Headline

Insecurity: Emulate Boris Johnson, Nigerians Tell Buhari

Published

3 years ago

July 8, 2022

Following the worsening security crisis in the country, some stakeholders have insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari should immediately resign as Nigerian leader.

Terrorists and bloodthirsty bandits have been on rampage across the country, causing irreparable havoc.

The insecurity ravaging the nation, on Tuesday, June 5 took a frightening dimension with separate attacks on different government establishments and officials, including those working with President Muhammadu Buhari.

President Buhari’s convoy was attacked by suspected bandits in Katsina State on Tuesday. According to reports, at least two officials were seriously injured in the attack.

Recall also that the country’s medium correctional custodial centre was attacked on Tuesday night when suspected members of the Boko Haram and Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) invaded the facility and freed at least 800 inmates.

Same day, about two police officers were killed in Katsina State where the presidential convoy was attacked.

Another senior police officer, an Assistant Commissioner of Police was also murder in a separate attack.

The development triggered Nigerians, particularly social media users to call for immediate suspension of all preliminary campaigns and other activities regarding the forthcoming general elections.

They expressed pessimism that the election would not hold, citing the level of criminal activities going on across the nation.

But speaking with DAILY POST, the National Coordinator of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko said the election must hold if the president fails to resign.

According to him, “Buhari does not need to be told to resign when he is so incompetent. The right thing he should do is to resign because he has nothing to offer, and he has never had solutions to problems right from the beginning of his administration.

“Nobody should bring up the issue that there should not be elections because there is violence. There were killings and terrorist attacks when INEC conducted election that brought in Buhari.

“That will only give the president the opportunity to extend his tenure. Whether there is war or not, there must be election. Buhari must go.”

Similarly, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who spoke to our correspondent from Benue State on condition of anonymity, asked the president to accept the call for his resignation and quit like the United Kingdom Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

He said, “African leaders will always want to die in power. Nigerians have been calling for the resignation of President Buhari, yet he remains in Aso Rock doing nothing. Is that one a leader?

“Look at what happened in the UK, Boris Johnson has resigned because he was asked to. What is wrong with Buhari? Why does he want to die in power when he has nothing to offer”?

Recall that Boris Johnson resigned his office on Thursday, ending an unprecedented political crisis over his future that has paralyzed Britain’s government.

Johnson had rebuffed calls by his Cabinet to step down in the wake of ethics scandals. He gave in after more than 40 ministers quit his government and told him to go.

On his part, President General of the Coalition of Southern and Middle Belt Youth Leaders Assembly, COSMBYLA, Goodluck Ibem, said the president must be shown the exit door.

He said, “There is no room for failure and any failure must be shown the exit door. The time is now.

“Nigerians should not be calling for the suspension of campaign activities, rather they should he calling for the immediate resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari over his inability as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces to provide security for Nigerians, which is the first responsibility of any government to her citizens.

“The call to suspend campaigns because of insecurity is purely a third term request for President Muhammadu Buhari.

“So those calling for the suspension of the campaigns want to extend the tenure of the President after 2023, but their evil plot is dead on arrival”.

Headline

Morocco Jails French Rapper Maes For Kidnapping Bid

Published

12 hours ago

November 26, 2025

Editor

A Moroccan court has sentenced French rapper Maes to seven years in prison on charges including the formation of a criminal gang and attempted kidnapping, local reports said Wednesday.

Maes, who has roots in Morocco and whose real name is Walid Georgey, was arrested upon landing in Morocco in January after fleeing the United Arab Emirates, where he feared he could be extradited to France, the reports said.

French authorities had issued an international arrest warrant for him over a separate criminal case.

He appeared in court late Tuesday and was found guilty of “forming a criminal organisation, attempted abduction and unlawful confinement” of a rival in Morocco, news website TelQuel reported.

The rapper with over a billion views on his YouTube channel was accused of tasking a gang and hitmen with killing the rival, but the plot was foiled, TelQuel added.

Maes has denied all charges, with his lawyers calling the case “empty” and “arguing that no evidence linked him to the other defendants”, TelQuel added.

Ten other people were sentenced as part of the case, with terms ranging from one to 10 years, according to news website Media24.

AFP was unable to independently verify the reports as prosecutors were not immediately reachable for comment.

In 2020, when Maes was one of France’s most-streamed rappers, he fell victim to extortion attempts in his native Sevran, a suburb north of Paris, according to reports.

He retaliated by opening fire with weapons he had at home, leading to a shootout. He then fled to Dubai with his family, according to an interview with French YouTube channel LEGEND.

Following the killing of his manager in 2022, he was suspected of ordering reprisals against those he believed were behind the murder, according to reports.

AFP

Headline

UK Court Clears Comedy Writer Of Harassing Transgender Woman

Published

12 hours ago

November 26, 2025

Editor

A London court on Tuesday cleared Emmy award-winning comedy writer Graham Linehan of harassing a transgender activist online but found him guilty of criminal damage to their mobile phone.

Linehan, who co-created the popular 1990s sitcom “Father Ted” but has more recently become well-known for his gender critical views, had been accused of sending Sophia Brooks “abusive and vindictive” messages on social media.

He was also charged with criminal damage after deliberately knocking a phone out of Brooks’s hand as they filmed him on the sidelines of a London conference.

Ruling on the case, District Judge Briony Clarke said she was not convinced Linehan’s conduct “was oppressive and unacceptable beyond merely unattractive, annoying or irritating”.

Clarke also concluded Brooks was not “as alarmed and distressed as they portrayed themself to be”.

But convicting Linehan of criminal damage, the judge ruled he was “angry and fed up” and did not use “reasonable force” when the phone was taken from Brooks.

Clarke fined him £500 ($655) and ordered him to pay costs of £650 and a statutory surcharge of £200.

The Irish writer, who also co-created the popular sitcoms “Black Books” and “The IT Crowd”, became embroiled in a free speech row in Britain earlier this year over his anti-transgender stance.

It followed his arrest at London’s Heathrow Airport by armed police over accusations of inciting violence with his X posts insulting transgender people.

The arrest sparked a backlash and claims of state overreach, including from US tech billionaire Elon Musk. But in October, UK prosecutors said they would take “no further action” in that case.

AFP

Headline

Prosecutors Seek Jail For Italian Influencer Ferragni In Fraud Case

Published

12 hours ago

November 26, 2025

Editor

Italian prosecutors asked a court on Tuesday to sentence fashion influencer Chiara Ferragni to one year and eight months in prison if found guilty of alleged fraud over charity endorsement deals.

The Instagram star and businesswoman has been on trial since September for aggravated fraud over promotions of a pandoro cake — a Christmas treat similar to a panettone — and Easter eggs, which purported to raise money for charity or social causes.

The 38-year-old, who is based in Milan, told the court during the closed-door hearing on Tuesday that she denied the charges and had always acted “in good faith”, her lawyer Giuseppe Iannaccone said.

Leaving the audience, Ferragni told a throng of journalists that she felt “confident… I can’t say anymore”.

A verdict is expected in January.

Aggravated fraud carries a jail term of between one and five years.

But Ferragni has chosen a fast-track trial, which gives defendants a sentence reduction — meaning she cannot receive more than a maximum penalty of two years and three months, according to a source close to her team.

In Italy, people sentenced to prison for less than two years rarely serve jail time.

Ferragni started out with a fashion blog, The Blonde Salad, in 2009, and in 2017, Forbes magazine named her its top fashion influencer.

Chronicling her glamorous lifestyle and being paid to promote high-end brands, she built the blog into a lucrative business, then used it as a springboard to launch her own eponymous label with stores around the world.

Her trailblazing story even became a Harvard Business School example of how social media fame can be monetised.

But the fraud accusations have hit her reputation and her endorsements.

Outside court for a hearing earlier this month, Ferragni acknowledged to journalists that it was a “difficult phase of my life”.

The allegations relate in part to Ferragni’s 2022 endorsement of a pandoro cake purportedly to raise funds for children undergoing treatment at a Turin hospital.

In December 2023, Italy’s communications watchdog (AGCOM) fined two of Ferragni’s companies one million euros ($1.2 million) for unfair commercial practices for the “Pandoro Pink Christmas” promotion — around the same sum they had made in the deal.

Shoppers were led to believe that buying the special edition cake made by Balocco would benefit the hospital, but it only received a single 50,000-euro donation from the company.

Balocco was fined 420,000 euros at the same time.

AGCOM also investigated Ferragni-branded Easter eggs from 2021 and 2022, linked to a social enterprise initiative.

Ferragni and her husband, rapper and music producer Fedez, who were one of Italy’s most famous celebrity couples, split in 2024.

AFP