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Banditry: Hausas will not farm after killing Fulanis – Bandit leader, Turji Bello

In his newly released video, bandit leader, Bello Turji has issued a serious warning to the Hausa people of Northwestern Nigeria.

Turji accused the Hausa community of being “traitors and hypocrites,” stressing that they are responsible for the killing of innocent Fulani people and their livestock in the past.

In the footage released on Wednesday night, Turji vowed to continue waging war against the Hausa people if the killing of Fulani tribes does not cease.

According to Turji, “You, the Hausa community, have killed our brothers and sisters, and nobody has said anything about it.”

Turji claimed that his gang possesses a variety of weapons, adding that their primary targets are not security personnel, but rather the Hausa people.

“I hold Hausa responsible for the deaths of many Fulani people,” he said.

Turji also drew parallels between his group’s fight and conflicts in other parts of the world, citing the ongoing wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.

Referring to Osama Bin Laden’s death, Turji noted that even after the demise of the Al-Qaeda leader, the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq continued.

He warned that Hausa people would not be allowed to continue farming on what he called “our land,” adding that Fulani people and their livestock could not be killed without consequences.

The bandit leader also vowed to ensure that the Hausa community cannot harvest their crops.

“You will not harvest your farms. If you dare to, you will die. No farming this time around,” Turji warned.

Daily Post

Fleeing doctor arrested over death of woman undergoing butt enlargement in Lagos

Following the death of a 36-year-old woman during a buttock enlargement surgery at a clinic in the Lekki Phase 1 area of the state, the Lagos State Police Command has arrested a medical doctor, Idara Bassey.

Last week Tuesday after the Maroko Police Division received a report at about 11:40 am from the driver of the deceased. the nurse who administered an injection to late Abiola, allegedly under Bassey’s orders, was arrested.

The spokesperson of the command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, who confirmed the development to Punch on Tuesday, September 3, said that Bassey is currently being investigated at the State Criminal Investigation Department in Panti.

Bassey had previously fled after Abiola died during a buttock enlargement procedure at her clinic on August 26, 2024.

The woman had left her home in the Diamond Estate, Sangotedo, in the Ibeju Lekki area and directed her driver to take her to the clinic for the buttock enlargement procedure. 

After the nurse allegedly administered the injection on the doctor’s instructions, the driver who brought Abiola to the clinic reported to the police that she had lost consciousness and began gasping for breath.

Asked whether Bassey would face charges and on what grounds, Hundeyin said answers to these questions would be provided “after the investigation.”

The people of the Sudan have suffered unimaginable tragedy, By Joy Ezeilo, SAN

Today, we released our first report as an Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan. GENEVA (6 September 2024) 

PRESS RELEASE

Sudan: UN Fact-Finding Mission outlines extensive human rights violations, international crimes, urges protection of civilians Both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as well as their respective allies, were found to be responsible for patterns of large-scale violations, including indiscriminate and direct attacks carried out through airstrikes and shelling against civilians, schools, hospitals, communication networks and vital water and electricity supplies. 

The warring parties also targeted civilians – as well as those assisting survivors or documenting violations – through rape and other forms of sexual violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as torture and ill-treatment. These violations may amount to war crimes related to violence to life and person and committing outrages upon personal dignity, the report found.

“The people of the Sudan have suffered unimaginable tragedy,” said Expert Member Joy Ngozi Ezeilo. “A sustainable ceasefire must be prioritized to halt the fighting in which the civilian population is caught and enable the effective delivery of badly needed humanitarian assistance to all those in need, regardless of their location.”

https://ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/09/sudan-un-fact-finding-mission-outlines-extensive-human-rights-violations… Read the full report here. More information on the work of the Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan can be found here.

Obituary: Sir Shridath ‘Sonny’ Ramphal, Lawyer, Commonwealth Secretary-General


The energetic and skilled orator who delighted the Queen but clashed with Thatcher over sanctions on apartheid South Africa

At any Commonwealth meeting in the 1980s Sir Shridath Ramphal would be on hugging terms with most people in the room. And if that wasn’t the case with Queen Elizabeth II, the organisation’s secretary-general was said to have got on famously with the British monarch. It was only when he found himself under the gimlet eye of Margaret Thatcher that the bonhomie ended abruptly.

Matters came to a head at the 1985 Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Nassau, in the Bahamas. The Guyana-born Ramphal had been an enthusiastic advocate of imposing sanctions on apartheid South Africa. For her part, the British prime minister regarded him as a civil servant who was overreaching his brief.

Thatcher would later bow to pressure to impose economic sanctions on South Africa, but was not ready to do so at Nassau. “I noted that they were busy trading with South Africa at the same time as they were attacking me for refusing to apply sanctions,” she recalled in her memoirs. “I wondered when they were going to show similar concern for the abuses in the Soviet Union … I wondered when I was going to hear them attack terrorism. I reminded them of their own less than impressive records on human rights.”

A small, rotund man who exuded geniality, Ramphal had similar views on the Commonwealth to the Queen — though he said it was anachronistic for it to be led by a monarch — and he was given almost unbridled royal access. “She transcended the barriers of race, colour and caste very easily, and she was never lofty or remote,” he said. “In all my 15 years, I never met a prime minister or a president — Marxists and republicans included — who did not set the greatest store by the 20 minutes she spent with each of them at our heads of government meetings.”

Such royal favour was perhaps one reason Thatcher’s personal criticism of the liberal diplomat, known as Sonny, was less vehement than it might have been. The same could not be said for her husband, Denis. “He and I didn’t get on,” Denis recalled. “He was so left-wing. I used to say: ‘Sonny Ramphal, you really are a terrible man … You do more harm than good.’ He came back after the election and I said: ‘You’ve got us for another four years, Sonny. I hope to Christ we’re not going to have you.’”
Emboldened perhaps by another gin and tonic, Denis continued: “Who do you think is worse? Sonny bloody Ramphal or Ma bloody Gandhi?”

However, to a whole political generation of the developing world, Ramphal was a passionate and articulate advocate of their demands for a fairer world — even if what he was campaigning for did not always lead to one. As secretary-general of the Commonwealth between 1975 to 1990 he helped to broker the decolonisation of Rhodesia into Zimbabwe, and arguably played no small part in helping to abolish apartheid in South Africa.
Shridath Surendranath Ramphal was born in New Amsterdam in British Guiana, now Guyana, in 1928. His great-grandmother, exiled from India after refusing to immolate herself on her husband’s funeral pyre, had come to Guyana to work on a sugar plantation owned by John Gladstone, father of William, the Liberal prime minister.

Ramphal’s father, James, who was educated by Canadian Presbyterians and converted to Christianity, was a teacher and member of the capital Georgetown’s middle class, able to give his son a solid education — first at a school for the children of the elite in Georgetown and then at the University of London. James was the first Guyanese to be appointed to a government position when he was made a commissioner in the department of labour after the outbreak of the Second World War.

Ramphal read law at King’s College London, and in 1951, the same year he married Lois King, an English nurse, he was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn and became a legal probationer for the colonial office. King died in 2019. Ramphal is survived by their two sons and two daughters.

Shortly after Ramphal entered the chambers of Dingle Foot, the elder brother of Michael, the future Labour leader, the colonial office dispatched him to Kenya to help to deal with the Mau Mau emergency. His patron soon brought him back and secured him an appointment as crown counsel in Guyana instead.

An able lawyer, a quick-witted politician and a gifted speaker, he spent a year at Harvard Law School in 1962 but was soon back in Guyana, where he drafted the nation’s independence constitution. Proclaiming himself a proud West Indian, he held a variety of ministerial positions, including as foreign minister under the newly elected black Guyanese prime minister, Forbes Burnham.

Ramphal used his office to carve out for himself a wider role in the councils of the developing world. He was twice elected vice-president of the UN general assembly and led his country’s delegation to the UN every year between 1967 and 1974. During his chairmanship of a meeting in Georgetown of the foreign ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement — states that would not ally with the US or Soviet Union during the Cold War — in 1971 he steered them towards more radical and articulate criticism of western neglect and exploitation of the developing world.

A Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Jamaica three years later gave him a bigger opportunity. There he was appointed secretary-general, succeeding the first holder of the post, the Canadian diplomat Arnold Smith, who had fought a tenacious but modest battle to build up the secretariat as a focus of the institutional Commonwealth against the resistance of Whitehall.

Ramphal’s approach was anything but modest. He steadily expanded the size and scope of the secretariat, consistently advocated measures to increase the Commonwealth’s range of interests and particularly its services to its developing members.
The African member nations held particular opportunities. At the heads of government meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1979 he was among those who called on Thatcher, recently elected, to accept independence for Zimbabwe. Throughout the Lancaster House negotiations that followed, Ramphal was in the margins, pressing the views of the developing Commonwealth countries. In some eyes he was helpful and constructive; in those of Lord Carrington, the foreign secretary, he was “cocky and meddlesome” — Carrington claimed that Ramphal helped Robert Mugabe to gain his election victory.

From Zimbabwe, Ramphal turned his attention to South Africa, and he did much to orchestrate Commonwealth concern for apartheid and oppression there over the next ten years. When Nelson Mandela came to power he showed his appreciation by quickly bringing his country back into the Commonwealth.

Ramphal had for some time had his eye on bigger things: he wanted to be secretary-general of the United Nations and had been building a broader international reputation, involving himself in a series of initiatives of the international great and the good, starting in 1977 with the former German chancellor Willy Brandt’s group on international development and moving on to the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme’s study of disarmament and security.

He first campaigned to be UN secretary-general in 1981, and although he had the support of Pierre Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, he was not appointed. He claimed afterwards that it was his criticism of the organisation that had deprived him of the prize, but Carrington had famously said he would swim the Atlantic to prevent Ramphal getting the job.

Ramphal turned back to the Commonwealth and to yet more international commissions: humanitarian issues, environment and development, the problems of the developing world, and questions of global governance. In many ways the commissions suited Ramphal better: he had a talent for words and instinct both for the real needs of the poor and for the fanciful ambitions of their spokesmen and women. Some accused him of being just as meretricious — all posture and little substance — but people listened to him. Even Thatcher confessed that just occasionally his cheerfulness could sweep her off her feet.

By the time the Commonwealth heads of government met in Kuala Lumpur in 1989, Ramphal was approaching the end of his third term as secretary-general. At the end of his service the British government put his name forward to Buckingham Palace for appointment as Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) but it was typical of his fractious relationship with Britain that, days after a generous farewell dinner in his honour at 10 Downing Street, a London newspaper reported him as having criticised his hostess, Thatcher.

He was still only 62 — and as energetic and full of ideas as ever. He was chairman of the West Indies Commission, president of the World Conservation Union and an active chancellor of two universities: the West Indies and Warwick. He travelled restlessly and audiences of the like-minded hung on to his words.

Some argued that he used his oratorical and political skills to enhance the bargaining power of the poor countries against the rich. But there were few who took him as seriously as he thought he deserved, and after each of his rhetorical acts there remained the facts of power and poverty, wealth and impotence.

Sir Shridath Ramphal, Commonwealth secretary-general, 1975 to 1990, and lawyer, was born on October 3, 1928. He died on August 30, 2024, aged 95

Culled from The Times

Rise in Femicide: Adekunle Gold tells men in Nigeria, “Let’s redefine masculinity by holding each other accountable”

In the face of a rise in femicide cases, Nigerian singer-songwriter, Adekunle Gold has called on men to hold each other accountable.

This is coming on the heels of the murder of Christianah Idowu, a student of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State (FUNAAB).

She was reportedly kidnapped and murdered by one Ayomide Adeleye after collecting ransom from her family.

Taking to his X (formerly Twitter) page, the singer wrote that a man’s strength is not in staying silent while fellow men commit horrific acts against women.

He wrote: “Men, true strength is not about staying silent but about standing up to your friends who abuse, rape, or demean women. Let’s redefine masculinity by holding each other accountable.
#JusticeforChristianah.”

"Let

This comes after a 15-year-old boy named Goodluck Bison went into the home of a 14-year-old girl and allegedly hit her on the head with a pestle multiple times before raping her, leaving her inches away from death.

Read also: Man reveals how his sister would have been murdered by Ayomide Adeleye, suspected killer of FUNAAB student

Days later, a man named Ayomide Ayodele kidnapped his friend Christianah Idowu and murdered her after collecting ransom from her family.

Deconstructing Nigeria

By Oseloka H. Obaze

Bad leadership and its consequence, bad governance, are dismembering Nigeria. Both are repetends in current Nigerian political discourse. Both are also indicative that rather than focus progressively on nation building, Nigerians are distressing over the unraveling of their country. The New York Times on its 13th June, 2024 front page declaimed that “A resourceful nation buckles” and went on to assert that “worst economic crisis in a generation torments Nigeria, as prices soar.” National deconstruction; the antithesis of nation building, is what is happening to Nigeria. As actor Robert DeNiro once surmised, “Evil thrives in the shadow of dismissive mockery.” Nigeria now is a bastion for evil deeds; and a mockery and ghoulish shadow of itself.  The nation has attained or acquired numerous dubious labels and negative qualifying governance indices.  

Some may consider attributing the deconstruction appellation to Nigeria light, when juxtaposed with her progressive national deterioration and diminution of influence globally.   But the deconstruction narrative is apt as it is more insidious.  It relates more to faith and fate. What does deconstruction mean, and how does that apply, affect or relate to present day Nigeria?   Deconstruction is “the act of breaking something down into its separate parts in order to understand its meaning, especially when this is different from how it was previously understood.”

Contextually, the deconstruction of Nigeria means that we have finally arrived at the critical truth juncture, where having lost faith, Nigeria now means different things to a majority of Nigerians, and her different ethnicities. This affirms that all along, the presumed commonality of shared belief in what Nigeria meant to Nigerian citizens was an expedient ruse.  Nigeria was, is, but her future is indefinite.  That fate was contrived by Nigerians; hence some surmise that “the contraption called Nigeria has never been one.” Paradoxically, those advocating the rethink of Nigeria are neither nation-building heretics nor anti-establishment.  At the risk of accusations of sedition or treason, they only advocate dismantling Nigeria as a way of rebuilding it. But when government criminalizes civil protests, something is awry.

Here’s the stark reality. Nigeria no longer represents what many of her citizens previously understood it to be; a nation, federation and commonwealth, and a country statutorily obligated to afford equal rights and protection to her citizens. These were the qualifiers of yesteryears. Today, with ethnicity, religion, power and resource sharing, poverty, cancel culture, state capture and bigotry all weaponized, there hardly exist any shared common causes. Ethnic hairline cracks have turned into chasms. The national disconnect is so expansive that  Nigerians are no longer bashful in asserting that Nigeria no longer serves common cause. The notion or concept of “united we stand” seems passé.  Far gone is the nation, wherein NPN, a former ruling national party had as its fulsome mantra: ‘one nation, one destiny’.  Right now, Nigeria rarely evokes any positive déjà vu as much as it elicits resignation, consternation and trepidation.

As incessant disfranchisement elicits calls of segregation, and the concept of a heterogeneous and monolithic North is increasingly disavowed, the fervent belief in an indissoluble Nigeria is repetitively eroded.  The rise of non-state actors and the attendant visceral violence meted out by armed bandits to various Christian and indigenous populations in North suggest a new and heightened level of intolerance and polarization.  Those in power, who ought to assertively tackle such challenges have demurred. 

With multi-dimensional poverty raging, no part of Nigeria is totally secure; no village, town, city, state or geopolitical zone. Nationwide, pockets of communities are now ungoverned spaces subjugated by bandits.  Most of those in power, who shelter behind the cocoon of state security apparatus, can hardly return to their respective homesteads. Such broad sense of debilitating insecurity is common, even if hardly acknowledged publicly. Nigerians can also attest to the dearth of patriotism. So, what wand is binding Nigeria and still keeping it whole?  Simply, it is the belief that bad governance can’t be perpetual.

Meanwhile, the broad understanding persist that those national elite who covet leadership roles have failed woefully at fulfilling three basic leadership requirements:  ‘lead, follow or get the hell out of the way’. Rather, in a crablike fashion, they give primacy to the revolving door leadership syndrome.  This default to business-as-usual and resignation combine to yield a fatalistic leadership disposition and hubris. Most Nigerians now accept that such disposition must change. But who gets to bell the cat?

Also acknowledged, is that the prevalent leadership hubris erodes any form of governance bipartisanship, as well as commitment to national interest and show of self-sacrifice.  Clearly, Nigerian leaders seem unwilling to grasp that the singular, collective role expected and mandated to them as policy, economic, security and legislative managers, boils down to one critical task: lead. This is more so of those who hold the exulted elected or appointive positions as Heads of the Three Arms of Government in the Three Tiers.

Quite often, history instructs leadership decision-making. Drawing from the history of democracy: President Ronald Reagan once said, “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one who gets the people to do the greatest things.” And before him, President John F. Kennedy averred that “the only valid test of leadership is the ability to lead and lead vigorously.” It’s disconcerting that the national elite by refusing to learn from history continue to ride the Nigerian ship roughshod. Their roguish groupthink and ‘we versus the masses’ mindset bedevil Nigeria the most. 

Unsurprisingly, Nigeria is now synonymous with the historically tragic Titanic. Dubbed too big to sink, it took on water listlessly until it sank. Hardly did those onboard seem aware of the imminent catastrophe. Ditto our nation and our current leaders. As Prof. Okey Ikechukwu rightly observed, “Elite myopia, leadership illiteracy and abysmal ignorance of both 21st Century leadership and cultural anthropology of the Nigerian state are working together here.”  Nigeria has functional federal, state and local governments.  Yet the impact of non-state actors has never been quite as severe as it is now. Banditry and kidnapping are now booming businesses, thus leading some to suggest complicity or negligence of government agents or both.  In one year,  July 2023 to June 2024, kidnappers in Nigeria reportedly demanded up to N10.99 billion.  Were security and its corollary, the responsibilities to protect the twin indices for assessing national stability, then Nigeria is a failed nation. 

Despite stark bad governance, governmental affairs are still run in the business-as-usual mode. As Nigeria’s rot and rut has metastasized, her crisis off-ramp remains uncharted. It can’t be uncharitable, therefore, to categorize as certifiable, those in power, who are fixated on 2027.  These people seem to take a dangerous delight in the subjugation of hungry Nigerians into servility,  servitude and penury. It is also the height of misgovernance, precepts and hypocrisy that those who not long ago were themselves immersed in national protests, would today seek to charge protesting hungry Nigerians with treason. 

Equally culpable, are those who hitherto have been in power at various times, yet are unwilling to make the necessary self-sacrifice required to build a new coalition or the bipartisan New Tribe required to make Nigeria whole and truly a nation. Perhaps, it is at them that President Olusegun Obasanjo directed his recent barb, about our vulnerabilities due to lack of national institutional memory. 

The debate on restructuring, which has been swirling for decades, remains inconclusive. Secret and open battles over the future of a new Nigeria, and who will shape it, persist.  Accordingly, Nigeria may yet be a dismal nation transformed.  The true beauty of democracy is the guarantee of periodic and genuine elections. Unless something cataclysmic happens, Nigerians must gird up for the 2027 general elections. It will, of course, not be business as usual. But the needed electoral reforms and sustainable transformation won’t happen without a critical rethink of those entrusted to reshape and lead Nigeria.  

Nigeria arrived at the present juncture due to lack of consequences for bad governance, profligacy and official malfeasance. That notwithstanding, the present government has run amuck in fiscal profligacy. Moving Nigeria forward requires a New Tribe. That a new tribe is not an additional ethnic grouping that will rank with or supersede the -Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo- WAZOBIA collective; but an adjunct coalition of detribalized Nigerians committed to true nationhood.  They will be the successor regime to the present ‘tribe’ of corrupt national elite, who live off the confusion that is today’s Nigeria. For the New Tribe, ethnicity and religion will be the least of qualifying variables; and it must consist of a Team of Rivals. 

As a nation, we had long abandoned measurable and benchmarked governance principles. That too will have to change. What is not measured or benchmarked does not get done. Thus, the New Tribe must prioritize a people-first approach that underscores democratic governance, as well as offer new and measurable governance roadmap.  The New Tribe must also tackle Nigeria’s assorted unmet basic needs and challenges, which are metamorphosing fast into an inter-generational conflict. 

The present leadership, which should be considered supernumerary and transitional to a New Nigeria, may do well to glean from conventional wisdom. Social scientists and those long immersed in variegated partisan politics, espouse a standing doctrine: “An iron principle of politics is that you must do swiftly what you will eventually be forced to do.”  The present leadership hasn’t done much; and the honeymoon with Nigerians ended a long time ago. Now it’s time for reality check as reality begins to bite deep.

——

Obaze is MD/CEO, Selonnes Consult – a policy, governance and management consulting firm in Awka.

Man reveals how his sister would have been murdered by Ayomide Adeleye, suspected killer of FUNAAB student

A man has shared the chats Ayomide Adeleye sent to his sister, asking for personal details about her life.

He shared the chats after it emerged that Ayomide kidnapped and allegedly murdered a student of FUNAAB, Christianah Idowu, after collecting ransom from her family.

"My sister would have been his next victim" Man shares chats between Ayomide Adeleye, suspected k!ller of FUNAAB student, and his sister

The man, who grew up with both Ayomide and Christianah, shared screenshots that make him believe the suspect was also trying to prey on his sister.

In the chats, Ayomide is seen asking the man’s sister when she will return from school.

When she told him it’ll be weeks before she’s back, Ayomide complained that it’s “far”.

"My sister would have been his next victim" Man shares chats between Ayomide Adeleye, suspected k!ller of FUNAAB student, and his sister
"My sister would have been his next victim" Man shares chats between Ayomide Adeleye, suspected k!ller of FUNAAB student, and his sister
"My sister would have been his next victim" Man shares chats between Ayomide Adeleye, suspected k!ller of FUNAAB student, and his sister

He’s also seen in the chats, expressing concern for his friend Christianah’s safety, despite having allegedly murdered her.

It has now been alleged that he had k!lled his ex-girlfriend and his blood sister but both de@ths were swept under the rug.

"My sister would have been his next victim" Man shares chats between Ayomide Adeleye, suspected k!ller of FUNAAB student, and his sister
"My sister would have been his next victim" Man shares chats between Ayomide Adeleye, suspected k!ller of FUNAAB student, and his sister
"My sister would have been his next victim" Man shares chats between Ayomide Adeleye, suspected k!ller of FUNAAB student, and his sister

See below.

"My sister would have been his next victim" Man shares chats between Ayomide Adeleye, suspected k!ller of FUNAAB student, and his sister
"My sister would have been his next victim" Man shares chats between Ayomide Adeleye, suspected k!ller of FUNAAB student, and his sister

Linda Ikeji

Olympic marathon runner Rebecca dies from severe burns after being set alight with fuel by ex-boyfriend

Rebecca Cheptegei the Olympic athlete who was on Sunday set alight by an ex-boyfriend finally succumbed to death following her severe injuries. Cheptegei died days after being doused in petrol and set on fire by a former boyfriend.

The 33-year-old Rebecca Cheptege, a Ugandan marathon runner, who competed in the just concluded Paris Olympics, suffered extensive burns after the Sunday attack.

The authorities in north-west Kenya, where Cheptegei lived and trained, said she was targeted after returning home from church with her two daughters.

Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, said that he had lost a “very supportive” daughter. Fellow Ugandan athlete James Kirwa told the BBC about her generosity and how she had helped out other runners financially.

A report filed by a local administrator alleged the athlete and her ex-partner had been wrangling over a piece of land. Police say an investigation is under way.

Cheptegei, from a region just across the border in Uganda, is said to have bought a plot in Trans Nzoia county and built a house to be near Kenya’s elite athletics training centres.

Attacks on women have become a major concern in Kenya. In 2022 at least 34% of women said they had experienced physical violence, according to a national survey.

Read also: Olympic marathon runner hospitalised after boyfriend ‘set her on fire’ with fuel

“This tragedy is a stark reminder of the urgent need to combat gender-based violence, which has increasingly affected even elite sports,” Kenya’s Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said.

AP Rebecca Cheptegei, competes at the Discovery 10km road race in Kapchorwa, Uganda - 20 January 2023
Rebecca Cheptegei’s father said she was their family’s breadwinner

Speaking to journalists outside the hospital where she had been treated, Mr Cheptegei asked the Kenyan government to ensure justice was done after the death of his daughter.

“We have lost our breadwinner,” he added and wondered how her two young children would “proceed with their education”.

Dr Kimani Mbugua, a consultant at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, told local media that the staff did all they could for her but the athlete “had a severe percentage of burns, which unfortunately led to multi-organ failure, which ultimately led to her passing this morning at 05:30 [02:30 GMT]”.

Kirwa, who often trained with Cheptegei and had visited her in hospital, told the BBC she “was a very affable person. [She] helped us all even financially and she brought me training shoes when she came back from the Olympics. She was like an older sister to me”.

Uganda’s athletics federation said in a post on X: “We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our athlete, Rebecca Cheptegei early this morning who tragically fell victim to domestic violence. As a federation, we condemn such acts and call for justice. May her soul rest In Peace.”

“This is heart-breaking. Even more heart-breaking that it’s not the first time the athletics community has lost such an incredible female athlete to domestic violence,” British Olympian runner Eilish McColgan wrote on X.

Cheptegei’s former boyfriend was also admitted to the hospital in Eldoret – but with less severe burns. He is still in intensive care but his condition was “improving and stable”, Moi hospital’s Dr Owen Menach said.

Earlier, local police chief Jeremiah ole Kosiom was quoted by local media as saying: “The couple were heard quarrelling outside their house. During the altercation, the boyfriend was seen pouring a liquid on the woman before burning her.”

Uganda Atheltics Federation Rebecca Cheptegei
Cheptegei won the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Thailand in 2022

“This was a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete. Her legacy will continue to endure,” the head of Uganda’s Olympic committee Donald Rukare said on X.

Talking to reporters earlier in the week, her father said that he prayed “for justice for my daughter”, adding that he had never seen such an inhumane act in his life.

Uganda’s Sports Minister Peter Ogwang said arrangements were being made to transport Cheptegei’s body back to Uganda for burial.

Cheptegei finished 44th in the marathon at the recent Paris Olympics.

She also won gold at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2022.

Her death comes after the killings of fellow East African athletes Agnes Tirop in 2021 and Damaris Mutua the following year, with their partners identified as the main suspects in both cases by the authorities.

Tirop’s husband is currently facing murder charges, which he denies, while a hunt for Mutua’s boyfriend continues.

“Today has been a sad moment for me. It has been a sad moment for athletes because it really reminded us [of] the day that Agnes was murdered,” Kenyan athlete Joan Chelimo told the BBC.

She is involved in Tirop’s Angels, an organisation she said was set up as a “wake-up call” after Tirop’s murder to address gender-based violence.

“We say we need to unite together as athletes and just try to raise awareness, create a place where women can just come and speak up. But it is still on the rise.”

Cheptegei’s friend Milcah Chemos-Cheywa, a Kenyan athlete who with her in Paris, echoed these feelings.

“I can say we are still in shock, and we are in pain, especially as athletes, and this thing happening in Kenya,” she told the Reuters news agency. “We remember the case of Agnes Tirop, now it has come to Rebecca, so we are not happy.’’

BBC

Now that Senator Oshiomhole mocks Obaseki’s wife because she bore no child, the Lord shall open her womb (GENESIS 29:31)

do not support Obaseki’s wife insulting Oshiomhole or Oshiomhole’s associate or indeed anyone; so, I unequivocally condemn her alleged conduct if she had ever insulted Senator Oshiomhole or anyone. However, in reportedly mocking Mrs Obaseki for being childless, Senator Oshiomhole has in my view, acted shamelessly and irresponsibly. In my humble opinion, no amount of grammar or excuse can justify such a brazen display of unscrupulousness by an otherwise distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic and Governor of a State.

Mocking anyone, under any circumstances, for being childless is the height of inhumanity and indiscretion. With due respect, trying to justify such incautious conduct by reference to America or to Trump makes the whole situation more laughable and messy because neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris had ever gone this far in exhibiting insensitivity and inconsideration towards the plight of fellow humans.

Finally, trying to juxtapose this scenario with an alleged earlier insulting remark (although I condemn such) from Obaseki’s wife in relation to Oshiomhole’s associate’s marriage, is a horrible mismatching comparison.

Read also: Betsy, Oshiomhole and swine fight

As for Obaseki’s wife, the object of Senator Oshiomhole’s present unreasoned tirade, I exhort you to please take solace in Luke 23:29, “”For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed'”; and “Shout for joy…you who have borne no child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud…. For the sons of the desolate one will be…numerous” (Isaiah 54:1). He makes the barren woman abide in the house. As a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord, Mrs Obaseki; the Lord will do it for you! (See Psalm 113:9). Now that Senator Oshiomhole has mocked Obaseki’s wife because she bore no child, the lord shall open her womb as He did for Leah (as in Genesis 29:31). And as in Judges 13:3, dear Mrs Obaseki, you shall conceive and give birth to a son. Let your heart be troubled no more!

Post Scriptum:
In public discourse, it is healthy to disagree without being disagreeable. Don Lemon put it this way: “If I have my opinion about something, you have your opinion about something, we don’t have to fight over it. And we can have a conversation. We can also disagree without being disagreeable, and we can just disagree, which is fine. It doesn’t mean that I don’t like you, or you don’t like me. We just disagree.” In political as in any other form of discourse, comments, contributions ought to be presented in a manner that is mature and civil. Personality attacks or use of foul or insulting languages against anyone is crude. As Robert G. Ingersoll wrote in his book, Some Mistakes of Moses: “arguments cannot be answered by personal abuse; there is no logic in slander, because falsehood, in the long run, defeats itself.” On his part, Jean-Jacques Rousseau said, “Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.” One can conveniently make one’s point without resorting to insulting remarks. Nigerian politicians are therefore encouraged to adopt the counsel from RUMI, an ancient poet: “Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”

Respectfully,
Sylvester Udemezue (udems),
Proctor,
The Reality Ministry (TRM)
08109024556.
[email protected]
(01 September 2024)

FIDA calls for support to eliminate all forms of gender-based violence in local communities

Press Release

FIDA Nigeria engages government, traditional, and religious leaders to strengthen gender-based violence prevention mechanisms in Plateau, Ekiti, and Lagos states

The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Nigeria, with support from the Ford Foundation, has launched a significant new initiative aimed at strengthening gender-based violence (GBV) prevention mechanisms in Plateau, Ekiti, and Lagos States. This initiative is under the auspices of the “Engagement, Coordination, and Sharing of Lessons on GBV Prevention between Religious, Traditional, and Government Leaders in Nigeria” project. This three-year intervention is expected to commence in July 2024 and culminate in June 2027.

Mrs. Amina Suzanah Agbaje, Country President of FIDA Nigeria, in a statement disseminated to the press, informed Nigerians that this initiative will work closely with key community gatekeepers, including traditional leaders, relevant state actors, religious leaders, and male champions, to institutionalize structures for preventing gender-based violence. Through a five-pronged approach and interconnected intervention areas, this initiative will focus on addressing religious and cultural barriers that impede the functionality of gender-sensitive legal frameworks on preventing gender-based violence, enhancing collaboration and coordination among relevant actors and gatekeepers through a series of dialogues and shared learning forums, while documenting lessons, amplifying successes, and evolving strategies for preventing gender-based violence.

Lending credence to the aforementioned statement, the National Program Manager, FIDA Nigeria, alluded to the preventive approach the organization intends to implement as it aims to accelerate changes in attitudinal behaviors and abandon social and cultural norms that undermine the rights of women and girls in Plateau (North Central), Lagos, and Ekiti (South-West) States.

Mr. Fikih Obaro further emphasized the crucial role of traditional and faith leaders in preventing gender-based violence due to their knowledge of local contexts and their understanding of the predisposing factors and practices that perpetuate GBV. He highlighted the primary goals of the project, which include:

  • Engaging traditional and faith leaders from target communities as agents of change and advocates for women and girls.
  • Providing platforms for cohesion between governments, traditional, and religious leaders in addressing and preventing Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) through shared understanding.
  • Developing a cohort of gatekeepers who will reject social norms and practices that subjugate the rights of women.

Offering stock-taking, shared learnings, and collaborative platforms among beneficiaries to prevent gender-based violence.

In conclusion, the Country Vice/National President, Mrs. Amina Suzanah Agbaje, encouraged the public to support efforts to eliminate all forms of gender-based violence in local communities across Nigeria. She also invited everyone to follow FIDA Nigeria’s activities related to this project on social media:

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

God bless FIDA Nigeria

Amina Suzanah Agbaje (Mrs)

Country Vice /National President

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