Jungle justice: Mob set robbery suspect ablaze in Aba

A yet-to-be identified young man in his late twenties have reportedly died after a mob beat him to pulp before setting him ablaze in Aba, Abia State.

 The incident, Nation gathered happened at Amucha off Ngwa road, one of the ever busy roads in Aba South Local Government Area.

 A source at Amucha that gave her name as Chidinma said that the suspected robber had came to the area to rob, but the residents of the yard they entered resisted and over powered the gang.

 Chidinma said that while other members of the gang escaped with injuries inflicted on their bodies, the suspect was however unlucky as the occupants of the residence held him firmly and raised alarm which attracted the presence of other members of the area.

 She said that the mob, apparently angry over the spate of robbery and other violence in the area descended heavily him with dangerous weapons and inflicted bodily injuries on him.

 She said that the crowd after beating the suspect to pulp later set his body ablaze with used tyres and other materials that they (mob) could lay their hands on.

 READ MORE: 17 year old boy among IPOB killed in Port - Harcourt during protest

 Another source within the area told our correspondent that the incident forced a lot of people to scamper for safety to avoid an anticipated police arrest.

 Another respondent that gave his name as Godwin lamented the rate of robbery incidents at Ngwa road especially Umuogele area where robbers come to rob the residents and go home freely without being confronted by the police and other security agencies.

 Investigation by our correspondent reveal that the deplorable nature of roads leading to Amucha and Umuogele including some parts of Ohanku and Ngwa has made the terrain to be impassible using cars which gives the robbers and hoodlums the leeway to operate without the fears of being apprehended or confronted by security agencies in Aba.

 The residents of Ngwa road, however appealed to the Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu led administration to come to their rescue by fixing the Ohanku road and adjourning roads and streets.

 They said that if the state government fixes their roads, it would make the people to sleep with their two eyes closed and also help police and other security agencies to have access their area and respond to distress calls promptly.

 The State Police Spokesman, ASP Ogbonnaya Nta could not be reached for comments as at the time of filing this report as his phone numbers were not reachable.

 READ MORE: 17 year old boy among IPOB killed in Port - Harcourt during protest

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Bungled bombing

•Troops boarding the Hercules C-130 for the Gambia...yesterday. PHOTO: Seun Akioye

•NAF’s strikes at IDPs’ camp should be probed 
WHEN a supposed haven for people uprooted by terrorists ironically became another place of death and destruction, there were inevitable questions. What happened? How did it happen? Why did it happen? Was the happening avoidable? These questions and other connected ones need to be answered following the tragic death of no fewer than 76 people after a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jet targeting Boko Haram insurgents  on January 17  accidentally bombed an Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Rann, Kala/Bage Local Government Area in the northern part of Borno State.
The casualty figures have not been definitively determined, but the fatalities reportedly included IDPs, humanitarian workers and soldiers.  The incongruity was unmistakable. The director of operations of the charity organisation Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Jean-Clement Cabrol, was quoted as saying: “This large-scale attack on vulnerable people who have already fled from extreme violence is shocking and unacceptable.”
Indeed, the authorities have a lot of explaining to do. The Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, which is designed to counter Boko Haram insurgency, Major-Gen. Lucky Irabor, told reporters: “We got reports of a gathering of Boko Haram terrorists at Kala/Balge… and a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jet conducted an aerial strike on the gatherings of insurgents. This resulted in killings of several terrorists and civilians, including some staff of MSF and ICRC…There are casualties; there were deaths and injuries… two soldiers were also affected.”
He added:”I coordinated and I directed that the air component of the operation should go and address the problem. Unfortunately, the strike was conducted but it turned out that other civilians were somewhere around the area and they were affected. It is unfortunate and that is the reason the war must come to an end; because the cost is certainly not good enough for everyone.”
It is not enough to lament the tragedy. It is also not enough for Irabor to say: “the military could not have deliberately targeted a civilian population.”  The tragedy calls for a thorough investigation. Nothing short of this will be enough.  It is reassuring that the theatre commander said “the issue would be investigated to ascertain what went wrong.”
A report quoted a source as saying: “It is going to be a comprehensive audit of the information available to the Tactical Air Command, the directives given to the pilot and his crew, how the flight took off, why the plane could not distinguish a settlement from insurgents’ clusters and why the bombing was done.”
Regrettably, the bungled bombing has left a blot on the performance record of the Nigerian Air Force in the anti-terror war, despite its claim of having “recorded 6,000   hours of counter-insurgency missions without hurting any civilian.” It should be emphasised that the country’s forces need to demonstrate greater professionalism to minimise the possibility of a recurrence of this kind of tragedy.
The possibility that the disaster could be attributed to “failure of intelligence” is intriguing, particularly information that the bombing was prompted by “an intelligence alert on the regrouping of some insurgents in Rann.”  A report said a foreign country that had been providing reliable counter-insurgency intelligence apparently got it wrong this time.
It is alarming to learn from a report that “The error occurred because the IDPs’ camp was not among the list of camps made available to the Nigerian Air Force. There is a strong suspicion that the camp was recently set up by emergency bodies and Borno State without updating the list given to the military.” What this suggests is an inexcusable disconnect.
The larger import of this incident is that the war against Boko Haram, which has lasted eight years, has lasted too long. It is high time the war ended with a complete defeat of the terrorists.

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OPEC, non-OPEC oil output cuts deal successful, say ministers

OPEC

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC countries have made a strong start to lowering their oil output under the first such pact in more than a decade, energy ministers said yesterday as producers look to reduce oversupply and support prices.
“The deal is a success …All the countries are sticking to the deal …(the) results are above expectations,” Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said after the first meeting of a committee set up to monitor the deal.
Ministers said 1.5 million of almost 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) had been taken out of the market already.
Countries involved in the deal could reduce their output by 1.7 million bpd by the end of the month, Interfax news agency quoted Novak as saying.
Eleven of OPEC’s 13 members along with 11 non-OPEC countries have agreed to make cuts for the first half of the year.

OPEC members Nigeria and Libya, both suffering setbacks in production, were given exemptions.
“The Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia] has taken the initiative and other countries took part in very significant actions,” Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih told reporters following the meeting.
“Despite demand usually being lower in the first quarter in winter, the actions taken by the Kingdom and many other countries has impacted the market in a tangible way and we have seen the impact in spot prices,” al-Falih said.
Brent oil prices LCOc1 that fell to $27.10 a barrel a year ago have held above $50 per barrel since OPEC producers agreed on Dec. 10 to lower output in the first half of this year.
The cuts are aimed at reducing a global glut in oil that has weighed on oil prices for more than two years.
Falih said implementation of agreed cuts had been “fantastic” and he hoped for 100 per cent compliance in February.
“We will not accept anything less than 100 per cent compliance,” Kuwaiti oil minister Essam Al-Marzouq, who chairs the five-member ministerial compliance committee, told a news conference.

The other members of the committee represent Algeria, Venezuela, Russia and Oman.
Venezuela has achieved more than half of its planned 95,000 bpd cut, Oil Minister Nelson Martinez told reporters.
Full compliance could take global oil inventories back close to their five-year average by mid-2017, lowering oil in storage by around 300 million barrels, Falih said.
“[There are] no surprises so far in terms of demand or supply from other sources so there is no reason for us to suddenly come in January and say we need a bigger reduction or a longer period,” he said.
Saudi Arabia is producing slightly below 10 million bpd and has informed buyers of substantial cuts scheduled for next month, he said.
Russia has cut its oil output by around 100,000 bpd, Novak said, double what was originally planned. He said Russian oil production had averaged around 11.15 million bpd this month.
He told reporters it was too early to talk about extending the current deal beyond the planned six months but that remained an option.

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No looted cash on Tinubu’s plane - Jammeh

The curtain fell on the 22-year-reign of The Gambia strongman Yahya Jammeh Saturday night when Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s leased Falcon 900 flew Jammeh and his family from the capital Banjul into exile.
Jammeh, his wife Zainab, mother and son Mohammed all wore mournful looks as they were being ferried out of Banjul into exile, according to sources close to the flight.
The four of them and Guinean President Alpha Conde were the only passengers on the leased jet, safe for the crew.
Besides the persuasive last-minute efforts of Conde and Mauritania’s President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz, it was important that there was an aircraft on ground to complete the mission.
Conde in whose custody Tinubu’s leased plane was came in handy.
Considering the tension the Gambian crisis had generated, Tinubu was reluctant to allow the trip. Eventually, he agreed after assurances that the aircraft would only be used to ferry Jammeh and his family into exile.
For Tinubu, the facilitation of the restoration of peace to The Gambia was paramount.
Contrary to a wild and unsubstantiated allegation that stolen monies were ferried out of the country on the flight,  investigations revealed otherwise.
“No such happened,” one of the sources said. “In fact, it was impossible for looted monies to have been taken away on an aircraft that was in public glare. The radar of the international media, security forces and Gambian people was on the aircraft.
“It is practically impossible to load millions of dollars on the plane. In any case, no money was loaded into the plane, safe Guinean President Conde, Jammeh, his wife, mother and son,” the sources said.
There were rumours that Jammeh took with him some $11 million. A BBC report said the cash was allegedly taken after Jammeh lost the December 1 election and Saturday. It did not say that it was taken in one tranche and flown out in the flight last Saturday.

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