A federal court in the United States has sentenced a Nigerian man, Olatunde James Temitope Akintonde to 15 years imprisonment for selling fentanyl-laced pills that killed a 19-year-old known as SJG.
According to a statement by the United States Attorney’s Office on Wednesday, Akintonde who lives in El Cajon, California sent messages to SJG via social media to buy opioid medicines, oxycodone pills from him on February 28, 2019, which he did, used and caused his death.
SJG was found dead in his home, located in Santee, a city in California on March 1, 2019.
The statement read, “El Cajon resident Olatunde James Temitope Akintonde was sentenced in federal court today to 15 years in prison for selling fentanyl-laced pills that caused the death of a 19-year-old Santee man, identified in court records as S.J.G., in March of 2019.
Akintonde previously admitted that he sent messages to S.J.G. through social media on February 28, 2019, to coordinate a sale of what the victim believed to be oxycodone pills. Later that evening, Akintonde delivered two counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl to S.J.G.
After the meeting, Akintonde sent additional messages to S.J.G. through social media warning that he should only take one of the pills because they were 'strong.' Akintonde further admitted that the pills he gave to S.J.G. caused his death. According to other filings in the case, S.J.G. died in his home sometime in the evening of February 28, 2019, or the early morning hours of March 1, 2019.
Special Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and a Task Force Officer from the San Diego Sheriff’s Department led the investigation into S.J.G.’s death and quickly identified Aktinonde as the source of the fatal pills. According to the sentencing memorandum, Akintonde offered various prescription pills for sale through different social media platforms.”
Aside from selling the drug and issuing several prescriptions that got SJG killed, the convict was also accused of posting pictures of himself wielding dangerous weapons.
“Akintonde also posted photographs of himself brandishing firearms and posted songs promoting the use and distribution of pharmaceutical pills,” the statement said.
“There is an epidemic of counterfeit fentanyl-laced pills in our community,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman.
“To be clear: If you are a drug dealer selling pills, and those pills result in death, you will be held accountable for that death. It is no defense to say you didn’t know the pills contained fentanyl.”
"Grossman praised the prosecution team as well as the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Narcotics Task Force Team 10 and officials from the San Diego Sheriff’s Department and the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office for their excellent work on this case.
“As the number of drug overdose deaths continues to rise in San Diego County, the DEA San Diego Field Division has made investigating overdose deaths a priority. We are committed to bringing drug dealers like Olatunde James Temitope Akintonde, who poison our communities, to justice," DEA Acting Special Agent in Charge Shelly S. Howe was quoted as saying in the statement.
"This case is the result of ongoing efforts by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration to investigate and prosecute the distribution of dangerous illegal drugs—fentanyl in particular—that result in overdose deaths.
The Drug Enforcement Administration created Narcotics Task Force Team 10 as a response to the increase in overdose deaths in San Diego County. Agents from Team 10 contributed to the investigation into S.J.G.’s death," the statement added.
Two women we're caught with toddlers in their bags trying to escape with them, when questioned one confessed of take the babies to her aunty, This urgly human trafficking happened at ebonyi state.Suspected child traffickers caught with babies hidden inside bags. 💔
— Port Harcourt People (@AskPHPeople) November 23, 2021
Wickedness.#PHTwitterCommunity pic.twitter.com/9MP0kK6c0W
It was gathered that the students of the two schools had engaged themselves in a bloody clash before men of the Obantoko police station were called to arrest the situation.
The students who hauled stones and other objects at themselves, blocked the main road, causing tension among the residents of the area.
Alimeke and some of his men who raced to the scene of the incident to maintain law and order were allegedly injured by the students.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the command, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi confirmed the incident.
The DPO was hit by stones. The students were throwing stones and other objects at themselves during the fight,” Oyeyemi said.
When asked if any arrest was made, Oyeyemi explained “We cannot arrest the students because they are minors. We can only detain and counsel them, after which they will be released.”
Some yet to be identified assailants suspected to be ritualists killed an 11-year-old Almajiri identified as Muhd Yunusa in Bauchi State and made away with his brain, IgbereTV reports.
The incident happened in Dutsen Kofar Wambai area in the Bauchi metropolis on Saturday, November 20.
According to Nigerian Tribune, the assailants had called two Almajiri pupils who were going about begging for alms and lured them into a dark corner pretending that they wanted to give them something.
The men smashed the skull of one of the boys, removed his brain and escaped to unknown destination.
The other boy managed to escape from the assailants and told the residents what had happened.
When the residents got to where the scene of the incident, they discovered the dead body of the pupil and alerted the police.
Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, made this known on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ breakfast programme monitored by The PUNCH.
The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and other matters had on Monday, November 15, 2021, submitted a 309-page report to Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
In the leaked report, Justice Doris Okuwobi-led panel noted that at least nine persons were confirmed dead at the Lekki toll plaza when soldiers stormed the tollgate to disperse EndSARS protesters on October 20, 2020.
The atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters while sitting on the floor and waving their Nigerian flags and while singing the National Anthem can be equated to a massacre in context,” the report partly read.
Sanwo-Olu, who received the report, constituted a Committee to bring forward a White Paper within the next two weeks to be considered by the Lagos State Executive Council.
The submission of the Lagos judicial panel report coincided with the visit of United States Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, to Abuja, Nigeria, last week.
Nigerian President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had told Blinken that his regime would allow the system to exhaust itself, and would, therefore, wait for pronouncements from state governments that set up panels to probe police brutality in the country.
Speaking on the television programme today, Adesina said the reports by the states’ panels won’t be submitted to the Federal Government.
When asked whether the states would submit the reports to the Federal Government, he said, “Not to the Federal Government. Under the law, Federal Government has no power to en-panel a probe by the states.
What would happen is that when the state comes up with pronouncements on that panel reports, that would then be of interest to the Federal Government; it is not as if they would bring it to the Federal Government.”
Adesina said the Federal Government would then look into areas of interest in the report and address the areas.
The presidential spokesman said Nigerians should be reminded that 36 policemen were killed around the country during the EndSARS protests last year and the perpetrators should be held accountable.
He also said America has its fair share of police brutality, adding that it was not just a Nigerian thing but a global phenomenon.
Source: punch
As the trial of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, enters a crucial stage, the umbrella body is seeking to recruit a top legal luminary to replace the current legal team that has been representing the breakaway agitator.
Although IPoB has not discarded its current legal team made up of many lawyers, some who are rendering free services based on their belief in the cause that Mazi Kanu is leading, IPoB however wants the legal team to be spearheaded by a ‘lawyer with high pedigree, generally known and highly respected within the Nigerian judiciary’.
A top source, who is close to the IPoB organization, said on Sunday that the current legal team is perceived to be populated by ‘activists’ who are best suited to work with a ‘legal luminary’ of not below the rank of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN popularly referred to as ‘Learned Silk’ in Nigerian legal parlance.
The source, who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the organization, said, “IPoB is looking for a highly placed attorney of a SAN status, who is well versed in the Nigerian legal system and commands respect in the circle.
“The envisaged SAN, when engaged, is expected to reorganize Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s legal team, mobilize qualified and like-minded lawyers to work as coordinated legal team to secure victory over his terrorism and treason felony charges slammed on him by the Nigerian Government.
As you can see these are very weighty and serious legal issues that require a versatile legal representation and not mere activists who many just be more interested in drawing publicity stunts at the expense of the client and we do not want anything that can affect out cause,” the source said.
We learnt last night that one of the top lawyers being seriously considered by the IPoB leadership to champion the cause of Nnamdi Kanu, is a highly respected lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu, who has a PhD in law and has been recording outstanding victories for his clients in most of the cases handled by him.
It was however learnt that Dr. Ikpeazu was not likely going to accept any offer considering the huge implications it might have on his career as a leading international legal practitioner.
It was not also clears as at least night if IPoB had even approached Ikpeazu with any offer to represent its leader as the case against Kanu comes up early next year.
As to explain the rationale for the hiring of a foreign lawyer from the U.S to represent Kanu in Nigeria, the source express reservations over the attempt to bring in a foreign legal practitioner to appear in a Nigerian court, pointing out that it might not work out at the end of the day.
“The issue of a U.S lawyer appearing for our client in Nigeria may not work 100 percent in our favour but it can at least draw international attention to our case,” the top official said.
It will be recalled that on October 18, 2021, the Federal Government had filed an amended seven-count charge against the IPoB leader bordering on terrorism and treason felony.
Count one of the charge reads: “That you, Nnamdi Kanu, male adult of Afaraukwu lbeku Umahia North Local Government Area of Abia State being the leader of IPOB on diverse dates in 2014 and 2015 in London, United Kingdom, did broadcast on Radio Biafra monitored in Enugu and other areas within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, preparations made by you and others now at large for states in the Southeast and South south and other communities in Kogi and Benue states to secede from the Federal Republic of Nigeria with a view to constituting same into the Republic of Biafra and you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 41(c) of the Criminal Code Act, CAP. C77, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004;
Count two says “That you, Kanu, on or about the 28th April 2015 in London, did broadcast on Radio Biafra … referred to Maj.- Gen. Muhammad Buhari (GCON), the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a pedophile, a terrorist, an idiot and an embodiment of evil, knowing same to be false and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 375 of the Criminal Code Act, Cap C. 77, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004;
Count three: “That you, Kanu, had between March and April 2015 imported and kept in Ubulusiuzor, Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State, a radio transmitter known as TRAM 50L concealed in a container of used household which you declared as used household items and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 47 (2) of the Criminal Code of Act , Cap C45, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004;
Count four: “That you, Kanu, had between 2018 and 2021 in Radio Biafra monitored in Enugu, and FCT(Federal Capital Territory), professed to be a member of IPOB, a proscribed organisation in Nigeria and you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 16 Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act, 2013”.
Their lawyer, Tope Temokun, said the boys were ordered to be released by a magistrate’s court in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday, November 16.
The police arrested, charged them and got them remanded in prison, but stopped coming to court due to lack of evidence. So the magistrate had to strike out the case,” said Barr. Temokun
Temokun said a neighbour, who accused them of bringing things home without any source of income, instigated the police against the boys. Read below:
LIKE MANY EKITI WOULD HAVE DESTROYED THESE!
Two brother-teenagers, Monday (15years old) and Ayomide (16 years old), with a blind father, accused of stealing eye-drops for their father's use, regained their freedom today after spending 10 months in prison
These two teenagers went to prison not because they were caught in the act of any crime, but because they were children of nobody.
A neighbour tipped the police off that they brought things home without any source of income and after the police visited and searched their house, eye drops were found and typical of Nigerian police of "wey the receipt" form of arrest, the teenagers were promptly arrested
I was moved by Moyinoluwa's passion for justice. On the day he spoke with me for the first time, he said since he left prison, his conscience had not let him rest anytime he remembered those two teenagers in prison.
They are out today. Nothing shall discourage us!
numbers of Nigerians stormed the Nigeria High Commission in New Delhi, to protest against police maltreatment.
This comes after a number of Nigerians cried out, accusing Indian police of maltreatment.
A Nigerian mother was recently arrested with her two toddlers and detained without an explanation. protesters held placards and sang the Nigerian national anthem before expressing their grievances.They should release our kids, our husbands, and our wives o," one of the protesters is heard saying.
Watch below
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CWa22W6gh9Y/?utm_medium=copy_link