Masked armed men in NSCDC uniforms invade Lagos hotel, torture guests, staff and cart away valuables

No fewer than 15 masked armed men, dressed in Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) uniforms, alongside suspected thugs, raided Seafortunes Hotels Limited on Ago Palace Way, Okota, Lagos.

 

According to THISDAY, the incident happened last weekend. 

 

The attackers reportedly tortured customers and staff for hours, looted valuables, and carted away a massive generator set before fleeing to an unknown location.

 

According to eyewitnesses, the gunmen arrived around 4 a.m., firing sporadically before forcefully entering rooms and demanding to see the hotel owner. 

 

Unable to locate him, they held several individuals hostage for over an hour before using a heavy-duty crane to dismantle and remove the generator.

 

The Chief Executive Officer of Seafortunes Hotels, Nwukwa Okechukwu Fortune, recounted the ordeal:

 

“I got a call around 4 a.m. from one of my customers, informing me that some masked gunmen had invaded my hotel," he said.

 

"They laid down all our staff and security personnel, then proceeded to dismantle our generator. When they couldn’t find me, they brutalized customers and staff before using a truck to transport the generator away.”

 

Fortune disclosed that CCTV footage revealed at least 30 attackers—15 in Civil Defense uniforms and masks, while the rest were thugs. Among them was a man identified as Nicholas, who had previous business disputes with the hotel’s former manager, Ogbonna.

 

Fortune explained that Nicholas, a diesel dealer, had allegedly sold fuel worth N3 million to the hotel under Ogbonna’s management, but was never paid. 

 

After Ogbonna was dismissed, Nicholas sought to recover his debt from the new management, despite being informed that the business had changed hands.

 

He subsequently petitioned the police, leading to Ogbonna’s arrest and arraignment. However, Nicholas refused to appear in court to pursue his claim.

 

"Six months later, this armed invasion happened. The attackers, including men in NSCDC uniforms, pretended to be police officers from Area E Command, gaining access to the premises before unleashing terror on our guests and staff. Nicholas was caught on CCTV guiding them to the generator room,” Fortune added.

 

Following investigations, police traced Nicholas to his residence in Festac, arrested him, and recovered the stolen generator. 

 

Nicholas allegedly identified the NSCDC officers involved, prompting intervention from a senior Civil Defense official, who pleaded for a peaceful resolution.

 

However, Fortune lamented that despite these developments, Nicholas was unexpectedly released by the police, while the promised Civil Defense officers failed to appear for questioning.

 

“The invasion crippled our business. Customers fled without paying their bills, some lost valuables and our operations were halted for a week due to the stolen generator,” Fortune said.

 

Lagos NSCDC Public Relations Officer, Seun Abolurin, denied any official involvement of the Corps.

 

“We have no report of such an incident. People impersonate security agencies all the time. The hotel management should report the case to us for proper investigation,” he said. 

''Thunder fire you'' - Yul Edochie slams Nigerians insulting 2Face over his divorce drama with Annie

 

Actor, Yul Edochie, has slammed Nigerians insulting singer 2Face over his divorce drama with Annie. 

2Face has received heat on social media after he announced his separation and impending divorce from Annie. They argue that the timing was wrong as she is said to be in rehab getting treated by some specialist. 

In a post shared on his Facebook page this afternoon, Yul wrote; ‘’ Anybody insulting 2baba or calling him out because of his family matter wey no concern you, Thunder fire you!!!'' 

See his post below…

 

Petty trader rescued from suspected r3pist pretending to be a customer in Lagos

 

Security guards have rescued a petty trader from an attempted r3pe attack in the Ogudu area of Lagos State.

 

A lawyer, Toyin Ndidi Taiwo-Ojo, who disclosed this in a Facebook post on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, said the suspect pretended to be a customer and attacked the woman, attempting to r3pe her. 

 

According to Taiwo-Ojo, the woman's screams attracted the security men in the area who arrived at the scene and rescued her from the alleged r3pist.

 

The lawyer thanked the Gender Department of the Lagos State Police Command and the men of Ogudu Police Station for their prompt response, adding that the suspect has been arrested.

"Today, this lady was rescued by neighbours from an alleged r3pist who pretended to be a customer ( she sells petty things), seeing that the area was very quiet and nobody was around, the alleged rapist started hitting her and attempted to r3pe her before she was able to scream which attracted the attention of some "maiguards" around who rescued her from the beast of a man. If not for the timely intervention of the maiguards, he would have had his way because he had already tore the survivors clothes. Imagine! Women are not even safe in their homes, where is safe for us?

 

"Stop The Abuse Against Women and Children Foundation volunteer , STOP the ABUSE - STA who has been following up the case since 1pm today just got home at 10.05pm. This is how passionate we are of getting rid of this menace in our society.

 

“Special thanks to the Gender Department of the Lagos State Police Command for their usual proactiveness. Thanks to the men of Ogudu Police station who promptly arrived the scene of the incident . The suspect has been detained."

 

FG ready to welcome deported Nigerians from US — NiDCOM says as 3,690 Nigerians in US face deportation

 

The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission has said that the Federal Government is ready to welcome Nigerians deported from the United States of America. 

The Director of Media and Corporate Affairs of the commission, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, disclosed this to Vanguard on Tuesday evening, Jan. 28. 

He added that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was in charge of such development. 

Balogun further said FG had already set up an inter-agency committee to handle the matter should Nigerians be deported from the US. 

He said: “The Federal Government has set up an inter-agency committee, comprising the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NiDCOM, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, should there be mass deportation of Nigerians from the US.” 

However, the NiDCOM spokesperson stressed that its commission was not aware of Nigerians in America being processed for deportation. 

About 3,690 Nigerians in the United States are faced with deportation as Donald Trump crackdown on illegal immigrants in the country. 

A list shared by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in November 2024 showed that 3,690 Nigerians are set for deportation. It is believed that the number will go up now with Donald Trump as President.

Moment de@d man 'opens his eyes' in coffin in front of shocked mourners at his funeral

This is the shocking moment a de@d man's eyes appeared to open while he was lying in a coffin in front of stunned mourners at his funeral. 

The dece@sed man's loved ones were gathered at his funeral in the Dominican Republic when they noticed his eyelids seemed to be flickering. 

Images of the man show him draped in white inside a coffin with a glass window above his face. 

 

His eyes appear to be closed in one image as he lay peacefully inside the case, but in the next moment they seem to have opened as a mourner took a photo. 

 

The eerie incident left the funeral guests startled, with one family member saying: "Who knows if he's fighting for his life?" 

Some concerned relatives reportedly suggested calling an ambulance to take him to hospital in case he was miraculously still alive. 

But other locals suggested the corpse's alleged eye movement could have been caused by the mobile phone flashlights or muscle memory. 

One said: "Post-mortem muscle memory, it presents itself in some corpses."

 

Watch vidro below.

 

Trump says he wants Palestinians to move to neighboring countries in post-war plan to to clean up Gaza

US President, Donald Trump has revealed his post war plans for the Gaza Strip saying that he had spoken with the king of Jordan about potentially building housing and moving more than 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries.

Trump said he asked Jordan’s Abdullah II, a key US partner in the region, to take in more Palestinians in a Saturday phone call.

“I said to him that I’d love you to take on more, because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Jordan’s state news agency Petra reported the call with Trump, but made no mention of relocating Palestinians. The kingdom is already home to more than 2.39 million registered Palestinian refugees, according to the UN.

Trump said he would like both Jordan and Egypt – which borders the battered enclave – to house people, and that he would speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi about the matter on Sunday.

“You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said, adding that there have been centuries-long conflicts in the region.

He continued: “I don’t know, something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished and people are dying there, so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change.”

The president, a former property developer, said that the potential housing “could be temporary” or “could be long-term.”

Amit Segal, an analyst with Israeli network Channel 12 News, cited Israeli officials and reported that the move was “not a slip of the tongue but part of a much broader move than it seems, coordinated with Israel.”

The comments mark a break with US policy for decades and is a remarkable statement from a sitting US president.  US foreign policy has long emphasized a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

There has long been a fear in the region that Israel wants to push Palestinians out of Gaza into neighboring countries – a premise Israel rejects but one supported by far-right factions of its governing coalition.

As well as killing tens of thousands of people, the 15-month war between Israel and Hamas has reduced much of Gaza to rubble. Israeli airstrikes have damaged or destroyed around 60 per cent of buildings, including schools and hospitals, and around 92 per cent of homes, according to the UN.

Approximately 90% of Gazans have been displaced, and many residents have been forced to move repeatedly, some more than 10 times, according to the UN.

President El-Sisi of Egypt criticized Israel’s move to evacuate more than a million residents from northern Gaza in October 2023, characterizing it as part of a larger plan to rid the entire area of Palestinians.

“The displacement or expulsion of Palestinians from the (Gaza) Strip into Egypt simply means that a similar situation will also take place – namely the expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan,” Sisi said, adding that there would be no point in discussing a Palestinian state, as “the land will be there, but the people won’t.”

Around the same time, King Abdullah called the idea of more Palestinian refugees moving to Jordan or Egypt a “red line.”

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, an independent Palestinian politician, said he “completely rejected” Trump’s comments.

“What the occupation has failed to achieve through its criminal bombardment and genocide in Gaza will not be implemented through political pressures,” Barghouti said in a statement, adding “The conspiracy of ethnic cleansing will not succeed in Gaza or the West Bank.”

There are some 5.9 million Palestinian refugees worldwide, most of them descendants of people who fled with the creation of Israel in 1948.

Man behe@ds father and buries he@d in Abia

 

A man, identified as Ogeoma Ogbonna, has behe@ded his father, Azubuike Ogbonna, in Umuomei community, in Obingwa council area of Abia State. 

Ogeoma buried his father's severed head after the horrific act. 

However, neighbours were alerted to the crime and they trooped to the compound where they saw the father’s body in a pool of his blood. 

According to reports, Ogeoma had been showing signs of mental issues and was always threatening to harm people. 

“Ogeoma has been showing signs of mental illness. He was always threatening to harm people. But nobody in this community knew that he would get to the extent of cutting off his father’s head.  

“We are still in shock at how he could kill his father. Before neighbours were called in to see what happened, he had already buried the head in a shallow grave in the compound. He took people and showed them the grave,” a native of the community, said.

 

Ekweremadu’s wife released from UK prison, returns to Nigeria

 

The wife of former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Beatrice, has returned to Nigeria,

Vanguard reports. Senator Ekweremadu, his wife, and Dr. Obinna Obeta were sentenced by the UK court in May, 2023, over charges related to organ harvesting. She arrived in Abuja today January 22.

Recall that on March 23, the court found Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice, and their doctor, Obinna Obeta, guilty of trafficking a trader from Nigeria to the UK to harvest his organ, a crime under the United Kingdom Modern Slavery Act 2015. The jury held that they conspired to bring the 21-year-old to London to exploit him for his kidney.

The verdict was the first of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 of the UK.

Ike Ekweremadu was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while Beatrice received a six-year sentence despite citing health concerns during proceedings. The doctor who helped the couple during the process of the organ harvesting, Dr Obinna Obeta, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Nurse harassed for calling Lagos a smelly place gets new job abroad after her job in a Lagos hospital was threatened due to her tweet

 

A nurse who went viral two months ago for calling Lagos a smelly place has relocated after an X user got her a job abroad when she was persecuted for her tweet. 

The nurse had tweeted on Nov. 10, 2024, that Lagos is a smelly place. 

Some Nigerians who claim to be from Lagos tweeted at the state governor, telling him that a ‘’foreigner'' who was given a job over indigenes is now insulting the state. 

Some went as far as discovering the hospital where she works and they threatened to write to her bosses and make her lose her job. 

Later, the nurse returned to X to apologise and she also revealed that her job was shaky. 

 

One X user who lives abroad reached out to her and told her his boss was interested in offering her a job. 

Today, the nurse shared a photo of herself in the airport, with her passport in her hand. She added that she finally got the job and she's leaving Nigeria. 

 

The X user who contacted her about the job two months ago also congratulated her.

 

24 Democratic states and cities sue over Donald Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship

Twenty-four Democratic-led states and cities are suing President Donald Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship in the US.

The lawsuits allege that a Trump executive order signed on Monday, January 20, violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which gives a constitutional right of citizenship to all children born in the United States.

“Despite a President’s broad powers to set immigration policy, however, the Citizenship Stripping Order falls far outside the legal bounds of the President’s authority,” states a lawsuit from 18 states, Washington, DC, and San Francisco.

The case could end up becoming the first major Supreme Court showdown for Trump’s second-term agenda. The 18 states filed in a Massachusetts federal court, which means any appeal of a ruling from that court will come up through the First US Circuit Court of Appeals, where all the judges are Democratic appointees.

The Supreme Court has upheld birthright citizenship in the past and there is also a federal law passed by Congress, predating the 14th Amendment’s 1868 ratification, establishing that children born on US soil are entitled to citizenship.

“The president’s entitled to put forth a policy agenda that he sees fit,” New Jersey Democratic Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who is co-leading the new lawsuit, told CNN.

“When it comes to birthright citizenship – something that’s been part of the fabric of this nation for centuries, that’s been in the Constitution for 157 years since the Civil War, that’s been upheld by the Supreme Court twice – the president cannot, with a stroke of a pen, rewrite the Constitution and upend the rule of law,” he added.

Also on Tuesday, the attorneys general of Washington, Arizona, Oregon, and Illinois filed their own lawsuit on the West Coast.

It was filed at a federal court in Seattle that is within the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

Both suits are also seeking a preliminary order blocking the policy before the Trump administration can take steps to implement it.

Similar lawsuits targeting Trump’s order were brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and immigration rights groups on Monday.