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Sarah Everard’s death prompts men to join groups trying to halt male violence

The murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa could mark a turning point in men taking responsibility for male violence against women and girls, experts have said.

Groups led by men that work to end violence against females have experienced a surge in interest from other men, but organisers say if the momentum is not harnessed the opportunity will be lost.

Beyond Equality had 150 men come forward in the two weeks after Everard’s death, asking to volunteer at the charity. Previously the average was two men a week. The surge in interest has been sustained: more than 80 schools booked workshops with the group in the past week, compared with an average of three inquiries a week previously.

“It’s a sign of how badly our work is needed that it takes not just the death of two women at the hands of men – because women are killed by men all the time – but the wall-to-wall coverage that these two murders received, for men to contact us in these numbers,” said Dr Daniel Guinness, the managing director of Beyond Equality.

But whatever the motivation, Guinness said increasing numbers of men were realising that protecting women is not just about being a good person themselves. “All men are responsible for the violence,” said Guinness.

“I have never met a man who hasn’t condoned a dialogue by joking along or staying silent where misogynistic or sexist comments were made. But by not challenging those attitudes, you’re giving your tacit approval to the misogynist making the comments, which leads to the normalisation of those attitudes, which ultimately leads to the abuse of women,” he said. “It’s a continuum.”

Michael Conroy, the founder of the community group Men at Work, agreed. “I might be a good guy who would never hurt a woman but this isn’t about me: this is about men, plural,” he said.

Conroy, who also said his company had received much more work since the murders of Everard and Nessa, pointed to Philip Allott, North Yorkshire’s police commissioner, who said Everard “never should have submitted” to arrest by her killer. “All men are in this up to their necks in one way or other, so it’s up to all men to work actively to dismantle it,” he said.

Davy Thompson, the campaign manager for the charity White Ribbon Scotland, said. “Many men realise they shouldn’t walk behind a woman late at night because it scares her,” he said. “But it’s not enough to just change your route: men need to change the atmosphere where simply being a man in a woman’s vicinity at night is a source of fear for her.

“That starts with men squeezing the social spaces in which sexist men feel their misogyny is condoned until those men are left with no spaces in which they feel their attitudes are normal,” he said.

The organisation What Can I Do? was set up by the musician Mark Hegarty in the wake of the murders. “I’m just a normal bloke who had thought this issue didn’t affect me. But then I started talking to the women around me and I realised that male violence affected every single one of them,” said Hegarty, who co-founded the group with Rachel Williams, a survivor of domestic violence.

“This is a really pivotal moment,” said Dr Stephen Burrell, a trustee for White Ribbon UK, which was contacted by the Wunderman Thompson consultancy after Everard’s murder to advise on a nationwide advertising campaign to encourage all men to take responsibility for male violence towards women.

But this “sea change” could ebb away if not harnessed, he warned. “For real, meaningful change, we need to see much more action from governments and other organisations as well, including the police, schools, universities and workplaces.”

The group Engage will hold what it says is the first male-led, international pro-feminist online conference in November. While the event was arranged before the murders, organisers have said male interest in it has increased dramatically since.

But Chris Green, the founder of Engage, said that while the increased interest was good, it was not enough. “We’re still a long, long way from engaging men in a mass way,” he said.

Green is worried by what he said were powerful forces working to reverse any progress made by anti-violence groups, including the “massive juggernaut” of online pornography and the ongoing failure of four UK parliaments and three UK prime Ministers to ratify the Istanbul convention, an international treaty protecting women’s rights that is already law in 21 European countries.

Darshan Sanghrajka, the co-founder of the Being ManKind project, said he feared the increase in online misogyny would undo any advances made. “Over the last couple of years, the internet has become increasingly toxic,” he said, pointing to Facebook’s own researchers who found that 64% of all extremist “group joins” were due to its recommendation tools.

“Algorithms quickly suck you into an echo chamber where groups are increasingly extreme,” he said. “You end up in an alternate reality where your feelings of being slighted by women can easily get manipulated into a determination to revenge yourself against them.”

However, James McCann, a co-founder of the Feminist Man Project, said men had no choice but to plough on. “It can be easy to feel overwhelmed but we fight for change because we must. We have to aspire to a better quality of life for everybody, always.”

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EFCC Hands Over 753 Recovered Housing Units to Ministry of Housing

The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede on Tuesday, May 20, 2025 handed over 753 units of houses recovered by the Commission at Plot 109 Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

The property, measuring 150,500 square metres and containing 753 Units of duplexes and other apartments, was recovered based on a final forfeiture order granted by Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court Abuja on Monday, December 2, 2024

While handing over the property, Olukoyede reiterated the commitment of the EFCC to accountable asset recovery and disposal modalities, pointing out that such gestures are meant to “demonstrate to Nigerians that whatever proceeds of crime that we have recovered in the course of our work, the application of that will be made transparent to Nigerians so that we will not allow looted assets to be looted again”.

He also pointed out that “It is important for us to emphasize to Nigerians that the fight against corruption can work and we can really make it work and one of the key factors that actually propels the impact of the fight is the need for us to ensure that those who have stolen our commonwealth are not allowed to enjoy the proceeds of crime. So one of the critical factors of our works is that we deprive them of the proceeds of crimes”

He applauded President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s stance on the fight against corruption, affirming that the handover of the property signaled the government’s seriousness to the fight against economic and financial crimes and other acts of corruption.

The handover took place in a brief ceremony at the Ministry’s headquarters in Mabushi, Abuja. Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, praised the EFCC for its sustained commitment to asset recovery and anti-corruption. He further stated that the handover was a “significant milestone in our collective efforts and determination to ensure that recovered assets are put to productive use in ways that directly benefits the Nigerian people”.

Dangiwa assured that the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development will conduct a joint familiarization tour of the estate, alongside the EFCC to properly access the structural state of the Estate.

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EFCC Arraigns Bankers, Three Others for Alleged Cybercrime in Lagos

The Lagos Zonal Directorate 1 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Awolowo on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, arraigned the duo of Kehinde Odeyemi and Matthew Adeniyi Damilola, who are both employees of Premium Trust Bank, before Justice Alexander Owoeye of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos.

They were arraigned alongside Samson Latshin Dakup, Bolaji Omotosho Yinka and Sunday Badeniyi Okunola on a seven-count charge bordering on conspiracy to steal.

The defendants allegedly conspired to manipulate the server and domain credentials of the bank in a bid to gain unauthorised access to its database and steal depositors’ funds.

The planned fraudulent activity was, however, averted by the Commission.

One of the counts reads: “That you, Kehinde Odeyemi, Samson Latshin Dakup, Bolaji Omotosho Yinka, Sunday Badeniyi Okunola, and Matthew Adeniyi Damilola, along with individuals identified as Humble (at large), Wasiu (at large), Isa Ismaila (at large) and another referred to as Victor Joshua Ilemona aka Oracle, (at large), conspired unlawfully between April and May 2025 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, to manipulate the access code (this included the bank’s server IP and domain credentials) of Premium Trust Bank Limited in a bid to gain unauthorised access to the entire database of Premium Trust Bank Limited for the purpose of committing an offense to wit: stealing from the bank’s funds, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 27 and 28 (1) (b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015 (as amended, 2024), which is punishable under Section 28 (2) of the same Act.”

They pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were read to them.

In view of their pleas, prosecution counsel, Zeenat B. Atiku, prayed for a trial date and the defendants’ remand in a Correctional Centre.

Counsel to the first defendant, Adeleke Adepoju, urged the court to admit his client to bail in the most liberal terms. He stated that he didn’t have enough time to make a formal application.

Other counsel also sought to make oral applications for their clients.

Justice Owoeye, however, refused the applications and ordered the counsel to make formal bail applications before the court.

The judge ordered the first defendant to be remanded at the Kirikiri Correctional Centre.

The second, third, fourth and fifth defendants were ordered remanded at the Ikoyi Correctional Centre.

The matter was adjourned till June 30, 2025 for commencement of trial.

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Bank official testifies on suspicious deposits from Kogi LGAs linked to Yahaya Bello’s nephew

A senior official from Access Bank has detailed how billions of naira allegedly originating from various Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Kogi State were funneled into private accounts through suspicious transactions during the administration of former Governor Yahaya Bello.

Testifying before the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday, Ofure Achille, former Head of Operations at Access Bank’s Lokoja branch, said the suspicious cash lodgments and withdrawals occurred over several years and were flagged and reported to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).

Ms. Achille is the seventh prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of Ali Bello, a nephew to former Governor Bello and current Chief of Staff to Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo. He is facing 18 counts of money laundering involving the alleged diversion of N3 billion belonging to Kogi State.

Also standing trial are Abba Adaudu, Yakubu Siyaka Adabenege, Iyada Sadat, and Rashida Bello—accused of using shell companies and personal accounts to move massive sums.

The bank official testified that multiple transactions involving hundreds of millions of naira were inconsistent with the financial profiles of the account holders.

She cited examples including the E-Traders account operated by Jamilu Abdulahi, into which N30 million was deposited over two consecutive days in December 2021, followed by N40 million and another N30 million in early 2022.

“These transactions were flagged and reported to the NFIU as Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) under anti-money laundering laws,” she said.

Achille also revealed that accounts linked to co-defendants—including Fazab Business Enterprise and Hyzman Ary Construction Limited—received substantial funds from various Kogi LGAs. She noted that on 29 August 2017, Ary Construction received inflows totaling N171 million, with the first deposit of only N10,000 earlier that day.

The EFCC’s lead prosecutor, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), led the witness through documentary evidence detailing patterns of deposits and withdrawals that allegedly reflect the laundering of public funds.

The trial continues before Justice Obiora Egwatu as prosecutors build their case against the defendants in what has become one of the most high-profile corruption trials in recent years.