SOLDIERS, POLICEMEN SEXUALLY ABUSE REFUGEES–REPORT

SOLDIERS, POLICEMEN SEXUALLY ABUSE IDPS –REPORT
• Victims narrate exploitation ordeal
• Buhari orders IGP to investigate rights abuse
‘One day, he (policeman) demanded to have sex with me. I refused but he forced me… But soon I realised I was pregnant. When I informed him about my condition, he threatened to shoot and kill me if I told anyone else. So I was too afraid to report him – 17-year-old girl rape victim
Women and girls displaced by the activities of Boko Haram in the North-East have accused government officials, including soldiers and policemen, of sexual exploitation and denial of basic human rights in the various Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps.
Many of the female IDPs are reportedly being raped by security operatives and camp officials who were ordinarily posted to these camps to protect these citizens who fled their homes to avert being killed, maimed or abducted by the terrorists.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a report released yesterday, disclosed that at least 43 women and girls living in seven IDP camps in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, had passed through the ordeal of sexual exploitation.
The victims had been displaced from several Borno towns and villages, including Abadam, Bama,Baga, Damasak, Dikwa, Gamboru Ngala, Gwoza, Kukawa, and Walassa. HRW stated that most of the women and girls were drugged and raped, while others were lured into sex through false promises of marriage, financial assistance and other benefits.
According to the report, many of those coerced into sex said they were abandoned if they became pregnant and their children have suffered discrimination, abuse, and stigmatization from other camp residents.
One of the victims, a 17-year-old girl, said that just over a year after she fled the frequent Boko Haram attacks in Dikwa, a town 56 miles west of Maiduguri, a policeman approached her for “friendship” in the camp, and then he raped her.
“One day, he demanded to have sex with me,” she said. “I refused but he forced me. It happened just that one time, but soon I realised I was pregnant. When I informed him about my condition, he threatened to shoot and kill me if I told anyone else. So I was too afraid to report him.”
A 16-year-old girl who fled a brutal Boko Haram attack on Baga, near the shores of Lake Chad, northern Borno in January 2015, said she was drugged and raped in May 2015 by a vigilante group member in charge of distributing aid in the camp.
Her word: “He knew my parents were dead, because he is also from Baga. He would bring me food items like rice and spaghetti, so I believed he really wanted to marry me. But he was also asking me for sex. I always told him I was too small [young].
The day he raped me, he offered me a drink in a cup. As soon as I drank it, I slept off. It was in his camp room. “I knew something was wrong when I woke up. I was in pains, and blood was coming out of my private part. I felt weak and could not walk well.
I did not tell anyone because I was afraid. When my menstrual period did not come, I knew I was pregnant and just wanted to die to join my dead mother. “I was too ashamed to even go to the clinic for pregnancy care. I am so young!
The man ran away from the camp when he heard I delivered a baby six months ago. I just feel sorry for the baby because I have no food or love to give him. I think he might die.” Another victim, an 18-year-old girl from Kukawa, a Borno town 112 miles from Maiduguri, said that a member of Civilian Joint Task Force, initially gave her privileges, including passes that allowed her to leave the camp, but then raped her.
“The man started with preaching, telling me to be a good Muslim girl and not to join bad groups in the camp. He then sent his mother to propose to me, which convinced me that he was serious. When he asked me to visit his newly allocated room in the camp, I didn’t see any reason not to go because I felt safe with him. He gave me a bottle of Zobo (locally brewed non-alcoholic drink) and I immediately felt dizzy and slept off.
I don’t know what happened thereafter, but when I woke up he was gone and I was in pains and felt wet between my legs. For three days, I could not walk properly. “Some weeks later, I fell very ill, and was told at the hospital that I was pregnant.
Then everyone turned away from me: (He) refused to help me, and my stepmother who I lived with in camp pushed me out, saying I was a disgrace. I reported (him) to the police in camp several times, but they have not done anything to him because they work together.
Whenever I see him, I wish something terrible would happen to him. It is because of him that I have lost everything. I don’t even think the baby will last because she is always crying and I can’t cope. I pray that God will forgive me for neglecting the baby, but I am helpless.”
Similarly, a 30-year-old woman from Walassa, near Bama, about 43 miles west of Maiduguri, said that she fled into a nearby wooded area after Boko Haram fighters killed her husband and abducted her daughters, ages 12 and 9.
According to her, she stayed there for three months, hoping to find a way to rescue her daughters, until Nigerian soldiers arrived in the area and the fighters escaped with their captives. “A few weeks after soldiers transported us to the camp, near Maiduguri, one of the soldiers guarding us approached me for marriage. He used to bring food and clothes for me and my remaining four children. So, I allowed him to have sex with me. He is a Hausa man from Gwoza.
That is all I know about him. Two months later, he just stopped coming. Then I realized I was pregnant. I feel so angry with him for deceiving me. “When he was pretending to woo me he used to provide for me, but as soon as I agreed and we began having sex, his gifts began to reduce until he abandoned me.
Now my situation is worse as the pregnancy makes me sick, and I have no one to help me care for my children,” she told HRW. A woman from Bama living at the same camp said: “The soldier showed his interest by bringing me food and clothes. He used to wear the green army uniform and carried a gun.
I accepted him because I needed help to take care of me and my four children. “Feeding in the camp is only once a day so you have to accept any help that comes. We started having sex in my camp tent – my sister who was sharing it with me left – or at night in the open field where soldiers stay in the camp. Five months later when I released I was pregnant and told him, he stopped coming. I have not seen him since then. I feel so ashamed because my neighbours talk and stare at me.
I cry whenever I think about him. “I delivered the baby two months ago but he is also suffering – I eat once a day, so (I am) not producing enough milk to breastfeed him well. Things are so bad in the camp, there is not enough water or food.”
An 18-year-old girl from Baga said when she met a member of the Civilian Joint Task Force in the camp, she felt she could trust him because he is also from Baga. “He took me from the camp to a house on Baga Road so we could meet freely. I stayed with him in that house for about one month.
Then I fell ill, and went to a clinic. The people at the clinic asked for the person I was living with, and invited him. That was when they told him I was pregnant, and he accepted the pregnancy. But immediately (when) we came out of the clinic, he took me to a man to abort the pregnancy. I refused and he said if I would not abort, we should separate.
Then I moved to the camp. I gave birth almost a year ago, but the man has refused to take responsibility. Some months ago, he followed the military to catch Boko Haram far from Maiduguri. Even when he visits his two wives in the camp, he never asks for my baby and me. I go outside the camp to beg so that we can survive.”
Also, a 25-year-old woman from Dikwa said that when she fled Boko Haram’s attack on the town, she lived with her brother in a rented apartment in Maiduguri. When he was no longer able to feed her and her three children, he took her to the camp where he handed her over to camp elders.
One of these elders, a local government employee – who are often financially better off than most displaced people because they receive salaries – proposed marriage and regularly brought her food and money.
But the marriage did not materialize, and he began to shun her when she became pregnant. He continued to ignore her when she delivered twins and asked him for money to pay for her midwife. The woman said: “If I have a gun, I will shoot him.
It is because of him that people call my babies names and me. I am so ashamed that I cannot participate in camp activities and keep to myself because of the jeers.” Another 17-year-old girl said that a young man she knew took her home to his grandmother when she arrived Maiduguri from Dikwa in mid-2014.
She narrated: “He told me he wanted to marry me, and his grandmother referred to me as her grandson’s wife. I lived with them, cooking and cleaning the house, until a month later when he disappeared for weeks. The grandmother asked me to leave, promising to come to the wedding… It was a lie.
I did not know it but I was already pregnant. Maybe she already saw the pregnancy signs and I was too young to understand. I heard the grandson fled the town because he heard I have given birth. Now I have been left alone to fend for the baby. I don’t know if any other member of my family survived the Boko Haram attack on Dikwa.”
The Boko Haram conflict has led to more than 10,000 civilian deaths since 2009; the abductions of at least 2,000 people, mostly women and children and large groups of students, including from Chibok and Damasak; the forced recruitment of hundreds of men; and the displacement of about 2.5 million people in North-East.
-New Telegraph

JONATHAN WAS NEVER COMMITTED TO DEFEATING B’HARAM – OSINBAJO

JONATHAN WAS NEVER COMMITTED TO DEFEATING B’HARAM – OSINBAJO
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said on Monday that despite what his administration might want people to believe, former President Goodluck Jonathan was never committed to ending the Boko Haram insurgency during his tenure.
Osinbajo said this in a lecture titled, “The unraveling of Boko Haram and the rebuilding of the North-East of Nigeria” which he delivered at the Harvard University’s Weatherland Centre for International Affairs, United States.
The Vice-President’s media office made the speech available to journalists on Monday.
While attributing his position to many factors, Osinbajo said it was politically convenient for the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party to claim that the Boko Haram sect was sponsored by a northern-Muslim political elite to discredit the government led by a Christian.
He recalled that when the All Progressives Congress was formed, the then ruling party was also quick to paint it (APC) as the political wing of the Boko Haram sect.
He said it was not until President Muhammadu Buhari who was then the leader of the opposition, was nearly killed in an attack in Kaduna that the false narrative began to lose credibility.
The Vice-President added, “Secondly, the ruling party also somewhat cynically seemed to have considered that since BH attacks were actually in the heartland of the opposition it was not necessarily an unwelcome development as it could only weaken the opposition.
“Third, extensive corruption in arms procurement estimated at about $15bn, ensured that the military remained poorly equipped and demoralized.
“A number of well-publicized mutinies occurred and troops involved were taken through widely unpopular court-martial.
“As the government dithered and equivocated BH proceeded to realise the objective of occupying territory and establishing Islamist states in Nigeria and in the Lake Chad basin.
“In Borno State alone, it occupied and hoisted its flag in 20 of the 27 Local Government Areas that constituted the state. In Adamawa State, BH took Mubi and some villages in Yobe State.”
Osinbajo said it was not until the abduction of more than 200 secondary schoolgirls from their dormitories in Chibok that public outrage against Jonathan’s government’s inept handling of the insurgency reached its peak.
He added that the government then incurred widespread anger when it denied that an abduction took place and suggested that the opposition had simply invented the story.
Osinbajo, however, said Buhari’s assumption of office changed the tide.
He said the strongest reasons for Buhari’s victory in the March 2015 presidential election was the expectation that going by his reputation as a no-nonsense soldier, he would defeat Boko Haram and restore peace to the North-East.
True to type, he said within six months of Buhari’s Presidency, the sect had been effectively dislodged from all the local governments they once held and had retreated into the Sambisa Forest and the northern border towns and villages.
He said the terrorists’ military capacity had been severely degraded and their supply lines effectively blocked.
Osinbajo said the ability of Boko Haram to get willing suicide bombers remained a mystery.
-Punch

PAULINE TALLEN REJECTS AMBASSADORIAL JOB

PAULINE TALLEN REJECTS AMBASSADORIAL JOB
Former Deputy Governor of Plateau State, Dame Pauline Tallen, has turned down her nomination as an ambassador by President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to her Facebook social media wall at the weekend, Tallen said: “I am fully committed to nation building and completely loyal to the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as its leaders. I count myself privileged to serve our dear country as an ambassador of change.
However, family comes first and as such my decision is borne out of the love for my ailing husband who needs the support of his family. God bless Nigeria.”
She also appreciated the president for counting her worthy to serve Nigeria in the capacity of an ambassador. “It is a hard decision I had to take, but I have to, because he is my primary responsibility,” she said.

Your days of watching pirated live streams may be over, thanks to Cisco

Lulu Chang

Digital Trends23 October 2016

Cisco has plans to stop you in your tracks -- if you're illegally watching a pirated stream, that is. The San Jose-based company recently introduced a new technology known as Streaming Piracy Prevention.

Cisco has plans to stop you in your tracks — if you’re illegally watching a pirated stream, that is. The San Jose-based company recently introduced a new technology known as Streaming Piracy Prevention, which”utilizes technology to locate illegal redistribution of content on the open internet and closed pirate networks.” And apparently, it’ll help Cisco deny access to illegal live streams, even if you’re in the middle of watching it.

Streaming Piracy Prevention, or SPP, works using a “forensic watermark,” which “identifies the subscriptions/sessions used to source the content, and shuts down the source through the video security system — all in real-time,” Cisco wrote in a blog post announcement earlier this week. And because the technology is completely automated, Cisco ensures “a timely response to incidents of piracy.” That means there’s no need for third parties to interfere, and that there’s now “an unmatched level of cross-device retransmission prevention and allowing service providers to take back control of their channels, to maximize their revenue.” Great news for service providers, potentially bad news for you (if you’ve a penchant for watching free TV).

Related: DT10: Television

Cisco is hoping to go wide with its SPP technology, and has partnered with Friend MTS (FMTS) in order to tackle as much of the web as possible. As the tech company notes, “FMTS’s market leading piracy monitoring capabilities feed the Cisco SPP service with real-time pirated video feeds found on the open Internet, which are used by SPP to locate the source of the leak and shut it down.”

So if you had big plans in the coming months to watch all that college football via an illegal live stream, or have been enjoying all your favorite shows in a not-so-kosher capacity, consider this the end of days. Streaming Piracy Prevention just may make you an honest television viewer.

WE FOUGHT CORRUPTION WITHOUT MAKING NOISE – JONATHAN

WE FOUGHT CORRUPTION WITHOUT MAKING NOISE – JONATHAN
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said that his administration fought corruption in the country without making noise about it.
Mr. Jonathan said this on Monday while speaking at the Oxford Union of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
The immediate past Nigerian leader spoke on the theme “Promoting Youth Entrepreneurship”.
Responding to inquiries by some of the students regarding his administration’s fight against corruption, Mr. Jonathan said he would not like to “interfere with the legal processes” because “several matters are pending in court”.
Mr. Jonathan however said he did enough to reform anti-corruption agencies to enable them function effectively.
“We reformed the institutions and introduced various mechanisms to stop the corruption problems in our country without publicity,” he said,
Mr. Jonathan lost his bid for a second term in 2015 .
Using his Twitter handle, the former president paid glowing tributes to Nigerian youth and said “any Nation that does not spend its wealth and resources to develop the capacity of its youth, will be forced to use them to fight insecurity.
“As a leader, you can decide through your policies to educate the youth, or face the consequences of failing to do so,” he said.
Mr. Jonathan also said his administration put in place some youth related policies, which, he said, grew the Nigerian economy.
“Despite incredible challenges, Nigerian youths are achieving great things and placing Nigeria positively in the world map. They inspire us,” he said.
He also said his administration increased the allowances due to Youth Corps members by more than 100% in 2011.
Mr. Jonathan added that the PDP administration that he led “identified Nollywood as a sector that can employ many young people and provided a grant of $200 million to boost the industry”.
“As a result, Nollywood became a major contributor to our GDP and in 2014, the industry contributed 1.4% to our GDP,” he said.
“We may not have been perfect, but we did our best, and our best yielded an era of unprecedented economic growth for Nigeria. A growth that proved the truism that a Nation’s wealth is not underneath the ground but between the ears of her people.
“Under my watch, Nigeria was projected by CNN Money to be the third fastest growing economy in the world for the year 2015.
“While serving as President of Nigeria, I worked for the next generation and not for the next elections. I have no regrets for what I did,”Mr. Jonathan said.
The former president also called on contemporary African leaders to see youth entrepreneurship as a collective project transcending national boundaries.

-Premium Times

Again, Peter of Psquare lands endorsement deal… without twin brother

It is another happy moment for Peter of Psquare as his profile continues to rise with new endorsement deals trickling in.

For the second time in two years, Peter of Psquare has landed another endorsement deal without his twin brother, Paul.

It will be recalled that Peter was unveiled as Olympic Milk ambassador two years ago in a deal that was said to have earned him millions of naira.

For weeks now, Psquare has been working on getting back to their best after the duo decided to bury their differences following their breakup some months back. They have released a new material, Bank Alert, but the reception from their fans to their new song and video was reportedly a far cry to what it used to be.

On Thursday, Peter was unveiled alongside Falz and Orezi as Merrybet sports ambassadors without his brother, Paul and questions have been raised over why Paul was left out of the deal for the second time.

Though, it could not be ascertained as of the time of writing this report why Paul was not part of the deal, but R gathered that all might not be ‘well’ inside the SquareVille as Paul did not comment on Peter’s endorsement deal.

Peter shared the news with his fans on his Instagram page on Thursday, saying “Please help welcome me to the Brand Champions. This is where Champions play. If you don’t try, you will never know what you could have accomplished.”

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Thieves now target restaurants, canteens to cart away food as hunger bites harder

Many canteens and bukas are now wary of midnight raiders who burgle their shops taking away foodstuffs and stew meant for the next day’s business. TADE MAKINDE, OLALEKAN OLABULO and SEGUN ADEBAYO report that the trend is a disturbing story of hunger in the land.

IT was a hot afternoon. At a restaurant in Victoria Island, Lagos State, two members of staff of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), sat to eat their favourite meal for lunch when a man in suit walked to their table. He took a seat opposite them and dragged the plate in front of one of them towards himself and began to eat voraciously. The two friends were taken aback, but soon composed themselves.

Without saying a word, the man in suit consumed the rice, beans and dodo meal to the last morsel. The two friends kept quiet, waiting for what could happen next.

“I thought the guy was mad. There are many mad people in Lagos wearing suits, my brother. I winked at my friend that he should not do anything but watch.

“After the guy finished eating, he apologized and said he had not eaten a good meal for three days and could have fainted if he didn’t put anything in his tummy. He apologized further, saying that if he had started begging us for support when he came in, he was not likely to be taken seriously. I gave him N1,000. My friend didn’t say anything, he just ordered for another plate of food for himself and a takeaway for the guy,” the man told Sunday Tribune.

This event was just a trending narrative of the situation in the country as hunger, occasioned by the economic recession, continues to bite harder. It is no news that prices of foodstuffs have risen, just as some people are now midnight raiders of restaurants and canteens, stealing foodstuffs, pepper, fish and meat, which the owners had prepared for sale the following morning.

Carol, also known as “Iya Ropo,” is a very popular canteen operator in Araromi area of Sango in Ogun State. Between January and now, her shop had been burgled twice by yet-to-be identified people who went away with her foodstuffs and other items.

Ope, one of the attendants at the canteen, who spoke with Sunday Tribune, said that her boss had decided to be taking her foodstuffs home when it became clear that the perpetrators might come back.

‘Since I came here last year, our shop had been burgled thrice. I heard that they did that even before I came. The first one since I came was the worst. They took our raw rice, stew, fried meat and even our disposable plates,” Ope stated.

She also said that: “after the first time, they came back and still stole some foodstuffs, but after that, we decided to be taking our foodstuffs home. It is very strenuous, but that is the only thing we can do.”

Iya Ropo confirmed that her shop had been burgled on three occasions this year. She also stated that she never reported any of those incidents to the police. The canteen operator decided not to report “in order not to waste more money.”

Iya Ropo, who claimed to have been operating in the area for over 13 years, stated that she never experienced such burglary incident until the last one year.

“I started with hawking before I got this shop. I have been here for about eight years and my shop was never burgled until about a year ago.”

In Ibadan, Oyo State capital the same occurrence is also trending. Within one week of this month, two restaurants at Imalefalafia, Oke Ado area of the city, were broken into and foodstuffs carted away. One of the restaurants had been locked up for days as customers were left in the dark as to what might have caused the closure. It was assumed that the owner had traveled for a social event outside Ibadan until those close to her informed others of her predicament.

“Neighbours called early that morning that her shop had been broken into. Many heard movement from around her shop in the early hours of the morning. They thought she was the one working. She used to get to her shop between 4.00 a.m and 5.00 a.m everyday to prepare for the day’s work.

“When she told them that she had not been to her shop and had neither sent anyone there, we knew something was wrong the moment she began to run to her restaurant. When she got there, we saw the back door opened and when we got inside, everything in her shop – raw meat, yams, semovita, yam flour, pepper, drinks, salt, matches, plates, bottled and sachet water, everything except the deep freezer that was too big for the door – were taken away. They would have taken it too,” one of the neighbour who did not want to be identified told Sunday Tribune.

According to the Chairperson of Oyo State Food Vendors Association, Alhaja Hamudalat Lawal, otherwise known as Iya Dunni, the situation has become so rampant in the last few months with many food vendors forced to close their shops and stay in their houses until the trend is checked. She blamed the problem on hunger, adding that: “I don’t know what burglars could possibly be looking for in the shops of food vendors. We don’t keep money in our shops. What is happening now is an indication that there is hunger in the land. It is frustrating and very disturbing.”

Sunday Tribune investigation revealed that about 100 shops have reportedly been burgled in Ibadan in the last few months, most of them located around Ijokodo, Oke Ado, Sango areas of the city. Iya Dunni said the condition of the country’s economy had forced many people to take to other means of survival.

“I want to appeal to the government to please look into this matter before it drives many food vendors out of business. I really don’t understand why people would break into food vendors’ shops to steal foodstuffs and soup ingredients. It shows that the people are hungry. If people are no longer interested in stealing money but foods, then the government should know it has big task in its hand.

“At this point, we can only appeal to the government to come to our rescue because things are getting bad by the day and nobody is giving us any explanation. We hope that this unusual development will not drive us out of business,” she said.

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Conversation with a judge

“Na wao.”

“What?”

“This horrible news about judges and bribes. Just like folktales. Very embarrassing.”

“You remember the story of the man who was about being eaten by the crocodile he helped escape death?”

“Faintly. Please remind me.”

“The story is of the crocodile who insisted it was not being ungrateful to its helper by seeking to kill him.”

“Hmmmm…yes. The one who confessed: ‘I am not being ungrateful. I am just following the law that enjoins all creatures to eat anything that will sustain them.”

“So,what are you talking about? Is this about sustenance and survival? Who is eating the wrong meat here? Judges or the security agencies?”

“Hmmmmmm.”

“ You are not talking. You’ve not been sleeping well lately.”

“My brother, it is not easy. I read, write and do all sorts and I am now to combine all those with worries about armed robbers.”

“Armed robbers or security agencies?”

“Armed robbers o. The government has said our homes are now bank vaults. All eyes are now on judges as if we are money ritualists.”

“Your colleague’s residence was searched by security men and a huge amount of money was found there.”

“My colleague’s residence, but not mine.”

“Yes. I didn’t say yours. Why are you so hostile this morning?”

“I am not hostile. I am just clarifying the issue for your understanding.”

“But how did he get that huge sum?”

“Are you asking me?”

“Yes. You. You are his friend and…”

“And show me your friend…”

“ Nooo. I wasn’t saying that exactly…”

“I hear you. You know I am a true African. I hear the unspoken.”

“I know judges are trained to be spirits, seeing the unseen, hearing the unspoken. You people are something else. And you know what, this latest development has added to your ability in the eyes of the public.”

“What ability?”

“The ability to see business in matters of law…”

“Law is primarily business but it depends on what you mean by business. We, for instance, are not cement merchants like Dangote’s distributors. Our business is to distribute justice.”

“I see…and do you distribute it evenly and fairly to the rich and the poor? You don’t and that is exactly why Nigerians don’t like you…”

“Really?”

“Yes. Didn’t you see the way the whole country celebrated the shocking discoveries in your colleague’s bedroom? It was shocking that even those who should ordinarily be his friends gloated over his ordeal at the hands of the law.”

“At the hands of the law? What do you know about law? In any case, we are not in this business seeking to be loved. No. Criminals will always hate justice and fairness.”

“But…what would a normal human being be doing with N35million in his bedroom? What?”

“Have you seen the money or pictures of the discovery anywhere? Why don’t you ask those who claimed to have discovered the money to show you proof that their claims are true?”

“They are secret agents, not ordinary policemen; so, Nigerians trust them.”

“I hear you.”

“Back to my question.”

“What?”

“The money. Where did he get it?”

“You this boy, why are you bothering yourself about someone else’s affairs? Let us assume he had that money, which I doubt, couldn’t he have earned it legitimately? Judges are not supposed to be poor and wretched…”

“Good gracious! Legitimately earn N35million? How much is his salary?”

“How much is his salary? You answer the question yourself. We are well paid and judges are not spendthrifts like politicians…”

“I see. So, that man saved N35million from his salary?”

“But you are supposed to be more knowledgeable than this. Salary and income are not synonyms.”

“So, they are antonyms?”

“A man’s  total earnings are his income. Judges can have extra earnings from legitimate businesses.”

“I thought you said you don’t do business like Dangote. So, where else are your extra coins coming from?”

“I’m a farmer. And I…”

“Great. Farming has become so lucrative. Are you also a snake farmer like some rich dude somewhere or you deal in elephants and lions?”

“Is it only snake farmers that make it big in farming? Obasanjo is a farmer too and he is a chicken and turkey farmer. Moshood Abiola was…You know how large my family is. So, I have to farm and make extra money and the law allows it. Or how do I feed my three wives, sixteen children and five grandchildren.”

“And concubines…”

“I don’t know about that…Do we have the time for such distractions? Girlfriends can be bad market, you know.”

“Because they are expensive to maintain?”

“Even if we have babes, do we have to settle them with money?”

“Hmmm…you settle with what?”

“Ask them.”

“Or is it trade by batter?”

“Are judges all male? What about female judges? Are they settling their male friends too with cases? You accuse us of all sorts of bad behaviour. Is it an offence to be human and have emotions again? Can’t we live our lives simply because we elected to serve humanity?”

“I’m sorry. You know you look like lions when you put on your wig. Lions are not our friends. They are carnivorous, animals..”

“So, judges are not your friends but the police is your friend, abi?”

“But, I know that judges…I’m sorry to say this…I know that judges have always been corrupt…”

“Like in any human institution. There will always be bad eggs…Go on!”

“You remember the old judge famous for always writing three judgement on every case…one for the plaintiff, one for the defendant and the third neutral. You remember that what he eventually delivered in every case depended on who cooperated more between the parties.”

“Hmmm.”

“And there is the fabled judge too who was caught in the act and later declared that true, he collected bribe but was methodical and democratic about it.”

“How? I can’t remember.”

“You’ve forgotten that the man said for the sake of fairness, he collected money from both parties so that he could stand in the middle in his judgement.”

“He balanced the scale.”

“Yes. Isn’t that what justice is all about – blind and evenhanded?”