Kidnapping; Police Mum Over Allegation DPO Bringing People To Edo Illegally
https://osazuwaakonedo.news/kidnapping-police-mum-over-allegation-dpo-bringing-people-to-edo-illegally/
#Tahir #Ugboha #edo #Igp #Okpebholo #Police
Nigeria Police Force under the leadership of the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun has kept mum since a video went viral on social media platforms, wherein, allegation of bringing people illegally to settle inside forest in Edo State was made against the Divisional Police Officer, the DPO who is currently serving at the Divisional Police Headquarters at Ugboha community in the Esan South-East local government area in the state, a state that have witnessed rampant cases of kidnappings in recent time, especially since the beginning of this year, despite the fact that the Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo has executed the destruction of numbers of houses or properties of apparent innocent landlords or people who may not have direct connection with the crime, it may be recalled that early 2025, the Governor demolished a residential property on College road simply because it was linked to a kidnapping gang operating in the Aduwawa, Eyaen, and Benin-Auchi road bypass axis, even when the building belonged to a woman based in Italy, just that, her brother, Osamede Asemota, the alleged key leader of the gang, allegedly used it to coordinate abductions, t #OsazuwaAkonedo
Police, Soldiers In Mass Action In Edo Over Rampant Kidnapping
https://osazuwaakonedo.news/police-soldiers-in-mass-action-in-edo-over-rampant-kidnapping/
Lawyer States How Omotosho Was Unprofessional, Biased In Nnamdi Kanu's Case
https://osazuwaakonedo.news/lawyer-states-how-omotosho-was-unprofessional-biased-in-nnamdi-kanus-case/
#Issues #Biafra #Kanu #Njoku #Nnamdi #Omotosho
https://osazuwaakonedo.news/kidnapping-police-mum-over-allegation-dpo-bringing-people-to-edo-illegally/
#Tahir #Ugboha #edo #Igp #Okpebholo #Police
Nigeria Police Force under the leadership of the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun has kept mum since a video went viral on social media platforms, wherein, allegation of bringing people illegally to settle inside forest in Edo State was made against the Divisional Police Officer, the DPO who is currently serving at the Divisional Police Headquarters at Ugboha community in the Esan South-East local government area in the state, a state that have witnessed rampant cases of kidnappings in recent time, especially since the beginning of this year, despite the fact that the Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo has executed the destruction of numbers of houses or properties of apparent innocent landlords or people who may not have direct connection with the crime, it may be recalled that early 2025, the Governor demolished a residential property on College road simply because it was linked to a kidnapping gang operating in the Aduwawa, Eyaen, and Benin-Auchi road bypass axis, even when the building belonged to a woman based in Italy, just that, her brother, Osamede Asemota, the alleged key leader of the gang, allegedly used it to coordinate abductions, t #OsazuwaAkonedo
Police, Soldiers In Mass Action In Edo Over Rampant Kidnapping
https://osazuwaakonedo.news/police-soldiers-in-mass-action-in-edo-over-rampant-kidnapping/
Lawyer States How Omotosho Was Unprofessional, Biased In Nnamdi Kanu's Case
https://osazuwaakonedo.news/lawyer-states-how-omotosho-was-unprofessional-biased-in-nnamdi-kanus-case/
#Issues #Biafra #Kanu #Njoku #Nnamdi #Omotosho
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NewsTranscript
00:00Nigeria Police Force under the leadership of the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokan has kept mum since her
00:08video went viral on social media platforms, wherein, allegation of bringing people illegally to settle inside forest in Edo State
00:17was made against the Divisional Police Officer, the DPO who is currently serving at the Divisional Police Headquarters of Uboa
00:24community in the Essen Southeast local government area in the state,
00:29a state that have witnessed rampant cases of kidnappings in recent time, especially since the beginning of this year, despite
00:36the fact that the Edo State Governor, Munde Okpabolo has executed the destruction of numbers of houses or properties of
00:44apparent innocent landlords or people who may not have direct connection with the crime, it may be recalled that early
00:502025, the governor demolished a residential property on College Road simply because it was linked to a kidnapping gang operation.
00:59operating in the Aduawa, Iyan, and Beninauchi Road bypass axis, even when the building belonged to a woman based in
01:06Italy, just that, her brother, Osamede Asimota, the alleged key leader of the gang, allegedly used it to coordinate abductions.
01:14This is just one of many properties demolished by the Edo State government over kidnapping in the state, yet, records
01:22of kidnappings in the state continued to grow higher, and recent police and military arrests indicated that Edo State is
01:29perhaps under siege of foreign invaders who may have taken over larger part of the state forest to coordinate kidnappings
01:37in the state while working with some of the local residents to perpetuate the criminal act.
01:42It may be interesting to note that, another set of non-indigenes of the state arrested by the police recently
01:48included two persons caught inside the specialist hospital in Auchi, the two suspects who were said to be non-indigenes
01:56of the state were among the gang of kidnappers behind the abduction of Dr. Abu Babatunde who regained his freedom
02:03after his family reportedly paid a sum of 50 million nairas ransom
02:07after the doctor and his younger brother were abducted on January 2, 2026, while opening the gate to their residence
02:15along City Pride Road, Igbira Camp, Auchi, and unfortunately, the younger brother was later found dead on January 5 near
02:24the Oli River along City Pride Road, with police suspecting he was killed by the abductors.
02:29And the alleged illegal settlers who confessed the UGBOHA DPO as their facilitator, are said to be non-Nigerians from
02:37foreign countries.
02:38According to one of the vigilantes who caught the illegal settlers, the arrested illegal settlers in the forest will be
02:45taken to the station.
02:46The vigilante member also said the illegal settlers are not Nigerians, and close watchers said people are brought in and
02:54smuggled into Edo forests illegally and such people may be responsible for the act of kidnapping in the state.
03:00Available records indicated that the kidnapping situation in the state is currently happening almost daily with numbers of the state
03:08residents and indigenes also recorded dead or killed by kidnappers since Governor Munday Okkabolo came into power.
03:14On the recent arrest of two suspects at the specialist hospital in Auchi, the Edo State Command Public Relations Officer,
03:22Eno Ikiodom, the first breakthrough came on 3 February 2026.
03:28Operatives of the Auchi Division Day after the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Monday Agbonica personally led troops of joint
03:36security operatives at the dead of the night to launch offensive attacks against kidnappers in the forest.
03:41The commander, 4 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Ahmed Balagun also personally led troops of joint security operatives
03:50to the kidnappers' hideouts and launched massive military clearance and offensive actions against kidnappers.
03:56Both security operations led to the arrest of several suspected kidnappers allegedly caught in the act inside the bush, with
04:04the identities of the arrested suspects indicating that most of the kidnappers terrorizing Edo State are from the far northern
04:11part of Nigeria.
04:13An observation which appeared to have challenged the public policy statement made earlier in January 2026 by the Edo State
04:21Governor, Munday Okkabolo who stated that many of those involved in the kidnapping surge in Edo State are indigenes of
04:29the area, saying,
04:30that may be the reason some kidnappers wear face masks, the governor made this statement as kidnapping in the state
04:36appeared to have become worse in 2026 and very rampant in a manner that indicated that an average of 1
04:43to 2 persons are being kidnapped in a day in Edo State as more than 60 persons became new victims
04:50of the increasing criminal activities in the state since the beginning of 2026.
04:55Like, in January 2, 2026, two brothers, Dr. Abu Ibrahim Babatunde, a medical doctor on housemanship and Abu Tahir, a
05:05fresh graduate were kidnapped at the gate of their residence along City Pride Road.
05:09Higbira Camp in Auchi, the kidnappers initially demanded a 200 million nairah's ransom and tragically, on January 5, one of
05:18the two brothers was found dead.
05:20On January 9, 2026, eight indigenes of a Moga community in the Akoko Edo local government area of the state
05:28were abducted from a hotel along a billow road.
05:31Since the start of 2026, Edo State has experienced a significant surge in kidnappings,
05:38leading to widespread protests of a diploma in the Edo Central Senatorial Zone with multiple police rescue operations including the
05:46incidents reported early February 2026,
05:50where police rescued nine victims including five children and a separate group of 14 victims.
05:56This is that, earlier on January 22, 2026,
06:01A farmer named Munday Adaro was kidnapped and later rescued and in late January, another farmer, Abraham Udwar, and his
06:09two wives, Brinda and Anna were abducted from a Goro Amende community but successfully rescued by security forces.
06:16In mid-January, Akay Fever and a former student union leader were kidnapped in Edo Central, troubled by the surge
06:25in kidnapping in the state.
06:27Residents and students of Ambrose Alley University, AAU staged a major protest on January 10, 2026,
06:36citing daily kidnappings and the abduction of a university professor and numerous students.
06:41On February 2, 2026, a family of nine was ambushed at Ekoa Beku-Iowa Road in Ovia Northeast local government
06:50area
06:50and the kidnappers demanded a 260 million nairas ransom for four children and two women still held after five others
06:59were rescued.
07:00In this write-up, a legal practitioner, Njoku Jude Njoku pinpoints some fundamentals in the judgment passed against Mazi Namdekanu,
07:09by Justice James Omotosho which convicted and sentenced the Biafra Republic agitation leader to life imprisonment,
07:16and in this press release the legal practitioner issued in late 2025 entitled,
07:21the 24th of November 2025, the day evidence ceased to matter in Nigerian courts, judicial silence, selective justice, and media
07:31complicity,
07:32described Justice Omotosho as unprofessional, stating that,
07:36the most dangerous aspect of the judgment delivered by Justice James K. Omotosho,
07:41is not merely that it reached a foreordained conclusion,
07:44but that it did so by deliberately suppressing evidence he already admitted on record in his own court,
07:50thereby converting adjudication into a procedural facade,
07:54this was not an error of law or an oversight of fact.
07:57It was a calculated refusal to engage with material evidence whose evaluation would have fatally undermined the prosecution's narrative,
08:05empasing that,
08:06this case is no longer about one man.
08:09It is about whether courts may openly disregard admitted evidence and still be treated as legitimate,
08:15and whether the media will continue to mask such conduct through silence,
08:19a judiciary that can ignore evidence without explanation has ceased to function as a court of law,
08:25a media that refuses to question that silence has abdicated its public duty,
08:30together,
08:31they place the rule of law itself in existential peril.
08:35Continuing,
08:36in details,
08:37Njoku said,
08:38Once evidence is admitted,
08:40it binds the judge absolutely.
08:42The conduct,
08:43protest,
08:44silence,
08:45or alleged boycott of the defendant,
08:48Mazinamdikano,
08:49is legally irrelevant to that obligation.
08:52Judgment writing is not a negotiation with the accused.
08:55It is a solitary judicial duty anchored exclusively to the evidentiary record.
09:00A judge may reject defense evidence,
09:03but he must first confront it,
09:05evaluate it,
09:05and explain why it is rejected.
09:08Silence is not neutrality,
09:10silence is suppression.
09:12Had Justice Omatosho evaluated the admitted video exhibit of Theophilus,
09:16T.Y.,
09:17Danjuma,
09:18he would have been confronted with the inescapable reality that public calls for communities to harm themselves in self-defense
09:25against murderous violence were not unique to Nnamdi Kano,
09:29nor criminalized when made by powerful establishment figures.
09:33Proper evaluation would have compelled the court to accept that Kano's calls for gunfire,
09:37guns and bullets in Los Angeles,
09:39or during broadcasts were framed as community self-defense against the ravages of armed Fulani killer herders,
09:46not incitement to lawless violence.
09:48Had Justice Omatosho evaluated the admitted video evidence of Governor Hope Uzodunma,
09:55he would have known, because Uzodunma stated it publicly, that neither Nnamdi Kano nor the IPOB had any hand in
10:02the killing of Ahmed Gulag.
10:04That single evaluation would have punctured one of the most politically weaponized allegations surrounding this case.
10:11Had Justice Omatosho listened to his fellow Yoruba kinsmen and Nigeria's intelligence chief,
10:17Adeola Oluwato Sanajai,
10:19whose statements were also admitted in evidence,
10:22He would have been forced to acknowledge that the formation of armed vigilante groups for community defense
10:27was openly endorsed at the highest levels.
10:30Oursas who are on level, bringing you the news in a more digital way.
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