STRANGE THINGS ARE HAPPENING IN ENUGU STATE ... SIGNS OF THE TIMES : UNBELIEVABLE: Rev. Father James Ani Caught In Armed Robbery [PICTURED] ... NigeriaNews

You hear some stories and you are like... Could this really be true? This is one of such stories:

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An area known as Imeohia Mmaku in Awgu LGA of Enugu State recently came under the siege of robbers cum kidnappers, who invaded the community to perpetrate their heinous crime. On the fateful day, a priest was said to have led some notorious gang of robbers/kidnappers in the deadly operation.
While the operation lasted, the gang sealed off entrances and exits to the community. Clad in a white cassock, Rev. Fr. James Ani, in company with about eight other people held the community by the jugular and laid siege on their prey for hours.
It was gathered that they combed the community to see if they could find a prime target to kidnap on which they could feed. As the siege was going on, a team of anti-robbery patrol team usually on routine checks on communities in the state was passing by and accosted the gang.

On seeing the police team, Fr. Ani reportedly commanded his ‘boys’ to launch offensive. Wielding dangerous weapons, the gang reportedly engaged the police team in fierce gun duel which further sent habitants of the community and travellers scampering for safety.

During the clash, Fr. Ani and his gang reportedly got hold of one Inspector Cosmas Nzeribe and a couple of his colleagues, and almost sniffed life out of them. They however bowed to the superior firepower of the law enforcement agents leading to their arrest. Before they were arrested, the hoodlums damaged the two vehicles used by the police.

In the end, Fr. Ani and three others; Ugwu Marcel, Obasi Felix and Norbert Eke were arrested and taken to custody. About five other members of the gang escaped from the scene of the attack.

In a chat with reporters, an eye witness, who identified himself as Okey, said: “I ply this road very often and I can tell you that most travellers had had harrowing experiences to share about this place. It is such a bad spot and when the robbers were arrested and we saw a supposed man of God among them, not many of us were surprised because we had experienced that before in this area. Criminals would put on cloths meant for the clergymen to rob people. Thank God, this one was caught.”

At the time of his arrest, Fr. Ani claimed that he is not a robber but a priest. However, upon interrogation, he confessed to his crime, saying he was pushed into the crime due to lull in his business.

Spokesman of Enugu Police Command, Ebere Amaraizu confirmed the arrest. He said “The Commissioner of Police has said it many times that there is no hiding place for criminals again in Enugu. This statement he is matching with actions which are evident in the arrest of the four suspects. Imagine someone supposed to be a man of God, being the ring leader in such a crime!”

STRANGE THINGS ARE HAPPENING IN EBONYI ... SIGNS OF THE TIMES : BIZARRE: Madness hits seven members of a family ... SunNews

For the family of Mr Ogbonnaya Ani in Umuose Urobo, Uburu, Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, life can’t be more cruel to seven members of the household now afflicted with madness one after the r. For the family of Mr Ogbonnaya Ani in Umuose Urobo, Uburu, Ohaozara Local 
Indeed, 70-year-old Ani is swimming in the ocean of grief, anguish and pains. He paints a perfect picture of a fellow whose gods have not been benevolent enough to crack his palm kernel for him. Rather, they watch his blessings turn to blemish.
The Ani family is being ravaged by the spirit of madness. Take this: Ogbonnaya Ani’s elder brother’s daughter is mentally challenged. His younger brother’s son is in the same condition. Three of his own children, a male and two females, are equally afflicted. His daughter-in-law is not left out. So, there are six mentally ill persons in the family and, perhaps, still counting. Worst still, one of Ani’s mentally challenged daughters is heavily pregnant and no one seems to know who the lover boy is. And before his first wife died, she exhibited some signs of madness.
Recently, our reporter encountered the distraught Ani. He told the stranger than fiction story. There is no doubt that the madness ravaging his immediate and nuclear families have left its toll on the old man. Sadness is evident in his sunken eyes. He looked frail and his voice quakes in palpable agony as he spoke. But for the magnanimity of a relation, Ani and his household would not have had a place to lay their heads. This is because his mentally challenged son, Igwe Ani, alias Martin Martin, set his house ablaze. And before help could come, the structure had been reduced to ashes. So, currently, Ani and his family are squatters somewhere in Umuose Urobo in Uburu, Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
When the reporter visited the family last Wednesday, Ozieme, Ani’s beautiful but mad daughter, was hanging around. With her tummy protruding as a result of advanced pregnancy, she looked vacantly into space, perhaps unaware of her environment and condition. A few times she smiled and muttered to herself. When asked to pose for a photograph, Ozieme obliged.
Before Ozieme became sick, she was a very beautiful girl. In fact, in spite of her condition, glimpses of her beauty remain. And even in her state of madness, men still find her attractive and make love to her. The evidence is the bulging stomach she is carrying.
Tale like no other
“This place we are is not my house,” began Ani, who spoke in his native dialect. “My place is further up, after Oriebe. I relocated to this place because of the problem that I’m facing. I had a small mud house and I made it good enough for people to stay in before the problem started through my son, Igwe. It first started with Igwe and his sister, Ozieme joined later. While Igwe’s problem started at home, Ozieme’s started from outside the community. When she travelled and returned, she began to behave abnormally.”
In an agony laden voice, Ani continued: “I don’t know how it started but we suspected or thought that Igwe joined his mates to smoke all sorts of things. I cautioned him to stop it if he was indulging in such act but there was no difference. We used to beat him to stop smoking to know if he would but to no avail. He started manifesting madness about eight years ago. He was still in primary school when it started; he was in Primary Four when he broke loose. Because of the problem, he couldn’t continue with his education. I cannot really say if he brought it upon himself by smoking certain substances or it is a problem destined to come”.
Ani said that the problem reached a crescendo when Igwe burnt down his house. “He used to pack all sorts of rubbish and dump in the house. It was impossible to chase him out of the house because he used to wield cutlasses and wood, threatening to harm anyone who gets close to him. At a point, he had outgrown everybody. On a certain day, he set the house ablaze and before people could come to fight the fire, things had got out of hand. That was how the building containing two rooms, a parlour and big verandah were razed down. Thereafter, we became homeless, so I brought my wife and kids to stay in a relation’s place. That was how we relocated.”
Like brother like sister
Ani said that his daughter was okay until a certain man from Nsukka in Enugu State came to seek her hand in marriage. According to him, the man eloped with the girl, adding that by the time she returned home, she had lost her mind even as she nursed a baby.
His words: “In the case of Ozieme, there was a time she travelled to Enugu to stay with her brother. There she started a relationship with one man from Nsukka and they agreed to marry. She brought the man home and introduced him to us. After meeting with us, the man said that he was going to prepare and come back for the formalization of the relationship. She insisted on going with the man; we asked her to wait for the man to go and come but she refused. We didn’t see the man again. When she was coming back, she came with a baby and started behaving in a manner we could not understand. We tried all we could to deal with the situation to no avail. This thing happened about five years ago and we have not set eyes on the man ever since. She didn’t have the soundness of mind to breastfeed and properly care for the baby and she died. Right now, she is heavily pregnant, she will be putting to bed anytime and we do not know who is responsible for the pregnancy.
“Again, another of my daughter who is married and a seamstress is also behaving abnormally. I cannot explain how this problem came into the family. From our parents, we did not experience any such thing. It did not happen to my eldest brother, who had died.”
Family tradition
Madness is becoming a sort of tradition in the family. Take this from Ani: “I cannot say how it came about because I’m not God. But my brother’s daughter, Nweke is also having a mental problem. In her own case, someone took her to a town and later brought her back, saying he could not understand her behaviours anymore. He said that she was talking out of sense hence he brought her home. So, if you ask me, I would say that that was the time I started seeing such a thing in the family. She was the first in the family to be afflicted by the problem. It started about 20 years ago and it has been spreading from one person to another. Even my son’s wife who was married from another village and living in Enugu with Ozieme is also behaving in a way we cannot understand. I learnt that she is walking about the street but I have not seen her. The whole thing is surprising to us. It is an unimaginable disaster. It is a heavy burden on us and we do not know what to do about it. In fact, it is beyond us. If not that we surrendered ourselves to God in prayer, asking him to protect us, who knows what would have happened now?”
Wife’s family involved
Asked if such trait could be traced to his late wife’s family, he said: “In the family of my deceased wife and mother of these mentally challenged children, they had a problem somewhat close to this. But in their case, it wasn’t so pronounced as this. In their own case, it made them to be talking too much. In a nutshell, I would say that my wife’s family manifested a semblance of this problem but it wasn’t full blown like this”.
At a point, Ani couldn’t continue his blood chilling story as he seemed drained of energy. Admitting that he was overwhelmed by the development, he, however, attributed his staying power to the grace of God. “If not God, perhaps I would have been consumed,” he remarked.
Speaking on the matter, an Urobo village leader, Chief Augustine Aja Akuma, said: “When the problem started with Igwe Ogbonnaya Ani, we thought that he had joined some boys to smoke dangerous substances because, at the time, he just returned from Kano where he was staying with his brother. We used to tie him with ropes and beat him in a bid to stop that sort of thing. But the more we tried, the worse the situation became. It got to a point when he began to strip himself naked and started behaving in an incomprehensible manner. He started eating dirty things”.
Chief Akuma further said: “We were yet to come to terms with Igwe’s condition when his sister, Ozieme returned from her station and started behaving abnormally. We started wondering if it was the Nsukka man she ran to that caused it. But if the Nsukka man was responsible for Ozieme’s madness, what about her brother’s condition? Again, if Igwe smoked something and it turned his brain as some thought, did his sister also smoke the same thing? These are questions that could not be answered. We have been battling to solve the problem without success. We have brought several prayer groups to the family”.
Affirming that it runs in the family, Akuma volunteered: “Pa Ogbonnaya Ani’s brother’s daughter (niece) also had the same problem. In fact, she has been in it for over 20 years because the child she bore when it started is in his 20s now. We don’t know how this thing came about because Pa Ogbonnaya’s father and mother were not known to be mad just as Ani’s siblings were all sound in mind. Why the problem befell their children we cannot explain.
“About four or five years ago, Ogbonnaya Ani’s younger brother’s son (nephew), Sunday Onu, started acting funny. He is a bit calm now because of injections being administered on him by psychiatrist people but that does not mean that he is normal. Ani’s three children – one man and two women are affected. His son’s wife, who we married from another village, suffers the same fate. We don’t know what this means. We don’t know whether it is a curse or spiritual attack. As I said earlier, we have invited prayer warriors from different churches on several occasions and they came to pray with the family, yet it has defied all solutions”.
Disclosing that the family is in dire need of assistance, he said: “We are appealing to government, well meaning organisations and individuals to come to the aid of the family because they have suffered too much. Ogbonnaya Ani is above 70 years of age, yet he bears this sort of tribulation. At his age, he ought to be enjoying the fruit of his labour, he is supposed to be taken care of by his children but he is the one taking care of them because of their health condition. Whatever help that could be extended to the family will be of immense benefit to them.”

EXPLOSIVE REVELATIONS FROM IBB : REVELATION: I gave Abiola N35m to contest June 12 election ... IBB ... SunNews

Could this be the beginning of understanding the dramas and intrigues of the historic June 12, 1993 election? Perhaps. Perhaps, too, for the first time, the high priest of that epoch, Gen Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, is going beyond the first layer of the mystery of what is today referred as “June 12.” The retired army general was the military president at the time and he had managed that political process. Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (MKO) was widely believed to have won the election, but Babangida annulled it before the umpire, the National Electoral Commission (NEC), announced the final result. The consequences of that act were dire and the rebounds ugly. Even today, those consequences are still gnawing at the delicate aspects of the country. Twenty years on, full and authentic story of that period has eluded Nigerians and it is so because, those who are in the know have maintained sealed lips. Well, until now. A book, Ibrahim Babangida: The Military, Politics and Power in Nigeria, written by one of the founding members of Newswatch magazine, Dan Agbese, may have given us a serious glimpse into those dark, troubling days. One of the most striking, if surprising, is that, against all expectations and imaginations, IBB, the man who annulled the election, had actually encouraged Abiola in every way possible to run. In an interview with IBB, published in the book, the former military president said he supported Abiola “a lot, morally and financially in the campaign.” He said he gave Abiola N35 million to help in the election. According to him, before Abiola entered the race, he and Babangida “talked of the pros and cons” of Abiola’s presidential ambition. And when Abiola “eventually decided that he wanted to go (for it), I supported the idea that he should do it.” According to Babangida, he had wanted to make Abiola the chairman of the Transitional Council because he believed his friend “enjoyed tremendous political goodwill. His name was a household name. He had the international contact and Nigeria too had a very good chance of having someone like him heading that organisation.” However, according to the book, this proposition was dead on arrival as some of Babangida’s colleagues in the ruling council opposed it. Instead, they agreed to accept him as a member of the council but not the chairman. Babangida, according to the book, told Abiola he would bring him in as a member and ensure that the members of the Transitional Council elect him chairman. The book further reveals that the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) had decided that the chairman of the Transitional Council should come from the South West where Abiola came from. But Abiola rather wanted Babangida to announce him as chairman “straight away.” He told Babangida that, that was how his family wanted it because they feared that the president might change his mind once he made him just a member. “Left to me,” says Babangida, “I wanted to make him the chairman. Then he decided and blew it.” The emergence of the two presidential candidates was equally dramatic. It followed the disqualification of 23 presidential aspirants. According to the book, IBB had regarded the 23 disqualified from participating in the presidential election, as the first 11 among the politicians jostling for power. Their ban thus paved the way for the emergence of new political actors on the stage of the transition programme. “With the first 11 put out in the cold, there were few runners in the field. Two men easily emerged from the thin crowd of presidential aspirants. One was the billionaire philanthropist, Bashorun M.K.O Abiola, who nursed a presidential ambition going back all the way to the major financiers of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). “He intended to contest the presidential election on the platform of the party in 1983. The party moguls erected obstacle in the way. He quit the party and partisan politics altogether in 1982. He was affected by the ban on former politicians and public office holders and unsuccessfully challenged his ban at the tribunal. With the ban lifted, he joined SDP in January 1993 and was elected the party’s presidential flag bearer at its convention in Jos in March that year. The other man was Alhaji Bashir Tofa, who, like Abiola, was a national executive member of NPN. He was the party’s national financial secretary. He picked the presidential ticket of the NRC at its convention at Port Harcourt in March 1993. Both men were Babangida’s close friends.” Babangida was not quite comfortable with this. He says he feared people would accuse him of manipulating the transition programme to favour his close friends. He even tried to discourage Tofa from contesting the election “I told him (Tofa) in the presence of about 13 of his colleagues. I advised him not to seek for that election. I didn’t support him. He was not a winning candidate.” According to the book, even as the chairman of National Electoral Commission, Professor Humphrey Nwosu, had seen the conduct of the presidential election as critical to the entire transition programme and was on ground to see that it ended on a sound note. But the cloud was gathering, as the “National Defence and Security Council did not openly object to the two presidential candidates – Abiola and Tofa – but some elements in the military in cahoots with some of the politicians wanted to stop them from contesting the election. “Several times the council, pressurised by these elements, came close to disqualifying the two men. Some members of the council felt that neither Abiola nor Tofa was fit to be president. They assailed Abiola’s character. Babangida recalls that “they never saw him as somebody who was morally upright or fit…” “They tried to blackmail him as a government contractor to whom the government owed a lot of money and they didn’t feel comfortable that this would be their commander – in – chief.” The book notes how providence smiled on the two presidential candidates and, according to Babangida, the council feared that “ if we stopped it (the election), we would be in trouble again. What was paramount in our mind then was we wouldn’t like to be accused again of not wanting to leave office. So, we said let the bloody thing go on.” The decision to “let the bloody thing go on,” was actually a fluke. The military, according to Babangida, believed “that we would have an inconclusive election. We thought we should be fair to let it run and when it became inconclusive, then we would take whatever action that we deemed necessary over a re-run or a re-election or something like that.” The military, the book says, underrated Abiola’s clout, as his followership unsettled those elements in the military that did not like him. “About a week or so before the June 12, 1993, presidential election, security reports indicated that Abiola would certainly trounce Tofa beyond dispute. He would win on the first ballot. The election would not be inconclusive. The report caused some jitters in military circle. What to do?” The cabal in the military that didn’t want Abiola, was saddled with what line of action to take next. According to the book, at this stage of confusion in the military hierarchy, former Second Republic senator, Francis Nzeribe, came up with the military-should-stay campaign, which served as tonic for the government. He formed the Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), with Abimbola Davies as his second in command. “Nzeribe went to Abuja high court on June 10 to stop the presidential election for alleged irregularities and corruption in the conduct of the SDP primaries won by Abiola. ABN alleged that Abiola used money to induce the majority of the delegates to vote for him. “At 9.30pm on the same day, the court, presided over by justice Bassey Ita Ikpeme, now deceased, threw the spanner into the works. She “restrained (NEC) from conducting the presidential election on the June 12, 1993.” Her judgment was the first major indication that the transition programme was under serious threat. “Nwosu tried to salvage it. He appeared before the NDSC on June 11 and put a strong argument in favour of going ahead with the election. He argued, quite passionately, that if the election was postponed, the election materials already on site would be compromised. “NEC had enough protection under the decree to ignore Ikpeme’s ruling. But the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Clement Akpamgbo, had a different take on the issue. He did not support Nwosu’s position. Instead, he advised that the election be postponed in obedience to the order, NEC could then appeal and have the order set aside by a superior court.

OF AN AILING GOVERNOR AND HIS DEPUTY ... THE TARABA STATE DEBACLE : My Deputy Betrayed Me – Governor Suntai

Ailing Taraba State Governor Danbaba Suntai has accused his deputy, Alhaji Garba Umar, of betrayal. Suntai said he least expected the deputy governor to lust for his (Suntai’s) office given the confidence he reposed in him.

Suntai, who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Sylvanus Yakubu, said the governor was not the only one that felt betrayed but the entire people of the state.
Yakubu, who was reacting to Umar’s statement on Tuesday that he was 100 per cent loyal to Suntai and would not undermine his  authority, said, “His (Umar’s) activities are a direct opposite of what he keeps saying.”.
Yakubu, in a statement made available to newsmen in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, on Thursday,  added that he had personally lost the respect for Umar, who has been the state acting governor since October last year when Suntain sustained injuries when the small aircraft he flown crashed in nearby Adamawa.
“The deputy governor keeps talking of 100 per cent loyalty, but the reverse is the case; his people are in court against Governor Suntai,” he said.
Besides the allegation that Umar bribed the state lawmakers to transmit power to him to continue to act, he also accused the deputy governor of being the sole financier in the suit Danbaba filed against some members of the House of Assembly.
Yakubu said, “What we want is to see him (Umar) showing concern for the governor’s health, and loyalty to his principal, by negotiating with him on how to resolve the political impasse.

“The governor had on August 28 announced the dissolution of the executive and new appointments but Umar disregarded the dissolution. A cabal was trying to hijack the machinery of government.”
Meanwhile, a former Speaker of the Taraba State House of Assembly, Alhaji Habu Isa, has said that Umar’s continued stay in office as acting governor was constitutional.
Isa said in a statement on Thursday that Umar’s tenure as acting governor was in order since the House had passed a resolution for him to continue in that capacity till Suntail would be fit to resume his office.
He said, “The lawmakers were convinced that the governor they met was not the source of the letter of resumption sent to the House. Their efforts to set up a médical panel was blokked when by proxy the state executive council was dissolved. Left with no other option in the interim.
“The State Assembly passed a resolution mandating Alhaji Umar to continue in acting capacity.”

A FATHER FROM THE DARKEST RECESSES OF HELL : My Father Stríps Me Náked At Night and Rapes Me; Teenage Girl Opens Up In Lagos ... Yeye de smell.

Emotion ran high recently at the Bar Beach Police Division in Lagos following revelation by a teenage girl of how her 57-year-old father, Mr Nwafor Ikoro, had been forcefully having intercoursé with her in the last three months, while giving her N200 as pocket money to school.

Unsure of who to confide in, she said she told her mother during one of her visits only for the father to dismiss the claim, stating that he could not bring himself that low as to having cárnal knowledge of his own biological daughter. But the bubble later burst...

The girl [names withheld] summoned courage and told her head teacher what daddy used to do to her every night. It was the head teacher who contacted the police, leading to Mr Nwafor Ikoro's arrest.

The teenage girl, who was made to start her education from primary five when her mother brought her back to her father after some years of separation, disclosed more during interrogation.

She said: "When I was reunited with my father, I was happy because I was living with an aunt in the village since my parents separated. He usually told me that I would take the place of my mother in his life since my mother had divorced him. I did not know what he meant until he started having cárnal knowledge of me at night.

“At a point, I got tired and insulted him. Then, he started béating me and changed his loving nature. He would béat me and stríp me náked and have his way whenever he wanted.

"When I attempted to scream, he would hit me harder and cover my mouth. He later apologized, telling me he would buy me a car. All I want at the moment is for my father to be punished for what he did to me.”

In his defense, her dad, Mr Nwafor Ikoro, described his daughter’s claim as mere allegation. He said he only béat her after he discovered she was in an ámorous relationship with an unnamed man.

But police suspected that the father was lying and charged him to the Igbosere Magistrate Court. Mr Nwafor Ikoro has been remanded in prison custody until his application bail would be considered.

AN ALMIGHTY GOD STILL IN THE BUSINESS OF CONFOUNDING MANKIND : A Bird's Eye-view Of The World's Newest Island ... 3 New Islands Form in Arabian Sea Following 7.7 Pakistan Earthquake! ... SEE ASTONISHING VIDEO FOOTAGE HERE .... TIME.

A massive earthquake that tragically killed more than 300 people and destroyed scores of mud huts in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday also offered a surreal moment of creation. The tremor unleashed an underwater “mud volcano”  that spewed mud and earth to create a new island, half a mile off the coast of the Pakistani port city of Gwadar. This satellite image, published for the first time here, depicts the 200-foot-wide island (and 100 feet high) in the middle of the Arabian Sea.


This island was created off the coast of Gwadar when Pakistan was hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake on Sept. 24, 2013. Imagery collected on Sept. 26, 2013

SHOCKING DISCOVERY ... RAPE ALERT ... MEN, BEWARE LEST YOU BE RAPED BY WOMEN : See the 3 ways in which WOMEN can RAPÉ MEN ... OsunDefender

There are three ways women can rapé men.
Adult women can and do commit statutory rapé against underage boys. When this phenomenon first came to light with a female high school teacher and an underage male student, it was shocking and I think many people assumed such a thing was freakishly rare.
Subsequently, a number of such cases have been publicized suggesting this kind of occurrence is not nearly as freakishly uncommon as many believed. As with men and underage girls, the complicity of the victim does not alter the criminality of the act.
The second way women can rapé men is through unwilling (anál or orál) penetration of men with fingers or objects. (I don’t know if unwilling orál pénetration is always treated as rapé in law.)
Finally, a woman can rapé a man through coércing them to pénetrate the woman with an eréct pénis. Though it is not easy to ‘will’ an erection, it’s not always impossible, either. Men, like women, can become physically ároused despite not actually wanting to have séx with someone. This may occur in response to physical mánipulation or other reasons. Coércion need not be through physical force, obviously; a man can be blackmailed into having séx (as one commenter described his own victimization here).