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Your Christmas Message Is Meaningless, Blackmail, Group Takes Swipe On Buhari

Published

3 years ago

December 24, 2022

Editor

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, on Saturday, faulted the 2022 Christmas message of President Muhammadu Buhari wherein he commended himself for making “advances” on the “economic front” and on “food security”.

HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, slammed the President over his self-commendation whereas high costs of living and economic policies of his administration had pushed 130 million Nigerians into multidimensional poverty.

“The advances we have made so far on the economic front, especially in infrastructure; food security, anti-corruption, security, energy sufficiency, among others, will need to be built on,” Buhari said in his Christmas message on Saturday.

However, HURIWA’s Onwubiko fired back at the President, saying he has set Nigerians backwards than he met them in May 2015.

“The statistics clearly show that Buhari has impoverished Nigerians with his ineptitude in all ramifications. According to the data by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria’s inflation rate in May 2015 when Buhari took over leadership was 9.0%.

“But the country’s inflation rate rose to 21.47% in November from 21.09% recorded in October, representing the 10th consecutively monthly increase since the start of the year, according to data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

“Food inflation also rose to 24.13% in November 2022 from 23.72% recorded in the previous month. Exchange rate of the Nigeria to the dollar is now N446.63 at the official rate while at over N700 at the black market rate. Whereas it was at about N150/$1 when Buhari came into office seven and a half years ago.

“Now, NBS data showed that over 23 million agile and active adult Nigerians are jobless just the Federal Government has used multiple taxation to murder businesses who now relocate to neighbouring nations.

“Of note, Buhari has plunged the nation into unprecedented loans. He has approved many external loans for the Niger Republic project. Reports by the Debt Management Office showed that Nigeria’s total external debt rose from $10.32bn on June 30, 2015, to $40.06bn as at June 30, 2022, over 288.18 per cent increase in seven years.

“Buhari has no moral right to tell Nigerians that he has advanced the citizens’ fortunes on the economic fronts because HE HAS FAILED WOEFULLY. Therefore, his Christmas message to the same people his government pushed into poverty makes no meaning and is simply a mere propaganda.”

DAILY POST

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UK Nursery Worker Jailed For Abusing 21 Babies

Published

11 hours ago

September 26, 2025

Editor

A judge on Friday jailed a nursery worker for eight years for a string of “gratuitous” and “sadistic” attacks on babies.

In one incident, Londoner Roksana Lecka, 22, kicked a little boy in the face several times.

Lecka, who blamed cannabis for her crimes, admitted seven counts of cruelty to a person under the age of 16 and was convicted after a trial of another 14 counts.

Sentencing her for attacks on 21 babies, Judge Sarah Plaschkes said she had committed “multiple acts of gratuitous violence” at two London nurseries where she worked.

“You pinched, slapped, punched, smacked and kicked them. You pulled their ears, hair and their toes. You toppled children headfirst into cots,” she said.

“Often the child would be quietly and happily minding its own business before you deliberately inflicted pain… Your criminal conduct can properly be characterised as sadistic,” she added.

Lecka’s cruelty was revealed in June 2024 after she was seen pinching a number of children.
Police were called in and found multiple incidents recorded on the nursery CCTV.

Victim impact statements submitted to London’s Kingston Crown Court from parents of Lecka’s victims told how they were left heartbroken and guilt-stricken by the attacks.

“These children were so innocent and vulnerable,” one mother told the court.

“They couldn’t speak, they couldn’t defend themselves and they couldn’t tell us as parents that something had happened to them,” she added.

“They were totally helpless and Roksana preyed upon them.”

The hearing was told that she had apologised to the parents in a letter to the court in which she said cannabis had turned her into a different person.

She had been addicted to the drug around the time of the offences, but had not told the nursery.
She was found not guilty of three further counts of child cruelty.

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Italy Fines Six Oil Firms $1bn Fine For Restricting Competition

Published

14 hours ago

September 26, 2025

Editor

Italy’s antitrust regulator said Friday it has slapped Italian energy giant Eni and five other companies with fines totalling more than 936 million euros ($1.1 billion) for “restricting competition” in the sale of fuel.

The authority said in a statement that Eni, Esso, Ip, Q8, Saras and Tamoil “coordinated to set the value of the bio component factored into fuel prices”, which tripled between 2019 and 2023.

A probe following a whistleblower’s complaint revealed that “the companies implemented parallel price increases — largely coinciding — which were driven by direct or indirect information exchanges among them”, the authority said.

“The cartel began on 1 January 2020 and continued until 30 June 2023,” it added.

AFP

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Trump Signs Order For TikTok’s Sale, Valued At $14bn

Published

16 hours ago

September 26, 2025

Editor

United States President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order declaring that his plan is to sell TikTok’s US operations to American and global investors.

As reported by Reuters on Friday, the order requires companies bidding for TikTok to meet the national-security requirements of the 2024 law that otherwise would ban the app unless its Chinese owners divest.

Speaking to reporters at an Oval Office briefing on Thursday, Vice President James Vance said the newly created US entity would be “valued around $14 billion.

“We actually think this is a good deal for investors, but they will make a determination about what they want to invest and what they think is the proper value,” he said.

The White House on Thursday pushed back the law’s enforcement date to January 20 to allow time for the transaction, investor commitments, and negotiations with Chinese authorities.

The publication of the executive order shows Trump is making progress on the sale of TikTok’s US assets.

However, details remain to be worked out, including how the U.S. company would handle TikTok’s most valuable asset: its recommendation algorithm.

“There was some resistance on the Chinese side, but the fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans’ data privacy as required by law,” Vance said.

According to Reuters, Trump’s order says the algorithm will be retrained and monitored by the U.S. company’s security partners, and operation of the algorithm will be under the control of the new joint venture.

Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping had indicated approval of the plans. “I spoke with President Xi,” Trump said. “We had a good talk, I told him what we were doing, and he said go ahead with it.”

Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. TikTok did not immediately comment on Trump’s action.

Trump has credited TikTok, which has 170 million U.S. users, with helping him win reelection last year. Trump has 15 million followers on his personal TikTok account. The White House also launched an official TikTok account last month.

“This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump said.

He said that Michael Dell, the founder, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies; Rupert Murdoch, the chairman emeritus of Fox News owner Fox Corp, and newspaper publisher News Corp, and “probably four or five absolutely world-class investors” would be part of the deal.