Tension in Delta, Anambra as Okowa, Obiano declare curfew – Newstrends
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Tension in Delta, Anambra as Okowa, Obiano declare curfew

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Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has declared a 48-hour curfew across the state.

Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, also on Thursday, declared a 24-hour curfew as violence spread to different parts of the state.

Hoodlums had burnt the Nnewi Central Police Station, killing two persons on Wednesday.

Banks and schools in the state had since shut down as the rampaging thugs attacked residents, looting shops.

The two governors have thus joined their colleagues in Lagos, Edo, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun states that had earlier gave a similar stay-at-home order to prevent the escalation of the #End SARS protests by youths against police brutality and injustices in government.

Okowa spoke about the curfew while addressing the State Government House reporters on Thursday morning.

He also disclosed that the presentation of the 2021 budget estimates to the House of Assembly sceduled for today had been postponed.

It was learnt that the decision to declare the curfew followed Wednesday’s night violence that erupted at the Koka area of Benin-Asaba-Onitsha expressway.

Hoodlums had allegedly hijacked the #EndSARS protest to unleash mayhem on the area as they set ablze the operation office of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the multi-million naira beautification garden of the state government.

An army officer said to have also been burnt alive could not however confirmed by official sources.

Major roads in the metropolis are already barricaded by protesters and businesses forcefully closed on Wednesday afternoon are yet to reopen.

Okowa also ordered the closure of all public and private primary and secondary schools till November 2, 2020.

It would be recalled that schools had resumed academic activities for the 2020/2021 session on October 12 after the COVID-19-induced holiday of over six months.

In Anambra, Obiano said he was forced by the prevailing circumstances in the state and in the country to do declare the curfew.

In a state address on Thursday, Obiano said, “I am compelled to address you today by the growing tension across the country ignited by recent efforts by Nigerian youths to ask for a better Nigeria.

“While our beloved state remains largely safe and isolated from the boiling sea outside, we have also recorded a few unpleasant incidents in our domain and there is justifiable anger in the land. But we cannot give it a chance to consume us all.

“Consequently, we are taking precautionary steps to prevent further descent to lawlessness in Anambra State by imposing a 24-hour curfew with effect from 8pm today until we bring this rising tension under control.

“Therefore, all schools and markets in Anambra State are hereby closed. All gatherings by groups and associations under any name or label from 8pm are banned. The law enforcement agencies in the state have been duly directed to enforce compliance.

“However, all law enforcement officers charged with ensuring compliance to the restriction on movement must resist the temptation of applying excessive force while attempting to bring the situation under control.”

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Lagos #EndSARS panel awards N10m to Kolade Johnson’s family

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The Lagos judicial panel has awarded the sum of N10 million to the family of late Kolade Johnson.

Johnson was shot during a raid by police officers at Onipetesi area in Lagos, while watching an English premiership match between Tottenham and Manchester United on March 31, 2019.

 

The incident sparked outrage on social media, after which the police authorities identified Ogunyemi Olalekan, a police inspector, and Godwin Orji, a sergeant, as the officers involved in the shooting.

 

Following an orderly trial, Olalekan was dismissed from the force after he was found guilty, while Orji was acquitted.

Doris Okuwobi, chairman of the Lagos panel, announced the compensation at the sitting on Friday.

 

The award sum was received by the mother of the deceased.

 

Thirteen petitioners — including Johnson’s family — were compensated with a total of N83 million at the sitting on Friday.

 

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Panel fines police N16m for killing teenager in Bayelsa

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The Bayelsa State Panel of Inquiry on Police Brutality and Other Related Matters has in a ruling on a petition awarded N16m against the police for extrajudicial killing of a teenager, late Innocent Kokorifa, in Yenagoa.

Innocent, who was 17 when he was shot dead by a trigger-happy officer in August 2016, was the son of Mr Daniel Kokorifa, a Federal Road Safety Corps official attached to the Rivers State Command.

Kokorifa, who is a native of Okpotuwari in the Southern Ijaw, Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa, had in his petition numbered BYS/JPI/012/2020 prayed the panel to also consider the sum of N6m incurred since the brutal murder of his son.

The chairman of the panel, retired Justice Young Ogola, in the ruling awarded Kokorifa the sum of N16m in temporary compensation.

In another ruling, the panel also ordered the release of the corpse of another teenager, Emmanuel Victor, who was brutally killed by a policeman in 2011 in Yenagoa.

The panel further awarded the sum of N5m to the mother of the deceased 17-year-old, Grace Victor, for proper and decent burial of her son even though the culpable officer had been prosecuted and sentenced to death by hanging.

Ogola remarked that “there is no compensation for what was pronounced as vicarious liability or so; nothing that the policeman, who committed the crime, has already been sentenced to death.”

Similarly, the panel delivered judgments on over 13 petitions it received and awarded over N40m to the various petitioners in damages. 

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Trump acquitted in impeachment trial; 7 Republican senators vote with Democrats

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The US Senate on Saturday voted to acquit former President Donald Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection despite significant Republican support for conviction, bringing an end to the fourth impeachment trial in the country’s history and the second for Trump.

Seven Republicans voted to convict Trump for allegedly inciting the deadly January 6 riot at the Capitol, when a mob of pro-Trump supporters tried to disrupt the electoral vote count formalizing Joe Biden’s election win before a joint session of Congress.

That is by far the most bipartisan support for conviction in impeachment history. The final vote was 57 to 43, 10 short of the 67 votes needed to secure a conviction.

Republican Senators Richard Burr of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania all voted guilty.

The vote means the Senate cannot bar Trump from holding future federal offices.

Moments after the vote concluded, the former president issued a statement praising his legal team and thanking the senators and other members of Congress “who stood proudly for the Constitution we all revere and for the sacred legal principles at the heart of our country.”

“This has been yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country. No president has ever gone through anything like it,” Trump said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the vote “the largest and most bipartisan vote in any impeachment trial in history,” but noted it wasn’t enough to secure a conviction.

The trial “was about choosing country over Donald Trump, and 43 Republican members chose Trump. They chose Trump. It should be a weight on their conscience today, and it shall be a weight on their conscience in the future,” he said in a speech on the Senate floor.

With control of the Senate split 50-50, the House managers always had an uphill battle when it came to convincing enough Republicans to cross party lines and convict a former president who is still very popular with a large part of the GOP base.

In his closing argument, House manager Joe Neguse, D-Colo, argued, “The stakes could not be higher. Because the cold, hard truth is that what happened on January 6 can happen again. I fear, like many of you do, that the violence we saw on that terrible day may be just the beginning.”

Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin, D-Md., urged the senators to think of the future.

“Senators, this trial, in the final analysis, is not about Donald Trump. The country and the world know who Donald Trump is. This trial is about who we are, who we are,” Raskin said.

Trump lawyer Michael van der Veen, meanwhile, insisted his client did nothing wrong and maintained he was the victim of vengeful Democrats and a biased news media. He called the impeachment proceedings a “charade from beginning to end.”

The managers’ task became more difficult Saturday when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced in an email to his colleagues that he would vote to acquit since Trump was already out of office.

“While a close call, I am persuaded that impeachments are a tool primarily of removal and we therefore lack jurisdiction,” the influential Kentucky Republican wrote in the email, which was obtained by NBC News.

McConnell, who’d rebuffed Democratic efforts to start the trial while Trump was still in office, had condemned Trump’s conduct after the riot and said he’d keep an open mind about voting to convict — something he’d ruled out entirely during Trump’s first impeachment trial last year.

After voting to acquit, McConnell blasted Trump for his “disgraceful dereliction of duty” and squarely laid the blame for the riot at Trump’s door in what amounted to an endorsement of many of the arguments laid out by House impeachment managers in a speech on the Senate floor.

“There’s no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” McConnell said.

McConnell had suggested in the email earlier in the day that Trump could still face other penalties.

“The Constitution makes perfectly clear that Presidential criminal misconduct while in office can be prosecuted after the President has left office, which in my view alleviates the otherwise troubling ‘January exception’ argument raised by the House,” he wrote.

Opening arguments began on Wednesday, with House managers blaming the riot on Trump’s months-long campaign to cast doubt on the 2020 election, and his repeated assertions that the only way he would lose was if the election was “stolen.”

They focused on his fiery speech on the morning of the Jan. 6 riot, where he urged his supporters to “fight like hell” — and his refusal to take action after they did.

Trump declined a request from managers to testify at the trial, and refused to even submit a statement for it, facts Raskin urged senators to keep in mind on Saturday.

“I ask any of you, if you were charged with inciting violent insurrection against our country, and you’re falsely accused, would you come and testify? I know I would,” Raskin said.

The trial was the fourth of an impeached president. No president has ever been convicted.

– NBC News

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