Metro

Outrage as Chinese government opens police stations in Nigeria, Lesotho, Tanzania

Published

2 years ago

October 19, 2022

The Chinese government on Tuesday, announced that it has opened police stations in Nigeria, Lesotho and Tanzania, in its bid to “curtail criminal activities being perpetrated by its citizens abroad.”

The Chinese police stations known as ‘Service Stations’ are located in Benin City in Nigeria, Maseru in Lesotho and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

A report by a pan-Asian human rights group, Safeguard Defenders titled, ‘110 Overseas Chinese Policing Gone Wild,’ noted that the Chinese government developed and established the overseas “service stations” to bring “down on all kinds of illegal and criminal activities involving Chinese based overseas” in accordance with international laws and best policing practices.

It added that the Chinese governent has been worried that many of its citizens living abroad were involved in crimes which is becoming alarming, hence the need to create the police stations in other countries.

The Safeguard Defenders report went on to criticise the establishment of the overseas police stations.

“Rather than using legal forms of international cooperation, they resort to pressuring targets to return, in fact, some 230,000 people for a little over a year. Tied to this, a new law this year will establish full extraterritorial powers for China.

“Whether the targets are dissidents, corrupt officials or low-level criminals, the problem remains the same: the use of irregular methods — often combining carrots with sticks — against the targeted individual or their family members in China undermines any due process and the most basic rights of suspects.

“Rather than cooperating with local authorities in the full respect of territorial sovereignty, it prefers… to cooperate with (United Front-linked) overseas ‘NGOs’ or ‘civil society associations’ across the the continents, setting up an alternative policing and judicial system within third countries, and directly implicating those organisations in the illegal methods employed to pursue ‘fugitives’.”

But while justifying the establishment of the police stations, the Minqing County Procuratorate, Li Riqin, said:

“Through the establishment of overseas service centers, Qingtian County Police has made breakthroughs in its overseas pursuit of fugitives.

“Since 2018, the Qingtian police have detected and solved six criminal cases related to overseas Chinese, successfully arrested a red notice fugitive, and persuaded two suspects to surrender under the assistance from the Overseas centers.

“While establishing these operations to hunt down those accused of fraud and telecommunications fraud, China has identified nine countries particularly prone to hosting Chinese nationals engaging in such criminal activities, the ‘nine forbidden countries.”

Related Topics:China Featured Lesotho Nigeria Police Stations Tanzania

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Metro

Zambia: FOX report highlights persistent media harassment, calls for reforms

Published

5 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Isaac Dachen

A new Freedom of Expression (FOX) report by the Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia, has raised concerns over what it describes as the continued harassment of media professionals in the country despite collective efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.

The FOX Report serves as a call to action for all stakeholders to create a safer and more enabling environment for the media to operate without fear or intimidation.

Chairperson of the MISA-Zambia Board, Lorraine Mwanza, who raised the concerns while launching the report on Tuesday at the Pamodzi Hotel in Lusaka, highlighted that journalists and media practitioners in the country still faced intimidation, censorship, and violence for fulfilling their role of informing the public.

“The harassment of media professionals is a stark reminder of the threats posed to democratic values and the fundamental rights to seek, receive, and impart information without fear or hindrance,” Mwanza said.

She expressed solidarity with those who are targets of attack, and reaffirmed MISA’s commitment to defending journalists’ rights and protecting the integrity of the profession.

Mwanza further called on the government to address barriers preventing journalists from accessing public officials, emphasizing that public officials were custodians of critical information necessary for informed decision-making.

“When citizens have access to government data, they can better understand policies, monitor public spending, and advocate for change in their communities,” Mwanza noted.

She also appealed for the review and repeal of laws that undermine democracy, stressing the importance of enacting legislation that guarantees media freedom, freedom of expression, and digital rights, and commended the government for responding to calls from civil society organizations to withdraw the controversial Cyber Bills from Parliament.

Ministry of Information and Media Permanent Secretary, Thabo Kawana, in a speech read by Ministry Director Mordern Mayembe, reaffirmed government’s commitment to upholding media freedom and freedom of expression in Zambia.

Metro

Nigeria: 614,937 killed, 2.2m abducted in 1 year— Report

Published

14 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Isaac Dachen

A new report released on Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that over 614,937 Nigerians were killed and 2,235,954 others kidnapped across the country in one year between May 2023 and April 2024.

The NBS report, titled, “The Crime Experienced and Security Perception Survey (CESPS) 2024”, says based on the surveys conducted between May 2023 and April 2024, the 2.2 million Nigerians who were kidnapped across the country paid a whopping N2.2 trillion as ransom, with an average amount of N2.7 million per incident.

The report also disclosed that murder rate was highest in rural areas with 335,827 incidents and 279,110 in urban areas.

A zone-by-zone analysis of the report showed that the North-West had the highest murder cases of 206,030, followed by the North-East which stood at 188,992, while the least was recorded in the South-West at 15,693.

The report also revealed about seven in 10 households reported murder cases to the police nationwide with 33 per cent of households responding that the killer was an unknown person, and 23.4 per cent confirmed that the murderer was a member of the household; while 1.0 per cent reported that the murderer was either a spouse or a lover.

The report said 1,668,104 persons were kidnapped in rural areas and 567,850 in urban areas with the North-West having the highest cases of kidnapping with 1,420,307 abducted, followed by the North-Central with 317,837 and the South-East at 110,432.

“Of the estimated amount of N2.2 trillion payments to free victims, the North-West reported the highest ransom paid with N1.2 trillion; while the South-East was the least with N85.4 billion.

“Disaggregated by zones, the North-Central reported the highest proportion of payment of ransom at 83.4 per cent, followed by North-East at 78.6 per cent.

“Households in urban areas paid an average of N3.7 million compared to N2.3 million in rural areas,” the report stated.

It added that about 91 per cent of kidnapping incidents were done for ransom in the form of money, goods or other benefits.

“While 2.4 per cent of cases were attributed to political, criminal, or terrorist objectives; 2.1 per cent were linked to personal or family disputes. Custody disputes accounted for 0.5 per cent of cases,” the report said.