Femi Falana lambasts El-Rufai's conditions on Sheikh Zakzaky's treatment in India

L-R: Femi Falana (SAN) and Sheikh El-Zakzaky

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"Calls it the height of provocative contempt......."

Human rights activist and lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), on Wednesday, criticised the Kaduna State government over the stringent conditions it issued with regards to the permission granted by the court to Sheikh Ibrahim El-zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat, to embark on medical trip abroad. 

The Kaduna State government had expressed concern that El-zakzakay and his wife may seek asylum in India. 

Upon this, the Governor Nasir El-Rufai-led administration prayed the court to make El-Zakzaky, his wife and each of the other defendants produce two prominent sureties, including a first-class chief or emir to qualify for the foreign medical trip. 

The government, which expressed its displeasure at the terms of the medical leave, added, that “While the Kaduna State government respects the court’s ruling on medical leave, it disagrees with the premises on which it is based. 

“Therefore, an appeal will be lodged on the matter, but a stay of execution will not be sought as the state government believes that a person may choose to travel abroad for any medical condition at his own cost.” 

But responding on Wednesday, rights activist and lawyer to the IMN leader, Mr Femi Falana (SAN) said in a statement: “I thought that the Kaduna State government had planned to appeal against the order of the Honourable Darius Khobo granting leave to the El-Zakzakys to travel to India for urgent medical treatment under the supervision of the government. 

“I hope that the plan to pursue an appeal in the case has been shelved as the Court of Appeal has ruled that you cannot stay the execution of orders of this nature. That remains the position of the law as espoused in the case of Mowarin v Nigerian Army, which was decided under a military dictatorship in the country. 

“The so-called agreement is totally alien to the penal code and the administration of criminal justice law of Kaduna State. Hence, the agreement is not brought under any substantive or adjectival law. 

“My colleagues in the Ministry of Justice are not unaware of the position of the law that an agreement cannot vary or modify the order of a competent court. It is unfortunate that some highly placed public officers are so hell bent on abrogating the fundamental rights which have been fought for and won by Nigerians, even under the British colonial regime. 

“For instance, the Prison Ordinance was amended in 1917 to allow the family members or friends of prison inmates to remove them from prison and take them out for medical treatment, if the prison facilities could not cater for any terminal illness. That provision has been incorporated in Regulation 12 made pursuant to the Prisons Act. 

“In this instant case, the court did not release the El-Zakzakys to their family members but that they should be treated in a foreign hospital under the supervision of the government. 

“Since the Department of Service Services (DSS), which has the custody of the El-Zakzakys, has announced on behalf of the Federal Government that the court order would be obeyed, the so-called terms of “agreements” of the Kaduna State government should be ignored because it is the height of provocative contempt. 

“It takes two to tango. A party in a case cannot dream of some weird ideas, parade them as an agreement and impose same on a court and the other parties.” 

South Africa presidential panel backs limited land seizures

Julius Malema - Hardliner and leader of the EFF Party 

CC™ Global News 

"But whites, who make up only about 9% of the population own almost 75% of the land in South Africa. African hardliners want this anomaly corrected and are advocating a more aggressive approach to land seizures."

South Africa's land problem

• The Natives Land Act of 1913 restricted Africans from buying or renting land in "apartheid South Africa", leading to the forced removals of Africans (blacks).
• After the end of apartheid in 1994, the ANC government said it wanted to return 30% of this land to its previous owners by 2014
• It is estimated that 10% of commercial farmland has been redistributed.

A presidential panel in South Africa has proposed expropriation of land without compensation, but in limited circumstances.

Land held purely for speculative purposes or occupied by tenants should be given away, it advises.

White people, who make up just 9% of the population, own almost 75% of the farmland that is held by individuals.

President Cyril Ramaphosa backs land expropriation, which is popular with the black majority.

The governing African National Congress (ANC) has repeatedly pledged to accelerate land transfers to the black majority since taking office in 1994, after white-minority rule ended, but progress has been slow.

Those opposed to land expropriation point to Zimbabwe where a similar policy by former President Robert Mugabe wrecked the economy and scared away investors. President Ramaphosa set up the team of experts last year as the ANC was coming under pressure from opposition parties, especially from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

The panel proposed that the government expropriate

• land held purely for speculative purposes

• land already occupied and used by tenants and former tenants

• land that has been abandoned

• inner city buildings with absentee landlords.

It said those who had bought property since the end of apartheid should be treated differently to those who had inherited land that was held under the apartheid system.

The main opposition Democratic Alliance party rejected the report's recommendations, saying land expropriation without compensation would "further batter our ailing economy".

Parliament is due to debate proposed changes to the land expropriation bill in October.


Source: BBC News

Felicia Mabuza-Suttle: I'm reliving apartheid in the US

South African entrepreneur Felicia Mabuza-Suttle

CC™ Introspective - By Liam Karabo Joyce

Veteran TV talk show host Felicia Mabuza-Suttle has taken to social media to talk about her life growing up during apartheid after MSNBC's Joy-Ann Reid compared the Donald Trump administration to that of the National Party. 

Mabuza-Suttle posted a video on her social media account in which Reid said that Trump was turning the US into apartheid South Africa. 

"This brought back memories of growing up as a little girl in South Africa, traumatized by police arresting black men, including my father and uncle, and walking them for hours handcuffed in pairs, as they rounded up neighborhoods asking men for Pass Books." 

She said growing up she often told her brother and sister she was happy she was not a man, and so she would not be arrested for a Pass Book which every person of color needed to carry. 

"To this day, those memories remain indelible in my mind. I remember seeing black men thrown into the back of a police van. I can still hear that deafening knock on the door, in the middle of the night, from the Afrikaner police shouting, 'Open the door, police, Pass!"

She now lives in an upscale neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia, but said she did not leave the house without her driver's licence, for fear of being stopped by the police. "Ironically, I feel safer taking my walks in Miami. My black neighbor in Atlanta recently told me that she was stopped by a policeman, who doubted she lived in this 'upscale neighborhood'. The policeman asked for her driver's licence. This is the new America under Trump. I am reliving apartheid under Trump," she said 

She claimed some of the former white South Africans who live in Atlanta, who emigrated to the US, are staunch supporters of Trump and his ideology. "Ironically, I found out that some of the former white South Africans who live in Atlanta, who migrated to the US, are staunch supporters of #Trumpism and proudly support #DonaldTrump," she said. 

Case of "the wicked eating their own flesh" as Nigeria police demand justice after deadly clash with Buhari's "Third Reich"

                President Muhammadu Buhari - Photo - AP

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The Nigerian police hierarchy is demanding answers from the Army over a clash which led to the death of three police officers and a civilian in the north-eastern Taraba State.

The police maintain that the action of the soldiers had also led to the escape from lawful custody of a “millionaire kidnapper,” one Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume.

In a statement posted on social media, the police responded to claims in an earlier Army press release on the issue stating their side of facts and posing questions in need of answers from the Army.

"Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume is a millionaire kidnapper arrested by the Police but paradoxically treated as a ‘‘kidnap victim’’ by the Soldiers and subsequently ‘rescued’ by them. Where is he? Where is the rescued kidnapper?"

“The most important question arising from the Nigerian Army Press Release is: Where is Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume?

“Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume is a millionaire kidnapper arrested by the Police but paradoxically treated as a ‘‘kidnap victim’’ by the Soldiers and subsequently ‘rescued’ by them. Where is he? Where is the rescued kidnapper?,” it read in part.

The police said its officers were on lawful mandate, were with the appropriate identification and that their operation was known to the Taraba Police Command yet the soldiers attached to the 93 Battalion had gone on to kill them.

Incidentally, President Buhari held a meeting with security chiefs on Thursday with a key instruction from that meeting being that a probe be opened into the incident.

Police questions demanding answers from the Nigerian Army

• Where is the notorious kidnapper, Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume ‘rescued’ by the soldiers?
• How and why was Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume released by the soldiers?
• How could a kidnap suspect properly restrained with handcuffs by the Police escape from the hands of his military rescuers?
• If Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume is a ‘‘victim of kidnap’’ as claimed, and properly rescued by soldiers, why was he not taken to the Army Base for documentation purposes and debriefing in line with the Standard Operating Procedure in the Nigerian Army?
• Why were the Police Operatives shot at close range even after they had identified themselves as Police Officers on legitimate duty as evident in the video now in circulation?

Source: africanews.com with contribution from Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban

The new American normal: Another crazed lunatic armed with a rifle and wearing body armor arrested at Missouri Walmart

Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock shot more than 500 people

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Police in Springfield, Missouri, detained a man on Thursday afternoon after he walked into a Walmart, armed with a rifle and wearing body armor. 

The white male, who appeared to be in his 20s, was stopped by an armed off-duty firefighter until officers arrived and took the man into custody, the Springfield Police Department said. 

A video taken by a witness outside the store shows the suspect with his arms up in the air and what looks like an assault rifle slung around his neck as he’s being arrested. 

It’s unclear what the man’s motive was, but police told ABC Springfield affiliate KSPR that the man was recording himself with his cellphone while walking through the store.

The man had about 100 rounds of ammunition on him when he entered the store, police told the station.

"All we know is the fact that he walked in here heavily armed, with body armor on, and military fatigues on, and caused a great amount of panic inside the store," said Lt. Mike Lucas with the Springfield Police Department. "He certainly had the capability and potential to harm people."

"His intent was not to cause comfort or peace to anybody that was in the business here. In fact, he’s lucky to be alive still, to be honest," Lucas added.

The man's name was not released and it's unclear if he's facing any charges.

The scare comes less than a week after an armed man killed 22 people and injured dozens more at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and nine were killed during a shooting in Dayton, Ohio.

"Obviously what’s happened in Texas and Dayton, and that kind of stuff in the last seven days, that’s on everybody’s mind," Lucas said.

Police said there is no longer a threat to the community and the Walmart has since reopened.

Witness Julie Belew said she was getting out of her car at the Walmart when she realized something was going on.

She said she heard someone "say, 'Is that a rifle? Is that a real rifle?' So I looked up and I saw the person to my left was holding a gun."

The incident at the Missouri Walmart comes hours after police in Florida identified a man they were looking for who they alleged told a Walmart salesperson in Port St. Lucie that he was looking for something "that would kill 200 people."

That man was identified as 55-year-old Philip Michael Attey II and during a subsequent interview with detectives, Attey said he is an anti-gun activist and that he believes his statements made to the Walmart clerk in front of a customer "only helps his cause which is for Walmart to stop selling firearms," police said.

Authorities do not consider Attey an immediate threat and he was not arrested or charged. An investigation is ongoing.


Source: ABC News

Attacks on the Media Continue Unabated in Nigeria

Nigeria - A nation under siege from a brutal tyrant

CC™ Diplomatic Viewpoint - By John Campbell

There has been a string of arrests of media personalities and suspensions of media outlets in Nigeria. Recently, some of the arrests have been related to support for a protest tagged “Days of Rage” and #RevolutionNow, against what supporters consider a failure of governance, but the harassment of media in Nigeria is nothing new. 

In January 2019, Nigerian Security Services raided multiple offices across the country of the Daily Trust, one of Nigeria’s largest circulation newspapers, apparently angry at its published reports about upcoming army operations against Boko Haram. President Buhari quickly ordered the military to leave the newspaper’s offices, raising questions at who exactly had ordered the raids. In April, an activist known as IG Wala was sentenced to seven years in jail for organizing a peaceful demonstration and for making “unsubstantiated allegations” against a public official, the chairman of the National Hajj Commission. He is in the process of appealing the ruling. He had been denied bail, which he requested on health grounds until his appeal could be heard. He was then transferred to a remote prison.

In June, DAAR Communications, owner of African Independent Television and RayPower FM radio, had its license suspended indefinitely, allegedly for failure to pay licensing fees and for the presence of hate speech and suspect information from social media in its programming. The following day a Federal High Court judge ordered the reopening of the networks. The owner of DAAR communications had accused the director general of the National Broadcasting Commission of editorial interference and political bias. 

On August 2, Abubakar Dadiyata Idris, was apparently kidnapped. Family and friends are saying that he has been arrested by the DSS. Known as Dadiyata, he was a fierce critic of Governor Umar Ganduje of Kano state. The next day, the DSS arrested Omoyele Sowore, editor of Sahara Reporters, ostensibly for supporting the #RevolutionNow Lagos demonstration. He was also the presidential candidate for African Action Congress in the 2019 elections. His support for the demonstration was, according to the police, grounds for arresting him for advocating violence. There is a national and international campaign by some human rights advocates for his release.

Allegations against those arrested appear to be a mixture of the mundane, such as the failure to pay licensing fees, and various forms of incitement or criticism of government officials. It is worth noting that in at least some cases, courts have reversed arrests and suspensions. The specifics of each case are obscure, at least for someone based outside of Nigeria. But people in authority are clearly nervous. The country is facing serious challenges ranging from Boko Haram to Middle Belt conflict over water and land use that falls along ethnic and religious lines. Amid these crises, social media in Nigeria, as elsewhere, can be irresponsible. Governor El-Rufai of Kaduna state has made explicit reference to the role of “fake news” to the Rwandan genocide. Nevertheless, what appears to be an acceleration of media arrests and intimidation must be cause for concern.                                                 

 Source: Council on Foreign Relations

Turns out U.S. President Donald Trump actually smirked at the idea of shooting migrants at a political rally three months before El Paso massacre

CC™ Insider

We are leaving in rather dangerous times and the song "America the Beautiful" may soon be replaced by an unwanted sequel entitled "America the Ugly". This is unconscionable coming from the President of the United States.

A tyrant will always be a tyrant: Buhari's men in mufti arrest Omoyele Sowore over planned pro-democracy rally

President Muhammadu Buhari

CC™ Africa News

The Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the February 2019 presidential election in Nigeria, Omoyele Sowore, has reportedly been arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).

According to SaharaReporters, Sowore’s online media outfit, he was picked up at his apartment in the early hours of Saturday, with an eyewitness confirming that his phone was forcefully taken from him.

Local media report his arrest by the DSS could be as a result of his plans to mobilize people in Lagos and many parts of the country for a revolution protest tagged ‘Days of Rage’ to demand a better Nigeria

Omoyele Sowore and some other Nigerian activists are staging a ‘RevolutionNow’ protest planned for August 5.

Nigeria police has warned Nigerians to stay away from the planned demonstration saying it would amount to a felony and terrorism.

His party, the African Action Congress (AAC) had declared 5th August for the commencement of revolution protest tagged ‘Days of Rage’ across the country to demand a better Nigeria.

Omoyele Sowore, disclosed recently in Abuja at the end of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting that the protest would be sustained until the country is put on the right path of honor where justice prevails.

However, Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and the security forces said they are working heavily to address the multi-faceted crisis in the country, thereby calling on citizens to be patient for the efforts to yield the desired result.

Trevor Noah says Ronald Reagan using virulently racist language to describe African leaders is par for the course

CC™ Infotainment

Ellen Pompeo slammed for calling Kamala Harris 'overconfident': Funny thing is she (Pompeo) should know better as she is married to a black man and has two biracial daughters

Senator Kamala Harris

CC™ Political Insight

The internet did not respond kindly to Ellen Pompeo calling Kamala Harris “overconfident.” The Grey’s Anatomy star was tuned into the second Democratic debate on Wednesday, but riled people up with remarks about Harris on Twitter.

Pompeo’s controversial comment came in response to a Bloomberg tweet suggesting that an “emerging trend” in the debate was that Kamala Harris only wanted to debate Biden. The star’s response: “Because she’s overconfident and believes he is her only competition.”

Many interpreted her criticism as a “racial comment,” and took Pompeo to task. “Black women are allowed only a certain amount of confidence,” one person tweeted. “Must always yield something to whatever white man is around.”

Another wrote, “I know you didn’t just call a black woman running for president overconfident.”

Others suggested that her comment was meant to suggest Harris was being “uppity” and said that “white women need to do better.”

Pompeo — who never shies away from a discussion about race (and has faced criticism that she’s anti-white for “celebrating brown people”) — soon found herself defending her tweet. She said the fact that it was turned into a “racial comment” was “so weak.” She added, “Stop looking for sh** to get mad about.”

Others on social media also felt her comment was sexist but at the end of the night, Ellen signed off with love — and reminded people that she’s allowed to have opinions.