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Three young men have been arrested in the Osun State Capital, for repeatedly gang-raping, molesting and intimidating a minor.

One of the suspects identified as Usman Abiodun Alowonle had stopped the 14year old victim, who was on her way to a tailoring shop in the neighbourhood where she was acquiring a skill in fashion designing.

Usman who had earlier professed love to the teen girl, but was disappointed when she turned him down, approached her again on February 12, 2023, and this time, lured her to join him for a drink in a hotel named Adcon Hotel nearby her neighbourhood in olorunsogo zone B,along Ilesha express road, Osogbo, Osun State.

The Victim had insisted on not following Usman because there were lots of people smoking at the hotel, but Usman assured her of safety and that they would stay at the back of the hotel to have a drink.

Upon entering the hotel, Usman lured the 14-year-old girl into one of the rooms and forcefully raped her while threatening to kill her if she screams or draws any form of attention.

Immediately after the damaging act, six more guys identified as Usman’s friends entered the room and started laughing scornfully at her while fondling their phones.

At that point, one of the guys told the victim that they have her nude pictures and rape video and threatened to release the video if she didn’t allow them to have their turn. Five more of Usman’s friends took turns to rape the 14-year-old victim while the 6th guy recorded the video the same day as she was held down and her mouth sealed.

Ever since that day, the same set of guys have relentlessly waylaid and gang-raped the 14-year-old four consecutive times on different occasions and recorded her video each time, constantly threatening her with a knife and promising to leak a nude video of her, which they claimed to have in their possession.

The Victim further explained that she was too scared to narrate her ordeal or report the harassment to her Grandma with whom she lived or anyone else, as she was forewarned by her oppressors to keep mum or die.

Events soon turned around on the 29th of march as someone in whom the victim confided contacted a women’s rights NGO called Value Female Network via her 24/7 Toll-Free Rescue line and reported the case to the VFN team who promptly paid a visit to the victim at home to confirm her identity, and safety and assure her of their quick intervention. VFN Team immediately liaised with human right activist and decided to report the incident to the Department of State Security Service in Osogbo, Osun State.

However in the evening, the VFN Team received a text message from the 14-year-old girl highly suggestive of her plans to commit suicide. “Sis, just say bye to me cus am just so tired of this world. Bye sis, I will miss you so much, bye”. The text message read.

Reacting, the VFN Team immediately went to her community and was lucky to find her alive and alone in the mosque where she had attempted suicide by cutting her right arm skin multiple times with a blade, She was immediately extracted from her community, provided with first aid and taken to the Department of State Security Service where she was greatly counselled and reassured of the nailing of the perpetrators.

That same night at about 8:15 pm, the officers led the Value Female Network team alongside the survivour to the environment where the perpetrators live for mapping, that way she was able to spot one of the guys, whose house was mapped by the Department of State Services (DSS), for further operations.

She was subsequently taken to Value Female Network Safe Home in Osogbo, Osun State, a private safe home that provides temporary shelter and support for women and girls fleeing from gender-based violence, and has been living in there till date.

Also, on Friday, 31st March 2023, the DSS arrested and detained three of the perpetrators. Before their arrest, one of the seven guys had reportedly died mysteriously, while 3 others are on the run.

The investigating team also found that aside from the recorded videos on their phones, the perpetrators are also into internet fraud.

On the 4th of April, 2023, three of the perpetrators named: Usman Abiodun Alowonle, Malik Tunde kazeem and Sadiq Ademola Bello were arraigned in magistrate court Osogbo.

After the magistrate, Justice Olusegun Ayilara heard from the defendants, he denied their bail application and remanded the perpetrators at the Nigerian Correctional Center in Ilesa till the next court hearing scheduled for 5th June 2023.

Speaking with the press, the Executive Director of Value Female Network- Dr Costly Aderibigbe-Saba, the Gender Officer- Ms Zainab Agbolade and Human Rights Activist Citizen Lola Wey, have reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring that the survivor, who is presently receiving routine medical care and psychological support from the state hospital, will get justice and that she would be able to fulfil her dream.

Politics is indeed a dirty game, but he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. For those who have been in this business for long, they surely know that with politics comes issues, challenges, brickwalls and pebbles.

As if the challenges are not enough, most of the issues that happen to people around politicians are deemed to have occured through them through the level of their influence and popularity among the majority.

Alhassan Ado Doguwa is a household name in Kano. He is currently the Majority Leader of Nigeria’s House of Representatives and has just won re-election.

On Tuesday, he was arrested at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport by the Criminal Investigative Bureau of the Kano Police Command. He was later arraigned and remanded in a correctional facility till the next adjournment date on cases bordering on murder, criminal conspiracy and others relating to the death of three persons, on Sunday February 26, 2023 while the collation was on-going.

We say without any equivocation that our distinguished Lawmaker is not guilty of the said acts. While we await the Police investigation, which will bring the perpetrators to justice, we sincerely hold that Hon. Ado-Doguwa is a respected statesman who has not at any point in time been found wanting of any criminal case.

Asides the fact that he has a enviable record of being a family man and a politician who has brought unprecedented development to his constituency ever since his first election, he is well respected across political divides. We however find this news and development very disturbing.

We call on the leadership of our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor Umar Abdullahi Ganduje, Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila and other respected Nigerians to come to Hon. Ado-Doguwa’s aid. This is clearly an attempt to smear him and bring his personality, the party and the National Assembly to disrepute.

We stand behind our leader in this trying times. We also urge the Police and other security agencies to conclude their investigations thoroughly. Hon. Doguwa is not a killer and will never be.

Free Ado-Doguwa now.


Concerned Kano APC Youths
02/03/2023

The Office of the APC National Youth Leader wishes to restate the following for the sake of clarification:

1. That the Jagaban’s Army is a sub-directorate of the recently-inaugurated APC National Youth Wing Campaign Council. Its branding as an ‘army’ was informed by the popular regarding of political canvassers as ‘foot soldiers’. Nevertheless, it is a peaceful and democratic organization of young canvassers whose task is to facilitate support and ensure the poll success of the APC in the General Elections, beginning with the victory of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima.

2. *That the branding of a vote mobilization unit as an ‘army’ is neither an anomaly in democratic politics nor a deviation from democratic norms. Naysayers spreading malicious interpretations — including sensational claims of a ‘violent militia’ — are referred to President Barack Obama’s 2008 branding of his local organizers and campaigners as his ‘peacetime army’. Just as it would be ridiculous to accuse America’s 44th President of attempting to topple the country’s democracy at the time, similar insinuations about the Jagaban’s Army are to be viewed in the same light.*

3. *That just like Obama’s Army, the Jagaban’s Army is a rebirth of participatory democracy, infused by the energy of millions of Nigerian youths at home and in the diaspora*.

4. The ceremonial outfit worn by the leadership of the ‘Army’ at its inauguration bears no semblance to that of the armed forces nor does it purport to be representative of it. *It’s no different to those adorned by civil and peaceful church societies, particularly those tasked with evangelization*.

5. That it is an ‘army’ to the extent that it is a body of persons organized to advance a cause, in this case the peaceful and democratic cause of preaching the achievements and goodwill of the APC and her candidates to bring about electoral victory.

6. That the operations of the Jagaban’s Army are fully democratic and centered around well-established democratic persuasion methods in every electoral campaign season. This fact is evidenced by the design and deployment of the Canvassers’ Record Sheet, a key tool of the ‘foot soldiers’ meant to aid data collection and test message effectiveness.

7. That the ‘army’ remains focused on its goal and welcomes the enthusiasm and dedication of members and other affiliates of the party who are already hard at work, preaching the Renewed Hope message of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and winning new converts for the party through peaceful and strategic engagements.

We invite all Nigerians to download the APC Youth Wing App on Google Play-store and to join our Army of Progressive Youths on http://www.joinapc.ng even as prepare to Vote ASIWAJU Bola Tinubu as President.


Signed


ASIWAJU ‘Airforce’
The Communication Team of the APC National Youth Wing Campaign Council

The Office of the APC National Youth Leader wishes to restate the following for the sake of clarification:

1. That the Jagaban’s Army is a sub-directorate of the recently-inaugurated APC National Youth Wing Campaign Council. Its branding as an ‘army’ was informed by the popular regarding of political canvassers as ‘foot soldiers’. Nevertheless, it is a peaceful and democratic organization of young canvassers whose task is to facilitate support and ensure the poll success of the APC in the General Elections, beginning with the victory of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima.
2. That the branding of a vote mobilization unit as an ‘army’ is neither an anomaly in democratic politics nor a deviation from democratic norms. Naysayers spreading malicious interpretations — including sensational claims of a ‘violent militia’ — are referred to President Barack Obama’s 2008 branding of his local organizers and campaigners as his ‘peacetime army’. Just as it would be ridiculous to accuse America’s 44th President of attempting to topple the country’s democracy at the time, similar insinuations about the Jagaban’s Army are to be viewed in the same light.
3. That just like Obama’s Army, the Jagaban’s Army is a rebirth of participatory democracy, infused by the energy of millions of Nigerian youths at home and in the diaspora.
4. The ceremonial outfit worn by the leadership of the ‘Army’ at its inauguration bears no semblance to that of the armed forces nor does it purport to be representative of it. It’s no different to those adorned by civil and peaceful church societies, particularly those tasked with evangelization.
5. That it is an ‘army’ to the extent that it is a body of persons organized to advance a cause, in this case the peaceful and democratic cause of preaching the achievements and goodwill of the APC and her candidates to bring about electoral victory.
6. That the operations of the Jagaban’s Army are fully democratic and centered around well-established democratic persuasion methods in every electoral campaign season. This fact is evidenced by the design and deployment of the Canvassers’ Record Sheet, a key tool of the ‘foot soldiers’ meant to aid data collection and test message effectiveness.
7. That the ‘army’ remains focused on its goal and welcomes the enthusiasm and dedication of members and other affiliates of the party who are already hard at work, preaching the Renewed Hope message of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and winning new converts for the party through peaceful and strategic engagements.

We invite all Nigerians to download the APC Youth Wing App on Google Play-store and to join our Army of Progressive Youths on http://www.joinapc.ng even as prepare to Vote ASIWAJU Bola Tinubu as President.

Signed

ASIWAJU ‘Airforce’
The Communication Team of the APC National Youth Wing Campaign Council

Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Sunday in Abuja met with governorship and National Assembly candidates of the party ahead of the upcoming general election.

Tinubu who said he had been eager to meet with the party’s candidates urged them to ensure they do not disappoint members of the party who elected them to fly the party’s tickets at the polls.

With the many unproductive years of the former Peoples Democratic Party’s government, he said Nigerians and indeed members of the APC are expecting a new lease of life from the candidates.

“I am pleased to meet with you today because in you I see our party’s hope and path to success. In you I see the hope of historic national progress as well.

“As so often in life, victory is not a cause for rest or celebration. It is a call to a greater challenge and harder toil. Thus, you all have won the primaries but now must climb the higher mountain called the general elections,” he said.

Speaking further, he said: “We formed the APC, not just to be another political party. We formed it as a champion of the people to rescue democracy from the ravages of the PDP who boasted of ruling the nation for 60 years.

“We formed this party to rescue the people and their collective prosperity from the avarice and greed of an elite that will devour the nation’s God-given endowment if we allow such people back into power. As those flying our party’s flag, we carry a heavy burden on our shoulders.

“We have the mandate to deliver the party to victory so that we may protect Nigeria from those who would devour all of its fruits.

“The party has placed its trust in us. Democratic victory in the coming elections is a task we must accomplish.”

The presidential front runner urged the party’s candidates to go to the polls starting from the presidential and national assembly elections on February 25 to the governorship and state assembly elections on March 11 with a united front.

According to him, every one must collectively work for the party’s victory in all elections to ensure that the party’s project of growth and development for the nation is assured.

On his part, he promised to continue to work for every one of them even as he also desires to become Nigeria’s president.

“But winning takes us working as a united force. We have to act like the broom, the symbol of our party. A stick cannot clean any dirt but coming together under the band as one, we can sweep aside all the bad and wrong things that impede our nation’s growth and development.

“As individuals we must strive to win our respective elections. But that is not enough. We have to work together to deliver everyone contesting in our party. The presidential election, for example, is not solely about Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is your project as well. Your election is equally my project.

“We need each other. Whatever position you are contesting, you need me as much as I need you. If I work for you, I am helping myself; if you mobilize for me, you are working for yourself at the same time. Our individual and collective fates are one.

“Let us win and rise together. This is as it should be.

“I therefore rededicate myself to the victory of you all just as I do for myself. As you can see, They call me weak but I am canvassing back and forth and, in every corner, and space of the nation. My opponents are not. I am outworking them because this election is a great mission for me, much more than my personal ambition.

“I too ask you all to re-dedicate yourself to the cause of the party and the future of the nation. I cannot be everywhere, no one can.

“Our strength lies in our number and our spread. Having you across the length spread of this country makes me comfortable. I am working round the clock for our collective victory. We all should not rest until the entire election is over and victory is ours,” he added.

The meeting, which attracted a large number of the candidates, was attended by the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, many governors of the party as well as members of the National Working Committee and Presidential Campaign Council.