FBI Still Hunting Jan. 6 Suspects, Pipe Bomber A Year Later

This image from an FBI poster seeking a suspect who allegedly placed pipe bombs in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Just before the U.S. Capitol was stormed by a sea of pro-Trump rioters the pipe bombs discovered. It quickly became one of the highest-priority investigations for the FBI and the Justice Department. Now, a year later, federal investigators are no closer to learning the person’s identity. And a key question remains: was there a connection between the pipe bombs and the riot at the Capitol? (FBI via AP)

BY MICHAEL BALSAMO

WASHINGTON (AP) — The suspect was covered from head to toe, skulking through the dark streets of the nation’s capital before methodically placing two explosives outside the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees.

Only 17 hours later — and just before the U.S. Capitol was stormed by a sea of pro-Trump rioters — were the pipe bombs discovered. It quickly became one of the highest-priority investigations for the FBI and the Justice Department.

But the trail grew cold almost immediately. A year later, federal investigators are no closer to learning the person’s identity. And a key question remains: Was there a connection between the pipe bombs and the riot at the Capitol?

The suspect is among hundreds of people still being sought by the FBI following last January’s deadly insurrection. So far, 250 people seen on video assaulting police at the Capitol still haven’t been fully identified and apprehended by the FBI, and another 100 are being sought for other crimes tied to the riot.

The investigation has been a massive undertaking for federal law enforcement officials. More than 700 people have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the Jan. 6 attack, and arrests are still being made regularly.

But for the FBI agents working on the cases, the job is far from over. Agents and investigative analysts have been poring over thousands of hours of surveillance video, going second by second in each video to try to capture clear images of people who attacked officers inside the Capitol.

“This investigation takes time because it is a lot of lot of work, a lot of painstaking work that they look at the video kind of frame by frame,” said Steven D’Antuono, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s field office in Washington.

In one case, police body camera footage captures a man using a cane with electric prods on the end jabbing at officers and shocking them as they fight to hold back the riotous crowd trying to break through a barricaded line of officers at one of the doors of the Capitol. The crackling sound of the electricity can be heard as he prods his cane into one of the officers. The man, known only as “AFO114” — using shorthand for “assaulting a federal officer” — is still being sought.

“The assaults against the police officers are extremely serious,” D’Antuono said. More than 100 police officers were attacked by rioters on Jan. 6, some attacked by multiple people and some attacked multiple times, he said.

In another video, a man is seen repeatedly bashing a police officer over the head with a 6-foot (1.8-meter) metal pole as he tries to push his way into the Capitol. And a third shows a man spraying some kind of chemical from a can into the faces of other officers.

“There is still a lot of work to be done on this,” D’Antuono said. “There were a lot of people up there at the Capitol, a lot of people that either committed violence up there did other unlawful actions up there.”

In the search for the person who left the pipe bombs at the RNC and DNC offices, investigators have interviewed more than 900 people, collected 39,000 video files and examined more than 400 leads. They have dived into the components of the explosives and have been working to try to discern anything they can about the suspect, from analyzing the person’s gait to trying to collect information about purchases of the distinctive Nike sneakers the person wore.

But they are still no closer to finding the suspect’s identity and are hoping renewed attention on the video of the person may spark a tip to crack the case.

The explosive devices were placed outside the two buildings between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2021, but weren’t located by law enforcement until the next day. U.S. Capitol Police and agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were called to the Republican National Committee’s office around 12:45 p.m. on Jan. 6. About 30 minutes later, as the agents and bomb technicians were still investigating at the RNC, another call came in for a similar explosive device found at the Democratic National Committee headquarters nearby. The bombs were rendered safe, and no one was hurt.

Video released by the FBI shows a person in a gray hooded sweatshirt, a face mask and gloves appearing to place one of the explosives under a bench outside the DNC and separately shows the person walking in an alley near the RNC before the bomb was placed there. The person wore black and light gray Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers with a yellow logo.

“We’ve used and continue to use every investigative tool that we lawfully have to find this individual,” D’Antuono said. But, a year later, investigators still don’t know whether the suspect is a man or a woman. The person carried the bombs — made of threaded galvanized pipes, kitchen timers and homemade black powder — in a backpack.

“We’re still nose to the grindstone here and trying to find this individual, trying to bring the person to justice,” D’Antuono said. “But there is hopefully maybe somebody still out there that knows the person or sees the video again.”

It is unclear whether the bombs were related to planning for the insurrection or whether they were unrelated to the deadly riot. Both buildings are within a few blocks of the Capitol.

And the fact the suspect was covered from head to toe has made identifying the person extremely difficult for the FBI.

“In normal times, like if this wasn’t COVID,” D’Antuono said, “a person walking down the street in D.C. covered from head to toe with a mask on, glasses and gloves would have been a red flag.”

‘We Were Trapped’: Trauma Of Jan. 6 Lingers For Lawmakers

FILE - Members of Congress shelter in the House gallery as rioters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)


BY MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) — Long after most other lawmakers had been rushed to safety, they were on the hard marble floor, ducking for cover.

Trapped in the gallery of the House, occupying balcony seats off-limits to the public because of COVID-19, roughly three dozen House Democrats were the last ones to leave the chamber on Jan. 6, bearing witness as the certification of a presidential election gave way to a violent insurrection.

As danger neared, and as the rioters were trying to break down the doors, they called their families. They scrambled for makeshift weapons and mentally prepared themselves to fight. Many thought they might die.

“When I looked up, I had this realization that we were trapped,” said Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., a former Army Ranger who served three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. “They had evacuated the House floor first. And they forgot about us.”

Bound together by circumstance, sharing a trauma uniquely their own, the lawmakers were both the witnesses and the victims of an unprecedented assault on American democracy. Along with a small number of staffers and members of the media, they remained in the chamber as Capitol Police strained to hold back the surging, shouting mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

The lawmakers were finally taken to safety roughly an hour after the siege began.

Interviewed by The Associated Press before this week’s anniversary of the attack, 10 of the House members who were in the gallery talked of being deeply shaken by their experience, recalling viscerally the sights and sounds amid the chaos.

Vividly they remember the loud, hornetlike buzz of their gas masks. The explosive crack of tear gas in the hallways outside. The screams of officers telling them to stay down. The thunderous beating on the doors below. Glass shattering as the rioters punched through a window pane. The knobs rattling ominously on the locked doors just a few feet behind them.

And most indelibly, the loud clap of a gunshot, reverberating across the cavernous chamber.

“I’ve heard a lot of gunshots in my time, and it was very clear what that was,” Crow said. “I knew that things had severely escalated.”

The shot was fired by Officer Michael Byrd and killed Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter from California who was trying to crawl through the broken window of a door that leads to the House chamber. Both the Justice Department and Capitol Police investigated the shooting and declined to file charges.

While the gunshot dispersed some of the violent mob, the lawmakers ducking in the gallery believed the worst was just beginning.

“I think all of us, myself included, had images of a mass-shooting event,” said Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who posted video updates on Twitter as the chaos unfolded. “It was terrifying in the moment.”

Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., said he could tell the gunshot had come from the back of the chamber, in the Speaker’s Lobby just outside, and not from the main doors on the opposite side where they could see rioters trying to break through. In that moment he realized why they couldn’t leave — they were surrounded. “It was in stages that you realized the severity,” he said.

Their terror was compounded by knowledge of what the mob was after: stopping Congress from certifying the Electoral College votes that would make Joe Biden the 46th president of the United States. Mike Pence, as is customary for the vice president, had been presiding over the ceremony in the House chamber where lawmakers were gathered to hear the certified results from all 50 U.S. states and the territories.

Trump had other ideas.

Spouting lies about election fraud that were refuted by his own Justice Department, Trump pressured Pence to reject the electors — a move that would have bucked the Constitution and thrown the House, and potentially the country, into chaos. Pence refused to do so, but Trump held a rally in Washington before the vote-counting began, telling hundreds of supporters at the Ellipse to “fight like hell.”

Members of the mob chanted “Hang Mike Pence” as they forced their way into the Capitol, brutally overpowering police who stood in their way. Dozens were injured, some seriously, and four officers who were there that day later took their own lives.

Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., was among those sheltering in the gallery. She tried to remain calm, drawing on what she learned as chief of the Orlando police. But she also felt powerless, lacking a gun or any of the other weapons she always had on the beat.

She shuddered when police said there had been a “breach” of the building.

“That is probably the word that I will remember about that day for the rest of my life more than any other,” Demings said. “I knew that meant that the police had somehow lost the line. And I also know, having been a former police officer, that they would have done everything in their power to hold that line to protect us.”

She says she told a colleague sheltering with her in the gallery: “Just remember, we’re on the right side of history. If we all die today, another group will come in and certify those ballots.”

Congress reconvened that night, certifying Biden’s election victory before sunrise.

In the days after the attack, many of the lawmakers who were in the gallery started connecting on a text message chain. It quickly evolved into therapeutic group sessions and even potluck gatherings where they tried to make sense of it all.

They dubbed themselves “the gallery group,” and the name stuck.

The Democrats were social distancing in the balcony as they waited to speak on the floor at the invitation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and those interviewed said they don’t recall any Republicans sheltering alongside them. GOP Rep. Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota was in the gallery at the beginning of the insurrection and recounted the ordeal to a local news outlet that evening. But he declined to be interviewed. A handful of other Republicans, including Reps. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and Troy Nehls of Texas, helped police barricade the door below.

Some of the Democrats who sheltered in the gallery are planning to spend time together at the Capitol this week, not only to remember their own experiences and honor those who protected them but also to reflect on the country’s narrow escape from a coup.

“We were the last people in the chamber,” said Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, a former Navy helicopter pilot. “I think we saw the whole thing play out in a way that is very different from anybody else on the Hill.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state helped organize the first virtual session the Sunday after the insurrection. She received multiple texts from colleagues after she spoke up on a Democratic caucus call about what the group went through and how they felt forgotten.

“It ended up being a three-hour Zoom,” Jayapal says. “It was deeply personal. People shared a lot of things about what they were going through. There were a lot of tears. There was a lot of anger. There was a lot of, you know, just how could this be? How could we be in America and have this happen in our Capitol?”

Many of the members went on to seek therapy. Some were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, their struggles exacerbated by the raw tensions on Capitol Hill and an increasing number of death threats. Others said they have been more traumatized by the growing tendency among Republican lawmakers, and some in the public, to downplay or ignore the violence than they were by the attack itself.

Lawmakers said the gallery group has been a refuge through it all.

“I think it really saved my mental health,” says Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif. “It just seemed like every time somebody posted something, we were all awake, no matter what time of day or night, and we were all responding to each other. So that was really powerful.”

Rep. Annie Kuster, who sought treatment for post-traumatic stress, says the gallery group connects almost daily on the text message chain, which moved to an encrypted app after some members raised security concerns. “Sometimes it’s to get a ride to a vote. Sometimes it’s, ‘Who’s cooking, and can you bring a bottle of wine to a dinner together?’ And sometimes it’s talking about our treatment for trauma and how we can preserve our democracy.”

Kuster, D-N.H., was one of the first to be let out of the gallery on Jan. 6, escaping through the doors along with three other members just before the remaining lawmakers were locked inside. When Kuster’s group reached the hallway, a group of rioters was rushing toward them.

“We ducked into the elevator,” Kuster said. “And I said to this incredible policeman — I said, oh, my God, what if the elevator doors open, and they kill us? And I will never forget this moment ... he said, ‘Ma’am, I am here to protect you.’ And he was there to protect our democracy.”

For those still in the gallery, fear was escalating. Crow was tending to Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., who was in distress after talking to a family member, while also communicating with Mullin on the floor below as he helped barricade the door. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., was shouting a prayer for peace and healing. Jayapal, who had knee replacement surgery just a few weeks earlier and was using a cane, was trying to figure out how she would escape if she had to run. She held hands with some of her female colleagues crouching beside her.

Eventually, Capitol Police determined the upstairs area was clear, even as insurrectionists kept trying to break through the doors below. The lawmakers and others were rushed out of the chamber and down a warren of staircases and hallways. When they left, they could see police officers holding five or six rioters flat on the ground, guns pointed at their heads.

The rioters were just inches from the doors of the gallery.

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., says he has tried not to dwell on what happened. But he still has searing images in his mind, including watching police drag heavy furniture in front of the main doors to the House floor as the rioters tried to beat them down.

As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Himes says he spends a lot of time in high-security spaces — and before Jan. 6, he had assumed the Capitol was one of them.

“It was as though you were watching water flow uphill,” Himes said. “Something that you imagined was impossible is happening right in front of your eyes.”

Kuster says that one of the most traumatic things for her was not being able to see what was happening outside the chamber. They could only hear “the noises of the threat — the pounding on the door, the shouting in the hallways.”

When she made it home two days later, she watched hours of video from the insurrection, including harrowing footage from the police battles outside the building. It only compounded the trauma.

“I remember my husband coming in, and I was just sobbing,” Kuster said. “And he was holding me, saying, ‘I don’t know if this is the best thing for you to see.’”

“But we have to — we have to acknowledge the reality of what happened that day. And what’s challenging for us is that we are both victims and witnesses to the crime on our country.”

Recalling Jan. 6: A National Day Of Infamy, Half Remembered

FILE - Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Vice President Mike Pence officiate as a joint session of the House and Senate convenes to confirm the Electoral College votes cast in November's election, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

BY JAKE COYLE

NEW YORK (AP) — Beneath a pale winter light and the glare of television cameras, it seemed hard not to see the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot for what it was. The violent storming of the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters bent on upending the election of Joe Biden was as clear as day: democracy under siege, live-streamed in real time.

Yet a year later, when it comes to a where-were-you moment in U.S. history, there is far from national consensus.

A Quinnipiac poll found that 93% of Democrats considered it an attack on the government, but only 29% of Republicans agreed. A poll by The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 4 in 10 Republicans recall the attack — in which five people died — as violent, while 9 in 10 Democrats do.

Such a disparity in memory may be inevitable in our hyper-polarized politics, but it’s striking given the stark clarity of Jan. 6 at the time and in its immediate aftermath. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said then that “the president bears responsibility” for the attacks. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., then the majority leader, said: “They tried to disrupt our democracy. They failed.”

But since that day, separate versions — one factual, one fanciful — have taken hold. The Capitol riot — the violent culmination of a bid to delegitimize the 2020 election and block its certification — has morphed into a partisan “Rashomon,” the classic Japanese film about a slaying told from varying and conflicting points of view. Indeed, the act of remembering can be a highly mercurial thing — particularly when deep-seated political views are involved.

“We keep using terms like post-factual, but it almost feels like there’s this national psychosis or amnesia about what happened a year ago,” says Charles Sykes, the former conservative Wisconsin radio host and founder of the website The Bulwark. “It’s not just that we’re two nations. It’s as if we live on two different reality planets when it comes to the memory of Jan. 6.”

Nations remember the way people do: imperfectly. Neuroscientist Lisa Genova, author of “Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting,” describes how even the most searing memories are edited each time they’re revisited. An original memory is replaced with a 2.0 version, a 3.0 version and beyond.

“Outside influences can sneak in every time we revisit and recall a memory for what happened. So for these collective memories, we have a lot of chances to revisit them,” says Genova. “Depending on your political point of view, the news channels you watch, what this meant to you, this memory is going to have a different slant based on the story that you tell yourself.”

And a lot of people have been working hard to chip away at the memory of Jan. 6. Rep. Andrew S. Clyde, R-Ga., has described the siege as like “a normal tourist visit.” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has claimed the rioters were leftist militants “masquerading as Trump supporters.” Trump has continued to insist that the election — Biden won by a wide margin, with scant evidence of fraud — was the real insurrection.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson has attempted to frame the Capitol attack as a “false flag” operation, orchestrated by the FBI. Carlson created a series on the riot that aired on Fox News’ subscription streaming service.

To counter such misrepresentations, other documentary projects have tried to capture Jan. 6 in rigorous, methodical detail. Jamie Roberts’ HBO documentary “Four Hours at the Capitol” was motivated in part to firmly establish a visual chronology of that day, with the rampage following Trump’s incitement to his followers to “fight like hell.”

Roberts interviewed witnesses and participants. Some of those in the mob praised his film only to later complain after seeing Carlson’s series.

“I had people who were in the film texting me saying: ‘Why the hell didn’t you put that in your film? You’re liars,’” Roberts says. “What I was hoping with the project was to put some very hard and fast facts together with people who can tell the story from a witness perspective. But for some people, it’s still not going to reach them.”

Alexander Keyssar, a professor of history and social policy at Harvard and author of “Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?”, believes a full-fledged investigative commission, like the one that followed the Sept. 11 attacks, might have fostered more national consensus on Jan. 6. In May, Senate Republicans used their filibuster power to block the creation of such a commission. (A House committee is to soon make public some of the findings from its six-month investigation.)

Instead, many Trump supporters have adopted the former president’s denial over the 2020 election. In the last year, Republicans have passed dozens of laws in 19 states to restrict voting. More election battles loom in the 2022 midterms and beyond.

“It’s obviously dangerous because it becomes precedent,” Keyssar says of the Capitol riot. “It has become a prism through which events are viewed. The prism for a large segment of Republican adherents is that you can’t trust the outcome of elections. If you can’t trust the outcome of elections, that will be true in the future as well. It becomes, as the great historian Bernard Bailyn once said, ‘a grammar of thought.’”

Instead of receding into the past as an anomalous threat to the heart of American democracy, the history of the Capitol riot is yet to be fully written. Some projects are ongoing. To tell the story of Jan. 6, the Capitol Historical Society is creating an oral history. Some of the stories — like those of staffers who have since quit government and returned home — are particularly haunting for the society’s president, Jane L. Campbell.

Meanwhile, the Capitol remains closed to the public. Where tours once regularly paraded, now only those with an appointment may enter.

“When people say ‘Oh, it’s never been this bad,’ well, we did have a civil war. That was bad. That was truly bad,” Campbell says. “But during the Civil War, Lincoln made a decision to finish the dome of the Capitol. We tell that story a hundred times over.”

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

Governor To pardon Plessy, Of ‘Separate But Equal’ Ruling

FILE - This June 3, 2018 photo shows a marker on the burial site for Homer Plessy at St. Louis No. 1 Cemetery in New Orleans. Homer Plessy, the namesake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1896 “separate but equal” ruling, is being considered for a posthumous pardon. The Creole man of color died with a conviction still on his record for refusing to leave a whites-only train car in New Orleans in 1892. (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz, File)

BY JANET MCCONNAUGHEY

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s governor planned to posthumously pardon Homer Plessy on Wednesday, more than a century after the Black man was arrested in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow a Jim Crow law creating “whites-only” train cars.

The Plessy v Ferguson case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ushered in a half-century of laws calling for “separate but equal” accommodations that kept Black people in segregated schools, housing, theaters and other venues.

Gov. John Bel Edwards scheduled the pardon ceremony for a spot near where Plessy was arrested in 1892 for breaking a Louisiana law requiring Black people to ride in cars that the law described as “equal but separate” from those for white customers. The date is close to the 125th anniversary of Plessy’s guilty plea in New Orleans.

Relatives of both Plessy and the judge who convicted him were expected to attend.

It spotlights New Orleans as the cradle of the civil rights movement, said Keith Plessy, whose great-great-grandfather was Plessy’s cousin — Homer Plessy had no children.

“Hopefully, this will give some relief to generations who have suffered under discriminatory laws,” said Phoebe Ferguson, the judge’s great-great-granddaughter.

The state Board of Pardons recommended the pardon on Nov. 12 for Plessy, who was a 30-year-old shoemaker when he boarded the train car as a member of a small civil rights group hoping to overturn the law.

Instead, the 1896 ruling solidified whites-only spaces in public accommodations until a later Supreme Court unanimously overturned it in Brown v Board of Education in 1954. Both cases argued that segregation laws violated the 14th Amendment’s right to equal protection.

In 2024, Governor Hope Uzodimma Will Be Re-Elected

BY KENNETH UWADI

Hope Uzodinma. Image: Facebook

I read a story on Sahara Reporters of 1st January, 2022 titled, don’t seek re-election for second term, Nigerian Cleric, Primate Ayodele, warns Imo Governor. As the Igbo saying goes, when you see a frog in the day, there must be something after his life. When I read the Ayodele story, I got the picture. The hawks who want to take over Imo by fire by force are at it again. Their first strategy was sponsoring fake newspaper stories, and then they turned to sponsoring killings in the state. Their latest style is sponsoring and promoting fake prophecies. In actions and deeds, these hawks have been making silly and unpardonable mistakes. They have added thousands of votes to Governor Hope Uzodimma in 2004 without knowing it. Hours on end, they continue to add value to Uzodimma’s reelection by jumping from one mistake to another. In their futile bids to paint the governor black they have angered Ndi-Imo who now feel that the governor is being witch hunted for nothing. Men who want to rule the state are going about killing people, killing police, killing soldiers, killing traditional rulers, sponsoring fake prophecies and fake media stories about Imo.

Primate Ayodele only tickled himself and we all know that such a practice is an exercise in self deceit. His message reminds me of some so-called men and women of God, who predicted doomsday and Armageddon. Frightened Nigerians scampered abroad and to their states of origin in droves, some sold their properties at give away prices, awaiting the doomsday. Many died in the process. The disintegration never came. Like the Doomsday and Armageddon prophets, Ayodele’s message about Imo will not come to pass . Emerson once said in The Over Soul ‘’the soul is the perceiver and revealer of truth. We know the truth when we see it; let the skeptics and scoffers say what they choose’’. It is very saddening today to see that false pastors and prophets have dominated the airspace, news media and TV in the land. Today, false prophets prophesy all kinds of lies to enrich their never-satisfying stomachs, selfish and satanic desires. Jeremiah 5:31 informs us that: “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power.

The presence of the unknown servants of God in Imo will keep the state away from doom. Imo is in the hands of God. The State will not enter into the hands of killers. Those who pride themselves on their weakness and incompetence, those who kill our people just because they want to rule the state , those whose love of false prophets and strange women know no bounds and have no end will not rule Imo. We know them. When they were governors what did they do? When they were governors they abdicated their responsibilities, destroyed their own political parties, divided their own people, brought ridicule to their own faith, looted Imo funds to high heavens, scorn Ndi-Imo. They are self-evident leaking ships. They will not rule. In 2024, Governor Hope Uzodimma will be re-elected.

When Hezekiah heard he was going to die, he prayed to God. He asked God to intervene. The very fact that he prayed is a remarkable sign of his faithfulness. Think how desperate his situation was. He was sick to death. He has had the prophetic word that he was going to die. The Lord showed his blessing upon him by healing him, by raising him up, by uniting him in the fellowship of worship in his temple and by granting him 15 more years of life and by giving him a son, delivering Jerusalem from the hand of the Assyrians. The Lord surely did glorify himself in answering the prayers of Hezekiah . God that did it for Hezekiah will do it for Imo. Message of Doom will not work in the state.

Balack told Balaam ‘’Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the country. But God said to Balaam, “You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed.” The Almighty’s warning – thou shall not curse a man God has blessed. The guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. It is God that brought in Uzodimma and in 2024 he will become Governor for a second time. Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought! There will be a gang up but who can battle with the lord. Nobody! Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. And so shall it be. It is done.

Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana, UAE Join Security Council

In this image provided United Nations Photo, Ghana Ambassador to the United Nations Harold Adlai Agyeman, speaks during a flag installation ceremony for new members of the United Nations Security Council, Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022, at U.N. headquarters. Albania, Gabon, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, and Ghana were elected as the five non-permanent member nations to the Council for the term 2022-2023. (Eskinder Debebe/United Nations Photo via AP)


UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council got five new members Tuesday, as Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates formally took up the posts they won in an election in June.

Ambassadors made brief remarks, installed their countries’ flags alongside those of other members outside the council chambers, and posed for a group photo — wearing face masks and standing apart, in an acknowledgment of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The flag ceremony is a tradition that Kazakhstan started when on the council in 2018.

The 15-member council is the U.N.’s most powerful body. China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States are permanent members, with veto power.

Other members are elected by the 193-member General Assembly for staggered, two-year terms that are allocated by global regions.

Estonia, Niger, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam finished their terms Friday.

Countries often campaign for seats for years. Winning gives them a say on peacekeeping missions and the council’s other approaches to conflict hotspots, plus a strong voice on overarching issues of international peace and security.

Council members also can convene meetings on security topics of particular interest to them, and smaller countries get to share a prominent platform with world powers.

Albania is joining for the first time, while Brazil is taking an 11th turn. Gabon and Ghana each have been on the council three times before and the UAE once.

More than 50 of the U.N.’s 193 member countries have never been elected to the council since it formed in 1946.

Uzodinma, APC Have Turned Imo Into Abattoir For Killing Igbos – IPOB

Hope Uzodinma. Image: Twitter

BY SEUN OPEJOBI

OWERRI (DAILY POST) -- The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, on Monday accused Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State of collaborating with security operatives and Ebubeagu to kill innocent people in the state.

IPOB’s spokesman, Emma Powerful, claimed that Uzodinma, alongside the All Progressives Congress, APC, security agents and Ebubeagu, has turned Imo State into an “abattoir for innocent Biafrans.”

Powerful was reacting to reports that soldiers repelled and killed and operatives of the Eastern Security Network, ESN, in the state.


He noted that claims that security operatives repelled ESN operatives who allegedly besieged the palace of Eze Emmanuel Eze Okeke of Amaifeke in Orlu LGA Imo State are blatant lies by Uzodinma and his followers.


A statement by Powerful reads: “We are the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi KANU. Following the frustration and lack of professionalism by the Nigerian security agencies, they have as usual resorted to lies and propaganda to deceive the gullible minds.

“The Nigerian Army and police parading and killing innocent citizens in Imo State have started with falsehood to demonise their innocent victims. They can only deceive those who don’t know what is happening in Imo State since Hope Uzodinma and his APC party turned Imo State into an abattoir for innocent Biafrans.

“Nigerian security agents and Ebubeagu security members recruited by Hope Uzodinma were operating and killing innocent citizens in Imo State have lied again that they repelled ESN operatives who allegedly besieged the palace of Eze Emmanuel Eze Okeke of Amaifeke in Orlu LGA Imo State.


“This is another blatant lie from the pit of hell. IPOB/ESN operatives have no issues with traditional rulers in Biafraland but Nigeria army and police are trying to create the wrong impression that we are hunting the monarchs.”

Pope Francis’ January 2022 Prayer Intention Is For Victims Of Religious Persecution

Pope Francis

Overall, an estimated 340 million Christians worldwide face persecution, according to Open Doors’ 2021 report, an increase of 30 million from the previous year.

BY HANNAH BROCKHAUS, CNA

VATICAN CITY (NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER) — For the first month of 2022, Pope Francis has asked Catholics to pray for those facing religious discrimination and persecution.

In a video appeal released Jan. 4, the Pope called religious persecution “inhuman” and “insane.”

“Let us pray that those who suffer discrimination and suffer religious persecution may find in the societies in which they live the rights and dignity that comes from being brothers and sisters,” he said.

The video, which shows scenes of destroyed churches and clips from Pope Francis’ March 2021 trip to Iraq, is promoted by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, which raises awareness of monthly papal prayer intentions.

Pope Francis’ appeal came amid reports of rising persecution of Christians around the world.

The advocacy group Open Doors listed North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Nigeria among the 10 worst countries for Christian oppression on its annual World Watch List last year.

Iraq and Syria, described as having “extreme” levels of Christian persecution, are numbers 11 and 12 on the list, respectively.

Overall, an estimated 340 million Christians worldwide face persecution, according to Open Doors’ 2021 report, an increase of 30 million from the previous year.

Agenzia Fides reported last month that 22 Catholic missionaries were killed in 2021, half of them in Africa.

“How can we allow that in this society, which is so civilized, there are people who are persecuted simply because they publicly profess their faith? Not only is it unacceptable; it’s inhuman, it’s insane,” Pope Francis said.

The United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken was criticized last year after Nigeria was removed from a persecution watchlist.

Violence against Christians in Nigeria has reached the level of genocide, according to some Christian leaders, as Christians are threatened by Fulani militants, the militant group Boko Haram, and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

An average of 10 Christians per day are killed in the West African country. Attacks on villages and atrocities against women and children are often committed with impunity.

In the prayer video, Pope Francis emphasized that religious freedom does not mean simply the freedom to hold a worship service on a particular day of the week, but also appreciating others’ differences and accepting them as true brothers and sisters.

“As human beings, we have so many things in common that we can live alongside each other, welcoming our differences with the joy of being brothers and sisters,” he said.

He prayed that even large differences, such as religion, would not obscure unity.

“Let us choose the path of fraternity. Because either we are brothers and sisters, or we all lose,” the Pope said.

IPOB Warns Against Violation Of Igbo Women

BY CHIMAOBI NWAIWU

NNEWI (VANGUARD) – THE Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, yesterday warned that it will not tolerate any violation of South East and Igbo women, under any guise by security agencies and their workers.

IPOB also said that the people of the people of Orlu zone celebrated Christmas and New Year peacefully because the wicked abductors of Rochas Okorocha’s son in-law, Ugwumba Uche Nwosu’s abductors were exposed.

The pro-Biafra group alleged the allege abductors of Nwosu were not exposed timeously, perpetrators would have as usual quickly probably kill him after some days blamed their evil on ESN to further heighten tension and project IPOB and ESN, as terrorists group.

IPOB further alleged that the Police and Army are using frustration and lack of professionalism in discharging their duties to cook up lies against the people of South East, particularly in Imo State.

A statement by IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful entitled “We will not accept violation of Biafra women by any criminal under the guise of any security agency”, also warned the Senator Hope Uzodimma led Imo State the All Progressives Congress, APC, that Imo people have had enough of their intimidation and harassment of innocent citizens and residents of the state.

IPOB’ s statement read, “We are the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu wish to warn security agencies in South East and Igbo land in general that we will not accept violation of Biafra women by any criminal under the guise of any security agency”

“Following the frustration and lack of professionalism by the Nigeria security agencies, they have as usual resorted to lies and propaganda to deceive the gullible minds.

“The Nigeria Army and Police have been parading and killing innocent citizens in Imo State, and they started with falsehood to demonize their innocent Imo victims. They can only deceive those who don’t know what is happening in Imo State, since Hope Uzodinma led Imo State government and his All Progressives Congress, APC, party turned Imo State into an abattoir for innocent Biafrans.

“Nigeria security agents and Ebubeagu security members recruited by the APC governors in South East, have been killing innocent citizens in Imo State, and they keep telling their usual lies again that they repelled Eastern Security Network, ESN, operatives who allegedly besieged the palace of Eze Emmanuel Okeke of Amaifeke in Orlu, Imo State.

“This is another blatant lie from the pit of hell. IPOB/ESN operatives have no issues with traditional rulers in Biafra land, but Nigeria Army and Police are trying to create the wrong impression that we are hunting the monarchs, we however want to tell then that we have Hugh regard and and esteem our reverted monarch and will anytime any day go after any body or group that attack or insult our monarchs. It is a sacrilege to molest, insult or harm any monarch in Biafra land for any reason and no matter any circumstance.

“It is true that we criticize some traitors among our people including politicians, traditional rulers, President Generals and even religious leaders who don’t seem to real. Our condemnation of their unpatriotic actions against Biafra has not got to the level of going after any of them, we regard and respect them and when they err, we admonish them, and that does not take away the respect we have for them.

“We will not be surprise if these criminals behind the bloodletting in our land starts going after religious leaders and blame their abominable act on IPOB and ESN, that is when they will know that Chukwuokike Abiama are behind us and will not waste them in exposing them.

“For the umpteenth time, IPOB and ESN have no hands in the spate of killings and abductions in any part of Biafra land. Such barbarity is not part of our mandate. The security agencies and their criminal politicians and their recruits are behind it in their desperation to demonize IPOB and ESN.

“The recent statement by Senator Rochas Okorocha, which to us is an exposition of the evil APC government in Imo State for some years now, has vindicated us. Some wicked people in power in collaboration with the security agencies are the masterminds of the insecurity in our land.

“Again the people of Orlu celebrated Christmas and New Year peacefully because the wicked abductors of Rochas Okorocha’s son in-law were exposed. If they were not exposed timeously, they would have quickly blamed the evil on ESN and probably kill him after some days to further heighten tension and project us as terrorists.

“We wonder how a sitting governor on South East, would recruit Fulani terrorists and Alamajiris as Ebubeagu security outfit to join soldiers and Police officers who are terrorists to further unleash mayhem on our people.

“We are aware that the man installed in Imo State as governor has not finished what he came to do for his slavemasters in Imo State. Imo youths must come together and organise themselves to chase that government and his agents of death out of Imo State.

“Imo State citizens must take statistics for how many people killed under the administration through his security agents outfit they came to power, they have as started burning down properties belonging to their political opponents in the state.

“We have to warn now that any state in Biafra territory operating with Ebubeagu security must consider themselves enemy of the people because Ebubeagu is now raping our women and claiming it is soldiers from the North. How could the so called Ebubeagu security outfit decide to be raping our mothers and sisters and think they are our people.

“If they are truly Igbo people they won’t tamper with our ladies for any reason, but they will focus on pursuing four common enemies terrorists herdsmen terrorising our people in the bushes and forests. But because these bunch of criminals know that they are not Igbo people, that is why they will do whatever they like to humiliate our women in the name of security.”

Opinion: Nigeria We Hail Thee

BY SOLA EBISENI

LAGOS (VANGUARD) -- THE question has always been asked by lovers of this column why our views herein are always capped with the first line of the original Nigerian National Anthem: Nigeria, we hail thee! Some have queried sarcastically what is worth hailing about a state that appears doomed to fail.

Some have even linked hailing what they consider the carcass of a nation to their perception of the preference of the Afenifere for restructuring to the undiminished passion for the Oduduwa Republic.

For my family, relatives and childhood friends, Nigeria and I share the same umbilical cord as twins to whom October 1, 1960, is of equal significance. We grew up to know “Nigeria, We Hail Thee” as the Nigerian National Anthem and every child in school was supposed to learn it by heart and render all three stanzas with relish.

We later learnt that the wordings were written by British Lillian Jean Williams, while Rances Berda developed it into the beautiful melody it is. If an anthem is meant to reflect the history, culture and identity of the people it represents, Nigeria we hail thee it is. It spoke of our nativity, cultural diversity and the imperative of unity and the concomitant federal structure in the land in which truth and justice reign and no man is oppressed.

Permit to bring the lyrics to your remembrance and memory:

Nigeria we hail thee

Our own dear native land

Though tribes and tongues may differ

In brotherhood, we stand

Nigerians all, are proud to serve

Our sovereign Motherland.

Our flag shall be a symbol

That truth and justice reign

In peace or battle honour’d,

And this we count as gain,

To hand on to our children

A banner without stain.

O God of all creation

Grant this our one request.

Help us to build a nation

Where no man is oppressed

And so with peace and plenty

Nigeria shall be blessed.

The first stanza recognised our nativity and entrenched nationalities. Those who eventually saw the change of the anthem to the present one said they did not approve of the reference to us as native people and tribesmen. They reasoned deceptively that after 18 years of Independence by 1978, our anthem should not be heard reminding us of our diversity. Such reasoning is an ideal that is rather at variance with the reality of the history and structure of the Nigerian State.

The military distorted the federal structure and the Murtala/Obasanjo regime which pandered to some radical nationalist and patriotic inclinations felt it was part of shedding the toga of colonialism that the National Anthem should be rid of all the colonial relics. Thus, a made-by-Nigerian new anthem should be evolved supported with a National Pledge of loyalty to the country. However, the very essence of an anthem was lost as the lyrics were stripped of the story of how we evolved. A look at the second and new anthem will reveal the difference.

Arise, O compatriots, Nigeria’s call obey

To serve our fatherland With love and strength and faith The labour of our heroes past Shall never be in vain To serve with heart and might One nation bound in freedom, peace and unity.

Oh God of creation, direct our noble cause Guide our leaders right Help our youth the truth to know In love and honesty to grow And living just and true Great lofty heights attain

To build a nation where peace and justice shall reign.

The clamour for the restructuring of the Nigerian State is an acknowledgement of the reality of our existence. The reality of our situation as a nation of entrenched nationalities cannot be wished away and the consciousness of that reality does not make anyone less patriotic or loyal to the state. As a matter of fact, it is a patriotic search for the ideal in blending the groups without which the health of the nation is impaired just as it is presently.

Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and the indefatigable leader of Northern Nigeria then appreciated this reality when he told his fellow statesman and nationalist of unequal status, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, that it was better to discuss the differences among the various nationalities and religions so that we would understand one another and engender mutual respect. The nation is better, united and healthier thereby. Obafemi Awolowo, the indisputable author of Nigerian federalism, aptly described the country as a mere geographical expression that metamorphosises into nationhood was unrealised and remained still in the incubator.

Rather than pander to loyalty either as part of the National Anthem or Pledge, or relish in the labours of our heroes past as assumed by the new anthem, the old edition was persistent in the struggle for truth and justice reigned which symbol shall be our flag which we shall hand over to posterity a banner without stain.

It is the enthronement of truth and justice among the various peoples, as legendary Reggae star, Peter Tosh, sang that peace is birthed, nurtured and matured.

Do not misunderstand me as advocating a return to the old anthem. My thesis is simply that it better comparatively describes our situation. Even if I do, I am only abiding with one of the resolutions of the 2014 National Conference, of which I was a delegate, which recommended a return to the original national anthem.

Lest I forget, just like Chief Olu Falae said in his most illuminating interview over the weekend as part of the unending reactions to Chief Bisi Akande’s controversial memoirs, I was not a delegate of the Afenifere or the Ondo State Government to the Conference. I was a delegate of the Federal Government in the category of the former local government chairmen. We were six each representing the geopolitical zones of the country.

My nomination exposed the hypocrisy of the APC which posed in the public as being not interested in the Confab but engaged in high tech politics to ensure the party is fully represented. All the APC states sent their official delegates and they were not men and women of average age as Chief Akande erroneously portrayed in his book. If receiving allowances at the conference was a point of denouncement, I couldn’t remember any of the APC delegates that turned down theirs.

Mine was a very interesting story. Ours was the second to the last on the list of the category of Federal Government delegates. The last is the powerful list of six Addendum delegates in which icons like Mike Ezekhome featured. The APC had insisted that being the dominant party in the South West, the only slot of former local government chairmen, among the elected chairmen though, must be given to the party. Without informing me, my Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, had submitted my name and profile.

He had argued for merit and precedents. I was not only an elected local government chairman but since 1990 on the platform of the Social Democratic Party when leading political actors in Nigeria today also joined politics. I was in the dark. He did not want to involve me for reasons best known to him, principal of which was the assignment of leading the campaigns in my Ilaje/Ese Odo Federal Constituency bye-elections for the House of Representatives which won for the Labour Party. The rest is history.

Reflections on 2022.

This year will be the most decisive year for Nigeria. I am still compiling my revelations and thoughts which will mature on the page next week. I thank those who found time to share in our thoughts on this page. I can, however, safely say that most who believe that once elections set in, agitations for change through restructuring will subside will be snoring in a fool’s paradise. In like manner, those who feel incarceration or murder of separatist agitators will deter the proponents without enthroning justice among the nationalities should say that to the marines.

Till next week, Nigeria, we hail thee.

Document Prince Andrew Claims Prevents Lawsuit Is Released

FILE - In this Sunday, April 11, 2021, file photo, Britain's Prince Andrew speaks. during a television interview at the Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge, Windsor, England, Sunday, April 11, 2021. A lawsuit by an American who claims Prince Andrew sexually abused her when she was 17 might have to be thrown out because she no longer lives in the U.S., lawyers for the Prince said in a court filing Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021. (Steve Parsons/Pool Photo via AP, File)

BY LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — A woman who says she was sexually trafficked to Britain’s Prince Andrew by Jeffrey Epstein accepted $500,000 in 2009 to settle her lawsuit against the American millionaire and anyone else “who could have been included as a potential defendant,” according to a court record unsealed Monday.

The prince’s lawyers say that language should bar Virginia Giuffre from suing Andrew now, even though he wasn’t a party to the original settlement.

The private 2009 legal deal resolved Giuffre’s allegations that Epstein had hired her as a teenager to be a sexual servant at his estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

Andrew was not named in that lawsuit, but Giuffre had alleged in it that Epstein had flown her around the world for sexual encounters with numerous men “including royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen and/or professional and personal acquaintances.”

The settlement unsealed Monday also doesn’t mention Andrew, but contains a single paragraph saying it protects anyone “who could have been included as a potential defendant” from being sued by Giuffre.

Attorney Andrew Brettler, representing the prince, has told a Manhattan federal court judge that the agreement should release Andrew “from any purported liability.”

Attorney David Boies, who represents Giuffre, said in a statement Monday that the language about protecting potential defendants in the settlement between his client and Epstein was “irrelevant” to the prince’s lawsuit in part because the paragraph did not mention the prince and he didn’t know about it.

“He could not have been a ‘potential defendant’ in the settled case against Jeffrey Epstein both because he was not subject to jurisdiction in Florida and because the Florida case involved federal claims to which he was not a part,” Boies said.

Boies said he wanted the Epstein-Giuffre agreement publicly released “to refute the claims being made about it by Prince Andrew’s” public relations campaign.

Giuffre sued the prince in August, saying he had sexually assaulted her multiple times in 2001 when she was 17.

The prince’s lawyers say Andrew never sexually abused or assaulted Giuffre and that he “unequivocally denies Giuffre’s false allegations against him.”

They also wrote that Giuffre sued Andrew “to achieve another payday at his expense and at the expense of those closest to him. Epstein’s abuse of Giuffre does not justify her public campaign against Prince Andrew.”

Arguments over the request to dismiss the lawsuit are scheduled for Tuesday.

Recently, the prince’s lawyers have said Giuffre should be disallowed from suing in the U.S. because she has lived most of the past two decades in Australia and can’t accurately claim to be a resident of Colorado, where her mother lives.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan has rejected an attempt by the lawyers to halt progression of the lawsuit and to subject Giuffre to a deposition over the issue of where she is a resident.

In late 2019, Prince Andrew told BBC Newsnight that he never had sex with Giuffre, saying, “It didn’t happen.”

He said he has “no recollection” of ever meeting her.

The interview was widely panned by critics who said Andrew seemed insensitive to Epstein’s victims. Afterward, the prince stepped back from royal duties.

A message seeking comment was left with a spokesperson for Giuffre’s lawyers and with Brettler.

Epstein, 66, killed himself in August 2019 as he awaited trial in the U.S. on sex trafficking charges that didn’t involve Andrew.

His former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, 60, was convicted last week in Manhattan on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges related to several women after a month-long trial. Giuffre was not one of the alleged victims in that case.

Judge Alison J. Nathan, who presided over the trial, asked lawyers on both sides to suggest when a sentencing date should be set and when a trial should be scheduled on perjury charges that were severed from the other charges Maxwell faced.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they choose to come forward publicly, as Giuffre has done.