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Monday 29 July 2013

Pope Francis: Who am I to judge gay people?


Pope Francis arriving in Rome, 29 July 2013
The Pope's position on gay people appears to contrast with that of his predecessor
BBC - 
Pope Francis has said gay people should not be marginalised but integrated into society.
Speaking to reporters on a flight back from Brazil, he reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's position that homosexual acts were sinful, but homosexual orientation was not.
"If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?"
He also said he wanted a greater role for women in the Church, but insisted they could not be priests.
The Pope arrived back in Rome on Monday after a week-long tour of Brazil - his first trip abroad as pontiff - which climaxed with a huge gathering on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach for a world Catholic youth festival.
Festival organisers estimated it attracted more than three million people.
His remarks on gay people are being seen as much more conciliatory than his predecessor's position on the issue.
Pope Benedict XVI signed a document in 2005 that said men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests.
Pope Francis said gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten.
Gay 'lobbying'
"The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well," Pope Francis said in a wide-ranging 80-minute long interview with Vatican journalists.
"It says they should not be marginalised because of this but that they must be integrated into society."
But he condemned what he described as lobbying by gay people.
"The problem is not having this orientation," he said. "We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem."
On the role of women in the Church, he said: "We cannot limit the role of women in the Church to altar girls or the president of a charity, there must be more.
"But with regards to the ordination of women, the Church has spoken and says no... That door is closed."
Answering questions about the troubled Vatican bank, he said the institution must become "honest and transparent" and that he would listen to advice on whether it could be reformed or should be shut down altogether.
"I don't know what will become of the bank. Some say it is better that is a bank, others that it should be a charitable fund and others say close it," he said.
'Undisciplined'
Before leaving Brazil, Pope Francis gave a highly unusual one-to-one interview to a Brazilian TV programme.
The interview was shown on TV Globo's high-profile Sunday night documentary programme Fantastico, broadcast not long after the Pope departed for Rome.
The Pope was asked about the moment on his visit when his driver took a wrong turn and his vehicle was surrounded by crowds.
"I don't feel afraid," he answered. "I know that no-one dies before their time.
"I don't want to see these people who have such a great heart from behind a glass box. The two security teams [from the Vatican and Brazil] worked very well. But I know that I am undisciplined in that respect."
Asked about the recent protests by young people on the streets of Brazil, the Pope said: "The young person is essentially a non-conformist, and this is very beautiful.
"It is necessary to listen to young people, give them places to express themselves and to be careful that they aren't manipulated."
Asked about his simple lifestyle and use of a small car, he said it wasn't a good example when a priest had the latest model of a car or a top brand.
"At this moment I believe God is asking us for more simplicity," he added.

Ekiti - Man jailed 8 yrs for raping a 12 yr old girl


The Ado Ekiti High Court has sentenced a middle-aged man, Innocent Eze, to eightyears imprisonment for assaulting and raping a 12-year-old girl.

Justice Adekanye Ogunmoye in the judgment delivered on Friday held that Eze was guilty of indecent assault and defilement.

The convict was jailed one year for the first count and seven years for defilement.

Oluwaseyi Ojo and Tayo Bade-Gboyega who had appeared for the state had told the court that the offences were contrary to Sections 360 and 218 of the Criminal Code Act, Cap C38, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

Prosecutors told the court that Eze, on August 31, 2011, in Ijan-Ekiti, grabbed the victim after assisting him to fetch water from a well and dragged her inside his room where he forcefully had carnal knowledge of the girl.

The court was also told that the convict stuffed a handkerchief in the girl’s vaginal to stop the bleeding after he had raped her. Eze was also said to have given the victim N100 to buy drugs after the defilement.

Confirming that the victim was defiled, a witness, Dr. Oluwagbemiga Alade, who treated the victim at General Hospital, Ijan Ekiti, confirmed that the girl’s hymen was “traumatised, with laceration along the vaginal wall.”

Counsel for the convict, Mrs. N. Nwafor, had pleaded that the court temper justice with mercy. However, the judge described the act as barbaric, saying the perpetrator should be punished to deter others.

The judge said, “It’s unfortunate that a 12-year-old girl was sexually defiled as was done to the victim in this case. It is more unfortunate that the matter came to the public domain.

“The convict, by his act, had succeeded in placing a stigma on the person of the victim, which may take a long time to erase. The trauma suffered by the victim would take a longer time to forget.

“The act of the convict is not such as should be encouraged. This is definitely a barbaric act and the sentence must be such as would serve as deterrent to the convict and others who still harbour similar tendencies.”

Wife of Ekiti State Governor, Mrs. Bisi Fayemi, in a statement issued by her Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Akin Oyedele, in reaction to the judgement, said such punishment would serve as deterrent to other sexual perverts on the prowl.

She urged rape victims to always speak out to stop rapists from their wicked acts.



#punch

Nigerian Businessman Abducted, Stripped Naked And Jailed By Police Over Online Comments About PDP

On July 13, four days after arriving Nigeria from his South Africa base, Bonny Okonkwo was attending a business meeting in Surulere, Lagos when his phone rang.

The caller on the other end announced that he was a police officer from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS. The officer ordered Mr. Okonkwo to race back to his Mushin apartment immediately for an arrest.


When he arrived his apartment, half a dozen fully armed and stern looking SARS officers were waiting with AK 47 rifles on their shoulders.



They dragged him from his car, pinned him to the floor, handcuffed and loaded him into the trunk of a waiting SUV and drove off, in commando style.

Defamation arrest;

After he was offloaded at an Ikeja police station, a divisional police officer informed him, for the first time since his ordeal began, the reason for his abduction-like arrest.

A Nigerian ruling party politician and billionaire businessman, Emeka Offor, had petitioned the police complaining that Mr. Bonny defamed him in a contribution he made in an online discussion forum.

The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, had ordered his arrest and detention after Mr. Offor petitioned the police boss through Fortress Solicitors.

The police dragged Mr. Bonny to the station’s counter, documented, stripped and pushed him into a holding cell where he spent six days in solitary confinement.

Prolonged detention;

At the Ikeja police station, Mr. Bonny got nothing close to legal action. “He was denied access to his family and lawyer” Sylvanus Udedibia, his cousin said.

On the seventh day, he was moved to another cell out of Ikeja, where he spent another night before the police shipped him up north, to a cell in Garki, Abuja – Nigeria’s capital city.

After arriving the Abuja cell, on the ninth day in detention, he was given his first breather, a “restricted” opportunity to reach out to his lawyers.

All along, his family was only able to keep tabs on his changing location through snippets of information discreetly fed them by concerned police officers.

On Thursday, 13 days after he was arrested in Lagos, the Abuja police command dragged Mr Bonny before a magistrate court on the outskirts of the city, where he was charged for defaming Mr. Offor.

Mr. Bonny arrived the court in a police van, with police prosecutors, but without his attorney.

“The police did not inform us they were charging him that day,” Mr. Udedibia said.

At the court, Mr. Bonny informed the judge that the police had denied him access to legal representation. The judge suspended the case by 24 hours, ordering the police to allow the victim access to his lawyers.

The following day, his lawyers presented an application for bail. After hearing the bail application in the morning, the judge requested time to consider the case and rule on the application.

Hours later, just before the weekend kicked in, the judge sent a clerk to inform his lawyers and family that he was attending to a pressing matter and could not deliver judgment that day.

Mr. Bonny was dragged back to his cell where he would spend the weekend.

Illegal detention;

The Nigerian laws permits the police to hold a suspect for only 24 hours – and 48 hours where there is no court within reach – before pressing charges.

Mr. Bonny was held for 13 days, eleven days more than what is allowed by the law.

But the police have, in several cases broken that law, holding victims for longer days, especially if the victims were up against influential accusers.

When asked about Mr. Bonny’s prolonged incarceration, Emeka Offor’s lawyer, Godson Ugochukwu, who signed the petition on which the police based its July 13 arrest of the businessman, was evasive.

Mr. Ugochukwu said the victim’s detention was a matter before a court. He also denied Mr. Bonny was ever held incommunicado.

The Federal Capital Territory police command, which is currently prosecuting Mr. Bonny curiously denied knowledge of the case. Its spokesperson, Altine Daniel, suggested the case was not been handled by her command.

Frank Mba, Force spokesperson also said he was not aware of the case. When pressed for justification for prolonged detentions, he argued that every general rule have exceptions.

“Each case is treated on its individual merit,” he said.

Mr. Bonny’s family and kinsmen in the Oraifite community of Anambra state are deeply saddened by the billionaire’s use of state authorities to intimidate and incarcerate Mr. Bonny, Fidelis Okonkwo, the victim’s younger brother, said.

“Whatever he is accused of, he should have been charged a long time ago,” Mr. Okonkwo added.


#premiumtimes 

READ MORE:  http://news.naij.com/41654.html

'Killing Me Softly' Music video director, Aswad Ayinde, gets 90 years in jail for impregnating his own daughters




Award-winning music director Aswad Ayinde, 55, has been sentenced to 90 years in prison after being found guilty of repeatedly raping his six daughters, resulting in them having six kids for him. What an abomination!

Mr. Ayinde was found guilty in a second trial of having intercourse with one of his daughters when she was as young as eight-years-old.

This second sentence, for which he got 50 years, adds to the 40 year sentence Mr Ayinde received in a 2011 trial for sexually assaulting a separate daughter.

Mr. Ayinde is known for directing the music video for the Fugees 1996 smash hit ‘Killing Me Softly.’

In disturbing disclosures during his trials, Mr. Ayinde’s former wife said he was trying to create a ‘pure family bloodline’ by impregnating his daughters.

He even claimed that ‘the world was going to end, and it was just going to be him and his offspring and that he was chosen.’

In this latest trial, it was revealed that Mr. Ayinde began having intercourse with his second daughter from the time she was eight-years-old, impregnating her four times.

The sexual assaults happened for almost 30 years until Mr. Ayinde and his wife separated.

They occurred in numerous homes across northern New Jersey, even while the family was under watch of state child welfare officials, according to NBC New York.

Some of the rapes even took place in an abandoned funeral home.

Ayinde’s tortured daughters were home schooled and isolated from other children, so as to keep the family secrets hidden.

The depraved father also beat and starved the girls using wooden boards and steel-toed boots for even ‘minor transgressions’

Mr. Ayinde also fathered 12 additional children with an additional three women, according to court records.

With his wife too afraid to confront him, Mr. Ayinde carried out his evil plan without hindrance even while directing the music video for the Fugees 1996 breakout hit ‘Killing Me Softly, for which he won ‘Best R&B Video’ at the 1996 MTV Music Video Awards. The Fugees are also originally from Northern New Jersey.

Mr. Ayinde faces three more trials over the alleged assaults.

Aswad's daughter confronts him at sentencing:






As Aswad Ayinde’s daughter stood up to speak, the judge ordered him to put down the court papers he was hunched over and face the daughter he had assaulted and raped since she was 8 years old, fathering her four children. “I can’t describe how much you hurt me and my sisters,” the daughter, now 35, said Friday to her father, shackled in a prison jumpsuit, his head still bowed, eyes never once meeting hers.

As the woman rehashed the horrors her father inflicted on her and her sisters in Paterson, Ayinde burst out, “You should’ve told the truth instead of lying,” bringing an admonishment from Superior Court Judge Raymond Reddin, who told him that not only did he believe the daughter’s testimony, but also so did the 12 jurors who convicted him.
Ultimately, the daughter said she forgave her father and hoped at some time he’d repent. “But obviously, with your head down like that, you do not understand,” she said, three of her sisters fighting tears in the courtroom pews.
After the daughter finished, Reddin on Friday tacked on 50 years to the 40-year prison sentence Ayinde, 54, received in 2010 after being convicted of raping another of his daughters, who bore a fifth child.
The former music producer and self-proclaimed prophet faces three more trials for allegedly sexually assaulting three other daughters after requesting separate trials. Prosecutors have said that Ayinde dominated his children as a god-like prophet who wanted to create a race that carried his pure bloodline.
Over the years, he molested five of his seven daughters and fathered six children, the family and their attorney said. By about 2001, the family had mostly split up, Ayinde “bouncing around,” but still in reach of his family, the daughter said. In 2003, he tried to rape her for the last time. “That was it. … I just felt stronger,” she said. Yet, it wasn’t until she and her sisters learned that Ayinde had fathered more children with other women that they decided to go to the authorities in 2006. “We found out we had other siblings, young siblings, and we had to put him to a stop,” the daughter said after the sentencing hearing. “Even though we were healing, they could still fall victim.” These days, the sisters stay in close touch.
The daughter who spoke Friday is studying communications at Essex County College — “straight A’s last semester,” she said — and has just finished a memoir. As for her four children, two have genetic illnesses that doctors told her likely were due in part to the incest. A 9-year-old daughter died in 2010 of spinal muscular atrophy.

 In sentencing Ayinde, Reddin could not hide his disgust for what he had done. “By 13, most fathers are taking their daughters to the park … teaching them to ride a bike,” he said. “You took her in the bedroom and repeatedly raped her to complete your disgusting, revolting fantasies.”





#northjersey.com
#dailystar

Sunday 28 July 2013

Kenya - Man jailed 20 years for marrying 14-year old girl






At a time when the news of underage marriage is front, right and centre in the Nigerian media and public consciousness, the Court of Appeal in Kenya confirmed on Friday, a 20-year jail sentence handed to a man who “married” a 14-year-old girl in 2010.

In 2010, the man, Ezekiel Sonkoyo was found guilty of defiling the Form One student by a Kilgoris court and he has been appealing since then, but on Friday, he lost his second and final appeal seeking to quash the sentence.

In fact, Sokonyo’s case was more chilling because he took the girl who was a student at Siria Secondary School from her home on August 17, 2010 to Eldoret, without the consent of her parents. When the father of the girl traced his daughter two months later, she was found living with Sokonyo as his wife. Then he defended himself by saying that although he knew her real age, he had sexual relations with her because he intended to marry her.

However, Lady Justice Ruth Sitati, who heard the first appeal, quoted the Sexual Offences Act, saying, given her age, the girl could not legally give consent. Justice Sitati upheld the sentence of 20 years given by the magistrate’s court in January last year.

Not satisfied, he moved to the Court of Appeal sitting in Kisumu and which constituted of Justices Onyango Otieno, Festus Azangalala and Sankale ole Kantai. Again, the judges upheld the ruling of the lower courts.


#THESCOOP