Crime
Couple Arrested at Abuja Airport for Child Trafficking
Couple Arrested at Abuja Airport for Child Trafficking
By: Michael Mike
The issue of child traficking keeps on taking different dimension daily in the country. it is an establish fact that nearly all trafficked victims are children.
According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) report, more than half of child trafficking victims are trafficked within their own country according to new report.
It was dramatic scene at the Nnamdi Azikwe international airport on last Wednesday, June 26th 2024, when one Mr Godfrey Ayodele Iyama and his wife Mrs Stella Iyama trying to smuggle a 6 years old child (name withheld) away from the country without the concent of the father and blatant disobedience of court order (contempt of court) that the child in question should not leave the shore of Nigeria.
According to private investigator who had been put on the trail of the couple. According to the father of the child, “in order to perfect their criminal activities the identification of the innocent little girl was changed from the name is was given at birth and in the international passport I had earlier procured for her to Mr Godfrey Ayodele Iyama claiming that the father of the little girl has died while the father is still alive. The surprising things is that the little girl is having two valid passport bearing different name”.
However, if what Mr Godfrey claimed is right, why changes the name of the child, which is totally different from the name on the first passport issued to her? Even if the father is dead, does that automatically changed the identity of the girl in question? A lot of question is begging for an answer, the father of the girl asked.
He said: “If not God and quick intervention of immigration officer and proactiveness of the local investigator at the airport they would have boarded the Qatar Airway flight going to Birmingham international airport with the child. The immigration officer at the airport after arresting and detaining them handed them over to the airport security who investigated them and established that they were guilty of child trafficking.”
He added that: “This singular incident should open our eyes as a citizen of this country Nigeria to irregularity in our data system and how those saddle with the responsibility of keeping record should be on top of their job. In a country where the system is working, how possible for same person to have two different identification, but in a country where anything goes it is very possible.”
Our correspondent met with the biological father of the child who narrated the whole story. He said, “I got married to Shulamite November 28, 2017. We had our child in August 16, 2018. In 2021, many times I confronted her over my feelings that she was being unfaithful to me but she denied it. Finally In April of 2021, she confessed to sleeping with her ex-boyfriend. Because we haven’t slept together for over a year , we did a pregnancy test and she tested positive. A few weeks later she told me she had removed the child and when I reported the matter to the church they invited her and she ran away from my house with my three years old girl while I was still at work”.
He added, “For over a year she refused to tell me where she is with my baby. I was forced to file for custody of the child. She also filed for custody. In the court, she alleged that I use to beat her but the court found no such evidence but rather found evidence of her finger nails on my neck when she held me on the the neck while I was asleep. The judge ruled that we should both have custody of the child. That the child will be with her during school period but will be with me during holidays. And that none of us should take the baby outside Nigeria. They have failed to obey the court injunction as they have consistently denied me access to my child up till now”.
He alleged that: “In addition, my father-in-law Mr. Godfrey Ayodele Iyama conspired with his wife Stella Iyama and their daughter Shulamite Ewoma Ozo-iyama to change my daughter’s NIN and fraudulently obtained another imternational passport for her.”
All effort to talk to the Mr Godfrey Ayodele Iyama to hear his own side of the story prove abortive, though the case is now being handled by NAPTIP.
Couple Arrested at Abuja Airport for Child Trafficking
Young man dies after falling into abandoned mining pit in FCT
By: Zagazola Makama
A 27-year-old man, Ismail Ahmed, has died after being trapped in an abandoned mining pit in Pangu Village, Kwali Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory.
Zagazola Makama learnt that the incident happened on Saturday, June 7, during a heavy downpour while Ahmed was washing clothes by a nearby stream.
According to family members, he sought shelter from the rain by entering the old mining hole dug by former gold miners. The soil collapsed due to the heavy rain, trapping him inside.
Community members rescued him and rushed him to Kwali General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The family declined an autopsy and opted for burial according to Islamic rites.
Local residents have been advised to exercise caution and avoid unsafe locations, particularly during the rainy season, to prevent similar tragedies.
Young man dies after falling into abandoned mining pit in FCT
Crime
Troops intercept truck with over 164,000 cartridges in Anambra, arrest suspected IPOB/ESN arms suppliers
Troops intercept truck with over 164,000 cartridges in Anambra, arrest suspected IPOB/ESN arms suppliers
By: Zagazola Makama
Troops of Sector 5 of Operation UDO KA, in a joint operation with operatives of the 63 Brigade and the Department of State Services (DSS), have intercepted a truck loaded with over 164,000 live cartridges allegedly being supplied to the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its armed affiliate, Eastern Security Network (ESN).
Intelligence sources told Zagazola Makama that the operation followed credible intelligence which led to the arrest of a suspected arms courier, Mr Emeka Omenife, along the Asaba–Onitsha expressway on 29 May 2025.
According to the sources, Omenife was immediately handed over to the DSS for interrogation. During questioning, he reportedly confessed to being part of a syndicate involved in transporting ammunition from Ghana to Nigeria for IPOB/ESN operatives.
Following his confession, troops arrested his accomplice, Mr Uchenna Obiora, at the Onitsha–Awka tollgate on 30 May 2025, while he was awaiting delivery of the ammunition.The arrest led to the interception of a truck which had the concealed ammunition.
“Upon interception, the vehicle was moved to Onitsha Cantonment, where a thorough search revealed a total of 164,650 live cartridges hidden in four constructed compartments within the cargo bed of the truck,” a source told Zagazola.
The cartridges, believed to have been purchased from Ghana, had Onitsha as their destination, the source added. Further investigations are ongoing to track down other members of the syndicate and their collaborators.
Zagazola also confirmed from security sources that Omenife had earlier been arrested by troops and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) tracking team on Jan. 22 at his residence in Onitsha Housing Estate.
During the January operation, he attempted to flee and was shot in the buttocks before being evacuated to the 302 Army Regiment Medical Services for treatment. He was later handed over to the Anambra State Police Criminal Investigation Department, Annex Akwuzu, for prosecution. His re-arrest in May suggests that he may have returned to the same criminal enterprise following his release in an unexplained circumstances.
Troops intercept truck with over 164,000 cartridges in Anambra, arrest suspected IPOB/ESN arms suppliers
Police repel gunmen attack on government school in Benue, while students were writing WAEC
BY: Zagazola Makama
The police in Benue have successfully repelled an attack by suspected herdsmen on Government Secondary School, Odugbo, while students were writing their West African Examinations Council (WAEC) exams.
Zagazola reliably informed that the attack occurred on 29th May 2025 at about 1:30 p.m., when gunmen opened sporadic fire at the school premises.
The 80-man Patrol Team of the Benue State Civilian Joint Task Force (PMF) Odugbo promptly responded and repelled the attackers, who fled into nearby bushes. No casualty was recorded during the incident.
Combing operations in the surrounding bushes are ongoing to track and apprehend the fleeing attackers.
In a separate incident on the same day at about 3:45 p.m., suspected armed robbers ambushed and shot dead a motorcyclist, Samuel Iordye, from Nkst Anyiin East at Tukwa Village along the Anyiin to Akwannaon Taraba State road.
The robbers also seized the victim’s motorcycle before fleeing the scene.
Military personnel, police the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and the Benue Civil Protection Guard, have launched a joint patrol and tactical operation to arrest the suspects.
The victim’s corpse was photographed and deposited at NKST Hospital Mortuary, Anyiin, for post-mortem examination.
Police repel gunmen attack on government school in Benue, while students were writing WAEC
One year after Allawa’s fall, displaced residents cry for help as humanitarian crisis deepens in Niger
Young man dies after falling into abandoned mining pit in FCT
One killed, two injured as bandits attack worshippers in Zamfara mosque
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