Nigerian Gangster Jailed In United Kingdom

A Nigerian gangster has been jailed for life at the Old Bailey, United Kingdom, for arranging the “execution” of a 17-year-old boy.

Ola Apena, 22, was found guilty of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. He must serve at least 32 years.

Samuel Ogunro was found with a shot in the back of the head in a burning car in Peckham, south London, in June 2010.

He was killed on the eve of a firearms trial he was due to face alongside other defendants, including Apena.

The Old Bailey heard that Apena, of south London, arranged Samuel’s murder from within an Oxfordshire prison using illicit mobile phones.

Jurors were told he had composed violent rap lyrics saying “kill your co-defendant if he’s snitching in court”.

He claimed the words did not refer to the victim but were in fact inspired by the X-Factor.

The court heard Apena and others plotted Samuel’s murder because inconsistencies between his account of the allegations and those of others could have caused problems for the defence during the case.

Judge Richard Hawkins said: “The murder was intended to obstruct the course of justice.”

Apena was given coaccommodate heavy traffic as a result of the number of vehicles which ply it daily, has been causing untold hardship resulting from traffic gridlock.

One way for anybody to assess the effect of the road on vehicles plying it is to look at those of the Bus Rapid Transit which operate between Iyana-Ipaja, Ikotun and Igando.

When the state government announced that it had awarded the road project to Bulletin Construction Company almost two years ago, residents of the area including road users were excited and praised the effort of the governor. However, their hopes were first dashed when almost one year into the award of the contract, the construction company only scraped the road and further threw the people into hopelessness as nothing worthwhile happened thereafter.

In August last year, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Works and Infrastructure, Engr. Ganiu Johnson, expressed the state government’s unhappiness over the slow pace at which the road project was handled while on an inspection tour of roads in the state. Subsequently, he announced the sack of the contractor and awarded the project to Plycon Construction Company, which was handling the Isheri-Olofin-Ikotun axis of the road. He also promised that the project would be completed within three months from then as it was a Christmas gift from government to the people.

Seven months after that Christmas, the gift seems still far away from the people as staff of Plycon Construction Company only visit the road whenever they feel like according to one of the road users recently.

“They suddenly appear, work a length of the road that is not up to a metre and then disappear again for another three or four months,” the motorist complained.

Adeniyi Musa, another motorist, said “we constantly pray that it should not rain, because if it does, then we are doomed because of the terrible traffic problem we would face. The state government should make us know what is happening. We are tired of this kind of inaction by the government.”

According to him, if the slow pace of work continues, the road, which is nine kilometres, would not be completed by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, checks by P.M. NEWS have revealed a shoddy handling of the project as failing portions are beginning to manifest on the part of the road that has been constructed so far, an indication that the residents of the area and motorists using the road will not be totally free when the road construction is finally completed as a number of pot holes have become obvious on the road. It is even worse around the Idimu Police Station area and the fear now is that if the contractor is not called to order and asked to work to standard, it may only take the next rainy season for the entire road to be washed away and the contractor, and indeed, the state government, will be exposed to ridicule.