New market place of sex in Lagos....· How they operate

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

Suddenly, the entire stretch of Old Ojo Road, from Maza-Maza to Alakija in Ori-Ade Local Council Development Authority of Lagos State has become a market place of sex. The Red Light Streets of Allen Avenue in Ikeja and Victoria Island among others in Lagos will be livid with envy when they realise what currently happens on Old Ojo Road.

A careful obervation of the activities on the road at night has revealed that it parades women of different classes, colours, shapes and sizes, who hawk sex like groundnut within the vicinity. Daily Sun investigation revealed that there are three categories of places where the sex workers could be found along the road. Some of them are found in restaurant and beer parlours; some stay in very low-profile brothels while others find their way in moderate hotels that dot both sides of the road....

Deadly sex: Why people die having sex.....• The myth, the truth

“We were lovers. She came to my house on January 2 at 8:30pm. I have known her for about two years. We attended a carnival in the area that evening. When we came back, we had just one round of sex, after which we both slept without any problem. The following morning, I tried waking her up but there was no response. I observed that her body was stiff and I raised the alarm.” That was how the 60-year-old Akodogbo Doherty explained the sudden death of her lover after sex encounter to the police in Lagos......

From death to life · 28-year-old houseboy walks home free after 10 years on death row

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

When the 28-year-old Ghanaian, Mohammed Ibrahim, set out for Nigeria in July 2003, he never knew he was going to walk through the valley of death. He did not only become a tenant of the Nigerian prisons for 10 years; he was also on death roll all through the period. But, on June 9, 2015, 10 years after he began his sojourn in the Nigerian Prison as a condemned prisoner; he triumphantly walked out of the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prisons, Lagos, as a free man.

Following an armed robbery incident at his employer’s residence on March 6, 2005, he was arrested for complicity in the crime. He later appeared before a High Court in Ibadan, Oyo State to answer to the charges of conspiracy and armed robbery.  

A native of Volta region in Ghana, Mohammed, who came to Nigeria in July 2003, when he was just 18 never intended to stay. He was in Nigeria to collect his school fees from his mother who was then living in Ibadan, having lost his father when he was three.

But, his mother’s inability to promptly provide his school fees so that he could back to Ghana to continue his education was the genesis of what could have sadly ended his life. His mother suggested that he should work as a house boy for six months and earn some money to be able to go back to school.

Left with no alternative, Mohammed accepted the offer. He was eventually employed as a houseboy by one Mrs Omolara Adebimpe.  He said his mother’s friend contacted a woman, who linked him with Mrs Adebimpe as a houseboy.

He started work as a houseboy for Mrs Adebimpe in November 2004 with a monthly salary of N3500. His job description included such domestic works as washing of cars, clothes as well as gate-keeping among other menial duties that Madam Adebimpe would want him to do. They also agreed that he would only serve her for six months at the end of which he would receive the salary for six months. Excitedly, Mohammed threw himself into the work.

Genesis of his ordeals

Everything seemed to be working according to plan until March 6, 2005, when men of the underworld attacked Mrs Adebimpe’s compound. From that night, everything changed.

Narrating his ordeal, Mohammed said: “On March 6, 2005, barely four months after I started working with her, a gang of armed robbers attacked our residence. I was inside the boy’s quarters where I slept, when the woman’s dogs started barking around 1:00am. Though, I was not a security man but since there was no security man employed in the house, I thought it wise to look outside and know why the dogs were barking. But, while I was outside looking around to see what the problem was, a man suddenly appeared from my back, called my attention and when I looked back, he pointed a gun at my forehead and ordered me to lock the dogs. Under gun point, I approached the dogs and because I was used to them, I quietly and easily locked them up.

“The robbers had scaled the fence to come into the compound. With the dogs locked up, they entered into the main building where they robbed my madam. For close to one hour that the robbery operation lasted, I was taken hostage by one of the gang members, after they had thoroughly beaten me up because I could not provide any money for them. As the operation was still going on, I didn’t know how the local vigilantes in the area got wind of what was happening. They started blowing their whistle to alert their members of what was happening and that forced the robbers to flee the scene. But, before they left, they took me along with them. They said they were going to sell me to realize the money their boss asked them to get from the operation.

“As we were going, I continued to shout and beg them to have mercy on me. I guess, they were disturbed by the noise coming from me and they felt it could betray them, so they pushed me out of the vehicle by the road side and zoomed off.

“I trekked to my mother’s house to report what happened. She then took me back to Mrs Adebimpe’s house but instead of thanking God that I came back alive, she reported to the police and accused me of conniving with the robbers to attack her residence. I was arrested alongside my mother but when we got to the Oyo State Police Criminal Investigation Department, (CID) at Iyagankun, Ibadan, my mother was released while I was detained.”

New face of slavery · How Togolese, Beninnoise kids are used for child labour in Nigeria

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

When a Briton, William Wilberforce was championing the campaign against slave trade, he did that because of his regard for the sanctity of human life. Slavery reduced humanity to nothingness. Human lives were valueless. The society was a quintessence of Thomas Hobbs’s picture of life in a lawless society– short, nasty and brutish. So, when in 1807, an Act for the abolition of slave trade came into being, it was a big relief to most African countries especially those that were under the British colony.

But today, slavery has assumed another dimension. It may not be an outright sale of a human being for cheap labour but it has the entire semblance.

Investigation by our correspondent reveals a growing cartel and network of men and women across the West African coast, which employs the services of under-aged children and ferry them across to Nigeria for various cheap labour. Most of them work as nannies, housemaids, washer men/women, hawkers, security guards as well as labourers in building sites across Lagos state.

The bulk of these innocent children are from Togo, Benin Republic, Sierra-Leone and sometimes, Ghana. Most of the times, they are willingly contracted to the merchants or slave masters by their parents, who in turn receive peanuts from the masters at the end of every month.

A large number of these under-aged children are found mostly in building sites across the state. A casual visit by our correspondent to emerging towns in the places like Satellite Town, Lekki and Ajah axis among other fast growing urban and sub-urban centres in Lagos, was enough eye opener. They mix cement and gravel and serve the mason using head pans. They also carry blocks, which they serve the bricklayers on their heads. They don’t have any permanent address. Wherever they are building automatically becomes their new abode. They look haggard, unkempt, malnourished and lethargic whenever one comes across them. Their condition is pitiable but they are helpless. They have been given away by their parents or wards in exchange for a peanut.

When our correspondent accosted one of the kid labourers during their break time, pretending as if he wanted a job, the 14-year-old boy, who identified himself as Taye, a Beninoise, advised him to check back later as their master was not at the site.

But, when he was teased and engaged in further discussion, he made some startling revelations. He said each of them receives N300 every day as feeding allowance and N3000 every month as wage. “Our Oga dey give us N300 chop money every day. When month end, E go give us N3000,” he managed to mutter in Pidgin English. Among the five of them that our correspondent gathered to chat with, he was the only person who could understand Pidgin English; others only understood their local dialect, with a fair knowledge of Yoruba language.

The house they were constructing was a three storey building located on Tokumo Street, Off Community Road Satellite Town. Although Taye and her colleagues said they received N300 each daily for feeding, investigation revealed that most of the time, they feed on bread and garri. Sometimes, they cook at the site and eat together. They bathe, sleep, wake and work at the site. Before they finish one job, their boss would have secured another building contract where they would relocate to as their new abode, while construction commences.

Investigation revealed that their influx into the construction sector has made their Nigerian counterparts to face stiff competition because they charge low, thereby cornering most of the jobs that could ordinarily have gone to Nigerians. This trend, according to a Nigerian contractor, who preferred not to be named, has been thriving because their labourers neither pay for house rent; electricity bill nor for transport fare.

World of strange fellows who make love to animals · Experts analyse psychological, health implications By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

 “Why didn’t he come to me; I would have given it to him for free.” A prostitute was reported to have made the comment when the story of a man who raped a hen in South Africa went viral. She so much empathized with the man that she wished he had come to her to quench his burning sexual passion instead of going bestial to rape a mere fowl.

That was in South Africa. Today, it is happening everywhere on earth including our own dear Nigeria. The South African episode surprisingly played out in Nigeria when on August 19, 2014, a 19-year-old apprentice welder was allegedly caught pants down making love to a hen. The abomination, which report said occurred at 11:20 pm at a continental area of Akure metropolis in Ondo State, allegedly led to the death of the fowl.

The suspect, whose names were not mentioned, confessed that he had been involved in a similar act with a goat in his home town, Afo in Ose council area of the state; a development that led to his ex-communication from the town.

Following his ex-communication by his people, he left his home town for Akure where he was living with his brother before the fowl incident.

The owner of the fowl, Mrs Stella Akintola, who resides in the same building where the act was committed, confirmed that the man actually made love to her hen. She said she had gone to bed early but was woken up by the noise coming from the chickens at the back of her room; a sign that something was wrong with the birds. She stated that the noise from the chicken pen suddenly stopped but that did not stop her from checking on the birds. “I went to where the chickens were but nothing was found. It was when I visited the toilet that I found one of the fowls dead with its feathers littered on the floor,” she said.

Still confused as to what had happened to the birds, she said she raised alarm, which forced the man to confess that the bird died while he was making love to it. “He confessed and begged me for forgiveness, promising to pay any amount I wanted for the dead fowl.”

Apart from the man’s secret confession to Mrs Akintola, it was reported that evidence that he actually had sex with the fowl was obvious when the owner and others around examined the fowl.

But, the suspect told newsmen that a spirit directed him to do what he did. “I was already sleeping when a spirit just came upon me and directed me to go to the back of the building. I did not know what I was doing again until when I discovered that I had slept with the hen.”

The State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Wole Ogodo was reported to have said when contacted that the matter was not reported to them and that they could only investigate matters that were brought to them by members of the public. He was also quoted to have described the incident as strange if it was true.

But, what was God’s original plan for man with regard to sexual fulfillment? God, after creating Adam (man), decided to give him Eve (woman), as a companion and charged them to procreate and fill the earth. Some people argue that the charge was an automatic ticket for them to have unhindered sex since that remains the only means through which procreation can be achieved. They also argue that companionship as God meant it included sexual satisfaction. In other words, Adam and Eve, representing man and woman, were brought together for the purposes of bearing children and satisfying their emotional need of sex.

God also created animals as well as other creatures – male and female, so that they could also reproduce and continue to exist alongside man on earth. He never envisaged that man would abandon the woman He gave him to seek for sexual pleasure from animals. Regrettably, that is the reality of how far man has gone in the quest to satisfy his sexual passion.

A flip through the daily newspapers is all what one needs to confirm the ugly trend. Stories of men who sleep with animals such as dog, goat, donkey and Chimpanzee among others make headlines oftentimes. Such stories have relegated to the background, such other strange stories of man sleeping with fellow man (homosexualism), woman making love to fellow woman (lesbianism) or masturbation (man or woman tickling self to reach orgasm).

Landlady, tenant at war · Man resists quit notice, claiming court’s order · Landlady confiscates his property on court’s order

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

Until November 8, 2013, 38-year-old Ezeobi Okeke lived happily as a tenant with his family at Close 39, House 2, Satellite town, Lagos.  A native of Osumenyi in Nnewi Local Government Area of Anambra State, Ezeobi, who is a freight forwarder, now squats with friends after he was thrown out of his apartment by his landlady. He informed our reporter that his landlady broke into his apartment in his absence, packed his property into a waiting truck and zoomed off to an open field in Festac town where she dumped them. But, before the ejection, he alleged that his landlady had visited the apartment on November 5 and changed all the padlocks, while he was away. The woman, according to him, said she had orders from the court to eject him. She was also said to have broken into his apartment in the presence of people who claimed to be court sheriffs.

Ezeobi, who claimed to have occupied the two-bedroom bungalow since 2003 as a tenant said what led to his predicament started in 2011, when he wanted to renew his rent and his landlady suddenly refused to collect it from him. He alleged that his efforts to know where he went wrong proved abortive as his landlady sued him to court. But, after the legal tussle that followed, the court, according to him, ruled that he should pay his landlady the arrears and continue occupying the apartment as a tenant.

With the court judgment in favour of Ezeobi, he thought the storm was over, but he was wrong. Her landlady only waited for the most auspicious time to strike. And that opportunity came on November 8, 2013, two years after the court judgement. Ezeobi was taken unawares, as he claimed to have travelled to the east with his family when the woman struck.

Now, the young man is crying blue murder, calling on the human rights community as well as the federal government of Nigeria and all well meaning Nigerians to rescue him from the fangs of the woman who allegedly defied court orders to eject him in his absence and confiscate his entire property.

MURDERED BY VIGILANTE BOYS · Sad end of a young man killed by his kinsmen

By SUNDAY ANI (NICHSUNNY@YAHOO.COM)

The family of Sylvanus Agbo from Umunkaka Amukwa Ihe in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State is currently grieving over the gruesome murder of their 29-year-old son, Ndubuisi. Mr Agbo, who is hypertensive, regretted that his son’s brutal murder had aggravated his poor health condition, even as he pointedly accused the village vigilance group of complicity in the crime.

Events that led to Ndubuisi’s gruesome murder on September 18, 2013, according to his father, started on September 1, around 8pm along Orba Road, a stone’s throw from their compound. The young man was said have run into the vigilante boys on his way home after he closed for the day’s business at his Ikpa market. He was said to have stopped over at a near-by beer palour to drink a bottle of beer after which he continued his homeward journey on his motorcycle. He was stopped by three members of a vigilance group and promptly arrested for moving at late hour. The bar owner where Ndubuisi branched on his way, according to the distraught father, had gone to confront members of the vigilance group and reminded them that it was still past 8pm and that other people were still moving around. It was gathered that they told him that Ndubuisi was their brother and that he should leave them as they knew how best to handle the matter.

When the bar owner left, Daily Sun gathered, the vigilante boys started beating Ndubuisi, who in order to save his life, escaped. Unfortunately, he ran into the house of one man simply identified as Chikwado, who rather than gave him cover, gave him away.

Odd self employment: The gains, the pains

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

Before the present unacceptable level of unemployment in Nigeria, people engaged in self employment; not necessarily because they could not find paid employment but just because many of them wanted to be masters unto themselves. Even then, when we talk about self employment, what readily comes to mind are the artisans – the auto mechanics, vulcanizers, painters, hairdressers, barbers, shoemakers, drivers, tailors, traders and carpenters among others.

But today, survival instincts and existential imperatives have thrown up another group of self employed individuals, who have invaded the employment market like plague. They take up the most difficult, mean and dishonourable jobs, as it were, to make ends meet. They are masters of their own just like the artisans but the society looks down on them. They are seen to be at the lowest rung of employment ladder because they toil every day, under the sun and in the rain. They neither enjoy the comfort of air-conditioner nor that of fan. They earn their living by sweating profusely before they can make a penny.

They include cart pushers, scavengers at refuse dumpsites, iron mongers, barrow pushers, carriers and house-to-house launderers among others.

When Sunday Sun prodded into the closets of these classes of self employed Nigerians, it was discovered that contrary to what people think about their jobs, they earn more money than most people in paid employment. They are seen everywhere – residential areas, along the roads, motor garages and market places among other areas.

A visit to major markets like Ojo Alaba International Market in Ojo Local Government Area and Mile 12 Market in Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Authority, both in Lagos State revealed that cart pushing as a form of self employment is very lucrative and seems to dominate others. Cart pushing is divided into many parts; there are those who collect refuse from different households and dispose them off at the refuse dumpsites, there are those who convey goods from one point to the other, there are those who fetch water and sell to small scale caterers and various small unit households among others.

Edo under kidnappers’ siege ...But Oshiomhole says, we’ll combat menace

By SUNDAY ANI

Like a wild harmattan fire, what started as the abduction of foreign oil workers in the Niger Delta region, by militants to drive home their agitation against environmental pollution and degradation resulting from oil exploration activities, has today become a big monster that is ravaging every section of Nigeria.

What started as a tool of agitation in the hands of the militant youths in the Niger Delta has    become a lucrative business venture for the teeming unemployed graduates in Nigeria. In the beginning, the target was mainly foreigners, especially Europeans and Asians. But today, the focus has shifted to Nigerians who are considered to be rich or those have any kind of affiliation with the wealthy or the government. From east to west; north to south, the story is the same. It has assumed a frightening dimension that nobody is safe. Their victims cut across all ages, ranging from children of even less than one year, to people as old as 90 years and above. It has no sex barrier.

Recently, Edo State, South-South Nigeria, seems to have become a safe haven for the people in this illicit business. The state has been in the news for quite some time now over the ugly development. The roughnecks seem to have congregated in the ancient empire and its environs where they unleash mayhem on the inhabitants as well as visitors and passersby.

Nigerians were taken aback when on Friday, August 23, human rights activist and lawyer, Chief Mike Ozehome (SAN), was abducted by kidnappers.

But just as jubilation was on air over the release of Chief Ozekhome after about two weeks in the gulag, Nigerians were again jolted by the abduction of an Edo monarch, the Iyase of Udo in Ovia Southwest Local Government of Edo State, HRH Patrick Igbinidu. The kidnap of the traditional ruler on the same day that Chief Ozekhome was released, has confirmed the fears in some quarters that Edo State has become a safe haven for kidnappers.

UNEMPLOYMENT Hard times, hard choices; Things graduates do to survive

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

If the recent assertion by the Statistician-General, National Bureau of Statistics, Abuja, Dr Yemi Kale is anything to go by, then unemployment rate in Nigeria still stands at 23.9 percent; a figure he considers low when compared to other African countries like South Africa where the figure is well above 40 percent. Dr Kale had said in May that the federal government was creating jobs but admitted that the number of graduates being churned out every year from various institutions of higher learning was growing at a faster rate than employment generation.

The reality however, is that hundreds of thousands of Nigerian graduates don’t have jobs to do. From north to south; east to west, the story is the same. Many of these unemployed graduates have masters’ degree, which most of them acquired walking a tight rope with the belief that once they have their second degrees, they would have brighter chances of getting good jobs. But, that never happened; instead it became their greatest undoing as most employers of labour shun them because they have no cognate experience and they would demand higher salaries.

For an average unemployed Nigerian graduate, the society has relapsed into Hobbesian state, where life has become nasty, poor and brutish, with the fittest surviving. To ensure that life goes on, many of them have committed class suicide and taken up jobs considered way below their qualifications. They do all kinds of jobs to make ends meet.

HARVEST OF DEATHS · Two years after man died following cassava meal, his three children suffer same fate

By SUNDAY ANI (NICHSUNNY@YAHOO.COM)

For two years, the Ezeugwu family of Amokwu-Enu Obukpa in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State has been harvesting deaths. In 2011, the head of the family, My Lawrence Ezeugwu, a senior driver with the University of Nigeria Nsukka, died after eating a cassava meal suspected to be poisoned. Three months later, his son, Chinedu, was assassinated.

In July this year, three of his children also died after eating a cassava meal and one of his wives, was suspected to be responsible for the deaths. On July 30, 2013, the woman was accused of killing three of her step-children through food poisoning. The traditional investigation method adopted by the community had implicated her as the brain behind the deaths. She protested against the outcome of the investigation, insisting she was innocent. However, nobody gave her a chance. She could have lost her life in the process, as the youth of the community demanded for her head.

The embattled woman escaped unhurt physically, but psychologically, she had been bruised. She was allegedly banished alongside her three children from her husband’s village.

The story of how three children of the same mother died after eating a cassava meal at Amokwe-Enu Obukpa in Nsukka Local government Area of Enugu State struck the University Town like an earthquake. The three children, Ikenna, Chinecherem and Nnenna Ezeugwu were said to have developed some stomach problems after eating cassava meal in July, and eventually died.

Their mother, Mrs Anthonia Ezeugwu was said to have travelled to Onitsha, Anambra State, where she had gone to look after one of her daughters who was newly delivered of a baby. She was reported to have said that her children were certainly poisoned because she took a portion of the same cassava flour to her daughter’s house in Onitsha and they had eaten it and nobody had any problem. She also said she had eaten from the same cassava flour with her children before she left for her daughter’s house in Onitsha.

Enugu community battles native doctor over land · They are jealous of my fortunes, popularity – Native doctor

By SUNDAY ANI (NICHSUNNY@YAHOO.COM)

Abbi Community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State was turned into a mini-war theatre when on November 15; the people of Nrobo, a neighbouring community invaded a housing estate belonging to a native doctor, Emmanuel Udoji. Dr Udoji, who said he is a native of Abbi acquired a massive parcel of land which extended into Nrobo community, where several units of housing are being constructed. According to the native doctor, he had embarked on the construction of a police post having obtained permission to do that following incessant robbery attacks on his clients along the road leading to the community from Baracks junction in Nsukka to Nimbo in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area. A police post and a cell had already been built with quarters for some of the police officers who would be posted to the community. He said he had also applied and obtained permission to establish a neighbourhood watch in the community. He had also erected structures to accommodate members of the neighbourhood watch to be formed in the community. But, the bubble burst and hell was let loose when on November 15, the scheduled date for commissioning of the projects, the youth of Nrobo community came out en masse to resist any attempt to commission the structures, a situation which eventually degenerated to the burning and pulling down of some of the structures. The angry youth eventually chased everybody away from the event centre including Dr Udoji, who ran into hiding. The police team from Nsukka Area Command which was alleged to have gone to witness the commissioning of the police post, cell and quarters, also disappeared when the angry youth surged with different lethal weapons.

Dress to kill • The problem of indecent dressing

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

Until now, when people are said to have dressed to kill, it was a complement, as it means that such a person has a sense of fashion. Today, dressing to kill may mean a different thing. This is so because ‘dressing to kill’ could be a way of talking about indecent dressing.

Daily Sun observes that many young Nigerians dress indecently and therefore, insult the sensibilities of others. Though indecent dressing is not restricted to a particular sex, women are the major offenders, as many of them now adorn clothes that leave little or nothing to imagination. Super-short, skin-tight and curve hugging dresses are the in-thing.

Indeed, boobs, lap and ass barring are now the vogue. As it is in the make-believe world of movies, so it is in true life.  Everywhere you go, it is the same story. Even worship centres, which ought to be revered, are now being desecrated in the name of fashion. The situation is such that in some churches, certain classes of ladies are not allowed to sit in the first three rows because of the distraction they create with their outrageous fashion statements. And weddings have become “breast day,” as bribes display their breasts for all to see. 

Changed world

Indeed, breasts used to be the pride of women, especially in these climes. Not any more. Now, women breasts are cheap commodities. Women figuratively slap men with breasts every now and then even without solicitation. Sometimes, the nipples are clearly exposed through the see-through dress.

Speaking on this, Pastor Tony Ukaegbu stated: “Our women have gone gaga with their mode of dressing. Indecent dressing has become the order of the day. It is now normal for women to go nude, all in the name of being fashionable, but unwholesome exposure of the body in making a fashion statement is a subtle way of announcing the level of irresponsibility that has bedevilled our women. Indecency has lowered the level of prestige and respect usually accorded women. It is, indeed, disheartening to see even those that claimed to be married joining the bandwagon. They act as if a pageant will be held to determine the best nude dresser.”

Ukaegbu further said that the Bible “has admonition for such in Proverbs 7: 10 concerning the attire of an harlot. But unfortunately we cannot differentiate any longer those living in brothels and those who claim to come from decent homes. That is the dilemma we have found ourselves in.”  

The dresses making the fashion headlines among women include, Tank tops, bum shorts, tube tops, micro mini, low waist jeans and pants, jeggings, body hugs, crazy jeans, see-through blouses and spaghetti tops among others.

Mile 2-Badagry road: Journey of 30 minutes, now five hours · Badagry residents recount ordeal, losses · Businessmen flee Nigeria, as people die every day on the road

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

“If you drive from here (Badagry) to Lagos, you must use Panadol when you come back to relieve the pains sustained from the road. And there is no way you won’t change one or two things from your vehicle if you go to Lagos. If you don’t want to repair anything in your vehicle, don’t go to Lagos but the moment you decide to go to Lagos, be prepared to change one or two things from your vehicle and that is the fact about it.” That was how the Secretary, Road Transport Workers Union, Seme Kweme, Alhaji Akeem Sanni captured the condition of Mile 2-Badary Expressway for the residents of Badagry and its environs when our reporter spoke to him.

Alhaji Sanni is just one person among many residents of Badagry-Seme axis who have described their experiences on the road as nightmarish. To them, the road is a direct visa to hell as many people perish on it every day. They felt abandoned and rejected by both the federal and state governments that have kept deaf ears to the plight of the Badagry residents, despite reports of the number of accidents on the road every day.

They couldn’t understand why the road has not been fixed despite huge sums of revenue that federal and state governments rake in from Badagry and Seme border. To them, the action is foolhardy as they alleged that most businessmen who come to Nigeria from the neighbouring West African countries have all abandoned Nigeria for Ghana because of the road.

The complaints of residents of Badagry-Seme axis about the road, was confirmed when Saturday Sun reporter embarked on a journey from Mile 2 to Badagry to have firsthand experience. Talking about the road, the driver of the bus that conveyed him had said: “To say that the road is bad is an understatement; from Agbara end of the road to Badagry on both sides, the road has gullies at every 100 metres. In some places, you will discover that the road is cut into two. It is too bad and this is an international road that links other countries like Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Sierra-Leone and others. Before now, from Mile 2 to Badagry was just about 30 minutes drive but today, we spend two to three hours and when it rains, it could be anything around six, seven hours or even more.”

Child labour (Sunday, November 24, 2013) How 16-year-old Ghanaian was rescued in Lagos

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

When a Non-Governmental Organisation, the Patriotic Citizens Initiative (PCI) took its campaigns against trans-border human trafficking, especially on teenage girls, to Mile 2 International Park, Lagos, it was because of the strategic nature of the garage. The organisation has recently, in collaboration with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and other Related Matters (NAPTIP), taken the campaigns to the garage soliciting the collaboration of the Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria, ECOWAS Chapter, in the fight against child trafficking, since the garage has been identified as the exit point to West African countries like Ghana, Benin, Togo, Sierra-Leone etc. The executive members of the transport union had promised to collaborate with them to eradicate such evil activities along that coastal route.

And to make good their promise, the PCI Director and Founder, Osita Osemene, was promptly informed when a 16-year-old Ghanaian girl, Fidels Abbas wandered into the garage on October 30, 2013.

From her account, she was a victim of child slavery who was running away from her tormentors. The innocent-looking teenager was bundled from Ghana to Nigeria in 2011, when she was barely 14 years old and dumped at Ibadan by her own mother. She said her mother had deceived her that she was coming to Nigeria to live with her senior aunt. But surprisingly, the couple she was handed over to were not Ghanaians; they were Nigerians.

Cradle snatchers (Monday, November 25, 2013) · Scourge of child rape · Why it’s on the increase

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

Recently, cases of adults defiling minors have been on the increase. Female children between the ages of one and 10 years have suddenly become endangered species. They keep falling victims of these depraved rapists. To make matters worse, men in their 40’s and 50’s are actively involved in this evil act.

In the last five months, cases of child rape have become rampant. Even the National Assembly had taken the matter more seriously, although, the lawmakers are trying to take a holistic look at rape generally and find a lasting solution to it. Instances of few cases within the last five months will suffice.

On Tuesday, July 16, a two-year-old baby, Favour Okoye, a pupil of the Salvation Nursery/Primary School, Shibiri, Ajamgbadi in Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos State was reportedly raped by an unknown adult in her school. According to the baby’s mother, Mrs Okoye, “On Tuesday July 16, when their school driver dropped her around 4pm, I discovered she was feeling dizzy and sleepy; a condition, which was unusual because each time she came back from school, she would always play before she slept but on this occasion, she came home feeling sleepy. She was saying, ‘mummy see’ but I couldn’t make any meaning out of it. I simply dismissed her as a talkative; the driver even smiled. As I put her on my shoulder, she slept off. When I was laying her to sleep, she opened her legs and I saw blood in her private part and I rushed out but it was too late as the driver had zoomed off.”

Fulani herdsmen on the lose: *As they rape, steal, destroy crops; *While community lives in fear of famine

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

Villagers of Ubima community, Gov Chibuike Amaechi’s hometown, in Ikwerre local government area of River State, are at the verge of going to war with the itinerant Fulani herdsmen. They are running out of patience with the herdsmen who have vehemently refused all entreaties to give peace a chance.

According to the villagers, the community’s trouble started some three years ago when the herdsmen invaded their farmland with their cattle. Their coming into the community’s farm had brought tears, bitterness, untold hardship, sorrow, anguish and agony. They started with grazing in the community’s farm, stealing animals caught by the traps laid by the village hunters and gradually graduated to raping women who go to farm without men.

The farmland is made of various adjoining roads known as farm roads, which belong to different families. Some of the farm roads municipally known as “Uzor,” are: Uzor Akpohia, Uzor Omuogube, Uzor Umuacho, Uzor Omuokunya, Uzor Omu-Oforu, Uzor Ahia, Uzor Mini and Uzor Ogbede among others.

On May 15, Daily Sun published the story of how the women of Ubima staged a peaceful protest to the Rivers State Government House with the headline, “Women protest alleged rape by Fulani herdsmen.”

Speaking on the plight of the villagers, the leader of Ubima Farmers’ Association, Mrs Gladys Amadi, who also led the women on protest to government house, Port Harcourt, said that before the women went on the peaceful protest, they had made several peace moves including writing a petition through their lawyer, Odinaka O. Dimkpa. In the letter, they appealed for government intervention to avert the impending bloodbath.

Living in Jankara: Disease epidemic looms

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

On Boxing Day, December 26, 2012, when the four-storey building at 44 Ojo Giwa Street, Jankara in Lagos Island Local Government Area, went up in flames, and affected o about 13 other buildings within the vicinity, the media as well as several government agencies and Nigerians were attracted to the area.  The fire, which was alleged to have started as a result of a spark from the fireworks packed in one of the shops, exposed the good, the bad and the ugly of living in Jankara. Media reports also revealed that the proximity of one building from the other within the area exacerbated the fire incident.

However, when Sunday Sun visited the area, it was discovered that life was hellish for the residents who are at the imminent risk of disease epidemic if urgent step is not taken. This is because the Onijegi Canal which opens from the Ojo Giwa Street through the Jankara extension and emptied into the lagoon by Adeniji Adele area of the Island is a health disaster waiting to happen. Sources informed our reporter that all the drainages in the Island are channelled to the Canal, which in turn empties into the lagoon at Adeniji Adele. 

Living in UK: How Nigerians survive through prostitution, arrange marriage, drug business; How Employment agencies short-change them

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

In recent times, media organisations as well as Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have tried in their own little way to highlight the plight of African immigrants in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom (UK). The picture being painted of the predicament of most Nigerians in the UK is so disturbing and alarming that it leaves one wondering why Nigerians have chosen to subject themselves to such unnecessary hardship. They will readily justify their quest to jet out of Nigeria with the old cliché that the economic situation in Nigeria has made it impossible for one to secure meaningful employment. Hence, they relish on the delusion that in UK, there are jobs for any willing hand.

But if the information emanating from the home country of the Nigeria’s erstwhile colonial overlords, the UK, is anything to go by, then it will be right to conclude that most immigrants go to UK oblivious of what awaits them. Life in the UK is tough, rough and better imagined than experienced.

The big porn market: Porn sites are the most visited – Psychologist

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

Like a thunderstorm, pornographic materials found a solid bearing in all nooks and crannies of Nigeria, especially in the city centres. They come in both motion and still pictures. And most Nigerians seem to enjoy watching them secretly in their closets. With such discovery, the apostles of these obscene pictures upped their ante by printing and selling them in a magazine format like newspapers. Most Nigerians, especially womenfolk would catch a glance and sigh or pout or even pretend as if they have just seen Satan, but right inside them, they would want to have more viewing sessions if not for what people will say.

A couple of years back, the sight of porn magazines was everywhere in the city of Lagos. Then, it appeared as if any vendor who didn’t display such magazines didn’t know what he was doing or probably didn’t want to increase sales and make profit.

But, it got to a point when the Lagos state government prohibited the display of such pictures in the public. The move by the state government was to protect the under-aged and teenagers from the devastating and harmful influence such pictures would have on them.

Much as the move was applauded, the brains behind the sordid business only complied with the order just for the moment when the ovation was high.

Today, they are back in the game with a renewed vigour, but this time, instead of using the video which would instantly give them away, they have resorted to the use of magazine.

One would think it is a news magazine because of other pseudo stories the pictures are laced with but the truth is that the porn business is back and booming.

When our reporter visited some of the newspaper stands where these obscene magazines are displayed, about two of them were dominating the market. They are ‘Temptation’ sold for N100 a copy and ‘Banana Love’ also sold for the same amount. To the apostles of this obscene business, it doesn’t matter if children are watching them; what matters to them is the profit margin.