An elderly widow residing in Cele community, Oyo town in Oyo West local government, narrowly escaped death in an inferno caused by a cooking gas cylinder explosion.
The incident occured in the night after occupants of the building had retired to rest.
But for timely intervention of government fire fighters, the residential building would have been completely razed down by the fire.
However, no casualty was recorded.
Meanwhile, an elderly occupant of the burnt house, Mama Odekanyin and some residents on sympathy visit appealed to relevant agencies to ensure safety standards were not compromised on home appliances to avert disasters of this nature.
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos a 56-year-old widow and mother of four, Mrs Kehinde Sidika Ajisegiri over her attempt to traffic 400grams of cocaine concealed in her footwear to Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
The suspect who claims to be a businesswoman trading in adults and children wears on Lagos Island was intercepted on Sunday 13th November while trying to board a Qatar Airways flight going to Saudi Arabia via Doha.
Upon a critical examination of the pair of sandals she was wearing, two parcels of cocaine weighing 400grams were recovered from them.
In the same vein, attempts by a tricycle parts seller, Ayoade Kehinde Tayo to send 1kg of Tramadol 225mg and Rohypnol to Istanbul, Turkey via Cairo on an Egypt Airline flight same day were also frustrated by NDLEA operatives who arrested him.
He was at the airport to hand over the drugs hidden inside a bag of food items to an intending passenger, Idowu Ayoade but was arrested before he succeeded in doing that.
An intending passenger to Oman via Asky airline, Agbamuche Bright Nkeonye and a lady, Adeoye Oluwakemi Fatimo who accompanied him to present a bag containing varieties of foodstuffs and body lotion which were used to conceal 1.10kg Cannabis and some Rohypnol capsules were also arrested at the departure hall of the Lagos airport on Thursday 18th November.
Anti-narcotics officers attached to the SAHCO export shed of the airport equally foiled attempts by traffickers to smuggle consignments of cannabis and ecstasy tablets concealed in three tubers of yam going to Dubai, UAE on Wednesday 17th November.
The freight agent who presented the yams for export, Inegbu Ugochi Akunna was promptly arrested while the consignor, Ahmodu Sulaimon was also nabbed thereafter.
At the Brawal container shed of Kirikiri lighter terminal in Lagos, NDLEA operatives equally intercepted cartons of deadly drinks in a container marked APZU3671697 during a joint examination with the Nigerian Customs Service.
Though the bill of lading indicated that the container originated from Cape town, South Africa, a search of the shippers’ database showed it was loaded from Antwerp, Belgium. A full inspection of the container on Thursday 18th November showed a total of five cartons of beverages labelled as Euphoria cannabis beer and three cartons of cannabis energy drink were found.
Other drinks in the container include: 21 cartons of a drink labelled as monkey shoulder; 20 cartons of dead man’s finger; and 139 of champagne fruit, among others. In a related development, not less than 5.6 kilograms of methamphetamine, cocaine and tramadol were discovered in items like play station, bicycles, motor propeller and local fabrics packaged for export to Australia and Cyprus through some courier firms in Lagos.
Two suspects, Gabriel Emeka and Vintura Grillo have been arrested in a follow up operation linked to one of the seizures.
In Niger state, NDLEA operatives on stop-and-search operation along Mokwa-Jebba road on Saturday 12th November arrested two suspects; Ismail Musa and Jidda Abbas with 10,780 bottles of Akuskura, a new psychoactive substance concealed inside two Toyota Camry saloon cars marked AGL 861 GS Lagos and KMK 118 SC Bayelsa.
The consignment loaded in Ibadan, Oyo State, was going to Abuja for distribution.
While operatives intercepted 25,000 capsules of Tramadol in Plateau and arrested the owner, Ifeanyi Nweanwe, a beer parlour operator in a follow up operation in Bauchi, pharmaceutical opioids worth more than 30 million naira were intercepted in a commercial bus in Asaba, Delta State on Thursday 18th November.
In Ondo state, operatives stormed the Ijare forest, in Ifedore LGA on Friday 19th November where a total of 600.5kgs of cannabis weed and seeds were recovered, while 142.8kgs of the same substance were seized when NDLEA officers raided the Zone 3 Motor Park in Wuse area of Abuja.
In the same vein, operatives on routine stop and search patrol along Owerri-Onitsha road arrested a suspect Nwankwo Emmanuel, with 25 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 12.5kgs in a commercial bus going to Port Harcourt from Lagos.
In his reaction to the arrests and seizures in the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), CON, OFR, commended the officers and men of the MMIA, Tincan, Delta, FCT, Niger, Ondo, and Plateau Commands as well as those of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations, DOGI, for their passion, commitment and remarkable efforts to get results in their areas of responsibility.
He enjoined them and their compatriots across the country to stay focused and resilient in the pursuit of the agency’s corporate goal.
A 62-year-old unarmed civilian,Oleksandr Shelipov, was shot dead on a village street outside his Ukrainian home, during the first war crime.
Three months later and the captured Russian soldier accused of killing him is in Kyiv being tried for a war crime.
Standing up in court to confront the 21-year-old defendant on Thursday was Kateryna Shelipova, the widow of the man killed.
Did he repent his crime, she asked?
The Russian tank commander, Vadim Shishimarin, replied that he admitted his guilt and asked for her forgiveness. “But I understand you won’t be able to forgive me,” he added.
Kateryna Shelipova hadn’t finished. “Tell me please, why did you [Russians] come here? To protect us?” she asked, citing Vladimir Putin’s justification for the invasion of Ukraine.
“Protect us from whom? Did you protect me from my husband, whom you killed?”
The soldier had no answer to that.
This landmark trial marks the first time a Russian serviceman has been put on the stand for war crimes since the invasion of Ukraine was launched in February.
And perhaps such raw encounters are what such trials are about, at least in part. Forcing a soldier – who ignored all the rules of war – to face up to exactly what he has done and the suffering he has caused.
Sergent Shishimarin has pleaded guilty and Ukrainian prosecutors are asking for him to be sentenced to life imprisonment.
On Wednesday, Ms Shelipova told me she actually felt sorry for the soldier, but she could not forgive him for this crime.
She heard the shots that killed her husband, then saw Sergent Shishimarin through her gate – holding his weapon.
Five minutes later she says she saw her husband’s body: “He was dead with a shot in his head. I started screaming very loudly.”
“The loss of my husband is everything for me,” Ms Shelipova said, adding: “He was my protector.”
A magistrate court sitting in Akure ,Ondo State has sentenced a woman ,Opeyemi Omoyemi to three and half years imprisonment for brutalising a twelve year old boy ,Joel Sunday,who is her house help .
Omoyemi, a widow was also jailed for one year for being found guilty of Violence Against Persons Prohibition.
The jail terms are to run concurrently. Our Correspondent who monitored the proceeding reports that the convict was arrested by men of the State Police Command after she used blade to inflict deep cuts on the body of the victim at Adebowale area of Akure .
The thirty six year old widow had accused the boy of stealing some pieces of meat from her pot of soup.
36year Old Opeyemi Omoyemi
The presiding Magistrate ,Mrs olufunmilayo Edwin, said the defendant was guilty of count one ,four and five. Meanwhile ,counsel to the convict ,Foluso Kayode had said the judgement would be appealed .
Members of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists were also in court in solidarity with the twelve year old Joel Sunday.
In the meantime,the chairperson, International Federation of Women Lawyers,FIDA, in Ondo State ,Mrs Catherine Ogunjebi has descibed the verdict as a good development towards curtailing gender based violence in the state .
Mrs Ogunjebi while reacting to the judgement said children of Mrs opeyemi omoyemi ,the convict were already being taken care of by the ministry of women affairs
Also speaking ,The chairperson ,Nigeria Association of women Journalists, Ondo state Council ,Mrs Doris Olumoko, was of the view that quick dispensation of justice would serve as deterrent to others who delighted in brutalising children.
NAWOJ Chairperson,Ondo State Council, Mrs Doris Olumoko.
Similarly ,the Wife of Ondo state Governor,Mrs Betty Anyawu-Akeredolu hailedthe Magistrate court for granting justice in the case of the twelve year old Joel Sunday who was brutalised by his guardian.
Reacting to the judgement in Akure, Mrs Anyanwu-Akeredolu said the verdict would send strong signal to curtail the abuse of children in the state.
