Police guards burgle ex-president Jonathan’s house

Osinbajo: Lake Chad basin crisis displaces 2.4m persons

An Abuja home of former President Goodluck Jonathan has been burgled, Premium Times reports.

However, in what appears a curious twist, the house was not burgled by known thieves, but by police officers assigned to guard the house.

The Nigeria Police have thus arrested three of its officers for stealing items valued at several millions of naira from the Abuja residence of the former president.

The items were alleged to have been stolen by the officers from the residence located at No. 89, Fourth Avenue in the Gwarimpa district of Abuja.

They include sets of furniture, dozens of plasma television sets, refrigerators, air-conditioner units and box-loads of clothes such as designer suits imprinted with the former president’s name, male and female Ijaw traditional attires, lace materials and bowler hats.

The three mobile police officers conducted a systematic looting over a period of three months beginning from around March 2016, until they totally stripped the house of all movable items, which they sold piecemeal to dealers at the Panteka second-hand materials market in Tipper Garage, Gwarimpa.

Jonathan’s spokesperson, Ikechukwu Eze, confirmed the theft to Premium Times. He also confirmed that the affected officers have been arrested.

According to a security source involved in the investigation, by the time family members of the former president were made aware of the looting early this month, the house had been stripped bare.

Source: Premium Times Acting President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday told a delegation of the African Union Peace and Security Council that the crisis in the Lake Chad Basin has resulted in the displacement of about 2.4 million people.

He said the situation had also led to extensive destruction of property, homes and farmlands as well as infrastructure such schools.

According to the acting president, "In some cases, the situation requires the rebuilding of whole societies."

The delegation, led by its chairperson for the month of July, Ambassador Bankole Adeoye who is also Nigeria’s Ambassador to Ethiopia and to the AU, has been visiting countries in the Lake Chad Basin region on a fact-finding mission on the crisis.

Osinbajo told his visitors that the humanitarian consequences of the insurgency were "Compounded by deep poverty, making the costs of dealing with the situation huge and enormous.”

He however, affirmed that countries in the Lake Chad Basin had worked together in dealing with the insurgency and the consequent humanitarian crisis.

“The Lake Chad Basin collaboration is one we are extremely proud of, where we as Africans are working together on our own issues. I am pleased to say the countries have worked greatly together.

"Unlike in the past when there were difficulties when the militaries of the four countries tried to work together, the Multinational Joint Task Force surmounted the challenges and had succeeded. The Buhari administration is extremely pleased with what we have seen, and we like to see more,” he said.

The acting president expressed satisfaction with the work of the Peace and Security Council of the AU, saying “I am extremely pleased and encouraged by the work of the PSC, the time and attention paid to this issue. These are matters we must address now and in the future.”