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Yesterday, Justice Jude Okeke of the FCT High Court, Maitama, Abuja, dismissed a defamation lawsuit which Tony Ogbulafor filed against Emeka Ugwuonye. The case is TONY OGBULAFOR V. EMEKA UGWUONYE, FCT/HC/CV/1147/2017. You may recall that Tony Ogbulafor filed two defamation lawsuits against Emeka Ugwuonye. One he filed on behalf of David Aiyedegbon and then he filed another one on his personal behalf claiming that Emeka Ugwuonye defamed him in a post made on DPA wall. He was seeking damages of 10 billion naira against Emeka Ugwuonye. There is no problem in suing Emeka Ugwuonye provided you play it in accordance with the law.  But David and Tony are crocked men. They never play according to the law. So, while Emeka has been in detention, they knew that Emeka was unavailable to defend the cases and that it would compound his legal costs if he were to fight the cases all at the same time. Emeka requested them to give him time to come out to face them in court. But they refused and wanted to get a technical knockout against Emeka while he was in detention. Emeka showed Tony Ogbuluafor how the game of law is played. Emeka didn't even bother to deny the allegations of Ogbulafor. He gave them a false hope of easy victory. He knew they would behave like the proverbial monkeys that came upon a jar of palmwine in the middle of the forest. They would get excited and drink themselves to stupor and sleep off, and the hunter would come and put them in his kill-bag one by one. That was exactly what happened. Even without any thing filed by Emeka Ugwuonye, they lost Tony's part of the case completely. The judge told them that they could not show that what DPA wrote on DPA wall was untrue. If you recall, it was reported that Tony, acting on behalf of David, was seen handing an envelope of money to the police for them to interrogate Emeka Ugwuonye over the information he released concerning Chacha's case. They were disgraced in court yesterday. Emeka sent a lawyer to be in Court just to monitor the outcome. Emeka didn't bother at all. He was always confident that if the Court were to follow the law, Tony and David would run into the rock. And it came to pass that their suit was dismissed after 3 years of trying to intimidate Emeka. The judge told them that they went into a boxing match with a man whose legs were shackled and his hands tied behind, and that man still defeated them. Emeka laughed so hard when the news reached him in prison. He is confident that all the cases his enemies filed would end up like this. If you like this news, this will be the right time to send your New Year gift to our Founder. You should be able to afford a bottled water for him at least.  Chop knuckles.

Home is your place of abode, where you reside or where you live. Your house is a building that belongs to you or which you own. Sometimes, your house may also be your home. Some other times, the house you use as your home may in fact belong to someone else (your landlord). Your right to your home is more closely protected by law than your right to your house, though your right to your house is longer in duration than the right to your home. One of the most important rights to your home, which you may not have to your house is called the right to peaceful enjoyment or right to habitability. Your home must be peaceful, enjoyable and habitable. But not necessarily so with respect to your house. Your house is still your house, even if it is not enjoyable, or even if it is uncompleted house or even if there is no running water in it. But your home has to be habitable. Sometimes, the place you call home may be a place another person calls his house. Let us assume your right to the home collides with the other person's right to the house. Where am I going with this? DPA is presently handling a case where a man said to his wife: "Pack out of my house!". And the woman started packing. As she packed, she called DPA and we had to come in. In fact, I just finished talking with her and the "owner" of the house. We reason it like this: even if the house is the man's house (alone), the fact is that that house is the woman's home. Since the man is claiming as the owner of the house, fine, the woman is claiming it as her home. Her rights are that of peaceful enjoyment of a habitable, safe and secure home. The man should leave the house immediately because his presence there makes the house unhabitable and unenjoyable to the woman. For now, let us deal with the peaceful enjoyment of the place (as a home) and later, we will deal with the ownership issues as a house. No man has the right in law to tell his wife to pack out because it is his house. That house is her home. She is not a trespasser or a visitor or guest that you allowed into your house for few days. That's her home. And she has right to peaceful enjoyment of her home. If your husband tells you to pack out of "his house", call DPA. It may not really be his house alone. It may be the house of both of you. But in any event, even if it is his house, it is your home, and as such you ought to have the right of peaceful enjoyment of your home. Never agree to pack out of your home regardless of who owns the house.

In Nigeria, there are many tribes. They hate one another. They envy one another and they seek to harm one another. Their failure to love, support and cooperate with one another has set the country of Nigeria backward. But the Nigerian tribes are not only the traditional ones we always knew - the Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, etc. There is an emerging new tribe. It is the tribe of Nigerians outside Nigeria, as against Nigerians in Nigeria. Hatred and mutual rivalry between Nigerians in Nigeria and Nigerians in Diaspora is a matter you can easily observe. You may not have thought about it. But there is now this new Nigerian tribe. In the 1950s through 1970, Nigerians traveled overseas to get advanced education with intention to return. So, they never crested a steady and permanent tribe of Nigerians in Diaspora. But now, Nigerians emigrate with intention to become permanently overseas based. Thus, we can speak of Nigerians permanently overseas. The same rivalry among Nigerian tribes apply between Nigerians in Nigeria and Nigerians outside Nigeria. There is an incredible envy. Those outside Nigeria occasionally see how those they left in Nigeria 30 years ago have become governors, senators, and very rich from public office-holding, while they worked so hard overseas only to end up less wealthy than their poorly educated cousins that went into politics in Nigeria. This became more clearly after 1999 political transition in Nigeria. In 1999 when the military had their last transition to civil rule. Nobody in his right mind believed that the military were serious about handing over power to a civilian government. So, only the unemployed and unemployable were willing to respond to the military governments call for civilian participation in politics. The transition went through and the unemployed and unemployable became governors and ministers, to the chagrins of the better educated and employed people, especially those who were based overseas. At the same time Nigerians in Nigeria envy their cousins in America and other major countries of the world for their knowledge and urbane existence. This rivalry is so vicious and you see how the two groups undermine each other.  There are certain attitudinal dynamics between the two groups. They have divergent interests and are needlessly opposed. Each group even has pejorative terms for each other. Perhaps we need to study this phenomenon more closely and seek new ways to improve understanding and cooperation. There is definitely need to organize the Nigerian Diaspora.

We all spend a lot of time on social media both for fun and for work. For the physical world, most of us grew up receiving various instructions from parents and relatives on how to deal with people. You are told not to trust strangers, not to follow people you don't know well into a lonely place, not to accept things from strangers, etc. We grew up more or less informed about risks we face in the street or the physical world. But we do not receive similar instruction in respect of the social media world. Many of us still do not understand the social media world and the unique risks we face in it. In the physical world, like in the streets, you know you can be mugged, you can be robbed, you can be raped, you can be assaulted, you can be killed. Also, we are able to assess our unique disposition to certain risks, and prepare to avoid them. Example, a beautiful and attractive young woman knows not to work alone in a strange neighborhood. Also, in the physical world, we are conscious of time element to risk. Example, being out late in the night exposes you to more risks. But in the social media world, not only are we unable to understand the unique risks we face, we are ill prepared to deal with those risks. The truth, however, is that we face even greater risks in the social media world than we do in the real world. Just as there are people out to harm you in the physical world, there are more people out to harm you more in the social media world. So, you really need to understand this and develop some means of protecting yourself. The harms or dangers you face in the social media are not only that someone would scam you and obtain money from you or that someone will lure you with lies into a position where he can harm you physically. These kind of dangers are easily detectable these days. However, there is a type of danger you face in the social media which is difficult to detect. It has to do with emotional harm. Your emotional wellbeing is very important and quite essential for your overall good health. We are all entitled to feel happy, contented and satisfied with our lives and to feel hopeful and confident about the future. If we often have to feel sad, angry, frustrated and restless and insecure about our lives and our future, we will not be in good health. Indeed, persistent emotional stress can reduce your life span and lead to early death. So, the most harmful people to avoid in social media are those who make it their duty to make your life miserable and to take away your happiness. There are very many such people in the social media. Indeed, social media encourages such bad people to hide behind the anonymity of the social media to try to harm you. They derive pleasure in harming you. They roam around the social media looking for someone to harm. Such people are usually miserable and insecure people. They believe they can cure their own misery if they can make you miserable too. I can give you example of this with my own experience. To protect some DPA Admins from some vicious emotional vampires, we decided to use the page name Rambo. We can direct DPA without allowing the vampires to reach our wives, husbands and children to harass them. So, whenever you read from Rambo, all you can be sure of is that you are reading from DPA Admins, but you cannot be sure the particular Admin. That way, we don't feel personally hurt when the emotional vampires seek for blood to suck. Yet, despite the fact that they don't know for sure which Admin they are dealing with, the vampires will still leave the substance of the post and go for the person of the poster. They don't know where the poster lives, but they try to assume he lives in Nigeria. They don't know the educational and professional background of the poster, but they want to tell him that he is not an expert in this or that. But if you don't know who the particular Rambo is, you have to agree that you really cannot tell about his expertise: you must deal only with the content of his post. A good person will focus on what is on the post and determine whether it is true or false or reasonable or unreasonable. But the emotional vampire will ignore the post and focus on the poster, his tribe, his religion, whether he is a Democrat, where he lives, who he likes or don't like and whether he might have accepted money to express a particular view. For instance, when you accuse me of having received money from APC or Buhari for the view I express or when you accuse me of supporting terrorism because I held the view that an American President needed Congressional approval to use military force or when you accuse me of hating Trump just because I disagree with his policy: when you do this, what do you think you are doing? You are just being an emotional vampire seeking to make me unhappy and to drain me emotionally. How do you protect yourself against the emotional vampires on the social media? Avoid them at all cost. Don't engage them. I am lucky to be an Admin in DPA. It means I don't have to go to any other group to socialize. I can socialize here. And as an Admin I can effectively avoid a vampire without having to leave the stage for him. Now you have to understand why I do not hesitate to eliminate any vampire I come across in this group. Once I detect that you derive pleasure in draining people emotionally, seeking to make them sad and miserable: once I detect that, I want to keep you far away from our group. So, for all of you, learn to stay away from the vampires that roam around the social media. Never allow them to drain you emotionally. Never allow them to suck your blood. They will make you sad, miserable and sick. Throw them out. Don't bother to argue with them. In DPA, you can disagree with my view. You can disagree with my analysis. You can disagree with my conclusions. Your disagreement makes me happy. But once you leave my views, my analysis or my conclusions, and start focusing negatively on my personality, you are a distant history. We know what we are doing.

On Saturday, December 28, 2019, the police from the FCT Abuja Command arrested four men at the scene of robbing a bank in Mpape, Abuja. That was the proper thing to do, and we commend the police for the arrests. On Tuesday, December 31, 2019, the police paraded the four men before the press and the public. Also, the police obtained confessional statements from the men. Having observed the pictures, DPA has noticed that there is no evidence that the men were tortured. Again, we commend the police for not using torture to extract information from the suspects. The world shall recall that the reason DPA criticized the police as regards the parading of Paul Jekwu Ezeugwu and Emmanuel Adogah in the case of Charity Aiyedegbon was because the two men were tortured and there was visible evidence of torture at the time they were paraded. Even without any evidence of the use of torture in the instant case, DPA maintains that the use of torture by the Nigerian police in other cases is against the law and against international practice. We had in the past criticized the police for the use of torture. DPA is pleased to think that Police Commissioner Bala Ciroma is beginning to listen to voices like DPA's by not using torture in the instant case. A police officer well trained in the art of interrogation should be able to obtain information and investigate a crime without resorting to torture. And this appears to have been the case here. However, DPA has one reservation as regards the police handling of this case since the men were arrested. How come that the men were paraded and confession obtained without any indication that the men had the services of lawyers? The men ought to have lawyers in order for the confessions they gave to withstand any challenge from their lawyers in court. If these men had no lawyers and confessional statements were obtained from them and they have been paraded, then the police have shown incompetence because they run the risk of having the entire confession thrown out of court and the men may not be convicted in the end. That is why it is important that the police should follow the procedure set out for handling of suspects. The Nigerian police, particularly the FCT Command, have notoriously ignored proper procedure in the handling of suspects. As a result, the conviction rate achieved by the police is less than 10%. That is to say, out of every ten suspects they charge to court, they are able to convict less than one. Unfortunately, the police blame this on the judges and they resort to extra judicial killings to compensate for their incompetence. DPA therefore calls upon CP Bala Ciroma to promptly charge these men to court. We are concerned that increasingly, Nigerian police treat the parading of suspects as an equivalent to proper prosecution. They quickly parade suspects and then detain them and not take them to trial. There is something particularly disturbing about the parading of these men. Why parade them and disclose their confessional statement when you had not arrested all those involved in the crime? It raises questions about the purpose of the parading. It seems to be more for cheap publicity for the police than for a genuine or proper law enforcement effort. In any event, since these men have been paraded, the police have no reason not to charge them to court immediately. Any claim that investigation has not been completed is not a valid reason not to charge them to court. Besides, if it was okay to parade them (even when their arrest was highly publicized) and to disclose their confessional statements, the police should be ready to charge them to court. We are concerned that if the police don't handle this case well, they will compromise it and it will become like other cases that never went to court despite public parading. Example is the case of those who confessed to killing Air Marshal Alex Badeh. Those men confessed and were paraded twelve months ago, but have not been charged to court.

The DPA organization in Nigeria reacted positively to the arrest of some armed robbery suspects in Mpape Abuja on 27th December 2019. About 5 armed men attacked a First Bank branch office in a bid to rob. But a combined team of security forces responded to the scene and foiled the attack while arresting 4 of the men and killing one. This was according to media report. Reacting to this incident, DPA issued the following statement on its social media handle. DPA RESPONDS TO THE ARREST OF ARMED ROBBERY SUSPECTS IN MPAPE ABUJA We commend the police for foiling the attempted robbery in Mpape, Abuja, on December 27, 2019, and for the arrest of the suspects. We appreciate the courage and bravery it takes for the police to confront and successfully subdue an armed suspect. Every officer involved in arresting the suspects deserves commendation and even a raise. As the police have acted to enforce the law, we urge them to continue to act within the law. The police must now conduct full and professionally sound investigation and charge the suspects to court where we expect they will be convicted and sentenced accordingly. It is only the Court of law that can determine who is guilty and what punishment to allocate to that person. And where the punishment is death, only the Court can pronounce such punishment. If the mob does it, it is called jungle justice. If the police does it, it is called atrocity or extra-judicial killing. DPA opposes jungle justice, atrocities and extra-judicial killings. We encourage every citizen of this country to support the police. We also urge the police to follow the law and due process in investigating this case. So, no torture, and no forced confession. If the police remain professional in their handling of this case, they will get the evidence they need to convict the suspects without engaging in any improper conduct as officers. And it is by following due process that the truth will be vindicated. Again, commendations to the officers.   NOTE: The Due Process Advocates Foundation (DPA) was Founded by Ephraim Emeka Ugwuonye, Esquire

Securing the rights of individuals within the law is a key way to secure the stability of the country. As long as DSS can arrest people and detain them against court orders, as long as the police can frame up people and bribe judges to detain them based on trumped up charges: as long as these can happen on a system level basis, it will be legitimate to seek a break up of the country. So, inadvertently or due to lack of strategic thinking, DSS and the police and other Nigerian security forces have done more than anyone else to push Nigeria toward a breakup. And given the level of these problems in Nigeria, it is almost inevitable that Nigerian leaders cannot govern Nigeria as one country. Thus conclusion is based on their inability to secure the basic rights and freedoms of the individuals and communities. Understanding that the breakup of Nigeria is tending toward an existential necessity, rather than a mere ego-tripping exercise is the key to progress. It is inevitable and it is a necessity. If one understands so, then the focus shall be on how to manage that process rather than on the costly, but doomed effort to stop the unstoppable. This strategic knowledge is something that both those who will lead the breakup and those who will try to oppose it should have. On the part of those who want the breakup, they need this knowledge to understand the best terms and conditions on which they will achieve their aim. On the part of those who would try to resist the breakup, they need it in order to understand the best terms and conditions that can be negotiated. It is all for the efficient management of an inevitable breakup. In fairness to all sides, the question could still be asked: is the breakup inevitable? The answer is that there is no realistic alternative to a breakup. Breakup of Nigeria can be pursued on the basis of administrative efficiency if not on the basis of ethnic justice. Constantly declaring that Nigeria one united or indivisible country is actually a mockery to human intelligence, when done in face of mounting evidence to the contrary. In conclusion, the leaders of both the Nigerian police and DSS have done more than IPOB to push Nigeria toward a breakup.

Securing the rights of individuals within the law is a key way to secure the stability of the country. As long as DSS can arrest people and detain them against court orders, as long as the police can frame up people and bribe judges to detain them based on trumped up charges: as long as these can happen on a system level basis, it will be legitimate to seek a break up of the country. So, inadvertently or due to lack of strategic thinking, DSS and the police and other Nigerian security forces have done more than anyone else to push Nigeria toward a breakup. And given the level of these problems in Nigeria, it is almost inevitable that Nigerian leaders cannot govern Nigeria as one country. Thus conclusion is based on their inability to secure the basic rights and freedoms of the individuals and communities. Understanding that the breakup of Nigeria is tending toward an existential necessity, rather than a mere ego-tripping exercise is the key to progress. It is inevitable and it is a necessity. If one understands so, then the focus shall be on how to manage that process rather than on the costly, but doomed effort to stop the unstoppable. This strategic knowledge is something that both those who will lead the breakup and those who will try to oppose it should have. On the part of those who want the breakup, they need this knowledge to understand the best terms and conditions on which they will achieve their aim. On the part of those who would try to resist the breakup, they need it in order to understand the best terms and conditions that can be negotiated. It is all for the efficient management of an inevitable breakup. In fairness to all sides, the question could still be asked: is the breakup inevitable? The answer is that there is no realistic alternative to a breakup. Breakup of Nigeria can be pursued on the basis of administrative efficiency if not on the basis of ethnic justice. Constantly declaring that Nigeria one united or indivisible country is actually a mockery to human intelligence, when done in face of mounting evidence to the contrary. In conclusion, the leaders of both the Nigerian police and DSS have done more than IPOB to push Nigeria toward a breakup.

The woman caught in viral video attempting to kill a young girl that happened to be her maid has been arrested. Her name is Amaka Otolehi from Ngor-Okpala in Imo State. She is married to Nkem Otolehi. The girl in question is Peace Goewam (from Jos) while Jonathan Goewam is her uncle that gave her to the Otolehi family. They all appear in the pictures below. To determine what should happen to the woman, we have to be clear as to what happened and what we saw on that video. It is clear that the woman (Amaka Otolehi) attempted to kill the girl (Peace Goewam). We shall use her action to infer her intent. It is important that Amaka be stopped from killing Peace or any other child. It is also important that we send a message to all other women like Amaka that the society will not allow anybody to try what Amaka did. How best do we achieve these two objectives? The state needs to prosecute Amaka and send her to jail upon conviction. This is the very minimum that should happen. But there are other adults involved in this. Mr. Nkem Otolehi lives in the same house with Amaka and Peace. He has seen Amaka maltreat Peace. Even though he had a duty to protect Peace and to restrain Amaka, he failed to perform those duties. That is criminal negligence and abuse of a child. The society needs to wake him up to his duties and send a message to all men like Nkem. They are equally guilty if they fold their arms and watch their wives abuse minor children in their care. Also, Nkem and Amaka are not fit to be entrusted with the care of children. If Nigeria had foster care system, all minor children of Nkem and Amaka should be taken away from them and placed in foster care. Another adult to be dealth with is the uncle of Peace (Jonathan Goewan) who gave her away to Amaka and Nkem. Given the presumed age of Peace, that transfer of a minor violates the rules of NAPTIP. It constitutes trafficking. The uncle should be arrested and prosecuted for that. Peace should be returned to her parents or close relatives capable of caring for her. The worst thing to happen is to allow Amaka to become famous from her evil deed. One is discouraged to see her in these pictures without her being in handcuffs. The police must understand that serious crimes have been committed and there ought to be consequences. Finally, organizations like DPA should organize seminars and training programs to teach women about the rights of minors in their care, including their own children. An average woman should have a formal training in the law against child abuse.

Contrary to what many may assume, the prison or correctional center, as it is now called, is a community of its own, despite certain obvious restrictions.

Tomorrow is the Christmas. Can you imagine what Christmas in prison is like? It may shock you, but the prison community will not be as much of a difference than what we have outside the prison. The prison community will have church activities. The Cardinal of Abuja will celebrate mass and have many events in the prison tomorrow. Many people from outside the prison will like to attend the Christmas events taking place in the prison. The prison inmates have their various organizations or clubs and each will be holding Christmas event. DPA decided to add to the fun of Christmas for the inmates. We had planned to deliver food to the inmates. We had planned to deliver cooked food in take-away dishes. But on a second thought, we realized that it will be fun if the inmates were allowed to cook the food and distribute among themselves. So, we decided to deliver the food, including goats, chicken and the rest. Today, our team was in the prison to deliver a beautiful goat in addition to other items needed. Some additional ingredients will get there in the morning. We understand that the inmates are so excited about this. They have broken themselves into task forces - one to kill and process the meat, another to cook, another to distribute the food and the drinks. It seems it will be a great fun for them. All the warders on duty will also enjoy. We are happy we are able to put smiles on the faces of as many as possible prison inmates. We are also grateful to our members who contributed to this project. God will bless you all. Merry Christmas! The goat in the picture is part of the items delivered to the inmates today. What a beautiful animal.