Mozambique Scraps Anti-Gay Law

Mozambique legalized homosexuality on Monday when a new penal code came into force that swept away old Portuguese colonial laws, in a victory for campaigners for gay rights in Africa.

The old code, dating back to 1886, targeted anyone “who habitually engages in vices against nature”, but no known prosecutions were brought after Mozambique became independent in 1975. Breaking the law was theoretically punishable by up to three years of hard labour.

Dercio Tsandzana, an influential blogger and activist, said there had been no public discussion of homosexual rights. “The government instead abides by the external pressure put by some embassies and foreign donors,” he said.

Homosexuality is punishable by death in Sudan, Nigeria and Mauritania.

How We Strangled Our Boss, Ex-VC, FUTA Killers Confess

Two domestic staff persons employed by the late former Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Prof. Albert Ilemobade, on Monday confessed to killing their boss.

The staff, a former driver, Olayemi Bamitale, and the security night guard, Daniel Ita, confessed about how they purposely killed the former university don in cold-blood at his private residence in Ijapo Estate, Akure, the Ondo state capital.

The killers, who looked stern in their confessional statement at the headquarters of the Ondo State Command of the Nigeria Police Force in Akure, narrated the way they “strangulated” their boss to death with the aim of stealing and selling off his recently purchased Red Toyota RAV 4 Jeep.

Confessing his crime, the former driver, Bamitele, said after working with the late Professor Ilemobade for several years and then eventually running away from the family, he was called from Ado Ekiti by the security night guard.

“He [Daniel] called me that he had already arranged how we are going to steal baba’s [Prof. Ilemobabe] vehicle. I was surprised but I told him am not presently in town that am in Ado Ekiti. He told me I should enter a commercial transport and come to Akure immediately. I don’t even have transport fare but he said I should enter into any vehicle and when I get to Akure he would pay for it.

“I got to Akure, I called him and he came to meet me at the popular Oba’nla junction where he gave me N1000 to pay for the transportation fare, and afterward he collected a change of N500 from me after paying the transport fare and he told me I should come to Baba [Prof. Ilemobabe] house by 9 pm at Ijapo Estate and I still know the location, is a place I have worked as a driver to the late deceased”.

Bamitele explained further, “I got there at exactly that time same day, and he told me he had consulted a herbalist who told him that if we really mean business in stealing Baba’s vehicle, we should strangulates him [Prof. Ilemobabe] to death and evacuate the vehicle out of the compound. He also told me that the herbalist made it clear that we should take along some piece of sand so that we would not be caught.”

The thirty-six year old former driver added that the security night guard [Daniel] lied to the Professor that there was an electric outbreak in the compound and they immediately bounced on him by strangulating him to death.

“I asked him how did he want to carry out this evil act since Baba is already asleep on the bed. He said I should not worry that he would wake him up and lied that there was an electrical fire outbreak in the sitting room and through that process we would quickly strangulate him to death and run away with the vehicle.”

“Truly, he went to the side window room of Baba and called him out that there was an outbreak. Baba too quickly woke up and passed through the kitchen and immediately we bounced on him and strangulated him to death.”

“He now said we should put his dead body inside the pantry close to the motor garage and lock him up. We immediately proceeded into the main compound and busted into the room where we searched for the key to the vehicle and made away with two big small bags, laptop, two mobile phones, an Ipad and N7000 belonging to the deceased.

“We passed through the main entrance to the gate of the Estate and even saw some policemen who flashed their torchlight at us but said we should go without even questioning where we were heading to at the night. We made our way outside the estate and headed to the house of his relatives along Arakale road, but none of them picked our calls.”

“According to him, they passed the night somewhere and by 4 am in the morning; Daniel said they should head to Calabar in Cross River State [his hometown] to sell the vehicle.”

“But I told him, the petrol inside the vehicle cannot get to Calabar. I said we should go to Lagos to sell the vehicle. I took him to where I knew in Lagos but on getting there, I explained to the buyers how we came about the vehicle, and they said they cannot buy it.”

“We left there and proceed to Ijebu Ode, but unfortunately officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) stopped us and said that our vehicle particulars are not complete and they immediately impounded the vehicle and booked us N3000 to pay the fee into first bank and we didn’t have any money on us. We left the vehicle in their custody and came back the second day to pick other stolen items inside the vehicle such as the phones and laptop.”

“We took it to Epe so that we could sell them to bail out the vehicle. Nobody could buy from us unless they flashed it and someone told us flashing it is risky. We now later jammed someone who spoke the same language as Daniel speaks. It was that person that gave us N3000 to go use it and bail out the vehicle while we gave him the phones.

“We later bailed out the vehicle and went to Ijebu Ode around Iloti to sell it off, it was the person we contacted that implicated us by calling the Police to arrest us”, he said.

In Daniel Ita’s, the late professor’s security night guard, confessional statement he claimed that Bamitale masterminded the killing. He also noted that he was scared to join Bamitale to perpetrate the crime.

“Bamitale had firstly stolen Oga’s [Prof. Ilemobade] vehicle and it was later recovered but not without selling off its extra tire. We made a manhunt for him through the police but he ran to Edo State to hide. Later, he called me that he is Edo to look for buyers who would buy Baba’s vehicle.”

“I told him the first attempt you made was not successful and now you are planning another one and want to put me into trouble. He [Bamitale] said I should not worry that it is a normal thing to do and we would even kill Baba. I rejected and said we could carry money or any other thing like money or even tie him down and run away, but not kill the old man.”

“Since, I was born I have not killed, but Bamitale rejected that we would have to kill the man because he would be looking for our whereabouts. I bluntly told him, I couldn’t do it.”

“He now said he wants to come down to Akure, but he doesn’t have transport fare and that I should give him transport fare and I said there is no problem he should come and I would give him. He came and I gave him the money. He later came into the house around 9 pm and stayed at the gate where he called me to open them for him.”

According to him, “I immediately told him that I still hold up to my words that I won’t join him in killing the old man because the professor is a father to us all. I later asked him again, how are we going to go about it?”

“Although, I told him that there was electric outbreak in my security room, but the electricity was restored.”

“He now said I should use that opportunity to call out the baba to check it out so we could quickly carry out the act. If Baba comes out he too would stand in a corner and press baba’s neck and I agreed with him.”

“I called out the old man through his window and he passed out through his kitchen. I pointed a touch light to the ceiling where the outbreak occurred and immediately Bamitale bounced on him and pressed him till he died. We later dropped his dead body at the store near the motor car park so that people will not see”

“I felt bad and I was worried, but Bamitale said the deed had already been done and that’s not the first time he would carry out such dangerous act. He entered into the compound and brought out money and stolen items because he had worked here before. We then ran away,” Daniel said.

APC insists on Ekweremadu’s removal as Deputy Senate President

The battle for the control of the National Assembly may be long drawn as the leadership of the APC has once again insisted on removing the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, of the minority PDP.

It was learnt that the ruling APC was still miffed that Ekweremadu emerged as the deputy senate president and had vowed never to allow “a senator from a minority party take over the duties statutorily assigned for the majority party.”

“As deputy senate leader, Ekweremadu is automatically the Chairman, Senate Committee on Constitution Amendment. This is a sensitive position that, statutorily, should not be held by the minority. 

“Ekweremadu and his PDP co-travellers will hamper the policies of the Buhari government. By the virtue of Senate rules, a member of the minority is not supposed to be the deputy senate leader; so, he is occupying the post illegally."

A leader of the APC, who spoke to Punch on condition of anonymity, insisted that Ekweremadu as deputy senate president would hamper the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

“We know the body language of some of these elements to anti-corruption. Nigerians know the stance of Buhari on corruption and insecurity. These elements occupying positions in the National Assembly must be removed. Otherwise, this administration is dead on arrival.”

He said Buhari is in support of the candidacy of Senator Ahmed Lawan for the senate presidency and had told Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Reps, Yakubu Dogara, to support APC’s candidates.

“The President has refused to see Saraki and Dogara since they emerged as senate president and speaker. Both Saraki and Dogara have done everything possible to see the President but he has shunned them because he is not happy about their conduct. You can see that the President has seen the Lawan group; this shows where his support lies,” the source added.

CNN confuses black and white flag covered in sex toy symbols for that of ISIS during London Gay Pride parade

CNN has mistaken a flag displaying sex toy symbols for that of the terrorist organisation Islamic State ISIS in a report it aired on London's Gay Pride parade.

In an 'exclusive' report which ran on Saturday, a CNN correspondent Lucy Pawle, went on air to claim she was the only one to notice an ISIS jihad flag being waved among gay pride crowds.

But to the broadcaster's embarrassment, the satirical flag was covered not with Arabic lettering, but symbols of sex toys.

'If you look at the flag closely, it's clearly not Arabic, in fact it looks like it could be goobledegook, but it's very distinctive - the ISIS flag.'

Pawle then states that she appears to be 'the only person' to notice the extremist flag being waved on London's Regent St.

'I seem to be the only person who had spotted this, and nobody seems to be raising any questions or pointing it out, so I immediately went to an events organiser who said he didn't know anything about it.

'I also spoke to the police nearby, who weren't aware either.'

However, viewers quickly went on Twitter to correct the journalist's error.

Credit: Mailonline

Okonjo-Iweala spent $2.1bn without approval - FG

The National Economic Council, chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday accused former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, of spending $2.1bn from the Excess Crude Account without authorisation.

“We looked at the numbers for the Excess Crude Account. The last time the former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, reported to the council, and it is in the minutes, she reported by November 2014 that we had $4.1 bn.
Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole told State House correspondents after the NEC’s 58th meeting in Abuja.

“Today, the Accountant-General Office reported we have $2.0bn. Which means the honourable minister spent $2.1bn without authority of the NEC and that money was not distributed to states, it was not paid to the three tiers of government,”.

According to the economic council, the ‘unauthorised’ spending is among the several anomalies discovered in the management of the nation’s economy between 2012 and May 2015.

Within the period, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was said to have earned a total of N8.1 tn but remitted only N4.3tn.

Due to this reason, the Federal Government has constituted Oshiomhole, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai; Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel; and Gombe State Governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo, into a panel to probe the NNPC and the ECA between 2012 and May, 2015.

Oshiomhole, el-Rufai, Emmanuel and the Zamfara State Governor, Abdulazeez Yari, jointly briefed journalists at the end of the meeting.

Yari told journalists, through the Director of Funds, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. M.K. Dikwa, that council members received the report of the ECA and unremitted funds by the NNPC.

He said: “On that line, a four-man committee consisting of the governors of Edo, Gombe, Kaduna and Akwa Ibom states was constituted to go through the books of the NNPC and Excess Crude as well as the Federation Account.
”The four-man committee will check the books of the NNPC, most especially the issue of excess crude and what is not remitted into the Federation Account.

“The Federal Government, in conjunction with the Central Bank of Nigeria, will look inwards to see how to support and how much they will give to states, especially on the issue of outstanding salaries owed by the states and even the Federal Government.”

Explaining what happened at the NEC meeting, Oshiomhole said the NNPC and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation were compelled for the first time to provide information on the total sales of Nigeria’s crude from 2012 to May 2015.

The Edo governor said, “We are talking about transparency; we are talking about change. And what we saw from those numbers, which I believe that Nigerians are entitled to know, is that whereas the NNPC claimed to have earned N8.1tn, what NNPC paid into the Federation Account from 2012 to May 2015 was N4.3tn.

“What it means is that the NNPC withheld and spent N3.8 tn.
“The major revelation here is that the entire federation, that is the Federal Government, the states and all the 774 local governments, the amount the NNPC paid into the Federation Account for distribution to these three tiers of government came to N4.3 tn and the NNPC alone took and spent N3.8tn.

“This means that the cost of running the NNPC is much more than the cost of running the Federal Government. That tells you how much is missing, what is mismanaged and what is stolen. There are huge figures.”

“If the Federal Government cannot spend without appropriation, why should any agency spend without appropriation.

“This is what the Constitution provided for and this is what President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to do; henceforth all money must go to the Federation Account.

“If you were doing that, you would not have a situation where the NNPC alone will spend N3.8trn and remit to the federal, states and local governments N4.3trn, which means NNPC is taking about 47 per cent and that explains all the leakages you are talking about.”

El-Rufai said the account was set up in order to be accountable such that every state and local government would know what they had in the account though they could not spend it.

He said, “The Excess Crude Account is 52 per cent owned by the Federal Government and 48 per cent owned by the states and the local governments.

“So the decision of the NEC is to set up this committee of four to look at the operations of the Excess Crude Account and make recommendations to council on its future.

“The other thing the committee will do is to look at the operations of the Federation Account, particularly the shortfall and again come back to council with very clear recommendations as to what to do.

“We have not been given a time frame but as you can imagine state governments are under pressure, many of our state governments are unable to pay salaries on time without recourse to borrowing, so this is very important to us.

“This is an all-governors’ committee; we wear the shoes and we know where they pinch. So we are going to do this as quickly as possible.

“The next meeting of the council is on July 23; we hope to complete our work and be in a position to report to council on that day. So within the next one month, we will be done by God’s grace.”

Credit: The PUNCH

Overweight woman flaunts her muscular new physique

An overweight 27 year old Canadian woman shed a third of her body weight, she went from being overweight in high school to placing in national bodybuilding tournaments.

Trista Elaschuk who used to weigh 195lbs now weighs only 130lbs and is now participating in various bodybuilding competitions.

Trista said she decided to lose weight after high school so she joined weight watchers and lost 50lbs but like so many other people she gained weight again. However, when she met her current bf Kale, he inspired her to lose the wiehgt and maintain it.

About a year after they met, in November 2010, they went on a double date to their first bodybuilding convention. There, she felt in awe of the professional bodybuilders, and realized that she, too, could compete.

'I was so inspired and motivated by these women on stage and knew I had to be one of them,' she explained.

So Trista hired a coach, who worked with her for 23 weeks to get ready for her first competition.

'I traded in partying and binge eating on the weekends for heavy lifting and meal prep,' she wrote on her Facebook page. All that hard work paid off - her debut was at the Southern Alberta Bodybuilding Championship, where she placed three out of 15.

'I struggled with weight my entire life and went on my first diet at the age of 16,' she said in a recent interview. 'I knew I had to made a change.'

Mum who killed her own 2 kids says she feels no remorse for killing them

Remember the story about the mother who killed two of her children and left their bodies in her kitchen freezer? Well, she  has pleaded guilty to their murders saying but says she feels no remorse for killing them. She said: “I don’t feel no remorse for the death of them demons.”

Mitchelle Blair 36, of Detroit, Michigan, without remorse admitted abusing her 13-year-old daughter Stoni Blair and nine-year-old son Stephen Berry, before their deaths. The bodies of the children were discovered in a deep freezer at her apartment on May 24 when bailiffs arrived to evict her. The mother has two surviving children aged eight and 17-years-old.

As she appeared in court, Blair said she killed her children after claiming they repeatedly “gang-raped” her youngest child.

Blair however, did not report the alleged sexual abuse and never witnessed it first hand.
“She raped my son,” Blair said about Stoni. “I intentionally killed her.”
“It wasn’t an accident?” Judge Dana Hathaway asked.
“No, not at all and if I had the chance to do it again, I would,” Blair said.
“I don’t feel no remorse for the death of them demons.”
Blair said she concealed the bodies so she could take care of her surviving children “as long as possible".nStephen died in August 2012, his sister May 2013.

The mother admitted strangling Stoni and Stephen before suffocating them by putting bags over their heads until they lost consciousness.

The autopsies revealed both children were malnourished, although Blair admitted only to starving Stoni, whom she fed one bowl of porridge a day.

Blair will receive a mandatory life sentence for the murders of her children after she voluntarily pleaded guilty.

Credit: Mail Online