Startech Safety And Security News Blog

  Greek Prosecution lawyer, Loannis Paradissis, has slammed Manchester United captain, Harry Maguire's account of his arrest on the Greek island of Mykonos.   Maguire was arrested this week after allegedly assaulting police officers while holiday in with friends and family in Greece.   The brawl allegedly started as a result of two Albanian men injecting the defender's sister with a date-rape drug. He was found guilty of charges of aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and repeated attempts of bribery after the incident, but claims he is innocent as he thought he was being kidnapped.      Maguire, who is appealing the suspended prison sentence he was handed, with the backing of Manchester United, sat down with the BBC on Thursday August 28, his first interview since the verdict, and claimed that he was scared for his life as he thought he and his friends were being kidnapped, adding that he tried to run away after being assaulted by a police officer. ...

Prosecutors are planning to seek a harsher sentence for ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is one of four charged for the murder of George Floyd.    According to legal documents obtained by TMZ, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison informed Peter Cahill, the judge in Floyd murder case he will be seeking a harsher sentence for Chauvin, for several reasons.   The Minnesota Attorney General says the murder was “especially heinous” because Floyd was killed in front of children.    In the legal docs, Ellison noted that Floyd was in a "particularly vulnerable" state because he was handcuffed and chest down on the pavement, repeatedly telling Chauvin and the other officers he could not breathe.   His decision to seek a harsher sentence comes after recent bodycam footage was released showing Floyd pleading for officers to not shoot him.   "The more video evidence you see, the more unjustifiable George Floyd's torture and d...

Rebekah Vardy has reportedly filed legal papers to drag Coleen Rooney to court 'immediately' amid their ongoing feud.   The shocking move comes after Rebekah came to the conclusion that Coleen, 34, is purposefully 'dragging her heels' and wants her to "put up or shut up" in their legal battle.    According to The Sun, the session, which will be held later this year, will determine whether the wife of footballer Jamie Vardy was 'libelled' when Coleen accused her Instagram account of leaking stories to the press.   A source told The Sun: 'Things have been rumbling on for ages, and costs ­spiralling too.   'This will mean that a judge can actually get to the crux of the case — and make those involved put up or shut up. It should mean things can finally get moving and dealt with quickly.   'This is a shot across the bows. It effectively says, "Come on, stop mucking about, let’s get on with this".'   The insider added the move woul...

Three persons identified as Melody M, Isaac G., and James S., have died in a boat mishap that occurred in Adamawa state.   Sahara Reporters reports that the victims, two males, and one female, reportedly drowned while on their way to a burial ceremony in the Lamurde Local Government Area of the state, after the boat capsized.   Confirming the incident, the chairman of Lamurde Local Government Area, Burto Williams, described it as an unfortunate tragedy. "The accident is a very unfortunate tragedy that requires government to come to the aid of the people of the area who are constantly being ravaged by cascading water.   Lamurde LG is making efforts to provide medical treatment for the survivors while the council will also foot the bill of the burial arrangements of the three deceased," Burto said  

  Suspected criminals arrested for allegedly abducting the wife of an Appeal Court judge and killing her aide in Cross River state on July 4, have blamed the ban on Okada operation and the Coronavirus lockdown for joining the kidnapping gang.   Ekwele Agube, the wife of a judge at the Court of Appeal, was kidnapped by six armed men who accosted her along Ministry Road, off NPA Junction in Calabar, Cross Rivers State. They killed her aide identified as Glory Egbela before whisking her away to an unknown destination in their operation vehicle. She was released 14 days later, after her family paid N6.8 million as a ransom for her release.   Immediately after her abduction, operatives of the Force Intelligence Response Team (IRT) led by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, were detailed to investigate and track down the kidnappers.   The IRT made a breakthrough when it trailed one of the phone numbers used in negotiating the ransom to one o...

  The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has quizzed top management staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), over allegations of various acts of corruption such as diversion of funds, procurement fraud and misappropriation of the agency’s Covid-19 funds.   A statement released on Saturday August 29 says some directors of NDDC were interrogated at the Commission’s headquarters recently, after months of intelligence gathering following the receipt of petitions from Nigerians on the alleged illegalities and contract fraud by some officials of the agency.   According to the statement, top officials of the agency are being investigated for their complicity in an alleged diversion of N5.474 billion meant for the purchase of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health workers handling the Covid-19 pandemic in the nine states of NDDC.   ''The Commission is also investigating the payments of millions of naira to s...

  A pregnant woman, her two children, and one other person were killed in an accident that involved one tanker, one truck, and six motorcycles at Ikare, Akoko North-East local government in Ondo state on Saturday August 29.   Several persons were also injured in the accident.     According to reports, a tanker conveying diesel had a brake failure and crashed into a truck, which eventually crushed the commercial motorcyclists.   The spokesman for the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Ondo, Omotola Ogungbawo, confirmed four deaths from the incident. However, eyewitnesses claim the death toll is eight.   The bodies of the deceased persons have been deposited in a mourn.      

  Another lady identified as Mary Daramola has been allegedly raped and killed in the Akinyele area of Ibadan, Oyo state.   According to reports, Daramola who was 18 years old, was allegedly raped and killed at Alabata community, near Moniya, in Akinyele Local Government on Monday, August 24.   The spokesperson of the state police command, Olugbenga Fadeyi, who confirmed the incident to The Nation, said a suspect has been arrested over the incident and that the suspect has been transferred to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for investigation. Fadeyi said the police have launched a full-scale investigation into the unfortunate incident.   No fewer than five persons have been killed in the area in the last four months in very mysterious circumstances. A suspected serial killer, Shodipe Sunday, has been arrested in connection with the previous killings in the local government area.

The third crew member in the helicopter that crashed into a building at Opebi, Lagos State today August 28, has died.   A Bell 206-3 helicopter with registration number 5N-BQW belonging to Quorum Aviation crashed into a wall between two buildings at 16 A Salvation Road, Opebi, Ikeja this afternoon. A statement from the company said all three occupants were crew members who flew in from Port Harcourt.   Two of the crew members died at the scene of the incident while the third one survived and was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital LASUTH. Sadly, he lost his life, bring the total number of casualties to three.  

Mr Lai The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, says the Federal government will no longer tolerate the harassment of Nigerians in Ghana.   Lai Mohammed made this remark while reacting to recent attacks meted on Nigerians residing in Ghana. Recall that two weeks ago, some Nigerian traders in Ghana raised alarm over the closure of their shops after they were asked to pay N1 million. In June this year, a part of the building owned by the Nigerian High Commission in Accra, was demolished by Ghanaian authorities.   In a statement released today Friday, August 28, Mohammed said over one million Ghanaians are resident in Nigeria and they are not being maltreated. He stressed that the Nigerian government will no longer tolerate the harassment of Nigerians. He added that the Federal government is already considering a number of measures to take to address the situation.   The statement reads ''The Nigerian Government is deeply concerned by the in...

  A world champion wrestler lashed out at his bride during their wedding party after guests received messages saying she was an escort.   Zaurbek Sidakov, 24, was getting married to Madina Pliyeva, 25, in Russia’s North Caucasus region, with 500 guests attending, when the guests received racy videos featuring the bride.   The videos were allegedly sent by the disgruntled wife of the bride's alleged billionaire tycoon lover.     The messages appeared as the groom’s male friends were throwing him in the air in a traditional dance, and while the female guests were celebrating the marriage in a nearby room.   Freestyle wrestler Sidakov, who was due to represent Russia at the postponed 2020 Olympics, then found his bride and pulled her away by the hair.     According to Daily Star, he left her weeping on the floor and the party was cancelled.   Madina was taken to hospital by her friends and family and is now reportedly hiding in Moscow....

  The U.S. Marshals Service found 39 missing children in Georgia following a two-week rescue mission known as "Operation Not Forgotten."    The agency announced in a press release on Thursday, August 27, that the operation led to the rescue of 26 children and the safe location of 13 others. Nine suspects have also been arrested.      "These missing children were considered to be some of the most at-risk and challenging recovery cases in the area, based on indications of high-risk factors such as victimization of child sex trafficking, child exploitation, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and medical or mental health conditions," the press release reads.    "Other children were located at the request of law enforcement to ensure their wellbeing," the release continues. "USMS investigators were able to confirm each child's location in person and assure their safety and welfare."      Nine criminal associates were also arrested and investi...

More details have emerged concerning the helicopter crash that occurred in the residential part of Opebi in Lagos on Friday, August 28Two persons died while the third victim is currently receiving treatment in a hospital.   A statement released by Quorum Company, owners of the helicopter, says all three victims of the crash were crew members and were flying from Port-Harcourt to Lagos when it crashed between two buildings in Ikeja en-route to Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.   The statement in part reads   “As soon as we received news of the accident, we promptly informed the aviation authorities, Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). Preliminary reports indicate that of the three souls on board – all crew, two of the crew members lost their lives whilst the third one is currently receiving treatment at a hospital. We have been made to understand that nobody in the building, nor in the vicinity was injured for...

  Thousands of people gathered today Friday in Washington D.C, US, demanding for an end to police brutality against blacks and calling for criminal justice reforms.   The march titled “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks March” at the Lincoln Memorial was organized by civil rights activist, Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, Martin Luther King, III's organization, the NAACP, the country’s oldest civil rights organization, as well as the Hispanic Federation, the National Urban League, and other civil rights groups and unions.       The march which coincides with the 57th anniversary of the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom during which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech, comes after a White police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, shot 29-year-old Jacob Blake in the back eight times in front of witnesses, including Blake's own young children resulting in Blake's lower limb paralysis.  The protest also c...

A former prison guard who smuggled drugs into jail in her underwear has been jailed for three years.   27-year-old Hannah Gaves from Bristol was stopped and searched while on her way to work at Erlestoke Prison, Wiltshire on the 27th of January last year.   Officials found Cocaine concealed in her underwear and she was also in possession of black bags containing cannabis, five packets of tobacco and Rizzlas.     The Erlestoke Prison, where Gaves worked as a guard, had received intelligence that she was smuggling articles into the prison. She was also suspected of having “inappropriate relations” with an inmate and was smuggling the drugs on his behalf, Wiltshire Police said.   Gaves was arrested and a further search of her home saw money and herbal cannabis seized.   She pleaded guilty to a string of drug offences on Friday, August 28, at Salisbury Crown Court. These included possession with intent to supply a Class A drug, possession with intent to supply ...

A truck driver has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in relation to the deaths of 39 migrants discovered in the trailer of a lorry in Grays, Essex, in October last year.   Haulier Ronan Hughes, 40,  pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to the manslaughter of 31 Vietnamese men and eight women. Among the men and women, 10 were teenagers, two of them 15-year-old boys.   The migrants were found suffocated in the trailer of a lorry on an industrial estate at Grays in the early hours of 23 October 2019 in Purfleet.    Prosecutors alleged Haulier played a leading role by allowing his trailers and drivers to be used in human trafficking.   An inquest heard their medical cause of death was asphyxia and hyperthermia - a lack of oxygen and overheating - in an enclosed space.   Hughes was one of seven men accused of being part of a people-smuggling ring linked to the deaths, including truck driver Maurice Robinson, who also pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges at ...

A 45-year-old married man, Chinedu Peter Ogwa, committed suicide at his home situated at Wokoma street in Mile 3 Diobu in Rivers state on Thursday night August 27.   The Nation reports that Chidinma Ogwa, wife of the deceased, said her husband started behaving strangely on Monday, August 24. She said he left behind a suicide note where he appealed to her and their children to forgive him. She said her late husband blamed his action on frustration, lack of business success, as well as inability to recover his debts among others.   In her words “It all started on the afternoon of Monday, August, 25, 2020, when he called me from where he was then to ask me what we are going to eat that night, I told him not to worry, that I had already prepared soup. After a while he came back and met me washing clothes outside, he stood beside me and began to laugh. I was like why are you laughing, he was still laughing, then he said to me ‘you did not know what I t...

A man has been raped and killed by parents after young girls "lied" that he touched them below the waist as a "joke", it has been alleged.   Truck driver Dmitry Chikvarkin gave the girls aged 3 and 10 a lift to a carer at the request of their parents in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Sverdlovsk, Russia.   However, when Valeria Dunaeva, 25, the mother of the 3-year-old, came to pick the girls, they allegedly told her Chikvarkin "had touched them below the waist".   Furious, Dunaeva told her partner Sergey Chabin, 33, dad of the 10-year-old, and the parents allegedly tried to take the law into their own hands.   Dunaeva   Chikvarkin was attacked by three men, friends of the couple, and he later died from a head wound sustained during the attack, police in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Sverdlovsk, Russia, have alleged.   A law enforcement source told Znak newspaper: "They found the man who previously gave a lift to the children.   "First, he was ra...