Man Gets 6 Months Imprisonment Over 46 Eggs

A resident of Mabushi in Abuja, Musa Abdullahi, has been asked to spend the next six months in prison for stealing 46 pieces of eggs.

This is according to a sentence delivered on Friday, 27 September, 2014  by Senior Magistrate Grace Adebayo-Eisapeat at the Wuse Zone 2 Senior Magistrates’ Court, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

The magistrate handed down the judgment after the convict had pleaded guilty to committing the crime, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.

It was gathered that Adebayo-Eisape, who told the convict that the judgment was to serve as a lesson to others who might want to commit the same crime, also gave  Abdullahi an option of N30, 000 fine.

The accused, a sales representative to one Salisu Datti of Wuse Market, Abuja was said to have been carrying out this crime for a long time before he was caught on 21 September.

The Prosecutor, Cpl. Umar Ango, told the court that the case was reported at Wuse Police Station by one Paul Ezeugwu, one of the security guard in Wuse Market.

According to Ango, the convict confessed at the police station that he has been committing this crime for a long time.

The value for the 46 pieces of eggs is N1, 380, Ango informed.

He also stated that the offence committed by Abdullahi contradicts Section 287 of the Penal Code.

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60-Year-Old Man Defiles Minor In Edo

Officials of Edo State Police Command on Tuesday paraded a 60-year-old man, identified as Friday Akpan, for allegedly raping a 9-year-old daughter of his employer.

[caption id="attachment_3464" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Some of the rape suspects paraded[/caption]

The state’s Police Commissioner, Foluso Adebanjo, who made this known to TheNation, said the suspect, who was employed as a gateman at the residence of the victim, lured the minor into his room and forcefully had carnal knowledge of her.

READ ALSO: Police Parade Four Dangerous Criminals In Maiduguri, Borno

He said during interrogation that the suspect lamented his actions and revealed that the act would have been averted if the victim had shouted.

Similarly, the CP also paraded another rape suspect, Joseph Okoye, who was arrested at Igarra community in Akoko-Edo local government area of the state for allegedly raping a four-year-old girl. He said Okoye’s act was exposed after the victim complained of vaginal pains to her mother.

Adebanjo, while parading several other rapists, gave their names as Isreal Osarobo, Sunday Irhiakpolor, Monday Airuoje, Frank Ekhator, John Oyeke, Akhimien Ehijie, Sunday Paul, Abraham Ikhakon and Edekin Ojaogbe.

READ ALSO: INCEST: How My Father Impregnated Me – Teenage Girl Recounts Her Horrible Ordeal

The CP said the suspects would soon be charged to court.

Meanwhile, the police also arrested a 30-year old man, Olaniyan Oluwakayode, who reportedly raped a 20-year-old girl in his apartment at Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government Area Lagos, and uploaded pictures of her taken during the act on the Internet.

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U.S Judiciary Are Racist, I Will Fight On - Buruji Kashamu

 Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, stakeholder in Ogun State, Buruji Kashamu has described the United States judiciary of racism.

The court had earlier ruled that Mr. Kashamu be prosecuted for drug trafficking.

Kashamu had filed an appeal to quash his indictment for smuggling drugs into the U.S but it was dismissed by U.S. Court of Appeal had on September 15.

The court upheld an earlier ruling, in May, by a U.S. District Court which equally dismissed the motion filed by Mr. Kashamu, a close ally of President Goodluck Jonathan.

“I wish to provide an update to Nigerians on my efforts to obtain justice within the U.S. judicial system in regard to the false indictment made against me in the U.S. Courts, which the British courts have cleared me from unequivocally,” Mr. Kashamu said, Thursday, in his first reaction to the appellate court’s decision.

“As many may recall I had to take the battle to the U.S. authorities in their own country because, despite the British judgment and the defeats they have suffered in their attempts to place a false accusation on me they have neither attempted to extradite me again nor withdrawn the charges,” he added. Mr. Kashamu and 14 others were, in 1998, charged by a federal grand jury for their alleged involvement in an international conspiracy to smuggle heroin into the US.

But the politician, a major campaigner for President Jonathan in the South West, allegedly fled to the U.K. where repeated efforts by the U.S. to extradite him failed, before he returned to Nigeria. In the decision on the appeal by Circuit Judge Posner noted that Mr. Kashamu did not want to be extradited to the U.S. to stand trial on the “very serious criminal charges” against him.’

In 2009, Mr. Kashamu had, through a local counsel in the U.S., filed a motion to quash the arrest warrant and to dismiss the indictment against him on the ground that the English court had found that he was not the one charged with smuggling drugs into the U.S.

“In that application to dismiss the indictment I requested that the findings and Conclusions of District Judge Tim Workman of the Bow Street Magistrates Court in London, be given collateral estoppel status by the U.S. court and his findings and conclusions be made conclusive on the issue of whether or not I was a party to the alleged crime,” said Mr. Kashamu.

“District Judge Norgle before whom the indictment was pending refused the application after ruling that I was not a fugitive from justice in the U.S.” Charles Norgle of the U.S. District Court, in his decision, last May, had held that Mr. Kashamu had done everything within his power, including document forgery as well as political pressure, to frustrate his trial in the U.S.

“Kashamu’s actions in the London extradition proceeding created a paper and testimonial trail that his brother, and not himself, was the defendant charged in the instant case,” Judge Norgle had said in his 17-page ruling.

“Kashamu’s ability to manipulate Nigerian officials, or at least his ability to create forged documents, was also apparent from the proceedings. This maneuvering, and the wall of protection Kashamu built around himself, made it clear that efforts to extradite Kashamu from Nigeria would be futile.

“It was testimony and evidence produced by the Nigerian government which led to Kashamu’s release in England. Furthermore, Kashamu’s status as a political figure in Nigeria and his relationship with Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan likewise suggest that an extradition attempt would have been futile,” the judge had added. It was the Judge Norgle’s ruling that Mr. Kashamu had gone to the U.S. Court of Appeal to challenge. The appellate court’s decision, last Monday, upheld that of the lower court. “

If he wants to fight the charges, he has only to fly from Lagos to Chicago; there are loads of reasonably priced flights….,” said Judge Posner. “How then can he argue with a straight face that the failure of the United States to extradite him entitles him to dismissal of the charges? He can’t; and the petition for a writ of mandamus is therefore denied.”

Mr. Kashamu accused the judge of making some wide-ranging generalized statements, which were not borne out by the records. “In that judgment Judge Posner held that the decision of the English Courts were not equivalent to that of the U.S. courts and so could not be regarded as binding on the U.S. courts,” Mr. Kashamu said.

“However, as the lawyers noted, U.S. courts expect their judgments to be treated better by foreign courts,” he added.

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How Nigerian Police, Military Torture And Kill Civilians

Torture has become a part of the police system in Nigeria and it is alarming how the authorities who are supposed to protect its citizens subject them to all kinds of torture.

A report published today, September 18, titled, “Welcome to hell fire: Torture and other ill-treatment in Nigeria” has detailed the how the police and the military in Nigeria routinely torture women, men, and children some as young as 12, using a wide range of methods such as beatings, shootings and rape, SaharaReporters reports.

The report which was compiled from hundreds of testimonies and evidence gathered over a period of 10 years by renowned international human rights organisation, Amnesty International also details how civilians are detained and tortured as a means to extort money or force a confession to solve cases which are under investigation.

[caption id="attachment_2542" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Footage showing graphic evidence of multiple war crimes being carried out in Nigeria
Photo credit: Amnesty International[/caption]

Some of the torture techniques include nail or tooth extractions, choking, electric shocks and sexual violence.”

It was revealed how most people who are detained are denied access to the outside world, including lawyers, families and courts.

READ ALSO: Nigeria’s Military Accused Of War Crimes

“Torture has become such an integral part of policing in Nigeria that many police stations have an informal ‘Officer in Charge of Torture’ or O/C Torture,” the report said.

Recounting her ordeal, a 24-year-old woman named Abosede said police abuse left her with a permanent injury.

She said: “A policewoman took me to a small room, told me to remove everything I was wearing. She spread my legs wide and fired tear gas into my vagina.

“I was asked to confess that I was an armed robber…I was bleeding…up till now I still feel pain in my womb.”

Amnesty International also reports that the Nigerian military is committing similar human rights violations, detaining thousands in their search for members of the Boko Haram Islamist sect.

Speaking about his experience, a 15-year-old boy from Yobe state identified as Mahmood, , who was arrested by soldiers with around 50 other people, mainly boys between 13 and 19 years old, said, he was detained for 3 weeks. In that 3-week period, the soldiers beat him repeatedly with their gun butts, batons and machetes, pouring melting plastic on his back, making him walk and roll over broken bottles, and forcing him to watch the extra-judicial execution of other detainees. He was eventually released in April 2013.

According to Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director, Netsanet Belay, torture is not a criminal offence in Nigeria, though it is prohibited in the constitution but the country has yet to pass legislation outlawing the violation.

Baley spoke of 12-year-old boy who was arrested, beaten, forced to clean vomit with his bare hands and alcohol was even poured on him.

“Torture happens on this scale partly because no one, including in the chain of command, is being held accountable. Nigeria needs a radical change of approach, to suspend all officers against whom there are credible allegations of torture, to thoroughly investigate those allegations and to ensure that suspected torturers are brought to justice.

“When internal investigations within the police or the military do take place, the findings are not made public and the recommendations rarely implemented. Of the hundreds of cases researched by Amnesty International, not one victim of torture or other ill-treatment was compensated or received other reparation from the Nigerian government,” he said.

He therefore called on the Nigerian government to act fast by passing a law which makes torture a criminal offence.

Baley said: “Our message to the Nigerian authorities today is clear, criminalize torture, end incommunicado detention and fully investigate allegations of abuse. That would mark an important first step towards ending this abhorrent practice. It’s high time the Nigerian authorities showed they can be taken seriously on this issue.”

About a month ago, Amnesty International had made public a gruesome footage that allegedly shows Nigerian soldiers slitting the throats of insurgents and dumping their bodies in a mass grave.

However, Nigerian Defence spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade, said the scenes depicted in the video were alien to their operations and doctrines.

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