Connect with us

Headline

Court Revokes FG’s Search Warrant After Five-hour Siege To Justice Odili’s Abuja Home

Published

on

A Chief Magistrates’ Court has revoked a search warrant granted to the Joint Panel Recovery unit of the Federal Ministry of Justice to search the home of Supreme Court Justice Mary Odili.

The panel, which comprises the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Nigeria Police Force and the Ministry of Justice, had obtained a search warrant from the magistrates’ court after a whistleblower, Aliyu Umar, claimed to have observed illegal activities going on at No. 9, Imo Street, Maitama, Abuja.

Umar’s affidavit dated October 13, 2021, read in part, “I have observed some illegal activities going on in those houses within Abuja are illegal and hereby report the said matter to the law enforcement agency.

Advertisement

“I hereby state that all information provided by me to the EFCC is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.”

In a second affidavit deposed to by a senior police officer, CSP Lawrence Ajodo, the panel applied to the chief magistrate in Abuja seeking a search warrant to search the house.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Policemen Refuse To Vacate Supreme Court Justice, Odili’s Home As EFCC Denies Role

Advertisement

The Chief Magistrate, Emmanuel Iyanna, subsequently approved the search warrant on October 29, 2021.

Armed with the search warrant, the police and other members of the panel stormed the house which turned out to be the home of Supreme Court Justice Mary Odili, who is also the wife of former Governor Peter Odili of Rivers State.

She was said to have resisted the attempts by the policemen to search her house, insisting that the house belonged to her and not her husband.

Advertisement

A top source said, “EFCC operatives armed with a search warrant stormed Justice Odili’s home today, claiming to be investigating her husband. Justice Odili insisted that it was her personal house and not her husband’s.

“As I speak to you, the operatives are still there, insisting that they must search the house.”

But the EFCC Spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, said, in a statement, that the commission had no hand in the matter and advised members of the public to disregard any news to the contrary.

Advertisement

The statement read in part, “The attention the EFCC has been drawn to claims in a section of the media that operatives of the commission today, October 29, 2021 stormed the Maitama, Abuja home of a Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Mary Odili, purportedly to execute a search.

“The commission, by this statement, wishes to inform the public that the report is false as it did not carry out any operation at the home of Justice Odili. If there was any such operation as claimed by the media, it was not carried out by the EFCC. The commission enjoins the public to discountenance the report.”

Amid the controversy, however, the chief magistrate issued an order on Friday night accusing the government of misleading the court.

Advertisement

The order read, “Upon misrepresentation to this honourable court that led to the issuance of a search warrant in favour of Joint Panel Recovery, Ministry of Justice, against House 9, Imo Street, Maitama, Abuja, dated October 29, 2021. In view of the above fact, the said search warrant is hereby revoked.”

Peter Odili, who was governor from 1999 to 2007, obtained a perpetual injunction from the Federal High Court in 2007 which barred the EFCC from investigating or prosecuting him.

In 2020, he again approached the Federal High Court to get another injunction to stop an impending probe. Last month, the former governor sued the Nigeria Immigration Service for seizing his passport at the airport.

Advertisement

READ ALSO: BREAKING: EFCC Operatives Storm Supreme Court Judge’s Home

In its response, however, the NIS said it was the EFCC that asked it to seize Odili’s passport as part of a probe.

Justice Inyang Ekwo, however, ordered Immigration to release the passport to Odili immediately.

Advertisement

(PUNCH)

Headline

Afghanistan’s Taliban Release US Citizen

Published

on

Afghanistan’s Taliban government released an American citizen from detention on Sunday, a week after freeing an elderly British couple.

In a statement, the ministry identified the detainee as Amir Amiri and said he had been handed over to Adam Boehler, Washington’s special envoy on hostages.

Boehler made a rare visit to Kabul earlier this month to discuss the possibility of a prisoner exchange with the Taliban government.

Advertisement

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan released an American citizen named Amir Amiri from prison today,” the Foreign Ministry on X, using the official name for the government.

“The Afghan government does not view the issues of citizens from a political angle and makes it clear that ways can be found to resolve issues through diplomacy.”

READ ALSO:Taliban Detains 14 For Playing Music, Singing At Afghanistan Private Gathering

Advertisement

Little is known about Amiri’s case, as it has not been widely reported.

An official with knowledge of the release said Amiri, who is 36, “had been detained in Afghanistan since December 2024”.

The official added that Amiri would stop briefly in Doha, Qatar for medical checks before continuing back to the United States.

Advertisement

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the release of Amiri, said he had been “wrongfully detained” in Afghanistan, and thanked Qatar for helping to get him freed.

President Donald Trump “has made it clear we will not stop until every American unjustly detained abroad is back home,” Rubio wrote on X.

In January two Americans were freed in exchange for an Afghan fighter, Khan Mohammed, who was convicted of narco-terrorism in the United States.

Advertisement

READ ALSO:Taliban Court Publicly Flogs Woman For Illicit Relationship, Running Away From Home

Another American, airline mechanic George Glezmann, was freed after more than two years in detention during a March visit to Kabul by Boehler.

At least one other US citizen, Mahmood Habibi, is being held in Afghanistan. The United States is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Advertisement

The Taliban authorities deny any involvement in his 2022 disappearance.

Just a week ago, Britons Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, were released from a Kabul prison after almost eight months in detention. The Taliban authorities did not say why they were detained.

The couple was arrested in February and first held in a maximum security facility, “then in underground cells, without daylight, before being transferred” to the intelligence services in Kabul, UN experts have said.

Advertisement

READ ALSO:1.4 Million Girls Banned From Afghan Schools Since Taliban Return – UNESCO

The couple married in Kabul in 1970 and have spent almost two decades living in Afghanistan, running educational programmes for women and children. They also became Afghan citizens.

All the releases have been mediated by Qatar.

Advertisement

Both the US and the UK, like many other Western nations, warn against all travel to Afghanistan.

Russia is the only country to have officially recognised the Taliban government, which has imposed a strict version of Islamic law and been accused of sweeping human rights violations.

Dozens of foreign nationals have been arrested since the group returned to power in August 2021, when most embassies withdrew their diplomatic presence.

Advertisement

The Taliban government says it wants to have good relations with other countries, notably the United States, despite the 20-year war against US-led forces.

 

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Headline

One Dead, Several Injured After US Shooting, Fire At Mormon Church

Published

on

One person was killed and several others injured Sunday after a shooter targeted a Mormon church in the US state of Michigan, where the building was also set on fire, authorities said.

The suspect, a 40-year-old man from a nearby town, was shot dead by law enforcement after the attack, police said, without specifying any possible motive.

President Donald Trump called the shooting “horrendous” and said on his Truth Social platform it “appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America.”

Advertisement

Images from the scene showed emergency services escorting people on stretchers and a large plume of dark smoke at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township.

READ ALSO:Head Of Mormon Church Is Dead

Local police chief William Renye told reporters the suspect drove his vehicle through the front doors of the church and then began firing at people inside with an assault rifle.

Advertisement

He said the service was active with “hundreds of people within the church.”

Authorities believe the gunman also deliberately set fire to the church before he was killed by responding police officers, Renye said.

Ten gunshot victims were transported to hospital, including one who has died, the official said.

Advertisement

READ ALSO:US Lifts Restrictions On Visa Validity For Ghanaians, Leaves Nigeria’s Unchanged

He added that the fire had been extinguished but that “we do believe that we will find additional victims once we have that scene secure.”

A woman who lives near the church told AFP: “My husband heard people screaming, one lady yelling for help.”

Advertisement

FBI agents are on the scene to assist the investigation, chief Kash Patel said on X.

Violence in a place of worship is a cowardly and criminal act. Our prayers are with the victims and their families during this terrible tragedy,” he wrote.

Attorney General Pam Bondi also said she had been briefed on the incident.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Headline

Head Of Mormon Church Is Dead

Published

on

Russell Nelson, who headed the Mormon church since 2018, died on Saturday night at age 101, the church announced.

“With sorrow we announce that Russell M. Nelson, beloved President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, passed away peacefully… at his home in Salt Lake City,” it said in a statement, using the church’s official name.

The former heart surgeon was “the oldest president in the history of the Church,” the statement added, without specifying a cause of death.

Advertisement

Utah Republican senator Mike Lee lauded Nelson as a “bold, visionary leader prepared by God to testify of Jesus Christ in the very times in which we now live.”

READ ALSO:Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Is Dead

Nelson became the 17th president of the Church in January 2018 at age 93, succeeding Thomas Monson.

Advertisement

Before becoming president, Nelson successfully pushed for the church to label same-sex married couples as “apostates” and bar their children under the age of 18 from religious rites, including baptisms — though that policy was scrapped after he took on the role.

He also broke with his predecessors and cautioned against using shorthands “LDS” or “Mormons” to refer to the church.

Nelson’s successor will be chosen after his funeral by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who like the church’s president are considered prophets by believers.

Advertisement

READ ALSO:Brazilian Jazz Legend, Hermeto Pascoal, Is Dead

The religious leader is survived by his wife, eight of his children, 57 grandchildren and more than 167 great-grandchildren, according to the church.

Founded in 1830, the Mormon church considers itself a Christian body, but bases its doctrines on the Book of Mormon, a text purporting to contain a fuller version of the words of Jesus Christ than that recorded in the Bible.

Advertisement

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims a total membership of more than 17.5 million people.

Continue Reading

Trending