Opinion
Why Trump And Bukele Are Destroying Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s Life
The two want to block all channels for legally challenging their lucrative prison scheme.
In March, the United States government deported to El Salvador 29-year-old Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who had lived and worked in the US for almost half his life. Little did he know that he would soon be the face of US President Donald Trump’s sinisterly exuberant mass deportation campaign.
Married to US citizen Jennifer Vasquez Sura, Abrego Garcia was detained while driving in Maryland with the couple’s five-year-old autistic son, who got to witness his father’s capture by the US forces of law and order and has apparently been severely traumatised as a result. In a subsequent court affidavit, Vasquez Sura said her son, who cannot speak, had been “very distressed” by the “sudden disappearance of his father”, crying more than usual and “finding Kilmar’s work shirts and smelling them, to smell Kilmar’s familiar scent”.
Of course, tearing families apart and traumatising children has long been par for the bipartisan course in everyone’s favourite “land of the free”, although Trump has certainly made more of a sensational spectacle out of it than his Democratic predecessors, Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Anyway, there is nothing like sowing a bunch of fear and psychological trauma in the name of national security, right?
Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador along with more than 200 other people, who shared the honour of serving as demonised guinea pigs in the Trump administration’s current experiments in sadistic countermigration policy. The deportees were swiftly interned in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), the notorious mega-prison built by Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s self-described “coolest dictator in the world”. The facility houses thousands of people arrested under the nationwide “state of emergency”, which was declared in 2022 and shows no sign of abating.
Under the pretence of fighting a war on gangs, Bukele has imprisoned more than 85,000 Salvadorans – over 1 percent of the country’s population – in an array of jails that often function as blackholes in terms of indefinitely disappearing human beings as well as any notion of human and legal rights. And now that incoming US funds and deportees have boosted El Salvador’s international carceral clout along with Bukele’s tough-guy image, there is even less of a rush to end the “emergency”.
Meanwhile, the case of Abrego Garcia in particular has provided both Trump and Bukele with an extended opportunity to showcase their mutual passion for sociopathy and disdain for the law. As it so happens, Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador occurred in direct violation of a 2019 ruling by a US immigration judge, according to which he could not be deported to his native country on account of the dangers that such a move would pose to his life.
Indeed, Abrego Garcia fled to the US as a teenager, precisely out of fear for his life following gang threats to his family. And although the US government was quickly forced to acknowledge that his deportation in March had occurred “because of an administrative error”, the Trump-Bukele team remains determined not to rectify it.
After all, this would set a dangerous precedent in suggesting that the possibility of recourse to justice does in fact exist, and that asylum seekers in the US should not have to live in terror of being spontaneously disappeared to El Salvador by “administrative error”.
As per a recent New York Times article exposing the details of the debate within the Trump administration over how to manage the PR side of the Abrego Garcia blunder before it became public, officials from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “discussed trying to portray Mr. Abrego Garcia as a ‘leader’ of the violent street gang MS-13, even though they could find no evidence to support the claim”.
But a lack of evidence has never stopped folks who are not concerned with facts and reality in the first place. Trump officials have continued to insist on Abrego Garcia’s affiliation with MS-13, while the president himself has unabashedly invoked a doctored photograph of tattoos on the man’s knuckles. The administration has also relied heavily on the fact that, in 2019, the police department in Prince George’s County, Maryland, decided that Abrego Garcia was a gang member because he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat, among other oh-so-incriminating behaviour.
To be sure, the frequency with which US law enforcement outfits cite Chicago Bulls merchandise as alleged proof of gang membership would be laughable given the US basketball team’s massive domestic and international fanbase – if, that is, such preposterous profiling tendencies did not directly translate into physical and psychological torment for Abrego Garcia and countless other individuals.
In April, the US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the US. In addition to thus far failing to comply with that order, the administration has gone to ludicrous lengths to defy a separate order from US District Judge Paula Xinis that it provide details about what exactly it is doing to secure Abrego Garcia’s release.
Apparently irked by Judge Xinis’s pushiness, Trump administration officials then went with the good old “state secrets” excuse, which would enable the withholding of information regarding Abrego Garcia’s case in order to safeguard “national security” and the “safety of the American people”, as DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin put it.
Bukele, for his part, has handled the Abrego Garcia situation with a petulant and vengeful machismo befitting the world’s “coolest dictator”, taking to X to ridicule the wrongfully abducted and imprisoned man. During an April visit to his partner in crime in the Oval Office in Washington, Bukele made clear to reporters that he would not be lifting a finger on Abrego Garcia’s behalf: “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?”
Speaking of terrorism, it is worth recalling that, long before the current “state of emergency” in El Salvador, the US had an outsized hand in supporting right-wing state terror in the country, where the civil war of 1979-92 killed more than 75,000 people.
The majority of wartime atrocities were committed by the US-backed Salvadoran military and allied death squads, and countless Salvadorans fled north to the US, where MS-13 and other gangs formed as a means of communal self-defence. Following the war’s end, the US undertook the mass deportation of gang members to a freshly devastated nation, paving the way for continued violence, migration, and deportation and culminating, of course, in the world’s coolest dictatorship.
As they say, nothing fuels the consolidation of power and evisceration of rights like a solid “terrorist” enemy – and at the present moment, Abrego Garcia holds the dubious distinction of serving as that enemy for not one but two sociopathic heads of state. At the end of the day, though, Abrego Garcia is no Osama bin Laden; he is just a random guy whose calculated torment is meant as a warning to anyone who might be feeling too confident in the rule of law.
Trump has already proposed sending US citizens to El Salvador for incarceration, as well – and to hell with any semblance of legality. To that end, the president has proposed that Bukele build more prisons, a project that presumably will not require much arm-twisting.
Now, as the US government goes about annihilating the rights of foreign nationals and legal citizens alike, it is safe to assume that no one is safe.
Aljazeera.com
The war in Sudan is no longer a Sudanese war. What began on April 15, 2023 as a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has mutated into one of the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophes and a full-blown proxy conflict.
The numbers are staggering.
According to UN estimates, nearly 200,000 people have been killed. More than 12 million have been displaced internally and across borders. Famine is no longer a risk — it is a reality in Darfur and parts of Khartoum. UN agencies have warned repeatedly that conditions will worsen as the fighting escalates and humanitarian access shrinks.
And yet, no regional initiative from IGAD, no African Union roadmap, no UN Security Council resolution has managed to halt the violence. Control of the war has slipped beyond the two belligerents. Weapons, money, drones and mercenaries flow in from outside, ensuring that the battlefield evolves faster than diplomacy.
This week, Massad Boulos, the US President’s Senior Adviser for Arab and African Affairs, made a fresh appeal on X: “The warring parties in Sudan must accept a humanitarian truce as the first step toward lasting peace,” he wrote, adding that Sudanese people deserve “an opportunity to engage in a political process leading to peace in a united Sudan.” It was a familiar call. What is unfamiliar is what Washington is now alleging happened on the battlefield.
America’s Position: No Legitimate Government In Khartoum
According to PMnewsnigeria.com,
Washington’s assessment of Sudan’s political legitimacy is brutally frank. The US State Department has stated that neither the SAF nor the RSF, nor their leaders, constitute a legitimate and constitutional government. Both rule solely by force of arms, and therefore both are unqualified to govern the country.
In practice, however, the international system still treats the army as Sudan’s de facto official authority. Burhan’s administration in Port Sudan issues passports, sits in international meetings, and addresses the UN. This is despite the fact that he came to power through a military coup in 2021, derailing a civilian transition, and despite grave allegations of abuses including indiscriminate airstrikes, killings of civilians, and obstruction of humanitarian aid.
The State Department says it has repeatedly demanded an unconditional humanitarian truce and a commitment to an inclusive political dialogue that leads to civilian rule. Those demands have been ignored.
The diplomatic rupture deepened this week. Reuters reported that the United States refused to grant a visa to General Burhan ahead of his scheduled address to the 81st UN General Assembly on Thursday.
Sudanese sources said the move was linked to a US-backed ceasefire proposal that Port Sudan opposes. The decision, if confirmed, would mark the lowest point in US-Sudanese relations since the war began. A Sudanese source told Reuters that Foreign Minister Mohieddin Salem would deliver the speech instead.
PMnewsnigeria.com notes it is not an isolated sanction. In January 2025, the United States imposed sanctions on Burhan personally, accusing the SAF under his leadership of violating international humanitarian law, targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, carrying out extrajudicial killings, and obstructing aid delivery. Yet Burhan remained a central interlocutor for international diplomats.
Dragging Sudan Into The Prohibited
It is against this background that the chemical weapons allegation has emerged — potentially the most serious escalation in the war’s legal and moral dimension.
Sudan has been a State Party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) since 1999.
The Convention bans the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. Membership was supposed to close that chapter forever.
In May 2025, the US State Department declared that it had determined that the Sudanese Armed Forces had used chemical weapons against the RSF. Washington imposed sanctions on Sudan as a consequence. It did not stop there.
It brought the case to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, calling on Sudan to comply fully with its obligations and to allow independent verification.
Khartoum responded with a national investigation that concluded no evidence of chemical weapons use had been found.
Washington rejected the national mechanism outright, stating that a self-investigation cannot substitute for independent international verification.
For months, the issue simmered. Then in September 2026, two major American newspapers — The Washington Post and The New York Times — published investigative reports citing classified documents and intelligence. Both alleged that the Sudanese army had established a stockpile of chemical weapons, including munitions and bombs containing chlorine gas, and had used them against RSF positions during the ongoing war.
The army categorically denies the allegations.
The OPCW is the only specialized international body technically capable of confirming such use through sample collection, chain-of-custody procedures and laboratory analysis. But its ability to operate inside an active war zone like Sudan is severely limited. So far, the independent international investigation has been minimal compared to the seriousness of the allegation.
The Justice Gap The World Cannot Ignore
This creates what analysts call a normalization of alleged war crimes. The RSF is rightly pursued for documented atrocities, including ethnically motivated killings in Darfur and widespread sexual violence. But the SAF, despite allegations of chemical weapons use, indiscriminate bombing, and the suspension of Burhan’s visa, continues to be presented as the legitimate voice of Sudan at the UN.
According to PMnewsnigeria.com, the United Nations International Independent Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan has tried to correct that imbalance. Its report states that both sides have committed serious violations of international law and that some drone operations could amount to war crimes. It also notes that recruitment of foreign fighters and external support networks are fueling the war, strengthening the military capabilities of both parties and enabling increasingly sophisticated operations with devastating civilian consequences.
The Mission reminds states linked to these supply chains that they have strict obligations under international law to exercise due diligence, investigate and halt illicit mercenary and supply networks operating from or through their territories, prevent violations, and enforce the UN arms embargo.
The central question for the international community is no longer whether Sudan’s war is dangerous — it is how dangerous it has become. If chemical weapons have indeed been used, Sudan has crossed a red line that implicates not just Burhan, but the global non-proliferation regime itself.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested Olori Halima Tejuoso in connection with an alleged N600 million fraud involving Mrs Mary Oluwaseye Sholoye and Mallam Ibrahim Gidado.
Tejuoso was arrested on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, after allegedly failing to honour an invitation by the Commission following her release on administrative bail.
Confirming the development, EFCC spokesman, Dele Oyewale, said Tejuoso was arrested after she allegedly jumped the administrative bail earlier granted to her by the Commission.
According to Oyewale, Gidado, who is also linked to the investigation, had been arrested earlier and arraigned before a court.
Tejuoso was reportedly accused of obtaining about N600 million from Sholoye by false pretence in connection with Gidado.
She had earlier appeared before the EFCC, where she reportedly told investigators that Gidado had allegedly defrauded her of the money she was accused of collecting from Sholoye.
However, following Gidado’s arrest and subsequent invitation by the Commission, Tejuoso reportedly failed to appear and could not be reached.
The EFCC subsequently declared her wanted on April 27, 2026, as part of its investigation into the alleged fraud.
Her arrest on September 15 brings to an end several months during which the Commission had been seeking her whereabouts.
The latest development is expected to allow the EFCC to proceed with further investigation into the circumstances surrounding the alleged N600 million transaction and Tejuoso’s relationship with the other parties involved.
The Commission’s position indicates that the matter involving Gidado has already progressed to court, while further legal steps concerning Tejuoso are expected to follow the completion of the ongoing investigation and necessary legal processes.
However, the allegations against Tejuoso remain unproven until determined by a court of competent jurisdiction.
All parties involved are presumed innocent unless and until found guilty by a court of law.
-Source: Daily Times Nigeria
Arise Television co-host Rufai Oseni has faced backlash online after sharing the outcome of an online civic opinion poll that showed Peter Obi leading a hypothetical 2027 presidential field by a wide margin.
On Tuesday, September 15, 2026, Oseni posted a screenshot from the Nigeria Elections Intelligence System (NEIS) platform with a single-word caption: “Polling.”
The image showed Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) commanding 87.4 per cent of counted responses.
Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) followed with 5.1 per cent, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at 4.6 per cent, and Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) at 1.9 per cent.
The figures were drawn from more than 2,500 counted responses. NEIS describes itself as an independent, non-partisan election intelligence platform that conducts pre-election civic opinion polls and maps polling units across Nigeria. The results Rufai Oseni shared were from one such online exercise and carry no official electoral weight.
The post sparked immediate pushback. Several social media users argued that Rufai Oseni’s own follower base tilts heavily towards Peter Obi supporters, known as Obidients, making the poll’s findings a reflection of his audience rather than the broader Nigerian electorate.
Others pointed out that real elections are decided by voters at polling units, not by online participants, and that the results had no bearing on what a 2027 contest would actually look like. The debate unfolds as preparations for the 2027 general elections gain momentum.
Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has already published a final list of presidential candidates, which includes Tinubu, Obi, Atiku and Makinde running on their respective platforms.
Check out Rufai Oseni’s X post about the results of the online 2027 presidential poll below: 
@gsbabatunde wrote: “Rufai will remain immature. You packed Obidense as followers and you are conducting Polls among them knowing fully well that the actual election involves real Voters and not Bots. What sort of ‘Childish Journalist’ are You???”
@Dailymercytye said: “They’ve start their online election gaslighting again. When they lose the real election, it’ll suddenly become a ‘rigged election’ to them and they’ll start shouting rigging.”
@adewalenisa reacted: “Same way you misled Olumide Akpata in Edo Governorship……”
@IsraelYusuf13 commented: “Twitter no be polling unit. Enough of all this online noise and let face our country”
@Commyhot1 wrote: “Online President PitObi @PeterObi,
@ruffydfire the online chairman has declared you winner oooh! Congratulations online president. Una go collect woto woto come January 16”
@AdekunleAdelaj1 stated: “Some people will call for presidential debate where this type of person will be one of them and say it’s going to be a fair one. It’s only Morons that can hold such beliefs. Online president i congratulate you as your OLOFO, chairman has declared you winner.”
@tman_musa added: “Rufai when you really want to wise up and understand online polls is not real life.”
Salary: Fresh Update Emerges On Payment To Nigerian Workers
Obasanjo’s Son Picks Side In 2027 Race
