for or suspected to be proceeds of crime.
Against the backdrop of the number of buildings that had previously been pulled down, and the empty land taken over as government properties, the police boss, said it was not the best thing to do, insisting that the government should rather acquire such buildings and designate them as police posts or residences of police personnel.
Reeling out the streak of successes recorded in recent times in the state, the police boss, said they included the arrest of kidnappers, cultists, armed robbers, child traffickers, sexual predators, separatist agitators and other criminal elements.
Citing one of them as “the strategic clearance operation on 7th May 2026 in Owerre-Ezukala, Orumba South Local Government Area, he said: “Recall that the camp was earlier destroyed by a Joint Security Team. Before the confession, one Nnamdi Nkemdilim Ogbonna, male, aged 37 years, allegedly one of the top commanders of the proscribed secessionists group, is in custody as well as intelligence received overtime points on how some escaped gang members were attempting to regroup.
“The offensive operation led to the recovery of one General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) with about 2,000 rounds of live chain ammunition, two fabricated rocket launchers with 25 propellers, 10 locally made Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), one locally made Beretta pistol, two pump-action guns, three hand grenades, 10 rounds of K2 live ammunition, one gas cylinder and one black Ecolac box.
“The operatives also dislodged the armed criminals and sustained operational dominance in the area to prevent any regrouping. We remain committed to sustaining ongoing operations against all forms of criminality and ensuring the safety and security of Anambra people.”
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.”
Remember election decision is a one-day event that could lead to four years of pains, were the words with which Seyi Makinde, Governor of Oyo State, employed to rouse Nigerian voters to action against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027.
Makinde, said to be eyeing the Presidency in the next election circle, warned that Nigerians must not slack, but do everything in their powers to show the party the exit door for the suffering it had brought to them.
Declaring that the federal might those in power might be relying on would not work, the governor told his audience at the Oyo state Tourism Summit held at the University of Ibadan International Conference Centre (ICC), on Wednesday, that Nigerians would vote for leaders of their choice regardless of political influence.
Hear him: “I believe that this election cycle, federal might will not work. It has worked in Ekiti state in both instances but this time around, Nigerians will show politicians pepper. They will show us that they don’t want to be bystanders anymore; they will participate, and I’m sure of what I’m saying.”
Stressing how he had created structures to strengthen good governance in the state, Makinde, said while he would always root for continuity by which he would recommend a successor, the ultimate choice would be left for the people on who would lead them in the same manner they chose him.
His words: “I tell people that I will recommend for Oyo state people, but the decision will rest with the people of Oyo state. But if you make a mistake and bring someone who will not do good work, it is a one-day event, but the impact will last four years. So, we must get it right. Leadership changes but systems, they endure. So, our focus has been deliberate.
“People say, ‘oh, so Seyi, you did not mentor anyone these seven years you have been in government that can take over from you without the taint of APC’? And I ask them that Morohunkola Thomas or Bimbo Adekanbi, are they not from Oyo state? For us, if you’re from Oyo state, loyal to Oyo state, and have capacity, we will support you. We are blind to part colouration but open to capacity that can move Oyo state forward.”
Maintaining that his idea of continuity was aimed at building enduring systems that future administration could strengthen rather than replace, he added that the goal was to lay a solid foundation that would allow subsequent governments to build on existing structures instead of starting afresh.
There have been speculations that Makinde may back Bimbo Adekanbi, a former commissioner for finance in the state, as his preferred governorship candidate.
Adekanbi served in the administration of the late Abiola Ajimobi under the APC.
On Wednesday, Adebo Ogundoyin, speaker of the Oyo house of assembly, said he led lawmakers in the state “to a strategic breakfast meeting” with Adekanmbi, “the consensus gubernatorial candidate of our new party in the State Allied Peoples Movement.”
Oyo is the only state currently governed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Nigeria. The party has been embroiled in an internal leadership crisis, resulting in factions aligned with Makinde and Nyesom Wike, minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The door is now shut permanently in the face of the Federal Government towards taking up the 12.5 – being the remainder of its proposed 20 per cent stake in the Dangote Refineries, Africa’s first privately owned concern.
That means the government would now be stuck with the 7.5 per cent only it was able to pick up and which it currently holds in the $20 billion, 650 barrels per day capacity refinery, which came into operation in 2023 as the concern is insisting it is no longer interested in the remaining 12.5 per cent stake.
Instead of the government, the organisation, currently responsible for the supply of the major chunk of petroleum products in Nigeria and many parts of Africa, is now planning to bring in ordinary Nigerians into the mix to lap up the stake in the near future.
Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote Group, who made the revelation, Nicolai Tangen, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), that the group had since rejected requests by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, to increase its 7.25 per cent stake in the firm.
The PUNCH, quoted the African Richest Man (ARM), as saying in the interview that the NNPC’s offer to increase its 7.25 per cent stake in the refinery was rejected because the company Dangote was planning to go public and give other Nigerians the opportunity to own shares in the plant.
Dangote had revealed that after acquiring the original 7.5 per cent in 2021, for $1bn, with an option to acquire the remaining 12.75 per cent stake by June 2024, NNPC Limited began to stall, and ended up reneging on its decision.
However, the national oil company had made attempts to acquire more stakes in the refinery, since that, but this was turned down, adding that the biggest risks the business could face were either civil war and government policy inconsistencies.
Hear him: “Actually, if there are civil wars, which is not in the offing at all. The other biggest risk is government inconsistencies in policies, and we are addressing that one because if you look at our refinery, the national oil company already owns 7.25 per cent, and they are trying to buy more. We are the ones that said no; we want to now spread it and have everybody be part of it.”
Dangote, had in 2014, informed Nigerians on how, Mele Kyari, former Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (GMD-CEO), had reduced NNPC’s stake in the refinery from 20 per cent to 7.25 per cent.
He had said then: “The agreement was actually 20 per cent, which we had with NNPC, and they did not pay the balance of the money up until last year; then we gave them another extension up until June (2024), and they said that they would remain where they had already paid, which is 7.2 per cent. So NNPC owns only 7.2 per cent, not 20 per cent.
The business mogul, who painted a seducing picture of what is at stake in the new opportunities, including the provision of getting dividends in foreign currencies, told his Norwegian host: “What we are announcing is that when you invest in any of our businesses going forward, in cement or in the refinery, in petrochemicals, in fertiliser, we guarantee to pay you a dividend in dollars because we are very well into exports. 80 per cent of our revenue will be in dollars.”
Explaining how he sourced funds for building the refinery, from various financial institutions, including Nigerian banks, he said the initial plan was to fund most of the construction work from our internally generated funds, but because of naira devaluation, the group had to rely on Afreximbank, Africa Finance Corporation, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, UBA and a couple of the local banks.
“But of course we also have a very good relationship with the Standard Bank of South Africa and, at the beginning, Standard Chartered Bank of the UK. We were lucky and what happened when the plant was completed turned out to be much more than our own expectations.”
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