profile/5683FB_IMG_16533107021641748.jpg

News_Naija

Nursing Students Mourn Classmate Found Dead In Cross River Drainage

Staff and students of the Federal College of Nursing Sciences, Calabar, have expressed shock, and grief following the discovery of the lifeless body of 23-year-old Elizabeth Ukah in a drainage channel. The body of Ukah, a student of the college, was found along Musaha Umoh Okon Street in the Ekpo Abasi area of Calabar South Local Government Area, Cross River State, on Saturday. However, her identity was not immediately known, prompting residents to alert the police. Officers of the Nigeria Police Force, upon arrival at the scene, turned the body which was faced down and launched investigations to discover the deceased identity. Journalist Agba Jalingo, in a Facebook post on Wednesday, revealed that the deceased was suspected to have been swept away by flood while returning home. According to Jalingo, Ukah had attended the Good Friday Mass and participated in the Stations of the Cross at Holy Family Catholic Church, Big Qua Town, near Marian Market, Calabar. “A dead body of 23-year-old Ukah, a female student of the Federal Nursing Science College Calabar, was found in a drainage five days after Good Friday,” Jalingo wrote. “The deceased was suspected to have been swept away by flood while returning home from attending Good Friday Catholic Mass and taking part in the Stations of the Cross at Holy Family Catholic Church, Big Qua Town.” Ukah hailed from the Ohong community in Obudu Local Government Area of Cross River State. Images obtained by our correspondent show the body of the young woman lying motionless and partially covered in debris near the mouth of the drainage. A video lasting over three minutes also surfaced online, showing her grieving classmates performing a final farewell ceremony in her honour. “We believe that we will also be here one day,” one student said during the ceremony. “On this special day, I believe that we are set to bid our final farewell. We are praying that the soul of our late Nurse Elizabeth Ukah rests in perfect peace.” A heartbroken teacher also expressed sorrow over the loss, saying, “It came to me like a shock just this morning. It is saddening that I could lose a student who was one of the most peaceful in the class. I will not question God. “He knows why He took her away. I pray that God gives her perfect peace in the name of Jesus.” Hundreds of students, male and female, joined the mourning procession, singing dirges and paying their final respects to Ukah. When contacted on Wednesday, the spokesperson for the Cross River State Police Command, Irene Ugbo, told PUNCH Metro that the incident had not yet been reported to the police. “We are not aware at all. Nobody has reported it to us,” she said. “I also read it online that it happened during the rain. It would be so pathetic if the incident truly happened. I will dig into it to see what happened,” she added.

profile/5683FB_IMG_16533107021641748.jpg

News_Naija

Mother Seeks N22m For Daughter Suffering Chronic Kidney Disease

Mrs Rhoda Nwachukwu, mother of 16-year-old Colette, diagnosed with advanced chronic kidney disease, has appealed for N22m for a kidney transplant for her daughter. In a statement made available to PUNCH Metro, Nwachukwu explained that the resort to public appeal became expedient as the family had exhausted its available resources on Collete who is on twice-weekly dialysis session each costing N150,000. So far, she said Colette has undergone 19 dialysis sessions, running into several millions of naira, apart from regular nephrology consultations.  “We’ve sold everything we have. I’ve done all I can as a single mother. We are barely surviving now. Even if I saved my salary for 20 years, I wouldn’t be able to afford N22m. “We are relying on God and the goodwill of people. My daughter deserves a chance to live,” Nwachukwu pleaded. She recounted that Colette was initially admitted to the Gbagada General Hospital in Lagos for a persistent fever until she was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. “The diagnosis came as a devastating shock to the family. She has always dreamed of becoming a medical doctor. She’s brilliant and determined. She used to top her class and always talked about saving lives. Now, we’re just trying to save hers,” she said. The family appealed to well-meaning Nigerians, organisations, and government agencies for financial assistance to enable Colette to undergo a life-saving kidney transplant. It provided the account number for donations thus: “FCMB, 1028191249, Nwachukwu Colette Oghenekome.”

profile/5683FB_IMG_16533107021641748.jpg

News_Naija

Suspected Cultists Shoot YABATECH Student Dead

The police have arrested seven suspects after a yet-to-be-identified student of the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, was shot dead in a suspected cult-related attack. PUNCH Metro learnt the incident occurred on Tuesday shortly after students concluded their examinations for the day. Our correspondent gathered that the deceased was heading towards the back gate of the institution when some armed men accosted him, pulled out a gun and shot him at close range. A student privy to the incident told PUNCH Metro that the incident threw the campus into panic as students, who witnessed the shooting, scampered for safety. The student who did not want his name in print due to the sensitive nature of the incident said, “The student had just finished writing his exams and was heading towards the back gate when some boys approached him and shot him twice on the spot. The whole scenario happened very fast.” Another student, who craved anonymity, said the assailants recovered a firearm from the deceased. “The incident looked more like a cult attack because the victim seemed to have been armed before he was killed. We learnt immediately the boys shot him, they searched his bag and recovered a gun and a bullet. They also made sure he was dead before they left.” Our correspondent gathered that a similar incident occurred on the school premises the previous week. A source in the school linked the attack to an ongoing rivalry between cult groups on campus. The source said, “The killing was in retaliation for a shooting that occurred last week. One suspected cult member was shot but he survived. So this looks more like a payback,” the source claimed. When contacted, the spokesperson of the Yabatech, Adekunle Adams, said the incident did not occur on the premises of the institution. He said, “The incident occurred but not in the college. It happened at a lounge close to the college. There is no cult-related incident in the college, nothing of such.” The Lagos State Police spokesperson, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed that the deceased was shot by rival cult members. He added that seven suspects had been arrested in connection with the crime, while the investigation was in progress. He said, “On Tuesday at about 3 pm, a distress call was received at Sabo Division that a suspected cultist was allegedly shot dead by a group of suspected rival cult members in the Yaba area. “Upon receiving the report, a patrol team was swiftly mobilised to the scene, where the deceased was found lying in a pool of his blood. “On close observation, visible marks of violence suspected to be bullet wounds were seen on the body while four rounds of live ammunition and some charms were recovered from the deceased’s pocket at the scene. The corpse has been evacuated and deposited in the morgue for autopsy.” The incident occurred barely 24 hours after a 16-year-old boy, identified simply as Mustapha, was killed by a stray bullet during a suspected cult clash at Oyingbo in the Ebute Metta area of the state. PUNCH Metro learnt that the incident occurred during a peace walk organised by some youths in a bid to address rising cult-related violence in the community. It was gathered that the walk had just concluded when an argument broke out among them resulting in a shootout that led to some casualties. Similarly, residents discovered the bodies of two men on Sunday, one of whom had been beheaded in a cult-related attack in the Idimu area of the state. PUNCH Metro learnt that the killings occurred late Saturday night, but the corpses were only discovered on Sunday morning along Oladun Road.

profile/5683FB_IMG_16533107021641748.jpg

News_Naija

Ogun Arraigns Monarch For Land Grabbing, Assault

The Ogun State Government has arraigned the Olu of Obafemi, Oba Taofeek Owolabi before Justice Sunday Adeniyi of the state High Court, Abeokuta for land grabbing. Oba Owolabi, a member of the Egba Traditional Council, is currently on suspension over the same allegation. In a statement on Wednesday by the Ministry of Justice, the royal father was said to have been arraigned on Tuesday “for conspiracy to sell property without authority, sale of property without authority, unlawful use of agents, forceful takeover of land, assault of a police officer, and obtaining by false pretence.” According to the statement, which affirmed the monarch’s presumption of innocence, Oba Owolabi was accused of laying an unlawful claim to 500 acres of land within Obafemi Owode town and deceiving a developer, one Dr Michael Adeyemi, into paying him N75m for the land. The government alleged that Owolabi never remitted the sum to the landholding families and also placed thugs on the land who macheted one individual, while he attacked an officer from the state task force against land grabbing. The statement added that the government took several steps to call Oba Owolabi to order, saying that he ignored a July 2024 summons by the State House of Assembly, choosing instead to file two suits in court, which the Ministry of Justice defended. The statement continued: “Oba Owolabi withdrew those cases subsequently but never submitted to the House’s investigations. The House Committee would eventually recommend that Oba Owolabi should be prosecuted for land grabbing. “Under the leadership of the paramount ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, the Alake of Egbaland, the Egba Traditional Council summoned Oba Owolabi several times, but Oba Owolabi defied those invitations. “The Ethical Committee of the Egba Traditional Council also engaged Oba Owolabi to no avail. Thus, on 13 December 2024, the Egba Traditional Council suspended Oba Owolabi from his office as Olu Obafemi for conducting himself in a manner entirely unexpected of a traditional ruler. That suspension is still in effect.” The statement indicated that although Oba Owolabi perfected his bail conditions, his trial remains ongoing, while the Ogun State Government remains committed to seeing justice done. “We would like to assure all members of the public to keep faith with our efforts to restore sanity to land administration in Ogun State and to draw confidence from our resolve to prosecute Oba Owolabi. “As long as it is in our power to do so, we will resist all land grabbers, no matter how highly placed they appear to be,” the statement held.