News

Nigerian Who Killed Wife With Skateboard In UK Jailed For Life

Published

1 year ago

May 15, 2024

A 48-year-old Nigerian man, Olubunmi Abodunde, who murdered his wife, Taiwo, with a skateboard and blamed his loss of control on medication has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the United Kingdom.

The incident occurred in their Newmarket home, resulting in Taiwo’s death from catastrophic brain injuries in November 2023.

He, however, admitted to killing Taiwo, who suffered “catastrophic brain injuries”, the BBC reports.

The Ipswich Crown Court noted the intensity of the attack that led to her death at their Exning Road residence.

Abodunde faces a minimum of 17 years in prison before being considered for parole.

The court learned that the day before Taiwo’s death, there was a domestic incident resulting in Abodunde’s arrest.

He was under bail conditions prohibiting contact with his spouse.

The next morning, despite these conditions, Abodunde went to the family home to retrieve a mobile phone.

Taiwo, a mother of three, was returning home from her overnight shift as a health care assistant.

Prosecutor Stephen Spence KC told the court that Abodunde was aware of his wife’s shift pattern and CCTV showed she had arrived back at about 09:12.

The court was informed that two officers had attended the property at about 09:20 to speak with Mrs Abodunde about the previous day’s domestic incident.

Spence stated, “Only the defendant now knows what happened. The officers repeatedly knocked on the door and notified them of their presence but got no response or heard any calls for help.”

However, between 40 and 50 “thuds” were heard and it was believed to be Abodunde attacking his wife.

Officers were given clearance by senior police officials to enter the property at 09:45, the court was told.

Spe4nce added, “When they entered the front door, they immediately found the lifeless body of Mrs Abodunde with her skull smashed in.”

Meanwhile, a postmortem examination revealed that Taiwo had suffered “catastrophic brain injuries”.

She also had injuries that were consistent with her body being “stamped on” as well as being hit with a skateboard.

This was found at the property covered in blood and fragments of skull.

The court was told the victim had also been strangled.

Meanwhile, the defendant could be heard sobbing from the dock as Spence addressed the court.

Police forced their way into the home after hearing bangs.

“It seems to me that he was waiting for confrontation. There is no debate that there was not going to be confrontation in my view,” he stated.

Akudolu said Abodunde “was a very well-respected man” both here in the UK and in Nigeria where the couple had previously moved from.

He had been a local councillor in Nigeria and had a local street in the country named after him.

The court heard the couple had a “history of frequent disputes over bills and money” with some “low-level violence” involved.

Akudolu told the court that “not a day will go by that [Abodunde] does not regret the misery” that he has caused.

In his ruling, Judge Levett described Taiwo’s killing as “ruthless, violent, savage and heartless”.

Levett said Abodunde had lied to officers telling them his wife had attempted to attack him with a knife the day before he murdered her, adding that Abodunde also claimed she had tried to beat him, but no evidence was found to substantiate this, the court was told.

While Levett spoke, Abodunde could be seen from the dock with his head in his hands while sobbing.

The Judge added that there had been “no self-defence at all” on Abodunde’s part, saying he had heard “no remorse other than sobs from the dock”.

Following the murder, Suffolk Police referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct due to previous contact with the couple.

It said earlier this month, two officers were advised they were being investigated for gross misconduct over potential breaches of the standards of professional behaviour.

Another officer is under investigation for breaches amounting to misconduct.

An IOPC spokesman said, “This does not mean disciplinary proceedings will necessarily follow. Our investigation remains ongoing.” With BBC reports.

News

Bumper Harvest: Foundation Distributes 6,000 Fertilizers To Farmers In Bauchi

Published

20 hours ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

A group, Wunti Al-Khair Foundation has donated 6,000 50kg bags of fertilizer to farmers in Bauchi state in order to have a bumper harvest.

Speaking during the flag off ceremony of the distribution of the fertilizers on Thursday, Mr Abubakar Mohammed, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Wunti Al-Khair Foundation, said the distribution was only for the indigent farmers in the state.

He said the fertilizers would be distributed to farmers in underserved communities across the three Senatorial Districts of the state.

“We are gathered here to flag off the free distribution of fertilizers to farmers, especially the indigent farmers that don’t have the means to buy fertilizer for their farms.

“That is the reason why the founder of this foundation bought the fertilizers and distributed them to the low income farmers in the state.

“We have gone round the nooks and crannies of the state to identify the underserved communities and those that deserve this particular gesture.

“We planned to distribute about 6,000 bags of fertilizer and due to the populous nature of the Bauchi LGA, they have the largest share but some other local governments too have hundreds of beneficiaries which we divided into Senatorial zones,” he said.

According to him, today was the flagging off of the Bauchi South Senatorial District, adding that the extension of the gesture would commence in Bauchi North and Bauchi Central Senatorial Districts tomorrow.

Mohammed explained that the only criteria used in selecting the beneficiaries were underserved communities and low income farmers, adding that “we know that a large number of the farmers in Bauchi state are low income farmers.

“Those are the people that we identified, verified and they are our beneficiaries and we have warned the general public about the activities of some unscrupulous elements that go round to impersonate our foundation.

“Wunti Al-Khair Foundation is not charging a kobo for every part of its activities, be it education, healthcare, economic empowerment and community development”.

Responding, one of the beneficiaries, Emmanuel Samson, described the support as a timely intervention that would greatly enhance his farming activities and appreciated the foundation for the intervention.

Another beneficiary, Salisu Maidawa, who was short of words for the gesture, said the gesture came at a time when he was in dire need of it.

News

IYC Urges Tinubu To Sack NCDMB Boss

Published

20 hours ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Western Zone, has urged President Bola Tinubu to immediately sack Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for allegedly not “keeping up to the fundamental mandate,” upon which the agency was established.

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by Comrade Nicholas Igarama, Comrade Ebi Joshua Olowolayemo, and Comrade Tare Magbei, Western Zone
Chairman, Secretary, and Information Officer respectively, and made available to newsmen in Warri on Thursday, August 14, 2015.

According to the IYC, the call for Ogbe’s sack becomes necessary following his incompetence and ethnic bias, adding that Ogbe has turned the agency meant for the whole Niger Delta to his Itsekiri ethnic group alone.

The IYC, while noting that efforts to meet the NCDMB Executive Secretary to discuss critical issues as they affect the region and its people have proved abortive, said it can no longer fold it arms and watch while things go from bad to worse.

“As Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Ogbe has consistently failed to input his supposed industry track record in the advancement of the mandate upon which the agency was founded.

“He has continually had a sectional engagement with his fellow Itsekiri Kits and Kin, thereby shutting all other ethnic nationalites in the Niger Delta region out.

“Repeatedly, he avoided critical youth engagement in the region while sponsoring that of his Itsekiri ethnicity through different human capacity development initiatives, while other ethnic nationalites are left unattended.

“As Ijaw, mostly from the western flank where Engr. Ogbe also hails from, we will not sit and watch others benefit from the resources that we produce without our practical involvement to better the lives of our people as well.

“It is on record that the leadership of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Western Zone has tried to establish communication with Engr. Ogbe, for the last ten months, but every medium of communication to get his attention has fundamentally proven to be abortive.

“As youths, we can no longer have leaders in office who have now equated themselves to demi-god and have refused to attend to most significantly youthful issues in the Niger Delta Region.

“To this end, we therefore call on President Bola Ahmed Tinibu to immediately sack Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, who has consistently displayed disregard for critical actors in the Niger Delta and has also exhibited the highest level of gross inefficiency by not keeping up to the fundamental mandate upon which NCDMB was founded,” the statement reads.

The IYC also called for the probe Ogbe as Executive Secretary after his sack.

Efforts to reach Dr. Obinna Ezeobi, the General Manager, Corporate Communications, NCDMB, for reaction proved abortive.

News

I’m Being Impersonated – Goodluck Jonathan Disowns Social Media Account

Published

23 hours ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday said he is being impersonated by fraudsters.

Jonathan alleged that a fraudulent Instagram handle has been impersonating him.

In a statement by his Media Aide,
Ikechukwu Eze, the former President insisted that he does not operate any Instagram handle.

The statement is titled ‘Beware of fake Instagram account impersonating H.E. Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’.

“Our attention has been drawn to a fraudulent Instagram account operating under the handle goodluck_ebelejonathan, which is falsely impersonating former President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

“This impostor account has been deceitfully posting content, some copied from Dr. Jonathan’s Facebook page, while pretending to represent the former President.

“We wish to emphasise that Dr. Jonathan does not operate any Instagram account.

“The media and members of the public are strongly advised to disregard, avoid sharing, or promoting any content originating from this fake profile,” the statement read.