The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured the final forfeiture of an estate located in the federal capital territory (FCT).

Jude Onwuegbuzie, a judge of the FCT high court, delivered his verdict in favour of the EFCC on Monday.

In a statement, Dele Oyewale, spokesperson of the anti-graft agency, said the estate, which measures 150,500 square metres and contains 753 units of duplexes and other apartments, is the largest single asset the EFCC has recovered since it was set up in 2003.

The individual who forfeited the property was not mentioned, but Oyewale said it belonged to a “former top brass of the government”.

“The road to the final forfeiture of the property was paved by an interim forfeiture order, secured before the same Judge on November 1, 2024,” he said.

“The government official which fraudulently built the estate is being investigated by the EFCC. The forfeiture of the asset is an important modality of depriving the suspect of the proceeds of the crime.

“In this instance, the Commission relied on Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud And Other Fraud Related Offences Act No 14, 2006 and Section 44 (2) B of the Constitution of the 199 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to push its case.

“The Establishment Act of the Commission places huge emphasis on asset recovery.”

The EFCC spokesperson said the judge held that the respondent did not show cause as to why he should not lose the property.

Oyewale quoted Ola Olukoyede, EFCC’s chair, as saying that asset recovery is “pivotal in the fight against corruption, economic and financial crimes and a major disincentive against the corrupt and the fraudulent”.

The Cable

Hamas says 33 hostages killed in course of war in Gaza

Hamas said on Monday that 33 hostages in Gaza had been killed during the almost 14-month-old war between the Palestinian militant group and Israel in the enclave, without giving their nationalities.

Hamas added that other hostages had gone missing.

"With the continuation of your crazy war," it said in a statement addressed to Israel, "you could lose your hostages forever. Do what you have to do before it is too late."

Hamas shortly afterward published a video it said detailed when and how the hostages had been killed, blaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for their fate.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment, which came as Israeli military strikes continued in Gaza.

Hamas has called for an end to the war and total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as part of any deal to release remaining hostages. Netanyahu has said the war will go on until Hamas is eradicated and poses no more threat to Israel.

Israel launched its war after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's military offensive has killed more than 44,400 Palestinians and displaced most of Gaza's population, Gaza officials say. Vast swathes of the enclave lie in ruins.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Kiev too weak to retake territory – Zelensky

The Ukrainian army is powerless to push back Russian forces and recapture all the territories that belonged to Kiev before 2014, Vladimir Zelensky has said, adding that his country must rely on diplomacy to achieve this goal.

In an interview with Kyodo News on Monday, the Ukrainian leader signaled that Kiev wants to end the conflict as soon as possible and retake Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions after the prospects of joining NATO become clear.

He acknowledged, however, that this will not be easy. “Our army lacks the strength to do that… We do have to find diplomatic solutions.” At the same time, diplomacy will have a chance “only when we know that we are strong enough” and Russia is prevented from launching new offensives, Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian leader went on to say that US President-elect Donald Trump, who will be sworn in in January, is well aware of the details of his ‘victory plan’, adding that this initiative will put Ukraine in a “strong position” for negotiations. The plan, which was unveiled by Zelensky in October, demands an immediate invitation to join NATO, unrestricted Western military support, and placing conventional deterrence measures in Ukraine to keep Russia at bay. Moscow has rejected the plan as a “set of incoherent slogans” and a recipe for escalation.

The Trump team, the Ukrainian leader claimed, is “studying the plan and we are going to hear from them… But there will be no capitulation from the side of Ukraine.” 

While Zelensky has ruled out “bargaining” over territory, he signaled last week that Kiev could be ready for a ceasefire with Moscow if Ukraine is allowed in its current form to join NATO. He added, however, that this deal has never been on the table.

Russia has signaled that it is ready for talks over Ukraine, but insists that any settlement must take into account the territorial realities on the ground. Moscow has also ruled out the option of freezing the conflict, stressing that all of the goals of its military operation – including Ukrainian neutrality, denazification, and demilitarization – must be achieved.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

NATO expected to sidestep Ukraine's call for quick invite

NATO is highly unlikely to heed Ukraine's call for a membership invitation at a meeting on Tuesday, according to diplomats, dashing Kyiv's hopes of a political boost as it struggles on the battlefield and awaits Donald Trump's return to the White House.

In a letter to his NATO counterparts ahead of the meeting, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said an invitation would remove one of Russia's main arguments for waging its war - namely, preventing Ukraine from joining the alliance.

But there is no sign of the required consensus among NATO's 32 members for such a decision at the foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels, said diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"It will take weeks and months to get consensus," a senior NATO diplomat said on Monday. "I don't see that happening tomorrow, I would be very surprised."

A senior U.S. official said the meeting would focus on surging support for Ukraine so it was in the strongest possible position next year, "going into possible negotiations".

"The best way to do that is to surge money, munitions and mobilisation," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday announced a new weapons package for Ukraine worth $725 million.

MUTUAL DEFENCE

Ukraine sees NATO membership as the best guarantee of its future security. Under NATO's Article 5 mutual defence pact, members agree to treat an attack on one as an attack on all and come to each other's aid.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy suggested on Friday in a Sky News interview that putting territory currently controlled by his government "under the NATO umbrella" would stop the "hot phase" of the war.

His comments came as Ukraine faces a tough winter on the battlefield, with Moscow's troops advancing in the east and Russian airstrikes targeting the country's hobbled energy grid.

While NATO has declared Ukraine will join its ranks and that the country's path to NATO is "irreversible", it has not issued an invitation or set out a timeline for membership.

Any such decision would depend above all on NATO's predominant power, the United States, so will soon be a matter for Trump, when he returns as U.S. president next month.

Biden administration officials are aware that any major move on Ukraine should ideally have the backing of the incoming government to ensure it has a lasting impact.

Ukraine was among the topics of a discussion in recent weeks between U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and his successor Mike Waltz but the level of alignment, if any, between the outgoing and incoming administrations remains unclear.

Trump has criticised the scale of U.S. aid for Kyiv and said he will end the war in a day. But he has not set out a detailed plan of how he will tackle the conflict.

Some NATO members, such as Hungary, have openly voiced opposition to Ukraine joining the alliance. But some others have also signalled they do not think the time is right, such as the current U.S. and German governments, according to diplomats.

RT/Reuters

“All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies” – Arbuthnot, 1667-1735, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 191. 

Note: This article started on the day of the Ondo State election. The result was not surprising. “You can’t beat something with nothing”. PDP is now nothing. Obong Victor Attah, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State and former Trustee of the PDP, is an internationally-recognised architect. He was the first African to be granted licence to practice as an architect in New York State.

Attah turned 86 on November 20 this year. Few Nigerians are aware that Attah designed the PDP flag. As a member of the G-34, a group led by late Alex Ekwueme, former Vice President, 1979-1983, and an artist like all architects, the flag symbolised an all-inclusive party. Its original constitution reflected the intention of the founding fathers to create a society in which glaring marginalisation of any group will not be allowed.

Ekwueme was on the way to becoming the first President elected under the PDP banner when powerful people intruded into the party; forced PDP to violate its own constitution and accept Olusegun Obasanjo as their candidate. The facts are detailed in PDP: CORRUPTION INCORPORATED. Self-righteous Obasanio was thus the first beneficiary of the corruption of a sacred set of political principles laid out by patriotic Nigerians. Obasanjo quickly moved to dismantle the PDP constitution and to substitute one which was an image of himself – a dictator at heart; despite his hypocritical pronouncements now.

He appointed and removed party Chairmen at will and approved candidates for elections at all three tiers of government. How he removed Audu Ogbeh would bring tears to anyone’s eyes. He sowed the seeds of the destruction of Nigeria’s democracy. Today, Attah is no longer active in politics. But, at 86, he must certainly feel disillusioned by what the PDP has become. The flag he designed is now a mockery of what the PDP has become in his life time. I was still writing this article when the result of the Ondo State election was announced.

It is predictable what will follow. There will be a massive desertion of the PDP to the APC. A few years ago, when the late Vincent Ogbulafor, then Chairman of the party, announced, as if he was God, that “PDP will rule for sixty years”, I told him that he will not live for 70 years, but, he might live long enough to see the party out of power. He did both. PDP had been living on borrowed time since (President) Jonathan lost control of the party and suffered defeat.

Now time has run out for the party. Even now, close to half of the leading members of the APC were once in PDP. More will now follow; leaving a party so weak as not to offer much opposition to the APC. Daniel Bwala, a former spokesman for Atiku, the presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2023 elections, who was blasting the APC as lustfully as he did since the elections in September this year, had been invited by President Tinubu to “come and eat”.

He quickly accepted the offer and is now eating in Aso Rock and singing the praises of his new paymaster. That raises the question: Which party will defeat APC in 2027? The answer curiously enough might be APC itself or a new party primarily northern based. In fact, we might be heading for regional parties such as we had before 1960. Two developments account for this position. One, the APC, never a political party, in just nine and a half years, has left the North reassessing its support for APC.

The eight years of Buhari blinded the people to assume that the party was working in their own interests. His departure had laid bare the truth. Under Buhari, APC was a party of the elite, by the elite and for the elite. Tinubu’s presidency has marginalised the northern elite; like never before. They want to redress the situation as soon as possible. Two, hitherto, northerners have lacked a rallying point; there was no common agenda. Tinubu’s Tax Reform Bills, considered anti-North by the vast majority, have provided the impetus for regional collective action.

It is doubtful if any northern politician will support the bills and survive politically. As one old friend from the North-West told me, “I canvassed for votes for Tinubu. He is holding a knife to our throats in the North. We will not allow him to get away with it.” It was, therefore, not surprising to me that all the northern governors are opposed to the Tax Bills. The real surprise was the unanimous opposition of southern governors as well.

Given the fact that the majority of governors belong to the APC, that has revealed the lack of principle within the party. It is doubtful if any Republican governor will oppose a Tax Bill proposed by (incoming US president) Trump because the party’s position on taxation has been consistent for over a hundred years. A situation in which the president’s own party governors and most National Assembly members might turn against him is worrisome – even if expected in a nation where politics without principles is the norm.

TAX REFORM: POSSIBLE ISOLATION OF LAGOS

“There are plans from Lagos to colonise the North” – Kwankwaso.

The presidential candidate of the NNPP is not alone in condemning the Tax Reform Bills; which most commentators, nationally, have not read; and very few understand. But, it now serves as a fulcrum for moving massive northern sentiments against the APC in the region. The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, a few days after Kwankwaso spoke, made an even more unmistakable declaration.

2027: “North will be best served by northerners” – Report, November 21, 2024.

Just in case anybody in Abuja misses the point, the ACF Chairman said: “Notwithstanding the parlous state of Arewa’s glaring economic conditions, the policies of the current Federal Government has continued to make matters much worse, with little indications of needed sensitivity to the precarious existential conditions of Arewa people… economic reforms while indeed desirable, should not impoverish the same people they are meant to serve…” Battle line drawn. Elected, as well as appointed, APC northern politicians are now confronted with an unpleasant dilemma: Continue supporting Tinubu and his policies or bail out. Either way, there will be serious consequences. I don’t envy Vice President Shetimma or Ganduje. The attempt by the Board of Trustees, BOT, of the ACF to distance the old association from Mamman Osuman’s outburst by suspending the Chairman was a blunder.

The blowback by several northern groups, especially youth groups, points to the possibility that the more cautious and conservative elders might not be aware of the depth of hostility to FG’s reforms. Nigeria is getting ripe for demagogues. Historically, demagoguery triumphs when there is a very angry, dissatisfied section of the populace who want simple answers to very complicated problems; and when the section can identify another distinct group to blame for its problems.

Kwankwaso, focusing on the section of the Tax Bills which recommends the principle of derivation to be adopted for Value Added Tax, VAT, revenue allocation, represents the northern view that with Lagos accounting for over 50 per cent of the VAT revenue collected, any change in that direction will adversely affect their states. Kwankwaso has deliberately ignored the fact that not only northern states will be affected. Even all the rest of the South-West states will lose.

But, Tinubu is from Lagos State; so the conspiracy to further impoverish the North must be a Lagos agenda. That is most unfortunate; because it has shifted the discussion from addressing the merits of the tax proposal to North versus Lagos. More unfortunate is the fact that the northern leaders conveniently forget that the Nigerian economy was already ruined by the time Buhari finished his eight years in office. More importantly, as the Emir of Kano, Lamido, has warned repeatedly, the North was ruining itself – not Lagos.

Virtually all those in APC, NNPP and LP in the North were in PDP before; when the seeds of destruction of the economy were sown. Not to be left behind, the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, led by Ango Abdullahi, sent a chilling message. Read some of it; and it is clear why political lines have disappeared in the North: “The Tax Reform Bills are conceived in bad faith, poorly packaged and is a palpable threat to our unity and national cohesion.

The brazen way and suspicious manner in which the Tax Bills were imposed on the nation confirmed the sinister intentions of those promoting this outrageous Bill. The days are fast gone when such conspiratorial connivance against the vital and strategic interest of the region, either by those within or outside of the region, would be condoned or even tolerated”.

Non-partisan political war could not have been more brutally declared. The attackers have the advantage. Serious economic hardship, especially coming so suddenly and brutally, invariably gives rise to the search for scapegoats – people on whom to place the blame. Despite Benjamin Franklin’s, 1706-1790, position that, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”, few people except government officials want to hear the word TAX. But, where there are political parties in the real sense of the word, the Tax Bills should have been discussed with party leaders of the ruling party; and everybody should now be out fighting for its passage. The party no longer counts in this struggle.

LAST LINE: Tinubu and his inner circle of advisers missed a vital step in advancing the Tax Bills. Now, the Bills are virtually dead on arrival.

Vanguard

Tom Huddleston Jr.

To become successful, you might have to learn to take yourself less seriously and be willing to keep doing the work, even when times get tough.

That’s according to Jake Loosararian, the co-founder and CEO of Gecko Robotics, a tech startup that makes wall-climbing robots for jobs too dangerous for humans, like scanning the inside of a power plant boiler or nuclear missile silo for critical structural issues.

After starting as a college engineering project, Gecko launched as a business in 2013. It ranked 42nd on the 2024 CNBC Disruptor 50 List and was most recently valued at $633 million.

Loosararian, 33, says Gecko never would’ve made it this far if he weren’t willing to “go into the unknown and the dirty and unexplored.” He means it literally: Loosararian spent parts of the last decade testing robots in dark, dangerous environments, soldering circuit boards in hot, grimy power plant boiler rooms.

Even launching the business in the first place was a risk — many of his closest friends and advisors thought it was a longshot, he says.

Ultimately, Loosararian says getting his hands dirty helped set him and Gecko apart from the many potential startups and prospective “innovators” who haven’t prospered. “So much of Gecko’s success and progress has been just through embracing that value of grit and gritting your teeth,” he says.

Grit, or the ability to persist in striving toward a goal over the long term, and in the face of any number of obstacles, is a trait that psychologists often associate with success. It can be even more important than skill or intelligence, according to University of Pennsylvania psychology professor Angela Duckworth.

“Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality,” Duckworth said in a 2013 TED Talk.

A company built on grit

Loosararian spent three years bootstrapping Gecko Robotics after graduating from college with a degree in electrical engineering. He had no money to pay himself, so he slept on friends’ floors and at the power plants where he tested early iterations of Gecko’s robots.

At times, Loosararian considered giving up. He remembers thinking to himself: “I don’t belong in this place. ... I’m a talented engineer with a hard hat on, steel-toe boots and covered in coal soot. I shouldn’t be here.”

Instead, he decided to embrace those challenges, leaning hard on his initial belief that he’d found an untapped, potentially lucrative market — “a secret hiding in plain sight,” he says.

Plenty of other successful businesspeople agree with Loosararian on the importance of endurance. “The most successful people have a lot of skill, but they also have grit,” billionaire and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told CNBC Make It in 2022. “In other words, they’re willing to put up with the setbacks and the inevitable challenges that people deal with.” 

Unwelcoming environments, like the ones where Gecko’s robots typically operate, are “actually where we’re needed the most as innovators and designers and technologists,” adds Loosararian.

Gecko’s challenging origins helped shape its company culture for the better, he says: Determination and resilience now “permeate” throughout Gecko’s 300-plus employees.

“Everyone has to drive robots and run the software, and has to understand how the built world works. And, man, that’s exciting,” Loosararian says. “You want to get a group of people that are all convicted in that value.”

CNBC

Holcim, a Swiss building materials company, has agreed to sell its Nigerian business to Huaxin Cement Ltd., a Chinese firm.

The deal, valued at $1 billion, would lead to the sale of Holcim’s 83 percent stake in Lafarge Africa, according to a statement on Sunday.

Lafarge Africa Plc is a member of the Holcim Group — a maker of roofing and other housing products, such as cement, aggregates for construction and ready-mix concrete. 

The company said the agreement has been signed, noting that the transaction is expected to close next year.

“Holcim has signed an agreement with Huaxin Cement Ltd to sell its entire 83.81% shareholding in Lafarge Africa Plc, at an equity value of $1 billion on a 100% basis,” the statement reads.

“The transaction is expected to close in 2025, subject to customary and regulatory approvals.”

Holcim, however, did not give reasons for its exit.

On May 24, Kimberly-Clark, makers of Huggies, said it plans to stop localmanufacturing and sales in Nigeria after 14 years of operation.

According to the firm, the decision was made owing to its recently refocused corporate priorities globally as well as economic trends in the country.

Pick n Pay, a South African grocery retailer, in October, also announced plans to exit Nigeria by selling its 51 percent stake in a joint venture.

Sean Summers, chief executive officer (CEO) of Pick n Pay, said the move was part of plans to restructure outside of its home market.

In 2023, three pharmaceutical companies exited Nigeria.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Consumer Nigeria Plc ceased operations and transferred its business activities to a third-party organisation.

Sanofi-Aventis Nigeria Limited, a French pharmaceutical company, also halted its direct operations in the country in November 2023.

One month later, Procter & Gamble (P&G), an American multinational consumer goods company, disclosed plans to transition from local production to solely importing its products.

The Cable

President Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, after the first son was convicted in two separate federal cases earlier this year.

The announcement was made by the White House on Sunday night. The pardon applies to offenses against the U.S. that Hunter Biden "has committed or may have committed" from Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 1, 2024.

"Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter," Biden wrote in a statement. "From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted."

The president went on to claim that his son was "treated differently" by prosecutors.

"Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form," Biden added. "Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently."

Biden also referenced his son's battle with addiction and blamed "raw politics" for the unraveling of Hunter's plea deal.

"There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution," the 82-year-old father wrote. "In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough."

"I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision," Biden's statement concluded.

A court document obtained by Fox News showed that Hunter signed his name on a legal acknowledgment of the pardon.

"On December 1, 2024, I received a formally accepted the President's grant of a pardon," the document stated. "I declare (or certify, verify, or state) under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct."

In a statement on Sunday night, Hunter said that he would "never take the clemency" his father gave him for granted, and that he plans to devote his life to helping those with addiction.

"I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction – mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport," the first son wrote. 

"In the throes of addiction, I squandered many opportunities and advantages. In recovery we can be given the opportunity to make amends where possible and rebuild our lives if we never take for granted the mercy that we have been afforded."

Hunter Biden, 54, has had a busy year in court, kicking off his first trial in Delaware in June, when he faced three felony firearm offenses, before he pleaded guilty in a separate felony tax case in September. 

President Biden pardoning his son is a departure from his previous remarks to the media over the summer, declaring he would not pardon the first son.

"Yes," President Biden told ABC News when asked if he would rule out pardoning Hunter ahead of his guilty verdict in the gun case. 

Days later, following a jury of Hunter’s peers finding him guilty of three felony firearm offenses, the president again said he would not pardon his son. 

"I am not going to do anything," Biden said after Hunter was convicted. "I will abide by the jury’s decision."

In the gun case, Hunter was found guilty of making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

Prosecutors specifically worked to prove that Biden lied on a federal firearm form, known as ATF Form 4473, in October 2018, when he ticked a box labeled "No" when asked if he is an unlawful user of substances or addicted to controlled substances. 

Hunter has a well-documented history of drug abuse, which was most notably documented in his 2021 memoir, "Beautiful Things," which walked readers through his previous need to smoke crack cocaine every 20 minutes, how his addiction was so prolific that he referred to himself as a "crack daddy" to drug dealers, and anecdotes revolving around drug deals, such as a Washington, D.C., crack dealer Biden nicknamed "Bicycles."

Hunter’s attorneys did not dispute the first son’s long history with substance abuse amid the trial, which also included an addiction to alcohol. The defense instead argued that on the day Biden bought the Cobra Colt .38, he did not consider himself an active drug addict, citing the first son's stint in rehab ahead of the October 2018 purchase.

Prosecutors, however, argued Biden was addicted to crack cocaine before, during and after he bought the handgun. Just one day after the gun purchase, prosecutors showed the court that Biden texted Hallie Biden, his sister-in-law-turned-girlfriend, to say he was "waiting for a dealer named Mookie." A day after that text, he texted that he was "sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th Street and Rodney" in Wilmington. 

A jury deliberated for roughly three hours across two days before they found Hunter guilty on each charge. 

Hunter was scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 13, which was delayed until December before his dad intervened. 

After Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July amid mounting concerns over his mental acuity and age, Hunter faced another trial regarding three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses regarding the failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. 

As jury selection was about to kick off in Los Angeles federal court, Hunter entered a surprise guilty plea. 

"I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment," Hunter said in an emailed statement at the time. "For all I have put them through over the years, I can spare them this, and so I have decided to plead guilty."

The charges carried up to 17 years behind bars, but the first son would likely have faced a much shorter sentence under federal sentencing guidelines. His sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 16. 

Ahead of the president’s decision to pardon his son, President-elect Donald Trump said on the campaign trail that he would consider pardoning Hunterif victorious on Nov. 5. 

"I wouldn't take it off the books," Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt in October. "See, unlike Joe Biden, despite what they've done to me, where they've gone after me so viciously. . . . And Hunter's a bad boy."

"There's no question about it. He's been a bad boy," Trump continued. "But I happen to think it's very bad for our country."

Fox News

Egypt hosts Hamas in new Gaza ceasefire push, looting halts aid

Hamas leaders held talks with Egyptian security officials on Sunday in a fresh push for a ceasefire in the Gaza war, two Hamas sources said, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to hold security talks on the matter, two Israeli officials said.

The Hamas visit to Cairo was the first since the United States announced on Wednesday it would revive efforts in collaboration with Qatar, Egypt and Turkey to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza, that would include a hostage deal.

White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said he thought the chances of a ceasefire and hostage deal in the Palestinian territory were now more likely.

"(Hamas) are isolated. Hezbollah is no longer fighting with them, and their backers in Iran and elsewhere are preoccupied with other conflicts," he told CNN on Sunday.

"So I think we may have a chance to make progress, but I'm not going to predict exactly when it will happen ... we've come so close so many times and not gotten across the finish line."

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

Through several rounds of negotiations over the past year, Hamas has insisted that any deal should conclude with Israel ending the war, while Israel says the war will end when Hamas no longer rules Gaza or poses a threat to Israelis.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Sunday that there was some indication of progress toward a hostage deal but that Israel's conditions for ending the war have not changed.

"We will know in the coming days. From our perspective, the government of Israel, there is a desire to advance in this direction," he said at a Israel Hayom newspaper conference.

Fighting raged on meanwhile in the enclave and the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said it had to halt aid deliveries through one crossing a day after armed gangs inside Gaza seized food from a truck convoy.

"This difficult decision comes at a time hunger is rapidly deepening," UNRWA's Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X.

The halting of aid deliveries through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing came almost two weeks after a large shipment was hijackedon the same route.

UNRWA's Lazzarini said it was Israel's responsibility "as occupying power" to protect aid workers and supplies, and that the humanitarian operation had become "unnecessarily impossible" due to what he said were Israeli restrictions.

COGAT, the Israeli military department responsible for aid transfers, denies it is hindering humanitarian relief into Gaza, saying there is no limit on supplies for civilians and blaming delays on the United Nations, which it says is inefficient.

FIGHTING

The conflict started when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and abducting more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,400 people and displaced nearly all of the enclave's population, Gaza officials say. Vast swathes of the enclave lie in ruins.

On Sunday, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 20 people, medics said, as Israeli forces kept up bombardments across the enclave and blew up houses on its northern edge.

In the central Gaza camp of Nuseirat, an Israeli airstrike killed six people in a house, and another attack killed three in a home in Gaza City, medics said.

Two children were killed when a missile hit a tent encampment in Khan Younis in the south, while four other people were killed in an airstrike in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, medics told Reuters.

Residents said the military blew up clusters of houses in the northern Gaza areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, where Israeli forces have operated since October.

Palestinians say Israel's operations on the northern edge of the enclave are part of a plan to clear people out through forced evacuations and bombardments to create a buffer zone. The Israeli military denies this and says it is fighting Hamas.

The military says it has killed hundreds of Hamas militants in that part of Gaza as it fights to stop the faction regrouping. It has also lost around 30 soldiers there in combat over the past two months, a relatively high death toll.

Hamas does not provide details on its own fatalities.

Two Palestinian detainees from Gaza have died in Israeli custody, prisoner advocacy groups said on Sunday.

There was no immediate comment by Israeli authorities.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian military desertions skyrocketing – FT

More than twice as many Ukrainian soldiers have been charged with desertion this year than in 2022 and 2023 combined, the Financial Times has reported. The spike in desertions has hampered Kiev’s ability to replenish its thinned-out ranks.

Ukrainian prosecutors opened 60,000 cases against deserters between January and October of this year, the British newspaper reported on Saturday, noting that those convicted face prison terms of up to 12 years.

For some of these men, desertion is seen as the only way of getting off the front lines to rest. Ukrainian lawmakers dropped a provision from a bill earlier this year that would have allowed the country’s longest-serving conscripts to be demobilized in the coming months, and service members told the Financial Times that the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) lacks the manpower to give troops shorter four-week rotations off the front lines for rest and retraining.

”They’re just killing them, instead of letting them rehabilitate and rest,” one officer told the newspaper.

Those killed are replaced by ill-trained and unfit draftees. In an earlier article, Ukrainian commanders told the Financial Times that on some busy sectors of the front, 50 to 70% of these new conscripts are killed or wounded within days of starting their first rotation. Those who survive often go AWOL as soon as they can, the newspaper reported.

Some choose to desert while at training camps in NATO countries. An anonymous Polish security source told the Financial Times that around 12 Ukrainian men abscond from training centers in Poland every month.

Earlier this week, a Ukrainian MP told the Associated Press that as many as 200,000 soldiers may have deserted since the conflict with Russia escalated in 2022.

There are around 350,000 active-duty soldiers in the UAF, although heavy losses – more than half a million since February 2022, according to the Russian Defense Ministry – have seen the country’s longest-serving soldiers replaced first by almost a dozen NATO-trained divisions, and then, after these divisions were chewed up during last year’s disastrous counteroffensive, by unwilling conscripts.

Press-ganged off the streets and dragged out of nightclubs to serve, these draftees include the blind, the deaf, and the mentally handicapped, according to recent media reports and testimony from Ukrainian lawmakers.

”Men who are the right age for the military draft are scared to walk freely in the street,” one draft-dodger told The Telegraph earlier this week. A recruiter concurred, telling the newspaper that approaching a potential conscript is often “like dealing with a cornered rat.”

The UAF is seeking to recruit around 160,000 new soldiers in the coming months. To reach this target, the US has begun pushing the Ukrainian government to lower the minimum draft age to 18, down from 25, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian drone attack in Russia's Bryansk region killed child, governor says

One child died in Russia's western Bryansk region following a massive Ukrainian drone attack, the local governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Sunday in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

Bogomaz said the attacks completely destroyed one house in the Starodubsky municipal district.

According to a Telegram channel called Mash, an 11-year-old boy died after a drone hit a five-story residential apartment in the region.

The Russian defence ministry said its air defences destroyed 29 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 20 in the Bryansk region, seven in Kaluga region, and one each in Smolensk and Kursk regions.

The strikes come after Russia launched a record number of drones targeting Ukraine on Tuesday, cutting power to much of the western region of Ternopil and damaging residential buildings in the Kyiv region.

RT/Reuters

On 20 October, I was gloomy. It was four years since  the #EndSARS protests by Nigerian Youths against police brutality and the bloody reprisals that followed in its wake. I scrolled my phone with intention of exiting the #EndSARS sorrows. Instead, I scrolled unto premium tears.

On Premium Times, I stumbled on an articleheadlined, “Theresa Chikeka: The retired judge who is chief judge of Imo State? By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu”. I take anything written by Odinkalu seriously because he bears a torch in the dark times we find ourselves in this country. By his flint we hope to find guidance to the paths that could make life liveable for those coming after us. The opening phrases of the article read as follows:

“The judicial career of Francis Chukwuma Abosi was supposed to last only seven years. In the event, he did 12 and may well have reached 20 years if events had not intervened. In his 12th year as a judge in April 2020, while serving as the Acting President of the Customary Court of Appeal of Imo State in South-East Nigeria, the National Judicial Council (NJC) mercifully ended it all.”

The story was not about Francis Abosi though. It was about Theresa Eberechukwu Chikeka who was appointed a judge of the High Court of Imo State on the same day as Abosi in 2008. Theresa Chikeka schooled, did Youth Service, and worked on the basis that she was born on 27 October 1956 and should have retired at 65 in October 2021. Instead, she changed her year of birth from 1956 to 1958, thereby making her eligible to retire in 2023 instead of 2021. On 28 June 2022, Imo State House of Assembly confirmed her as Chief Judge, more than eight months after she should have retired.

On 18 November, the National Judicial Council (NJC) recommended the sack of Chikeka for age falsification. Additionally, “the council found that Grand Khadi Mahdi of Yobe State had three different dates of birth – December 10, January 28, and July, all in 1959, while his actual date of birth is 1952. The council held that Babagana, the Grand Kadi of Yobe, committed an act of misconduct in violation of Rule 02908 (i) and (ii) of the Public Service Rules, 2021 and ought to have retired from service 12 years ago.”

I am scandalised to learn that falsification of age by judicial officers is this rampant. How many more retired judges remain in service of the judiciary? The judicial officer’s calling is to do justice and, in some instances, convict people who cheat the system, falsify documents, or depose falsehoods on oath. What is the moral justification for persons like Abosi, Babagana, or Chikeka to purport to dispense justice on others?

I thank Odinkalu for amplifying the situation, keeping it in the front burner and insisting that the right thing is done. It remains to be seen if the NJC’s recommendation directing compulsory retirement and refund of salaries by the number of months that Babaganda and Chikeka respectively overstayed their judicial tenure will be implemented.

However, retirement and refund of salaries alone are, in my opinion, not proportionate punishment for the misconduct established. I think that there should be additional consequences for the misconduct by Abosi, Babagana and Chikeka. They have each done considerable damage to the standing of the judiciary and to the careers of other persons who could have been President of Customary Court of Appeal, Grand Khadi, or Chief Judge who would have filled the vacancies had they left the judicial service when they were due. Their conduct also implicates several heads of crime, including fraudulent misrepresentation, forgery, and perjury.

The Difficult Question

The more difficult question is: what is the fate of judgments or proceedings delivered or conducted by these judicial officers after the time that they ought to have retired?

The judiciary is not like the executive where acts done by a person who is not the governor or duly appointed executive member could still be saved by several theories, such as the doctrine of necessity. Nor is the judiciary like the legislature where the participation of persons not qualified to do so would not necessarily invalidate laws made. Of course, participating in parliamentary proceedings when unqualified is unconstitutional under section 57 of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999.

However, that did not deter people like Salisu Buhari from forging their age and qualifications to claim eligibility to become elected to the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 3 June 1999 to 23 July 1999. Laws, resolutions or proceedings made while he was speaker did not become void. Salisu Buhari would later confess, resign, apologise, and be convicted of his crimes. President Olusegun Obasanjo extended a pardon to him after the courts sentenced him to two years in prison for those crimes.

Numerous lawmakers had been in the national or state assemblies making laws while not eligible to be in those places. The constitution in those instances provides that the ineligibility of a lawmaker does not make the law made invalid. No one has bothered to ask if without those ineligibles, the legislature would have been quorate to begin with.

The enquiry as to whether the acts of Chikeka, Mahdi Babagana, or Abosi would remain valid is important because of its implications for the validity of their decisions after they should have retired. The case of former Abia State governor, Orji Uzor Kalu, is relevant here.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) prosecuted Orji Kalu for stealing the equivalent of about US$700m from the state’s coffers. The trial court convicted and sentenced him to about 12 years in jail. Before the conclusion of the proceedings, the trial judge (Muhammed Idris) was nominated a justice of the Court of Appeal. Orji Kalu applied for Idris to continue and complete the trial. Section 396(7) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) allowed a judge of the High Court elevated to the Court of Appeal to continue to sit as a High Court judge for the purpose of concluding partly heard criminal matters which s/he was handling before the elevation.

Idris granted Orji Kalu’s application and concluded the trial despite his nomination to the Court of Appeal. On appeal, the Supreme Court held that Idris was no longer a judge of the Federal High Court on the day he convicted and sentenced Orji Kalu. It therefore set aside the proceedings. On 2 June 2020, Abdullahi Liman ordered the release of Orji Kalu from custody, claiming that the decision of the seven-person panel of the Supreme Court meant that his conviction was wrongful and there was no basis for him to remain in custody. Inyang Ekwo on 21 September 2021 restrained EFCC from re-arraigning Orji Kalu, holding that to do so would breach the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy.

The principle in this decision is clear. So, what happens to the decisions rendered by Chikeka, Babagana, Abosi or any other unqualified judge rendered after they were supposed to have retired? What about accused persons convicted or acquitted by Chikeka et al? Will the Orji Kalu precedent be democratised and who will bear the cost of wasted time and resources of the State and litigants? It is not just enough for Abosi, Babagana, Chikeka and others to disgorge salaries unlawfully earned. They deserve their day(s) in court.

** Johnson Agwu, a lawyer, writes from Lagos.