Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Tuesday 25th August 2020
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 25/08/20
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President Buhari Condemns Boko Haram Attack On United Nations Building In Abuja
President Buhari received representatives of UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and Heads of UN Agencies in Nigeria
President Muhammadu Buhari has again condemned the attack on the office of the United Nations by Boko Haram terrorists in 2011.
A car filled with explosives had on August 21, 2011, rammed into the building, setting off an explosion that killed 23 UN staff, including Nigerians in the first suicide bomb attack in Nigeria.
Witnesses said the car ran through various gates leading to the UN main building as armed guards opened fire to stop it.
President Buhari receives representatives of UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and Heads of UN Agencies in Nigeria
Days later, the then spokesperson for Boko Haram, Abu Kaka, who is believed to have been killed by the military, claimed credit for the attack on behalf of his group.
The bombing, which levelled the lower floor of the facility, left 76 people injured.
Speaking on Monday in Abuja when he received a delegation led by the UN Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, President Buhari noted that the attack by the terrorists was regrettable.
He, however, said the reconstruction of the UN building by the government was in full appreciation of the work of the international organisation.
He also welcomed commendations by the UN on efforts to restore security, strengthen institutions against corruption, improve health facilities, and rebuilding of the multilateral institution’s office.
He said, “Thank you for what you have been doing in the country, especially for women and children. I am glad you have put together a dedicated team to work with us.
“I am very impressed with the number of programmes you are carrying out, and I hope that our ministers will continue to cooperate with you.”
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PDP Petitions Police, Calls For Arrest Of Former Ondo APC Chairman, Kekemeke, For Inciting Violence In Viral Video
The Peoples Democratic Party has called on security agencies in Ondo State to immediately arrest a former Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in the state, Mr Isaacs Kekemeke, for inciting and threatening violence ahead of the October 10, 2020 governorship election in the state.
Kekemeke had in a viral video said the APC was prepared to win the governorship election at all cost using “federal might”.
The APC chieftain also added that the ruling party would also contract thugs and members of the National Union of Road Transports Workers to rig the election.
Addressing journalists on Monday in Akure, Fatai Adams, Chairman of the PDP in Ondo State, said they had already written a petition to security agencies to take action on Kekemeke’s inciting statement.
Adams noted that the party was surprised seeing Kekemeke in the viral video justifying the destruction of campaign billboards and posters of the PDP candidate, Eyitayo Jegede, by hoodlums allegedly working for the APC.
He said, “So, we are surprised that up till now security agencies have not apprehended Isaacs Kekemeke to answer for his utterances that are capable of precipitating crisis and setting Ondo State on fire ahead of the gubernatorial election.
Video of APC Chieftain Caught On Tape Threatening To Cause Violence, Disrupt Ondo 2020 Governorship Election
APC Chieftain Caught On Tape Threatening To Cause Violence, Disrupt Ondo 2020 Governorship Election
WATCH VIDEO: APC Chieftain Caught On Tape Threatening To Cause Violence, Disrupt Ondo 2020 Governorship Election
“We have sent letters to security agencies this morning (Monday). The security agencies are representatives of Mr President (Muhammadu Buhari) and we believe through this, he will intervene.
“We are doing this to guarantee free and fair election in the state during the forthcoming gubernatorial election on October 10, 2020.
“His statement was careless, very reckless and unbecoming of a man who parades himself as a lawyer. By his utterances, he’s a huge disgrace to his profession and party. We believe the security agencies will be able to handle this.”
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Youths Protest Outcome Of Ondo Council Election, Accuse Commissioner Of Electoral Malpractice
Following Saturday’s local government election in Ondo State, some youth in Akure North Local Government Area have protested against the violence and irregularities, which marred the exercise.
The youth, who took to the streets, complained that the election result especially in Oba Ile had been declared at the ward centres but were surprised it was put on hold during announcement.
A total of 10 political parties participated in the election, which held in the 18 local government areas of the state.
The All Progressives Congress was declared winner in all the local government areas while the Peoples Democratic Party and Zenith Labour Party boycotted the election.
Armed with placards, the protesting youth also accused a serving commissioner in the state of hijacking election materials in Oba Ile.
Speaking during the protest, one of the youth and councillorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Mr Johnson Faloye, said he was declared winner in the election in Unit 09 of Oba Ile in Akure North Local
Government Area but the result was manipulated in favour of his opponent in APC, Korede Folorunsho.
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Violence, Irregularities, Voter Apathy Mar Ondo Local Council Election
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2 Days Ago
He alleged that the commissioner led some armed thugs to polling units in the town to hijack ballot papers and thumbprint them in favour of the APC councillorship candidate.
He said, “We want the commissioner to be called to order and let him stay off the election exercise that was held in Oba Ile.
“We are asking ODIEC to abide by the result that was declared inside Ejioba Secondary School in Oba Ile collation centre in order to avoid any violence as people are already boiling with anger.”
Chairman of Ondo State Independent Electoral Commission, Prof Yomi Dinakin, said the election was cancelled in some of the units and wards in the state due to violence, irregularities, and reported cases of snatching of ballot boxes.
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APC Sweeps Ondo Council Election, PDP Faults Conduct Of Exercise
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He disclosed that the electoral body would conduct a rerun in units were the exercise was cancelled on a date that would be announced soon.
Mr Tee-Leo Ikoro, spokesperson for the Ondo State Police Command, said they were yet to receive any complaint of violence or snatching of election materials on the exercise.
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Former CBN Deputy Governor, Mailafia, Shuns Police Invitation Over Boko Haram Comments, Heads To Court
A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr Obadiah Mailafia, has approached a high court in Plateau State for the enforcement of his fundamental rights to personal liberty and fair hearing.
Mailaifa also failed to honour the invitation by the police in Abuja on Monday.
The police had last week invited Mailafia to appear at the Force Headquarters for “criminal investigation”.
Mailafia had during a radio programme said repentant Boko Haram members had revealed to him that a serving Northern governor was a commander of the terrorist group.
Speaking during a press conference on Monday in Jos, Mailafia’s legal team said the suit had been filed challenging the letter of invitation.
The legal team is also asking the court to make a judicial pronouncement on the letter.
He described the invitation as an intimidation, harassment, persecution, and witch hunt.
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BREAKING: Police Invite Mailafia For Questioning On Monday Over Boko Haram Comments
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“The service of the letter of invitation on Dr Mailafia by the Nigeria Police Force through the office of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police Force Criminal Investigation Department is strange and alien to our extant laws and procedure.
“It is critically imperative to state that the case the Nigeria Police Force is an investigation where the name of Dr Obadiah Mailafia purportedly featured prominently can not be unconnected and unrelated with the case the DSS is investigating against him which borders on internal security
“It is sacrosanct to note also that the DSS is the only statutory body empowered by law to investigate alleged crime against internal security, not the Nigeria Police Force.
“Section 3 (a) of the security agency act eloquently stipulates this position and in consonance with the said provision, the DSS had assumed investigation into the matter. For the purpose of clarity and emphasis, the DSS is still investigating Dr Obadiah Mailafia in respect of the said matter.”
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Gunmen Break Into Kaduna School, Abduct Students Preparing For Exams
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Armed men on Monday invaded Prince Academy in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, abducting many students and escaping with them to an unknown destination.
The gunmen, who stormed Damba-Kasaya community in large numbers on motorcycles, also raided many houses in the area before heading to the school.
The students were preparing for their Junior Secondary School examinations when they were abducted around 9am.
Mohammed Jalige, spokesperson for the Kaduna State Police Command, told SaharaReporters that he hasn’t been briefed about the incident.
“I’m just hearing this from you, I have been at the ongoing police screening exercise since morning, I will get back to you as soon as I get details about the incident,” he said.
The development comes as many parts of Kaduna State remain under attack from armed bandits.
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Olympic Legend, Usain Bolt, Tests Positive For COVID-19
Jamaican athlete and Olympic legend, Usain Bolt, has reportedly tested positive for Coronavirus and entered self-isolation.
The retired sprinter turned 34 on Friday and is believed to have tested positive for COVID-19 after a check some days ago.
According to Jamaican outlet nationwide radio, Bolt has begun his self-isolation and it is unclear whether he is showing symptoms of the virus.
The report adds that Bolt was thrown a surprise birthday party by family and friends, with Manchester City star Raheem Sterling and Bayer Leverkusen winger Leon Bailey among the guests.
The eight-time Olympic gold medalist holds the 100m and 200m world records and retired from the track in 2017 after suffering an injury in his final race.
Stay Safe my ppl ðŸ™ðŸ¿ pic.twitter.com/ebwJFF5Ka9— Usain St. Leo Bolt (@usainbolt) August 24, 2020
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E2%80%99s-aide-involved-accident-abuja-kaduna-highway BREAKING: Governor El-Rufai’s Aide Involved In Accident On Abuja-Kaduna Highway
Picture from the accident scene
Picture from the accident scene
Hafiz Bayero, a special adviser to Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, was on Monday involved in an accident on the Kaduna-Abuja Highway.
Details of the accident were still sketchy at the time of this report but a photograph of the accident scene obtained by SaharaReporters showed the extent of damage.
People around the scene managed to bring Bayero out of his vehicle with number plate 12E-04KD.
Picture from the accident scene
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A Case Against Blasphemy In Nigeria By Leo Igwe
Leo Igwe
Nigeria’s blasphemy laws have been of focus locally, nationally and internationally following the arrest and detention of Nigerian humanist, Mubarak Bala, the sentencing to death of a Muslim singer, and the imprisonment of a 13-year-old boy for blasphemy in Kano State in Northern Nigeria.
It would appear that Muslim theocrats – within the police and the courts – have gone to great lengths to subvert constitutional provisions and international human rights norms in their quest to enforce the ‘blasphemy’ provision. For instance, the police arrested Bala, who is the President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, at his residence in Kaduna on April 28, 2020. They took him to Kano the following day, where they have held him incommunicado ever since. The arrest was at the instance of lawyers who lodged a petition with the Kano State Police Command complaining that Bala had insulted the prophet of Islam in a Facebook post.
Leo Igwe
Before his arrest, Bala received death threats from Muslims who were angry over his posts and comments on Facebook, including a Kano State police officer. Police have failed to meet their Constitutional obligation to charge Bala within 48 hours of his arrest. Efforts to enforce Bala’s rights have met a brick wall. The police have not given Bala access to a lawyer. They have not formally charged him in court. There is no information regarding where he is held or the condition of his detention. There is no independent confirmation that Bala is still alive. Bala has a wife and a 6-month old son. His wife has petitioned the police and the parliamentarians urging them to give her access to her husband without success.
Kano is among the 12 states that uphold Sharia laws in Northern Nigeria and is notorious for jailing or murdering alleged blasphemers or desecrators of the Quran. Under Sharia law, the punishment for ‘blasphemy’ is death; however, in the parallel Common Law system, the same crime is seen as a misdemeanour punishable by up to two years in prison. In Northern states allegations of ‘blasphemy’ can end in the extrajudicial killing of the accused.
In the case of Bala, the police and government in Kano State are in a dilemma. They are unable to try Bala in a Sharia court and sentence him to death as many individuals in Kano are demanding. Only Muslims are subject to Sharia law; Bala is not a Muslim. He was born into a Muslim family but Bala renounced Islam in 2014. If the police must try Bala, it would be in a secular state court, not in a Sharia court. Even if the sentence is passed on Bala, the penalty would not placate the extremist base that is behind the petition. So, it would appear that, instead of prosecuting Mubarak Bala as required by law, the police and government in Kano disappeared him to appease the Muslim majority base.
In the cases of the 22-year old singer, Yahaya Aminu-Sharif and 13-year-old Umar Farouq, the allegations of ‘blasphemy’ have been handled differently. Both are Muslims and were tried and sentenced in Sharia courts. Aminu-Sharif was accused of insulting the Prophet of Islam in a song that he circulated on Whatsapp in March. His ‘offense’ was that they lyrics suggested that the Senegalese scholar, Ibrahim Nyass, was greater than Prophet Muhammad. Whilst Farouq was accused of making remarks that insulted the Islamic god, Allah. Even though Aminu-Sharif has 30 days to appeal, some Muslim bodies, like the Muslim Lawyers Association, the Council of Imams, and the Supreme Council for Sharia have issued statements urging the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to immediately authorize the execution of Aminu-Sharif. If some counter pressure is not brought to bear on the Kano State Governor, Aminu-Sharif will be executed. Or he may, as in the case of other members of the Sufi Order convicted for blasphemy in 2015, be left to languish in jail.
Nigeria is a religiously pluralistic country in which an individual’s ethnicity has a bearing on religious demographics. The Hausa-Fulani ethnic group, which is most populous in Northern Nigeria, are predominantly Muslim while the Igbo, a major ethnic group in the south is predominantly Christian. Meanwhile no single religion is in the majority throughout the country. Muslims, who are in the majority in the north are in the minority in Southern Nigeria. Whilst Chirstians, who are in the majority in Southern Nigeria, are in the minority in the north. Nigeria has a volatile ethno-religious mix and ethno-religious violence often erupts. The application of ‘blasphemy’ laws reinforces ethno-religious hatred and intolerance.
Nigeria needs to repeal laws that legitimize religious violence, oppression, and persecution. ‘Blasphemy’ laws are enshrined in both the Sharia and state penal codes. However, these laws are seldom invoked, except in the Muslim dominated states in Northern Nigeria. ‘Blasphemy laws are incompatible with human rights, tolerant pluralism and peace. ‘Blasphemy’ is a victimless crime. ‘Blasphemy’ laws make a mockery of the justice system in Nigeria because laws are there to protect individuals, and not to protect ideologies, beliefs or dogma – however important these may be to people.
Laws are made to guarantee and not violate the rights of human beings. Incidentally, blasphemy laws are used to flagrantly deny basic human rights, including the rights to life, freedom of religion or belief, and freedom of expression. As the cases of Bala, Aminu-Sharif and Farouq have shown, blasphemy laws sanctify religious tyranny and impunity. They are used to legitimize the oppression of minorities, to justify extrajudicial murder, arson, and attacks.
‘Blasphemy’ laws are only a legal recipe for chaos, anarchy, and conflicts in Nigeria. In the interest of peace, justice, and progress, Nigeria should abolish these unjust, incoherent and archaic laws.
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Mali Soldiers Agree To Release President, Want Three-Year Stay In Power
The military officials that seized power in Mali want a military-led transitional body to rule the country for three years and has agreed to release deposed President, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, a source in a visiting West African delegation told AFP.
“The junta has affirmed that it wants a three-year transition to review the foundations of the Malian state. This transition will be directed by a body led by a soldier, who will also be head of state,” the source in the ECOWAS delegation said.
“The government will also be predominantly composed of soldiers under the military government’s proposal,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
Leaders of the military government led by Colonel Assimi Goita and mediators from ECOWAS, West Africa’s regional bloc, led by Nigeria’s former President, Goodluck Jonathan, met behind closed doors all day on Sunday.
“We have been able to agree on a number of points but not yet on all the discussions,” Jonathan told reporters on Sunday night after some nine hours of negotiations.
The AFP source said the military government had agreed to “free President Keita”, who has been detained along with other political leaders since the coup on Tuesday, and he “will be able to return to his home” in Bamako.
“And if he wants to travel abroad for treatment, that is not a problem,” the ECOWAS source said.
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Nigerian Government Borrows 5,000MT Of Grains From ECOWAS To Feed Citizens
The Nigerian Government has said it borrowed over 5,000mt of grains from the Economic Community of West Africa States to feed citizens as hunger bites harder.
Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mustapha Baba-Shehuri, disclosed this while receiving the 3,999 tonnes of cereals donated to Nigeria by ECOWAS with its donors and financial partners.
The minister said the donation would be used to support the most vulnerable populations to help mitigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
He said, “The Government of Federal Republic of Nigeria loaned 5,000MT of assorted grains from ECOWAS Stock which was agreed to be paid back on grain for grain basis.
“Modalities had been put in place to replace the ECOWAS Stock before the advent of COVID-19 Pandemic. That notwithstanding, I can assure you that the Stock will be replaced in due course.
“In order to address the incessant worrying food crisis in the West African Sub- region especially the Sahel, the Heads of Government of ECOWAS member states decided to set up Regional Food Security Reserve (RFSR) Programme.
“This necessitated the signing of a Contract Agreement between ECOWAS and the Ministry’s Department of Food & Strategic Reserve on 7th July, 2017.
“This includes keeping a substantial quantity of food in her Food Reserve that can be used for interventions in case of emergencies and to boost food security within the ECOWAS member States.”
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