13, December 2016
UK: Nigerian-born doctor with CCAS Kumba links jailed for 5 years 1
He is known as a Cameroonian and also as a Nigerian-born doctor in the UK. However, Wilson Odume is simply a former student of the Cameroon College of Arts and Science, CCAS Kumba. He has been jailed for 5 years with another medical issue still pending.
Medical tribunal told Dr Odume ‘demonstrated considerable tenacity’ in trying to provide evidence he was fit to practice. Wilson Odume backed his application to be allowed to practise in the UK by saying he often watches medical dramas on telly. ‘I never miss medical programmes on BBC and other stations, for example Casualty, Scrubs and others’
“These also help keep me in-line with things happening in the medical world.” Dr Odume trained after coming to Britain in 2001. He has had six clinical attachments in Leicester. But he was refused registration by the General Medical Council in 2013 for concealing ten minor driving offences.
An appeal hearing in Manchester yesterday was told he had three failures before passing tests for foreign doctors, and that eventual pass had now expired. The panel said mention of the TV shows was “worrying” and “displays a very concerning lack of insight”. He admitted: “To have even mentioned this was a nonsense, and frankly rather light-hearted. It did not reflect my real thinking. It was a silly thing to put.”
He also claimed to have attempted to “understand UK culture” further and had taken a course in ethics. The tribunal was told Dr Odume had “demonstrated considerable tenacity” in trying to provide evidence he was fit to practise the “profession he loves”. Judgment was reserved with a decision due in four weeks.
Dr Odume again orchestrated a sham marriage scam
Wilson Odume (45), a Cameroonian national, and Martin Okoko (31), a Nigerian national, organised bogus weddings in an attempt to by-pass immigrations rules. The marriages between Hungarians, Nigerians and Cameroonians took place in Gretna and Leicester between 2007 and 2012.
Odume also took part in a fake marriage of his own in order to gain residency in the UK. Sarah Knight, prosecuting, told Leicester Crown Court the pair were caught following an inquiry by Immigration Enforcement Criminal Investigations officers, which began when intelligence was received that Okoko was arranging sham marriages from a shop he ran in Woodgate, Leicester.
There were also separate reports from registrars in Gretna of suspicious marriages involving individuals from the Leicester area. At the end of a six week trial, a jury found Okoko, of Aikman Avenue, New Parks, Leicester, guilty of two offences of assisting unlawful immigration and Odume, of Loughborough Road, Leicester, of three counts. Odume was jailed for five years, and Okoko for four years.
Culled from the SUN and Leicester Mercury
13, December 2016
Gambian military forces have taken over the office of the Independent Electoral Commission 0
Gambian military forces have taken over the office of the Independent Electoral Commission amid a dispute over the result of a recent presidential election. Alieu Momarr Njai, the chairman of the commission, said on Tuesday that security forces had entered the commission’s building. “The military came to my office and said I am not to touch anything and told me to leave,” Njai said, adding, “I am worried for my safety.”
The raid comes amid increasing disagreement about the result of the recent presidential election. President Yahya Jammeh, who reportedly gained 208,487 votes or about 40 percent, had initially conceded defeat against Adama Barrow, who obtained 222,708 votes or over 43.3 percent. However, Jammeh later changed his mind after the commission revised some results.
Njai rejected Jammeh’s worry about the validity of the revised outcome. He said Jammeh would go nowhere by challenging the outcome. “The election results were correct, nothing will change that,” Njai said, adding, “If it goes to court, we can prove every vote cast. The results are there for everyone to see.”
Heads of state from several countries in the West African region began arriving in the Gambia on Tuesday in a bid to persuade Jammeh to relinquish power. Marcel de Souza, the president of the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), who leads the initiative to make Jammeh leave office, said ECOWAS may even be forced to send troops to the Gambia.
“We have done it in the past,” he said, adding, “We currently have troops in Guinea-Bissau with the Ecomib mission. We have had troops in Mali. And therefore it is a possible solution.”
Presstv