Divorce made easy for Catholics. Courtesy; Pope Francis

 

Pope Francis

Pope Francis announced new procedures on Tuesday to make it easier for Roman Catholics to obtain marriage annulments, a change intended to streamline a process long criticised by many Catholics as too cumbersome, complicated and expensive, The New York Times reports. Under the new rules, the process will be much faster for cases in which a couple is not contesting the annulment. Such cases had required two separate judgments from a diocesan tribunal. Now, the

process, overseen by local bishops, will require only one judgment. Moreover, the new rules

require that the hearing process be held within 30 days of application, eliminating a longer waiting period. Francis is also instructing Catholic bishops to be more welcoming to divorced or separated

Catholics “who have abandoned the church.” Local dioceses will be asked to establish commissions to reach out to couples seeking annulments. Francis outlined the new rules in two papal letters,  known in Latin as Motu Proprio, or personal administrative decrees. In speeding up the annulment process, Francis is trying to make the church more merciful and responsive to the needs of Catholics, yet he does not want to appear to be encouraging divorce. Francis wrote that his new rules “do not favor the nullity of marriages, but the expedition of trials, as well as a just simplification.”

The Catholic Church is a misogynist tribe that officially defines women as inferior. This new

supposedly forward-thinking chieftain has no… Divorce is a topic that has long splintered many of the Catholic faithful from the church. Under church law, marriage is indissoluble, and divorce is not recognized. Yet many Catholics are divorced, especially in the Western world, and the divide between reality on the ground and church dogma has alienated many. Many Catholics had been watching closely to see how Francis would address the issue of annulments as part of a broader debate about whether the church should allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments such as communion. The church has long offered an annulment process in which a marriage can be declared invalid if the husband or wife can prove the union failed to meet certain requirements. In August 2014, Francis appointed a commission to study the best way to overhaul the

annulment process. The new rules allow local bishops to establish tribunals to hear annulment cases. The tribunals should consist of three members, ideally clerics, although the rules allow a bishop to appoint up to two lay members of the diocese to a tribunal.

You’ll never see Buhari’s portrait hung in our offices –PDP

Olisah

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party has refused to hang the official portrait of President Muhammadu Buhari at the party’s national secretariat, checks have revealed.

Over 100 days after the President assumed office, the PDP has yet to hang his portrait at any of the offices in its Wadata House national secretariat, located at Zone 5, Abuja. The party has also said it would never put Buhari’s portraits on its walls though it has removed that of the former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who ruled on the platform of the PDP. “We will never hang his portrait in this office, because President Buhari is not known to our party. He is not a leader of our party and therefore we will never put his portrait here. We are a political party, very partisan and therefore, we are not going to hide that,” National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, told our correspondent on the telephone on Tuesday.

Metuh said the APC also did not hang the portrait of Jonthan in its offices before the former President was defeated in the March 28 election. “Can you find out if the APC had the portrait of former President Jonathan in their office before he was defeated? That is just it,” he told our correspondent. When asked whether the party was taking its own pound of flesh, Metuh said no but that since Buhari “is not a member of our party, we won’t put his portrait here.” The APC National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Lai Mohammed, expressed shock at Metuh’s comment. “This is ridiculous and we have no comment. Let Nigerians judge the PDP on this matter,” Mohammed said. He said the PDP spokesman had a shallow understanding of the concept of opposition politics.

Boko Haram only knows how to use condom and hard drugs, they are not Muslims- Army

The Nigerian Army said Tuesday it usually find condoms, hard drugs and sex- enhancing drugs in camps captured from Boko Haram insurgents by its troops.

The spokesperson for the Army, Sani Usman, said the findings underlined the military’s belief that most Boko Haram militants were not grounded in Islam and were not driven by Islamic ideology.

Mr. Usman, a colonel, said a lot of insurgents so far arrested could not even recite the Quran, the holy book of Muslims.

He said those arrested by troops of Nigerian Army’s 3rd Division Tuesday turned out to be suppliers of hard drugs and other stimulants to terrorists. They were nabbed between Depchi and Geidam, Geidam Local Government Area in northern part of Yobe State, he said. Mr. Usman added, “The arrested persons were also engaged in the supply of fuel in addition to hard drugs such as Cannabis (Indian Hemp), Chlorofone substance (AKA Madaran suck and die) and Tramol, amongst others. “You will recall that sometimes ago we reported that ironically most of the Boko Haram terrorists captured by Nigerian military cannot read the Holy Qur’an, some of them cannot even recite the first chapter- Suratuh Al-Fatiha and yet they claimed they wanted to establish an ‘Islamic State’. “When the Nigerian military captured their bases and training camps, they never found Qur’an or other Islamic books, what were mostly found were ammunition, local charms, condoms and all sort of drugs including sex enhancing ones in their enclaves. “The arrest of these drug suppliers has reinforced that fact, more so as they have been making very useful statements.”

AFCON 2017 qualifiers: Coach Oliseh to give Mikel, Moses second chance

Sunday Oliseh

There is hope in the horizon for out of favor Super Eagles players Mikel Obi and Victor Moses, as Coach Sunday Oliseh has declared his willingness to recall them to the team. The Super Eagles yesterday in Port Harcourt, gave the new national team gaffer his first win by overrunning determined Mena of Niger 2-0 in an international friendly, days after their AFCON 2017 barren draw in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Reacting to the outcome of the encounter, Oliseh who was all smiles, stated that the win had restored the confidence of the team, adding that his players were more organized than they were in the game against the Taifa Stars.

Oliseh went further to declare that no individual player is irreplaceable, hinting that Mikel, Moses and other embattled players have the chance to retrace their steps and return to the team. “ Nigeria will function without one individual because nobody is irreplaceable. I think there is still room for the likes of Mikel Obi and Victor Moses. “ The team looked better organized today because all the players showed the signs of hunger to play for their country. “We have given our best and will continue to improve on it. The outcome of this game is good for our confidence. “It was important for us to not just win the match but also to win it convincingly. We now know what to do when we loose the ball, but we need to hold the ball much longer to dictate the pace of the game,” Oliseh stated. Ahmed gave Nigeria the lead 11 minutes into play from the penalty spot after Anthony Ujah was fouled in the box. Moses Simon intercepted a pass from the Niger defence and his shot made it a double for Nigeria in the 85th minute.

Nigeria deports Togolese asylum seekers

Nigeria has deported the 119 Togolese asylum seekers who have been refugees their whole lives, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRA) said yesterday.

The group of Togolese came to Nigeria in July after Benin Republic, which had hosted them for nearly a decade, stripped them of refugee status.

Sogbo Maonou, who was among those deported, said Nigerian soldiers  loaded them onto buses in Lagos on Saturday and drove them to Togo through Benin Republic.

Brigitte Eno, deputy representative for the U.N. Refugee agency in Nigeria, said the group should have been counselled before being repatriated.

“They were supposed to be informed individually and counselled but immigration did it their own way,” Eno said adding:  “We were not even aware of the fact they were being put on buses.”

General Manager of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency Michael Akindele, said due process was followed, they were all interviewed but their requests for asylum were rejected.

Many of the Togolese asylum seekers claim they face repression at home, having fled political violence after the 2005 election.

Some said they witnessed family members being arrested and killed by the military because of their support for the opposition.

Amnesty International reported in February that Togo sometimes tortures detainees. Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbe was reelected in April after succeeding his father in the 2005 elections marred by violence and rigging to perpetuate a family dynasty that has ruled for nearly 50 years.

The asylum seekers were spotted on Awolowo Road in Lagos in August, close to the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Person, NCFRMI, office.

The refugees were registered by NCFRMI officials.

But the Lagos State Government which provided them with temporary shelter, urged the Federal Government to prevail on its agencies to repatriate back to their country the  illegal immigrants who took refuge at the state’s Emergency Resettlement Centres (ERCs) in Igando, Alimosho Local Government area and Agbowa, Ikorodu.

Secretary to the State Government Mr. Tunji Bello said the government could no longer continue to accommodate the illegal immigrants due to the enormous pressure put on the ERCs at Igando and Agbowa facilities.

Bello explained after the Togolese nationals were sighted at Awolowo Road, Ikoyi “Immediately Governor Akinwunmi Ambode was informed of their illegal presence,  he promptly directed that the relevant state agency should take up responsibility of accommodating them, initially at the Emergency Relief Camp (ERC) in Igando and later at its camp in Agbowa, Ikorodu,” he said.

Bello added: “As at today, the number of Togolese illegal immigrants has increased from 114 to 199, putting serious pressure on the limited spaces at the two camps.”

He pointed out that the Togolese immigrants were expelled from Benin Republic where they had lived for over 10 years.

“They came to Nigeria, Lagos to be precise, and because of the accommodation provided by the state government at its ERCs, those illegal immigrants at the Igando camp started calling others on telephone in Benin Republic to come to Nigeria, telling them that they now have a new home. As at the Weekend, another 85 illegal immigrants of same Togolese descent were taken to ERC, Agbowa.

“The state has discovered that many of them smuggle their ways through the Nigeria borders,” he said.