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Group Drags Southwest, Edo, Kogi, Kwara Governors To Court Over Kidnapping, Banditry

Published

1 year ago

December 21, 2022

Editor

A pan-Yoruba group, Yoruba Koya Leadership and Training Foundation (YKLTF), has dragged the governors of Yoruba-speaking Southwest states to a Federal High Court over the worsening insecurity conditions in the region.

The suit, marked No. IB/CS/189/22, filed at the Ibadan division of the Federal High Court, also sued governors of Kwara, Kogi and Edo states, because of Yoruba speaking population in their states.

In the suit filed by the group’s lawyer, Mr Tayo Douglas, plaintiffs said that they resolved to take the legal path due to the seeming lackadaisical attitude of the governors towards the plight of the citizens in their respective states in the area of security.

The plaintiffs, Otunba Ayodeji Osibogun, Prof. Bisi Sowunmi, Chief (Mrs) Ronke Okusanya, Senator Olatokunbo Ogunbanjo and Mr Olakunle Osuntokun, who sued on behalf of themselves and registered trustees of the Yoruba Koya Leadership and Training Foundation, specifically asked the court for an “Order compelling the defendants to take all lawful and legal means necessary” to protect the lives, dignities, personal liberties as well as the freedom of the people of the respective community from any acts of discrimination, dominion and oppression by the local and foreign marauding herders, bandits and kidnappers who continue to terrorise, rape, maim, kill and kidnap the people of the said community daily without any inhibition.

They also asked for another “order compelling the defendants to take every lawful and legal means necessary to protect their respective communities and their farmlands from the encroachment and invasion of both local and foreign herders, bandits and kidnappers who have continued to prevent the people of the communities from realizing their full potentials of enabling environment favourable to their social and economic development”.

The defendants are the governors and attorneys-general of the Southwest states as well as Edo, Kogi and Kwara states.

In a 17-paragraph affidavit in support of the suit, the group averred that the Yoruba people are being subjected to incessant kidnapping, armed robberies, terrorism, and banditry by both local and foreign invaders.

They noted that the suit is in line with the Constitution of Nigeria and in the interest of the people of the Yoruba ethnic group with absolute rights as provided under the Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights to protect themselves and their means of livelihood from destruction by foreign/local herders and bandits.

The deponent of the affidavit, Otunba Osibogun, noted that recently, travelling by road through the states inhabited by the Yoruba people in Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo has become dangerous owing to the incessant kidnapping, banditry and robbery being carried out by foreign and local herders and bandits along the highways unchallenged.

He claimed that a visit to various farming communities in Yorubaland at personal risk to interview and interact with the farmers and other inhabitants revealed that the farmers can no longer go to their farms for fear of being killed or kidnapped by foreign and local herders and life generally have become very hard, nasty and frustrating to them.

Osibogun said: “It will be recalled that in the past, we made attempts by writing letters and sending emissaries to the governors which have not yielded results. We have decided to pursue the legal step to at least ask them to come to the aid of the citizens.”

The organization believes that this path will compel the governors to act promptly and in good faith for the betterment of the masses in their care.

Amongst the issues raised for determination by the court include, “whether or not the Yoruba ethnic group or the community of Yoruba people domiciled or resident in Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo States of Nigeria can, by virtue of Sections 33, 34 and 42 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As amended) and Articles 4, 5 and 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 compel the defendants to protect their lives, dignities, personal liberties as well as their freedom from any acts of discrimination, dominion and oppression by the local and foreign marauding herders, bandits and kidnappers who continue to terrorise, rape, maim, kill and kidnap the people of the said community daily without any inhibition?

“Whether or not and by virtue of Articles 3, 14 and 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, the Yoruba ethnic group or community within the Federation of Nigeria and domiciled or resident in Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo States have the rights to demand that the defendants be compelled to protect their community and their farmlands from the encroachment and invasion of both local and foreign herders, bandits and kidnappers who have continued to prevent the people of the said community from realizing their full potentials of having enabling environment favourable to their social and economic development?

“Whether or not the continuous invasion of the Yoruba ethnic community farmlands, roads and other facilities in Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states by foreign and local herders, bandits and kidnappers without any lawful or justifiable reasons and the inability of defendants in arresting or combating the incessant and unprecedented carnage is not an antithesis and contravention of the oath of office sworn to by the Defendants in pursuance of Section 185 (1) & (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As amended) or any other extant laws?

“Whether or not the sudden and continuous invasion of the Yoruba ethnic community land of Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states by foreign and local herders, bandits, marauders, kidnappers and rapists and [the] inability of defendants taking any step to arrest or combat the invasion and carnage have not exposed the Yoruba ethnic group and community to a perilous and dangerous situation in contrast to the assurance of their inalienable rights as preserved under Articles 19, 20, and 22 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004?”

They submitted that if the answers to the above questions are in the affirmative then the court should declare that, “the Yoruba ethnic group or the community of Yoruba people domiciled or resident in Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states of Nigeria can by virtue of sections 33, 34 and 42 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As amended) and articles 4, 5 and 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 compel the defendants to protect their lives, dignities, personal liberties as well as their freedom from any acts of discrimination, dominion and oppression by the local and foreign marauding herders, bandits and kidnappers who continue to terrorise, rape, maim, kill and kidnap the people of the said community daily without any inhibition.

“A declaration that by virtue of articles 3, 14 and 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, the Yoruba ethnic group or community within the Federation of Nigeria and domiciled or resident in Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states have the rights to demand that the defendants be compelled to protect their community and their farmlands from the encroachment and invasion of both local and foreign herders, bandits and kidnappers who have continued to prevent the people of the community from realizing their full potentials of enabling environment favourable to their social and economic development.

“A declaration that the continuous invasion of the Yoruba ethnic community farmlands, roads and other facilities in Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo States by foreign and local herders, bandits and kidnappers without any lawful or justifiable reasons and the inability of Defendants in arresting or combating the incessant and unprecedented carnage is an antithesis and contravention of the oath of office sworn to by the defendants in pursuance of section 185 (1) & (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As amended) or any other extant laws.

“A declaration that the sudden and continuous invasion of the Yoruba ethnic community land of Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states by foreign and local herders, bandits, marauders, kidnappers and rapists and [the] inability of defendants taking any step to arrest or combat the invasion and carnage have exposed the Yoruba ethnic group and community to a perilous and dangerous situation in contrast to the assurance of their inalienable rights as preserved under Articles 19, 20, and 22 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”

Meanwhile, no date has yet been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
DAILY POST

Headline

Iran Hangs 53-year-old Woman, Six Others

Published

18 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Editor

Iran on Saturday hanged at least seven people, including two women, while a member of its Jewish minority is at imminent risk of execution as the Islamic Republic further intensified its use of capital punishment, an NGO said.

Parvin Mousavi, 53, a mother of two grown-up children, was hanged in Urmia prison in northwestern Iran along with five men convicted in various drug-related cases, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said in a statement.

In Nishapur in eastern Iran, a 27-year-old woman named Fatemeh Abdullahi was hanged on charges of murdering her husband, who was also her cousin, it said.

IHR says it has tallied at least 223 executions this year, with at least 50 so far in May alone. A new surge began following the end of Persian New Year and Ramadan holidays in April, with 115 people including six women hanged since then, it said.

Iran carries out more recorded executions of women than any other country. Activists say many such convicts are victims of forced or abusive marriages.

Iran last year carried out more hangings than in any year since 2015, according to NGOs, which accuse the Islamic republic of using capital punishment as a means to instill fear in the wake of protests that erupted in autumn 2022.

“The silence of the international community is unacceptable,” IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam told AFP.

“Those executed belong to the poor and marginalised groups of Iranian society and didn’t have fair trials with due process.”

‘Killing machine’

IHR said Mousavi had been in prison for four years. It cited a source as saying she had been paid the equivalent of 15 euros to carry a package she had been told contained medicine but was in fact five kilos of morphine.

“They are the low-cost victims of the Islamic Republic’s killing machine, which aims at instilling fear among people to prevent new protests,” added Amiry-Moghaddam.

The group meanwhile said a member of Iran’s Jewish community, which has drastically reduced in numbers in recent years but is still the largest in the Middle East outside Israel, was at imminent risk of execution over a murder charge.

Arvin Ghahremani, 20, was convicted of murder during a street fight when he was 18 and is scheduled to be executed in the western city of Kermanshah on Monday, it said, adding it had received an audio message from his mother Sonia Saadati asking for his life to be spared.

His family is seeking to ask the family of the victim to forgo the execution in line with Iran’s Islamic law of retribution, or qesas.

Also at risk of execution is Kamran Sheikheh, the last surviving member of a group of seven Iranian Kurdish men who were first arrested between early December 2009 and late January 2010 and later sentenced to death for “corruption on earth” over alleged membership of extremist groups, it said.

Six men convicted in the same case have been executed in the last months almost one-and-a-half decades after their initial arrest, the last being Khosro Besharat who was hanged in Ghezel Hesar prison outside Tehran this week.

There has been an international outcry meanwhile over the death sentence handed out last month to Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, seen by activists as retaliation for his music backing the 2022 protests. His lawyers are appealing the verdict.

AFP

Headline

Israeli Leaders Disagree Over Post-war Gaza Governance Amid US Pressure

Published

19 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Editor

New divisions have emerged among Israel’s leaders over post-war Gaza’s governance, with an unexpected Hamas fightback in parts of the Palestinian territory piling pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli army has been battling Hamas militants across Gaza for more than seven months while also exchanging near-daily fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah forces along the northern border with Lebanon.

But after Hamas fighters regrouped in northern Gaza, where Israel previously said the group had been neutralised, broad splits emerged in the Israeli war cabinet in recent days.

Netanyahu came under personal attack from Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for failing to rule out an Israeli government in Gaza after the war.

The Israeli premier’s outright rejection of post-war Palestinian leadership in Gaza has broken a rift among top politicians wide open and frustrated relations with top ally the United States.

Experts say the lack of clarity only serves to benefit Hamas, whose leader has insisted no new authority can be established in the territory without its involvement.

“Without an alternative to fill the vacuum, Hamas will continue to grow,” International Crisis Group analyst Mairav Zonszein told AFP.

Emmanuel Navon, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University, echoed this sentiment.

“If only Hamas is left in Gaza, of course they are going to appear here and there and the Israeli army will be forced to chase them around,” said Navon.

“Either you establish an Israeli military government or an Arab-led government.”

US pressure

Gallant said in a televised address on Wednesday: “I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a decision and declare that Israel will not establish civilian control over the Gaza strip.”

The premier’s war planning also came under recent attack by army chief Herzi Halevi as well as top Shin Bet security agency officials, according to Israeli media reports.

Netanyahu is also under pressure from Washington to swiftly bring an end to the conflict and avoid being mired in a long counterinsurgency campaign.

Washington has previously called for a “revitalised” form of the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza after the war.

But Netanyahu has rejected any role for the PA in post-war Gaza, saying Thursday that it “supports terror, educates terror, finances terror”.

Instead, Netanyahu has clung to his steadfast aim of “eliminating” Hamas, asserting that “there’s no alternative to military victory”.

Experts say confidence in Netanyahu is running thin.

“With Gallant’s criticism of Netanyahu’s failure to plan for the day after in terms of governing Gaza, some real fissures are beginning to emerge in the Israeli war cabinet,” Colin P. Clarke, director of policy and research at the Soufan Group think tank, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“I’m not sure I know of many people, including the most ardent Israel supporters, who have confidence in Bibi,” he said, using Netanyahu’s nickname.

Hostage ‘impasse’

The Gaza war broke out after Hamas’s attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The militants also seized about 250 hostages, 125 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, including 37 the military says are dead.

Israel’s military retaliation has killed at least 35,386 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry, and an Israeli siege has brought dire food shortages and the threat of famine.

Many Israelis supported Netanyahu’s blunt goals to seek revenge on Hamas in the aftermath of the October 7 attack.

But now, hopes have faded for the return of the hostages and patience in Netanyahu may be running out, experts said.

On Friday, the army announced it had recovered bodies of three hostages who were killed during the October 7 attack.

After Israeli forces entered the far southern city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced Gazans were sheltering, talks mediated by Egypt, the United States and Qatar to release the hostages have ground to a standstill.

“The hostage deal is at a total impasse — you can no longer provide the appearance of progress,” said Zonszein of the International Crisis Group.

“Plus the breakdown with the US and the fact that Egypt has refused to pass aid through Rafah — all those things are coming to a head.”

Headline

Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger Finalise Regional Alliance Project

Published

22 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Editor

Junta-run Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have finalised plans to form a confederation after turning their backs on former colonial ruler France to seek closer ties with Russia.

Their foreign ministers met Friday in Niger’s capital Niamey to agree on a text establishing the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

“The objective was to finalise the draft text relating to the institutionalisation and operationalisation of the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)”, said Niger Foreign Minister Bakary Yaou Sangare as he read the final statement late Friday.

He said the text would be adopted by the heads of state of the three countries at a summit, without specifying the date.

“We can consider very clearly, today, that the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) has been born,” Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said after meeting General Abdourahamane Tiani, the head of Nigerien military regime.

The third foreign minister at the meeting was Burkina Faso’s Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore.

The Sahel region has been subject to deadly jihadist violence for years, which they accused France of not being able to curb.

The three countries said late January they were quitting The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which they said was under French influence, to create their own regional grouping.

AFP