Tag: Nigeria

A US-based Ghanaian couple has been convicted of second-degree murder in the death of their five-year-old son nearly three years after he was beaten to death.

 

 

Valerie Owusu and Emmanuel Addae were found guilty of brutally beating the child with “at least four different instruments” over three days in 2021, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office. 

 

The prosecutors revealed that neither Owusu, the biological mother, nor Addae called 911 or sought medical assistance when the boy’s condition worsened. Instead, they transported him to a family member’s house, where he was later discovered deceased. 

 

“This little boy endured days of abuse at the hands of these defendants, one of whom was his own mother, until tragically succumbing to his severe injuries,” stated the District Attorney in a press release.

 

“Thanks to the diligent investigation by the Suffolk County Police Department and the dedicated efforts of the prosecutors, justice has been served in holding the defendants accountable for this heinous crime.” 

 

The Ghanaian couple is set to be sentenced on May 1, 2024, facing the possibility of life imprisonment.

A retired school teacher and former acting education secretary of Kogi State, Imam Idanaku has taken to social media to curse those behind the non-payment of his gratuity despite working for 35 years. 

Mr Idanaku who claimed he was employed in 1976 as an auxiliary teacher and retired in 2017 lamented how he served the state government for decades without any improved welfare. 

He said, “Whoever doomed me to work for 35 years without gratuity will live long with a miserable life.”

He narrated that when he started working as a teacher, their monthly salary was enough to live a comfortable life but the teachers’ welfare began to deteriorate in the state as different administrations came and left. 

He continued: “The teaching profession, which used to be so nice, now turned to be a bitter pill. Salary was no longer regularly paid. As a result, I decided to acquire some skills to support my livelihood as salary was no longer predictable. I took many risks traveling to places I never knew. All I did was to sleep in the community mosques. I traveled to places like Lagos, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Abba, Ikare, Akure, and Kabba to acquire some skills. 
 

“Alhamdulillah, from these journeys, I was able to acquire skills like Drawing, Photography, Printing, Serigraphic works (Screen printing), Carving, Sculpture, Wood Lamination, Textile printing, and Dyeing, etc. All these skills assisted me greatly in overcoming teachers’ related poverty.

“When Igala governors were upon us one after another, teachers’ conditions deteriorated. They worsened our condition to the extent that we never could predict our payday. Empty promotions without financial backing were the order of the day. Leave bonus or Leave grants disappeared. Gratuity became a matter of an ancient story. I personally don’t believe in Tribal politics. At a point in time, I started to nurse some unrealistic dreams, thinking that if an Ebira man is made the governor of the state, teachers’ conditions of service would definitely improve. 

“So, I went into fervent prayer for an Ebira governor. The happiest day of my life was the day Yahaya Bello was sworn in as the governor of Kogi state. Teachers were heard all over the places saying “Our suffering is gone”. I nearly gave a deadly or a dirty slap, as you may call it, to my intimate friend (not a teacher) who said while we were all jubilating that our hope was just an unrealistic dream. Truly when Yahaya Bello came, screening upon screening was his achievement. We stayed more than 19 months without a salary, which has never happened in Kogi state.”

 

He also narrated how he was borrowing funds to run the affairs of his office when he was appointed as the State Acting Education Secretary because the government did not release funds to cater for his welfare and administrative duties. 

He continued, “Most unfortunately, I was made an Acting Education Secretary without any official car and without receiving any overhead, which used to be the pride of the lofty office. I had to go borrowing to run the office at the most turbulent time of the screening exercise. All these man-made sufferings came at a time when I had four children in tertiary institutions. 

“I was crying, my children were crying. My major fear this time was the fear of letting my children withdraw from their institutions. That would be too dangerous between the father and child. I could not do my little business to support the family because I was all the time going to Government House Lokoja to attend to one problem or the other as the Acting ES. 

“Here the suffering continued without any hope of coming out of it. If there’s anything I detest most, it’s begging for alms. Since my childhood, I hate begging. That’s why God made me creative. This time around, I became a beggar at a time when I was supposed to be supportive of my impoverished siblings.

“The worst of my ordeals in the unwholesome government came after retirement. I retired in 2017, and my pension was not paid until after twelve calendar months. And it has been coming in an exiguous percentage. Up till now, we can’t even think of our gratuity, which amounts to eight million naira. Right now, because of these ugly experiences, I have developed some ill health coupled with insomnia and general debility.” 

“No money to go for medical check-ups and so I’m doomed to die gradually. Whoever doomed me to work for 35 years without gratuity will live long with a miserable life,” he added.

A jealous woman reportedly chopped off her husband’s private part with a knife after he admitted to cheating. 

 

Horrifying images show the naked man lying on the floor of their flat in Mendeleyevsk, Russia, covered in blood. 

 

Emergency services found him there in a state of “shock and pain”. He was quickly taken to hospital due to severe blood loss, but sadly doctors were unable to save his manhood.

 

 

The woman, named Tatyana Rykova, 34, was also in a state of “shock” and covered in blood. 

 

According to news outlet Region 116, she was speaking incoherently and seemed confused about what had happened when the police arrived. She reportedly did confess she was the one who used the knife.

 

 

Concerned neighbours filmed the immediate aftermath of the incident. Footage shows the man being carried away naked on a stretcher after his genitals were entirely severed. 

 

Neighbours initially thought he was dead, but paramedics reassured them by saying: “He is alive…he is alive.” 

 

The man was then taken to an intensive care unit in the Tatarstan region.

 

KazanFirst reported: “A woman cut off her lover’s genitals out of jealousy. The man was taken to intensive care, but the organ could not be saved.”

 

 

According to Naberezhnye Chelny Life: “It is known that during an alcohol session, the man admitted to his wife that he had cheated on her. This news infuriated the wife, so she took a knife and took revenge on her husband.

 

“When the ambulance crew arrived, the man was already unconscious from shock and pain. He was taken to intensive care, but the genital organ could not be saved.” Police have interrogated the woman. The man’s name is yet to be released.

Three jets in the Presidential Air Fleet (PAF) are to be sold off to cut down on the bloated cost of running the government.

According to The Nation, there are 10 aircraft currently in the presidential fleet – six jets and four helicopters – which will be cut to seven if the planned action sails through.

According to the report, this is part of the cost-saving measures being adopted by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

Not less than N80 billion had been budgeted for the PAF as maintenance cost, from 2016 to 2023. In 2016 (N3.65 billion), 2017 (N4.37 billion), 2018 (N7.26 billion), 2019 (N7.30 billion), 2020 (N6.79 billion), 2021 (N12.55 billion), 2022 (N12.48 billion) and in 2023 about N25.7billion, made up of N13billion in the budget and N12.7billion in the 2023 Supplementary Budget.

Although the amount released from the budgetary line year on year could not be ascertained, the President was said to be uncomfortable with the rising cost of maintenance and therefore directed that the fleet should be reduced.

Citing a source, the president was particularly concerned about the frequency of maintenance and how much it costs the nation.

“The President is uncomfortable with the rising cost of maintaining the planes,” the source said.

“Three planes have been pencilled down for disposal. The main reason is cutting down high maintenance costs.

“I think officers in PAF were particularly concerned about the frequency of maintenance and how much it costs the nation.

“The President decided to let off the aircraft that constitute the most burdensome.”

Then-President Muhammadu Buhari’s government also planned to sell off two planes in the fleet but eventually failed to dispose of them.

In October 2016, a Dassault Falcon 7x executive jet and a Beechcraft Hawker 4000 business jet were put up for sale.

The preferred bidders who initially agreed to pay $24 million for the two aircraft, later reduced their offer to $11 million. This was rejected by the then government.

Thereafter, an arrangement to put some of the aircraft on chatter for willing governors was initiated to make the planes income-generating, thereby reducing the government expenses on maintenance.

The planes in the Presidential Fleet are Boeing Business Jets (BBJ) 737, Gulfstream G550, Gulfstream G500, two Falcon 7X, HS 4000, two Agusta 139, and two Agusta 101.

The BBJ 737 is the Nigerian Air Force One, which is used exclusively by the President.

It is designed to serve as an office and a residential quarter on air to enable the president to function effectively during his trip.

The President also uses one of the helicopters for shuttles during his trips around the country.

Other jets in the fleet are used by top government officials including the Vice President, governors, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, National Assembly members on special shuttles, Secretary to the Government of the Federation,  ministers on special missions, Chief of Staff, advisers and even ambassadors of plenipotentiary status.

The report noted that it could not ascertain whether the President’s BBJ 737 would be sold and replaced.

The BBJ was bought for about $43 million during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo.

A Falcon and Embraer jets have been slated to be sold.

An investigation confirmed that the presidency might have incurred over $5 million as maintenance fees in the past few months.

It was unclear the actual figure of outstanding commitments on the fleet which have not been settled.

Giving reasons for the use of some of the planes by top government officials, a source said: “It takes much time to connect some African countries by air. In such a situation, the Presidential Air Fleet is handy.

“The use of the fleet is domiciled in the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) for effective management.”

Last week, President Tinubu in another cost-saving measure imposed a three-month travel ban on public-funded foreign trips by Federal Government officials.

This takes effect from today, April 1.

 

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