₦airaland Forum

When BBC broadcast an item of news about ‘Nigerians’ trying to make fraudulent capital of the Haiti disaster by sending emails to people demanding donation, I pretty nearly shrugged it off. I had become all but numb to such opprobrious carryings-on being associated with Nigerians. Then the news had crescendoed in a certain ‘Nigerian’ who had come round a street corner in Malaga, Spain, to collect donations from a courier, fleeing, sloughing off his jacket as he hared down a sidestreet.

The man, who hoped to be handed monetary donation sent by someone in England, had only been lured to show himself up in more ways than one. Waiting for him was a BBC news crew. The manner the young man had turned tail, relieving himself of his jacket as he trotted off, would have been laughable if he had not vaguely been identified as a Nigerian. It would have been a brilliant setpiece for a comic candid-camera sketch if the storyline had not been sprung and grown with the muck of abject greed.

For those who might argue the provenance of sham emails demanding money for the orphans of Haiti, the IP addresses of some of the mails were traceable to Nigeria. One could argue that even if other dubious emails had come from other places in and outside of Africa, in so much as Nigeria is reputed for being the nucleus of such emails, it had lain itself open to undue potshot and inculpation. The guy who had come round to pick up the fruits of his chicanery from the courier may or may not be Nigerian, but the chances that he may have originated from any chunk of land traversing the so-called south of the Sahara is high, and to further draw out the rule of thumb, he is as likely to be a Nigerian as not.

More provably, some Nigerian ‘hustlers’ saw the Asian tsunami as mainchance too, a means to trouser some money donated by Westerners. I really can’t begin to fathom how anyone would sit in their rooms and begin to imagine ways to steal money meant for suffering children, even using the pictures of dying, emaciated children to orchestrate the fraud. No, it is not difficult to imagine such a squalid moral compass if you are human. Greed is the singular Venal Sin. It is universal, democratic and stateless. As many special pleaders for the bankrupt and unrebrandable brand Nigeria have pointed out, Bernard Madoff is not a Nigerian. Enron was not a Nigerian company. The MPs who fiddled what are mere peanuts by Nigerian standards are, well, British. Philippines’ Ferdinand Marcos stole as much billions as Abacha stole, or Babangida, or Sese Seko, or even Arap Moi of Kenya. I saw a documentary in which Kenyans, like Nigerians, turn NGOs into a cushy conduit for ‘making money,’ how bribery is wholesale in the Kenyan civil service.

The hue of corruption in Africa is grimly garish and stark, it is paradigmatic and resonant, owing to the continent’s past and present, and its byzantine sociology. The scale of graft and greed in Africa is probably greater than that of any other continent. Bureaucrats steal with impunity, they dissolve themselves in brazen consumption - attitudes that have percolated into the greater society. While the chasm between the superrich and the superpoor deepens and widens, the Pavlovian pact of instinctual dishonesty between the topdogs and the underdogs has patently been sealed. In spite of the epidemic growth of churches and trending up of religiosity in Africa, the dance around the golden calf has become more giddy, more frenzied and rabid. Nigeria symbolises the worst of Africa in many aspects, no less so in the deep-seated infatuation with greed.

If you grew up, as I did, when that modern-day Pluto (King of Thieves), Ibrahim Babangida, was ruling over the diabolically greed-is-great Nigeria, then you would recall that one of the lines conmen spun to extenuate their artifice was that what they were welshing off Westerners were reparations of sorts. A thoughtless, self-serving illogic, if ever there was one. This devious apologia was coincident with the debate about reparations broached by the late MKO Abiola. The argument for reparations begged itself to death by the fact that some Africans were partners in the ‘slave trade.’

We have travelled long to where we are now in Nigeria. The Robin-Hood motive for robbing the white man no longer holds good, generally conmen are colour- and race-blind, they beam their freebooting radar regardless of whomever it picks up. Today, in Nigeria, Greed Is All. The Italians gave the world the Mafia. The Triad emanated from China. But Nigeria’s criminal sphere has never been so organised or even baptised with a name, it is a straggly, amorphous host of small-time crooks, ambitious conmen, shifty shysters, drug merchants and mules, callous madams and pimps, money-minded love-rats, rank opportunists, post-Gulliver occupiers of Yahooland. You’d find Nigerians of these descriptions everywhere: Brazil, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the USA, India, the Gambia and, of course, Spain where the young African man had shown up to pick up the windfall precipitated by someone else’s humanitarianism.

Now let us proceed with the hypothesis that the young man in Malaga was, broadly speaking, an African, and not necessarily a Nigerian. Now fancy this: an African man had thought up ways to steal money off Haitians. I believe most would have begun to see the drift of this piece now. It did not take President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal who called for open African citizenship for Haitians to remind us that 99 percent of the people of western Hispaniola are of African origin and that they are all descendants of slaves. It is more than the jejune moralising that Africans should be their brother’s or sister’s keeper.

Africans who are socially and politically more advantaged are still busy grinding the noses of those beneath their station in the dust. Rulers of many African countries are still stealing billions of dollars at the expense of the ruled. Diasporan African rulers of Haiti have not been exempt either. But what makes the case of home-grown Africans trying to take advantage of Haitians so poignant is its allusive reverberance. In the Caribbean, the Americas and elsewhere, people of African descent still vaguely refer to how Africans were complicit in their forcible and harrowing transplant in other climes, and anyone who sees history without blinkers would not try to blot out how African chiefs, kings and elders made a roaring trade out of selling slaves to Europeans.

Would it not again bring out how they got to where they are now if Haitians saw how some Africans were out to steal money donated to them? Would it not remind them how some oligarchic African slave dealers had been loath to put an end to it when Englishmen came to tell them that the slave trade had been abolished? A chief from somewhere in what is Ghana today had to be ‘settled’ with thousands of pounds to make him agree that he would stop selling his own people, he could not understand why white men would legislate against the slave trade. The ‘Nigerian’ in Malaga might as well be an incarnation of any slave-selling African. And, by the way, it is not likely that Haitians would be queuing to acquire the citizenship of any African country.

A religious cult leader ordered a baby to be starved to death after failing to say ‘Amen’ before a meal, a court heard yesterday.
Christian Queen Antoinette ordered 16-month-old Javon Thompson be deprived of food after he failed to thank God before eating, it is claimed.
The 41-year-old is on trial for murder along with her daughter, Trevia Williams, 22, and Marcus Cobbs, 23.
Ria Ramkissoon
Starved to death: Ria Ramkissoon and her son Javon Thompson, who wasn't given any food after failing to say, 'Amen' before eating
As the boy died, between December 2006 and January 2007, the three members of the now-defunct 1 Mind Ministries are said to have prayed for his resurrection.
They then destroyed all evidence of his death and stuffed his body in a suitcase, which they hid in a shed behind a home in Philadelphia, assistant state's attorney Julie Drake told jurors.
The jury heard how Javon’s mother, Ria Ramkissoon, was recruited into he cult and did nothing to stop him from wasting away, even though she was 'distraught' over his slow and agonising death.
Ramkissoon pleaded guilty last year to child abuse resulting in death and plans to testify against Antoinette, Williams and Cobbs.
At her insistence, the plea deal included an extraordinary provision: ‘If Javon comes back to life, the plea will be vacated.’
Queen Antoinette
Trevia Williams
Accused: Queen Antoinette and her daughter Trevia Williams
Ramkissoon, then a teenage single mother, joined the cult because she wanted to become a Christian and was told she wouldn't have to work or go to school, Drake said.
The members lived together in a small apartment and were forced to abide by an increasingly strict set of rules, and Antoinette was 'leery' of Javon, it was claimed.
'If she perceived a rebellious spirit in someone, she would characterise it as demonic,' Drake said.
The cult members 'did everything they could think of' to make Javon say 'Amen' before Antoinette ordered them not to feed him until he did, she told the court.
Antoinette later took the boy away from his mother and placed him in Williams' care, the prosecutor said.
'In full view of every member of that household, Javon wasted away,' Drake said.
'If this little boy had ever had the capacity to say “Amen”, he surely lost it.
‘He could not say anything.'
Ramkissoon prayed for days for Javon to be resurrected, and Antoinette 'told her it was her fault' the boy did not come back to life, Drake said.
The three, who are representing themselves, appeared in court yesterday.
Antoinette, who is facing a first degree murder charge, declined to make an opening statement.
Williams and Cobbs - who have been charged with second degree murder - spoke briefly.
Williams suggested the prosecution's theory of the case was flawed. 'Pay attention to details,' she said.
Cobbs pledged that 'when the truth comes out,' jurors would realise the defendants are not guilty.
'The truth shall set you free,' he said. The all deny the charges.
The trial continues.

This huge hound officially entered the record books today as the world's tallest dog - standing more than seven foot on its hind legs.
'Giant' George claimed the prestigious title after Guinness Records officials measured him up at 43 inches from paw to shoulder, or 7ft 3in when 'standing' on his back legs.
The four-year-old great dane weighs a staggering 17.5 stone and consumes 110lb of food each week.
Christine Nasser
Owner Christine Nasser and George, a great dane from Tucson, Arizona, who has been declared the world's tallest dog
He even sleeps in his own queen-size bed.
His owner David Nasser, of Tucson, Arizona, is thrilled George has topped previous holder Titan, a four-year-old great dane from San Diego, who is 0.75 of an inch shorter than George.
Before Titan, the record was held by another Great Dane, Gibson, of Grass Valley, California, who stood at 42.2 inches tall.
Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, said that the adjudicator was sent after controversy over conflicting media accounts of the tallest dog.
He said: 'We can indeed say now that George is the top dog.'
A few days after he was declared a record-breaker, Giant George appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show.
Here, Mr Nasser recounts the whole experience.
Giant George
David Nasser with George: His fans can follow him on Facebook and on Twitter
He said: 'Oprah's staff learned about Giant George thorough FaceBook and YouTube and were were insistant on having him as a feature on this show; regardless of the Guinness World Record.
'As fate would have it, the timing with Guinness World Records and the Oprah Show came together flawlessley.  
'On Monday, February 15, the Guinness representative came to Tucson and conducted the official measurement.
'Triumphantly, Giant George earned the Guinness World Records for "Tallest Dog Ever," and "Tallest Living Dog."  
'We then began coordinating the logistics of transporting a 43ins and 17.3 stone dog to Chicago.
'After much deliberation and discussion, American Airlines soffered to fly Giant George to Chicago.  
'He would not fit in a first-class row, so he got three of his own seats at the bulk-head, This meant that Giant George would be in the fuselage, like a regular passenger.
Enlarge   Giant george
Mr Nasser shows off the award that declares Giant George is indeed the world's tallest dog
'Needless to say, this was cause for much commotion on the flight.
'Throughout, many of the other passengers came up to take photos and pet him, he was a total Rock Star!.
'There were so many people coming to the front of the plane, the pilot ended up illuminating the "fasten seat-belt" sign to get everyone to sit down.
big dog
Mr Nasser with George on the beach when the great dane was just a puppy, albeit a really big puppy
'When we arrived in Chicago, we were shocked by the number of people who were wating for us in the arrival area at the airport.
'With flashing cameras and video rolling, more than one-hundred people saw Giant George strike a pose as though he was on a red carpet. Needless to say, they ate it up.
'A limo whisked us to the Governor's Suite of the Omni Hotel.
'It happened to be snowing in Chicago that day, and Giant George had never seen snow before.
'In the suite, he had his own twin-size mattress on the floor and slep off the jet-lag.
'The next day was showtime on Oprah.
'The limo took us to Harpo Studios promply at 8:30 where Giant George had his own "green room" complete with very soft bedding on the ground for him to lay down.
'There was a sign on the door that read "Unless you are part of Team Giant George, please don't ask to see him until taping is over."  
'However, the sign didn't work so well;  we were told that Giant George was more popular among the staff than many A-list super-stars who had appeared on Oprah in the past.  
'Everyone wanted to see Giant George, and he was happy to see them all.  
'Everyone on Oprah's staff was so nice, warm and friendly. What a great group of people that work for the Oprah show!  
'Finally, it was time for Giant George to go out on stage and have Oprah announce his Guinness World Records for Tallest Dog Ever and Tallest Living Dog.
'Without question, this was one of the most memorable moments for all of us. Oprah was super friendly and the segment was trouble free.
'Next was getting back to the airport for the return flight.  American Airlines took Giant George to a private suite to relax before the big flight.  
'When Giant George began the four legged walk to the gate, once again, there were more than one-hundred people waiting to take photos of Giant George;  It was surreal to see all the people wanting to get a glimpse of Giant George.'
Enlarge   giant dog
Gentle giant: George towers above ordinary dogs in a park near his Tucson home
giant dog
Tall tale: George was given a row of three seats for his flight to Chicago, where he appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show.

Pope Benedict

The Pope has spoken out over the use of full body scanners at airports

The Pope has spoken out over the use of full body scanners at airports, insisting that human dignity must be preserved.

The equipment has caused controversy because it makes those who pass through it appear naked.

Pope Benedict made his comments in an audience with airport workers at the Vatican.

Although he did not specifically use the words body scanner it was clear what he meant as he said it was 'essential to protect and value the human person'.

He spoke of the terrorist threat to the aviation industry before adding: ' Even in this situation, one must never forget that respecting the primacy of the human person and attention to his or her needs does not make the service less efficient nor penalise economic management.'

There are concerns that the new scanners break discrimination law and breach privacy.

Italian plastic surgeons claim they can reveal if a woman has had breast enhancement surgery.

The use of scanners has been an issue since Christmas Day terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a plane with explosives smuggled onboard in his underpants.

Officials say scanners would have prevented the Nigerian boarding the plane. However, critics say the scanners are far from foolproof.

They have been introduced at Heathrow and in Manchester and are due to be phased in at Rome and Milan airports in Italy.

At least 41 people have been killed and 72 have been injured after a minaret collapsed during crowded morning prayers in Morocco.

The structure and part of the ceiling buckled into the courtyard of the 16th-century Bab Berdieyinne in the historic city of Meknes.

Officials say heavy rain was to blame for the incident which happened as worshippers were about to perform the Friday prayer.
mosque

Devastation: Emergency workers remove the remains of the collapsed minaret

mosque

Rescue operation: Workers carry injured worshippers along the pedestrianised streets of Meknes after the incident at the Bab Berdieyinne Mosque on Friday

According to a statement released by the Interior Ministry, King Mohammed VI sent the interior and religious affairs ministers to the scene to ‘supervise rescue operations and enquire after the conditions of the injured’.

Officials also visited some of the victims in hospitals in the city, as the monarch ordered the re-building of the mosque as soon as possible.

The more seriously injured were taken for treatment in the nearby city of Fes. A team of psychologists was also sent.
mosque

Death toll: 41 people were killed in the incident and 72 people were injured

mosque

Old town: The mosque, seen left, was built four centuries ago. It is thought that the minaret and ceiling buckled due to heavy rainfall

The rescue operation has been hampered as the old town of Meknes – 120 kilometres east of the capital Rabat - is a pedestrian zone.

The mosque was built four centuries ago under Sultan Moulay Ismail, who made Meknes his capital.

More heavy rain is expected next week.
mosque

Chaos: The incident happened as the mosque was packed with worshippers ready for morning prayers on Friday

mosque

Resuce operations have been hampered as the old town is pedestrianised, meaning the streets are too narrow to accommodate emergency vehicles

This is the first picture of the multi-millionaire Saudi prince accused of killing his servant.

Staring straight ahead, Saud Bin Abdulaziz Bin Nasir Bin Abdulaziz al Saud is shown sitting in a prison van as he was taken to court yesterday.

The 33-year-old faced a charge of murdering Bandar Abdullah Abdulaziz, 32, at the five-star Landmark Hotel in central London.

He was found dead on Monday and had suffered head injuries and been strangled.

Shaven-headed al Saud, the son of a nephew of King Adbullah, appeared in court dressed in a white tracksuit.

Assisted by an interpreter, the prince listened closely during the five-minute hearing before City of Westminster magistrates.

He spoke only to confirm his name and give his address as the Landmark Hotel, where he has been staying for four weeks in a room costing around £1,000 a night.

Unusually for a first appearance in court, he was represented by leading criminal defence barrister, Michael Wolkind QC.

He is one of the top ten highest-paid barristers from legal aid in the country, earning £687,000 in the year to March 2008.

But given al Saud's wealth, there is no prospect of the taxpayer having to fund his case.
The Landmark Hotel

The Landmark hotel in central London, where a man's body was found

In a short address, Mr Wolkind referred to the defendant as 'the prince' and said the case was a 'wrongful accusation'.

He said: 'We look forward to a trial when we will expose a prosecution case which has turned a friendship with the deceased into a forced relationship of master and servant, and a prosecution case which has turned a genuine tragedy into a wrongful accusation of murder.'

Al Saud is also charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent on the victim at the same hotel on January 22.

He was remanded in custody as, under new legislation, District Judge Timothy Workman cannot consider bail in murder cases. A bail application will be made at the Old Bailey.

A plea and case management hearing was set for May 28.

The prince, who came to London for a sightseeing trip, has not formally entered a plea but is expected to deny the charges.

Ashi robin:
@POSTER
Hmmm is she ready to give in all as in all herself during this period of "ARMY ARRANGEMENT"

She is ever ready

MRbrownJAY:
well i guess a lifetime in a UK jail seemed better than life in 9ja for this guy.

hey, at least he is going to have 3 warm meals a day, a warm bed to sleep in and become someone's b.i.t.c.h for the next 16yrs.

@ MRbrownJAY,You think so?Once a killer will remains a killer.He just a crazy dude.

The real Olusola Akinrele

Olusola Akinrele

snowdrops:
Liverpool might just nick this if you ask me.

Man City has lost that momentum, that sparkle ever since Sparky left.

Football is not a mathematics,The better side wins D-day.

snowdrops:
Please Arsenal i tk god beg una.
No fumbling for this match o.
You are only 6 points behind; so no Luca Flabby Handles or Old papa campbell.
We need Gallas, Eduardo, the tricky little russian and rvp back asap.

@ snowdrops,injuries woes rocking gunners camp.

Linda Casey

Affair: Linda Casey was murdered by Peter Ling after he found out she was having a relationship with another man

A gardener was jailed for life today for battering his lover to death in a jealous rage after finding out she was seeing another man.

Peter Ling, 50, was handed a minimum term of 18 years after a jury found him guilty of murdering horticultural lecturer Linda Casey, 54.

Mrs Casey's naked body was found in Banstead Woods, Surrey, on August 13 last year.

She had been struck several times in the face with a rock after they had sex in the woods.

Ling, of Wallington, Surrey, had denied murder, claiming manslaughter and blaming Mrs Casey for provoking him by making a remark about his penis being too small.

But the jury of five women and seven men rejected his claim by returning a majority verdict of 11-1 to find him guilty of murder.

Old Bailey Judge Giles Forrester told Ling: 'You were jealous, jealous beyond measure.'

Judge Forrester said married Ling suspected Mrs Casey was seeing another man after reading her emails.

He added: 'She wanted to leave but you would not let her go.

'You pulled her to the ground and in that jealous rage, battered her to death.

'The callousness of taking your wife out to dinner on the very night you murdered your mistress, simply beggars belief.'

The judge said Ling's actions in hiding the body under leaves, stealing her mobile and accusing Mrs Casey of provocation, were 'heartless, devious and manipulative'.

He had killed his lover in a 'frenzied attack', said the judge.

Charlotte Evans, one of the victim's three grown-up daughters, paid tribute to her mother, who was a grandmother of seven, in a victim impact statement read out in court.

She said: 'Our mum was the rock and foundation of our family. She reared us on her own and we became more like sisters and best friends. Mum was an integral part of our lives.

'She was young and had so much to live for. We had so many plans together and being denied the chance to say goodbye is hard to bear.

'Mum was our mentor. Her enthusiasm, her innocent down to earth view of life and her encouragement has been taken from us.'
Wisley Gardens: Ling asked Mrs Casey to have sex in the grounds

Wisley Gardens: Ling asked Mrs Casey to have sex in the grounds

A family statement released by police said: 'She was a passionate gardener and had opened up her own garden to raise money for charity.

'She held down three jobs and had two allotments where we could all spend time together as a family.

'Mum was extremely well educated and accomplished a degree in teaching in her spare time as well as working and being a great mum and nan.

'She was a romantic and loved all the classic novels, poetry and music. She would always be laughing and happy and was a flower child at heart. Her motto was live and let live.'

The court heard Ling hid Mrs Casey's car and went on the run before her body was found five days after the attack.

He met Mrs Casey, who was estranged from her second husband, two years earlier at her evening classes at Sutton College.

Mrs Casey had been having an affair with married Ian Tolfrey since 2002 and ran her life and lovers on a 'relatively strict schedule'.

She would meet Mr Tolfrey at her allotment in South Croydon on Wednesdays and on Fridays would meet at various addresses. She dated Ling on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Mrs Casey was besotted with Mr Tolfrey but regarded Ling as 'a nice man who took her out to dinner and visited gardens together'.

John Coffey QC, prosecuting, said: 'Her romantic life was less than straightforward. She was conducting affairs with two men at the same time.

'It is clear that Mrs Casey kept her two lovers in ignorance of each other.

'It is also clear that she strongly preferred Mr Tolfrey to the defendant.'
Banstead Woods

Mrs Casey's body was found in Banstead Woods (pictured). Ling told the court that she goaded him over his sexual inadequacy before he attacked her

Mrs Casey complained just before her death that Ling had become 'strange' after finding out about Mr Tolfrey when he read her emails.

During a visit to the Royal Horticultural Society gardens in Wisley, Surrey, she denied his demands for sex in the bushes.

'He had discovered there was another man in her life. He had asked Mrs Casey to have sex in the bushes and she refused, he had burst into tears,' said Mr Coffey.

He later sent a text message to her apologising for his behaviour and saying he hoped they would still be friends.

'She gave the impression she was finishing with the defendant because she was bored. She was upset he would contact Ian Tolfrey.'

The day before he killed Mrs Casey, Ling's wife Deborah discovered his Facebook page but he denied having an affair when she confronted him.

'He told his wife he did not know if he wanted to stay married and it was like having the same meal every day - sometimes you feel like having something different,' said Mr Coffey.

The following day, Mrs Casey agreed to meet Ling at the Ramblers Rest pub in Chipstead and then they went into Banstead Woods.

When her body was found, she had severe injuries to her head and face. Her clothes had been neatly folded in a tree.

Ling told police they had walked over a field to the woods and had sex 'although she had been distant with him throughout the meeting'.

He said she wanted to put her clothes back on but he refused and felt inadequate when she would not to answer his query about 'how he compared to the other man in her life'.

Mr Coffey said: 'Something inside him snapped and he went crazy. He picked up whatever was lying around and hit her with it.'

Ling took Mrs Casey's mobile phone and viewed sexually graphic footage of her and the other man.

Hours after the killing, Lind took his wife out to dinner to a Chipstead pub and said he wanted to stay with her.

A few days later, after Mrs Casey was reported missing, he rang his wife to confess to the affair, adding: 'What if I killed her?'

Ling said he had been prepared to give up everything for Mrs Casey but found out about the other man when she forgot to log off a computer after viewing pictures of the Hampton Court flower show.

Emma de Waal, whose husband is a policeman, told the court her mother had love affairs during her two marriages.

Mrs Casey had been agitated when asked about what happened at Wisley.

'She said Peter asked her weird questions and demanded weird stuff like asking to go and have sex in the bushes,' said Mrs de Waal.

'She just said no. They were in a nice well-to-do place. He sat on the bench crying.

'He told her she was very cold, she was like a closed book and never talked about anything.'

Ling told the court he had enjoyed 'spontaneous' sex in parks, woods 'or wherever'.

'I discovered a life I hadn't known for a long time. It was very, very passionate,' he said.
Mr Tolfrey and Mrs Ling were not called as witnesses.

Sky Spirit:
MUMU PEOPLE, dem 4block their private part permanently!

U harsh sha.

An illegal immigrant who murdered the daughter he had to avoid deportation was jailed for life today.

Olusola Akinrele, 34, was told he must serve at least 16 years in prison for killing six-week-old baby girl Leeya in December 2006.

Leeya died from brain damage 12 days after her apparently lifeless body was found at her home in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire. She had 22 broken ribs, a fractured skull, a fractured thigh, and had also been bitten on the nose and both hands, the Old Bailey heard.
Olusola Akinrele
Kelly Inman

'Psychopathic': Olusola Akinrele (left) will serve 16 years for killing his baby Leeya. Her mother, Kelly Inman (right) pleaded guilty to allowing her death and was cleared of murder

Judge Philip Clegg said: 'When she was not asleep, Leeya must have been in excruciating pain.'

He said Akinrele, a Nigerian, had 'little or no interest in his daughter'.

'You simply saw her birth as as something which might help you avoid deportation,' he told the killer.

Akinrele was described in a psychiatric report as 'a manipulative individual with psychopathic traits'.

He was convicted of murder by a jury at Ipswich Crown Court and faces automatic deportation on completing his sentence.

The baby's mother Kelly Inman, 22, pleaded guilty earlier to allowing her death and was cleared of murder during the trial.

She received a total sentence of five years, having also been convicted of a separate fraud charge.

It was she who called 999 after Akinrele's final attack on their daughter.

Ipswich Crown Court heard that in the two-and-a-half weeks following her birth, Leeya underwent routine checks by midwives and a health visitor and her condition had not caused concern.

But in the 24 days leading up to the emergency call, she had not been seen by health professionals and was in the care of her parents.

The judge found that the injuries she sustained during that period represented at least three separate attacks.

On one occasion, Leeya must have been shaken and 'come into forceful contact with something hard', on another severe force was applied to her right leg, and on a third she had been bitten.

The judge told Akinrele: 'During the week before she was taken to hospital, it must have been obvious to both you and Kelly that Leeya was a very sick child who needed immediate treatment.'

On December 18 2006, the baby's father was alone upstairs with his daughter when he carried out the attack that killed her.

The judge said: 'The attack must have taken the form of either violent shaking or throwing the child down hard.'

He told Akinrele that her death was the 'culmination of a violent course of conduct committed by you against your daughter over two or three weeks'.

'Your victim could not have been more vulnerable. She was only six weeks old and to your knowledge weak and ill.

'It is to be expected that any child should look to its parent for protection. What you did to Leeya was a terrible breach of trust.'

The court heard Akinrele had never been interested in his baby, failing to attend ante-natal classes or the birth, during which he turned his phone off to avoid being disturbed.

He saw her 'incessant crying' as an 'irritant', the judge said.

The fatal attack, he added, took place during a 'sudden flash of temper'.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1252305/Illegal-immigrant-killed-week-old-baby-daughter-bid-remain-UK.html#ixzz0g1tJZtST

On the 84th day, Tiger Woods finally spoke. It had been something we all expected would happen before it did, but there he was, in front of a camera, blazer and purple shirt, speaking of transgressions and remorse and things that aren't related to the little white ball he so fantastically flies through the air.

Tiger gave us what appeared to be a previously outlined statement from his abundant PR team, and when he was done, pleading for people to "believe in me again" we were all left with the news that Tiger is very, very sorry for what he did.

Tiger's mom, Tim Finchem and fellow PGA Tour player and former Stanford teammate Notah Begay III were in attendance, but Elin was not. That didn't stop Tiger from speaking about her most of the time.

Tiger admitted during the press conference that he is the only one to blame, and vehemently denied any domestic violence from wife Elin on Thanksgiving night. He also apologized to his family, friends and fans, and said he thought he played by different rules because of money and fame, but agrees that was wrong.

Tiger admitted "he has a long way to go," but he is taking steps in the right direction, and said that no matter what people want to know about his marriage, it is going to stay within the family. "Please leave my wife and kids alone," Tiger stated.

As for golf, Tiger said that he will return to golf one day, he just doesn't know when that day will be. He also didn't rule out it being in 2010, but no date was promised.

All in all it was the press conference we expected. Preempted, selective, and in typical Tiger fashion, guarded. Nobody will ever know if Tiger has changed, but it sure sounds like he meant it.

Three Muslim women who were the first in Malaysia to be caned for having sex outside marraige this morning claimed the punishment was an opportunity for them to repent.

Prison authorities caned the women last week after an Islamic Shariah court issued the penalty.

The caning has outraged rights groups and revived speculation that conservative Islamists, who advocate harsh punishment, are gaining influence in the country.

The three women, aged 17-25, said they turned themselves in after feeling guilty for sleeping with their boyfriends before marriage and getting pregnant.
Enlarge   sex caning

Malaysian justice: Prison staff demonstrate to the media how the caning process was done at the Kajang prison outside Kuala Lumpur

The 17-year-old told reporters that she surrendered to Islamic authorities after her prematurely born child died.

She is now serving a six-month prison sentence.

'I know I have sinned, and I have to be punished. Strangely however, I felt that the caning was not a form of punishment but was an opportunity for me to repent and return to the right path,' she said.

She has already married her boyfriend, who has also been caned and jailed over the offence.

The other women, who have one young child each, are planning to marry their partners after they are released.

The men were also caned for having sex.

One woman, aged 25, said she was scared before the caning but knew she deserved the punishment.

All three women called on others not to make the same mistake and abstain from sex before marriage.
Enlarge   sex caning

Journalists interview three women who were caned for having sex out of wedlock, at a prison in Kajang . They are first to be caned under the country's Islamic laws

A Prison Department official confirmed the women's comments, made at a news conference at the women's prison outside Kuala Lumpur to local, government-linked media under the watch of authorities.

He said they were reluctant to speak to other media.

It could not be confirmed whether they were speaking voluntarily.

A request with the department for interviews is pending.

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin defended the caning this morning, saying it was 'far lighter' than what some people might imagine.

'The punishment is legitimate and in accordance with the law,' Muhyiddin said.

Human rights groups have slammed the caning, saying it is a cruel and degrading punishment and discriminates against Muslim women because Malaysian civil law - which applies to non-Muslims - bans the caning of women.

The women, who were fully clothed and sitting on a stool, received between four and six strokes with a thin rattan stick on the back, lasting a few minutes.

Another woman, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, is still waiting to be caned for drinking beer in public.

Her case received international attention last year when she became the first woman slated to receive a caning penalty.

But the punishment was deferred indefinitely amid a public outcry.

Caning of men for such offenses as rape, drug smuggling and staying illegally in the country is common.

It is administered with a thick rattan stick on bare buttocks, causing severe pain and leaving scars.

Malaysia has a two-tier justice system.

Shariah courts deal with personal matters for Muslims, who account for about two-thirds of the country's 28 million people, while non-Muslims - many of whom are ethnic Chinese and Indians - go to civil courts.

Young mothers are turning their backs on high-powered careers to raise their children, a study has found.
Their mothers, or even grandmothers, lived through a time when women fought for full-time work and better pay.
But today's generation is returning to the traditional values of home and family - and looking to men to be the breadwinners.
Tradition: But Baby Boomers in the 1950s wanted to go out and work
Tradition: But Baby Boomers in the 1950s wanted to go out and work
The about-face was highlighted yesterday in research presented by leading sociologist Geoff Dench, who has analysed responses to questions asked in the annual British Social Attitudes survey.
His analysis comes against a background of growing political pressure on mothers to go out to work.
It revealed a striking change in values in the decade since New Labour swept to power.
The number of mothers with children under four who thought that family life would suffer if women worked full-time fell in the years before Tony Blair took office, dropping from 43 per cent in 1990 to 21 per cent in 1998. But by 2002 it was rising and in 2006 had soared to 37 per cent.
Similarly the number of women in the same category who agreed that most women want a home and children fell between 1994 and 2002 to 15 per cent.
Regression? Women in 2010 are turning their backs on high-powered careers to raise their children
Regression? Women in 2010 are turning their backs on high-powered careers to raise their children
But in 2006, the last time the question was asked in the survey, that number had rocketed to 32 per cent - higher even than back in 1986 when it stood at 20 per cent.
By far the biggest leap came when women were asked whether they agreed that men and women should have different roles.
In 1986, 40 per cent of women with children under four said 'yes', four years later that had plummeted to 13 per cent and by 2002 it had dropped still lower to 2 per cent.
In 2006, however, that had jumped back up to 17 per cent.
Last night Mr Dench, who completed his analysis for the right-leaning Centre for Policy Studies in association with the Hera Trust, said: 'Women with young children are going back to the very traditional division of labour in which they want the husband as the breadwinner.
'Having tried full-time working themselves they have found the home much more interesting and want to be enabled to have that - especially if the only job they have access to is a dull job.'
He said there had been a gradual move back towards 'more positive evaluations of women's traditional "work" in the family and informal community'.
While mothers have increased the amount of paid work they do, he said this was mostly part-time work, enabling them also to spend time in the home.
He said evidence pointed to the group fuelling the switch being young mothers aged 18 to 34 - the same age as their mothers were when they fought for the right to work on a par with men.
'They are rocking against the Baby Boom generation, in many cases their own parents,' he added. 'Just as young women led the movement into higher levels of paid work, it seems to be young women who are leading a return to more traditional values.'
Stepping back: Today's generation of women is returning to the traditional views of home and family
Stepping back: Today's generation of women is returning to the traditional views of home and family
The number of mothers with children under four working part-time has risen from 10 per cent in 1983 to 1986, to 28 per cent from 2005 to 2008. In the same category the number working full-time has risen from 9 per cent to 19 cent.
Mr Dench said that the women who said they were happiest appeared to be those who valued the housewife role but also did some paid work.
The analysis follows a report from a prominent liberal commentator which also revealed that far from wanting to be 'superwomen who manage everything, plus a high-profiled career', many women just want to be stay-at-home mothers with their husbands taking the role of breadwinner.
Cristina Odone, a former deputy editor of the New Statesman and editor of the Catholic Herald, said millions of women had been left frustrated and miserable by Government policies that push them back into jobs and their children into nurseries.
Ministers have redoubled efforts to persuade mothers to take jobs in the face of evidence that a big majority of the poorest families are two-parent families in which only the father works.
Meanwhile the Equality and Human Rights Commission and equal pay pressure groups say that mothers are often anxious to go back to work but are pressured into a caring role by lack of flexible working hours, a shortage of affordable daycare and reluctance of men to take over a share of the childcare.

bammy:
Stock is coming to the bridge not MAN.shity

@ bammy,the better side shall come to the bridge.

Danor:
Guys, sincerely, if u are offered a huge sum of money say, Ten million naira, by an affluent guy who digs your pretty girlfriend a lot, wud u give in?

@ topic,money cant buy love

A good friend of mine who's a student {here in the U K} she's been studying here for two years now. Her visa expires end of this month. She hasn't got enough money to pay her school fees and to add to that problem from the 5th of March she's only allowed to work for 10 hours instead of 20. So she's begging me to help her do arrangee marriage so that she can get out of her predicament. She says that since am a british citizen we can do the marriage and divorce after only six months. Is that true? because i told her that i'm planning on getting married later this year and i don't want this to affect my plans.
Advertising arrangee marriage in public forum.na waaaaaa.

netotse:
na wa o. . .see nigerians openly advocating illegal ish, then when ppl start insulting us we'll be complaining. . .

@manmustwac
i'm reporting this thread, not cos i hv anything against you, but cos i think it'll be sending the wrong idea about nigerians in general. besides who knows if ECO's are monitoring NL sef. . .

Word.

suxes2005:
Haba! How come a bush animal is on NL?
I'm scared oooo LOL

SHALOM

suxes2005:
Anuofia wat does dat mean?

SHALOM

@ suxes2005, anuofia means bush animal

allboyz:
city vz Chelsea?   who's gonna b at home?

@allboyz, chelsea gonna be @ home.

Didier Drogba and Michael Essien have been named on the final shortlist for the 2009 African Footballer of the Year award, together with Inter's Samuel Eto'o.

Chelsea and Ghana midfielder Essien has appeared in the final three in the past four years without winning the honour, while the Blues' Ivory Coast striker Drogba won the gong - decided by the votes of African nations' national coaches - in 2006.

Barcelona midfielders Seydou Keita and Yaya Toure both made the initial five-man shortlist but were cut in fabour of the Premier League stars, and Eto'o.

The winner will be announced on March 11 in Ghana.

Abuja — THE election to choose the nation's next President is to be held as early as November this year, under proposals separately articulated by the Senate and House of Representatives committees on the review of the constitution.

The proposals which were presented to the Constitution Review Committees of the two chambers by a joint technical committee also provide stringent criteria for the participation of independent candidates in all classes of elections.

Vanguard findings reveal that the proposals are to be fast-tracked for passage next month in the two chambers and will include measures to prevent governors and other elected executive office holders at the federal and local government levels from decamping from the political parties that brought them to office.

Normally reliable sources privy to the reports told Vanguard that under the proposals, individuals who participate in primaries conducted by political parties would be barred from running as independents.

Details of the report also show that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the National Assembly and the State legislative houses are to be placed on the first line charge in the national and state budgets.

Vanguard learnt that agitation for the abrogation of State Independent Electoral Commissions, SIECs, were abandoned by the two National Assembly constitution review committees on the basis of exigency.

Cooperation of governors

One source said: "There is no way governors would have cooperated with us if we had abrogated SIECs," as he stressed the determination of the National Assembly to woo governors to fast-track the amendment.

Two thirds of the nation's 36 State Houses of Assembly are expected to pass the amendments before they can become law. And nearly all the State Houses of Assembly are generally regarded as appendages of the governors.

Already, the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives, it was learnt, have reached a convergence on fast tracking the proposals after the retreat at the end of the month.

The first, second and third readings would be held in March after which the proposals would go through the 36 State Houses of Assembly for their endorsement.

Under the proposals obtained by Vanguard, yesterday, elections would be held not earlier than 240 days and not later than 120 days before the exit of the present office holders.

Under that proposal, the presidential, gubernatorial and elections into the federal and state legislative houses could hold as early as November this year which is 240 days before the May 29, 2011 exit date for executive office holders.

The elections are being scheduled to hold that early to allow time for judicial resolution of electoral disputes arising from the elections.

Vanguard learnt that the committee has also proposed to allow independent candidates to run in elections but under strict conditions. Individuals who decide to contest as independent candidates in elections must, however, swear not to participate in primaries conducted by the political parties.

One source told Vanguard: "The reason for this is that we want to prevent a situation where those who fail to get their party tickets swarm the electoral body with requests to contest as independent candidates and thereby compound logistics.

"In Anambra State, for example, where more than 43 persons sought the ticket of the PDP, that would have meant about 42 persons flooding INEC at the eleventh hour to be considered as independent candidates and you know that would have complicated the elections."

The proposals were articulated by the technical committees of the Senate and House on Constitution Review which decided to work together for the purpose of fast-tracking the process of the constitution review, it was learnt.

Committee officials of the two houses, however, ruled out suggestions that the Senate and House committees on Constitution review had submerged their efforts into one committee against the grain of the bickering that split the joint committee last year.

A joint retreat of the two committees was abandoned last year following claims of equality with senators by members of the House of Representatives delegation to the retreat.

Suggestive of the continued power rivalry between the senators and the House of Representatives, Vanguard gathered that the forthcoming retreat for members of the two committees holding in Uyo at the end of the month will discard protocol in order not to revive the supremacy question between the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Receipt of Joint Committees' reports

The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, received the report penultimate Wednesday while the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives who also chairs the House committee on Constitution review received the report last Wednesday.

The technical committee of the two committees worked jointly to prepare similar reports for the two houses, a development that overwhelmed the persisting determination of the two houses to work independent of each other.

The technical committee comprised Clement Nwankwo, Dr. Kabir Mato, Tayo Oyetibo, SAN, former Special Adviser on Legal Matters to Gen. Sanni Abacha, Professor Auwal Yadudu, Professor Gidado Maxwell, Peter Eze and former member of the House of Representatives, Celestine Ughanze.

"Non-fundamental provisions in the Constitution dealing with elections have been deleted from the Constitution and transferred to the proposed Electoral Act 2010," the technical committee submitted in its report to the deputy presiding officers of the two chambers.

"In many instances, these provisions have been modified to cure identified mischief and to reflect practical realities," the eight man technical committee submitted.

Also, provisions "in the body of the Constitution dealing with matters of procedure in election petitions have either been banished to schedules or deleted entirely from the Constitution and moved to the proposed Electoral Act, 2010," in a bid to achieve a leaner Constitution, the technical committee submitted.

INEC displays voters' register April

Apparently worried by the lapses experienced during the just concluded Anambra polls, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, said it would commence a nation-wide display of voters' register in all the wards of the country from April to June, 2010.

The commission said the exercise will be without prejudice to the display of voters' register that will be carried out few months to the elections as prescribed by law, adding that the idea was to ensure that the hitches experienced during the governorship election in Anambra State did not resurface anywhere in the country.

INEC, however, said the recent outcome from the polls were indications that the country would soon arrive at the point where the standard of elections and behaviour of contestants will align with the best practices in a democratic order.
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Speaking at the post Anambra State governorship election review meeting with key electoral officers, yesterday in Abuja, INEC Chairman, Prof Maurice Iwu said: "I have no doubt, there is work still to be done and there is no time to waste.

"The commission has committed itself to ensuring that whatever the lapses were in the voters' register will be addressed without any delay ahead of the 2010 general elections.

"Consequent upon this commitment, there will be a nation-wide display of voters' register in all the wards in the country from April to June 2010, for the purpose of correction and re-validation of authentic names on the voters' roll.

"This exercise will be without prejudice to the display of voters' register that will be carried out few months to the elections as prescribed by law.