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 Politics › Villa Coverage: PDP, Csos Knock Buhari For Barring PUNCH, Others by Brosbeforehoes(op): 9:46am On Mar 26, 2020 |
The Peoples Democratic Party, on Wednesday, said the banning of some media houses from covering activities in the Presidential Villa was unjustified. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, had in a statement on Tuesday restricted the coverage of activities in the Villa to 13 media organisations excluding AIT, Arise TV, STV, Ben TV and others. Also barred were reporters from The PUNCH, ThisDay, Tribune, The Guardian, Vanguard, Daily Trust and other major newspapers, while few of them were allowed to send in their photographers. In the statement, Adesina attributed the decision to part of the measures being taken to curtail the spread of coronavirus. He explained that Channels TV, NTA, TVC, News Agency of Nigeria, Sun Newspaper, Voice of Nigeria, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, and photographers of ThisDay, The Guardian, Leadership, Vanguard and Daily Trust, would remain to cover the Villa for a yet-to-be specified period. However, in a statement issued, on Tuesday, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, dismissed Adesina’s explanations. He described the restrictions placed on media houses as a most heinous form of official victimisation executed in bad faith. According to him, this decision by the Buhari regime is highly detestable, undemocratic and totally against the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the Freedom of Information Act, as well as the tenets and guiding principles of rule of law. Ologbondiyan said, “This is therefore not the time for unnecessary pettiness, victimisation and barring of media houses, a development which has sparked suspicion in the public space as being designed to conceal certain facts from the public. “It is indeed instructive for the Buhari Presidency to note that our nation is in dire need of hope and direction contained in timely information, especially from the government.” He warned that clamping down on the media, which is a critical stakeholder in the effort to defeat COVID-19, was completely at variance with national interest. Ologbondiyan further said, “What our nation needs now is for all hands on deck, with those in power shelving their pettiness, parochial interests, pointless and unreasonable ego as we collectively seek for solutions. “The PDP, therefore, charges the Presidency to, immediately and without any further delay, lift the ban on the affected media houses and allow them to discharge their responsibility to the Nigerian people, in line with the provisions of the law and their professional requirements. “Moreover, the PDP frowns on the Federal Government cancelling its Tuesday media briefing on the COVID-19, thereby denying Nigerians very vital information in the process. The party urges the Federal Government to exert itself and seek more concerted efforts in the fight against the pandemic.” No justification for barring free press – CSOs Also, the National Coordinator, Human Rights Writers Association, Emmanuel Onwubiko, while speaking on the development said, “The restriction infringes on the constitutional obligations of the State to the people of Nigeria in line with section 22 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). He challenged the regime to come clean because there is now a clear indication that it was uncomfortable with public scrutiny of its activities by the free press in Nigeria. Onwubiko also said, “HURIWA hereby totally condemns this outrageous and grave threat to the constitutionally guaranteed media rights of citizens who are the owners of the sovereignty of Nigeria and have donated the legitimacy to government officials to exercise responsibility within the legal framework. We think the current administration is rapidly becoming a tyranny and totalitarian regime.” Speaking in a similar vein, the Executive Director, Civil Societies Legislative and Advocacy Centre, Auwual Musa, said, “When we said there was a systematic attack on free speech and the freedom of the press supporters of this regime call us lairs and wailers now it is clear for all to see. “This restriction which is clearly targeted at independent minded media organisations is further proof of this regime growing intolerance of alternative views. It is such a shame.” https://punchng.com/villa-coverage-pdp-csos-knock-buhari-for-barring-punch-others/?amp=1
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| Health › Ethiopia Freeing 4,000 Inmates In Coronavirus Battle.. by Brosbeforehoes(op): 8:53am On Mar 26, 2020 |
More than 4,000 prisoners will be released in Ethiopia as the government continues to take measures to control the spread of coronavirus. The country’s attorney general said on Wednesday that prisoners convicted of minor offences and women with babies were among those who would be freed. Foreigners charged with involvement in with smuggling and drug trafficking would also be released and deported to their countries of origin. The magazine editor returned to Ethiopia after Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy came to power in 2018 at a time when thousands of political prisoners were freed, a state of emergency ended and numerous political parties unbanned. But the charges of tax evasion he faced in absentia were not dropped and he was sentenced to seven years in jail last October. Hotel quarantine for travellers Other measures to curb coronavirus that have been announced by the government include ordering most its employees to work from home from Wednesday and closing all land borders. All passengers travelling to Ethiopia are be quarantined for 14 days in eight hotels selected by authorities. Ethiopian citizens who cannot afford to pay will have their expenses covered by the governments. More than 400 travellers have started their mandatory quarantine, according to a statement by the Ethiopian Public Health Institute. Ethiopia has 12 confirmed cases of Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by coronavirus. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/03/ethiopia-freeing-4000-inmates-in-coronavirus-battle/ |
| Nairaland General › Trial Of Coronavirus Vaccine Underway As Participants Get First Dose. by Brosbeforehoes(op): 8:45am On Mar 26, 2020 |
A coronavirus vaccine trial in the United State, US, has given a dose to its first participant. The study aims to enroll a total of 45 healthy adults over a six-week time frame. Each will receive two injections about a month apart in varying doses, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says. The study, which is a Phase I trial, is meant to establish that the vaccine is safe and induces a desired response from participants’ immune systems. Proving that the vaccine is effective in preventing COVID-19 infection, however, will require follow-up studies involving many more participants – which will take many more months, experts say. “Finding a safe and effective vaccine to prevent infection with [the novel coronavirus] is an urgent public health priority,” NIAID Director Dr Anthony Fauci said in a statement. “This Phase I study, launched in record speed, is an important first step toward achieving that goal.” The trial is funded by NIAID and run out of the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. The vaccine, which uses genetic material called messenger RNA, was developed by NIAID scientists in collaboration with the biotech company Moderna. The agency has credited the speed with which it began a Phase I trial to its prior studies on related coronaviruses SARS and MERS. Scientists had previously worked on an experimental MERS vaccine targeting a protein on the virus’ surface, which gave them a “head start for developing a vaccine candidate to protect against COVID-19”, the statement said. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/03/trial-of-coronavirus-vaccine-underway-as-participants-get-first-dose/amp/ |
| Romance › Re: My Girlfriend Cheated, Any Advice? by Brosbeforehoes: 11:00am On Mar 25, 2020 |
Leezah:OP, I hope you learn from this... 1 Like |
| Politics › Re: COVID-19: 3 Of Abba Kyari's Staff Test Positive by Brosbeforehoes: 5:43pm On Mar 24, 2020 |
Deltayankeeboi:bro you wicked oh.. |
| Romance › Re: How Do You Break Up With A Girl Without Breaking Her Heart? My Story by Brosbeforehoes: 10:31am On Mar 24, 2020 |
popoolaopeyemi6:this one deep oh |
| Romance › Re: Is What She Did Right? Should I Send Her Away? [Picture] by Brosbeforehoes: 10:21am On Mar 24, 2020 |
Lol some people no get problem oh   4 Likes |
| Romance › Re: Guy' Because She Wants U Take Things Slow Doesn’t Mean She Don’t Really Like You by Brosbeforehoes: 10:33am On Mar 23, 2020 |
For this Corona period  una still dey reason women matter... |
| Politics › E-voting Won’t Stop Electoral Fraud, Say Dons by Brosbeforehoes(op): 6:07am On Mar 22, 2020 |
Aduba said, “Definitely, e-voting will not stop rigging and violence and other malpractices. What political officer holders get is huge and they won’t want it to stop. I am a professor of 20 years and my take-home pay is not up to N500,000 but when some characters now win elections as lawmakers, before they even start to work, about N20m is released to each of them. “Do you think those ones will not be desperate to frustrate any system you may want to use to stop them? The minimum wage is N30,000 and some states are finding it difficult to pay. As long as we continue on transactional politics, malpractices will continue. “If we want to stop malpractices, we must drastically reduce the monetary rewards attached to elective offices. By doing this, people with passion for service will step out and those ones after money will go back.” Similarly, Prof Bolaji Omitola, a lecturer at the Department of Political Science at the Osun State University, said e-voting might only reduce electoral malpractices, it would not stop them completely. Omitola said despite some advanced democracies using electronic voting, electoral malpractice had not stopped. Omitola added that electronic voting was not 100 per cent error-free. He said, “As a matter of fact, some countries tried e-voting and stopped it. It is not foolproof even in the developed countries.” https://punchng.com/e-voting-wont-stop-electoral-fraud-say-dons/ |
| Politics › Bagudu, Ekweremadu, Etete, 331 Others Linked To 800 Dubai Properties Worth N152b by Brosbeforehoes(op): 5:52am On Mar 22, 2020 |
The Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu, and the senator representing Enugu West Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Ike Ekweremadu, are alleged to be among serving political office holders linked to 800 properties in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Bagudu and Ekweremadu were named as part of 334 prominent Nigerians, including politically exposed persons, who own properties valued at N152bn ($400m) in the UAE. The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, had said the exchange rate had been adjusted to N380 to a dollar. The linkage of these prominent Nigerians to the properties was contained in a report published by an American-based non-governmental organisation, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on its website on Thursday. Titled “Dubai Properties” An Oasis for Nigeria’s Corrupt Political Elites”, the report, according to its author, Mathew Page, is based largely on private data compiled by UAE-based real estate and property professionals. Bagudu is the Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, which is a forum of governors elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress, which rode to power on the promise to fight corruption. This is also in spite of the anti-graft stand of the current regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). The Federal Government and the UAE had in 2017 signed the Judicial Agreements on Extradition, Transfer of Sentenced Persons, Mutual Legal Assistance on Criminal Matters and Mutual Legal Assistance on Criminal and Commercial Matters, which include the recovery and repatriation of stolen wealth. Other legal instruments between Nigeria and UAE were the Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters; Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Civil and Commercial Matters and the Agreement on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons. Described in the report as the Gen Sani Abacha’s money man, Bagudu was linked to eight properties on the 12th floor of Dubai’s capital bay towers development valued at more than $4.8m in total. Bagudu, who is in his second term as the governor of Kebbi State, reportedly helped Abacha to launder billions of dollars stolen from Nigeria. A Bloomberg report few weeks ago had shown that the governor signed a deal with the Federal Government that he would be given $100m from the funds he helped Abacha to loot from Nigeria. The report relied on court papers filed by the United States Department of Justice. Ekweremadu, a former deputy senate president, was allegedly linked to eight Dubai properties, with an estimated total value of more than $7m (N2.66bn). The properties include a luxury flat in Park Towers bought for $2.2m (N836m) and one in Burj Dubai purchased for $1.4m (N532m), including other properties in the United Kingdom. The investigative research alleged that about 20 former and serving governors, seven former and serving senators, current and former heads of ministries, departments and agencies of government, commissioners and bureau de change operators, own a significant number of the properties. Other prominent Nigerians who allegedly own properties in Dubai include a former Peoples Democratic Party chairman, Ahmadu Ali; former Kwara State governor, Mohammed Lawal; former petroleum minister, Dan Etete; a former deputy senate president, Ibrahim Mantu and a former managing director of the defunct Oceanic Bank, Mrs Cecilia Ibru. Others are a former Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun; former chairman of Military Pension Board, Bala Mshelia; former group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Ladan Shehu, and a former head of the Petroleum Product Marketing Company, Samuel Okeke, among others. The report also identified possible use of fronts by prominent Nigerians, including former Delta State governor, James Ibori, adding that about four political associates of the former governor were found to have ties to properties in Dubai. “One is linked to four Dubai properties purchased for a total of $3.8m (N1.44bn), according to Sandcastles data,” it noted. A breakdown indicates that 156 politically exposed persons own 226 properties in Dubai; 13 known Nigerian law enforcement agency suspects own 216 properties; 50 PEP-linked business persons own 91 properties while 14 security sector leaders own 71 properties. The report further linked 69 properties to 35 governors; 16 properties to 45 lawmakers; 25 properties to 16 heads of departments/agencies; 24 to 15 ministers; 13 to NNPC staff members; 13 properties to five Presidency staff and one property to a judge totalling 800 properties. YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Power failure, others stall 2.54 million barrels oil production The report stated, “The 800 Dubai properties linked to Nigerian PEPs are estimated to be worth well over $400m. This equals roughly two-thirds of the Nigerian Army’s annual budget and over three times the annual budget of the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission.” The report said the PEPs’ appetite for Dubai property was so voracious that a burgeoning group of middlemen now specialise in selling Dubai property to recently elected politicians and newly appointed officials. It described some of the salesmen as scam artists seeking to con naive legislators keen to convert some of their ill-gotten gains into offshore real estate. It added, “One former legislator from Kaduna State, for example, lost tens of thousands of dollars to one such hustler.” Responding to the allegations, Bagudu dismissed the report, saying it had no substance. The governor, who spoke through one of his aides, Yahaya Sarki, described the report as “one of those online reports which have no substance.” When contacted, former Deputy President of the Senate Ike Ekweremadu, said, “I have said this before, let anybody who finds any property listed against my name that is not in my asset declaration form which I duly submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau take such a property.’’ https://punchng.com/bagudu-ekweremadu-etete-331-others-linked-to-800-dubai-properties-worth-n152bn-report/
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| Crime › IGP X-squad, SARS Now Notorious For Extorting Innocent People In Delta– Activist by Brosbeforehoes(op): 6:10am On Mar 21, 2020 |
Victor Ojei, a human rights activist based in Delta State, came to the aid of Harry Odiakaose, a Nigerian based in Poland, who was allegedly arrested and almost extorted by a team of IGP X-Squad. He tells MATTHEW OCHEI about alleged corrupt practices and unlawful detention of innocent citizens by IGP X-Squad in Delta State What do you know about the case of Harry Odiakaose, who was allegedly arrested by a team of IGP X-Squad in Delta State? I’m the Director-General of Young Nigeria Rights Organisation. A lady contacted me on the phone and told me about an unlawful arrest of a man by the IGP X-Squad. I feature on a weekly programme on Bridge FM, Asaba, where we discuss human rights. I share my phone number to the public on the programme in case of any human rights abuse. Since 2016, we have been doing our best to ensure that there is law and order in the state. We try to check corruption. What happened to the young man is something that has been abolished in Nigeria since 1989. Police have been harassing young men doing legitimate businesses. Imagine a young man who has lived and worked in Europe for 13 years coming to his country and facing harassment and intimidation. He would be able to afford that kind of car if he worked for 13 years in Poland. On March 12, 2020, I was contacted by the lady and I went there. Before I got there, they (IGP X-Squad) had already beaten up an official of state fire service for pleading with them to release the young man (Harry). The worst part of the story is that the IGP X-Squad doesn’t even have any respect for the Commissioner of Police in the state. They said the police commissioner had no power to give them any directive because they were operating under the IGP’s office. So, how did you get him released? I called the Deputy Commissioner of Police and spoke with them. They were told to release the young man, but they refused. That was why I called the Commissioner of Police, Hafiz Inuwa. The commissioner told me to go there if it was true that they demanded N10m. Their agenda was to extort money from the young man. When I got, I introduced myself and asked the officers to tell me their names because I normally interface with the police community and I know a number of them. They refused to tell me their names because they knew what they were doing was illegal. How can you take a young man to a mango tree at the police station and charge him without making any entry. The Divisional Police Officer of that station has a question to answer; why will he allow the IGP X-Squad to be using the station for extortion and exploitation? I have already written a petition concerning two victims and this one will make it three. More in Just In Did you know young man? No, I didn’t know him from Adam; I had not met him before. The person who called me must have known that I had intervened in such cases in the state, and also in Anambra State. The person must have listened to my human rights programme on radio. I’m not saying we don’t have good policemen as there are lots of good officers but the bad eggs among them are giving the entire police force a bad image and these bad officers need to be kicked out of the system because they are involved in daylight fraud. Each time they get their victims, they try to incriminate them such that there will be no escape for them. It is very bad and illegal. We have the best laws in Nigeria but our problem is implementation. So, what is the petition about? Yes, the petition is to draw the attention of government, human rights commission and the Commissioner of Police to the corrupt practices and abuse of human rights by the IGP X-Squad. We petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, over continued illegal detention, corruption and extortion by the squad in Delta State. We also addressed it to the Coordinator, National Human Rights Commission; Governor Ifeanyi Okowa; Police Service Commission, and others to draw their attention to the illegal actions. We received a lot of reports from various parts of the state and in the course of our interventions; we found out that the IGP X-Squad had been extorting money from innocent citizens. In Asaba and other parts of the state, there have been violations and abuse of people’s rights. As we speak now, you cannot absolve the Special Anti-Robbery Squad officers of blame in the general extortion going on. They collect as much as N100,000 from each victim. These actions go against the Administration of Criminal Justice Act. These police officers now indulge in massive extortion that the Act outlawed. Are you saying that the police cannot search citizens considering the rate of insecurity in the country? No, I am not saying that and I will not say that. But they should conduct their search professionally and allow people to go when nothing incriminating is found on them. To start demanding money and beating people is an act of corruption and abuse of human rights. This will not reduce crime, rather it will encourage it because criminals already know that if they are caught by the police, all they need to do is to quickly transfer money to them and go scot-free. This is what is happening now in Asaba and its environs. Their actions violate the rights of people to dignity. It violates freedom of movement, and by looking through people’s mobile phones without permit, you are depriving them of liberty and privacy. I am calling on the relevant authorities and the state government, as a matter of urgency, to save Deltans and investigate this corrupt IGP X-Squad to identify the bad eggs among them that are working so hard to give the Nigeria Police a bad name, before it will be too late. The public no longer trust those who are supposed to protect them because they have been robbing them. https://punchng.com/igp-x-squad-sars-now-notorious-for-extorting-innocent-people-in-delta-ojei-activist/ |
| Crime › Harry Odiakaose: I Was Arrested By IGP X-squad, Who Demanded N10m by Brosbeforehoes(op): 5:58am On Mar 21, 2020 |
For driving ‘big’ car, IGP X-Squad arrested me, demanded N10m – Odiakaose, Poland-based Nigerianhttps://punchng.com/for-driving-big-car-igp-x-squad-arrested-me-demanded-n10m-odiakaose-poland-based-nigerian/ 21 Likes 3 Shares
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