Nigeria: Gunmen Kidnap Two-Year-Old Girl in Akwa Ibom

Uyo — Three unidentified gunmen on Wednesday abducted a two-year old girl, little Miss Patience Essiet, in Ukat, Nsit Ubium Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

Narrating the ugly experience, the mother of the abducted girl, Ms. Affiong Tommy said the gunmen, who also brandished machetes, broke into her apartment through the back door at about 4am on Wednesday and made away with her daughter.

She explained that the hoodlums first broke into her brother's room, kicked him on the leg and commanded him to lie still, adding that they even threatened to kill him if he tried to raise any alarm or move away from the scene.

The gunmen, she further explained, left her brother's room and moved straight into her room, where she and her daughter were sleeping and despite their plain clothes, claimed to be police officers who had been sent by their Divisional Police Officer (DPO) to conduct a drug search in their house.

In her words "we heard when they hit our backdoor open with axe. They were three, brandishing guns, machetes and axes. They first entered my brother's room, we though they were thieves. They beat him and asked him to lie still as they threatened to shoot him if he tried to move away from the room or shout.

"Two of them came into our room and immediately they saw my baby, they grabbed her. I tried to struggle with them to rescue my baby from their grips, and when they noticed that they were not having it easy with me, they slammed my back and that of my mother with machetes. They also pointed guns at our foreheads as we fell on the floor. I saw my baby being taken away in front of me.

"None of us were able to chase them after they had left with my baby. We were not able to go out to identify what vehicle they came with; besides the darkness, my brother, mother and I were on the floor trying to regain consciousness from the beatings.

"They claimed to be police officers, why did they force our backdoor open at the ungodly hour of 4am? Where have they gone with my child? Let them not kill my child-o!" she cried out.

Tommy however said that the gunmen did not take anything from the house apart from her baby.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Akwa Ibom State Command, Mr. Etim Dickson confirmed the incident and assured that the police is making efforts to rescue the child.

"It is true. We are making efforts to rescue her", he assured.

Namibia: Endangered Kunene Lion Killed

A RARE male desert lion that has been a valuable source of information for a lion research project in the Kunene Region was killed over the past weekend.

The lion, which was called the 'Terrace Male', was found dead near Tomakas, a village between Purros and Sesfontein, on Sunday, it was reported on the website of the Desert Lion Conservation Project yesterday.

The satellite collar with which the lion had been fitted to record its movements was found burnt about 100 metres from the animal's carcass. The collar last transmitted data on the animal's whereabouts at 12h33 on Sunday.

The Terrace Male, which was given the research title 'Xpl-68', was with a pride of lionesses from the Okongwe area south-east of Purros when he was killed.

Lion researcher Flip Stander, who started the Desert Lion Conservation Project in 1998, said that data from their satellite collars showed that the Okongwe females immediately moved into the northern Okongwe Mountains, possibly due to the disturbance caused by the killing of Xpl-68.

The lion's carcass and burnt collar were found after two vehicles had been sent to the last location recorded by the Terrace Male's satellite collar when it was noticed that the collar had stopped transmitting data.

"It would appear that the people responsible for killing the Terrace Male wanted to hide the evidence," Stander said.

The Terrace Male was born during November 2007. After being fitted with a satellite collar, the lion gained a reputation for its roaming over distances of hundreds of kilometres in Kunene. During August 2012 the Terrace Male was recorded crossing over the Kunene River from Namibia into Angola, where it spent about two weeks before returning across the river to Namibia.

The killing of another male lion in the same area where the Terrace Male met his end appears to have set the stage for the killing of Xpl-68 as well.

Stander recorded on the project's website that after the lion known as 'Rosh' or Xpl-73 was shot on 1 July, the Terrace Male started to explore areas previously used by Xpl-73 and the Okongwe lionesses. That, however, also brought the Terrace Male into danger, since he came into closer contact with humans and livestock.

"[T]he Okongwe lions are well-adapted to living close to people and their livestock. They are cautious and distrustful of vehicles and people, whereas Xpl-68 is naive and oblivious to the dangers," it was stated on the project's website on 16 August.

In an effort to get the Terrace Male away from potential conflict with humans, he was relocated to the Hoanib River area further south of Purros in mid-July.

By the end of July, though, he had moved back to the area previously used by Xpl-73, and was in danger again.

Stander said the killing of the Terrace Male was an unfortunate development because the incident could stimulate a public outcry that may question many fundamental aspects of the conservation, communal conservancy and tourism efforts in the region.

The website of the project says that the value of the unique desert lions is of great significance to the Namibian tourism industry, hence the need to ensure the long-term conservation of the lions.

Stander said the killing is being investigated.

JOHANNESBURG – Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has described both the leaking of her private letter to President Jacob Zuma and the publishing of it as "not in the public interest" and said it would lead to "a climate of distrust".

Madonsela held a briefing on Thursday afternoon to clarify her position following days of public conflict between the ANC and her office.

Madonsela says she wants to explain how her office deals with investigations, and to clarify her office's understanding of the country's constitutional democracy. On Wednesday the ANC accused the Public Protector of failing to do her job correctly. General Secretary Gwede Mantashe accused Madonsela of abusing her office after a letter Madonsela wrote to Zuma was published in Sunday newspapers.

We are not walking through the forest without a trail – the path of constitutional democracy has been traipsed for 20 years.

She had written to Zuma last week asking when and if he intended to pay back some of the money spent on security upgrades at his Nkandla residence in KwaZulu-Natal.

This was after her office found that Zuma should pay back some of the excessive spending on his property. He had dodged this by telling Parliament that police Minister Nathi Nhleko should decide if he should pay back any money.

Madonselsa said on Thursday that the current conflict and problems were not insurmountable.

She said her letter had been leaked by a senior politician and that the publishing of it had been "improper".

"In my respectful view it not only compounds the problem but highlights issues of mistrust.

"We are far from Paul Kruger’s label of scrutiny as the devil’s principle. But we are not walking through the forest without a trail – the path of constitutional democracy has been traipsed for 20 years," Madonsela said.

She added that her engagements with Zuma over the past five years had been good.

"His office has assisted mine. And there never was drama. There has never been any drama or lack of assistance on any investigation," she said.

The current drama, she said, was over a personal letter. The leaking and reaction of which amounted to interference with her office.

"So what do we do now?" she asked, stating that the current noise was "not coming from Government as an institution".

"My process has always been sobre and evidence-based," she said, asking that stakeholders respect boundaries.

Lesotho: Forced into Marriage

By Thandaza* (Not her real name)

Sometimes one would think that it is a punishment to be a woman from the things that our societies did or still do to us. I am a mother of four, three boys and a girl. I am 49 and go by the name Thandaza. I got married when I was at the very tender age of 15 and I was forced to marry a man much older than me. I had to leave school and get married.

My husband's people came to my parents to ask for my hand in marriage, he was a man who worked at the mines and was very rich because he had many cattle and a herd of sheep. We lived in the same village. My father planned to accept his marriage proposal without my knowledge because he knew that I loved my education and would never leave it for any marriage regardless of how rich the suitor was.

My father accepted the bride price and arranged everything for me to get married, but that day they did not succeed, because I ran away. My father was fed up to the extent that he told my mother that he did not want to see me in his house.

I lived like an animal in my father's house and did not attend school well, I was ordered to do hard jobs so that I would go but not come back soon. The man that father agreed could marry me was on leave and when I went to fetch water he would follow me with dogs to the well and try to force me to go with him but I did not agree and when I told my mother she would say that he is my husband I have to follow him, that is how she got married to my father. I had no one to cry to.

One day when I was on my way back from school it was winter and the sun went down quickly, when we were going to our village we walked through a donga, immediately when we were about to go up I heard someone call me.

When I looked it was him, he asked what I was doing going to school although I was already married. I got angry and told him that he did not marry me but my father. He also became angry and told me he would show me that he had married me not my father. He took me down, I tried to fight with anger but I failed. He raped me and told me to go home and tell my parents and hear what they had to say. I went home angry and did not tell my parents about it.

He went back to work and after two months I found out that I was pregnant, actually my mother noticed first and told my father about and then my father called me a woman and told me that he would not live under the same roof with two women.

My so-called husband was informed and he said it was high time that I came to live with him because he did not want his child to be raised in other peoples' houses. I stopped going to school because I was indeed a woman, no longer a girl. I was humiliated before my friends and age mates to the extent that I did not want to meet any of them. The pregnancy forced me into my husband's house.

The day I entered this man's house I saw misery and suffered humiliations. He did not raise his hand to me but he just did not care, he only came to me when he wanted food and that was when I realised that he was a heavy drinker. I never had peace with this man until one day he came home from work earlier than expected. He had lost the job, after that, he seemed to know that I was a person and I could eat decent food with my baby.

He now showed me love and I kind of felt pity for him and I grew to accept him as part of my life. My husband now works for a construction company and he makes a lot of money to take care of us. As for me my dream was shattered in my face when I dropped out of school for marriage. It was hectic but I finally succumbed to the situation because there was nothing to be done about it.

I now live happily with my husband, even though it took me a long time to understand why my father did what he did. I never thought that my own father would hate me that much to the extent of forcing me into marriage. I never understood why, the man was rich, yes, but his riches were neither mine nor my father's.

Gardener kidnapped and beaten for information

JOHANNESBURG – In under 40 seconds, a gardener raking leaves on the verge of a suburban home in southern Joburg was grabbed by kidnappers, wrestled into a vehicle and driven away.
The incident was captured on a CCTV camera mounted on the wall of an Oakdene home on Monday afternoon, showing how the man was grabbed by armed men who robbed him of the gate remote and side gate key to the property.
The four assailants took the gardener – who has worked for the homeowner every Monday for the past “six or seven years” – and beat him up while demanding information about his employer and the property.

They manhandled him badly and forced him to tell them everything. They wanted to know who is in the house, what dogs are there, what cars, everything about alarms and beams, what is in the house.

“They manhandled him badly and forced him to tell them everything. They wanted to know who is in the house, what dogs are there, what cars, everything about alarms and beams, what is in the house,” said the homeowner, who asked to be identified only as “Leon”.
He said his gardener, who was badly traumatised, said he had been taken by four men, two of them with guns.
Leon, who runs a business from home, spotted the incident on his CCTV monitor as it happened, and ran out to help, but was too late.
He reported the incident to Moffat View police and to Stallion Security, the armed response company he is linked to.
“The police and security guys have been fantastic. They patrolled my house all through the night,” said Leon, who believes he is now targeted.
“I have changed the gate lock, we have changed the remote frequency and we are keeping the dogs away from the front of the property because they will probably be poisoned next,” Leon said, explaining that he was readying himself for an armed attack.
“I’m really sick of this. But I want it to go out as a warning to people that this is now happening. They need to be aware and be careful,” he said.
The footage was uploaded onto YouTube by anti-crime initiative e-Blockwatch on Monday night to serve as a warning to suburban residents, showing how quickly their security can be compromised.
Within a short time of the footage being released, another Joburg resident reported that their gardener had been kidnapped in a similar fashion.
Andre Snyman, founder of e-Blockwatch, said the organization was currently offering panic buttons to domestic workers free of charge.
“Security guards and domestic workers are the most vulnerable to intimidation by criminals because they are targeted by people who threaten them and their families if they don’t cooperate,” said Snyman.

Pistoriou's home sold

The silver woods country estate home of murder accused Oscar Pistorious has been sold for R 4.5 million. He has sold the house so as to pay murder trial case.