WASHINGTON – Records show that about 47,000 people have been removed or deported from the U.S. after the Homeland Security Department sifted through 3 million sets of fingerprints taken from bookings at local jails.

About one-quarter of those kicked out of the country did not have criminal records, according to government data obtained by immigration advocacy groups that have filed a lawsuit. The groups plan to release the data Tuesday and provided early copies to The Associated Press.

As issue is a fingerprint-sharing program known as Secure Communities that the government says is focused on getting rid of the “worst of the worst” criminal immigrants from the U.S.

Immigration advocates say that the government instead spends too much time on lower-level criminals or non-criminals.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement divides crimes into three categories, with Level 1 being the most serious. Most of those deported committed Level 2 or 3 crimes or were non-criminals, a monthly report of Secure Communities statistics shows.

“ICE has pulled a bait and switch, with local law enforcement spending more time and resources facilitating the deportations of bus boys and gardeners than murderers and rapists and at considerable cost to local community policing strategies, making us all less safe,” said Peter Markowitz, director of the Immigration Justice Clinic at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.

Markowitz’s clinic, the National Day Laborer Organizers Network and the Center for Constitutional Rights had requested and sued for the statistics. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released some of the documents late Monday.

Richard Rocha, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, said non-criminals still may be people who have failed to show up for deportation hearings, who recently crossed the border illegally or who re-entered the country after deportation. He also said it’s important to remember that more people commit crimes that are considered Level 2 and 3.

Secure Communities is “a beneficial partnership tool for ICE and state and local law enforcement agencies helping to identify, prioritize and remove convicted criminal aliens not only from the communities, but also from the country,” Rocha said.

The Obama administration wants Secure Communities operating nationwide by 2013.

As of Aug. 3, 494 counties and local and state agencies in 27 states were sharing fingerprints from jail bookings through the program.

From October 2008 through June of this year, 46,929 people identified through Secure Communities were removed from the U.S., the documents show. Of those, 12,293 were considered non-criminals.

Source:Yahoo.com

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Ms. Monday had been remanded in Prison custody for an alleged theft of N295,000 belonging to Nwitua Nadum, the man who brought her to Lagos State from Rivers State in 2009 to be his house girl; and whom she says had been sleeping with her since then, till she got pregnant.

Ms. Monday had on Thursday last week complained of severe labour pains and was subsequently admitted into the female prison clinic for observation. She was later moved to the Lagos Island Maternity Hospital, where a caesarean section was performed on her.

The Prisons spokesperson, Ope Fatinikun, confirmed the safe delivery. He said in a couple of days both mother and child would be returned to the prison.

“The mother and the child are safe. She will keep the baby until the baby is 18 months. But after that, she cannot keep the baby because our law says the baby must not know he or she was born in the prison,” Mr. Fatinikun said.

He added: “If we do not have a family member to hand the baby over to, we will take the baby to welfare. And this must be before the age of two, before the child starts taking notice of the environment around him or her.” Ms. Monday’s delivery came a day before the hearing of her case at the Kirikiri Magistrate Court, Apapa, thus preventing her from coming to the court.

At the hearing of Ms. Monday’s case which came up on Monday, August 2, 2010, the magistrate, Ope Agbe did not show up. This would make it the fourth time in several months, no reason was given for the magistrate’s absence.

Ms. Monday has been in prison since January 25, 2010 when she was charged for theft. Her bail was set for N50,000.

However, being a stranger in Lagos and not having anyone to bail her, she has remained in prison custody since then.

When contacted, Ms. Monday’s lawyer, Afolabi Orekoya, from the Office of the Public Defender, Lagos State, which offers free legal services to the less-privileged, said though disappointed the case was adjourned, the OPD was ready to present a good defence.

“I am aware she has given birth and she is recovering. But right now, the court case has been adjourned. We just have to wait for the magistrate. But what I can say is that this has given us more time to prepare a very sound case before the next adjournment,” Mr. Orekoya said.

Ms. Monday claims she was 16 years of age when she came to Lagos in 2009, in which case she could be said to be a minor and is not supposed to be remanded in prison in the first place. She, however, said Mr. Nadum told the police she is 18 in order to ensure she was inprisoned.

A threatening complainant.

Mr. Nadum who accuses Ms. Monday of the theft, and who Ms. Monday alleges impregnated her, has however, refused at different times to speak to the press. When contacted to ask about her delivery, he threatened NEXT and cut the line.

“Look I warned you before. You are looking for trouble. You are not listening,” Mr. Nwitua said before cutting the line. In a previous report by NEXT, Mr. Nadum had said: “Don’t go and publish anything that will cost your company a lot of money o! Otherwise, I will not spare anybody in this matter,” The case has been adjourned till September 27, 2010.

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“She complained about not feeling too well last night and then this morning she felt very weak so we had to rush her

to the St Paul’s Hospital, Ebute-Metta, but she passed away before we arrived there,” said her son, Toyin Oni. “We

were rushing her to the hospital from our Ajah home.” The body of the late actress has been deposited at St Paul’s Hospital, while funeral arrangements are currently being finalised at the family house at 66a Brick Field Street, Ebute Metta, Lagos.

Fondly called Mama T, Toun Oni was one of Nigeria’s most successful cross-over actresses. She was also a recipient of the prestigious Order of Niger (OON), conferred in 2006. A staunch Jehovah Witness, she will be remembered for her many movie roles. Her most memorably roles were undoubtedly on television, with parts in one of Nigeria’s longest running soap opera, ‘Checkmate,’ and the popular ‘Fuji House of Commotion,’ where she played Mama Moji.

Equally at home in movies and television, she tended to feature more in soap operas, and it is for these that she will be remembered by most fans. Amaka Igwe, who produced ‘Fuji House of Commotion,’ could not be reached for her reaction on the late actress’ death as at press time. Toun Oni’s career dated back to the 70s. She was aged 67.

Source:234next.com

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Samka the rhino looks sad. When her longtime companion, Boy the elephant, died in April, she watched over his body for an entire day until it was taken away. Today, the elephant’s pen sits empty. Boy is just one of several animals at Kiev Zoo – including a camel, a bison and a zebra – that have died in recent months, some in mysterious circumstances. As the city carries out an official investigation, the deaths have prompted outrage and denial, with activists accusing the zoo of negligence and corruption and authorities pointing to an anonymous killer as the culprit.

Boy’s death has brought fresh attention to a scandal that has been running for months. Serhiy Hryhoryev, a former zoo worker who runs a site campaigning for the rights of the zoo’s animals, says the Indian elephant was underfed, kept in poor conditions and stressed by constant changes to the staff of handlers. “By the end, you could see his ribs,” says Hryhoryev. (See the top 10 militant animals.)

According to animal rights activists, the number of animals at Kiev Zoo has almost halved in the last two years; they accuse the zoo’s authorities of shoddy management, corruption and neglect. The claims stretch into city hall, with critics charging city officials of carrying out shady schemes to privatize the land the zoo is located on in the center of the Ukrainian capital. The zoo’s management denies the allegations, as do city officials.

Many of the complaints focus on zoo director Svitlana Berzina, with critics accusing her and her associates of taking kickbacks and leaving the animals uncared for. Andriy Kapustin, head of the Expert Council, a civic organization chronicling the animal-welfare violations at Kiev Zoo, described it as a “concentration camp” in a May 26 article he wrote for the weekly Levy Bereg. Berzina denies all accusations of corruption and states that she has been exonerated by numerous investigations. (See TIME’s animal covers.)

When questioned by TIME about the mysterious deaths at the zoo, Berzina claims that some of the animals could have been poisoned by “opponents” battling for control of the zoo. Boiled eggs, which are not part of Boy’s diet but were found in the elephant’s enclosure after his death, could have been used to deliver poison, she says, as could a potato found with the camels. She even has a suspect: a man in his forties with an earring. The Kiev police say they have no evidence of poisoning in Boy’s case.

The zoo’s troubles reach back to before Berzina took over in 2008. The previous year, the zoo – once the largest and one of the best regarded in the Soviet Union – was thrown out of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria because of concerns over animal welfare. A visit earlier this month reveals a zoo that has barely moved on from Soviet times, with its creaking, old rides and small, rundown pens and buildings. For years, Hryhoryev says, the zoo has drained huge sums of money from the city budget, “enough to build several zoos.” But improvements have been thin and incomplete.

In May, city authorities finally responded to activists’ calls for action, suspending Berzina and forming an investigative committee to look into the mysterious zoo deaths. Meanwhile, city hall has already washed its hands of any wrongdoing. In a statement, mayor Leonid Chernovetskiy appealed to “anyone involved in the animals’ deaths in any way” to stop using “our innocent little brothers” as “a stake in your cruel games.” (See pictures of the elephants of Asia.)

But activists and opposition politicians say the mayor – who appointed Berzina to run the zoo – is a big part of the problem. In his Levy Bereg article, Kapustin suggests the animal’s deaths may be a ploy by city authorities, in cahoots with the zoo’s management, to reduce the zoo’s animal stock as an excuse to move it from the “gold mine” that is the 84 acres of land the zoo sits on. Opponents have long accused Chernovetskiy and his team of giving away tracts of land to family and associates in sweetheart deals. The council offices were raided in early July by the state security service as part of an investigation into irregular land deals. City hall declined to comment to TIME on the claims, although officials have publicly denied allegations of improper land privatizations.

Opposition lawmaker Kyrylo Kulykov says an investigative committee in Ukraine’s parliament has been set up to look into the broader problem of land corruption in Kiev, but it hasn’t started working yet because of “political games.” “We are fighting with the whole state apparatus,” says Hryhoryev, the activist. “None of this would have happened if there had been some kind of financial control [over zoo management].” Only when the rule of law is firmly established in Ukraine will the zoo’s troubles end, he adds.

Until then, Ukrainians can only hope that the animals stop dying. On a sunny day in early July, a young boy visiting the zoo runs off toward Boy’s enclosure shouting: “The elephant’s this way!” But when he gets there all he sees is Samka the rhino lying still and lonely in the neighboring pen.

Source:yahoo news.com

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“I hereby forward to Your Excellency, the Summary of the 2010 External Borrowing Plan of Government as a major component of the 2010 appropriation.

Please recall our discussion during our interaction on the 2010 budget of the Federal Government held on 20th April, 2010, to formally transmit the 2010 External Borrowing Plan of the Federal Government to you for consideration and approval. You may also further recall that the House of Representatives Committee on Finance had on several occasions, invited the Executive to present the 2010 Borrowing Plan and explain its content including sustainability and impact on the economy. This is in compliance with due process. The Borrowing plan for 2010 is hereby presented for your kind consideration and approval.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan with the Senate President, David Mark, Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Usman Nafada and Presidential Adviser on National Assembly, Senator Muhammed Abba Aji as he signed the 2010 Appropriation Bill into law in Abuja, recently. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida

You may wish to note that Nigeria is in dire need to fund the huge infrastructure deficit critical to rapid development and the highly concessionary credit facilities offered by Multilateral Agencies to which Nigeria belongs and commits substantial resources to compliment the budgetary allocations as appropriate.

The World Bank Portfolio of facilities totalling $915 million out of which $179 million would be drawn in fiscal 2010, is of particular essence as it would be deployed to Urban Water and Transport, Human Capacity Development and Power infrastructure projects across the country.

In view of the above, Your Excellency may wish to consider the Borrowing Plan for 2010 in order to facilitate legislative consideration.

But in a rather curious twist, the Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, denied in an interview with State House Correspondents, that same day, that the Federal Government had such a plan.

He said: “This is absolutely wrong. We are not borrowing a $1 billion to fund the budget …”

The Leader of the Minority of the House of Reps, Ali Ndume (ANPP/Borno), and his deputy, Abdurrahamman Suleiman Kawu (ANPP/Kano) made passionate and emotive arguments on why the $915 million was poisonous to Nigeria, and then walked out to address a press conference.

Ndume speaking on the April, 20 meeting between the leadership of the National Assembly and the acting president warned that presidential economic aides had convinced Jonathan to raise the Value Added Tax (VAT) from the present 5% to 15% “very soon”.

His words, “When we arrived we were served very good meals and we ate well. After that, were taken into an office where the acting president and his aides were waiting for us.

“The acting president told us that he had problems with about 12 areas in the 2010 budget and that he needed to point it out to us so that we could find a way out of it.

“From what I found out, what the executive considers as ‘grey’ areas in the budget are what affect their own interest.

“The executive had added about N400 billion into the original appropriation bill submitted last November since the coming of the acting president.

“Anywhere we cut down, say N2 billion on insurance, medical bill on a their sub_head, they have a problem with it.

“But, the Senate president told the acting president to just append his signature on the budget, that after that, he could bring it up for amendment.

“This is Nigeria, you know, we were told that if we refuse to cooperate, that it could mean that we would not get …. (winked sideways and made gestures with hands) … I am sure you understand”, he said, amidst laughter, and continued:

“He then agreed to sign the budget without delay, and he actually did so.

“But, what the Senate President said, to me, was unconstitutional and impracticable.

“You cannot amend an Appropriation Act, I don’t know how that can be done.

“The acting president then said that he had two other issues to inform us. “It turned out that our invitation was actually based on these two issues.

According to Ndume, the issues were the $915m World Bank loan and the intention of government to raise VAT to 15%..

“He said that he has been informed that all the West African countries, with the exception of Ghana, have increased their VAT to 15%.

“He then called on the minister of finance to brief us more.

“The minister brought out some charts , spread them in his front and started making analysis.

“He talked for a long time, and nothing made sense to me because the man was never in government, and was not living in Nigeria for decades.

According to him, he told the acting president that the two issues were not in the interest of Nigeria.

“I said, ‘Mr. Acting President, this man is coming from Goldman Sach as one of its executives.

“But here, you have made him your Finance Minister.

“Don’t listen to those people, they don’t mean well, I told him, even though some of us there were not comfortable with the way I was saying it.

“I told him that If you raise VAT to 15%, we the opposition will join hands with the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and all the workers and ordinary people of this country to fight you.

“I told him that we will resist the move with all legal instruments at our disposal.” A 15% increase in VAT, he observed, would mean that most goods and services would jump up by 15%.

“If other West African charge 15% on VAT, so what?

“Do you want to compare Nigeria with Togo, Benin Republic or Republic of Niger? “The World Bank loan will add no benefit to Nigeria, but would only benefit the West.

“Out of the $915 million, they would say, ‘hey! You must buy all the facilities you need from America, Britain and Germany, so that the money would go back to them,

“The World Bank loan is just another means the West is trying to check the rising influence of China on Africa, especially Nigeria”.

Source:vanguardngr.com

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Udeme Akwa-Jackobson
It is only a medical miracle that would prevent the promising young man from being amputated as he has since been moved out of the private hospital he was being treated for lack of funds. He has resorted to traditional herbal treatment for now pending when police authorities or other kind-hearted Nigerians, might come to his aid.
How it all started.
Visibly writhing in pains at his Shell estate one-room apartment, in Lekki Phase1, Udeme whose bandaged but swollen left leg is already emitting offensive stench as a result of the gunshot wounds; was however, able to muster the strength to speak with Crime Guard. To him, the incident could not have been ordinary because, “I was not the only one there; so how come the police took on me? I believe there is spiritual undertone.” He said, “that day was on a
Thursday, April 15, 2010 and time was about 5.00pm. I was outside in front of my house chatting with some of my friends about sundry issues. We were talking about a maid who desperately needed another job and we mentioned one lady in the area that might help her. Just then, the lady we mentioned passed by and we all laughed at the coincidence”.
The shooting
Soon after, a bus painted in Lagos commercial colour popularly called Danfo pulled over and stopped beside us. Inside the bus were two mobile policemen. One of them alighted and came to me, held me by my shirt and asked why I was laughing at him.
I was confused and shocked altogether; to say the least. But he was serious about his allegation because he was violently pulling me towards the parked bus. All entreaties from my friends that we were not laughing at him fell on deaf ears.
We were shocked the more, when another mobile police man who had long parked his motorbike by the gutter where we were, came up to corroborate the allegation. As the argument raged, one of the mobile policemen that came with them tried to calm the situation by saying that we could not have been laughing at his colleague.
When the argument degenerated into slaps and blows, a Pastor who lives on my street came to the rescue and was able to free me from his grip. But just then, he grabbed a pistol from the waist belt of his colleague and tried to hit me on the head and I dodged it and jumped over the gutter. At that point, he pointed the gun at me and before I could turn to react to my friends shout of Udeme, Udeme, I heard a gun shot.
The police man had shot me on the leg and blood started gushing out. At the hospital after the shooting, the Mobile Policeman disappeared into thin air with his colleagues while my friends and neighbors rushed me to a nearby private hospital and later, Mainland General hospital. But after five days in the hospital, things did not improve and, of course, there was no money to procure some of the prescribed drugs.
So, my wife and some of my friends came and took me home where they contracted a traditional herbal healer for the purpose. As you can see for yourself, it is not improving. Matter not reported and police not aware
Perhaps for fear of the unknown, the unprofessional conduct of the mobile police man was not reported in any police station; and therefore, the Lagos police command which jurisdiction the offence was committed is not aware of it.
“The matter was not reported because one, my friends are afraid that the police might turn the whole thing against them. Two, we did not know the identity of the policeman who shot me, but the one who was begging him to leave me alone is a known person.
Though I do not know his name, he is attached to the Shell estate,” Udeme said.
But the Command’s spokes person, Mr. Frank Mba said he was yet to be informed about the shooting incident. “I am not aware of it. A policeman shot somebody just because he claimed that person was laughing at him? I am not aware,” Mba maintained.

Source:Vanguardngr.com

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