Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Friday 28th August 2020
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 28/08/20
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The Emene Massacre! By Ozodinukwe Okenwa
Last Sunday in Emene, Enugu State, a massacre on a small scale of unarmed members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) took place tragically. According to reports online some members of the ‘proscribed’ Biafra nationhood agitators were having a meeting (some say Jewish praying session, others recruitment exercise) inside the Community Secondary School in Emene. And suddenly the Department of State Services (DSS) agents intervened and attempted to disperse the group and make arrests.
The young Biafrans put up a spirited resistance and that led to pandemonium breaking out. The DSS forces were overpowered and they called for reinforcements. Soon enough a detachment of the military, police and para-military security personnel arrived, armed to the teeth as if going to a war zone, engaging the IPOB boys in a bloody confrontation.
The forces fired live bullets into the surging crowd killing dozens and injuring scores! As the dust settled down the blood of the innocent Igbos flowed on the streets. Reports had it that some security elements were either killed or injured in the violent fracas as well.
The Emene massacre demonstrated yet again how not to quell a civilian non-violent gathering. It showed a callous manifestation of hate and low consideration for the lives of a strong ethnic group east of the Niger. Daily, provocative acts and actions tailored towards humiliation are dished out to a proud hard-working people.
Pray, why would the security goons (always) employ maximum force whenever issues arise involving IPOB members? Do they constitute greater threat to the so-called national security than the dreaded Boko Haram terrorists, armed and marauding Fulani herdsmen and other armed bandits terrorising Nigerians everywhere?
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E2%80%99t-waste-minute-signing-death-warrant-musician-accused-blasphemy-kano-governor I Won’t Waste A Minute Signing Death Warrant Of Musician Accused Of Blasphemy –Kano Governor, Ganduje
Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has said that he won’t waste a minute in signing the death warrant of the man, who was sentenced to death by a Sharia court for insulting Prophet Muhammad.
Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a musician, was on August 10 sentenced to death by a Shari’a court for committing alleged blasphemy against the Prophet of Islam in a song he circulated via WhatsApp.
Speaking at a gathering of religious leaders, legal practitioners security personnel and government officials at the Government House, Kano, on Thursday, Ganduje explained that the law of the land provides that the convicted person had the right to appeal within 30 days, which if it elapses and the warrant is brought before him, he will sign it.
He said, “The court has done its job and as a government we have provided the needed security.
“The judgment has taken place and the law of the land allows the person convicted to appeal further within 30 days to the high court and to the Appeal Court and to the Supreme Court as the case may be.
“Should at the end of it the warrant is presented before me, I will not waste time in signing it.
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Human Rights
SERAP, Lawyers Demand Reversal Of Death Sentence On Musician Accused Of Blasphemy Against Prophet Muhammad
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“On the second hand, if he does not appeal within the specified period, I will not spend a minute in signing the death warrant.”
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Buhari Not Sincere With Fight Against Insecurity, Says Afenifere Chieftain, Ayo Adebanjo
Ayo Adebanjo, a chieftain of Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of not being sincere in addressing the rising insecurity in Nigeria.
Pa Adebanjo spoke on Thursday while reacting to comments made by spokesperson for President Buhari, Garba Shehu, stating that the South-West security network, Amotekun, would be placed under the control of the Inspector-General of Police.
The Afenifere chieftain wondered why the Nigerian Government wants to control the structure of Amotekun in spite of it’s incompetence and failure to provide security for citizens.
Adebanjo said government was planning to cause constitutional crisis by such move, adding that any state had the right to establish its own security outfit.
He said, “We have been telling our people that President Muhammadu Buhari and his APC-led government were not serious about keeping this country together and ensuring our security.
“They want to dominate us. Under a federal constitution, every state has the responsibility to take care of its own security.
“So, why would the presidency now agree that there would be regional security outfits but not armed while the ones attacking us are heavily armed.
“The presidency is just looking for a crisis, this thing is going to cause a constitutional problem because all the iniquities we’ve been tolerating in the South-West is now approaching climax.”
Adebanjo added that if Nigeria want d to remain united, there was a need for restructuring, stressing that government needed to allow states to have their own security.
Insurgency
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Falana Writes Central Bank Of Nigeria, Demands Beneficiaries Of N338.6bn COVID-19 Intervention Fund
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has written a letter to the Central Bank of Nigeria, demanding detailed information on how the N338.6bn COVID-19 fund was spent.
Falana made the request in a letter dated August 17, 2020.
The letter reads, “Our attention has been drawn to an online report relating to the disbursement of the sum of the sum of N338.66bn as Coronavirus (COVID-19) intervention fund to beneficiaries across Nigerian states.
“Since the report did not capture the details of persons who benefitted from the disbursement of the funds, we hereby request in line with Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act that you avail us with the details of the disbursement.
“Having made this application in line with the Freedom of Information Act, you are requested to provide the said information within seven days of the receipt of this letter failing which shall not hesitate to commence a legal action against you.”
The CBN in a letter dated 26 August, 2020, however, requested for time to provide him with the information he asked for.
The CBN’s response to Falana’s letter was signed by Director of Corporate Secretariat/slSecretary to the Board, John Onojah.
“We refer to your letter dated 17th August, 2020 on the above matter and wish to inform you that the request is being processed and we will revert to you as soon as possible,” the apex bank said.
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BREAKING: Nigerian Government Postpones Resumption Date For International Flights
The Nigerian Government has postponed the date for the resumption of international flights.
The announcement was made on Thursday evening by the Ministry of Aviation during the Presidential briefing on COVID-19.
Announcing the news on Twitter, the ministry wrote, “Regret to announce that the international flights resumption earlier scheduled for 29th August has been shifted to 5th September 2020.”
Breaking: Regret to announce that the international flight resumption earlier scheduled to resume on 29th August has been shifted to 5th September 2020.#PTF on COVID-19#AviationNG pic.twitter.com/obihvYTKRV— Federal Ministry of Aviation, Nigeria (@fmaviationng) August 27, 2020
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The Enugu Massacre And Why Tribe Matters By Aloy Ejimakor
The invitation admittedly extended to the Army by Enugu Police Commissioner ahead of the deadly shooting at Emene was too prompt and bears stark evidence of premeditation for lethal violence against the Igbo element on the part of the Commissioner of Police.
This premeditation stems from the customary lack of compatriot empathy often exhibited by Northern Muslim security chiefs and other ranks towards Igbos when it comes to law enforcement of this kind, even when the target of such enforcement is, without regard to their numbers, unarmed and nonviolent.
From similar occurrences in this era, it is becoming clear that the only trigger required for security agents to unleash an assault of this magnitude is the slightest sign of a Biafran or IPOB insignia. Even a Biafran armband, bandana or a flag is considered enough.
This has always been the case from August 2015 when these easy mass murders of Igbos, under the guise of demonizing them as IPOB, got underway. That is why security agencies are too quick to rush to the media to characterize or spin such incidents as “clash” between security agents and IPOB. Simultaneously, they will tag along the hackneyed singsong that IPOB was declared a “terrorist group”, as if that endows them with the absolute license to kill at a whim.
So, as tribal considerations go, you can bet that the opposite would have been the case if an Igbo, a Southern, or even a moderate MiddleBelt officer was incharge, either at the theatre or locale of the assault or amongst the high commands where the rules of engagement are determined.
A lot of people don’t know this, but in the unique reckoning of Nigerian security operations, ‘shoot-to-kill’ instead of ‘shoot to maim’ is the standard rule of engagement when it comes to containing terrorists. They make no differentiation between a bomb-wielding Abubakar Shekau and an idealistic Igbo youth who is catching his nationalistic swag with a Biafran armband while correctly believing that he is exercising his constitutional rights to freedom of assembly and expression in his country and within the relative safety of his Igbo homeland. The only differentiation is that an Abubakar Shekau is more likely to be pardoned than and the Igbo killed once Nigeria dubiously convinces itself that such Igbo is an IPOB member.
So, as an Igbo – especially the youth – you will be lucky to be alive once someone fingers you as an IPOB member and points security agents to your direction. Within the purview of Nigeria’s retrograde security analysis, such ‘fingering’ will be promptly admitted as a ‘security report’ without more. So, chances are that you will be summarily executed in a contrived “clash” without any option of surrender or even maiming. Little wonder that the Enugu Police Commissioner unashamedly cited ‘security report’ as the core basis for the tremendous violence that was arrayed against those innocent souls.
This Enugu massacre is one too many that have combined to stoke the popular notion that the predominance of Northern Muslim (mostly Fulani) officers and other ranks in security formations in Southeast is deliberately geared to the greater oppression of the Igbo, not just the IPOB. This is why the declaration of IPOB as a terrorist group was seen by many as an ethnic-tinged maneuver to create a statutory plank to keeping the gutsy Igbo in line.
The historical dangers of a tribally-imbalanced security leadership for Nigeria terrified the framers of the 1999 Constitution to the point that – pivoting on the Armed Forces as the exemplar – they enacted at Section 217(3) that ‘the composition of the officer corps and other ranks of the Armed Forces of the Federation shall reflect the federal character of Nigeria’. In plain terms, it means that the Igbo or natives of Southeast shall not be excluded. But the opposite is the case and it seems to sit well Nigerians who desire the nation to be one. Incredible!
And at Section 14(3), the same Constitution provides that, ‘the composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies shall ensure that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few States or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or any of its agencies’. Again, this means that the Igbo shall be equal partakers. But they are not. Yet, Igbos are taunted with the 2023 Presidency of Nigeria. Pray, how can you be President of a country you are not a partaker, or that disdains you to the point of extrajudicial murder.
To be sure, all the security agencies – the Army, Airforce, Navy, Police, DSS, NIA, etc – are all Federal and thus belonging to all Nigerians, like it or not. So, it’s uncanny and somewhat sinister that – since 2015 – those that are ruling Nigeria have deliberately violated the Constitution by notoriously excluding the Igbo from the security architecture of Nigeria. This is beside the exclusion from the rest of what makes Nigeria tick.
Under these circumstances, these killings of Ndigbo in their homeland will surely continue until Ndigbo collectively resorts to scotched-earth civil disobedience and other countervailing measures that will compel the Nigerian State to do right by de-proscribing the IPOB and balancing-out Nigeria’s Federal leadership (security and civilian, alike). Should such measures fail to encourage Nigeria to see reason and abide by the clear letters of its Constitution, then Ndigbo should be well-advised to start consulting with Nnamdi Kanu without further ado. Enough said!
Ejimakor, a Lawyer writes from aejimakor@gmail.com
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Aloy Ejimakor
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E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98mighty-stream-righteousness%E2%80%99-wole-soyinka Martin Luther King’s ‘MIGHTY STREAM OF RIGHTEOUSNESS’ By Wole Soyinka
Professor Wole Soyinka
On Friday, February 28th, our kinfolk in the United States, standing shoulder to shoulder with their white compatriots of conscience who have repudiated, or are laboring to discard the privileged mores of a culture of racist disdain, will re-enact the great march on Washington that was once led by Martin Luther King. They will re-awaken the convictions that gave birth to the world acclaimed oration of the twentieth century, delivered by the militant preacher and advocate of non-violence.
Coming in the wake of movements inspired by the horrifying last utterance of one black victim after another – “I Cannot Breathe” – now known and shared across the world as BLACK LIVES MATTER, one’s mind compulsively wanders over certain portions of that speech. This is hardly surprising in my case, since – I here reveal – I once declaimed portions of that speech – and in French to boot! – in 1989, in Paris. That national event took place under the 200th Anniversary Monument to the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen’, a product of the French Revolution – a word I suppose we should use only with government permission these days!
Again, like millions of others on this continent, but most immediately within the Nigerian borders, I have mulled over that watershed episode over and over again. Within the past few days however, like millions of others, I have been compelled to re-phrase that earlier mentioned global litany to read: DO NIGERIAN LIVES MATTER? DO FARMERS’ LIVES MATTER? DO IPOD LIVES MATTER? DO INNOCENT LIVES MATTER? And most disturbingly: DO FUTURE LIVES MATTER?
One passage in Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” has leapt to the forefront as a warning that relates to that final interrogatory – DO FUTURE LIVES MATTER? And it does so in a most literal manner, one that MLK could never have envisioned! It persists in echoing through the mind, reinforced by the recent killings of innocent humanity – mostly youths – in Enugu, by state forces, under the pretext – shall we presume? – of preventing secessionist agitations? More of that in the fullness of mandatory and transparent investigation before the entire nation. For now, we must return to the MLK proclamation, one that is fortuitously pertinent to a structural provocation that is poised to rip apart the remaining shreds of pretense that continue to hold this nation together as one. The passage under reference goes thus:
“No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Sometimes, and in some unintended circumstances, words descend from their heights of rhetorical flourish to hit us right in the guts of daily survival and anxieties for future existence. From metaphor, they turn literal! Such are the implications embedded in those words:
“…until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream”
Nothing mysterious. Let me remind you of the ongoing diabolical scenario that justifies the evocation of that warning, near literally!
A roundly condemned project, blasted out of sight by public outrage one or two years ago, is being exhumed and sneaked back into service by none other than a failed government, and with the consent of a body of people, supposedly elected to serve as custodians of the rights, freedoms and existential exigencies of millions. This bill – BILL ON NATIONAL WATER RESOURCES 2020 is designed to hand Aso Rock ABSOLUTE CONTROL over the nation’s entire water resources, both over and underground.
The basic facilitator of human existence, water – forget for now all about streams of righteousness! – is to become exclusive to one centralized authority. It will be doled out, allocated through power directives from a desensitized rockery that cannot even boast of the water divining wand of the prophet Moses. If the current presiding genius – and this applies equally to ALL his predecessors without exception – had a structured vision of Nigerian basic entitlements, Nigerians would by now, be able to boast the means of fulfilling even that minimalist item of CORVID 19 protocols that call for washing one’s hands under running water! As for potable water, for drinking and cooking, let us not even begin to address such extra-terrestrial undertaking!
What next for the exclusive list? The rains? I declare myself in full agreement with virtually every pronouncement of alarm, outrage, opprobrium, and repudiation that have been heaped upon this bill and its parentage, both at its first outing and since this recent re-emergence. It is time to move beyond denunciations however and embark on practical responses for its formal deactivation and permanent internment. Let all retain in their minds that, from the same source that preached the “streams of righteousness” is encountered the promise of “no more floods, the fire next time.” In any case, let the promulgators of this obscenity, high and low, understand that the placid waters they think to control unjustly and grotesquely, will turn to be Martin Luther King’s “ mighty stream of righteousness” that will overwhelm and sweep them off their complacent, and increasingly loathsome sectarian, conspiratorial heights.
One polluted stream of human existence compounds the next. A violation here joins forces with its tributary of resentment there yonder, all seemingly unconnected. Martin Luther King’s streams of righteousness turn into a mighty torrent of repulse that overwhelms the perpetrators but, alas, takes down much else as collateral, irreparable damage. That is the only cause for regret and – restraint. Hence our duty to position that anguished question frontally, and call the world to witness our open propagation of that challenge: DO FUTURE LIVES MATTER?
Let Buhari and his myrmidons ponder that question in the deepest recesses of their hearts and minds. They should not bequeath to future generations the harvest of the grapes of wrath!
Wole SOYINKA
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Police Kill Motorcycle Rider Over N50 Bribe In Oyo
Police officers in Oyo State on Wednesday beat a motocycle rider identified as Biola to death at Born Photo area of Ibadan, the state capital.
Information show that Biola was on his way to the hospital to pick his wife when he was killed for refusing to pay the policemen a bribe of N50.
A witness, who identified himself simply as Segun, said he was on his way to work when he witnessed the scene.
He alleged that policemen in the area daily engaged in the extortion of commercial bus drivers and motorcyclists popularly called Okada.
“The officers stopped the deceased and were trying to extort money from him but he did not give them because he was rushing to the hospital to pick his wife.
“The officers insisted that he must give them money and weren’t listening to anything he was saying. Next thing we knew, one of them went to his side, hit him with his gun. Not satisfied, others joined and he was beaten mercilessly until he died,” the witness said.
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Group Uncovers Fake Delegates List At PENGASSAN Election, Alleges Plot To Foist Candidate On Others
A group under the aegis of PENGASSAN United has said that it has uncovered a list containing names of non-delegates at the ongoing 6th Triennial National Delegates Conference of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria.
The conference taking place at the NAF Center in Abuja was on Thursday declared opened by President Muhammadu Buhari, who was represented by Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva.
It was gathered that the delegates list of Petroleum Training Institute was allegedly forged as against the original list, which contained names of authentic delegates submitted and endorsed by the chairman and secretary of the association.
Trouble started when members of PENGASSAN United sighted the names of those that lost at the branch election in the list of the institute while the elected delegates were denied access into the venue of the election.
The group quickly raised the alarm and insisted that the accreditation team should not recognise those names, which led to the altercation at the venue.
The drama, which lasted for 30 minutes,.was later brought under control when the accreditation officials agreed and expunged the names allegedly smuggled into the list.
General-Secretary of the association, Lumumba Okugbawa, was accused of being the brains behind the ficticious names when he singlehandedly overturned the decision of the election petition panel and asked a group to swear in those that lost in the election.
Findings revealed that there were plans by some people in the association, who have connived with some external forces, to subjugate the will of the people in the election of the leadership of the association.
A reliable source at the conference, who pleaded not to be mentioned, alleged that various government sectors have shown undue interest in the election of the leadership of the association with a view to foisting their candidates on them.
He said, “What we are doing today is to change PENGASSAN and give it the life it deserves. As far as we are concerned, the government is more interested in a union that is docile.
“But it is not going to be easy battle because we have forces from government and various sectors trying to deny people who are supposed to be legitimate delegates to this conference access. They know that they are going to vote for the progressives.
“There are some branches being targeted to change their delegates lists in order to subjugate the will of the people and deny them right to vote.
“They mobilised those who lost election and put their names in the delegates list. We fought that battle this morning and won and we believe that we will continue the battle until the will of the progressives prevail.”
The two candidates vying for the office of President of the national body of the association are Festus Osifo and Rowland Oju Fredricks.
Other positions being contested include Deputy President, National IRO, Treasurer, Financial Secretary, PRO, Auditor 1, Auditor 2 and Chairperson NWIP.
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BREAKING: President Buhari Sacks Prof Dokubo, Appoints Dikio As Coordinator Amnesty Programme
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday sacked Prof Charles Dokubo from his role as Coordinator, Amnesty Programme.
The President said the sack was to take immediate effect as he also approved the appointment of Milland Dixion Dikio as Interim Administrator, Amnesty Programme, with effect from August 21, 2020.
Making the announcement, spokesperson for Buhari, Garba Shehu, said, “Prof Dokubo has been directed to hand over all official matters to the most senior officer of the programme.
“President Buhari appreciates the services of Prof Dokubo to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and wishes him the best in his future endeavours.”
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