Michael Jordan to donate $100m towards racial equality and justice

Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand have announced that they will donate $100 million to assist in the ongoing fight against racial injustice.

The NBA star made this known in a joint statement released by his manager, Estee Portnoy. He said that over the next 10 years, he and his brand will donate $100 million to "organizations dedicated to ensuring racial equality, social justice and greater access to education." 

The statement from Michael Jordan read :

"Jordan Brand is more than one man. It has always been a family," the statement begins. "We represent a proud family that has overcome obstacles, fought against discrimination in communities worldwide and that works every day to erase the stain of racism and the damage of injustice."

It continues, "The will, the work, the excellence the world has come to know is the result of one generation after another, pouring their dreams into the next. It's 2020, and our family now includes anyone who aspires to our way of life. Yet as much as things have changed, the worst remains the same."

Joe Biden to run against Trump in presidential election

Joe Biden, who is the former Vice President of the United States has secured the delegates needed to win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. 

He clinched the nomination which is to hold on the first ballot at the August convention, by crossing the threshold of 1,991 delegates.

We have reports that Joe Biden who took a commanding delegate lead in mid-March and after Vermont's Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race in early April, confirmed this in a statement released on Friday night. .

The former Vice President under Barack Obama's administration, tweeted : 

"Folks, tonight we secured the 1,991 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination. I'm going to spend every day fighting to earn your vote so that, together, we can win the battle for the soul of this nation.

It was an honour to compete alongside one of the most talented groups of candidates the Democratic party has ever fielded and I am proud to say that we are going into this general election a united party."

Zoro flatly denies rape allegations against him

Popularly known as Zoro, Nigerian rapper, Owoh Chimaobi Chrismathner has come out to flatly deny the allegations of rape that were levelled against him.

It can be recalled that in the wake of the ongoing call-outs of sexual molesters by their victims, a lady known as Yachit called Zoro out for allegedly raping her in 2015.

Yachit, whose Instagram handle is @mystic_sweetness went to her Instagram page to accuse the rapper of forcefully having sex with her back in 2015.

In a lengthy post shared on his Instagram page on Saturday, June 6, 2020, the rapper denied raping the young lady.

According to him, he wonders why the said young lady is trying to accuse him falsely and what she hopes to gain from the allegations. Zoro wrote,

"Rape is such a nasty act, that I will never ever take partake in it or be involved with anybody that rapes, I even find it difficult to say the word. I feel really terrible that someone has accused me of the act. 

I do not know exactly why she is doing what she is doing. I forgive and I pray God forgives her too, but because this will also hurt people that look up to me, the family brands I work with and fans, I have decided to take legal actions to address this.

I am willing as well to provide legal support to Yachit too so she has proper representation and to make sure there’s no thought of suppression or intimidation.

My team also tried to contact her to understand exactly what her problems are but she labeled it suppression and trying to shut her up which is also false, this one weak me meyne but God Dey. 

To make it clear, I did not rape Yachit. I’m putting this out ahead of my legal team’s statement. Stay careful out there guys ✌🏾".

LASTMA impounds over 1200 vehicles

The General Manager of LASTMA, has disclosed that the agency has impounded 1233 vehicles since the ease of the lockdown. Being specific with numbers, he said that 796 private vehicles and 437 commercial vehicles were impounded within this period.

Oduyoye revealed that the vehicles were impounded from LASTMA's 43 zones and the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Lane Enforcement Unit.

He said that the authority also towed 81 vehicles which broke down on the roads. He added that 46 of the towed vehicles were private and 35 commercial.

“LASTMA is committed to bringing sanity to our roads after the lockdown ease.

We know that people would troop out enmass after lockdown ease and we strategised to ensure free flow of traffic.

The summary of inventory activities for May shows that 1,233 vehicles were impounded for disregard to traffic rules and regulations, and 81 vehicles that broke down were towed by LASTMA to keep traffic flowing.

We will continue to educate motorists and enforce traffic laws. We will continue to clamp down on a situation where some people disobey traffic laws without considering other road users,” he said.

Oduyoye said that 91 vehicles were apprehended for flouting regulations on BRT corridor within the month. He urged motorists to continue to adhere to all transport guidelines and protocols put in place by government to contain spread of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Fayemi - "No more bail for rapists in Ekiti"

Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State has said that no person convicted for sex offence, such as rape in any part of the state would enjoy his powers of prerogative of mercy.

This is coming due to the recent rampant cases of sex abuse in the state. Fayemi made the announcement in Ado Ekiti, while signing the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Child Victims of Sexual Violence Bill 2020 into law.

He directed the State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Wale Fapohunda, to henceforth oppose bail or plea bargaining for rape offenders in the state.

This is coming, just as the Governor, who doubles as the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, (NGF), vowed to mobilize other 35 state Governors, to declare state of emergency on rape.

The governor said that rape often led to untimely deaths and emotional trauma, and was beyond what the government of a particular state can conquer alone.

Fayemi further added that he would use his position as the Chairman of the Governors’ forum to rally support of his colleague governors, on the need to declare state of emergency against the menace in their respective jurisdictions.

Less melanin? Your health could be in danger

Melanin is the pigment that gives skin, hair and eyes their colour,and is much more concentrated in these tissues in populations that inhabit areas nearer the equator. It also holds an important role in the body and protects cells from overexposure and damage by UV rays.

It is a pigment that is produced by cells known as melanocytes in the skin of most animals, including humans. This pigment comes in different shades, depending on the genetic makeup of the individual. It comes in two basic forms and can range from yellowish-red to dark brown.

Eumelanin is the most common form of melanin and is brownish in colour. The other basic form is called pheomelanin, which produces reddish-brown color that is often associated with freckles and red hair. The production of melanin in the individual is determined by several factors:

However, if it provides such a crucial role in the protection of tissues in the body then why doesn’t everyone possess high concentrations of it in their skin? Well, the amount of UVA and UVB reaching the surface of the earth diminishes the further away from the equator meaning it isn't equally distributed.

Culled from Pulse

Gangsters using cabs to operate nabbed

A four man robbery gang which have been using cabs to operate have been nabbed. The members of the robbery squad who pretend to be cab drivers in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, were arrested by the police for dispossessing unsuspecting passengers of valuables.

The suspects, Didi Jolly, Chisom Unegbu, Michael Matthew, and George Ala, were rounded up recently by operatives of Inspector-General of Police, Intelligence Response Team.

It was learnt that Jolly, Ala and Mathew were dropouts from the same secondary school where they also belonged to a cult.

The suspects reportedly picked their victims from different bus stops and robbed them of their belongings as the journey progressed. They would later drop them off and flee.

“They also detained their victims while they took time to withdraw money from their accounts. Three of the suspects were all initiated into a cult group known as Icelander while they were in Junior Secondary School,” a police source said.

In his statement to the police, Holly told of how he joined the cult as a 14-year-old pupil which forced his parents to relocate to their hometown in Cross River.

The 28-year-old said he became homeless as he refused to relocate with his parents, noting that he ended up joining the robbery gang. He said. 

“After my mother and siblings relocated to our hometown in Calabar (Cross River State), things were tough for me. I later met one Gbongbon who allowed me to live in his room. He was the one who introduced me to robbery. 

Recently, we used cabs to rob people. One of us would pretend to be a taxi driver, and pick one or two persons. Two of us would also board the same car and rob the passengers along the way. We collected phones and money from them.”

He said they sold stolen expensive phones between N10,000 and N15,000, adding that he regretted not listening to his mother who consistently begged him to relocate to Calabar.

Ala, who hails from Bonny Island in Rivers State, said he dropped out of school in JSS3 after her parents died within a year interval.

He said that it was at a workshop where he was learning carpentry that he met a fellow apprentice and schoolmate who initiated him into cultism.

The 26-year-old explained that his mother before her death warned him to quit cultism if he did not want his life to be miserable.

“When we started using cabs to rob, I would enter the car as soon as our target entered. It is Gbongbon who made arrangement for all the guns we used during operations. We only used the gun to scare people.”

Unaegbu, a cab driver, who hails from Ehite Mbaise in Imo State, said he was a victim of a broken home, adding that his father allegedly abandoned him and his two siblings. 

He said that what his mother earned as an auxiliary nurse was not enough to take care of the family.

Fresh allegations arise against Buhari over partiality in appointments

Fresh allegations of nepotism against President Muhammadu Buhari are probably indications of how Nigerians feel about him. They feel that the promise he made about inclusive governance in his second term is far from being fulfilled.

Soon after receiving his Certificate of Return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the February 23, 2019, presidential election, President Muhammadu Buhari pledged to run an inclusive government in his second term.

“I, therefore, want to assure that we will continue to engage all parties that have the best interest of Nigerians at heart. Our government will remain inclusive and our doors will remain open. 

That is the way to build the country of our dream; safe, secure, prosperous, and free of impunity and primitive accumulation by those entrusted with public offices.

The hard work to deliver a better Nigeria continues, building on the foundations of peace, rule of law and opportunities for all. We will roll up our sleeves afresh, and give it our all,” the President had said.

A year after President Buhari made the pledge, it appears he has continued to tread the old path, which elicited widespread allegations of nepotism against his administration during his first term. 

The rising clamour for equity and fairness in the polity, especially in the area of appointments, signals the old order still persist.

Towards promoting national unity and cohesion, Section 14 (3) of the 1999 constitution provides that “the composition of the government or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies.”

Section 15 (4) of the constitution also provides that “The state shall foster a feeling of belonging and of involvement among the various peoples of the Federation, to the end that loyalty to the nation shall override sectional loyalties.”

In an open letter to Buhari, former military governor of Kaduna State, Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (retd), warned that lopsided appointments in his government was against the provisions of the Constitution and could spell doom for the country’s unity.

In the letter entitled, “Mr. President, Please Belong To All Of Us”, Umar said unless the Buhari administration changed its style of governance, Nigeria might further be faced with crisis. 

He particularly accused the president of favouring some sections of the country in the headship of the security agencies.

All those who wish you and the country well must mince no words in warning you that Nigeria has become dangerously polarised and risks sliding into crisis on account of your administration’s lopsided appointments, which continues to give undue preference to some sections of the country over others.

Nowhere is this more glaring than in the leadership cadre of our security services. Mr. President, I regret that there are no kind or gentle words to tell you that your skewed appointments into the offices of the Federal Government, favouring some and frustrating others, shall bring ruin and destruction to this nation,” Umar warned.

Umar’s outbursts came on the heels of public outcries over the recent constitution of the Board of Trustees of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (PTF) by President Buhari.

It could be recalled that the President had on May 7, this year, named a former Inspector General of Police, Mr. Suleiman Abba, as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the NPTF.

The president had also appointed Mr. Ahmed Sokoto as the Executive Secretary of the board; Mr. Nnamdi Mbaeri as representative of the Ministry of Police Affairs; Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu, as the representative of Nigeria Police Force; and Mr. Usman Bilkisu as the representative of the Ministry of Justice.

Others are Mr. Ben Akabueze, Director-General of Budget and National Planning as the representative of the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning; Mr. Mansur Ahmed as representative of the organised labour; and Dr. Michael Adebiyi to represent the civil society groups.

The Presidency had said the appointments were in furtherance of the commitment of the Buhari Administration to retooling policing architecture in the country.

Nevertheless, many individuals and groups faulted the membership of the Board, noting that the composition favours a particular section of the country.

National Coordinator of Campaign for Equity, Oliver Akosa, last Tuesday, said Umar’s letter merely reinforced the position of the organisation on the composition of the Board, urging the president to treat the warning by the former military governor with the seriousness it deserves.

Akosa said: “We are delighted that voices of reason are talking and are reinforcing the points we have been making about the refusal of Mr. President to recognise that Nigeria is a federation and should be governed as such. 

Umar particularly referred to the utter imbalance in the headship of security services and warned Mr. President to retrace his steps before Nigeria slides into anarchy.

Umar’s declaration is clearly in line with our earlier position, which drew attention to the lopsidedness in the constitution of the Board of Trustees of the Police Trust Fund, an important security agency of the country. 

While reiterating our position on this anomalous constitution of the PTF board, we wish to add here that cronyism, which the appointment promotes, will deepen the woes of the Nigeria Police Force, which Mr. President, ostensibly, set out to rescue from its sorry state.”

Akosa reminded the President that the raison d’être for the setting up of the PTF as contained in the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Establishment Act 2019 was to retool policing architecture in Nigeria.

He added: “To achieve this, the PTF is expected to ensure a well-funded, well-equipped and highly professional Nigeria Police Force in line with international best practices. 

It was also for the purpose of meeting this objective that President Buhari reestablished the Ministry of Police Affairs. All of this was aimed at reforming policing architecture in order to deepen the country’s internal security.

But we regret to note that the proper policing architecture we are yearning for cannot be realised with the present crop of people, particularly the leadership, who have been appointed by the president to lead the PTF. 

If Mr. President appreciates the full import of federalism, he would not give us a police force whose ministry is headed by someone from Sokoto State and at the same time give us a PTF whose Executive Secretary is from the same Sokoto State. This arrangement smacks of utter disregard for the fine tenets of federalism.”

The Lower Niger Vanguard (LNV) had also faulted the composition of the PTF Board, saying it neither conforms to regional nor zonal balance. The group, which is a coalition of Southern and Middle Belt groups concerned with equity and good governance in Nigeria, urged the President to reconstitute the board, noting that its lopsidedness was a brazen attempt at the domination of the security architecture of the country by one zone. 

National Convener, Mike Melah, had said members of the group felt most scandalised by the arrangement.

“Former Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abbah, from Jigawa State is the chairman of PTF Board of Trustees while Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto from Sokoto State is the Executive Secretary. 

They will be working with the Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, who also comes from Sokoto State.

Then we ask: Whose interest is this arrangement meant to serve? We pose this question because what we have on our hands smacks of over concentration of power in the hands of one segment of the country at the expense of others. 

We wonder what this lopsidedness is aimed at if not a brazen attempt at the domination of the security architecture of the country by one zone.

As a pressure group committed to telling the truth to our leaders in order to get them to do the right thing, we urge President Buhari to change this arrangement. It conforms neither to regional nor zonal balance,” the group said.

On its part, the Alliance for Change through a statement by its National Coordinator, Dandison Oruwari, stated “this arrangement, in whatever way it came about, makes the Nigeria Police Force an instrument in the hands of the Northwest.”

The group noted that if the reason for the establishment of the PTF, as explained by the government, was to ensure a professionally run, well-equipped and well trained police force in line with international best practices, then the government committed a faux pas by concentrating the powers of the national police in the hands of a section of the country.

This arrangement does not also support the plan to reform the Nigeria Police Force. Reformation begins with inclusiveness not exclusiveness. We therefore urge the Presidency to revisit the composition of PTF board,” Oruwari said.

With the increasing calls for fairness, equity and balance in the polity, Nigerians expect President Buhari to be a man of his word and keep to his promise of inclusive governance. With three years to the end of his second term, he still has ample room to do so. Whether he would toe this line would be glaring soon.

US sues Chinese firm over fake N95 masks

The US Department of Justice has sued a Chinese company for selling nearly half a million fake and substandard N95 masks to US buyers. This happened in April as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the country.

In a complaint filed in the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, the department said that the Guangdong-based King Year Packaging and Printing shipped three batches of purported N95 masks, needed to protect medical and other personnel from the coronavirus, to US buyers.

The company falsely claimed the 495,200 masks it shipped were met the N95 standard and also falsely claimed they were certified by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, according to the complaint.

The complaint indicated the importer of the masks paid more than $1 million for them.

“The charges alleged in this complaint show a blatant disregard for the safety of American citizens,” FBI agent Douglas Korneski, who investigated the masks deal, said in a statement.

“Had it not been for the actions of the investigative team, this defendant would have put first responders, hospital employees, and other front line workers directly in harm’s way with faulty equipment just to make a buck.”

The Chinese company was charged with four counts of importing misbranded and substandard health products and making false to the US Food and Drug Administration.

Each charge carries a maximum fine of $500,000, or if greater, twice what the company earned in selling the masks.

63 Zamfara youths intercepted for mining in Osun

A set of 63 youths from the North have been intercepted on their way to mining sites in Ilesha and Ile-Ife. They were stopped in Ikire, Osun State.

The miners whose ages range between 16 and 23 years were packed and hidden in a truck. They were stopped by men of Amotekun Corps on enforcement of border closure in Ikire town.

The Director-General of Amotekun Corps in Osun state, Mr Amitolu Shittu, explained that another 10 youths were stopped after they disembarked from the vehicle that conveyed them to the state.

Shittu said the youths identified themselves as labourers who worked in mining sites in Zamfara State. He added that the youths were heading to mining sites  in Ilesha and Ile-Ife.

“Our men at a roadblock in Ikire intercepted the truck where 53 youths from Zamfara were hiding, and while they were being checked, another 10 youths from the same state who were about to walk past the roadblock  were also stopped."