Startech Safety And Security News Blog

Charles Harwood, Director, United States Federal Trade Commission, FTC, Washington DC, has described the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, as a unique law enforcement agency in the fight against corruption in Nigeria Harwood made the remark during a visit to the Acting Chairman, EFCC, at Commission’s Head Office, Wuse II, Abuja on March 1, 2018. “It is important to note that the only criminal law enforcement agency aside the United States that we have relationship with is the EFCC because we have MoU and so EFCC is a unique part of the FTC”, he said. According to him, “FTC is a civil law enforcement agency who works with the department of Justice in US and other criminal law agencies around the world to share information which could hopefully produce criminal prosecution”. He hoped that the previous relationship built with the EFCC would be sustained especially with the MOU, adding that the FTC value and treasure the relationship and hoped the information gotten fr...

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Kaduna Zonal Office, today Thursday  March 1,   2018 arraigned two Estate Agents, Abdullahi Umar Balewa and Muawiya Aliyu alongside their company,  Supreme  System Consult Ltd on a four count charge of conspiracy, theft and issuance of dud cheque to the tune of N34 million before Justice Tukur of the Kaduna State High Court. The complainant alleged that the suspects sometime in 2013 entered into an agreement with her to invest money into their business with an understanding that she will be paid back her principal sum and accrued profit after one year. On this basis, she handed over her two houses located in Brick City Kubwa Phase 2 Abuja to be sold off by the suspects at N17 million each; and the proceeds be invested in the purported business. The complainant further stated that an MoU was written between her and the suspects that the principal sum and an accrued interest of N6 million will be paid back...

Oloyede Olawale, fifth prosecution witness in a $1.6billion fraud trial involving Jide Omokore, Diezani’s ally on Thursday, March 1, 2018 told Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja, how the defendant bought exotic cars with millions of naira suspected to be proceeds of oil fraud for some politicians. Documents in support of the claim were tendered and admitted in evidence by the court. Led in evidence by Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, counsel to the EFCC, Olawale, an accountant and admin manager with Skymit Limited (a company that specialises in sale and services of automobiles ) told the court what he knew about the case in relation to Omokore. “Some time ago, we got an invitation from the EFCC, which we honoured. When we got there, we were told to write statements and they made some requests relating to sales and delivery in connection with Chief Omokore, which we did. “The transaction borders on supply of vehicles. As a customer of the company, we sup...

                   After about 10 months of dilly-dallying, former Aviation Minister Stella Oduah yesterday appeared before an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) panel. She was grilled for about eight hours by detectives over a N9, 443,549,531.25 contract awarded to I-Sec Security Nigeria Limited for the procurement and installation of security equipment in 22 airports. She showed up as the agency got set to declare  her wanted. A United States (U.S.) firm, Psybernetix Limited, has alleged that the ex-minister hijacked the contract for a firm  in which she has a stake.The EFCC may invite the representatives of the US company to testify against Mrs. Oduah, it was learnt yesterday. According to a source, Mrs Oduah, who arrived at the EFCC Abuja office at about 11am, was immediately taken to a team of detectives for interrogation. The source, who pleaded not to be named, said: “After shifting many ap...

A 25-year-old Thai woman whose ID card was stolen and allegedly used by a “romance scam” network to open bank accounts was officially declared innocent on Monday, February 26. Piriya Sommul previously had faced charges in eight precincts over the past two years in connection to the illicit use of her identity. Pol General Thanitsak Theerasawat, a special adviser to the Royal Thai Police Office, announced that Piriya’s name had been cleared at a press conference at police head offices in Bangkok. Thanitsak said Piriya’s ID card had been stolen on May 8, 2016 while she was on Pattaya City’s Walking Street in Chon Buri province and then used to open five bank accounts, which received Bt2.3 million in transfers from victims who had been duped in deceitful romantic relationships. Police subsequently issued arrest warrants for four people – Nigerian nationals Simon Eko Ayuk and Rasheed Olalekan Yusuf as well as Thai nationals, Pavena Singhawibul and Jerati Saisin. The first ...

Three foreigners and one Cambodian woman were busted with drugs in  Phnom Penh  on Friday, February 23.  The foreigners are a Nigerian, a South African, and a Filipina woman. According to local news, the suspects were found in possession of 1988.95g of meth. Photos of the suspects below...

                               The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Lagos Zonal Office, on Monday, February 26, 2018, arraigned one Nsa Ayi before Justice Mojisola Dada of the State High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos on an 11-count charge bordering on fraudulent false accounting to the tune of N700, 000, 000.00 (Seven Hundred Million Naira), an offence contrary to Section 335(a) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2011. The defendant, a former Relationship Officer, Coronation Merchant Bank, allegedly connived with unknown parties to move funds using customers’ electronic instructions meant for investment in the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) Bonds, Treasury Bills and Fixed Deposits. The defendant was also said to have altered instructions and falsified signatures of customers to transfer money into various accounts outside the bank. The money was allegedly transferred i...

                           Troops of 23 Bde deployed Wukari on EX AYEM AKPATUMA and team of Department of State Service from Jalingohave arrested three (3) suspects in connection with the kidnapping and murdering of Honourable Hosea Ibi, a member of Taraba State House of Assembly and Mr Chidiebere who was later released after the ransom was paid.  Honourable  Hosea Ibi , who was abducted by gunmen in December 31st 2017,was found dead near a forest by the roadside in Takum LGA of the state on Monday, January 15th. It was learnt that the kidnappers killed the lawmaker, representing Takum, after collecting N35 million ransom.  The suspects are Jaka Ejukun (24years), Peter Isaga (33years) and Arachukwu Bedforth (21years). In a followed up investigation, a raid operation was conducted on Sunday 25 February 2018 by the combined team of own troops and Department of State Se...

Troops of Sector 1 Sub-Sector A, deployed at Yelwata while on routine patrol arrested 10 herdsmen destroying farmlands at Tse-Tigir and Tse-Ndugh villages on Monday 26 February 2018.  Items recovered from them were: 5 motorcycle, 2 machetes, some assorted charms and the sum of N120,000. Suspects and items were handed over to the Nigerian Police for further necessary action.

                            The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday urged Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo of a Federal High Court in Lagos not to unfreeze a Unity Bank account with a balance of N1, 902,673,399.93 belonging to a businesswoman, Hajiya Bola Shagaya. In a counter affidavit filed against Shagaya’s motion seeking to unfreeze the account, the anti-graft agency, through one of its operatives, Musbahu Yahaya Abubakar, argued that the money was the balance of a total of N3,305,150,000, which she received as “founder fees” on behalf of an organization, “Women for Change” being spearheaded by a former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan.   The EFCC claimed that the N3.3 billion was realised through Shagaya’s “fraudulent activities in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC),” where she allegedly “influenced the fraudulent allocation of Dual Purpose Kerosene to Index ...

Protesting Shiites A Kano State High Court on Tuesday adjourned hearing in a suit filed by Aljafariyya Shiite Movement against Kano State Government until April 10. The Shiite group filed a suit seeking the state government to pronounce that the alleged arrest and detention of their members by Nigerian Police sometime in 2016 violated the freedom of religion and free movement. The Presiding Judge, Justice Suleiman Na Malam, adjourned the case until April 10 for hearing. Counsel to the Plaintiff, Mr Muhammad Bakaro, urged the court to order the Kano State Government to pay N500 million compensation to the movement. However, Counsel to the respondents, Mr Sunusi Ma’aji, served the Aljafariyya movement through the counsel, Muhammad Bakaro, with an application on the adjourned suit. Other respondents in the suit are Kano State Commissioner of Police and the state’s Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice.

                       A 4-year-old girl pretended to be asleep as her dad killed her mother, her half-brother, and then himself. The girl, from Missouri in the United States, was laying in bed when she heard gunshots. After hearing the first gunshot before midnight on Thursday, the 4-year-old entered the living room of the home and saw her mother on the floor. Her father told her to go back to her room, and she did. She heard several shots fired after that.  Police received a 911 call just before midnight on Thursday from a man directing them to a home on Hoyt Drive. The man said police would find three bodies, and then he hung up. Police say the 911 caller did not identify himself, but the call was traced to the father, 31-year-old Dornubari Dugbor's cellphone. Police in Bellefontaine Neighbors, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb, responded to the 911 call were able to enter the ho...

                                    An American tourist is in police custody in Japan after the severed head of a woman was found in a suitcase in his holiday rental flat. Yevgeniy Vasilievich Bayraktar, 26, from New York, has been arrested and is being questioned by police following the discovery in Osaka last week. The victim is believed to be a 27-year-old woman from Sanda in Hyogo prefecture. She was last seen on CCTV cameras alongside Mr Bayraktar, just hours before she went missing on February 16. Security footage reportedly captured the woman meeting Bayraktar at a train station in Osaka around midnight and then entering an apartment building together. After that, Mr Bayraktar, who is thought to have arrived in Japan in January for a sightseeing trip, was captured on security footage entering and leaving the flat several times on ...

                          A witness in the trial of retired  Maj. Gen. Emmanuel Atewe , has told the court how the former military personnel gifted N35m to the  Living Faith Church , popularly known as  Winners’ Chapel .  Atewe who served as the Commander of the military Joint Task Force, Operation Pulo Shield, in the  Niger Delta  before his retirement, is standing trial for allegedly diverting N8.5 billion between September 2014 and May 2015. Atewe is standing trial alongside a former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Patrick Akpobolokemi; Kime Engozu, Josephine Otuaga and six companies namely Jagan Ltd; Jagan Trading Company Ltd; Jagan Global Services Ltd; Al-Nald Ltd; Paper Warehouse Ltd; Eastpoint Integrated Services Ltd and De-Newlink Integrated Services Ltd. The trial witness,  Nkem Ahidjo , told the court ...

                The Federal Government has released the names and other details of the 110 girls who have yet to be accounted for, following the attack on the Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, Yobe State, on 19 Feb. 2018. The list was contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who has twice led a Federal Government delegation to Yobe since the tragic incident occurred. The list, which was handed over to the Minister by the Yobe State Government, contains the name, age and class of each of the 110 students. Out of the 110 missing girls, 8 are in JSS1, 17 in JSS2, 12 in JSS3, 40 in SS1, 19 in SS2 and 14 in SS3. The girls' ages range from 11 to 19 years. The list, which also contains the contact address and phone number of each missing girl, was verified by a 26-member Screening Committee that includes the Executive Secretary, State Te...

Nigerian comedian Segun Dangote has shared the shocking story of how his wife escaped being bitten by a snake in their home. He said his wife woke in the middle of the night to use the toilet but there inside the water closet (WC) was a snake ready to attack. They flushed the toilet after which they didn't see the snake but to their shock, two days later, they found the snake hiding under the toilet seat. Read the shocking story below.

A suicide car bomber rammed a car filled with explosives into a checkpoint for Dignity Operation forces in eastern Sirte on Saturday, wounding at least 3 guards. The attack happened at around 9:25 a.m. local time, 90 km east of Sirte, where Brigade 165 of Dignity Operation’s Greater Sirte Operation Room is stationed. No one was killed in the attack. Military sources said the suicide bomber was driving a Jeep car. Two military vehicles for the brigade were destroyed in the attack. On Friday, Al-Bonyan Al-Marsous Operation Room placed forces on high alert and set up several checkpoints around Sirte after detecting what it described as “enemy forces” in the east of the city without identifying them.

Riot and protests led by military officers from Al-Saiqa Force of Dignity Operation led by Khalifa Haftar, along with armed civilians, broke Monday night in Benghazi. Shouting, gunshots in the air, tires burning were the scenes over the night hours in Benghazi in order to protest Haftar's orders, which he issued a few days ago regarding dismissing Wanis Bukhamada from his post as the Head of the security room of Dignity Operation. Eyewitnesses said the protesters held anti-Haftar slogans and their reckless behavior led to injuring some residents, with reports about one person killed, knowing that Al-Jalaa Hospital in Benghazi said a girl aged 25 was killed by a random gunshot during night in Benghazi's pandemonium. "We have arrested 6 people who carried out the riots to wreak havoc in Benghazi and 4 others were injured as they exchanged fire with the patrols tasked with prevailing security in the city. We will deter anyone who tried to start riots and chaos in the...

Security forces in western Libya have arrested a man for killing his ex-wife and throwing her body in Qaryat Boaishi in Tripoli. The crime was unveiled on February 22 when a watchdog brought a human leg to his owner, who immediately reported this to the police. Police detectives, with the help of the same watchdog, located the dead boy. They found a dead woman whose body was cut into pieces while some parts of her limbs were eaten by stray dogs. The detectives managed to locate and arrest the killer in Rayayna town, some 142 southwest of Tripoli, after five days. He was identified as Abu Baker Miriheel, the ex-husband of the victim, Zainab Enfis. No further details were given regarding the reason of the gruesome crime. Source: Libya Observer

       Two stowaways fell to their death on Monday, from an airplane as it took off from an airport in Guayaquil, Ecuador on a flight to New York, authorities told local media. Details of the incident were sketchy with authorities not saying whether a commercial airline was involved. Officials said the bodies of two men, between 25 and 30 years of age, were found on the southern end of the runway of the Jose Joaquin de Olmedo Airport in Guayaquil. "Two people got into the landing gear and as the plane took off the system either ejected them or they lost heart" and let go, General Marcelo Tobar was quoted as telling local media. Prosecutor Carlos Bustamante said the plane, which returned to Guayaquil, had come from Peru and was on its way to New York. Airport operations were closed for an hour after the incident, while the bodies were recovered, the Civil Aviation Office said. Source: AFP

                        The Federal Government has set up a 12-member committee to unravel the circumstances surrounding the abduction of 110 students of the Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC) in Dapchi, Yobe State, following the attack on the school by insurgents on 19 Feb. 2018. The committee was convened by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd), according to a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed. The Committee, which will be chaired by a military officer of the rank of Major-General, comprises one senior Provost each from the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Air Force; representatives of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA); Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA); Nigeria Police Force (NPF); Department of State Services (DSS); Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC); two repre...