![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")
Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama has disclosed that he has ‘absolutely’ suffered racism in office, adding Americans’ ‘primary concern about me has been that I seem foreign’.
“The concept of race in America is not just genetic, otherwise the one-drop rule wouldn’t have made sense”.
“It’s cultural. It’s this notion of a people who look different than the mainstream, suffering terrible oppression.
“But somehow being able to make out of that a music and a language and a faith and a patriotism,” Obama said, in a special looking back on his legacy with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
“I think there’s a reason why attitudes about my presidency among whites in Northern states are very different from whites in Southern states.
“Are there folks whose primary concern about me has been that I seem foreign, the other? Are those who champion the ‘birther’ movement feeding off of bias? Absolutely.”
Obama said the colour of his skin had ‘absolutely’ contributed to white Americans’ negative perceptions of his time in office.
The president said: “I think there’s a reason why attitudes about my presidency among whites in Northern states are very different from whites in Southern states”.
Obama told Zakaria in the special interview on his legacy that was taped in September that he did not mind being defined as the nation’s first black president.
According to Zakaria, Obama was raised by ‘three white people’: his mother, Ann Dunham, and his grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham.
“And an Indonesian, you can throw in there”, Obama added, making reference to his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro.
David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Obama at the White House who now runs the Chicago Institute of Politics, concurred.
“It’s indisputable that there was a ferocity to the opposition and a lack of respect to him that was a function of race,” Axelrod said.
According to him, at least one powerful Republican was personally disrespectful to Obama.
“He (the Republican)said to him (Obama), ‘we don’t really think you should be here but the American people thought otherwise. So we’re going to have to work with you,” Axelrod said.
President-elect Donald Trump, promoted birther arguments, encouraging hackers to look into Obama’s place of birth in 2014.
Trump said in an August 2012 tweet: “An “extremely credible source” has called my office and told me that @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud”.
The Republican, however, said recently that he no longer believed that Obama was born in Kenya.
“President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. Now, we all want to get back to making America strong and great again,” Trump said.
He, however, made no apology for his previous statements and claimed that Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign began the birther movement in 2008.
Clinton’s campaign accused Trump of having connections to white nationalists and that he needs to ‘own up to it.’
Obama took Trump’s about-face in stride, joking at a September Congressional Black Caucus Gala, saying “If there’s an extra spring in my step tonight, it’s because I am so relieved that the whole birther thing is over”.
NAN
![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")
