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‘Tortured’ and shackled pupils freed from Nigerian Islamic school
Police in northern Nigeria have freed 67 people who had been found shackled at an Islamic boarding school, officials say.
The pupils, between the ages of seven and 40, told police they had been tortured and abused.
Last month, more than 300 male students were freed from a similar boarding school in neighbouring Kaduna state.
Islamic boarding schools, known as Almajiris, are common across the mostly-Muslim north of Nigeria.
In a statement released on Monday, police said the boys and men were chained and subjected to “inhuman and degrading treatments”. Some had been sexually abused.
“Beating, abusing and punishment, this is what they always did to us here. They make a cover story and say they were teaching us. They are not teaching us for the sake of God,” student Lawal Ahmed told the Reuters news agency.
Two teachers as well as the owner of the school, which is in Daura, the birthplace of President Muhammadu Buhari, have been arrested.
More than 300 pupils were enrolled but most had escaped before the police arrived, the BBC’s Ishaq Khalid says.
The captives had been rioting and many had got out with their shackles still on, a Katsina police spokesperson told the BBC.
The school operated for decades as a place for Koranic instruction and worked with some pupils who were deemed to have behavioural problems.
Lack of facilities
There have been numerous reports of abuse at Islamic boarding schools across northern Nigeria, with students sometimes forced to spend their days begging on the streets.
A lack of rehabilitation facilities in parts of the country force some parents to enrol their unruly children in informal Islamic schools – which are also meant to be correctional facilities – where they are subjected to abuse, our correspondent says.
President Buhari has previously condemned reports of abuse at similar institutions.
In September, when students were freed from the school in Kaduna, he urged religious and traditional leaders to work with the authorities to “expose and stop all types of abuse that are widely known but ignored for many years by our communities”.
Nigeria’s First Lady warns against spread of Fake News
Nigeria lecturer suspended after sex for grade video
The University of Lagos has suspended a lecturer who was caught on film propositioning and sexually harassing an undercover BBC reporter.
Boniface Igbeneghu, also a pastor, has been condemned by his church.
He was one of several academics secretly filmed as part of a year-long investigation by BBC Africa Eye.
The film, which has sparked widespread social media comment, explored alleged sexual harassment by members of staff at two top West African universities.
A number of high-profile figures, including celebrities and politicians, have joined in the conversation about the issues it raised.
The report also saw students, some with their identities hidden, making allegations about their own experiences with professors.
Dr Igbeneghu has made no comment.
The University of Ghana has categorically denied protecting any staff or students who have engaged in sexual harassment.
On Tuesday the chairperson of the university’s anti-sexual harassment committee said the two men would be investigated over the documentary, but said the film did not prove they offered grades for sex, local media are quoting her as saying.
Kidnappers demand ransom for Nigerian school girls
Gunmen who kidnapped six female students and two staff members from their hostels at a remote school in northern Nigeria have made a ransom demand, the regional governor said.
Armed assailants gained entry to Engravers College, a mixed boarding school in a remote area just south of the city of Kaduna, early on Thursday and seized the victims.
“They have made a demand for money and that is being negotiated,” state governor Mallam Nasir El-Rufai told reporters in the capital Abuja.
They have made a demand for money and that is being negotiated.
The governor refused to disclose details of the demands or negotiations as the authorities were “trying to protect the victims and secure their release”.
Abductions for ransom are common in Nigeria and the school is located in an area that has become notorious for armed banditry.
It is far to the west of the region notorious for attacks by the Boko Haram jihadist group.
Boko Haram grabbed headlines around the world in 2014 for the abduction of 276 schoolgirls from the remote northeastern town of Chibok in Borno state.
Rescue of pregnant teens in Nigeria
Nigerian police raids a suspected child trafficking company and rescued 19 teens and women who are pregnant. This company was suspected to have planned to sell the babies. Said the spokesman of police
The victims, ranging in age from 15 to 28, were found in different locations in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, in a police raid earlier this month, police said.
Two women accused of operating homes where the victims were found have been arrested on suspicion of selling babies, and investigators are searching for a prime suspect in the case, Lagos police spokesman Bala Elkana said.
Four children also were freed in the raid, police said. The captors also are accused of planning to sell these children; investigators still are trying to determine where these children came from, police said.
The two arrested suspects still were in police custody Monday.
We got reports based on intelligence information about activities of individuals who were keeping pregnant women and babies to sell them after delivery,” Lagos police spokesman Bala Elkana
The pregnant teens and women are from different parts of the country. Some said their traffickers kidnapped them, while others said they were lured to the city by the traffickers who promised them domestic jobs, Elkana said.
Police said some of the victims were persuaded by their traffickers to sell their babies.
“Some were told that there is a place where babies are sold and they came voluntarily. Some were promised jobs that turned out to be fake when they got to the city, and the (traffickers) forced them to stay, ” Elkana
According to police, the traffickers were selling male babies for 500,000 naira (around $1,378) and female babies for 300,000 naira ($827).
Police said the rescued victims will be handed over to Nigeria’s anti-trafficking agency and relevant authorities for rehabilitation.
Nigerians shocked conspiracy and money laundering charges against activist
Nigerians take to social media to express their shock over the charges brought against a detained activist. Pro-democracy activist Omoyole Sowore detained since august has been charged with seven counts of money laundering and conspiracy.
According to Vanguard The activist behind RevolutionNow Protest movement was charged by the Federal High Court on Friday. Among other things, the court said the activist’s #RevolutionNow” campaign was aimed at removing the President and Commander–in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria during his term of office otherwise known than by constitutional means”.
The detained activist is also the publisher of Sahara Reporters, was the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, in the last general election, has been in custody of the Departemenmt of State Service, DSS, since August 2 when he was arrested.
Reposted from @instablog9ja (@get_regrann) – Nigerian lady in tears after becoming the first Muslim elected to Nashville office
A U.S-based Nigerian lady, Zulfat Suara, has become the first Muslim elected to a Metro seat in Nashville history
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The certified public accountant faced Islamophobic comments and threats on the campaign trail, but she also built a broad coalition of support.
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She burst into tears as she received a hug from her daughter, Safiyah, before her speech at her watch party, on Thursday, in Nashville, Tennessee.
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He path started in Nigeria and led to Tennessee in 1993 when her husband was offered a fellowship at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. .
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It quickly became her home, with Zulfat founding an accounting firm in 1998 which worked with several counties.
With a full-time job, a daughter and a husband, Suara had a full plate, but she decided she wanted to run for one of the at-large seats because not only is her expertise right for the gig, she knows the city well and wants to serve. 📷: Wade Payne/TheTennessean
BREAKING!!! NEWS!!!!!!!
Security: Gov. Ugwuanyi Buys Over 100 Vehicles From Innoson, Unveils New Strategies(Photos)
In a bid to tackle the security challenges, the Executive Governor of Enugu State,
Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, on Wednesday, unveiled the new vehicles purchased by his administration to enhance security operations at the community level, Igbere TV reports.
Igbere TV reports that Gov. Ugwuanyi, who took journalists round the premises of the Government House to show them the vehicles, used the opportunity to brief them on the efforts of his administration to decisively tackle the recent security challenges in the state.
The vehicles include 100 pieces of Innoson Hilux vans for use by the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police Force and Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, among others, for security operations.
The remaining 260 vehicles, which were approved during the governor’s recent security meeting with all the members of the State Assembly, Local Government Council Chairmen, the Director of State Services (DSS) and the Security Chiefs of DSS in the council areas, will be distributed to the 260 electoral wards in the state.
The security vehicles will be deployed to provide services for community policing, Vigilante/Neighborhood Watch and Forest Guard operations.
The governor disclosed that the state government intends to engage the State Assembly and partner Ndi Enugu, home and abroad, to set up a Security Trust Fund that will ensure efficient security operations in the state.
He further disclosed that the state government will also purchase motorcycles as well as bicycles, adding that it equally intends to partner churches and other organizations for intelligence gathering, among other strategies.
Stay with Igbere TV. Africa’s No1 Community TV.
Nigeria Press statement
September 11, 2019
Press Statement
Verdict, A Subversion of Justice, Says PDP…Heads To Supreme Court
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) completely rejects the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal describing it as provocative, barefaced subversion of justice and direct assault on the integrity of our nation’s justice system.
The party is particularly shocked that the tribunal failed to point to justice despite the flawless evidence laid before it, showing that President Buhari was not only unqualified to contest the election but also did not score the majority of valid votes at the polls.
The PDP finds as bewildering that a court of law could validate a clear case of perjury and declaration of false information in a sworn affidavit, as firmly established against President Muhammadu Buhari, even in the face of incontrovertible evidence.
The party is also rudely shocked that the Court took over the roles of the Respondents’ lawyers who clearly abandoned their pleadings by refusing to call evidence in defense of the petition. The court raked up all manner of excuses to make up for the yawning gaps occasioned by the total absence of any evidence from the Respondents.
Nigerians and the international community watched in utter disbelief when the tribunal ruled that one need not provide a copy or certified true copy of educational certificate such individual claimed to possess, contrary to established proof of claims of certification.
The party notes as strange that the court even went ahead to provide rationalizations in favour of President Buhari, even when all hard facts before it shows that he did not possess the claimed educational certificate and that the Army was not in possession of his WAEC certificate as claimed in the affidavit he deposed to in his Presidential nomination form.
The PDP also described as shocking that the court approved the flawed declaration of President Buhari as the winner of the election despite evidence to show the perpetration of illegalities, manipulations, alterations and subtraction of valid votes freely given to Atiku Abubakar by Nigerians.
Indeed, the pervading melancholic atmosphere across our nation since the verdict is a direct indication that the judgment has not fulfilled the desires and expectations of Nigerians.
The PDP however encouraged Nigerians to remain calm and not to lose hope or surrender to despondency or self-help, as our lawyers are upbeat in obtaining justice at the Supreme Court.
This is more so as the tribunal itself admitted that there are several errors in the judgment.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
Nigerian government dispels reports that South African embassy exploded in Abuja.
Information Minister Lai Mohammed told the media that the reports that had been making the rounds were untrue and that no such incident had taken place. A statement by his media aide said the “explosion” was fake news orchestrated by the desperate opposition to cause panic and chaos among the populace.
The minister said: “the video of the purported bomb explosion which is being circulated on the social media, is that of the bomb explosion at Emab plaza, near Banex, in Abuja on June 25, 2014.”
The Police also called the report a classic fake news. “Meanwhile, the Nigeria Police Force has provided adequate security in and around all South African Missions and related business interests,” their statement read in part.South African businesses were targeted earlier last week in reprisal attacks by some Nigerians after a surge in xenophobic violence saw other Africans attacked in Johannesburg and other areas.
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