African News Today

DR Congo Policeman Sentenced To Death For Murder

13May

By Chukwuebuka FestusNo Comments

Congo, Crime, Judiciary, Justice, News

DR Congo Policeman Sentenced To Death For Murder

A Congolese military court has sentenced a high-ranking policeman to death for his role in the 2010 murder of human rights activist Floribert Chebeya, which caused national outrage. Commissioner of police Christian Ngoy Kenga Kenga was found guilty of murder, desertion and misappropriation of weapons and ammunition. Mr Chebeya's body was found bound and gagged in his car in Kinshasa. There is a moratorium on capital punishments in DR Congo. However, the death penalty has not been abolished and military courts continue to hand down such sentences. Another policeman, Jacques Migabo, was also sentenced to 12 years during the trial. He admitted to having strangled Mr Chebeya and his driver, Fidèle Bazana. Police commissioner Paul Mwilambwe, who had been a key witness ...

Senegal: Three Midwives Convicted Over Death Of Pregnant Woman

12May

By Chukwuebuka FestusNo Comments

Health, Judiciary, Justice, News, Senegal

Senegal: Three Midwives Convicted Over Death Of Pregnant Woman

People demonstrate during a sit-in to demand justice for Astou Sokhna and call for a more humane and patient-friendly health care system at the Place de la Nation in Dakar Three Senegalese midwives involved in the death of a woman in labour have been found guilty of not assisting someone in danger. They received six-month suspended sentences, after Astou Sokhna, died while reportedly begging for a Caesarean. Her unborn child also died. Three other midwives who were also on trial were not found guilty The case caused a national outcry with President Macky Sall ordering an investigation. Mrs Sokhna was in her 30s when she passed away at a hospital in the northern town of Louga. During her reported 20-hour labour ordeal, her pleas to doctors to carry out a Caesarean were i...

Burkina Orders Compaore To Pay Damages Over Sankara Killings

11May

By Chukwuebuka FestusNo Comments

Burkina Faso, Judiciary, Justice, News, Politics

Burkina Orders Compaore To Pay Damages Over Sankara Killings

Former President Blaise Compaore A court in Burkina Faso on Tuesday ordered ex-president Blaise Compaore and nine others to pay more than a million dollars in damages to relatives of revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara and aides who were assassinated in 1987. The order comes after a trial last month that sentenced the group to long jail terms, ending a case that afflicted the Sahel state for 34 years. A former comrade-in-arms of Sankara, Compaore took power during a putsch on the day of the assassination, ruling until 2014, when he was toppled by mass protests and fled abroad. Judge Urbain Meda, presiding over a military court in the capital Ouagadougou, ordered payment of 807.5 million CFA francs $1.3 million to relatives of the 12 people who were gunned down alongside ...

Kenyan Cleric Refuses To Leave Jail After Release

7May

By Chukwuebuka FestusNo Comments

Judiciary, Kenya, News

Kenyan Cleric Refuses To Leave Jail After Release

A Muslim cleric in Kenya has asked a court not to free him from jail despite being acquitted of terrorism charges. Guyo Gorsa Buru said he feared he could be abducted and killed by state agents once released as is alleged has happened to other terror suspects. He was arrested in 2018 and charged with possessing material that promoted a terrorist group and for collaborating with Somalia-based al-Shabab militants. The court in the capital has allowed him to remain in custody for 30 days. Earlier, a chief magistrate at Nairobi's Milimani law courts ruled that the state had failed to prove its case against Sheikh Buru. His lawyer has asked the High Court for the guarantee of state protection for his client once freed. Read Also: Catholic Priest, Others Convicted Over Alb...

Court Sacks Ex-Speaker, Dogara For Defecting To APC

23Apr

By Obiajulu Joel NwoluNo Comments

Judiciary, Legislature, News, Nigeria, Politics

Court Sacks Ex-Speaker, Dogara For Defecting To APC

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Friday, declared the seat of the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, vacant, following his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. The court, in a judgement that was delivered by Justice Donatus Okorowo, held that Dogara, having abandoned the political party that sponsored his election, ought to vacate his seat in line with the provisions of sections 68(1) (g) and 109 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended. His sack followed a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1060/2020, which was lodged before the court by the PDP. It will be recalled that Dogara was in 2019, re-elected on the platform of the PDP to represent Dass, Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro Federal Co...

Chinese Businessman Jailed 20 years in Rwanda For Torturing Local Mineworkers

22Apr

By Chukwuebuka FestusNo Comments

African Development, Human Rights, Justice, News, Rwanda, Violence

Chinese Businessman Jailed 20 years in Rwanda For Torturing Local Mineworkers

A court in Rwanda has jailed a Chinese national for 20 years for torturing local mineworkers after a video showing him whipping a man tied to a post went viral on social media. Sun Shujun, the manager of a mine in the west of the country, was convicted on Tuesday along with an accomplice following his arrest last September. “It is clear that (Sun) tortured the victims and issued corporal punishment with malicious intent, and this is a grave crime,” Judge Jacques Kanyarukiga ruled, ordering him to serve a 20-year term in prison. Sun, who was in court for the verdict, acknowledged assaulting two workers, saying he beat them because he was “frustrated and fed up of them constantly stealing minerals”. The 43-year-old had argued for his release, saying he compensated the two by pay...

Why Osinachi’s Husband Has Not Been Arraigned –Police

21Apr

By Chinedu IbeakanmaNo Comments

Human Rights, Judiciary, Justice, News, Nigeria

Why Osinachi’s Husband Has Not Been Arraigned –Police

Justice The Nigeria Police Force on Wednesday said Peter Nwachukwu, the husband of the late gospel singer, Osinachi Nwachukwu, has not been charged to court because the police await the outcome of post-mortem examinations on the deceased to ascertain the cause of death. Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, made this known in a statement on Wednesday while giving an update on the matter. Adejobi also said the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, received the Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Tallen, today in his office at the Louis Edet House, Force Headquarters, Abuja. “The Minister discussed amongst other things, the plight of women in Nigeria, particularly in relation to gender and domestic-based violence. She pointed out the recent case of the famous gospel ...

21Apr

By Chinedu IbeakanmaNo Comments

Corruption, Judiciary, News, Nigeria, Politics, Uncategorized

Buhari Explains Pardon Granted Ex-Gov

Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame President Muhammadu Buhari says his anti-corruption war is on course despite the pardon granted to two former State chief executives. Former Governors of Plateau (Joshua Dariye) and Taraba (Jolly Nyame) were recently given a clean bill years after conviction for graft. Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu clarified the recent note presented to the Council of State after the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy (PACPM) report. His statement Wednesday night said it was a culmination of a process begun by the convicts and others concerned in line with the constitution. Shehu maintained that Section 175 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) empowers the President to exercise his constitutional powers to grant a pardon. ...

Pardoning Corrupt Persons Impairs Existence Of Anti-Graft Agencies – Wike

19Apr

By Obiajulu Joel NwoluNo Comments

Corruption, Judiciary, News, Nigeria, Politics

Pardoning Corrupt Persons Impairs Existence Of Anti-Graft Agencies – Wike

Nyesom WIke Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, yesterday, insisted that the presidential pardon for persons prosecuted on corruption charges only suggests that there “is no need to have anti-corruption agencies in the country.” He wondered how to explain the embarrassment the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) is made to suffer by the action, as they have been made to be irrelevant. A statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Kelvin Ebiri, said the governor spoke during an interaction with delegates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kano State, as part of his ongoing consultations ahead of its May 28 and 29 presidential primary. Wike said: “This is the same government that complained that the judic...

Why Wike Can’t Criticise Buhari Over State Pardon -Presidency

17Apr

By Obiajulu Joel NwoluNo Comments

Corruption, News, Nigeria, Politics

Why Wike Can’t Criticise Buhari Over State Pardon -Presidency

Nyesom Wike The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, has said the criticism issued by the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, concerning the state pardon granted by the President, Muhammadu Buhari, to a former Governor of Plateau, Joshua Dariye, and his Taraba State counterpart, Jolly Nyame, lacked moral justification. Wike had criticised the state pardon, saying it ridiculed the judiciary which had convicted both men of corruption. The presidential hopeful, who spoke in Minna on Saturday, where he met with delegates of the Peoples Democratic Party, lamented that the Buhari regime is selective in its war against corruption. He said, “I want to tell you that this government is very deceptive and they have deceived us enough. “You ...