Drug trafficker dies of cocaine ingestion

A suspected drug trafficker, Hakeem Adesegun Habeeb, who survived the Surulere fire incident on October 3, 2006 has died of cocaine ingestion.

According to the spokesperson of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mitchelle Ofoyeju, the deceased, a 45-year-old trader was said to have ingested the drugs preparatory to his trip to Europe when one of the wraps ruptured. He eventually died at the hospital after admitting to drug ingestion on his death bed.

To ascertain his claim, a post-mortem was carried out which was witnessed by operatives of the NDLEA in a hospital in Lagos. The operation eventually led to the discovery of the suspected ruptured wrap of narcotics buried deep down his intestinal tract. When tested at the theatre, the substance proved positive for cocaine.

Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade described the incident as sad. "It is very sad. I sympathise with the family of the deceased."

Giade also urged youths to have the fear of God and consider the consequences of their actions. "If they have no respect for themselves, they should at least consider their loved ones and their Creator", the NDLEA boss charged. The late suspect is survived by two wives and eight children.

A member of the family who preferred anonymity said that the deceased kept everybody in the dark about his activities of late. "Hakeem left home without telling either of his two wives where he was going. Three days later, he returned looking very sick. He did not even say what the problem was until he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. We did not know he had taken drugs".

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Children abused, killed as Witches in Nigeria

Just after midnight, the pastor seized a woman's forehead with his large hand and she fell screaming and writhing on the ground. "Fire! Fire! Fire!" shouted the worshippers, raising their hands in the air.
Pastor Celestine Effiong's congregants are being delivered from what they firmly believe to be witchcraft. And in the darkness of the city and the villages beyond, similar shouts and screams echo from makeshift church to makeshift church.
"I have been delivered from witches and wizards today!" exclaimed one exhausted-looking woman.
Pastors in southeast Nigeria claim illness and poverty are caused by witches who bring terrible misfortune to those around them. And those denounced as witches must be cleansed through deliverance or cast out.
As daylight breaks, and we travel out to the rural villages it becomes apparent the most vulnerable to this stigmatization of witchcraft are children.

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Shell shuts oil flow-station due to protest

Royal Dutch Shell said yesterday it had been forced to shut down an oil flow-station in the Niger Delta due to a protest by a group of local women over a lack of development in their community, according to a Reuter's report. The Anglo-Dutch giant said it had shut down the Otumara-Escravos flow-station in Delta State because of the demonstration but was in talks with the local community and the state government to try to end the stand-off. It did not say whether production was affected.

"Dialogue with the women, their community and representatives of the Delta State government continues with a view to resolving the issue," Shell spokesman Tony Okonedo said.

Many remote communities in the Niger Delta, a vast network of mangrove creeks, remain impoverished despite five decades of oil extraction, which have left their land and water polluted.

Such protests are not uncommon.

Royalty payments from oil firms and the sharing of federal oil revenues mean state governments in the Niger Delta have larger budgets than many West African nations, but endemic corruption has meant that little development has been achieved.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and LNG Japan Corporation have commenced preliminary discussion on strategic collaboration on the Brass Liquefied Natural Gas to provide the world's most competitive Finance and LNG marketing opportunity in Asia.

The Group Managing Director of NNPC Austen Oniwon said NNPC would collaborate with LNG Japan Corporation in the value chain and urged them to expedite action as the federal government had given the NNPC a timeline for the Final Investment Decision on the LNG projects.

He said this while receiving the LNG Japan Corporation team led by the President and CEO Mr. Yasunori Takagi in his office yesterday in Abuja.

The interest by LNG Japan Corporation was traced during the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development on Foreign Direct Investment to Nigeria.

"Japan LNG Corporation is welcome into Nigeria and NNPC as a major stakeholder in all the LNG projects in the country is willing to partner with you and do business that will be of mutual interest to both parties", Oniwon said. He expressed hope that when the Petroleum Industry Bill currently before the National Assembly is passed into law, the corporation would transmute into a ring fenced organization that will play in the international hydrocarbon market like other National Oil Companies. He urged Japan LNG Corporation to serve as a vehicle that will help in linking the NNPC to other gas markets in Asia.

President and CEO of LNG Japan Corporation Yasunori Takagi lauded NNPC for selecting LNG Japan Corporation as a strategic investor and expressed their willingness to participate in the realization of Brass LNG which will have a pump-priming effect on the increase of other Japan-led investments in Nigeria.

Daily Trust

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