This one is a houseboy, not a governor. He knows that he lacks the mental capacity and competence to actually achieve anything meaningful for Edo State, so like a good houseboy, he has decided it is better to serve the real oga who appointed him than to serve the people of Edo State.
Someone should tell him that there is something prophetic and symbolic about his oga's recent fall and one day it will be his turn to fall like his oga.
Keir Starmer showed a bit of light-hearted deference to Xi Jinping with an unusual sporty gift ahead of their meeting in Beijing.
The PM gave the Chinese President a football that was used in last weekend’s match between Manchester United and Arsenal at the Emirates stadium.
It wasn’t just any match. The visitors managed to beat the Gunners with an 87th minute goal from Matheus Cunha, putting a dent in their hopes of winning the title.
So, the present was a gesture of humility from Starmer, a passionate Arsenal fan, to Xi, who is reportedly obsessed with Manchester United.
The Chinese leader may not appear to be a likely devotee of English football, but reports of his fondness for the Red Devils go back a while.
On his own official visit to the UK in 2015, there were fears of a diplomatic incident when his tour of Old Trafford was scrapped in favour of a look around the Etihad stadium… home of bitter rivals Manchester City.
According to ESPN, the decision was made by ‘avid City fan’ Sir Richard Leese, who was the leader of Manchester Council at the time.
What will Starmer get out of his trip?
Pressure has mounted on Starmer to get some major deals from his China visit – and it’s not just due to the mild humiliation of the football gift.
Figures including Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch have questioned the logic behind putting on a show of friendship with the Chinese at a time when concerns about espionage dominate headlines.
In the past few months, focus has shifted from the collapsed China ‘spy’ case; an MI5 warning about recruiters in Parliament; the verdict in the trial of British citizen Jimmy Lai; and approval for the controversial embassy.
Starmer has argued he is merely a ‘British pragmatist’ who wants to forge connections with the world’s second-largest economy to give the UK a boost.
In his meeting, the PM told Xi he wanted a ‘more sophisticated’ relationship with Beijing, with the President acknowledging ‘twists and turns’ in recent years.
On his way out, Starmer said ‘really good progress’ had been made on whisky tariffs and illegal migration – with a focus on China’s role in making parts for engines used on small boats.
He later announced British citizens will be able to travel to China visa-free for visits of less than 30 days, a move he said would help UK businesses ‘expand abroad, all while boosting growth and jobs at home’.
The PM also told reporters his team had raised the case of Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy campaigner who is jailed in Hong Kong, and concerns over the treatment of the Uighur minority.
He said: ‘Part of the rationale for engagement is to make sure that we can both seize the opportunities that are available, which is what we’ve done, but also have a mature discussion about issues that we disagree on.’
A woman in West Virginia was arrested after allegedly trying to recruit people to assassinate President Donald Trump, according to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
Morgan Morrow, 39, has been charged with one count of terroristic threats.
Deputies said Morrow was recruiting individuals to pursue and assassinate Trump and that further details will be released as the investigation continues.
The sheriff’s office also said that the posting of Morrow’s arrest on its Facebook page was “not meant to be a political-oriented statement.”
The post, which gained thousands of reactions and shares within 12 hours, said, “This is an active criminal investigation with documented and troubling concerns.”
Morrow is in the South Central Regional Jail; no bond has been set.
The Taliban has formally entrenched a class-based justice system in Afghanistan under a newly enacted Criminal Procedure Code signed by its supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, a move that has sparked outrage among human rights organisations and renewed international concern over the direction of the country's legal and political order.
The new code, issued on January 4, 2026, and circulated to courts across the country, has been obtained by Rawadari, an Afghan human rights organisation that monitors violations and advocates for accountability. While the document spans 119 articles across three sections and 10 chapters, critics say one of its most alarming features is the explicit legalisation of social hierarchy within the justice system itself.
Hierarchy-Based Division
At the centre of the controversy is Article 9, which divides Afghan society into four categories:
1. Religious scholars (ulama or mullah),
2. The elite (ashraf),
3. The middle class; and
4. The lower class.
Under this system, punishment for the same crime is no longer determined primarily by the nature or gravity of the offence but by the social status of the accused
According to the code, if an Islamic religious scholar commits a crime, the response is limited to advice.
If the offender belongs to the elite, the consequence is a summons to court and advice.
For those in the so-called middle class, the same offence results in imprisonment.
But for individuals from the "lower class", the punishment escalates to both imprisonment and corporal punishment.
Human rights groups said this provision effectively grants clerics and religious figures near-total immunity from meaningful criminal accountability while exposing poorer and more marginalised Afghans to harsher and more violent penalties.
"This is not a justice system; it is a legally codified hierarchy of privilege," Rawadari said in a statement, warning that the code destroys the principle of equality before the law and replaces it with institutionalised discrimination.
Return Of Slavery?
Legal experts note that the move marks a sharp departure even from basic concepts of modern criminal law, where punishment is supposed to be proportionate to the crime and based on individual responsibility, not social background. By contrast, the Taliban's new code openly embraces social stratification as a legal principle, turning courts into instruments for preserving and enforcing a rigid social order.
The class-based system is compounded by another deeply controversial element-- the code's repeated references to "free" persons and "slaves".
In several articles, including provisions on punishment, the law explicitly distinguishes between free individuals and enslaved ones, a terminology that human rights advocates say amounts to the legal recognition of a status that is absolutely prohibited under international law.
Slavery is banned in all circumstances under peremptory norms of international law, yet the Taliban's code treats it as a normal legal category.
Words Over Proof?
Beyond social hierarchy, the new Criminal Procedure Code also strips away many of the most basic safeguards of due process. The document does not recognise the right to a defence lawyer, the right to remain silent or the right to compensation for wrongful punishment. It relies heavily on "confession" and "testimony" as the main means of proving guilt, while removing the requirement for independent investigation and failing to set clear minimum and maximum penalties for crimes.
Rights groups warned that this legal framework dramatically increases the risk of torture and forced confessions, particularly in a system where judges and law enforcement operate without oversight or accountability.
The code also significantly expands the use of corporal punishment, including flogging, and introduces vaguely defined offences such as "dancing" or being present in "gatherings of corruption", giving judges sweeping discretion to detain and punish people for ordinary cultural or social activities.
A Human Rights Challenge
For many observers, however, the formalisation of class-based justice is the clearest signal yet that the Taliban is not merely imposing harsh laws, but reconstructing the entire legal system around privilege, loyalty and religious status. "By placing clerics and religious elites above the law, the Taliban has effectively announced that some people are untouchable, while others are permanently disposable," Rawadari said.
The organisation has called for the immediate suspension of the code's implementation and urged the United Nations and the international community to use all available legal and diplomatic mechanisms to prevent its enforcement. It has also pledged to continue monitoring the situation and to publish regular reports on how the new legal framework is being used in practice.
As Afghanistan becomes increasingly isolated and its internal repression deepens, critics say the new criminal code sends a stark message - under Taliban rule, justice is no longer blind, it is stratified, selective and firmly aligned with power.
It's real. This video is on the TRT (Turkish Radio & Television) official YouTube account, so it couldn't be AI. Plus the incident was reported in numerous official sources across the world.
What is wring with these our men in the uk? If its not s3x offender it’s mvrder case😒
Daniel Odubanjo, 27, was arr3sted in the UK after he trapped a woman in a train toilet and s3xually assaulted her before s3xually assaulting young girl.
The British Transport Police has secured a six-year jail term for a Nigerian based in the United Kingdom, Daniel Odubanjo, for sexually assaulting a woman during a train journey.
PUNCH Metro learnt on Tuesday from a statement published on the BTP website that Odubanjo was sentenced by the Chelmsford Crown Court on January 12 for offences including false imprisonment and sexual assault.
According to the statement, Odubanjo’s trial followed a report by a woman who said the convict assaulted her while she was using a train toilet.
The statement narrated that on November 29, 2024, the victim, while using the train toilet, heard a bang on the door and assumed another passenger was waiting to use the facility.
It added that as she finished and opened the door, she was confronted by Odubanjo, who allegedly forced himself on her, dragged her back into the toilet and assaulted her.
The statement read, “But instead, she came face to face with Odubanjo, who pushed her back inside the cubicle and locked the door, forcefully grabbing her wrists and sexually assaulting her.
“In the struggle that ensued, the woman, who was 21 at the time, managed to open the door and attempted to get the attention of a fellow passenger, but Odubanjo grabbed her and pulled her back into the toilet, where he continued the sexual assault as she screamed for help.
“It was only when she lied about her age, claiming to be 14, that Odubanjo let her go. In an extremely distressed state, she approached a member of staff and left the train at Chelmsford, where she reported the incident to BTP.”
The police said that moments after the first incident, Odubanjo approached another teenager, sat opposite her and asked a barrage of inappropriate questions.
“When he left to use the toilet, the teenager moved seats to sit closer to other passengers and told them what had happened. However, Odubanjo returned, sat next to her and sexually assaulted her.
“A nearby passenger intervened and pulled Odubanjo away from the girl. The train was met by BTP officers at Hatfield Peverel station, just outside Chelmsford, where Odubanjo was arrested,” the statement added.
Following investigations, Odubanjo was charged, arraigned and later found guilty by the court.
The statement added, “Following a British Transport Police investigation, Daniel Odubanjo, 27, of King Avenue, Clapham, was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on Monday, January 12, for one count of false imprisonment and two counts of sexual assault after being found guilty following an earlier trial.
“He was sentenced to six years in prison, ordered to pay a victim surcharge, and handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which prohibits him from being under the influence of any substance while on public transport, at stations or on Network Rail property.”
Odubanjo joins a list of Nigerians convicted of crimes in the UK.
PUNCH Metro reported in November 2025 that the United Kingdom’s National Health Service Counter Fraud Authority secured a three-year conviction against a Nigerian doctor, Richard Akinrolabu, for offences bordering on fraud by false representation amounting to £268,000.
Akinrolabu was employed as a trust-grade specialist registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Princess Royal University Hospital and, between 2018 and 2021, allegedly reduced his workload under false pretences while engaging in another job.
🇳🇬ONLY 9 STATES ARE CONSIDERED CLEAN IN NIGERIA IN 2025
1🟤Akwa Ibom 🥇 2🟢Enugu🥈 3🟢Ebonyi🥉 4🟢Anambra 5🟠Bauchi 6🟠Plateau 7🟤Cross River 8🟣Lagos 9🟠Abuja city
28 out of 37 States including the rest of FCT (outside of Abuja City) are rated as unclean States, while Nine states are considered to be clean having scored above 45%.
Skull and Crossbones is a universal symbol for danger and poison. It doesn't always carry the connotation of cultism that most Nigerians associate with it.
hoygift: The skull sign on the third photo would tell the students so much about ur uni days.
You mean the woman who married her own brother to get American citizenship? The woman who was broke before she entered politics but is now a multi millionaire? I condemn all acts of political violence, but this looks stage managed. The fact that she was unharmed and carried on speaking is very noteworthy.
God1000: She's a fearless and remarkable woman, her story is an inspiration for many people, not even Donald trump can stop this woman from shinning.
This is what the lunatic has turned america into with his hate rhetoric
Iran whose entire military chain of command was wiped out of existence by Israel in 3 days! 😂
War is not social media where you can boast and spin lies. In a true war between the United States and Iran, it would be a monumental catastrophy for the Iranian army.
gaskiyamagana: Spying or not. America can never defeat China. Ordinary Afghanistan, US abandoned. Disgrace of the Year is loading and lurking in US misadventure with Iran.
There were only 2 non Igbo officers in the January 1966 coup. All the rest were from the then Eastern Region
Dalohad: I can see some Yoruba Muslim followers of that drug sniffer begging their ancestral spirits to include an Igbo name therein..
That Igbo name would be worth more than the Yoruba officer from Osun and all other northern officers on the list., as it will help their anti-Igbo propaganda as we approach 2027 elections..
We saw how they twisted the propaganda in the Jan 15 coup in 1966 and tagged it an 'Igbo coup'. Carefully removing the names of the Yoruba and Northern officers who actively participated in that coup.
At the end, one of the Yoruba officers Maj. Adewale Ademoyega honourably wrote a book 'Why we struck' to dispel the rumour that it was an 'Igbo coup'. Vindicating the Igbos.
A book that many propagandist Yoruba writers hate to reference till today..
Posterity is a great judge..
*please mention and save this text, before they delete it and ban me as usual*
China’s senior-most general,Zhang Youxia, is accused of leaking information about the country’s nuclear-weapons program to the U.S. and accepting bribes for official acts, including the promotion of an officer to defense minister, said people familiar with a high-level briefing on the allegations.
The briefing—attended on Saturday morning by some of the military’s highest-ranking officers—came just before China’s Ministry of National Defense made the bombshell announcement of an investigation into Gen. Zhang Youxia, once considered Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s most-trusted military ally. That statement gave few details beyond a probe of severe violations of party discipline and state laws.
But the people familiar with the briefing—which hasn’t been reported until now—said Zhang is under investigation for allegedly forming political cliques, a phrase describing efforts to build networks of influence that undermine party unity, and abusing his authority within the Communist Party’s top military decision-making body, known as the Central Military Commission.
Authorities are also scrutinizing his oversight of a powerful agency responsible for the research, development and procurement of military hardware. Those familiar with the briefing said Zhang was alleged to have accepted huge sums of money in exchange for official promotions in this big-budget procurement system.
The most shocking allegation disclosed during the closed-door briefing, the people said, was that Zhang had leaked core technical data on China’s nuclear weapons to the U.S.
Some evidence against Zhang came from Gu Jun, the former general manager of the China National Nuclear Corp., a state-owned company that oversees all aspects of China’s civilian and military nuclear programs, said the people familiar with the briefing. Beijing announced an investigation into Gu last Monday for suspected severe violations of party discipline and state laws.
During Saturday’s briefing, authorities revealed that the probe into Gu has linked Zhang to a security breach within China’s nuclear sector, the people said. Details on the breach weren’t disclosed during the briefing, the people said.
Zhang, 75 years old, and Gu couldn’t be reached for comment. In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, Liu Pengyu, a spokesman at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said the party’s decision to investigate Zhang underscores that the leadership maintains “a full-coverage, zero-tolerance approach to combating corruption.”
Some analysts say Xi’s latest crackdown on corruption and disloyalty in the armed forces marks the most aggressive dismantling of China’s military leadership since the Mao Zedong era.
Like Xi, Zhang, a member of the party’s elite Politburo, is one of China’s “princelings,” as the descendants of revolutionary elders and high-ranking party officials are known. Zhang’s father fought alongside Xi’s father during the Chinese civil war that led to Mao’s Communist forces seizing power in 1949, and both men later rose to senior roles.
“This move is unprecedented in the history of the Chinese military and represents the total annihilation of the high command,” said Christopher Johnson, head of China Strategies Group, a political-risk consulting firm.
Saturday’s internal briefing also linked Zhang’s downfall to his promotion of former Defense Minister Li Shangfu. Zhang allegedly helped elevate Li in exchange for large bribes, said the people.
Li’s own downfall began in 2023, when he disappeared from public view and was later removed as defense minister. The party expelled him the following year for corruption. Li couldn’t be reached for comment.
In a sign of the depth of the current probe, Xi has commissioned a task force to conduct a deep-dive investigation into Zhang’s tenure as commander of the Shenyang Military Region, which spanned five years from 2007 to 2012, said some of the people familiar with the briefing. The team has now arrived in the northeastern city of Shenyang, they said, notably choosing to stay in local hotels rather than military bases, where Zhang would have a network of support.
Authorities have already seized mobile devices from officers who rose through the ranks with Zhang and Gen. Liu Zhenli, chief of the Joint Staff Department, whose investigation was also announced Saturday, some of the people said, as thousands of officers with ties to the men become potential targets. Liu, 61, couldn’t be reached for comment.
The downfall of Zhang and Liu expands Xi’s yearslong push to clear out officers deemed corrupt and politically unreliable.
The purging of even one of Xi’s personal friends, Zhang, shows that there now are no limits to Xi’s antigraft zeal, said Johnson, the China Strategies Group head who served at the Central Intelligence Agency for two decades, including as a top China analyst.
“Xi sought to avoid a wholesale cashiering of the top brass in the early years of the anticorruption campaign” by not targeting active-duty senior generals and key parts of the military such as the strategic-missile force, Johnson said. “He later realized that was impossible, and this move is the denouement of that process.”
Analysts say the opacity of China’s political system makes it difficult to ascertain Xi’s precise motivations for liquidating a longtime ally in the Chinese military, known as the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA. Internal explanations provided to the party elite—such as those in Saturday’s briefing—don’t always reflect the complete or true motivation behind Xi’s decisions.
Even so, a Saturday editorial by the PLA Daily, the military’s flagship newspaper, indicated the importance of political factors in the case against Zhang, whom the newspaper accused of having “severely trampled on and undermined” the institutional basis of the CMC chairman’s authority. This suggests that “Zhang had too much power outside of Xi himself,” said Lyle Morris, senior fellow for foreign policy and national security at the Asia Society Policy Institute.
The party has emphasized that Xi, as CMC chairman, has ultimate authority over the military and represents the party’s command of the armed forces, Morris said. “So, highlighting such a violation suggests that Zhang was out of step with Xi’s chain of command.”
Regardless of the reasons, Xi’s decision to cast out Zhang shows he “is confident in his consolidation of power over the military,” Morris said. “It’s not a sign of weakness, but of strength, for Xi.”
By decapitating the command structure, said some of the people familiar with the briefing, Xi is signaling that rampant corruption, entrenched patronage networks and the compromise of state secrets are existential threats to his goal of gaining control over Taiwan, the democratically self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its territory.
However, some analysts say, the resulting hollowing out of the senior ranks is likely to affect combat effectiveness and could lower the immediate risk of a cross-strait invasion as Xi pivots to a more calculated strategy. Beijing appears to be looking first to make a deal with President Trump on Taiwan as the two superpowers prepare for high-stakes negotiations on trade and security matters this year. Any wavering by Trump on Taiwan’s security could shake Taipei’s confidence in American resolve.
Since the summer of 2023, the party has unseated top officers in China’s army, air force, navy, strategic-missile force and paramilitary police, as well as major theater commands—including the one focused on Taiwan. More than 50 senior military officers and defense-industry executives have been placed under investigation or removed from office in the past 2½ years, according to official disclosures reviewed by the Journal.
The Central Military Commission had six professional military members when its current term started in 2022. Now it has just one active uniformed officer, Gen. Zhang Shengmin, who was promoted to vice chairman only in October after the purge of another general who held that role. Unlike Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, who are combat veterans, Zhang Shengmin has served as a political officer and discipline inspector for the bulk of his career, responsible for enforcing loyalty and boosting morale.
“Given the size and complexity of overseeing any large and sophisticated military organization, this vacuum at the top is untenable,” said M. Taylor Fravel, director of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He added that it was “bound to have an impact on the PLA’s current readiness to undertake major, complex military operations in the short to medium term.”
They didn't "bribe the US". They hired a firm of private lobbyists to lobby on their behalf.
Unfortunately for them, they forgot that lobbying will not work because for the Americans, allowing a country the size of Nigeria to fall into the hands of Jihadists will be a grave error and carries great risks for the destabilisation of Africa.
Eradicating islamism in Nigeria and Africa in general is actually a top priority for the Americans.
chatinent: The same party that bribed the US to stop interfering with the killing of its terrorist wing where their leader is a card holder?
As seen on X, the young lady Miss Lizabeth Seyifunmi who recently graduated from the University of Ibadan Department of European Languages with a Bachelor of Arts degree in the German language got a reply and job offer from the German language school based in Kigali, Rwanda.
Students from the University of Ibadan's Department of European Studies flooded timelines with photos of their B.A. degrees in German, French, and more-kneeling in thanks, posing by the Ul gate, or grinning with theses in hand. The university's official account reposted one, celebrating their 'products' with B.A. German and French. Opportunities followed fast: a German Language School offered Lizabeth a teaching job, while others pitched MSc help in Germany, UK grants, and career gigs, showing how one post opened doors in a competitive job market.
B.A German, University of Ibadan🌸, Thank you Jesus♥️♥️♥️♥️
I was transferred after I didn’t meet the requirements for CLA ( Communication & Language Arta). At the time, I didn’t want to accept the transfer because I was ignorant of the purpose and benefits of studying Yoruba. Isn’t it a native language we all speak? I thought.
Then my granny spoke to me. She advised me to take it, explaining that there were many opportunities, both at home and abroad. I only agreed when I was told I could cross over in 200 level, so I took it. It was a real challenge at first, despite being a Yoruba girl.
I[b] then realized that I didn’t know much about the language I was born into. With the help of my lecturers and fellow students, I gradually found my footing. Looking back now, I can confidently say these have been the most insightful four years of my life. [/b] At the end of my first year, I told my mum I didn’t want to cross anymore, even though I took and merited 6 electives from the department I initially intended. She advised against staying, saying she didn’t believe there were many opportunities for a Yoruba graduate.
I applied for the transfer. With a CGPA of 3.49 (UI uses a 4-point system), I qualified, but my department refused to sign me off.
It was a bittersweet moment. I loved studying Yoruba, but I also feared the judgment of ignorant people.
I stayed committed to the course till the end, and in the process, I learned so much, grammar in both English and Yoruba, phonology, morphology, literally every aspect of linguistics. I truly had the best of both worlds.
Then there was the literary side of Yoruba: the novels, the poems we analyzed, so beautiful. You really have to experience it yourself.😭
And the cultural aspect? Guess who learned to chant in just one semester. I got to act too. I learned the history of Yoruba and the deities.
Everything I know now has not only shaped me academically but has also deeply influenced my personal life. And I’m glad to share it with the world. Oh, we haven’t received our final CGPA but I’ve been on first class since 200L, hopefully it doesn’t drop when results are released.
Forgot to mention, we got to coach/interact with students from University of Michigan via zoom. Also, I’m open to opportunities related to my degree. Thank you.🙏🏿
BREAKING: Court Orders Airtel Nigeria To Pay N210Million For Unauthorised Use Of Veteran Singer Mbanefo’s ‘Nigeria Go Survive’
The Federal High Court, Ikoyi, has ordered Airtel Nigeria to pay Two Hundred and Ten Million Naira (N210 million) to Veno Marioghae Mbanefo for copyright infringement.
Presiding Judge Honourable Justice Ibrahim Kala handed down the judgment after finding that Airtel Nigeria unlawfully used Mbanefo’s song, “Nigeria Go Survive,” without her authorisation.
The ruling marks a significant legal victory for the artist and underscores the enforcement of intellectual property rights in Nigeria’s entertainment industry.
In September 2022, the singer sued the telecommunications company, Airtel Network Limited for “unauthorised use” of her musical work.
In a statement sent to SaharaReporters at the time, the veteran singer said she “found out a few months ago, that Airtel had been using my song, ‘Nigeria Go Survive,’ to market their products, using their telemarketing numbers, without my permission.
“Following the discovery, I contacted my lawyer, Rockson Igelige of Felix, Igelige and Associates, who promptly wrote to them. Rather than look into our authentic claim, they responded by not only denying all culpability, but also defamed me and threatened criminal charges against me.
“We then took our case, backed by our witnesses, IT & Evaluation Specialist and evidence, to the Nigeria Copyright Commission which began an investigation into our claim.
“While the criminal investigation into our claim is still on, my lawyers and I are, however, filing a civil suit against Airtel on 23/9/22 at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos to show how they have flagrantly not only infringed on my copyright by using my song without permission, but have also brazenly denied all responsibility, despite all evidence.”
The veteran artiste earlier in a letter to the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Network Limited, Ikoyi, Lagos, accused the telecoms company of using her song, ‘Nigeria Go Survive’ to promote its TV app and ‘The Voice Nigeria’, without her permission.
The letter signed by her lawyer, R. A. Igelige Esq asked the telecoms company to “cease and desist forthwith from further infringing on the copyright of our Client to the aforementioned musical work”.
It also asked Airtel to “pay to our client the sum of N50,000,000 (Fifty Million Naira) for the unauthorised commercial and also derogatory use of her musical work”.
“Take notice that if we do not receive an adequate response within 21 days of receipt of this letter, we shall take all proper steps to seek legal remedy for our Client, including legal action for injunctive relief, criminal charges and damages, without further notice to you.
“We look forward, however, to your prompt response towards an amicable resolution of this matter,” it added.
The letter read in part, “We are solicitors to Veno Marioghae Mbanefo (our Client), a musician and entertainer residing in Lagos and we write this letter on her behalf.
“Our Client is the author and copyright owner of the musical work entitled ‘Nigeria Go Survive’ being used by your Mobile Network Company (Airtel) to promote your TV app, and also to promote ‘The Voice Nigeria.’
“Our Client’s attention has been drawn to your use, without permission or licence, of her aforementioned musical work. Specifically, you have appropriated the work to promote your TV app and also used it to advertise ‘The Voice Nigeria.’”
“By not obtaining our Client’s prior permission or licence before engaging repeatedly in this act or acts, your company’s conduct is a flagrant and deliberate infringement of her copyright. It also amounts to stealing and wilful deprivation with the intent to unjustly enrich your company and deny our Client of the legitimate fruits of her labour, thereby inflicting hardship on her,” her lawyer added.
US immigration authorities allow suspect in $100M jewelry heist to self-deport before trial
Federal immigration authorities approved the self-deportation of a suspect in a $100 million jewelry heist, allowing him to avoid trial and escape potential prison time.
Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores, 42, was one of seven people charged last year with following an armored truck to a rural freeway rest stop in California and stealing diamonds, emeralds, gold, rubies and designer watches in July 2022, which is believed to be the largest jewelry heist in U.S. history.
Flores was facing up to 15 years in federal prison if convicted on charges of conspiracy to commit theft from interstate and foreign shipments and theft from interstate and foreign shipments. He pleaded not guilty.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported Flores late last month after he asked for a voluntary departure, prosecutors said in court filings.
The jewelers that the suspects stole from are also seeking answers from immigration authorities.
"When a defendant in a major federal theft case leaves the country before trial, victims are left without answers, without a verdict, and without closure," Jerry Kroll, an attorney for some of the jewelry companies, told the Los Angeles Times.
Flores' attorney, John D. Robertson, motioned to dismiss the indictment against his client, asking for the charges to be permanently dismissed and for the case to be closed.
Federal prosecutors said they still want to bring Flores to trial, asking for the charges to be dropped "without prejudice" to allow for a future criminal prosecution.
While Flores was a lawful permanent resident and released on bail, he was transferred to ICE custody in September, according to court filings. Federal prosecutors said they were unaware he had an immigration detainer.
Robertson argued that this violates his client's criminal prosecution rights and justifies his motion to dismiss his case.
Flores requested deportation to Chile during an immigration hearing on Dec. 16, according to court documents. The judge denied his voluntary departure application but issued a final order of removal.
He was then deported to Ecuador.
"Prosecutors are supposed to allow the civil immigration process to play out independently while criminal charges are pending," federal prosecutors wrote in their motion opposing efforts to dismiss the case. "That is exactly what they did in this case — unwittingly to defendant’s benefit in that he will now avoid trial, and any potential conviction and sentence, unless and until he returns to the United States."
Immigration officials would typically inform prosecutors what was happening if a criminal defendant had immigration proceedings against them. In minor cases, a defendant can sometimes choose to self-deport instead of facing prosecution.
Former federal prosecutor Laurie Levenson said what happened in Flores' case is highly unusual, particularly because of the significance in this case.
"It's just beyond me how they would deport him without the prosecutors … being in on the conversation," Levenson told The Associated Press. "This really was the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing."
The jewelry heist was carried out in July 2022 after the suspects stalked a Brink's tractor-trailer leaving an international jewelry show near San Francisco with dozens of bags of jewels, according to the indictment. The victims reported more than $100 million in losses, but Brink's said the stolen items were worth under $10 million.
According to a lawsuit filed by the security company, one of the drivers was asleep inside the vehicle and the other was grabbing food inside the rest stop when the thieves broke in.
From what I know about Islam, only a high ranking scholar can make a declaration of takfeer (heresy).
So who is this Muhammad Awwal Ali Jabata? Is he just a local champion, or does he have any universal influence amongst the global ulammahs? He would probably be regarded as a half baked Abeed by Arab scholars😂
Secondly, you're not being honest when you say that Salafis don't refer to other Islamic sects as heretics. Maybe the ones in Nigeria dare not do it because they have to follow the authority of their Arab masters. But elsewhere like in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia etc Salafis are the experts at declaring other Islamic sects to be heretical.
By Ibn Abdillah As-sudaisiy Al-Iloori 29th June, 2020
Linking Salafiyyah or Salafis to Takfeer is one of the most unjust positions I have seen in recent times. It is true that some takfeeris wrongly ascribe to Salafiyyah. But they are far from it. The scholars have clarified this severally in their work from time immemorial.
Even with the fitnah we are going through, go to any reliable Salafi gathering, scholars are busy teaching the foundations of Islām as they teach the Qur'an. They explain the deviations of the various deviant sects in a way that will be very clear and unambiguous, using the works of past scholars; such as Imām Ahmad, Imām ul-Barbahaaree, Ibn Taymiyyah, Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Abdilwahhaab رحمهم الله and so on.
So, the reality of the takfeeris is not hidden. They are well known to any serious salafi and it is an area many students of knowledge always run away from. They have their origin in the way of the Khawaarij (those who remove people from Islām due to sins or bid'ah of lesser grade). Even as glaring as the evils of the Sufis, Shi'as, ikhwaanees etc. are, you cannot find any salafi scholar making blanket takfeer of them. Now, compare this with the gatherings of Muhammad Awwal Ali Jabata and his gullible followers who remove people from Islām without justification. They only teach their followers what they can use to remove people from Islām, based on their distorted explanation of the verses of the Qur'an and hadiths. That is why to them, the only condition for being a Muslim is for you to be part of them.
According to their dangerous Takfeeri ideology, once you are not following the fikrah (thought) of Muhammad Awwal Ali Jabata, then you are not a Muslim. They have even made takfeer of all Sunnis that are not with them. So, how can they be linked with Sunnah or Salafiyyah? This is not Salafiyyah, it is ignorance and thuggery of the highest order. The Sunnis have called on the Ulamaa in Ilorin severally to take decisive action on this people before they grow into another Boko Harām as their ideology is not far from that of Muhammad Yusuf and his followers. Intead of taking action on this, some people are shielding him due to his origin. The Sunnis have called for his programs on radio to banned, yet some radio stations are still entertaining him. It is very sad.
Linking Salafis to Takfeer is like linking Islām with terrorism just because Al-Qaeda, As-shabab, Boko Haram etc are Muslims. These are some of the prominent Khawaarij groups in our time. They might be Muslim depending on the extent of their deviation, but there is no doubt about the fact that they do not in any way represent Islām. They do not represent the Sunnah. They are going against the roots and foundations of Islām in many ways. They are misguided and they misguide their gullible followers.
PSG defender Lucas Hernandez and his partner have been accused of human trafficking and exploitation by a family of Colombian workers.
The left–back, who won the World Cup with France in 2018, is said to have employed the family of five to work as his security and babysitters from September 2024 until November 2025.
But according to the family's lawyer Lola Dubois, Hernandez, 29, and his partner Victoria Triay hired them without the relevant legal status and had them working up to 82 hours a week with no days off.
Hernandez and Triay both vehemently deny the allegations and say they have been 'betrayed'.
The daughter of the family told French outlet Paris Match that she was contacted by Triay while working as her nurse in Colombia. Triay is alleged to have offered her a job and 'promised' official documentation which would legally allow her to work within six months.
But the daughter – who was later joined by her mother, father, and two brothers – claimed that this was never forthcoming and that they were subjected to gruelling working conditions which saw them receive 'insufficient' compensation.
'An entire family is deprived of its rights,' lawyer Dubois told Paris Match. 'Without employment contracts, they are not entitled to unemployment benefits or adequate social security coverage.
'Yet, this is a professional football player, surrounded by numerous lawyers, both in his private life and at his club. The fact that he never bothered to provide them with an employment contract demonstrates the intent behind the offence.'
The family were said to have only been paid in cash and – after allegedly signing confidentiality agreements in February 2025 – received fake identity cards.
According to Dubois, the family were later offered official employment contracts by Hernandez in October last year – following an argument between the daughter and Triay.
'These are documents drawn up at the last minute in an attempt to regularize the situation. They state that they worked as part–time, multi–skilled employees,' Dubois said.
The contracts allegedly stated that the family worked around 86 hours per month, for a gross monthly salary of €1,029 (£896).
There were also claims made by the daughter that the family 'risked our lives' for Hernandez and his partner, particularly during an attempted burglary at the footballer's home in December 2024, during which the family's father allegedly shot a gun in order to make the robbers flee.
Hernandez's agent told Paris Match that he and Triay were 'completely taken aback' by the claims. Hernandez and his partner Triay are said to have been' completely taken aback' by the claims
In a statement, the couple said: 'We opened our home and our lives to people who presented themselves as friends, who sought our kindness and for whom we had genuine affection. These people shared our lives with respect and dignity.
'We helped them, supported them, and believed them when they assured us that they were in the process of regularising their situation. That trust has been betrayed.
'Unfortunately, we are not the first to experience such a situation. Like many others before us, we were manipulated by emotional stories and false assurances. We never acted with malicious intent or in contempt of the law. We acted as human beings — and learned, painfully, that compassion can be exploited.
'What makes this situation even more trying is to see a gesture of trust and humanity turned into public attacks and accusations. This ordeal has been deeply painful for our family.
'This matter is now being dealt with through the appropriate legal channels, where the facts — not the narratives circulating on social media — belong. We call for decency, restraint, and respect. We will not participate further in online speculation.'
The claims are now being probed by the Versailles prosecutor's office.
Hernandez began his career at Atletico Madrid, where he came through the youth ranks. He spent five years there before moving to Bayern Munich in 2019, where he won the Champions League.
The 29–year–old joined PSG in 2023 – where he won a second career Champions League trophy last season – but has found himself largely on the bench this campaign, starting just 11 games.
Murders plummeted more than 20% from the year before, the single-largest one-year drop on record — and 2025's might be the lowest murder rate in the U.S. since 1900, a new study found
Musk's Reaction:
Turns out that jailing or deporting repeat violent offenders greatly reduces the murder rate
It's more the case that iShowspeed will regret coming to the land of able bodied beggars called Nigeria.
helinues: I first came across Ishowspeed video on Banana and sprite challenge and also one chip challenge, he was real with the challenge without faking it.
Years after, ishowspeed is now big on social media global stage. He has been touring other continents before coming to Africa, he was hardly recognized nor appreciated.
Ishowspeed in Africa is erasing all the lies the American elites have told their kids black or white about Africa . They undermine any progress in Africa as that's the excuse they have been using to be giving us Aids.
Reasonable number of Americans believe Africa is just only one country, no electricity, no water, no health service.
The night at Ethiopia erased all those fallacy, one country out of the many in Africa. To even say the Ethiopians are still in 2018, using their own calendar indicated lots of lies was told about the blacks.
As both black and white Americans are seeing the reality on ground, their elites should be ready for convincing story or..
They claim the bikes were seized by the military during anti terrorist operations. What kind of deliberate lie are you trying to spread?
The PUNCH learnt the bandits demanded the return of 17 motorcycles they allegedly lost during recent military operations as a condition for the release of the victims.
Gotocourt: Terrorists claimed that the villagers stole their 10 motorcycles initially but now requesting for 17
Politics › Re: Governor Okpebholo Orders 360 Billboards For Tinubu’s 2027 Re-Election Campaign by BlackViper: 2:25pm On Jan 31
