A former governor of Adamawa State, Bala Ngilari, has been handed a five-year jail term without an option of fine by an Adamawa high court on Monday.
Details to come
Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2mM1oub
Showing posts with label 2017 at 04:27AM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2017 at 04:27AM. Show all posts
Monday, 6 March 2017
Saturday, 25 February 2017
Monday, 20 February 2017
Pence vows Trump committed to nervous EU
US Vice-President Mike Pence (L) shakes hands with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (R) at the European Commission in Brussels on February 20, 2017. The European Union counts on getting the same complete support from the Trump adminstration as from its predecessors, European Council head Donald Tusk said on February 20. / AFP PHOTO / JOHN THYS
US Vice President Mike Pence sought to reassure Europe Monday of Donald Trump’s commitment to transatlantic ties as he met EU chiefs in the face of anti-Trump protests.
Pence was in Brussels at the end of a European trip aimed at comforting allies fearful US President Trump might abandon them.
“Today it is my privilege on behalf of President Trump to express the strong commitment of the United States to continued cooperation and partnership with the European Union,” Pence said after talks with EU president Donald Tusk.
Pence said US commitment to transatlantic ties remained “steadfast and enduring” after decades of working together on security and economic issues.
Tusk thanked Pence for the meeting, saying that “we all truly needed it” and that Europe counted on “unequivocal” US support.
“Too much has happened over the past month in your country and in the EU … for us to pretend that everything is as it used to be,” the former Polish premier added.
– Topless protest –
Scores of protesters gathered outside EU headquarters, criticising the Trump administration’s attitude toward women, gays and climate change.
“We are here to protest against the visit of Pence because we are revolted by the decision of the US administration to undermine women’s rights worldwide,” Irene Donadio, who works for the International Planned Parenthood Federation, told AFP.
Two female protesters went topless and carried banners saying “Pence get out of our pants” while another placard read “Love Trumps Hate”.
Trump’s criticism of NATO as “obsolete”, his praise for Britain’s decision to leave the EU and prediction that others would follow, plus his apparent tilt to Russian President Vladimir Putin have all unnerved US allies.
Pence’s visit comes two days after Trump told a rally in Florida to “look at what’s happening in Brussels” as he listed a series of European cities struck by deadly terror attacks.
Pence also met European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and will later meet NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Pence’s Belgian hosts had earlier called on him to oppose any break-up of the EU.
“No question of allowing the European Union’s break-up. That message was given,” Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel told Belga news agency after a dinner with Pence on Sunday.
“I feel that it was heard,” he said.
– ‘Absolutely disgusting’ –
The Brussels trip follows a visit to the Munich Security Conference, where Pence pledged the Trump administration’s “unwavering” commitment to the transatlantic alliance.
“President Trump and our people are truly devoted to our transatlantic union,” he said.
But European allies continue to seek reassurance from Washington even though Pence, US Defence Secretary James Mattis and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stuck close to established policy during their first foray into Europe.
Pence said Washington would push Russia to honour the Minsk ceasefire accords in Ukraine, while Tillerson said the US would only cooperate with Moscow if it benefits the American people.
But French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he was “struck” that Pence had not mentioned the EU, after Trump welcomed Brexit and appeared to voice hope that other EU states would follow suit.
Mogherini has said Pence’s visit is “a very important political sign,” though she suggested EU-US relations may become more pragmatic and less automatic than before.
She has also played down fears that fears that businessman Ted Malloch might be named the next US ambassador to Brussels despite anti-EU comments.
Tusk and Juncker have also expressed concerns about Trump.
Juncker has called Trump’s campaign “absolutely disgusting” and told TIME magazine last week that Trump’s remarks on the EU were “highly unfriendly and not helpful at all.”
Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2kQ8k3P
Saturday, 18 February 2017
UN condemns Boko Haram attacks in Borno
PHOTO: AFP
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) has condemned the attacks on Maiduguri by suspected female suicide bombers on Thursday night and Friday in which at least eight persons reportedly lost their lives.
The Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, Mr Farhan Haq, said the UN OCHA “is alarmed by the reported terrorist attacks on vulnerable displaced people in two locations in Maiduguri in north-eastern Nigeria that took place on Thursday.
“While the number of dead and injured among civilians is not yet clear, Boko Haram reportedly launched a major attack using guns and explosives targeting the Custom House site that hosts more than 9,000 internally displaced people and the Muna Garage Park area where displaced people have gathered to return to their homes.
“These are not the first attacks affecting the most vulnerable people in the area.
“The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reminds all parties to the conflict in Nigeria to ensure the safety and security of all civilian populations as required under international humanitarian law and international human rights law”.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said eight suspected female suicide bombers were involved in the attack on Maiduguri-Gamboru road, according to NEMA spokesman Sani Datti.
Datti said that the suspected Boko Haram members, who came through Mafa- Dikwa road along Muna community on Thursday at around 11.00 p.m, attempted to attack Maiduguri.
He said the suicide bombers came in a Volkswagen Golf car, carrying eight suicide bombers most of whom were female teenagers.
According to him, a few bombers detonated their explosives around Muna Dalti community, injuring seven local vigilantes, known as ‘Civilian Joint Task Force’.
Datti further said that some of the suicide bombers found their way to a place where people gathered with their trucks loaded with goods for onward movement to Mafa, Dikwa and Ngala local government areas of the state.
He said that no fewer than 14 trucks were burnt by the bombers, adding that the injured had been taken to University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital for treatment.
He said that only the suicide bombers were killed in the attacks.
Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2kTANXq
Tuesday, 7 February 2017
At least 12 killed in suicide blast at Afghan Supreme Court
At least 12 people were killed Tuesday in a suicide attack at the Supreme Court in the Afghan capital of Kabul, officials said.
A suicide bomber on foot targeted employees in the court parking lot, Najibullah Danish, spokesman for the interior ministry, told AFP.
“Twelve people… were killed and 12 wounded,” he said.
Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2lfj1lf
Amnesty accuses Syria of hanging 13,000 people in ‘human slaughterhouse’
An aerial view of Saydnaya prison. PHOTO: Amnesty
Amnesty International accused Tuesday Syria’s government of hanging up to 13,000 people at a notorious prison over five years in a “policy of extermination”, two weeks before planned peace talks.
The damning report, titled “Human Slaughterhouse: Mass hanging and extermination at Saydnaya prison” near Damascus, goes into excruciating detail about the gruesome ritual of mass hangings between 2011 and 2015.
At least once a week, up to 50 prisoners were taken out of their cells for arbitrary trials, beaten, then hanged “in the middle of the night and in total secrecy”, the report said.
“Throughout this process, they remain blindfolded. They do not know when or how they will die until the noose was placed around their necks.”
Most of the victims were civilians believed to be opposed to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
“They kept them (hanging) there for 10 to 15 minutes,” a former judge who witnessed the executions said. “For the young ones, their weight wouldn’t kill them. The officers’ assistants would pull them down and break their necks.”
Amnesty said the mass executions amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity, but were likely still taking place.
Hamid, a former army officer who was jailed in 2012, told Amnesty he was simultaneously horrified and relieved when he saw prisoners being taken to be hanged.
“I felt happy that their suffering would come to an end.”
In comments published Tuesday, Assad insisted that “defending” his country in a time of war was more important than a potential case against his government at the highest UN court in The Hague.
“We have to defend our country by every mean, and when we have to defend it by every mean, we don’t care about this court, or any other international institution,” he said.
– ‘All you see is blood’ –
Amnesty’s report comes just two weeks before a new round of talks is due to take place in Switzerland aimed at putting an end to nearly six years of civil war.
“The upcoming Syria peace talks in Geneva cannot ignore these findings. Ending these atrocities in Syrian government prisons must be put on the agenda,” said Lynn Maalouf, deputy director for research at Amnesty’s Beirut office.
Thousands of prisoners are held at the military-run Saydnaya prison, 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Damascus, one of Syria’s largest detention centres.
Amnesty accused Syria’s government of carrying out a “policy of extermination” there by repeatedly torturing detainees and withholding food, water and medical care.
“All you see is blood: your own blood, the blood of others,” Salam, a lawyer from Aleppo who was held in Saydnaya from 2012 to 2014, was quoted as saying.
Prisoners were raped or forced to rape each other, and guards would feed detainees by tossing food onto cell floors, which were often covered in dirt and blood, Amnesty said.
A twisted set of “special rules” governed the facility: detainees were not allowed to speak and were forced to assume certain positions when guards entered their cells.
“Every day there would be two or three dead people in our wing… I remember the guard would ask how many we had. He would say, ‘Room number one -– how many? Room number two –- how many?’ and on and on,” said Nader, a former detainee whose name was changed in the Amnesty report.
After one fierce day of beating, 13 people died in a single wing of the prison, he said.
– ‘Hidden, monstrous campaign’ –
“If you put your ears on the floor, you could hear the sound of a kind of gurgling,” said Hamid, the military officer.
“We were sleeping on top of the sound of people choking to death. This was normal for me then,” he told Amnesty.
The watchdog has previously said that more than 17,700 people were estimated to have died in government custody in Syria since the conflict erupted in March 2011.
That figure did not include the up to 13,000 people executed in Saydnaya.
“The horrors depicted in this report reveal a hidden, monstrous campaign, authorised at the highest levels of the Syrian government, aimed at crushing any form of dissent within the Syrian population,” said Maalouf.
“The cold-blooded killing of thousands of defenceless prisoners, along with the carefully crafted and systematic programmes of psychological and physical torture that are in place inside Saydnaya prison cannot be allowed to continue,” she said.
Amnesty said it gave the names of 87 prison officials and guards responsible for the atrocities to unspecified “bodies capable of conducting credible investigations” into the killings.
A UN investigation last year accused Assad’s government of carrying out a policy of “extermination” in its jails.
More than 310,000 people have been killed in Syria since the civil war began.
Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2lkJFWw
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