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Saturday 4 June 2016

ZWANE RAISES CONCERN OVER MINERS' WELL-BEING, LAUDS NUM


The minister was speaking at a NUM central committee meeting in Centurion yesterday.
New mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane. Picture: GCIS.

JOHANNESBURG - Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane says it’s unacceptable that the mining sector still reports a high number of occupational diseases contracted by employees.
Zwane says the silicosis class action, recently heard by the High Court in Johannesburg, highlights the need for effective control measures to deal with health issues.
The minister was speaking at a National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) central committee meeting in Centurion yesterday, where he has lauded the union for its role in protecting the health and safety of workers.
Zwane says there are still too many occupational diseases affecting mineworkers.
“Most specifically TB, silicosis and noise-induced hearing loss.”
He says the health of workers is important for the competitiveness of South Africa’s mining sector.
“This is crucial if we are to realise our objective of mining sector that is suitable and globally competitive.”
Zwane says he is also concerned about the health and safety of women working in the mining sector.

US WARNS ISLAMIST MILITANTS PLANNING ATTACKS IN SOUTH AFRICA


South African police declined to comment and said they were studying the US embassy statement.
The South African flag flies near Qunu, 26 June 2013. Picture: AFP.

JOHANNESBURG - The United States warned its citizens on Saturday of possible attacks by Islamist militants on US facilities or shopping malls in South Africa during the upcoming month of Ramadan, but the South African government said the country was safe.
It was the second such warning in under a year from the embassy, which issued a similar alert in September in a country that has a significant expatriate and tourist population but has seldom been associated with Islamist militancy.
The US embassy said up-market shopping areas and malls in the commercial hub of Johannesburg and Cape Town, widely regarded as South Africa's tourism capital, were the main target areas in the suspected planned attacks.
"This information comes against the backdrop of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's public call for its adherents to carry out terrorist attacks globally during the upcoming month of Ramadan," it said in a statement posted on its website.
Last month, a new message purporting to come from the spokesman of Islamic State called on followers to launch attacks on the West during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins in early June.
South Africa's foreign affairs department said the country's security agencies were capable of ensuring the safety of its residents, noting that no incident or attack had taken place after the previous warning by the US embassy last year.
"The state security agency and other security agencies in this country are very much capable of keeping South Africa safe and everybody in this country, including Americans," foreign affair's ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela said.
"The last time they did this, towards the end of last year, nothing came out of that advisory," he added.
South African police were not available to comment.
Following a similar warning in 2009, the US closed its embassy and consulates in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town for several days.
On Saturday, the embassy said it would remain open.
"This will not affect operations at the US embassy Pretoria or our Consulates in Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban," US embassy spokeswoman Cynthia Harvey said.
"We are cooperating with local authorities, as we do in any investigation into terrorist threats around the world."

Don't attack any soldier or oil worker- Niger Delta Avengers appeal to other militant groups

The Niger Delta Avengers released a statement on their website this afternoon appealing to other militant groups fighting for the region, not to attack or harass oil workers or any soldier. In the statement which was signed by their spokesperson, Brig.Gen Mudoch Agbinibo, the group said militants should be careful not to offend God as they try to liberate the people of the region.


"Good Afternoon Niger Deltans. The liberation of the Niger delta people has taken a new swing with the daily emergence of new groups all over the region. The avengers are calling on all groups in the region to be strong and resolute as it is obvious that God is on our side. The groups are much now both real and unreal but if you really fighting for the liberation of the Niger delta people.
The high command of the avengers is calling on you not to attack any soldier and those claiming to have anti aircraft missiles should deist from targeting any aircraft. Let us be careful not offend God in the process of trying to liberate our people from the shackles of the Nigerian government because we need God more than anything right now. We also need the international communities as well. Hence, we must desist from any life threatening actions that will derail our genuine struggle for our people. All groups are hereby discouraged from indulging in harassing oil workers and soldiers. We urge you all to help any oil workers or soldiers you see in distress.
The military warplanes hovering round our towns and villages have not strike a soul or destroy any property, so those groups with anti aircraft missiles should dry their gunpowder. When it is time to engage the military in combat the whole world will know they started the war not the Avengers. The Niger delta avengers high command will pass the message round that its time to engage on gun battle when the time comes. So far, we have not engaged the Nigeria military in combat; despite the heavy presence of military on the pipelines. we still find way to carry out our actions without attacking soldiers.
The avengers will deal with any group that refuses and attack military. The high command is calling on all groups in Rivers, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom to not indulge in any act of kidnapping and attacking of soldiers. The war is on oil installations; “Operation On Flow of Oil” God is our strength; he is going to see the people of Niger delta through. God bless the Niger delta republic.
Brig.Gen Mudoch Agbinibo Spokesperson

Muhammad Ali: World pays tribute to boxing legend



Boxing legend Muhammad Ali with his hands aloft, file pic from 18 November 1963Image copyrightPA
Image captionAli was as much a campaigner for black equality as he was a champion in the ring, where he won 56 of his 61 fights

"Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it,"
 said US President Barack Obama.Tributes have poured in from across the world for boxing legend Muhammad Ali, who has died at the age of 74.
The three-time world heavyweight champion - one of the world's greatest sporting figures - died on Friday at a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona.
He had been suffering from a respiratory illness, a condition that was complicated by Parkinson's disease.
"I am happy my father no longer struggles. He is in a better place. God is the greatest," his daughter Maryum said on Saturday.
Ali's funeral will take place in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.
Muhammad Ali datapic
Ali was as much a campaigner for black equality as he was a champion in the ring, where he won 56 of his 61 fights.
Asked how he would like to be remembered, he once said: "As a man who never sold out his people. But if that's too much, then just a good boxer.
"I won't even mind if you don't mention how pretty I was."
But he was once a polarising figure in the US. At a time of racial segregation in the 1960s he joined the separatist black sect, The Nation of Islam, which rejected the inclusive approach of civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King.

At the scene: Jessica Lussenhop, BBC News, Louisville, Kentucky

In this March 18, 2016 photo, the childhood home of Muhammad Ali is seen in Louisville, KentuckyImage copyrightAP
Image captionMuhammad Ali's childhood home opened as a museum last week
Many residents of Louisville, Kentucky, woke up on this hazy Saturday morning to the news: Muhammad Ali is dead.
The news of his death is on every local television station, and the front page of the local newspaper reads simply "The Greatest" over the iconic image of Ali standing victorious over Sonny Liston in 1965.
Flags at Louisville's city hall will fly at half mast today and the mayor will deliver a memorial service there.
Almost everyone has a personal story about Ali, whether it's a favourite fight, a glance through a car window, or a trip to his boyhood home, which opened as a museum only last week, the interior recreated as if Ali were still living there as a precocious 12-year-old boy in the 1950s.

George Foreman, who lost his world title to Ali in the famous "Rumble in the Jungle" fight in Kinshasa in 1974, called him one of the greatest human beings he had ever met.
"To put him as a boxer is an injustice," said Foreman.
Former President Bill Clinton - husband of Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary - said the boxer had been "courageous in the ring, inspiring to the young, compassionate to those in need, and strong and good-humoured in bearing the burden of his own health challenges".
American civil rights campaigner Jesse Jackson said Ali had been willing to sacrifice the crown and money for his principles when in 1967 he refused to serve in the Vietnam war.
That decision was widely criticised by the boxer's fellow Americans. He was stripped of his title and had to put his fighting career on hold for three years.

Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump, meanwhile, tweeted that Ali was "truly great champion and a wonderful guy. He will be missed by all!"Born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Ali shot to fame by winning light-heavyweight gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics.
Known as "The Greatest" - a nickname characteristically coined by the boxer himself - the American beat Sonny Liston in 1964 to win his first world title and became the first boxer to capture a world heavyweight title on three separate occasions.
Noted for his pre- and post-fight talk and bold fight predictions as much as his skills inside the ring, he retired in 1981 having won 56 of his 61 fights - 37 by knockout - and was later crowned "Sports Personality of the Century" by the BBC.

Heavyweight champ at 22

Ali turned professional immediately after the Rome Olympics and rose through the heavyweight ranks, delighting crowds with his showboating, shuffling feet and lightning reflexes.
British champion Henry Cooper came close to stopping Clay, as he was still known, when they met in a non-title bout in London in 1963 Cooper floored the American with a left hook, but Clay picked himself up off the canvas and won the fight in the next round when a severe cut around Cooper's left eye forced the Englishman to retire.
In February the following year, Clay stunned the boxing world by winning his first world heavyweight title at the age of 22.
He predicted he would beat Liston, who had never lost, but few believed he could do it.
Yet, after six stunning rounds, Liston quit on his stool, unable to cope with his brash, young opponent.
At the time of his first fight with Liston, Clay was already involved with the Nation of Islam, a religious movement whose stated goals were to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African Americans in the US.
But in contrast to the inclusive approach favoured by civil rights leaders like Dr Martin Luther King, the Nation of Islam called for separate black development and was treated by suspicion by the American public.
Ali eventually converted to Islam, ditching what he perceived was his "slave name" and becoming Cassius X and then Muhammad Ali.
After his conviction for refusing the draft was overturned in 1971, he returned to the ring and fought in three of the most iconic contests in boxing history, helping restore his reputation with the public.
He was handed his first professional defeat by Joe Frazier in the "Fight of the Century" in New York on 8 March 1971, only to regain his title with an eighth-round knockout of George Foreman in the "Rumble in the Jungle" in Kinshasa, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) on 30 October 1974Ali fought Frazier for a third and final time in the Philippines on 1 October 1975, coming out on top in the "Thrilla in Manila" when Frazier failed to emerge for the 15th and final round.
Six defences of his title followed before Ali lost on points to Leon Spinks in February 1978, although he regained the world title by the end of the year, avenging his defeat at the hands of the 1976 Olympic light-heavyweight champion.
Ali's career ended with one-sided defeats by Larry Holmes in 1980 and Trevor Berbick in 1981, many thinking he should have retired long before.
He fought a total of 61 times as a professional, losing five times and winning 37 bouts by knockout.
Soon after retiring, rumours began to circulate about the state of Ali's health. His speech had become slurred, he shuffled and he was often drowsy.
Parkinson's Syndrome was eventually diagnosed but Ali continued to make public appearances, receiving warm welcomes wherever he travelled.
He lit the Olympic cauldron at the 1996 Games in Atlanta and carried the Olympic flag at the opening ceremony for the 2012 Games in London

Nigerian Government Releases Interim Report On Financial, Assets Recoveries From Looters

The Nigerian government has released statement declaring the total amount of cash recovered from looters of the federal treasury since the inception of President Muhammadu Buhari's tenure. A statement issued by the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, however, did not reveal the names of persons from whom the recoveries were made.
 Below is the full statement of te minister showing a breakdown of the recoveries of assets made so far:
The Federal Government made cash recoveries totaling N78, 325,354,631.82 (Seventy-eight billion, three hundred and twenty-five million, three hundred and fifty-four thousand, six hundred and thirty-one Naira and eighty-two kobo); $185,119,584.61 (One hundred and eighty-five million, one hundred and nineteen thousand, five hundred and eighty-four US dollars, sixty one cents); 3,508,355.46 Pounds Sterling (Three million, five hundred and eight thousand, three hundred and fifty-five Pounds and 46 Pence) and 11, 250 Euros (Eleven thousand, two hundred and fifty Euros) from 29 May 2015 to 25 May 2016.
In a statement in Lagos on Saturday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, also disclosed that Recoveries Under Interim Forfeiture (cash and assets) during the period totaled N126,563,481,095.43 (One hundred and twenty six billion, five hundred and sixty-three million, four hundred and eighty-one thousand, and ninety-five Naira, forty-three Kobo; $9,090,243,920.15 (Nine billion, ninety million, two hundred and forty-three thousand, nine hundred and twenty Dollars, fifteen cents; 2,484,447.55 Pounds Sterling (Two million, four hundred and eighty four thousand, four hundred and forty seven Pounds, fifty five Pence) and 303,399.17 Euros (Three hundred and three thousand, three hundred and ninety-nine Euros, 17 cents ).

According to the statement, which is based on the interim report on the financial and assets recoveries made by the various government agencies from 29 May 2015 to 25 May 2016, the Funds Awaiting Return From Foreign Jurisdictions total $321,316,726.1 (Three hundred and twenty one million, three hundred and sixteen thousand, seven hundred and twenty six Dollars, one cent); 6,900,000 Pounds (Six million, nine hundred thousand Pounds) and 11,826.11 Euros (Eleven thousand, eight hundred and twenty six Euros, 11 cents).
It showed that Non-Cash Recoveries (Farmlands, Plots of Land, Uncompleted Buildings, Completed Buildings, Vehicles and Maritime Vessels) during the period total 239. 

Shocking! Community where old women marry young ladies



Eighty-three-year old Nwanyidinma looked disconsolate as she sat in front of her thatched, mud house. There was no one to keep her company apart from her little ‘bingo’ dog and a host of chicken strolling round her premises. Occasionally, she used the horsetail in her hands to chase the dog away from the chicken. In the animal world, it would not be out of place to conclude that the animals were playing hide and seek in this peaceful environment. That, however, is not for Nwanyidinma.
The weather was cool and breezy and so she was just out there watching the movement of the leafy orange trees and palm trees in her neighbourhood.

But Nwanyidinma’s three remaining children (all females) and those close to the octogenarian know too well her challenge. Her bigger headache borders on what happens to her late husband’s property if she passes on. Her husband had died several years ago. Her only son had also passed on. In fact, her son died in his early 20s; unmarried.Beyond this natural scene, Nwanyidinma has a heavy heart. Not that she has lost anybody in recent times, but she has a bigger burden occupying her inner recess as she watches the dog, the chicken and the trees.
As the tradition in her Mbaise community demands, women have no right to inheritance of property, especially landed property. And here lies the octogenarian’s headache. Her three daughters are living  happily with their husbands and children. So who takes over all her husband’s landed property? Who takes over the pear trees, palm trees and other natural inheritance belonging to her husband? Will her husband’s brothers/relations inherit all the wealth and property, things she and her husband laboured strenuously to acquire?
By the way, before her husband died, there was an estranged relationship between him and his brothers, an action that further severed their relationship. Will these ‘enemies’, as it were, now take over all the wealth?
For Nwanyidinma, this dilemma, more than any other thing, occupied her mind. However, from a neighbouring village, information has it that a young unmarried girl had been impregnated. The person who she claimed got her pregnant had denied paternity and her parents were on the verge of disowning her for ‘shaming’ them.
 So as the octogenarian relaxed in front of her house, she was thinking of how she would send a delegation to the young girl’s family to seek her hand in marriage. If the girl’s family agreed, she would bring her and her unborn child to her home. The overall game plan is perhaps that if she puts to bed and the child is a boy, he will naturally belong to the family.
Few weeks later, Nwanyidinma did just that. She went and married the pregnant young lady, whose unborn child, she believed, would automatically become her grandchild and a bona fide heir of her property.
Indeed, there are so many likes of Nwanyidinma in some Igbo communities, especially in Mbaise, who ‘marry’ other women in order to have male children in their homes.
These ‘female husbands’ as they are known, are practising a tradition that is long accepted in the communities and which has gone a long way to solve a need, a need to perpetuate a family name.
Charity Igbokwe, from Ahiazu Mbaise is another typical example of a ‘female husband’. The 68-year-old widow had an only son, Donald Igbokwe, who had died in an accident over 30 years ago. He was unmarried.
But Donald’s name has not gone into extinct. His aged mother made sure she married a woman for him ten years ago and the young lady has had four children –three boys and a girl- for the deceased.
Igbokwe, while speaking to our correspondent, said it was necessary she married a woman for her late child in order to keep his name alive.
“What I did was just the normal thing anybody in my place would do. My child died tragically. He was my only son. My husband had died many years ago. So I had to marry a woman for my late son. My son’s wife now has four children. The children of course, answer Donald’s name.”
Social but not sexual marriage
Granted, in Igbo land, marriage is basically between a man and woman. However, there are cases where marriage between a woman and another woman is permissible.
It is important to note at this point that in this case, it is not in any way, lesbian marriage even though it is same gender marriage. The marriage is traditionally and socially acceptable but it is not sexual. There is certainly no sexual attraction between the ‘female husband’ and the person being married for either late husband or son, as the case may be.
Explaining more on this issue, a community leader in Onicha, a community in Ezinihitte Mbaise, Nze Ebere Iwuagwu, told Saturday Punch, that the females in question do not really go to a lady’s family and seek her hand in marriage.
However, he said, the woman goes out, looks for the wife, makes the necessary enquiry about the person and then provides the bride price and other necessary stuff required for the marriage to hold.
Iwuagwu said the female husbands are always accompanied by male relatives who would be the ones to actually ask for the lady’s hand in marriage from her family.
“In our community, women don’t really ask for the hands of the women in marriage, traditionally. But everybody knows the new wife belongs to the female husbands, but during the course of marriage rites, the ‘female husband’ stays at the background.
“In a case where the woman’s husband is dead, then her late husband’s male relatives will accompany her and would even be the one to marry the wife in his name. A woman can’t just get up and go to a family and say she wants to marry another woman from that family, it is not done! However, after the marriage ceremony, when they get home, everybody knows that the new wife is the ‘property’ of the aged woman and she would live in her domain,” he said.
Iwuagwu  said this tradition which is almost as old as forever, has become the norm and both parties – the female husband and the wife- are not stigmatised in any way.”
 ‘Why we marry wives into our homes’
Most of the women who marry wives are usually elderly and have passed the age of child bearing. In most cases, the woman may have been childless or had just female children. The women just want heirs who would take over their property and wealth when they are gone.
Explaining why she had to marry a wife for her late husband, 70-year-old Adanma Ikem from Ezinihitte Mbaise, said she had had four children, two males, but her sons had died tragically even before they could get married.
“Two of my sons died when they were in their 20s. Their death was so painful. I cried my heart out. I cried not only because I lost my children, of course, it was a painful experience, but I cried because I just thought of how my husband’s name would just die like that. Who would perpetuate the name? Our lineage would just be forgotten. My husband had died earlier on. My daughters had married. So I was left with no other choice.
“I went to a neighbouring village and I was lucky, I found a girl who was pregnant and she was willing to be a part of my family. I and my relatives went and paid her bride price. She has been living with me for many years now and she has five children, three boys. The children are mine now and at least, our family name will not just die like that,” she said.
In other scenario, a woman who didn’t have a son could actually ‘marry’ a wife for her ‘fictitious’ son for the same reason as procreation.
Madam Angela Ugwuani, 75, is one of such women who didn’t want her family name to go into extinction.
Ugwuani who had five daughters, didn’t marry the young wife for her husband, rather, she got a wife for a son she never really had.
“I didn’t have a male child. I know that. But I still couldn’t allow my family name to die. Somebody told me about this girl who just had an unwanted pregnancy and I enquired about her. I and my husband’s relatives married her under our native law,” she said.
Ugwuani’s case is similar to that of 62-year-old Sabina Njoku, a retired primary school teacher.
In Njoku’s case, she is childless and she needed her home to be alive with children.
“I wasn’t blessed with a child in my marriage and back then, adopting a child wasn’t fashionable. In fact, in my village, it was more acceptable to go and marry a wife that would have children for you than to even adopt a baby. So, I had to (with my husband’s relatives of course) marry a wife into my husband’s home. She has been delivered of so many children,” she said.
Biological fathers just ‘sperm donors’
Interestingly, even after the woman (new wife) starts procreating and giving births to children, the kids would automatically bear her surname (expectedly, she would have changed her maiden name to that of the family that married her) regardless of who the biological father of the child/children may be.
Nobody actually remembers the biological fathers of these children. In fact, they could best be described as sperm donors; they certainly do not have any other responsibility on the woman or the child she eventually gives birth to.
Iwuagwu explained that there will never be any point where the man would come out and claim he is the father of any of the children the woman eventually gives birth to.
“It is never done!  The man doesn’t come into the picture at all. There is no way the man would come out and claim paternity of the children. Nobody will even listen to him. He doesn’t have any parental right to the children. The children conceived in this kind of arrangement would bear the late man’s name even if their biological father does exist.
“Even if the children become governors or presidents tomorrow, their biological father can never come out to claim them as his. There is nothing like paternity test. Don’t be surprised, the woman may not necessarily inform the man about her pregnancy. Even if the child ends up having a striking resemblance with the biological father, nobody would relate them openly in any way,” he said.
Saturday Punch findings revealed that most of the men who impregnate these women are usually married men who wouldn’t want to expose their escapades.
“The woman can even go as far as sleeping with men from neighbouring village. Smarter ones go far away to have relationships and consequent pregnancies. But then, in all, both parties know the reason for the relationship. The man will not come to claim the child and the woman will not go to him for any financial help towards raising the child,” said Uduma Ike, a village head in a community in Aboh Mbaise.
Ike also said that the ‘female husband’ takes care of the children and sees to their financial needs.
“It is the female husband who is now the head of the home that takes care of the wife and the children that she will have in that family. Nobody expects the biological fathers of the children to contribute to their welfare. Even if the fathers would help, they wouldn’t do so openly. If the child is sick, there is no way the woman will take the child to the man and ask for money for hospital bills even if he was the one that got her pregnant. She dared not even tell anybody in the village that it was this or that man that got her pregnant,” Ikem said.
‘We are married women in every sense’
Cynthia Obiajulu, (not real names) 26, got married five years ago, to a man she never met or heard of. Her supposed husband had died so many years ago and his first wife, Udoka, who didn’t have any male child, had married her into the family.
Obiajulu, who now has three kids, all boys, refused to tell our correspondent who the biological father of her kids is but insisted that she is ‘legally’ married.
“I don’t think it is proper to ask me who the father of my children is. It is private. But the truth of the matter is that I am a married woman and my husband is late. Whether my late husband is the father of my children, it is not anybody’s business. But my children are answering their father’s name and nobody would claim that he fathered them; that is absurd.”
Obiajulu, who said she has a fantastic relationship with her older co wife and the person who ‘married’ her, said she also has strong respect for her.
“She is my mother. My children call her ‘Mama’. They regard her as the mother and not grandmother. My kids even see me as a big sister and not their mother. I have a great relationship with mama. It was through her that I came to live here.
“Even though I am traditionally married into this home, I have my place. I don’t disrespect mama. We don’t have equal rights in this house. She is my benefactor and she would be the one that takes care of us,” she said.
Uchechi Eziudo, from Ahiara Mbaise is another example of a woman married to a ‘female husband’. Eziudo, in her early 30s, said she was raped at an early age of seventeen and she got pregnant thereafter.
“Nobody could touch me with a long spoon. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with me. Even my parents were so embarrassed of  me as if I wanted or enjoyed to be raped.
“So when this family from a neighbouring community came to marry me for an aged man who was more than 60 years older than me, I had to accept. It wasn’t as if I jumped at it but I had no choice.
“It was actually his wife who initiated the plans of bringing another wife to the family since she was childless and since the man was very old. She wanted somebody who would have kids so that the family name would not die.
“Our husband died just two years after I was married. But I have had four kids since then. Nobody worries me or asks me who got me pregnant each time. I am a married woman and nobody feels I am doing anything morally wrong,” she said.
No stigma attached
As much as some people may feel it is adultery/ fornication, but in these communities, it is not regarded as such! There is no way the offspring that come from this arrangement would be seen as bastards.
Mrs. Edith Azuka, a native of Aumuariam, Obowo, in a chat with Saturday Punch on the issue, said there is no Igbo man that would find such a union distasteful.
“I doubt if there is anybody that would condemn this act. It has been traditionally and socially accepted in these communities. There is nothing wrong with it. It doesn’t make the women less moral. It doesn’t mean they are prostitutes. The children conceived in this process are not bastards and nobody would dare to ask them ‘who is your father?’ Of course, we all know that question is the highest insult you can give to any Igbo man or woman.”
‘I am not a bastard, I know my father’
Because of its sensitive nature, getting children conceived in such arrangement to open up was not so easy as most of them threatened to deal with our correspondent for asking such question.
Ebenezer Azu, (not real name), a third year student of Imo State University, who decided to talk to our correspondent after being promised that his identity would be protected, said he knew about  his history but doesn’t have the powers to do anything about it.
“I am not stupid. When I became an adult, I learnt my father had died so many years ago, even before I was born. Curiosity made me to ask questions. I asked and persisted before my mother had to open up to tell me the whole story.
“She refused to tell me who my biological father is. But then, I will not call myself a bastard. I know my father. He is late. Even though I never met him, I still believe he was my father. I cannot allow myself to worry over things and circumstances that are beyond my powers. Since nobody has tried to insult me, there is no reason for me to feel bad about it,” he said.
Also, a lawyer, Ndidi Osigwe (not real names) said she found out much later in life about her history but still believes that she has one father and not even the person whose genes she carries.
“Our mother had five of us. It got to a stage when I was much older, I had to wonder why most of us don’t look like her or like the picture of the person they said was our father.  It aroused my curiosity and I had to ask my grandma who I am close to. She was the one that told me the circumstances surrounding our birth. I am not worried. All I know is that I have a father, I cannot say that I am a bastard, never!”
From a sociologist point of view
Giving more insight on same gender marriage, a sociologist, Mr. Monday Ahibogwu, said the issue is a prevalent one and has been in practice for a long time.
“It has been there and there are some reasons for this. If the man in the family is not mentally balanced and he is the only progenitor in that family, a woman in the family can decide to marry a wife on behalf of their brother who is deranged. The new wife would be excused to have male friends who would get her pregnant and then, her children will still bear the name of the man who is not mentally balanced. This is culturally acceptable.
“Also, in a family where all the children are females and they are all grown up and married, one of them can decide to marry a wife in their late father’s name. The sons the woman will have will be for her father. She has her own children but she marries a wife for her father in order to be children in her father’s house.
“Then again, there are also women who marry wives for their husbands because they couldn’t conceive. These are the reasons why some of these things happen.”
Anibogwu reiterated that children conceived in such arrangement are usually not stigmatised.
“You cannot stigmatise them; it is even forbidden to stigmatise them.  You may even be ostracised by the community if you try to stigmatise them. They are part and parcel of the community. The reason they are brought into this world was to fill a gap. If a child feels bad that he is conceived in such arrangement, then that is his personal feeling and not the feeling of the society.”
Anibogwu also added there is no way the biological father would try to claim the children.
“Remember, in Igbo land, if you have not paid the bride price of a woman and she has kids for you, no matter what, the children belong to her family and not yours. You are just a sperm donor. Unless the bride price has been paid, the children belong legally and culturally to her parents.
“If a widow has sexual relationship and she gets pregnant in the process, the children still remain those of the dead and have the same inheritance. The person who got her pregnant cannot come to claim them.”
While agreeing that the children may not have the same characters especially if the woman gets pregnant for different men, Anibogwu said usually, characters of children are determined by the way they are brought up.
“The children may not have the same character because of their DNA but don’t forget that most times, character is usually a product of upbringing and not necessarily DNA.

Little boy who was mutilated by his stepmum will fly to Abuja today for better medical attention- Zahra Buhari says


4 year old Musa, who was attacked by his step mum will be flying to Abuja today for medical attention. That's according to President's Buhari's daughter, Zahra Buhari.

Court jails man 108 years for assaults on children



A court in Turkey has sentenced a Turkish man to 108 years in jail for sexually assaulting at least eight Syrian children at a flagship refugee camp, reports said on Saturday.

The 29-year-old man, identified only as Erdal E., worked as a cleaner at the tented refugee camp in Nizip in the southern Gaziantep province near the Syrian border.
He was found guilty of sexually abusing eight children in the camp’s toilets in exchange for payments of between 1.5 and five Turkish lira ($0.50-$1.70/0.45-1.50 euros), the Dogan news agency said.

But the judges at the court in the southern city of Nizip rejected the arguments, sentencing him late Friday to 108 years in jail. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 289 years.His defence had asked for his acquittal, saying an earlier confession to police had been made under duress.
The camp, which is home to some 10,800 refugees, has been visited by international dignitaries and is adjacent to the Nizip container camp for Syrian refugees which was visited by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in April.
During the trial, the accused claimed he had been made a “scapegoat” to cover up the crimes of others and prevent a wider scandal.
“I know very well the names of many managers and camp workers guilty of abuse… but I will not say them so as not to hurt my own family,” the Hurriyet daily quoted him as saying.
AF

Millionaire's ex-model girlfriend jailed for murder.



Mayka Marica Kukucova in court, Malaga, SpainImage copyrightPA
Image captionKukucova told the court she had gone to her ex-boyfriend's home to collect her things when he returned unexpectedly from a trip with his new girlfriend
An ex-swimwear model has been jailed for 15 years for murdering her millionaire British boyfriend in Spain.
Mayka Kukucova, 26, was sentenced for shooting dead Bristol businessman Andrew Bush at his home near Marbella on the Costa del Sol in April 2014.
Kukucova did not formally plead. Mr Bush, 48, died after being shot in the shoulder and then twice in the head.
She was sentenced by the court in Malaga to an additional six months for breaking into his home.
Andrew BushImage copyrightSWNS
Image captionBusinessman Andrew Bush, 48, was shot at his mansion near Marbella on the Costa del Sol in April 2014
During the trial Kukucova said she had "never meant to hurt" Mr Bush and broke down in tears when photos of his body were shown in court.
Mr Bush was well known in his home city of Bristol for his jewellery business and was previously married to former BBC Bristol presenter Sam Mason, the mother of his daughter Ellie, 21.
He met Kukucova when she worked in his shop and the pair were together for two-and-a-half years.
The relationship broke down around six months before Mr Bush was killed.
Mr Bush had an interest in cars, and it was in his Hummer 4x4 that Kukucova made her getaway on the night he died.
Days later she handed herself into Slovakian authorities and was detained before being extradited to Spain.