Crime

Finland Seeks NATO Membership ‘Without Delay’

Published

3 years ago

May 12, 2022

By Derrick Bangura

Finland said on Thursday it would apply to join NATO “without delay”, with Sweden expected to follow suit, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine brings about the very expansion of the Western military alliance that Vladimir Putin aimed to prevent.

The decision by the two Nordic countries to abandon the neutrality they maintained throughout the Cold War would be one of the biggest shifts in European security in decades.
They are the two biggest EU countries that had stayed out of NATO, and Finland’s 1,300-km (800-mile) border will more than double the frontier between the U.S.-led alliance and Russia, putting NATO guards a few hours’ drive from the northern outskirts of St Petersburg.
“Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay,” President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in a joint statement in Helsinki. “We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.”
Five diplomats and officials told Reuters that NATO allies expect both countries to be granted membership quickly, paving the way for increased troop presence in the Nordic region to defend them during a one-year ratification period.
The announcement came even as Russia’s war in Ukraine was hitting another turning point, with Ukrainian forces driving Russian troops out of the region around the second largest city Kharkiv, their fastest advance since forcing Russia to withdraw from the capital and northeast more than a month ago.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has cited NATO’s potential expansion as one of the main reasons for Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine launched in February.
Ukraine had also expressed a desire to eventually join the U.S.-led Western alliance, although it has since offered to accept a form of neutral status as part of peace talks.
Moscow has repeatedly warned Finland and Sweden against joining NATO, threatening “serious military and political consequences”.

Asked on Wednesday if Finland would provoke Russia by joining NATO, Niinisto said: “My response would be that (Putin)caused this. Look at the mirror.”

NATO describes itself as a fundamentally defensive alliance, built around the principle that an attack on one member is an attack on all, effectively granting U.S. allies the protection of American superpower might, including its nuclear arsenal.

Asked on Wednesday if Finland would provoke Russia by joining NATO, Niinisto said: “My response would be that (Putin)caused this. Look at the mirror.”

Reuters journalists have confirmed in recent days that Ukraine is now in control of territory on the banks of the Siverskiy Donets River, around 40 km (25 miles) from Kharkiv.

To the north, the Ukrainians have been pushing towards the Russian border. In the latest advance, they announced on Wednesday they had captured the village of Pytomnyk, halfway to the Russian border along the main highway north of Kharkiv.

“The withdrawal of Russian forces from the Kharkiv Oblast (region) is a tacit recognition of Russia’s inability to capture key Ukrainian cities where they expected limited resistance from the population,” Britain’s ministry of defence said in an update on Thursday.

Ukraine’s general staff said in an update overnight: “The enemy is regrouping in order to prevent our forces from advancing further” around Kharkiv, with combat under way where Russians had crossed the Siverskiy Donets.

Ukraine’s advances near Kharkiv could put some of Russia’s main supply lines to eastern Ukraine, located on the far bank of the Siverskiy Donets, within range of Ukrainian artillery, and even allow it to bombard staging areas inside Russia.

Both sides reported strikes overnight across the Russia-Ukraine border, which Reuters was not able to confirm.

Ukrainian officials reported shelling across the frontier from the Russian border town of Tyotkino, and air strikes that killed and wounded civilians in the northern Ukrainian city of Novhorod-Siversky.

Russia said one person was killed and seven wounded in Solokhi, a village near the border in its Belgorod region. Authorities have declared an alert in Belgorod and Kursk regions near the frontier.

Elsewhere, the Ukraine general staff said Russia had had some success advancing towards Kudryashivka and Sievierodonetsk, part of Moscow’s main assault in the eastern Donbas region.

Air strikes were continuing on Azovstal, a giant steelworks in the ruined southeastern port city of Mariupol where Ukrainian defenders have been making a last stand.

In the hamlet of Vilkhivka on Kharkiv’s eastern outskirts, the Ukrainian advance had made it possible for residents to return to comb through the wreckage of homes destroyed in heavy fighting weeks ago.

A grizzled pensioner recounted how Russian troops had used him and other villagers as human shields before retreating after fierce fighting.

“Can they really be called real soldiers after that?” he spat. “They are motherfuckers, not military men!”

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Crime

2 ladies docked for allegedly obtaining money by fraud

Published

3 weeks ago

December 16, 2024

Saadatu Sahabo

The police in Lagos have dragged two women, Mmesuma Ofunna, and Blessing Adimekwe, before an Ojo Magistrates’ Court in Lagos, over alleged obtaining money by false pretence.

Ofunna, 22, and Adimekwe, 25, were arraigned before the Magistrate, Mr L K J Layeni, on a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence, stealing and conduct likely to breach peace.

They each, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The prosecutor, ASP Simon Uche, told the court that the defendants conspired with others now at large, to commit the offence on Oct. 26 at the Okokomaiko area of Ojo.

He alleged that they had obtained the sum of N70, 000 from one Faith Ahamefule, with a promise not to post her nude photo on social media.

The prosecutor alleged that the defendants later posted the nude photo of the nominal complainant on social media, knowing that their promise was false.

He alleged that they stole the N70, 0000, thereby conducting themselves in a manner likely to breach public peace.

The offence contravenes the provisions of sections 168(d), 287, 314, and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.

The court granted the defendants bails in the sum of N500, 000 each, with two sureties each in like sum.

He adjourned the case until Jan. 8, 2025 for mention.

Crime

Mechanic jailed 15 months for pickpocketing passengers

Published

3 weeks ago

December 16, 2024

Saadatu Sahabo

A Jos Magistrates’ Court on Monday, sentenced a 26-year-old Mechanic, Sadiq Umar to 15 months imprisonment for pickpocketing from passengers.

The Magistrate, Shawomi Bokkos, summarily tried and sentenced the convict after he pleaded guilty to the charge.

Bokkos in his judgment, ordered the convict to pay an option of N100, 000 fine or spend one year in prison.

He also asked him to pay a compensation of N15, 000 or an additional three months in prison in default.

Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp Ijuptil Thiawur, told the court that the case was reported on Nov.16, at the “A” Division Police station by Moses Pam, Alexander Bakshak and Simon Justice the complaints.

Thiawur said that the convict attempted to steal from them before he was caught in the act and when the driver stopped the vehicle to search him he fled but was caught.

The Police said that the offence contravened the Plateau Penal Code Law.

Crime

Police detain 2 suspected fraudsters, reject N66m bribe in Lagos

Published

3 weeks ago

December 16, 2024

Saadatu Sahabo

Police rescue 14 passengers from bandits in Jibia

The Zone-2 Police Command in Lagos says it has detained two suspected international fraudsters that allegedly specialised in forging foreign certificates in Lagos and Ghana.

The AIG in charge of the zone, Adegoke Fayaode, confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday.

Fayoade said that the suspects allegedly offered N66m to the operatives with a view to free them but the offer was turned down.

NAN reports that the same zone operatives rejected a N174m bribe offered by a suspect in November to set him free.

Fayoade said that the suspects simply identified as Elvis, 23 and Kelly, 24, allegedly specialised in forging certificates of different nations and African Universities and defrauding their unsuspecting victims on the internet.

He said that the suspects have succeeded in acquiring exotic cars and erecting mansions in different parts of the country with the proceeds of their loot.

The AIG pointed out that luck ran out of the suspects after detectives at the Anti-Corruption Unit of the Zone received credible information from Nigerians in diaspora concerning some group of boys that specialised in forging foreign certificates.

According to him, on getting the information, he detailed the anti-corruption unit to investigate it and arrest the suspects without delay.

Fayoade said that based on his directives, the detectives stormed Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos waiting for the arrival of the suspects, whom they trailed to a five star hotel at Osapa-London in Lekki Area.

He said that the operatives arrested the suspects at a bus stop while they were about to escape secretly from the hotel, after monitoring their activities.

“Searching their luggage, one certificate of Blue Crest College, Ghana, belonging to Elvis and a student identity card of Academic City College belonging to Kelly were recovered.

“Further search revealed a transcript of an academic record from Blue Crest University belonging to Elvis.

“A letter of English proficiency from the said college and a letter of recommendation from the same Blue Crest College were recovered,” he said.

The AIG said that the suspects made useful statements to the police and confessed that they never got any admission into the school, stressing that they only procured the degree certificates through the help of a female Nigerian resident in Ghana.

“The suspects further confessed that the major aim of doing that is to enable them to get Ghana resident permit, which they got.

“The resident permit is showing them also as a student of Academic City University and that none of them has ever been admitted in the school.

“They claimed they paid a total of 26,000 Ghana Cedis for all the documents procured.

“They confessed that they procured all the documents to evade arrest in Ghana since they don’t have any means of livelihood.

Whenever police intercepted them, they showed their passports that they were students in Ghana.”

Fayoade said that the suspects were also allegedly involved in online romance scam, provision of foreign bank accounts for fraudulent transactions on the internet through what they call ‘Facebook bombing’.

He said the suspects presented themselves as an American soldier by name Captain Donald Rowe, serving in Syria, whom they impersonated on Instagram, using his name to defraud innocent persons.

The AIG said that while detectives were making frantic efforts to get more credible information from the suspects, they started negotiating to bribe the operatives for them to be set free.

“I directed my men to play along and recover the money as an exhibit. Subsequently, the detectives played along and the suspects paid them a sum of N66m, which they collected and kept as an exhibit.

“The Nigeria Police authorities have written to the Ghana embassy to get more information about the result and their suspected partners in Ghana said to be spearheading the fraud.

Fayoade said that they had also spread their dragnets through the International Police, Interpol, to round up their foreign accomplices.