BIZZARE : More victims of Ibadan evil forest recount ordeals

A big hole might have been dug in the claim by the security operatives met at the site in Soka area, along Lagos/Ibadan expressway in Oluyole Local Government area of Oyo State.
The place was allegedly being operated by a spiritualist for the cure of people with insanity problem as some of the rescued persons on Monday denied ever having anything to do with insanity problem.
On Saturday, the site was discovered at the back of Macmillan Publishers where decomposed bodies, dry skulls and different other human body parts as well as human skeletons were seen and some victims were rescued.
Four of the victims, among those taken to the General Hospital, Adeoyo, Ibadan told journalists on their hospital beds that they were kidnapped from different locations at different times just as they insisted that they were not mad people.
The victims, Nofiu Shittu from Ibadan, Michael Ola from Odeda in Ogun State, and Wale Atoyebi from Ada also in Osun State as well as Titi Adeniyi (nee Dokpesi), who claimed to be a relation of the late Obafemi Awolowo family said that they were each on different occasions picked up or forced out of a vehicle and later found themselves in the evil forest.
Adeniyi, 45 emaciated and malnourished explained that she was sitting in front of her Oke- Bola, Ibadan house when some people just rushed at her, got her arrested and rushed her into a vehicle and eventually driven her away to an unknown place.
According to her, “I am from the compound of Late Baba Awolowo of Oke Bola in Ibadan. Some people came and rushed at me while I was sitting in front of our house. Nobody was around then. My people were in Lagos, they said I was wanted somewhere and that they came to arrest me. They then took me away in their vehicle. Later I found myself in that forest”.
She however claimed ignorance of anything happening around her while in the forest, saying, “I don’t know whether people were being killed or women giving birth. Where they kept us was where I used to be. Once I cover my head with my cloth, I would just sleep off”.
Ola, in his narration said he left Osogbo sometime last year to see his parents in Igboho in the Oke Ogun area of Oyo State, but that on his return, he was just dumped somewhere which he later realised was the kidnap forest, noting that,  “If anybody calls me a mad person, I will be angry with him”.
Shittu, an Ibadan man and dealer in ‘agbo jedi’ (herbal liquid), who said he was living at Foko and Olodo areas before the misfortune that befell him said, “I was sitting somewhere at the Agodi Gate area of Ibadan when some people just swooped on me and rushed me into a vehicle.
“I had been in that place since four months ago. In the forest, we might not be given food for a whole week. People were dying”.
Another victim, Wale Atoyebi, who said he hailed from Ada, was so incoherent and stammering, that he just succeeded in muttering few words, but managed to say that he was not a mad person.
Many people have continued to throng the hospital from different states to behold the victims in sorry state. As at Monday, nobody had been able to identify any of the rescued persons as relations.
At the General Out-Patient ward of the hospital, where the victims were being attended to, nurses admitted that they had improved tremendously since they were brought there.
“When they arrived here, they smelt awfully. Some of us had to bathe and wash them while some Samaritans donated clothes to them”, the nurses said.
The nurses however explained the reason why the victims’ bushy hair were left untouched, saying, “you know their case is peculiar, if we should cut the hair now and anybody comes around to claim anyone of them and they asked where the hair is, what do you want us to tell them”?
It was gathered that the victims were eating well, even though three of them were just lying down on their beds without speaking to anyone and some were walking in and out under the watch of the hospital staff

Policeman kills self, wife, four others in Ogun

Grief, shock, pandemonium and disbelief could best describe the atmosphere in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, on Thursday as residents learnt of the killing of six persons by a Police Corporal, Sunkanmi Ogunbiyi.
Among the victims of the berserk policeman was also his wife, a Corporal, Oluwatosin Faremi.
The deceased policeman served with the Ogun State Police Command before the unfortunate incident early Thursday morning.
A statement by the Police Public Relations unit, signed by Muyiwa Adejobi, said the Corporal, who had been having domestic conflicts with his wife, shot and killed his landlady, a two-year-old baby girl and two males and a female.
It was not clear at press time who the parents of the toddler was, as police obliged that other three persons sustained injuries while the killing spree lasted.
The three people are receiving treatment at Federal Medical Centre Idi Aba Abeokuta.
The said Corporal, having killed these persons, shot himself dead immediately.
Commissioner of Police Ogun State, Ikemefuna Okoye, has described the incident unfortunate.
He has visited the scene with other senior police officers in the Command to assess the situation and sympathize with the relations of the deceased and members of Akinbola Ifelodun Estate Eleweran Area Abeokuta, where the incident took place.
The Command has commenced a thorough forensic investigation into the killing and promised to make sure justice is done in the matter.
The Police Commissioner however appealed to the general public to perceive the incident as one of the unfortunate social mishaps and not to judge the police with the incident.
He added that the police is committed to protection of lives and property and will not tolerate any act capable of trampling on fundamental human rights of the citizens in Ogun State.

VERY DARING : SANUSI SHUNS FRC HEARING

Suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has shunned the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) probe into the financials of the bank, which began in Lagos on Thursday.
This, however, did not stop the Council from going ahead with the proceedings, as the apex bank was represented by two Deputy Governors and a former Deputy Governor.
The Deputy Governors are Kingsley Moghalu (Administration) and Sulaiman Barau (Corporate Services).
The ex-Deputy Governor of the apex bank at the hearing was Tunde Lemo,
However, newsmen covering the proceedings saw Sanusi zoomed off on sighting them when the proceedings went on break in an ash coloured Lexus Jeep at about 4.00 p.m.
Briefing newsmen during the break, Chief Executive Officer of the FRCN, Jim Obazee, said the probe was part of the Council’s statutory duties to look into financial statements of entities and see whether they complied with the International Financial Report Standards framework or not.
“Don’t forget the process that set up FRC. We are to receive financial statements from entities. Originations are supposed to submit their financial statements to the Financial Reporting Council; they are expected to comply with IFR standards.
“When we receive them, we will now invite them to a formal meeting like this to come and discuss the areas of non-compliance; there after, we will penalise anyone if we see areas where it did not comply.
“If you are a private sector entity, we will report you to the appropriate regulatory body and if you are a public sector entity, we will report you to the appropriate supervisory agencies and ministry which will in turn report them to the President.
“In the case of CBN, the CBN did not report to any supervisory body but to the President and the President receives the report and forward it to us to advise on series of non-compliances.
“So, we looked at the issues that were there and we discovered that the CBN was not reporting based on the financial reporting framework or what we called the Nigerian GAP.
“So, we wanted to know under which frame work the CBN was using, and we also have two questions that the President want clarifications and it is those clarifications that the CBN provided that resulted in the briefing note.
“So, it is an issue that is between the FRC and Mr. President, because it is an advisory role that Section 8 of the FRC Act empowered the FRC to do for the government.
“Now, that government has looked at it, and said rather than just look at the books from outside, it is important to cross check the documentation and we were brought in so that we will be able to advise or liaise with the CBN to have the corrected result for 2012,” Obazee told newsmen.
Highlights of the proceedings included scrutiny of CBN intervention funds to tertiary institutions across the country, the N500 billion intervention funds for the real sector and the N150 million paid to the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILMC).
The President, in the letter to the FRC, accused the CBN under Sanusi of releasing funds without approval of the Presidency and the Board of the CBN in the tertiary institutions intervention fund as well as the IILMC’s N150 million.
The FRC also took up the CBN on where the N500 billion real sector intervention funds was domiciled.
Obazee said, “After checking the books of the CBN, we noticed that the sum of N500 billion was paid to the Bank of Industry but while looking at the books of BoI, we couldn’t find the money and the question now is: Where is the N500 billion domiciled?
Responding, Managing Director of the Bank of Industry, Evelyn Oputu, acknowledged that there were certificates that the CBN released the money to her bank, but that the money was still domiciled with CBN.
After several buck passing, the CBN’s trio of Lemo, Moghalu and Barau accepted that the money was being warehoused at the CBN.
The FRC frowned at the reason why the fund was still with the CBN in total disregard of laid down principle of IFR standards where full disclosure was needed in all financial transactions by any entity in the country.

MALAYSIAN MISSING AIRCRAFT

An Australian plane has spotted two objects in the hunt for the missing Malaysia plane, and a ship has arrived in the area to find them.

The objects could be picked up in the southern Indian Ocean in a few hours, Malaysia's transport minister said.
One object was circular and grey or green, and the other rectangular and orange, Australian PM Tony Abbott said.
Mr Abbott said it was not known whether the objects were from flight MH370, and could be flotsam.
The two objects were different, he said, from several white, square-shaped objects spotted earlier by Chinese military planes.

Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein: "An Australian search aircraft has located two objects"

"The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has advised that objects have been located by a Royal Australian Air Force P3 Orion. And I can advise the House that HMAS Success is on scene and is attempting to locate and recover these objects," Mr Abbott told the Australian parliament.
Investigators could be closer to resolving "one of the great mysteries of our time", he added.
Speaking at a daily news briefing in Kuala Lumpur, Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein confirmed the missing airliner had been carrying wooden pallets, but said there was no connection yet to a reported Australian sighting of pallets floating in the search zone