Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Thursday 21st November 2019
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 21/11/19
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Masked Armed Robber Arrested In Delta
A boy residing at Issele-Uku in Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State, Chinedu (surname withheld), has been apprehended by the vigilante group of Onicha-Ugbo while carrying out a robbery operation with his gang members.
It was gathered that luck ran out on the suspect while his gang robbed innocent citizens along the road leading to Benin.
The suspected robbers wore masks when they were discovered.
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EXCLUSIVE: DSS Spokesperson, Peter Afunanya, Calls Nigerian Professor “Bastard” For Inquiring About Sowore
Sowore in court
Sowore in court
SaharaReporters Media
Spokesperson for the Department of State Services, Peter Afunanya, has described a Nigerian professor, who called to inquire about the continued detention of rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, a “bastard”.
In the 41-second telephone conversation exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters, Afunanya could be heard verbally insulting the caller, who identified himself as Prof James Segun, who had made an attempt to get an update on Sowore’s case.
Excerpt of conversation
Afunanya: Hello, who this?
Caller: This is Prof James Segun from Campaign for Democracy. I want to find out more about Sowore’s issue.
Afunanya: You are a bastard, get off my phone, idiot.
Caller: Hello…
Afunanya: Get off my phone, you are a bastard, get off my phone, idiot.
Caller: Why can’t you respond in a civil manner?
Afunanya: You are a bastard, don’t call my line again.
In recent days, Afunanya has been at the forefront of DSS’ ridiculous bid to turn the tables around in their favour over the continued detention of Sowore and Olawale Bakare widely known as Mandate.
On Tuesday, the DSS spokesperson told a gathering of journalists in Abuja that they have refused to release Sowore despite two court orders directing the agency to do so because they fear he could be knocked down by a speeding vehicle if allowed to go.
On previous occasions, Afunanya had said that their refusal to obey the court orders was because nobody showed up to collect Sowore.
In yet another instance, the image-maker of Nigeria’s dreaded secret police said that Sowore was yet to be released by them because he preferred to stay with the DSS.
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BREAKING: Sowore May Be Knocked Down By Vehicle If Released By Us, DSS Claims
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Afunanya also recently told the world that Sowore was yet to be freed by them because his sureties had failed to come to the DSS for verification.
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, who is representing Sowore, on Tuesday disclosed that all efforts by him to collect his client from DSS’ facility in Abuja had been frustrated by the organisation.
Sowore, famed globally for exposing Nigeria’s corrupt politicians, was arrested in Lagos on August 3, 2019 for calling on Nigerians to take to the streets in peaceful demonstrations to demand a better country from the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The government is accusing him of insulting Buhari and planning to bring down his regime, charges observers around the world have described as frivolous and laughable.
Despite two separate orders by the Federal High Court in Abuja ordering his release after meeting stringent bail conditions, the DSS has refused to release Sowore, casting a huge shadow over the human rights record of Buhari’s regime.
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UPDATE: Court Partially Varies Sowore, Bakare’s Bail Conditions
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P&ID Asset Seizure: Nigeria Appeals $200m Payment To Court
Nigeria’s Attorney-General, Abubakar Malami, on Wednesday said that the country had appealed a $200m payment imposed by a United Kingdom court in its contention with the controversial Process and Industrial Development LTD over a failed 2010 contract.
The court ordered that the payment be made before it can give a stay of execution on the ruling by Justice Butcher that P&ID could seize over $9bn worth of Nigeria’s assets pending its appeal in a higher court.
“We have appealed against the payment,” Reuters quoted Malami as saying.
Nigeria was given permission to appeal the seizure in September but was ordered to pay the $200m within 60 days.
The time frame expires next week.
In his statement however, Malami left out details of when the appeal was made and if any response had been received from the court.
In its appeal, Nigeria would have to prove there was an error in the previous ruling.
Malami said the nature of the appeal would necessitate the hiring of a new set of lawyers.
“We may decide to bring on board new sets of lawyers to handle the new brief but we may decide that the old and new lawyers should work together,” he said.
P&ID is owned by two Irishmen, Michael Quinn and Brandon Cahill.
A Bloomberg report detailed how Quinn conned the Nigerian Government in partnership with military officials and intended to use the gas processing contract as his big break.
Quinn had previously sued the Nigerian Government for two similar contract breaches like the case gaining media attention.
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What Is Omoyele Sowore Still Doing In DSS Custody? By Adetutu Oguntayo
Former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress in the last general elections, Mr Omoyele Sowore, up until this moment is still held captive in the Department of State Services custody.
Publisher of online news platform, Sahara Reporters, Sowore is a man that has been able to fight and win so many battles over the years. His present predicament is steamed in his views about the outcome of governance in this dispensation under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Not less than 20 persons, who participated in the #RevolutionNow protest held on August 5 were arrested but later granted bail except Olawale Bakare widely known as Mandate, who was arrested in Osogbo, Osun State.
He is being charged alongside Sowore.
His legal team led by Mr Femi Falana (SAN), have since put up a strong defence, resulting in two different orders by Federal High Court, Abuja, judges granting them bail.
The question begging for answer now is: What has stopped the DSS from obeying court orders that Sowore should be allowed to go home on bail even after meeting conditions set by the court.
What is Sowore’s offence?
Now it is up to President Buhari to also consider the fact that we all have constitutional rights to protest when it is very much necessary.
Most of the people that spoke on the case of Sowore, made it clear that the DSS had no power to undermine the court’s orders on his bail. This is the reason Nigerians believe that Sowore should be allowed to go home now!
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Adetutu Oguntayo
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E2%80%99t-eat-local-rice-%E2%80%99s-your-problem-lawmaker-tells-nigerians Border Closure: If You Don’t Eat Local Rice, That’s Your Problem, Lawmaker Tells Nigerians
Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Adamu Abdullahi, has said that any Nigerian not willing to eat local rice in the face of continued closure of the country’s borders with neighbouring nations, had the problem to deal with.
According to Abdullahi, who commended President Muhammadu Buhari for not bowing to pressure to open Nigeria’s land borders with neighbouring countries, those clamouring for its reopening were smugglers and all those profiting from the bastardisation of the economy.
He said, “Our neighbouring countries have become gateways and transit routes for all manners of commodities ranging from automobiles to foodstuffs such as rice, corns, sorghum, palm oil, tomatoes, eggs and dairy products.
“Republic of Benin became one of the world’s top importers of rice because of its Nigerian market. Almost all of the rice it imported from Thailand, Indonesia etc found its way to Nigeria through the Seme Border.
‘”We therefore stand with this government in support of this policy for border closure.
“We have a duty to protect our own, if you don’t want to eat Nigerian grown rice, that’s your own problem.”
President Buhari had on August 20, 2019 ordered a partial closure of Nigeria’s land border.
He hinged his decision on the massive smuggling activities, especially rice brought into the country.
According to the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col Hameed Ali (retd), the agency generated a daily revenue of around N5.8bn since the closure of the country’s land borders aimed at curbing the activities of smugglers.
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E2%80%99-peter-afunanya-rookie-counterfeiter-lies-bayo-oluwasanmi DSS’ Peter Afunanya: A Rookie Counterfeiter Of Lies By Bayo Oluwasanmi
Bayo Oluwasanmi
Bayo Oluwasanmi
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell
The lie by Department of State Services spokesperson, Dr Peter Afunanya, that Omoyele Sowore will be knocked down by a vehicle if released, is a perfect comic imitation of Baba Sala’s Afeeri Yoruba comedy in the 80s.
Baba Sala, who wanted to become rich, decided to rob the bank without being caught. He therefore sought the help of a native doctor – Babalawo – to make him a sort of talisman that would make it impossible for the police or bank officials to identify or arrest him while carrying out the robbery.
Even before he got to the bank right in front of his house on his way out, his neighbour shouted “Baba Sala iwo nuu!” Meaning, Baba Sala that’s you! Baba Sala was so disappointed that the neighbour could identify him. He told his neighbour to pretend as if he didn’t see him. The same scenario played out when he got to the bank. He was caught and arrested for robbing a bank.
But hold your breath. Let the DSS spokesperson introduce himself in his own modest way:
“I’m Dr Peter Afunanya. I’m DSS spokesperson on public lies and propaganda with half my brain tied behind my back. My subject is political propaganda. My stance is distortion. My persona is Buhari comic blow-hard.”
From a moral perspective, frankly I think Afunanya is not even a political problem. He is a psychiatric problem. It is impossible to put meaning into his lies why Sowore and Olawale Bakare are still in DSS custody. Afunanya has become renowned for his penchant for the outrageous. He demonstrates the absurdity by being absurd.
He’s very distant and vulnerable-looking than he sounds when defending DSS. The DSS image launderer, who lacks casual, intimate style, sounds like one of Buhari’s Aso Rock propagandists. He’s intoxicated by lies, especially those flowing from his own lips. He sounds like a real braggart.
He doesn’t show any sign of being a serious or thoughtful or earnest guy. He’s a degenerate rodeo clown – a toxic provocateur. He should be kept far away from civilisation for making excuses for the illegality and unconstitutional acts of DSS. To describe Afunanya’s lies and propagandas as dishonest and demagogic would be equal to promoting it to the level of respectability. To regard Afunanya’s pieces of craps would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental.
Fuming from both sides of his mouth, he threatens that Sowore and Bakare would not be released unless their sureties come for them. He crudely disguises his lies as an exercise in seriousness. Fact is, it’s a sinister exercise in moral frivolity. Afunanya exhibits a spectacle of abject professional cowardice. Like Hitler, Afunanya believes the “intelligence of the masses (Nigerian people) is small,” and their forgetfulness is great.” The whole basis of his lies and propaganda is based on the fallacy of ascent – essentially fabrication inflation. He is a rookie counterfeiter of lies!
Afunanya represents a fool operating without insight. He attempts to control reality like a magician. His choreographic lies with elaborate stumbles follows the idea of the apotheosis of the absurd. Afunanya is nothing. As soon as he starts behaving that he is something, he becomes precarious. No surprise, he cease to be mindful and mistake fantasy for reality.
Afunanya is a fool at the centre of DSS conspiracy to sell poison to Nigerians as cool aid. His thoughts and pronouncements are fallacious, essentially a paranoid construct, one of interpreting reality for what it is not. His blind defense of DSS amounts to ultimate paradoxical joke of presenting President Muhammadu Buhari and his administration as the fool of the future.
Afunanya is a man, who doesn’t shift his brain into gear before putting his mouth into motion. With his half-baked fantasies and loaded bias, no reflective or informed person can possibly believe his lies. He’s a silly and shady man, who does not recognise courage of any sort even when he sees it because he cannot summon it in himself. To him, easy applause in front of credulous Buhari supporters is everything.
I would like to remind Afunanya that propaganda is only meaningful and believable when it can show positive results. Fellow Nigerians, as Sowore’s detention lingers on, brace yourselves for more of Afunanya’s Rapid Response Rabble. We can all agree no matter how the RRR is blended, crushed, pureed, cooked, and packaged, it’s all flat-out phony baloney!
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Bayo Oluwasanmi
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Davido, Wizkid, Others Shower Burna Boy With Praises After Grammy Awards Nomination
Leading Nigerian musicians have continued to shower praises on Hip-hop artiste – Damini Ogulu popularly known as Burna Boy – after he was nominated for the 2020 Grammy Awards.
In the list released on Wednesday, Burna’s ‘African Giant’ album was nominated in the ‘Best World Music category.’
The nomination is for albums containing at least 51 per cent playing time of new vocal or instrumental world music recordings.
Celebrating with the artiste over the feat, Banky W in a tweet said, “Our African giant has been nominated for a Grammy!
“Congratulations to @burnaboy, his mom and the entire team.
“Amazing and well deserved. Anything is possible with a little bit of faith and a lot of hard work. So happy for him.”
Also reacting to the announcement, ace music producer, Don Jazzy, said, “Congrats to the African giant @burnaboy on the Grammy nomination.
“Congrats on having the most amazing couple of years. The Grammy is actually just the icing on the already juicy cake.”
Adding his voice to the flurry of encomiums for Burna, Davido said, “Congrats @burnaboy, you deserve more than a nomination.”
It was the same for Wizkid, who said, “King Burna!! Congratulations blood! You deserve everything and more.”
Burna Boy is nominated in the same category with Altin Gün (GECE); Bokanté and Metropole Orkest Conducted By Jules Buckley (What Heat); Nathalie Joachim With Spektral Quartet (Fanm D’Ayiti) and Angelique Kidjo (Celia).
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BREAKING: Nigeria Commits To End Open Defecation As Buhari Signs Executive Order
President Muhammadu Buhari has signed an executive order to end open defecation in Nigeria.
The Executive Order 009 entitled ‘The Open Defecation-Free Nigeria by 2025 and Other Related Matters Order 2019’, was signed on Wednesday in Abuja.
Nigeria committed to ending open defecation throughout the country by 2025 in consonance with her commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
“The Order declares that the National Open Defecation Free Roadmap developed by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources with support from other key sector players across Nigeria be put into effect.
“There has been established in the Federal Ministry of Water Resources a National Secretariat called ‘Clean Nigeria Campaign Secretariat’.
“The Secretariat is authorised on behalf of the President to implement this order by ensuring that all public places including schools, hotels, fuel stations, places of worship, market places, hospitals and offices have accessible toilets and latrines within their premises,” a statement by Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said.
Nigeria is ranked second amongst the nations in the world with the highest number of people practicing open defecation with an estimate of over 46 million people in the sad practice.
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BREAKING: Amnesty International Designates Sowore, Bakare Prisoners Of Conscience
International rights group, Amnesty International, has declared human rights activists – Omoyele Sowore, Olawale Bakare and Agba Jalingo – as prisoners of conscience following their arbitrary detention and unfair trials for exercising their rights.
The group in statement by its Head of Media and Communication for Nigeria, Isa Sanusi, said, “The Nigerian authorities at both federal and state levels have repeatedly targeted human rights defenders, activists and journalists including by stifling dissenting voices and passing repressive legislation to restrict the civic space.”
AI added that despite meeting their stringent bail conditions, the State Security Service had continued to refuse to obey a court order to release Sowore and Bakare, while Jalingo’s bail applications have been repeatedly and unjustifiably rejected.
It added, “We consider Sowore, Jalingo and Bakare to be prisoners of conscience detained solely for exercising their human rights.
“The Nigerian authorities must drop all charges against them and release them immediately and unconditionally.
“Sowore, Jalingo and Bakare’s continued detention is a matter of shame for Nigeria.
“Their cases show just how far the authorities in Nigeria can go to silence critics.
“The government of President Muhammadu Buhari needs to stop filing bogus and politically motivated charges against critics, and start listening to what they have to say.
“The authorities must stop using the security agents and judiciary as a tool for persecuting people who voice dissenting opinions, challenge abuse and call for accountability.
“The flawed charges and sham trials of Sowore, Jalingo and Bakare expose the inadequacies and bizarre manipulation of the Nigerian criminal justice system and an unacceptable contempt for the rule of law and human rights.”
Sowore was arrested in Lagos on August 3, 2019 for calling on Nigerians to take to the streets in peaceful demonstrations to demand a better country from the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The government has accused him of insulting President Buhari and planning to bring down his government – charges observers around the world including leading legal practitioners describe as frivolous and laughable.
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BREAKING: Lagos Police Arrest Rogue Officers Who Extorted N715,000 From Man After SaharaReporters Story
The Lagos State Police Command has arrested some rogue policemen, who extorted N715,000 from one Kareem Damilari Jamiu on Monday.
Their arrest followed a report by SaharaReporters on Tuesday, which detailed how the law enforcement officials blackmailed and criminally forced Jamiu to part with the large sum of money by accusing him of being a cultist and Internet fraudster.
Spokesperson for the police in Lagos, Bala Elkana, confirmed to SaharaReporters on Wednesday that five policemen have now been arrested and are now in custody in connection with the incident.
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Policemen Force Man To Withdraw N715,000 For Them, Threaten To Deal With Him
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Elkana said, “We have arrested the policemen and they are now in custody. We are trying to retrieve the fund.”
Speaking further, he said the policemen would face disciplinary panel for proper investigation into the matter.
Executive Director, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre, Okechukwu Nwanguma, commended the police for the swift response over the matter.
He said, “It is great that the Lagos State Police Command has by its prompt response to the complaint, demonstrated its non-tolerance for police corruption and abuse as well as determination to fish out and deal with criminals in the police.”
Jamiu, who lives in Sagamu, Ogun State, was arrested on Monday by the policemen, who later took him to a school instead of a police station.
They threatened not to release him until he cooperated and bailed himself.
The policemen initially demanded N105,000 as bail and after paying the requested sum, they demanded that they see his bank account balance, after which, they demanded more money.
They later drove him to Ikeja, somewhere opposite the Police Headquarters, where they forced him to release his ATM card and disclose his PIN which they to withdraw additional N610,000 through a Point Of Sale machine.
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