The International Criminal Court (ICC) has disclosed that it’s conducting a preliminary investigation into the recent #EndSARS protests in Nigeria, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported on Wednesday. In a statement, the office of the ICC prosecutor had earlier said it had received information on alleged crimes. The examination will “assess whether the legal criteria for opening an investigation under the Rome Statute are met.” For weeks crowds of peaceful protesters gathered in streets in major towns of the country to demonstrate against police brutality, leading to a crackdown. Rights group Amnesty International said security forces opened fire on protesters, killing and injuring a number of people. Both the police and the army have rejected Amnesty’s allegation. The ICC sai...
The Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s 24-hour curfew over unabated #EndSARS protests, as confrontational and ill-advised. The PDP in a statement on Tuesday in Lagos by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Taofik Gani, said Sanwo-Olu’s decision could aggravate the agitations by the protesters. “The PDP opines that the decision is confrontational, ill-advised and capable of inflaming the already compressed “beast” in the peaceful demonstrators against Police brutality and other government induced vices in the state. “The governor must consequently take responsibility for any degeneration into maiming, killing and oppressive arrest. “The governor has again showed that he acts copy and paste in governance,” Gani said. According to him, the...
Agence France-Presse Dozens of Western countries on Tuesday voiced concern at Saudi Arabia’s continued detention of women activists and called for those behind the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to be brought to justice. No less than a dozen prominent women’s rights activists were arrested in Saudi Arabia in 2018 as it lifted a ban on women driving cars, a step that many of the detainees had long campaigned for. The women were rounded up as part of a broader crackdown on dissent. Germany, speaking on behalf of the European Union at the United Nations Human Rights Council, brought up Saudi Arabia’s “prolonged detentions of women rights defenders,” including Loujain al-Hathloul. Several of the arrested women say they have suffered torture and sexual assault in detention, accusations w...
The United States says it will compile and evaluate information obtained from witnesses in the killing of a black man, George Floyd. In a joint statement on Thursday, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Minneapolis Field Office said they were conducting a “robust criminal investigation” into the circumstances surrounding Floyd’s killing on May 25. “The Department of Justice asks for cooperation from all witnesses who believe they have relevant information and urges calm as investigators methodically continue to gather facts. “The Department of Justice and FBI’s comprehensive investigation will compile all available information and thoroughly evaluate evidence and information obtain...
A fresh clash between Tiv farmers and Fulani herdsmen has led to the death of four the latter in Kadarko community, Keana Local government area of Nasarawa state during the weekend. The clash occurred as a result of a fight that broke out between a Tiv farmer and a Fulani herdsman who encroached into his land, leading a herd of cows to graze on the farm land. The farmer who could not bear the sight of his crops munched by the herd of cows confronted the Fulani herdsman who in turn, brought out a machete and charged towards the Tiv farmer. The police command in Nasarawa state, through the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Ramham Nansel confirmed the incident and assured that investigation is being carried out on the killing of four Fulani herdsmen. The police spokesman said that the D...