Nigerian army apologizes for beating motorcyclist to death

The Nigerian Army on Tuesday apologised to the family of Abubakar Alhaji, a commercial motorcyclist who was beaten to death by a sergeant, Taiwo Owoeye, a soldier in Lagos.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the victim’s brother who witnessed the incident narrated it to the presidential panel investigating rights abuses by the military.

“The Nigerian Army has detained Sgt. Owoeye for murder, we find the matter reprehensible and condemnable,” the Nigerian Army’s counsel, Bola Oyebanji, said on Tuesday.

“However, this is a single act which showed that the sergeant was on his own.

“We apologise and sympathise with the family of the deceased,” Mr. Oyebanji said as reported by the News Agency of Nigeria.

The panel, currently sitting in the South-west, is to sit in the six geo-political zones and the Federal Capital Territory from September 11 to November 3.

The head of the panel, Justice Biobel Goodwill also, giving his condolences, told the brother of the deceased “apologies to you and your family for the death of your brother”.

Mr. Goodwill after tendering the apology, told Lucas Koyejo, a counsel from the National Human Rights Commission to follow up with the military trial of Mr. Owoeye to ensure that justice is done and to liaise with the victim’s family.

Earlier, Mr. Alhaji’s brother, Salihu Mojahid, in his testimony before the panel, shed light on the series of events leading to his brother’s death.

Mr. Mojahid said: “On February 27, my brother called Abubakar Alhaji, a commercial motorcyclist, took a passenger to Maroko Roundabout beside Myhoung Barracks, Yaba, Lagos.

“He parked at the back of a vehicle and unknown to him someone was in the vehicle, the person in the vehicle reversed and bystanders shouted that a commercial motorcyclist is behind him.

“My brother knocked on the car to alert the owner that he parked behind him, the owner of the car came out and he was Sgt. Taiwo Owoeye.

“Owoeye who was in full military uniform, slapped my brother twice and after he fell down, and he started kicking my brother several times in his stomach while he was on the ground.

“Bystanders tried apologising to him but he refused to listen to them till my brother fell unconscious.

“When my brother became unconscious, he wanted to leave and the bystanders said ‘do you not see the state of the person you have beaten up?

“Sgt. Owoeye told them ‘let him die, even if he dies, nothing will happen’.

“Fellow commercial motorcyclists and military men took him to a hospital in the barracks , he was vomiting blood till the next day.

“My brother died on February 28 and the Commandant ordered the arrest of Sergeant Owoeye.”

Mr. Mojahid claimed that his brother’s corpse was not released to the family until May 25 which was four months after the incident.


“Anytime we asked the military for his corpse, they said that they needed to do an autopsy, till now we have not received an autopsy result.”

The panel had during its proceedings dismissed a petition by Mohammed Okorie who was accused of treason, unlawful possession of firearms and conspiring to blow up a presidential aircraft with some accomplices in 2004.

“I was wrongfully accused of being a missile importer. 76 military officers were arrested when I was also arrested.

“A military plane was sent from Nigeria to Ghana, Lome and even Ivory Coast in connection with the charges,” Mr. Okorie claimed.

Mr. Okorie through his lawyer, Charles Nzeagbuna, challenged his incarceration by the military, stating that he was subjected to inhumane treatment and torture during the four years he was in custody.

However, the Army, disputed Mr. Okorie’s claims noting that he was arrested on the orders of the State Security Service and not the military and an investigation of his case was conducted by a special panel created by the federal government.

Dismissing the petition, Justice Georgewill said Mr. Okorie’s petition did not fall within the terms of reference of the panel.

“The situation weaved around this panel does not apply to the charges of treason and felony.

“This situation in reality does not fall within the five terms of reference which is restricted to conflict and insurgency scenarios.

“Arrests in regards to a felony does not fall under the jurisdiction of this panel; this panel lacks the jurisdiction to entertain this case,” he ruled.

The panel also dismissed the petition of Anthony Azuibike on the grounds that his petition did not also fall within its terms of reference.

Mr. Azuibike in his petition against the Nigerian Military claimed that they unlawfully evicted him from a land he had bought from an army Commandant.

The piece of land on which he had built his home was located at Peace Estate, Command Road, Ipaja, Lagos.

He claimed that the military infringed on his rights by evicting him from the property, rendering him homeless and subjecting him to torture.

Mr. Azuibike had demanded N200 million damages from the military.

Premium Times

Nigerian passport ranks as one of the worst passports to have in the world

Nigeria has one of the least powerful passports in the world, a new ranking showed on Wednesday.

The Passport Index, done by Canada-based global consultancy Arton Capital, showed Nigerians can travel to 44 countries either without a visa at all or can have one issued on arrival.

According to the Index, Djibouti and Congo with visa-free to 45 countries; Algeria (46); Liberia, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, and Burundi and Cameroon (47) are African countries with a stronger passport than Nigeria.

Others are Central Africa Republic (48); Guinea-Bissau, Chad, Egypt (50); Comoros, Gabon, Mali, Madagascar (52); Togo, Niger, Mozambique (53); Rwanda (54); Senegal, Mauritania, Burkina Faso (55); Guinea, Ivory Coast (56); Sao Tome, Benin, Morocco (58); and Ghana, Sierra Leone (60).

Uganda and Zimbabwe rank higher with 61 and 62 visa-free countries respectively, while Cape Verde, Tunisia and Zambia are on 63; followed by Tanzania (65); Gambia (66); Namibia (67); and Kenya, Malawi (68).

Tiny Singapore now has the world’s most powerful passport, according to a new ranking, with its citizens able to travel to the greatest number of countries visa-free.

Passport Index, which keeps track of how usable such documents are, said the city-state grabbed the top spot after Paraguay removed restrictions for Singaporeans.

That means the approximately 3.4 million holders of Singaporean passports can now travel to 159 countries either without a visa at all, or can have one issued on arrival.

Germany came in second place, with its citizens able to visit 158 countries without a visa, while Sweden and South Korea tied for third.

The US passport was in sixth place, alongside Malaysia, Ireland and Canada.

Afghanistan came bottom of the list with visa-free access to just 22 countries.

Passport Index said the US passport’s usefulness has fallen since President Donald Trump took office, with Turkey and the Central African Republic becoming the most recent countries to revoke their visa-free entry for holders.

Passport Index ranks passports worldwide based on the cross-border access a holder has. It was developed by Canada-based global consultancy Arton Capital.

“For the first time ever, an Asian country has the most powerful passport in the world,” Philippe May, managing director of Arton Capital’s Singapore office, said in a statement.

“It is a testament of Singapore’s inclusive diplomatic relations and effective foreign policy.”

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Video - Nigeria remembers Fela Kuti 20 years after death

Authorities in the Nigerian commercial capital of Lagos and family members of Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Have been marking his 79th posthumous birthday and the 20th anniversary of his death. Governor of Lagos Akinwunmi Ambode last week unveiled a statue in Fela's memory. Fela died in August 1997 at the age of 58. But 20 years on, his legacy remains ever strong.

Security fears in Nigeria after 14 killed in bombing

Fourteen people have died in the latest suicide bomb attack in northeast Nigeria, an official said Monday in an updated toll, calling for greater protection for those made homeless by Boko Haram.

Three bombers, all of them women, detonated their explosives near the sprawling Muna Garage camp on the outskirts of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, on Sunday evening.

The blasts came after warnings of a build-up of jihadist fighters outside the strategic city, the epicentre in the eight years of Islamist violence. Ahmed Satomi, from the Borno state emergency management agency, told AFP the death toll had risen since Sunday evening. “So far, we have 14 people killed and 18 injured in the triple suicide bombings last night,” he said. 

He said the Muna Garage site, which in the last 18 months has developed from an informal settlement into a vast camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs), was “vulnerable”. “So far this year we have recorded 13 suicide attacks in the area, including that of yesterday. I think we need to revise the security situation in the area,” he added. 

“We need to employ modern surveillance strategies which will enable us to identify potential attackers before they strike”. The Boko Haram conflict, which began in 2009, has so far killed at least 20,000 people and displaced more than 2.6 million. There are currently about 1.7 million IDPs in Borno and the neighbouring states of Adamawa and Yobe staying in camps or with distant relatives or friends, according to UN figures. 

– ‘Major concern’ – 

Unlike most of the formal IDP camps, Muna Garage is not enclosed within walls, with access strictly controlled by civilian militia forces or soldiers. Instead, it lies on either side of the main road to Ngala, on the border with Cameroon, and near a bus station that attracts large crowds. Access is possible from the road or the fields beyond the city limits. Boko Haram, which has lost control of towns and villages that it occupied in 2014 and 2015, has increasingly used suicide bombers, particularly against civilian “soft” targets. 

The last attack in and around Muna Garage was on September 8, when two women blew themselves up at a checkpoint. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs last Friday said such attacks against IDPs in camps “continue to be a major concern”. On September 20, nine IDPs from the Rann camp, in northern Borno near the shores of Lake Chad, were killed as they tended their fields. On September 8, at least seven people were killed when Boko Haram fighters fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the IDP camp in Ngala, which houses some 80,000 people.

 A week earlier, 11 people had died when militants stormed a camp in Banki, on the border with Cameroon, to steal food. Conditions in the camps, which have been hit by a cholera outbreak, led to a protest in Maiduguri last month that saw 10 arrested on breach of the peace and rioting charges. The 10 defendants were released on bail when they appeared in court on Monday. The case was adjourned until November 24.

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Video - Initiative helps reduce illiteracy levels among Nigerian adults

Nigeria is estimated to have an illiteracy rate of around 65 million.Of that number, around 3 million live in the country's commercial capital of Lagos. A young Nigerian has taken up the task to help reduce the illiteracy figure. With his Back2School Adult Literacy Programme, which he started in 2016, Erezi Edoreh, has been making remarkable progress.