A Brazilian Supreme Court justice believes jailed ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva deserves a retrial after leaked social media conversations appeared to show the judge hearing Brazil’s largest-ever corruption case collaborated with prosecutors.

Justice Gilmar Mendes said in an interview with Reuters that the so-called Car Wash investigation was a success in battling the “metastasis of corruption” in Brazil but it became politicized and prosecutors went too far.

Lula is serving a 12-year prison sentence for taking bribes, and the judge who convicted him, Sergio Moro, is now Brazil’s justice minister in right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro’s cabinet.

Mendes’ views could influence other judges on the 11-member Supreme Court, which has postponed a politically charged ruling on whether Moro was impartial when trying Lula. If it rules he was not, Lula would face retrial and could be exonerated. The Bolsonaro government and its supporters fiercely oppose any move by the court that could result in Lula’s freedom.

Mendes said there are doubts about whether due process was followed in Lula’s trial and whether he was actually complicit in the huge corruption scheme uncovered by Car Wash that involved bribes and political kickbacks on contracts with oil company Petrobras and other state-run companies.

“We owe Lula a fair trial,” Mendes said in the interview on Thursday in his Supreme Court offices.

Mendes has been a main critic of the excessive use of plea bargains and provisional detentions of suspects in the sprawling Car Wash investigation that led to the jailing of high-profile politicians and construction executives. He has previously been vocal about perceived irregularities in the prosecution of Lula.

Lula, a popular leftist leader, was tried for receiving a beachside apartment and a country house from engineering firms in return for their winning lucrative state contracts under his Workers Party’s government.

The leaking of conversations between Moro and prosecutors by the news website The Intercept was a positive step, according to Mendes, as it could be the nail in the coffin of the Car Wash investigation that had come to “monopolize” Brazil’s war on corruption.

“Car Wash had become a sort of Holy Trinity: They investigated, they judged, they convicted and they made the laws,” Mendes said.

Moro and lead Car Wash prosecutor Deltan Dalagnol have denied any wrongdoing in their communications.

Mendes said the leaked conversations suggest Moro and prosecutors behaved improperly without oversight from other institutions.

The leaks revealed that prosecutors went as far as planning to investigate Mendes, his family and the Supreme Court’s current Chief Justice Dias Toffoli for tax irregularities.

“But things are being put back in their place,” Mendes said, referring to pushback from politicians in Congress, where lawmakers – many of whom have been probed for graft – passed a bill that curtails the investigative powers of prosecutors and judges.

Congress also blocked Moro’s plan to move to his ministry the Council for Control over Financial Activities Control (COAF), a key tool for flagging suspicious funds moving through the banking system. It has now been put under the Central Bank’s responsibility.

Mendes said the attempt to move the COAF was part of a political plan to gain access to tax and other information that could be leaked or used against critics, even to blackmail them.

Whoever controls such information has “immense political power,” he said.

He provided no evidence to support this. The Justice Ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

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From: MeNeedIt

Putting on a pair of jeans or drinking a beer has a cost beyond the price tag, with billions of tonnes of water used globally each year to manufacture them and other consumer goods, companies said at an international water conference on Monday.

But with population growth and climate change making water a scarcer and more precious resource, using water wisely is now a key to remaining profitable, they said.

From growing cotton for textiles to manufacturing drinks and ensuring consumers have enough water as well, efficient water use is high on the agenda, representatives of popular brands said during opening events at World Water Week in Stockholm.

“Gap Inc. sees water as a human right,” Lisa Hook who works on sustainable innovation for Gap Inc. told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “We can’t do business where there is no water.”

Cotton is a thirsty crop and it takes about 1,000 gallons of water to make one pair of jeans, Hook said.

The global apparel industry also contributes about 20% of the pollution in fresh water sources around the world from its laundries, mills and other facilities, she added.

Many businesses now operate in regions facing high water stress, from India to Vietnam and California, company representatives said.

By 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Brewing change 

For Dutch brewer Heineken, water is obviously a vital ingredient, said Jan-Willem Vosmeer, corporate social responsibility manager for the firm.

But many breweries are located in increasingly water-stressed areas, and limited or irregular supplies could impact both communities and corporate bottom lines, he said.

Finding ways to conserve water and use it responsibly “makes absolute business sense”, Vosmeer said.

“Diminishing availability of water poses operational, social, reputational and legal risks for all businesses. It should be high on the agenda” for companies, he said.

Like many other food and beverage businesses, the largest part of Heineken’s water “footprint” comes from agriculture, as it grows key ingredients such as barley, he said.

To save water, Coca-Cola is turning to new technology such as using air rather than water to clean bottles, said Liz Lowe, the company’s British sustainability manager.

It is also better monitoring water use in factories and harvesting rainwater for toilet flushing at its plants — one way to act as a better water steward, she said.

As well, in an effort to replenish natural water supplies, the global drinks giant is creating new wetlands and working with communities internationally to try to put the equivalent of all the water it uses in manufacturing back into nature and communities by 2020, Lowe said.

“Water is the absolute heart of our business. If we don’t have water, we don’t have a business — full stop,” she said.

Population growth, climate change, economic and agricultural expansion and deforestation are all placing greater pressures on the world’s limited supplies of water, scientists say.

For Swedish furniture store Ikea, consumer choice is also an important motivation for improving water practices.

“There is a clear customer demand” for greener products, said Kajsa-Stina Kalin, Ikea’s “healthy and sustainable living” leader.

The reality, she said, is that “climate change is no longer a distant threat” and “as a big global brand we know we are part of the problem but we really want to be part of the solution.”

The company, which had a billion visits to its stores in 52 countries last year, aims to reduce and reuse water in all its operations in a bid to attract environmentally aware customers.

“We know that people are increasingly choosing to not shop at companies and brands that have no active sustainability work,” said Kalin.

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From: MeNeedIt

It might not be obvious at the supermarket, but the banana industry is fighting to protect the most popular variety of the fruit from a destructive fungus.

A disease that ravages banana crops has made its long-dreaded arrival in Latin America, the biggest exporter of the crop. That’s reigniting worries about the global market’s dependence on a single type of banana, the Cavendish, which is known for its durability in shipping.

For years, scientists have said big banana companies like Chiquita and Dole would eventually need to find new banana varieties as the disease spread in countries in Asia and elsewhere. Then this month, the fungus was confirmed in Colombia, one of the top exporters in Latin America, prompting officials in the country to declare a state of emergency.

Banana industry watchers say it’s more proof the Cavendish’s days are numbered, but that there’s still plenty of time to find alternatives.

“I don’t think it’s going to impact the availability of the Cavenidsh in supermarkets anytime soon,” said Randy Ploetz, a retired scientist from the University of Florida who studied tropical plant diseases.

While all sorts of bananas are grown around the world for domestic consumption, the ones shipped to places including the United States and the European Union are mostly Cavendishes. It may seem odd that the world banana market would hitch its fortunes to a single variety, but mass producing just one kind is a way to keep costs down, which also helps make bananas so widely available.

Bananas are also hard to breed, and finding varieties suited to global commerce isn’t easy. In addition to being productive, Cavendish plants yield bananas that can survive the trip from warm climates to far-flung supermarkets, without ripening too quickly.

Still, history has shown the risks of relying on a single banana variety. Not that long ago, the world market was ruled by another banana, the Gros Michel, aka the Big Mike. Experts say it was even easier to ship than the Cavendish, and sweeter (though others contend it tasted similar). Either way, the Gros Michel was ravaged by the 1950s by an earlier strain of the disease now stalking the Cavendish.

This time, there’s no obvious backup banana waiting in the wings to take over.

In Asian countries hit by the Tropical Race 4 disease, coping strategies have included planting less susceptible Cavendish varieties or moving to uninfected farmland, according to Ploetz. But those varieties aren’t as productive and still eventually succumb to the fungus, which can survive in soil for decades. Growers will also eventually run out of uninfected land.

In Colombia, special measures being taken to stop the disease from spreading include sanitary controls at the entrance to plantations and roadblocks where trucks traveling between banana farms and ports are disinfected by government workers in scrubs and rubber boots.

The fungus travels on small particles of soil that can stick to truck tires, farm equipment or workers’ shoes. And in Colombia, farmers fear that thieves who sneak into plantations to steal bananas could accidentally spread the disease. Some farms in Colombia are only lightly guarded and are separated from interstate roads by small fences. The situation has prompted police and Colombia’s military to step up presence around banana plantations since the disease was detected.

“We are trying to make people understand that stealing bananas nowadays can have greater repercussions,” said Francisco Zuniga, the president of Asbama, a Colombian banana farmers association.

So far, the fungus has been detected on six farms in Colombia. All are located in La Guajira, a province near the border with Venezuela. Officials say the affected area is still small at 490 acres (200 hectares), and is not making a dent on the country’s exports. But there are concerns that the arrival of the disease will change Colombia’s banana  industry forever, forcing farms and the government to spend more on sanitary measures.

In La Guajira, officials have uprooted plants where the fungus has been detected and covered the soil with black plastic sheets that raise the temperatures to levels that could stop the disease from spreading. Healthy plants within a 60 foot (20 meter) radius of the affected areas are also killed with chemicals as a preventive measure.

 “We will continue to work towards stopping this disease from spreading to the rest of Colombia,” Agriculture Minister Andres Valencia told The Associated Press during a visit to La Guajira. “But eventually we have to make the transition to other varieties of banana that will resist this disease.”

Gert Kema, a plant scientist who studies bananas, also said the industry needs to diversify.  He said there are many types of tomatoes and peppers, and that bananas should be no different.

“We have collectively accepted that we have just one banana,” Kema said.

Banana diversity means higher costs, however, and it’s not clear that people would be willing to pay more for the fruit.

Another challenge is that the fungus is lethal to a wide array of bananas. That’s also a problem for places where starchier, cooked bananas are a food staple, including some countries in Africa and Latin America.

But even with the disease’s appearance in Colombia, banana companies say there’s no need to panic. Whether the solution is a new breed or a genetically modified banana, the new option will likely look and taste a lot like the Cavendish.

For now, government and industry officials say they’re taking security measures to contain the fungus wherever it appears.

“We can significantly slow the spread and have decades more of the Cavendish,” said Caoimhe Buckley, a spokeswoman for Fyffes, a major banana exporter based in Ireland.

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From: MeNeedIt

Stock markets in Asia traded down Monday as investors processed the latest round of reciprocal tariffs imposed by the United States and China.

The slump hit major markets in Japan, China and Hong Kong.

China’s top trade negotiator Vice Premier Liu He said Monday that China is willing to negotiate with the United States to end the ongoing trade battle, and that China opposes “the escalation of the trade war.”

His comments follow those Sunday from Trump, who said he had “second thoughts” about the rising tariffs the two countries have imposed on each other’s goods.  But the White House quickly clarified that he meant that was because he did not raise the taxes even more than he did.

Last week, before heading to France for the Group of 7 summit of the leaders of some of the world’s leading economies, Trump boosted tariffs on $550 billion worth of Chinese products shipped to the United States after Beijing said it would raise tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. exports to China, which itself was in retaliation to an earlier Trump tariff hike.

On Sunday, as he sat down to a breakfast meeting with new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a reporter asked Trump whether he regretted the tit-for-tat tariff war with China.

Trump responded, “Yeah, sure. Why not.”

“Might as well,” he said. “Might as well. I have second thoughts about everything.”

When asked if he would declare a national emergency to block U.S. companies from buying Chinese goods, Trump said, “I have the right to, if I want.”

But Trump then claimed that trade talks were going well with China and that he planned to walk back some of his recent threats, such as seeking to force American companies to leave China. 

News stories from the site of the summit in the Atlantic coastal town of Biarritz quickly interpreted Trump’s “second thoughts” remark as having regrets about boosting tariffs on Chinese exports.

The international attention the remark drew came in part because Trump has been defiant in confronting China’s trade practices and its wide trade surplus with the U.S., which totaled $419 billion in 2018, and partly because Trump rarely publicly regrets any pronouncement he has made.

But not long after, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said, “His answer has been greatly misinterpreted. President Trump responded in the affirmative — because he regrets not raising the tariffs higher.”

The U.S.-China tariff war has roiled world stock markets for weeks, with wild gyrations in market performance, depending on the tariff announcements coming out of Washington and Beijing and then regaining ground when some hopeful signs surface that the world’s two biggest economies might yet reach a trade agreement in the coming months. 

On Friday, U.S. stock indexes plummeted more than 2% after China first announced the tariff hike on the $75 billion worth of U.S. exports, followed hours later by Trump saying he would increase existing tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods from 25% to 30% as of Oct. 1. In addition, he said a new round of tariffs on another $300 billion in Chinese exports would be increased from 10% to 15%. The first batch of those tariffs are set to take effect Sept. 1.

Whatever Trump’s intentions on the tariff war, China said it expects worsening economic conflict with the U.S.

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the state-run People’s Daily newspaper, wrote on Twitter, “Regardless of his specific expression each time, we’re seriously making preparations for scenario in which China-U.S. trade relations deteriorate further, even much worse than now.

Trump was also asked whether world leaders at the summit have asked him to curb his trade war with China, and he responded, “No, not at all. I haven’t heard that at all.”

But Johnson nudged Trump in that direction, saying, “Just to register the faint, sheep-like note of our view on the trade war, we’re in favor of trade peace on the whole, and dialing it down a beat.”

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From: MeNeedIt

Nigeria’s agency for combating human trafficking is repatriating and re-settling women who have been subjected to forced labor and prostitution after being smuggled into Europe on false promises of working at well-paying jobs.  Thousands of Nigerian women have been trafficked in recent years, though some were lucky enough to be able to return to their country.  

For 35-year-old Beatrice, it was an offer she couldn’t resist.  A job, the traffickers told her in 2013, on a large Italian farm.

She took the bait, thinking she could help pull her father and mother out of poverty by working abroad.

Instead, after being smuggled into Italy under extremely dire traveling conditions, she was forced into prostitution to earn money for her traffickers.

“A friend of mine introduced me, he said, ‘look at this place, you’re going to work there on the farm.’ He did not tell me I’m going to do prostitution, so I said it’s very nice let me try. At the end of the day we passed through Libya, took a ship, a lot of people died,” Beatrice said.

Beatrice was there for four years. She’s from Nigeria’s southern State of Edo, known to contribute the highest number of trafficked women from Nigeria.

More than 11,000 of them are estimated to be working as sex slaves in Italy alone.

Beatrice says her suffering was unbearable.

“If you don’t come back with money, they’ll beat you up, do different things. They give you fresh pepper, you know how it is if it got to your eyes. They’ll tell you to put it in your vagina. Even if you’re menstruating you’ll still go out to work,” Beatrice said.

The United Nations says women represent more than half of the thousands smuggled from Africa into Europe every year.

But Nigerian men also are victims of human trafficking and forced labor.

Forty-five-year-old Chukwuemeka Asiegbu spent six years in Libya and narrowly escaped alive. Upon his return to Nigeria, he started an advocacy group for the rights of trafficked victims.

“As a human trafficker you are meeting needs … your own needs. Is it detrimental to others? And actually we find out that human trafficking is quite detrimental, it’s an epidemic, it’s a disaster because you are meeting needs at the expense of the lives of others,” Asiegbu said.

Nigeria’s anti-human trafficking agency, NAPTIP was set up in 2003 to address the problem.  

Over the years, it has made some progress repatriating and resettling victims back home, says Arinze Orakwe, a director at NAPTIP.

“It’s a crime that brought so much shame to Nigeria. It’s a crime that we’re not proud of, the record and status … which government felt it’s important and critical that we have to do something about it,” Orakwe said.

With the help of NAPTIP, victims like Beatrice are starting again after being trained in various vocations. Beatrice now runs her own food cafe back home.

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From: MeNeedIt

Nigeria’s agency for combating human trafficking is repatriating and re-settling women who have been subjected to forced labor and prostitution after being smuggled into Europe on false promises of working at well-paying jobs.  Thousands of Nigerian women have been trafficked in recent years, though some were lucky enough to be able to return to their country.  Timothy Obiezu takes a closer look at the story of some human trafficking victims who are now back in Nigeria rebuilding their lives.

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From: MeNeedIt

Africans and African Americans participating in events marking 400 years since the start of slavery in the United States say everyone must work harder to unite societies divided along racial and economic lines. VOA reporter Kennes Bwire reports from Norfolk, Virginia, where people gathered Saturday to observe the anniversary of the beginning of more than two centuries of slavery in English-speaking America.  *For more on the anniversary, check out our Special Page.

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From: MeNeedIt

SAINT-JEAN-DE-LUZ, FRANCE – U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau touted their trilateral trade agreement in their meeting at the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Biarritz, France.

“Quite frankly, around the table there’s a lot of people wanting to make trade deals with each other,” Trudeau said, adding that the U.S. and Canada have a deal that’s “good for our workers, good for our citizens, good for the middle class.”

My focus at the #G7 is working with our allies to strengthen the middle class – not just in Canada but around the world as well. We just wrapped up a productive first day in France, tackling some of the world’s biggest challenges. More to come tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/55pIiguuNO

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) August 25, 2019

Trump said that the two countries will be “significantly expanding” trade relations once the USMCA (U.S. – Mexico – Canada Agreement) is done.

Negotiations are final but the agreement has not yet been ratified by the U.S. Congress. The White House is pushing for an immediate ratification but Democrats and organized labor said certain provisions must first be improved.

The USMCA replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, which Trump at the meeting again called “the worst trade agreements ever done”. 

Trump added that the only thing worse than NAFTA is the World Trade Organization. “The WTO, that’s a beauty.” he said.

Climate change

Trudeau is pushing for action on climate change at the summit, in line with his Liberal government’s agenda to highlight its achievement on this issue ahead of Canada’s October election.

French President Emmanuel Macron, host of the summit has put climate issues high on the agenda for discussion, particularly focusing on the wildfires in the Amazon rainforest.

The leaders’ focus on climate change have put them at odds with an American president known for his anti-climate stance. In June 2017, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Accord, a multilateral climate pact championed by the Obama administration. 

The New York Times reported that senior Trump administration officials have accused Macron’s aides of ignoring requests by White House officials to keep the focus on security and the threat of a recession, and emphasizing instead on climate change, gender equality, and African development, which highlight disagreements the Trump administration.
 

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From: MeNeedIt

The leaders of the world’s major industrialized countries are holding their annual summit.

 The Group of Seven, or G-7, is meeting in Biarritz, France. 

U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on French wine, one of the most iconic industries of the host country, ahead of the summit has added to the tension among the leaders who remain at odds over issues ranging from climate change, how to deal with China and Iran, whether to bring Russia back into the fold, and Britain’s exit from the European Union. 

With these deep divisions, consensus seems unlikely. After Sunday’s first session the leaders failed to come to an agreement on readmitting Russia to the group in 2020.  Russia was ousted after its invasion of Ukraine and seizure of Crimea in 2014.  

The French government announced after the first working session on the global economy, foreign policy and security affairs that the G-7 leaders had agreed to have French President Emmanuel Macron send a message to Iran and hold talks with Iranian officials.  No details were released about the message, and Trump said he had not discussed anything about a message or talks with Iran.  However, later Trump said he is not stopping anybody from talking with Iran.

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, has acknowledged that “it has been increasingly difficult for us to find common language.”  

No joint communique planned

French President Emmanuel Macron already has declared that there will be no joint communique at the end of the summit, citing disagreements involving Trump and other leaders on the key issues as one of the reasons.

It will be the first time in G-7 history that a summit will end without a communique. 

The summit marks the first meeting between Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson since Johnson took over from his predecessor Theresa May who failed to deliver on Brexit. 

The members of the G-7 are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States. 

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From: MeNeedIt

U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Biarritz, France but did not announce they have reached a trade deal.

“We’re working on one and we’re fairly close,” said Trump.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who has been leading the negotiations with Japan added, “We’ve worked very intensively and probably as a result of this meeting will be able to come to agreement on core principle.” Prior to the Trump-Abe meeting, Lighthizer held talks with Japan’s Economic Revitalization Minister Toshimitsu Motegi in Washington.

Japanese media have reported that a deal is close, with Tokyo agreeing to lower tariffs on American beef and pork to levels set by the Trans-Pacific Partnership, while letting Washington maintain its 2.5% levy on Japanese autos for now.

Earlier Sunday during his meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Trump said that he was “very close to a major deal with Japan”.

“Prime Minister Abe and I are very good friends,” he added.

The two leaders enjoy close ties but Trump often complains that Tokyo has an unfair advantage in bilateral trade.

In January 2017, very early in his presidency Trump withdrew from the Trans Pacific Partnership, a signature multilateral trade deal of the Obama administration.

After the U.S. withdrawal, in 2018, the 11 remaining TPP countries, including Japan, signed a version of the trade deal, championed as an antidote to growing American protectionism under Trump.

North Korea missile tests

Asked about recent North Korean missile tests, Trump said he is “not happy” about it but that he doesn’t consider Pyongyang to be violating agreements.

When Trump offered Abe to give his thoughts, the Japanese leader repeated his stance that the tests were a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Trump responded, “I can understand how the Prime Minister of Japan feels” but said that the North Korean leader is not the only one testing those missiles.

“We’re in the world of missiles, folks, whether you like it or not,” said Trump.

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From: MeNeedIt

In August of 1619, several Africans were brought to Virginia in bondage, beginning more than two centuries of slavery in the United States. 400 years later, scholars at VOA’s town hall with Norfolk State University take a look at slavery’s bitter roots and it’s lasting impacts in the nation.  VOA’s Jesusemen Oni has this report.

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From: MeNeedIt

After Clinton Kanu was arrested and charged with murder in 1993, he spent 13 years in prison awaiting trial. He waited another 14 years on death row at a prison in southern Nigeria. 
 
He says that prison is horrible and that his entire youth was wasted in an awful situation. 

In April this year, Nigeria’s Supreme Court acquitted Kanu, saying there was not enough evidence to prove he committed murder. After 27 years in prison, Kanu was released. 
 

It’s cases like Kanu’s that a prison reform bill signed into law this month by President Muhammadu Buhari is aimed at addressing. The new law, which changed the name of the Nigerian Prison Service to the Nigerian Correctional Service, has been described as unprecedented in Nigeria. 
 
Francis Enobore, the spokesperson for the Nigerian Correctional Service, told VOA the new law was inspired by prison reform initiatives being taken in other countries. 
 
Nigeria’s prison service currently has about 250 prisons and 74,000 inmates.  
 
The recently passed law may fix what many say is the most glaring problem in the sector: overcrowding. The prison where Kanu was on death row houses more than 4,000 inmates; it was built for 804. 
 
The new law allows comptrollers to reject additional prisoners when the prison in question is already filled to capacity. 

Ways to avoid prison
 
The law also addresses overcrowding by administering community service, parole and meditation between the offender and the offended. This is so those convicted of minor or petty crimes can avoid prison. 
 
There’s also an option for judges to change a death sentence to life imprisonment if an inmate sentenced to death has exhausted all appeals and 10 years have elapsed without the execution of the sentence. 
 

Nigeria currently has the highest number of death sentences in sub-Saharan Africa, with 621 people sentenced to death in 2017 and more than 2,000 inmates on death row, according to Amnesty International. 
 
Giving judges the option to commute death sentences could be a game-changer. But legal analysts and activists like Sylvester Uhaa are already expressing concern about implementation.  

Sometimes, Uhaa said, money intended for implementation is not released to the relevant agencies. But corruption is also an issue, he added. 

Since 2008, Uhaa has directed the Nigeria chapter of Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, or CURE. He’s among the activists and policymakers who have been waiting for the approval of the 11-year-old bill. 
 
One area the reform law does not address is transparency in contracting for prison services. Earlier this month, about 50 inmates at a prison in Keffi tried to escape, complaining of being poorly fed, forced to live in unsanitary conditions and not receiving medical attention. The prison also has a problem with sewage disposal and a severe shortage of drinking water.  
 
Monies are budgeted for feeding. Monies are budgeted for drugs,” Uhaa said. “So why are inmates not getting the food that they need to get? Who is getting these contracts to feed these inmates? Can we know the people and how much is involved? 

Large backlog
 
Slowness and corruption in the country’s criminal justice system have resulted in an enormous backlog of cases. Out of the nearly 74,000 inmates in the country, only about 24,000 have actually been convicted. That’s means 68 percent of the total prison population is awaiting trial.  
 
A section in the law mandates that steps be taken to speed up these cases. Such a mandate could have drastically reduced Kanu’s 27 years in prison. 
 
At 56, he’s still getting used to his newfound freedom. He’s been applying for work at human rights organizations, where he hopes to focus on prison reform. 

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From: MeNeedIt