Peter Obi won 2023 presidential election – Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal

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By Deji Komolafe

The former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal on Tuesday claimed that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, won the February 25 presidential election.

According to Lawal, the election was not won by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu who was declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He further stated that available factual data as aggregated from several independent sources indicated that Obi got the majority votes while the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar came second in the election.

Lawal noted that President Tinubu came a distant third in the number of votes scored.

The former SGF in a statement released on Tuesday said, “I have resisted the temptation to engage in the contemporary political discourse since the May 2023 election faux pas.

“I did this for two reasons; the first being that as an active player in the drama, I needed time to analyze and digest the data that led to the outcome(s) so I could arrive at an informed decision; the second, being that the rainy season had just set in and it was necessary that I focused my attention on my farms which are the mainstay of my livelihood.

“The current topical issues for political discourse and inquiry are whether or not Bola Tinubu won the presidential election and/or that he was apriori, qualified to participate in the election given his murky biodata as is now being publicly unveiled daily in an avalanche.

“My answer to the first inquiry is that regardless of whatever INEC or Appeal Court said or did, Bola did not win the election.

“Right from the start of the campaigns, Bola knew he was not going to win the election in a free and fair contest so he decided to go by all means.

“Available factual data as aggregated from several independent sources indicate that Obi got the majority votes while Atiku came second. Bola came a distant third in the number of votes scored.

“My answer to the second inquiry is that given the now unfolding deluge of uncomplimentary information about who or what he actually is, ordinarily, sound ethics and morality should have convinced him to voluntarily excuse himself from participation in the election.

“ But this, notwithstanding, I believe he still has time and opportunity to save himself this public humiliation and embarrassment to his person, both locally and internationally by resigning so that he can give more attention to his health.

“After all, no one knows about the truism of these severely embarrassing and humiliating exposures about his person than the man himself.

“Leadership is all about integrity; sound pedigree, trustworthiness and the ability to unite and instil hope and confidence in the people one seeks to lead. In these qualities, most Nigerians are in total agreement that Bola has them in very very short supply indeed.

“But now, six months down the line, the chicken has come home to roost as Nigerians have come to the realization that we have not got what we deserve politically.

“Confusion and despondency are now all over the nation as no one trusts the government to do what it says it will do. No one trusts the leader, and no one trusts appointees who are appointed as rewards for their roles in the election or who had in the past helped him in his life.

“ Bola the President and his group are now in government and are in full control of Nigeria’s vast resources and opportunities. They are enjoying their offices while Nigerians languish in insecurity, poverty and hopelessness.

“During the campaign, Bola mouthed some platitudes about competence; but we are so far yet to see it reflected in his political appointments. It seems more like he is rewarding people who supported him to get the Presidency at all costs.

“This band of appointees that Bola is assembling into his government don’t care about Nigeria at all.

“Fuel prices will continue to gallop upwards until only they can afford it; the Naira will continue to race downhill in a free-fall until only they can afford anything in the market; insecurity will continue its escalation until every community in the nation is consumed by it.

“Just to mention a few of these appointees: take insecurity for example, what do you expect an accountant to do as Minister of Defense?

“ Was he not that one who was governor while Bello Turji et al freely terrorized Zamfara State? What about his CBN Governor with a CV; a one-time Chairman of a little-known bank employing 300 people in less than 12 branches clustered in the South-South and South East regions?

“Is there any doubt left as to his lack of qualification and experience for the job than that his first policy statement was to remove foreign exchange restrictions for the importation of 43 agricultural and related products?

“Certainly, Nigerians are in for a short thrift. The people running the government do not care a hoot about the Nigerian people; their cronies are the petroleum industry players while some are the banking system players so a free fall of the Naira and an unregulated upward movement of oil prices both work for more profits for them.

“By the way, has anyone noticed the intolerance for free speech and dictatorship that is creeping upon us? Has anyone noticed the actions of the National Broadcasting Commission of late?”

NELSON MANDELA ON THE ISRAEL - PALESTINE ISSUE

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Experts say Hamas and Israel are committing war crimes in their fight

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By Mike Corder and Julia Frankel

The deadly attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians and the devastating Israeli airstrikes and blockade of Gaza have raised accusations among international legal experts that both sides were violating international law.

A United Nations Commission of Inquiry said it has been “collecting and preserving evidence of war crimes committed by all sides” since the violence started last week. That evidence could be added to an investigation by the International Criminal Court into possible war crimes committed by Israel and Hamas in past conflicts. 

“Intentional targeting of civilians and civilian objects without a military necessary reason to do so is a war crime, period,” said David Crane, an American international law expert and the founding chief prosecutor of the United Nations’ Special Court for Sierra Leone. “And that’s a standard that both sides are held to under international law.”

Even Israel’s staunchest ally has sounded a note of caution.

U.S. President Joe Biden, at a meeting with Jewish leaders Wednesday, said he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “that it is really important that Israel, with all the anger and frustration and just — I don’t know how to explain it — that exists is that they operate by the rules of war — the rules of war. And there are rules of war.”

DID HAMAS COMMIT WAR CRIMES?

After breaking through Israel’s security barrier early Saturday morning, Hamas militants gunned down entire families, including women and young children, in border communities around the Gaza Strip. Israel’s health service said it extricated the bodies of over a hundred community members from Kibbutz Be’eri. Militants attacked the Tribe of Nova music festival, gunning down people as they desperately sought refuge.

The attacks killed more than 1,300 people in Israel, including 247 soldiers — a toll unseen in Israel for decades.

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director of Human Rights Watch, pointed to Hamas “shooting civilians en masse, taking hostages, including women and children — undeniably grave abuses of international law, for which there’s no justification.”

In an analysis published on the international law website Opinio Juris, Cornell Law School professor Jens David Ohlin wrote that the Hamas attacks amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under the International Criminal Court’s founding Rome Statute.

Rights group Amnesty International called for accountability.

“Massacring civilians is a war crime and there can be no justification for these reprehensible attacks,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general.

“These crimes must be investigated as part of the International Criminal Court’s ongoing investigation into crimes committed by all parties in the current conflict,” Callamard said.

IS ISRAEL’S MILITARY RESPONSE LEGAL?

The Israeli military has pulverized large parts of the Hamas -ruled Gaza Strip with airstrikes and blocked deliveries of food, water, fuel and electricity ahead of a possible ground invasion. The bombardment already has killed about 1,800 people in Gaza, including U.N. workers, paramedics and journalists.

Experts say the blockade, which is hitting the territory’s more than 2 million residents, violates international law. “Collective punishment is a war crime. Israel is doing that by cutting electricity, water, food, blocking aid from entering the Gaza Strip,” Shakir said.

Early Friday, Israel’s military directed the evacuation of some 1 million civilians living in the northern Gaza Strip ahead of a feared Israel ground offensive. Hamas called on residents to remain in their homes.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said the order to leave along with the siege “are not compatible with international humanitarian law.”

Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, also called the order illegal. It is “not an evacuation opportunity, it’s an order to relocate. Under humanitarian law, it’s called forcible transfer of populations, and it’s a war crime,” he said.

Israel has also faced criticism for its widespread airstrikes razing large areas of Gaza since the Hamas attacks.

But Crane said that Hamas’ base in the densely populated area makes any Israeli military action extremely difficult.

“They’re almost in an impossible situation. Every time they fire an artillery piece, an aircraft fires missiles and stuff at a legitimate target, they’re going to collaterally kill civilians,” he said.

The Israeli military has “this challenge where you have one of the most densely populated places on Earth where you have a combatant hiding behind and firing from those positions, using the civilians as human shields,” Crane said.

Many in Israel’s defense establishment have pledged to fight until every trace of militancy is gone from the territory — even if it means wreaking mass havoc on the besieged strip’s civilian population.

But Israel’s relentless airstrikes could come under scrutiny, both because of the heavy civilian death toll and heavy damage to civilian infrastructure. 

“We’re seeing reports of entire neighborhoods, blocks that are reduced to rubble. Certainly that would appear to be, you know, war crimes as well,” Shakir said. “We’ve seen attacks that have affected hospitals and other areas that are entitled to protection.”

The Israeli army says it follows international legal norms and strikes only legitimate military targets.

“The most pleasant way not to cause any harm to anyone is not to do anything,” said retired Israeli general Giora Eiland. “But Israel has to fight. And how do you fight? You have to bomb them. Or you do nothing. If civilians decide to stay on the streets of Gaza, there will be much more civilian casualties.”

CAN THE ICC GET INVOLVED?

While Israel is not one of the court’s 123 member states, ICC judges have ruled that the Palestinians are and that the court has jurisdiction over territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.

The ICC prosecution office’s ongoing investigation — spurred by the last major conflict in Gaza — can analyze war crimes allegations from the latest war.

But Israel does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction and the ICC does not have a police force to execute arrest warrants.

Frankel reported from Jerusalem.

Stephen A. Smith says Jada Pinkett Smith has “exceeded cruelty” with public remarks about marriage to Will Smith

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ByAngelina Velasquez

Jada Pinkett Smith sent the media and fans into a dizzying tailspin when she revealed that she and Will Smith have been separated since 2016 despite appearing as husband and wife in public.

The actress, who is promoting her upcoming memoir, “Worthy,” has also dished on the infamous Oscars slap, her “soulmate” connection to the late Tupac Shakur, and more in revealing interviews with NBC News and People. Responses to her revelations have reignited vitriol for Pinkett Smith, especially among those who believe her tell-alls have further damaged the box office star’s reputation and his public perception. One of the critics is Stephen A. Smith.

On the Friday (Oct. 13) episode of his eponymous YouTube show, he unleashed on the 52-year-old. The “First Take” host began, “Let me tell y’all what Will Smith does not deserve: He does not deserve what Jada Pinkett Smith has done to him.”

He continued, “Now I know people very, very close to Jada Pinkett Smith, and I am not going to utter a disrespectful word about her. That’s not where I’m going. It’s deeper than that. There are a few questions that Jada Pinkett Smith deserves to be asked to her. Where’s your compassion? Where’s your decency? Where is your respect for a man you still acknowledge as your husband? Where is the respect for a man you walked down the aisle with and pledged your life to in 1997 for better or worse, for rich or [for] poorer, in sickness and in health, ’til death do you part?”

Stephen, who has never wed, implied that Pinkett Smith has fallen short of honoring her wedding vows with some of her remarks — e.g., speaking on her entanglement with August Alsina and stating that she was shocked that Will referred to her as his wifeafter slapping Chris Rock for joking about her shaved head. For the latter, the Emancipationactor has taken a public pummeling.

“Somebody gotta say it to Jada plain and simple: Go to the Torah, go to the Bible, go to the holy Quran, pick whatever you want. Let’s talk about the role of a wife, at least from the perspective of just sparing him,” added Stephen. “I’m not getting in the right or wrong; it’s none of my business… I know it is uncomfortable and grotesquely unfair to emasculate your husband publicly! Publicly. He’s Will Smith. How much smaller do you want to make him? How could you do this? It’s exceeded cruelty.”

REVOLT

Watch Stephen’s Full Comments Below…..

Israel Avoided Hard Choices: Former Israeli Negotiator Daniel Levy

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Flashback: David Cameron describes blockaded Gaza as a 'prison

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UK Prime Minister David Cameron has condemned the blockade of the Gaza Strip, describing the territory as a "prison camp".

He also criticised Israel for launching an attack on a convoy transporting Turkish activists and aid to Gaza. Nine Turkish citizens died in the raid. 

He was speaking to an audience of businessmen during a visit to Ankara.

The Israeli embassy in London said Gazans were prisoners of Palestinian militant Islamist group Hamas.

Israel and Egypt enforce a blockade on Gaza which restricts goods and people from coming in or out freely.

"Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp," Mr Cameron said. 

"People in Gaza are living under constant attacks and pressure in an open-air prison," he said.

In May, Israeli commandoes stormed the Mavi Marmara and in fighting that followed, nine Turkish activists were killed and four soldiers wounded.

During a press conference held with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mr Erdogan called the Israeli raid an act of "piracy".

"Israel must apologise as soon as possible, pay compensation and lift the blockade," he said.

The British government's policy has been to call for an end to the blockade, but never before has a British prime minister been so blunt, says the BBC's Jonny Dymond in Ankara.

A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London said Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, was responsible for the situation in Gaza.

"The people of Gaza are the prisoners of the terrorist organisation Hamas. The situation in Gaza is the direct result of Hamas' rule and priorities," the spokesman said.

BBC NEWS

A TYRANNICAL DESPOT: THE REAL BUHARI

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Israeli Offensive UN says nearly 200,000 displaced in Gaza, water shortages expected

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The United Nations humanitarian office said on Tuesday that nearly 200,000 people or nearly a tenth of the population, have fled their homes in Gaza since the start of hostilities and is poised for shortages of water and electricity due to a blockade.

"Displacement has escalated dramatically across the Gaza strip, reaching more than 187,500 people since Saturday. Most are taking shelter in schools," Jens Laerke, OCHA spokesperson, told a Geneva briefing, saying further displacement was expected as clashes continue.

A World Health Organization spokesperson said it had reported 13 attacks on health facilities in the Gaza strip since the weekend and said that its medical supplies stored there had already been used up.

REUTERS 

What goes into designing the flagship S-Class -- Mercedes-Benz

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Liverpool and Brighton share the spoils on the South Coast

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By Sports Desk

Liverpool FC dropped more points in their penultimate match against Brighton & Hove Albion, as both teams battled to a pulsating 2-2 draw on the South Coast. 

Brighton took the lead before Mo Salah shot the Reds in front with two goals in the first half. A moment of indecision by Andy Robertson allowed Lewis Dunk to equalize for Brighton in the 78th minute, setting up a nail biting finish to an exciting affair.

The Reds sit fourth on the league table with 17 points, three behind Arsenal and Tottenham (both tied for the lead), and one point behind the defending champions, Manchester City, who sit in third after losing 1-0 to Arsenal in a rather dull affair at the Emirates. 

It was finally great to have this weekend’s ties devoid of the usual VAR and refereeing issues that have plagued the Premier League this year. The fans pay to watch the players, not the referees and VAR, something Howard Webb and the top brass at the English FA need to clearly understand. 

The league takes an international break with the teams returning to action the weekend of 10/21/23. Liverpool will take on Everton then, while Arsenal travel to West London to take on Chelsea.