curated by Chi Ibe

Your Daily Brief is here!

You can’t stop this: US appeals court keeps gay marriages going

 

A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that gay marriages can continue in Utah, denying a request from the state to halt same-sex weddings until the appeals process plays out.

 

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the state’s request for an emergency stay on a federal judge’s ruling that found Utah’s same-sex marriage ban violates gay and lesbian couples’ rights.

 

The judge who made that ruling, U.S. District Judge Richard Shelby, refused the state’s first request to put a halt to the marriages Monday.

 

Utah’s last chance to temporarily stop the marriages would be the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

The appeals court ruling means county clerks can continue to issue marriage licenses to gays and lesbians. Nearly 700 gay couples have obtained marriage licenses since Friday, with most coming in the state’s most populous county.

 

Utah is the 18th state where gay couples can wed, and the sight of same-sex marriages occurring just a few miles from the headquarters of the Mormon church has provoked anger among the state’s top leaders.

 

– AP

 [READ: T.B Joshua reacts to gay marriage ban in Nigeria]

Kidnappers Inc: SSS parades 7-man gang

 

An Air Force Lance Corporal, Suleiman Mohammed and six of his accomplices, yesterday were paraded by the State Security Service (SSS) for kidnapping a Sokoto businessman, Abu Dankure.

 

Alhaji Dankure was abducted at his construction site in Kofar Kwari, Western Bye-Pass on November 6. He was freed by his captors and died 11 days later on November 22.

 

The Air Force Lance Corporal confessed to have aided the gang members in the supply of fire arms and ammunition, but said he was not involved in the kidnapping.

 

Others paraded by the SSS were Mustapha Isah, Mohammed Abubakar, Faruku Waziri, Mohammed Bukar, Usman Idah and Abdullahi Musa.

 

SSS spokesperson Ms. Marilyn Ogar, who paraded the suspects, named Isah as the mastermind of the kidnap who negotiated and received a of $290, 000 ransom before the victim was released.

 

– The Nation

 

Snowden speaks: Today, a child is born (with no privacy)

 

 

NSA leaker Edward Snowden is offering an “alternative” Christmas Message, saying a child born today will “never know what it means to have a private moment.”

 

“Recently, we learned our governments working on concert have created a system of world-wide mass surveillance, watching every thing we do,” Snowden said a video for the British Channel 4.

 

Snowden said “1984” author George Orwell had warned us of such surveillance.

 

 “The types of collection in the book – microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us – are nothing compared to what we have available today,” Snowden says on Channel 4 which has been broadcast alternative Christmas messages for many years. “We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person.”

 

Clad in a black blazer and pink button down shirt, Snowden continued, saying that a child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy.

 

“They’ll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought,” Snowden said.

 

– Politico

 

Trouble in Madagascar: Both presidential candidates say they won

 

AFP reports that Madagascar election results are slowly coming in, as both presidential candidates claim victory in run-off polls.

 

Former health minister Robinson Jean Louis, candidate of ousted president Marc Ravalomanana, said he expected to win 56 per cent of the vote, while his opponent Hery Rajaonarimampianina claimed to have taken between 60 and 65 per cent.

 

Jean Louis and Rajaonarimampianina are reportedly both accusing the other of rigging the run-off.

 

Meanwhile, the BBC reports that the European Union’s chief election observer, Maria Muniz de Urquiza, described Friday’s elections as “free, transparent and credible”, though there were isolated incidents of violence.

 

–       Premium Times

 

Batch 1: 80 Nigerians deported from Saudi Arabia today 

 

The first batch of 80 Nigerians to be repatriated from Saudi Arabia arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, today

 

The deportees reportedly arrived in the country on board an Ethiopian Airline plane at about noo

 

Mr Daniel Obot, the Assistant Director, Relief and Rehabilitation, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), told newsmen at the Airport that the deportees were part of the 508 Nigerians residing illegally in Saudi Arabia.

 

He said the Federal Government approved their repatriation after they voluntarily agreed to return home, adding that they would be handed over to officials of their State Emergency Management Agency after due clearance.

 

Also speaking to newsmen, the Director Consular and Immigration Services in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Abdulazeez Dan-Kano, said the 80 deportees were from eight states of the country.

 

Dan-Kano said that 31 of the deportees are from Kano State, 19 from

 

Borno, three from Bauchi State and eight from Jigawa.

 

Similarly, he said that seven of the deportees are from Yobe, two from Plateau, nine from Katsina State and one from Nasarawa State.

 

Dan-Kano said that those deported were mainly women, children and the sick.

 

He said that more deportees were expected to arrive in the country on Thursday.

 

–       NAN

 

 

Witch-hunt? Not us – EFCC speaks on N6.2billion and Oronsaye

 

 

The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), has said that its investigation of a former Head of Service, Steve Oronsaye, for pension fraud is unconnected to Mr. Oronsaye’s “perceived support for the Financial Intelligence Agency bill” before the national assembly.

 

Mr. Oronsaye, alongside other top civil servants, is currently being investigated by the EFCC for an alleged N6.2 billion pension fraud stolen through a network of bogus contracts.

 

The Financial Intelligence bill sponsored by Senators Victor Ndoma-Egba and Victor Lar is for an act to establish the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Agency as the Central Body in Nigeria responsible for receiving, requesting, analyzing and disseminating Financial Intelligence Reports, a function already performed by the Financial Intelligence Unit of the EFCC.

 

“Let it be made manifestly clear that the EFCC is a responsible and responsive law enforcement agency and has no scores whatsoever to settle with Mr. Oronsaye or any other person for that matter,” said the commission’s Head of Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, in a statement.

 

“The pension scam investigation is an ongoing exercise and if anyone is mentioned as having played a role in it at whatever stage (as indeed Mr. Oronsaye is alleged to have done), he or she will be invited to shed more light on his/her alleged involvement (as indeed, Mr. Oronsaye has done). That is the standard practice in the best tradition of law enforcement worldwide.

 

“It is a very lame and despicable attempt to beg the question by muddying up the waters or throwing the scent elsewhere as the hack reports have obviously been trying to do.”

 

– Premium Times

 

 Congratulations, brothers: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood are now officially terrorists

 

The military-backed interim Egyptian government has declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group after blaming it for a deadly attack on a police HQ earlier this week.

 

The group, whose candidate Mohammed Morsi won the presidential poll last year before being deposed by the military, had already been outlawed.

 

Thousands of its supporters have been arrested in a crackdown.

 

A Muslim Brotherhood leader in exile vowed that protests would continue.

 

‘Horrified’

 

Deputy Prime Minister Hossam Eissa announced the move, which will give the authorities more power to crack down on the Brotherhood.

 

He said that those who belonged to the group, financed it or promoted its activities would face punishment.

 

The decision was in response to Tuesday’s suicide bombing of a police headquarters in Mansoura, in the Nile Delta, which killed 16 people and wounded more than 100, he said.

 

– BBC

 

We will not stagger – INEC makes another promise for 2015

 

The Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Adekunle Ogunmola, on Wednesday, said the commission would not stagger the 2015 general elections despite the problems encountered in Anambra.

 

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, Mr. Ogunmola said that the problem associated with that election was a blessing in disguise.

 

The INEC boss was reacting to calls by some sections of the society to stagger the 2015 elections.

 

“We are not staggering elections in 2015; having problems in Anambra does not mean that we will not be able to handle the 36 states of the federation plus the FCT.

 

“In fact, it is going to be a lot easier for us. But, I want to say that I see the problem associated with Anambra election as a blessing in disguise because we were thinking that it was going to be error-proof.

 

“And that would have made us to be a little bit complacent, thinking that everything is okay,” he said.

 

Mr. Ogunmola said INEC saw the inadequacies of the last Anambra governorship election as an eye opener and has learnt from its mistakes.

 

– Premium Times