Thursday, 26 March 2015

Home Unlabelled One of the men convicted of the gang-rape and murder of an Indian student that shocked the world has said he blames the victim for “roaming around at night”. The comments are made in a documentary to be screened on International Women’s Day. Mukesh Singh, who was sentenced to death for his crimes, said the victim should not have been out at night, and should not have resisted the attack on a moving bus in 2012. “You can’t clap with one hand -– it takes two hands. A decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o’clock at night,” he said in an interview for “India’s Daughter”, a BBC documentary to be broadcast on Sunday. “A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. About 20 per cent of girls are good.” The 23-year-old physiotherapy student died from her injuries 13 days after she was savagely attacked on her way home from the cinema with a male friend on December 16, 2012. Before her death she was able to speak to police about the crime, which caused outrage across the world and triggered mass protests in India. The attack highlighted the frightening level of violence against women in the world’s second most populous country and led to a major reform of the rape laws, speeding up trials and increasing penalties. But Singh, 28, said his execution would “make life more dangerous for future rape victims”. “Now when they rape, they won’t leave the girl like we did. They will kill her,” he told Leslee Udwin, the award-winning British filmmaker behind the documentary. He also criticised the victim for fighting back against her attackers. “She should just be silent and allow the rape,” he said. “Then they’d have dropped her off after doing her.” “India’s Daughter” will be televised in seven countries including India and Britain on Sunday, International Women’s Day. Udwin will speak to media at a screening of her film later Tuesday alongside the victim’s parents, who have campaigned vocally for improvements in women’s safety since their daughter’s death. She said she was inspired by seeing ordinary Indians take to the streets to protest “in unprecedented numbers” following the attack. “In my lifetime, I can’t recall any other country standing up with such commitment and determination for women’s rights,” Udwin said. The case sparked much soul-searching about India’s treatment of women, but women’s rights campaigners say little has changed in the deeply patriarchal country. Singh, one of five people convicted over the attack, admitted driving the bus during the incident but denied taking part in the rape. He is appealing the verdict against him. One of the alleged attackers died in jail before he could be tried, while another was too young to be tried as an adult and is serving a three-year sentence in a reform facility.

One of the men convicted of the gang-rape and murder of an Indian student that shocked the world has said he blames the victim for “roaming around at night”. The comments are made in a documentary to be screened on International Women’s Day. Mukesh Singh, who was sentenced to death for his crimes, said the victim should not have been out at night, and should not have resisted the attack on a moving bus in 2012. “You can’t clap with one hand -– it takes two hands. A decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o’clock at night,” he said in an interview for “India’s Daughter”, a BBC documentary to be broadcast on Sunday. “A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. About 20 per cent of girls are good.” The 23-year-old physiotherapy student died from her injuries 13 days after she was savagely attacked on her way home from the cinema with a male friend on December 16, 2012. Before her death she was able to speak to police about the crime, which caused outrage across the world and triggered mass protests in India. The attack highlighted the frightening level of violence against women in the world’s second most populous country and led to a major reform of the rape laws, speeding up trials and increasing penalties. But Singh, 28, said his execution would “make life more dangerous for future rape victims”. “Now when they rape, they won’t leave the girl like we did. They will kill her,” he told Leslee Udwin, the award-winning British filmmaker behind the documentary. He also criticised the victim for fighting back against her attackers. “She should just be silent and allow the rape,” he said. “Then they’d have dropped her off after doing her.” “India’s Daughter” will be televised in seven countries including India and Britain on Sunday, International Women’s Day. Udwin will speak to media at a screening of her film later Tuesday alongside the victim’s parents, who have campaigned vocally for improvements in women’s safety since their daughter’s death. She said she was inspired by seeing ordinary Indians take to the streets to protest “in unprecedented numbers” following the attack. “In my lifetime, I can’t recall any other country standing up with such commitment and determination for women’s rights,” Udwin said. The case sparked much soul-searching about India’s treatment of women, but women’s rights campaigners say little has changed in the deeply patriarchal country. Singh, one of five people convicted over the attack, admitted driving the bus during the incident but denied taking part in the rape. He is appealing the verdict against him. One of the alleged attackers died in jail before he could be tried, while another was too young to be tried as an adult and is serving a three-year sentence in a reform facility.

The Editor March 26, 2015

AHEAD of Saturday’s Presidential election, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe yesterday gave an insight into why the people of the South West would vote overwhelmingly for President Goodluck Jonathan.

VISIT: Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin during a visit to Vanguard Media Ltd, Apapa, Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Diran Oshe.

According to Okupe, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, President Jonathan will get the votes of the Yorubas because of antecedent of the people as defenders of truth, equity and justice in Nigeria.

The Presidential aide said that having benefitted from a national concession which enabled the South West enjoy two terms in office as President during Chief Olusegun Obasanjos administration, the Yoruba people need to rise in defence of the minority Ijaw Nation as represented by President Goodluck Jonathan whom he said has justified the first mandate given him by being fair to all parts of Nigeria in his programmes and policies.

In a lecture titled THE YORUBAS : OUR POLITICS YESTERDAY AND TODAY delivered at the Lagos Country club, Ikeja yesterday, Okupe recalled that historically, the Yorubas have acted as conscience of the Nigerian Nation who ensured that no ethnic group is subjugated or marginalised in the political process.

The text was made available here just click.

While eulogising the political leadership of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the old Western Region, Okupe said the late sage and the entire Yoruba political class held dearly to the principles of a restructured federation, fiscal autonomy, regionalism and balanced economic development which the National conference adopted and which President Jonathan is committed to implementing in his second term in office.

He said, “It is an irony that the platform for seeking these reforms which the Yorubas had agitated for in decades was only recently provided by a man from the minority ethnic group who emerged Nigerian President by providence in 2011.
That platform is the National Conference which among others has come up with far-reaching recommendations which if and when implemented will solve quite a number of our social, political and economic distortions and restore Nigeria to the path of sustainable growth and stability. These resolutions will have salutary effect on all ethnic groups in Nigeria who will have the opportunity of self- determination and development of their natural endowments”

According to him, the best way to sustain the legacies of the founding fathers of the Nigerian Nation was to ensure that political players of Yoruba extraction shun politics of wealth acquisition and desperation for power to the detriment of the general good which he said had become the hallmark of certain politicians in this dispensation.

He described the alliance that led to the formation of the All Progressive Congress as “a personal agenda of a few clothed in a pseudo-nationalist attire to attain power by all means including falsehood, forgery, deception driven by wealth acquiredthrough unprecedented greed, avarice and grand larceny.”

Okupe said all Nigerians of good conscience need to rise up and demand that politics be played as a means to a noble end and that no section of the country must be foist with a second class mentality.

While answering questions on the achievements of the President in office, the SSA Public Affairs said the revamping of Nigeria’s moribund transportation system in road, rail and air, the construction of new power plants and completion of 13 major dams across the country as well as the revolution in the agricultural sector are unprecedented in the Nations history.

He added that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration managed the Nigerian economy creditably and that was why most of the manufacturing businesses in the Automotive, agro-allied, cement and other sectors which were on a low ebb before 2011 have all increased production by between 18 and 50% in the last four years.

Okupe promised that the President was committed to working harder on consolidating on his first term in office through massive job creation to ensure that the full benefits of the Transformation Agenda result in creating a new, stronger and prosperous Nigeria .