Ojukwu told Daily Trust in Abuja that the new uniforms comprising of light blue shirts worn on black trousers mainly used by senior police officers now are pricey.

There are over 370,000 policemen in the country.

He said the black uniforms currently in use can only be changed when the police authorities accept the new uniforms being used by senior offers for assessment.

“It has been assessed initially that the new uniforms are difficult to maintain especially by officers that often mix together and struggle with suspects. Police authorities will determine whether or not the new uniforms will be adopted to replace the dark grey ones being used which people regard as black,” he said.

Inspector General of Police Ogbonna Onovo had said that the black uniforms are not comfortable in hot humid weather even though they are easy to maintain. “We are testing the new light blue shirts and it is unlikely if they will be adopted because they are difficult to maintain,” he said.

A 22-year-old Russian woman was detained on Thursday in western Moscow after she attempted to sell four African women into sexual slavery. The Russian woman accepted nearly $2,000 from an undercover police officer posing as a pimp, in exchange for the women, who came from Nigeria and Ghana.

Moscow police said they arranged a sting operation after receiving a tipoff that someone was trying to sell four women from Africa.

Prosecutors have filed criminal charges against the young woman, a Muscovite, whose name was not released by police.

The detained woman offered to find jobs in Moscow for the Africans, police said.

Sergeant Rogers, who is a principal witness in the ongoing trial of Major Hamza Almustapha and four others for the 1996 murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, suffered head and spinal cord injuries in the accident.

There were contradictory accounts of the incident. While sources told Daily Trust that Rogers’ car was rammed by another car along the Jos highway and it somersaulted, his brother told our reporters yesterday that a mechanic who worked on Jabila’s vehicle before the accident failed to tighten the bolts of the back tyre. He said, “While he was on motion within Abuja, the back tyre pulled out and the car somersaulted and crashed in November 2009.” Although Jabila was in hospital for some weeks, family members managed to keep it a secret, until yesterday.

There were also conflicting reports on the severity of Jabila’s injuries. Hospital sources said he suffered serious spinal injuries and is now paralysed from the waist down, but his brother said the family has concluded plans to take Rogers to another hospital to undergo a CT scan because of the pains he complains about in his shoulder region. According to him, the consultant handling his case discharged him yesterday so that he can recover fully at home.

At the accident/ emergency ward unit of the hospital yesterday morning, plain-clothes military intelligence officials carrying guns were seen providing security in the ward where the accident victim was and only close family relations were allowed to see him after going through strict clearance.

From a distance, our reporter sighted Jabila lying down on a hospital bed inside the ward and a nurse said that medical officials in the ward had earlier been warned by intelligence officers not to allow people to go near him or reveal his identity.

Chief Medical Director of the hospital Dr Peter Alabi expressed surprise to learn from our reporters that Rogers was admitted in the hospital. He made several phone calls before confirming Jabila’s admission in the hospital.

The chief medical director declined further questions, while other hospital officials said the accident victim had declared his intention earlier not to speak to anybody outside his immediate family members.

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Drama, as suspect asks: ‘Why should they arrest me with Indian hemp on my way to India?’

By Shehu Abubakar

A 32-year-old woman, Stella Ezinwoke Chizoba, has said that operatives of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos were wrong to have arrested her with 3.75 kilogram of cannabis otherwise known as Indian hemp. Stella told Weekly Trust that there was no need for the operatives to arrest her with the Indian hemp since she was on her way to New Delhi in India, the supposed home of Indian hemp. The suspect, who was of the opinion that Indian hemp that got its name from India can always be carried freely by people to that country, said the narcotic agents that arrested her had erred.

“Why should they arrest me with Indian hemp when I was on my way to India with their hemp? My arrest was wrong. If hemp is being taken to India, it’s like you are bringing Garri (course cassava flour) to Nigeria. Yes, my arrest could have been proper if they had arrested me on my way to another country where Indian hemp is foreign to them. Again, the arrest could have been proper if they had found me with cocaine or heroin and not Indian hemp on my way to India. Help me beg them to please release me. Let them show you my passport and ticket, it was India I was going to,” she said.

Stella who’s a holder of Nigerian international passport number A01213239 said she was a food vendor at Orile, Lagos before her arrest. She was to board an Ethiopian Airline flight to Delhi in India when narcotics agents at the airport swooped down on her. She was found with 12 large wraps of Indian hemp in her luggage during the screening of passengers. She declared the contents as foodstuff at first, but during the search, 12 wraps of dry weeds in polythene bags found to be cannabis were recovered in her luggage that contained bitter leaf vegetables, dried fish, melon, crayfish and other food ingredients.

Stella, who also told Weekly Trust that she carried the bitter leaf and other food items to conceal the Indian hemp and to avoid detection and arrest, lamented that her trick was not good enough to beat security checks at the airport. In a frantic effort to drag in the person that assisted her to procure the drugs in Lagos, Stella said she gave a young man living around her compound the sum of N15,000 to buy the drugs for her but the man allegedly bought N10,000 worth, saying she was going to make a very large gain from it. Lamenting the alleged fraudulent deal by the person she sent to buy the drug for her, the suspect requested that he should also be arrested for conspiracy.

“I gave the man in my neighbourhood N15,000 to buy the Indian hemp for me, but he bought only N10,000 worth and disappeared with my balance. I am still searching for him to collect my money. I was told that if I can smuggle the drug to India, there is much profit in it. If I had known I would be caught, I would have concentrated only on my foodstuff business. It was the high profit that made me to give it a trial. I actually underrated the security and the implication. If only they would let me go, I promise I will not involve myself in this deal again,” Stella stated.

She lamented that as a food vendor, she was an employer of labour with some boys and girls working under her. She said with her arrest, detention and possible prosecution, she may not recover and reintegrate into the society again. She said she does not consume drugs and has never traded in it before her arrest. She said her neighbourhood and the members of her church may be wondering about her involvement and sincerity, adding, “It is the work of the devil. I have never taken drugs in my life. Everybody should pray for me.”

But the Commander of NDLEA at the airport, Alhaji Hamza Umar, said ignorance of the law is never an excuse to the committal of any crime. The possession, consumption, cultivation, trading and even transportation of illicit drugs within the country or to any other country are offences before the law. He said that the Command is prepared to uncover any form of drug concealment at the airport, warning that the mere knowledge that someone is handling illicit drugs in any form constitutes an offence unless it is reported to the appropriate authority.

“We are prepared to frustrate drug traffickers by detecting their drugs, arrest and prosecute them accordingly. Others hoping to smuggle drugs through the airport now have the opportunity to shun the evil act. If they insist on drug trafficking, they are only risking detention, prosecution and possible conviction because we shall surely arrest them. The drug barons are aware that it is not possible for anyone to traffic in drugs across this airport. They all know that we have the best and most modern screening machines at this airport. Our machines don’t fail in detecting any form of drugs concealment. They are tested and trusted.

“When the barons realised they could no longer succeed in trafficking in drugs through this airport, they decided to be recruiting unsuspecting young men and women that they give fake assurances and push them only for those to be arrested and prosecuted. They are only wasting the future of such youths. And when they are recruiting and sending them on the errand, they do not allow them to know their names, phone numbers or addresses, so that when the couriers are arrested, they cannot trace them. However, we are doing everything possible to educate members of the public to avoid them and their juicy offers,” Hamza warned.

He said Stella, a single mother of a child and hails from Anambra State, will be charged to court as soon as investigations into her case are completed. He expressed concern over the continued involvement of women and youths in illicit drugs trafficking in Nigeria.

culled from the WeeklyTrust Magazine