Baltimore Archdiocese Posts List of 71 Priests Accused of Sexually Abusing Children

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has posted a list of several dozen priests and religious brothers accused of sexual abuse, including 14 priests who offended after the groundbreaking 2002 Boston Globe investigation broke the story of widespread sexual abuse.

The Baltimore Sun reports that the list includes 57 priests who were first named on the archdiocese website in 2002—eight months after the Globe investigation. That list was subsequently taken down. The new list contains at least 14 names that did not appear on the initial list because their offenses occurred after 2002.

When the 2002 list was published, Cardinal William Keeler called the abuse of children by priests “the spiritual equivalent of murder.”

Though all of the names had previously been disclosed, they had not been collected into a single place, as activists had requested. The new list was posted this past January, although the archdiocese did not publicize it because it did not include any “new” names, so-to-speak.

“We’ve wanted it a long time,” David Lorenz, Maryland director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told the Sun. “We’ve asked every diocese around the country to do it.” Archbishop William Lori decided to grant that request this year.

“The primary motivation in publicly disclosing an allegation is to encourage anyone else who may have been a victim of that individual to come forward,” archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine told the Washington Post. “We’ve heard from victim-surviors that one main obstacle is the sense that they’re alone. They’re the only one. They won’t be believed.”

The list includes a paragraph describing the allegations in a scroll-over text appended to each name.

“I think it’s to Lori’s credit,” Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, said. “Baltimore’s unusual in actually saying something about what the allegations are.”

“There are various ways in which the Church has over the years really limited everyone’s knowledge of this, and survivors are very, very aware of that. And when the Church finally says, okay, we’re not doing that anymore, that is a huge relief. It really lifts a terrible burden.”

Thugs set Federal lawmaker’s house, office, farm on fire in Kano

Suspected political thugs, on Wednesday set ablaze the residence of Senator Kabiru Gaya, in Gaya Local Government area of Kano State.

The youths also set ablaze the campaign office and poultry farm of the House of Representatives member from the area, Alhaji Abdullahi Mahmoud.

An eye witness told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano that the incident occurred around 11 am on Wednesday.

According to the witness, the youths were protesting the alleged failure of the two politicians to fulfil the promises they made to them during the electioneering campaigns in 2015.

It was gathered that security agents had initially dispersed the protesting youths, who later regrouped and burnt the senator’s house before heading to the campaign office and poultry farm of the House of Representatives member.

NAN gathered that the hoodlums had also attempted to burn the residence of the Chairman, Gaya local government but were over powered by the security personnel deployed to quell the violence.

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of Kano State Police Command, DSP Magaji Majiya confirmed the incident.

He said that the police in the area were still trying to contain the situation.

“Our men in Gaya are still trying to bring the situation under control but as soon as we get details of the incident, we will keep you posted”, he said.

Anti-corruption fight is not an easy task – President Buhari

President Buhari on Wednesday admitted that the anti-corruption war being waged by his administration was not an easy task. He however expressed the possibility of prosecuting the war to a successful end even if many feathers would have to be ruffled.

He made this known in his keynote address which he delivered at the Commonwealth event tagged “Tackling corruption together: A conference for civil society, business and government leaders” held at the Commonwealth Secretariat, London.

Electronic copies of the speech were made available to journalists by the Presidency.

Buhari said his desire to prosecute the anti-corruption war successfully was evident in the manner he had so far allowed anti-graft agencies to operate without interference unlike what was obtainable in the past.

He said, “Tackling the menace of corruption is not an easy task, but it is possible even if many feathers have to be ruffled.

“Our Government’s dogged commitment to tackling corruption is also evident in the freedom and support granted to national anti-corruption agencies to enable them to carry out their respective mandates without interference or hindrance from any quarter including the government.

“Today, our frontline anti-corruption agencies, namely, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission, the Code of Conduct Bureau and the Code of Conduct Tribunal have become revitalised and more proactive in the pursuit of perpetrators of corrupt practices, irrespective of their social status and political persuasion. This is a radical departure from the past.

“We have implemented the Treasury Single Account whereby all Federal government revenue goes into one account. This measure would make it impossible for public officers to divert public funds to private accounts as was the practice before.

“Through the effective application of TSA and the Bank Verification Number, we have been able to remove 23,000 ghost workers from our pay roll, thereby saving billions that would have been stolen.

“We are also reviewing our anti-corruption laws and have developed a national anti-corruption strategy document that will guide our policies in the next three years, and possibly beyond.”

Buhari described corruption as a hydra-headed monster and a cankerworm that undermines the fabric of all societies.

Lagos saves N5.9bn through Treasury Single Account - Commissioner

The Lagos State Government on Wednesday said it had saved N5.990 billion as revenue accruals since the policy of Treasury Single Account (TSA) was introduced in the state.

Its Commissioner for Finance, Mr Mustapha Akinkunmi, said this at the state’s Ministerial briefing in Ikeja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the policy was introduced by the state government on Sept. 1, 2015.

The Commissioner said the implementation of the TSA in the state had greatly enhanced transparency and efficiency.

He said it had also increased IGR through seamless revenue generation and collection as well as improved cash management in the state.

Akinkunmi said the government had been able to save the sum of N3.8 billion monthly which had been applied continually for capital projects.

“These strides could only have been possible by the present administration because of its ability to successfully re-engineer the state’s outstanding internal loans to reduce burden on IGR,” Akinkunmi said.

He also said that part of the achievements and developments recorded included ongoing reforms in public financial management.

“Lagos continues to enjoy the support of multilateral agencies, especially the World Bank.

“As a reflection of its strong track record of public finance management and administrative reforms, the state successfully drew down the third and final tranche of the World Bank DPO facility (DPO III) in April this year, worth $200m,” he said.

Akinkunmi said Lagos had restructured its outstanding bonds from bullet payment to amortising payment to reduce debt servicing resulting in huge savings.

He said through this initiative, the state had achieved savings of over N500 million in monthly contributions to Consolidated Debt Service Account and over N40 billion saved in interest payments over the lifetime of the instruments.

Akinkunmi said that the state won virtually unanimous approval for restructuring at the Bondholders’ Extraordinary General Meeting which showed the continued strong relationship between Lagos and the capital market. He said that this was an affirmation of continued confidence in the strength of the state’s creditworthiness.

Checkout Dino Melaye at the Anti-Corruption summit organized by the Commonwealth

Checkout Dino Melaye at the Anti-Corruption summit organized by the Commonwealth

 

 

The Senator shared the photos on his twitter handle.