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Labour Organised Strike Meet with Leader Today
8 years ago
29 Nov 2013
28 Nov 2013
27 Nov 2013
16:16
Harry
Enlargene
day Rajeshwari Karnan suddenly heard her baby Rahul (pictured)
screaming from inside the hut. She ran towards him, but before she could
get there, a neighbour shouted 'Your baby is on fire!'Like many
mothers, Rajeshwari Karnan was delighted when she gave birth to a son.
The 23-year-old farm labourer and her husband, Karnan Perumal, 26,
already had a two-year-old daughter, but like many in the state of Tamil
Nadu, they considered a boy a particular blessing.
So when Rahul arrived in May, they were especially delighted.
However, just over a week later, their joy turned to misery.
Scroll down for video
15:51
Harry
This is the terrifying moment a trainer was mauled by a tiger at a zoo founded by the late Steve Irwin.
David Styles, 30, suffered puncture wounds to the neck and shoulder
after the tiger dragged him into the water after becoming 'over excited'
at Australia Zoo.
He was treated by paramedics before being flown to a flown to the Royal
Brisbane and Women's Hospital by the RACQ Careflight helicopter in a
serious condition.
Scroll down for video
14:08
Harry
10:50
Harry
26 Nov 2013
17:13
Harry
Nigerian Students Drown: Two Nigerian students schooling at Knutsford University College, a private university at East Legon in Accra, on Friday drowned in the Volta River at Akosombo, a popular tourist destination in the Eastern Region.
The Nigerians, identified as Edward Alele, 22, and Charles Honesty, 20, were
09:52
Harry
According to several newspapers, the tiny African country of Angola has
become the first country in the world to ban Islam and Muslims.
The Angolan Minister of Culture, Rosa Cruz e Silva was quoted by news
agencies and Angola newspapers as saying, “The process of legalisation
of Islam has not been approved by
25 Nov 2013
10:47
Harry
In March, 2011, 31-year-old Basil Ogbonnaya was murdered in cold blood
in the Ejigbo area of Lagos. He was brutally killed by his
brother-in-law and friend, one Israel Okafor Okereke.
According to the police, Okereke invited Ogbonnaya to his house at
Ejigbo, drugged and axed him to death. He afterwards dumped his body in a
blue plastic drum at a dumpsite in the same area of Lagos.
According to the account, the accused claimed that he killed the
deceased because he owed him N3.6 million. Meanwhile, the victim’s
widow, Mrs. Uzoma Ogbonnaya dismissed the claim, saying that it was
even the accused that owed her late husband the same amount of money.
That’s not the news now. The news is that to the chagrin of Ogbonnaya’s
widow, Uzoma, their three year old daughter, Precious and many lovers of
justice, Okereke has since become a free man sort of . He was granted
bail by a Lagos High Court and for over a year now, has not been
attending court. What makes it so offensive is that the victim’s widow
and her late husband’s family were not even privy to his bail. The news
came to her as a rumour and she didn’t want to believe it.
In an emotion-laden voice, she told Sunday Sun how she found
out about the release of her husband’s killer. “There was a rumour,
some people said they saw him somewhere. Then I decided to check the
Ikoyi Prison where he was kept. When I got there, I discovered truly
that he had been released. The prison authority asked me the year he was
brought in and I told them. When they went through their records, they
said that he has been released. When we came to court, they confirmed
that he has been bailed.”
Uzoma feels betrayed by a system which made her believe that justice
would be done . “I felt bad in the first place because after the
incident, the police commissioner assured me that the case was not even
against me. They told me that it was a crime against Lagos State
Government and that they were going to take care of the case. They
assured me that it was going to be Lagos State against Israel (the
accused person). With that assurance, I thought they were going to do
the right thing. Then of all of a sudden, they let him go.”
Even following his bail and subsequent disappearance of the accused
person, the Lagos Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) could not
offer her an explanation. “What I heard in court at the last date from
two lawyers whom I believe represented the DPP was that the court did
not give them a chance to oppose his application for bail when the
argument came up. The DPP lawyers were there on the day he was granted
bail, but because they could not argue the bail, the court had no other
choice than to grant him bail. I learnt this from their discussion. They
did not explain to me”, Uzoma lamented.
It does seem that the conspiracy to deny her justice was hatched not
long after her husband’s killing. Her efforts to follow-up the case were
craftily thwarted. “We were following the case. My late husband’s
family has a lawyer. They hired a lawyer because at a point I was out of
the case. For reasons best known to them, they didn’t want me in their
meetings. I know that they were not comfortable having me around because
they felt the person who killed my husband was my cousin”, she said.
Though Uzoma tried hard to suppress the tears, they kept rolling down
her cheeks as she muttered each word in anguish. “Through the IPO
(Investigating Police Officer) at Panti, they were following the case to
know how far the case had gone. They were told that a case can stay up
to two to three years before being charged to court, but that at the
appropriate time, he would be taken to court. If not for the rumour
mill, I could not have known that he had been released because the IPO
kept telling me that the DPP had not advised him. That was the feedback
I was getting from Panti each time. They said they would let me know
when the advice is given. Nobody got back to me when the advice was
given. The next thing I heard was that the man had been released”, she
said.
While Uzoma and her family were being dribbled, the case had gone before
Justice Ademola Candide-Johnson of the Lagos High Court. Sunday Sun gathered
that even though the DPP advice came through in December 2011, she was
not told. The accused was charged to court in February 2012 and
again, she was left out of it. Subsequently, the bail application was
filed, served, argued and granted but she was not told.
Asked what she wanted now, Uzoma said “I am appealing to everybody
involved, because in the first place the crime is against Lagos state
government. Secondly, I am appealing to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and
the Chief Judge of Lagos State. They should please intervene in this
matter. They know what they can do about this case now. The murderer was
arrested and handed over to them. I don’t know how everything went bad
and they let him go. His case was reported in national newspapers, on
the internet and the international community is aware of the case too. I
have been receiving calls from people who wanted to know if it was true
that the killer had been released. The international community is
waiting to see how Nigeria is going to handle this case. They should
please do the right thing. The people that released him should know
where he is. They should bring him out in order for justice to be
served.”
When she noticed the turn the case had taken, Uzoma petitioned the
founder of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM), Bishop Mike Okonkwo,
(her spiritual father), who then detailed FBA Nabena Law Firm to look
into the case. As a result, Mrs. Bose Adedeji waded into the matter in June this year.
Adedeji told Sunday Sun “When I took over the case, I went to
Panti, because I learnt that was where the matter started. From there, I
learnt that the man was arraigned before a magistrate court in Ebute
Metta, Court 14 on April 11, 2011 a month after the incident. But
because of the nature of the case, the magistrate court could not try
the case as it does not have jurisdiction over murder cases.
“What they usually do is that they will take it for DPP’s advice. At
Panti, I spoke with one Mayowa Elejede, the investigating police
officer. He also told me that the DPP’s advice was issued in December
2011; that the man should be charged to the state high court. Though the
DPP’s advice was given on December 13, 2011, they received it at Panti
on February 13, 2012.
“The matter was assigned to Hon. Justice Candide-Johnson. He is the
judge handling the matter and the same person that granted the accused
bail. The charge sheet is dated December 13, 2011. I did not get the
first date that the man appeared in court. When I went to conduct a
search on the file, I only saw 26 pages. Every other thing, even the
bail application and the response were not in that file.
“When I asked the registrar, the registrar told me that those would be
in the archive. I went to the archive to ask, and I could not get
anything. I knew that they could not have been in the archive because
the matter is still ongoing. It has not been concluded. The matter has
been before the same judge.
“I was particular about the bail application and the response from the
Attorney-General’s office. What grounds were raised in the application
and for which the bail was granted? There are some conditions you need
to meet before you can be granted bail. I didn’t see the bail processes.
When I insisted on seeing the papers, the registrar told me that the
judge had issued a bench warrant on the accused person. But it is not
about bench warrant.”
Adedeji further revealed what she gathered from a DPP lawyer concerning
the bail. She added “The day I went to conduct the search, I met one of
the lawyers from the office of the AG. The lawyer told me that on the
day the bail was up for argument, they were not with their file. So,
when they could not respond, the judge acted without listening to them
and granted the accused bail. According to him, the judge refused to
grant them adjournment to enable them to respond to the bail
application. But I have not been able to get anything to substantiate
what the lawyer told me.
“From what I have gathered so far, the accused person was granted bail
in June 2012. So, if the matter came before the judge in February last
year; and by June of the same year, he was already in a hurry to grant
the accused bail in a murder case that was well publicized, then
something seems to be amiss.”
The lawyer herself was baffled by the incident. “Even as a lawyer, I am
still trying to understand what has happened. There are so many people
awaiting trial in our prisons for even minor offences and the court has
not granted them bail. So, why will bail be granted someone who
murdered another person? I can’t understand it.”
However, contrary to what Sunday Sun gathered from Mrs.
Adedeji, Lagos State Ministry of Justice insisted that their lawyer was
in court the day the bail was granted and had done his best in opposing
the bail application. But that the court had granted it despite his
protest.
Speaking with Sunday Sun, the Senior Special Adviser to the
state governor on legal matters, Akingbolahan Adeniran insisted that
“The counsel involved was in court and he opposed the bail application
on that particular day.”
“We hadn’t done all that we needed to do because we ought to have filed
the information in respect to the offence and we hadn’t done that.” This
is despite Adedeji’s account that the charge sheet she saw was dated
December 13, 2011.
Adeniran explained what likely led to the delay in filing the charges.
According to him“When an investigation is completed, the police sends
the file to us. We look at the case file and issue legal advice and then
file the information. Obviously, that process takes time. We were in
the middle of that process when the bail application was filed. And we
basically indicated that we were working on it and that we would file
the information. But we had not filed the information as at the time the
bail was granted.
“So, we opposed the bail and that was why it was not an unconditional
release; it was a conditional release. There were reasons attached to
the release of the suspect in this particular case.” Is it possible for a
court to grant bail before a case is formally brought before it?
Adeniran answers in the affirmative. “Yes, the judge can grant bail
even before someone is arraigned.”
Sunday Sun asked under what conditions bail could be granted
and Adeniran said “I don’t know that for now. It wasn’t something that
we could get from the bar ready. Remember that these things happened
sometimes back. If you want, maybe we can ask for a CTC (Certified True
Copy) and furnish you with that.”
The controversy was exacerbated as the lawyer engaged by the family of
the victim, Mr O. R. Kalu also claimed that the DPP lawyers did not
oppose the bail. He further claimed that he was left in the dark by the
office of the DPP. After the accused person’s first appearance at the
magistrate court, Kalu said he had “written a letter to the office of
the DPP, telling them that we were interested in this matter. I asked
them to contact me whenever they were charging the case to the proper
court and to inform me of any development in the matter. They
acknowledged the letter and gave me a copy.
“When the defense filed the application for bail, the DPP did not
contact me despite the fact that he knew that the defense counsel
will not serve me any papers. He will rather serve the DPP. But the DPP
office never reverted to me.”
Kalu said he was unaware that the accused was granted bail until
“sometime towards the end of last year and that people became
apprehensive saying that they saw the accused somewhere at Ketu. When I
checked at the Ikoyi Prison where he was remanded, I found out that he
had been released on bail.”
Kalu then traced the case to Justice Candide-Johnson’s court and said he
discovered that “the affidavit in support of the bail application was
all fabricated. They deceived the court with the facts deposed to in the
affidavit. And of course, I think there was no reaction from the DPP.
There was no counter-affidavit. It means that there must have been a
compromise somewhere along the line. It’s a murder case and it would not
have been easy for the accused to just walk away like that.”
The conditions were not that difficult, he said adding “He was required
to provide two sureties in the sum of N500,000 who must have landed
property and must be relations of the accused. That must be the reason
they brought the wife of the accused and one man who claimed to have a
street named after him at Ikotun. They fabricated a landed property and
brought forged papers to the court. They succeeded because they were
able to bribe the bailiff whose responsibility it is to verify the deeds
to the properties. He will come back and tell the court that the
properties were genuine. In this particular case, everything before the
court was all lies. A lot of compromises must have taken place and a lot
of money must have changed hands.”
Sunday Sun sought the views of a human rights lawyer, Wale
Ogunade on the developments on this matter. What could have led a court
of law to grant bail in a murder trial which had barely started? What
does the law say about bail and murder cases?
Ogunade said “Generally, murder cases are not bail-able because they
are in the realm and species of a capital offence. Capital offences are
not bail-able. They include armed robbery, murder, sometimes
manslaughter and of course treason. When it comes to issues of bail for
these offences, judges are very circumspect, very careful in granting
bail.”
“For him to be a free man, a lot of things could have gone wrong. How
many times did the court sit to know that the prosecution was not
serious with the case? But even if the prosecution was tardy, that does
not mean that a bail should be granted. How many times did the court sit
on the matter? The judge can say “Well, I have carried out my
investigation, I found out that this is a trumped up charge”. That
again, does not give him the right to act on his own.
“So, to me, this is an exception of the situation on ground. If it is
just that the prosecution could not move its case, then the judge ought
to have given them enough time to put their house in order because the
man was in custody. Since bail was granted, the man refused to attend
his trial, which again is serious. It shows that the man has no respect
for the law of the land. Then there is something wrong somewhere. If the
prosecution is not complaining, then the complainants, the family of
the victim should do something. It is the duty of the complainant to
complain to the world. So that people who matter will take it up.
“I am sure that because of this publication, the chief judge of the
state, the commissioner of police and the attorney-general of the state
will intervene in this matter. These three people are the heads of the
various agencies involved in this matter. Let them beam the searchlight
on this case and find out what has gone wrong. We want to know the truth
because things can’t continue like this in this country, else we are
done for. The rule of law must prevail. If it does not, then people
will do anything with impunity because we encourage the culture of
impunity”.
Even though the rule of law cannot bring back Basil Ogbonnaya to his
three-year old daughter, Precious, who was only seven months old when
life was snuffed out of him, it can at least ensure that more kids
are not made fatherless before they even learn to say “Daddy.”
Source: The Sun
10:10
Harry
Pentecostal pastor says he will keep handling rattlesnakes and copperheads despite charges for illegal possession of venemous reptiles
As beads of
sweat slithered down his temples, Andrew Hamblin stared in wide-eyed
wonder at the three-foot timber rattlesnake he had thrust towards his
congregation.
"I am a
soldier in the army of the Lord," he boomed in a thick southern drawl,
stomping a foot on the hardwood floor. "And the enemy has been fighting
me this week harder than ever before".
In this shed
tucked into a dark valley of the Appalachian Mountains, before 60
adoring followers speaking in tongues, throwing up their hands and
dabbing tears from their eyes, Mr Hamblin was breaking the law.
23 Nov 2013
22 Nov 2013
16:53
Harry
 |
| Francis Collomp: daring escape story |
The French hostage held for 11 months by Ansaru terror group in Nigeria
told French television on Thursday he made his audacious run for freedom
after his captor left a key in the door by mistake.
Francis Collomp, speaking on the TF1 channel, described how on the night
of November 16 one of his captors entered the dungeon where he was kept
to perform the ablutions required for Islamic prayer, but left the keys
in the door.
“While he was in the bathroom, very quietly I opened the closed door. I
had all my things ready to leave and then I locked it (behind me),” the
21 Nov 2013
20 Nov 2013
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