Showing posts with label activist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label activist. Show all posts

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Ferguson Police Have “Thankless and Dangerous Job” - Activist




The policeman who shot and killed an unarmed African-American teen in Ferguson, Missouri, was doing a “thankless job” and faced violence daily, activist Kelly Arnold told RIA Novosti during a Saturday rally in support of police in St Louis.
“I’m here support all the officers in all the surrounding counties. They’ve got a thankless job. They face the community, the unknown, not knowing if you’re going to be able to clock out at night, go home and see your family,” said Arnold, an archaeologist from Illinois.
“There are armies on the street – gangs and drug dealers – who have the same philosophy that sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. If the case determines it, and you need to fire, you need to fire. It’s either you or them.”
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Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Activist Comrade Onwubiko On A 2-Days Hunger Strike-. See why!!!



A frontline Nigerian rights activist, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, is placed  on a hunger strike, next week Tuesday & Wednesday, as his contribution towards ending industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which includes crippled the country's public universities since July 1.

Writing on his Facebook wall, Onwubiko, National Coordinator of the Abuja-based Human Rights Writers'Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), said:
Continue after the break.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Lawyer and activist Mike Ozekhome released by Kidnappers



Almost three weeks after he was kidnapped, human rights lawyer & activist Mike Ozekhome (SAN) has reportedly been freed. He was freed at about 8am this morning by his kidnappers in Benin. Mr Ozekhome is said to be in the office of the State Security Service in Benin as of this morning.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Human Rights Activist, Mike Ozekhome Kidnapped



The activist and lawyer was kidnapped yesterday afternoon, around 3:30pm at Ehor near Ekpoma in Edo State. The four policemen who were with him were killed on the spot.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Just In:Popular TV Presenter, Gbenga Aruleba of AIT Sacked for Interview Right Activist on Al-Mustapha’s Release



Owner of AIT, has sacked Popular Presenter, Gbenga Aruleba for interviewing Rights Activist on Al-Mustapha’s Release.

The ‘authoritarian’ Chairman of AIT,Dr Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi sacked two senior editorial staff, Gbenga Aruleba and Imoni Amarere over the interview of Mr.Richard Akinnola,frontline social critic and human rights activist with Aruleba on AIT two days ago on the acquittal of Major Hamza Al Mustapha where Mr.Akinnola strongly condemned the ‘miscarriage of justice’ of the judgment as a political judgment to pacify the North ahead of 2015 general elections.

From a reliable source,Chief Dokpesi threw caution to the wind as he stormed the studio even when the bulletin was still on and stopped the bulletin after which he lambasted Aruleba over this controversial interview which he said was in bad taste.

Continue...

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Human Rights Activist Festus Keyamo Set To Contest For Governorship In Delta State In 2015





The 2015 gubernatorial election in Delta State is set to produce a lot of drama, especially if fillers emerging from the media is anything to go by. Information has it that human rights activist, Mr Festus Keyamo, has indicated his interest to contest for the governorship of the state.
The human rights activist made this known recently in Effurun-Warri, Delta State, at the maiden edition of Delta Forces United (DFU), a rallying point being put in place to mobilise and galvanise progressives in the state.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Repeated Threat to Life of Human Rights Activist, Femi Aborishade, Has Ibadan Polytechnic Boiling




Femi Aborishade, Nigerian human rights activist and Senior Lecturer at The Polytechnic, Ibadan, has alleged threats to his life and his family following successive attacks at his residence and stalking by an unknown gang, allegations now pulling the institution apart.
Speaking to SaharaReporters, Mr. Aborishade narrated how, at about 1:30 am on November 22, 2012, a gang broke into his residence, beating him up alongside his wife and making away with some personal effects.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

I travelled by road from London to Nigeria — Newton Jibunoh



Newton Jibunoh

Dr. Newton Jibunoh is a man of many parts. An arts enthusiast and environmental activist, the 74-year-old founder of Didi Museum and Fight Against Desert Encroachment, a Non Governmental Organisation, wears his passion like a badge.

Surrounded by art in different forms at Didi Museum, venue for the hour-long chat, the former chairman of Costain West Africa, speaks animatedly about his interests that have since become his identity.

On the museum, he says, it is an educational institution which he traces its genesis to a small room in Apapa.

“As a child, missionaries referred to these artifacts as taboos and tried to get my people to get rid of them,” he recalls. “What shocked me was that the missionaries were taking away some of those things. When I got to London in the early 60s and visited the British museum, I found most of these works there. So, I decided to start a campaign to keep our history. When I returned to Nigeria in 1966, I started collecting works. Moreover, because I was also finding myself in the midst of artists like Segun Olusola, Akin Yuba, Wole Soyinka, Dr Ekpeyong, I learnt a lot from them.

“Dr Ekpeyong, who was the director-general of the National Museum, would come to my house and see the works. He always commended them and urged me to show it to the public. That was how I started from a parlour exhibition to a room exhibition and to what it is now.”

Famous for his trips across the desert, Jibunoh rhapsodises on his first trip which he made when he was in his 20s. “When you are in your 20s, that is what I will regard as your formative era, when you decide who you are and where you are headed. One of such examples was the arrest and trial of Nelson Mandela. He said on the day he was sentenced, ‘this is my cause, this is what I believe in, and I will continue to do so even if I die in the process.’ The other statement was that of John .F. Kennedy, who was challenged for trying to explore the space and the moon because of the huge amount of money America, was investing in it. He told his opponents that it was only by doing hard things that good things come out. That also stayed with me and that inspiration started in earnest. I decided that I was going to be part of my era and the only way to do that was to try the impossible. It took me six months to get to Nigeria from London.”

You wonder why he still takes the risk of going on expeditions at his age. In a fit of amusement, he enumerates the reasons for his sustained interest.

“It is like going to the moon and what they have achieved by going to the moon. To go on an expedition like this, you have to put your life on the line and be ready to die. You do not do things like this for nothing; you have to have a course because many times people have asked what this whole thing is about. It is about the air we breathe, it is about the water we drink, the food we eat and it is about the land we came out from and will go back to when we die. How much are we doing to protect and preserve the land that is so important for life?”

Recounting his several near-death experiences, he tells without mincing words that he is undeterred. “If you are stuck in the sand and you cannot get your car out of the sand and you do everything (maybe for four or five hours) and you are 600 miles from help, what do you do? You just stay there and die. Alternatively, when you are attacked by bandits, they wonder why you are there, and they want to kill you, what do you do? You either surrender or try to talk them out of it.

“I have gone through so many near-death situations but somehow, I think it is the fact that once you are ready to die for anything, death stays away from you. It is when you are scared of dying and you are faced with death that you panic.”

In spite of all these, he still finds time to relax. “I do relax but maybe when I go to that six feet beneath, I will relax. I do many things and I cycle around a lot. When I am in London, I use my bicycle to go everywhere because there are bicycle tracks. In my village in Delta, I ride my bicycle. The same applied in Amsterdam, wherever I go to visit my daughter and grandchildren. In Lagos, I don’t ride often and when I have to, I take my bicycle to some island or one of these estates where it’s a lot safer.”

Bu his childhood was not as pleasant. Hear him: “I did not know I was an orphan until I was seven years old. What my sister and I were told was that our parents travelled. Family and friends offered to put us up here and because of that, I went to so many schools.”

His educational sojourn brought him to Lagos. “After secondary school, I came to Lagos, where I did a number of courses at the emergency science school now known as YABATECH. First, I got a job with the Federal Ministry of Works and I found out that I could sit for scholarship examinations. I failed the first time and passed the second time. That was how I travelled out of Nigeria to study building engineering in 1961 and I graduated in 1965. I then came back to Nigeria in 1967 and went back to the Ministry of Works where I worked for a little over a year. I found that I was not sufficiently challenged and I left there for a private sector organisation, which was like a subsidiary of Costain. From there, I moved on to Costain and whilst there, for 36 years, I worked there — I was CEO for 16 years.”

Married to Elizabeth, he remembers their meeting many years back. “It was a Christmas day. I did not have what you would call a family, so, I liked moving around during Christmas. That Christmas morning, I saw two young women and it turned out that the other lady had spent the night at my wife’s place. So, she escorted her to her parents’ place to explain why she spent the night.

“On my way back, I saw my wife alone and I greeted. She ignored me but I repeated my greeting and I followed her. She continued to ignore me and I followed her to the house where she just walked in. At night, I went back to that same house and met her mother, who was pleased with my honesty. Today, we have five children and nine grandchildren.”

Ask him what he would like to be remembered for and he stares back at you in amazement and says, “Anytime I am asked that question, I am at a loss. When I am gone, I am gone. I think it is my legacy that will determine. I do not think I want to predict. First, I do not know when I am going and I do not know how I am going to go. When I hear people talk about what they would like to be remembered for, I am not impressed.”

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