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Court Declares Men Not Guilty Of Murder Charge After Spending 36 Years In Prison

Published

4 years ago

November 27, 2019

Three men in Baltimore, United States, who spent 36 years in prison were found innocent on Monday, November 25, of the 1983 murder of a teenage boy who was shot dead over a jacket.

Alfred Chestnut, Andrew Stewart and Ransom Watkins were serving life sentences for the shooting of DeWitt Duckett, a 14-year-old student at Harlem Park Junior High School in West Baltimore.

Duckett was shot in the neck inside his school and had his Georgetown University jacket stolen. It was the first fatal shooting of a student in a Baltimore public school and drew widespread press attention at the time.

“These three men were convicted, as children, because of police and prosecutorial misconduct,” Baltimore state’s attorney, Marilyn Mosby, said after the three were formally exonerated by a city circuit court judge and released from prison.

“What the state, my office, did to them is wrong,” Mosby said. “They deserve so much more than an apology. We owe them real compensation — and I plan to fight for it.”

In a statement, the state’s attorney office said “detectives targeted the three men, all 16-year-old Black boys, using coaching and coercion of other teenage witnesses to make their case.”

According to the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project (MAIP), which worked to secure the release of the “Harlem Park Three,” four teenage witnesses identified Chestnut, Stewart and Watkins at their trial but later recanted their testimony.

The witnesses initially said one person committed the shooting but identified the three as the assailants under pressure from police, the MAIP said in a statement

Chestnut was later seen wearing a Georgetown jacket but his mother produced a receipt for the jacket of the university made popular by its basketball team.

At a press conference following the release of the three, Watkins said “this should have never happened.”

“Somebody’s got to pay for this,” he said. “You can’t just leave this like this.

“This fight is not over,” Watkins said. “You all will hear from us again.”

The exoneration of the three men followed a joint investigation by the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit, MAIP and other groups.

Vanguard

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243 Passengers Cheat Death As Air Peace Plane Makes Emergency Landing At Lagos Airport

Published

2 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Editor

An Air Peace plane coming from Port Harcourt made an emergency landing at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, on Thursday after the pilots noticed a fire warning indicator in the cockpit.

The aircraft, which had 243 passengers and 12 crew members on board, landed safely at 4:45pm on Runway18L of the Lagos airport.

The pilots immediately shut down the engines of the aircraft after fire fighting personnel reportedly observed smoke on the engines.

The call sign of the aircraft is: APK7193.

Air Peace, in a statement, said it was later discovered that the fire warning noticed in the cockpit was false.

The statement was titled, “Notification of false fire alarm on Port Harcourt-Lagos flight.”

It reads, “We wish to inform the flying public of an incident that occurred during our Port Harcourt-Lagos flight P47193 of today, April 25, 2024.

“Some minutes before landing, our Captain noticed a fire warning indicator in the cockpit. The pilots performed all safety precautionary measures, and the fire indicator went off. The Captain immediately notified our Operations Control Centre in Lagos at 17:37 hrs.

“It was determined upon landing that the alarm was falsely triggered as there was no fire event. The aircraft landed safely, and all passengers disembarked normally.

“We want to reassure the flying public that safety remains our utmost priority, and we are unwavering in our commitment to it.”

News

Citizens Groan As Petrol Sells For Over N1000 Per Litre In Kaduna

Published

3 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Editor

There was acute fuel scarcity in Kaduna metropolis on Thursday, as majority fuel stations were not dispensing fuel, leaving those selling at the black market hiked the price to over N1000 a litre of petrol.

The situation caused hardship on computers, as many were seen trekking to their various places of destination due to sudden hike in transport fare.

Two State University students, Ahmad and Shehu said before the scarcity, they paid N200 fare from Kawo to the Kaduna State University but now it’s between N300 to 400.

“Many have resorted to trekking in order to reduce the distance, but the hot weather has not made it easy,” said Shehu.

Major roads had fewer vehicles as the situation had made car owners to park their vehicles until the fuel situation becomes affordable.

However, there was a long queue at a fuel situation dispensing petrol in Kaduna North, where it was alleged they hiked the pump price to between N750 and N810 per litre.

A journey that previously cost N150 from Signboard Junction to the Central Market, was hiked to between 200 to 250 by the commercial operators due to the scarcity.

Malam Sabo, a commercial bus driver said he bought fuel at the black market for N1,200 per litre, and he could only make a profit if he increased the transport fare.
VANGUARD

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FG Targets 2.5m Jobs Through LEEP

Published

3 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Editor

The Federal Government on Thursday said that the Labour Employment and Empowerment Programme (LEEP), a flagship of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, is capable of creating at least 2.5 million direct and indirect jobs for Nigerians.

The government explained that LEEP targets zero hunger, zero poverty economic growth and decent jobs through six strategic initiatives which are digital skills initiative, vocational entrepreneurship skills programmes, infrastructural upgrade, NELEX upgrade for employment acceleration, global remote work initiative and labour compliance enhancement.

Speaking at the unveiling of the programme in Abuja, the Minister of State for Labour, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, urged development partners such as the World Bank, GIZ, the European Union, UNIDO and the Bank of Industry to support the drive of the current administration to mitigate the hardship Nigerians were undergoing.

Insisting that poverty could be eradicated in the country, the Minister said that her ministry has so many structures that could take care of all the issues mostly neglected in Nigeria if they were ignited.

She said six out of the eight agendas under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda are under the labour ministry, adding that it was time to take deliberate actions and think out of the box to make life more meaningful for Nigerians.

The Minister expressed optimism that within four years about one million jobs should have been created through LEEP.

According to Onyejeocha, “We are in a position where we need to reposition the labour ministry. The world is moving towards technology and digitalisation and we don’t want to be left behind.

“We can’t do it alone and so we need to partner with you to help us succeed in the country. Mr President during his campaign was clear about where he wanted to take Nigeria. Today we want to be deliberate, and accurate to key into the renewed hope agenda and we want to solicit your support to help us in achieving our key performance index.

“The ministry is out to make sure poverty is reduced if not totally eradicated through job creation. If we create enough decent jobs it will reduce a lot of the problems we have today including insecurity.

“We want to make sure Nigeria have food to eat, ensure regulation and workers welfare. Also, empowerment is very critical so we are going to be very deliberate to empower people with what they can use to start up their own business and become employers of labour.

“When you do this deliberately, poverty will be reduced, empowerment will be real and training will be impactful.”