The Federal Government has put about 50 prominent Nigerians on its watch list in its resolve to fully implement the Executive Order 6 signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists on Saturday.
The presidential spokesman said the prominent Nigerians put on the watch list had also been restrained from travelling outside the country pending the determination of their cases in court.
But the Peoples Democratic Party, which believed its members, among others, were the targets of the watch list and the travel ban, has berated Buhari, describing the move as full-blown fascism.
Also, the Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP said the government move was the final unveiling of tyranny.
Shehu said following the judicial affirmation of the constitutionality and legality of the Executive Order, Buhari had mandated the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), to implement the order in full force.
He, however, did not name the affected persons.
He said, “A number of enforcement procedures are currently in place by which the Nigeria Immigration Service and other security agencies have placed no fewer than 50 high-profile persons, directly affected by EO6, on (their) watch list and restricted them from leaving the county pending the determination of their cases.
“Also, the financial transactions of these persons of interest are being monitored by the relevant agencies to ensure that the assets are not dissipated and such persons do not interfere with, nor howsoever, corrupt the investigation and litigation processes.
“It is instructive to note that EO6 was specifically directed to relevant law enforcement agencies to ensure that all assets, within a minimum value of N50m or equivalent, subject to investigation or litigation, are protected from dissipation by employing all available lawful means, pending the final determination of any corruption-related matter.”
Shehu reiterated the present administration’s commitment to the fight against corruption in accordance with the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the general principles of the Rule of Law.
“Accordingly, this administration will uphold the rule of law in all its actions and the right of citizens would be protected as guaranteed by the Constitution,” he said.
But the PDP has rejected the travel ban, saying the action was an attempt by the Presidency to foist what it called a full-blown fascism on the country.
The opposition party stated, “This draconian step is clearly targeted at members of the opposition parties, perceived political enemies of President Muhammadu Buhari, well-meaning Nigerians, including members of the business community, religious leaders, former political leaders and traditional rulers, who are perceived to be averse to President Buhari’s re-election bid.”
The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said in a statement in Abuja on Saturday that “this ‘decree’ is a direct clampdown on our democratic order and an overthrow of the rights of our citizenry as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution (as amended).”
Ologbondiyan added, “The whole world can now see how fascism is fast taking over our democracy and judicial system and how the Buhari administration, by fiat, has directly ordered that citizens be secretly trailed, their movements and financial transactions restricted by government agencies without recourse to due process of the law.
“While the PDP notes that the Buhari Presidency has gone into panic mode since the popular emergence of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the PDP presidential candidate and the spontaneous jubilation his emergence has evoked across the country, the party maintains that the resort to total clampdown on the opposition and our supporters will be totally unacceptable.”
Ologbondiyan believed the alleged ‘nightmare’ must end on May 29, 2019.
In its reaction, however, the acting National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Yekini Nabena, said the President’s action was in tandem with the dictates of the law.
Nabena added, “We don’t know what the opposition PDP is afraid of. Like I told you before, the President is acting within his powers. The war against corruption is real and only those who have something to hide are afraid. As a party, we support Mr. President in the war against corruption.”
Also, the CUPP, in a statement on Saturday by its spokesperson, Ikenga Ugochinyere, said the President’s action was “the final unveiling of forewarned tyranny.”
It stated, “Recall that the CUPP had warned Nigerians that a desperate President Buhari, realising that he has already lost the favour of Nigerians, will bare his tyrannical fangs and intimidate opposition.”
According to the coalition, key opposition leaders, who are part of the international negotiation team, are all on the list.
It added, “The action of the President is nothing but another futile attempt by the Presidency to muscle the opposition and deny them the required funds for the election; but this is coming too late in time as Nigerian electorate is already fully mobilised and ready to punish bad governance with their votes.”
In similar vein, a former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, argued that the 50 prominent persons banned from travelling were members of the opposition.
Fani-Kayode, in a statement on Saturday, said, “The ban on 50 prominent Nigerians, who are all members of the opposition from travelling out of the country by Buhari’s Executive Order and the power to confiscate their assets even though they have not been empowered to do so by a court of law or convicted of any offence, are utterly shameful and condemnable.
“Buhari is so desperate to remain in power that he has now resorted to attempting to muzzle and intimidate the opposition. He forgets that he is not God and that he will soon leave power.”
Tag: Travel Ban
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Buhari under fire over travel ban on 50 high-profile Nigerians
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Trump’s travel ban ushered year of ‘hatred’ across globe – Amnesty
U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban in January 2017 targeting several Muslim-majority countries kicked off a vicious circle of “hatred,” Amnesty International said on Thursday.
“The transparently hateful move by the U.S. government in January to ban entry to people from several Muslim-majority countries set the scene for a year in which leaders took the politics of hate to its most dangerous conclusion,” Salil Shetty, Secretary-General of Amnesty International said.
Amnesty International released its annual report on the threshold of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a fundamental international document on human rights, which was proclaimed three years after the UN was established in 1945.
The report, titled the State of the World’s Human Rights, provides an outlook of the state of human rights in 159 countries across the world.
The year 2017 “experienced the bitter fruits of a rising politics of demonisation,” as it witnessed in the crackdown against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, exacerbated by Saudi Arabia’ blockade, numerous civilians deaths from the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria and Iraq, the ongoing refugee crisis and other injustices across the globe, the report said.
“The appalling injustices meted out to the Rohingya may have been especially visible in 2017, but the trend of leaders and politicians demonizing whole groups of people based on their identity reverberated across the globe.
“The past year showed us once again what happens when the politics of demonisation become mainstream, with grim consequences for human rights,” the report read.
According to Senior Director for Research at Amnesty International Anna Neistat, the regression in human rights protection appeared to be not an issue of separate states, but a trend that threatens the system of human rights protection as a whole.
“In recent years, and in particular in 2017, we have witnessed, unfortunately, a very significant regression in the protection of human rights.
“It is no longer just that separate states, separate governments or non-governmental forces violate the rights of individuals or groups of individuals; it is a question of undermining the human rights protection system itself,” Neistat said while presenting the report to journalists.
At the same time, the report noted that the year revealed strong willingness of people to fight for their rights, bringing them to the streets in Poland, Zimbabwe, India, the U.S. and other countries.
As Trump assumed his office in January 2017, the fulfillment of his election campaign promises “that were discriminatory or otherwise contradicted international human rights principles” was not late in coming, Amnesty’s report said.
Trump’s executive order, barring nationals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Syria, and subsequently Chad, North Korea and certain Venezuelan officials, from entering the U.S., led to numerous protests and legal challenges, as it is discriminatory in nature, Amnesty said.
Among other U.S. administration moves jeopardising human rights, the report noted plans to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as wrapping up several programmes for immigrants.
According to Margaret Huang, the executive director of Amnesty International USA, the U.S. administration policies neglecting human rights may set a dangerous precedent for other states.
“Defenders of human rights around the world can look to the people of the United States to stand with them, even where the U.S. government has failed.
“As President Trump takes actions that violate human rights at home and abroad, activists from across the country remind us that the fight for universal human rights has always been waged and won by people in their communities,” Huang said, as quoted in Amnesty’s press release.
Amnesty said the situation with human rights in Myanmar dramatically deteriorated over the conflict in the Rohingya-populated Rakhine region.
Ethnic Rohingyas were forced to flee to Bangladesh to escape an offensive by Myanmar troops that was triggered by an August 2017 terrorist attack on police stations by a militant group.
“Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled crimes against humanity in Rakhine State to neighbouring Bangladesh; those who remained continued to live under a system amounting to apartheid.
“The army committed extensive violations of international humanitarian law. Authorities continued to restrict humanitarian access across the country.
“Restrictions on freedom of expression remained.
“There was increased religious intolerance and anti-Muslim sentiment. Impunity persisted for past and ongoing human rights violations,” Amnesty said.
According to the report, the situation with civilians who were displaced as a result of conflict, violence and natural disasters continued to be alarming in the country, as people lack humanitarian assistance and protection.
The report noted that human rights activists, lawyers and journalists who spoke about the developments with Rohingya, religious intolerance and military violations “faced surveillance, intimidation and attacks.”
The section about Syria in Amnesty’s International report stated that all the parties to the Syrian conflict committed war crimes and other human rights abuses.
The report specified that the actions of the Syrian government forces and its allies, including Iran and Russia, the U.S.-led coalition, as well as of armed groups, namely the IS, resulted in numerous civilian deaths, displacements and destruction of infrastructure.
“Parties to the armed conflict committed war crimes and other grave violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses with impunity.
“Government and allied forces, including Russia, carried out indiscriminate attacks and direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects
“The U.S.-led coalition continued its campaign of air strikes against IS. The air strikes, some of which violated international humanitarian law, killed and injured civilians,” Amnesty said.
The annual review also covered the issue of alleged chemical weapon use by the Syrian government forces in Khan Sheikhoun.
The report specified that sieges in civilian areas resulted in making humanitarian access impossible.
Thus, citing the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the report noted that almost 400,000 residents of eastern Ghouta were deprived of medical assistance, basic goods and humanitarian support.
Syrian authorities have been repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons against civilians in the conflict that began in 2011.
Damascus has denied the allegations insisting that its military chemical capacity has been destroyed.
Syria has been in a state of civil war for over six years, with government forces fighting against both Syrian opposition groups and terrorist organizations.
Russia is involved in solving the Syrian conflict by engaging in the fight against terrorist organizations, serving as a guarantor of the Syrian ceasefire and providing civilians with humanitarian aid.
Speaking about the EU refugee crisis, Shetty said in that the leaders of the wealthy states “treated refugees and migrants as problems to be deflected, not as human beings with rights who deserve our compassion.”
The report, at the same time, noted positive developments, saying that a total of 171,332 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe by sea, in 2017, compared to 362,753 a year before, attributing the results to EU states’ cooperation with Libya and Turkey.
However, Amnesty stressed that Europe still failed to comply with relocation schemes adopted in 2015, with some states refusing to accept asylum seekers in line with the approved quota.
“Abuses and pushbacks continued at the EU external borders, from Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, and Poland. Poland’s government proposed legislation to legalize pushbacks, a regular practice at a crossing between Poland and Belarus,” Amnesty said.
Amnesty said forced returns continued to remain a worrying issue, particularly for refugees from Afghanistan.
Amnesty’s report noted that Ukrainian authorities continue to place social activists, journalists and government critics under pressure.
“Civil society activists and members of NGOs, particularly those working on corruption, were regularly harassed and subjected to violence.
“These incidents were often not effectively investigated, and members of the authorities, including security services in some instances, were widely suspected to have instigated them,” Amnesty said.
The report mentioned that the government continued its practice of hushing up journalists who criticize the authorities through “trumped-up” criminal prosecution.
As an example the report provided the situation around the Ukrainian internet news portal Strana.ua and its editor-in-chief Ihor Huzhva.
In June, searches were carried out in the building of Strana.ua, while Guzhva was arrested over allegations of blackmailing a politician.
The media outlet is known for its critical coverage of the Ukrainian government policy, particularly, in the Donbas region.
The report also mentioned cases when international journalists were expelled from the country, and noted that investigations into the murders of journalists Oles Buzina in 2015 and Pavel Sheremet in 2016 still had no results.
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Trump expands travel ban, adds Chad, North Korea, Venezuela to list
…as Sudan is removed from list
President of the United States, Donald Trump on Sunday ordered the inclusion of Chad, North Korea and Venezuela to the countries whose citizens are to face restrictions in entering the country.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that President Trump had recently placed a temporary ban on nationals from war troubled Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen pending the review of the vetting processes.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that the new proclamation however removed restrictions that was earlier placed on Sudan.
A statement by White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, on Sunday stated the new countries on the list.
Trump said he had taken the steps to strengthen the security standards for travelling to the United States.
“Our government’s first duty is to its people, to our citizens- to serve their needs, to ensure their safety, to preserve their rights, and to defend their values.” the American President said.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that the president’s original ban was highly controversial, as it was widely labelled a “Muslim ban”.
It was subsequently abandoned by the administration after a series of federal courts blocked it on grounds it violated the US constitution’s protection of religious freedom.
The addition of North Korea and Venezuela now means not all nations on the list are majority-Muslim.
America and North Korea are engrossed in a face-off over the nuclear arms programme of the Asian country with which America’s ally in the peninsula, South Korea, remains technically at war since their partition.
Venezuela, on the other hand, is facing political strife after President Nicholas Maduro conducted a referendum that stripped the opposition-controlled National Assembly of its powers.
The criteria for the new ban list is now based on vetting procedures and co-operation, and the restrictions have now been “tailored” on a country-by-country basis.
Ms. Sanders stated furthered that the proclamation would begin until the U.S. can conduct proper screening and vetting of those countries’ nationals.
She said Trump had taken “key steps to protect the American people from those who would enter our country and do us harm.”
Ms. Sanders also said the new development aims at ensuring American border and immigration security is adequate to protect the safety and security of the American people.
‘’Earlier this year, the President signed Executive Order 13780, which asked the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop a new minimum baseline for how much information sharing with foreign nations is required to determine whether their nationals seeking entry into the United States present security threats to our nation,” she said.
‘’The new baseline furthers the aims of the Executive Order by ensuring our border and immigration security is adequate to protect the safety and security of the American people.
“New requirements on issuing electronic passports, sharing criminal data, reporting lost and stolen passports, and sharing more information on travelers will help better verify the identities and national security risks of people trying to enter the United States,’’ she added.
She noted that foreign governments will have to work with the United States to identify serious criminals and known or suspected terrorists, as well as share identity-related information and exemplars of documents such as IDs and passports.
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Trump’s travel ban will breed more terrorism, says Iran
Iran on Tuesday accused U.S. President Donald Trump of fanning the flames of terrorism with his travel ban on the citizens of six predominately Muslim countries, one of which is Iran.
The ban is “the biggest gift for extremist groups,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in Berlin after meeting his German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel.
These groups could exploit the discriminatory ban as an argument for recruiting new members, he said.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed authorities to partially enforce Trump’s ban on travellers from seven Muslim countries.
They include Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen who have no connection to the United States until it reviews the executive order in the autumn.
Meanwhile, Zarif praised Germany for its handling of the conflict between Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Gabriel called on the countries opposed to Qatar to join the reconciliation talks brokered by Kuwait to end the conflict.
“The longer the crisis in Qatar continues, the deeper the lines of conflict become,” Gabriel said.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates accused Qatar of supporting terrorist groups leading them to cut diplomatic relations with the Gulf state at the beginning of June and suspend air transport links.
The countries have also called on Qatar to shut down its broadcaster Al Jazeera.
Iran and Turkey have offered their support to Qatar.
During Zarif’s visit, some 100 demonstrators gather outside the Foreign Ministry in Berlin and chanted, “The mullah regime is fascist.”
(dpa/NAN)
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Travel Ban: Supreme Court partially lifts embargo on Trump’s order
The United States Supreme Court on Monday backed President Donald Trump’s ban on travellers from six Muslim-majority countries until it reviews it later this year.
The court also allowed ban on all refugees with no connection to the U.S., while agreeing to hear his appeals in the closely watched legal fight.
The court said that it would hear arguments on the legality of one of Trump’s signature policies in his first month as president in the court’s next term, which starts in October.
According to Reuters, the court granted parts of his administration’s emergency request to put the order into effect immediately while the legal battle continues.
Two U.S. appeals courts had upheld lower court decisions halting the ban to allow legal challenges on the basis of religious discrimination. However, the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that the President’s March 6 executive order banned the issuance of new visas to people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days.
It also sought to halt issuances of new refugee admissions from around the world for 120 days.
The order was, however, blocked by federal judges before going into effect on March 16 as planned.
Trump issued the order amid rising international concern about attacks carried out by Islamist militants like those in Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin and other cities.
Trump signed the order as a replacement for a January 27 order issued a week after he became president, but it was also blocked by federal courts.
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U.S. appeals court rules against Trump travel ban
A U.S. Appeals Court on Monday upheld a lower court ruling that blocks President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travellers from six Muslim-majority countries.
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle was the second appeals court to uphold an earlier court’s move to put the executive order on hold while challenges against its constitutionality move forward.
The Trump administration had appealed to the court over the earlier ruling by a federal judge in Hawaii.
The court had halted implementation of the entire executive order, which also sought to block issuances of new refugee admissions from around the world for 120 days.
A separate decision on the order in the Fourth Circuit has already been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Trump goes to court, insists on travel ban on citizens from Syria, Libya, others
United States President, Donald Trump, has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a freeze on the revised travel ban, after it was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.
The Trump administration, Friday, asked the Supreme Court to revive the president’s plan to temporarily ban citizens from six Muslim dominated countries.
The countries are Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Iran, Sudan, Libya and Yemen.
Justice Department lawyers asked the court to overturn a decision of the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that kept in place a freeze on President Trump’s revised ban.
The government court filing late asks the justices to set aside the 4th Circuit ruling and accept the case for oral arguments.
It also asks the high court to lift an even broader nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge in a separate Hawaii case.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which covers Hawaii, heard the government’s arguments in the case last month, but has not yet ruled.
In its application, Justice Department lawyers said the 4th Circuit should have considered only the language of the executive order and not second-guessed the president’s motivations.
The Supreme Court “has never invalidated religion-neutral government action based on speculation about officials’ subjective motivations drawn from campaign-trail statements by a political candidate,” Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey B. Wall wrote in the government’s lawyers filing.
Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores had on Thursday said that the administration is “confident that President Trump’s executive order is well within his lawful authority to keep the nation safe and protect our communities from terrorism.”
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Trump 100 days in office: 10 tweets that have defined his Presidency
Since entering office, President Donald Trump has used Twitter to issue declarations on everything from America’s geopolitical rivals to his personal feuds with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
As Trump prepares to mark 100 days in office this weekend, AFP looks back at 10 Tweets that have characterized the opening phase of his presidency:
“We will follow two simple rules: BUY AMERICAN & HIRE AMERICAN” — setting out his governing mantra on January 20 after his inauguration.
“We must keep ‘evil’ out of our country!” — justifying his ban on travellers from a group of mainly Muslim countries, on February 3.
“What is our country coming to when a judge can halt a Homeland Security travel ban and anyone, even with bad intentions, can come into U.S.?” — reacting after the ban was subsequently blocked.
Friend or foe?
“North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been ‘playing’ the United States for years. China has done little to help!” — voicing frustration with both Pyongyang and Beijing over North Korea’s nuclear program on March 17.
“Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!” — Trump has an apparent change of heart towards Beijing on April 16.
“Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!” — Trump takes aim at German leader Angela Merkel, a traditional US ally, after a frosty summit in Washington on March 18.
The other guy
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” – Trump accuses his predecessor Barack Obama on March 4 of wiretapping his Manhattan skyscraper during the elections.
“Don’t believe the main stream (fake news) media. The White House is running VERY WELL. I inherited a MESS and am in the process of fixing it” — defending his performance on February 18 after his first four weeks in office
Enemies of the people
“The FAKE NEWS media (@nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” — letting rip at some of the biggest names in the US media landscape on February 17.
Hasta la Vista
“Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to great show” –– Trump reacts on March 4 to the departure of the “Terminator” star, an outspoken critic of the president and his successor as host of the former reality TV show.
AFP