“In the meantime, two case files in respect of 16 persons have been advised for further investigation by the police,” the statement said.
The A-G in the statement assured members of the public that his office would ensure that those arrested by the police are treated in accordance with the due process of the law.
Mr Onigbanjo also noted that his office remains committed to maintaining the rule of law and ensuring peace and order in the state.
Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, has said that dialogue with bandits is still relevant just as he secured the release of 26 Katsina State indigent girls who are all minors.
The girls were released to the Zamfara State Government without payment of ransom, according to a press release by Mr Matawalle’s spokesperson, Zailani Bappa.
The girls, who were kidnapped by bandits in Faskari local government of Katsina State, were brought into the bushes of Zamfara State but were miraculously discovered by the state government and got released through negotiations held under the state Commissioner for Security and Home Affairs, Abubakar Dauran, who is in constant dialogue on behalf of the government with bandits in the state on the need to embrace peace and live a normal life.
While receiving the rescued girls, Governor Matawalle said his administration will not abandon the peace dialogue with bandits as fire power alone cannot solve the problem of banditry in the state.
He said, “this is a testimony to our vision for engaging the bandits in peace dialogue. For those who believe we are wrong to dialogue with the bandits, the securing of these minors who are all girls, unhurt, is indeed, priceless.”
The 26 rescued girls, whose ages range between 8 and 12, were medically checked and provided with new clothes.
The governor ordered for their safe return to Katsina state.
This latest rescue brings the total number of those released by bandits in the last one week to more than 40.
MEXICAN President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Saturday that it was too soon to congratulate Joe Biden and he would wait for “all legal issues” in the US presidential election to be resolved.
“We don’t want to be imprudent. We don’t want to act lightly and we want to respect people’s self-determination and rights,” Lopez Obrador told reporters.
“We have a very good relationship with the two candidates,” he added.
“President Trump has been very respectful with us and we have reached very good agreements, and we thank him because he has not interfered and has respected us,” said the left-wing populist.
And “the same” go for Biden, Lopez Obrador added.
Trump has launched a slew of legal challenges and refused to concede after the major US television networks announced Biden’s win.
The Republican sparked anger during his 2016 election campaign when he branded Mexican migrants “rapists” and drug dealers and vowed to build a wall across the southern US border.
But Lopez Obrador has managed to maintain cordial relations with Trump and even visited him in July on his first foreign trip since taking office.
(Credit: AFP)
UNITED States of America’s President-elect, Joe Biden, has assured black voters of his support.
He said this in his victory speech on Sunday.
Biden, who appreciated the voters for backing him in major cities, disclosed that votes of black Americans helped him emerged victorious in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
“And especially for those moments when this campaign was at its lowest — the African American community stood up again for me. They always have my back, and I’ll have yours,” he said.
When assuring his support for African-Americans, he repeatedly slammed his fist on the podium and the crowd erupted in cheers.
According to Africa Business Insider, black voters, particularly in key cities such as Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia, were a critical factor in Biden’s success.
Exit polls revealed that 87 per cent of Black voters backed Biden compared to just 12 per cent for President Donald Trump, though they also indicated that Trump had improved his standing among Black voters compared to 2016.
Biden of the Democratic Party won Tuesday’s presidential election to become the 46th elected President of the United States.
Biden, 77, defeated the Republican incumbent, Donald Trump, by securing 273 electoral college votes against Trump’s 214, after four grueling days of vote count that kept Americans on edge.
The Electoral College refers to the group of presidential electors required by the constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and Vice President.
Article II section 1, clause 2 provides that each state shall appoint electors selected in a manner determined by its legislature.
There are currently 538 electors in the Electoral College, and an absolute majority of electoral votes—270 or more—is required for the college to elect the president and vice president.
If no candidate achieves an absolute majority, a contingent election is held whereby the U.S. Congress is required to elect the president and vice president.
The former Vice President, who turns 78 on Nov. 20, will become the oldest president in U.S. history, after Ronald Reagan, the 40th president, who left office in 1989 at 77.
History has also been made in Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, who is now the first female vice president in America’s history.
The senator from California has also emerged as the first woman of colour to be elected to the White House.
By this result, Trump has become the first one-term U.S. president since the 1990s.
Trump has, however, rejected the results of the pool, claiming there were manipulations during the electoral process.
He had asked for the counting of the votes to stop in certain states having realised the unassailable lead of his challenger, Joe Biden.
North Korea is yet to react to Joe Biden’s victory as United States President, report say.
During his election campaign rallies, Biden called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a “dictator” and a “thug,” and criticized his rival President Donald Trump for befriending Kim.
But the ex-Vice President indicated he was also willing to meet with Kim, saying his condition would be that Pyongyang works to make the Korean Peninsula “a nuclear-free zone.”
North Korea also has criticized Biden, who served two terms as vice president to President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017, calling him a “low IQ individual” who is “seized by ambition for power.”
The exchange of harsh rhetoric between Kim and Biden contrasts with the personal relationship that the North Korean leader developed with Trump. Trump and Kim have met three times and exchanged letters since 2018 to try to reach a deal on dismantling the North’s nuclear weapons program in exchange for sanctions relief. The meetings ended without substantial results.
While Kim has been actively trying to strengthen his relationship with leaders of allies including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin by sending letters and congratulatory messages this year, the regime had not yet reacted to Biden’s victory as of press time.
When Trump was elected in 2016, North Korean media didn’t mention the winner of the election. Instead, its state media Rodong Sinmun reported that the Obama administration has put a greater burden on the new administration.
“It has burdened the new administration with the difficulty of facing the Juche (self-reliant) nuclear state,” it said, referring to the North, in an editorial published on Nov. 10, 2016, just after Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president of the US.
“If there is anything the Obama administration has done … it has put the security of the US mainland in the greatest danger,” the editorial said.
The name of Trump was first mentioned by North Korea 10 days after he was announced to be the winner to criticize then-South Korean President Park Geun-hye for sending a congratulatory message to Trump.
When Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election, Pyongyang showed a relatively quick reaction, saying that Obama defeated Republican candidate John McCain.
North Korea appeared to have been relieved by a Democratic candidate taking the office due to the hawkish approach taken by previous Republican administrations.
But any expectations fizzled as the Obama administration imposed a policy of “strategic patience” while pursuing economic pressure on the regime following Pyongyang’s second nuclear weapons test in May 2009.
“Obama, who seeks a second term, has been making reckless remarks on our republic’s self-defense nuclear deterrence that we have to pay the price for it and that we should make a decision about it,” Rodong Sinmun said on Nov. 4, 2012, just prior to the presidential election.
When George W. Bush was elected in 2000, North Korea’s state-controlled Korean Central Broadcasting Station reported the election result four days after he was declared to be the next US leader. “The Supreme Court confirmed Republican candidate Bush, the governor of Texas, was the winner without clarification of many problematic votes in Florida.”
The Bush administration’s hard-line stance on Pyongyang, branding the regime as part of “an axis of evil” along with Iran and Iraq, led the North to skip its direct reporting on Bush’s success in securing a second term in 2004.
Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, says no single Nigerian was killed at the Lekki Toll Gate when soldiers shot at the protesters who were demonstrating against the excesses of police under the aegis of #EndSARS.
Mohammed made this known yesterday when he led a delegation of the Federal Government to the South East to meet with leaders of the region.
He said the so called massacre was mere fake news only propagated on social media meant to discredit the government.
While addressing his audience which comprised of the Enugu State governor, traditional and religious leaders at the Enugu Government House, Mohammed said that investigations has revealed that no protester was killed at the Toll Gate.
Mohammed said:
“There was no massacre at the Lekki Toll Gate. The only massacre that took place during the EndSARS protest was the social media massacre.
“Fake news was used; they used social media to spread what did not happen, which led to reprisals.”
Mohammed restated the FG’s stand that social media must be regulated, stressing “the Federal Government had warned about fake news as far back as 2017; we launched a national campaign against fake news because we foresaw this. Fake news kills more than any pandemic.
“There must be social media regulation. But social media regulation does not mean stifling the media, it does not mean shutting down the social media, it means responsive use of the social media. Fake news can shake the cause of the world.”
Founder and president of LoveWorld Incorporated aka Christ Embassy Pastor Chris Oyakhilome says US President Donald Trump is disliked by many because he supports and protects Christians.
Democrat Joe Biden clinched the US Presidency on Saturday after crossing the 270 electoral college votes required to be president.
“There are those who think that Trump, the President of the United States, is hated by many Americans. He is not hated by many Americans. I want to tell you the truth. He is not hated, Trump is not the problem. They don’t hate Trump. They hate those that Trump seems to support,” Oyakhilome said during a sermon on November 6.
“They are angry at Trump for supporting Christians. So the real ones they hate are you who are Christians. That is what the hatred of Trump is all about. It’s got nothing to do with Trump.
“Before he started giving his voice in support of Christians and before he started giving his voice in support of Israel, he was their darling, they loved him. But because he didn’t come for their sponsorship and they didn’t expect him to become president, they blamed the Christians for voting him into office and that is what they hate him for.
“If you are a Christian, better know this. Don’t think that if we just get Trump out of the way then everything will just calm. It will not be calm. They hate you and he seems to protect you, that is the problem.”
NO fewer than 37 police formations were said to have been attacked during the widespread looting and destruction of public and private facilities that erupted in the wake of the #EndSARS protests
This was disclosed by Inspector-General of Police Committee on EndSARS Protest Damage Assessment on Saturday.
The committee noted that about 100 AK-47 rifles and 2,600 pieces of ammunition are missing as a result of attacks on police formations in Lagos State by hoodlums.
It added that 367 vehicles, including 10 Armoured Personnel Carrier, saloon cars and Hilux vans were burnt.
The Chairman of the 10-man committee, CP Yaro Abutu, disclosed this on Saturday in an interview with journalists.
It was learnt that the committee submitted the report to the IG, Mohammed Adamu, within three weeks.
Abutu lamented that it was unfortunate the destruction happened towards the end of the year “when there is a surge in criminality all over the country.”
“We are taking a tour around the 17 states where burning of police facilities and killing of police personnel occurred. Since Lagos is the epicentre we decided to come to Lagos first. Thirty-seven police stations were attacked in Lagos and about 30 per cent of the police infrastructure in the state has been crippled.
“Also, a lot of arms and ammunition were carted away. We are still counting and collating. In some police stations, 15 to 30 firearms and a number of ammunitions were stolen. So far from our preliminary report, about 100 pieces of AK-47 cannot be accounted for and up to 2,600 pieces of ammunition are missing. This is when criminals become more aggressive whereas police equipment has been crippled. It is pathetic.”
The committee chairman urged hoodlums in possession of the arms and ammunition to return them to the nearest police station or community leaders, noting that three firearms were returned to some police formations on Friday.
He added, “One of them was returned to the Area Commander Ajah, ACP Gbolahan. It was found somewhere and the community alerted him. They (policemen) went to pick it. If the community sees it (firearm) and refuses to report, the weapon will still be used to unleash terror on the population. That is why we are appealing to community leaders, youths and other stakeholders to be on the lookout.”
THERE are strong indications that the prosecution of the operatives of the disbanded Anti-robbery Squad, SARS, indicted in a report by Presidential Investigative Panel last year may drag for some time
This is following the claim by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation that there is no sufficient evidence to prosecute the 33 operatives of SARS indicted in the report.
The AGF’s office has therefore asked the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to set up “a special investigation team” to conduct “thorough investigation” into the cases.
This is contained in a report of a committee set up by the AGF, Abubakar Malami (SAN), to review the individual cases recommended for prosecution by the special presidential panel, excerpts of which Punch correspondent obtained from a top police source on Friday.
The Presidential Panel led by the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Tony Ojukwu, had between 2018 and 2019 probed complaints of brutal activities of SARS and had submitted its report to the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), on June 3, 2019.
The report indicted a total of 35 police operatives in 12 states and the Federal Capital Territory for various rights violations including, extrajudicial killing, death in police custody, unlawful arrest, biased investigation, unlawful intimidation, harassment, criminal assault, torture, cruelty, inhuman and degrading treatment, threat to life, extortion and confiscation of property, among others.
The report recommended 33 for prosecution, and punishment, including sanctions like reduction in rank and dismissal.
It also recommended that 57 victims be paid about N249m as compensation while the police should tender public apology to 35.
The NHRC on October 19, 2020 submitted the report to the AGF accompanied with a specific list of those recommended for prosecution.
But after reviewing the panel’s report, the committee set up by the AGF said the report “does not meet prosecutorial needs” as it was said to be lacking in vital exhibits, such as “medical evidence and statements of the suspects”.
It added, “The report of the panel does not meet prosecutorial needs. No proper investigation was concluded in all the cases. Admissible evidence such as exhibits, medical evidence, statements of the suspects and witnesses that can be used in court have not been obtained or recorded in the appropriate sheet from the suspects and witnesses by the appropriate investigation team.”
The report expressed concern that the indicted officers “are still in the service and ought to go through the internal police disciplinary measures to avoid prosecuting officers in uniform”.
It listed three actions that “must be taken in earnest” for the AGF office “to be able to successfully implement the panel’s recommendations”.
Among them are that the indicted officers must be made to undergo disciplinary actions and dismissed from service where necessary, while the IGP should set up a special team to further investigate the individual cases.
It stated, “The indicted officers should be made to undergo disciplinary actions immediately and dismissed where appropriate.
“That the IGP who is well aware of the sensitivity of the matter should be advised to set up a special investigation team to conduct a thorough investigation into the individual cases.
“That after thorough investigation, the cases that are federal offences or fall within the FCT will be prosecuted by the office of the HAGF while those that are state offences will be transferred to the respective states for prosecution.”
Meanwhile, the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr Dayo Apata (SAN), said on Wednesday that the recommendations of the panel for the prosecution of indicted SARS operatives would be implemented by the AGF office.
Apata, who represented the AGF at the inaugural sitting of the Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violations by members of the disbanded SARS in Abuja, said the AGF and state Attorneys-General, had already scheduled a meeting on how to fashion out the strategy for the prosecution of the cases, most of which he said were state offences.
He said, “The coming weeks will be full of activities. The Attorney-General of the Federation will be meeting with states’ Attorneys-General because some of the offences are state offences.”
THE sitting of the Lagos State Panel of Judicial Inquiry probing the alleged shooting of #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki tollgate stalled yesterday due to a development beyond the panel’s control.
It was gathered that the absence of the two youth members of the panel, Oluwarinu Oduala and Temitope Majekodunmi frustrated the progress of the panel.
Oduala, who is one of the promoters of the #EndSARS protest, failed to show up for the Saturday sitting in protest against the freezing of her bank account by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The CBN had reportedly obtained a court order freezing the accounts of 20 #EndSARS promoters till January 2021. One of those affected was Oduala.
The chairman of the judicial, retired Justice Doris Okuwobi, said the panel had no other option but to suspend Saturday sitting as it could not form a quorum in the absence of the two youths.
Justice Okuwobi said, “We are confronted with a situation which prevented her (Oduala) from coming. We do not know if the two youths’ representatives will eventually pull out.
“We don’t want a situation where proceedings would go on and later it is impugned with controversy for lack of quorum.”
Justice Okuwobi stressed that it was important for all the sittings of the panel to be held in accordance with the law.
“In all matters, we have to wait for them (youth representatives) to join us. Without them, we are handicapped,” she said.
The panel scheduled Saturday to take the testimony of the Nigerian Army on the October 20 shootings by soldiers at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos.
A soldier had already taken the witness stand when before Justice Okuwobi announced that the sitting could not proceed.
Responding, counsel for the Nigerian Army, A. T. Kehinde (SAN), who explained that the army’s appearance on Saturday was pursuant to an October 28 summons by the panel, appreciated the panel for explaining its challenges to everyone.
He asked to be guided on the next date his client would appear before the panel.
Also speaking, counsel for the Lagos State Government, Olukayode Enitan (SAN), aligned himself with the submission by the counsel for the Army.
“The issue of a quorum is if utmost importance as to the competence of the panel to proceed and as to the integrity of recommendation to be made at the end of proceedings.
“Therefore, the directive for the panel to adjourn is quite appropriate,” Enitan said.
Counsel for #EndSARS protesters, Mr Adesina Ogunlana, described the development as an embarrassment to both the panel and lawyers.
Ogunlana, who claimed to have privileged information about plans to disrupt the panel sittings using thugs, advised the panel to be proactive and to ask the government to do the needful.
“Government cannot approbate and reprobate. This disconnect must be addressed immediately,” he said.
Justice Okuwobi adjourned further sitting of the panel till next Saturday, November 14.
The panel had on Friday fixed next Tuesday, November 10, to continue the viewing of the video footage of the Lekki shootings submitted by the Lekki Concession Company, operator of the tollgate.
In an interview with journalists, the #EndSARS protesters’ lawyer, Ogunlana, said the freezing of the bank accounts of the promoters of the protests had substantiated his submission to the panel on Friday that his life and those of his clients were being threatened.
He declared the freezing of the protesters’ accounts as a declaration of war by the government.
Ogunlana said, “Why are they boycotting the panel? Why did they choose to boycott the panel? It is because one of them has been sanctioned by the Federal Government via the court.
“These people say, ‘How can you put us on a panel for the purpose of resolving this issue and then you are sanctioning us very drastically?’
“We are talking about financial squeeze; they can’t operate their accounts again; that’s a declaration of war. You know one of the ways of fighting a war is starvation. So, these people are saying you can’t ask us to do a job, promising peace and progress, then you are punishing us. That is what happened. And the law setting the panel up say those young people, representatives of the youth are necessary. So, their presence is necessary for the panel to form a quorum.”