Fires in Western Canada

 

On Sunday, the initial significant wildfires of the season scorched about 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) in Western Canada. Authorities mandated evacuations for residents of British Columbia and cautioned about poor air quality across the provinces. In British Columbia, numerous individuals from the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality and Fort Nelson First Nations were relocated as a nearby fire nearly doubled in size to 4,136 hectares.

Fort Nelson First Nation, situated approximately seven kilometers (about 4.35 miles) from the city, also issued an evacuation order for Fontas, an Indigenous community. Rob Fraser, the mayor of the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality, mentioned in a TV interview that the majority of the approximately 3,500 residents in and around Fort Nelson were evacuated. Meanwhile, across the border in Alberta, inhabitants of Fort McMurray, an oil center previously affected by wildfires in 2016, were advised to prepare for potential evacuation.

Kenya (Tanzania) Hit By First-Ever Cyclone After Weeks of Intense Rainfall and Fatal Flooding

 

A tropical cyclone unleashed heavy rainfall and powerful winds across East Africa over the weekend, adding to the woes of a region already reeling from weeks of extreme weather and fatal floods. Cyclone Hidaya, with wind speeds reaching 165 kph (102.5 mph) and waves nearly eight meters tall, prompted mandatory evacuation orders from the Kenyan Government for residents near 178 dams and water reservoirs in 33 counties. Tanzania faced a widespread blackout and witnessed thousands of displacements. Hidaya, akin to a Category 1 hurricane, marked the first occurrence of its kind in eastern Africa, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Although local authorities confirmed on Sunday that Cyclone Hidaya had dissipated entirely, the situation in the region, particularly in Tanzania and Kenya, remained critical, with persistent heavy rainfall forecasted until Monday. "Following its landfall at Mafia Island on Saturday, May 4, 2024, Tropical Cyclone Hidaya completely lost its strength. The remnants of the rain clouds that accompanied the cyclone have been observed to weaken and spread out in various areas of the southern region of Tanzania, as confirmed by the Tanzania Meteorological Authority," stated David Gikungu, Director of Kenya’s Meteorological Services.

Reps reject Tinubu’s N4.78bn Yacht, pass supplementary budget

 

The House of Representatives has rejected the N4.79bn budgetary allocation for a Presidential Yacht contained in the N2.176trn supplementary budget for the 2023 financial year transmitted to it on Tuesday by President Bola Tinubu.

In passing the supplementary budget on Thursday, the House moved the sum proposed for the yacht to student loan, bringing the total sum for the scheme to N10bn up from the initial N5.5bn.

Abubakar Bichi, who heads the House Appropriation Committee, stated this while addressing journalists after plenary on Thursday.

“As far as we are concerned, we don’t need the Presidential Yacht anymore. We have increased the student Loan. If you can recall, the student loan was N5 bn in the budget, but now we have increased it from N5bn to N10bn so that our students will be able to access that facility for them to be able to go to school and to be able to afford them,” the lawmaker said.”

Bichi added that the committee increased the budgetary allocation of the Ministry of Defence from the initial allocation of N476bn to N546bn.

According to him, the four-month wage award of N210bn for workers was considered and approved for onward transmission to the President for implementation.

He pledged adequate legislative oversight to ensure 100 percent implementation.

The sum of N100bn was retained for the Federal Capital Territory as requested.

The lawmaker said, “

Today, our committee has submitted our report, and the House after careful consideration, approved our submission and the breakdown is as follows:

“As you know, the budget is about N2.177 trn and the Ministry of Defence has N456bn but currently, they have the largest share because we know how important our security is. As you are aware, we interacted with them yesterday and they requested additional funding so that they can continue their work.

“So, we have increased their budget from N476 to N546bn.”

 

Court Overturns Ganim Win in Bridgeport Primary, Calling Evidence of Fraud ‘Shocking’

 

A Judge ruled on Wednesday to overturn the city’s Democratic Primary Election, initially won by incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim, following claims of absentee ballot fraud by his opponent, John Gomes.

After two weeks of evidentiary hearings for Gomes’s absentee ballot fraud lawsuit, Judge William Clark ordered a new Democratic primary based on 180 pieces of evidence presented by Gomes’s legal counsel.

In the 37-page ruling, Clark said the video footage presented by Bill Bloss – Gomes’s attorney – was particularly alarming.

“Mr. Ganim was also correct to be ‘shocked’ at what he saw on the video clips in evidence that were shown to him while he was on the witness stand,” Clark wrote. “The videos are shocking to the court and should be shocking to all the parties.

Ganim was one the many city officials called to the Fairfield Judicial District Superior Courthouse for questioning, along with Wanda Geter-Pataky, vice chair of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee and operations specialist for the city, and Eneida Martinez, a former City Council member accused by Gomes of stuffing ballot dropboxes.

Israel and Hamas at war

 

Israel vowed to "demolish Hamas" as its troops massed on the border with Gaza, as an Egyptian-controlled crossing into the enclave is expected to reopen amid diplomatic efforts to get aid to the millions of Palestinians besieged there after Hamas' deadly rampage through Israeli border towns.

Top U.S. officials warned that the war between Israel and militant group Hamas could escalate, as American warships headed to the area amid growing clashes on Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

Thousands of Palestinians have evacuated Gaza City for southern areas of the enclave, after Israel warnings. Hamas has asked them to stay put.

Ike Ekweremadu, wife, and a doctor guilty of organ trafficking to UK

 

Ike Ekweremadu, 60 (right), his wife Beatrice, 56, and Dr Obinna Obeta

Ike Ekweremadu (a senior Nigerian politician), his wife, and a doctor have been convicted of organ trafficking, in the first verdict of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act.

Ike Ekweremadu, 60, a former deputy president of the Nigerian senate, his wife, Beatrice, 56, and Dr Obinna Obeta, 51, were found guilty of facilitating the travel of a young man to Britain with a view to his exploitation after a six-week trial at the Old Bailey.

They criminally conspired to bring the 21-year-old Lagos street trader to London to exploit him for his kidney, the jury found.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been offered an illegal reward to become a donor for the senator’s daughter after kidney disease forced her to drop out of a master’s degree in film at Newcastle University, the court heard. Sonia Ekweremadu was found not guilty.

In February 2022 the man was falsely presented to a private renal unit at Royal Free hospital in London as Sonia’s cousin in a failed attempt to persuade medics to carry out an £80,000 transplant. For a fee, a medical secretary at the hospital acted as an Igbo interpreter between the man and the doctors to help try to convince them he was an altruistic donor, the court heard.

The prosecutor Hugh Davies KC told the court the Ekweremadus and Obeta had treated the man and other potential donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward”. He said they entered an “emotionally cold commercial transaction” with the man.

The behaviour of Ekweremadu, a successful lawyer and founder of an anti-poverty charity who helped draw up Nigeria’s laws against organ trafficking, showed “entitlement, dishonesty and hypocrisy”, Davies told the jury.

He said Ekweremadu, who owns several properties and had a staff of 80, “agreed to reward someone for a kidney for his daughter – somebody in circumstances of poverty and from whom he distanced himself and made no inquiries, and with whom, for his own political protection, he wanted no direct contact”.

Tension as Nigerians Await Final Presidential Election Results

 

While Nigerians wait for the results of the presidential and national assembly elections, tension is palpably high throughout the whole nation.

In spite of INEC's explanation that the difficulties the commission was having transmitting results were not the result of system sabotage, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), assured the Nigerian people that the process of results collation and announcement would be transparent.

Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi, candidates for president of the Labour Party (LP), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the All Progressives Congress (APC), have engaged in a contentious race.

It represented a change from the last elections, where the minority parties were bent on unseating the ruling party (APC).

It has been reported in several places that the recently held Nigerian presidential elections in 2023 were invalid and hence required redress. The candidates for president may end up in court cases, according to what is being reported by various media outlets.

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