US protesters decry racism against black after Walter Scott shooting by police

A few dozen protesters gathered peacefully Wednesday morning at North Charleston City Hall in South Carolina, United States, less than 24 hours after authorities announced murder charges against a white police officer over the shooting death of an unarmed black man.
Protesters handed out signs reading, “Back turned, don’t shoot,” ”Black lives matter” and “Stop racist police terror.” One display included a wood cutout of a man in a hooded sweatshirt with angel wings.
It was originally left at the site of the shooting of Walter Lamer Scott Jr., 50. Prosecutors charge that North Charleston police officer Michael Thomas Slager, 33, murdered Scott. A video of the fatal encounter, recorded on a cell phone, shows Scott running away from Slager when the officer opens fire, shooting eight times.
Five of the bullets hit Scott, with one piercing the heart of the father of four, family members told The New York Times.
Lance Braye helped arrange the protest for the group Black Lives Matter.
“We have to take a stand on stuff like this,” the 23-year-old Braye said. “We can’t just shake our heads at our computer screens.”
Protesters say North Charleston police have a habit of harassing black people for small offenses, such as the broken brake light that started the traffic stop preceding Scott’s death.
Braye said he hopes the video of the incident, taken by a witness whose name hasn’t been released, changes the way police act.
“This needs to be the last case,” Braye said.
Later in the morning, Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon said he went to the demonstration Wednesday to meet with community members and keep an eye on what was a peaceful protest. His jurisdiction includes North Charleston.
The sheriff said his department started reviewing its policies dealing with minorities after a white officer fatally shot a black man in Ferguson, Missouri. A grand jury did not bring any charges in that case.
Cannon said he understands that heavy-handed police tactics of the past few decades have fostered mistrust of law enforcement. He said he thinks investigators would have seen through the officer’s lies without the video, but the video made their job easier.
“Once that video came out things moved quickly,” Cannon said.
The FBI and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division are investigating the shooting.
The DOJ issued a detailed report last month condemning Ferguson’s city government for poor police training, practices it said contributed to the death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. The city’s police chief and other top officials stepped down in the wake of the report.
The death of Brown, and the lack of an indictment against the officer involved, sparked months of protests in the St. Louis suburb. Demonstrations there last year saw street clashes with law enforcement, tear gassings, mass arrests and the looting of businesses in the city.
Republican Senator Tim Scott, who is not related to Walter Scott, issued a statement Wednesday morning condemning the shooting death. Sen. Scott is the state’s first black senator since 1881.
“The horrific video that came to light yesterday is deeply troubling,” Scott said.
“It is clear the killing of Walter Scott was unnecessary and avoidable, and my prayers are with the Scott family as they go through this ordeal,” he added.
Sen. Scott said the swift reaction from South Carolina law enforcement underscores “the severity of this terrible event.”
Earlier that morning, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey and Police Chief Eddie Driggers visited Scott’s parents. The slain man’s mother and father had appeared on TV shows earlier that morning.
Judy Scott, the mother of 50-year-old Walter Lamer Scott, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday that she almost couldn’t look at the video showing the shooting last weekend. She said it tore her heart to pieces.
After seeing the cell phone video, Walter Scott Sr. said Slager “looked like he was trying to kill a deer running through the woods.”
The father said he doesn’t know if the shooting was racially motivated.

Nanny absconds with three kids within 24hrs after employment

The missing children

The Orekoya family on Lawanson Road, Surulere, Lagos State says, presently, it has no reason to be happy.

This is because a nanny employed on March 7 by the household disappeared with three children a day after she was employed.

The names of the missing children are Aderomola, (11 months), Adedamola (4 years) and Demola (6 years).

The nanny, Mary Akinloye, a 23-year-old indigene of Ibadan, Oyo State, was said to have been contracted via OLX, an online sales portal.

The children’s mother, Adebisi, told PUNCH Metro that Akinloye looked older than her age and that her claim that she was an indigene of Oyo State was questionable because of her accent.

She explained that the family had a nanny, who suddenly stopped coming to work after observing her annual leave.

She said the family subsequently put up a post on OLX, seeking the service of a new nanny.

She said, “We had someone who was taking care of the kids before now. But the woman did not show up on Saturday and Sunday and we urgently needed someone to assist because we were going to resume work on Monday. We were disturbed and that was why I posted the information on OLX.

“She (Akinloye) called us and said she was interested. She said she was 23 years. I agreed to employ her in the interim because I really did not like the fact that she was young. She agreed to collect between N10, 000 to N15,000 even though our former nanny collected N25,000.

“I left her at home this morning (Wednesday) around 7.30am. It was around 1pm that my eldest son called me and said she had taken his siblings away. He said she told him they were going out to buy some things. She took the 11 months on her back and held the others by the hand. She has since not returned.”

Adebisi said the nanny was so much in a haste to whisk the children away that she did not allow them to eat.

Her husband, Leke, a businessman, said the nanny gave the family the contacts of her relatives, who they spoke with on the telephone.

The relatives were said to have agreed to meet with the Orekoyas during the week to finalise documentation.

He said, “We spoke with two people she introduced to us as her brother and sister. They confirmed that they were her relatives.

“They gave us a vague description of where they lived in Ikorodu. We agreed to do proper documentation this week.

“It was in less than 24 hours that she went away with the kids.

“She never gave us an idea that she was on an evil mission.

“Her spoken English was fluent. She said she had a National Diploma and just wanted to make some money so she could return to school.”

It was learnt that the purported relatives had since remained unreachable on their telephone lines.

The family was said to have contacted the police from the Itire division, who reportedly told the family to wait for 24 hours.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Kenneth Nwosu, confirmed the abduction, saying the police had started   investigation with a view to rescuing the children.

He said, “The police are making efforts to arrest the suspects and rescue the children.”

Rivers Elders and Leadership Council endorse Peterside Dakuku

The Rivers Elders and Leadership Council (RELEC) has called on the people of the Niger Delta state to massively vote on Saturday for the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside.
The leaders insisted that another Ikwerre person would not be allowed to succeed Governor Rotimi Amaechi, an Ikwerre from Ubima in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers state.
RELEC, through its Chairman. Chief Albert Horsfall, a former Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS), Wednesday in Port Harcourt, stated that the upland/riverine dichotomy in the state must be respected.
The Rivers elders were apparently referring to the state’s governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Nyesom Wike, an Ikwerre, a former Minister of State for Education, who hails from Rumueprikom in Obio/Akpor LGA.
RELEC said: “It is the considered directive and advice of the RELEC elders that all Rivers people should vote Dakuku Peterside for governor and accordingly urge Peterside and all other riverine candidates to enter into immediate consultations to collaborate, in order to avoid splitting the votes for single riverine candidate.
“We must not sleep-walk into another avoidable catastrophe. We must ignore anyone or group who tries to instigate us to violence, with the erroneous impression that what we could not do when we were in authority and power for six years, we could do now if we remain in power another day or year.
“Is it not sad and disgraceful that since 1999 when civilian democracy returned to this country, this state has never had a proper democratic election, where-as other states have all tried, successfully and started to do so? For us, it has been the same practice of ‘carry go’; stuffing of ballot boxes; intimidation and violence, and writing false results, after illegal thumb-printing of ballot papers.
“We are pre-dominantly Christians in this state and we must not allow religious politics or politicking to grow in the state. Christ and Christianity is our chosen and cherished belief; nothing must be done to subvert or undermine our own way of life. The rights, traditions and culture of our people must be respected and recognised.
“Dear Rivers people, can we once again remain in opposition to the Federal Government and see our people continuously deprived in a land where we have made so much contribution and sacrifice? That is what we get when we vote a PDP candidate for governor. So, think again, our dear Rivers people.”
The elders also stated that a successful, but partly rigged election for governorship was conducted in 1998, and a stable administration emerged after that election in 1999, stressing that the sailing was okay and there was a peaceful and trouble-free conduct of affairs in Rivers state throughout 1999 and most of year 2000, lamenting that from 2001, killer gangs were organised by top politicians in the state government, first under a serving police officer, to hunt down and kill imagined opponents.

Fayose impeachment process in order says Femi Falana

A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has advised the Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose, to take the impeachment notice served on him by the 19 All Progressives Congress members of the state House of Assembly seriously, saying the notice is valid before the law.

Citing sections 91, 96 and 188 of the country’s constitution, Falana explained that what was required to serve an impeachment notice was one-third of the members of the assembly, noting that the 19 members that signed the notice were more than the one-third of the total legislators required by the constitution.

He added that the constitution did not also stipulate that the impeachment notice must be signed in the Assembly chamber.

“Once the governor receives the notice, it has to be taken seriously because impeachment is a serious matter in the Constitution. That is why I am advising the governor to take this matter very seriously. He should seek legal advice on this matter,” Falana said.

The impeached Speaker of the Ekiti House of Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin, had said that the 19 APC lawmakers had served a notice of impeachment on the governor.

Falana pointed out that in a democratic system of government, the majority would have its way while the minority would have its say.

He stressed that the 19 APC members that served the notice on the governor met the constitutional provision for impeachment.

Falana said, “Section 96 (1) says the quorum of a House of Assembly shall be one-third of all the members of the House. In the case of Ekiti, the very least that can sit is eight members.

“Section 188 says that whenever a notice of any allegation in writing is signed by not less than one-third of the members of the House of Assembly and is presented to the Speaker that is known to law, the Speaker shall, within seven days of the receipt, cause a copy to be served on the governor or the deputy governor. That is enough to put the engine in motion for the impeachment of a governor. The constitution does not say the letter must be signed in the House.

“And from the look of things, that constitutional provision has been met. I do hope that the governor will take this notice very seriously, and react under the law.”

Governor Fayose, Deputy, others lose bid to stop impeachment

Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose and his deputy, Kolapo Olusola, have raced to a Federal High Court in Abuja to stop the 19 All Progressives Congress members of the state House of Assembly from impeaching them.

But they met a brick wall as the judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, turned down their request and granted only the prayers contained in their ex parte application relating to the service of the court processes on the defendants.

Fayose and Olusola, in the ex parte application, asked for an interim order stopping   the impeachment notice served on them and the moves to remove them from office.

Rather than granting the prayers for interim injunction, Justice Mohammed ordered the defendants in the suit, including the Speaker of the House, Adewale Omirin, and the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Ayodeji Daramola, to appear in his court on April 16.

They are to show cause why the order of interim injunctions being sought by the plaintiffs   should not be granted.

Apart from Omirin and   Daramola, the other defendants in the suit are the Inspector-General of Police,   Suleiman Abba, and the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The   plaintiffs, apart from Fayose and Olusola, are the House of Assembly and Olugbemi   Dele, who was appointed by seven Peoples Democratic Party lawmakers as their speaker.

Caution your party members, Adeyeye tells Buhari

Minister of State for Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, has asked the President-elect, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) to caution the All Progressives Congress members in Ekiti State lest they truncate democracy in the country.

The minister, who described the APC desperation to seize power in Ekiti State through the backdoor as a dangerous trend, added that the APC members in the state House of Assembly had been capitalising on Buhari’s victory in the March 28 poll to cause crisis in the state.

Adeyeye said in a statement on Tuesday that the APC should stop behaving like a party of bad losers.

He said, “In 1999, Prof. Tunde Adeniran of the PDP lost to Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Adeniran congratulated the winner. He did not go to court. It was in 2003 that Adebayo lost to Governor Ayodele Fayose that they went to the tribunal.

“Also, when Segun Oni won the election in 2007, these same APC people made Ekiti ungovernable for him.

“In 2011 when Fayose contested senatorial election and lost to Senator Babafemi Ojudu, he did not go to court. None of the PDP National Assembly candidates that lost in 2011 went to court.

“Since they lost the governorship to the PDP nine months ago, they have refused to accept defeat. It was as a result of this desperation to steal Ekiti people’s mandate that Chief Omolafe Aderiye was killed.

“Today (Tuesday) again, they killed Modupe Temitope Olaiya in Efon-Alaaye and one wonders why these APC people derive joy in shedding blood of innocent Ekiti sons and daughters. Why must there be crisis in Ekiti each time the APC elements lose power to the PDP?”

“General Buhari must not let these desperate APC members in Ekiti State drag his name and reputation in the mud by using his name to cause chaos in Ekiti,”the minister added.

Disruptions and chaos in Ekiti

Armed policemen and soldiers took over strategic places in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital on Tuesday as the anti-impeachment protests by the Peoples Democratic Party members entered the second day.

The mayhem which also took place in Igede,   Itawure, Efon Alaaye, Iworoko, Aisegba, Ikere, Ise, Ogotun and Igbemo,   led to the death of one person, accidents and the closure of banks.

Nineteen All Progressives Congress members of the state House of Assembly had served an impeachment notice on Governor Ayodele Fayose, citing eight impeachable offences,   including impunity, violence, stalking and other constitutional breaches, against him.

The protesters, who   converged on   Ajilosun, Ijigbo, the Secretariat Road, Okesa, Ojumose and old garage as early as 6.30am, moved round the city , thereby hindering movements   for several hours.

While some of them made bonfires on the streets, others used broken bottles, wooden chairs and tables to block the highways that   lead to and out of the city.

The development forced private and commercial bus drivers from other parts of the country who pass through the state capital to park until the chaos subsided.

Their passengers panicked as the demonstrators   drove round the streets in commercial buses chanting solidarity songs. They were watched by the heavily-armed soldiers and policemen.

The   security operatives were mostly seen in areas such as the Fajuyi Roundabout, the Governor’s Office Road and the NTA Road where the protesters used luxury buses, tyres and chairs to block them.

But at the Secretariat Road, a   Toyota Hilux van marked AA 363 YEK, conveying some gun-wielding protesters to the assembly premises   ran into a police patrol vehicle, a development that led to the arrest of three of them (protesters).

Among the worst affected by the chaos were   Senior Secondary School 3 pupils presently sitting for the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations outside the capital city who were turned back by the demonstrators.

Many civil servants and traders, who had reported at their places of work and business had to return home in fear.

In spite of the violence, some bank customers in the city were seen using the Automated Teller Machines while those without ATM cards milled round the front of the banks located on the Bank Road, New Garage and Adebayo Road.

An employee of one of the banks told The PUNCH that they took precautionary measures against the current situation in the state.

In Igede, a barricade on the Igede-Iyin-Ado Road led to   accidents.   The PUNCH correspondent in the state was involved in one of them.

Our   correspondent, who was in the community in the heat of the protest rammed his car into another whose   driver suddenly applied the brakes on seeing the barricade.   Although the two cars were badly damaged, the occupants escaped unhurt.

In Efon Alaaye in Efon Local Government Area, a man identified as Modupe Olaiya, was shot dead   as the anti-Fayose impeachment demonstrators took to the streets following rumours that the 19 APC   members were on their way to to the town.

The PUNCH   however gathered that the lawmakers’ convoy was blocked by some youths and soldiers at Itawure, a town between Ekiti and Osun states.

An eyewitness said that Olaiya was shot in the commotion that ensued when the protesters challenged the lawmakers and asked them to return to Osogbo, the Osun State capital.

According to him, the victim   sustained injury from shots fired to scare away the protesters, who took over the Ado-Itawure-Ilesa Road.

But the Assembly Speaker, Adewale Omirin,     described as “untrue,” reports that the convoy of the lawmakers   killed Olaiya.

He said that the claim by   Fayose’s media aide, Lere Olayinka,   that the lawmakers’ convoy killed Olaiya was a “figment of his imagination and one in the series of media spins he had been using to mislead the people to get sympathy.”

Wole Olujobi, the Special Adviser on Media to the speaker said Olayinka was in a familiar terrain of mindless propaganda to mislead the public.

He argued that its members could not have been responsible for the death of anyone in Efon Alaaye when they were turned back by soldiers in Itawure, a distance of about two kilometres.

He added, “The truth is that no one was killed. Nobody saw a dead body on the way up to Itawure junction where the soldiers disallowed us to pass. Itawure junction is not the same as Efon-Alaaye, so we don’t know where he got his story.

“However, we heard that Fayose removed a dead body from the mortuary and presented it to Efon people, claiming that Folorunso Ogundele, a member of the House of Assembly and an indigene of Efon-Alaaye, was the one who pulled the trigger to kill a fellow Efon-Alaaye man in order to instigate violence in the town against him.

“For those who know Fayose very well, this story is typical of his rabble-rousing tactics to cause mob action against opponents.

“It is gratifying that the people were able to quickly decipher that Fayose was up to a mischief to set brothers against brothers.”

The speaker explained that the soldiers who stopped the lawmakers on their way offered no explanation for their action.

“Instead of losing our cool for their strange behaviour, we just left the place,” he stated

The statement added that sources later confirmed that the soldiers were   under a firm instruction of a Brigadier-General to disallow the lawmakers from passing through the check-point.

It said that the Brigadier-General , whose voice was heard among those that were implicated in the leaked audio tape detailing Ekiti election fraud, is the Commander of the Battalion where the soldiers at the check-point were attached.

The lawmakers have however vowed to go ahead with the impeachment proceedings, saying that they   had a constitutional duty and responsibility to probe any infraction of the constitution.

Omirin, his deputy, Tunji Orisalade and the Majority Leader,   Churchill Adedipe, also told a news conference in Osogbo,that the Brigade Commander, 32 Artillery Brigade, Akure, Brig-Gen. Aliyu Momoh, denied   them entry into Ado Ekiti at a military checkpoint in Ita Iwure.

They said that Momoh, who had earlier been accused of alleged connivance with Fayose in the use soldiers to rig the Ekiti State governorship election of 2014, was present at the checkpoint where they were prevented from entering into the state.

The lawmakers, however, commended the Commissioner of Police in Ekiti State, Taiwo Lakanu, for ensuring their protection until they got to the checkpoint.

Adedipe said, “Governor   Fayose used his strategy of criminality and brigandage and we were ambushed by soldiers at the military checkpoint in Ita Iwure.

“We were attacked, the soldiers at the military checkpoint stopped us and they delayed us deliberately for the thugs hired by Fayose to come and attack us there. You will recall that Gen. Momoh, who was pointed in the Ekitigate scandal, was the same General   who was physically present at the checkpoint.

“We called our people who told us that thugs were already coming to attack us there and we turned back.

“We are calling the attention of the whole world to the unholy alliance between Fayose and the general. “

They also alleged that Fayose had concluded plans to begin to raze their business interests in Ekiti State from Tuesday night.

Adedipe said   the police arrested a commissioner in Ekiti State with a pump action rifle and another governor’s aide with acid with were to used to attack them.

He however did not give the name of the commissioner.

The Ekiti State Police Commissioner, Taiwo Lakanu, had last Wednesday shut the House of Assembly and deployed personnel and Armoured Personnel Carriers to the state’s flash points.

The assembly complex is still under watch by   policemen.

The Head of Service, Gbenga Faseluka, and organised labour also on Tuesday besieged the assembly in protest and warned the lawmakers against plunging the state into violence.

Organised labour, in a joint statement by the Nigeria Labour Congres Secretary, Ade Obatoye; the Trade Union Congress Secretary, Joseph Adebayo, and the Joint Negotiation Council Secretary, Oladele Ayodeji, enjoined the entire workforce to see the present development in the state as a way of fomenting trouble and putting their lives at risk.

Also, the people of Igbemo Ekiti led by one Chief Agamago Adetunji, had during a solidarity visit to Fayoase said, ”We are solidly behind you. Ekiti people elected you to be their leader and no power under the earth can remove you.

The Deputy Governor,   Kolapo Olusola, who received the delegation on behalf of the governor likened the APC lawmakers action to the biblical war of Egypt against the people of Israel.

He expressed confidence that the governor would triumph over his enemies.

“This Egyptian war led by the APC will be defeated. Governor Fayose did not elect himself, but you put him there. This is just a passage and it will go by the grace of God. I want to assure you that we will see no more this war against an anointed man in few days time,” Olusola boasted.

Also, a group of protesters led by   Agamego Adetunji from Igbemo Ekiti in Irepodun/Ifelodun LGA   paid a solidarity visit to the governor in his office.

The group, comprising PDP members in the LGA, carried placards   with inscriptions like ‘Igbemo is for PDP not for APC,’ ‘Fayose is our father in Igbemo just like Afao,’ ‘Fayose, Senior Advocate of the Masses,’ and ‘Igbemo people solidly behind Fayose.’

Olusola, who also received the delegation, thanked them for standing by the governor.

He said, ‘‘This solidarity visit shows that you still support us. God will destroy those who vowed to destroy Ekiti. We appreciate you. Nothing will shake this government. This Egyptian war being led by the APC, we will see it no more. At the end of the day, we will come together to celebrate.’’

Meanwhile, the Ekiti State Council of Traditional Rulers will on Thursday meet to deliberate on the ongoing political crisis in the state.

The Chairman of the council and the Onitaji of Itaji Ekiti, Oba Adamo Babalola, said   on Tuesday that they   would not fold their arms and watch the situation degenerate.

Warning against recourse to violence, Babalola said, “We have been told the runaway legislators are coming back to Ekiti State and that impeachment notice has been served.

“I don’t know whether that is true, but we need to give peace a chance and allow the Obas to come in to deliberate on the matter.

“We have made attempts several times to settle the dispute between the executive and the legislative arms. The legislators did not answer us. I don’t know why coming to Ekiti should involve impeachment. We will hold a meeting on Thursday to deliberate on the matter.’’

Source: The Punch