Headline

NCMM Frustrating FOI ACT – Group Alleges

Published

4 years ago

September 27, 2021

The leadership of the Media Rights Agenda (MRA) on Monday accused the National Commission of Museums and Monuments (NCMM) of working round the clock to frustrate the public right of access to information as well as its statutory duties and obligations under the Freedom of Information Act.

In a statement made available to DAILY POST in Taraba State, the MRA’s Programme Director, Ayode Longe, said “the situation with NCMM) is truly a national scandal and represents everything that is wrong in Nigeria. ”

Such conduct by a public institution, “making a mockery of the federal government’s claim to transparent and accountable governance” he said serves only to bring the government into disrepute.

A few weeks ago, the Commission was said to have written to the international centre for investigative reporting (ICIR)in Abuja demanding N200,00 to respond to the ICIR’s FOI request for a list of projects implemented in the Commission.

”A Commission which ought to be actively “trying to attract tourists, historians, archaeologists scientists and students among others by proactively providing them with information is the one operating the most abysmal information and communication practices,” Longe said.

Longe said not only has its institutional website been down and inaccessible for at least several weeks now” but has also ” refused to provide information to those who have made requests for information under the FOI Act .”

He also noted that in 2017, when another non-governmental organization, Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), made a request to the Commission under the FOI Act on its public finance expenditure records, it took the Commission over 60 days to respond to the application, although the Act requires it to do so within seven days.

“Over the last 10 years since the FOI Act came into force, the Commission” according to him “has deliberately breached or disregarded every responsibility legally on imposed on it by the Act as it has consistently refused to submit an annual report to the Attorney-General of the Federation for 10 years.”

He said the Commission failed to designate an FOI Desk Officer, spurned the mandatory requirement for it to proactively publish 16 categories of information; neglected to provide appropriate training for its officials on the public’s right of access to information, among other infractions.”

He said despite the mandatory provisions of Section 13 of the FOI Act, the Commission has not provided appropriate training for its officials on the public’s right to access to information or for the effective implementation of the Act over the last 10 years as required by the Law.

The Commission in question was said to have been established by the Federal Government in 1979 to manage the collection, documentation, conservation and presentation of the national cultural properties to the public for education, enlightenment and entertainment.

(DAILY POST)

Headline

Serbia Indicts Ex-minister, 12 Others Over Train Station Tragedy

Published

3 hours ago

September 16, 2025

Editor

Serbian prosecutors filed an updated indictment on Tuesday against 13 people, including a former minister, over a fatal railway station roof collapse that has triggered a wave of anti-government protests.

The prosecution said all those indicted, among them former construction minister Goran Vesic, face charges of “serious crimes against public safety” over the tragedy that killed 16 people last November.

“The indictment proposes that the Higher Court in Novi Sad order custody for all the defendants,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The roof collapse at the newly renovated station in Serbia’s second-largest city, Novi Sad, became a symbol of entrenched corruption and sparked almost daily protests.

Protesters first demanded a transparent investigation, but their calls soon escalated into demands for early elections.

The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad initially filed an indictment at the end of December, but judges returned it in April, requesting more information.

The accused were released or placed under house arrest following the decision.

The prosecutor’s office said it had complied with the judge’s request and had now completed the supplementary investigation.

The prosecutor specialising in organised crime and corruption in Belgrade is leading a separate, independent investigation into the tragedy.

That investigation is focused on 13 people, including Vesic and another former minister, Tomislav Momirovic, who headed the Construction Ministry before him.

In March, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) launched a third, separate investigation into the possible misuse of EU funds for the station’s reconstruction.

AFP

Headline

Kazakhstan Bans Forced Marriage, Bride Kidnapping

Published

3 hours ago

September 16, 2025

Editor

Kazakhstan has banned forced marriages and bride kidnappings through a law that came into effect Tuesday in the Central Asian country, where the practice persists despite new attention being paid to women’s rights.

Forcing someone to marry is now punishable by up to 10 years in prison, Kazakh police said in a statement.

“These changes are aimed at preventing forced marriages and protecting vulnerable categories of citizens, especially women and adolescents,” it added.

Bride kidnappings have also been outlawed.

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“Previously, a person who voluntarily released a kidnapped person could expect to be released from criminal liability. Now this possibility has been eliminated,” the police said.

There are no reliable statistics of forced marriage cases across the country, with no separate article in the criminal code prohibiting it until now.

A Kazakh lawmaker said earlier this year that the police had received 214 such complaints over the past three years.

The custom is also present in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, where it mostly goes unpunished due to indifferent law enforcement and stigma surrounding whistleblowers.

The issue of women’s rights in Kazakhstan gained media attention in 2023 following the murder of a woman by her husband, a former minister, a case that shocked Kazakh society and prompted President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to react.

“Some people hide behind so-called traditions and try to impose the practice of wife stealing. This blatant obscurantism cannot be justified,” Tokayev said last year.

AFP

Headline

Russia Arrests Woman For Detonating Bomb On Railway

Published

3 hours ago

September 16, 2025

Editor

Russia’s FSB security service said on Tuesday it had arrested a woman in her fifties accused of detonating explosives in a bid to sabotage the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The suspect was allegedly working on behalf of Ukrainian intelligence, the FSB said, in the latest incident of alleged covert activity during the countries’ conflict.

“In August 2025, following the instructions provided by the adversary, the suspect manufactured a homemade explosive device from publicly available components, placed it on the railway tracks and triggered it,” the Russian agency said.

“She recorded the moment of the explosion on her mobile phone camera and sent the footage as a report to the handler to receive a reward.”

The statement did not name the suspect but said she was born in 1974 and carried out the alleged attack in eastern Siberia’s Zabaikalsky region.

The FSB warned Russians that it was monitoring social networks and online messenger services such as Telegram and WhatsApp for evidence of Ukrainian services recruiting Russians to carry out sabotage.

Separately, the agency told state news agency TASS that a man had been sentenced to 18 years and six months for transporting explosives on behalf of a “pro-Ukrainian” group.

A resident of the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, had, the FSB said, established contact through the Telegram app with a banned “terrorist organisation”.

He allegedly retrieved explosives from a cache on the orders of this group before waiting for “further instructions”, according to the same source cited by TASS.

He was jailed by a military tribunal.

AFP