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Man who spent 28 years in prison found innocent of rape, kidnapping and robbery

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• Gerardo Cabanillas waves after his release. Pic: AP
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A 46-year-old man, Gerardo Cabanillas was exonerated of the rape, robbery, and kidnapping convictions he spent 28 years in an American prison for, after a new DNA test showed he was innocent of those crimes.

Cabanillas was 18 years old when he was jailed for robbing, kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman in Los Angeles, the United States in 1995.

According to CNN, Cabanillas, from California had spent nearly three decades in prison but the new DNA testing said he did not commit the crimes.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, in a news conference on Tuesday, said, “I stand here with you with a deep sense of responsibility as a district attorney to address a tragic miscarriage of justice and to celebrate the exoneration and release of prison of an innocent man.”

Background

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In January 1995, a man and woman were robbed at gunpoint by two men who also sexually assaulted the woman, the district attorney said. Days after the crime, Cabanillas, at that time as an 18-year-old man was arrested because he generally matched the description of one of the suspects, Gascón said.

“Mr. Cabanillas always maintained that on the date of his arrest, he was coerced by the investigating detective into giving a false confession with a promise that he would be released on probation,” Gascón said.

Despite no physical evidence connecting Cabanillas to the crime, he was charged with 14 felony counts, according to Gascón.

Cabanillas’ innocence and DNA

Cabanillas during the trial maintained he was innocent throughout but was ultimately handed a sentence that amounted to life in prison.

In 2019, Cabanillas’ lawyers from the California Innocence Project, a non-profit that works to free wrongfully convicted people from prison, filed a motion to have DNA evidence related to the 1995 sexual assault victim tested, the district attorney said. None of the DNA matched Cabanillas, he said.

“After a thorough review of all the evidence, including expert analysis of the purported confession and an interview with the sexual assault victim, we lost confident in the conviction in this case,” Gascón said.

Cabanillas was conditionally released from a prison in May, according to the district attorney’s office. He was permanently freed on September 21, when a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge vacated his conviction and found him factually innocent.

Alissa Bjerkhoel, the California Innocence Project’s interim director, said the exoneration is “bittersweet.”

“The righting of a wrong under these circumstances is deeply profound,” Bjerkhoel said during the Tuesday news conference. “The colossal damage done because of this wrongful conviction cannot be measured. Gerardo has missed out on a lifetime in the free world.”

Investigators with the district attorney’s office have used the new DNA testing to identify a new suspect, who is in custody in connection with an unrelated killing, Gascón said.

Gascón said the man matched the suspect description and “had gone on to commit multiple serious felonies in the same area, including several rapes and murder.”

“To you and your family, I offer our deepest apologies for the horrible injustice that was caused,” Gascón told Cabanillas, who attended the news conference with his family but chose not to speak.

Faith

RCCG Founder’s Daughter speaks on viral statement criticising church leadership

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Mrs Akindayomi-Adewale and Pastor Adeboye
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Pastor Titilayo Adewale, the daughter of the late Rev. Josiah Olufemi Akindayomi, the founder of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), has firmly denied viral media reports claiming she criticized the church’s leadership or demanded public monuments to preserve her father’s legacy.

The viral post claimed Adewale criticised senior RCCG pastors for allegedly sidelining her late father’s legacy

Adewale described the claims as false and urged those circulating them to stop spreading misinformation.

She debunked the circulating stories and clarified her stance in a statement shared on Facebook page on Monday.

She said the statement attributed to her did not originate from her “either implicitly or explicitly,” stressing that her father’s greatest legacy was not tied to buildings or monuments but the lives he transformed.

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“For the record, Baba’s image or lack thereof on any edifice on earth is nothing compared to making Heaven and his face being recognized there,” she wrote.

She explained that her father never encouraged the pursuit of material possessions or earthly recognition, recalling that he was reluctant even to own a personal residence because he did not place value on material acquisitions.

“My father consistently believed in building people rather than merely constructing buildings.

“He never believed in acquiring wealth or earthly possessions,” she said, adding that it would be inconsistent to suggest that he desired his name or image to be prominently associated with buildings or institutions.

According to her, the reports were aimed at creating unnecessary controversy and division within the church rather than promoting the memory of its founder.

“In my opinion, this report and similar ones are not about me, my father, or even the leadership of the RCCG. Instead, they are intended to create unnecessary arguments and division.

“Their purpose is to divert attention from the divine work currently being carried out and sow discord among us,” she stated.

She warned those responsible for circulating the reports to desist from what she described as “mischievous acts of misinformation.

Adewale also reaffirmed her support for the leadership of the church, praying for continued wisdom and strength for the General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, and his family.

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Digital Economy Boost: NCC Leases Digital Industrial Park, Learning Centre to Enugu State Gov’t

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…NCC’s CEO lauds Mbah’s Smart Schools, infrastructural, digital capacity initiatives

In a major boost to President Bola Tinubu’s digital economy agenda, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Enugu State Government, on Tuesday, sealed a strategic 15-year lease of the agency’s Digital Industrial Park and Learning Centre to the Enugu State Government.

The move would see the Enugu State Government take over and optimise the facilities located in the state capital as the Enugu Talent City and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Institute in line with the digital economy drive of the Governor Peter Mbah Administration.

Speaking during the lease agreement signing ceremony at Government House, Enugu, the Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, said the arrangement fully aligned with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President Bola Tinubu Administration, and its ambition to grow Nigeria into a $1 trillion economy driven by productivity, innovation and private sector growth.

Maida stressed that Mbah had shown a clear agenda to build Enugu State into a digital economic powerhouse through deliberate investment in education, infrastructure, innovation and digital capacity, maintaining that the Mbah Administration was well positioned to advance the objectives for which these facilities were established.

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“Our expectation is that this partnership will support Enugu’s ambition to become a leading destination for digital services, artificial intelligence, startup incubation, outsourcing, research and technology-enabled enterprise.

“We also expect these facilities to become spaces where young people acquire relevant skills, entrepreneurs transform ideas into viable businesses and local enterprises connect to opportunities beyond Enugu and Nigeria.

“These facilities were conceived as platforms for innovation, entrepreneurship and human capital development. They were designed to deepen digital skills, support startups, attract investment, create jobs and position Nigeria as a competitive destination for business process outsourcing, knowledge process outsourcing and other technology-enabled services.

“In essence, they were built not merely as physical assets, but as platforms for developing the people and enterprises that will power Nigeria’s digital economy.

“So, for us at the NCC, completing physical infrastructure is only the beginning. Buildings alone do not create innovation. People do. Ideas do. Entrepreneurs do. And partnerships bring all these elements together,” he said.

The NCC boss also commended Governor Mbah’s investment in Smart Green Schools, saying he was building an economy prepared for the future.

“Physical infrastructure is essential to development, but infrastructure alone cannot deliver lasting prosperity. This is what makes the Smart Green Schools initiative significant. It recognises that preparing our children for tomorrow must begin today. Technology-enabled schools, digital learning facilities, robotics and artificial intelligence laboratories demonstrate an understanding that education must evolve alongside technology. That is leadership with the future in mind.

“Investment in education and skills raises productivity, expands economic opportunity and strengthens the ability of individuals and businesses to create value.

“This is even more important today. Artificial Intelligence is reshaping industries. Automation is changing the nature of work. Digital technologies are transforming how governments serve citizens and how businesses operate,” he concluded.

Speaking, Governor Peter Mbah commended President Tinubu for recognising the centrality of the digital economy to the $1 trillion economy he seeks to build, as well as for understanding that much of that growth would come from the states.

He noted that AI would contribute about $20 trillion to the global economy by 2030, saying, “It is not a space you want your young ones to be missing.”

“We also believe that our talents, our brightest talents, should not be exported in person. We believe that they should export their talents outside the country from here, and that is why we see huge benefits in these assets in terms of job creation and opportunities for our young people.

“We are also looking at transforming the Digital Bridge Institute into a world-class AI institute. We will also transform the Digital Industrial Park. If you have followed the news, we have already taken steps, working with some teams from Qatar, to make sure that it becomes a certification centre for AI on the continent.

He said the NCC would not regret its decision to temporarily hand over the facilities to Enugu State.

“I am sure that a few years down the line, we can come back here and be very proud of the decision we made today to activate these assets and to make sure that they are productive,” he concluded.

Earlier in his remarks, the Special Adviser to the Enugu State Governor on Digital Economy and Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs), Arinze Chilo-Ofia, thanked the FG and NCC for the confidence reposed in Enugu State to activate and optimise the two strategic assets and ensure the realisation of the objectives for which they were conceived and built.

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₦1.08tn budget for Cooperative College Enugu is another move to defraud Nigerians — Atiku

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Former VP, Atiku Abubakar
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Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described the 2026 Appropriation Act as compromised, following revelations that the Federal Cooperative College, Oji River, Enugu State, was allocated ₦1.08 trillion to execute 2,791 capital projects across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory FCT.

In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the African Democratic Congress ADC presidential candidate commended Tracka for an independent analysis he said exposed one of the most troubling cases of budget distortion under the Tinubu administration.

Atiku said the disclosure undercuts the Presidency’s insistence that painful reforms, higher taxes and heavy borrowing reflect prudent economic management.

“Nothing exposes the hollowness of that claim more than a budget that turns a federal cooperative college into one of Nigeria’s largest project-implementing agencies,” he said.

He argued that the allocation defies logic, public finance principles and the institution’s statutory mandate, questioning how a college established to promote cooperative education became responsible for roads, drainage systems, solar streetlights, markets, football pitches, dialysis centres, ambulances, water schemes, recycling plants, empowerment programmes and thousands of other projects nationwide.

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“Who decided that a cooperative college should become one of Nigeria’s biggest ministries by stealth? Under what law was it transformed into the implementing agency for 2,791 projects? Who nominated these projects, who approved them, who will supervise them, and who will be held accountable?” he asked.

The former Vice President said the revelations undermine the administration’s claim of fiscal discipline, accusing the government of running what he called a medieval financial system.
“In a constitutional democracy, however, the treasury belongs to the Nigerian people, not to the President or his cronies,” he said.

He contended that a government demanding sacrifice from citizens while channeling such a large sum through an institution without the capacity to execute it cannot claim to be managing resources prudently.

“A government that plans to spend ₦1.08 trillion through a cooperative college cannot claim to be fighting waste or promoting fiscal discipline. It looks less like governance and more like a blueprint to defraud Nigerians”, he declared.

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