DONALD TRUMP SCRAPPED BARACK OBAMA'S FLOOD PROTECTION STANDARDS DAYS BEFORE HURRICANE HARVEY STRUCK

Donald Trump signed an executive order just days before Hurricane Harvey that scrapped many of the flood protections introduced by Barack Obama. Harvey has caused huge damage in Texas as 30 inches of rain in less than 48 hours resulted in massive flooding. 

The current US President, however, has abolished a number of flood standards in an attempt to get infrastructure projects approved more quickly. The Federal Flood Risk Management Standard is among those to have been rolled back.

In 2015, Mr Obama introduced measures that made it harder to build roads, bridges and other infrastructure in areas that were susceptible to flooding. Plans for such projects would legally have to take into account the impact of climate change and be built to withstand future changes.

While the new regulations had not yet come into effect, they have now been scrapped entirely after Mr Trump decided they were too likely to slow down plans for new infrastructure. 

Announcing the decision earlier in August, the billionaire businessman said: “We're going to get infrastructure built quickly, inexpensively, relatively speaking, and the permitting process will go very, very quickly." 

“It’s going to be a very streamlined process, and by the way, if it doesn’t meet environmental safeguards, we’re not going to approve it.”

However, some of those safeguards have now been removed. The order also introduces a two-year time limit for permission to be granted for major infrastructure projects, in which Mr Trump has pledged to invest $1 trillion. The move was praised by business groups but strongly opposed by environmentalists. 

Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists warned even before the executive order was issued that it would "put vital infrastructure that communities depend on at greater risk of flooding".

"It will lead to more costly and damaging consequences of these floods," she told The Independent, "And frankly, it's a waste of taxpayer dollars if money is invested in projects that will just get washed away."

She added: "Even as we're seeing flood risk growing in many places around the country – due to sea level rise, heavy rainfall, and other types of factors – it just flies in the face of common sense to turn back progress on greater flood prevention that communities depend on."

EIGHT-YEAR-OLD GIRL DEFILED, KILLED WITH ORGANS REMOVED BY VARSITY STUDENT...

The body of an eight-year-old girl, Victory Chikamso, who was abducted by one Ifeanyi Dike, was recovered with her tongue, breasts, vagina and eyes removed.

The suspected ritualist, was arrested by the operatives of State Police Command attached to Okporo Police Station in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

It was gathered that the victim, who was a resident of Messiah Street, Eliozu was abducted on Friday by Dike, who also lived on the same street. It was also learnt that the girl was defiled before she was killed, while her vital organs were removed and put in a polythene bag by the suspect.

The state police command said in a statement by its spokesperson, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni, that the suspect was trying to dispose the mutilated body of the victim when he was apprehended by a local vigilante.

The statement read, “Today, at about 0130hrs, men of the Okporo Police Station arrested one Ifeanyi Chukwu Maxwell Dike (male, 23 years) of Messiah Street, Eliozu, Port Harcourt, who yesterday (Friday) abducted one Chikamso Victory (female, eight years) of the same address.

“The little girl was abducted, defiled and killed, while her vagina, eyes, tongue and breasts were removed and put in a polythene bag.

“The suspect was going to dispose of the body, when he was arrested by a local vigilante that suspected his movement.

“After he was questioned, the suspect dropped the bag and fled. Consequently, he was given chase and arrested. On further interrogation by the police, he confessed and took the police to where the vital organs were concealed.”

Omoni added that the body and organs of the victim had since been deposited in an undisclosed mortuary, while the suspect was being held by the police for further investigation.

The suspect, who described himself as a 200-level undergraduate of the University of Port Harcourt, said he was lured into ritual killing by a man who promised to make him wealthy.

The father of the deceased, who identified himself as Ernest, expressed sadness over the murder of his child, as he thanked the police and the local vigilante for recovering his daughter’s body.

COUPLE CUT DAUGHTER'S FINGER AND DUMPED HER IN THE BUSH FOR RITUAL

A couple, Nasiru Adeyemo and Idayat Adeyemo has been arrested by the Ogun State Police Command, for allegedly cutting off the finger of their daughter, Abibat, and abandoning her in a bush. It was learnt that the suspects tied up the seven-year-old in a white sack to stop her from escaping before disposing of her in the bush.

After about two days in the bush, some residents were said to have noticed the sack and called the attention of policemen from the Owode Egba division to it. Upon the opening of the sack, Abibat was said to have been found unconscious and was rushed to a hospital where she was resuscitated.

The state police spokesperson, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who confirmed the incident, said the victim told the police that her father, Nasiru, and stepmother, Idayat, cut off her finger and threw her into the bush for money ritual. Oyeyemi said the statement led to the arrest of the suspects, adding that they were still being interrogated by the command.

He said, “The couple were arrested following a distress call from members of the public that a strange load in a sack was sighted in the Asabala area, along Papalanto/Sagamu Road.

“On the strength of the information, the Divisional Police Officer, Owode Egba, CSP Shehu Alao, led his men to the scene where the load, which was inside a white rice sack, was untied.

“Surprisingly, it was a seven-year-old girl that was inside. One of her right hand fingers had been cut off. She was tied, put inside the sack and dumped on the roadside since Friday, August 11.

“When they realised that she was still alive, she was taken to a hospital for medical attention. It was when she regained consciousness that she informed the police that her father and stepmother were the ones who cut off her finger, tied and put her inside the sack. She said they dumped her inside the bush for her to die. The father and stepmother were arrested on Sunday, August 13.”

The state Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, had ordered the transfer of the case to the Anti-kidnapping/Anti-cultism Unit of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Eleweran, Abeokuta, for further investigation and prosecution of the suspects.