PANIC AS A SUSPECTED 'UNITED STATES SPYING DRONE' NEARLY HIT RESIDENTS IN IBADAN, NIGERIA.
Captured Drone Is A Toy - Intelligence.
Confusions set in when a drone suspected to be on a spying mission to Nigeria nearly harm residents in their home in Ibadan, the largest city in Africa south of sahara. The flying object suspected to be a United States' built remote-controlled metallic drone came through the roof into a building in Awotan, a sub-urban part of Ibadan where residents including mother and son just escaped death on Sunday, 29th December 2013.
According to the Nigerian Union of Journalists Europe News investigations, the drone (pictured) recovered on Sunday is a toy owned by an IT technician in Ibadan. Intelligence reports have also confirmed that the recovered flying object in Ibadan is a toy.
The
Chairman, Ido local government of Oyo state, Professor Joseph Adeniyi
Olowofela, in company of the police, SSS and members of the Defence Corp
on Sunday recovered the flying object which fell
on the roof of a resident of Awotan in the local government. The
Chairman described a media report that an object crashed into the home
of a resident as very unfortunate and misleading. Prof Olowofela also
frowned at the report and its writers intention, saying there was
nothing like a crash as reported, and that it was untrue that the US
used the object as a spy. “What happened was that a man was playing with a toy with his son and the toy got lost only to be discovered by a neighbour and instead of searching for the owner of the toy, the neighbour kept it in his home for a week . And the next thing was to read on a newspaper that a spy object lost control and crashed into a resident home”, he said.
The owner of the kite- like object, Sunday Folayan, an Electronic engineer and the Vice President, Nigeria Internet Registration Association, also expressed shock at the reported crash. Folayan ,who is also into orbit, is the owner of Skynet , a service provider company based in Ibadan. Folayan accompanied the Chairman, top local government officials, the police, SSS and other security men to recover the toy on Sunday. Folayan who claimed to have produced many similar toys for his son in the past explained that he was playing with his son with the battery propelled toy when it got missing and all effort to retrieve it failed last week Sunday. He gave a vivid description of the toy which he produced for his son.
“The weight of the toy is 0.8 kilogram with the shape of an i-pad which cannot run more than 15 minutes . It is not solar panelled, but uses battery and a remote control.”
The chairman charged media men to do more of investigative journalism, rather than speculative reporting.
The drone fell from on the roof of the house in Ibadan on Sunday, rendering a loud bang after shattering the roof of the house few seconds when Afeez Adewale, a 16-year-old boy, left the toilet in their house, immediately after his mother used same toilet in the building. The near-miss incidence occurred at Omiremi Quarters, Awotan, Ibadan in Ido Local Government of Oyo State.
NUJE NEWS gathered from media sources that the sixteen-year old boy was in total panic as he recounted how sheer luck saved him and Adikat, his mother, from being hit by the flying drone a few seconds after they used the washroom.
Afeez had gone to the toilet to
answer the call of nature not long after his mother had come out of the same
toilet only to hear a loud bang on the roof of their house, specifically the
toilet.
The object was said to have
forcefully fallen on the roof of the toilet breaking through and shattering its asbestos.
According to the Asipa of Awotan and
landlord of the house, Chief Tajudeen Adetoro, it wasn’t long after Afeez and
his mother left the rest room when they suddenly heard a frightening sound on
the roof of the toilet.
Chief Adetoro, who is Afeez’s
grandfather, said it was God that saved the mother and son, saying the source
of the drone-like object was unknown.
“We were in panic; we were almost
dead when we heard the sound suddenly and all of us scampered for safety. It
was after a few minutes that we thought that hiding in the house was not the
solution but to find a way to get the object out of our house due to the
horrible and disturbing noise it was making that my son and I fearfully moved
to the scene to know what it was.
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| Chief Tajudeen Adetoro whose house was smashed by the drone. |
“When we got there, we stood a little
away looking at it from a short distance. It was then we saw it clearly and it
was seriously struggling making a frightening noise in its bid to find an
escape route. As it was struggling, it was hitting every angle of the toilet
walls forcefully shrieking and trying to exit the toilet.
“It was during the struggle that it
escaped through the same point it gained entry. When it flew out, we rushed
after it and it was found hanging on the antenna of our neighbour. It hung
there making a terrible noise and emitting heavy smoke. I think in the process
of struggle to get it out, it lost one of its components, a stand. I asked my
son to climb the facial board to remove it.
“When he brought it down, it was
heavy and there were so many red illuminating lights all over it blinking every
second,” the chief narrated.
He said when the material had been
removed from where it was stuck so that they could examine it thoroughly, the
object repeatedly tried to fly away.
“It was then I asked my son to
remove some of its compartments to render it inactive. We removed the battery,
its censor, among others. At that time, everybody in the neighbourhood had
gathered to see the wonderful object,” he added.
|
| Roof shattered by suspected US Drone in Ibadan |
Chief Adetoro said they initially
thought it was a mere toy but after a close look, it was discovered that “the
material could be a bomb, more so that ever since we captured and incapacitated
it nobody had come looking for it because we initially felt that it was one of
the toys parents bought for their children for Christmas and New Year.
“Also, when we considered the manner
with which it got in and exited, we felt that the object was being monitored
and controlled from somewhere. After careful consideration and examination of
the compartments of the object we thought it could be an explosive.
“When nobody from this community came
to claim it, we concluded that the object was more than what we thought it to
be; it must have travelled a long distance,” Afeez’s father said.
The Chief Imam of Awotan Central
Mosque, Sheik Abdulai Adesina, and a woman who are both neighbours of Chief Adetoro
confirmed the incident, saying “the sound of the object was highly terrifying
and fearful.”
When the object was examined, it is
made up of components such as a dry cell battery, a censor housed by a white
case, a USB (memory card) drive and a panel that is well cased as well as
lots of cables.
According to Chief Adetoro, the
community had informed security agents about the incident and called for
investigation on it, noting that if left unravelled, it would be difficult to
douse tension and erase fear among the residents of the community who now
believed that they were being targeted for attacks.
The object, NUJE NEWS
investigation revealed, has since been handed over to security who finally gave it back to the owner just as NUJE confirmed the object as a toy. contrary to the confusing stories that United States’ drone was captured during an espionage mission in Nigeria among other findings.
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| Confussion : 'A US captured drone' product numbered QR X30, memory card and components disabled. |
Considering the registration number, TX
5803, inscribed on a black battery under the craft, a source said the space
craft must have taken off from NASA base in Texas in the US, stating that
the battery attached to the spacecraft powered it and enabled it to move around
so that it could do the bidding of those who sent it.
Though many aviation sources informed that the object could be a device used in espionage, another
source, however, believed that the craft was a “nondescript aviation device”.
It will be recalled that the United
States of America has, in recent times, come under attack by other countries
for spying on their activities which may have heightened tensions due to the discovery of the spacecraft
in Ibadan. Former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden,
 |
| Edward Snowden |
In a two-minute video recorded in Moscow, where Snowden has been granted temporary asylum, he spoke of concerns over surveillance in an age of huge technological advancement.
The craft, which was wrongly believed to have
dropped down from the orbit, flew into a toilet in the house of Ashipa of
Awotan, Chief Tajudeen Adetoro, a few minutes after his grandson,
Afeez Adewale and daughter-in-law, Adikat, left the toilet where they had
gone to answer the call of nature.
According to Chief Adetoro, the
mysterious aircraft forced itself into the toilet through the roof making
deafening sound, saying it could have killed Afeez and his mother, if it had
met them in the toilet.
The spacecraft, with a product number
QR X30, has four stands and a rounded compartment housing its engine. It has a dry cell battery, USB
drive, a censor and cables, while each of its stands has a two-way roving fan
mounted on them.
The residents of the sleepy community had earlier told a national newspaper, Sunday Tribune that the object was not a toy due to the fearful noise it made
and the way it flew about, adding that it could be an explosive.
“When it flew out, we rushed after it
and it was found hanging on the antennae of our neighbour...making a terrible
noise and emitting heavy smoke,” Chief Adetoro narrated.
He said they ran for safety on
hearing the loud bang made on the roof of their house only to discover that the
object had entered the toilet hitting its wall in an attempt to exit.
Information obtained about the object
from the internet revealed that it shares similarities with a device called
Walkera QR X350 GPS which is sold for roughly $500.
Though the product description on it
is not intelligible, sources learnt that it could be a remote-controlled
transmitter that gives no signal when in the air, but which is used for
gathering information.by Lashley Oladigbolu
