Nigerian teenager freed after killing attempted rapist

Nigerian prosecutors have decided not to press charges against a 15-year-old girl detained after killing a man who had attempted to rape her.

Police said she stabbed the man, a friend of her father's, in March when she had gone to his house to do chores.

But state prosecutors in the commercial capital, Lagos, say there is no evidence to support a murder charge.

At the time of her arrest, there was an outcry on social media by people saying she had acted in self-defence.

The teenager has been freed at a time of public protests over a wave of rapes and killing of women in Nigeria.

Thousands have recently signed a petition calling for an end to sexual violence.

Many Nigerians say the country's legal system makes it hard to convict suspected rapists and blames women when they are victims of sexual assault.

BBC

Racial discrimination: Armed forces told to do more to tackle issue

More must be done to tackle racial discrimination in the UK's armed forces, the most senior military officer has said.

General Sir Nick Carter, chief of the defence staff, called on all personnel to see the potential in every recruit and "refuse to allow intolerance".

The message comes after a meeting of the heads of the services on Wednesday.

There had been "soul searching" about events highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement, a defence source said.

BBC

Stormzy pledges £10m over 10 years to fighting racial inequality

Stormzy has pledged £10 million to UK organisations, charities and movements tackling racial inequality, justice reform and black empowerment.

The grime star said he will make his donation over the next 10 years.

"We have to fight against the odds of a racist system stacked against us and designed for us to fail from before we are even born," he said.

He has also funded black British students at Cambridge University.

Stormzy said he was making his £10m donation to fight racial inequality because "the uncomfortable truth that our country continuously fails to recognise and admit, is that black people in the UK have been at a constant disadvantage in every aspect of life - simply due to the colour of our skin.

"I'm lucky enough to be in the position I'm in and I've heard people often dismiss the idea of racism existing in Britain by saying 'If the country's so racist how have you become a success?!' and I reject that with this: I am not the UK's shining example of what supposedly happens when a black person works hard.

"There are millions of us. We are not far and few. We have to fight against the odds of a racist system stacked against us and designed for us to fail from before we are even born.

BBCnews

Chimamanda Adichie Lost Her Father

Chimamanda adichie, a renowned novelist, has lost her father, Professor James Nwoye Adichie, aged 88 years old.

Confirming the news, a family source stated that Adichie died on Wednesday night.

The erudite scholar was admitted at the Chira Memorial Hospital in Awkuzu, Oyi local government area of Enugu State.

The Emeritus Professor of Statistics and Mathematics at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) hailed from Abba, Njikoka local government area of Anambra State.

The first Nigerian Professor of Statistics celebrated his 88th birthday on March 1.

Adichie was a member of International Statistical Institute (ISI) since 1978 and member, Governing Council of (ISI) 1985-1987.

Cuomo: Trump should apologize for "reprehensible" tweet

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday called President Trump's Tweet promoting conspiracy theories about an elderly protester who was hospitalized after being shoved to the ground by police in Buffalo "reprehensible."

"President Trump did a tweet today that surprises me — even after all the tweets that he has done," Cuomo said at his daily press briefing. The governor said he was shocked and disgusted by the president's suggestion that the 75-year-old man is an "ANTIFA provocateur" and may have been trying to "set up" law enforcement.

Video of the incident shows the man, Martin Gugino, being pushed backwards and falling to the ground, bleeding from the head as numerous police officers walk past him. Two Buffalo police officers were charged with second-degree assault following the incident, and have pleaded not guilty.

Speaking about the president's tweet, Cuomo said, "It's all made up, it's all fabricated, there's no fact to any of it," calling it a "reprehensible, dumb comment."

Tamika Mallory: 'Movement begins again' when the officers charged with killing George Floyd head to court

The protests against police brutality stemming from the death of George Floyd will eventually die down nationwide, according to 

Activist Tamika Mallory, but the next inflection point for demonstrators will come as the Minneapolis officers charged in relation to his killing head to court. 

Mallory, co-founder of Until Freedom, an intersectional social justice organization, and a co-chair of the Women’s March on Washington in 2017, said in an interview with Yahoo News that, after 11 straight days of protests, there comes a time that demonstrators should be able to go home, but that there is also more work to be done.

“In this particular moment, I believe that protesters should go home,” Mallory said. “We should be able to sit back and say, ‘OK, we’ve got a small victory here, and now I need to protect myself from COVID-19.’ … But then when it’s time for the court cases, and those officers are going to court, the police will be showing up. We have to be there as well. We need to be outside those courts. We need to make sure busloads, carloads, trainloads are showing up. So the movement begins again.”

Burna Boy Goes Platinum In France With 'Be Honest'

The Nigerian star continues to make his name known across the world.

Nigerian singer-songwriter Burna Boy has done it again. This time firing up the French music scene by being certified as platinum in France, according to twitter.

The singer achieved this feat with his second collaboration with British artist Jorja Smith, 'Be Honest' released in 2019. The Grammy-nominated artist released the music video for the track in 2019 with a bang, and has now proven the track to be as good as his fans originally thought.

source: okayafrica