Nigerians living in Gauteng Province of South Africa have protested the alleged extra-judicial killing of a 34- year-old man, Timothy Chinedu, by the police.

Mathew Okafor, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union in Gauteng Province, told the News Agency of Nigeria on phone from Johannesburg that Mr. Chinedu was allegedly suffocated to death by the police after his arrest at 9.00 a.m. on Saturday.



Mr. Chinedu is a native of Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of Imo.

Mr. Okafor claimed that another Nigerian, who witnessed the incident at Kempton Park in Ekulurheni Municipality, Gauteng Province, saw the South African police arrest the deceased, tie his hands and cover his face with a cellophane bag.

“We suspect that Chinedu died of suffocation. That is why Nigerians in the province mobilised and staged a protest against this extra-judicial killing .

“The South African police is alleging that he died after ingesting drugs but a Nigerian witnessed the entire incident and reported it to us

“The case has been handed over to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) that investigates police misconduct in South Africa.
“We have been given the contacts of key persons that we need to be talking to as this investigation proceeds so that we can monitor the development.

“An autopsy is being carried out and we are waiting for the coroner’s report.
“We have also reported this incident to the national body of Nigeria Union and Nigerian Mission in South Africa.

“We have also gotten the contacts of the relatives of the deceased and we have duly informed them of the tragedy,” Mr. Okafor said.
The President of Nigeria Union in South Africa, Ikechukwu Anyene, said the body had received the report of the incident.

“We take exception to the continued torture of Nigerians by the South African police.
“The union believes that there is the due process to follow after a suspect is arrested instead of resorting to torture,” he said.

Mr. Anyene urged the Federal Government to intervene by persuading the South African government to look into the continued killings of Nigerians by the police.

“We also want to state that the Nigerian did not die of drug ingestion as being alleged by the South African police,” he said.
Nigeria`s Consul General to South Africa, Uche Ajulu-Okeke, said that the mission had received the report of the killing of the Nigerian.

She said the mission would investigate the incident and present a report to the Federal Government.
Ms. Ajulu-Okeke, however, appealed to Nigerians to remain law abiding and report any incident to the union and the mission.

(NAN)

Following public outcry and reports which greeted the alleged shooting of John Ndubuka, Personal Assistant to the Abia State governor’s son, Chinedu Orji on the order of Orji himself, which was first broken by National Mirror newspaper, the media house has been sued by Orji over what they described as defamation of character.

In a letter written to the media house by his lawyer, Chief Barrister C.C Nwabuko, the claimant detailed how Orji was inundated with calls from across the globe following the report on National Mirror website that he ordered his security aide to shoot John over a minor disagreement.

They dismissed the report of the paper who called Orji a rascal, an imposter, highly temperate and pugnacious, disrespectful and a murderer. They noted that their client is a practicing Engineer and Chief Executive of many companies as well as an undisputable reputable son of Amaokwe Ugba Ibeku of Ikwuano/Umuahia clan, who is loved by his people on account of his father’s giant stride in governing the state.

“It is most regrettable and painful for the National Mirror to throw caution to the winds by publishing and posting to the whole world a most malicious, outrageous false story which is outrightly disparaging, injurious and also calculated to lower our client with the representations to the whole world, which you know is criminally libelous and actionable in court even in the bereaved state of our client”, stated the letter.

They asked the Newspaper to retract the report within seven days as well as pay the sum of N600 million, or face the music in the court of law.

A carpenter, Christopher David has been arrested by Delta state Police for allegedly selling his daughter to ritualists.
Christopher was said to have been reported to the police by his wife, Florence after he gave her some part of the N200,000 he was paid for selling his daughter to the ritualists in Lagos..
It was gathered that in October 2013, Christopher’s wife, Florence David had given birth to their baby girl but was taken away from her after her husband deceived her that they could not take care of the child due to their poor living condition.
The husband however handed the baby over to a woman identified as Grace (surname withheld).
DSP Celestina Kalu, Police spokesperson in the state, confirmed that the suspect has been arrested and would be charged to court after investigations have been completed

The killing of innocent civilians in the hinterlands of Plateau State has continued unabated as 13 people were reportedly killed and 5 others injured in another early morning attack on Thursday by unknown gunmen.
Reporter gathered that the attackers stormed Rapyem Village in Fan District of Barkin Ladi Local Government of the State at about 1am shooting sporadically, which led to the death of 13 people and 5 others injured, mostly women and children.
Confirming the incident to reporter, the Interim Administrator of Barkin Ladi Local Government, Mr. Habila Dung, said the attack took place in the wee hours of Thursday.
He described the attack as “sad and barbaric”, adding that 13 persons were killed, among them were nine children, two women, two men and 5 were injured and currently receiving treatment in hospital.
When contacted, the Plateau State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Felicia Anselem, confirmed that there was an attack at Rapyem Village in Fan District of Barkin Ladi Local Government. She said the Police are working on the casualty figure, but maintained that normalcy has since returned to the community.
The Police Spokesperson called on the citizenry in Barkin Ladi local government and the State as a whole to go about their normal business as security agencies are on top of the situation.

Agabus Pwanagba, Jos