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No indicted rapist will go scot-free – Sanwo-Olu

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No indicted rapist will go scot-free – Sanwo-Olu

The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has said no offender indicted in reported cases of rape and gender-based violence will go scot-free under his watch.

The governor spoke on Thursday when he received a 54-page compendium on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence compiled by the Stakeholders’ Committee set up by this wife, Dr Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, to give recommendations on how the fight against the crime can be won.

Sanwo-Olu, who is the incident commander for gender-based violence in Lagos, reiterated his administration’s commitment to protecting the vulnerable demographics and getting justice for victims violated.

The governor said, “I am delighted by the work done by the Stakeholders’ Committee to bring attention to the problems facing voiceless adults and children in our society. Through your efforts, vulnerable people are building the courage to speak out on offences of sexual violence and heal their wounds.

“We will bring people, who have been perpetrating these crimes, knowingly or unknowingly, to book. We will ensure they never walk freely without the full wrath of the law brought upon them. It is part of our responsibility to ensure that the vulnerable members of our society have a voice and have access to where they can get justice when their rights are violated.”

Earlier, Ibijoke had called on the government to step up the response geared towards reducing sexual and gender-based violence to the barest minimum.

She said her drive was to work with the committee and create a society where gender-based violence would be reduced to barest minimum.

She said, “The stakeholders have been having meetings for months and their discussions have focused on the key development pillars of the current administration as they relate to the rights of vulnerable citizens, especially those women and children.

“The Office of the First Lady has been working with the vision to reduce sexual and gender-based violence to the barest minimum if it is impossible to eradicate the crime. We have activated our response, bringing all stakeholders and communities on board to forge a common front in addressing the issue.”

Not being nominated for the Grammys doesn’t mean you’re not a great musician – Femi Kuti

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Not being nominated for the Grammys doesn’t mean you’re not a great musician – Femi Kuti

Nigeria’s Afro-beat legend, Femi Anikulapo-Kuti has said that not being nominated for the Grammys award does not mean a musician is not great.

Kuti said this while making reference to his father, Fela and Bob Marley who never got nominated or won Grammys award in his time.

The Afro-beat legend said Music is not about awards but spreading love and giving people will to go through hard times.

On his Twitter page, he wrote: “Music really isn’t about awards though. Fela never won or was never nominated. I don’t think Bob Marley was too.

“Music is about spreading love, giving people the will to go through the hard times in live, etc and inspiration. Music must bring comfort too.”

He, however, clarified that he is not referring to anyone in particular who got nominated for the Grammys, but himself who has been nominated four times for the award.

“This tweet on Grammys was concerning me saying I have four nominations. And all I’m saying is that it’s not the objective.

“Many GREAT musicians have never been nominated doesn’t mean they are not GREAT. I wasn’t referring to anyone but myself, some have chosen to abuse, or drag others. Pity.” He said.

Fashola should honourably resign or be sacked – Northern elders

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Fashola should honourably resign or be sacked – Northern elders

A member of the Northern Elders Forum and the Chairman of Maje Foundation, Alhaji Rufai Mukhtar Danmaje, has asked the Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola to honourably resign his position for failing to complete any projects since his assumption of office as Works Minister five years ago.

Danmaje said it is no longer story that for example in the entire Northern region, no single project embarked upon by the Minister has been completed despite the huge tax payers money allocated to his ministry.

Mukhtar Danmaje who is presenting the views of the Northern Elders Forum, said if the Minister refused to voluntarily resign, the President Muhammadu Buhari should hesitate to quickly sack him and subject him to scrutiny to know what happens to Billions of Tax payers money allocated to his ministry.

“For example look at the issue of Mambila Hydro Power project. Over time the Minister has been deceiving the President and indeed Nigerians that works have reached high percentage but only for a committee to now expose that there is nothing on ground there”.

He noted that the issue of Mambila hydro Power project is enough to sack the minister or asking him to resign honorably, but he chooses to remain aloof as if all is alright.

He said, “if people like Fashola continue to talk about rotational Presidency back to the South, they might provoke us to reject voting for anybody from that region because we consider him a failure and nothing more.

“You could see that no single road project is been completed under Fashola in the entire Northern Nigeria even the darling Kano, Kaduna, Abuja road he is saying can’t be completed till after their tenure, so what are we saying?”

Talking about the problems of insecurity in the North, Danmaje worried that the region lacks leadership that will steer its mission and design a roadmap for its survival.

“We fall into the trap of insecurity for many reasons, one of which was because of lack of leadership in the region and indeed lack of tentative roadmap for its survival and indeed negligence of the traditional institution which earlier on were our mirrors.”

He always calls after big defeats – Mourinho speaks on relationship with late Maradona

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He always calls after big defeats – Mourinho speaks on relationship with late Maradona

Jose Mourinho revealed the private side of Diego Maradona who would “call me after my big defeats, but never my victories” following the Argentina legend’s passing.

Maradona, one of the greatest players of all time, died at the age of 60 on Wednesday and Mourinho, who knew the World Cup winner well, paid tribute to his friend after Tottenham’s 4-0 win over Ludogorets in the Europa League 24 hours after he passed away.

“Maradona the world knows, the world never forgets,” he said. “I made sure that my son knows a lot about him, even being born after he was a player. I know my son will make sure when he is a father he will not let his kids forget.

“It was a bit similar with [Alfredo] Di Stefano; I never saw him play football, but my dad made sure I knew a lot about him. With these generations, we have players of our generations, and in my generation was what everybody knows.”

“Then there’s Diego the guy. That one, I miss. I feel sorry that I didn’t spend more time with him, I would have loved to. I think his family, his friends and colleagues are very privileged to know him well and spend time with him.

“I know him well enough and in my big defeats, he would always call me. In my big victories, never. But I will miss Diego, and I am very sad but I have a smile because with him, every minute I spent with him was to laugh.”

Sultan of Sokoto describes North as the worst place to be in Nigeria

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Sultan of Sokoto describes North as the worst place to be in Nigeria

The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, has described the North is the “worst place” to be in Nigeria owing to the region’s security challenges.

Speaking at a meeting of the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council on Thursday, Abubakar said something urgent must be done to address the situation before “we would lose sleep because of insecurity”.

A number of states across the north-west and north-central have been experiencing increasing attacks by suspected bandits and kidnappers.

The attackers have gone as far as kidnapping young girls — once abducting 26 — and also killing some of their hostages, including traditional rulers and politicians.

At the religious council’s meeting in Abuja, the Sultan said many attacks in the region are not reported, citing one a few weeks ago where “76 persons were killed in a community in Sokoto in a day”.

“Unfortunately, you don’t hear these stories in the media because it’s in the north. We have accepted the fact that the North does not  have strong media to report the atrocities of these bandits,” he said.

“People think north is safe but that assumption is not true. In fact, it’s the worst place to be in this country because bandits go around in the villages, households and markets with their AK-47 and nobody is challenging them.

“They stop at the market, buy things, pay and collect change, with their weapons openly displayed. These are facts, I know because I am at the centre of it.

“I am not only a traditional ruler, I am also a religious leader. So, I am in a better place to tell the story. I can speak for the north in this regard because I am fully aware of the security challenges there.

“We have to sincerely and seriously find solutions to the problem, otherwise, we will find ourselves soon, in a situation where we would lose sleep because of insecurity.”

I’ll leave the White House if electoral college formalizes Biden – Trump

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I’ll leave the White House if electoral college formalizes Biden – Trump

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will leave the White House if the Electoral College formalizes President-Elect Joe Biden’s victory — even as he insisted such a decision would be a “mistake” — as he spent his Thanksgiving renewing baseless claims that “massive fraud” and crooked officials in battleground states caused his election defeat.

“Certainly I will. But you know that,” Trump said Thursday when asked whether he would vacate the building, allowing a peaceful transition of power in January. But Trump — taking questions for the first time since Election Day — insisted that “a lot of things” would happen between now and then that might alter the results.

 “This has a long way to go,” Trump said, even though he lost.

The fact that a sitting American president even had to address whether or not he would leave office after losing reelection underscores the extent to which Trump has smashed one convention after another over the last three weeks. While there is no evidence of the kind of widespread fraud Trump has been alleging, he and his legal team have nonetheless been working to cast doubt on the integrity of the election and trying to overturn voters’ will in an unprecedented breach of democratic norms.

Trump spoke to reporters in the White House’s ornate Diplomatic Reception Room after holding a teleconference with U.S. military leaders stationed across the globe. He thanked them for their service and jokingly warned them not to eat too much turkey, then turned to the election after ending the call. He repeated grievances and angrily denounced officials in Georgia and Pennsylvania, two key swing states that helped give Biden the win.

Trump claimed, despite the results, that this may not be his last Thanksgiving at the White House. And he insisted there had been “massive fraud,” even though state officials and international observers have said no evidence of that exists and Trump’s campaign has repeatedly failed in court.

Trump’s administration has already given the green light for a formal transition to get underway. But Trump took issue with Biden moving forward.

“I think it’s not right that he’s trying to pick a Cabinet,” Trump said, even though officials from both teams are already working together to get Biden’s team up to speed.

See Also: Trump appears to admit election defeat as he finally lets Biden begin presidential transition

And as he refused to concede, Trump announced that he will be traveling to Georgia to rally supporters ahead of two Senate runoff elections that will determine which party controls the Senate. Trump said the rally for Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler would likely be held Saturday. The White House later clarified he had meant Dec. 5.

One of the reasons Republicans have stood by Trump and his baseless claims of fraud has been to keep his loyal base energized ahead of those runoffs on Jan. 5. But Trump, in his remarks, openly questioned whether that election would be fair in a move that could dampen Republican turnout.

“I think you’re dealing with a very fraudulent system. I’m very worried about that,” he said. “People are very disappointed that we were robbed.”

As for the Electoral College, Trump made clear that he will likely never formally concede, even if he said he would leave the White House.

“It’s gonna be a very hard thing to concede. Because we know there was massive fraud,” he said, noting that, “time isn’t on our side.”

“If they do,” vote against him, Trump added, “they’ve made a mistake.”

Asked whether he would attend Biden’s inauguration, Trump said he knew the answer but didn’t want to share it yet.

But there were some signs that Trump was coming to terms with his loss.

At one point he urged reporters not to allow Biden the credit for pending coronavirus vaccines. “Don’t let him take credit for the vaccines because the vaccines were me and I pushed people harder than they’ve ever been pushed before,” he said.

As for whether or not he plans to formally declare his candidacy to run again in 2024 — as he has discussed with aides — Trump said he didn’t “want to talk about 2024 yet.”

All states must certify their results before the Electoral College meets on Dec. 14, and any challenge to the results must be resolved by Dec. 8. States have already begun that process, including Michigan, where Trump and his allies tried and failed to delay the process, and Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Vote certification at the local and state level is typically a ministerial task that gets little notice, but that changed this year with Trump’s refusal to concede and his unprecedented attempts to overturn the results of the election through a fusillade of legal challenges and attempts to manipulate the certification process in battleground states he lost.

Biden won by wide margins in both the Electoral College and popular vote, where he received nearly 80 million votes, a record.

Lai denies announcing N5m hate speech fine despite video evidence

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Lai denies announcing N5m hate speech fine despite video evidence

The minister of information, Lai Mohammed, has denied announcing the increment of hate speech fine from N500,000 to N5 million.

The minister’s position was contained in a counter-affidavit in response to a suit filed against him at a federal high court in Lagos.

In August, the minister unveiled the amendment to the country’s broadcasting code in Lagos where the increment of the new fine was announced.

Inibehe Effiong, human rights lawyer, is currently challenging the fine by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on Nigeria Info FM.

The radio station was fined for alleged hate speech. Obadiah Mailafia, former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), had alleged that a northern governor is one of the leaders of Boko Haram.

However, in the affidavit deposed by Sunday Ojobo, an official of the Information ministry, the minister said he never announced the increase of the hate speech fine.

“Paragraph 19 is denied. The 2nd defendant (Mohammed) did not announce an increment in any fine for hate speech from N500,000 to N5,000,000 or any other because there is a governmental body or institution mandated to regulate and enforce the Nigerian Broadcasting Code,” Ojobo said in the affidavit.

“The constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria provides for derogation from fundamental rights in the interest of public safety, public order and for the purpose of protecting the rights and freedom of other persons.

“The first respondent (NBC) has powers in determining and applying sanctions including revocation of licences of defaulting stations which do not operate in accordance with the broadcast code and in the public interest.

“A public affairs commentator, anchor of programmes and the media are not to use their platform to incite public violence or disorder or in a manner detrimental to the national interest.

“It is within the purview of the federal government of Nigeria to maintain public safety, public order in the interest of all citizens of Nigeria to avoid breakdown of law and order.”

On its part, the broadcasting commission said it has the right to sanction any media outfit that does not conform to the broadcasting code.

Why we deliberately shut down refineries – NNPC GMD opens up

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Why we deliberately shut down refineries – NNPC GMD opens up

The group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, has said that the nation’s refineries were deliberately shut down because operations were no longer sustainable.

He disclosed this when he appeared before the house of representatives committee on petroleum resources (upstream) on Thursday in Abuja.

Kyari, who noted that the NNPC was unable to supply crude oil to the refineries, added that the Excravos pipeline is the only one the NNPC managed to sustain through contracting process.

“For instance, to run the Kaduna and Warri refineries, you need to deliver 170,000 barrels of oil per day so that both will operate at 70 percent capacity,” he said, adding that NNPC currently has only around 5,000 kilometres of pipelines with 13 fuel depots.

“And I can tell you today that except the Atlas cove to Ibadan line, and also the Port Harcourt to Aba line, none of these pipelines is serviced,” he said.

“We cannot flow product into these lines. The cheap one is to say they are aged, but the real reason is that the level of activities of vandals on these lines is gross, monumental and profound.

“At every point within a month, we fix 80 vandal points. The option is to shut them down and the result of having one depot is what we have seen in Lagos.”

According to NAN, the GMD lamented the activities of vandals, noting that from January to June, the corporation lost petroleum product worth about N43 billion.

Kyari said to protect the pipelines, the NNPC had to engage the services of security agencies.

He also urged the house of representatives to urgently pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), as that would encourage investors in the sector.

FG To prioritize Poverty Reduction, Social Inclusion, Business Growth through Clean Nigeria Campaign – Osibajo

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FG To prioritize Poverty Reduction, Social Inclusion, Business Growth through Clean Nigeria Campaign – Osibajo

As the main goal of the Buhari administration is ending open defecation across the country, it is prioritizing its Clean Nigeria Campaign which in turn will enhance social inclusion; poverty reduction; business growth, and entrepreneurship; greater access to quality education and affordable healthcare, among others.
The vice president Yemi Osibajo, made this known in a virtual anniversary celebration of the clean Nigeria Campaign.
The vice president said, “we are aware that access to adequate Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services is a critical factor in the socio-economic development of any nation and contributes to human capital outcomes such as early childhood survival, health and educational attainment. Access to WASH services is also one of the key preventive measures in the raging global COVID-19 pandemic.”
Speaking on the importance of other sectors, Prof. Osibajo said that “the initiative of the Organized Private Sector in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (OPS-WASH) tagged ‘FLUSHIT’ which aims at promoting private sector-led innovative financial strategies in WASH, is a welcome development.”

He also emphasized that “the role of the private sector is critical in building a virile sanitation economy which will drive the sustenance of the results being achieved under the Clean Nigeria Campaign.”

Scotland Becomes First Country In The World To Make Sanitary Products Free

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Scotland Becomes First Country In The World To Make Sanitary Products Free

Scotland has become the first country in the world to make period sanitary products available free of charge.

The Scottish Parliament voted unanimously in favor of the Period Products bill on Tuesday, months after lawmakers had initially signaled their support.

This is a landmark victory in the fight against period poverty worldwide as Scotland’s ability to make this a reality has proven that it is possible in other countries as well.

The argument for free sanitary products has been around for years, on the backbone of the availability of free condoms and other sexual health products even though sex is a choice and periods are not.

With 20% of Scottish women living in poverty, the new law would provide free safe and secure sanitary products for those who couldn’t afford it and improve women’s health in general.

The sanitary products would be available in schools, hospitals, libraries.

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