Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Friday 6th December 2019
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 06/12/19
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E2%80%99t-wait-have-my-husband-back-home-says-sowore%E2%80%99s-wife BREAKING: I Can’t Wait To Have My Husband Back Home, Says Sowore’s Wife
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Opeyemi, wife of pro-democracy activist and Publisher of SaharaReporters, a pioneering online news platform – Omoyele Sowore – has said that she and their children cannot wait to have the 48-year-old back home.
Since August 3, 2019 when the outspoken social crusader was arrested in Lagos by the Department of State Services for calling on Nigerians to take to the streets in peaceful demonstrations to demand a better country from the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, life had not been the same for the quick-smiling mother of two and all those around her.
From partaking in walks and events turning global attention to the illegal detention of Sowore in the facility of the DSS at the time to appearing at revered television programmes demanding justice on his matter, Opeyemi indeed went the mile in telling the world, who the man she was married to truly was.
But against widespread expectations, things took a different twist on Thursday.
Hours after Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the DSS to release him within 24 hours after twice meeting his bail conditions, the secret police and their collaborators in high places budged – Sowore walked out of the dreaded facility a free, liberated man.
Though his trial in the case brought against him by the Nigerian Government commences on December 6 (Friday), his release on bail marks an entirely new journey in his bid for complete freedom.
Reacting to the development on Thursday, Opeyemi said that despite the delay in the release of her husband after two court orders to that effect, they look forward to his safe return home.
She said, “After 125 days of his illegal detention, my husband was released on bail for conditions he met weeks ago.
“While I am grateful for his long overdue release, I remain concerned for his safety and resolute on him being cleared on all charges.
“I look forward to his safe return home to our family in New Jersey.”
Described in some quarters as one of Nigeria’s genuine last remaining advocate of the masses, Sowore over the years has faced all sorts of hostile treatments from the government for choosing to stand by the people.
An advocate of equity and justice, those around him say he conquered fear and banished intimidation away from his domain long before now.
Celebrated globally for exposing Nigeria’s corrupt and ruthless politicians, Sowore will beginning from December 6, 2019 (Friday) defend himself in a case brought against him by the government.
He is being accused of insulting President Muhammadu Buhari and attempting to bring down his regime – charges experts and observers around the world have described as baseless and laughable.
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Sowore’s Release, A Big Relief, Says Shehu Sani
A former federal lawmaker and rights activist, Senator Shehu Sani, has hailed the release of pro-democracy campaigner and Publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, by the Department of State Services on Thursday evening.
The lawmaker described the 48-year-old’s release in compliance with the order of the Federal High Court, Abuja, after more than four months in detention, as a big relief for the entire country and welcome development.
Sani attributed Sowore’s long walk to freedom as a product of resilience and courage demonstrated by the trial judge and defendant’s legal team led by Femi Falana (SAN).
The former lawmaker added that Sowore’s ordeal and detention by the DSS had tainted the image of the Nigerian Government on human rights and respect for the rule of law.
He called on Nigerians to stand up against any anti-people policies of the government that may stifle their rights to free speech.
Sowore was released by the secret police alongside his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare popularly known as Mandate, few hours after a ruling by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja ordering the DSS to set them free within 24 hours.
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 President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Famed globally for exposing Nigeria’s corrupt politicians through his pioneering online news medium – SaharaReporters – Sowore is being accused and was held by the government for insulting Buhari and planning to bring down his regime – charges observers around the world have described as baseless.
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Sowore’s Long Journey To Freedom After 125 Days In Detention
Pro-democracy activist, Omoyele Sowore, has been released from the detention of the Department of State Services (DSS) where he has been held for 125 days following his arrest on August 3.
Sowore’s eventual release came hours after Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, sitting at the Federal High Court in Abuja, gave the secret security 24-hours ultimatum to release him.
The court had granted bail to Sowore on two different occassions but the DSS refused to let him out.
The DSS filed a seven-count-charge bordering on treasonable felony, cyberstalking among other offences.
It had earlier obtained an ex-parte order allowing it hold Sowore for 45 days while it investgated the charges eventually preferred against him.
Justice Taiwo Taiwo, who granted the ex-parte order later ordered the DSS to release the pro-democracy activist.
He ordered that Sowore be released into the custody of his lawyer, Femi Falana.
However, rather than release him, the DSS hurriedly arraigned him before Justice Ojukwu.
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BREAKING: You Cannot Have a Parallel Court, Justice Ojukwu Tells DSS Over Sowore’s Continued Detention
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Not comfortable with Sowore’s prolonged detention, his lawyer filed a 19-ground-application asking the court to set aside the ex-parte order.
The case was assigned to Justice Nkweonye Maha of the same court.
Maha declined to hear Sowore’s motion on August 28, on the ground that she did not have jurisdiction to review the decision of Justice Taiwo who granted the ex-parte order.
She declined all applications made by Falana and sent the case back to the administrative judge.
Falana, again, filed another motion on September 13, asking the court to admit his client bail on self recognizance or upon any condition the court may reasonably deem appropriate.
Following the arraignment of Sowore and Bakare before Justice Ojukwu, the court granted him on bail but with stringent conditions.
Justice Ojukwu granted Sowore bail of N100 million with two sureties in like sum. The sureties must have landed property within the court’s jurisdiction and evidence of tax clearance. One of the surety must deposit N50 million in the account of the court as security. She also barred him from travelling out of Abuja during his trial.
She granted Bakare a N50 million bail with one suretie in like sum. The surety must have landed property in Abuja. He was also restricted from travelling out of Oshogbo during his trial.
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Sowore, Bakare Object Plan By DSS To Transfer Them To Correctional Centre
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The activists through their lawyer, Femi Falana applied for the variation of the terms and asked the court for leniency.
On October 21, the trial judge set aside the previous conditions of 50million security deposits by one of the suretie .
She also reduced the N50 million bail of the second defendant to N20 million. Justice Ojukwu, however, refused to vary all other bail conditions.
When the matter came up for trial on November 6, Ojukwu issued a release warrant ordering the release of the activists from DSS detention.
Again the secret police refused to let them go as they go.
The DSS in one of its press releases had asked Sowore’s sureties to come forward for verification.
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Sowore’s Mother Stands By Him, Says “My Son Is Not A Criminal, Speaks Against Injustice”
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In another statement the service said that Sowore may be knocked down by moving vehicle if released.
At the resumption of hearing, on Thursday December 5 , the judge lambasted the DSS for flaunting orders of the court court order. The visibly angry Justice Ojukwu awarded N100,000 as damages against DSS for disobeying her order.
She also ordered the release of the activists from DSS custody within 24hours.
She has adjourned the case to December 6 for continuation of the trial.
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BREAKING: DSS Releases Sowore After 125 Days Of Illegal Detention
Rights activist and pro-democracy campaigner, Omoyele Sowore, has regained his freedom more than three months after he was arrested by the Department of State Services in Lagos.
Sowore was arrested and charged to court by the Nigerian Government for planning a nationawide protest tagged #RevolutionNow.
He was released on Thursday evening after the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered his release for the third time.
Sowore is expected to appear in court on Friday for the commencement of his trial.
The Nigerian Government is accusing Sowore of insulting President Muhammadu Buhari and planning to bring down his regime.
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BREAKING: Police Officer Who Killed Truck Driver Surrenders Self For Prosecution
Idowu Omosuyi, the police officer that killed a truck driver along the Akure-Owo Expressroad, Ondo State has finally surrendered himself to the police authorities.
Sergeant Omosuyi showed up at the Ondo Police Command headquarters on Thursday, barely twenty-four hours after he was declared wanted by the police authorities.
Omosuyi, who is attached to the Federal Highway Patrol, had on Monday shot Ado Saleh on the head at a security check point after the latter refused to pay him a bribe.
Saleh died on the spot.
Several residents who spoke to SaharaReporters had earlier accused the state police command of trying to shield the erring policemen.
The Police Spokesman in Ondo state, Femi Joseph, who confirmed his appearance at the police headquarters said that the police officers would face a disciplinary panel.
Joseph explained that the Ondo State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Udie Adie, had already set up a panel to investigate and also prosecute the erring officer.
“The officer (Sergeant Omoniyi) would now have to face a panel of investigation that was set up by the Commissioner of Police on the case.
“We have repeatedly said that the case would not be swept under the carpet and just as we have assured members of the public that the Nigeria police shall continue to abide by the laws and protect the lives and properties of the people,” he said.
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Senate Increases Capital Expenditure In 2020 Budget
The Nigerian Senate has increased the funds to be spent on capital projects in the 2020 budget from N2.14trn to N2.46trn.
If the estimates proposed by the Senate are maintained in the bill that will be sent to President Muhammadu Buhari, the country will still spend more on servicing debts than building infrastructure.
According to the spending plan presented by the Senate appropriation committee headed by Barau Jibrin, N2.73trn will be used to service borrowed funds.
Reuters reckons that Nigeria has so far made six trips to the Eurobond market, netting $2.86bn in its last outing.
The Senate increased the projected revenue that should come to the government from N8.18trn to N8.31trn, living a deficit of N2.28trn.
This deficit was created without any adjustments made to the oil benchmark and production volume, both were left at $57 and 2.18m barrels a day.
Overall, the Senate decided on a spending chest of N10.59trn, slightly below the N10.60trn approved by the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
In the country’s 2018-2019 spending plan, President Buhari noted that the government achieved just 58 per cent of its revenue projection.
The long-standing trend of revenue over-projection will continue on the oil axis unless Saudi Arabia ignores the country’s expressed intent to produce above its 1.744m barrels a day OPEC quota, or if it pumps out enough condensates to cover for the 440,000 barrels per day shortage.
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58 Die As Europe-bound Boat Sinks In Mauritania
The International Organisation for Migration has said that 58 persons died attempting to enter Europe through the Canary Islands route.
The sea-unworthy vessel was said to have been crowded by about 150 persons when it ran out of fuel off the Mauritanian Coast.
According to reports, 83 persons swam to shore where they were discovered by the Mauritanian military police.
The survivors said the vessel left the West African coastal country of Gambia on November 27.
“It speaks really to the callousness of the smugglers who of course have made their money and disappeared into the wilderness.
“That’s the problem here, people are being exploited, people are looking for a better life,” IOM’s Leonard Doyle told Al Jazeera.
This route has not been a preferred passage for boats trying to smuggle desperate Africans into Europe since Spain began policing it in the mid 2000’s.
The IOM however, notes that the route is dangerous, meaning many vessels never make it and are never found.
IOM said the survivors are likely to be returned home to their country, thwarting their dream of reaching Europe.
“We can imagine that they’re deeply traumatised. People will need some medical care and our staff will need to establish their origin and try to help them return in the most dignified way as possible.
“The tragedy in all this is there is no happy solution for people who take these routes.
“Once things like this happen, they eventually end up back where they started. The only winner is the smuggler,” Doyle added.
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Sowore: DSS’ Incompetence And The Docility Of The National Assembly By Martin White-Ufuah
With DSS’ bold outlaw, subnormal intelligence, defective disposition, and outright violation of different court orders, it has become indisputably clear that Nigeria’s democracy has been militarised.
The 9th rubber-stamp National Assembly that is supposed to restrain the overreaching extents of the executive has openly obliged to doing the bidding of the executive.
Obviously, the legislative arm of government in Nigeria has transformed itself into a branch of the executive.
Today, the only distinguishing characteristic of our bogus democracy from the military dictatorship is that we waste tax payers’ money to service an institution (National Assembly) that is tractable to executive rascality.
Our democracy is a charade!
If it isn’t, the illegal detention of Omoyele Sowore and other Nigerians by the DSS should have been a topical discourse in the National Assembly to check the excesses of the executive.
Nigeria is currently perplexed, bedevilled and overwhelmed by the lethality of human right abuses that ridicules and exposes our own brand of democracy as a fraud.
Instead of a vibrantly energetic and engaging legislature that imposes a legislative sanction on the DSS’ boss and the country’s attorney-general over the illegal detention of Omoyele Sowore and Olawale Bakare, they are vigorously pursuing bills on hate speech and social media regulation.
The National Assembly is sleeping on duty!
The DSS should be publicly condemned for its chronic law-breaking antecedence.
By the unlawful gestapo arrest, clandestine and illegal detention and persecution of Omoyele Sowore, the Department of State Service, has shown that it is markedly subnormal in function, flawed in intelligence and rascal in behaviour.
The criminal-classed elements sponsored by state actors that took up arms against the Nigerian state during the Kogi and Bayelsa elections were never seen to have committed treasonable felony.
But Omoyele Sowore who only sued for peace by calling on Nigerians to pour out in their numbers to protest against misrule and corruption is being accused of plotting to unseat the government.
What a joke of a country!
Obviously, the DSS is merely a political stooge that react against voices of truth that attempt to call the government to order.
Instead of a vibrantly energetic and engaging domestic intelligence agency that functions as the source of reliable information for mitigating our various internal security challenges, our moribund DSS is all about the pettiness of political arrests and illegal detentions of honourable citizens.
The calculated use of violence against our country by Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram members and other criminal groups with felonious intent have never for once been comprehended by the radar coverage of our so-called DSS domestic intelligence.
Isn’t that a big shame?
The DSS has shown that it does not have the structural competence and expertise for espionages and information gathering. That is why the agency relies on online gossips and maliciously divulged information to clamp on citizens.
Domestic intelligence service is also supposed to be responsible for identifying foreign spies employed by foreign services against a country.
Every day we hear of other countries exposing and apprehending foreign spies and agents employed by foreign intelligence services against their government.
Please, how many has the DSS caught? None! Why? They think their job is to go after Omoyele Sowore.
If the DSS understand the danger foreign espionages poses to our country, they’d resign from their pettiness and become serious for once.
Some foreign espionages have access to our country’s internet space without anyone knowing their identity.
They are sometimes the ones spreading propagandas and disinformation on our local internet space to cause dissension and unrest.
We are presently under the attack of cyber espionages, but because the DSS do not have the structural competence to checkmate the economic security threat of foreign espionages in our country’s internet space, they do not know the danger their activities portend for our country.
I’m writing this to tell the DSS to release Omoyele Sowore right now with an apology to him because he is not a terrorist.
Martin White-Ufuah, a writer and columnist, writes from Abuja. He is the publisher, Ecumenical Review
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Identity Of Ondo Killer Cop Revealed, Police Arrest Colleagues Over Death Of Truck Driver
The identity of the policeman, who fired the shot that killed a truck driver along Akure/Owo Expressway in Uso Town on Monday has finally be revealed.
The suspect is identified as Sergeant Idowu Omosuyi, findings by SaharaReporters revealed.
Ado Saleh, the truck driver, was shot dead by Omosuyi after refuse to give a bribe when stopped at a police checkpoint.
Though other policemen on duty at the checkpoint at the time of the incident had been arrested by the Ondo State Police Command, Omosuyi, who delivered the deadly blow, has remained on the run, our correspondent found.
Spokesperson for the police in the state, Femi Joseph, disclosed that the command was on the trail of the fleeing policeman and would bring him to book.
He said, “The full names of the suspect is Sergeant Idowu Omosuyi but we are yet to arrest him because he is currently on the run.
“But we have arrested five members of the team who were manning security on the federal highway and they have been placed under custody at the command.
“Were able to gather from the team that he was the one who shot the driver with his rifle and he ran into the bush immediately after committing the crime.
“In fact, he dropped his gun but we are going to arrest him because we shall be declaring him wanted if he fails to turn himself in.”
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E2%80%99s-transfer-correctional-facility Court Orders El-Zakzaky’s Transfer To Correctional Facility
A High Court in Kaduna State on Thursday ordered that leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, and his wife Zeenat, be transferred to a prison facility in the state.
Justice Gideon Kurada said the couple should be moved to the Nigerian Correctional Centre to allow him gain easy access to his lawyers.
The trial had been held up for eight months following Kurada’s service in the presidential and National Assembly election tribunal.
News Agency of Nigeria reports that the judge’s directive was the offshoot of an application by El-Zakzaky’s counsel, Haruna Magashi, at the resumption of hearing since its indefinite postponement on April 25.
Zeenat and her husband have been in the care of the Department of State Services since an attack on his home and other Shia sites in Kaduna in December 2015.
They are being accused of culpable homicide, unlawful assembly and disruption of the public peace, among other charges.
The couple made a botched attempt to get treatment from lead poisoning as a result of gunshot wounds in India but were immediately brought back home over claims that El-Zakzaky was trying to jump bail.
Since his arrest and the proscription of the movement in Kaduna, there have been several fatal clashes in Abuja, much of it triggered by the police.
One of such led to the death of a journalist from Channels Television.
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