PASSERS-BY SPARK AT THE MIDDLE-AGED MAN MARRIES 12-YEAR OLD GIRL AT SEA SIDE

 A little girl of 12-years-old, wearing make-up, poses for photographs as she appears to marry a middle-aged man who is at least four decades older than her, clinging on to her.

Shot in Lebanon, the video has sparked an international outcry.

But, thankfully, the child bride and her groom were actors hired by the campaign group KAFA - which means “enough” in Arabic.

Amassing more than 1.7 million views since it was released, the clip offers up a window into another world where thousands of young girls in Lebanon, Syria and around the world who are forced into marriage.

Nearly 15 million girls who are as young as eight are forced to marry older men sometimes in their sixties and senventies.

According to the United Nations Population Fund more than 1.2 billion girls will be forced into child marriage by 2050.
Now the Government in Lebanon has introduced legislation it hopes will pass that will require all marriages to have a civil registration in an attempt to outlaw it.

Currently parents can give permission for their children to marry at the age of nine while a girl can give consent herself at the age of 14.

Campaigner Maya Ammar said: “The scene [video] was supposed to seem shocking because the practice itself is shocking.”

DSS RECOVERS $500,000 CASH AT SACKED NSITF BOSS NGOZI OLEJEME'S SONS' HOUSE IN ABUJA

The Department of State Security Services (DSS), on Tuesday raided the Abuja home of the son of the immediate past chairman of the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Ngozi Olejeme. Mrs Olejeme was one of the Chief Executives of government agencies sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday.

During the search on the house whose location is yet to be disclosed, at least $500,000 was said to have been recovered from the house. Olejeme has been accused of being a cesspool of fraud since her emergence as the Chairman of Board of that organization. According to sources, a lot of scandals under her watch has been perpetrated in the organization.

Among other fraud schemes, Olejeme is said to have used Trust Fund Pensions Plc, which is a company incorporated in Nigeria and is licensed by the National Pension Commission, the pension regulatory body, as a pension fund Administrator in accordance with the provisions of the Pension Reform Act 2004 to perpetrate many frauds in office. In 2015, she donated N700m to the campaign of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

SOURCE

DOKPESI RE-ARRAINGS OVER ALLEGED N2.1 BILLION FRAUD

 Former chairman of DAAR communications Plc, Raymond Dokpesi, has been re-arraigned by operatives of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC) before Justice John Tsoho of the federal high court, Abuja,today over a six-count charge of criminal breach of public procurement law to the tune of N2.1bn, the same charges filed against him in December.

During the hearing, Dokpesi pleaded not guilty to all charges. His counsel, Wole Olanipekun, Dokpesi’s lawyer, asked the presiding judge to allow him maintains the bail he was granted by Justice Kolawole on December 14. He said his client had been of good behaviour since the bail was granted.

After listening to the counsel, the judge ruled that the bail granted Dokpesi be maintained. He adjourned the case to March 2 and 3 for commencement of trial.

PHOTOS: AUTO ACCIDENT ON 3RD MAINLAND BRIDGE THIS AFTERNOON

 Auto accident occurred this afternoon at 3^rd Mainland Bridge; it was reportedly caused by tyre bursts. No life was lost but the passengers sustained various degrees of injuries. According to Uche Nnaji, LASG Emergency Ambulance Service arrived at the scene shortly after the incident and the victims were conveyed to the hospital where they are currently receiving treatment. More photos after the cut...

LAWYER WHO KILLED HER HUSBAND IN IBADAN... CASE TRANSFERRED TO STATE HIGH COURT

 Yewande Oyediran, a lawyer who allegedly killed her husband, Lowo Oyediran, at their Akobo residence in Ibadan on February 2nd, appeared before the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Iyaganku, Oyo state yesterday February 16th.

At the brief hearing of the case, Amos Adewale, the police officer investigating the case, informed the Chief Magistrate in charge of the case, Kehinde Durosaro-Tijani that based on legal advice from Department of Public Prosecution (DPP), the Magistrate’s court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case and so the case should be transferred to the state High court.

The Chief Magistrate adjourned the case till March 1st and Yewande was taken back to Agodi prison where she has been locked up since the attack happened.

NIGERIAN NURSE INVOLVED IN SEX SLAVELY BLACKLISTED BY BRITISH NURSING AUTHORITIES

Florence Obadiaru, 50, a Nigerian mental health nurse, who was part of a gang of traffickers that raped a 23-year-old and subjected her to a ‘ju-ju’ death ritual during which she was told if she did not pay £40,000 she would die ,was convicted and sentenced for smuggling a young Nigerian woman into Britain to work as a sex slave, also has been blacklisted by the British nursing authorities.

Obadiaru and the other gang members then forced the woman to fly into Heathrow Airport in September 2011. The woman was told she would get a job in the UK so she could repay the debt, but instead she was kept at Obadiaru’s house and sexually assaulted.

The mental health nurse planned to transfer the woman to Italy to work as a sex slave, but the plot was thwarted by Italian officials, who noted her forged ID.

At the disciplinary hearing, Robert Barnwell, Chairman of the Nursery and Midwifery Council said:

"You have been convicted of conspiracy to commit a deplorable and horrific crime in which a young woman was trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation, and your conviction goes to the very core of the principles involved in nursing care. The public interest element in this case is high, and it is important to mark this case and send a clear message that a conviction of such a crime is unacceptable"

Obadiaru was jailed for two years in July 2014 after being convicted of trafficking the woman into the UK for sexual exploitation and arranging for her transfer to Italy.

Obadiaru, of Brockley, southeast London, had worked as a carer for ten years and had just finished her degree in nursing at Bedford University in Luton.

Her fellow gang members, Olusoji Oluwafemi and Johnson Olayinka, were jailed for six-and-a-half years and four-and-a-half years respectively in July 2014

BREAKING NEWS: EX-PRESIDENT JONATHAN'S FATHER KIDNAPPED IN OTUOKE

Chief Inengite Nitabai, 72, foster father of former President Goodluck Jonathan was kidnapped at about 3.30am at his residence, Otuoke in Ogbia local government area of Bayelsa State by seven heavily armed men. It would be recalled that the septuagenarian was also kidnapped some two years ago by four gunmen.

Read more at: HERE