The Hindu newspaper has reported the death of three Nigerians in a rented accommodation in Uttam Nagar area of New Delhi.

The Nigerians were found dead on Friday, with the police recovering bottles of alcohol and soft drinks from the spot. The Times of India said all the three men were found frothing in the mouth.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Shibesh Singh said the deceased have been identified as David Christopher, Greece Ben, and David (I), all in their 30s.

While Greece used to live on the third floor of the rented accommodation, David used to reside on the second. David (I) had rented a house nearby but used to visit the two often.

The bodies were found on the third floor of the rented accommodation.

“Greece and David were here on a business visa. Greece had come in March and David had come in April,” Mr. Singh said.

The police received a PCR call around 12.30 p.m. from the landlord of the deceased stating that a foul smell was emanating from the house.

“The whole building is inhabited by people from African countries. There is a common kitchen near floor three. A resident of the building passed by and knocked on the door because of the smell, but no one opened. He then called the landlord, who called the police,” the DCP said.

When the police broke open the door, they found the bodies of David and Greece in one room and David (I)’s body in another room.

“One of the three bodies was in a state of decomposition. There were no strangulation marks or any other external injuries on the bodies,” Mr. Singh said.

The police have shifted the bodies to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital for post-mortem to ascertain the cause of death.

Source: NAN

Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that he will not be re-contesting the national chairmanship position in the forthcoming National Convention slated for June 23, in the partys interest.

He stated this on Friday night in Abuja while speaking with newsmen, adding that his decision was taken after wide consultation with close political associates and family members and not because of intimidation.

However, he said that the tenure extension that was hitherto agreed by the partys National Executive Committee (NEC) suffered a set-back following President Muhammadu Buharis opposition.

According to him, the tenure extension would have helped to stabilise the party in the face of some of its challenges and may have prevented the crisis that followed its recent congresses in some states of the federation.

He said that some of the party leaders ought to have considered the tenure extension to be in the best interest of the party.

This, he said, would have ensured that the party go into the 2019 elections as a united fighting force, rather than one that was potentially weakened by internal conflicts arising from competitive congresses and convention.

Odigie-Oyegun urged party leaders to close ranks and to make the party a strong fighting force ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Now that the Convention Committee has invited interested aspirants to obtain forms to contest various national positions in our party, it has become necessary for me to state my position.

I have consulted widely with my family, friends and associates, even though, I had the desire to re-contest as the national chairman of the party.

I have decided that it is ultimately in the best interest of the party for me to withdraw from the race, he said.

I believe that the party faces difficult days ahead, and all critical stakeholders in its leadership would be required to bind together for a common purpose.

He advised that a less-contentious convention would be better for the party adding that he had always sought to be part of solving the partys problems.

I do not intend to be part of the problem for APC to solve. It is for this reason that I hereby declare that I will not be seeking re-election as the national chairman.

However, I will continue to perform my functions as the national chairman of the party, till my tenure officially ends on Monday, June 25 when a new set of party executives will be inaugurated, Odigie-Oyegun said.

Source: NAN

NAN reporting

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Mr Opeyemi Bamidele, and an unidentified person were shot on Friday in Ado-Ekiti at a reception for the candidate of the party, Dr Kayode Fayemi.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the reception which held at the APC secretariat in the Ekiti capital had attracted a large crowd of party supporters.

Gov. Rotimi Akeredolu, Fayemi and a former Minister of Works, Dayo Adeyeye , were descending the stairs case at the secretariat when a policeman was said to have suddenly shot into the air to scare the surging crowd.

Bamidele was said to have been shot on the hand in the ensuing melee while the other victim was also hit.

The two victims were hurriedly conveyed to a hospital where they are said to be under treatment.

The APC spokesperson in the state, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in a statement described the incident as a clear case of assassination attempt.

He claimed that the gunman had aimed his gun at Fayemi and missed, with the bullet hitting Bamidele and the other victim.

He also claimed that the policeman was fake and an assassin.

But the police spokesman in the state, Caleb Chukwuemeka, said the command was still awaiting the report of the incident from its officers deployed to provide security at the reception.

Fayemi and his entourage had earlier been received in Ikere Ekiti by a long convoy of vehicles and large crowd of party supporters, resulting in a traffic snarl on the Ado-Ekiti Akure road.

Addressing the crowd, Akeredolu applauded the party members for putting behind them the post-primary crisis.

He said the huge crowd was indicative that the state had remained a stronghold of the APC.

Fayemi has returned with full force to reclaim the land. He needs your support and this task shall be achieved in the mighty name of God, he said.

Fayemi, in his response, said we are here to work for Ekiti and our party leaders and this we are going to do together because it is a collective responsibility.

We are going to work with everybody, including those who just decamped to our party, because we are one big family in APC.

We shall win by the grace of God. Our case was like the case of a ram who moved backwards to garner more strength. We are here to rescue Ekiti and it is a task we must achieve.

Adeyeye, who returned to the party on Tuesday after 12 years in the PDP, also said: I have returned home and my mission is to ensure that we kill (Gov. Ayo) Fayose politically by burying him.

We shall mobilise well to achieve this task and by the grace of God this is a must-win and must accomplished task for all of us.

NAN reports that Fayemis choice for deputy governor, Chief Bisi Egbeyemi, was also in the entourage.

*Olatunbosuns Statement:

Fayemi Survives Assassination, As Ex-Lawmaker, Others Sustain Gunshot Wounds
Bloody politicking returned to Ekiti State yesterday(Friday), as former Governor Kayode Fayemi survived assassination in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State capital.

Fayemi resigned his appointment on Wednesday as the Minister of Mines and Steel Development and was returning to Ekiti State on Friday in a welcome party planned by his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

It was a smooth ride from Akure Airport to Ikere-Ekiti where thousands of supporters came out to give him a rousing welcome.

Ikere-Ekiti journey to Ado-Ekiti, a distance of about nine kilometres, lasted two hours in a heavy traffic that was punctuated by four gunmen suspected to be agents of the state government who strategically positioned themselves at the partys secretariat in Ado-Ekiti for the attack.

One of the assailants dressed in mobile police uniform was apprehended and he is now helping the police in their investigation.

They fired gunshots aimed at Fayemi but hit a former lawmaker, Opeyemi Bamidele, after the former minister had taken a few steps forward before the bullets hit the target.

Bamidele and other victims were immediately rushed to the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, where doctors are responding to his treatment.

Bamidele was fatally wounded in the attack while others also sustained various degrees of injuries.

Other victims in the hospital included Olabode Joshua, Olanrewaju Gbenga, Adebayo Ogunjemilehin, Ogunmodede Oluwole and Alex Adeleye.

Taiwo Olatunbosun

Publicity Secretary

June 1, 2018

Source: NAN

=====Australias Catholic Church has committed to join the governments redress scheme of 3.8 billion Australian dollars (2.2 billion) for victims of child sexual abuse.

The move paves the way for compensation to be paid to people who were sexually abused as children by church figures and puts pressure on other institutions to follow suit.

The church is the first non-government institution to opt into the plan and estimates it will itself be liable for about one billion dollars (568 million) in compensation.

===The UN Conference on Trade and Development says no fewer than 17 million Africans left the continent in 2017 in search of greener pastures.

In its Economic Development in Africa report, the agency also said 5.5 million people moved to Africa from other continents while some 19 million international migrants moved within Africa, boosting economic growth in the continent.

It urged the world to dispel misconceptions and harmful narratives targeting migration in Africa.

Catholic Church commits $1billion to child sexual abuse compensation – 02:44
— News Agency of Nigeria

===Americas Chamber of Commerce has predicted that President Donald Trumps strict stance on trade could put 2.6 million jobs at risk and possible US withdrawal from NAFTA, the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.

Mr Tom Donohue, President of the business organisation of the Chamber, in a memo to the board of directors, said a NAFTA withdrawal would kill as many as 1.8 million American jobs in the first year.

===The World Health Organisation says it commenced campaign to eliminate Yellow Fever in the country in February, with the vaccination of two million people in Internally Displaced Persons camps in Borno and surrounding communities.

The organisations Communications Officer, Ms Charity Warigon, said the campaign aimed to vaccinate 25 million Nigerians in different parts of the country would continue to the end of the year and in the coming years.

=====The International Organisation for Migration and the European Union have evacuated 186 more Nigerians from Libya.

Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, spokesperson for the National Emergency Management Agency, South-West Zone, said the returnees arrived in two batches at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

=====The UN Security Council has extended by 45 days sanctions against South Sudan.

The resolution passed 9 yes votes and six abstentions from the 15 member Security Council, giving just enough votes for the draft to be adopted as Resolution 2418.

The resolution, which threatens an arms embargo on South Sudan, would place a travel ban and asset freeze on six individuals, high-ranking government officials and prominent rebel leaders, unless the parties stop fighting and agree on a viable political agreement.

Source: NAN

The opposition pose a formidable threat to the government of All Progressives Party (APC) because of the enormous looted resource in their possession, President Muhammadu Buhari has alerted.

President Buhari said on Friday that opposition was in possession of much resource that could sponsor mischief against his administration.

He made the allegation when he received members of Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) at the Presidential Villa.

He claimed that the opposition looted so much money before he assumed office, that his administration may not be able to recover all and might use same against his government.

The opposition, now, are sitting on incredible resources which I am afraid we cannot get at it all, President Buhari told the group.

For that reason, they are in a position to sponsor mischief from different angles which in spite of the incumbency of the government, we cannot absolutely stop.

President Buhari, however, urged members of the organisation to continue to support his administration in recovering the looted resources as much as they can.

He further praised the support group for its steadfastness, moral uprightness and sacrifice to the nation.

The group, formerly known as Buhari Media Support Group, was led to the Villa by its National Coordinator, Austin Briamoh.

It comprises retired and serving media practitioners among others, and was the media outfit of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council in 2015.

It was later converted to Buhari Media Support Group (BMSG) after the elections and was renamed Buhari Media Organisation earlier this year.

President Buhari met with the group in company with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha.

Others are Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Abba Kyari, as well as President Buharis Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, and his Personal Assistant on Social Media, Ms Lauretta Onochia.

Source: NAN

In its plan to attract tourists, the Uganda government is building a war museum to showcase the darkest moments from its history, including the atrocities of former President, late Idi Amin.

Atrocities committed under Amins brutal eight-year rule and by the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) are to be documented.

We want to put the record straight, Uganda Tourism Board chief executive Stephen Asiimwe, said.

History gets richer, its like red wine it gets more interesting as the years go by, Mr Asiimwe said.

He said that the project was not intended to be insensitive or voyeuristic.

I lived through the Idi Amin era as a young boy, my fellow students lost their parents to the regime, he said.

However you cannot run away from history. These are facts.

Mr Asiimwe said every destination has its own traditional culture and attractions.

In Uganda we have wildlife mountain gorillas. But we are trying to retrace the past.

Showcasing Ugandas history would make the East African country a richer place for tourists to visit, he added.

More recently, Ugandans have had to deal with the LRA, which has claimed to be fighting to install a government based on the Biblical Ten Commandments.

Formed in Uganda more than two decades ago, the group became notorious for chopping off peoples limbs and abducting children to use as soldiers and sex slaves.

Its leader, Joseph Kony, is wanted for war crimes and the group continues to operate in northern Democratic Republic of Congo and eastern Central African Republic.

He was the subject of the #Kony2012 social media campaign six years ago which detailed his alleged crimes. An online video became a viral sensation with more than 100 million views.

The Uganda war museum will also showcase pre-colonial and colonial history.

Colonial records were systematically destroyed by Britain in a purge known as operation legacy. But the war museum is expected to document some events from the period.

Construction has not yet begun, but the museum already has its detractors.

John Sempebwa, the deputy executive director of the tourism board, told VOA he disagrees with his colleagues who suggest Ugandans are ready to revisit the more painful details of their past.

Society is divided. There are people who are still around who dont have good memories of Amin. Now, not only wont they come, they might burn this place down, he said.

Profile: IDI AMIN

Joined the army the Kings African Rifles in his 20s.
Seized power in 1971, less than 10 years after Ugandas independence.
Some 400,000 people are believed to have been killed under his rule.
Expelled Ugandas entire Asian population in 1972, accusing them of milking the economy.
A convert to Islam, he took five wives, fathered dozens of children and insisted on being called Big Daddy.
He declared himself King of Scotland, banned hippies and mini-skirts, and awarded himself the Victoria Cross.
Ousted by Tanzanian troops and Ugandan exiles in 1979.
Died in Saudi Arabia in 2003.

Read more:

Source: NAN

Ghanas High Commissioner in Nigeria, Mr. Rashid Bawa, has denounced ex-President Jonathan for misquoting President Nana Akuffo-Addo over security situation in Nigeria.

He said on Friday that Jonathan took the words of President Akufo-Addo completely out of context when he quoted the Ghanaian leader of mocking Nigeria.

The High Commissioner said Nigerias ex-President misquoted Ghanas Presidents speech delivered by at the Oxford African Conference.

He recalled the exact words of President Akufo-Addo: For most of you in the audience today, it is probably before your time. But in the late 1970s up to the mid-1980s, as a result of the discovery of considerable petroleum deposits, Nigeria was booming. It was the place to be.

We Ghanaians, who were going through very difficult times then, would arrive at Heathrow Airport, and be herded into a cage to be subjected to the full third degree by Immigration , and we would look on as our Nigerian cousins would be waved through, with a welcome sir and a welcome madam .

The newspaper headlines in this country were full of Nigerians leaving or forgetting bundles of money in taxis and telephone booths. Nigerians were the preferred tenants for those who had apartments to let. You could stop by any Thomas Cook shop on any High Street in this country and buy or sell Naira, the Nigerian currency, and you could do the same in New York, and I suspect in many other Western country cities.

I do not need to spell out todays reality to anyone in this audience. I cite this just to make the point that the the outside world is well able to tell that there are separate sovereign nations on the African continent. But when the news is not good, then Africa is treated as one entity.

Bawa disagreed also with Jonathans reference to Akufo-Addos purported disposition towards cattle-rearing.

The other alleged remark that Ghana is not Nigeria where cattle can roam about anyhow has never been made by President Akufo-Addo. That is not his way of speaking.

President Akufo-Addo, in many of the speeches he has made in Nigeria and elsewhere since becoming the President of Ghana, has described Nigeria as a country I describe as my second home in the world, and will never use Nigeria to make negative examples as the former President Goodluck Jonathan sought to portray.

President Akufo-Addo enjoys a very good relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari , as he has with many other Nigerian leaders.

Ghana and Nigeria are like siblings, and it would be most inappropriate, because of politics, for anyone, regardless of his or her status in society, to try to sow seeds of discord amongst the leadership and peoples of our two countries.

Jonathan had at the commissioning of a flyover in Ado Ekiti said that Nigeria had deteriorated so much that it had lost its respect in Africa.

Jonathan in his speech at the inauguration on May 25 said: A President of a neighbouring country, Ghana, recently made two negative remarks about Nigeria. First, the current Ghanaian President was addressing Ghanaians about the movement of cattle within their shores and he said openly that Ghana is not like Nigeria where cattle roam freely. That was quite uncomplimentary.

According to Jonathan, the same President was speaking in the United Kingdom when he made disparaging remarks about Nigerias currency.

If it has got to a level when the Presidents of neighbouring countries will cite Nigeria as a negative example, then we must know as leaders of this country that certain things are not going well, and we must change the way we do things.

Source: NAN

Three people with AIDS who were repeatedly forced to undergo a homemade herbal “cure” in a bogus clinic run by Gambia’s former dictator Yahya Jammeh have launched a case against him, in a rare example of victims bringing an African autocrat to book at a national court.

Lamin Ceesay, Fatou Jatta, and Ousman Sowe described a 10-year nightmare that began when ex-president Jammeh, a high school dropout who ruled the tiny West African nation with an iron fist for 22 years, in 2007 claimed to have found a secret concoction of boiled herbs that cured AIDS in three days— if applied on Thursdays. The then-president opened a clinic in the sleepy seaside capital of Banjul, and began conscripting Gambians living with HIV as patients. Those who entered were ordered to stop taking antiretroviral drugs and forced to stay in the hospital under the surveillance of armed guards.

A deep fear of the president, who was notorious for jailing and torturing those who criticized him, meant doctors and patients publicly praised his cures. Jammeh has no medical training. United Nations experts who questioned the legitimacy of his methods were booted out of the country. The “Presidential Alternative Treatment Program” — which also offered homemade cures for a long list of maladies ranging from obesity to erectile dysfunction — ran until 2016, when Jammeh lost his final reelection bid. He has been living in exile since.

On Thursday, the three former patients deposited their historic lawsuit at the 1970’s-styled High Court in Banjul, seeking financial damages for harm suffered and a declaration that their human rights were violated. The court will have to decide whether the trial can take place in Gambia under international fair trial standards.

“It was a disaster,” Jatta, 51, one of the claimants, told journalists of her nine months in the clinic, speaking from the capital. Although she grew progressively weaker during her stay, Jammeh pronounced Jatta cured and discharged her as she was near death. She recovered after going back on a course of antiretrovirals. “My experience in the presidential treatment programme was a horror. I could have lost my life.”

Many did die, among them the wife of 62-year-old Ceesay, after the couple began the procedure together. “I cannot even count the number of people that died during the treatment,” Ceesay said. “Jammeh must pay for what he has done to us.”

The herbal brew Jammeh, or doctors under his orders, fed patients at the clinic often made them violently ill. At other times, they massaged the mixture onto patients’ partially nude bodies while chanting prayers. Sessions were sometimes broadcast on state television without the consent of the victims, some of whom hadn’t yet informed friends or family of their HIV status. The stigma attached to the illness meant many lost jobs or were kicked out by landlords after becoming publicly recognizable.

But others, desperate for cures, were persuaded by the broadcasts, including Sowe, the third plaintiff in the case. The 64-year-old former university lecturer initially believed in Jammeh’s methods, and went on to become a spokesperson for the center. Eventually, he realized it was a hoax. “I believe that it is my responsibility to see that justice be done,” he said ahead of the lawsuit being filed.

It’s not known how many people underwent the treatment. In January 2016, the director of Jammeh’s treatment program claimed that 9,000 had been cured, the majority of them HIV patients. In April, he told a commission of inquiry examining his role in the “cure” that just 311 HIV and AIDS patients were treated, according to the US-based charity AIDS-Free World, who are assisting the victims in their case.

“This case will advance human rights protection in the Gambia, particularly with respect to people living with HIV, who are highly stigmatized and marginalized,” said Oludayo Fagbemi, legal officer with the Banjul-based Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa.

It’s a strange crime to accuse an ex-dictator of committing, but Jammeh’s regime often bordered on a caricature of dictatorship. The exiled autocrat was a 29-year-old officer when he overthrew the president, the sole ruler since the country’s independence, in a coup that was welcomed at the time. In the early days, literacy levels rose and basic services and infrastructure improved for the coastal country’s 2 million residents. What began then as a hopeful revolution soon morphed into something much darker.

Jammeh soon cracked down on those who disagreed with his increasingly repressive regime, enforcing his rule with a feared private army. Nicknamed the “black blacks” for their black fatigues and balaclavas, the group reported directly to the president, and reportedly kept a list of regime opponents to assassinate.

The strongman stepped down after a shock election loss in December 2016 and fled to nearby Equatorial Guinea, from where he said he planned to concentrate on chicken farming.

Since his departure, the list of state-sanctioned crimes uncovered — or openly spoken about — has grown. But many are still hesitant after years in a country where the slightest hint of dissent could land residents in jail.

“The thing that was most moving was none of them ever imagined that there would be a Gambia without Jammeh,” said Sarah Bosha, a legal researcher with AIDS-Free World, who traveled to Gambia to help gather evidence against Jammeh in June last year. “This was just a few months after he had gone. It just struck me how despite lingering fears — people didn’t know if he was plotting some kind of return — they’re feeling empowered about finding a space where you can speak out the truth after so many years of not being able to speak out.”

The court case is significant well beyond Gambia, too. For decades, the only recourse for those seeking justice against the continent’s leader accused of rights abuses has been the International Criminal Court, which was set up in 2004 to try those accused of the worst international crimes. But all eight people indicted by the Hague, Netherlands–based institution so far have been African, prompting accusations of bias toward the continent. In 2014, African governments set up a proposed alternative in the African Court of Justice and Human rights — then promptly stripped the court of power to prosecute leaders for genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity.

“It’s invigorating to me on a personal level to know that people can say [to their leaders], ‘you know that what you did was wrong, it’s time for you to account for that,'” said Bosha, who is from Zimbabwe, where the president was pushed out last year after almost four decades in power.

Source: Buzz Feed

A 38-year-old man, Godfrey Sibanda, from Kwekwe in Zimbabwe has dodged jail time for stabbing his wife to death with a kitchen knife after he “mistook” her for a lion.

Sibanda was spared imprisonment after the Gweru High Court ruled that he was mentally insane, reports iHarare.

“I saw her appearing as a lion, so, I grabbed a knife and stabbed the lion; I then realised later that I had killed my wife,” Sibanda said in his defense.

Justice Mathonsi said, “Sibanda should not be held responsible for his actions because of his mental condition.

“Instead, he should get some serious help. Therefore, I see it fit not to send him back to jail but instead should be transferred to a mental institution.”

It was also confirmed that Sibanda’s family had a history of mental illness.

Source: Punch NG

Gareth Southgate has revealed Manchester United forward Jesse Lingard will start for England in Saturday’s friendly against Nigeria.

Lingard is competing for a place in Southgate’s starting line-up at the World Cup and he has been handed an opportunity to impress at Wembley this weekend.

With only two friendlies before England kick off their World Cup campaign in Russia, Lingard is battling with Tottenham’s Dele Alli and Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling to fill the roles as support for star striker Harry Kane.

Lingard had an inconsistent season with United, but Southgate is a fan of the 25-year-old.

England boss Southgate told a press conference on Friday that Lingard will face Nigeria, insisting he hadn’t made up his mind who will feature when his team face Tunisia in the World Cup opener on June 18.

“I don’t see it as a straight contest between any individual, absolutely they could play together,” Southgate said.

“All of our attacking players have different attributes or strengths.

“Jesse is a fantastic player at recognising the space, working away from the ball, a great link between midfield and attack.”

Lingard took the opportunity to slam stories claiming he said he is more comfortable playing for England than United.

“It’s all misquoted. I’m playing regularly in the England team and I feel comfortable,” he said.

“Jose (Mourinho) has given me opportunities to play week in week out at Manchester United and it’s up to me to deliver performances.

“I’m as comfortable with United as I am with England.”

Southgate declined to reveal which of his three inexperienced goalkeepers — Jordan Pickford, Jack Butland and Nick Pope — will face Nigeria.

With Joe Hart dropped, England’s keepers have only nine caps between them, but Southgate isn’t worried about that lack of experience.

“We know what we want to see in that area and we’re clear on what we think. There’s no need for me to say too much on that publicly,” he said.

“I’ve told the players what we’re looking for in these two matches and haven’t told them the team yet.”

Southgate put his squad through their paces on Friday, with United defender Phil Jones absent after leaving the camp to attend the birth of his child.

Jones is set to sit out Saturday’s game and the partner of England’s Fabian Delph is also due to have the couple’s first child soon.

Southgate insisted the births wouldn’t be a distraction.

“It’s not an inconvenience, it’s a brilliant part of life and our group’s experience over the next months,” he said.

“A couple of boys have got engaged and are going to be fathers for the first time or again and it’s great to celebrate. The shared stories make us closer.”

Source: Punch NG