Connect with us

Headline

Group Knocks Buhari For Pardoning Jailed Corrupt Ex-Govs, Dariye, Nyame

Published

on

Senator Joshua Dariye of Plateau State and Mr Jolly Nyame of Taraba State, who were convicted for corruption, were recently pardoned on health and age grounds when they still have several years to complete their jail terms.

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, wondered how the President has reached a consideration that at their relatively young ages they are too old to be in prison confinement whereas there are thousands of awaiting trial inmates and convicted prisoners who are above 80 in Nigerian prisons whose offences are as simple as theft of chickens from their neighbours.

HURIWA said this discrimination on the basis of political connection will adversely harm the rule of law.

Advertisement

READ ALSO: Delta: APC Vows To Dethrone PDP As Omo-Agege Joins Governorship Race

HURIWA recalled that the National Council of State had granted state pardon to Dariye and Nyame of Plateau and Taraba States respectively.

The rights group recalled that the two former governors were among 159 prisoners pardoned by the Council at a meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja on Thursday.

Advertisement

Among the beneficiaries are a former military general and minister under the Sani Abacha regime, Tajudeen Olanrewaju, an army lieutenant colonel, Akiyode, who was an aide of former deputy to General Abacha, Oladipo Diya; and all the junior officers jailed over the 1990 abortive Gideon Orkar coup.

HURIWA applauded the release of the military officers most of whom were roped into phantom charges of a coup plot by the then maximum dictator General Sani Abacha.

HURIWA recalled that Mr Nyame, who is 66, governor of Taraba State from 1999 to 2007, was serving a 12-year jail term at the Kuje prison for misappropriation of funds while he was in office. The Supreme Court upheld his conviction in February 2020.

Advertisement

READ ALSO: 2023: Tinubu, Osinbajo Told To Give Up Presidential Ambition For Southeast

Mr Dariye who later got elected as Senator, who is 64, and governed Plateau between 1999 and 2007, was jailed for stealing N2 billion of public funds during his time as Plateau State governor between 1999 and 2007. The former governor, elected as senator representing Plateau Central in the Senate in 2015, was sentenced in June 2018 but still completed his tenure in jail in June 2019.

HURIWA however condemned the early release of the duo, particularly on the ground of seeking to use their political popularity in their minority northern Christian states of Plateau and Taraba to canvass Electoral advantage for the All Progressives Congress in whose administration since 2015 the only high profile politicians jailed for corruption are the two Christian Northerners.

Advertisement

HURIWA, in a statement signed by the national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said it was a scandal of monumental proportions that whilst the two Christians and former governors of the northern states of Plateau and Taraba were jailed for corruption, a bulk of other corrupt former Northern Governors who are all Muslems are roaming about freely because the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission skewed it’s prosecution activities to target mostly Christians and Southerners because of the domination of Northern Muslems in the hierarchy of the EFCC.

HURIWA said the best way to begin a thoroughly professional anti-graft war is to ensure Federal character in the appointment of directors for the anti-graft body currently dominated by Northern Moslems.

READ ALSO: Killings: Fani-Kayode Berates Buhari’s Govt

Advertisement

HURIWA said it views the action of early release from jail of these politicians who had barely served 30% of their total jail terms as a confirmation of the well-known notoriety of the Buhari led administration as a harbinger of the most sophisticated forms of corruption but which administration chooses to use the instrumentality of the so-called anti-corruption crusade to whip opposition politicians to the line.

“There has never really been any crusade against corruption in the real sense of it. What EFCC does mostly is to harass students carrying expensive phones and laptops and to parade them as YAHOOYAHOO. Whereas the real big time CORRUPT politicians who are looting Nigeria dry and mindlessly are allowed to have a field day.”

“It is now survival of the fittest and the most connected in Nigeria of 2022”.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Comments

Headline

Prosecutors Seek 11-year Sentence For Diddy, Citing ‘Lack Of Remorse’

Published

on

Prosecutors urged a federal judge Friday to sentence Sean “Diddy” Combs to more than a decade behind bars for his conviction on two prostitution-related counts, saying the music mogul had shown a lack of remorse.

This is not a person who has accepted responsibility,” prosecutor Christy Slavik told the New York court at Diddy’s sentencing hearing.

“His remorse was qualified. It’s as though he thinks the law doesn’t apply to him,” Slavik said in arguing for an 11-year prison sentence for the 55-year-old hip-hop innovator. ” “His respect for the law is just lip service.”

Advertisement

Combs’s lawyers have asked the judge for a 14-month sentence, which would effectively be time served.

Slavik said Combs had booked speaking engagements in Miami next week in anticipation of a light sentence, which she called “the height of hubris.”

READ ALSO:Jury Selection Begins In Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sex Crimes Trial

Advertisement

Judge Arun Subramanian for his part said federal sentencing guidelines suggested a prison term of between six and seven years although he has the latitude to impose more or less.

The judge also noted an apparent lack of remorse, saying Combs has “challenged his factual guilt full-throatedly.”

Combs was expected to address the court at the sentencing hearing after submitting a letter to the judge on Thursday pleading for mercy and saying he had “lost my way.”

Advertisement

Following two months of often searing testimony, jurors in July rejected the most serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering against Combs, sparing him the prospect of life in prison.

Combs’s mother and six of his children were in court on Friday and have submitted letters to the judge in his support.

READ ALSO:Woman Who Accused Jay-Z, Diddy Of Rape Drops Lawsuit

Advertisement

In his plea to the judge, Combs apologised for his conduct, saying he was “scared to death” to be away from his family and vowing he “will never commit a crime again.”

“I lost my way,” he wrote. “I got lost in my journey. Lost in the drugs and the excess.”

Combs’s former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, asked the judge in a letter of her own to consider “the many lives that Sean Combs has upended with his abuse and control.”

Advertisement

– ‘Humbled and broken’ –

Ventura, the 39-year-old singer known as Cassie, testified for days while heavily pregnant.

She described in wrenching detail physical, emotional and sexual abuse she suffered while in a more than decade-long relationship with Combs.

Advertisement

READ ALSO:Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Reacts After Kanye West Calls For His Release From Prison

Ventura and another woman, identified as Jane, said they were coerced into performing so-called “freak-offs”: sexual marathons with hired men that Combs directed and sometimes filmed.

“The entire courtroom watched actual footage of Combs kicking and beating me as I tried to run away from a freak off in 2016,” Ventura wrote.

Advertisement

People watched this footage dozens of times, seeing my body thrown to the ground, my hands over my head, curled into a fetal position to shield me from the worst blows,” she said, noting she has nightmares and flashbacks “on a regular, everyday basis.”

Ventura said she and her family had left the New York area for fear of “retribution” from Combs if he is released.

READ ALSO:Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Reacts After Kanye West Calls For His Release From Prison

Advertisement

The defense didn’t deny Combs’s sexual activity but insisted it was consensual.

They also didn’t deny Combs’s years of violence against both romantic partners as well as employees — but they said it didn’t meet the legal threshold for the grave charges he faced.

Jurors took their side.

Advertisement

The conviction on lesser if still serious counts stemmed from a federal statute that makes it illegal to transport people across state lines for prostitution.

Combs has been incarcerated in Brooklyn for more than a year.

He said his time in prison has left him “reborn.”

Advertisement

I have been humbled and broken to my core,” Combs wrote.
AFP

Continue Reading

Headline

Madagascar’s President Denounces ‘Coup Attempt’ As Gen Z Protests Escalate

Published

on

Madagascan President Andry Rajoelina condemned on Friday what he said was an attempt to topple his government as fresh protests flared against the political elite and years of misrule.

The poverty-stricken Indian Ocean island has been rocked by near-daily demonstrations called on social media by a movement called “Gen Z”, to which security forces have responded with arrests, tear gas, and bullets.

The protests forced Rajoelina to sack his government on Monday and invite dialogue to restore order.

Advertisement

But that was not enough to placate the anger, and demonstrators have demanded the president’s resignation over his failure to deliver basic services, including water and electricity.

READ ALSO:Peru Anti-government Protesters Clash With Police

“They have been exploited to provoke a coup,” the 51-year-old said in an online video on Friday in reference to the mostly young protesters.

Advertisement

What I want to tell you is that some people want to destroy our country,” he said, without naming who he alleged was behind the move.

“Countries and agencies paid for this movement to get me out, not through elections, but for profit to take power like other African countries,” Rajoelina continued in a live video on his Facebook page.

“That’s why I tell you to be very careful,” he said.

Advertisement

He also blamed a “cyberattack” for “mass manipulation”.

READ ALSO:Madagascar Passes Bill To Castrate Child R*pists

– ‘Contempt’ –

Advertisement

The Gen Z movement rejected Rajoelina’s speech as “senseless”, deploring his “contempt” for young people.

We represent an angry people who can no longer be manipulated,” they said in statements on social media.

They demanded to be “consulted and heard” in the choice of a new premier, and called for an investigation into the police crackdown.

Advertisement

The group, which announced its spokespeople and outlined its motivations the day before, vowed to take “all necessary measures” if the president did not “respond favourably” within 24 hours.

At least 22 people have been killed and hundreds injured since the protests started, according to the United Nations, a toll the government has denied as based on rumours or misinformation.

READ ALSO:17 African Countries Back Electricity Reforms—World Bank

Advertisement

Protesters mobilised again on Friday in several neighbourhoods of the capital Antananarivo after a 24-hour “strategic” pause.

But the city centre remained under strict gridlock and a heavy security presence.

Police pickups sped through the city centre, AFP journalists saw, and security forces fired tear gas sporadically while shops stayed shut along the capital’s main Independence Avenue.

Advertisement

Students who were demonstrating in the northern coastal city of Mahajanga were also dispersed, according to local media.

In the south, protests were seen in Toliara and Fianarantsoa.

READ ALSO:Top 10 African Countries With Shortest Work Schedules

Advertisement

– Strike –

Customs personnel and prison staff unions announced a three-day strike on Friday afternoon, following previous calls for a general strike by several unions, including those representing national water and electricity workers.

In a rare show of unity, the political opposition has also thrown its support behind Gen Z.

Advertisement

The youth-led movement has adopted tactics seen in recent movements in Nepal, Indonesia, and the Philippines, including the use of the pirate skull symbol from the Japanese anime “One Piece”.

The protests, which started on 25 September, are the latest bout of unrest in Madagascar since independence from France in 1960, posing the most significant challenge yet to Rajoelina’s tenure since his 2023 re-election.

Rajoelina said earlier he had met Madagascan religious leaders in a bid to quell the crisis, after seeing diplomats and representatives from the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations.

Advertisement

READ ALSO:Meet Africa’s Seven Youngest Presidents, Military Leaders [Age, PHOTOS]

The former mayor of Antananarivo first came to power in 2009 following a coup sparked by an uprising that ousted former president Marc Ravalomanana.

After not contesting the 2013 election under international pressure, he was voted back into office in 2018 and re-elected in 2023 in contested polls.

Advertisement

Despite its natural resources, Madagascar remains among the world’s poorest countries.

Nearly three-quarters of its population of 32 million were living below the poverty line in 2022, according to the World Bank.

Corruption is widespread, with the country ranking 140th out of 180 in Transparency International’s index.

Advertisement

AFP

Continue Reading

Headline

White House Threatens Mass Firings Amid Stalled Shutdown Talks

Published

on

Efforts to swiftly end the US government shutdown collapsed Wednesday as Democrats in Congress went home without resolving a funding stand-off with President Donald Trump and the White House threatened public sector jobs.

Federal funding expired at midnight after Trump and lawmakers failed to agree on a deal to keep the lights on, prompting agencies to wind down services, while the White House warned of “imminent” firings of public sector workers.

Senate Democrats — who are demanding extended health care subsidies for low-income families — refused to help the majority Republicans approve a House-passed bill that would have reopened the government for several weeks while negotiations continue.

Advertisement

Voting in the Senate is now adjourned until Friday, frustrating hopes for a quick resolution.

Around 750,000 federal employees are expected to be placed on furlough — a kind of enforced leave, with pay withheld until they return to work.

READ ALSO:Judge Throws Out Trump’s $15bn ‘Rage’ Lawsuit Against New York Times

Advertisement

Essential workers, such as the military and border agents, may be forced to work without pay and some will likely miss their checks beginning next week. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association voiced fears for air safety as more than 2,300 members were sent home.

The crisis has higher stakes than previous shutdowns, with Trump racing to enact hard-right policies that include slashing government departments and threatening to turn many of the furloughs into mass firings.

Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters the administration was “working with agencies across the board to identify where cuts can be made… and we believe that layoffs are imminent.”

Advertisement

The Department of Energy announced plans to terminate clean energy projects, all in blue states, according to White House official Russell Vought, who said the slashed funding had been used to advance “the Left’s climate agenda”.

The Department of Transportation also froze nearly $18 billion in federal funding for major infrastructure projects in New York, which Governor Kathy Hochul called “political payback”.

READ ALSO:Putin Has ‘Let Me Down’, Trump Laments As UK State Visit Ends

Advertisement

– ‘Ridiculous’ –

Shutdowns are a periodic feature of gridlocked Washington, although this is the first since a record 35-day pause during Trump’s first term in 2019.

They are unpopular because services used by ordinary voters, from national parks to permit applications, become unavailable.

Advertisement

“I think our government needs to learn how to work together for the people and find a way to make things not happen like this,” said Terese Johnston, a 61-year-old retired tour guide visiting Washington from California as the government shut down.

“You compromise. You find ways. So everybody gives a little bit, everybody takes a little bit, and things work.”

Democrats — spurred by grassroots anger over the expiring health care subsidies and Trump’s dismantling of government agencies — have been withholding Senate votes to fund the government as leverage to try and force negotiations.

Advertisement

READ ALSO:Trump Considering Deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia To Uganda

As the messaging war over the shutdown intensified, Vice President JD Vance took center stage at a White House briefing normally headed by Leavitt to upbraid Democrats over their demands.

“They said to us, ‘we will open the government, but only if you give billions of dollars of funding for health care for illegal aliens.’ That’s a ridiculous proposition,” Vance said in a rare appearance in the briefing room.

Advertisement

US law demands that anyone who presents at a publicly funded emergency room is treated, regardless of their ability to pay. But it bars undocumented immigrants from receiving the health care benefits Democrats are demanding, and the party has not called for a new act of Congress to change that.

– No compromise –

Republicans in the House of Representatives have already passed a stop-gap funding fix to keep federal functions running through late November while a longer-term plan is thrashed out.

Advertisement

READ ALSO:Why I Plotted President Trump’s Assassination – 50-yr-old Woman

But the 100-member Senate does not have the 60 votes required to send it to Trump’s desk, and Democrats say they won’t help unless Republicans compromise on their planned spending cuts — especially in health care.

Senate Republican leaders, who have just one rebel in their own ranks, need eight Democrats to join the majority and rubber-stamp the House-passed bill.

Advertisement

They got three moderates to cross the aisle in an initial vote Tuesday and were hoping to peel off five more as the shutdown chaos starts to bite. But Wednesday’s result went the same way.

Congress is not voting Thursday out of respect for the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday but the Senate returns to work on Friday and may be in session through the weekend.

The House is not due back until next week.

Advertisement

AFP

Continue Reading

Trending