Imagine It!!!

Two air crew members have been arrested by Border Force officers following the seizure of around six kilos of cocaine at Heathrow Airport. The two, Nigerian women aged 37 and 32 who worked for the airline Arik Air, had arrived on a flight from Lagos, Nigeria on the evening of Monday 20 May. They were arrested after a package of drugs was discovered by Border Force officers on a bus which had been used to transport air crew. It is estimated that the cocaine, if cut and sold on the UK streets, could have had a potential street value of around £600,000. The pair remain in Border Force custody where they will be questioned further. Border Force Heathrow director, Marc Owen, said: “Border Force officers at Heathrow are at the forefront of the fight to stop class A drugs reaching UK streets and harming our communities. “Drug trafficking is a serious offence and those convicted face long prison sentences.”

Nigeria's Supreme Court on Friday in Abuja ordered that the ring leader of a notorious armed robbery gang, Mr. Salisu Isiaka, who has been terrorizing the people of Kwara state and giving them sleepless nights, is to die by hanging for stealing handset. In a unanimous decision, the apex Court restored the decision of the High Court which had earlier sentenced Isiaka to death by hanging. The convicted armed robber had pleaded not guilty at the trial court and had contested the death by hanging judgment passed on him. Dissatisfied with the death sentence thrown at him by the High Court, Isiaka appealed the sentence at the Court of Appeal. He recorded a temporary reprieve at the appellate court as the death by hanging sentence was set aside and his release from prison custody was also ordered by the court. His joy was however short lived as he soon ran into yet another trouble. Trouble started for Isiaka on the 27th of August, 2009, in the evening hours when one Mul...

Pubblished by Pmnews: It was indeed a sad Friday for embattled former chairman of Nigeria's House of Representative's adhoc committee on the probe of fuel subsidy regime, Hon. Farouk Lawan and the Secretary, Mr. Emenalo Boniface, as an Abuja High Court refused their application seeking to quash the seven counts charge slammed against them by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, and insisted that the duo have a case to answer. The trial judge, Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi, held that there is substantial evidence in the proof of evidence attached to the charge against them disclosing a prima facie case against them, enough to warrant them standing trial. Farouk and Emenalo had brought an application seeking to quash their trial through their lawyer, Mr. Rickey Tarfa, a senior advocate of Nigeria, wherein they urged the court to quash the charge against them and diacharge them. Their lawyer had predicated his argument on the grou...

Trial of suspected mastermind of the December 2011 bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Mr. Kabiru Umar, also known as Kabiru Sokoto resumed before a federal high court sitting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja Thursday, with the disclosure that the group received funding from an Algerian group known as Musilimi Jaa’maa. The court, which had been conducting the trial through an interpreter due to the suspected terrorist’s claim that he does not understand the English language, was shocked when one of the prosecution’s witnesses, named XYZ and wearing mask for security purposes, told the court that the suspect willingly wrote his statement upon his arrest in very clear and precise English. Following this disclosure, the court confirmed its veracity from the suspect and subsequently excused the court’s interpreter who had been interpreting proceedings into Hausa language to the suspect. The witness told the court that the statement which the suspected terrorist volunteered t...

Elitist and high net worth entertainment centre in Abuja in Abuja, Cubana, on Thursday threw its Klub Vanity doors open to throngs of revelers for the first time in about two weeks following a fire incident that ravaged the night club section of Cubana and kept the club off limits to its valued guests. Resumption of the club's regular "A" grade events on Thursday followed the complete makeover of Klub Vanity where the management went over board in recreating the enthralling ambience that characterize clubbing experience at Cubana. Speaking after a short re dedication service and lunch party which preceded the re opening, the Chairman of Cubana; Mr. Obinna Iyiegbu, heaped praises on patrons, staff and contractors for their display of an unequaled zeal towards the rebuilding and remodeling of Klub Vanity. "I want to seize this opportunity to thank you all for your efforts. Looking at what had been achieved here, one can hardly believe that this place was ever...

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has arrested former governor of Bayelsa state, Mr. Timipre Sylva. He was picked up at his No. 3, Niger Street, Maitama, Abuja home. According to a press release issued late Wednesday evening and signed by Wilson Uwujaren, the acting Head of Media & Publicity at the EFCC, operatives of the anti graft agency stormed the former governor's home at about 10.00 am, but were told that Sylva was not in town. The operatives reportedly insisted on conducting a search on the house having obtained a warrant from the court. During the search, the former governor was found hiding in a dingy corner at the upper chamber of the expansive mansion. Vital documents were also discovered in the course of the search. Sylva was immediately whisked away and is currently being interrogated in connection with fresh evidence linking him to a bouquet of fraudulent transactions which borders on money laundering, at the headquarters of the...

Nnamdi Felix / Abuja: One year and nine months after the suicide bombing attack that rocked the United Nations Headquarters in Abuja, the federal government on Tuesday arraigned four suspected terrorists believed to have been involved in the plot before a federal high court siting in Abuja. The suspected terrorists, Mr. Salisu Mohammed, Inusa Mukailu, Danzumi Haruna and Abdulsalami Adamu, were slammed with four counts charge wherein they were accused of agreeing amongst themselves and with others still at large, on or about the 20th of August, 2011, to do an illegal act which resulted in the death of 23 persons thereby committed an offence contrary to section 96(a) of the Penal Code Law. They were alleged to have knowingly assisted and facilitated the activities of persons engaged in an act of terrorism and thereby committed a punishable offence. On counts three of the charge, the suspected terrorists were alleged to have deliberately and maliciously did an act that serio...

Nnamdi Felix / Abuja: Suspected mastermind of the 2011 Christmas Day bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic church in Madala, Niger state, Mr. Kabiru Umar, also known as Kabiru Sokoto, on Monday at a federal high court siting in Abuja failed in his bid to truncate his trial. In an application brought on his behalf by his lawyer, Mr. Ibrahim Aliyu, the suspected terrorist challenged the jurisdiction of the court on his trial noting the facts and constituent elements of the charge against him did not take place in Abuja and that he ought not to be tried before the federal high court in Abuja. Kabiru further contended that the right venue for his trial ought to be in Sokoto or Niger state where he allegedly committed the acts of terrorism and not in Abuja. He also challenged the competence of the three counts brought against him noting that there was no prima facie evidence in the proof of evidence which links him to the alleged crimes and urged the court to discharge the charge and a...

Nnamdi Felix / Abuja: It is a typical case of a deal gone bad. The long arms of the law have caught a 29 year old graduate of Mechanical Engineering from Rivers state University of Science and Technology and an indigene of Okecho in Kajola Local Government Area of Oyo state, Mr. Adelola Tamunotonye Olaore, who plotted to reap financial dividends from the political squabbles raging between Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom state and Senator Aloysius Etok. Olaore was arrested by operatives of SSS, his mission unaccomplished. Following media reports about the political feud between the senator and the governor over the Ikot Ekpene Senatorial seat by 2015, Mr. Olaore contacted the senator and introduced himself as “General Africa” an ex militant from Bayelsa state and told the senator that he had been contracted by three of the governor’s loyalists to assassinate him. To get the embattled senator eat the bait, the self proclaimed assassin offered to furnish the senator wit...

Land Grab: Turai Yar'Adua Defeats Patience Jonathan Former First Lady, Hajia Turai Yar'Adua on Thursday floored First Lady Patience Goodluck Jonathan as an Abuja High Court presided by Justice Peter Affen, has set aside the purported revocation a land measuring about 1.84 hectares allocated to the former first lady's non governmental organization, Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation, WAYEF, by the FCT Administration. The court held that the claims by the FCT Minister that the land was revoked on an overriding public interest was not supported by any shred of evidence before the court. It further held that the initial letter of offer issued Turai's organization by the Minister remains valid and subsisting. "The defendants failed woefully to adduce any shred of evidence before this court to support their claims that the allocation of the land was revoked on overriding public interest. There is no overriding public interest in this issue. The allocation ma...