Justice
US election crimes director resigns after Donald Trump’s attorney general authorises probes
The top federal investigator of election crimes in the US has resigned just hours after Donald Trump’s attorney general William Barr authorised probes into claims of voter fraud. Richard Pilger, director of the election crimes branch of the Department of Justice, stepped down from the post he has held since 2010 on Monday. The branch director, Richard Pilger, handed in his resignation within hours of Barr’s authorization. In an email to colleagues about Barr’s order, Pilger said, “Having familiarized myself with the new policy and its ramifications… I must regretfully resign from my role,” The New York Times reported. US Attorney General William Barr gave federal prosecutors blanket authorization Monday to open investigations into voting irregularities, as President Donald Trump repeated u...
Arabic inscriptions on naira doesn’t threaten Nigeria’s secular status – central bank tells court
The Central Bank of Nigeria has vehemently opposed a suit before the Federal High Court in Lagos praying that the Arabic inscriptions on naira notes be removed. A Lagos-based lawyer, Chief Malcolm Omirhobo, who filed the suit before Justice Mohammed Liman, contended that having Arabic inscriptions on the naira notes portrays Nigeria as an Islamic state, contrary to the country’s constitutional status of a secular state. Omirhobo, who said he does not know what the Arabic inscriptions mean, is praying the court to order the CBN to replace the Arabic inscriptions with either English language, which is the country’s official language, or any of Nigeria’s three main indigenous languages – Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo. According to the lawyer, with the Arabic inscriptions on the naira note, the CBN ha...
Osun PDP embattled chairman takes over secretariat
The embattled chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) Osun State, Hon Soji Adagunodo, on Friday took over the party secretariat in the Osogbo capital of the state. Newsmen report that an Osun State High Court sitting in Ikirun on Tuesday, November 3 reinstated Hon. Soji Adajunodo as the chairman of the People Democratic Party (PDP) following a motion Exparte by the Adagunodo’s counsel, Edmund Biriomoni, in suit number HIK/25/2020 filed before Justice Saka Falola sought for seven reliefs from the respondents four respondent including the substantive chairman, Mr Sunday Bisi. Adagunodo in the company of his supporters stormed the party secretariat around 1:30 PM on Friday greeted party members that were inside the premises. Addressing journalists after he took over the secretariat, Hon A...
Lekki shooting: CCTV stopped recording after 8pm – LCC chief
Lekki Concession Company (LCC) has said that CCTV cameras at Lekki Tollgate stopped working at 8p.m. on Oct. 20, the day military men alleged shot at unarmed #EndSARS protesters. Managing Director of LCC, Mr Abayomi Omomuwasi, made the disclosure while testifying during proceedings of Lagos #EndSARS Judicial Panel on Tuesday. Led in evidence by his lawyer, Mr Rotimi Seriki, Omomuwasi said that the cameras stopped working due to network issues. “We never tampered with the surveillance camera, that is why we have footage until 8 p.m. when it stopped recording. “It was around 8.p.m. that we did not get any CCTV recording. It stopped recording because of network issues with the system. “The major cause is that we have the network that connects our cameras together at Ikoyi Link Bridge, Chevron...
#EndSARS: MURIC kicks amid allegation of mosque burning in South East
The Muslim Rights Concern has raised the alarm over the alleged burning of mosques in the South East following the #EndSARS protest. The Islamic human rights body, which raised the alarm in a statement on Monday, said the mosques were burnt on October 31, 2020, with threat to invade the Islamic School, Afikpo, Ebonyi State. The statement said the mosques were burnt in Enugu, Enugu State amid reports that 11 Muslims were killed during the #EndSARS protests in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and Orlu in Imo State, while the Orlu Central Mosque was completely destroyed about two weeks ago. The statement equally said markets belonging to Muslims in the region were also attacked and properties worth millions of naira destroyed, including whole trailers with goods. MURIC, in the statement by its Dir...
Journalist murdered in Mexico, sixth in 2020
A journalist has been shot dead in crime-ridden northern Mexico, authorities said Friday, the sixth such murder this year in one of the world’s most dangerous countries for reporters. Chihuahua state governor Javier Corral condemned the “cowardly” killing of Arturo Alba Medina in Ciudad Juarez near the US border. Corral said on Twitter that he had told prosecutors to ensure the perpetrators are punished, adding: “Justice will be done.” The 49-year-old journalist and television news show host was assassinated a few minutes after the end of his program on Thursday night, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders. “This was clearly an execution and his media colleagues where he worked are afraid and don’t know the reason for the crime,” Balbina Flores, RSF representative in Mexico...
#RevolutionNow: Appeal court strikes out Omoyele Sowore’s appeal
The Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Wednesday, struck out the notice of appeal that convener of the 2019 #RevolutionNow protest, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, filed to challenge his bail conditions. Sowore, who was the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, in the last general election and publisher of an online news outlet, Sahara Reporters, is facing treasonable felony charge the Federal Government preferred against him before the Federal High Court in Abuja. Though he was initially arraigned alongside his co-defendant Olawole Bakare (A.K.A. Mandate) on September 30, 2019, on a seven-count charge that bordered on conspiracy, money laundering, cyber-stalking and for allegedly insulting President Muhammadu Buhari, the prosecution subsequently reduced the charge to two counts. Meanw...
Nigerian judge throws out case against 47 men for homosexuality
A court in Lagos throws out a case against men charged with public displays of affection with members of the same sex. A judge in a Nigerian court has thrown out a case against 47 men charged with public displays of affection with members of the same sex, ending what had widely been seen as a test of the country’s laws banning homosexual relationships. The Nigerian law banning gay marriage, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, and same-sex “amorous relationships”, prompted an international outcry when it came into force under former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014. The men were arrested in a police raid on a Lagos hotel in the city’s Egbeda district in 2018. Police said the men were being initiated into a gay club, but the defendants said they were attending a birthday party. Prosec...
Glass Petals Breathe New Life Into Justice’s Iconic 2008 Track “Stress”
Songs by legendary electronic duo Justice will remain timeless as long as there is music. While they are of course memorable on their own—and even considered untouchable by many—every now and then their tracks receive a shot of adrenaline by artists looking to breathe new life into them. Blossoming dance music duo Glass Petals is the latest to take on the daunting task of remixing the fabled French tandem. Glass Petals, which is comprised of Johnny Jover and renowned Canadian DJ and producer Felix Cartal, chose to rework Justice’s iconic 2008 track “Stress,” flipping it into a menacing house number. Using the signature, menacing strings of the original, they have delivered a minimalistic yet thumping tech house bomb that belongs in the nightclubs of pr...
#EndSARS: Bishop Olumakaiye condemns military onslaught against youth
Bishop Humphrey Bamisebi Olumakaiye, the Bishop and Diocesan Missioner and Lagos has condemned in very strong terms, the heartless shooting of defenceless, peaceful and unarmed protesters at Lekki, Lagos State on Tuesday 20th October 2020. The Bishop described the cruel shooting of unarmed protesters by troops of the Nigerian Army as “totally deplorable and an outrageous act of terror and wickedness against civilians who were peaceably organized and had, for many days, been peacefully protesting against poor governance, leadership, abuse of power and most especially, longstanding Nigerian Police brutality. He continued: “It is highly depressing that the same government which promised to reform the police and bring an end to police brutality ended up using the military against the people”. ...
#EndSARS: HURIWA charges President Buhari to set up assets recovery panel
Foremost rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has condemned what it called the silence of President Muhammadu Buhari over protests against operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, a unit of the Nigeria Police Force, in the past two weeks. The group in a statement issued by its national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, on Thursday, claimed that “certain ethno-religious extremists have been paid by some government officials to stoke the embers of ethno–religious division to graphically paint the #EndSARS movements with ethnic and religious colourations.” The statement noted that youths of the country are angry “because the elders who have had access to public offices and those wielding political powers have continuously feasted on the comm...
House of Rep member arraigned over ‘N1.6 million bribe’
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has charged a member of the House of Representatives, Oghuma Egwakhide, for allegedly collecting N1.6 million as bribe from three contractors. In a statement on Thursday, the commission said Mr Egwakhide was charged on a four-count before Justice Adebukola Banjoko of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Jabi. The commission accused Mr Egwakhide, who represents Etsako East/West/Central Federal Constituency, Edo State, of collecting kickbacks from contractors handling school projects in his constituency. The ICPC said investigations revealed that Mr Egwakhide, demanded 10 per cent kickbacks from the N16.5 million contract for the construction of one block of three classrooms at Fugar Mixed Secondary Sc...
