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Kwara boat tragedy blamed on gross overloading and misconduct

  • Experts blame policy inconsistency, infrastructure deficit, others, as obstacles to water transport efficiency in Nigeria

The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), has attributed the loss of over 106 lives in the Kwara boat tragedy on 12 June 2023 to inappropriate night travel, gross overloading, and misconduct.

In his condolence message to the families that lost loved ones, image maker of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Mr. Jibril Darda’u, in a press statement noted that: “This accident was clearly an unfortunate and avoidable one.’

According to the NIWA spokesman, “Preliminary investigations through our Area Manager in Minna/Kwara Area Office revealed that the boat driver and wedding guests were on the ill-fated voyage about 2:30am, which speaks volumes about the disregard for the laws regulating Inland Waterways navigation. Furthermore, for a wooden boat to have allegedly been carrying more than 200 passengers at once without using life jackets and sailing in the night was certainly gross-overloading and misconduct.”

Also, NIWA management, through its General Manager, Corporate Affairs, said it is deeply saddened by the boat mishap that occurred along the Jebba Lake channel in the Lafiagi-Patigi Local Government Area of Kwara State.

It promises that in accordance with extant laws and regulations, it will investigate the “callous incident and prosecute those found culpable.”

“NIWA as an Authority will not fold its arms and allow reckless boat operators flaunting our safety guidelines and killing innocent commuters,” the statement added.

In the meantime, Kwara State Police Command has given fresh insight into what actually took place, adding that 106 persons died.

According to the Kwara Police spokesman, SP Okasanmi Ajayi: “The boat was said to have conveyed about 250 people from a village called Gboti via Patigi after a wedding ceremony to Ebu Village and Dzakan Village, all within Patigi’s local government area.

“On leaving the shore, one part of the boat by the engine side collapsed where water penetrated the boat, which ultimately led to the boat capsizing. All efforts to draw the attention of the villagers hosting the wedding ceremony for assistance by the persons in the boat proved abortive, leading to the deaths of about one hundred and six (106) people.

“Among the casualties were people from Ebu Village with 61 casualties, Dzakan Village with 38, Kpada Village with 4 dead, and three (3) other casualties from Kogi State, putting the total number of casualties at one hundred and six (106) and the total number of rescued people at about one hundred and forty-four (144).

The Police Chief in the state further directed that the policemen on the rescue operation should continue in the effort while providing security for the rescued victims of the accident until they are fully recovered from the shock and trauma of the accident and handed over to their families.

A few months ago, the Federal Government reiterated its commitment to reactivating the nation’s inland waterways transportation to revive trading activities and boost the economy.

Then Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, said this at the unveiling of the Navigational Charts of the power River Niger on Thursday, in Abuja.

Mustapha said that there was need to get back the mode of transportation on the inland waterways, so as to rekindle the trading activities that used to exist along the river Niger and Benue.

But in Nigeria, policy inconsistency, duplication of regulatory functions, infrastructure deficit, insecurity, inadequate human capacity, and low investment are among critical factors highlighted as obstacles affecting the growth of inland water transportation and associated businesses in the country.

Managing Director of NIWA, Dr. George Moghalu has suggested legislation on the restriction of movement of classified and heavy goods on roads, particularly within destinations that can be accessed by water, which he said will create a cabotage trade hub that will drive the Cabotage Act with sub-optimal implementations derivable from effective development and operationalisation of the country’s vast inland waterway assets.

Additional reports from Everyday.ng

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Three life sentences for man who defiled three underage daughters

  • His name registered in the sexual offences register of Lagos State

A 45-year-old businessman, Emeka Orisakwe has earned himself three life sentences for defiling his three underage daughters.

Orisakwe was sentenced by an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Tuesday.

In her verdict, Hon. Justice Abiola Soladoye held that the prosecution proved the three-count charge brought against the convict beyond reasonable doubt.

An enraged Justice Soladoye who noted the defendant said his wife was mentally unstable in order to deny the offence described him as “a wicked and a pathological liar.”

She also berated the immediate younger sister of the defendant, who testified at the first defence witness, (DW1) for tendering a medical report concerning the mental state of the defendant’s wife which did not correlate with the timing of the incident.

The judge said that DW1’s evidence was unreliable as it was a pack of lies tainted by deception after she had corrupted the minds of the survivors to lie before the court.

“The children were very honest but I observed the three children that came to testify and this court could see that their aunt, whom they stayed with after the incident, had been working on their brains to tell lies before this court.

“The children’s subsequent denial in court after they made statements at Satellite Police Station that their father messed around their vaginas with his fingers is an afterthought and very unfortunate.

“The children were taken away from the custody of their mother and the sister-in-law painted lies in their minds.

“This court can not be fooled. The DW1 is a liar and a wicked sister-in-law, whose evidence is self-serving to save her brother from drowning.

“The medical report on the mental state of the defendant’s wife which she tendered before this court was dated February 2, 2023, but the sexual incident occurred years back and in desperation, they went to cook up a medical report from Imo state that the defendant’s wife is mentally unstable.”

Her Lordship maintained that the attempts of DW1 and the defendant were to get through the back door when they could not obtain through the front door as the medical reports on the survivors revealed blunt forceful penetration.

“The medical reports which were carried out on the three children and admitted into evidence before this court showed bruises on the inner surface, blunt and forceful penetration of the survivors’ vaginas.

“The medical examination revealed that the three children suffered various degrees of bruises from the sexual assault perpetrated by their biological father.

“This corroborates the statement of the survivors at the police station and the evidence given by the second prosecution witness (PW2), an officer from a child advocacy agency that the brother of the survivors, told him that he once saw his father, fingering his sister,” the judge said

She further said that the subsequent denial of the defendant was an afterthought which did not hold water.

Soladoye thereby convicted the defendant on the 3-count charge and subsequently sentenced him to life imprisonment on each of the counts.

She, however, held that the sentencing should run concurrently.

The judge also ordered that the convict should have his name registered in the sexual offences register as maintained by Lagos State.

NAN reports that the state Deputy Director of the Department of Public Prosecution (DPP), Mr Olusola Soneye called seven prosecution witnesses through whom several documents were tendered while the defendant and his sister testified for the defence.

Soneye told the court that Orisakwe committed the offences between January and July 2021 at No.32 Ganiyat St., Monkey Village, Maza Maza, Lagos.

The prosecution submitted that the mother of the children found blood stains on the private part of one of them and she told her mother that her father had touched her “bum bum.”

“Upon further questioning, the mother called the other two children and they also confessed to her that their father had been assaulting them sexually whenever she was not at home,” he said.

According to the prosecutor, the offence contravenes the provisions of Section 261 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015. (NAN)

Dear Mr. President, one of the most efficient methods of influence is by exemplification

charles Okeibunor

By Charles Okeibunor

Dear Mr. President,

One of the most effective ways of leading is by influence. And one of the most efficient methods of influence is by exemplification.

As an accomplished professional, two-time Governor, and astute businessman, what if you felt our pain by announcing that as part of your solidarity with Nigerians, you will not be earning a salary or any form of allowances while in office?

What if you announced that all your political appointees will earn 50% of existing salaries and allowances accruing to their offices; inviting those who wish to also waive theirs?

After all, some have lived at the expense of taxpayers since our return to democracy 23 years ago.

What if you also called on the National Assembly to consider doing same?

What if you announced that no member of the national assembly or their companies are permitted to execute government contracts during your tenure?

In addition, what if you announced that zero-based budgeting approach will be strictly applied by your government where funds are allocated based on program efficiency and necessity rather than budget history?

Finally Sir, NNPCL told us on September 12, 2022, that Nigeria loses 700 million dollars monthly to oil theft!

The immediate past senate president corroborated this information when he said we lose 1,000,000 barrels of oil daily to these national saboteurs.

At today’s rate, that is approximately $74 per barrel, it aggregates to $74,000,000 dollars daily.

If $ 10 billion was spent on Subsidy in 2022, do you realise that were all the oil produced to be exported, we would recover 9.4 billion dollars worth of oil?

It means that if crude oil theft ended, and we even maintained the subsidy regime, we would be spending approximately 600 million dollars on subsidy rather than 10 billion dollars!

So, what if you tell us that within your first 100 days in office, you will stop the hemorrhage of oil theft and this blatant unabated stealing of our commonwealth?

What if we can see from your eyes, words, and actions that you really mean business of saving the nation from its definite deficit status?

This in my opinion is how to sincerely feel the pains of Nigerians Mr President.

Yours faithfully,

Charles Okeibunor

How torture, deception and inaction underpin the UAE’s thriving sex trafficking industry

An underground network of suspected sex traffickers has taken refuge in the wealthy Gulf nation. The U.S. State Department says efforts to identify and protect victims have fallen short.

By Maggie Michael

On a pleasure boat cruising Gulf waters near Dubai’s glittering skyline, a Nigerian woman dressed in a white dress and gold jewelry nodded and swayed as a gathering sang “Happy Birthday” to her.

Videos of Christy Gold’s 45th birthday party were posted in May 2022 on an Instagram account that showcases her glamorous lifestyle, months after Gold fled Nigeria, where she was facing sex trafficking charges.

Gold — whose name appears in court records as Christiana Jacob Uadiale — was a ringleader in a criminal network that lured African women to Dubai and forced them into prostitution in brothels, backstreets, bars, hotels and dance clubs, according to six Nigerian government anti-trafficking officials, a British human rights activist who has tracked her operation and five women who say they were trafficked and exploited by her.

Three of the women said in interviews that Gold told them that if they didn’t do as they were told, they’d be killed and dumped in the desert. Those who didn’t make enough money for her were taken to a torture room in an apartment in Dubai, where Gold’s brother starved them, flogged them and shoved hot chili paste into their vaginas, according to three anti-trafficking officials and five women who provided detailed accounts in interviews and court statements.

“They beat the hell out of me,” one of the women said. “The suffering was too much.”

In a statement to the court after she was charged, Gold denied that she and her brother were sex traffickers. “I am not involved in human trafficking and I do not have any girls in Dubai working for me as a prostitute,” she said.

Gold remains a fugitive from justice — part of what anti-trafficking activists and officials say is a thriving underground of suspected sex traffickers who have taken refuge in the United Arab Emirates, a Gulf nation known for its wealth, futuristic skyscrapers and what rights groups say is a poor record on protecting foreign workers and basic freedoms.

The UAE is a major destination for sex trafficking, where African women are forced into prostitution by illicit networks operating within the country, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and Reuters has found.

Emirati authorities do little to protect these women, according to anti-trafficking activists, Nigerian authorities and interviews with trafficked women.

This story is based on interviews with 25 African women, mostly from Nigeria, who described being lured to the UAE by Gold or other alleged traffickers, as well as dozens of interviews with humanitarian workers, investigators, Nigerian government officials and others with knowledge of sex trafficking in the Emirates. Their accounts are corroborated by court records and case files from Nigeria’s anti-human trafficking agency.

Human traffickers keep African women in sexual slavery by playing on their financial desperation and creating webs of manipulation and coercion. They subject them to threats and violence. They ensnare them in crushing debts, often totaling $10,000 to $15,000 — huge sums for women from poor families. And, in many cases, they exploit traditional African spiritual beliefs to make victims believe that they have no choice but to do what the traffickers tell them.

This investigation is part of a reporting collaboration led by ICIJ, Trafficking Inc., which is examining sex trafficking and labor trafficking in many parts of the globe. Media partners in the project include Reuters, NBC News, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism and other news outlets in multiple countries.

Gold did not respond to questions for this story. In her statement to the court in Nigeria, Gold said she had helped Nigerian women and men move to the UAE by subletting space to them in an apartment she owned in Dubai.

“I even go as far as advising them like a mother so they too can make it in Dubai,” she said. But she told the court, “I cannot tell what these people did for a living in Dubai.”

A screenshot of a Versace cake on Instagram
Videos of Christy Gold’s 45th birthday party were posted on Instagram. Click to watch. Image: Christy Gold / Instagram

In a written reply supplied by the Dubai government’s media affairs office, the emirate’s police agency said claims that Gold had engaged in the sex trafficking of African women in Dubai are “false and have absolutely no basis in fact.” The statement said Gold had “entered and exited Dubai legally and was not implicated in any illegal activities.”

The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said any suggestion the UAE “tolerates human trafficking or that it has little regard to the victims of this heinous crime is utterly false.” Such allegations, the ministry said in response to questions, were “baseless and without foundation.”

The ministry said the UAE’s laws on sex trafficking carry heavy fines and prison sentences. A report the ministry shared said the UAE had referred 20 human trafficking cases to the courts in 2021, most involving sexual exploitation.

The UAE has also been involved in international police operations against trafficking networks, the ministry said.

Human rights activists and Nigerian authorities say the UAE doesn’t live up to its anti-trafficking commitments.

Fatima Waziri-Azi, director general of Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, said there has been “no cooperation” when NAPTIP has reached out to Emirati authorities for help hunting down traffickers working out of the UAE.

Angus Thomas, a British activist who founded an anti-trafficking education organization based in Ghana, said UAE authorities were uncooperative when he urged them to help African women get away from Gold and her associates.

“I wrote, I phoned, I emailed, asking them to help me get the girls, sending addresses of apartments,” he said. “And I heard nothing.”

Credits: This article was originally published on 12 June 2023 by ICIJ on https://www.icij.org/investigations/trafficking-inc/how-torture-deception-and-inaction-underpin-the-uaes-thriving-sex-trafficking-industry/

Innoson And The CNG Challenge

By Chido Nwakanma

The foremost automobile manufacturing company, Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM), recently unveiled its new fleet that stands out for running on LNG/CNG as fuel. The President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Otunba Francis Meshioye, launched the liquified natural gas and compressed natural gas-powered vehicles.
Innoson, through its Corporate Communications head Mr. Cornel Osigwe declared. “It’s high time CNG and LNG-powered vehicles ply Nigerian roads, and IVM remains committed to producing durable, environment-friendly vehicles. This reduces the cost of transportation and encourages sustainability in our environment as well as development”.

MAN President Meshioye, added, “It’s great to see what we witness in other parts of the world, in our own home. I encourage the Nigerian government and individuals to patronise Innoson Vehicles as that’s a sure way of partnering with the greatness we saw today.” Innoson founder Innocent Chukwuma harped on reducing transportation costs for citizens.
The IVM chairman described the new cars as quality vehicles powered by CNG/ LNG and produced as a sustainable alternative to diesel. Chukuma said the CNG and LNG buses are part of Innoson Vehicles’ commitment to promoting environmentally friendly transportation in Nigeria, adding that they are designed to reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality while providing a comfortable and safe ride for passengers.
IVM rolled out trucks, buses, and cars that would run on LNG or CNG. It rolled out these vehicles ahead of the imposition of a fuel tax aka removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on 29 May 2023. Following the increase in fuel prices, Innoson showcased his gas-powered vehicles to officials of the Anambra State government during the outgoing week ending 11 June 2023.
Innoson’s push fits in with the stated objectives of the Federal Government announced in 2021. Nigeria’s Ten-Year Gas Plan is a government initiative to increase the use of natural gas in the country. The plan articulates several goals.
They include increasing the domestic gas supply, diversifying the Nigerian economy away from oil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and improving energy security.
The FG then announced several initiatives to support the plan. These are expanding the gas grid, developing new gas-fired power plants, promoting the use of gas in industry, and investing in gas-related infrastructure.
Nothing happened on the plan since 2021. It follows a tradition. Through NNPC, Nigeria announced the plan to promote gas utilisation ten years back. NNPC said it would have gas points at 4000 fuel dispensing stations. It even did a trial run in Benin City. Then silence.
Nigerian experts usually paint a rosy picture of most initiatives. The Ten-Year Gas Plan could transform the Nigerian economy by reducing poverty, creating jobs, and improving the economy. It has to confront and overcome these challenges.
First is the underdeveloped gas infrastructure. The gas grid is limited and does not reach most of the country. NNPC, with its humungous 2022 profit of more than 600 trillion, can and should make the needed investment! Then there is insecurity that dogs the oil and gas industry.
The sector will also require proper and effective regulation to enable market efficiency and induce investment. Technology is another challenge and includes the lack of technology to convert gas from shale formations or convert it into LNG.
IVM has made a significant head start. The Federal Government would need to step up its game and convert rhetoric into action. This time citizens may be more interested because of the privations in our pockets from the Tinubu Fuel Tax and pressure the government to do the needful. That is the only way to buy the IVM bus, tractor or car and drive it to any desired location in the country. It is the right step.

Man macheted, roasted for allegedly sleeping with monarch’s wife

A traditional ruler and his two sons are currently in police custody for butchering and roasting a man who strayed into the royal household.

The unfortunate man according to the Yobe State Police Spokesman was caught having amoral relations with wife the local Chief.

The Nigeria Police, Yobe State command has since acknowledged that its operatives arrested the ruler and his two sons over the murder of one Goni Waje in Dako Kangarwa village, Yunusari Local Government Area.

The command’s spokesman, DSP Dungus Abdulkarim, in a statement in Damaturu, named the suspects simply as Jalomi, Ciroma, and Bulama.

He said the murder occurred on June 7, after the trio accused Mr. Waje of having an affair with the wife of Mr. Bulama, the local chief and father of Jalomi and Ciroma.

“According to the eyes witness account, the deceased was macheted with a cutlass and burned to death by the duo of Alhaji Jalomi and Ciroma.

“As narrated, the incident began as a fight that led to the deceased using a knife to inflict injury on the father of the suspects,” Abdulkarim said.

He added that Bulama subsequently instructed his children to go after Mr. Waje, which they did by burning him to death.

Abdulkarim said the three suspects turned themselves in at the Yunusari Divisional Police Station after the incident.

“While Bulama was finding ways to treat himself from the wound, he had no option but to involve the police in the process of investigation.

“The victim surfaced as accused, which led to his arrest at the Yunusari Police Division.

“Subsequently, the perpetrators of the heinous offence reported themselves to the Yunusari Division after the arrest of their father,” he said.

Abdulkarim said the three suspects were transferred to the criminal investigation department for further investigation.

The spokesman said the body of straying Waje has been deposited at the Specialists Hospital, Damaturu.

Logic and Legal Argument

By Chinua Asuzu

As an advocate, you need to master legal argument: how to make it, analyze it, and assess it. To analyze and assess legal arguments, you must learn to detect fallacious arguments.

You need not memorize the names of all the fallacies; it suffices if you can tell that something is wrong with the argument—you can then review it more critically.

Legal argument—in briefs, judgments, and other media—is shockingly riddled with fallacies.

“Learning how to spot and avoid … logical fallacies can enormously strengthen your legal writing … by helping you adhere to the ‘pristine logic’ of correct syllogistic reasoning.” Neal Ramee, ‘Logic and Legal Reasoning: A Guide for Law Students,’ 1, unc.edu.

You will be more effective as an advocate if you “understand logic and how logic can be manipulated through fallacious reasoning. A logical fallacy is an invalid way to reason.” Gerald Lebovits, ‘Say It Ain’t So: Leading Logical Fallacies in Legal Argument–Part 1,’ 88 NYSBA Journal (No. 6, July/Aug 2016), 64.

You’ll find that some of the fallacies have Latin names. That’s awesome. Latin is a gorgeous language. Don’t let anyone scare or urge you off Latin.

“It is well worth [your] trouble to learn the Latin tags [of some of the fallacies] wherever possible. When an opponent is accused of perpetrating something with a Latin name it sounds as if he is suffering from a rare tropical disease.” Madsen Pirie, How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic (Continuum, 2006), Introduction.

And let’s get honest about this: the invocation of Latin has the fringe benefit of making you appear “both erudite and authoritative.” Pirie, ibid.

Chinua Asuzu, Brief-Writing Master Plan (Partridge, 2022), 667–668.

Intimate Affairs: “Babe, I swear, the condom broke…”, By Funke Egbemode

A man “firing” his mistress or girlfriend is not on a mission to reap bountiful harvests. All he wants to do is sow impressively and give a good account of himself. He loves the hunt. He loves the moans, groans, and his woman’s vigorous vote of confidence after every play. But babies? Nothing like the announcement of a pregnant mistress to kill a man’s vibes. His third leg simply goes limp. The cowardly thing always recoils into a harmless shape at the sign of such trouble. One minute it’s a tough-looking, stern, and straight entity, and the next it becomes an I-cannot-hurt-a-fly, innocent-looking small thing. You definitely know what I’m describing.

That’s the story of Gboye and Yemi. Gboye is your regular Lagos guy. He loves the life. He’s good-looking and likes to appreciate women the way they ought to be appreciated. His words, not mine. As far as he’s concerned, there are not enough men to go round and his making a few women happy is his way of being the salt of the earth. I used to pray for him regularly that God would forgive at least some of his sins because of the number of hearts he’d left broken after ‘salting and seasoning’ them. These days he has started praying for himself. His soft kick has earned him a big knock. What he thought was a harmless, friendly fire has ballooned into a fiery furnace, scorching his marriage. My friend who never failed to wear his boots whenever he was playing outside his registered pitch has scored an unintended goal. His condom broke and his swimmers made it to the finishing line, and now ‘we’ are expecting twin girls.

When a man presumes he’s firing blanks and his girlfriend, out of the blues, announces that ‘we are pregnant’, what follows is a matter for a full book, I think. That is what happened with Gboye and Yemi. They have been dating hotly and bigly for close to two years now. But Gboye is married and Yemi is 37, single, and without a child. The two have something really great between them but marriage was not on the cards. Of course, Yemi would not mind terribly if Gboye wanted a second wife. She just had surgery to remove fibroids and her doctor advised that she should not leave her womb fallow for long lest the fibroids grow back again. In other words, get pregnant as quickly as you can. And Gboye was the only one cultivating her land. He never forgets his protection too. I do not know what Yemi did or what Gboye forgot to do but Yemi is pregnant, very pregnant. Indeed with a set of twin girls. Gboye is livid. Yemi is beside herself with joy though she cannot dance openly. Her doctor is excited. Tutu, Gboye’s wife is threatening fire and brimstone.

How could you do this to me, to the children, Gboyega?

What did I do wrong?

What have I not given you?

You went and had unprotected sex!!??

All Gboye could manage was, ‘Babe, I swear, the condom broke…’

Don’t scream. Tutu already took care of the screaming part. She threw other things apart from one massive tantrum. Everywhere is an uproar of different shades, depending on whether it is in Gboye’s home or Yemi’s caucus.

So, did the condom break or Yemi put a hole in it to give little Gboyes access to the waiting fertile land? Did Gboyega get sloppy and he went swimming without his sheath? There’s no point asking Yemi to get rid of the little girls growing inside her. She wants them too badly and Gboye knows. We all do. Yemi would trade anything, anybody, including Gboyega, their father, for the two lives growing inside her, for motherhood at last.

Of course, Tutu, the Madam of the Manor did not believe the ‘my-condom-broke’ story. And the little additions to the family will arrive soon. It does look right now that Gboyega and Yemi are over but if a man and a woman have two children between them, I doubt if they can truly be over. You see Madam’s local trouble?

When a man is playing on an unregistered pitch, he prefers not to score at all. He loves firing his shots. He loves the applause, the cheers. It’s called a man’s prowess. He enjoys the game, the exercise, the sweat dripping down his back. It’s a strenuous but satisfying, chest-thumping exercise. But scoring? Nah. That is reserved for the registered pitch, with his co-player or players who are holding the licence to his balls at home. But we all know that God has his ways and they are different from those of a man playing on an ‘away pitch’. God has all the home advantage and He deploys it when He wills. So, God may allow a man to freely bounce his balls around the goalpost and not score for a full year, and then one day, in one minute, he kicks softly, playfully and he scores. Indeed, some men have been known to fire one innocuous shot and get three balls in the net. God is good that way. He’s the all-sufficient God and He does not ask for registration details of your pitch before approving your goals and scores.

So, is this some amateur football commentary? You know it is not.

This is about a man’s extra-curricular activities and the consequences and repercussions of the shots he fires outside his committed relationship. Of course, except in rare cases, a man having an affair prefers to come and go smoothly. He’s careful about his protection. He buys them discreetly and wears them before diving into the pool. But not all the time. Passion makes a man forget things. I once wrote that when a man’s fly is open, his brain falls out. A mischievous reader has since asked me what falls out when a woman gets out of her panties. I’m still researching that.

Back to the unregistered pitch.

So, why do condoms break or why do people break condoms? Or how else do those wriggly little things swim into safe warm ovens? Have you also noticed that babies made this way always arrive holding their DNA certificates? Like bearing the one birthmark their fathers and grandfathers have in a discreet place right on their baby chins or the back of their hands. Yeah.

Then there are the times when an unscrupulous girlfriend turns a broken protection into an ATM. Shouldn’t a man know if he’s protection has leaked a few little ones? Methinks he should, which is why I don’t know why a man’s going to fall for that old lying line again: ‘Babe, the condom broke and the doctor just confirmed that I’m pregnant.’ Oh pleaseeee. I think a good girl should take care of any unwanted wandering Junior swimming through the fence before he settles down in her oven. Following that announcement with blackmail and extortion is so dirty and mean. I promise to tell you how a friend of mine met his blackmailing babe halfway and the counteroffer that saw her leaving town without a forwarding address.

Guys, may I close this sermon with this: if you need the gadget, buy a fit and proper one. Otherwise, double it. You may as well keep a close eye on your treasure bags. Don’t let anything escape and if they mistakenly do, go after them before you become a bewildered Director in a two-women cast drama about a broken condom.

▪︎Egbemode ([email protected])

For defiling 8 and 5year-old daughters, man bags life jail in Lagos

For using his eight and five-year-old daughters as toys to satisfy his sensual desires, one Sulei­man Usman will be spending the rest of his life in jail.

Hon. Justice Rah­man Oshodi of Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court sentenced Usman to life imprisonment on Tuesday, May 30, 2023, af­ter he was found guilty of the charge preferred against him by the Lagos State government.

Usman was arraigned on two counts charge bordering on defilement of his two daugh­ters, aged 8 and 5, at their residence situated at No. 2 Bale Street, Onisewo area of Apapa in Lagos.

The state noted that the offences contravene the provi­sions of section 137 of the Crim­inal Law of Lagos State 2015.

He had, however, pleaded not guilty to the two counts charge when he was arraigned.

Usman was first arraigned before Justice Sybil Nwaka on October 2019 before the judge was elevated to the Court of Ap­peal and the case file was reas­signed to Justice Oshodi’s court where he was re-arraigned on two counts of charge.

During the trial, the pros­ecution called four witnesses among which were the first survivor, the 8 years old girl, the Investigative Police Officer (IPO), the defendant’s wife (the mother of the survivors), and the medical doctor from Mira­bel Centre.

After the close of the pros­ecution case, defence opens his case. Three witnesses in­cluding the defendant gave ev­idence before the court.

However, Justice Oshodi exonerated the convict of the second charge.

The court held that the pros­ecution failed to prove the sec­ond charge against the defen­dant as the second survivor did not testify to the second charge related to her defilement.

On count one, the court held that the testimony of the first survivor corroborate the medical doctor. Justice Oshodi said that he has considered the ingredients of the offences, the confessional statement, circumstantial evidence, and the eyewitness account in sen­tencing the father to life impris­onment.

He said, “Our society is prone to sexual abuse, sexual crime against children is so prevalent. Our laws in Lagos have zero tolerance for your gang of pedophiles; that is not acceptable. In your case, the survivor is your daughter. You put your penis in her virginal and her anus. The survivor was 8 years at the time… she had excruciating pain.

“You are hereby convicted and sentenced to life imprison­ment.”

Last year, an Ikeja Special Offences Court sentenced a 52-year-old man, Akin Isaac, to 21 years imprisonment for defiling and impregnating his 18-year-old daughter.

 Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo sentenced the convict on Thursday, September 15, 2022, following his plea bargain application dated 21 April.

 “In view of the guilty plea of the defendant to one count of defilement, I hereby find the defendant guilty as charged,” Her Lordship said.

 The judge thereafter asked the defendant if he had anything to say, following his conviction.

NAN reports that the convict knelt down in the dock and pleaded for mercy, saying he had an aged mother to look after.

Justice Taiwo thereafter sentenced him to 21 years in prison and added that the sentencing should take effect from June 2020 when he was arrested.

Earlier, the judge had asked the state counsel, Omowumi Bajulaye-Bishi, if the 21 years plea bargain was good enough for the convict, owing to how emotional the survivor was while she was giving her testimony.

“I remember the survivor clearly. She was weeping right here in the box. Abortion, pregnancy, drugs, beating, and all sorts of inhuman treatment meted on her by her father? Do you think 21 years is good enough for him?” the judge asked.

Mrs. Bajulaye-Bishi, in her review of facts dated 6th July, had informed the court that the convict applied and concluded to change his plea, upon which the information against him be amended to the offence of defilement.

The offence was committed between 2014 and 2020 at Akinlagbe Street, Alapere Lagos. It contravened Section 137 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.

In a related development, a 20-year-old man, Babangida Isah has been arrested for allegedly defiling a five-year-old girl in Gombe.

Officers of the Gombe state police command have arrested, Babangida Isah from Tike quarters in Bajoga, Funakaye Local Government Area of Gombe.

While parading the suspect before newsmen, spokesperson of the state police command, ASP Mahid Abubakar, said one Yahaya Isah came to the Divisional Police headquarters and reported that the suspect lured his five-year-old daughter, behind an Almajiri school and had carnal knowledge of her.

 ‘’On receipt of the complaint, the suspect, Isah was arrested where he voluntarily confessed to the crime. Both the suspect and the victim were taken to the hospital for a medical examination; the case will soon be charged to court for prosecution.” Abubakar said

Warning those who derived pleasure in defiling minors particularly, Abubakar said that the command under Etim Oqua will bring them to justice.

 “The Commissioner of Police, CP Oqua Etim, commends the effort of the detectives attached to the Bajoga Division who were involved in the investigation for their swift action and dedication to duty. He assures the public of the command’s readiness to ensure the safety and security of all citizens. They are to report any suspicious activities and cooperate with the police in their efforts to maintain peace and order in the community.

The CP also encourages officers and men of the command to work tirelessly to ensure that criminals are brought to justice and that the state remains safe and secure for all residents,” Abubakar said

Celebrating Democracy Day: Those who forced themselves on us…know the truth


By J. S. Okutepa

Today has been declared democracy day in honor of June 12, 1993, the most credible and freest presidential elections ever conducted in Nigeria. It was elections where Nigerians of all shades of opinions voted freely for late Chief MKO Abiola and Amb Babagana Kingibe under the Social Democratic Party SDP.

As usual Nigerian anti-Democratic forces, the evil-minded, the principalities and powers who have held Nigerians and Nigeria in the jugular did not allow that freest choice of Nigerians to stand. The election was nullified by a military junta led by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.

As with everything in Nigeria, we play politics with everything including human life. Symbolically today June 12 has been declared Democracy Day by those who claimed to be democrats and public holidays have been so declared. President Mohammad Buhari declared it Democracy Day and declared public holidays to be marking it.

Good as it is to recognize what is good and celebrate it, as it appears the Nigerian Government is doing, it is necessary to ask probing questions whether after June 12 annulment of the freest and best elections Nigerian democracy is being built on the foundation of democracy laid by the experience of June 12 1993 elections. I do not think so.

For me and many Nigerians, the democratic experiment since June 12 annulment has been from bad to worst. Truth be told many of our politicians and political actors parading in the corridors of power since June 12 annulment are either democratic despots or outright democratic terrorists who have terrorized Nigerians and Nigerian society into political slavery and political submissions based on their whims and caprices.

For me and many well-meaning Nigerians, politicians have thrown the basic tenets of democracy overboard in Nigeria and have embraced money-bags democratic tyranny and coercion to the detriment of sovereignty of the people. Political hygiene is polluted and corruption Nigeria PLC has all replaced the much cherished democratic values where the will of the people is the most significant indices of good democracy.

Today as we celebrate the freest and most credible elections of June 12, even the actors who will be celebrating Democracy Day today know that they have gradually murdered democracy in Nigeria. There is no doubt and Nigerians are aware that many of our politicians and political actors in the corridors of power did not come to power by democratic means. They forced themselves on Nigerians.

Those of them who did not win elections and bought their ways to power know themselves. The independent National Electoral Commission needs to learn many lessons from the way June 12 elections were conducted. Nigerians are tired of charade call elections in Nigeria.

Everyone knows that democracy has been contaminated by almost incurable political viruses of corruption and terrorism in all states. Those in power in Nigeria are political emperors who determined who succeeds them. Political parties are not having internal democracy. Political impositions have replaced parties primaries in almost all the political parties. These politicians know the truth.

Our compromised INEC is impari delicto in this regard. INEC that has constitutional duties and responsibilities to instill political sanity in our otherwise political rascality has been castrated in the performances of statutory and constitutional functions that today democracy exists only in name and not in practice in Nigeria. For me what we have in Nigeria in the name of democracy is just a civilian militarized government.

There is no doubt that there are many people at the corridors of power in Nigeria of today who are celebrating Democracy Day that did not come to power by means of democracy. Democracy as we know is government of the people by the people and for the people. Inherent in this is the fact that sovereignty belongs to the people.

People determine those they want to lead them. But in our own brand of democracy those we the people don’t want manipulate electoral processes to lord over us. Today we have people who have no respect for due process and democratic rules claiming to be democrats and are lording over us. Nigerians are just political slaves in the hands of tiny political despots. That is our own democracy.

As we remember June 12 in the name of Democracy Day today I appeal to Nigerian politicians to turn over a new leaf. We have had enough of democratic despotism and terrorism. Nigerians love democracy and have always loved to so exercise their sovereignty. But politicians and political actors have always on altar of primordial selfish interest trampled upon and truncated the will of the people. I appeal to Nigerian politicians to all true democracy prevail in Nigeria.

That is the only way we can have good governance and government that is accountable and responsible to the people. The sad reality is that Nigeria as at today as we celebrate Democracy Day, does not have democracy in the true sense of the word. Those who forced themselves on us or those who forced others on us know the truth. Conscience is an open wound and only truth can heal it. Let truth be told. Happy Democracy Day Nigerians.
12:6:2023

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