IGBONEKWU JOHNSON'S BLOG

She saw her family members marched off to their deaths while she went to a forced-labor camp. It took her almost 60 years to begin telling her story. Éva Fahidi, a Holocaust survivor who late in life began speaking out and writing about her experiences, as well as expressing them in dance, becoming a familiar presence at memorial observances and in classrooms in Germany and other European countries, died on Monday in Budapest. She was 97. The International Auschwitz Committee, an association of Auschwitz survivors, announced her death. Ms. Fahidi, part of a Hungarian Jewish family that had converted to Catholicism, was rounded up in 1944 along with the rest of her family and taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination complex in occupied Poland. She was 18. She was apparently saved from the gas chamber by being of an age and fitness level to qualify for a forced-labor camp. Her other family members were sent to their deaths. Josef Mengele, the Nazi death camp ...

By opening an impeachment investigation into President Joe Biden, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy unleashed an unpredictable and treacherous new political force into what is already the most abnormal election of modern times. McCarthy effectively set up partisan counterprogramming to the looming criminal trials of his patron, former President Donald Trump, who’s the front-runner for the GOP nomination to take on Biden. The key question heading into the third impeachment effort in three and a half years should be whether this attempt to effectively reverse a democratic election by ousting Biden is justified. The GOP failure so far to provide much more than innuendo – that Biden corruptly used his power while vice president to profit from his son Hunter’s business ventures – suggests it is not. There is a crazed sense of irony and history coming full circle this week in Washington. Trump was impeached the first time for effectively using presidential power and the prospect of militar...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has quietly taken steps toward cementing Israel's control of the West Bank with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich leading the way ASA'EL, West Bank -- With attention focused on its contentious judicial overhaul, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has quietly taken unprecedented steps toward cementing Israel’s control over the West Bank — perhaps permanently. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a leader of the settlement movement, assumed new powers over the occupied territory in his coalition agreement with Netanyahu. Smotrich moved swiftly to approve thousands of new settlement homes, legalize previously unauthorized wildcat outposts and make it more difficult for Palestinians to build homes and move about. As the first government minister to oversee civilian life in the West Bank, his role amounts to a recognition that Israel’s 56-year military occupation is not temporary but permanent, observers say. “If Smotr...

“An election shall not be liable to be invalidated by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of this Act if it appears to the Election Tribunal or Court that the election was conducted substantially in accordance with the principles of this Act and that the non-compliance did not affect substantially the result of the election.” – Section 135 (1) of Electoral Act 2022 There were over a thousand election petition cases filed at different tribunals and courts challenging the outcome of the 2023 general elections held between February 25 and April 15, 2023. However, none of these generated as much furore as the three petitions filed by Allied Peoples Movement, Peter Obi and Labour Party, and Atiku Abubakar and Peoples Democratic Party. Under our electoral jurisprudence, the candidates and the political parties that sponsored them have the locus standi to challenge the outcome of any election in which they participated in. After six months of legal fireworks by the petitioners...

The Minister of Interior, Bunmi Tunji-Ojo, on Tuesday, said 55,000 of the 200,000 passports backlog had been cleared. He added that more would be cleared before the end of the two-week deadline given to the Immigration boss, adding that after the backlogs are cleared, Nigerians should be able to obtain their passports in two weeks. He spoke when the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, visited his office in Abuja. This was contained in a statement by the Director of Press, Ministry of Interior, Afonja Ajibola. He said, “Nigerians must not be relegated from being citizens of Nigeria by denying them a passport. “He reiterated his belief that we must get it right now, adding that he receives updates every morning; and that this very morning, he is been briefed that about 55,000 passports have been cleared, out of the 200,000 passports backlog he instructed to be cleared in two weeks. He said, “Nigerians must not be relegated from being citizens...

No fewer than 23 pastors have been killed, while 200 churches have been shut down in Kaduna by bandits within the past four years. The Chairman of the Kaduna State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Rev. John Hayab, disclosed this on Tuesday, at an emergency meeting with the State Commissioner of Police, Musa Garba, and pastors drawn from all over the state held at the Albraka Baptist Church, in the state capital. The meeting, The PUNCH learnt was meant to discuss on how to collaborate with the church to tackle the spate of insecurity in the state. “A Pastor who was kidnapped on 8th August, 2023, told the CAN leadership that there are over 215 Christians abducted by the bandits in Birnin Gwani forest. They are still there and the Pastor told us that the bandits asked him to lead prayers for the 215 Christians while he was in their den. “We are calling on the CP to look into this issue among many others holistically to build the confidence of the people once again. ...