AFTER two unsuccessful appeals in the US, a Rwandan woman is headed back to Kigali where she stands to face prosecution for her active role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
In an application for political asylum, Beatrice Munyenyezi denied that she had been involved in the killing of Tutsis in Rwanda. But witnesses were found and told a court how Munyenyezi had inspected identity cards at a notorious roadblock where ethnic Tutsis were singled out for slaughter. Her nickname, ‘the Commander,’ triggered brutal memories of a killer, the victims testified, who committed multiple acts of violence, including beating a small Tutsi boy to death with a spiked club.
She served 10 years in prison for lying in an asylum application that gave her the right to remain in the US with her three daughters.
Munyenyezi also denied affiliation with any political party when she applied for asylum, despite her husband being a leader of the Interahamwe militia – the youth wing of the then-governing MRND – the Hutu political party that formed roving bands of killers that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of their Tutsi countrymen. She was stripped of her US citizenship after she was convicted in 2013 – she had already spent nearly two years in custody.
Munyenyezi’s conviction came about after US federal agent Brian Andersen and other federal officials traveled to Rwanda several times to locate victims who remembered her committing multiple acts of violence.
“Her deportation means a lot in terms of justice delivery to genocide victims,” said Spokesperson for the Rwanda Investigation Bureau Thierry Murangira,, according to The New Times, an English language newspaper in Rwanda.
About 800,000 people, mainly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were slaughtered in Rwanda in 100 days in 1994 by Hutu extremists, many of whom later fled the country.
Her husband, Arsène Shalom Ntahobali, and her mother-in-law, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, who was a government minister, were both found guilty in 2011 by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for their role in the genocide and are serving long prison sentences. Both were deemed to be high-ranking members of the Hutu militia party, which orchestrated the attacks on Tutsis.
US District Judge Steven McAuliffe, who sentenced her, said Munyenyezi “was not a mere spectator… I find this defendant was actively involved, actively participated, in the mass killing of men, women and children simply because they were Tutsis.”
The 51-year-old is expected to be arrested on her arrival home and charged over her role in the genocide.
When SARS officers arrested Ugochukwu Oraefo, the 34-year-old sought to know what his crime was. Instead, what he got as a response from the vicious officers was a traumatic experience that took four days of hospitalization to recover from.
IN the early hours of April 30, 2018, three heavy-looking men in a Toyota Camry 2.2 stormed my ALUCOBEST Aluminum Store in the southeastern Nigerian town of Ogidi. The men wielded AK-47 rifles.
My name is Ugochukwu Oraefo. I am 34 and a father of five children. I sell aluminium roofing sheets, metra roofing sheets, stone-coated roofing tiles and other kinds of roofing materials.
That fateful day three years ago, I was in my store with my wife. The men wielding the guns told me they were police officers. They asked me to act as if I knew them and follow them. I was confused, so I refused. I asked to know if anyone had written a petition against me. They said they would tell me everything I needed to know only if I would enter their car.
Later, the three men identified themselves as officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Awkuzu, a town in Anambra. When I continued to insist on not following them, they began to assault me with their guns.
Awkuzu SARS station
Soon, concerned people gathered. They asked what the problem was, but the SARS officers did not say what offence I had committed. Instead, they said anybody who wanted to know my offence would have to follow them to their office. I told the crowd that I had refused to follow the men because they could be kidnappers for all I knew.
I asked for an arrest warrant, but the SARS officers sarcastically asked whether I thought I was the governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, for me to think they needed to obtain a warrant from me.
“We will kill you if you fuck up,” they threatened.
I told them that it was better for them to kill me there, in the presence of onlookers, than to take me away and kill me anyhow they wanted, in the presence of no one. By that, I seemed to have angered them the more because they started beating me again.
One of the SARS officers told me he was a soldier, claiming that what they were doing was ‘teamwork’. I asked what this supposed ‘teamwork’ was, but they only continued to beat me.
Later, the SARS officers gave me their phone and asked that I speak with their Officer in Charge (OC).
I had taken a sound beating by then and was not exactly in the mood to speak, but I pulled myself together and asked the OC what my offence was. The OC told me to stop asking “stupid” questions and follow his men. I stood my ground and refused to comply, insisting that the OC let everyone know the offence they claimed I had committed. The OC told me to return the phone to his men. I did as I was told. Unfortunately, the men resumed beating me.
After some time, I began to cave in. I asked my wife to call my lawyer, Justus Ijeoma. Ijeoma asked her to give the phone to the SARS officers, but they refused to speak to him. When the officers noticed I was unwilling to follow them unless they spoke to Ijeoma, they asked my wife to call him again. She did. This time, the officers told Ijeoma who they were, and he agreed for me to follow them.
When we reached the SARS office, the officers threatened me. They said they would ‘treat’ my stubbornness.
They later took me to the backyard of their office. There, they tied my hands and legs behind my back, then they brought out a metal rod, which they put between my bound hands and legs. They placed two heavy concrete blocks on my back before hanging me up.
They said they would ‘deal’ with me because I was ‘spoiling’ their ‘show’, whatever that meant. They later asked me how much I was willing to pay for my freedom. It was this request for a bribe that got me convinced I had indeed been kidnapped.
Burdened by the discomfort, I asked them how much they wanted. I don’t remember much of what happened afterwards because I passed out from being hanged for a long time. They eventually brought me down and untied me, taking me to a cell.
In the evening of that same day, they brought me out and asked if I was ready to tell them how much I wanted to pay.
I asked them again to tell me what crime I had committed, at least.
“You still want to know what your offence is?!” they responded rudely. “Okay! No problem.”
I broke into tears at that point. I was tired of it all. I pleaded with them to let me know how much they wanted so everything would come to an end.
The SARS officers said they wanted N20 million. I offered to give them two million. They were displeased. They mocked my offer, asking me if I thought I had come to their station to sell crayfish.
As the negotiations continued, and with some of their colleague officers calling me a criminal, the SARS officers took me back to the backyard and threatened to tie me up again. I pleaded and promised to increase the money to N3 million.
Mind you, during the entire period, the SARS officers did not allow anybody to visit me. My wife continued to run my shop while waiting for my lawyer to return from his travels.
The officers, at a point, threatened to kill me, believing that I was not willing to pay the money they were demanding.
They asked for my account number, and I provided it. They then took me back to my cell.
The next day, they brought me out. They asked me if I wanted to ‘die’ in their station. I kept pleading. The officers remained unmoved.
On the third day of my detention, which was May 2nd, the three SARS officers who arrested me told me they would take me to an undisclosed location where they would ‘kill’ me for being difficult about giving in to their demand. I was blindfolded, handcuffed and driven away.
The drive took almost an hour. When the car stopped, the SARS officers brought me down and, still able to see slightly through the blindfold, I realized the place was in neighbouring Delta State, given the inscriptions on the signboards I was slightly able to see.
I also saw a pit filled with water, which one of the three officers asked me to move close to. The other officers were pointing their guns at me. The commanding officer asked why I did not want to give them money. “I’ve given my account number,” I responded desperately. “I don’t have up to N20 million.”
I asked them why they wanted to kill me, but they still wouldn’t tell me what I’d done. They only said they were ready to ‘finish’ me.
The commanding officer instructed the other officers to shoot me on the count of three. I was broken at this point. I wept. I begged. I asked them to take all the money in my account and spare my life. All I had then was N5million.
The officers, though, insisted they would still kill me – but that they would take the money as well.
On the commanding officer’s count of three, I shut my eyes and heard the sound of gunshots.
I regained consciousness to find out it had been a mock execution.
They took me back to their station, where one of the officers asked if I knew where I was. “Yes, Sir,” I remember responding.
Another popped up and said he wanted to ‘finish’ me, but their commanding officer, Sunday Okpe, asked them to bring me to him. Okpe asked the officers to leave after they brought me to him.
After I took a seat, Okpe asked how much money I would give him so he could save me from the grips of his men. I told him that apart from promising his men that I was willing to give them all the money in my account, I did not know what to do again.
Okpe wasn’t moved. He insisted I give him “something tangible” so he could persuade his men to leave me alone. When I said I could only provide N200,000 to that effect, he took offence and ordered me out of his office.
Worried that I had blown a good opportunity to secure my freedom, I began to negotiate.
I told him I would make it N500,000. He refused. I upped it to one million, telling him I would find out if my workers had cash in the office so I could access it.
He seemed okay with it and ordered me to make sure the money was brought to his office physically, as against a transfer.
He then freed me so I could go and arrange the money.
Monday Bala Kuryas, Anambra Police Commissioner
On Saturday, May 5, 2018, I went to see the SARS officers. I went in the company of the father of an apprentice at my shop, who also brought one Andrew Modili, a local politician who wields some influence in our area. The officers told us to transfer five million naira into the account of Modili.
I honestly do not know how Modili later settled the SARS officers after we sent the money to his account. The officers did not allow anyone else to see them apart from Modili.
Meanwhile, the officers took me to see Okpe, who asked to know how he would receive his agreed fee of N1million. I promised him I would bring the money to his office on Monday, given the fact that his workers were closing for the day and the next day was set to be a Sunday.
Okpe told me that he would let me pay on Monday, May 7, because of Modili’s intervention. He then warned: “No ear must hear what has happened. Otherwise, I will finish your family, your entire generation and everything you have.”
I promised to do as agreed.
At home, I did not confide in my wife concerning my ordeal at the hands of the SARS operatives. I also kept away from her the amount of money I had invested in my freedom. I was afraid that if I did, she would tell others out of concern, which would have led to the news spreading.
I also did not confide in Ijeoma, my lawyer, who at that time was outside Nigeria. I believe that if I had told him everything, he would have called the SARS officers to demand a refund – which would have put me at risk, as the officers could make a move to hurt me before Ijeoma returned from his trip.
I planned to tell Ijeoma everything when he returned, as I wanted the SARS officers to pay me back in damages.
On May 7, 2018, I went to the SARS office and gave N1 million to Sunday Okpe, as agreed.
Pleased that I had fulfilled my promise, Okpe gave me his phone number, claiming that we were now friends and that I should call him anytime. He said he wondered how I had been in Anambra for years and not heard of him. He promised to offer me ‘protection’ from trouble. I told him that I was not a criminal, that I was engaged in a genuine, legitimate business, so I did not expect to run into any trouble.
Okpe later told me I was ‘lucky and that I ought to thank my God because he had planned to pursue my family at my house and take everything I own.
He told me he had heard I was a cultist, but I told him it was a lie, and that I know only God. He then revealed that SARS had looked for me in several locations to arrest me, but had not succeeded. He said they had monitored me at my store so many times. He also said he was the one who had guaranteed his men that my store was the best place to capture me.
After two months, my lawyer Ijeoma returned. I told him everything that had happened.
When he asked why I hadn’t told him all that had happened, I told him I feared nothing but talk would have come out of it. I was aware of many people SARS had killed whose families were yet to receive compensation.
My lawyer and I wrote a petition to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) in Abuja. The SARS officers were summoned to the police’s headquarters for questioning, where they accepted they had collected N6million from me. They refunded the money after a month, thankfully.
I later sued them for damages. But they never showed up.
I believe the government does not hold SARS accountable because they work for the government.
My experience with SARS messed me up. I spent four days in the hospital to recover from the physical and psychological trauma I underwent in their custody. My legs and hands felt alien to me from all that beating.
Life afterwards was tough. Some of my store customers stopped patronizing my business after hearing about my arrest and detention, never bothering to find out what my supposed crime was. Some concluded I was a thief, while others believed I was a kidnapper. My reputation was torn to shreds.
You know, people who the SARS officers arrest are often painted as kidnappers and armed robbers by the public, but I believe the real kidnappers and armed robbers are the SARS officers themselves, who have poisoned Ogidi and Anambra State with their intimidation of innocent people. They are heartless criminals who are worse than the criminals they claim to pursue.
I am an honest businessman. I don’t steal.
Imagine what would have become of my five children if anything unfortunate had happened to me in SARS custody. They wanted to kill me, or at worst, make me poor.
Thank God for saving me from their hands.
This story is part of a multimedia project by Tiger Eye Foundation and media partners across Nigeria, documenting police brutality in Nigeria, and advocating for police reform.
PARTICIPANTS rising from a Litigation Workshop for Lawyers on the Safety of Journalists have called on the Federal Government to take urgent steps to domesticate relevant regional and international instruments and standards on the safety of journalists in order to give impetus to compliance and enforcement processes at the national level as a way of ending impunity for crimes against journalists.
They also urged the government to live up to its international treaty and guarantee the safety of journalists and other media practitioners, including preventing attacks on them whenever possible and ensuring that all such attacks were investigated and perpetrators prosecuted and punished.
These were some of the recommendations made by legal practitioners who participated in a two-day Litigation Workshop on Safety of Journalists held in Abuja organised by Media Rights Agenda (MRA) with support from the Global Media Defence Fund (GMDF) through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The participants urged media organisations in Nigeria to undertake periodic and regular safety training for their journalists and other workers to ensure that they were able to carry out their work safely and professionally, adding that the organisations should also kit journalists and workers with the appropriate equipment, including protective gear, where necessary, to prevent or minimise their exposure to various hazards that they might confront while carrying out their work.
They advised lawyers and civil society organisations to liaise with relevant organisations, institutions and agencies, such as the National Judicial Institute (NJI), the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) as well as the heads of various courts in organising sensitisation programmes and activities for judicial officers on the safety of journalists so that judges would be appropriately informed about the importance of the safety of journalists and their role in the process.
The participants suggested that lawyers litigating cases touching on the safety of journalists and other media workers should prepare their written addresses or briefs of argument with the objective of enlightening and sensitising the judges handling such matters about the issue of the safety of journalists, adding that they should also prepare diligently for their cases and familiarise themselves sufficiently about the issue in order to adequately respond to questions or queries that the judges might raise.
In order to ensure speedy adjudication, the participants pointed out that for cases touching on the safety of journalists in Nigeria as well as to ensure that judges handling such matters had the requisite knowledge and expertise, the heads of various courts in the country should designate judges to hear cases on the safety of journalists.
Besides, they said, as part of efforts by Nigeria to meet its obligations under regional and international instruments to prevent attacks against journalists and ensure accountability for any such crimes, ‘Practice Directions’ should be issued to guide the hearing and determination of such cases in order to improve the effectiveness of judicial mechanisms in addressing the challenge of crimes against journalists.
The participants said it was a shocking irony that attacks on the media, particularly the killing of journalists, had escalated during the period of civilian democracy with the result that attacks on journalists had risen far above the levels recorded during the period of military regimes in Nigeria, pointing out that it meant that the democratic environment had become far more hostile and dangerous for journalists than the period of military rule.
They pointed out that if journalists were frequently intimidated into distorting the information that they provided to the society or if they were too afraid to report truthfully and accurately because of constant attacks, legal practitioners and the entire society would be worse for it because most, if not all members of the public, made serious and sometimes life-changing economic, political, professional and other decisions based on the information that they received through journalists and the media.
In the light of this, the participants noted, lawyers had a self-interest in ensuring that journalists and the media had a conducive and enabling environment to practise their profession so that they could continue to provide members of the public with news and information that were reasonably accurate and reliable and that in turn enabled the lawyers and other members of the public to make good and informed decisions.
AN environmentalist Furoebi Akene, on Monday, urged Bayelsa government to reopen the blocked Silver River to check the spread of cholera, which has claimed over 25 lives in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area (LGA).
Executive Director of Centre for Environmental Preservation and Development (CEPAD) Furoebi Sheba Akene said in an interview that the blockage had worsened the spread of the infectious disease.
According to him, it had made the once freshwater, which the residents along the river depended on for drinking and domestic purposes, stagnant.
He noted that the construction of the Yenagoa-Oporoma, which led to the blockade, was avoidable as there were many alternatives that would not require blockage of the water channel.
He also appealed to the government to ensure that bridges across the rivers have sufficient clearance to allow cargo boats and light fishing vessels to operate in the rivers.
“With particular reference to the Yenagoa – Oporoma section of the road under construction, I must not fail to condemn in strong terms the closure of the Silver river near Aguobiri.
“The pattern of closure of the river is quite unprofessional and unethical of river crossing of that class of river that have so much economic value and maritime activities.
“The blockade of the silver river suggests to me that there is gap somewhere, otherwise the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) would have recommended the most appropriate method without constituting environmental economic hazards.
“Apart from the stagnation of maritime activities, already the environmental setting of the area is going through a lot of changes due to the adverse equilibrium of the ecosystem.
“Also the ecology of the area, particularly the ambient environment, including the emergence of the growth of algae and siltation of the bathymetry of the river,” Akene said.
Commissioner for Health in Bayelsa Newton Igwele had, on April 8, confirmed the outbreak of cholera in Southern Ijaw LGA and assured that the state had deployed epidemiologists and acquired vaccines to tackle the menace.
YOU’VE hailed an Uber, waved down a taxi – now a Nigerian start-up will take you to the next level. Their company – Plentywaka – will let you call a bus.
Founder Onyeka Akumah and his team are planning to make their international debut in the Canadian market after recently receiving $120,000 backing from Techstars Toronto. Their firm, which started in 2019, provides transport options via app using its own buses and in partnership with other bus firms, and says it has transported more than 300,000 commuters since its launch. It is one of four Nigerian startups chosen for the accelerator programme, as reported by Grace Akinosun of Quartz Africa.
Onyeka Akumah
“Public transportation is complex, and stakeholders’ engagement is critical for expansion. Canada came in well for us with its government support, and this makes the environment conducive,” Akumah says. “We’ve been in talks with some African countries over expansion too. So far, this market has been extremely promising. We intend to hit the ground running once we finalise our seed round this quarter.”
“Nine million people shouldn’t have to hustle for buses and we are going to change that. Our app allows commuters to book the cheapest city-city bus tickets and enjoy in-city rides,” the innovators say on their website.
Managing director of Techstars Toronto Sunil Sharma says his firm is backing the Nigerian mobility startup because it’s solving a massive problem in Nigeria that can be likened to urban transportation challenges in other populated cities worldwide.
The startup, which launched in Lagos in September 2019, uses Android and iOS apps that allow riders to book seats and schedule their journeys from one part of the state to another. Riders can pay for their trips using an in-app ‘Wakapurse’ e-wallet.
PlentyWaka’s mission is to “change the transportation landscape” by decongesting the road and “providing a safe and convenient transport system for bus drivers.” The current transport system is not only uncomfortable for commuters, it is also riddled with challenges that limit the earnings of drivers.
“Our new solution will be targeted at disrupting and massively improving the transportation system and solving some of its age-old problems.
“This new solution will create a profound impact in the transportation sector. It will create employment opportunities for bus drivers, vehicle assistants, engage vehicle maintenance personnel, and also create a better and safer transportation system for daily commuters in Lagos state,” Akumah says.
Lately, African companies have been branching out across the world with their innovations. Last year, Trella, an Egyptian truck marketplace, picked Saudi Arabia and Pakistan over an African market for its expansion (as did Egyptian bus-hailing service Swvl). Nigeria’s credit startup, Migo, branched out to Brazil, while Nigerian mobile money service Paga picked Mexico and the Philippines. Naspers’ African investment vehicle, Naspers Foundry, has elected to focus on South African-based startups that have the potential to scale globally, in any market.
“If the smallest country in the world offers me that, then I’ll go for that market,” Akumah says. “I don’t see expanding to Canada or Ghana or South Africa as one better than the other.”
MAJOR combat operations by French troops in Mali have drawn fire from local officials who accuse the French military of killing civilians, including at a recent wedding.
Nineteen wedding guests and three armed men died in the strike in the village of Bounti, central Mali.
Now, a scathing report by the U.N.’s mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, concurs with Malian authorities and upholds the claim that the victims were protected under international law. The French defense ministry rejects the report’s findings.
Those killed at the party were civilian males aged 15 to 20, and they were hunting birds with one gun among them, local officials said.
“I know all these young people. Some are from my family,” Mayor of the nearby Talataye village Mohamed Assaleh Ahmad told Reuters by telephone.
“We have seen these airstrikes in the past here. We have never said anything, but this time, it’s 100 per cent an error.”
The newly released report by the U.N. raises the stakes for France whose military footprint has grown to 5,100 from 3,000 since the start of their anti-terror operations in Mali. At the same time, opposition among Malians is growing against the former colonial power.
Anti-French demonstrations have been taking place since 2013 on a regular basis, according to the French newsmagazine ‘Liberation’ in an article titled, ‘A Rejection of Colonialism.’
A Sahel expert at the University of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies Yvan Guichaoua said of the French: “(They) want to stay influential in their former colonies and have leadership in this sort of global division of labor” by major powers.
“But the longer you stay, the greater the chance that you become part of the problem,” he warned, in an interview with the Associated Press.
According to Africa specialist Marc-Antoine Perouse de Montclos, French authorities have ignored local realities, like inter-communal vengeance and armies operating brutally with impunity to promote the narrative of jihadis with direct links to Iraq and Syria. As a result, a future French exit strategy may be as elusive as victory.
French Defense Minister Florence Parly insists that the military strike on Jan. 3 was legit and rejects the U.N. probe’s methodology, calling the investigation based on unreliable sources.
Some 7,000 people have died in what has been called France’s ‘forever war,’ according to data by the Armed Conflict and Location Event Data Project.
NO fewer than nine fleeing inmates from Nigeria Correctional Centre have been re-arrested in Ghana, myjoynews has reported.
The inmates were arrested by the Ada District Police Command in the Greater Accra Region and were suspected to be part of over 1,800 inmates that escaped from the Imo State Correctional earlier this month.
According to the Police, the fleeing inmates were monitored following credible intelligence that they were about to cross the Volta River into Ada Foh on Sunday, April 18. They were eventually tracked to an area known as Clinic Junction Lorry Station from where they were arrested in Sprinter bus with registration number, ER 1657-14.
They are Freedom Yusuf, 25; Emmanuel Obinnah Chiedozie, 27; Steve Eyenuku, 33; Enebeli Lucky, 29; Yommi Usmah, 29; Kelli Ekureni, 33; Obi Onuora, 38; Patrick Chanar, 47, and Bless Eyenuku, 25.
They have been handed over to the Ghana Immigration Service in Tema to assist with investigations.
The ICIR had reported how some gunmen earlier this month razed Imo State Police Command headquarters.
Some vehicles parked at the command headquarters were also burnt down. It was gathered that the hoodlums further freed suspects in almost all the cells at the State Criminal Investigation Department of the command.
They also attacked Owerri Correctional Prison in Imo State capital and freed more than 1,800 inmates.
Authorities of the NCoS announced on Wednesday that it had recaptured 48 of the fleeing inmates.
Similarly, Akwa Ibom Police Command announced the arrest one of the fleeing inmates from the Owerri centre in a statement on Friday.
On Friday, the NCoS published the names and photographs of some of the fleeing inmates from Owerri centre.
Last week, the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) announced that it was enlisting the services of the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) to arrest more than 3,400 inmates still at large nationwide.
THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) chapter has challenged Oyo State governor Seyi Makinde over a ‘Step Aside’ order issued to the vice-chancellor of the institution, Michael Ologunde.
This is contained in a statement jointly signed by ASUU Chairperson Biodun Olaniran and Secretary Toyin Abegunrin after its congress on Monday. ASUU argued that the state government did not follow due process in its action.
ASUU said the Oyo State government erred in its action because it was against the provisions of the University Act.
The union said the state government lacked the power to sack the vice-chancellor without recommendations of the Governing Council.
“That the decision violated the provisions of the University Miscellaneous Act as amended, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology law 2020 and the University conventions.
“If there is any perceived misdemeanour on the part of any officer appointed by the law in the University, due process according to the law must be followed to address such,” it stated.
Although the government had, on April 1, constituted a governing council for LAUTECH, ASUU claimed the council had not been properly constituted in line with the law of the university.
“ASUU LAUTECH, therefore, requests that to maintain industrial harmony on campus and the ongoing restoration of the image of the University, the above resolutions should be considered with the necessary urgency,” ASUU further said.
Governor Makinde’s Chief Press Secretary Taiwo Adisa did not respond to calls and text messages from The ICIR regarding the union’s claim.
Makinde had, on Friday, ordered LAUTECH Vice-Chancellor Michael Ologunde to step aside until further notice via a letter by Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology Olasunkanmi Olaleye.
Oyo State government had, in November 2020, took full ownership of the university. Before the takeover, the university had been jointly managed by Oyo and Osun states.
A Nigerian televangelist Christopher Oghenebrorie Okotie, who is also Pastor of the Household of God Church International Ministries, in a viral video, claimed that taking the COVID-19 vaccine would turn recipients into vampires.
“… and you take the vaccine, you have entered into communion with Lucifer and that communion involves blood.
“Since the blood of Jesus is not what it needs, it will require you to seek blood somewhere else.
“And the only place you can find blood is another human being. So one of the things that the vaccine will make you do is to become a vampire who needs to drink blood for sustenance.”
Chris is not the first clergyman to make spurious comments about COVID-19 and its vaccine.
The Claim
COVID-19 vaccine will turn human recipients’ into vampire.
The Findings
The FactCheckHub findings show that the claim is FALSE.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), vaccines train and prepare the body’s natural defense, otherwise known as the immune system, to recognise and fight any targeted virus or bacteria.
The WHO also stated that “vaccines are a critical new tool in the battle against COVID-19 and it is hugely encouraging to see so many vaccines proving successful and going into development.”
Although some minor side effects of the vaccine have been reported, forcing some countries to stop its administration, there has never been a record of the vaccine turning anyone into a vampire.
The WHO stated that the side effects of COVID-19 vaccines had been mild and moderate so far.
The reported effects of the vaccines so far, according to WHO, are: fever, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, chills, diarrhoea, and pain at the injection site. Becoming a vampire is not one of them.
Similarly, a WHO Infection, Prevention and Control Expert Adebola Olayinka, a professor, told The FactCheckHub that vaccine generally would not change the genetic makeup of the body and it was untrue that vaccine could turn people into vampires.
She added that the various COVID-19 vaccines in circulation were meant to generate immune response against COVID-19 infection.
Basically, the various COVID-19 available vaccines are meant to generate immune response against the potential COVID-19 infection and this has been the basis for any form of vaccination, she noted.
A fact-check has earlier debunked, here, a claim that the vaccine would change the recipients’ genetic makeup.
The Verdict
The claim that that the COVID-19 vaccine will turn recipients into vampires is FALSE.
THE Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), on Monday, commenced a nationwide protest in Abuja, demanding financial autonomy from the executive arm of government.
Some of the protesting union members were seen at the gate of the Appeal Court on Monday morning with placards.
‘The three arms of government are equal partners,’ ‘Governors should obey the constitution and court order,” some of their placards read.
The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) also marched with the protesting union to the National Assembly Complex, but they were refused entrance.
Chairman of the NBA Olumide Akpata had asked all state chapters to march in solidarity with the judiciary workers to government houses to help propagate their demands.
However, the NBA were also refused entrance into the Ekiti State Government House on Monday by security operatives.
The judiciary workers had commenced an indefinite strike over the failure of state assemblies to implement financial autonomy for judicial workers at state levels.
Last week, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) and Conference of Speakers of State Assemblies had appealed to the leadership of the judiciary workers to call off the strike.
Governor of Sokoto State Aminu Tambuwal, who is also Deputy Chairman of the NGF, said plans were being fine-tuned to meet the demands of the workers.
“We’ve just finished talking to the speakers, and indeed the state chief judges and the judiciary to continue to engage. The Minister of Labour is also engaging with the striking bodies to appeal to them, to appreciate the fact that we have made progress,” Tambuwal said.
“We’re appealing to them in the interest of this country that they should call off the strike,” Tambuwal further said.
The battle between the federal, state governments and judicial workers has lingeree since 2015 when JUSUN embarked on three weeks’ strike to protest the non-implementation of financial autonomy.
