Headline

Parents Put Padlocks On Daughters’ Graves To Avoid Rape

Published

1 month ago

April 27, 2023

Parents in Pakistan are now putting padlocks on their late daughters’ graves to prevent them from being raped by some randy men.

According to a report, necrophilia cases are on the rise in the country and some social media users, including activists and authors have raised the matter once again on Thursday.

First Post reports that one such user named Harris Sultan, an ex-Muslim Atheist activist and the author of the book “The Curse of God, why I left Islam” blamed hardline Islamist ideology for such depraved acts.

“Pakistan has created such a horny, sexually frustrated society that people are now putting padlocks on the graves of their daughters to prevent them from getting raped. When you link the burqa with rape, it follows you to the grave,” Sultan tweeted on Wednesday.

Another Twitter user Sajid Yousaf Shah wrote, “The social environment created by #Pakistan has given rise to a sexually charged and repressed society, where some people have resorted to locking their daughter’s graves to protect them from sexual violence. Such a connection between rape and an individual’s clothing only leads to a path filled with grief and despair.”

Women’s bodies have been unearthed and desecrated on several occasions in the past.

The scariest necrophilia case ever reported in Pakistan was in 2011 when a grave keeper named Muhammad Rizwan from North Nazimabad, Karachi was arrested after he confessed to raping 48 female corpses. Rizwan was caught running away after desecrating a corpse. He had caught the attention of nearby grave diggers and some other people.

Most recently in May 2022, some unknown men dug out the corpse of a teenage girl and raped it in the Chak Kamala village in Gujrat, Pakistan. This occurred on the same night the family had buried the deceased.

According to reports, the shocking incident came to light when the deceased girl’s relatives visited the graveyard the next morning as per their religious traditions. The kin found the body dug up and lying uncovered. The body showed signs of rape.

In 2021, some unknown men had carried out a similar barbaric act in Maulvi Ashraf Chandio’s village near the coastal town of Ghulamullah.

In 2020, A man was arrested on February 28 after being caught red-handed raping a corpse of a woman in a graveyard in Punjab, Pakistan. The incident occurred in Okara City in the Punjab province. The accused was identified by his first name, Ashraf.

In 2019, a woman’s dead body was allegedly dug up and raped by unidentified men in Karachi’s Landhi Town. The woman was buried in Ismail Goth Graveyard.

The woman’s body was dug up one day after it was buried. The caretaker of the graveyard told the deceased’s family that a dog had removed the slab which was covering the grave.

In 2013, a 15-year-old girl’s body was found lying outside her grave in Gujranwala and was reportedly assaulted sexually.

Following this incident, the then chief minister of Punjab in Pakistan, Shahbaz Sharif had ordered a swift inquiry into the incident. The matter reportedly is still sub-judice.

Headline

Tribunal Admits U.S. Court Judgment Ordering Tinubu’s Forfeiture Of $460,000

Published

5 hours ago

May 31, 2023

Editor

The Labour Party on Tuesday called its first witness in the ongoing petition between its candidate, Peter Obi, and the ruling All Progressives Congress and the President, Bola Tinubu.

Counsel for the LP and Obi, Jibrin Okutepa, stated that documents from number one to four together with receipts tendered are documents where the vice president, Kashim Shettima, accepted his nomination as the vice-presidential candidate of the APC.

The witness, Lawrence Nwakaeti, who is a legal practitioner, disclosed that he was deposed to the witness statement on March 20, 2023.

Part of the documents deposed to by Nwakaeti referred to the alleged $460,000 forfeiture by Tinubu to the government of the United States.

One of the grounds on which the LP and Obi are praying for the court to nullify Tinubu’s victory is that the president, Tinubu “at the time of the election was not qualified to contest for election to the office of President as he was fined the sum of $460,000 for an offence involving dishonesty, namely narcotics trafficking imposed by the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in Case No: 93C 4483.”

While answering questions during the cross-examination, the witness admitted that the judgment was not registered in Nigeria.

He also admitted that there was no certificate from any consular in Nigeria or America in support of the judgment.

He, however, maintained that “the judgment speaks for itself.”

APC counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, asked, “As a lawyer, you are aware that these documents are not registered in Nigeria and there is no certificate attached to the document from the US?” to which Lawrence replied that there are certificates.

“Is there a certificate from the US consular?”

“No certificate from the consular,” Nwakaeti replied.

He also said he had no knowledge of a February 4, 2003, Formal Clearance Report by Legal Attachee from the American Embassy in respect of the alleged indictment and forfeiture.

When asked by Fagbemi, SAN, to produce a copy of the charges against Tinubu, the witness said he had none but maintained that the forfeiture are from civil proceedings.

“You are aware that all the proceedings were civil proceedings?”

“Civil forfeiture proceedings,” the witness replied.

Meanwhile, the Presiding Justice of the Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani has shifted further hearing in the petition till May 31.

Headline

Otti Freezes Abia Accounts, Sacks Boards Executives

Published

19 hours ago

May 30, 2023

Editor

Governor Alex Otti of Abia State, has directed the immediate freezing of all accounts of the state government and those of its agencies domiciled in every bank and financial institution across the state and around the federation.

He has also dissolved all boards of Abia State government agencies and parastatals and ordered the heads of all the dissolved agencies and parastatals to subsequently hand over to those next in line to them.

The governor gave the orders in a statement he issued through his media office on Monday, which was signed by Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity.

The directive read in part, “With this notice, all banks and other financial institutions in the country are directed to immediately seize from honouring any cheque, document, instrument or directive of any kind not expressly approved by or emanating from him.

“Similarly, Governor Otti has directed the immediate dissolution of all boards of the Abia State Government agencies and parastatals and subsequently ordered the chief executives of these organisations to hand over to those next in line to them”.

The reporter gathered that the news of the sack of the former chief executives of the dissolved boards sparked celebration among staff of such agencies, especially those who were owed some months of salary arrears.

Headline

PICTORIAL: Obi, Datti, Keyamo Present As Tribunal Resumes Hearing

Published

1 day ago

May 30, 2023

Editor

The presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the Labour Party, Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed, are currently in attendance at the ongoing presidential election tribunal PUNCH reports.

Former minister of state for labour and employment, Festus Keyamo, is also present at the tribunal and appearing as a counsel in the legal team of President Bola Tinubu.

Obi and the Labour Party filed a petition challenging the victory of Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, in the February 25, 2023 Presidential election.

In the petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023, Livy Ozoukwu, lead counsel to LP and Obi, said Tinubu “was not duly elected by the majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election”.

Among other allegations, they claimed that Kashim Shettima, vice-president, had a double nomination in contravention of the electoral act.

A proper hearing of the petition commenced on Tuesday and the first witness has been called.

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