Presidential candidate Atiku promises $25 billion infrastructure fund

 Nigeria’s main opposition leader, Atiku Abubakar, said he would create a $25 billion fund to support private sector investments in infrastructure if he wins a presidential election on Feb. 16.

Abubakar pledged to use some of the money for reforming the power sector, according to an emailed copy of a speech he made in Lagos, the commercial capital, on Wednesday. The 72-year-old businessman and former vice president also said he would increase the infrastructure stock to 50 percent of gross domestic product by 2025.

Abubakar is the main challenger to President Muhammadu Buhari, 76, who is seeking a second four-year term.

Bloomberg

Lawyers in Nigeria to strike due to suspension of judge

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has decided to embark on a two-day warning boycott of all courts in Nigeria over the suspension of the country's top judge Walter Onnoghen.

The association made the decision at its emergency national executive committee (NEC) meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Monday, The Cable news in Nigeria reported.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari suspended Onnoghen on Friday and replaced him with acting chief justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed weeks before an election in which the judiciary could play an important role.

The chief justice was due to face trial on charges of allegedly failing to declare his assets, which Onnoghen has argued is without merit. But it was adjourned indefinitely on Monday, the chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) said.

On Friday, the main opposition candidate, Atiku Abubakar, called the president's decision "an act of dictatorship".

The NBA and local civil society associations held protests in Abuja and southeast Enugu state to reject Onnoghen's suspension, calling it an "attempted coup against the Nigerian judiciary".

Onnoghen has helped resolve electoral disputes in past elections, some of which have been marred by violence and vote-rigging. The chief justice could preside over a disputed election result.
Buhari 'has done no wrong'

Critics say the suspension is an effort by Buhari to weaken Nigeria's judiciary and pave the way for his election to a second term in the February 16 vote.

Amid growing criticism, Nigeria's information minister denied the suspension was related to the elections.

Minister Mohammed Alhaji Lai said it had "nothing to do with the forthcoming elections" and did not "signify the onset of dictatorship or tyranny as some have insinuated".

The chief justice plays a key role in any legal challenge to what could be a disputed vote.

The United States, Britain and the European Union said Buhari acted "without the support of the legislative branch". The US warned this suspension could "cast a pall" over the election.

On Monday, the presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, said Buhari broke no laws in the suspension and "has done no wrong".

With tensions before the vote, observers warned against election-related violence.

Oil-rich Nigeria struggles against multiple security challenges, including the decade-old Boko Haram rebellion, and Buhari's 2015 election was a rare peaceful transfer of power. Diplomats have urged the top candidates to sign a peace pledge.


Al Jazeera

Gang charged with sex trafficking girls from Nigeria arrested in Italy

Sicilian authorities have made a series of arrests after a suspected sex trafficking ring was believed to have forced at least 15 Nigerian girls into prostitution in Italy.

Among those arrested were two Nigerian women, Rita Ihama, 38, and Monica Onaigfohe, aged 20, who police believe organised the trafficking of the women from Libya to Italy. An Italian national, Giovanni Buscemi, was also arrested on suspicion of helping facilitate the trafficking and exploitation of the girls.

Prosecutors believe the group of young women were lured from Nigeria with the promise of work in Italy. They say before they left their homes they were made to undergo traditional oath-taking ceremonies involving complicated and frightening rituals. The use of “juju” ceremonies in the trafficking of women from Nigeria to Europe are widespread and have been found to have a profound psychological impact on victims.

“On arrival in Italy, the women [say they] were forced into prostitution and told they must pay back the cost of their travel to Italy,” said Giovannella Scaminaci, deputy chief prosecutor in Messina, who led the operation. She said that sex trafficking operations between Nigeria, Libya and Italy are highly organised and continue despite recent attempts to stem the flow of migration from north Africa to Europe.

“There is an industry in the exploitation of girls from the age of 14 who have all become terrorised and controlled through the use of these juju ceremonies,” she says.

Yesterday, Sicilian prosecutors in Catania also arrested 19 Nigerians suspected of belonging to the Supreme Vikings Confraternity, an organised crime group operational across Sicily. The men are accused of drug smuggling and the rape and sexual assault of Nigerian women in Cara di Mineo, one of Italy’s largest reception centres for refugees. Prosecutors told the Guardian that they were considering the possibility that the men arrested were raping women at the centre “with the aim of subjugating them and preparing them for prostitution’’.

About 16,000 Nigerian women arrived in Italy from Libya between 2016-2017. According to the UN’s International Office for Migration (IOM) more than 80% of them were victims of trafficking, destined for a life of forced prostitution on street corners and in brothels across Italy and Europe.

In recent weeks hundreds of people have been removed from reception centres across Italy as part of the populist government’s hardline immigration measures.

The moves come as a part of a concerted push to implement the “Salvini decree” – named after Italy’s interior minister Matteo Salvini. It abolishes humanitarian protection for those not eligible for refugee status, and was passed by the Italian government last year.
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As a result hundreds of asylum seekers are now at risk of homelessness. NGOs and aid agencies, including the Red Cross, have warned that victims of sex trafficking are among those evicted.

“If this is true then the decree has been misinterpreted by local authorities,” says Scaminaci. “Nigerian women victims of sex trafficking must always be granted a humanitarian permit or a refugee status because of the consequences they could face if deported back in Nigeria.”

Last December, Blessing, a 31-year-old Nigerian woman who was trafficked into prostitution in Italy, said she had been removed from a reception centre in Isola di Capo Rizzuto, in Calabria.

“When the police came to tell us that we couldn’t stay there any more, I couldn’t believe my ears,” she said. “They took all of our belongings and escorted us out. There was a young girl in our group. This is outrageous. I have a legal permit to stay. And soon I may not have a roof over my head. I’m really frightened.”

Father Enzo Volpe, a Salesian priest in Palermo who has been providing assistance to Nigerian women for seven years, says that the clearing of reception centres is likely to increase the risk of further trafficking and exploitation.

“Leaving these girls in the street, victims of sex trafficking, is not only inhumane, it also means facilitating the work of criminal organisations,” he said. “With no protection, these girls risk becoming easy prey.”

The Guardian

Related stories: 20,000 Nigerian girls trafficked to Mali for prostitution

The illegal sex trafficking trail between Nigeria and Europe

Video - Nigerian women trafficked to Europe for prostitution at 'crisis level' 
 

Nigerians worried about internet shutdown during elections

You can tell fears of an internet shutdown are running high in a country when citizens are looking into methods of staying online in case of a blockage.

This past weekend, Quartz Africa‘s guide to staying online during internet or social media blockages was our most read story, driven entirely by traffic from Nigeria. Scores of people shared concerns on social media at the possibility Nigeria might follow other African countries that have taken to blocking social media or shut down the internet altogether under the guise of security concerns.

While there is little evidence authorities are planning a shutdown, fears have been triggered by the potential of a constitutional crisis after Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari suddenly suspended the country’s chief justice over corruption allegations last Friday. The move, which has been variously described as unconstitutional and political, comes with Nigeria’s elections due in just under three weeks. The newly appointed acting chief justice Tanko Mohammed, will now likely have the final say if there are court challenges on the election result outcome next month.

The crisis will dominate the news agenda in coming days as Nigeria’s Senate has called an emergency session on Tuesday (Jan. 29) to deliberate the suspension while the country’s legal community has called it an “attempted coup” against the judiciary. The European Union has also expressed concern over the “process and timing” of the suspension while the United States notes the move “undermines the independence” of the judiciary.

If protests break out amid the crisis, many fear the government will resort to cutting off internet access or specifically blocking access to platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter. Those concerns are even more pertinent given president Buhari’s past as a military head of state in the early 1980s when his administration repressed the media. An internet shutdown ordered by Buhari will be ironic given how much his campaign for the presidency in 2015 relied on social media to both transform his image as a dictator and connect with Nigeria’s youth population.

If there was an internet shutdown in Nigeria it would be the latest in a long list of similar disruptions across Africa over the past five years, especially during elections or amid protests. Governments have typically defended the action as a means to avoid the spread of misinformation or, as in the recent case of Zimbabwe, to “restore calm.”

But with younger Africans increasingly more vocal and critical of leaders especially through social media, the shutdowns can also be viewed as modern day censorship. Digital rights activists have consistently argued that disruptions to internet access are repressive while studies also show the shutdowns take a heavy toll on African economies.

Regardless, this month alone, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and DR Congo all blocked internet access amid elections and anti-government protests. The shutdowns are also getting longer: Chad Republic has now kept social media shut for over 300 days and counting.


Quartz

Opposition leader says Buhari is breaching constitution of Nigeria

Nigeria’s main opposition candidate in next month’s elections, Atiku Abubakar, said President Muhammadu Buhari breached the constitution by suspending the nation’s top judge last week.

“I want to note the universal condemnation of this unlawful act by all Nigerians, as well as the international community,” Abubakar, 72, said at a press conference Monday in Abuja, the capital. “How we react to this challenge in the following days will determine the fate of our democracy, which has been brought to great peril by this needless crisis engineered by a government that is unwilling to subject its conducts to the requirements of our constitution.”

Buhari’s announcement on Friday that he had appointed the Supreme Court’s second-ranking judge, Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, in an acting capacity to replace Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen -- who is accused of falsely declaring his assets -- was roundly criticized by the Senate president and the Nigerian Bar Association. Abubakar’s People’s Democratic Party said it was “an act of dictatorship.”

The U.S. and European Union said the move could undermine the Feb. 16 presidential vote.



Bloomberg