A total of 16 children believed to be victims of trafficking have been rescued from their abductors in the Osuoha area of Port Harcourt.

The incident went viral when a social media video appeared to show them. It surfaced on the internet with a request for good Samaritans to assist in locating the children’s parents for identification.

Though the Rivers State Police Command has yet to comment on the matter, and messages sent to the Public Relations Officer have not yet been responded to, our correspondent’s investigations have shed some light on the matter.

According to a highly placed police source who does not want his name mentioned because he is not authorised to speak on the matter, there was a commotion at a compound in Ozuoba when two women, suspected to be members of a human trafficking ring were arrested by plainclothes operatives yet to be identified security agency. The women had hitherto been guardians of the children until they were arrested.

The children caused a melée in the aftermath and the ensuing commotion led to the Divisional Police Officer of the Ozuoba division, who took all of them into custody.

Our correspondent however gathered that they were moved from Ozuoba Police Station, to the CP Monitoring Unit at the Old GRA Police Station where they are under protective custody of the police.

Interestingly, at the time of filing this report, the police are still trying to ascertain the whereabouts of both women and who arrested them.

In total, 16 children have been recovered and their ages range from 5 to 16 years. Nine of them are girls, with 7 being boys.

This is not the first time the Rivers State Police Command has been involved in child trafficking cases in the state.

The Kaduna Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned one Ibrahim Nuhu Shuaibu before Justice Darius Khobo of the Kaduna State High Court for a fraud of N100 milliion.

The EFCC announced in a statement on Monday that Shuaibu is being prosecuted on a seven-count charge bordering on criminal breach of trust, impersonation and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N100 million.

Count one of his charges read: “That you, Nuhu Ibrahim Shuaibu (a.k.a Ishaku Abdulrazak) (M) and lIya Garba (now deceased) sometime in 2017 in Kaduna within the judicial division of this honourable court did conspire between yourselves to do an illegal act, to wit: obtaining money under false pretence and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”

Another count read: “That you, Nuhu Ibrahim Shuaibu (a.k.a Ishaku Abdulrazak)(M) sometime in 2018 at Kaduna within the judicial division of this honourable court, with intent to defraud, obtained the total sum of N47,050,000.00 (Forty-Seven Million and Fifty Thousand Naira) from one Faisal Safiyanu, when you claimed to supply him petroleum products which pretence you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offenses Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”

Shuaibu pleaded “not guilty” to all the charges when they were read to him, prompting the prosecution counsel, M. Lawal to urge the court to fix a trial date.

His counsel, AbdulKareem Audu failed to file a bail application. Justice Khobo afterwards ordered the defendant to be remanded in the custody of the EFCC.

Shuaibu’s journey to prosecution started sometime in 2017 when he presented himself to his victim as NNPCL’s Group Executive Director and promised to assist him procure over 2000 litres of petroleum products for which the victim transferred the agreed cost to his bank accounts in tranches.

Shuaibu, however, failed to fulfil his own part of the bargain after receiving payment and failed to refund his victim his money.

No fewer than 30 people reportedly died in a tragic explosion involving a fuel tanker in Niger State on Sunday morning.

The Guardian gathered that the devastating tanker explosion occurred around 12:30 a.m. on the Lapai-Agaie Road, 2 km from Dendo Community in Agaie Local Government Area of Niger State.

The explosion claimed the lives of at least 30 people and resulted in the deaths of over 50 cattle.

Reports indicate that the explosion involved a fuel tanker colliding with a trailer transporting cattle en route to Lagos State from Wudil, Kano State.

Mallam Arah, Director-General of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has confirmed the incident.

Credit: The Guardian

One person has reportedly died during an accident involving a loaded tanker with diesel and numerous vehicles at Odoyalaro in Ikorodu, Lagos State.

According to a post on the X account of the Lagos State Transportation Management Agency (LASTMA), the accident occurred on Saturday night.

“A loaded tanker with diesel had a brake failure and collided with numerous vehicles,” LASTMA announced.

“About 17 victims were recorded with one person dead. Men of the LASTMA rescue team, the Police, Lagos State Fire Service and other emergency responders were all present at the scene.”

It added that the recovery of the affected vehicles are also ongoing.

The agency, meanwhile, has reported another accident at the same spot of the earlier multiple accidents at Odoyalaro in Ikorodu which involved two trucks.

The only victim involved has, however, reportedly received first aid care and has been taken to a nearby hospital as well.

Scores of commuters escaped death on Saturday when a loaded petroleum tanker suddenly went up in flames at Ajia junction, Ibadan-Ife Road, Ibadan.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the driver of the tanker was attempting to divert to another lane when it caught fire at about 4.45 p.m.

The incident left a mini truck, one commuter bus, a Micra car, one tricycle and two motorcycles burnt.

A witness, Biodun Ayoola, told NAN that all the occupants of the affected vehicles and cycles hurriedly took to their heels sighting the petrol tanker on fire.

According to Ayoola, the ongoing construction of a pedestrian bridge at Ajia junction made the contractor to block one lane, diverting vehicles to the other lane.

“The petrol tanker caught fire while trying to link the other lane and exploded but we thank God that all the occupants of the affected vehicles and motorcycles escaped from the scene before the explosion,” he said.

NAN reports that Mr Mayowa Odewo, the Public Relations Officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Oyo State, confirmed the incident.

Odewo said officers of the command in Egbeda axis were still at the scene, and that a statement would be issued immediately after completing the operations.

The death toll from a devastating blaze at a primary school dormitory in a semi-rural area of central Kenya has risen to 21, the government said on Saturday.

Prosecutors said they had instructed police to look into whether the tragedy had been caused by negligence or recklessness, and vowed that those found culpable would face justice.

The flames engulfed a dormitory at the primary school in the county of Nyeri around midnight on Thursday as more than 150 boys aged between nine and 13 were sleeping.

Government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said a total of 19 bodies had been recovered at the site and another two died in hospital.

Out of the total 156 boys in the dorm at the time, 139 had now been accounted for, either at home or in hospital, he said.

“It is a catastrophe beyond our imagination,” Mwaura said at a press briefing at the site.

“It is truly devastating for the nation to lose such a number of young and promising Kenyans. Our hearts are heavy.”

The cause of the inferno is not yet known but homicide investigators and forensic experts are at the school, where media access has been blocked.

The charred bodies of victims, which police had said were burnt beyond recognition, were found in the dormitory, now a blackened shell with its corrugated iron roof completely collapsed.

Chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor said postmortems will begin on Tuesday.

Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga has instructed police to conduct a comprehensive investigation to determine the circumstances that led to the fire and “assess whether or not the tragedy may have resulted from negligence and/or recklessness of any responsibility holders”, his office said in a statement.

“Any person found culpable towards the fire tragedy shall be expediently taken through the due process of a criminal trial.”

• ‘Overcrowded’ dorm –
  The blaze has highlighted the issue of safety at schools in Kenya, after numerous similar disasters over the years.

Kenya’s National Gender and Equality Commission said initial reports indicated the dorm was “overcrowded, in violation of safety standards”.

Ruto has declared three days of national mourning from Monday after what he described as an “unfathomable tragedy”.

Pope Francis said he was “deeply saddened” at the loss of young life and expressed his “spiritual closeness to all who are suffering the effects of this calamity, especially the injured and the families who grieve”.

Many families had been waiting anxiously for news of their loved ones, with one mother at the school angrily crying: “We don’t want the food donations. We want our children.”

The Kenya Red Cross is offering psychological counselling sessions to traumatised children and relatives, setting up white tents in the fields outside the school gates.

Muchai Kihara, 56, said he was lucky to find his 12-year-old son Stephen Gachingi alive after rushing to the school around 1 am on Friday.

“I cannot begin to imagine what he went through. I am happy he is alive but he had some injuries at the back of his head and the smoke had affected his eyes,” he told AFP.

“I just want him to be counselled now to see if his life will return to normal.”

A string of disasters have hit schools in Kenya and other parts of East Africa in recent years.

In 2016, nine students were killed by a fire at a girls’ high school in the sprawling slum neighbourhood of Kibera in Nairobi.

In 2001, 67 pupils were killed in an arson attack on their dormitory at a secondary school in Machakos south of Nairobi.

Two pupils were charged with murder, and the headmaster and deputy of the school were convicted of negligence.

In 1994, 40 school children were burned alive and 47 injured in a fire that tore through a girls’ school in Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro region.

In 2022, a blaze ravaged a school for the blind in eastern Uganda. Eleven pupils died after they were trapped inside their shared bedroom because the building had been burglar-proofed, government ministers said at the time.