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AN OPEN LETTER TO DONALD TRUMP by Chief Femi Fani-Kayode

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Fani Kayode

AN OPEN LETTER TO DONALD TRUMP by Chief Femi Fani-Kayode

 

Mr. President, over the last 15 months your country America has subjected the people of Gaza to mass murder, genocide & ethnic cleansing.

You armed, assisted & enabled the State of Israel to murder, by your own admission, hundreds of thousands of innocent Gazan civilians the vast majority of whom were women & children.

 

You turned their once beautiful country into a poisonous, stinking, uninhabitable, burnt flesh-filled, rodent-infested sea of landmines & sulphurus rubble & into an ocean of foul, rotting, verminous body parts.

 

You did this by supplying Israel with the most deadly modern weapons including 2000 pound bombs which they unleashed on a weak, impoverished & defenceless civilian population in what can only be described as the most barbaric slaughter in modern history.

You crushed them in body, spirit & soul.

 

Yet your nation was still not done. As soon as you were sworn into office, to the horror of the civilised world, you declared your insidious intention to displace the 1.6 million Gazans that are still left alive (there were originally 2.5 million) & take over their land in order to develop it into a “prime piece of real estate” & a “beautiful holiday resort” for rich Americans!

 

 

These are the homes & ancestral land of the Palestinian people who have been living there for over 2000 years.

 

This is the land in which their loved ones & families have been caged, butchered & buried by your murderous Zionist friends for the last 76 years.

 

This is the place in which millions of them have fought & died for the last seven decades in order to preserve their honor, dignity, heritage, history & identity & leave something for generations of their children yet unborn.

 

You went further by publicly stating that you were “committed to owning Gaza” & that “we will let other countries develop parts of it: it will be beautiful. People can come from all over the world to live there.”

In conclusion you said “the Palestinians would have no right to return when they leave”.

 

As Ambassador A. M. Shawesh, the Palestinian Ambassador to India rightly said,

“When a real estate developer rules the world no one will be spared, everyone will follow”.

Your lack of empathy for the plight of the women & children of Gaza is appaulling.

 

Your inability to feel their pain & acknowledge their tears betrays the fact that you lack compassion.

You not only want to take the little that is left of it from them but you also want to send the 1.6 million Gazans that have been left alive to Egypt & Jordan (both of whom have outrightly rejected the proposal) & turn their homeland into a holiday spot filled with American hotels, American holiday homes, American escorts & American casinos.

 

You fail to appreciate the fact that to stand with Gaza is to stand with humanity.

 

This sentiment is shared by the majority of nations including Ireland, South Africa, Brazil, China, Russia, Iran & Spain who have taken the lead in this cause.

 

It is not only the Muslims and Arabs that feel this way: His Eminence Pope Francis and the majority of Christians throughout the world do as well.

 

Killing innocent women & children, subjecting them to mass murder, ethnic cleansing & genocide & forcefully displacing them & taking over their land cannot be justified under ANY circumstances.

 

Is this so difficult to comprehend?

 

You will recall that Vice-President Kashim Shettima eloquently stated the unassailable position of the Nigerian people when he said the following at the United Nations General Assembly:

“Today we are all witnesses to the heart-wrenching situation in Gaza & other Palestinian Territories. Justice is antithetical to revenge. Freedom is an inalienable right & a natural entitlement that cannot be denied to any people. The Palestinian people deserve their independence. They deserve to have a home of their own on territories already recognised by this very Assembly & by international law which is being routinely ignored.“

 

His words reflect the position of no less than 149 countries that recognise the State of Palestine as an independent, sovereign nation.

 

I am proud of the fact that my country has taken such a noble stand and, unlike yours, has chosen to stand for peace & justice.

 

 

I have always admired you because of what I believed to be your reverence for God, your Christian values, your stated intention of pulling America out of foreign conflicts, your rapprochement with Russia, China & North Korea, your opposition to the globalists & your support for the nationalists.

 

Again I have always respected you because of the way you stood strong and proud in the face of the persecution that you were subjected to by the Deep State.

Yet despite my respect I am constrained to tell you the truth.

 

This is not the time for platitudes or spouting the cowardly words of a quisling & lickspittle.

 

I must be candid.

 

Permit me to begin by saying that your proposition for Gaza is an expression of unadultetated evil.

 

Whilst others are rightly talking about establishing a two state solution where both the Palestinians & Israelis can live in peace you are talking about America taking over Gaza for itself & forcefully acquiring its offshore gas & oil reserves.

 

Is there no end to your greed? Is your insatiable desire to pillage & steal other people’s land & wipe them off the face of the earth just to gain access to their natural resources not of the devil?

 

Is this not the same thing that your white American forefathers did to the Red Indians?

 

Is this not what Pharaoh, Genghis Khan, Atilla the Hun, Christopher Columbus & Adolf Hitler did to others in their time?

 

Did they not annihilate their victims, driving many into extinction, subject them to a holocaust and take their land?

 

Is it not the same violent, butchering, slaughtering, conquering, plundering & pillaging spirit that drives you all?

Then come your puerile gaffes & brazen threats which are reminiscent of that of a school yard bully.

 

For example when you say things like “all hell will break loose if Hamas does not release all the hostages by Saturday” you betray the fact that you do not know that Hamas is far stronger today in terms of resolve and numbers than it was before October 7th.

 

This came as a consequence of the massive number of Palestinian women & children that were butchered post-October 7th by Israel in the name of retaliation.

 

Hamas have been energised by their quest for vengeance & if they had 10,000 fighters before October 7th they now have at least 200,000.

 

The more innocent Palestinans you kill the stronger Hamas will get.

 

This is why Gaza has been described as the “graveyard of imperialist delusions”.

 

Worse still the “hell” that you threaten to unleash may well engulf Israel and the entire Middle East.

 

Surely an attempt to ensure that the ceasefire is not broken & that negotiations for the release of hostages on all sides continue is better than issuing threats which may well endanger the lives of the very hostages that you are trying to save.

I pray that you cultivate the presence of mind to appreciate this point.

 

Your obsession with meddling in the affairs of other nations & laying claim to their territory, whether it be Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal, the Gulf of Mexico, South Africa, Colombia or Gaza is symptomatic of a troubled mind.

If you are not threatening other countries with taking over their land or withdrawing aid, you are threatening them with trade tariffs in an attempt to bring them to their knees.

 

Worse of all your disdain for immigrants & desire to send them back to where they came from in chains without any humanity & dignity or lock them up in Gauntanamo Bay whilst at the same time offering white South Africans refugee status is shameful.

It also provides us with a graphic expression of your inherent racism.

 

Your aversion to immigrants & categorisation of them as being “criminals, gangsters, murderers & mentally deranged people” is shameful.

 

Permit me to remind you that you are the grandson of a German immigrant, the son of a Scottish immigrant, the husband of a Slovenian immigrant & the ex-husband of a Czech immigrant.

You were a beneficiary of America’s immigration policies yet you hate immigrants with a passion & seek to not only stop them from entering your country but also to deny foreigners that are born there citizenship rights & abolish the ‘birth right law’ which is embedded in your constitution.

 

Such is your contempt for immigrants that Pope Francis was constrained to say the following in order to ameliorate the pain and damage that your vitriol has caused.

He said,

“I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant & refugee brothers & sisters.”

 

‘Making America Great Again’ does not mean destroying the aspirations of others & does not give you the right to intimidate, threaten, subjugate & conquer the world!

 

You would do well to remember that it was the collective prayers of millions to God that delivered you from the assassin’s bullet on two separate occassions, that stopped you from being sent to jail & that got you to where you are today.

 

Those same prayers will bring you to your knees if you refuse to change course.

 

May God guide you.

 

(Chief Femi Fani-Kayode is the Sadaukin Shinkafi, the Wakilin Doka Potiskum, a former Minister of Culture and Tourism and a former Minister of Aviation).

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Nigerian Woman in U.S. Faces 10 Years in Prison Over $40,980 Unemployment Fraud

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Nigerian Woman in U.S. Faces 10 Years in Prison Over $40,980 Unemployment Fraud

Nigerian Woman in U.S. Faces 10 Years in Prison Over $40,980 Unemployment Fraud

 

A Nigerian woman residing in the United States, Funke Iyanda, is facing the possibility of a 10-year prison sentence after being indicted for fraudulently obtaining $40,980 in unemployment benefits.

According to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Thursday, Iyanda, 43, who has no legal immigration status in the U.S., allegedly filed false claims using another person’s identity to receive pandemic unemployment assistance between May 2020 and May 2021.

Fraudulent Claims and Federal Charges

The DoJ revealed that Iyanda submitted falsified applications to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor, securing benefits she was not legally entitled to. A federal grand jury in Pittsburgh has indicted her on one count of theft of government property.

“A Nigerian national residing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of theft of government property,” the statement read.

The indictment alleges that from May 27, 2020, to May 24, 2021, she applied for and received nearly $41,000 in unemployment benefits despite lacking legal status to qualify for such aid.

Potential Sentence and Legal Consequences

If convicted, Iyanda faces a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a fine of up to $250,000. However, the final sentence will depend on the severity of the offense and her prior criminal history, if any, as outlined in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

“The law provides for a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence would be based on the seriousness of the offense and the defendant’s prior criminal history,” the DoJ stated.

The authorities emphasized that an indictment is merely an allegation and that Iyanda remains innocent until proven guilty in court.

A Growing Trend of Financial Crimes

This case comes just weeks after another Nigerian-born U.S. resident, Professor Gordian Ndubizu, was sentenced to two years in prison for tax evasion. Ndubizu, along with his wife, was found guilty of concealing approximately $3.28 million in income from their pharmacy business, evading $1.25 million in taxes between 2014 and 2017.

As U.S. authorities continue to crack down on financial crimes, Iyanda’s case highlights the severe consequences of fraudulent activities, especially those involving government assistance programs.

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Outrage as Widow Accuses Police of Killing 27-Year-Old Son in Niger State

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Outrage as Widow Accuses Police of Killing 27-Year-Old Son in Niger State

Outrage as Widow Accuses Police of Killing 27-Year-Old Son in Niger State

Minna, Niger State – A tragic incident has sparked outrage and grief in the Angwa-Kaje area of Maitumbi, Minna, as a widow, Aisha Hassan, has accused operatives of the Niger State Police Command of killing her 27-year-old son, Sani Khalid, in cold blood.

The heart-wrenching event unfolded in the early hours of March 10, 2025, when Khalid stepped outside to get fresh air around 3 a.m. due to the hot weather. Moments later, a police patrol vehicle arrived, and within seconds, gunshots rang out. Aisha, a 45-year-old mother of nine who has been widowed for 11 years, recounted the chilling moment she found her son lifeless on a bench at a tea vendor’s shop.

“I Shook Him, But He Was Lifeless”

Narrating her ordeal to Arewa PUNCH, Aisha revealed how she heard the second gunshot and immediately sensed that someone had been shot. Running outside in search of her son, she found Khalid lying motionless.

“I shook him to wake him up, but he didn’t move. When I shook him again, he rolled down from the bench to the floor. That was when I screamed, realizing that the police had shot my son,” she wept.

Neighbors rushed to the scene and hurriedly transported Khalid to the hospital, where doctors confirmed his death.

An Unarmed Victim & Allegedly Drunk Officer

Eyewitnesses in the area claimed that Khalid was unarmed and posed no threat. One of them, identified as Ibrahim, said that the police officer who fired the shot appeared to be intoxicated and also attempted to shoot the tea vendor, who barely managed to escape.

“The policeman was drunk when he stepped down from the patrol van. He shot Khalid in the stomach while he was lying on the bench. He then tried to shoot the mai shai, but the vendor ran for his life. There was no fight, no unrest—nothing to warrant police intervention,” Ibrahim stated.

Residents condemned the killing, describing it as an act of sheer recklessness by the police. Khalid, a promising footballer and trader, was said to be the breadwinner of his family following the death of his father. His mother is now left grieving, with eight other children to care for.

Police Response: “It Was a Stray Bullet”

In response to the allegations, the Niger State Police Command, through its spokesman Wasiu Abiodun, admitted that Khalid was killed by police gunfire but described it as an “unfortunate stray bullet.”

According to Abiodun, the police patrol team was responding to a distress call about a group of youths allegedly causing unrest in the area. He claimed that when the police arrived, they were attacked with stones, prompting one officer to fire shots in an attempt to disperse the crowd.

“In a bid to disperse the boys, one of the patrol team members fired gunshots, and a stray bullet allegedly hit Sani Khalid in the stomach,” Abiodun stated.

He added that the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Maitumbi has been directed to investigate the incident and identify the officer responsible for necessary disciplinary actions.

However, Abiodun remained silent on the allegations that the officer who fired the shot was under the influence of alcohol.

Demand for Justice

The killing of Khalid has ignited public outcry, with residents and human rights advocates calling for justice. Many have criticized the police’s handling of the situation and demanded an independent investigation to uncover the truth.

Meanwhile, Aisha Hassan remains inconsolable, calling on authorities to hold those responsible accountable. “Sani was all I had. Now they have taken him from me. They must bring back my son,” she sobbed.

As the nation watches, the people of Niger State wait for justice to be served.

 

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Fire Outbreak Forces Temporary Shutdown of London’s Heathrow Airport

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Fire Outbreak Forces Temporary Shutdown of London’s Heathrow Airport

Fire Outbreak Forces Temporary Shutdown of London’s Heathrow Airport

London’s Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world, has been temporarily shut down following a fire outbreak that led to a major power outage. Airport authorities have warned of “significant disruption” over the coming days, with hundreds of flights canceled and thousands of passengers affected.

The fire, which was first reported at 11:23 p.m., caused a widespread power failure, impacting not just the airport but also nearby homes and businesses. London Fire Brigade Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne confirmed that firefighters were working under “challenging conditions” to contain the blaze and restore normal operations.

Flights Canceled, Passengers Stranded

In an official statement, Heathrow Airport authorities announced that the facility would remain closed until just before midnight on Friday, urging travelers to stay away from the airport until further notice.

“Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage,” the statement read. “Passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.”

With Heathrow handling over 200,000 passengers daily, the closure has left thousands stranded and disrupted global travel schedules. Many airlines are scrambling to reroute flights and provide alternative travel arrangements.

Efforts to Restore Power Underway

Emergency crews are working closely with local authorities to restore power and minimize disruptions. However, the extent of the damage remains unclear, and travelers have been advised to check with their airlines for the latest updates.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Authorities are expected to provide further updates as the situation develops.

Passengers scheduled to fly from Heathrow in the coming days are urged to check with their airlines and make alternative travel arrangements where necessary.

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