Nigerian Arrested In Japan For Destruction Of Gravestones

A Nigerian identified as Abraham Emmanuel Uba, have been arrested by the Prefectural Ehime police, following an investigation into the destruction of hundreds of gravestones and religious statues in Ehime and Osaka prefectures.

The 45-year-old Nigerian, who is a resident of the city of Hannan, Osaka Prefecture, is accused of overturning a Buddhist statue worth about 80,000 yen, in a temple of the city of Saijo, in Ehime, on July 15.

Though the police did not disclose if Uba admitted to the charges, however it was further gathered that the police are also investigating whether Uba could be the perpetrator of a similar destruction in a temple in Matsushima City, Ehime.

300 gravestones, some 1.7 meters high, were also broken in the Tottori cemetery at Hannan (Osaka). Six stone Jizo statues were also destroyed. According to Buddhist teachings, they serve to protect children and unborn babies. On the same day, similar damage was observed on several gravestones in Jinen Cemetery.

This is coming just after the Japanese Immigration police, arrested three Nigerians after they were found to have hired Thai women to smuggle drugs into the country. The arrest of the three Nigerian nationals identified as Mr Declan Kaodichi Uzukwu, Mr Okwor Stephen Onyema,  and Mr Justin Chiedozie Uzukwu came after Japanese police sought help from Thai police to track down a drug trafficking gang after they have arrested 7 Thai women for drug trafficking.

All the Thai women had in possession Ecstasy pills in SIM-card shape. They told the Japanese police that they were hired by the gang to smuggle drugs into Japan. Royal Thai Police deputy commissioner Pol Gen Srivara Ransibhramanakul told a press conference on Friday (Jan 26) that investigation by Thai immigration and narcotic suppression police, found that a transnational drug network was behind the drug smuggling to Japan by the seven Thai women.