The Lagos State government is collaborating with the Lagos Urban Development Initiative (LUDI) and other stakeholders will observe the annual ‘Car Free Day’ in Lagos, on Sunday, September 22, 2024.

This initiative encourages road users and motorists to set aside their cars for a day and embrace active and inclusive means of transport, such as cycling and walking, known as Non-Motorised Transport (NMT).

The State Commissioner for Transportation, Oluwaseun Osiyemi, said in a statement that the primary aim of the initiative is to raise awareness about the benefits of non-motorised transport beyond reducing environmental pollution and addressing the detrimental effects of insufficient physical activity on health.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality, accounting for 6% of global deaths. Increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviours are essential steps in promoting public health, as people of all ages and abilities can benefit from a more active lifestyle.

This event also provides an opportunity for cities and governments to advance public transport systems, offering viable and reliable alternatives to private cars in urban areas. Moreover, it emphasises the importance of non-motorized transport by prioritising walking, cycling, and inclusive mobility.

The commissioner further explained that the event, involving the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation in collaboration with other Ministries, Departments, Agencies, and Lagos Urban Development Initiative, aims at educating the public on the significance of environmental health and its direct impact on the well-being of the people.

Hundreds of participants are expected to gather at Ahmadu Bello Way venue for a day filled with fun and exciting activities such as cycling, cycling training, cycling competitions, skating, stretches, music, and dance.

Italy has moved towards legalising chemical castration for rapists and paedophiles under a proposed new law.

The parliament in Rome gave its approval on Wednesday to the creation of a committee that could draft laws on treating violent sex offenders with androgen-blocking drugs.

The treatment would be consensual and reversible with the aim of preventing reoffending, Politico has reported.

It is the latest move by Italy’s Right-wing government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to crack down on law and order.

Since she came to power in 2022, Meloni has spearheaded legislation establishing new crimes and tougher penalties.

Pictured: Chemical castration being carried out in Kazakhstan (file photo)
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has launched a campaign to crack down on law and order
The new law, however, was proposed by a far-Right branch of her governing coalition who previously made chemical castration for paedophiles and rapists a key part of its platform.

Under the proposal, violent sex offenders could avoid jail in exchange for taking hormone-blocking drugs.

The plans, however, have been criticised by opposition groups for being ‘extremist’ and a ‘violation of humanity and justice’.

Enrico Borghi from the centrist Italia Viva party posted on social media: ‘What’s next? Tar and feathers, or rope and soap?’

Simona Bonafè from the centre-Left Democratic Party added that the plans were ‘unconstitutional’ and undermined ‘the foundation of our legal system that has overcome the use of corporal punishment for centuries’.

Chemical castration involves a person taking hormone-blocking drugs to prevent the production of testosterone.

However, concerns have been raised about physical and psychological side effects and its effectiveness at stopping reoffending.

The method has already been introduced in a number of countries as a punishment for certain crimes.

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The new sentences come amid a campaign in Kazakhstan for a toughening in the current laws to permit surgical castration for the most serious child sex offenders
Details were not given of the cases, but the child sex offenders are this year starting to forcibly receive libido-sapping injections (pictured: a nurse conducting the chemical castration of a paedophile convict)
Last month, Kazakhstan announced the mass chemical castration of 11 paedophiles amid a campaign for the worst offenders to have their genitals surgically removed.

All the men reportedly ‘committed crimes against the sexual inviolability of minors’ in the Kostanay region in the north of the country.

Approval was given for the paedophiles to be jabbed 24 times a year at an annual cost of £278 each.

And in March Madagascar’s parliament approved a new law that will see paedophiles surgically castrated for their crimes.

Under the plans, anyone found guilty of raping a child under ten-years-old will be surgically castrated and sentenced to life imprisonment.

While if the victim is between ten and 13-years-old, they will instead be chemically castrated and face 15 to 20 years of forced labour.

Whereas Russia is also moving towards the forced chemical castration of paedophiles.

A pro-Putin political party in Moscow proposed the legislation last year following a series of paedophile attacks on children.

The new draft laws would impose forcible chemical injections on convicted paedophiles in the months before they are released at the end of sentences.

President Bola Tinubu has declared to the National Assembly that he has no intention of exploiting his position for personal gain.

Tinubu says his administration is focused on delivering tangible results and making a positive difference in the nation’s infrastructure, food and energy security, education and long-term economic stability.

At a meeting with the Forum of Former Presiding Officers of the National Assembly, led by former Senate President Ken Nnamani, the President emphasized that he is not in office for personal gain but to serve the country.

”I didn’t come to look for money and exploit the situation; I came to work. I asked for the votes, and Nigerians gave them to me, ” the President, who was a former senator, told the meeting after a session of banters and handshakes with former parliamentary colleagues.

The meeting was attended by 16 former presiding officers, including former senate presidents, former speakers of the House of Representatives, former deputy senate presidents, and former deputy speakers of the House of Representatives.

The President acknowledged the support and encouragement from the Forum members, irrespective of party affiliations, and implored them to continue fostering unity and camaraderie to achieve national development goals.

Reflecting on the complex nature of legislative activities, constitutional reviews, and nation-building processes, the President expressed confidence that Nigeria can progress through collaboration and inclusiveness.

”Regardless of party differences of the past and difficulty of the present, you still believe in me and what we all plan for this country.

”I thank you very much; no one will do it better than us. I have travelled the world and seen how developed countries have done it for themselves through collaboration, inclusiveness and financial structure.

”Yes, there is hardship, but how did we get here? What did we do when we had very high crude production?”

“We neglected our communities; we neglected the goose that lays the golden eggs; we forgot even to give them a good standard of living.

”We forgot to educate our children. Go round and look at the dilapidated schools. The education environment must be decent enough for pupils to want to learn.

”We can complain from now till eternity that the school enrolment is low. But did we do anything to encourage the enrolment process? We must ask ourselves because it is a matter of conscience,” he said.

The President outlined his administration’s focus on addressing these challenges, including improving infrastructure, ensuring compliance with financial regulations, exploring alternative energy sources and providing energy security.

”We have come a long way, and I promise we must do our best,” he said.

He urged the former presiding officers to continue sharing their wealth of experience in nation-building and governance, noting that they were uniquely positioned to provide “clear interpretations of where we are” to Nigerians.

Senator Nnamani, who spoke on behalf of the delegation, expressed full support for President Tinubu’s administration and its efforts to address Nigeria’s pressing challenges.

He noted that the meeting was the president’s first official engagement with the group since his assumption of office. Nnamani congratulated the President.

”Mr President, history has never been the burden of one man alone, but some are called to meet a special share of its challenges.

”Though not of your creation, it has fallen onto you to end the pervasive insecurity across the nation, the economic downturn that has resulted in hunger and anger, infrastructural decay due to years of neglect and myriads of other national challenges.

”As difficult as these problems are, we believe that with your experience, you can face the difficulties and surmount them.

A rape offence is reported every hour in London, according to data obtained by the BBC.

More than 8,800 rape incidents were reported to the Metropolitan Police in 2023 – an average of 24 a day.

Charities have called the findings “horrifying” but say the true extent of sexual offending will be far higher.

The Met says it remains determined to tackle sexual violence, is “striving to do better” and that the number of rape charges has more than doubled since 2022.

The data – obtained via Freedom of Information requests to the Met and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) – also shows a further 11,000 reports of other sexual crimes were reported to the force last year, with almost a quarter of all reported crimes from people aged under 18.

The figures represent the number of reports issued from 2018 to 2023, but do not necessarily mean all the crimes happened within that time period.

For example, if someone reported historical sexual abuse in 2023, that would be filed as a 2023 report.

There were two offence datasets: one on reported rape only, and another comprising sexual assault, assault by penetration and attempted rape offences.

From 2018 to 2023, of all these crimes, total reported incidents increased by 14% to almost 20,000.

To put this into context, a report of sexual violence or rape was made to the Met on average every 26 and a half minutes.

London-based Rape Crisis centres, Solace and Nia have called the findings “horrifying” adding that it “clear urgent change is needed”.

Sexual offence reports on London transport up 10%

Amy has waived her right to anonymity.

She says she handed the police a phone with evidence and said the Met returned it after six months.

She said: “I found out that they didn’t take any of the evidence off it so they called me again to ask for my phone back to get that evidence but my phone broke so effectively, from that moment on, I knew that the case was going to be dropped because literally all of the evidence was gone.

“That moment was a terrible moment in time and put me into absolute paralysis but it was the police that put me on suicide watch.

“Victims already feel that everything is the victim’s fault but the police will definitely ensure that you feel that way.”

Tirion Havard, professor of gender abuse and policy at London South Bank University, said the figures were “depressing” both because of the extent of the offending and also in that it was “depressing that I’m not surprised”.

Prof Havard added the actual problem was far worse than the figures released by the Met indicate.

“It’s the tip of the iceberg. This is almost best-case scenario.”

Rape Crisis says only one in six women who are raped report the crime – that figure is one in five for male victims – while only one in four will report other types of sexual assault.

Additionally, data from the Office for National Statistics shows that in the year ending in March 2022 almost 800,000 females aged 16 and over reported that they were raped or sexually assaulted every year in the UK – that’s about one in 30. This figure was 275,000 for male victims.

Nearly a quarter of all reported victims were 17 or younger. This makes it the second-largest age bracket, behind 18 to 29 years old.

According to the data, more than 4,300 children reported being a victim of rape or sexual assault to the Met in 2023, equating to a report of sexual abuse about every two hours.

Kellie Ann Fitzgerald, National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) assistant director for London and the South East, said child sexual offences in London “remain close to record levels”.

She also noted the true extent of offending was likely to be much higher.

Ms Fitzgerald believes “it is crucial that the new government overhauls the criminal justice system” to tackle crime backlogs and to fast-track cases involving children.

Charges for sexual crimes have risen significantly in recent years.

There were 818 charges in 2018, falling to 800 the following year but have steadily risen since then to 1,419 in 2023.

However these figures represent only a small fraction of complaints made.

While the data shows an increase in the number of people reporting such crimes, and an increase in charges, the charity Rape Crisis UK believes “urgent” change is needed.

“We want to see a robust criminal justice system that victims and survivors and the wider public can have faith in.”

While the charity acknowledged commitments by the Met and CPS to tackle sexual violence, it said “we are yet to see this impact”.

In response to the criticism, the Met told the BBC it was “determined to tackle sexual violence and our teams have transformed the way we investigate rape and sexual offences”.

‘Survivors need to be believed’

In 2023, the figure of 1,419 charges made compares to 10,991 reports of rape in London, although the number of prosecutions does not represent the number of alleged crimes committed in a given year. Some of the prosecutions will be from cases reported in 2022 or earlier.

In addition, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says it can only work on cases sent to it by the police.

The data obtained from the CPS shows the number of prosecutions and convictions for “rape-flagged cases and cases where the principal offence was sexual offences” from January 2018 to December 2022.

Across this five-year span the CPS recorded 1,527 prosecutions and 925 convictions – a conviction rate of 60.6%.

A spokesperson for the CPS said “more must be done to drive up the overall number of cases charged”.

They added that this was why the CPS was “working closely with the police from the earliest stage of an investigation to build strong cases from the outset”.

The conviction rate for rape “seriously undermines survivors’ confidence in the criminal justice system”, according to Rape Crisis.

“Survivors need to be believed and supported; they need to trust that the system will fight for justice.”

As of January this year, there were 3,355 rape cases awaiting trial in England and Wales, with an average wait time for defendants on bail of 358 days.

But tackling these crimes cannot be done by the police alone, says Cdr Kevin Southworth, lead for public protection at the Met Police.

“Listening to those with lived experience, and working together with charities and partners across the criminal justice system, we’re working to ensure that all victims and survivors get the justice they deserve,” he told BBC London.

Rape survivor ‘disgusted’ over no free transcripts

Reporting a sexual crime can be extremely traumatic and any legal proceedings add extra turmoil, says Prof Havard.

She believes the investigation procedures and cross-examinations into rape cases leave women feeling “virtually strip searched”.

“There’s a double victimisation. First of all, she’s raped and then she’s blamed for that rape. Why would anybody want to put themselves through that?”

Combine this with entrenched societal stereotypes and victims feel helpless, she says.

It’s not just faith in the system. It’s faith in the Metropolitan Police too, says Prof Havard.

In response, the CPS said it was improving its service to victims and that complainants could pre-record their cross-examination by the defence and so not have to give evidence in front of a jury.

In recent years, London has witnessed a number of Met officers convicted of sexual offences, the most high profile of which was the rape and murder of Sarah Everard in 2021 by off-duty constable Wayne Couzens.

On the third anniversary of the attack, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said it would “take years” to repair damage to trust in the police.

Since then, there have been further high profile cases involving Met officers.

In February of last year, David Carrick admitted to dozens of rapes and sexual offences against 12 women.

Meanwhile in May, another former police officer, Cliff Mitchell, was jailed for 10 counts of rape, including three of raping a child under the age of 13.

‘Striving to do better’

Det Ch Supt Angela Craggs said: “We know reporting a sexual offence to police can be difficult and we have worked hard in recent years to improve and support those who take this step.

“Significant progress has been made in relation to digital forensics, including obtaining evidence from mobile devices when someone reports an offence, to ensure this is as unobtrusive an experience as possible.

“In most cases we try and ensure a mobile device is returned within 24 hours and ensure our evidence gathering is targeted to extract only relevant information.

“We have also invested £11m in our technology and staff to speed us this process and minimise the impact on victims.

“We are always striving to do better and know that listening to and understanding the experiences of those who report sexual offences to us is a key part of this process.”

Credit: BBC News

The British High Commissioner, Dr Richard Montgomery, has announced a United Kingdom (UK)- sponsored five million dollar investment to establish the first battery recycling facility in Nigeria.

This is according to a statement by Atinuke Akande-Alegbe, Senior Communications and Public Diplomacy Officer at the British High Commission on Friday in Abuja.

Montgomery said that the announcement and signing of a letter of intent by UK company, Hinckley, to establish the facility in Ogun state was made when he visited Gov. Dapo Abiodun.

According to him, the five million dollars investment provided by UK’s Manufacturing Africa (MA) will create a lithium-ion battery and lead acid battery recycling and treatment plant in Ogun State, using patented recycling technology.

“It is fantastic that Hinckley Recycling is committing to establish the first battery recycling facility in Nigeria, creating a new high-value addition export industry in Ogun State and 100 new jobs.

“Congratulations to the Commissioners and to OgunInvest who worked with Hinckley to make this groundbreaking project a reality.

“The UK fully supports the governor’s mission to bring new investment and new jobs into Ogun State.

“The UK Government’s development finance bank, British International Investment, invested 15 million dollars into Valency International last year

“And the UK’s Manufacturing Africa programme is supporting four other companies in Ogun State to raise capital and expand their production facilities.” he said.

Meanwhile, the envoy, who also visited Lagos state, underscored UK’s commitment to strengthening bilateral relations and supporting development initiatives in Nigeria.

During the four-day visit, the High Commissioner met with Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State.

He engaged in discussions focused on enhancing economic ties, investments opportunities and future priorities that could be beneficial to both Lagos and Ogun states, and the UK.

According to Montgomery , his visit to Lagos and Ogun States had reinforced the strong ties between our two great countries .

He said that both states were key to boosting Nigeria’s economic prosperity .

The envoy, therefore, reiterated UK’s commitment in driving growth, promoting trade and supporting their developments .

In Lagos, Montgomery also met with Chief Emeka Anyaoku, and some business leaders in Nigeria, including the CEOs of Airtel Nigeria, Standard Chartered, Nigeria Helios Investment Partners, Afrinvest and KPMG West Africa.

The Allergy and Clinical Immunology Society (ACIS) has lamented the difficulties encountered in caring for allergy conditions owing to a lack of training, access to drugs, and the cost of drugs.

Chairperson of ACIS, Dr Olatunde Odusote, decried the lack of awareness in this region regarding allergy diseases while noting that the increase in these conditions, though not fully understood, can be attributed to climate change and global warming.

This was stated at a media parley yesterday, ahead of the two-day World Allergy Training School (WATS) starting today in Lagos, organised by ACIS in partnership with the World Allergy Organisation (WAO).

He noted the need to develop a curriculum within the context of the nation to offer basic training to practitioners who can care for allergies at the primary level.

He added that participants for the training would cut across the various medical spectrum, and lectures would cover disease processes, necessary tests to run, their interpretation, and how to go about it.

“One of the major problems we have had in the world of allergy is that people think when one has such conditions, you must do a test, but it is not necessarily so. You need to listen to their story first, and if there is a need for a test, you can go ahead,” he said.

Odusote stated that the organisation is focused on creating awareness, promoting advocacy, and empowering healthcare practitioners and the community with the right information.

President of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, Prof. James Tracy, said the training would deal with a catalogue of allergies such as asthma, food allergy, and practical training on how to treat severe allergic reactions.

He noted that disease awareness, genetic components, and environmental pollution are possible causes of increased allergic conditions globally.