Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Tuesday 29th December 2020
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 29/12/20
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COVID-19: President Ramaphosa Bans Alcohol Sale In South Africa
Cyril Ramaphosa
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday announced a ban on alcohol sales and said use of face masks would be mandatory in public as his country became the continent’s first to record one million coronavirus cases.
According to AFP, Ramaphosa also announced the closure of all beaches and public swimming pools in the country’s infection hotspots, which include Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and several coastal areas.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa
In addition, South Africa is extending its nighttime curfew by four hours, requiring all residents to be at home from 9 pm until 6 am, the President said.
Ramaphosa said the ban on selling of alcohol and other new restrictions would take effect at midnight.
He said anyone found not wearing a mask in a public place would be subject to a fine or a criminal charge punishable by a possible jail sentence.
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Who Is Squeezing Bakare’s Balls? By Femi Fani-Kayode
Femi Fani-Kayode
On 28th October 2019, Pastor Tunde Bakare said the following,
“Tinubu will give account for all his deeds. He should not be seen as a generous man, he is an integral part of the rot in Nigeria”.
This is a robust condemnation of a man that has been variously described as the ‘Lion of Bourdillon’, the ‘Jagaban of Borgu’ and the ‘Asiwaju of Iragbiji’ and the words reflect the utter contempt that Bakare has for him.
Curiously, just one year and two months later, on 20th December 2020, the same Tunde Bakare changed the music and said the following about the same man. He said,
“People should see Tinubu as a Yoruba hero, he shouldn’t be vilified. Like Jephthah the Gileadite, he has fought many battles on behalf of the Yoruba people and won despite his rough beginning and God does not need anybody’s permission to put such in his hall of fame despite their past deeds and ancestry. Despite his growing up challenges, the dents and the detours of his life, he like Jephthah delivered Lagos State and nearly all the southwest states from the onslaught of the PDP from 1999 to 2007. Truth be told, without his cooperation and political dexterity, the APC victory at the polls in 2015 and 2019 would have been impossible. I have a word for some Yoruba people whose stock in trade is nothing but a rancorous noise characterised by bitterness and resentment about the ancestry of the former two-term governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Carry your stone. I have a word for those Yoruba rancorous elements, noisemakers who have not achieved as much as Asiwaju Tinubu has achieved, but are always querying and worrying themselves about his ancestry.
Those who are envious of Mr. Tinubu and those who desire to take his power slot should stop their useless talk about him, and busy themselves with what can add value to society”.
I listened to Bakare’s words, spoken from the sanctity of his pulpit, three times and I was astounded. I asked myself what could have possibly made him flip in such an unceremonious, undignified and inglorious manner?
I regarded his new-found and newly-cultivated grovelling and sycophantic assertions about Tinubu as being not only self-serving, arrogant, pitiful and condescending but also, to borrow Mr. Phil Smart’s words, a “celebration of criminality and a desecration of the pulpit”.
I asked myself over and over again whether this was the same man saying one thing at the end of 2019 and saying the opposite at the end of 2020?
I had no choice but to borrow an old expression of shock and a profound exclamation of disbelief from Pastor Femi Adesina, the spokesman to President Buhari, who first used it in one of his most brilliant essays about fifteen years ago and I shouted “jumping Jehoshaphat!”.
Femi Fani-Kayode
I asked myself, what on earth could have happened to my old friend and brother and someone who, in my view, is undoubtedly one of the most reverred clerics of our time?
I have always had so much respect and affection for him. I have always loved him and the truth is that regardless of all this I still do because, like yours truly, he is deeply courageous and utterly fearless.
He has always had the courage of his convictions and he is a formidable fighter who has done much for the Body of Christ and the Kingdom of God.
However on this Tinubu matter he has not done justice to himself and he has indulged in an inexcusable faux pas!
I am constrained to ask, why this sudden u-turn on Jagaban? Is there something he knows today that he did not know one year ago? If so can he possibly share it with us so that we can possibly consider doing a volte face too? Or is that they have something on him?
Is he being blackmailed? Are his balls being squeezed by a hidden hand? Why has he suddenly lost what my friend and brother, Comrade Yinka Odumakin, often describes as “testicular fortitude?”.
Is his chain being pulled by someone? Do they have something on him? Is there a deep dark secret somewhere that we know nothing about and that they are dangling over his head like the sword of Damocles?
Could this volte face have been motivated by the fact that an unsavoury event which allegedly took place in 1990 in the life of the Pastor was about to be exposed by the Tinubu camp? I am not making any allegations here: I am only asking a question.
Again could it have anything to do with an allegedly ugly situation with a Bank whose ownership recently changed hands?
Once again let me be clear: I have not made any allegations here but I am simply asking whether this is true or false.
Whatever the case let me say this: Bola Tinubu may be loved and adored in the APC but he is no Jeptha.
To say that he is is not only deeply insulting to the memory of one of the greatest, most reverred, most courageous and most noble Old Testament figures in the Holy Bible but it also smacks of chicanery, recklessness and opportunism.
Bakare can love and admire Tinubu as much as he likes. That is his right and prerogative.
What he cannot do is tell those of us that have strong reservations about Jagaban and what he stands for to love and admire him as well.
More importantly he cannot insult us for refusing to do so. Respect and affection are earned and cannot be imposed by threat or compulsion.
For the sons of Oduduwa and every right-thinking southerner and Middle Belter that has not had his mind twisted and his head brainwashed by the fake news media over the last five years, the Buhari administration is the worse Federal Government in the history of Nigeria. And it is a Government that Tinubu had a major hand in putting in place.
Quite apart from being a conglomeration and alliance of ill-bred touts and ill-mannered idiots, it is also a Government that can best be described as an unadulterated aberration and a cancerous affliction.
It is a cruel, inept, bumbling, abrasive, vicious, obnoxious, chaotic, toxic, sociopathic and paranoid Government which is undergirded by ineptitude and incompetence, which has divided and destroyed our country and which he and a handful of others (many of whom have since recanted, apologised and repented) helped to bring to power.
Quite apart from being anti-the Nigerian people, it is also the most anti-Christian Government that our country has ever known. It is a Government that has nothing but contempt for Christians and that does not shy away from displaying it.
It is a Government that has impoverished it’s people, terrorised them, humiliated them, tormented them, insulted them and turned them into second class citizens, grovelling slaves, beggardly field-hands and pitiful serfs.
It is a Government with a hideous and hateful ethnic and religious agenda which seeks to disempower, discredit and destroy all but its own.
It is a Government that has pampered terrorists and rewarded them with massive ransom payments and it is a Government of desolation and destruction that thrives on wickedness and injustice.
It is a Government that has turned a blind eye to the activities of the herdsmen and bandits and that has fought Boko Haram and ISWA with kid gloves.
It is a Government of hate, double standards and deceit that has murdered its own citizens and that seeks to intimidate and silence contrary and dissenting voices.
It is a Government that has cowered the civil society groups, members of the opposition and the entire political class into silence because it is so vindictive, brutal, barbaric, relentless and ruthless.
It is a Government that has turned its back on humanity, that despises the Living God and that has nothing but contempt for His counsel and His purpose.
It is a Government of calamity and sorrows that loves darkness and that hates light. It is Government of hardship and oppression and one that has ushered in more corruption, more recession, more suffering, more injustice, more calamities and more plagues than ALL the previous Governments in our entire history put together.
It is a Government that has done more damage, poured more venom and unleashed more vitriol and scorn on the elders of the South West in Afenifere, the elders of the South East in Ohaeneze, the elders of the Middle Belt in the Middle Belt Forum and the elders of the South South in PANDEM, than ANY other.
It is a Government that has demonised the various self-determination groups like IPOB, MASSOB, OPC, IYC, MEND and others in our country and has sought to intimidate and destroy them more than any other.
It is a Government that hates and despises anything or anyone that is wholesome, honorable, pristine, erudite, learned and clean more than any other.
It is a Government that has shamelessly indulged in such a high degree of nepotism, religious bigotry and ethnic chauvinism and that has so “northernised” the country that even level-headed, rational, reasonable, respected and responsible voices like that of the courageous, insightful and irrepressible Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Sokoto, has had cause to assert that had Buhari been from the South there would have been a military coup d’etat by now.
Permit me to share the Bishop’s exact words. In a Christmas day sermon titled ‘A Nation In Search Of Vindication’ he said,
“Every honest Nigerian knows that there is no way any non-northern Muslim President could have done a fraction of what President Buhari has done by his nepotism and got away with it. There would have been a military coup a long time ago or we would have been at war. The President may have concluded that Christians will do nothing and will live with these actions! Pastor Adesina was right to call us wailers. On the sad situation in Nigeria, the United Nations has wailed. The Pope has wailed. Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, Pastors have wailed. Emirs have wailed. Politicians have wailed. The Sultan has wailed. The north that the President sought to privilege has become a cauldron of pain and a valley of dry bones”.
Kukah hit the nail on the head. It is no wonder that the Southern Nigeria and Middle Belt Forum have risen up in his defence and publicly commended him for his insight and courage. I am also glad that the Catholic Church has backed him too.
It is a Government that has consistently ignored the admonitions and warnings and closed its ears to the counsel of moderate voices in the core Muslim North led by His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto and the likes of forward-thinking, bridge-building and progressive northern leaders like Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara state, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state and many others who do not share the supremacist mindset or hegemonist disposition of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Finally it is a Government that has been rejected by God and that will ultimately face His judgement.
Bakare should consider all this when he tells us to love Tinubu: a man who is essentially the backbone and source of strength of this failed and evil Government that has brought us close to the brink.
When he tells us that had it not been for Jagaban Buhari would not have come to power he is exposing the reason for and source of our misery and pain and he is demanding that we should love that source.
He does not have the right or the mandate to tell us who to follow and neither does he speak for anyone but himself. His authority begins and ends in his Church.
He can stand with Tinubu and praise him as much as he likes but he would do well to desist from lecturing and talking down to those of us that do not share his views about him.
Jagaban may be Bakare’s hero and messiah but he remains a culturally depraved, power-obsessed, morally bankrupt reprobate villain and the proverbial “enemy within” to millions.
Quite apart from that he is also an intellectual lilliputian, a spiritual vampire and a political pimp who has been outplayed and outmanouvered by the very forces that he has nurtured and served over the last five years.
All the fiery and self-righteous sermons in the world cannot change that.
Permit me to end this contribution with the words of Comrade Yinka Odumakin, the spokesman for Afenifere.
After listening to Bakare’s sermon on Tinubu he wrote, “It is the very height of the abuse of the rostrum for a Pastor to say to us no matter how God-forsaken the country has become that if somebody is accused of being a thief, the rest of us should go and become thieves as well. That is some weird Sunday school of demonic dimension bordering on arrogance and total disdain for your congregation whom you no longer see as children of God but political instruments that can be abused for any purpose and desire.”
I could not agree with Yinka more.
On his part, my brother, Mr. Kayode Samuel, a well-respected columnist with enormous influence and one of the most brilliant minds in Nigeria wrote,
“The people who take Tunde Bakare as a Pastor may be disappointed by his recent verbal effusions. But those who know him to be no more than an opportunistic politician will just rest easy and sigh!”
Kayode was as eloquent and insightful as ever.
Yet the person that takes the first prize in terms of his understanding and analysis of Bakare is Mr. Wale Lanre Ojo, the Senior Special Assistant on Tourism to Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti state. He said,
“Pastor Tunde Bakare’s mouth is smelling! He is so filthy and dirty. I am ashamed of that kind of fellow being a prophet of God. He is telling us that noble ancestry, decent livelihood, the honesty of purpose, good and refined education, integrity and hard work are not necessary ingredients for future reference. The sakabular pastor is encouraging the young ones to loot, steal, engage in fraudulent acts, sell drugs, do passport racketeering in their youth as these will not count against them in the future. Rubbish from the pulpit. Shame on him”.
I need say no more.
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Femi Fani-Kayode
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E2%80%93-osun-peaceful-revolutionnow How Security Operatives Assaulted, Spat On Us, Treated Us Like Killers– Osun Peaceful #RevolutionNow Protesters
Operatives of the Nigerian Army and Department of Security Services (DSS) on Monday attacked peaceful #RevolutionNow protesters in Osun State.
SaharaReporters gathered that no fewer than six of the protesters were assaulted, harassed and brutalised by the security operatives.
One of the protesters, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were attacked around Ayetoro street, Osogbo while waiting for their colleagues to join them.
He said, “We were converging on Ayetoro, Osogbo for the liberty walk. Six of us were there and we were awaiting other people that would be joining us. But while we were talking, 12 Hilux vans (four for the DSS and eight for the Nigerian Army) arrived.
“Each vehicle had six persons so there were 48 of them. Then they started moving towards our direction. We were not afraid of them because we thought they were there to protect us. Then the next thing I heard were, ‘who are these people?’ ‘Officer, let’s beat them mercilessly’. It seemed like a movie. You needed to see how they started hitting us with a thick plank of wood. They hit us on our heads, bodies and legs.
“I really suffered. I was just shivering and crying. My neck and hands had bruises. My mind even failed to register what was happening at some point.”
Another protester told SaharaReporters that they were beaten for about 20 minutes and handed over to officers from Dugbe Police Station in Osogbo.
“Some of the comrades were beaten with a thick piece of wood until our heads started bleeding. If you did not answer their questions quickly, they would beat the hell out of you. As they were asking me questions, my mind failed me. I didn’t know anything again. I forgot where I came from, I forgot my age and I forgot my name and we dared not to run away,” he said.
“We were beaten for 15 to 20 minutes; passersby were looking at us. They seemed to be curious to know what we did. The operatives even challenged anybody that held a phone whether they were far from us or not, so that nobody would record what they were doing.
“Later, they ordered us to get into the Hilux vehicle. They took us to an unknown destination. As we were going, we thought they were taking us to Army barracks in Ede but they took Estate Road back to Okefia. They eventually took us to Dugbe Police Station in Osogbo.
“You needed to see those policemen too; it was as if they were waiting for us. They spat on us as if we were criminals and treated us like murderers. They even wanted to handcuff us. They ordered us to take off our clothes. The police also transported us to the State Criminal and Intelligence Department for proper documentation.”
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The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Releasing The Incarcerated Giants Or Sparking The Mau Mau Forces By Richard Odusanya
Richard Odusanya
“I have no doubt in my mind that the British are determined to execute me. I have committed no crime. My only crime is that I am a Kenyan revolutionary who led a liberation army- Now, if I must leave you and my family, I have nothing to regret about. My blood will water the tree of independence”- Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi Waciuri of the Kenyan Mau Mau Uprising to his lovely wife shortly before he was hanged by the British force on February 18, 1957.
Such were the fates of our heroes past from whom we continuously take inspirations.The dangers of the cause to liberate the Black race has always been spelt out, and the degree of how slippery the path is has never been hidden from the active actors. Yet, it has been a cause of “no retreat no surrender” because the liberation of “Mother Africa” from foreign shackles is a calling that must not go unfulfilled. We match on to freedom and our victory is certain!
“We bled Africa for four and a half centuries.We looted their raw materials, then we told lies that the Africans are good for nothing. In the name of religion, we destroyed their culture. And after being made rich at their expense, we now steal their brains through miseducation and propaganda to prevent them from enacting Black retribution against us”- Jacques Rene Chirac, former President of France.
Even in the world beyond, our ancestors haunt our adversaries to our advantage. However, our ears seem deaf to the wake up call and eyes too heavy to stay awake for the battle at hand.It has, therefore, become the sole duty of the mentally conscious Africans to keep acting the truth and pass it to the next generation, for we cannot but teach them early what we learn late.
Richard Odusanya
Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr., in his bid to wake up the Black nation, made us to understand that “one of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge”.
It is quite unfortunate that the present leaders of the Black race are the actors of the “fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions.” In the past, we were forced into slavery. Now, we voluntarily and willingly walk into slavery because our leaders have made our land inconducive for us to dwell.
We passionately love “Mother Africa”. We love our African countries, and leaders for they are our brothers and sisters. This is the only reason we are exploring all means to make them see that this land belongs to us all and must rise to greatness again.
Our youths, with the capabilities of the giants, should be properly engaged and encouraged with the responsibility of putting the continent back on the map of the world. Not to be incarcerated by the actions and inactions of our leaders. Any further delay in allowing the youths do exploit and channel their energy towards the greatness of Africa is extremely dangerous to our existence. We should not allow the love the youths have for the land to go sour; someone who unconditionally loves you can also unbelievably hate you, a beautiful mirror becomes a dangerous weapon when broken.
Africa looks up to the Nigerian leadership to make us great again. For sixty (60) years we have failed “Mother Africa”. However, there is still a room to forgive and forget the past misdeeds if the right economic and political policies would be adopted by our leaders to remove the clothing of slavery and shame forcefully worn on us by our adversaries. Any contradictory effort spells doom for Nigeria as a country and Africa as a continent.
The pressure is mounting ; the Mau Mau uprising is around the corner, and this uprising is about to bring out the beasts in us. Let the bars keeping the Nigerian giants be politely opened instead of being torn into pieces by the impending explosion that might not be curtailed. The recent events around us, particularly, the #EndSARS campaign may just be a wake up call.
A prodigal son removes the roof of his father’s house to cover that of another man’s house while leaving his father’s house open to harsh weather. The 12.5 billion Paris club over payment and other loots alone made havens in the advanced nations.The parts of the fund and loots refunded have been relooted by the very few within the political class while we go on a borrowing spree in the world. Our leaders keep acting like shallow minds and low thinkers, that easily forgot that there cannot be peace without justice.
Few years back, “terrorism” was a strange term in Nigeria. Just in less than fifteen (15) years of involvement, the terrorist group in Nigeria has grown to be the third deadliest in the world. This is a sign of a perverted innovative and inventive prowess embedded in an average Nigerian youth.All required of the youths are conducive environment and provisions to showcase the Kemetic greatness they naturally possess.
An idle hand will always remain the devil’s workshop.This explains the present situation of banditry and terrorism, as it cuts across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria, it reminds me of the warning, years back, of the great sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo “the children of the poor you failed to train will never let your children have peace.”
Let it be known to all, particularly, the self-centered Nigerian “leaders” and that of Africa at large, that we will know no peace until the son of a nobody can become somebody without knowing anybody. The French Revolution of 1789 and the recent #EndSARS campaign, should serve as deterrent to the present African leaders and members of ruling class. From the look of things in recent times, we move very speedily towards an era where the matching order would be nothing but “take it back or die fighting”!
I believe that all our sufferings in Africa are caused by greed, ignorance and people inflicting pains on others in the selfish pursuit of individual accomplishment, materialism, happiness or satisfaction. Unfortunately, true happiness could only come from a sense of peace and contentment. We should strive to build a decent society where collective interest supersede all other considerations
We are not asking for a pure system but a working one; a system with a mechanism that guarantees solidarity and not charity; charity is vertical; so it is humiliating; it goes from the top to the bottom; Solidarity is horizontal; It respects others and learns from them. Vote buying and intentional breach of human rights are insults to humanity.The masses cannot continue to be subjects of ridicule in a land flowing with milk and honey.
It is time to sincerely look the way of science, technology and agriculture. We have all it takes to drive a Nigeria that would wake up the sleeping giants in Africans at large.The freedom and human capacities of individuals must be developed to their maximum but individual powers must be linked to democracy in the sense that social betterment must be the necessary consequence of individual flourishing. This is the only way out of the impending Tsunami of the masses’ anger.
The Nigerian youths who recently, proved that they are not lazy, are equally not criminals neither are the poor masses. They have committed no crime. If their only crime to the ruling class is asking for good governance, then the consuming fire of “the Mau Mau forces” should be expected to rise sooner than later.
FREEDOM COMES BY STRUGGLE WHICH CONSUMES THE OPPRESSORS!
THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE EMANCIPATION AND PROCLAMATION OF FREEDOM..HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR COMPATRIOTS.
Odusanya is the convener of AFRICA COVENANT RESCUE INITIATIVE ACRI
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Police Confirm Mob Set Suspected Robber Ablaze In Ibadan
A suspected armed robber was set ablaze by an angry mob in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, on Monday.
SaharaReporters gathered that the suspected robber was set ablaze at ASAS bus stop, Molete, while another escaped being lynched by a mob at Oke Ado, Ibadan.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Olugbemiga Fadeyi, who confirmed the incidents to reporters in Ibadan on Monday, said, “Around 0900 hours on 28/12/2020, one other person was rescued by an Amotekun team and handed over to the police. He was treated at the Police Clinic, Eleyele, but one was set ablaze.”
Fadeyi said investigation had commenced into the matter to ascertain the reasons behind the actions of the angry mobs.
“Notwithstanding, the act of jungle justice is condemned in strong terms as this has become a recurring decimal in the state.
“When allowed to continue unabated, it will degenerate into what all and sundry will not be able to curb thereafter and many innocent lives will be terminated unjustly. Consequent upon this, the Commissioner of Police therefore warns those that are taking the law into their own hands to stop forthwith before the long hands of the laws catch up with them.”
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75-year-old Israeli Dies Of Heart Attack After Taking COVID-19 Vaccine
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The Israeli health ministry has said a 75-year-old man from Beit She’an died of a heart attack two hours after receiving vaccination against COVID-19 on Monday morning.
It was learnt that the man had preexisting conditions and had suffered from heart attacks in the past.
Chezy Levy, the Director-General of the Health Ministry, has launched an investigation into the incident. “We share in the grief of the family,” he said in a statement.
He was injected at around 8:30 am at a Clalit Health Services Clinic. He stayed at the facility, as is customary, for a short period of time to ensure he had no side effects. When he felt well, the clinic released him.
According to Levy, the early discoveries do not reveal a link between the man’s death and his inoculation.
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The Times of Israel
When Pfizer presented its safety data to the US Food and Drug Administration in early December, it was found that two trial participants had died after receiving the vaccine. One of the deceased was immunocompromised, meaning the person’s immune defences were low.
In response to the report of those deaths, Israel’s Midaat Association said when vaccines are administered to at-risk populations, “there may be unfortunate cases. One should not infer from this about the safety of the vaccine, but welcome the transparency required from the pharma companies in the drug approval process.”
In large trials of tens of thousands of people, death can occur without any connection to the trial, but companies such as Pfizer are required to report those deaths, Midaat said.
“According to the published data, six of the participants in the experiment died, two of whom received the vaccine and four of the control group,” said Dr. Uri Lerner, Midaat’s scientific director. “After an in-depth examination, no connection was found between the experiment and the cause of death.”
Conspiracy theories surrounding side effects and claimed dangers of the newly released coronavirus vaccines have spread rapidly throughout social media.
The main side effects reported in the trials of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were pain, swelling and redness at the site of injection and chills, tiredness and headache in general. But these effects usually only persisted for a few days at most.
Any potential long-term side effects are still unsubstantiated, as the vaccines are still new. However, the majority of health officials have said they believe the vaccines will cause no long-term harm. In Israel, more than 80 per cent of medical personnel are expected to be inoculated.
As of Monday morning, Israel had vaccinated 380,000 citizens with the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. According to Health Minister, Yuli Edelstein, 99,000 people were vaccinated on Sunday.
Currently, Israel is vaccinating medical personnel, people over the age of 60 and those with chronic illnesses. It hopes to start vaccinating teachers and school staff later this week.
The IDF vaccination campaign kicked off on Monday.
Israel hopes to vaccinate as many as 150,000 people per day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night. If successful, 2.25 million Israelis will be vaccinated within a month and a half.
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E2%80%93-civil Islamic Police, Hisbah Used By Northern Politicians To Oppress Underprivileged People– Civil Rights Activist
A civil rights activist, Ibrahim Garba Maryam, has said that Hisbah operating in some states in northern Nigeria is being used by politicians to oppress underprivileged people.
Garba said Hisbah was primarily inaugurated to settle disputes in marriages in the region, and that it lacked the legal right to arrest and prosecute any citizen.
Garba disclosed this to SaharaReporters in an exclusive interview on Monday.
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Hisbah Conducts Door-to-door Search To Fish Out ‘Sinners’ In Kano
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He condemned some of the actions of Hisbah against people in the North, such as arresting people for improper dressing and destroying alcoholic beverages.
“Hisbah was created to intervene in divorce cases or marital issues in the North,” he said. “They don’t have any constitutional right to arrest and prosecute people. And if they claim they do, ask them to show you.”
“You see, illiteracy and ignorance are the main problems among our people, and the politicians are using Hisbah to oppress and suppress the underprivileged.”
Speaking on the application of Sharia law in the North, Garba pointed out that the law is not binding on non-Muslims even if they reside in the region because Nigeria is a secular country.
He said, “Nigeria is a secular nation, and anything that is not in the constitution is not superior to the constitution. Sharia is only binding on Muslims. We have some laws documented as Sharia for the North, but let me tell you, our political leaders have hijacked Hisbah for their selfish gain.
“Hisbah is an instrument used by politicians to suppress the underprivileged in the North because of the high illiteracy rate and ignorance there.”
He also described the destruction of alcoholic drinks in Kano by Hisbah as oppression by politicians.
“Who gave them approval to open their business in the first place? Was it not the government? Who do they pay their taxes to? That’s why I talk about illiteracy and ignorance. The people have the right to ask Hisbah critical questions. It is only the Nigeria Police and courts of law that have those rights that Hisbah claim to have. They are just vigilantes,” he said.
On the recent ban on underage marriages by the Saudi Arabian government, Garba said it was a right decision.
He said, “Even the prophet (Muhammad) that we claim that we love did not marry his underaged daughters off. The other time a man from here married a white woman older than him, they were criticising him. The first wife of the prophet was also older than him by 15 years, so what is the issue all about?
“Government is using Hisbah to steal. The funds they get are not necessary. We are fighting for the people, but they (the people) don’t know their rights. That’s why we are calling on organisations like the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project to look at the cases of injustice in Kano.”
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We Hope The North Are Serious About Call For Restructuring, Afenifere Reacts To Ango Abdullahi’s Criticism Of Nigeria’s Structure
Yinka Odumakin
The pan-Yoruba sociocultural group, Afenifere, and the apex Igbo group in Nigeria, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, have thrown their weights behind the declaration of the Northern Elders Forum that the North is now ready to support the calls for restructuring.
President of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Ango Abdullahi, had in an interview with Vanguard described the extant presidential system in the country as flawed, adding that the North would welcome debates on how to restructure Nigeria to make it more viable.
Yinka Odumakin
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Nigeria’s Presidential System ‘Totally Useless’, Northern Region Now Ready For Restructuring – Ango Abdullahi
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19 Hours Ago
The elder statesman and former Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, had added that Nigeria did much better when it had federating regions than now, when it has states and local governments that are largely not viable. He said the political structure of the country before the military incursion into power by 1966.
Speaking in an interview with SaharaReporters on Monday, the publicity secretary of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, described the Northern group’s position as a welcome development.
According to Odumakin, the country is already collapsing and the only way to put it back on track is through restructuring.
He added that Afenifere was ready to cooperate with any set of Nigerians also in support of restructuring.
He said, “We welcome their declaration; it’s only enemies of Nigeria who don’t want the progress of this country that will say they’re opposing restructuring at this point. Nigeria is about to collapse and the only way to stop it from collapsing is for us to restructure.
“We will cooperate with any set of Nigerians who are ready for restructuring to put this country back on track.”
He, however, said Afenifere would be hoping the position expressed by the Northern Elders Forum was not a hoax.
Odumakin said Afenifere was interested in knowing the ideas of the NEF so there could be deliberations on the way forward.
He added: “We just hope that they mean what they have said. Clearly, we will be interested to know what their ideas are, what they have in mind, and how they think we should go about it.”
In a similar vein, Ohanaeze Ndigbo said every patriotic Nigerians should embrace restructuring to save the country from an imminent collapse.
According to Vanguard, the acting Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Uche Achi-Okoaga, said: “Restructuring does not connote turning Nigeria inside-out. It has to do with shifting from frivolities, analogous and straightjacket institutions, and governance structure and to Identify with digital, enterprising, and professing embellishments of the developed climes.
“Insecurity, for instance, look at the number of soldiers we are losing to Boko haram, bandits, or insurgents (as you may have it). This is still in the same era where drones are now used to detect and flush out criminals in their hideouts. If there is any improvement in the security architecture, Nigerians have not heard or seen it and we just cannot continue to do things the same way and expect different results.
“In the area of elections, we should move away from incidences of ballot box snatching and infer cases and enter the era where Nigerians can open their laptops or mobile phones to vote for candidates of their choice even in their places of work or business while the government would not need to shut everything and everywhere for election.
“To some people, when they hear restructuring, they think it is to change the name North to Nothing or South to Something. I liken the scenario to an instance. Thus, when a building is dilapidated you reinforce or strengthen it but if the dilapidation is beyond repair, you pull it down to avert impending calamities.
“It is the case with Nigeria, it requires to be reinforced or strengthened in all ramifications – economically, politically, legally, socially, etc. and where necessary, to pull down completely to rebuild.
“I urge any other person, group, or segment still skeptical about restructuring to embrace the raging and intractable wave of restructuring in order to save Nigeria from total political disintegration. I call on the Nigerian government to quicken the steps towards restructuring before the 2023 general elections.”
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#JusticeForDonDavis Trends As Nigerians Demand Justice For Schoolboy Sexually Molested At Deeper Life School
Nigerians on social media are demanding justice for 11-year-old student, Don Davis Archibong, who was allegedly sexually abused at Deeper Life High School, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
Deborah Okezie, the mother of the Junior Secondary School 1 pupil at the Christian school, had last week shared a video on her Facebook account wherein she alleged that her son was starved and molested by some senior pupils of the school.
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Okezie claimed that the senior pupils molested the boy by pushing their hands and legs into his anus.
The mother said her son told her that they threatened to kill him if he reported to the principal or his parents.
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Nigerians Demand Probe Of Deeper Life School Over Assault On Student
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1 Week Ago
With the #JusticeForDonDavis hashtag on Twitter, Nigerians on Twitter are calling for justice for Don Davis after the mother revealed he now experiences nightmares and suddenly rises from sleep.
For instance, Socio-political activist, and co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls Movement, an advocacy group that brings attention to the abduction of over 200 girls from a secondary school in Chibok, Nigeria in 2014, Aisha Yesufu, on her handle, @AishaYesufu, tweeted, “It seems that many didn’t learn from #MeToo. Many will do anything to see #JusticeForDonDavis fade away because they are afraid the searchlight is going to come to the crimes of molestation that they committed! The number of people on the sanctimonious throne that molested little boys will shock you! We have refused to open the door all this while. #JusticeForDonDavis will give many men the voice to call out the men that raped them when they were young.” The number of people on the sanctimonious throne that molested little boys will shock you! We have refused to open the door all this while. #JusticeForDonDavis will give many men the voice to call out the men that raped them when they were young— Aisha Yesufu (@AishaYesufu) December 28, 2020
Another Twitter user, whose handle is @Petayeni, wrote: “Yes na. All deeper Life High School should be shut. All boarding schools in Nigeria should be closed (including Federal Government schools). In fact, all schools should be closed. #JusticeForDonDavis should be carried out accordingly.” Yes na All deeper life high school sud be shutAll boarding schools in Nigeria sud be closed (including FG schls) Infact all Schools should be closed. 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡#JusticeForDonDavis Should be carried out according— EldEr d’hAppy fEllOw 😉😉😂😂ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ƒ (@Petayeni) December 28, 2020
In the same vein, @Shayne wrote before and after pictures of Davis: “Only God knows what would have happened to this boy if his mum had not had that scary dream. Maybe he would have died, school terms it as an accident, boy gets buried and forgotten. The end! But God forbid! So, let’s get #JusticeForDonDavis.”Before & after pics of Davis.Only God knows what would have happened to this boy, if his mom didn’t get that scary dream. Maybe he would have died, school terms it an accident, boy gets buried and forgotten. The end! But God forbid! So, let’s get #JusticeForDonDavis RT pls 🙠pic.twitter.com/g2nXWffuB2— Rhoda 💖💖 (@Shayne______) December 28, 2020
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My Life Is Not Safe, Mother Of Assaulted Deeper Life School Student Cries Out
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@SaintMa41005848 said, “#Justicefordondavis Boarding school is the worst place for any child to be in, especially when they are either just boys or girls. Dear Pastor (William) Kumuyi (founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry), do not put Christ to shame, do something.”
Similarly, @dokubo_kenneth wrote: “If Don Davies was a girl by now, FIDA (The International Federation of Women Lawyers) and other human rights organisations would have carried the case on their head like Gala and pure water in traffic (taken up the case with determination to get justice). Again, because he is a boy child, nobody wants to plead his cause #JusticeForDonDavis.”
@Faevy_Lugards also wrote, “We see something so precious and beautiful but we abuse…what really is wrong with humans…how can people be so heartless and cruel…an 11-year-old raped, abused, starved and threatened and you see the svh@#deeperlifehigh trying to cover it up…we have to Sorosoke (speak up), my people. #JusticeForDonDavis.”
Also, @Chief_talker said, “Until Pastor Kumuyi sees all this and condemns it publicly, we won’t stop ooo. Any deeper Life (church) member here should tell their pastor to tell their senior pastors until Baba himself hears this. Abi una no dey twitter (Or are you not on Twitter)? #JusticeForDonDavis #deeperlifehighschool #justicefordondavies.”
@BhadmusAkeem wrote: “State ministries are filled with lots of evil doers. In 2018 when I had an issue with a school, a staff member of the state Ministry of Education made sure the school went scot-free. In fact, a young staff member on Twitter who wanted to help with the case stopped picking up my calls. #JusticeForDonDavis.
“Am I surprised Mrs Enobong Udemeabasi Mbobo, the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Education is trying to silence the mother of the victim? Nope, I’m not. It’s what they do because the schools ‘take care of them’ a lot.
“Or should I talk about how Ministry of Justice staff members were bribed to move a case from one court to a favourable court for the school just to get back-door judgement? These are ministries where people who have children work. It’s only God that can judge all of them.”
@Jessica12754192 wrote: “We fear the rape of our daughters, now we have to fear the rape of our sons? Imagine if this boy hadn’t opened up and carried this pain into adulthood, what kind of man would he be? It makes you think of the man you judge, what has he been through? What pain is he hiding? #JusticeForDonDavis.”
@Sther_MOA said, “So that’s all? #JusticeForDonDavis just disappeared off the trends table like that? For people who are always complaining about sexually abused boys not getting enough attention, you all put in too little energy into demanding justice for this poor boy. #deeperlifehighschool.”
And as for @Biisi96, “Missionary school but you are trying to silence your victim. If an institution tightly affiliated with your church can be this vile and wicked in the public eye, it’s only you people and God that know what goes behind the science in your church. #JusticeForDonDavis.”
@That_IjebuBadoo said: “A mum was documenting her son’s abuse online, an abuse that almost killed him and has traumatised him. The Commissioner for Education called her to the office & seized her phone. This is Nigeria, the abuse of children is seen as an embarrassment to the government. #JusticeForDonDavis.”
@_chidinmaaaa wrote: “Don Davis is an 11-year-old boy who was maltreated and molested at Deeper Life High School, Uyo. The mother has been seeking justice but the school and the state government want to kill the case. So guys, let’s help Don Davis get the justice he deserves #JusticeForDonDavis.”
“Elisha Abbo is still in office. A governor reconciled a woman with her abuser. Now, a commissioner for education is supporting a school in covering up the sexual abuse of a minor. The Nigerian government has a notorious pattern of shielding abusers. #justicefordondavis,” @sa_vvy wrote.
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Bandits Kill Vigilante Leader, Kidnap Eight In Katsina
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Gunmen suspected to be bandits on Sunday night reportedly killed Mallam Ummaru Balli, leader of a vigilance group in Maigora town in the Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina State.
According to PUNCH, the bandits also allegedly abducted eight persons during the attack which took place in Rimi village in the Sabuwa Local Government Area of the state.
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It was learnt that Balli had led other vigilantes to Rimi to tackle the bandits operating there that night.
Residents further disclosed that the group engaged the bandits in a gun duel which led to the death of Balli.
The bandits reportedly left for the forest with the eight abducted victims.
Balli has since been buried according to Muslim rites.
The spokesman for the Katsina State Police Command, SP Gambo Isah, had yet to react to the incident as at the time of filing the report. Governor Aminu Masari’s Special Adviser on Security, Mallam Ibrahim Katsina, did not answer his phone and had yet to respond to the text message sent to him as at the time of filing the report either.
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