Headlines - One of Yahya Jammeh’s ex-strongmen is being investigated for crimes against humanity.

Swiss authorities have detained Gambia’s former interior minister, who served under exiled ex-president Yahya Jammeh for 10 years, and are investigating him for crimes against humanity.

Bern prosecutor Christof Scheurer told AFP Thursday that Ousman Sonko, who was Jammeh’s interior minister from 2006 until he was sacked in September 2016, had been detained after a complaint was lodged by Swiss rights group TRIAL International.

Scheurer said that Sonko was being investigated under article 264a of Switzerland’s criminal code. The article covers crimes against humanity, including torture and other human rights abuses.

Human rights organizations have long accused Jammeh, who seized power in Gambia in 1994, of restricting freedom of expression and torturing political opponents. Several opposition politicians, including Solo Sandeng of the United Democratic Party, reportedly died in detention ahead of the December 2016 election, in which property developer Adama Barrow clinched a shock victory over Jammeh.

Sonko served in Jammeh’s elite presidential guard before being made interior minister, where he oversaw the country’s police and detention centers. Following his dismissal in September 2016, he had fled to Sweden, where he had an asylum application rejected, according to TRIAL.

The rights group said that Sonko is thought to have entered Switzerland in November 2016. The group lodged a complaint after being made aware that he was in Swiss territory.

“As the head of detention centers, Sonko could not have ignored the large-scale torture that political opponents, journalists and human rights defenders suffered there,” said Benedict de Moerloose of TRIAL in a statement.

Jammeh only left Gambia Saturday, having rejected the result of the election and declared a state of emergency in the country. West African forces threatened to remove the 51 year old by force, but Jammeh eventually stepped down and is being hosted in Equatorial Guinea.

Barrow returned to Gambia Thursday, having been sworn in as president on January 19 in the Gambian embassy in Dakar, Senegal, due to security concerns. Barrow told Newsweek Tuesday that he plans to install a truth and reconciliation commission in the country in order to take account of alleged abuses under Jammeh, before deciding whether to attempt to prosecute the former president.


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BREAKING NEWS: Suicide bombers hit Maiduguri.

Two suicide bombers early this morning struck in Maiduguri, Borno state capital, North East Nigeria discharging their bombs and wounding many people.

A witness said that the first blast occurred around 2am, while the second did not come till about 5:30am.

The first suicide bomber was said to have targeted the home of a youth vigilante, a member of the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF), who is known to do routine checks at major roads in the town.

The second suicide bomber detonated the explosive at the central Mosque in Kaleri, when Muslims faithful were observing the early morning prayers.

“The second bomber who attempted to ram into the Central Mosque in Kaleri also did not succeed as the suicide bomber died a lone death while injuring two people,” the witness said.

The police and the military are yet to make any comments about the bomb blasts.


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Headlines - FG releases N72bn for Lagos-Ibadan rail line.

The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, on Monday stated that the Federal Government had released N72bn as its counterpart funds for the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge railway line.

The minister said this at the Second Presidential Business Forum, which was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said the money was released in full so that there would be no delay in the implementation of the project.

Amaechi also used the opportunity to appeal to the National Assembly to approve the $29.9bn foreign loan request made by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said, “On the construction of Lagos-Ibadan railway line, the Minister of Finance has been kind enough to release the counterpart funding in full. I think in the history of Nigeria, this is the first time that we are releasing counterpart funds in full so that there will be no delay since the Chinese loan appears to have been approved.

“The only thing we need to do, I thank God there is somebody from the National Assembly here, is to plead with the National Assembly now that the funds have been approved; then, the National Assembly should please approve the $29.9bn loan.

“If you don’t encourage the National Assembly to make that approval, then, the economy won’t be making the kind of progress we want it to make. So, for me here, I will persuade the National Assembly to kindly make that approval because it is tied to projects.”

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HEADLINES - ICYMI: MMM participants lose patience, attack each other, guiders.

The cracks within the MMM community in Nigeria have continued to widen with many of the three million participants in the Ponzi scheme losing patience and trading accusations due to their inability to get their money out of the scheme after waiting for more than a month.

After being mocked Nigerians opposed to the scheme and fed excuses by those behind it for over a month, confidence in the scheme is declining with participants questioning its mode of operation and faulting explanations offered by guiders.

The discontent with MMM became evident this week after all payment (Get Help) requests by participants were removed by the scheme. The development meant thateven the poor or small investors that the scheme said upon its ‘return’ on January 13 it would pay before higher investors were equally frozen out.

Ironically, the frustration follows the wild jubilation that followed its return on January 13.

“We were patient for a whole month. What were you guys doing during that period? It’s not right that after you made us wait for so long, you are now making some upgrade or whatever without pre-informing us. You are now preaching patience,” a participant, Busola, wrote on one of the schemes help platforms, mmmhelp.blogspot.com.

When accused by an anonymous participant of being rude and refusing to calm down, Busola fired back, “Dear anonymous, why not carry cane and start flogging me? Last Ichecked it was a free world. There’s no law against me saying my mind or ranting as you claim. Plus if I can remember clearly, you didn’t pay for my subscription so who the f**k are you to ask me why I am ranting. You really don’t want me to divert my attention to you,trust me. I don’t know you and you won’t wanna know me…”

Another participant with the username Jane suggested that participants should be made to provide help before getting help, saying, “This is what majority of your participants want, this is Nigeria, nobody is going to willingly PH once paid for fear of not being paid again, we are ready to PH to GH because then we are sure there would always be somebody to pay us.”

However, she was told such a move would negate the MMM ideology. She warned that the scheme was losing trust as a result of the problem, saying, “Making people wait endlessly without hope of getting their money back negates MMM ideologyeven more so chose which is better,100 per cent loss of trust which is ongoing or 50 per cent loss of trust.”

Joseph Adeiye accused the guiders of collapsing the system and made a call for guiders to provide help to sustain the system. His view was shared by several people including one Olamide, who posted, “Those guiders are the reason for the problems the system is facing. A guider GH 2.4m but he only PH 300k. Imagine that f*^k%*ry! They are all thieves and will not want to PH. Greedy bastards.”

He added, “They had a whole month to do this stupid upgrade but they didn’t do anything. I am seriously suspecting that they are intentionally causing the panic so that the system will crash. Bastards!!!! All of dem”.

When a participant, Sunday Olawoyin, called for patience and for the MMM administrators to be commended as one month was not enough for the system upgrade, he was attacked by aggrieved participants including one Ike Oko.

Oko retorted, “Quiet your mouth there. A site can be running and still be upgraded, it is just a matter of uploading the files to the server. Do stop saying wizard, wizard this. All programmers andeven ordinary web developers can do it too. Do shut your trap .”

An anonymous participant, however, continued to defend the scheme, and expressed surprise that people were not satisfied with the explanations provided for the challenges.

“Let’s be patient and understanding… Have you considered the fact that maybe there is not enough PH (help) to go round? You paid to somebody and you need someone to pay you.”

In response to the anonymous comment, MMM Nigeria help replied, “Together we change the world.” But that only enraged aggrieved participants with Jane posting, “MMM is just mocking us with dis useless slogan of “together we change the world” can’t you see it’s not working in this case? chai! dem warn me I no hear.”

A participant with the username, Fagsam, lamented, “I’m getting tired and losing confidence in this system already. People are now making mockery of me that “didn’t we tell you not to do mmm?”… Everything needed should have been done during the break…. Sad something.”

As the debate raged on, some participants begged those behind the scheme to pity them, while others were worried about the growing panic and negative reports it wouldgenerate.

“Please, MMMNigeria, don’t fail us because we have never failed you people since we started…We are just speechless,” wrote Chinaza Abel.

But some have given up on the scheme with one of them posting, “This MMM is fraudulent. Poor people like us are suffering so much. I wish I never put my money on MMM. God will forever punish MMM and all the people behind it, forever and ever.”

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Headlines - Turkish school: Police seek Air Force’s intervention.

There is no hope insight yet for the abducted students and officials of Nigeria-Turkish International School, Isheri, Ogun State as the police claimed they cannot rescue the victims.

The police said they needed the assistance of the Nigerian Air Force and Army to rescue the victims.

Gunmen had stormed the school Friday night, abducted  three female students, three Nigeria workers and two Turkish officials.

The kidnappers had demanded N1.2 billion initially, but reduce the ransom to N700 million.

“We know the exact location of the kidnappers and the victims but we cannot storm the place because of the safety of the children and that of the other officials

“We will not make the mistake of attempting the creek because there is no way the kidnappers will not see us coming and they may end up killing their victims.

“We need the assistance of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) and the Nigerian Army, who we think have the wherewithal to penetrate the creek through the air,” atop police officer told Daily Sun.

Another police source maintained that the identities of the perpetrators of the dastardly act were well known to the police.

He said: “We have met with families and relatives of some of the kidnappers who are currently speaking with them.  We need to persuade them as it is, we can’t apply force, the lives of the victims are so precious to us.

“We have gone to Ondo, Delta and Edo states to consult with their families. I think the families are cooperating and are assisting us in talking to them.

“But if this option fails, we will not have any other reason not to use our plan B, which we can’t disclose. But it will yield positive results.

“Their identities are well known and they know we know them. But we are using wisdom for the sake of the innocent children.

“We are not happy that they are playing with the lives of innocent  children. They are taking the joke too far and the whole world iswatching.

“The most annoying thing is that one of the students is a sickle cell anemia patient and she is in crisis at the moment.”

But in a swift reaction, NAF Director of Public Relations (DOPR), Group Captain Ayodele Famuyiwa, said NAF was prepared to offer police the cenessary assistance to secure freedom for the students and officials.

“This is not a problem. The police should go to the appropriate authorities and put their request forward to the Air Force. It’s not an issue. They know the procedure. Let them do the necessary thing, but we have not heard from the police.”



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