Lagos State House of Assembly chief matron found dead in office

The Chief Matron of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mrs. Caroline Oriola, who had been missing since Saturday has been found dead in her office.
 
Rosacomms learnt that the Chief Matron went to her office on Saturday to pick up some drugs. She allegedly drove her car to the Assembly complex, parked at the lawmakers’ car park, before proceeding to her office.

She was also said to have turned on the air conditioner in her office and locked the door from inside. The cause of her death is currently unknown.

Nigeria: DSS sues Sambo for illegal possession of firearms

The Department of State Services has charged the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.) to court for alleged illegal possession of firearms.

The service, in a statement by a DSS official, Tony Opuiyo, on Monday in Abuja, said Dasuki was charged to court for owning firearms without licence.

The DSS had on July 16, 2015 carried out search operations on the ex-NSA’s residences in Asokoro, Abuja and Sokoto, where its operatives claimed to have recovered seven high calibre rifles including magazines and military gears at the houses located at 13, John Khadya Street, and 46, Nelson Mandela Street, both at Asokoro, Abuja, and 3 Sabon Birni Road, Gwiwa Area, Sokoto, Sokoto State.

The agency also recovered 12 new vehicles, including five bullet-proof cars from Dasuki’s house, the ownership of which could not be explained by the embattled former NSA, and which investigators believed must have been purchased with proceeds of corruption.

The DSS had claimed that it searched Dasuki’s homes “based on credible intelligence linking the imme­diate past NSA with alleged plans to com­mit treasonable felony against the Nigerian state.”

But in the Monday statement, the service said it charged him to court based on evidence so far obtained. The evidence relates to possession of firearms without licence, punishable under section 27(i)(a)(i) of the Firearms Act Cap F28 LFN 2004.

Nigerian Army reinstates 2,500 soldiers and 102 officers

Over 2,500 soldiers who were dismissed or asked to withdraw from service of the Nigerian army for refusing to fight Boko Haram and other counter-insurgency offenses have been recalled by the Nigerian army.

102 officers who were facing prosecution over their involvement or lack of involvement in the fight against Boko Haram, have also been re-instated. They were re-instated by a panel set up by the Army last week.

The soldiers and officers are now retraining at the Nigerian Army Training Centre, Kontangora, Niger State.

Late Mandela grandson charged with rape

A grandson of the late Nelson Mandela appeared briefly in the Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court on Monday on a charge of rape.

“He made a brief appearance on a charge of the rape of a 15-year-old girl,” Gauteng police spokesperson Brigadier Mashadi Selepe said.

He has not yet pleaded to the charge of raping the girl at a pub in Greenside, Johannesburg, Selepe said.

Until he has pleaded, his name must be withheld. Selepe said that because he was charged with a Section 6 offence, his bail application was expected to start on Friday, August 21. Until then, he would remain in custody.

In terms of these higher schedule offences, the Criminal Procedure Act places the onus on the bail applicant to show exceptional circumstances for release ahead of a trial.

According to the Daily Sun, the girl was raped in a toilet at the establishment last Friday.

Asked to comment on media reports that Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela had sent a bodyguard posing as a policeman to the girl, Selepe said the police had not received a complaint in this regard.

Police summon, detain ‘abusive parrot’

Indian police said on Tuesday in New Delhi that a parrot accused of hurling abuses at an elderly woman has been summoned.

Local Police Chief, P.S. Dongre, confirmed that the parrot was summoned by the police after carrying out a test to check whether the bird was guilty of bad behaviour.

He said the bird was summoned following a complaint by one Janabai Sakharkar, 75, of a village in the western state of Maharashtra.

According to him, Sakharkar had complained that her neighbour had tutored his caged pet called “Hariyal” to utter obscenities whenever she passed by his house.

Dongre said the complainant also accused her step-son, with whom she had a property dispute, of colluding with the neighbour, following which all three, including the parrot, were summoned to the police station.

He said the parrot seemed to have become self-conscious with all the attention from the police and kept mum when confronted by the complainant.

“The woman repeated her name to the parrot as its cage was brought near her, but the bird would not say a word,” he said.

The officer disclosed that the parrot had been handed over to the forest department for release into wild life.