EDO STATE: Stoaway Boy May Go Deaf?

Two weeks after he was arrested and detained last August, Ricky Daniel Oikhena, the teenager who hid in the wheel compartment of an Arik Air flight from Benin to Lagos, cried out that he was tired of staying in custody and demanded to go home.
The 13-year stowaway, obviously, preferred to be reunited with members of his family, than remain in company of his hosts, the State Security Service (SSS).
In September, while fielding questions from newsmen at the Government House, Benin, Daniel expressed delight with the VIP treatment he was receiving but reiterated his desire to be with his relatives.
Speaking further, he stated that he did not know that he took a risk when he hid in an airplane’s wheel compartment.
“I will not do it again; I regret it,” he said in a calm tone.
“I want to go home, I am tired. I will be happy to train as an Engineer.”
He added that “Even on the return trip to Benin and at this present place, I am treated well with good food, but since school has resumed, I want to go home.”
His case which drew both national and international attention prompted the state chief Executive, Adams Oshiomhole, to act.
The governor, during the visit of Mr. George Uriesi, Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), and his team said “Without meaning to encourage anyone else, we decided to support him by sending him to one of the top secondary schools in Edo State that is owned by the government.
“The reason for opting for a boarding school is that we think that they need to closely watch him which his parents could not do.
“He is an intelligent young man with uncommon challenges, but one that has a vision. We had him examined by people who should know and the result confirmed that he is normal.”
Aside the gesture by Edo government, some organisations and individuals also made monetary donation to Daniel, with offers to assist his family in possible ways.
But weeks after he resumed as a boarding house student at the Edo College, Benin, there is a concern: Daniel is battling an implication of the desperate action he took.
The teenager is now at the risk of going deaf as he usually hears strange loud noise.
A visit to him by Saturday Independent, reveals that Daniel persistently struggles with loud inner noise, especially in the night.
Upon the development, the school authority was been notified they responded swiftly by taking him to the state government-owned Stella Obasanjo Hospital.
But Daniel has also appealed to be relocated to another school where his identity would not be unknown.
According to him, this had become imperative because his seniors at Edo College were fond of taunting him with the stowaway incident.
On the other hand, his mother, Evelyn lamented pressures from her estranged husband and others who frequently requested for money since Governor Oshiomhole gave her N5million to take care of her kids and recover from the fire incident that saw her hairdressing salon razed six months ago.
Commenting on Daniel’s condition, Dr. Patrick Okundia, Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) consultant and Head of the Department at the hospital, said checks have been carried out.
“He was examined and we assessed his ear, nose and throat. We carried out several clinical tests on his ears. After that, the result showed that while there were some level of injuries on the nerve of the inner ear – the cochlear nerve.
“You must understand that there is what is called noise exposure on its own. Noise exposure can be divided into sudden blast or persistent exposure to a not too loud noise.
“This lad was in between. The noise from the engine of the plane on its own is deafening. To have been exposed to that for a persistent period of time, for more than 30 minutes, one would expect some level of irreversible damage to the inner ear. The management wants to see how we can either slow the process of damage or arrest it.
“But we may have challenge in reversing the already damaged ones. That is the situation we have with Daniel. He has been on medication. We have tried to apply some other maneuvers to improve the function of his ears.
“The best we have done was to prevent it from getting worse. But we have not been able to achieve complete reversal which to me looks very difficult. Most damages to nerves are irreversible. You cannot grow a new nerve once it is damaged. It’s a bit unfortunate but we still give thanks to God that he is alive.
“May be with persistent medication and with time some level of healing may take place. That could reduce the seriousness of the noise but as it is, the issue of noise in the ear has some other side effects in terms of psychological. It is also having some level of depression on him. We just pray that it doesn’t degenerate to any neurological, psychological problems for him.”
“The lesson learnt is that for every action there is always a reaction. He may have done the wrong thing and he may have been pardoned by the people and the government but nature has not completely forgiven him and so that irreversible damage is there.”
The medical practitioner also disclosed that in some cases where drugs are not able to take care of the noise in the ear, other supportive therapy like the ear maskers are used.
He said that in such instances, such patients are told to adapt to situations where an exogenous source creates the noise outside that would end up dampening the noise they hear inside.
Source: Daily Post

BOKO HARAM: Soldiers Raid Hideout 13 Suspects Killed?

Nigerian troops killed 13 suspected Boko haram fighters and arrested 15 others following a raid on their camp after they massacred at least 37 people, a defence spokesman said Friday.
“Two were arrested on (Thursday) while 13 others were arrested today (Friday) while 13 of them died following a raid on their makeshift camp,” Major General Chris Olukolade said.
He did not give details of the raid.
The camp is located between Borno and Adamawa, two of the three northeastern states where a state of emergency was imposed by the Nigerian government last May following a wave of Boko Haram attacks, he said.
He said that some of the militants who escaped from an earlier raid have also been arrested in and around Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.
Suspected Boko Haram gunmen late Wednesday killed at least 37 people in three separate attacks in northeast Nigeria in Adamawa state, including at a theological college.
The attacks came just a day after the militant fighters were blamed for killing between 43 and 59 people, most of them students, as they slept at a boarding school in neighbouring Yobe state.
The ongoing military offensive has failed to crush the insurgency and nearly 300 people have been killed in a range of attacks already this year.
The United Nations meanwhile said on Thursday that nearly 300,000 people, more than half of them children, had fled their homes in the three states from May to January 1 because of the violence.
Nigeria’s presidency on Friday said the country was at war with the Islamist sect.
Presidency spokesman Doyin Okupe told the private Channels television station that the Boko Haram conflict was a “war situation”.
“We are dealing with a very, very serious enemy,” he said.
“We are engaged in a war that has been internationalised,” he added in an apparent reference to Boko Haram’s reported but unconfirmed presence in neighbouring countries like Cameroon.
“It is very difficult, very costly in terms of lives lost. But we will overcome,” Okupe said. “We are in the dying phase of this insurgency.”
Source: PM News

INTERESTING: FG Won’t Ban Tokunboh Cars?

The Federal Government said it has no intention to ban the importation of fairly used vehicles, also known as tokunbo, into the country.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, stated this on Friday during a facility tour of one of the nation’s automobile assembly plants, Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria, Kaduna.
Aganga said despite the new Automobile Policy now in place, the government would not ban the importation of fairly used vehicles because of the socio-economic importance to the country.
Rather than banning the used imported cars, the minister noted that Nigeria must work towards providing alternative cars.
He said it was normal to place a ban on importation of tokunboh while revamping the auto-industry, noting that at one of the Federal Executive Council meetings, it was decided that there should be no ban on tokunboh cars.
The minister, who said he was at PAN to assess how the automobile company was taking the opportunity of the new automobile policy of the government, said though tokunboh vehicles would still be imported into the country, the government would do everything possible to ensure that affordable and new cars were produced for Nigerians.
The Minster said, “We study what was done in Pakistan, India, and in South Africa. It is normal that in most countries they ban the importation of tokunboh cars because that will help the demand of the local manufacturers.
“However, for Nigeria, we discussed and we said we are not going to ban tokunboh vehicles because of the socio-economic circumstances we have in the country. We must work towards providing alternative cars before we even consider placing a ban on tokunboh cars.
“So, in Nigeria, we have not banned it yet. If we slow down the demand, it will slow down the pace of growth. If you look at the cars today, for every one new car that is imported, almost six tokunboh are imported into the country. That tells you that the economy of the country is a priority.
“When you see that, as a country you cannot afford to place a ban. The federal executive council has said we are not banning tokunboh vehicles until we have alternative for it. So, tokunboh cars will still come into the country and we will do everything possible to make sure that we can produce affordable and new cars for Nigerians.”
Source: Punch

ASSASSINATION: Catholic Priest Escape Death?

A Catholic Priest in Onitsha Archdiocese who is also the Spiritual Director of Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry, Uke, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Obimma (a.k.a. Ebube Muonso), yesterday escaped death by whiskers when some gunmen suspected to be hired assassins fired several gun shots at him at close range.
The incident, occurred at about 5.30 a.m. while he was going to celebrate a morning mass for some worshippers at his Uke adoration center.
As he left his residence at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Parish, Odume Layout, Obosi, near the commercial city of Onitsha for the Uke adoration center, he saw a group of boys at Peoples’ Club Bus Stop, along Limca Road, Nkpor, near Onitsha standing aloof and making calls.
The source stated that as soon as he sighted them, he suspected that they could be bad people and he increased speed of his vehicle, suspecting that they could be on his trail.
It was gathered that as he passed through Nkpor Junction, down to Umuoji to Ojoto and then to Ideani Junction where he was supposed to branch off to his Uke adoration center, he sighted another group of men wearing police uniform.
As he slowed down his car and beckoned on one of them to inform him that some bad elements were trailing him, so that they would go after them, believing that the uniformed men he was talking to were genuine policemen, other gang members on the same police uniform who were hiding inside the bush, trooped out from their hideout and allegedly opened fire on him at a close range.
As they rained the bullets on him with their sophisticated arms, the source continued, he sped off and escaped from their sight, without being harmed.
Fortunately, None of the bullets fired at him penetrated his body but rather pierced through his vehicle’s front and back windscreens and damaged some parts of the SUV which he was driving.
Some of the Uke worshippers who spoke to newsmen on phone over the incident, said the priest ran into the center first and later went back to his residence at the Borromeo parish.
The worshippers also quoted the victim as telling that at the center that
he always sees AK 47 riffles in his visions and dreams till last night, when he couldn’t sleep any longer.
According to them, “after all the shootings, not even his cloth was touched, adding, it appeared that when the bullets were hitting his body, it was like little ice block touching him, because of how deep he was protected by the precious Blood of Jesus Christ”.
Those who reacted to the incident, said Obimma could have been attacked by some assassins suspected to have been hired by cultists, witches and members of secret societies who felt his prayers were having adverse effects on their occult practices.
.When some newsmen visited his residence at Borromeo parish, the vehicle was seen parked and covered with tarpaulin, while the security men attached to the parish said he had just returned from a burial ceremony of another catholic priest who died and was just buried at the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity Cemetry, Onitsha.
All efforts to speak with him proved abortive as one if his aides, told newsmen that he was so tired to meet or speak with the press, as at the time of going to press.
Both the Director of Social Communications in Onitsha Archdiocese, Rev. Fr. Pius Ukor and one of the Personal Assistants to Archbishop Valerian Maduka Okeke, Rev. Fr. Ben Ogbunuko, confirmed to newsmen on phone that the incident actually took place.
Frs. Ukor and Ogbunuko however added that they had called Fr. Obimma’s line several times to hear from him but without response.
One of Obimma’s aides who did not want his name in print, told newsmen on phone that Fr. Obimma could not speak to anybody yet on the incident until he obtains an approval from the Archbishop.
It would be recalled that tragedy struck at the Uke center on Friday, November 1, 2013 when about 28 worshippers died in a stampede that erupted during a night vigil that were attended by Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State and some members of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA team campaigning for the Governor-elect, Chief Willie Obiano

 

Source: Punch.com

PUZZLE: Student Killed In Ghana?

Godwin Ayogu, a Nigerian citizen, and a 300-level student at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, has been murdered in the West African country, and his body was dumped by the roadside.
Ayogu was studying social sciences in the institution and was last seen on Tuesday afternoon, sources at the university said.
Several sources said the deceased had planned to be in Nigeria on Wednesday to see his parents who live in Ketu area of Lagos, western Nigeria, but his body was found by the roadside where it was dumped.

Godwin Ayogu: murdered

Although police in Ghana are saying they are investigating the matter, but many Nigerian students fear the case might be swept under the carpet.
A source quoted a Nigerian student as saying, “We need the Nigerian authorities to interfere and we need security for Nigerian students here.”
The source quoted another student as adding: “It’s sad dat a Nigerian is murdered and no one is doing anything about it. With all these things happening, this place isn’t safe.”
The deceased was the first child of his parents.
Friends say he played the drum very well and liked to referred to himself as “the drummer boy”
Source: PM News

FRAUD: Doctor Dupe British Couple Over Baby?

Distraught: The couple took supplements that made the mother seem pregnant. But when they got back to the UK they were arrested and the baby seized.
A couple’s desperation for a baby led them into a programme of bogus herbal treatments that convinced them she was pregnant and had given birth - until DNA tests proved it was a lie.
The British couple, who have not been named, returned from the specialist hospital in Nigeria to bring up their 'daughter' in Britain when they were arrested, and the little girl seized.
They had gone to a doctor in Lagos, Nigeria, to spend more than £4,500 on 'herbs' in a last ditch attempt to conceive after a decade of trying.
Miraculously, the substances they ate seemed to mimic the effects of pregnancy. Even a London GP believed the symptoms, issuing a maternity leave certificate.
Nine months later, Dr Cletus Okolo staged a charade labour, during which the mother was drugged. At the end, she was handed what she believed to be her daughter.
But when they arrived back home, with little documentation, social workers were suspicious and eventually arrested the couple, taking the little girl into care.
Ten months later, they still cannot accept that the child they brought home from Nigeria is not their own, although DNA tests have shown conclusively that they are not the biological parents.
Now, in a unique decision by top family judge Mrs Justice Hogg, the ‘intelligent, educated, hard working’ couple has been cleared the of allegations that they were knowing parties to the fraud.
The judge said that, despite 10 years of trying surgery, laser treatment and IVF, the couple, both British citizens, had failed to conceive a child.
However, in 2010, the father bumped into a friend from university who told of a couple who had had twins after undergoing ‘some herbal treatment’ in Nigeria.
They leaped at the chance and travelled to Nigeria where a Dr Cletus Okolo prescribed a course of herbal treatments he claimed would do the trick.
On returning to Britain and taking the herbs, the mother noticed her body changing.

Duped: The couple were told by a university friend to visit Dr Cletus Okolo in Nigeria's coastal city of Lagos where they were given herbs that made the mother swell up as if pregnant
Her face, arms and belly all swelled up and even a ‘kindly and well-meaning’ local GP took the symptoms to mean she was seven months pregnant.
The doctor signed off a maternity certificate and the couple travelled back to Nigeria.
At the clinic near Lagos they handed over £4,500 and the mother was given a brown liquid to drink before entering what she thought was a delivery room.
The father waited in the corridor outside and, after few minutes, heard a baby cry.
He entered the room to find the baby girl - referred to in court only as ‘A’ - lying on the bed beside his semi-conscious wife.
He was shown a fake umbilical cord being cut and given a placenta to carry away in a plastic bag.
Afterwards, Dr Okolo wrote: 'Treatment successful, patient delivered of a baby girl. All fees paid. God’s doing'.
That was the only document that accompanied the birth and, when the couple flew home with their 'daughter', social workers were quickly on the alert.
They were later arrested and the baby girl was taken into police protection. To the couple’s ‘considerable dismay and shock’, DNA testing proved that the little girl was not their child.

Cleared: Mrs Justice Hogg ruled the 'intelligent, educated, hard-working' couple were unaware of the scam
Having waited so long for a baby, the couple refused accept the truth.
They insisted ‘the combination of spiritual and herbal treatments was so powerful as to be able to change DNA’.
But the judge said: 'There is no evidence before me to say that the result of the DNA testing was wrong or likely to be wrong. I do not accept the explanation of the parents.
'On that basis I have to accept the validity of the results and find that the baby is not the biological child of the putative parents.'
Social workers from the London Borough of Hillingdon, as well as the child’s court-appointed guardian, argued that the couple were ‘knowing parties to an elaborate fraud and charade upon the British immigration authorities and now parties to an attempted fraud on the Court.'
They said the couple’s account of the birth was ‘littered with inconsistency’ and implausibly embellished.
The judge conceded: 'At first blush, the immediate reaction of the ordinary man on the proverbial Clapham omnibus would no doubt be, "don’t be daft, it's a fraud, they knew it”.'
However, noting the ‘enormous difficulty’ the couple had had in conceiving a child, Mrs Justice Hogg took them at their word when they said they would ‘never seek to buy a baby’.
She added: 'Despite their education and intelligence, they are struggling with the result of the DNA test. Both of them say they still believe that A is their natural child.
'In the end, having considered all the evidence...I am driven to conclude that in some way they allowed themselves to be duped by fraudsters.
'They so much wanted a baby....they allowed themselves to fall under the spell of the herbalists, believing what was said to the mother and acting faithfully upon the instructions given to them.

The Royal Courts of Justice heard the little girl, named only as A during proceedings, could spend life in care
'Contrary to the submissions of the local authority and guardian I do not find that the parents were wilfully and knowingly involved with or parties to a wrongful removal of A from her mother, or that they cynically ‘bought’ a baby.'
The judge concluded: 'What is clear to me, having found that she is not their biological child but the child of another mother and father, and having been removed from her mother very soon after her birth, is that A certainly is the victim of wrongdoing and illegality, and very possibly her mother as well.
'The fact remains that A is effectively an orphan. There is noone in this country who has parental responsibility for her and no information as to her birth, parentage, or background.'
Mrs Justice Hogg directed a further hearing to decide where the little girl’s best interests lie. Her finding that the couple were innocent dupes will greatly improve their chances of persuading the court that A’s future should be with them.
Source: Daily Mail

REVEALED: I Am Not Expecting Kids - Davido

Davido has been associated with a lot of ladies, not to blame him, he is young and handsome and got the money like Justin Bieber and Wizkid, ladies will always get close to him and the desperate ones will want to take their crush a little further by implicating him…However, Davido still got a lot to do with these ladies behaviours, just this January, a lady from the Caribbean, hot and sexy Sunshine Haye had said Davido is the father of his unborn twins.
Just as we are trying to investigate if this story was true, we caught him kissing a model and video vixen, Faith who came to Nigeria for her valentine, well, it is not the first time things like this is happening to the ‘Skelewu crooner’, he had it hot last year when Pendo, a controversial lady from Kenya captured him sleeping …Whatever that happened we do not know but Davido is tired of these allegations from ladies.
In a simple explanation , Davido took care of the rumours ‘‘Time to clear the rumours…I am single and I am not expecting kids…thank you. Back to the regular schedule program’.
Source: Nigeriafilms