Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Thursday 30th January 2020
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 30/01/20
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Presidency Attacks Senator Abaribe Over Calls For Buhari’s Resignation
The Presidency has attacked Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe for calling for the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari over the rising spate of insecurity in the country.
Earlier on Wednesday, Abaribe had said, “Nigerians will go to the government and ask the government to resign because they did not elect the chief of staff, the police IG, service chiefs and others.
“Nigerians voted a government into power. We are going with stones to stone them now because they have failed.”
But firing back at the lawmaker, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said there was no basis for Buhari to resign.
In a statement, he said, “President Buhari to resign on what basis?
“Just because some characters think that President Buhari should resign, then they expect him to quit.
“That call does not represent the opinion of the country. This is the opinion of an armchair critic, known for making stray comments.
“He (Abaribe) signed the bond for the court to release Nnamdi Kanu on bail, from which moment the suspect disappeared into the thin air.
“Senator Abaribe has failed repeated deadlines to return Kanu to the court for trial, yet he has the effrontery with which to accuse someone of failing to do the bidding of the law.
“President Buhari is working hard to keep Nigeria and Nigerians out of the harm terrorists have unleashed in the entire Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa with the support of Nigerians and our foreign friends, he is going to finish off these terrorists.”
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E2%80%99s-wife-senator-oluremi-advocates-state-police-over-rising-insecurity Tinubu’s Wife, Senator Oluremi, Advocates For State Police Over Rising Insecurity
Former First Lady of Lagos State and lawmaker representing Lagos Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Oluremi Tinubu, has called for the establishment of state police as a way of tackling the rising spate of insecurity in the country.
Tinubu made the call during plenary on the floor of the upper legislative chamber on Wednesday.
She said, “If we really want to tackle our insecurity correctly, we should look at state police. I believe in you – Senate President – to do it this time.
“I have seen what insecurity has meted out to Nigerians and the vulnerable group in particular women and children.
“State policing: if we want to go there, we should allow states that are ready.”
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Tinubu Finally Speaks On Amotekun, Says Initiative Not Threat To National Unity
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Bayelsa Communities Cry Out Over Pollution By AGIP
Residents of Abuetor, Agbere, Osekwenike and Osifo communities in Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa State have raised the alarm over what they described as “continuous pollution and degradation of their environment by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company operating the Samabri Flow Station.
The communities accused the oil multinational of dumping solid and oil waste into their environment, thereby polluting their rivers and destroying their farmlands.
In a statement by the President-General of the Samabri Agip Host Communities Youth Federation, Perfect Ikpekri, the residents said efforts made to stop the oil company from the act had been unsuccessful.
The statement reads, “We have made concerted efforts to stop the company from these acts of polluting and degrading our environment to no avail.
“The land and entire ecosystem are now in grave danger of sustaining the host communities who are predominantly fishermen and farmers.
“Therefore, we call on President Muhammadu Buhari, Federal Ministry of Environment, Directorate of Petroleum, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency including other regulatory bodies to come to our aid by compelling the Nigerian Agip Oil Company to agree to a comprehensive joint investigation of the impacted areas.”
Efforts to reach management of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company proved abortive, however, an official of the company who asked not to be named, told our correspondent that the communities had a good case to press.
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E2%80%98operation-amotekun%E2%80%99-under-new-police-scheme Afenifere Opposes Plan To Place ‘Operation Amotekun’ Under New Police Scheme
Yinka Odumakin
Yinka Odumakin
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Pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, has rejected the position of the Nigerian Government to include ‘Operation Amotekun’ under its community policing strategy and have it function as mere informants for the police.
The group, after a meeting held in Akure, Ondo State, said that Amotekun, which was an initiative of South-West governors, had come to stay and should be supported.
Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, had earlier directed police formations in different states to commence the recruitment of special constables nationwide preparatory to the implementation of its community policing scheme.
Spokesperson for Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, said the regional security outfit, which had been widely accepted, should be allowed to have its own independence.
He said, “We rejected any attempt to subsume Amotekun under any community policing scheme of the Federal Government to be mere informants to the police.
“Amotekun should be independent in carrying out the security of residents of South-West with defined operational cooperation with the police but not function as its subordinate.
“While Amotekun has now come to stay, there must be no let or hindrance in the pursuit of a federal state so we can revert to the multi-level policing status of Nigeria of the past.”
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Group Blasts Cross River Governor For Lying About Agba Jalingo On National TV, Demands Journalist’s Immediate Release
The Free Jalingo Group has slammed Cross River State governor, Ben Ayade, for lying on national television about detained journalist, Agba Jalingo.
Jalingo was arrested in August 2019 for exposing the disappearance of N500m meant for the establishment of Cross River State Microfinance Bank.
He was arrested shortly after that period and charged for terrorism.
In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it was shocked to see Governor Ayade on Channels Television trying to change the narrative over the arbitrary detention of Jalingo, who is the Publisher of Cross River Watch.
The statement reads, “Ayade made a false claim that Mr Agba Jalingo had admitted the treason charges against him in court.
“This is a lie told to sway public opinion and defame Jalingo.
“The court records are there to prove that what the governor said never happened.
“In fact, the trial of Agba Jalingo is yet to commence. How could a plea of guilt be entered when there hasn’t been a trial yet?
“He also told the public that belonging to a political party in whatever capacity precludes Mr Jalingo from being a journalist.
“Without a doubt, this is a baseless accusation. There is no law which says that journalists cannot participate in politics.
“Governor Ayade also claimed that he has been providing financial support to Cross River Watch, an online blog founded and run by Agba Jalingo. Again, this is false.
“Cross River Watch was launched on August 27, 2012 with an office along IBB way in Calabar. Another office apartment was rented along Ndidem Usang-Iso Road, Calabar in 2013. At the time the management and staff of Cross River Watch moved into the new office in 2014, Mr Ayade was still a senator. He had no cause to and never did provide any financial support.
“At that time, he rather sought to counter the critical stance of Cross River Watch by sponsoring the founding of other online blogs with the sole purpose of discrediting Cross River Watch and thereby dissuade it from publishing news items that were perceived as anti-government.”
Free Jalingo Group also debunked claims by Ayade that he had been feeding and supporting the detained journalist for the five months he had been in jail.
It called on the governor to publicly prove his claims.
The group called on Nigerians and international community to force the governor to release the journalist, who they said had done nothing wrong other than reporting the truth.
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Real Reason EX-OOU Vice Chancellor, Soyode, Recommended Appointment Of Disgraced Lecturer As Education Commissioner In Ogun
Prof. Sidi Osho
Prof. Sidi Osho
A former Vice-Chancellor of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Prof Afolabi Soyode, who was allegedly suspended for financial misconduct while heading the institution, is among top personalities that recommended the appointment of Prof Sidi Osho as Commissioner for Education in Ogun State.
Osho was sacked while working as a lecturer at OOU by the institution’s management after being involved in some misconduct.
The Ogun State House of Assembly had delayed confirming her nomination by Governor Dapo Abiodun following the discovery that she was shamefully sacked from OOU.
But despite the revelation, the state government went ahead to appoint her as head of education ministry.
According to Osho’s dismissal letter dated April 18, 2016 with reference number OOU/ACA/P.1200/237, the Governing Council of OOU said that the Staff Professional Ethics and Discipline Committee headed by Prof Balogun Imam at the time submitted a report through the Appointment and Promotion Committee that found her guilty of gross misconduct and thus recommended her dismissal.
The Governing Council followed the recommendation and sacked her from the service of the institution.
Osho was said to have appealed to have her dismissal by the university commuted to retirement or withdrawal from service in other to keep her latest appointment as Commissioner for Education in Ogun State.
In another attempt to salvage the new position, Soyode who was allegedly suspended by the same university for financial mismanagement, wrote a glowing recommendation for Osho, attesting to her good nature and character.
In the recommendation, Soyode said that recent criticisms against her were lies and that they were fabricated to push her out of the institution.
According to a reliable university source, Soyode was suspended when Biyi Afonja, a professor of Statistics, was pro-chancellor of the institution.
When contacted over the matter, Prof Afonja declined to comment but did not dispel the incident.
Instead, he referred our correspondent to his book titled ‘I Smell Rat: a Pro-Chancellor’s Adventure in the University”.
When SaharaReporters reached out to Soyode over the matter, he denied ever being suspended for financial misconduct.
However, further findings by our correspondent revealed that Soyode’s problem began after the school’s branch of Academic Staff Union of Universities sent a petition to the management on his shady financial dealings, thereby exposing him.
After his suspension, Prof O Osilesi was appointed as Vice Chancellor of OOU in acting capacity.
Recall that on January 21, 2020, SaharaReporters had reported how Governor Abiodun appointed Adeleye Adewale Adebiyi and Joseph Odemuyiwa with questionable past as advisers in his government.
Despite being sued for certificate forgery and perjury by Remo North residents in the Federal High Court, Abeokuta, Adebiyi was still appointed by the state governor as one of his 18 advisers.
Odemuyiwa on his part in fact confirmed SaharaReporters’ story accusing him of certificate forgery.
The respected online news medium had published a story exposing how Odemuyiwa forged a letter of promotion to become associate professor when he left Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, to Kwara State University.
Apart from being sent packing from KWASU, the Ogun governor appointee was asked to refund all payment made to him upon his sack from the university.
Giving his own side of the story, Odemuyiwa accepted that his appointment did not pass through the normal process.
Governor Abiodun had on January 16, 2020, ordered all political appointees to produce their certificates and curriculum vitae after Osho’s story was published by SaharaReporters.
Since the order, the state government had kept mute on further findings as officials contacted refused to speak on the matter.
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Boko Haram: Danger Of A Single Story By Promise Eze
To say that Boko Haram is bent on slaughtering every Christian it can lay hand on is very accurate. But there’s another side to this long-held narrative.
A lot of Christians may find it hard to believe that BH also murder, maim, dismember, bludgeon and rape Muslims or probably they are only wont to ignore the fact that there are many Muslim girls languishing in the gulags of the terror group.
Boko Haram kill Muslims. The evidence is there. Only a few days ago suicide bombers attacked several mosques in Borno. Muslims were killed, some had their limbs ripped off. Many became childless and fatherless. Muslims are also at the receiving end of this violence.
I watched a documentary some time ago about young Muslim girls who were abducted by BH to serve as s** slaves. Now imagine I walk up to their parents and say, “Hey! Shut the hell up! BH only abduct and rape Christian girls.” Imagine the pain they’ll feel deep inside.
Boko Haram claims to have an Islamic agenda. To buttress this fact its fighters quote Quranic verses before slaughtering or beheading their captives. They chant, “Allahu Akbar” as they raid villages, pillage barracks, bomb schools, shoot market women and gun down laymen.
On beheadings, you should be aware that BH also behead Muslims most especially apprehended Muslim soldiers. You should also be aware that Boko Haram fighters chant “Allahu Akbar” when they kill other Muslims. In fact, it is not easy to decipher the intent of this terror group.
I am a Christian but at the same time I am an objective observer. I take time to read books written by authors from two opposing angles. I take time to listen to two opposing sides. It is wrong to cherry-pick opinions that fit your biases and leave the truth to rot.
Thousands of people have being displaced. They are are squatting in makeshift camps battling with hunger and pain. Many have lost family members; daughters, brothers, aunt, grandmothers to the cruelty of this terror groups. These victims are not Muslims alone. They comprise Christians, traditionalists, Muslims. These victims cut across adherents of diverse faiths.
Yes, BH draws its ideas from the Qur’an and the hadiths. It has been alleged to be sponsored by jihadists from the Middle-East or elsewhere. This is an indisputable fact. But how about the victims? Should we shut our ears to the cries of Muslims who are caught in the web of this malfeasance?
Well, on Boko Haram and its distorted and gruesome Islamic agenda, which I will keep mute about.
Boko Haram is friend to no one Christians, pagans and Muslims alike. Anyone who dares to speak up against it is bound to be attacked.
Promise Eze wrote in via @ezep645@gmail.com
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Agba Jalingo: Ben Ayade’s Tale By Moonlight By Kunle Wizeman Ajayi
Under fire over the wickedly role he has played in the illegal arrest and detention of Agba Jalingo; Governor Ben Ayade of Cross Rivers State has come up to buttress many of our insinuation and perception. Ayade has correctly shown that he is just the complainant, but Jalingo’s is a sinner against both the state and the Federal Government.
Ben Ayade, with his last press address has told us that the office of the attorney general is the prosecutor. The conspirators have owned up. No more media games.
That noted. There is a need to respond to some points Ayade mentioned. These points are threefold. One is that Agba Jalingo is his brother and has benefited economically from him before. Also, that Jalingo should be treated as a politician as he is the state chair of “Sowore’s party”; the African Action Congress. And that Agba Jalingo should not use the “power of the pen” to blackmail his government over the N500m that varnished.
Every man, in the sonorous words of Bob Marley, “has a right to decide his own destiny and in this judgement there is no partiality!” That Agba Jalingo is a brother to Ben Ayade and has benefited from him before does not tie his destiny to Ayade’s whims and caprices. Agba has a conscience and even if he eats in the same pot with the governor, once he decides to face the facts and stand against corruption; history and posterity stands with him. So, the governor and such others should know that while it is true that familiarity brings consent, allies have a duty to stand with the people once they see such monumental anomaly as the stealing of government funds. Agba Jalingo owes his loyalty to his conscience and the people.
Secondly, it is very correct that Agba Jalingo is the chair of the African Action Congress and as Agba would always say- “the only opposition party in Cross Rivers state since 1999.” His being part of the Sowore’s party and the #RevolutionNow movement puts him in the true side of history. Nigeria is being plunged in to mass poverty and hardship while war is being side-perpetrated. Journalists have a right to politics. The earlier politicians in Nigeria were journalists: Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and the likes.
To stop the obvious drums of war from the top; the obvious answer is a revolutionary change that will bring a new order of society without the scourges of greed and power. If Ayade and Buhari are afraid of the real opposition, their woes will be in multiple folds as Nigerians cannot continue to suffer while a tiny few keep starching their pockets with the billions that is meant for all. The great support by the mass of working people to Sowore and the #RevolutionNow movement shows that truly majority of Nigerians want another life, another country. By August 5, over five million people had gone on the internet to check the meaning of revolution. So, Ayade and his oppressor gang should know that we really are not alone. Nigerians have a right to remove a failed government like the current one!
And for the last postulation that Agba Jalingo should not use his brilliant journalism to “blackmail” a government under which N500m suddenly grew fast legs like Usian Bolt and zoomed off, Ayade reminds one of a thief that is arresting the owner of the stolen property. The thief, with immediate power of violence, becomes a temporary law unto itself and asks “why did you not tell me then that you still have more for me to steal?” The bush meat want to catch the hunter!
Such gospel from the criminal suspect be shamed with the resistance of all oppressed. We are all victims of these elements who dupe us and rob it off on our face at the same time. Beyond Cross Rivers, we must all stand up to tell the oppressors what we tell to bullies-“You can only try but the true fists will beat you off!”
#FreeAgbaJalingoNow, saying the truth must never be criminalised!
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Maryam Sanda: The World Has Moved On From Death Penalty By Seun Awogbenle
On Monday, January 27, Maryam Sanda was convicted of the murder of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello. Maryam, the mother of one, who was alleged to have stabbed her husband with a kitchen knife, was found guilty of the two-count homicide charge brought against her by the police. Justice Yusuf Halilu of the Federal High Court whom I consider a man of good conscience by the way, in imposing the mandatory death sentence on her, was quoted as saying ‘it has been said that thou shall not kill. Whoever kills in cold blood shall die in cold blood, Maryam Sanda should reap what she has sown, it is blood for blood”.
On its merit, this is abundantly true, that those who commit murder by taking the life of another have in turn forfeited their own right to life and do not deserve to live. This in fact, represent the current position of the law in Nigeria, specifically Section 221 of the penal code, but on the flipside, the law is at best archaic, antediluvian and incongruent with evolving realities. Today, an ever- increasing number of countries in the world are moving away from the mandatory death penalty, as it is now largely regarded as inconsistent with fundamental human rights protection.
Let’s be clear, with this intervention I do seek to undermine the enormity of Maryam’s crime, matter-of-factly, by taking the life of another person what she has done is abundantly evil and stands condemned. But the reality today is that Maryam’s case affords us the opportunity to interrogate and review the death penalty law at a time when countries of the world are already moving away from the practice. According to Amnesty international 2017, circa 142 countries, more than two-third of the countries of the world, have abolished the mandatory death penalty in law or practice. While it is true that death penalty sanction is a just form of retribution, the death penalty punishment is however not a more effective deterrent than the alternative sanction of life or long-term imprisonment, just as in the case of Maryam Sanda. Many have even questioned that if she is killed, who will then look after the child?
Cesare Beccaria in his 1764 treatise on Crimes and Punishment which has been widely regarded as a founding work in penology and classical criminology, argued that by legitimizing the very behaviour that the law seeks to repress which is Killing, Capital punishment such as death penalty is counterproductive in the moral message it conveys. The homily of Pope John Paul II during the Papal Mass at St. Louis, Missouri on January 27, 1999 is also quite instructive in this regard, while appealing that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil, Pope John Paul II described as cruel and unnecessary the death penalty punishment. Ditto the case of Maryam Sanda, and any other person who has committed murder, while they may have committed what could greatest of all evil, I disagree that they should be condemned to eternal damnation, life or long term imprisonment without the possibility of a parole or pardon offers a more pragmatic and effective deterrent.
When I first raised my objection to Maryam’s death sentence on social media, my good friend Shedrach Sanni who tweets @Shedcliff, asked a salient question which I consider the crux of the proponents of using death penalty as a deterrent. He said what about the family of the husband? I suppose he was simply asking what would I then consider as justice to the families of such victim, my simple response was that there is nothing that can represent true justice in the case of a murder, not even killing the criminal will give the deepest and equal sense of justice or honour to the victim. Here, it is easy to be dismissive and accuse me of sounding emotive just like my learned friend Oke Ridwan Esq has already done, but I believe that it is only when issues like this are interrogated from the unfettered realm of objective appraisal that we would realise that death penalty is not an effective deterrent to murder or crime in general.
I understand that Maryam has the right to appeal, but the reality today is that the world has moved on from death penalty, because death penalty has not stopped people from committing murder. While I admit that this is a very touchy conversation that even borders on religion, but I am confident that this is a conversation that we must have no matter how inconvenient. Nigeria cannot afford to be left behind, we need to repeal the death sentence practice to reflect global best practices. Regardless of the crime, people still deserve to live for renewal and restoration. I agree that death Penalty serves a critical purpose to remind people of the sanctity of human lives, but an eye for an eye would make the world go blind!
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How Nigerian Police Tortured, Killed Rivers Auto Repairer, Chima Ikwunado, After Extorting Him, Illegally Detained Four Others
Chima Ikwunado, a mechanic arbitrarily arrested, detained, extorted and tortured to death by men of the Nigerian Police Force in Rivers State, has been found innocent after the police said it couldn’t prove a case against the deceased and three others.
Chima and his apprentices, Victor Ogbonna, Osaze Friday, Ifeanyi Osuji and Ifeanyi Onyekwere were arrested for driving against traffic and tortured at Mile 1 Police Station by SP Benson Adetuyi.
At the point of arrest, the policemen took N93,000 found on Chima and remanded him on allegations of car theft.
In detention, he alongside others were tortured in the most brutal manner in spite a confirmation by owner of the vehicle that the car had not been stolen and that Chima was his mechanic only taking the car for a test run after routine repair.
SaharaReporters gathered that the owner of the vehicle was then coerced into stating that the car was indeed stolen to which he refused until he involved a senior officer in the Nigerian Air Force, who proved that he was the owner of the car.
A day after the car owner was let go, the men were charged to court on allegations of robbery and cult violence.
The police in a bid to cover up Chima’s killing as a result of torture, declared him to be ‘at large’.
On Wednesday however, the Nigerian Police Force failed to prove before the Magistrate Court in Port Harcourt the case of theft and cult violence brought against late Chima and others.
The magistrate ordered the release of the four men after finding no case against them.
The men had sores and infection all over their body as a result of the ill treatment they received in detention.
Chima is survived by a five-month pregnant wife.
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