₦airaland Forum

Nigerian cross dresser, Okuneye Idris Olarenwaju popularly known as Bobrisky has took to his Instagram page to pour his annoyance on one prophetess, Blessing Chidinma.



The prophetess had earlier stated that she had a prophesy from God that Bobrisky should repent or else an incurable sickness will befall him.



She said, “ Prophecy! Prophecy!! Prophecy!!! That was how I got a message from God during the 2018 election, many hated me because of that, but at last it came to pass.



Any person that can reach Bobrisky should tell him the Lord is asking him to repent and change from his abominable ways, else sooner than later he would be incurablly sick. Thus says the Lord from Prophetess Dr Blessing Chidinma Prince, Mummy B Oyigbo Rivers

State Nigeria”.



However, Bobrisky replied the message saying he is not the problem of Nigeria and all her prophesy should be focused on the evil politicians and people in power who have caused lots of poverty in the country.



He added that God is not a man and thus, makes him so happy.



He said, “My attention has been drawn to a certain prophetess and her prophecy about me changing my abominable ways or sickness will befall me.



It’s ridiculous and pathetic how much hate I have amassed from living out my originality. I don’t kill, I don’t steal, I don’t defraud others. How am I the problem of Nigeria?



How does being a cross dresser, and a transgender woman translate to abomination? It is rather bemusing to me that a lot of people will have me killed, than the evil politicians and people in power punished”.



He continued that so many people who are not transgender cheat, kill and filled of hatred adding that why can’t the prophetess seen how joblessness and poverty are going to be eradicated from the country.



He said, “Many of you who are not transgender, or a cross dresser are still evil. You cheat, you kill, you’re filled with bitterness and hate. You backbite, you plot how to execute malicious plans and all forms of corruption.



Your sexual orientation, gender identity, or how you

choose you fit into the societal precepts of gender doesn’t make you a good person.



Whoever knows that malevolent prophetess of doom should tell her that I, Bobrisky, says that she will be the one to fall sick if she doesn’t refrain from trolling me with the guise of spirituality.



She is a schizophrenic patient, and I understand that. She’s such a great seer? Why hasn’t she seen how we are going to eradicate crime, joblessness and corruption in Nigeria? They are always seeing things about other people’s lifestyle that hurts nobody”.



My greatest joy is that God is not man. God is kind, he is full of love and compassion and I am loved by him, I will not fall sick or die young, because God is a good father. If you think I’ll die, start planning vour burial cos I’ll be there”.

http:///s26f45c78191127en_ng

Nigerians have taken to social media to react to Federal University of Technology Akure, authorities’s decision to expel six of its students who were caught in a viral video assaulting one Boluwatife Adekunle, a student in the school.

The incident happened in a private hostel on Saturday, November 16, 2019 where the victim was attacked with various dangerous objects.

However, the school authorities recently expelled the six students in a statement issued out by the Institution’s Deputy Director, Corporate Communications, Adegbenro Adebanjo.

The names of the students are Popoola Olaniyi Agboola (300L); Oluwadare Faith Tobiloba ( 200L); Nandi Yohanna Jessica ( 200L); Ajuwon Tolani Emmanuella (100L), Emmanuel Funmilayo Taiwo (100L), and Alao Olabimpe (100 L).

The statement said their expulsion is a sequel to the recommendation of an investigative panel that probed the incident that took place in an off-campus hostel.

Meanwhile, Nigerians who use the social media platform called Twitter, have held nothing back since the news of the expelled students made it into cyberspace. 

Some of the reactions;

@ChinaksChris_ said, “The #FUTABullies should teach us all a lesson!!! Don't join any fight you don't know the Genesis, even if you do know, ask yourself will violence solve anything.”

@SUNLILY19 said, “The power of social media cannot be undermined
#FUTABullies”

@EvanTed101 said, “So, about 3 of those #FUTABullies were 100lvl students lol..

Imagine staying home for 4 years because of jamb and admission issue, only for you to finally get admittion and then get expelled at your first level.. so tragic �”

@holudaray said, “In a long time, this will be one case that we saw the beginning and also knew how it ended without delay. A ti lo, A ti de. Eni ba lo, lo ma de � #FUTABullies”

@MrLekanAdigun said, “I'm happy to hear that the #FUTABullies have been expelled. Such behaviour is academically unacceptable. Those people shouldn't have ordinarily had the privilege of University admission in the first instance.”

@greaterheights_ said, “I told you guys FUTA is a no-nonsense university. The #FUTABullies have been expelled.

Education is not about knowledge but also in Character. The latter is key in this chaotic and animalistic world without law.

ire ooo”

@JennyEva11 said “I wonder why their expulsion took this long. The victim should also press charges. Those bullies should be taken to court and charged for attempted murder. ‪#FUTABullies“‬

@Alhajitojasi said “Well they got what they deserve … Life goes on ‪#FUTABullies“‬

@lakezWrites “Sadly, the story ended here. The #FUTABullies have been expelled, Justice served. Thank you all for lending your voices to this.”

UNCLE_AJALA said, “FUTA expels 6 students for gang beating and bullying fellow a student. This ‪#FUTABullies‬ story will send a strong signal and warning to students that are behaving like they don’t have proper home training, and caution upcoming bullies on campus.”

http:///s5227f6f8191126en_ng

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has arraigned suspected internet fraudster, Ismaila Mustapha, popularly known as Mompha.



He was arraigned at the Federal High Court, Lagos on Monday.



The Commission had earlier said on Friday that Mompha will be charged to court on Monday, November 25.



He was charged with 14 counts bordering on cyber fraud and money laundering by the EFCC.

The Internet celebrity was earlier arrested by the EFCC in October on allegation of cybercrime and money laundering.



The EFCC had said in October that it arrested the internet celebrity in Abuja on his way to Dubai, based on “actionable cross-border intelligence received from collaborative law enforcement agencies about his alleged involvement in the criminal activities.”



Mompha on Wednesday filed a N5million suit against the commission for alleged illegal detention.



However, Mompha is being arraigned before Justice Mohammad Liman of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi Lagos and he is being prosecuted by EFCC counsel, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo

Read more at: http:///s7e71eaf9191125en_ng

A young lady has lamented how the wife of his brother bathed him with hot water because of insecurities.



She said the woman who already have kids with the man poured a boiling water on the head down to his face after he opened the door of his house to come for the phone he had forgotten in the home.



She wrote; “This hurt me to the core... This is my older brother. He was burnt with boiling water by..

Read more at: http:///s140f6748191124en_ng

The detained publisher of Saharareporters, Omoyele Sowore has sued the Department of State Service  ( DSS ) over his arrest and detention since August 2 2019.

Sowore is asking the court to order the DSS to pay him N500 million for his illegal detention violation of his fundamental rights.

In a suit marked FHC/ABJ /C51409/2019 dated 20th November 2019 in Abuja on friday.


The suit reads, " A declaration that the detention applicant from November 7 2019 till date  in violation of the Order for his release made on 6th November 2019 is illegal as it violates his fundamental right to liberty  guaranteed by Section  35 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as ammended and Article 6 of African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights ( Ratification and Enforcement Act  ( CAP A10) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

" An order of this Honourable court compelling the Respondents to pay to the Applicant the sum of


Read more at: http:///news/detail/bf86b9107e2a9af8ae04fabff850c415?product=

Dr, Fola Adebowale, a healthcare consultant at 1st Recon Healthcare Center in Lagos explained the differences between drug addition and drug abuse

He said, "Drug addiction is when someone is using a drug as a way of life, if they do not get that drug they can’t do anything else. It's like the way people are addicted to cocaine and heroin, they need it to function in their everyday activities.”

According to him, drug abuse is the misuse of drug that can even come from a medical professional or the general everyday person.

He said, "If a medical professional gives a patient an overdose that is drug abuse. So, an abuse can occur without even addicted and using drug to commit suicide is an abuse of the drug. More often than not, it is the people that get addicted to drug that abuse it. Abuse of drug can be larger much more than addiction.”

The doctor continued that how a drug effects an individual is dependent on a variety of factors including body size, general health, the amount and strength of the drug.

Speaking further on the two deadly acts, addiction and abuse, he said, “Anyone of the two can kill depending on what is going on. The parameters doesn't define which one kills faster, it defines how the person react to it at the moment.”

He continued that, “Drug addiction is much more than Heroin and Cocaine and some other illegal drugs. Only that we all know the regular and popular one that will see and know of, but any drug can cause addiction. The normal pain killer which is paracetamol can be abused as simple as it is.”

He said why people are so addicted to drug abuse depends but, ...

Read more at: http:///s36955a30191121en_ng

A businessman, Ismaila Mustapha widely known as Mompha, has instituted a fundamental rights enforcement suit before a High Court in Lagos against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for detaining him beyond the constitutionally stipulated days without charging him to court.

Mompha in the suit filed by his lawyers including Mr Gboyega Oyewole (SAN), Ademola Adefolaju, Kolawole Salami and four others, is demanding the sum of N5m as damages from the EFCC.

He is also seeking a court order directing the anti-graft agency to release him unconditionally forthwith from its custody.

He is asking for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the anti-graft agency or any person whatsoever acting for or on behalf of the agency from arresting and detaining him in relation to the subject of the suit without recourse to due process of law.

He is also seeking a court declaration that his continued and further detention by the EFCC on the basis of the remand order granted on October 22, 2019, by Court 6 of Ikeja Magistrate Court, Lagos, vide a form for request for remand pursuant to the Administration Of Criminal Justice Act and which elapsed and or expired on November 4, 2019, without being charged and arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction is unlawful, unjustifiable, unconstitutional and constitute gross violation of his fundamental rights to personal liberty and fair hearing as contained in section 35 (4) (5) and 36 of the 1999 constitution (as amended)

The grounds for the application, according to Mompha’s lawyers is that their client is a Nigerian and entitled to fundamental rights as enshrined in sections 34, 35 and 36 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

The lawyers also stated that on October 19, 2019, their client was arrested at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, and thereafter detained by the EFCC on account of alleged money laundering and other related offences.

They added that on the same day, he was transfered to the agency's detention facility in Ikoyi, Lagos from Abuja, before obtaining a remand order from the Magistrate' Court of Lagos for a period of 14 days and that since October 19, 2019, he has been held in detention beyond two days as stipulated by Sections 36 and 35 of the constitution respectively.

Also, the applicant in a 20 paragraph-affidavit deposed to by Olumuyiwa A. Ajidagba, a lawyer, averred that in spite of the remand order of the Magistrate Court of Lagos empowering the EFCC to detain their client for 14 days pending investigation and arraignment, he has now been in detention and custody for over 26 days unlawfully, as the order detaining him had expired since November 4.

Olumuyiwa also stated that the applicant had suffered and been subjected physical, mental and psychological torture in the underground cell at the EFCC's detention centre.

The deponent further averred that unless the court grants the applicant's prayers as sought on the motion paper, his fundamental rights to liberty and fair hearing will continued to be infringed and trampled upon by the EFCC in clear violation of 1999 Constitution (as amended).

No date has been fixed for hearing of the suit as it is yet to be assigned to any judge.

http://saharareporters.com/2019/11/21/money-laundering-mompha-demands-n5m-efcc-unlawful-detention

The former Chelsea and Manchester United boss, Jose Mourinho who recently replaced the Spurs manager, Mauricio Pochettino said the former Tottenham manager team lacks chemistry.



He said this during an interview with Sky Sport in September.



Mourinho added that after some few players were given contract (increasing their pay), some were left out which affected Pochettino.



He said says that some players have been distracted following that run.



He said, “Maybe, this season they are not having that kind of chemistry that I felt that they had in the team. I don’t know if I’m right, of course,” he told Sky Sports in September.



“I always felt that Spurs in the last years, of course, they were not buying or not buying a lot, but they were doing something that for me is even more important which is to keep all the good players that they have.



“Somehow, with Mauricio, with Mr [Daniel] Levy, with everything around the club, they persuade the players to stay and to stay happy. That was my feeling… perfect chemistry.



“They managed to give some new contracts to Harry Kane and to other players and they....

Read more at: http:///s78e5b976191120en_ng

Nearly 1,500 people have been freed so far by the Nigerian Police over the past months.

Over 400 men and boys were rescued in a building in the northern city of Kaduna, where it was reported that some of the detainees were sexually abused, tortured and starved, according to the police.

Ahmad bin Hambal Centre for Islamic Teachings in Rigasa, Igabi Local Government Area Of Kaduna is regarded as a centre for imparting morals and education but when the police stormed the place, they shockingly met hordes of inmates in dehumanising conditions.

Not so long, some 300 young men were freed in a school in Daura, the hometown of President Muhammadu Buhari in the northern Kastina State where children and students had been chained, hung from ceiling and beaten according to report.

There were horrible pictures of brutalised inmates, their legs chained to vehicle wheels and a generator, obviously to prevent their escape, are trending on the Internet. This is a classic case of man’s inhumanity to man.

However, this has prompted the police to launch a crackdown on 'torture house', informal Islamic schools, and rehabilitation centers in late September.

Here is the list and date of how police freed them:

Sept. 26, 2019 - More than 300 boys and men, some as young as five, were rescued in a raid on a building that purported to be an Islamic school in northwestern Nigeria’s Kaduna city. Many were in chains and bore scars from beatings. Some had been there for years.

Read more at: http:///s44321e91191120en_ng

An inmate of Kirikiri maximum prison in Lagos, Olusegun Aroke, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison over a $1 million scam he orchestrated from custody.

Aroke who was serving a 24-year jail sentence for internet fraudster, masterminded the scam right from prison using a network of accomplices, some of them targets of fraud and money laundering investigation.



The EFCC said in a statement, “The lid on his latest fraud exploits from the bowels of the Maximum Correctional Centre was blown following intelligence received by the EFCC.”

“Preliminary investigation revealed that the convict, against established standard practice, had access to internet and mobile phone in the Correctional Centre where he is supposed to be serving his jail term.

“Even more puzzling was the finding that Aroke got himself admitted to the Nigeria Police Hospital, Falomo, Lagos for an undisclosed ailment. And from the hospital, he would move out to lodge in hotels, meet with his wife and two children and attend other social functions.

“The circumstance of his admission into the hospital and those who aided his movement from the hospital to hotels and other social engagements, is already being investigated by the EFCC.

“For a felon supposedly serving a jail term, investigation revealed that the Aroke used a fictitious name, Akinwunmi Sorinmade, to open two accounts with First Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc. He also bought a property at Fountain Spring Estate, Lekki Lagos in 2018 for N22million and a Lexus RX 350 2018 model registered in his wife’s name, Maria Jennifer Aroke.”

While at the prison, the convict was said to be in possession of his wife’s bank account token in prison, which he used to freely transfer funds.

The EFCC said Aroke was one of the two Malaysia-based Nigerian undergraduate fraudsters arrested by the commission in 2012 at Victoria Island.



“Further investigation revealed that, while his trial was ongoing in 2015, Aroke bought a four-bedroom duplex at Plot 12, Deji Fadoju Street, Megamounds Estate Lekki County Homes, Lekki for N48million,” the commission said.

“When Aroke was arrested, a search conducted by EFCC operatives on his apartment led to the recovery of several items such as laptops, iPad, traveling documents, checkbooks, flash drives, internet modem, and three exotic cars – a Mercedes Benz Jeep, One 4Matic Mercedes Benz Car and a Range Rover Sport SUV.

“He was eventually convicted by Justice Lateefa Okunnu of a Lagos State High Court on two counts of obtaining money by false pretence, cheque cloning, wire transfer and forgery. He was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment on each of the two counts.”

https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2019/11/19/how-aroke-coordinated-1m-scam-from-kirikiri-prison/

A nine year old boy has said his teacher have been defiling him for over a year.



He said this after his anus was dripping blood and his nanny and mum have to force words out of his mouth.



According to the boy, he said the teacher have been molesting him since when he was 8 year old till he turned 9, adding that the molestation started since last year April and sometimes twice a day and almost everyday.



He said, “Every time he used to beat me and my former classmate.



He use to touch my penis in school. The molestation started since last year around April 27, 2018 and sometimes i will be forced twice a day and every other single day.”



He continue that,...

Read more at: http:///s2ad4b842191119en_ng

In yet another ridiculous twist, the Department of State Services on Tuesday said that it was yet to release pro-democracy campaigner and Publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, from its detention facility in Abuja because it doesn't want him to get knocked down by a vehicle on his way out.

Spokesperson for the agency, Peter Afunanya, also told journalists in Abuja on Tuesday that Sowore's lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), was yet to come fetch him from their facility.

Afunanya said, "We cannot just release Sowore and ask him to go because he may be knocked down by a vehicle at the gate."

Afunanya noted that Falana had not been to the headquarters of the service since the activist was granted bail, a claim the popular rights lawyer vehemently rejects.

Afunanya claimed that the DSS was following administrative procedures by asking the sureties to come forward for proper documentation.

He said, "We respect rules and orders of the court and there was never a time the Director-General said he would not release Sowore."

The secret police continues to hold on to Sowore despite two court orders directing it to release him after meeting bail conditions on both occasions.

Femi Falana, senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), says Yusuf Bichi, director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS), has stopped taking his calls.

“I confirm that I have an official relationship with the DG of SSS. But since the commencement of the case of Sowore and Bakare the DG has refused to pick my calls while I have since become a persona non grata in the office of the SSS,” Falana said.

Sowore was arrested in Lagos on August 3, 2019 for calling on Nigerians to take to the streets in peaceful demonstrations to demand a better country from President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

http://saharareporters.com/2019/11/19/breaking-sowore-may-be-knocked-down-vehicle-if-released-us-dss-claims

Controversial on-air personality, Daddy Freeze has rubbished claim by Nollywood actor, Yul Edochie that he has calling from God to be a pastor.

Edochie had said in a tweet that he was nursing the ambition of becoming a pastor.

Edochie, who earlier this year survived a motor accident that could have claimed his life, said he had become born again and would serve God.

However, Edochie, in a tweet said so many things had been happening in recent time that left him in awe, saying that he had a calling to serve God.

“Back home in Lagos. After my acting seminar yesterday, resting, recharging for more movements coming up.

“So much is happening recently that has left me in awe. In deed, I have a calling to serve God. A pastoral calling,” he tweeted.

But Daddy Freeze did not think Edochie had a calling from God, but suggested that such calling might be from Satan.

“I am hoping this your ‘calling’ is on God’s call log sha. Great way to showcase your ‘manifestations’ by telling people to disobey what Christ said in Matthew 5:44 and follow their emotions instead, like you recently suggested on twitter.

“Looks like a missed call in my humble opinion, don’t take it too seriously,” he said on his Instagram page.

https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2019/11/19/daddy-freeze-to-yul-edochie-your-pastoral-calling-is-from-satan/

It was dark but you can see the glimpsing of the stars, hear the lovely songs of the birds and the tiny creatures whispering. She sat outside her room looking dejected and in low spirit.

I walked up to her and demanded her to talk to me. Outside her room was two plastic chairs which I grabbed the second to confabulate.

What happened to you? Why you so displeased about life? To my surprise, her first utterance was, after today, if you like you can inform everyone about my problem also. Also? If you are a good mind reader, you should know what that means.

That's how she delineated all the story to me. From how she trusted friends with her life stories and was betrayed later by the same friends. She said, "After we had misunderstanding, anywhere i find myself, there is this kind of look i get from people, people that i haven't talked with, already have knowledge about my life and my past".

This was an experience shared with me by one of my new friends.

Most times it occurs to us if our friends doesn't have our interest at heart or will tell other people our shared problems which we have already narrated to them.

Knowing their true colors might be too difficult because they appear to us in a subtle manners without displaying their true identity.

Unfortunately, we live in a society that we must run into these kind of people.

However, one of the ways friendships help us is by allowing a safe place for us to share the concerns and worries of our life.

When you feel comfortable with a friend and share a confidence, you hope that your friend will treat this information with a caring attitude. But what happens when they betray your trust by telling others?

You will know if your friend will share your story with another person on;

Read more at: http://news-af.op-mobile.opera.com/news/detail/63a7ccda7329b340685ffc8602aaec5a?country=ng&language=en&share=1&client=

Children are like arrows in the hand of a warrior and these arrows (children), should be carefully made because they are very observant.



The aims of parents is to raise good, successful, well behaved kids and to keep them safe from harm. To get this, inspiring good manners into them can not be overemphasized in the society we live in today.



However, it is widely believe that children that have good manner had been greatly trained by their parent(s) and this sometimes open ways to good things for them in the future.

1. Show them love.

We live in the society where most parents do not care about showing their children love they required. This might be caused by various things ranging from day to day stress they pass through.



While coming form your work and getting home, always greet your children with hugs and lovely expression. This would help develop their sense of love and mercy.



Over time, it will be registered in their subconscious mind to show love and respect to you and strangers.



The love will make your family to bound together and reduce the hatred and conflict within the family.



Showing them love will also make the children not to always hide things from you.

2. Don’t beat them always



Research shows that some of the children who are wayward and stubborn was as a result of too much beating by their parent(s) when they were young.



Beating your children does two things;

a) It makes them to get detached emotionally from you and in-turn be secretive towards you. Some important issues will be hided from you.



b) They will develop a tough skin towards beating.



However, instead of beating, you can deprive them of their favorite games, shows or outings just to punish and discipline them.



3. Tell them thank you



Telling your children thank you every-time they help....

Read more at: http:///s69755a4e191114en_ng

Voice Of Men (VOM) is designed to help guys and men to speak out through this platform.

Over the years, society has been configured to see men as a special breed, that gender of hummanity blessed with an immense dose of stoicism.

For this reason, to protect machismo, they(men) are not supposed to shed tears no matter what they are passing through.

Quite a number of men have been sexually molested when they were young by their aunties or female relatives.Some men have fallen in love with the wrong lady and in turn been defrauded of money or properties.

Men are humans too, they have had series of experiences in life, marriages and relationships but they barely speak out because of the society. We live in a patriarchal society that perculiarly associate grit with the male gender

Compared to those with of history of sexual abuse, young males who were sexually abused were five times more likely to cause teen pregnancy, three times more likely to have multiple sexual partners and two times more likely to have unprotected sex, according to the study published online and in the June print of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

This platform is for men to speak out and tell the world what they have passed through and passing through either in relationships, schools, offices, marriage and life as a whole.

Twitter: @voice_ofmen
IG: Voice_ofmen

A healthcare consultant, Dr Fola Adebowale, has said that unemployment, depression and poverty were among leading factors responsible for drug addiction among youths in Nigeria.

Speaking with SaharaReporters on the differences between drug addiction and drug abuse, Adebowale noted that drug addiction is when someone was using a drug as a way of life and that if they do not get that drug, such persons can’t function normally.

According to him, drug abuse is the misuse of drug that can even come from a medical professional or the general everyday person.

He said, "If a medical professional gives a patient an overdose, that is drug abuse.

“So, an abuse can occur without even addiction. Using drug to commit suicide is an abuse as well.

“More often than not, it is the people that get addicted to drug that abuse it. Abuse of drug can be larger than addiction.

“Anyone of the two can kill depending on what is going on. The parameters doesn't define which one kills faster, it defines how the person reacts to it at the moment.

“Drug addiction is much more than heroin and cocaine and some other illegal drugs.

“Any drug can cause addiction. A normal pain killer like paracetamol can be abused.

“Addiction is a disease, and a disease have to deal with the mental and psychological state of the person and even the DNA of a person because the tendency to be addicted is higher in some people than others.”

Adebowale urged people into drug addiction to find solutions to it, adding that addiction is hard but curable.

http://saharareporters.com/2019/10/28/unemployment-depression-contribute-drug-addiction-among-nigerian-youth-–expert

The police in Akwa Ibom have arrested one Joseph Sunday for allegedly raping two of his underaged daughters aged nine and thirteen years respectively.


The accused, a native of Obot Ideng, in Ibesikpo local government area, according to reports, started having carnal of his daughters over three years ago after he divorced his wife and other of the girls. The mother of the girls is said to be living in Rivers state.

Investigations revealed that Mr. Sunday believed to be in his late forties, always had canal knowledge of his two daughters at the same time in his home in Ibesikpo.

It was also revealed that the suspect had threatened his daughters with traditional injunction(mbiam), if they make attempts to divulge the incidence to anyone.

But the illicit affair was blown open when he caught his thirteen-year-old daughter with another man who identified himself as the daughter’s boyfriend and he moved to caution his daughter.

Infuriated by the daughter’s action, he beat up the girl who later decided to expose her father’s immorality action.

Meanwhile, the nine-year-old who is also a victim confessed that she was already in love with her father and had enjoyed the act.

However, the suspect has confessed to the crime and said he wanted to test if his manhood was still functioning well.

“My wife left me some years ago because of some family issues and relocated to Rivers State. I have been the only one taking care of my daughters. I just want to test if my manhood is still functional using my daughters.” He said.

Similarly, two men suspected to be in their seventies have allegedly raped a fourteen-year-old girl in the state.

The first suspect said the fourteen-year-old was his wife whom he met in the market and married, he said the girl moved in with him and when he went out, his friend in same age bracket would come in and have sex with the girl.

Both friends feasted on the victim until heated argument ensued between them which made a neighbour to overhear the nature of their argument and decided to report the matter to the police station, and they were arrested.

According to the neighbour who pleaded anonymity, ” I was shocked to overhear two old men arguing over sex about a fourteen-year-old girl. The one that the girl stayed with accused his friend of always sneaking in to sleep with the girl any time he went out. I was worried with that and I decided to report them to the police. But the issue is that some boys who said they are from the area are threatening to deal with me if I don’t withdraw the case from police.”

However, the prime suspect had denied raping the girl but insisted that the girl is his wife, “I did not rape the girl. She is my wife. I saw her in a village market, I talked to her and she agreed to follow me to my house and be my wife. But it was my friend who always come to have sex with her each time I went out.”

The victim it was gathered is already pregnant without knowing the particular man responsible for the pregnancy.

Meanwhile police said they were making efforts to trace the family of the girl adding that the victim has been taken to a home run by the pet project of the wife of the governor, Martha Udom Emmanuel called Family Enhancement and Youths Reorientation Project, FEYReP.

The Police Spokesperson in the state, SP Odiko MacDon told our correspondent that all the cases would be charged to court.

The PPRO who ascribed the case to the level of moral decadence in the society called for attitudinal reorientation and urged people to report perpetrators of such dastardly acts to police.

“Moral Bankruptcy is what is causing all these acts. As a people we need to take morality in society very serious.



“For us in Akwa Ibom State, we take fight against rape, defilement and Gender base violence serious. Some of the suspects are in our custody, some charged to court, some under investigation while some have been convicted by the court.”

Fisayo Soyombo, a Nigerian investigative reporter, says he has gone into hiding as Nigeria's security operatives hunt for him.

The journalist is being wanted, according to reports, by the President Muhammadu Buhari regime, for exposing corrupt practices in the Nigeria Police Force and Nigerian Correctional Service.

“It's true. I'm in hiding,” Soyombo told SaharaReporters when asked to confirm if it was true that Nigeria's security agencies were hunting for him.

If arrested, Soyombo might be charged with and prosecuted under Section 29 of the Nigeria Correctional Service Act.

Fisayo, in his investigative report, spent two weeks in detention — five days in a police cell and eight as an inmate in Ikoyi Prison — to track corruption in Nigeria’s criminal justice system, beginning from the moment of arrest by the Police to the point of release by the prison.

Adopting the pseudonym Ojo Olajumoke — feigned an offence for which he was arrested and detained in police custody, arraigned in court and eventually remanded in Prison. In the second of this three-part series, he exposes how the courts short-change the law, and the prisons are themselves a cesspool of the exact reasons for which they hold inmates.

Since the release of the second part of his report, the Nigerian government has been on the trail of the journalist.

It was gathered that the Buhari regime planned to arrest Soyombo at a workshop on fake news organised by Goethe Institute on Tuesday evening.

He has since pulled out of the event.

Nigerians on social media have raised concerns over the planned arrest.

Dayo Aiyetan, the founder of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting condemned the planned arrest.

“So for his #undercover work exposing #corruption in the #prisons, #Nigerian govt wants to arrest @fisayosoyombo & charge him for #Espionage? Shame on the govt,” he tweeted.

Olusegun Awosanya, a human rights activist, also said any attempt to arrest Soyombo would be an affront on the nation.

He said: “The Criminal Justice System is rotten. This is no news to Nigerians and the authorities themselves and the reaction to findings of investigative journalists as well as advocates of reforms must never be belligerent. The Nigeria Correctional Service must get this! #KeepFisayoSafe.

“They (CG especially) should learn from previous advocacies and take dressing like @PoliceNG and @nigimmigration when @SIAF_NG exposed their running issues within. This is not the time to venture further

into criminality by seeking to incriminate a whistleblower. #KeepFisayoSafe

“Any attempt to incriminate, intimidate, harass, abduct or engage in any act of persecution of @fisayosoyombo will pitch the Nigeria Correctional Service against the entire Nation and we will all respond effectively and adequately. Nigeria belongs to all of us & you must comply.

“The Nigerian Correctional Service is a service to the people and MUST be guided in their response to feedback from the public. Exposing organized crime within the system must not be seen as an attack on anyone begging for reprisal but a path to healing. #KeepFisayoSafe

“The ‘Honorable’ Minister of Interior @raufaregbesola should call the leadership of the Nigerian Correctional Service to order in this regard. The public perception of all uniformed officers in Nigeria is negative already and this must not be made worse. #KeepFisayoSafe.”

President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has engaged in gagging the press and repressing the freedom of the media in Nigeria.

A report by the Amnesty International revealed that at least 19 journalists and media practitioners have been attacked, brutalized and/or arrested in Nigeria between January and September 2019.

Reporters Without Borders, an organisation that conducts advocacy for freedom of information and press freedom, ranks Nigeria 120 out of 180 in its 2019 Data of Press Freedom ranking.

http://saharareporters.com/2019/10/22/breaking-im-hiding-says-nigerian-journalist-soyombo-security-agents-hunt-him

Too many unforeseen obstacles had sprung up against me by the time I arrived at the gates of Ikoyi Prison, Ikoyi, Lagos, on July 12: I’d had my most tortuous night in the police cell; I had been messed up by the typically ruthless Friday evening Lagos traffic; I had arrived under the cover of darkness, which wasn’t the plan. Even the few things that went well would later come back to haunt me.

Proceedings were well underway at Court III when we stepped into the Chief Magistrate Court, Yaba, Lagos, after my extrajudicial detention for five consecutive days at Pedro Police Station, Shomolu. It was a little after noon — or thereabouts. A funny but very contentious matter was ongoing. The protagonist, a woman, was being tried for, allegedly, illegally selling a piece of land belonging to a former associate of hers. This woman — ostensibly in her late 50s or early 60s — claimed, vehemently so, that the complainant indeed owed her millions of naira in accumulation of unpaid earnings for executed projects. She sold the land because she had been instructed to, to defray the cost of her service, she said. But the prosecutor insisted otherwise, arguing that the sale was fraudulent. The woman, irritated and incandescent, embraced and perhaps enjoyed every window to have a go at the prosecutor. Once, the prosecutor got under her skin by scoffing at how two of her high-profile witnesses were deceased. “Excuse you!” the woman fired back in protest. “Are you suggesting I killed them? Is it my fault that you’ve been dragging me from one police station to another and from court to court for more than 10 years?”

The magistrate — a dark, soft-spoken, middle-aged man whose eyes often evaded the lens of his pair of glasses when talking — adjourned the matter, as expected. And after two or three other cases, mine was mentioned. His orders: remanded in prison custody, two sureties in like sum of N500,000 each, N150,000 to be paid into the Registrar’s account by each surety, sureties to be from father’s side of the family. Not long after, the court rose, to be followed by my preparations for a long and difficult journey to the prison.

PRISON WARDERS ASK FOR BRIBES RIGHT IN COURT



Before the authorities take my freedom away from me, the first thing they do is give me a final semblance of it by unfettering my hands from the handcuff, as is the custom. That was just before entering the dock. Minutes later, the same man who released the handcuff returns to hand me over to a policeman who, accompanied by Zainab Sodiq, the lady posing as my sister, leads me downstairs. First stop on the ground floor is the office of the prisons service. Manning it, comfortably sitting opposite the entrance, is a gun-wielding prison warder, legs waggling, whose shirt hangs loosely on the wall inside, leaving his trunk scantily covered by a singlet. Inside that office are three more warders. The next room is a holding cell — for momentarily detaining inmates until the arrival of the prisons bus that conveys them to Ikoyi. I expect to be led to the holding cell, but I am taken into the prisons office and encouraged to “take a seat”. What manner of magnanimity is this? I was wrong!

The three officers summon my sister. “You can have a look at that holding cell and see if it’s the kind of place a human being should stay,” one of them tells her with feigned sympathy. “Your brother can stay in our office but it will cost you N10,000.” My sister takes a moment to peep into the holding cell, then returns to bargain. The negotiating parties reach an agreement of N5,000, collected by the singlet-donning warder.



Money in the bag, the warders’ initial measured disposition turns happy-go-lucky; I notice the ease with which they regale one another with tales of similarly shady financial dealings. “The day Naira Marley was billed to be taken to prison, I was on this chair making cool money,” says one of them. “I made some good money, I won’t lie. Transfers were just going up and down.” Naira Marley, the hip hop artiste whose original name is Azeez Fashola, had been arraigned at a Federal High Court in Lagos on May 20 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on 11 counts of alleged Internet and credit card fraud.

A second warder describes how he facilitated the payment of N300,000 to a senior colleague of his in Abuja, by a man who wanted to ‘smuggle’ all his three children into the employ of the Nigerian Prisons Service (recently renamed the Nigerian Correctional Service) during a recruitment “some years ago”. Though unqualified, all three were eventually employed by the service. It suddenly dawns on the warder that an ongoing promotion exercise in the prisons service offers him fresh opportunity for corrupt enrichment. “Let me quickly call the man; he may be interested in a deal to facilitate his children’s promotion,” he adds, running his hand through his breast pocket for his phone.



‘IF YOU HAVE YOUR MONEY, YOU CAN NEVER SUFFER IN PRISON’



Seeing the lack of restraint with which they discuss acts of bribery and corruption, I approach them for guidance on the allocation of accommodation in prison. Apparently, it’s a high-wire fraud involving prison officials in court and those in the yard proper.

“You can get a cell for N30,000,” one of the warders tells me. “You can also get for N100,000 or N150,000. You can even get a N1.5million cell.”

“A million and five hundred thousand?” I protest.

“Of course!” he insists. “When Ayodele Fayose was remanded in Ikoyi Prison, what kind of cell did you think he stayed in?” Fayose, the immediate past former Governor of Ekiti State, was remanded at Ikoyi Prison in October 2018 at the start of his N2.2billion fraud trial initiated by the EFCC.

Another warder cuts in. “Don’t worry, you can never suffer in the prison yard,” he says. “As long as you have your money.”



Patience, a third urges me. “The warders at the prison have warned us off striking deals with inmates while still in court,” he explains. “They’ve told us to leave them to push their own deals when the inmates get to the prison. So, when we get there, we will hand you over to the warders you will negotiate with.”

EMERGENCY BAIL FOR SALE BY ‘THE MAGISTRATE’S MAN’ AND PRISON OFFICIALS


Male warder collects bribe to allow visitor see an inmate

Minutes later, one of the warders — dark, mild-mannered and diminutive — walks up to me to ask if I’m making progress with my bail conditions. The question confounds me. Who makes progress on bail application within two hours of a court hearing?

“My lawyer is working on it,” I reply, “but it’s too early to know since it’s just a few hours ago we left court.”



“No, no; it doesn’t mean,” he says. “I have a lawyer in this court who will help you perfect your bail ‘today today’. In fact, you will not get to Ikoyi Prison at all; you will go home straight from here. He works in concert with the court authorities. I can call him right now and he’d be here any minute, if you want.”

Stunned and curious in one breath, I nod in the affirmative. In a matter of minutes, the lawyer, ostensibly in his late 40s or early 50s, shows up. He speaks in carefully considered and restrained patches, sporadically wiping the lens of his glasses with a silky piece of cloth.

“What exactly is your offence?” he begins, then proceeds to hearing my bail conditions. He assures me that the problematic components of my bail requirements would be waived, but the process would cost me money.

“Did the Magistrate order you to pay any money to the Registrar’s account?”

“Yes. N150,000,” I say in error. It should have been N300,000 — at the rate of N150,000 per surety.

“Okay, that’s no problem,” ‘Mr. John’, as he introduces himself, says. “Can you make everything N200,000?”

I tell him I can’t. That’s a lot of money. Fifty thousand naira on top of the N150,000 is a lot of cash. But he disagrees. “You see, I am very close to the Magistrate,” he says. “I am very close to the man; therefore, we will waive many of these bail conditions for you.”

We haggle for a while: N180,000, N170,000, N180,000. We eventually settle for N170,000.

John takes a quick look at his watch; it’s a little past 3pm. “Hurry and get the money. It’s almost too late already — why did you wait till this long?” he laments. “Today may or may not be possible. If you had mentioned it immediately the court rose, say around 2pm, I would have been able to totally guarantee you that you would go home today without ever reaching the prison.”

We exchange numbers and I promise to call, but I never do (The plan, really, is to end up at Ikoyi Prison.). Instead, I fold my secret recording device and tuck it away carefully. Yes, I’d taped all the conversations held inside the prisons office in the court premises. The original plan was to put the device away before going to prison, then retrieve it afterwards. I had been told that there was literally nothing I wanted to smuggle into the prison that I couldn’t; I only needed to grease the palms of warders and they would fetch it for me. But with accommodation negotiations set to take place on arrival at the prison, I began to nurse the ambition of smuggling in the device outright at point of entry. This was not the original plan. But if it works out, I would have more evidence of prison-yard corruption. If it fails, I’m doomed. Big risk, I know. But I do it all the same.

PHYSICAL PAIN IN EXCHANGE FOR DIGGING THE STORY


Sunkanmi Ijadunola, the Assistant Chief

The prison warders do not quite know what to make of me when they find a hidden device on me, a supposed inmate, during the routine search at the entryway shortly after an Ikoyi Prison bus conveying the latest inmates pulled over at the prison gate. After a second, more thorough search during which nothing else is found on me, they hand me over to the ‘Section’ — a position occupied by the most senior convict in a cell — of the welcome cell. As I would later find out, this was under strict instructions: no phone calls, no out-of-cell movement, no frivolous interaction with inmates.

Very early the following morning, Sunkanmi Ijadunola, the third most senior warder in Ikoyi Prison, sends for me. They had seen the videos; they’d extracted the memory card from the device and watched footages of the five prison officials demanding bribes from me and the court official negotiating a premature bail with me. Sunkanmi, as he is widely known, asks me to confess: “Who are you and what is your mission here?”



But he was asking the question a few hours too late. I’d spent half of the night deliberating on what to expect in the morning. I had imagined that in the best scenario, some senior official would have been thoroughly mortified by the sight of their bribe-demanding colleagues captured on tape, and would be keen to convince me about helping to further unravel the bad guys in the system. I didn’t deceive myself, though: this thinking was more or less illusory. I’d also thought that in the bad scenario, I’d be handed over to the Police; and in the worst, I’d be extrajudicially executed. After several hours of carefully considering all possibilities overnight, I resolved that even if they held a gun to my head, I would not disclose my true identity. I knew once I did, that was the end of the story. After five excruciating, emotionally and psychologically destructive days in a police cell, I wasn’t prepared to ruin everything so cheaply.

Seeing I am unwilling to offer any useful information, Sunkanmi, the Assistant Chief, accuses me of plotting a jailbreak. “You’re here to understudy the prison security so that you can send the videos to your gang members outside,” he says. “You’re planning a jail break. Or you’re working for Boko Haram; you’re a Boko Haram spy!”

I do not flinch. Instead, I stick to the original story line I’d preconceived to offer in the improbable circumstance that my cover was blown. At this point, Sunkanmi sends for a cane and orders me to remove my shirt and trousers, leaving only my singlet and boxer briefs. Then he descends on me. Three rounds of beating: the first with several lashes of the cane searing straight into my skin and leaving me with blood and blisters; the second in similar pattern, with my hands cuffed behind my back; and the last with a thick stick targeting the interior and exterior joints of my ankles, knees, hips, elbows and shoulders.

Still, I refuse to disclose that I’m a journalist. By enduring the beating, I succeed in buying myself at least another 24 hours of understudying the corruption seeping through the different layers of prison operations. Bearing the pain was worth it in the end; someone needed to expose the scale of criminal corruption going on in that prison.





See more at: https://www.thecable.ng/undercover-investigation-ii-drug-abuse-sodomy-bribery-pimping-the-cash-and-carry-operations-of-ikoyi-prisons

The Federal Court High Court in Abuja on Thursday ordered the remand of the convener of #RevolutionNow protest, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare, in the custody of the Department of State Security Service (DSS), pending the hearing of their bail application.

Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu fixed Friday for the hearing of their bail application.

Sowore was arraigned on seven counts of treasonable felony and other sundry offences.

They pleaded not guilty to the seven counts when read to them.

https://thenationonlineng.net/court-remands-sowore-co-defendant-in-dss-custody/

Omoyele Sowore, human rights activist and pro-democracy campaigner, says whether President Muhammadu Buhari and his political acolytes like it or not, "the revolution" to bring about good governance and respect for rule of law in Nigeria will happen.

Sowore who narrated his experience in detention said he has been held out of touch with the real world despite fighting for the rights of the people.

He said, "I haven't been in touch with my lawyers. I don't know the charges they are bringing against me.

"I am not allowed to see sunshine. I've not been outside except today. I am happy people are staying strong."

Sowore added, "I have no doubt this will come to an end in favour of the Nigerian people.

"Whether you like it or not, the revolution will happen. It is only a matter time."

Sowore said his shoulder was injured the DSS operatives who abducted him in Lagos on August 3.

"I have a bad shoulder which they broke during my arrest.

"They gave me no access to telephone. No TV. No newspapers. Nothing.

"What is interesting is that Boko Haram commanders who are engaged in high level terrorism have access to telephone, TV and even cable in their cells. So you wonder which one is better: a freedom fighter or a terrorist."

http://saharareporters.com/2019/09/30/exclusive-revolution-will-happen-says-sowore

Sowore Appears In court.

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's first post-independence leader, has died at the age of 95.

He died after battling ill health, his family confirmed to the BBC.

Mr Mugabe was ousted from power in a military coup in November 2017, ending his three-decade reign.

Zimbabwe's education secretary Fadzayi Mahere tweeted: "Rest In Peace, Robert Mugabe."

He was born on 21 February 1924, in what was then Rhodesia.

He was imprisoned for more than a decade without trial after criticising the government of Rhodesia in 1964.

Nigeria has boycotted the World Economic Forum on Africa 2019 taking Cape Town, South Africa following Xenophobic attacks against its citizens in the last week.

The Forum which kicked off on Wednesday had no Nigerian delegation in attendance as other African countries joined Nigeria in boycotting the event. Some of the other African countries that have pulled out of WEF are Rwanda, Malawi and DR Congo.

As at the time of filing this report, President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo were meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama to discuss next step on Xenophobic attacks against Nigerians in South Africa.

The Nigerian government is exploring possible options including sanctions against the South African government.

The government is also deliberating over possible actions from within after some Nigerians carried out reprisal attacks against South African businesses in Nigeria including attacks on one of Africa’s largest food retailer, Shoprite, and telecoms giant, MTN, forcing the organisations to scale down operations.

“President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo have taken hands-on approach in resolving the Xenophobia issue with South Africa but they want everything done diplomatically,” a source in the Presidency said.

“The boycott of WEF is another strong statement to the South African government and people because the Buhari administration will not stand and fold its arms after attack on any Nigerian citizen. This is the right step in the right direction.

It will be recalled that the Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Onyeama met with the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Bobby Monroe, on Tuesday to express his displeasure at the Xenophobic attacks and to also condemn the attacks.

Mr. Onyeama said the federal government expected that such security operatives would eventually be incorporated in the South African police with a view to assisting it in pre-empting future attack against Nigerians.

“We have registered our strong protest to the government of South Africa but most importantly, we have put forward to the South African government what we think will make a big difference,” he said after the two met in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

“One, with regards to compensation for those who have suffered losses and most importantly, a security proposal that we believe will safeguard the security of Nigerians in the future.

“We are hoping to see the possibility of sending some security agents, deploying them initially in the Nigerian High Commission, to work closely with the South African Police Force.”

He dismissed any contemplation by Nigeria to embark on any revenge mission against South Africans or their businesses, saying two wrongs do not make a right.

The minister said South Africa was provoked by the attacks by its nationals and was striving hard to put the situation under control. “We don’t believe that two wrongs make a right. I think in terms of revenge on those kinds of attacks is not what we are looking forward to,” he said, adding that, “The South African government has assured us that they are doing everything possible to address the situation; that they are equally exasperated by the whole event.”

https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2019/09/04/buhari-osinbajo-meet-over-xenophobic-attacks-as-nigeria-boycotts-wef/

Nigerian R 'n' B star, Tiwa Savage, will not be in South Africa to perform at a festival sponsored by DSTV.

She stated this on Wednesday.

The festival is slated for Johannesburg, South Africa, later in September.

Savage said attacks on Nigerians by South Africans was the reason she would not participate in the festival sponsored by South Africa-owned firm, DSTV.

She tweeted, “I refuse to watch the barbaric butchering of my people in SA. This is SICK. For this reason, I will NOT be performing at the upcoming DSTV delicious Festival in Johannesburg on the 21st of September. My prayers are with all the victims and families affected by this.”


Tiwa Savage
✔
@TiwaSavage
I refuse to watch the barbaric butchering of my people in SA. This is SICK. For this reason I will NOT be performing at the upcoming DSTV delicious Festival in Johannesburg on the 21st of September. My prayers are with all the victims and families affected by this.

44.5K
11:23 PM - Sep 3, 2019
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http://saharareporters.com/2019/09/04/tiwa-savage-boycotts-dstv-sponsored-festival-south-africa

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abuja Zonal Office has the arrested two of the 77 Nigerians on FBI list.

The suspects, Chika Augustine and Godspower Nwachukwu, were arrested in Abuja.

The breakthrough was announced by the new Zonal Head, Mr. Aminu Ado Aliyu at a briefing.

He said $35,000 has been recovered from one of them ( Chika Augustine).

He also claimed that another suspect, who had long been on FBI radar, was picked up in November 2018, investigated and ready for trial.

Asked if the suspects on FBI list will be extradited, Aliyu added: “This decision is between the EFCC headquarters and FBI.

A 252-count federal grand jury indictment unsealed in August charged 77 Nigerian nationals with participating in a massive conspiracy to steal millions of dollars through a variety of fraud schemes and launder the funds through a Los Angeles-based money laundering network as uncovered by the FBI.

https://thenationonlineng.net/breaking-efcc-arrests-two-suspects-on-fbi-list/

By 'Fisayo Soyombo

Last Tuesday, the United States announced a hike in the cost of visa application for Nigerians. The US Consulate in Nigeria didn’t mince words in explaining the move: The total cost for a US citizen to obtain a visa to Nigeria was higher than the total cost for a Nigerian to obtain a comparable visa to the United States. The imbalance had to be corrected. It’s a policy that can be rationalised.

If a country’s citizens are not inferior to another’s, their visa application to that country should not be costlier than the other way. It is the least a country could do for its citizens. In this specific case, the US had apprised Nigerian authorities of the disparity in visa fees. Well, the Interior Ministry set up a committee and, as with many things Nigerian, that was the end of the matter. That’s such a shame. What was more mortifying was the ministry’s lowering of the Nigerian visa application fee for US citizens within 24 hours of the US Consulate’s protests – a move US authorities were clearly unimpressed with. Gaping hole exposed: Nigeria’s diplomatic relations are far more woeful than we’ve been imagining.

No need to cast a cross-continental gaze at the US. Over ‘here’, in South Africa, Nigerians are being slaughtered like rams almost every week, and it is the brazenness that astounds the most. Last week, there was a headline, ‘Another Nigerian killed in South Africa’. If you read the papers three of four weeks before, you would have seen the same headline, ‘Another Nigerian Killed in South Africa’. In the previous week, you would also have spotted ‘Another Nigerian killed in South Africa’. Dig deeper to the preceding two weeks and you would have found that same headline, ‘Another Nigerian killed in South Africa’. Every now and then, there’s always a Nigerian, and another one, to be murdered by South Africans. A lot can be said of the insouciance of the South African Government, but beyond the usual tokenistic state utterances, the Nigerian Government has never truly been riled up by the relentless killing of its citizens in almost all corners of South Africa.

In the last three years, and up until July 2019, some 127 Nigerians had been killed in South Africa, 13 of them masterminded by the Police. Between January and June 2019 alone, 10 Nigerians were killed in that country. In the latest installation of the killings a few days ago, Pius Abiaziem, a native of Imo State, was having breakfast in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa when he was picked up among many by eight policemen, some of them masked, and taken to his home where he was extra-judicially murdered. Unknown to them, his sister-in-law was taping proceedings with her phone. Now, their crime can no longer be hidden.

Since the audio became public, Godwin Adama, Nigeria’s Consul-General to South Africa, has been talking about sending a note verbale to Pretoria. Ideally, the gruesomeness of the murder and track record of South African killers should have forced President Muhammadu Buhari to step in. A meeting with Cyril Ramaphosa is scheduled for Pretoria in October, but Buhari had a premature opportunity in Japan, where he, Ramaphosa and numerous African leaders attended last week’s Tokyo International Conference on African Development. Guess what our President was doing? Smiling away with Ramaphosa! At least that is what the cameras of his own photographers and the social media handles of his image makers told us. If the two presidents were any serious about resolving the persistent killings, that meeting ought to have been frank and sombre, fully empathetic towards the feelings of dozens of mourning Nigerian families. Importantly, Buhari didn’t demand for the coming October meeting; Ramaphosa invited him!

Hike in US visa fee and killing of Nigerians in South Africa, what is the correlation? Responsible governments don’t joke with the welfare of their citizens. That is what the US Consulate in Nigeria proved to us; that is what the US Government would have done if its citizens were being wasted in South Africa or any other country. And beyond lowering the corresponding visa fee of Americans, Nigeria can learn to for once send a strong enough-is-enough message to South Africa. Instead of a smiley Buhari and Ramaphosa, what the media should have been reporting by now is a diplomatic row between Abuja and Pretoria.

Earlier this year, Canada rowed with China over the type of citizen a Nigerian would describe as a ‘common criminal’. Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, the Canadian, had been originally sentenced to 15 years in prison in China for drug smuggling. He appealed this judgement, only to see the Dalian Intermediate People’s Court in China’s Liaoning province upgrade it to a death sentence. The suspicion was that the shocking judgement was politically motivated, owing to the December 2018 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, Chief Financial Officer of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies, in Vancouver on a US extradition warrant – an action China responded to by detaining Michael Kovrig, a Canadian diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a Canadian consultant, in Beinjing on allegation of endangering state security. The execution order on Schellenberg prompted strong reprimand from Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, while the Canadian Foreign Ministry updated its travel advisory for China, warning citizens about “the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws”.

But here in Nigeria, our President is forbidden from speaking on such matters. Buhari hasn’t personally spoken; Foreign Ministry doesn’t even know the significance of a travel alert much less consider issuing one. If anyone makes too much noise over it, the President’s noisemakers would scream ‘Buhari can’t speak every time; that’s why he has aides.’ But it’s life we’re discussing here; and to almost totally leave the crusade to Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (whose commitment to the course, by the way, is indubitable), is to thoroughly undermine the sanctity of human life. If Trudeau could go that mile for a Canadian drug convict, why can’t Buhari do more than laugh with Ramaphosa, for Nigerians who have committed no crime? Maybe we are too harsh on Buhari; a President who can’t even secure the lives of his people at home, how does one begin to ask him to secure the lives of those abroad?

http://saharareporters.com/2019/09/02/south-africans-are-killing-nigerians-buhari-laughing-their-president-‘fisayo-soyombo

Soyombo, former Editor of the TheCable, the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) and Sahara Reporters, tweets @fisayosoyombo

Names marked with an asterisk* have been changed to protect interviewees' identities.

Kumasi, Ghana - Jennifer* has spent the last few weeks on the pavements of Vienna City, a hub in Kumasi, Ghana's second-largest city, which has a bustling nightlife.

She arrived in Ghana in May, having left a crowded hostel room in Lagos, Nigeria, hoping to secure work in sales or as a waitress and send her income to her mother in central Nigeria's Ondo State.

But after a one-day bus trip from Lagos to Accra, her dreams crumbled as she reached the green hills of Kumasi.

"Please, get me out of here, this life is devastating," she said.

"They put me immediately on the street, forcing me to prostitute from 8pm till morning, every day,'' she said in a bar on Harper Road, where Rihanna's songs crackled through an old sound system as other Nigerian women outside dressed in revealing clothes waited for clients.

"Each night, I receive up to eight clients, and end up having $20 to $25 in my hands,'' she said.

Most of her money goes back into the "system" - to a "madam", a Nigerian woman, and middlemen such as hotel managers.

Women and girls like Jennifer, with some as young as 14, are victims of a trafficking network that benefits several people from Nigeria to Ghana.

The old district of Dichemso, the heart of the business, lies on the opposite side of Kumasi's city centre.

"Dichemso is where Kumasi's sex industry is flourishing, thanks to different guesthouses and hotels, such as the Plaza," said Bright Owusu, an independent researcher who has spent the last three years meeting Nigerian women forced into prostitution in the city.

Twenty Nigerian women live at one of these guesthouses, which is controlled by a few men at the entrance.

Locked in her room, 26-year-old Blessing* shared her experience.

"I am the oldest of five sisters and brothers: when our parents died, I knew I had to take care of them,'' she said.

Local middlemen convinced her to leave Lokoja, in central Nigeria, to Ghana.

In Kumasi, "they introduced me to a woman, who brought me to a fetish priest and told me I owed her 8,000 cedis [about $1,500] for my transportation: I had to prostitute to pay that sum back".

In some African countries, a "fetish priest" serves as a mediator between the spirit and the living.

Blessing refused, and ran away.

Soon after, she received death threats in messages to her phone. "The madam said the priest would throw a curse against me, but I didn't want any debt,'' she said.

After working for four months at a local market, for barely $30 a month, Blessing ultimately turned to prostitution as the only way to pay college fees for her younger sisters.

"I don't like it here, but I have to resist,'' she said.

In one year in Dichemso, she said she has met dozens of women with similar experiences.

"Every day, Nigerian girls enter Ghana, undergo voodoo rituals and are put into prostitution, and nobody seems to care," she said.

"Through rituals, madams make sure that you'll pay back a debt," said Blessing.

Debts vary between $1,000 and $2,000, while prices "are as low as 5 cedis [$1] for a short [sexual encounter] - less than 10 minutes with the client - and up to 30 cedis for half an hour or more", she added.


Owusu, the researcher, explained: "Some of these women know they'll be coming for prostitution, but they don't know that once here, they'll lose control over their life."

Voodoo rituals play a central role.

"They are the most powerful bond, one that has a strong psychological impact," he said.

Read More: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/nigerian-women-ghana-exploited-smugglers-madams-priests-190827113452214.html

federal high court sitting in Abuja has declined to hear the motion filed by Sowore as the court referred the matter back to the vacation judge Justice Taiwo Taiwo.

Justice Nkweonye Maha said she did not have the jurisdiction to review the decision by Justice Taiwo Taiwo. She noted that the ruling of the vacation judge stated the matter would be held 45 days September 21.

http://saharareporters.com/2019/08/28/breaking-judge-declines-hear-sowores-application-says-she-lacks-jurisdiction-do-so

The presiding judge , Justice Nkeonye Maha of the federal high court Abuja has stand down the hearing of the motion filed by the human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore for one hour.

This was as a result of the application made by Sowore's lawyer, Samuel Ogala who is holding brief for Femi Falana the lead counsel that ( Falana ) was still on his way from the airport. He pleaded to the court to tarry a while in hearing the case.

Counsel to the DSS did not not object to the application .

The matter was therefore stood down till 10 :42am .

Sowore had asked the court to set aside the order permitting the Department of State Service (DSS) to detain him for 45 days.

http://saharareporters.com/2019/08/28/breaking-court-stands-down-hearing-sowores-motion-one-hour