![Rev. Fr. Anthony Odiong, a US-based Nigerian Louisiana Catholic priest, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, according to law authorities. The suspect is reportedly accused of many other cases of sexual assault. The Waco, Texas, Police Department announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers detained Father Anthony Odiong in Ave Maria, Florida, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service. Waco police announced in March that they had received "credible information" about a sexual assault allegedly committed by Odiong in Texas in 2012. “During the subsequent investigation, a case of possession of child pornography was uncovered,” the police said. The priest was apprehended in Florida by the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Waco Police Department said that he will be extradited to Texas. Odiong had previously served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans before being removed as priest in December of last year due to controversy over homilies in which he claimed, among other things, that the Catholic Church was being taken over by "the gays." At the time, the priest was also accused of abusive behaviour; a Louisiana lady claimed in U.S. bankruptcy court that Odiong had committed both financial and sexual abuse against her. Prior to joining the New Orleans Archdiocese, Odiong served in at least two Texas parishes. On Tuesday, Waco police stated that during their sexual assault investigation, "the presence of other survivors was revealed." “Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation,” the police department said. “Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, more commonly recognised as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation.” The police said they “believe there may be more survivors, and we wish to speak with anyone who [has] had similar encounters” with the priest. The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a brief news release on Tuesday noting Odiong's arrest in Florida. The archdiocese “encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” the release said.](https://chronicle.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ezgif-6-4730550ede-300x200.jpg "Odiong: US-based Nigerian Catholic priest convicted over sexual assault")
Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 presidential election has filed a final written address alongside his party explaining how he was denied victory via wrongful computation in 11 states.
Atiku and PDP stated through their lawyer, Dr. Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), that a correct computation of the results would give them a margin of a lead of 222,332 votes over President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress.
According to the petitioners, the states are Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Yobe, and Zamfara.
They claimed that reports tendered by a statistician, who was called as one of their witnesses pointing out faults in the result declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, was not challenged by the respondents.
The petitioners said, “These reports (P90-K) are unchallenged and remained so as none of the respondents controverted the detailed analysis of unlawful votes extracted from Exhibits PNG1 – PNG3464, PYB1731, PKT1 PKT3377; PKB1 – PKB2105; PB01 – PB03471; PJG1 – PJG 3161; PGB1 – PGB 1911; PBC1 – PBC3598; PKD1 – PKD3334; PKN1 – PKN7159 and PZF1 – PZF 1000 as summarised hereunder.”
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The petitioners also contended that there were “polling units where Forms EC8A were altered or tampered with to reflect new votes/scores.”
They added that on Forms EC8B (ward result sheets), the similar errors were also observed, adding that there were discrepancies in the collated figures on Forms EC8A and the Forms EC8B.
They stated, “It is submitted that when the votes credited to the parties on account of various errors listed in paragraph 4.54(a) – (f) and (a) – (d), respectively, above are deducted from the results declared in the 11 focal states, the under listed figures now represent the overall lawful votes cast in the presidential election held on February 23, 2019 across Nigeria: “Election result: PDP – 11, 262,978; APC – 15,191,847. Void votes: PDP – 1,836,896; APC -5,988,097.
New result: PDP – 9,426,082; APC -9,203,750.” Atiku and his party had by their petition urged the five-man tribunal led by Justice Mohammed Garba to declare them the winner of the February 23, 2019 poll or nullify Buhari’s election.
In their final address filed in response to Buhari’s, the petitioners raised five issues for determination, including that Buhari was neither duly elected by the majority of lawful votes nor qualified to contest as of the time of the election.
The respondents had earlier, through their lawyers, filed their respective final addresses.
The tribunal had fixed August 21 for the adoption of the final addresses by the parties.
![Rev. Fr. Anthony Odiong, a US-based Nigerian Louisiana Catholic priest, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, according to law authorities. The suspect is reportedly accused of many other cases of sexual assault. The Waco, Texas, Police Department announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers detained Father Anthony Odiong in Ave Maria, Florida, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service. Waco police announced in March that they had received "credible information" about a sexual assault allegedly committed by Odiong in Texas in 2012. “During the subsequent investigation, a case of possession of child pornography was uncovered,” the police said. The priest was apprehended in Florida by the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Waco Police Department said that he will be extradited to Texas. Odiong had previously served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans before being removed as priest in December of last year due to controversy over homilies in which he claimed, among other things, that the Catholic Church was being taken over by "the gays." At the time, the priest was also accused of abusive behaviour; a Louisiana lady claimed in U.S. bankruptcy court that Odiong had committed both financial and sexual abuse against her. Prior to joining the New Orleans Archdiocese, Odiong served in at least two Texas parishes. On Tuesday, Waco police stated that during their sexual assault investigation, "the presence of other survivors was revealed." “Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation,” the police department said. “Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, more commonly recognised as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation.” The police said they “believe there may be more survivors, and we wish to speak with anyone who [has] had similar encounters” with the priest. The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a brief news release on Tuesday noting Odiong's arrest in Florida. The archdiocese “encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” the release said.](https://chronicle.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ezgif-6-4730550ede-450x300.jpg "Odiong: US-based Nigerian Catholic priest convicted over sexual assault")
