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Centralised Policing Antithetical to Community Policing, Says Ekweremadu

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The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, says community policing cannot work in a centralised policing arrangement as currently obtained in Nigeria. Ekweremadu, who presided over the Senate plenary on Tuesday, said the implication of community policing was that citizens would have police officers that live within that community, know everybody, and patrol their beat on a daily basis. He stated this while summing up debate on the motion sponsored by Senator Ademola Adeleke (Osun West) on the need to post junior cadre of the Nigeria Police Force to their states and Local Governments (LGs) of origin to enhance community policing in the country.

Ekweremadu said: “Community policing is good, but the problem is that other places where you have community policing have a different police architecture because community policing is the business of the sub-national police in most federal states. If you go to places like the United States, it is the sub-national police that introduce the community policing. But if you introduce community policing here, where we have a federal system with a unitary police system, then it is going to be difficult to work.

“It is only when you have a decentralised police system, in which case, each sub-national level of government has its own level of policing that it can identify each community, recruit policemen from there, and allow them to do community policing.“If you do not do that and you want the federal police we have in Nigeria to do it, we will continue to talk about community policing without implementation; and if you implement it, it is not going to work.

“But, I agree that we should hear from the Inspector General of Police, maybe, at the level of the committee, to tell us exactly what they are doing about community policing. However, we must first get the structure right before we can have this in place”. In a related development, Senator Ekweremadu has also called on the Federal Government to do sometime urgent and drastic about the massive killings across the country.

This followed the alarm raised by Senator Shehu Sani (APC, Kaduna Central) that the FG might have lost grip in the protection of lives and property in the country.

Senator Sani informed the Senate that armed bandits had taken over Birnin Gwari LGA, Kaduna state, laying siege to it for the past two years.

The Senator, who came under Order 43 of the Senate Standing Rule, urged the presidency to tell Nigerians the truth, set politics aside, and save the citizens from merciless bandits because the country was presently living in self-denial “Government is losing the grip. I am worried that it has lost the essence of being in government if it cannot protect the lives and property of the people”, he cried out.

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The Peruvian Government Has Officially Classified Transgender, Nonbinary And Intersex People As “Mentally ill”

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According to the country’s ministry of health, the controversial decision was made to ensure the country’s public health services could “guarantee full coverage of medical attention for mental health” for the trans community.

It also categorises “dual-role transvestitism,” “fetishistic transvestism,” and “other gender identity disorders” under the same bracket of mental illness.

The new law will change language in the Essential Health Insurance Plan (PEAS) to reflect the view of trans and intersex people as a mental health disorder.

Trans groups across Peru have loudly condemned the decision as a step backwards for the country’s already complex relationship with LGBTQ+ rights.

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Math Teacher Accused Of Having Sex With 2 Students And Getting Pregnant For One Tearfully Reveals The Baby Was Taken Away From Her

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The UK teacher who had a baby with an underage student while on trial for having sex with another teenage boy broke down in court after revealing her newborn baby girl had been “taken away” from her.

Manchester math teacher Rebecca Joynes, 30, sobbed to jurors over how her baby was taken “24 hours after being born” this past January — and now she only sees her for nine hours a week, Joynes told jurors on Monday, May 13, according to the Manchester Evening News.

“At the moment I have contact with her three times a week for three hours and that’s it,” she said through tears.

Joynes was arrested and released on bail on orders not to have unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 after allegedly grooming her pupil, known as Boy A in court, by buying him a $430 Gucci belt before bringing him to her apartment for unprotected sex.

She was suspended from school and eventually fired, but soon after, she began having a relationship with a 15-year-old boy, known in court as Boy B, whom she had a baby with in January.

Joynes, who has denied having sex with either boy when they were underage, told the court that when she learned of the allegations against her she had gone to the second boy in a “panic” and he deleted all of her phone’s content.

The former teacher denied having a sexual relationship with the second boy until after he turned 16 and she was already suspended from teaching.

According to her narration,

She said he had added her on Snapchat twice, which she only accepted the second time because she thought he “wanted to tell her something.”

Joynes said a friendship developed and he quickly became her “best friend” even though the boy would make flirtatious and sexualized comments toward her when he was drunk.

She told jurors that it wasn’t until after his 16th birthday that he messaged her saying “I’ve left school now” with a winky face.

After she received notice that she had been dismissed from her job, he went to her apartment, where following an emotional conversation, they had sex.

The two then entered a relationship that Joynes described as “quite toxic” telling the court how the teenager was “very controlling.”

After discovering she was pregnant, Joynes hid love notes for the boy to find around her apartment.

The notes eventually led to a piece of baby clothing that had the words “I love my daddy to the moon and back” written on it.

The court was told that she gave birth to their baby girl in January, but following an emergency court hearing, the newborn was taken away from Joynes.

Joynes has denied two counts of sexual activity with Boy A; two counts of sexual activity with Boy B; and two counts of sexual activity with Boy B while being a person in a position of trust.

Her trial is ongoing.

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First Man To Receive Pig Kidney Transplant Has Died

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The first Man to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has died two months after the operation.

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), which carried out the procedure in March, announced Sunday, May 12, that Richard “Rick” Slayman, 62, has died.

They said there was no indication his death was a result of the transplant.

Transplants of other organs from genetically modified pigs have failed in the past, but the operation on Mr Slayman, who was suffering with end-stage kidney disease, was hailed as a historic milestone.

In addition to kidney disease, Mr Slayman also suffered from Type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

In 2018, he had a human kidney transplant, but it began to fail after five years.

Following his pig kidney transplant on March 16, his doctors confirmed he no longer needed dialysis after the new organ was said to be functioning well.

“Mr Slayman will forever be seen as a beacon of hope to countless transplant patients worldwide and we are deeply grateful for his trust and willingness to advance the field of xenotransplantation,” MGH said in a statement.

Xenotransplantation is the transplanting of living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another.

MGH said it was “deeply saddened” at his sudden death and offered condolences to his family.

Mr Slayman’s relatives said his story was an inspiration.

“Rick said that one of the reasons he underwent this procedure was to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive,” they said.

“Rick accomplished that goal and his hope and optimism will endure forever.

“To us, Rick was a kind-hearted man with a quick-witted sense of humour who was fiercely dedicated to his family, friends, and co-workers,” they added.

While Mr Slayman received the first pig kidney to be transplanted into a human, it is not the first pig organ to be used in a transplant procedure.

Two other patients have received pig heart transplants, but those procedures were unsuccessful as the recipients died a few weeks later.

In one case, there were signs the patient’s immune system had rejected the organ, which is a common risk in transplants.

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