Crime
Husband confesses to killing missing wife in France
A man confessed to the killing of his wife who has been missing for two and a half months in western France and has led investigators to her body, police said on Friday.
Karine Esquivillon, 54, a mother-of-five, disappeared on March 27 without a trace from her home in the Pays de la Loire region of western France. Her cell phone, missing a SIM card but enclosed with a photo of one of her daughters, was discovered two weeks later in a ditch by a car park by the commune’s mayor.
While police appealed for witnesses to come forward, her husband Michel Pialle described Esquivillon as having “voluntarily” left, although some family members cast doubt on the claim.
By the end of May, Pialle told AFP that his “anxiety was growing stronger with each passing day”.
Pialle was taken into police custody Wednesday as a search of the family home was conducted, with the couple’s two vehicles seized by investigators.
He eventually told investigators he had killed his wife accidentally while handling a gun, a source close to the investigation said, confirming reports made by the daily Le Parisien.
“Mr Pialle made the choice to explain himself,” said his lawyer Antoine Ory in a text message to AFP.
Pialle admitted the facts and “indicated to investigators where to find her body,” public prosecutor Emmanuelle Lepissier told AFP in a text message.
Her body was found in a forested area several kilometres from the couple’s home, according to Le Parisien.
Pialle, 50, was expected to be brought before the La-Roche-sur-Yon court Friday morning, according to an AFP correspondent.
AFP
The Anambra State Police Command has foiled a cult initiation ceremony in Nawfia, Njikoka Local Government Area of the state.
Spokesperson for the Command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, disclosed this in a statement issued on Tuesday in Awka.
According to Ikenga, the operation was carried out by police operatives around 9:30am on June 15, leading to the arrest of six suspects at the scene.
Recovered during the raid were one Jojef pump action gun, two cartridges, and a golden-coloured Lexus SUV with registration number ATN 202 AE. Other items found include two cutlasses, two scissors, a cap bearing the inscription of the Supreme Vikings Confraternity, charms, and substances suspected to be hard drugs.
“They are currently undergoing police interrogation to get more insight into their modus operandi, after which the case will be charged to court on the conclusion of the investigations,” Ikenga stated.
The police spokesperson reassured residents of the command’s unwavering commitment to fighting cultism and other related crimes across the state.
An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court, Lagos, on Wednesday, remanded two persons, Olaitan Fasasi and Kehinde Tobiloba in a correctional facility over alleged attempted murder.
Fasasi, 40, and Tobiloba, 26, whose addresses were not provided, are being charged with conspiracy, attempted murder and membership of a secret society.
The Magistrate, Mr L.A Owolabi, did not take the plea of the defendants for want of jurisdiction.
Owolabi directed the police to forward the case file to the Director of Public Prosecution for legal advice.
He thereafter adjourned the case until May 31 for mention.
The Prosecutor, Josephine Ikhayere, told the court that the defendants committed the offences at about 5.02p.m on Feb. 15, at Mushin, Lagos.
She said that Fasasi, Tobiloba and others now at large, attempted to commit murder by shooting at a resident, Alfred Ademola.
“They armed themselves with a locally made gun. They belong to Eiye Confraternity, a group proscribed by law,”, she said.
Ikhayere said that the offences contravened Sections 230(1) and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2012.
He said that the actions of the defendants also contravened Section 2(3)(a)(b)(c)(d) of the unlawful societies and Cultism Law of Lagos State Law.
An Area Court in Jos, on Tuesday, sentenced one Jeptha John, to three months imprisonment for stealing a Redmi mobile phone valued at N165, 000.
The judge, Shawomi Bokkos, sentenced the John after he pleaded guilty to the offence.
The judge, however, gave the convict an option to pay N20, 000 fine and N50, 000 restitution to the complainant.
Bokkos said that if the convict defaulted in paying the restitution, three months should be added to his sentence to make it six months imprisonment.
Earlier, the police prosecutor, Insp Monday Dabit, told the court that the case was reported at the B Division Police Station, Jos, on Dec. 1, 2024, by Ms Nerat Danjuma.
He said that the complainant alleged that the defendant trespassed into her house and stole her mobile phone valued at N165, 000.
The prosecutor further told the court that the offence contravened the Plateau State Penal Code, Law of Northern Nigeria.
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