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Court in Congo hands down death sentences to 37 people on coup charges

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A military court in Congo handed down death sentences Friday to 37 people, including three Americans, after convicting them on charges of participating in a coup attempt.

The defendants, most of them Congolese but also including a Briton, Belgian and Canadian, have five days to appeal the verdict on charges that include attempted coup, terrorism and criminal association. Fourteen people were acquitted in the trial, which opened in June.

The court in the capital, Kinshasa, convicted the 37 defendants and imposed “the harshest penalty, that of death” in the verdict delivered by the presiding judge, Maj. Freddy Ehuma, at an open-air military court proceeding that was broadcast live on TV. The three Americans, wearing blue and yellow prison clothes and sitting in plastic chairs, appeared stoic as a translator explained their sentence.

Six people were killed during the botched coup attempt led by the little-known opposition figure Christian Malanga in May that targeted the presidential palace and a close ally of President Felix Tshisekedi. Malanga was fatally shot while resisting arrest soon after live-streaming the attack on his social media, the Congolese army said.

Malanga’s 21-year-old son Marcel Malanga, who is a U.S. citizen, and two other Americans were convicted in the the attack. His mother, Brittney Sawyer, has said her son is innocent and was simply following his father, who considered himself president of a shadow government in exile.

The other Americans are Tyler Thompson Jr., 21, who flew to Africa from Utah with the younger Malanga for what his family believed was a vacation, and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, 36, who is reported to have known Christian Malanga through a gold mining company.

Congo reinstated the death penalty earlier this year, lifting a more than two-decade-old moratorium, as authorities struggle to curb violence and militant attacks in the country. The country’s penal code allows the president to designate the method of execution. Past executions of militants in Congo have been carried out by a firing squad.

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FLASHBACK: “Jonathan Is A Drunk, A Sinking Fisherman”— Tinubu’s Past Insults On Jonathan Resurfaces As Police Begin Crackdown On Citizens Criticizing Govt Officials

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Tinubu mustered the temerity to call the President of Nigeria a drunkard, a sinking fisherman. This was how Tinubu put it: “I think the President is wrong because that is an insult to our parents. It is a speech from a drunk sailor fisherman whose boat is about to capsize.

As Nigerian authorities begin a controversial clampdown on citizens criticizing government officials on social media, an old episode from the country’s political history has resurfaced, bringing to light the sharp rhetoric of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu during his time as Lagos State Governor.   Tinubu mustered the temerity to call the President of Nigeria a drunkard, a sinking fisherman. This was how Tinubu put it: “I think the President is wrong because that is an insult to our parents. It is a speech from a drunk sailor fisherman whose boat is about to capsize.

Another Man Arrested for Insulting Tinubu, Sanwo-Olu, As Police Begin Crack Down on Nigerians Insulting Politicians on Social Media   In a flashback to 2011, Tinubu, then the national leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), launched a verbal assault on then-President Goodluck Jonathan, describing him as a “drunk sailor fisherman” whose “boat is about to capsize.” Tinubu’s comments came in reaction to a statement made by Jonathan at a campaign rally in Ibadan, where the President had referred to the need to rescue the Southwest from the hands of “rascals.”   Tinubu, speaking at Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos on his way to Abuja for an ACN campaign event, called Jonathan’s remarks an insult to Yoruba parents. “You don’t come to this land, seek our votes, and then insult our parents, saying they raised rascals,” Tinubu said. “It is a speech from a drunk sailor fisherman whose boat is about to capsize.”

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Fraudsters move to defraud home-bound Imo residents in Lagos

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GOVERNMENT OF IMO STATE

PRESS RELEASE

Fraudsters move to defraud home-bound Imo residents in Lagos

A group of persons believed to be fraudsters, and poised to take advantage of the massive return of Imo indigenes resident in Lagos for the Yuletide, has devised devious means to defraud the unsuspected ones among them in the guise of providing them with free transportation from Lagos to Owerri, Okigwe and Orlu.

To make their devilish intention look real, they have raised a press statement they purport was issued from my office for such a project.

In their warped imagination, they have deliberately fixed December 24, 2024 and January 4, 2025, as the days their prey and unsuspecting home-bound Lagos residents should approach them for a trip back home and return trip back to Lagos respectively.

Below is part of their poorly written press statement:

“The buses are free for Imolites from *Lagos to Imo State on *24th December* and back to Lagos on *4th January* .

“Interested persons should please call *(ISTDAL)* *08033255565, 08092362966* or *07089303866* for seats reservation.

“Please the buses are free and is on first come accreditation bases, once the seats are fully booked, the registration closes, ( *_PLS DO NOT PAY ANYBODY ONE KOBO_)*

“Please the buses are *NOT LUXURY BUSES* , so only passengers with a small sizable luggages will be allowed. (no big boxes or load is allowed).

“The buses will leave on *Tuesday 24th December* at exactly *7.15am* to *Owerri, Okigwe and Orlu.*

“The departure point will be made available after your registration, *(if you are not captured on accreditation, pls don’t bother coming as only accreditated passengers are allowed)* and please indicate your direction.

“*Note: the bus will not stop or drop any passenger until it passes Ihiala unto Imo State.*

“Thanks and best regards.”

For the avoidance of doubt, the Office of the Chief Press Secretary/Special Adviser Media to the Governor did not issue any statement on the trending fraudulent travel plan.

The statement is both false and deceptive, and could not have emanated from the government.

Therefore, the general public, and particularly Imolites who live in Lagos and any other part of the country and who intend to be home for the Yuletide should not take the statement and the authors seriously as they will be doing so at their own peril.

Please, be properly guided.

Oguwike Nwachuku
Chief Press Secretary/Media Adviser to the Governor
December 22, 2024.

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For inside Delta Staati: Meet efe money wey k!dnap him Friend con bęhe*d that he friend, b*ry the he*d for shr!ne and were still collecting money from the boy family wey him kee

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Meet efe money wey k!dnap him Friend con bęhe*d that he friend, b*ry the he*d for shr!ne and were still collecting money from the boy family wey him kee

The person wey the Mr Efe kee so na him t!ght friend, na destiny helper to efe. The person wey efe kee so give efe all the access to heąd over hís invęstments.

Nothing this very guy dey do wey him no dey tell this ev!l boy called Efe.

Na the guy he*d Mr Efe hoļd for hand so when police go remøve the he*d for where Efe bųřy am pųt.

 

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