Nigerian activist held in solitary in Japan, prompting calls for her release

  

TOKYO - A prominent Nigerian asylum seeker and activist is being held in solitary at a Tokyo detention centre, a case that has highlighted a growing crackdown on foreigners living in Japan without visas and prompted demands for her release.

Elizabeth Aruoriwo Obueza was detained two weeks ago after authorities turned down an appeal against her asylum rejection, Obueza and her lawyer told Reuters.

Obueza, 48, campaigns for asylum seekers and the 4,700 people on "provisional release" from immigration detention - a status that lets foreigners out from detention but bars them from working and travelling freely.

Obueza's arrest is part of a wider campaign by the Justice Ministry, which in September 2015 said it would take steps to reduce the 60,000 foreigners living in Japan without visas.

People on provisional release, many of whom have lived in Japan for decades, have been among those targeted, activists and lawyers say.

"Elizabeth was targeted and detained for being an activist," said immigration lawyer Shoichi Ibusuki. "I want her released immediately."

The crackdown on people like Obueza comes even as people on provisional release, despite being legally unable to work, power Japan's construction and manufacturing sectors as companies scramble to find workers in the worst labour shortage in decades.

"Elizabeth is held in solitary because she's an activist and immigration officials don't want her causing trouble," said Mitsuru Miyasako, head of the Provisional Release Association in Japan, a group representing refugees and immigrants.

"Locking someone up alone in a tiny room is to ruin them psychologically."

Naoaki Torisu, a senior Justice Ministry official overseeing immigration detention, declined to comment on Obueza's situation, saying he could not discuss individual cases.

Obueza, an evangelical Christian, said she fled Nigeria for Japan in 1991 to escape female genital mutilation and applied for asylum in 2011.

Obueza told Reuters she was locked up for more than 22 hours a day. Typically, detainees at the Tokyo Immigration Bureau, where she is held, are locked up for 18 hours a day, according to the Justice Ministry.

"I want to help people," Obueza told Reuters from across a security divide in a small meeting room at the detention centre. "Give me the right to help people - don't put me in here."

During her previous 10-month arrest in 2011 at a different centre, Obueza organised detainees to write a petition to immigration authorities calling for better medical care, Miyasako said.

For more than a decade, Obueza has visited immigration detention centres across Japan, helping detainees navigate the asylum system and find legal help, said rights groups, lawyers and former detainees.

"She has supported so many people as an activist and that's a nuisance for the immigration authorities," said Miyasako, who has worked with Obueza, adding that she had helped hundreds.

Former detainees and people on provisional release visit her in detention every day, sometimes waiting for hours, he said.

Solitary cells, usually for detainees who are ill, unruly or have tried to harm themselves, are about five square metres, detainees say.

In 2014, a Sri Lankan man died in a solitary cell at the same centre, highlighting problems with medical care.

Isolation has not stopped Obueza from fighting for detainees' rights.

"When I go outside my room, I go around the windows and talk to the others," Obueza said. "I advise them."

Obueza said of the immigration officials who locked her up: "You might think you arrested me, but I think God wants me here to help some other people."

Italian man arrested for beating to death Nigerian asylum seeker

Rome An Italian football hooligan has been arrested and charged with murder after beating to death a Nigerian asylum seeker who reacted to racial insults against his partner, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said on Thursday.

According to the La Repubblica newspaper, Emmanuel Chidi Nnamdi, 36, got into a fight on Tuesday after the man called his 24-year-old girlfriend Chinyere - referred to only by her first name - a "monkey."

Nnamdi was taken to hospital in a comatose state and declared dead on Wednesday in the central Italian town of Fermo, some 170 kilometres northeast of Rome, near the Adriatic coast.

The accused, Amedeo Mancini, is a supporter of 4th league team Fermana and had been banned from the local stadium because of his violent behaviour, ANSA news agency reported.

The incident led Alfano to travel to Fermo to chair a meeting with local police. Before the talks, he told reporters it was a "day of infinite sadness."

The minister later said Mancini's actions were racially motivated, an aggravating circumstance which could earn the accused a longer jail sentence, and that Chinyere's asylum demand had been accepted.

"She has been granted humanitarian protection status," Alfano said.

Italy's highest authorities also weighed in on the case.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi wrote on Twitter that the government was committed to fight "hatred, racism and violence," while President Sergio Mattarella delegated Fermo's authorities to offer Chinyere "any kind of required assistance."

"What happened is shocking and deeply disturbs the principle of international protection which, aside from the international obligation of states, should be rooted in everybody's conscience," UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) executive Stephane Jaquemet said in a statement.

Comunita di Capodarco, the Catholic charity that was giving shelter to the couple, issued a statement giving a version provided by Chinyere. She said the man put his hands on her, triggering Nnamdi's reaction.

"A fight broke out, a street sign was pulled from the pavement, there were heavy blows and one, probably fatal, hit the young Nigerian on the back of the neck. Once on the floor ... the young man was hit repeatedly," the Comunita said.

The couple left Nigeria to flee from the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram, their hosts said.

Chinyere travelled while pregnant, but fell ill during the sea crossing to Sicily and lost her baby, probably as a result of beatings suffered in Libya, they added.

Father Vinicio Albanesi, who leads the community that sheltered the couple, said the people who attacked the asylum seekers were the same who earlier this year planted unexploded bombs in front of four Catholic churches in Fermo. Alfano said he could not confirm this.

DPA

Nigerian bags World Scrabble title, in first for Africa

Cowboy-hat wearing Wellington Jighere from Nigeria crushed his English opponent 4-0 at the World Scrabble Championship in Australia to become first African to bag the word game's global title.

Jighere, 32, was among more than 120 competitors who travelled to Perth for the World English-language Scrabble Players' Association Championship, which culminated in Sunday's best-of-seven final against England's Lewis Mackay.

"He had to battle for four days to emerge on top but once he got there -- maybe he was a little fresher, or got a bit of luck -- everything fell into place for him and he won four-nil," Adam Kretschmer, one of the organisers of the event, said of Jighere's effort.

The Nigerian used such high-scoring words as "fahlores", "avouched" and "mentored" as he puzzled his way to victory.

"It is the first time that an African has won in these world championships," Jighere told The Guardian after the win.

But he conceded: "Nigel is still the master. It just happens that today was my day."

It was a reference to New Zealander Nigel Richards who dominates English-language Scrabble, with three world championships, five North American titles and 11 wins at the prestigious King's Cup in Thailand, sponsored by the Thai royal family.

Richards stunned the francophone world in July when he also won the game's French version even though he doesn't speak the language and only spent nine weeks studying the official Scrabble dictionary.

A trained engineer, Richards reportedly began playing Scrabble at 28 at the request of his mother, who was frustrated that his photographic memory was making their card games too one-sided.

But he proved dazzling at the word game, even though he favoured mathematics at school and was never much of an English student.

A rival New Zealand Scrabbler once said Richards was "like a computer with a big ginger beard", while Malaysian tournament organiser Michael Tang has called him "the Tiger Woods of Scrabble".

On Facebook, Jighere said the Perth tournament -- in which each player had played 32 games over four days before the finalists were decided -- had been exhausting.

"I really must endeavour to rest now," he posted late Sunday.

"I've not slept well in about a week. The fact that I was able to perform in spite of the sleeplessness still baffles me. It only goes to prove that God was deeply involved in this matter."

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari telephoned Jighere to congratulate him while the head of the Nigeria Scrabble Federation, Suleiman Gora, described the victory as "the climax" for him.

Nigeria had six slots for the tournament and Gora said the players prepared hard at seven training camps.

 AFP

Spanish kung fu teacher kills Nigerian lady

  A Nigerian lady died of her injuries on Wednesday after she was assualted and injured by a Spanish Kung Fu teacher in the Spanish northern city of Bilbao.
 Report said the the Kung Fu teacher stands accused of two murders, police said on Wednesday, after bones discovered in his gymnasium turned out to be the remains of another woman and the Nigerian. Reports also said the Nigerian lady was a prostitute.
   Police in Bilbao broke into 47-year-old Juan Carlos Aguilar's gymnasium's Zen4, on Sunday after a neighbour reported hearing screams. Inside, they found the badly injured 29-year-old Nigerian lady bound by her arms and legs.
She lay in a coma in a hospital until on Wednesday morning when she died, police said.

   The martial arts instructor appeared before a judge on Wednesday on suspicion of murdering the Nigerian.
   But in a search of the gymnasium at the weekend, officers also discovered bones, which have now been identified as those of a 40-year-old Colombian woman, a police spokesman said.
   Aguilar, who set up a so-called Ocean of Tranquility monastery, boasted he was the first Western master of the Shaolin school of kung fu, a three-time world champion and eight-time Spanish champion, according to the Spanish media.
   But his claims of kung fu championship success and even his boast of being a Shaolin master have been denied by martial arts officials speaking to the Spanish press.
   Bilbao city councillors agreed on a joint statement condemning the attack and expressing their "shock" at the police's discovery of evidence pointing to the previous alleged murder.
   They called on the courts to act swiftly and firmly in cases of violence against women and urged the city's residents to help battle such crimes by reporting them to police.
   The city called a rally for Wednesday against such violence.

Nigerian player dies after collapsing in Romania

BUCHAREST Nigerian striker Henry Ihelwere Chinonso died on Sunday after collapsing during a match for Romanian second-division side Delta Tulcea, Mediafax news agency reported.
Chinonso, 21, was playing in a friendly against Balotesti when he collapsed during the second half.
 Doctors were unable to resuscitate the player, the report said.  The cause of death was not immediately known, Chinonso was reported to have had no previous health problems.
 The match in Balotesti near Bucharest was played in temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius.


Below is a translated statement (Romanian to English) from the doctor that pronounced him dead.
"We found a patient aged 21 years, cardiopulmonary arrest. Maneuvers were initiated by our crew resuscitate first aid, the crew continued the doctor. After maneuvers, cardiac-respiratory arrest was irreversible . Unfortunately, I said death. I can not say what caused the entry into cardiopulmonary arrest. All the time the patient was in cardiopulmonary arrest, when he reached the first aid crew to declare death, 12 : 05 to 1:12 p.m., when I said death. first aid crew arrived soon enough to call 112, in 3-4 minutes after the call, "Tanase said Dr. John.
The case is forensic, several assumptions were considered: myocardial infarction, stroke, aneurysm rupture, inappropriate medication or adverse effects.
The body will be transported to the IML, to be diagnosed.

 "Am găsit un pacient în vârstă de 21 de ani, în stop cardio-respirator. S-au iniţiat manevre de resucitare de către echipajul nostru de prim ajutor, continuate de echipajul cu medic. În urma manevrelor, stopul cardio-respirator a fost ireversibil. Din păcate, am declarat decesul. Nu pot spune care a fost cauza intrării în stop cardio-respirator. Tot timpul pacientul a fost în stop cardio-respirator, de când a ajuns echipajul de prim-ajutor până la declararea decesului, de la 12:05 până la 13:12, când am declarat decesul. Echipajul de prim-ajutor a ajuns destul de repede de la apelul la 112, în 3-4 minute de la apel", a declarat medicul Tănase Ioana.
Cazul este unul medico-legal, mai multe ipoteze fiind luate în calcul: infarct miocardic, accident vascular cerebral, ruptura unui anevrism, medicație inadecvată sau cu efecte adverse.
Cadavrul va fi transportat la IML, pentru a fi stabilit diagnosticul.

Nigerian jailed for identity theft

LONDON  A Nigerian national, who rented his identity to two illegal immigrants so they could get jobs and stay in Britain, has been jailed for 4 years, following an investigation by the UK Border Agency.

Uzezi Samuels Elor, 50, of Ecclesbourne Road in Thornton Heath was granted settlement – Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), in the UK in 1992, and as such was allowed to live and work here.

The agency did not confirm whether or not he had applied for UK Naturalisation or British Citizenship.

UK Border Agency Investigators discovered that he allowed his identity, and his passport, to be used by two other men, both Nigerians in the UK illegally, to make it look like they had the right to work in the UK.

But he was not helping the two for nothing. Money earned by them was paid into Elor’s bank accounts. He then claimed this income as his own when he applied for a mortgage.

Both of his co-conspirators were then jailed for ID offences, one has already been removed from the UK.

On Monday 23 April at Croydon crown court Elor pleaded guilty to 2 counts of facilitating a breach of immigration law, and 1 count of fraud by false representation. He was jailed for 3 years and 9 months.

Anyone from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) who is sentenced to 12 months or more in prison is automatically eligible for deportation on completion of their sentence.

However, if the person is a British Citizen, as opposed to a permanent resident, it is less likely that he will be deported.

Foreign criminals have also evaded deportation on human rights grounds.

Crime Act proceedings, designed to confiscate any money Elor may have made from the scam, have now begun.

Nigerian-born Spanish hurdler Onyia banned for two years

     
 MADRID  Spanish 100m hurdler Josephine Onyia has been suspended for two years by her country's athletics federation (RFEA) after a second positive doping test, the IAAF confirmed on Tuesday.
It is a second two-year ban for the Nigerian-born athlete, who tested positive for a stimulant and then an anabolic agent within 11 days of competition in September 2008.
The RFEA cleared Onyia of any doping violation in 2008, but athletics' world ruling body, the IAAF, successfully filed two appeals through the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
"The IAAF has received the documents from RFEA for the provisional suspension of Onyia for two years on November 22," an IAAF spokesman said.
 "The case is still under review and IAAF has 45 calendar days (starting from November 22) to file an appeal.
"If there is no appeal from IAAF side, Onyia will be eligible to compete again on August 3, 2013."
   

'Underwear bomber' pleads guilty to US airline attack

DETROIT, Michigan- Nigerian man also called the "underwear bomber" pleaded guilty on Wednesday to trying to blow up a US-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009, saying he had explored to payback the killing of innocent Muslims.

During a six-minute speech to a shocked courtroom on the second day of his high profile-trial in Detroit, Michigan, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab insisted his actions were righteous and that the true crime was US foreign policy.
"I am guilty of this count in US law but not in the Koran," the 25-year-old Nigerian said as he confessed to trying to kill 289 people on a packed transatlantic airliner using explosives hidden in his underwear.
"The United States should be warned that if they continue and persist in promoting the blasphemy of Mohammed and the US continues to kill and support those who kill innocent Muslims then the US should await a great calamity through the hands of the Mujahedeen... or God."
The botched plot, which US officials say was the work of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, failed because the explosives did not fully detonate and instead caused a fireball.
Passengers and crew members were able to restrain Abdulmutallab and put out the fire as the Northwest flight from Amsterdam made an emergency landing in Detroit on December 25, 2009.
Since many of the counts Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty to carry mandatory minimum sentences of 30 years without parole which must be served consecutively, he is expected to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Abdulmutallab kept his description of how he carried out the plot to the absolute minimum required to satisfy the judge that he was indeed guilty of all charges.
Reading calmly from a prepared speech, he stood straight in a black skullcap, gold tunic and blazer.

Abdulmutallab said he "had an agreement with at least one person" to attack the US in retaliation for US support for Israel and in revenge for the killing of innocent Muslims in Palestine, Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and beyond.
"I carried with me an explosive device onto Flight Northwest 253, again to avenge my fellow Muslims," said Abdulmutallab, who has confirmed that he traveled to Yemen for Al-Qaeda training prior to the attack.
"I attempted to use an explosive device, which under US law is called a weapon of mass destruction, which I call a blessed weapon to save the lives of innocent Muslims for the US used weapons of mass destruction on innocent Muslims," he told the court.
"If I said I did it, but the American people are guilty of the sin and (President Barack) Obama should pay for the crime the court would not accept that," he said.
"However, according to US law which is unjust... my actions make me guilty to a crime."
Abdulmutallab's calm and respectful demeanor on Wednesday was in sharp contrast to his disruptive behavior during jury selection.
This was marked by incendiary outbursts, including a pledge that militants will wipe out "the cancer US," and praise for radical Al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi and former leader Osama bin Laden, both killed in US raids.
Abdulmutallab is to be sentenced on January 12.

Man City CEO resigns over Nedum Onuoha's mother email

Manchester City chief executive officer Garry Cook resigned on Friday following an email in which he appeared to mock the mother of English footballer of Nigerian descent, a statement said.
Cook stepped down from his post with the English Premier League club following an internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding an email sent to Dr Anthonia Onuoha, the agent and mother of City player Nedum Onuoha.
Cook had denied that he sent the email, claiming someone hacked into his email account.
However Cook's resignation was confirmed on Friday following an internal investigation by City.
"The club can confirm that there is a foundation to Dr Onuoha's allegations and the chairman has written to apologise to Dr Onuoha for any distress caused," a statement said.
"Following the findings of the review, Chief Executive Officer Garry Cook has offered his resignation, which has been accepted with regret by the Board."
According to reports, Dr Onuoha wrote to City official Brian Marwood about a contract dispute between the club and her son, who is an England Under-21 international.
In an email sent to Marwood last October, she said that, although her body was "ravaged with cancer and ongoing chemotherapy", she was still able to fight her son's corner.
Two weeks later she received an email, apparently written by Cook but destined for Marwood and sent to Dr Onuoha by mistake.
The Sun claimed: "The e-mail was addressed 'Brian' then said: 'Ravaged with it!!......I don't now how you sleep at night. You used to be such a nice man when I worked with you at nike (sic).'"

Nigerian and Ghanian migrants targeted by rebels in Libya

A Nigerian migrant Godspower Wilfred,living in Libya has taken

shelter in a makeshift camp in the south of Tripoli. He is afraid for
his life; not only is he in the middle of a deadly and bloody conflict,
Wilfred is a target to Libyan rebel forces.
"If you go out in the streets, people will hold you and say you are fighting for Gaddafi. I am not a fighter," Wilfred said.

He is one of the many migrants from sub-saharan Africa suspected for being pro-Gaddafi forces and hunted down as such.
During his reign, embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had employed nationals from other African countries as part of a special protection forces.
Now the special forces are left without the protection of Gaddafi
and with the battle taking off in Tripoli, the migrants say "skin
colour alone is enough to mark them out as Gaddafi supporters."
Hassan Abdallah, a migrant from Ghana, finds himself in much the same situation as his Nigerian counterpart, Wilfred.
"Some people are saying that it's the blacks who co-operated with Libyan
soldiers to shoot them or whatever," Abdallah said.
"But we are not among them," he added.
According to reports, the bodies of at least 20 black African men were found outside Gaddafi's compound after rebels captured Tripoli, with their hands tied and a gun shot wound to the head.
With the hunt still on, Abdallah and Wilfred, alongside about 200 migrants, mostly from Nigeria and Ghana, make do with the
harsh conditions of their refugee camp in the south of Tripoli.

Deportation flight of Nigerian woman canceled

The international community and human rights organisation should investigate this pathetic case involving a Nigerian woman who had earlier suffered miscarriage and the Irish authorities still went ahead with deportation plans despite a doctor's advice that she was unfit to fly.

Now Irish police insisted that the Nigerian who was bleeding as a result of a miscarriage in recent weeks was medically assessed as being fit to be deported.
However, controversy was to come following the manner in which Olayinka Ijaware, a mother of two, was being prepared for deportation to Nigeria on Tuesday night. The flight was later canceled without explanation.

Ijaware was brought to the Rotunda Hospital on Tuesday afternoon after suffering bleeding linked to an apparent miscarriage.

Supporters of the the Nigerian woman had said on Tuesday that the miscarriage occurred just hours before she was due to be deported. However, the woman said yesterday the miscarriage had occurred last month after almost eight weeks of pregnancy, but she had suffered bleeding and complications over recent weeks.

After being treated in the Rotunda on Tuesday, the doctor who dealt with her wrote a letter advising caution over her condition. “To whom it concerns, the above named patient is unfit for air travel if she is actively bleeding per vagina. If you have queries, please do not hesitate to contact us,” the letter said.

A spokeswoman for the immigration said that while she did not wish to comment on Ijaware’s case, she said it was the police's policy to ensure that anyone facing deportation was in a fit condition to fly.

“We would not place anyone on a flight that is not certified as fit to travel,” she said.

In this case, it is understood that the Garda National Immigration Bureau had a doctor at the airport who assessed Ijaware as fit to travel, as reported yesterday.

Ijaware, who has two children aged four and seven, has been living in Tramore, Co Waterford, for about four years.

While her application for asylum was refused, she is considering taking judicial review proceedings against her deportation.

Groups representing asylum seekers yesterday criticised the circumstances of the way she was deported.

Libyan rebels arrests a Nigerian

A Nigerian was amongst eight African men arrested by Libyan rebels engaged in a battle with troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi in Zawiya on Sunday.
The Nigerian, Paul Joseph, with seven Africa men were arrested by the rebels and taken to the local intelligence building.
Residents in Zawiya shouted "mercenaries" at them as they were driven across the city to the building. The eight men were handcuffed and looked frigthened as they sat inside the building.
Nigeria's Paul Joseph said he was a worker in Zawiya and that

he was arrested by rebels at his aprtment.
"I left my seven month old pregnant wife behind in the flat, we've been trying to get out of Zawiya but could not."

Libyan rebels and loyalist to Muammar Gaddafi have been engaged in intensive fight for the control of Zawiya on Sunday, a day after opposition forces pushed from the western mountains into the strategic city in their most dramatic advance in months. The city of 200,000 just 50 kilometers west of Tripoli attempted to rise against Gaddafi months ago, near the start of Libya''s civil war, but was crushed. Zawiya has been a key target for rebels waging a new offensive from the mountains in Libya''s far west, near Tunisia''s border.

Farouk Abdulmutallab wants trial moved out of Michigan

Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab charged with trying to blow up a plane near Detroit in 2009 accused US agents on Friday of failing to read him his Miranda rights and interrogating him while he was sedated and recovering from major burns soon after his arrest.

The Nigerian wants a judge to throw out statements made at University of Michigan hospital. He also asked that his October trial be moved out of Michigan because of the public's "overall hostility" toward him.

Last Friday was the deadline to challenge the government's evidence ahead of the October 4 trial in Detroit. Abdulmutallab insists on acting as his own lawyer, but he's being assisted by standby counsel Anthony Chambers, who signed the latest court filings.

At the hospital after his arrest at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Abdulmutallab was sedated by medical staff but still interrogated by federal agents without waiving any right against self-incrimination, Chambers said.

The medication "literally rendered him incapable of voluntarily submitting a statement. ... The agents could have easily waited four to six hours as the hospital staff advised, but they knew at that moment the defendant was confused and unable to think clearly, therefore they seized the opportunity, violating all constitutional rights that one in the United States of America is afforded," Chambers wrote.

"During the entire interrogation the defendant feared for his life and was scared to even move around on his hospital bed," the attorney said.

US Attorney Barbara McQuade declined to comment and said the government would respond in court. In 1984, in a case from New York state, the US Supreme Court said there are circumstances where an immediate concern for public safety can trump someone's Miranda rights.

Separately, Abdulmutallab wants his trial moved to federal court in another state. He believes the jury pool is poisoned, partly because of widespread news reports of the Christmas incident.

"Many of the residents in the state are enraged that such an alleged incident occurred, not just in their country but in their home state, near their home city, at the airport that they frequent. ... It is without question that there is an inflamed public community atmosphere in Michigan toward defendant Abdulmutallab," Chambers wrote.

Suspected Nigerian drug trafficker dies on flight to Malaysia

Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) say a 25-year-old Nigerian man smuggling methaphetamine on a Malaysia-bound flight died from ingesting a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of it.

The NDLEA released a statement on Saturday which says Chilaka Ogbonna Emmanuel's death forced the flight from Doha, Qatar, to make an emergency landing in India, where an autopsy was performed on Friday.

The NDLEA said Emmanuel had begun his journey at Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport on Tuesday.

Drug traffickers often use Nigerians as mules to carry drugs from to Europe, the United States and other locations, though the drugs typically ingested are cocaine and heroin.

Nigeria striker Emenike detained over match-fixing in Turkey

Nigeria striker Emmanuel Emenike, who was recently transferred to Fenerbahçe from Karabükspor in a deal worth $9 million, was detained on Sunday over match-fixing allegations. Emenike did not play in the last season's Fenerbahçe-Karabükspor game, with complaints of injuries.

Meanwhile at least 40 people, including Turkish league champion Fenerbahçe Chairman Aziz Yıldırım and officials and players from other soccer clubs, were detained on Sunday as part of a police operation launched in a number of Turkish provinces over match-fixing allegations.

Teams from the İstanbul Police Department's organized crime bureau searched the home of Yıldırım around 7 a.m. and subsequently detained him. Apart from Yıldırım's home, the Fenerbahçe sports club's headquarters, Şükrü Saraçoğlu Stadium and several locations in Antalya were also searched.

Police were reportedly investigating alleged match-fixing in the Spor Toto Super League, which ended in May with Fenerbahce's victory, and Bank Asya League 1. According to initial reports, Yıldırım stands accused of establishing an organized criminal group, match fixing and bribery.

Fenerbahçe Deputy Chairman Şekip Mosturoğlu, Giresunspor Chairman Ömer Ülkü, former Diyarbakırspor Chairman Abdurrahman Yakut, Eskişehirspor coach Bülent Uygun, Adanaspor coach Levent Eriş, and soccer players Ümit Karan, Serkan Çalık, Serdar Kulbilge, Mehmet Yıldız, Korcan Çelikay and Sezer Öztürk were reportedly among the detainees.

German police officer kills a Nigerian woman

On Thursday May 19, a German female police officer shot dead a 39-year old Nigerian woman ((Mrs Christy Schnudeck nee Omorodion), who had a German passport in an unemployment benefit centre in Frankfurt.

She had come into the Jobcentre, a branch of the unemployment services that serves refugees and homeless people, that morning because she urgently needed financial assistance. She had submitted her official claim nine days earlier. However, upon arriving at the office, she was told she could not receive her benefits in cash because the money could only be paid into a bank account

According to the Frankfurter Rundschau, the amount in question was “no more than fifty euros” and the woman was clearly in a desperate situation. Jobcentre employees say that the woman became “loud”, and refused to leave the building until she got her money in cash. After the security personnel tried to remove her, the police were called.

When a police patrol arrived consisting of a 30-year-old policeman and a 28-year-old policewoman, they demanded to see the Nigerian woman’s identity card. According to Chief Magistrate Thomas Bechtel, the woman responded by reaching into her bag to take out a knife. She then stabbed the policeman in the belly. At that moment, the policewoman drew her pistol and shot her at close range. The bullet went through the woman’s stomach and pelvic artery. She died as she was being taken to hospital.

The general question in the lips of Africans in Germany is, why on earth will she carry a knife to job centre? The answer is simple considering the area it happened. It is well documented that she had a mental problem and by law, such people are treated with respect and absolute care. In a Country where one can escape judicial punishment when alcohol is found in Peoples blood system, one could imagine what happens to people with mental illness in Germany.
The state police in Wiesbaden have taken over the investigation. The question of necessity of firearms use "is being examined anyway.

UK court awards 5000 pounds to 4 Nigerians

Four Nigerian women who claimed they were treated as slaves won damages in Britain's High Court, where a judge ruled on Friday that the police's failure to investigate the complaints breached human rights law.

The women, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, alleged that they were illegally trafficked from Nigeria to the U.K. when they were between the ages of 11 and 15. Now in their 20s, they claimed they were forced to work 18-hour days for no pay in British

households and were subjected to emotional and physical abuse in the London area between 1997 and 2006.

Justice Wyn Williams ordered the Metropolitan Police to pay each woman 5,000 pounds ($8,100), saying in a written judgment that the police's failure to carry out an effective probe in 2007 breached European human rights law.

At a March court hearing, police denied that any officer had breached the women's human rights by failing to investigate their complaints.

The women were "ready, willing and able to participate in an investigation," Williams said, rejecting claims by police that the victims failed to cooperate.

A spokesman for the women's' lawyers noted Friday that the Metropolitan Police has not apologized for failing to investigate the abuses and argued — unsuccessfully — that it did not have a legal duty to investigate "credible allegations of servitude unless those allegations were reported whilst the servitude was ongoing."

"The (police) commissioner should not require a court judgment to appreciate the importance of investigating child slavery," said Tony Murphy, one of the solicitors. "His decision to fight this case sends a dangerous message to officers that combating human trafficking is not a priority for the Met."

The Metropolitan Police said it will carefully consider the judgment and take any appropriate action.

"It is, of course, a matter of deep regret that the claimants did not receive the levels of service which they expected," the statement said.

Two Nigerians arrested in Malaysia with cassavas

The long arm of the law caught up with two criminal minded Nigerians who flew into Malaysia on different days with the thought they could hoodwink the authorities by stuffing 9.46kg of syabu worth about 2 million Malaysian Ringgit into cassavas and sweet potatoes, but their plan was foiled by alert KL International Airport police.

Syabu is an amphetamine derivative (trade name Methedrine) used in the form of a crystalline hydrochloride; used as a stimulant to the nervous and as an appetite suppressant.

One of the suspect was nabbed on Saturday and the other on Monday.

Selangor Narcotics CID chief Asst Comm Nordin Kadir said both Nigerians had cut open the cassavas and sweet potatoes and dug holes to store the drugs.

“A steel rod the size of a pencil was used to re-attach the root vegetables which they then covered with mud,” ACP Nordin said yesterday, adding that both carried the vegetables as hand luggage.

He said it was the first entry into the country for the 32-year-old suspect who was arrested at 3.45pm on Saturday. He had brought six cassavas with him.

“The other suspect, 31, who had visited Malaysia before, was arrested at 7.30am on Monday with three cassavas and two sweet potatoes,” he said.

ACP Nordin added that the police found 11 packets of syabu in the nine cassavas and two sweet potatoes.

The case is being investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which carries a death penalty

Nigerian stabs Nigerian in Ukraine

A fight between two Nigerian medical student at the Crimea State Medical University occured in Ukraine recently. A 24 years old Nigerian student in his fourth year stabbed his 23 years old countryman, a third year medical student with a knife and hurt him seriously.

While the former is recuperating at an hospital, Jay Jay as he's fondly called is languishing in police custody and his due to face trial in a law court shortly against the state. He faces a possible eight years jail term, if conviccted of the crime.
However president of the Nigerian community are making efforts to see that the young man is granted bail and released.

Nigerian smuggler 'sentenced to death' in Vietnam

A court in Vietnam has sentenced a Nigerian to death for heroin trafficking, state media said on Saturday.

He is the second person from the African nation to be condemned to execution for drugs offences in the past month.

Nnaji David Ete, 33, was convicted Thursday after a three-day trial in Ho Chi Minh City for his role in trafficking 11 kilos (24 pounds) of heroin into the country and then on to China over several years, the Vietnam News reported.

His Vietnamese wife was jailed for life on the same charge, while three other Nigerian men involved in the cross-border drugs ring were sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

The case comes a month after Michael Ikenna Nduanya, a 34-year-old Nigerian, was sentenced to death for transporting heroin from Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City.

Anyone found guilty of possessing more than 600 grammes of heroin or over 20 kilos of opium faces the death penalty in communist Vietnam.

Under a decision approved by Vietnam's National Assembly, execution by lethal injection is to replace the firing squad on July 1 this year.
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