Category: Foreign

Democrats making the case for Donald Trump’s conviction for inciting the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 focused yesterday on the former president’s role in assembling and inflaming the rioters and the damage wrought in the rampage.

As the third day of Trump’s Senate impeachment trial got underway, the House of Representatives lawmakers serving as prosecutors provided examples to illustrate how he explicitly summoned his supporters to Washington on that day.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday an acquittal in former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial will only be possible if the jury includes his co-conspirators.

“If Senate Republicans fail to convict Donald Trump, it won’t be because the facts were with him or his lawyers mounted a competent defence.

“It will be because the jury includes his co-conspirators,” Clinton wrote further on the micro-blogging website, The Hill yesterday.

According to The Hill, the former U.S. top diplomat’s tweet came after the second day of arguments from House impeachment managers before the Senate.

Democratic congresswoman Diana DeGette told the senators – serving as jurors in the trial – that the rioters’ “own statements before, during and after the attack made clear the attack was done for Donald Trump and to fulfill his wishes.”

“This was not a hidden crime,” DeGette said. “The president told them to be there, so they actually believed they would face no punishment.”

DeGette showed video featuring one rioter telling another as they entered a congressional office: “He’ll be happy – what do you mean, we’re fighting for Trump.”

The Democratic-led House on Jan. 13 charged the Republican former president with inciting an insurrection by exhorting thousands of supporters to march on the Capitol as Congress gathered to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s election win.

Democrats face a difficult task in securing a conviction and in barring Trump from ever again holding public office, given his continued popularity with many Republican voters. Trump has expressed interest in again running for president in 2024. A two-thirds majority would be needed to vote to convict, which means at least 17 Republican senators would have to defy Trump.

While some Republican senators have said that the House managers are presenting their arguments well, many hold fast to their position that Trump should not be convicted.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio told Fox News that while the Jan. 6 attack was “horrifying,” impeachment was not appropriate given that Trump was no longer in office.

The nine House managers are arguing that Trump planted the seeds for the riot by encouraging violence and making false claims that the Nov. 3 election was stolen long before Jan. 6.

“All of these people who’ve been arrested and charged, they’re being held accountable for their actions. Their leader, the man who incited them, must be held accountable as well,” DeGette told the senators. “But … you don’t have to take my word for it, that the insurrectionists acted at Donald Trump’s direction. They said so,” they argued.

Former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial got underway yesterday with Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu, a House impeachment manager, saying the ex-leader “ran out of nonviolent options to maintain power”.

This is coming as Republicans have already indicated they consider the proceeding unconstitutional and are prepared to acquit him.

“After his efforts and — of course, threatening officials — failed, he turned to privately and publicly attacking members of his own party in the House and in the Senate. He would publicly bait senators, naming them in social media,” Lieu said, citing a Trump tweet from Dec. 18 that falsely claimed he won the election and called on Republican senators to “fight for it.”

Lieu also showed a tweet from Dec. 24 in his presentation in which Trump called out senators, including then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, telling them that he would “never forget” if they just “sit back and watch me fight.”

“President Trump was telling you that you owe him, that if you don’t help him fight to overcome the results, he will never forget and there will be consequences,” Lieu said.

“The President wasn’t just coming for one or two people, or Democrats like me. He was coming for you — or Democratic and Republican senators. He was coming for all of us, just as the mob did at his direction,” he added.

House Democrats also gave a detailed presentation of Trump’s attempt to overturn the election results in key states, and started by focusing on Michigan.

Trump personally called GOP officials in Wayne County, home to Detroit, and pressed them to rescind their votes in favour of certifying the results.

Later, he hosted top GOP state lawmakers at the White House in a longshot attempt to convince them that the legislature should overturn the outcome of the election.

“Think about it. The President of the United States was calling public officials, calling from the White House, inviting them into the Oval Office, telling them to disenfranchise voters of her state, telling them to overturn the will of the American people. All to take the election for himself,” Rep. Madeleine Dean, a House impeachment manager, said on the Senate floor yesterday.

“The officials held strong, and so Trump moved on to a different state,” she added.

All of these efforts failed and President Biden’s win in Michigan was certified by the state.

The former U.S. president was reportedly unhappy with his impeachment defence team, while at least eight GOP senators slammed Trump’s lawyers for their performance.

The prosecution and defence will have up to 16 hours to deliver their arguments to senators, who will decide whether to convict the former U.S. president on charges that he orchestrated the deadly January 6 riot in the Capitol building that left five people dead.

The U.S. Senate previously voted 56-44 to confirm that the case is constitutional. Although six Republicans cast their votes to proceed with the impeachment, this number would not be enough to convict Trump. Under the evenly split Senate, a two-thirds majority vote would be required to find him guilty. This plays out if 17 Republican senators vote for the impeachment.

Trump himself was reportedly unhappy with his impeachment defence team and was left frustrated by the public criticism of his attorneys.

An overwhelming majority of Senate Republicans — 44 out of 50 — voted to block the proceeding based on Trump’s argument that the chamber doesn’t have jurisdiction over him because he’s no longer in office, but were thwarted by six GOP colleagues who switched sides and threw in with all 50 Democrats.

The 56-44 vote followed one last month in which the Senate voted 55-45 on a measure that gauged its position on the constitutionality of the trial, with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) breaking rank on Tuesday and accounting for the slight shift.

Police and military personnel have raided the headquarters of National League for Democracy (NLD), the political party of the overthrown Myanmar leader Aung  Suu Kyi’s in Yangon, reports said.

Sources related to NLD said no one was inside the Yangon office during the Tuesday night raid, adding that they later found it ransacked.

NHK World quoted observers as saying that the raid was part of the military’s efforts to back up its claim that the November general election was fraudulent.

The NLD won by a landslide but the military does not accept the result.

They said the raid was also aimed at keeping the NLD in check, as its members have appealed to the international community for support.

Meanwhile, a woman who took part in a protest in the capital Naypyitaw on Tuesday, remains in a coma after being shot in the head, reported NHK World.

The raid follows massive protests in cities including Naypyitaw and Yangon over military takeover and detention of the State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, Win Myint and other NLD members.

Also yesterday, U.S. President Joe Biden announced he had approved an executive order for new sanctions on those responsible for the military coup in Myanmar and he repeated demands for the generals to give up power and free civilian leaders.

Biden said the executive order would enable his administration “to immediately sanction the military leaders who directed the coup, their business interests as well as close family members.”

He said Washington would identify the first round of targets this week and was taking steps to prevent the generals in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, having access to $1 billion in funds held in the United States.

“We’re also going to impose strong exports controls. We’re freezing U.S. assets that benefit the Burmese government, while maintaining our support for health care, civil society groups, and other areas that benefit the people of Burma directly,” Biden said at the White House.

“We’ll be ready to impose additional measures, and we’ll continue to work with our international partners to urge other nations to join us in these efforts.”

Agency Reporter

The Gambia has named former vice president Fatoumata CM Jallow Tambajang, as the nation’s candidate for the Deputy Chairperson position of the African Union Commission (AUC), according to the country’s presidency.

The government also secured an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) endorsement for her candidacy.

Next month, leaders of the African Union (AU) member nations will meet at an ordinary summit to elect a new commission, the body’s secretariat, to run the organisation for the next four years.

Mrs. Jallow Tambajang has played a prominent role in national and continent-wide platforms, with a career spanning over 35 years, including service with the United Nations and to her country as a policy adviser, minister and eventually, vice president of the Republic.

In her time at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), her work focused on international development management, gender, policy, and training. As part of the Gambian government, she served in several capacities including as Policy Adviser on Women for three successive presidents, Minister of Health, Social Welfare and Women’s Affairs, before becoming vice president.

Her distinguished career has seen her recognised with several awards including the Member of the Republic of Gambia, MRG, (1994) and Eminent Person of the OAU (1990) for her exemplary leadership in championing the cause of women. She was also the architect of ‘Coalition 2016’, bringing together eight political parties to uproot Gambia’s 22-year dictatorship.

Mrs. Jallow Tambajang plans to pursue an aggressive forward-looking agenda if elected to the position. She will look to accelerate the adoption and execution of the AU’s Agenda 2063 and the body’s institutional reform goals to assist in the AU’s pursuit of tackling challenges facing the continent and its people.

Agency Reporter

The Biden administration views the New Start Treaty clinched with Russia this week as the beginning of engagement on strategic issues including multilateral arms control, the United States (U.S. envoy said on Thursday.

Robert Wood, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, speaking at the UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament, called for new arms control that covers more weapons, and eventually more countries.

“The United States will also seek to engage China on nuclear arms control and risk reduction.

I hope that China will join us in that effort,’’ Wood said.

By Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

Chief Executive Officer, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) Abike Dabiri-Erewa has described the death of a Nigerian based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States (U.S.) Mr. Dennis Abuda, as unfortunate, sad and callous.

In a statement by the Head of Media, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, NiDCOM condemned the death of Abuda, who was killed on Saturday by his abductors.

The commission called on the security operatives in Edo State to fish out the perpetrators of the heinous crime and made them to face the music to serve as a deterrent to others.

NiDCOM condoled with the family of the deceased, praying unto God to rest the soul of the departed and expose his killers as soon as possible.

It was reported that Abuda alongside his family members left Fugar in Etsako Central Local Government Area at the early hours of Saturday while travelling to Lagos to catch a flight back to U.S., when they were ambushed by the gunmen.

Abuda, whose body was discovered during a search operation led by the Commissioner of Police Philip Ogbadu on Wednesday, was allegedly shot by his abductors after he slumped while being forced into the forest.

He abducted relatives were lucky to be released on Tuesday by their abductors.