Court tests voluntariness of NIMASA ex-boss’ statement to EFCC (Read full details)

Haruna Baba Jauro

Insisting he made statement under inducement, a Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday ordered a trial-within-trial to test the voluntariness of statements obtained from the former Acting Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Haruna Jauro, who is facing N304.1 million fraud charges.

Jauro’s counsel, Mr. Olalekan Ojo had, on behalf of his client, raised objection to the tendering of his client’s statement on grounds that it was not made voluntarily.

As a result, the trial judge, Justice Mojisola Olatoregun gave a brief ruling ordering a trial-within-trial to ascertain the voluntariness of the statement.

The defendant is standing trial alongside Dauda Bawa and Thlumbau Enterprises Limited on 19 counts bordering on the offences.

They were arraigned on April 12, 2016 and had pleaded not guilty to the charges. The court had admitted them to bail in the sum of N5 million each with two sureties each in like sum.

When the case was mentioned yesterday, the prosecutor, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo called on the first prosecution witness, Mr. Orji Chukwuma, an investigating officer with the EFCC.

Leading his witness in evidence, Oyedepo had showed him exhibit G, H and I and asked the witness to identify the various exhibits.

The witness told the court that exhibit G represented a request for the transfer of N176 million to seven beneficiaries, which document was signed by one Captain Ezekiel Agaba, who is also facing charges of fraud before another judge.

HURIWA condemns extra-legal killings in handling IPOB, Shiites (Read full details)

“The current hierarchy of the Nigeria Police Force has sadly returned the policing institution to the late Sani Abacha’s infamous police state characterized by excessive use of force to disperse peaceful protesters, extra-legal executions of perceived opponents of the government at the center and the abridgement in the most cruel and violent way the fundamental right to freedom of peaceful assembly guaranteed under chapter four of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 (as amended)”.

With the above, a pro-democracy and non-governmental organization, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has condemned the incessant physical attacks by armed police of peaceful civilian protesters belonging to either the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) or the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) or Shiites.

Calling for an end to the incessant high-handedness and deployment of brute force to disperse peaceful demonstrators, the rights group affirmed that the shameful actions of the police and the military constitute grave threats to democracy, rule of law, respect for human rights and constitutionalism.
In a statement by its national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the national media affairs director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA strongly condemned the “extra-legal killings of over a dozen members of the peaceful IPOB recently who assembled in Port Harcourt, Rivers State in support of the newly inaugurated President of the United States of America Mr. Donald Trump.”

The group said it has resolved to send strong worded protest letter to the office of the President of the United States to demand that he uses the standing of his nation in the United Nations Security Council to compel the Nigeria government to arrest and prosecute all the armed security operatives who have been indicted over the “killings of members of both the Indigenous People of Biafra and Shiites Islamic movement.”
HURIWA expressed shock that the police could be deployed to attack demonstrating IMN members who are only demanding that President Muhammadu Buhari should respect a binding and subsisting order of the competent court of law that the detained leader of Shiites in Nigeria Sheikh El Zakzaky be freed unconditionally.

It stated: “In civilized climes, the Federal Attorney General and minister of justice would have by now been arrested and prosecuted by the police for openly urging the President to disrespect several binding orders made by the court of law. Why should the Police obstruct law abiding group of Nigerians who are publicly urging the President to respect the constitution by abiding by the Court order and release their leader?”

HURIWA lamented that “the Nigerian government under Buhari has so far failed to investigate the illegal killings of hundreds of IPOB members and the Shiites which were carried out by members of the armed security forces.”

The rights group warned that the current brutal attacks of peaceful demonstrators by police seriously threaten the sustenance of democracy and constitutionalism.

And alleging that “the hierarchy of the Department of State Services (DSS) has embarked on deliberate clampdown of vocal Christian leaders opposed to the incessant killings of farmers all over Nigeria by armed Fulani terrorists,” HURIWA has also raised the alarm, calling for caution to avoid catastrophic religious crisis in the country.

HURIWA specifically condemned the invitation for interrogation by the DSS of the Edo State-born Pentecostal leader and founding pastor of Omega Fire ministry Worldwide, Reverend Apostle Johnson Suleiman, who had called for self-defence against the “unbridled but primitive attacks of Nigerians by well armed and well-coordinated Fulani herdsmen.”

HURIWA has totally condemned the unwillingness of security forces in Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration whose leadership are majorly dominated by Hausa/Fulani Moslem Northerners who have done nothing whilst armed Fulani terrorists kill thousands of Christian farmers all across Nigeria and mostly the Christian-dominated communities in Kaduna, Benue, Plateau and Taraba states. The group wonder why the DSS does not want Nigerians under attacks by Fulani hoodlums to adopt self Defence to stay alive even when chapter four of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 (as amended) makes right to life a sacred fundamental human right.

HURIWA said the invitation was believed to be connected to Suleman’s alleged inciting comments that Christians should defend themselves against attacks by Fulani herdsmen even as the group lambasted the DSS for failing in its constitutional duty of preventing the frequent bloodsheds by armed Fulani terrorists. HURIWA said what the DSS would have done was for the Director-General to resign forthwith rather than turning his aggression against the innocent Christian leader who as a father has played the fatherly role of asking his followers to defend their right to life.

In a statement in reaction to the invitation the civil society group warned the officials of the DSS to stop painting the graphic impression that there is a deliberate attempt by the Presidency to Islamize Nigeria by deploying government’s armed agencies to intimidate, harass and physically brutalize Christian leaders only because they refuse to keep silent whilst armed Fulani terrorists kill their members and parents without the Nigerian security forces ever adopting fool proof strategy to arrest, prosecute and punish these armed hoodlums who are operating without let or hindrance.

HURIWA said it amounts to double standards for the DSS to go after Christian Leaders for speaking out in defence of their members even when leaders of other ethno-religious communities in the core North are not arrested even when there are proven cases of abduction and false marriages of child brides as has happened in Katsina Emirate.

“We are shocked that the DSS that couldn’t stop the genocides of Southern Kaduna, Agatu community in Benue and the attacks of Enugu and Abia states all by armed Fulani terrorists is now in a dangerous hurry even at the threat of igniting inter-religious warfare to arrest Christian Leaders whose only ‘crime’ is to counsel their members not to standby and allow their lives be taken away by armed marauders.”

“The invitation to Apostle Johnson Suleiman is an invitation to anarchy and this divide-and-rule tactics of the Alhaji Daura-led DSS hierarchy is absolutely condemnable, reprehensible, illegal, unconstitutional and totally unjustifiable. Let all Nigerians of goodwill speak out now before this current leadership of DSS drag Nigeria into a needless religious war.”

UNICEF, stakeholders seek end to female genital mutilation (Read full details)

• 200m girls, women affected in 30 countries
• Osun, Ogun, Ekiti, Imo top list in Nigeria

The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has canvassed an end to Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C) in the country.

UNICEF’s Communication Officer, Lagos, Mrs. Blessing Ejiofor, disclosed in a statement at the 2017 International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM/C.

Ejiofor described mutilation as the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other cutting of, or injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

She said the menace is recognised internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.

According to UNICEF’s Representative in Nigeria, Mr. Mohamed Fall, “Every study shows that there is no benefit in mutilating or cutting any girl or woman. It is a practice that could cause severe physical and psychological harm.

“It violates a woman’s rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and in some cases, the right to life.”

He explained that a 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey showed that Osun State has the highest rate of genital mutilation at 77 per cent, followed by Ogun, 74 per cent and Ebonyi at 60 per cent.

Other states are Ekiti, 72 per cent, Imo, 68 per cent and Oyo, 66 per cent.

Describing the practice as barbaric, the National President of Inter-Africa Committee (IAC), Prof. Modupe Onadeko, said: “Harmful traditional practices often resulted in premature death of girls and women and had also left many physically, medically, psychologically and emotionally damaged for life.

“There is no good thing in mutilating girls and women because the practice usually cause marital crisis. The victims are often frigid, as they cannot respond well during sexual intercourse with their husbands.”

The Executive Director of Girl to Women Research Development Centre (G2W), Mrs. Olamide Falana, blamed the practice on ignorance and negative cultural practice.

Also at a media dialogue to mark the day in Imo and Ebonyi states, the UNICEF representative disclosed that no fewer than 200 million girls and women in 30 countries are currently suffering from its effect.

The states consultant, Mr. Benjamin Mbakwem, made the disclosure yesterday in Owerri, the Imo State capital.

As part of measures to stop the practice, the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF), have earmarked about $980 million from 2018 to 2030.

Meanwhile, the Chief Judge of Ebonyi State, Justice Aloysius Nwankwo yesterday said the penalty of two years, or an option of N2000 fine for perpetrators was not stringent enough to check the menace.

Nwankwo stated this in Abakaliki at a symposium to commemorate the day.