The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND)

  • Nigeria picks CNN film for right of the girl child campaign

    Nigeria picks CNN film for right of the girl child campaign

    Foremost women-inclined movements; including Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) and the United Nations Information Centre are bringing groundbreaking CNN film ‘Girl Rising’ to Nigeria, as campaign tool on the United Nations’  International Day of the Girl Child.

    The Nigeria’s leg of the global campaign comes up at 10am, on Friday, October 11, at the Silverbird Cinemas, Victoria Island, Lagos. The event, organisers say is very applicable to Nigeria, which the described as the most populous country in Africa, with over 6 million girls out of school.

    ‘Girl Rising’ spotlights the stories of nine remarkable girls, born into what analysts describe as ‘unforgiving circumstances’. The film captures their dreams, their voices and their remarkable lives. It is also a movement dedicated to empowering and achieving educational equity for girls around the world.

    The Nigerian event is expected to bring 350 students and teachers, key influencers in business, government dignitaries and members of the civil society together to raise global visibility about the importance of educating Girls. The goal of the campaign, according to organizers, is to capture the attention of global policy leaders and inspire them to include Girls’ education on the post­2015 United Nations agenda.

    The ‘UN Day of the Girl Child’ in Nigeria is expected to parade divas across various professional divides. The co-hosted include Nollywood actresses, Kate Henshaw and Ibinabo Fiberesima. Others are popular female rapper, Yetunde Alabi aka Sasha P, reigning Princess of the Universe pageant, Daniella Okoye, and Executive Director of KIND, Amy Oyekunle.

    The event which continues with a special screening on Saturday October 12 at the same venue is also being supported by Zonta International Clubs in Nigeria, Nigerians Report Online, British Deputy High Commission in Lagos, Silverbird, Kiddies and Brands Company, Educare Trust, and Cool 96.9 FM. Guest Speaker is the Executive Producer of ‘Girl Rising’, Holly Gordon.

  • Al – Mustapha: Is this justice ?

    Al – Mustapha: Is this justice ?

    The Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) hereby expresses its shock  and disappointment at the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, today, July 12, 2013, which overturned the Judgment of the High Court of Lagos State, which had found Major Hamza Al Mustapha, one time Chief Security Officer to General Sani Abacha (1994-1998), and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan guilty of the June 4, 1996 murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola in Lagos, during the reign of terror of General Sani Abacha, the late military Head of State of Nigeria.
    It will be recalled that Hon. Justice Mojisola Dada of the High Court of Lagos State, Igbosere Lagos, had on January 30, 2012, found both Major Hamza Al Mustapha and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan guilty of the offences of conspiracy to murder and murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, contrary to 324 and 319 of the Criminal Code of Lagos State and accordingly had sentenced them to death by hanging. On that occasion, KIND issued a statement. The statement recalled the gruesome murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola in 1996 and the supreme sacrifice made by many other Nigerians, including Chief M.K.O Abiola and Pa Alfred Ogbeyiwa Rewane, to restore democracy to Nigeria. The statement then acknowledged the fact that the verdict issued by Mojisola Dada would bring closure to the children of Kudirat Abiola, the  M.K.O Abiola Family and Nigerians committed to justice.
    The finding and the reasoning of  Hon. Justice Mojisola Dada in her judgment was that the evidence of Barnabas Jabila ( a.k.a Sgt. Rogers) and that of Muhammed Abdul (a.k.a Katako), the two prosecution witnesses was credible, reliable, sufficient  and believable, and that the Court could safely convict  Major Hamza Al Mustpaha and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan  on that evidence, regardless of the fact that during cross examination and re-examination, the two witnesses retracted their earlier given testimony and recanted. The Court found that retraction as an after-thought.

     

    Barnabas Jabila ( a.k.a Sgt. Rogers) and Muhammed Abdul (a.k.a Katako)  had, at the early stage of the trial testified that they were directed to murder Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, by Major Hamza Al Mustapha;  that they were given information on her movements by Alhaji Lateef Sofolahan; and that they, respectively, shot and killed Alhaji Kudirat Abiola and drove the Peugeot 504 Car, which they used in trailing her car and bolting away, after killing her at the  Cargo Vision Area of the Lagos end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, by the Toll Gate.
    The Court found that it was cogently, compellingly and irresistibly proved beyond reasonable doubt by the Prosecution that Major Hamza Al Mustapha was the person who procured Barnabas Jabila, the ‘Force striker’, to eliminate Alhaja Kudirat Abiola by direct instruction, handing over of the murder weapon, the UZI SMG with 9mm rounds with which she was assassinated in broad daylight on the streets of Lagos and who provided ‘the logistics’ for their movement from Abuja to Lagos by flight, their accommodation at his Lagos official residence at Dodan Barracks and linked them up with their contact person and facilitator, Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan.

     

    Today’s judgment of Hon Justice Amina A. Augie ( presiding justice of the Court of Appeal’s Panel), Hon. Justice Rita N. Pemu, and Hon. Justice Fatima O. Akinbami, reversing the judgment of Hon. Justice Mojisola Dada, has now discarded that Court’s findings and rejected the Court’s reasoning.
    KIND is informed that the grounds of the Court of Appeal’s decision included the “contradiction in the testimony of the Prosecution Witnesses”, the non-corroboration of their testimony, being co-accomplices; the non-adducing of medical evidence (including non-tendering of autopsy and ballistician report), the non-investigation of the crime by the Nigeria Police Force, which it is argued has the sole power to investigate the crime, instead of the hybrid Special Investigation Panel (SIP) and the non-calling of the Police to give evidence.
    While KIND will obtain this Judgment and commission a team of legal experts to study it in detail, with a view to determining whether a civil action is advisable at this point, KIND respectfully acknowledges but vehemently disagrees with the Judgment of the Court of Appeal.

     

    True, the Prosecution Witnesses recanted and alleged that they were tutored to frame up the accused person. The question is, why was their recantation more believable than their initial and original testimony?  Could Sgt Rogers, who was not put on trial, have killed Alhaja Kudirat Abiola on his own, without having been directed to do so; or was his confession a lie also?

    With this reversal, the Nigerian Judiciary has now exonerated ALL persons that were brought to trial for the gruesome acts of murders and attempted murders that took place during the Abacha regime (before now, the persons tried for the attempted assassinations of Alex Ibru and Pa Abraham Adesanya had been set free, Muhammed Abacha, General Ishaya Bamaiyi,  and the Police Officers, Alhaji Danbaba, and Rabo Lawal). Also, the men who were herded into Court for the assassination of Pa Alfred Rewane were released, for want of evidence.

     

    KIND notes that the Nigerian Judiciary was also unable to resolve the issue of who murdered, in December 2002, Chief Bola Ige, a sitting Attorney General of the Federation. and, indeed the husband of a then serving Justice of the Court of Appeal, Late Justice Atinuke Omobonike Ige. Is it that the Nigerian Judiciary is incapable of resolving cases of political murders and assassinations, or that the Nigerian State lacks the competence, capability or will to prosecute cases of political murders?

     

    KIND is of the view that justice has not been served by the Judgment of the Court of Appeal. KIND therefore calls on the Attorney-General of Lagos State to exercise his power over all public prosecution in Lagos State to appeal this verdict in the interest of the dead and the living.

    In making this call, KIND is not set on seeking vengeance or retribution. As an organization founded in honour of Kudirat Abiola, it, along with all well meaning Nigerians, seeks a final judicial resolution of the question, “who killed Kudirat Abiola?”

     

    Amy Oyekunle

    Executive Director

    KIND

    www.kind.org

     

  • NGO launches good governance at local councils

    NGO launches good governance at local councils

    THE Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) has launched a project geared towards engendering transparency, accountability, and responsive governance in local government areas.

    The Community Engagement and Public Participation Project is an 18-month pilot project funded by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and the Social Development Civil Society Fund of the World Bank and executed in collaboration with the Office of the Special Adviser on the MDGs, Ogun State.

    At a stakeholders’ forum to sensitise the public, KIND’s founder, Mrs. Afusat Abiola-Costello, who is also the Special Adviser to Ogun State Governor on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), said the project will promote widespread participation in governance process in a way that people can influence policies of local governments.

    Executive Director, Emy Oyekunle said the impact of local government policies is below expectation and therefore, there is need to evolve a strategy to “provide the opportunity for citizens/communities to demand better leadership, accountability and transparency.”

    The strategy will see KIND going as an intermediary between local government administrations and the citizens to engender “greater access to information about allocation of public resources and the increased channels for public participation in deciding priorities.”

    She said the project will afford communities in eight local government areas in Ogun the opportunity to work with local authorities to evaluate local services, and consequently agree on spending priorities in three critical areas of primary healthcare, primary education, and environment.

    The target LGAs included Abeokuta South, Ijebu-Ode, Ikenne, Odeda, Odogbolu, Ogun Waterside, Sagamu, and Yewa North.

    For 12 months, 84 officials of selected local governments and 120 representatives of community based organisations shall be trained on community engagement tools and methodologies, after which a score card rating the performance of each participating local government administration in the three critical areas.

    “KIND hopes the use of the community scorecards process will encourage transparency and responsiveness through constructive dialogue,” she said.

    The project is currently at the data gathering and research phase, which is being executed by the project’s consultant, BPM Consulting Services Limited. The training will start in January 2013 and scorecard process starts in March, 2013.

  • NGO launches good governance at local councils

    NGO launches good governance at local councils

    THE Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) has launched a project geared towards engendering transparency, accountability, and responsive governance in local government areas.

    The Community Engagement and Public Participation Project is an 18-month pilot project funded by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and the Social Development Civil Society Fund of the World Bank and executed in collaboration with the Office of the Special Adviser on the MDGs, Ogun State.

    At a stakeholders’ forum to sensitise the public, KIND’s founder, Mrs. Afusat Abiola-Costello, who is also the Special Adviser to Ogun State Governor on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), said the project will promote widespread participation in governance process in a way that people can influence policies of local governments.

    Executive Director, Emy Oyekunle said the impact of local government policies is below expectation and therefore, there is need to evolve a strategy to “provide the opportunity for citizens/communities to demand better leadership, accountability and transparency.”

    The strategy will see KIND going as an intermediary between local government administrations and the citizens to engender “greater access to information about allocation of public resources and the increased channels for public participation in deciding priorities.”

    She said the project will afford communities in eight local government areas in Ogun the opportunity to work with local authorities to evaluate local services, and consequently agree on spending priorities in three critical areas of primary healthcare, primary education, and environment.

    The target LGAs included Abeokuta South, Ijebu-Ode, Ikenne, Odeda, Odogbolu, Ogun Waterside, Sagamu, and Yewa North.

    For 12 months, 84 officials of selected local governments and 120 representatives of community based organisations shall be trained on community engagement tools and methodologies, after which a score card rating the performance of each participating local government administration in the three critical areas.

    “KIND hopes the use of the community scorecards process will encourage transparency and responsiveness through constructive dialogue,” she said.

    The project is currently at the data gathering and research phase, which is being executed by the project’s consultant, BPM Consulting Services Limited. The training will start in January 2013 and scorecard process starts in March, 2013.