The mother of a teenager who claims he was forced to undergo exorcism to purge him of his disobedience has been jailed.
Lydia Erhire has become the first person in the UK to be jailed under forced marriage laws after Edirin Onogeta-Idogun, 17, was sent to Nigeria on holiday and is still there.
He claims he has been subjected to beatings and religious-style ceremonies in the African country to get rid of his behaviour which his mother did not approve of.
Erhire is a devout Christian who had tried to instil a strong sense of discipline in her child and does not approve of his lifestyle, the court heard.
The 17-year-old is still being held against his will – and it is unclear exactly where he is, the High Court in London was told.
His mother was ordered to have her son brought back to Britain but she obstructed efforts and was jailed for eight months yesterday.
Edirin had flown out to Nigeria, where his father John Idogun is a special adviser to the governor of the Delta State, in July.
The teenager, from Newham, east London, was expected back in August to start a college course in Hackney.
He had been given a protection order under forced marriage laws by a judge last year and provided with emergency accommodation before he disappeared.
Mrs Justice Macur said: 'Edirin told his litigation team he had been forced or subjected to procedures which were meant to exorcise him from his disobedience to the will of his parents and to remove him from what they regarded as unsatisfactory friendships.'
In November, after a hearing before another judge, Mrs Erhire signed a letter instructing her sister to facilitate the return of Edirin from his Nigerian boarding school.
TIMELINE
* July 8, 2010 - Forced Marriage Protection Order issued as Lydia Erhire fears he is going to be sent to Nigeria for an arranged wedding
* July 16 - Teenager is sent on holiday to Nigeria
* August - he fails to return to London where he is due to start college
* February 14, 2011 - his mother is jailed after being found guilty of contempt of court
But it later emerged that she had immediately sent another letter countermanding the demand.
In February, Edirin attempted to leave Nigeria but was intercepted by immigration officials and taken off his British Airways flight from Lagos.
Mrs Justice Macur ruled Mrs Erhire was not responsible for the February incident but had found she was complicit in November in ‘thwarting’ the court's efforts to have Edirin returned.
Members of the Urhobo tribe appeared before the court and said that his mother was concerned he would become involved in gangs.
The teenager was issued with a Forced Marriage Protection Order last July because he feared he was going to be sent to Nigeria for an arranged wedding.
Jailing the mother for contempt of court, the judge said: ‘I am not satisfied that she is truly remorseful for the imperilment of Edirin's welfare.
‘I am not satisfied that she has shown any indication of a willingness to co-operate on anything but her own terms.
‘The chronology has shown beyond peradventure that this woman only co-operates in the face of a prison sentence and then begrudgingly.’
She ordered that Mrs Erhire should be committed to Holloway Prison immediately for eight months, but said she would have the opportunity to apply to purge her contempt.
The student, who was due to study business and media after finishing his A-levels, came to Britain with his mother in 2004 and had settled in Newham.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Chinese Firms Swindle Nigerian Importers
The managing director of a Lagos-based company, which deals in chemicals, Mr Jude Ekolie (not real name), thought he had a good bargain when he decided to patronise a Chinese company when he was planning to buy merchandise for his firm. Although his fingers had once been burnt in a similar deal in the past, he knew that this was the time to ponder the aphorism of once bitten, twice shy. Risk taking, he had ruminated, is part of entrepreneurship.
Of all the quotations he got, he picked that of Tianjin Jinlaifu Chemicals Company Ltd., Tianjin, China, as the best. But this time he was more careful. So he thought.
In his earlier transaction with another Chinese firm, Hebei Bofate Chemicals Company Ltd, he had on June 15, 2010 wired $2930 through telegraphic transfer for the shipment of water treatment chemicals to Nigeria. But till the time of this report, he had seen neither the goods nor his money. To worsen matters, all efforts to contact the company through its representative, Susan Zhang, came to nought. It had disappeared into thin air.
Given his previous experience, he decided to resort to what he thought was a foolproof method: paying through a letter of credit. His bank, under his instruction, had on August 26, 2010 opened a letter of credit for $14,596.20 with Citibank, New York. Under the terms of payment, the Chinese company is to ship 18.36 metric tonnes of calcium hypochlorite (used for water treatment) to the importer through the Apapa seaport in Lagos.
Payment was to be done through the correspondent bank upon confirmation of the receipt of the chemicals. That did not, however, stop Tianjin Jinlaifu from defrauding him.
But how did the transaction go wrong? Narrating his experience in an interview with Sunday Sun, Ekolie, who was on the Internet chatting with one of the company’s representatives said: “One of the reasons we chose the Chinese was that their price was attractive. While other companies in Europe were quoting around $1,000 per tonne, the Chinese quoted about $600. There was little variation in all the quotations we got from China. So, we settled for Tianjin Jinlaifu with the hope that we would get value for our money.
“Contrary to our agreement, the company shipped to us chemicals that were below the specification we ordered and paid for. We were supposed to be supplied the chemicals in granules. But it was the powder form that was shipped to us. You see, the powdered form is of low quality and it is not a fast-moving product here in Nigeria.”
Shortly after the company received the goods, it asked its bankers, First Bank, to direct Citibank not to honour the letter of credit for now. It brought the matter to the attention of Tianjin Jinlaifu, hoping there was an error that could be rectified. Rather than attend to its complaint, the company gave him a hard choice: ship the goods back. That was when the company knew that it had fallen into the net of another Chinese dupe.
Ekolie said: “We were disappointed. Shipping the goods back is going to be at the detriment of our company. We will require about N1 million to do that. After a long negotiation, the company suggested we should find market for it and sell at a lower price. After that, we instructed our bankers not to pay the full value of the letter of credit.
“Ordinarily, the money should have been paid to the Chinese company after we had received the goods. But our saving grace was that the goods arrived Nigeria before the due date on the letter of credit. So, that gave us enough time to halt the payment as the terms of the transaction had been breached.”
Given his earlier experience, were there no telltale signs that danger was looming? “Yes, there were,” he confesses.
“At the early stage of the transaction, Tianjin Jinlaifu was trying to put some stumbling blocks on our path after we had agreed on the terms of transaction. Shortly after we sealed the deal, the company was delaying the shipment of the goods. On enquiry, its officials advised us that we should buy caustic soda so as to stop Chinese authorities from intercepting the goods. At a stage, we felt the company was only trying to make us part with more money. We began to suspect it had no intention of fulfilling its own side of the bargain,” he added.
Ekolie dismissed claims that his company did not take enough steps to guarantee the fidelity of the transaction and that it should have been suspicious of the low price quoted by the supplier. He said when his company was considering employing an inspection agent to check the goods before shipment, Tianjin Jinlaifu discouraged it, claiming that it could delay the exportation of the goods as Chinese Customs could subject the process to undue bureaucracy.
“Let me say that we knew that we were taking a risk doing business with the Chinese, but risk taking is part of entrepreneurship. Unfortunately for them, there was a delay in payment as we asked Citibank to stay action on payment. Now we have been able to broker a better price deal with them. They set out to defraud us in the first instance. The game plan was to ship the wrong product, get paid before we get to know what hit us.
“Regardless of the very poor credit rating of most Chinese firms, China still remains the second biggest exporter in the world. Not even the United States can ignore the emergence of the Asians.
“That probably explains why Hu Jintao (the Chinese president) got a red carpet treatment at the White House. By 2020, China may overwhelm Germany in the export business. So apart from lower prices from their firms, the Chinese have a lot of things going for them.
“Moreover, there is no entrepreneur who does not take a risk regardless of how astute and successful. There are so many bitter lessons that one cannot learn even from the leading business schools in the world.
“However, I accept the fact that we must learn from our mistakes. Most importantly, it is our desire to enlighten others so they could have a smooth learning curve. When any Nigerian company loses, we see it as a great loss to the nation. That explains why we are crying out,” Ekolie said.
Unfortunately for Ekolie’s company, the matter may drag on endlessly as Chinese police have closed down Tianjin Jinlaifu and arrested some of its officials. Ekolie told Sunday Sun that he learnt that some of those the company had defrauded reported the matter to the police. He, however, decried the attitude of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria to reports of alleged frauds committed by Chinese companies and individuals.
“When we went to report the matter to the Commercial Section of the Chinese Consulate, located at Idejo Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, the officials were not cooperative. We met other importers with similar tales of woes. Even if you request for a visa to go to China to sort out the problem with the exporter, you are not likely to get it,” he said. Sunday Sun investigation show that many Nigerian exporters of chemicals are victims of sharp practices by their Chinese trading partners. One Nigerian importer was said to have lost over N20million in such a transaction with the Chinese.
Curiously, many of them are not willing to go public with their experience. During visits to Ojota and Ilasamaja, two popular chemical markets in Lagos, some of the traders confirmed that they had had nasty encounters with the Chinese but they declined to give details.
Ekolie attributed this to the need to protect their business. According to him, they deal in regulated products and publicity such as this could raise customers’ suspicion that could affect patronage.
“Many of us deal in a market whose products are regulated by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
We are trying to avoid the prying eyes of the agency as such reports could make its officials beam their searchlight on us. That will not be good for business,” he said.
Officials of the Commercial Section of the Chinese Consulate in Lagos declined comments on these allegations. A consulate official, who simply identified himself as Jack, told Sunday Sun on the phone that the consulate was closed for business and would not reopen until after two weeks
Of all the quotations he got, he picked that of Tianjin Jinlaifu Chemicals Company Ltd., Tianjin, China, as the best. But this time he was more careful. So he thought.
In his earlier transaction with another Chinese firm, Hebei Bofate Chemicals Company Ltd, he had on June 15, 2010 wired $2930 through telegraphic transfer for the shipment of water treatment chemicals to Nigeria. But till the time of this report, he had seen neither the goods nor his money. To worsen matters, all efforts to contact the company through its representative, Susan Zhang, came to nought. It had disappeared into thin air.
Given his previous experience, he decided to resort to what he thought was a foolproof method: paying through a letter of credit. His bank, under his instruction, had on August 26, 2010 opened a letter of credit for $14,596.20 with Citibank, New York. Under the terms of payment, the Chinese company is to ship 18.36 metric tonnes of calcium hypochlorite (used for water treatment) to the importer through the Apapa seaport in Lagos.
Payment was to be done through the correspondent bank upon confirmation of the receipt of the chemicals. That did not, however, stop Tianjin Jinlaifu from defrauding him.
But how did the transaction go wrong? Narrating his experience in an interview with Sunday Sun, Ekolie, who was on the Internet chatting with one of the company’s representatives said: “One of the reasons we chose the Chinese was that their price was attractive. While other companies in Europe were quoting around $1,000 per tonne, the Chinese quoted about $600. There was little variation in all the quotations we got from China. So, we settled for Tianjin Jinlaifu with the hope that we would get value for our money.
“Contrary to our agreement, the company shipped to us chemicals that were below the specification we ordered and paid for. We were supposed to be supplied the chemicals in granules. But it was the powder form that was shipped to us. You see, the powdered form is of low quality and it is not a fast-moving product here in Nigeria.”
Shortly after the company received the goods, it asked its bankers, First Bank, to direct Citibank not to honour the letter of credit for now. It brought the matter to the attention of Tianjin Jinlaifu, hoping there was an error that could be rectified. Rather than attend to its complaint, the company gave him a hard choice: ship the goods back. That was when the company knew that it had fallen into the net of another Chinese dupe.
Ekolie said: “We were disappointed. Shipping the goods back is going to be at the detriment of our company. We will require about N1 million to do that. After a long negotiation, the company suggested we should find market for it and sell at a lower price. After that, we instructed our bankers not to pay the full value of the letter of credit.
“Ordinarily, the money should have been paid to the Chinese company after we had received the goods. But our saving grace was that the goods arrived Nigeria before the due date on the letter of credit. So, that gave us enough time to halt the payment as the terms of the transaction had been breached.”
Given his earlier experience, were there no telltale signs that danger was looming? “Yes, there were,” he confesses.
“At the early stage of the transaction, Tianjin Jinlaifu was trying to put some stumbling blocks on our path after we had agreed on the terms of transaction. Shortly after we sealed the deal, the company was delaying the shipment of the goods. On enquiry, its officials advised us that we should buy caustic soda so as to stop Chinese authorities from intercepting the goods. At a stage, we felt the company was only trying to make us part with more money. We began to suspect it had no intention of fulfilling its own side of the bargain,” he added.
Ekolie dismissed claims that his company did not take enough steps to guarantee the fidelity of the transaction and that it should have been suspicious of the low price quoted by the supplier. He said when his company was considering employing an inspection agent to check the goods before shipment, Tianjin Jinlaifu discouraged it, claiming that it could delay the exportation of the goods as Chinese Customs could subject the process to undue bureaucracy.
“Let me say that we knew that we were taking a risk doing business with the Chinese, but risk taking is part of entrepreneurship. Unfortunately for them, there was a delay in payment as we asked Citibank to stay action on payment. Now we have been able to broker a better price deal with them. They set out to defraud us in the first instance. The game plan was to ship the wrong product, get paid before we get to know what hit us.
“Regardless of the very poor credit rating of most Chinese firms, China still remains the second biggest exporter in the world. Not even the United States can ignore the emergence of the Asians.
“That probably explains why Hu Jintao (the Chinese president) got a red carpet treatment at the White House. By 2020, China may overwhelm Germany in the export business. So apart from lower prices from their firms, the Chinese have a lot of things going for them.
“Moreover, there is no entrepreneur who does not take a risk regardless of how astute and successful. There are so many bitter lessons that one cannot learn even from the leading business schools in the world.
“However, I accept the fact that we must learn from our mistakes. Most importantly, it is our desire to enlighten others so they could have a smooth learning curve. When any Nigerian company loses, we see it as a great loss to the nation. That explains why we are crying out,” Ekolie said.
Unfortunately for Ekolie’s company, the matter may drag on endlessly as Chinese police have closed down Tianjin Jinlaifu and arrested some of its officials. Ekolie told Sunday Sun that he learnt that some of those the company had defrauded reported the matter to the police. He, however, decried the attitude of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria to reports of alleged frauds committed by Chinese companies and individuals.
“When we went to report the matter to the Commercial Section of the Chinese Consulate, located at Idejo Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, the officials were not cooperative. We met other importers with similar tales of woes. Even if you request for a visa to go to China to sort out the problem with the exporter, you are not likely to get it,” he said. Sunday Sun investigation show that many Nigerian exporters of chemicals are victims of sharp practices by their Chinese trading partners. One Nigerian importer was said to have lost over N20million in such a transaction with the Chinese.
Curiously, many of them are not willing to go public with their experience. During visits to Ojota and Ilasamaja, two popular chemical markets in Lagos, some of the traders confirmed that they had had nasty encounters with the Chinese but they declined to give details.
Ekolie attributed this to the need to protect their business. According to him, they deal in regulated products and publicity such as this could raise customers’ suspicion that could affect patronage.
“Many of us deal in a market whose products are regulated by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
We are trying to avoid the prying eyes of the agency as such reports could make its officials beam their searchlight on us. That will not be good for business,” he said.
Officials of the Commercial Section of the Chinese Consulate in Lagos declined comments on these allegations. A consulate official, who simply identified himself as Jack, told Sunday Sun on the phone that the consulate was closed for business and would not reopen until after two weeks
Saturday, February 12, 2011
youth Corper Shot… Mistaken For Antelope
It was a narrow escape for Miss Christiana Enechejo Paul, a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, after she was mistaken for an antelope and shot at by her landlord in the village of Mbube, Ogoja in northern Cross River State.
•Miss ‘Antelope’ Enechejo on her hospital bed.
P.M.NEWS gathered yesterday that Miss Enechejo, a graduate of Auchi Polytechnic serving at Comprehensive College, Mbube, was posted to Bepeh, a neighbouring community where she is doing her primary assignment by INEC as adhoc staff for the just concluded voter registration exercise.
In Bepeh, she and another female colleague were given a room to share in the home of the village primary school headmaster as temporary quarters while undertaking the registration exercise.
“I and my colleague were given a room from where we report to the registration point each morning,” Miss Enechejo told P.M.NEWS.
She said on the morning of the fateful day at about 5:45 a.m., she had gone to the nearby bush at the back of the house, which is a cassava farm owned by the village headmaster. While there son of the headmaster joined her in the bush and soon left in a hurry only for the father to come out with a gun and fire at her.
“I understand the boy went back to the house to tell the father that he had seen the antelope that was always coming to eat their cassava in the cassava farm every morning. But I did not know that that was what he did, I only heard gun shots and pellets hitting me,” she said on her hospital bed.
Miss Enechejo, who was rushed to the Catholic Hospital Moniaya in Igoli, has again been taken back to Mbube where the pellets are being extracted from her body by a traditional healer.
“She is recovering gradually, the pellets are still buried in her body that is why she is still shivering,” Mrs. Catherine Umoru, elder sister to Miss Enechejo, who is looking after her, told our correspondent.
Mrs. Umoru said the INEC zonal officer for Ogoja has visited Enechejo.
“We have not been asked to pay any bills yet. We do not know what will happen when she gets well,” she said.
The police at the Divisional Police Station in Ogoja told P.M.NEWS that the headmaster, whose name they refused to disclose, and his gun have been transferred to Calabar, the Cross River State capital.
However, the Police Public Relations Officer for the Cross River Police Command, ASP Etim Dickson, said he was not aware of the incident but reliable sources at the command at Diamond Hill said the headmaster is with the anti-homicide department. The matter is still being investigated...
Mr. Michael Igini, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, who spoke to our correspondent on phone, said “the girl is recovering and the pellets are being extracted from her body.
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