Michael Ojuroye Initiative (Ngo)

A Niger State magistrate court sitting in Minna, the state capital, has sentenced one Isah Aliyu to five years imprisonment for intending to sell his 9-year-old child for N10m. The 30-year-old man attributed his action to poverty. The incident occurred on November 15 when the buyer, one Mallam Magaji, agreed to buy the child for N7 million. But the buyer promised to pay half of the money and balance at a later date. The father of the child was said to have refused because of his desperation to collect the N7 million at once. After the negotiation, the father agreed to the half payment but, instead of bringing the money, the buyer headed for the police station to report the deal. The police then followed Magaji to the meeting place and arrested Aliyu who was still waiting for the money so that he could hand over his son. Aliyu was charged to court under the clause prohibiting selling of child in the Niger State Child’s Right Act. Aliyu pleaded guilty and was summarily sentenced to ...

French authorities were able to identify the suspect in a series of shootings in Paris thanks to a man who recognized him and approached police Monday, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Thursday. Abdelhakim Dekhar allegedly shot a photographer at the daily newspaper Liberation in Paris on Monday. Dekhar was semiconscious because of medications when he was apprehended Wednesday night, Molins said. He was also linked by DNA samples to bullet shell casings and a car that was seized Monday, according to the prosecutor. That car had been carjacked near the Societe Generale bank towers in the Paris neighborhood of La Defense. Authorities are studying a 15-year-old psychiatric report on Dekhar to try to understand his motivation. The report showed no psychiatric abnormalities, Molins said, though it indicated obsessive tendencies. On Thursday, French President Francois Hollande thanked police for capturing him. It "prevented the worst from happening again," he ...