Man, 41, remanded for fumbling woman's breast

A Badagry Magistrates’ Court, Lagos, on Friday, ordered the remand of a 41-year-old man, Ibrahim Lemo, for groping the breast of a woman.

The court heard that Lemo beat up his victim, Zainab Babalola, when she demanded he stopped the unlawful act

Chief Magistrate Fadahunsi Adefioye remanded Lemo after he pleaded guilty to a two count bordering on assault.

Adefioye ordered that the defendant should be remanded in Awhajigoh Correctional Centre, Badagry.

He adjourned the case until April 14 for facts and sentencing.

Earlier, the prosecutor, ASP. Clément Okuoimose, told the court that the defendant committed the offences on April 6 at 2.30 p.m. at Badagry Roundabout shopping complex, Badagry, Lagos.

Okuoimose said Lemo without lawful excuse pressed the breast of the complainant, Zainab Babalola.

He said the defendant also hit the complainant on her left eye and caused her harm after she asked him not to touch her again.

The prosecutor said the offences contravened Sections 134 and 170 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

(NAN)

TODAY IN HISTORY; 12 JANUARY 2006; Governor Rasidi Ladoja of Oyo state impeached

On this day in 2006, governor Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja was impeached on allegation of corruption. His impeachment was later reversed by the courts.

There has been this serious impasse between governor Ladoja and his political godfather, Lamidi Adedibu since late 2005. All efforts to resolved the issue proved abortive, as both parties remained adamant and each claiming to be right.

Adedibu not wanting to be beaten to the game was hell-bent on removing the governor by any means necessary. He did not go the Anambra way (kidnapping and forcing the governor to re-sign) but chose to use the Oyo State House of Assembly. The required two-third of the house approved the impeachment of governor Ladoja after receiving a report of a committee they had setup to investigate the governor.

The official reason for the governor’s impeachment is that he had embezzled the sum of N2 million belong to the state.

Security forces immediately moved in to arrest Rashidi Ladoja as soon as his impeachment was completed and flown to Abuja for interrogation by the EFCC. The deputy governor, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala was then sworn in as Governor of Oyo State. After the swearing-in, the new governor immediately moved to Molete (a suburb of Ibadan, to pay homage to his political god-father, Chief Adedibu.

TODAY IN HISTORY; 12 JANUARY 1932: Hattie Wyatt Caraway, 45, emerges first woman elected to U.S. Senate

On this day in 1932, Hattie Ophelia Wyatt Caraway, a Democrat from Arkansas, becomes the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Born on February 1, 1878 near Baskerville, Tennessee, Caraway, had been appointed to the Senate two months earlier to fill the vacancy left by her late husband, Thaddeus Horatio Caraway. With the support of Huey Long, a powerful senator from Louisiana, Caraway was elected to the seat. In 1938, she was reelected. After failing to win renomination in 1944, she was appointed to the Federal Employees Compensation Commission by President Franklin Roosevelt.

Although she was the first freely elected female senator, Caraway was preceded in the Senate by Rebecca Latimer Felton, who was appointed in 1922 to fill a vacancy but never ran for election. Jeannette Rankin, elected to the House of Representatives as a pacifist from Montana in 1917, was the first woman to ever sit in Congress.

TODAY IN HISTORY; 07 JANUARY 1789: U.S. goes to first presidential poll

The U.S Congress sets this day in 1789 as the date by which states are required to choose electors for the country's first-ever presidential election. About a month later, George Washington was elected President by the state elections on February 4th and sworn into office as the First American President on 30th April, 1789.

As it did in 1789, the United States still uses the Electoral College system, established by the U.S. Constitution, which today gives all American citizens over the age of 18 the right to vote for electors, who in turn vote for the president. The president and vice president are the only elected federal officials chosen by the Electoral College instead of by direct popular vote.

Today political parties usually nominate their slate of electors at their state conventions or by a vote of the party’s central state committee, with party loyalists often being picked for the job. Members of the U.S. Congress, though, can’t be electors. Each state is allowed to choose as many electors as it has senators and representatives in Congress. During a presidential election year, on Election Day (the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November), the electors from the party that gets the most popular votes are elected in a winner-take-all-system, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska, which allocate electors proportionally. In order to win the presidency, a candidate needs a majority of 270 electoral votes out of a possible 538.

On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December of a presidential election year, each state’s electors meet, usually in their state capitol, and simultaneously cast their ballots nationwide. This is largely ceremonial: Because electors nearly always vote with their party, presidential elections are essentially decided on Election Day. Although electors aren’t constitutionally mandated to vote for the winner of the popular vote in their state, it is demanded by tradition and required by law in 26 states and the District of Columbia (in some states, violating this rule is punishable by $1,000 fine). Historically, over 99 percent of all electors have cast their ballots in line with the voters. On January 6, as a formality, the electoral votes are counted before Congress and on January 20, the commander in chief is sworn into office.

Critics of the Electoral College argue that the winner-take-all system makes it possible for a candidate to be elected president even if he gets fewer popular votes than his opponent. This happened in the elections of 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016 between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Author

History.com Editors

TODAY IN HISTORY; 05 JANUARY 1998: Sonny Bono killed in skiing accident

On this day in 1998, in his usual blunt and self-deprecating manner, Sonny Bono transformed himself relatively late in his life, morphing from the shorter, homelier, masculine half of a 1960s husband-and-wife singing and acting sensation (alongside his glamorous second wife, Cher) into a respected California lawmaker and U.S. congressman. On January 5, 1998, Bono’s unusual journey was cut tragically short when he was killed in a skiing accident while on vacation with his family in South Lake Tahoe, California.

The 62-year-old Bono and his fourth wife, Mary, were visiting the Heavenly Ski Resort, located on the Nevada-California border some 55 miles south of Reno, Nevada, with their young son and daughter. The accident occurred when Bono left his family to ski alone on the afternoon of January 5. He was reported missing several hours later, and his body was found that evening. Police said Bono had skied into a wooded area and hit a tree; the cause of death was massive head injuries. Coincidentally, Bono’s death occurred less than a week after another high-profile accident killed Michael Kennedy, the son of the late U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, on the ski slopes of Aspen, Colorado.

Born Salvatore Bono in Detroit on February 16, 1935, Bono moved to Los Angeles when he was seven years old. As a young adult he became a songwriter and singer at Specialty Records. He later teamed with the prominent songwriter Phil Spector and sang back-up for the Righteous Brothers. While married to his first wife, Donna Rankin, Bono met the 16-year-old Cherilyn Sarkasian; they made several recordings together, but struck gold with their 1965 mega-hit “I Got You Babe.” Bono divorced Rankin and in 1969 had a child, Chastity (now Chaz), with Cher; they later married. In August 1971, the couple’s TV show, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, premiered, featuring the tall, dark-haired Cher decked out in spangled designer outfits and the mustachioed Bono playing the straight man in bell-bottom pants. The show’s run lasted until 1974, when the couple split amid rampant gossip about extramarital affairs.

A latecomer to politics (he admitted he voted for the first time at age 54), Bono got his start after he became frustrated by the bureaucratic hassle involved in erecting a new sign at the Italian restaurant he owned in Palm Springs, a city in the Southern California desert with a current population of some 40,000 residents. He was elected mayor of the city in 1988, and four years later ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for a seat in the U.S. Senate. In 1994, Bono won a seat in the House of Representatives as part of a sweeping Republican victory in the House led by Speaker Newt Gingrich. As a lawmaker, Bono stuck closely to the conservative agenda, but he was known to reach out across party lines, forming friendships with such prominent liberals as Barney Frank, an openly gay Democratic congressman from Massachusetts. 

Reelected in 1996, Bono continued his campaigns to extend copyright laws and repair the damage done to the Salton Sea, a giant lake in Southern California’s Colorado Desert, by large-scale salt mining operations in the region. After Bono’s death, his widow, Mary Bono, completed the remainder of her husband’s term in the House.

Author:

History.com Editors

Petrol seller sets friend ablaze over charger

A roadside petrol seller identified as Akpan Okon Akpan has allegedly burnt his friend to death over a phone charger.

Okon was said to have set the victim identified as Junior Ime Philip ablaze and left him to die after a disagreement over a phone charger.

The Akwa Ibom Police Command confirmed the development after the suspect was arrested by operatives of the command.

Parading the suspect and others at the command headquarters in Uyo, the Commissioner of Police, Olatoye Durosinmi, said the suspect doused the victim with petrol during an altercation and ignited the fire that lead to Philip’s death.

“On 15th December 2022 relying on a petition from Rev. Emmanuel Ime ‘m’ of Ikot Ekwere Ubium Village in Nsit Ublum LGA, at about 6:30pm, operatives of the homicide unit of the SCID Uyo, arrested one Akpan Okon Akpan ‘m’ of same address who poured fuel on his brother, one Junior Ime Philip and set him ablaze leading to his death because of a disagreement over a phone charger.”

Narrating what led to his action, the suspect said, “I don’t know the guy before, he ran into my shop and said he was looking for someone who collected his charger, I told him that such a person was not in my shop. Out of anger, he took a bottle and started fighting me and I fought back.

“I used the petrol I’m selling and poured it on him, honestly I didn’t know what I was doing until he started burning and people gathered, we were trying to put out the fire but it was already late because when they took him to hospital, he died there.”

Source:

The PUNCH

TODAY IN HISTORY; 04 JANUARY 2008: EFCC Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu meets President Yar'adua in Aso Rock

On this day in 2008, contrary to media reports that the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has been barred from entering the presidential villa, the head of anti-graft agency meets President Umaru Musa Yar'adua and other officials in Aso Rock for an undisclosed meeting.

There have speculations that the EFCC chairman had been stopped from visiting the villa or having direct access to the president as a result of the fallout from his nomination to proceed on study leave at the National Institute for policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau state.

It was earlier reported that President Yar'adua yielded to pressures from James Ibori on the removal of Nuhu Ribadu and approved a memo submitted by the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro to send Nuhu Ribadu on a one-year compulsory study leave to the Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru -Jos.

The sources in the Aso Rock Villa told newsmen that Yar'adua yielded to James Ibori's pressure because James Ibori was set to release what his aides called an "Atomic Bomb" of information on the financing and rigging of the April 2007 election that brought Yar'adua to power. 

Supporters of Nuhu Ribadu also fired back by mounting pressure on Yar'adua to rescind the decision. Nuhu Ribadu was summoned to the Aso Rock villa for an all night meeting said to be an attempt to extract some concession from him should Yar'adua rescind the approval but he did not attend.

It was gathered that hawks within Aso Rock wants Nuhu Ribadu to publicly repudiate his association with Muhammed Buhari, who Ribadu is accused of working with to discredit the Yar'adua administration.

TODAY IN HISTORY; 04 JANUARY 2007: First female Speaker, Nancy Pelosi emerges in the U.S. House

On this day in 2007, John Boehner handed over the gavel of speakership of the United States House of commons to Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic Representative from California. With the passing of the gavel, the 124th speaker became the first woman to hold the position, as well as the only woman to get that close to the presidency. After the Vice President, she was now second in line via the presidential order of succession. Pelosi became Speaker again in 2018 and 2021 respectively. 

“It is an historic moment for the Congress, and a historic moment for the women of this country. It is a moment for which we have waited over 200 years,” Pelosi said after receiving the gavel. “For our daughters and granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling. For our daughters and our granddaughters, the sky is the limit, anything is possible for them.”

Pelosi’s Congressional career began 20 years before, when she was one of only 25 women who served in both the House and the Senate. She became the Democratic whip in 2001 and served as the minority leader between 2003 and her election as speaker in 2007. In 2002, she was one of the House members to vote against President George W. Bush’s request to use military force in Iraq.

During her first two terms as Speaker of the House from 2007 to 2011, she developed a reputation as a tireless fundraiser and a successful securer of votes within her caucus. Her terms as speaker also coincided with Barack Obama’s first presidential term, and Pelosi was instrumental on organizing House votes for the Affordable Care Act.

During the 2010 midterms, the National Republican Congressional Committee cited her in 70 percent of its ads. The Democrats lost their House majority that election and Pelosi returned to her position as minority leader. After Democrats reclaimed the House in the 2018 midterms, she received her party’s nomination to be its official candidate for Speaker of the House. In 2019 and again in 2021, as Speaker, Pelosi oversaw the first and second impeachments of President Donald Trump. Pelosi announced she was stepping down from the leadership position in 2022, though she would remain in the House to represent her California district. 

Nigerians shouldn’t trust Obasanjo over Obi's endorsement– S’West group warns

A South-West political organisation under the aegis of Conscience Bureau, on Monday, called on Nigerians to ignore the “curious” endorsement of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The South-West group warned that Nigerians must beware of such an endorsement.

It, however, added that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Abubakar Atiku, can be trusted with the task of changing the negative narratives of Nigeria with the current challenges.

A statement issued by the General Secretary of CB, Said Ologuneru, recalled that when the All Progressives Congress led by Bola Ahmed Tinubu and its other leaders went to seek Obasanjo’s endorsement then for President Muhammadu Buhari  presidential ambition on December 13, 2013, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, acting on his premonition, said that such an endorsement could lead the nation to a shipwreck.

He said going by what Nigerians have gone through between 2015 and now, under the APC presidency, it was apparent that the country had experienced a shipwreck, as Soyinka predicted, warning Nigerians not to allow a repeat of that horrible experience.

“We are under no illusion therefore that Obi’s endorsement by Obasanjo this time is tottering on the same lane as when the APC designated Obasanjo as its navigator in 2013, a development which Prof. Soyinka described as heading for a shipwreck,” Ologuneru said.

He said that only a shipwreck could take the Nigerian Naira from N190 to one US Dollar in 2015 to N780 in 2022 or a litre of petrol from N85 in 2015 to N350 in December 2022.

While warning Nigerians to avoid another shipwreck, which the endorsement of the LP candidate portended, the CB said that Nigerians must reject any attempt to perpetuate the APC’s evil reign beyond 2023.

The CB said, “As widely reported by the national newspapers in Nigeria on December 23, 2013, the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Soyinka, had noted that Nigeria might be heading for a ‘shipwreck’ after the APC said it was choosing Chief Obasanjo as its ‘Navigator’ in its touted effort to wrest power from then President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.

“As nature had it, the ‘Navigator’ led the APC into Aso Rock Villa, and President Muhammadu Buhari replaced Goodluck Jonathan. Today, we all are witnesses to the wreckage the nation’s ship had experienced.”

The South West group also said that Soyinka’s warning, to which Nigerians refused to listen in the 2015 presidential election, eventually led the country into troubled waters as evident in the country’s ailing economy, growing insecurity and hardship being faced by Nigerians today.

Ologuneru warned that it was important for the electorate to save the country from another shipwreck ahead of the 2023 general election, saying that Nigerians must look beyond the APC, which Obasanjo endorsed in the past and Peter Obi, as both cannot help the country in its present state,

According to him, the huge challenges now facing the country after eight years of the Obasanjo-recommended regime should be an admonition to Nigerians not to follow another sentimental endorsement from the former president, just as they should not allow individuals such as Tinubu, who brought Buhari’s misguided administration upon Nigeria, to take the saddle of leadership.

The CB charged the electorate to save Nigeria by electing the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, whom it described as possessing the wealth of experience and know-how that can transform the country and halt its fast-paced traffic towards the edge of the precipice.

Ologuneru said, “It is curious that the same Tinubu, who led Buhari and other leaders of the newly-formed APC to Abeokuta in 2013, to consult former President Obasanjo, describing him as the ‘Navigator’ and the ‘political compass’ of APC’s false attempt to rescue Nigeria, could turn around to describe Obasanjo’s take on the Nigerian polity as ‘worthless and meaningless.’

“Nigerians have to be wary of Tinubu, APC and Obasanjo, who colluded in 2015 to bring the clueless APC administration and the resultant hardship upon the country. This time around, Obasanjo has endorsed Obi, but he appears to be working secretly to foist the APC on Nigerians, in an avowed commitment to lead Nigeria to destruction.

“Atiku represents Nigeria’s best opportunity to get out of the economic doldrums. He remains the best and most prepared candidate on offer.

The former Vice-President represents the best opportunity for Nigeria to exit the economic woes foisted on it through Obasanjo’s miscalculated endorsement in 2013, which brought in General Buhari, and the only way APC would not continue in office beyond May 2023.

“The Conscience Bureau recalls that Tinubu had, in 2013, told Obasanjo that he and APC leaders were in Abeokuta because of Obasanjo’s courage and that to realize a stable Nigeria, they had resolved to make him their Navigator.

“It is hilarious that the same Tinubu could rubbish Obasanjo’s presumed courage at this time and his choice of Obi. The whole development points to the error of judgment and the double standard of both Obasanjo and APC. They both cannot be trusted to salvage Nigeria at this auspicious period.”

The group further wondered how Obasanjo could allow emotions to cloud his judgment at this period when all hands were supposed to be on deck in the task of retaking Nigeria from the APC buccaneers.

“It is curious how Baba Obasanjo could even say he is endorsing Peter Obi. This was the Obi that could not run the Anambra State chapter of the PDP. Is that not another ploy to pave the way for Tinubu, who designated him as a navigator in 2013?

“In the last governorship election in Anambra State, Obi was given the leadership of the party and instead of going for a popular candidate, he went for a rookie and lost woefully, which was why he was yanked off the leadership of the party ahead of the 2022 national convention.

“It’s also a clear signal that he failed to learn from his experiment that brought the Willie Obiano, the man he imposed on Anambra as gov, who eventually turned his policies upside down and became his arch enemy. So, that tells a lot about his experience and  the choices he will make if elected to higher office.”

Source:

The PUNCH

TODAY IN HISTORY: 18 DECEMBER 1941; Japanese troops invade Hong Kong

On this day in 1941, after a week of air raids over Hong Kong, a British crown colony, was followed up on December 17 with a visit paid by Japanese envoys to Sir Mark Young, the British governor of Hong Kong. The envoys’ message was simple: The British garrison there should simply surrender to the Japanese—resistance was futile. The envoys were sent home with the following retort: “The governor and commander in chief of Hong Kong declines absolutely to enter into negotiations for the surrender of Hong Kong…”

The first wave of Japanese troops landed in Hong Kong with artillery fire for cover and the following order from their commander: “Take no prisoners.” Upon overrunning a volunteer antiaircraft battery, the Japanese invaders roped together the captured soldiers and proceeded to bayonet them to death. Even those who offered no resistance, such as the Royal Medical Corps, were led up a hill and killed.

The Japanese quickly took control of key reservoirs, threatening the British and Chinese inhabitants with a slow death by thirst. The Brits finally surrendered control of Hong Kong on Christmas Day.

The War Powers Act was passed by Congress on the same day, authorizing the president to initiate and terminate defense contracts, reconfigure government agencies for wartime priorities, and regulate the freezing of foreign assets. It also permitted him to censor all communications coming in and leaving the country.

FDR appointed the executive news director of the Associated Press, Byron Price, as director of censorship. Although invested with the awesome power to restrict and withhold news, Price took no extreme measures, allowing news outlets and radio stations to self-censor, which they did. Most top secret information, including the construction of the atom bomb, remained just that.

The most extreme use of the censorship law seems to have been the restriction of the free flow of “girlie” magazines to servicemen—including Esquire, which the Post Office considered obscene for its occasional saucy cartoons and pinups. Esquire took the Post Office to court, and after three years the Supreme Court ultimately sided with the magazine.

Author:

History.com Editors

TODAY IN HISTORY: 18 December 2006; General Mohammadu Buhari emerges ANPP presidential candidate

On this day in 2006, ex-Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari emerged the presidential flag bearer of All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP).

The party had shifted its national convention three times before it was finally held on 18th December. The convention earlier scheduled to take place on Thursday August 24, 2006, was rescheduled to September 1st and 2nd. 

The party later fixed the convention to December 15 and 16 but the high-wired political intrigues by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), forced the party to reschedule its national convention earlier fixed for December 15 and 16, to 17 and 18 of December at the Eagle Square, Abuja.

The rescheduling, which was ratified at the emergency National Executive Committee (NEC), meeting of the party on December 12, was necessitude by acute shortage of accommodation, as the ruling PDP had booked most of the hotels for its national convention, which also falls on the 15 and 16 of December.

The ANPP arrived at the decision to shift the national convention at a meeting chaired by its interim national chairman, Governor Ali Modu Sherrif, in Maiduguri.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 18 December 2019; Donald Trump becomes third U.S. President to be impeached

On this day in 2019, after weeks of discussions among legislators, the House of Representatives voted to impeach the 45th President, Donald Trump, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The vote fell largely along party lines: 230 in favor, 197 against and 1 present. Trump became only the third president ever to be impeached, joining Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, after concerns about his alleged attempts to seek foreign interference in the 2020 election.

Some Democrats had advocated impeaching Trump since the moment of his election. After they regained control of the House of Representatives, Democrats launched multiple investigations into his business dealings and his campaign's ties to Russian hackers who targeted his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton. After an exhaustive effort failed to convince Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others that they had reason to impeach, a new scandal emerged that succeeded in doing so. 

In September 2019, the public learned of a whistleblower complaint regarding a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The complaint, which was corroborated by the acting Ambassador to Ukraine, stated that Trump had threatened to withhold U.S. foreign aid money until Zelensky promised to investigate Hunter Biden, son of leading Democratic 2020 candidate Joe Biden, for suspicious dealings in Ukraine.

The White House denied any "quid pro quo." Nonetheless, by late November, it was clear that the Democrats felt confident enough in their case for wrongdoing and obstruction of Congress that they would go through with impeachment. 

After both articles were approved in the House, the case then moved to a Senate trial, which began on January 16, 2020. U.S. Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts presided over the trial. On February 5, 2020, in a vote that again fell largely along party lines, the Senate voted to acquit President Trump on both charges. 

On January 13, 2021, President Trump was impeached again following the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, becoming the only U.S. president to be impeached twice. Unlike his first impeachment, 10 House Republicans joined Democrats in voting in favor of impeachment. The former president was found not guilty in the Senate trial, though seven Republican senators joined Democrats in voting to convict.

Author::

History.com Editors

TODAY IN HISTORY: 16 December 2010; Fuji superstar Ayinde Barrister dies at 62

On this day in year 2010, the fuji exponent Alhaji Sikiru Ololade Ayinde Balogun a.k.a. Ayinde Barrister died in a London hospital at the age of 62. The late musician is one of the founders of the popular Yoruba music Fuji and had a large followership during his days.

Doctor Sikiru Ayinde Barrister was one of Nigeria’s best known singer/songwriters that  played an essential role in the evolution of the music of his homeland. The leader of a 25-piece band, the Supreme Fuji Commanders, and a smaller group, the Africa Musical International Ambassadors, Barrister one of the leading purveyors of fuji, an exciting, amplified dance music combining juju, apala, and traditional Yoruban blues that he introduced in the late '70s.

Barrister sang most of his life. By the age of ten, he had mastered a complex, Yoruba vocal style that was traditionally performed during the holy month of Ramadan. Although he briefly attended a Muslim school in 1961, financial difficulties prevented him from continuing. Leaving school, he found employment as a stenographer.

During the Civil War that swept through Nigeria between 1967 and 1970, he served in the Army. Signed by the Nigeria-based Africa Songs, Ltd. label, Barrister recorded many groundbreaking singles during the 1970s and '80s.

With his heartfelt vocals set to a rhythmic mix of talking drums, claves, bells, shekere, drum set, and Hawaiian-style guitar, he laid the foundation for fuji, which he named after Mr. Fuji.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 15 December 2011; U.S. declares an end to the War in Iraq

On this day in 2011, in a ceremony held in Baghdad, the war that began in 2003 with the American-led invasion of Iraq officially comes to an end. Though today was the official end date of the Iraq War, violence continued and in fact worsened over the subsequent years. The withdrawal of American troops had been a priority of President Barack Obama, but by the time he left office the United States would again be conducting military operations in Iraq.

Five days after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush announced the “War on Terror,” an umbrella term for a series of preemptive military strikes meant to reduce the threat terrorism posed to the American homeland. The first such strike was the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, which began a war that continued for two decades.

Throughout 2002, the Bush Administration argued that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was allied with terrorists and developing “weapons of mass destruction.” By all accounts, Hussein was responsible for many atrocities, but there was scant evidence that he was developing nuclear or chemical weapons. Behind closed doors, intelligence officials warned the case for war was based on conjecture—a British inquiry later revealed that one report’s description of Iraqi chemical weapons had actually come from the Michael Bay-directed action movie The Rock. The governments of the U.S. and the U.K., however, were resolute in their public assertions that Hussein posed a threat to their homelands, and went ahead with the invasion.

The invasion was an immediate success insofar as the coalition had toppled Hussein’s government and occupied most of Iraq by mid-April. What followed, however, was eight years of insurgency and sectarian violence. American expectations that Iraqis would “greet them as liberators” and quickly form a stable, pluralistic democracy proved wildly unrealistic. Though the coalition did install a new government, which took office in 2006, it never came close to pacifying the country. Guerilla attacks, suicide bombings and improvised explosive devices continued to take the lives of soldiers and civilians, and militias on both sides of the Sunni-Shia divide carried out ethnic cleansings.

The American public remained skeptical of the war, and many were horrified at reports of atrocities carried out by the military and CIA. Leaked photos proved that Americans had committed human rights abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison, and in 2007 American military contractors killed 17 civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. Opposition to the war became an important talking point in Obama’s bid for the presidency.

On New Year’s Day 2009, shortly before Obama took office, the U.S. handed control of the Green Zone—the Baghdad district that served as coalition headquarters—to the Iraqi government. Congress formally ended its authorization for the war in November, and the last combat troops left the following month. Even by the lowest estimates, the Iraq War claimed over 100,000 lives; other estimates suggest that the number is several times greater, with over 205,000 civilian deaths alone.

Over the next three years, ongoing sectarian violence blossomed into a full-out civil war. Many of the militias formed during the Iraq War merged or partnered with extremist groups in neighboring Syria, itself experiencing a bloody civil war. By 2014 the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which absorbed many of these groups, controlled much of Syria and Iraq. The shocking rise of ISIL led Obama to launch fresh military actions in the region beginning in June of 2014. Though ISIL has now been driven out of Iraq and appears to be very much diminished, American troops are still stationed in Iraq.

Author:

History.com Editors

TODAY IN HISTORY: 15 December 2010; Chief Anthony Enahoro dies in his sleep at 87

On this day in 2010, the rank of Nigeria’s founding fathers was depleted further when Nigeria's foremost journalist, anti-colonial and pro-democracy activist, Chief Anthony Eromosele Enahoro died in his sleep at age of 87.

Chief Enahoro whom many Nigerians regarded as the “Father of Nigeria State”, died after a protracted battle with diabetes at his GRA residence in Benin City, capital of Edo State Nigeria.

On November 1, 2010, Chief Enahoro was admitted at the intensive unit of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, and was discharged two weeks later. He died in the early hours of Wednesday December 15, 2010, barely one week after the people of Edo State lost their First Lady, Mrs. Clara Oshiomhole.

The incident further compounded the sorrow of Nigerians particularly the people of Edo State. When the news circulated, several shops and businesses closed down as that was the first time in the history of Edo State that two personalities would die in just a week. Incidentally, Chief Enahoro was from the same Edo Central senatorial district where Mrs. Oshiomhole also hailed.

A family source informed the newsmen that Chief Enahoro slept without any complaint on Tuesday night but that at about 4 a.m, the children went to see him in his room after they heard his voice. It was discovered that he was not breathing well, and was struggling for breath. After they tried to help him, he informed them that he needed to rest. And shortly after that he clapped his hand like he was in deep prayers, thereafter he laid down on the bed and gave up the ghost.

Chief Enahoro, the first child of twelve siblings was born on 22nd July 1923. He made a great impact on the press, politics, civil service and the pro-democracy movement during his time. In 1953, he moved the motion for Nigeria’s independence in the floor of House of Representatives and it became a reality on October 1, 1960.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 14 December 2012; Sandy Hook school shooting by Adam Lanza claims 27 lives

On this day in 2012, Adam Lanza kills 20 first graders and six school employees at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, before turning a gun on himself. Earlier that day, he killed his mother at the home they shared.

The Sandy Hook shooting was, at the time, the second-deadliest mass shooting in the United States after the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech, in which a gunman killed 32 students and teachers before committing suicide.

Shortly after 9:30 a.m., 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot through a plate-glass window next to Sandy Hook’s locked front entrance in order to gain access to the school. Hearing the noise, the school principal and school psychologist went to investigate and were shot and killed by Lanza, who was armed with a semiautomatic rifle, two semiautomatic pistols and multiple rounds of ammunition. Lanza also shot and wounded two other Sandy Hook staff members.

He then entered two first-grade classrooms, where he gunned down two teachers and 15 students in one room and two teachers and five students in the other room. The children Lanza murdered, 12 girls and 8 boys, were 6 and 7 years old. Twelve first-graders from the two classrooms survived.

When Lanza heard the police closing in on him, he killed himself in a classroom at approximately 9:40 a.m.

Police soon learned that sometime earlier that morning, before arriving at Sandy Hook, Lanza had shot and killed his 52-year-old mother at their home. She owned the weapons her son used in his deadly rampage.

Investigators determined that Lanza, who had attended Sandy Hook as a boy, acted alone in planning and carrying out the attack, but they were unable to find a motive for his actions or discover why he had targeted Sandy Hook.

In November 2013, the Connecticut State’s Attorney released a report noting that Lanza had “significant mental health issues that affected his ability to live a normal life and to interact with others.” However, mental-health professionals who had worked with him “did not see anything that would have predicted his future behavior,” according to the report.

In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, President Barack Obama called for new gun-safety measures; however, his primary legislative goal, expanded background checks for gun buyers, was blocked by the U.S. Senate.

The community of Newtown, which has some 27,000 residents and is located about 45 miles southwest of Connecticut’s capital, Hartford, eventually decided to tear down Sandy Hook Elementary School. It was razed in the fall of 2013; a new school was built on the same site.

Author:

History.com Editors

TODAY IN HISTORY: 14 December 1939; The League of Nations expels USSR

Following the response to the Soviets’ invasion of Finland on November 30, the international peacekeeping organization formed at the end of World War I, expels the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a member of the League of Nations on this day in 1939.

Although the League of Nations was more or less the brainchild of President Woodrow Wilson, the United States, which was to have sat on the Executive Council, never joined. Isolationists in the Senate, put off by America’s intervention in World War I, which they felt was more of a European civil war than a true world war prevented American participation. While the League was born with the exalted mission of preventing another “Great War,” it proved ineffectual, being unable to protect China from a Japanese invasion or Ethiopia from an Italian one. The League was also useless in reacting to German remilitarization, which was a violation of the Treaty of Versailles, the document that formally set the peace terms for the end of World War I.

Germany and Japan voluntarily withdrew from the League in 1933, and Italy left in 1937. The true imperial designs of the Soviet Union soon became apparent with its occupation of eastern Poland in September of 1939, ostensibly with the intention of protecting Russian “blood brothers,” Ukrainians and Byelorussians, who were supposedly menaced by the Poles. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were then terrorized into signing “mutual assistance” pacts, primarily one-sided agreements that gave the USSR air and naval bases in those countries. But the invasion of Finland, where no provocation or pact could credibly be adduced to justify the aggression, resulted in worldwide reaction. President Roosevelt, although an “ally” of the USSR, condemned the invasion, causing the Soviets to withdraw from the New York World’s Fair. And finally, the League of Nations, drawing almost its last breath, expelled it.

Author:

History.com Editors

TODAY IN HISTORY: 14 December 1991; NEC conducts governorship election in 30 States of Nigeria

On this day in 1991, the Nigeria’s electoral umpire, National Electoral Commission (NEC) conducted governorship and states' Houses of Assembly  elections in all the 30 states of Nigeria. At the end of the elections, National Republican Convention (NRC) won 16 states and 14 states were won by the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

The 1991 governorship and states' Houses of Assembly were calm and orderly, possibly owing to increased security in the country. The government banned sales of liquor and weapons including any type of gun, bow and arrow, spear, horsewhip, cutlass, cudgel and axe.

Despite the generally orderly proceedings, it was reported in the media that the two political parties filed 18 petitions alleging malpractice during the elections.

In January 1992, the military government under General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida announced that elections for National Assembly will be held November 7, 1992 and for the presidency on December 7, 1992.

With the inauguration of civilian governors in January 1992, the Nigerian government became a “diarchy”, that is, joint governance by civilians and military. While civilians took charge of the states, the military retained ultimate control of the nation. Human rights groups are attempting to take advantage of the opening at the state level to press for a commitment by the new state governments to human rights principles.

In January 1992, the Civil Liberty Organization (CLO) sent a letter to the new civilian governors and legislators, highlighting human rights concerns such as detention without trial, extra-judicial killings and abuses against university students. This was followed up with a letter in February, asking state legislatures to “consider creating a committee on human rights and to make it one of the standing committees of the house”.

Despite criticism from sources such as human rights groups, churches, universities and individual Nigerians, it appears likely that the “open ballot” will be used throughout the duration of the transition programme, although it will apparently be slightly modified in time for the forthcoming National Assembly and Presidential elections.

In March, the NRC restated its objection to the open ballot, complaining that it does not “protect the choice of the individual voter”. And Vice President, Aikhomu announced that the secret ballot was in the process of being reexamined by the government.

The National Electoral Commission (NEC) Chairman Prof. Humphrey Nwosu continues to praise the system, inexplicably claiming that it has reduced electoral violence. He said the problem is not with the open ballot itself, but with the collation which is done in secret. To eliminate the problem, the NEC Chairman the collation would be thrown open to allow people watch it being done and to prevent manipulation. Nwosu's submission contradicts the earlier rational for the open ballot, that method of voting itself, not collation, was the problem.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 13 December, 1997; General Diya escapes bomb explosion in Abuja

Former Chief of General Staff, Major General Oladipo Diya narrowly escapes a bomb explosion on this day in 1997, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

Between January 1984 to August 1985, Diya was the Military Governor of Ogun State and was also Vice President as Chief of general Staff during Gen Sani Abacha’s military regime.

Diya had allegedly planned to overthrow the Abacha regime but was arrested and jailed alongside his cohorts in 1997 for treason. He was later sentenced to death by firing squad in 1998 by a military tribunal sitting in Jos but later commuted to a 25-year jail term.

On 3 March 1999, Major General Diya and his colleagues were reportedly released after General Abdulsalam Abubakar granted them amnesty. Major General Diya, and his colleagues including Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju, Major Gen. Abdulkareem Adisa, Col. EI. Jando, Col. Yakubu Bako, Lt. Col. O.O. Akinyode, Major A.A. Fadipe, Major B.M. Mohammed and Lance Corporal Galadima Tanko, were not only released but henceforth dismissed from the service, stripped of their ranks, and reportedly prohibited from using their military titles.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 13 December 2003; Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein captured

On this day in 2003, after spending nine months on the run, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is captured. Saddam’s downfall started in 2003, when the United States led an invasion force into Iraq to topple his government, after he had controlled Iraq for more that two decades.

Born in 1937 into a poor family in Tikrit, 100 miles outside of Baghdad, Saddam Hussein joined the now infamous Baath party as a teenager which he would later lead. He took part in several coup attempts and finally helped to install his cousin, Aḥmad Ḥasan al-Bakr as a dictator of Iraq in July 1968. Saddam took over for his cousin 11 years later. During his 24 years in office, Saddam’s secret police, charged with protecting his power, terrorized the public, ignoring the human rights of the nation’s citizens. While many of his people faced poverty, he lived in incredible luxury, building more than 20 lavish palaces throughout the country. Obsessed with security, he is said to have moved among them often, always sleeping in secret locations.

In the early 1980s, Saddam involved his country in an eight-year war with Iran, which is estimated to have taken more than a million lives on both sides. He is alleged to have used nerve agents and mustard gas on Iranian soldiers during the conflict, as well as chemical weapons on Iraq’s own Kurdish population in northern Iraq in 1988. After he invaded Kuwait in 1990, a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in 1991, forcing the dictator’s army to leave its smaller neighbor, but failing to remove Saddam from power. Throughout the 1990s, Saddam faced both U.N. economic sanctions and air strikes aimed at crippling his ability to produce chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. With Iraq continuing to face allegations of illegal oil sales and weapons-building, the United States again invaded the country in March 2003, this time with the expressed purpose of ousting Saddam and his regime.

Despite proclaiming in early March 2003 that, “it is without doubt that the faithful will be victorious against aggression,” Saddam went into hiding soon after the American invasion, speaking to his people only through an occasional audiotape, and his government soon fell. After declaring Saddam the most important of a list of his regime’s 55 most-wanted members, the United States began an intense search for the former leader and his closest advisors. On July 22, 2003, Saddam’s sons, Uday and Qusay, who many believe he was grooming to one day fill his shoes, were killed when U.S. soldiers raided a villa in which they were staying in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Five months later, on December 13, 2003, U.S. soldiers found Saddam Hussein hiding in a six-to-eight-foot deep hole, nine miles outside his hometown of Tikrit. The man once obsessed with hygiene was found to be unkempt, with a bushy beard and matted hair. He did not resist and was uninjured during the arrest. A soldier at the scene described him as “a man resigned to his fate.”

After standing trial, he was executed on December 30, 2006. Despite a prolonged search, weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq.