Ruling
Egyptian TikTok influencer to appeal 10-year trafficking sentence
Egyptian TikTok influencer Haneen Hossam will appeal a 10-year prison sentence handed down by a Cairo court that found her guilty of human trafficking, her lawyer said on Monday. In the latest twist in a nearly year-long saga, the court also fined the 20-year-old Cairo University student 200 000 Egyptian pounds ($13 000) on Sunday for encouraging women to share footage on the video-sharing app in exchange for money. “We will demand restoration of the case proceedings because there are contradictions between the verdict and the merits on which the court’s decision is based,” said lawyer Hani Sameh. “We hope that she can get a reduced jail sentence or an acquittal,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Several women have been accused of “inciting debauchery” for challenging Egypt’s conser...
Court restrains Ondo governor from sacking chief judge
A Federal High Court in Abuja, on Thursday, stopped Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) of Ondo State from removing the Chief Judge (CJ) of the state, Justice Oluwatoyin Akeredolu, from office. Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a ruling, restrained the governor and five others seeking to remove the Chief Judge from office on the grounds that they lacked constitutional powers to do so. Justice Akeredolu had approached the court for an order restraining the defendants from illegally removing her from office without recourse to the National Judicial Council (NJC). Delivering ruling in the application, Justice Ekwo held that the powers to investigate, probe and indict any judicial officer for any misconduct in the discharge of duties is constitutionally vested in the NJC only. According to the judge, b...
Algeria’s FLN remains biggest party after election
Algeria’s FLN, long the country’s biggest political party, won the most seats in Saturday’s parliamentary election, the head of the electoral authority said on Tuesday. Fewer than a third of registered voters took part in the election, which the long dominant establishment had seen as part of its strategy to move beyond two years of mass protests and political turmoil. The protests that erupted in 2019 demanded the ousting of the ruling elite, an end to corruption and the army’s withdrawal from politics. While authorities praised the demonstrations as a moment of national renewal, they also cracked down with arrests. “The dynamic of peaceful change that was launched (with the protests) is being strengthened,” electoral authority head Mohamed Chorfi said, referring to the election. The FLN’...
Zambian court throws out second challenge to president’s re-election bid
Zambia’s Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that President Edgar Lungu can stand for re-election in August, throwing out a second opposition challenge to his eligibility on the basis of the constitutional two-term limit. The ruling comes as Zambia faces a multipronged economic crisis, after overleveraging its debt right before the brutal global COVID-19 shutdown. The crisis has triggered Africa’s first pandemic-era sovereign default and driven the southern African country to seek emergency IMF help. Lungu’s first term in office lasted a year and six months, when he took over after the death of the previous elected president, Michael Sata. He then won an election in a disputed vote in August 2016. Since this is technically his second term, the opposition had argued that he is no longer el...
PDP: OGSIEC plotting to shut us out of Ogun council poll
The Ogun chapter of Peoples Democratic Party has accused the Chairman of the State Independent Electoral Commission, OGSIEC, Barr. Babatunde Osibodu, of meddling in the affairs of the party. Alh Sikirulai Ogundele, Ogun chairman of PDP said this during a press conference at the Ogun NUJ Secretariat, Okelewo, Abeokuta. Ogundele who was accompanied by some aggrieved members of the party, said there was a renewed calculated attempt by OGSIEC to keep meddling in the affairs of the party by deliberately obstructing the cause of justice as far as PDP’s participation in the forthcoming LG election is concerned. He said this was in spite of the fact that that the party had gone through a phase of robust reconciliation of all interests while verifiable documents have been submitted to properly guid...
Palestinian teen bears scar of eviction battle in East Jerusalem
Jana Kiswani, a 16-year-old Palestinian, was entering her home in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah when an Israeli police officer shot her in the back with a sponge-tipped bullet, her family said. Her spine fractured, the teen bears testimony to the tensions and violence surrounding an Israeli court-ordered eviction of eight Palestinian families from homes claimed by Jewish settlers. Last month, the Sheikh Jarrah dispute helped to trigger 11 days of intense fighting between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas militant group, and frequent protests and confrontations with Israeli police in the neighbourhood have kept tensions high. Clashes were under way in Sheikh Jarrah on May 18 when Kiswani was shot. She said she was obeying police orders to go inside when the police officer f...
Ogun council polls: APC members reject imposition of candidates, demand governor’s intervention
File Photo Some aggrieved members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State have appealed to the State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, to immediately save the party from imminent crisis. The party faithful, who expressed concern over the gale of imposition of candidates within the APC ahead of the July 24 local government elections in the state, said Governor Abiodun, as the overall leader of the party, must rise to the occasion and rescue it from the grip of self-serving individuals masquerading as leaders. This was contained in a statement issued on Sunday, which was signed on behalf of the concerned APC members by an Ikenne Local Government based politician, Hon. Sonuga Ramoni, a leader and youth activist from Ikenne Local Govt area of the State. Sonuga alleged that the...
House member accuses military of extrajudicial killings, looting in Imo
A member of the House of Representatives, Bede Eke, has said men of the Nigerian Army and the police are carrying out extrajudicial killings and displacement of people in Imo State following the recent killing of a former presidential aide, Ahmed Gulak. Mr Gulak, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), was killed by unknown gunmen on May 30 while on his way to Sam Mbakwe Airport, Owerri, en route Abuja. According to the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, Mr Gulak was consulting for the Senate Committee on Constitutional Review, which he (Omo-Agege) heads. The police said Mr Gulak’s killers were subsequently killed in a gun battle. Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Thursday, Mr Eke, who represents Mbaise/Ngor-Okpala Federal Constituency of Imo State, alleged tha...
PDP optimistic ahead Lagos council polls
File Photo The Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State on Sunday said that its fortune remained bright in the forthcoming July 24 local government election in the aquatic state. The PDP Chairman in Lagos, Adedeji Doherty, expressed this optimism in an interview with newsmen. He, however, said that there was the need for a constitutional review that would take away the conduct of grassroots election from state apparatuses. According to him, the step has become imperative to bring democracy to grassroots elections, being the most important election that is closest to the people. “The fortune of PDP is bright, but the main thing is that the party in power usually takes control of all the apparatus to win grassroots elections. “There should be a constitutional amendment to make sure that the c...
‘Patriots rule Hong Kong’ as sweeping pro-Beijing electoral rules passed
Hong Kong’s legislature approved the biggest overhaul of its political system in the quarter century since British rule on Thursday, in a decisive step to assert Beijing’s authority over the autonomous city. The changes will reduce the proportion of seats in the legislature that are filled by direct elections from half to less than a quarter. A new body will be empowered to vet candidates and bar those deemed insufficiently patriotic towards China from standing. “These 600-or-so pages of the legislation come down to just a few words: patriots ruling Hong Kong,” said Peter Shiu, a pro-Beijing lawmaker. Most of the changes were announced by China in March, though Hong Kong authorities later contributed further details, such as redrawing constituency boundaries and criminalising calls for bal...
House summon AGF over ‘blockage’ of $60 billion repatriation
The House of Representatives has again summoned the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) for allegedly halting the repatriation of $60 billion loot from Texas, United States of America. The Chairman of the Ad hoc Committee on Assessment and Status of All Recovered Loots – Movable and Immovable Assets from 2002 to 2020 by Agencies of the federal government for Effective Efficient Management and Utilisation, Rep. Adejoro Adeogun, summoned Malami on Wednesday in Abuja when a former Special Prosecutor to the Special Presidential Investigation Panel (SPIP), Mr Tosin Ojaomo, appeared before it. He also revealed that before the panel which was headed by Okoi Obono-Obla was disbanded, it investigated the Auditor General of the Federation for the withdra...
Edo election: Appeal Court upholds Governor Obaseki’s victory
The Court of Appeal, sitting in Benin, yesterday, upheld the ruling of the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal against the Action Democratic Party (ADP), and reaffirmed the victory of Governor Godwin Obaseki at the 2020 governorship election. Delivering the judgement in the case marked CA/B/EPT/GOV/01 & 1A/2021 Action Democratic Party & Anor v. INEC & 2Ors, the court held that Obaseki did not forge his certificates with which he contested the 2020 governorship election and dismissed the appeal filed by the ADP and its candidate. In another case marked /B/EPT/GOV/02/2021 Action Peoples Party (APP) Vs Godwin N. Obaseki & 2Ors., the Court unanimously upheld the Judgment of the Tribunal and dismissed the Appeal with costs assessed at N600,000 each, on two differe...
