![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 "Is Anthony Odiong still a priest after life in prison sentence over rape?")
Barack Obama has taken a swipe at Hispanic voters who chose Donald Trump, accusing them of ignoring the US president’s “racist” comments.
The ex-US president argued some overlooked Mr Trump’s rhetoric because they supported his anti-abortion stance.
Mr Obama also criticised undocumented migrants being held in “cages”, a practice that began in his presidency.
Exit polls show Mr Trump won a larger percentage of Hispanics than in 2016.
The Republican president garnered about 32% of the demographic in 2020, up from 28% four years ago.
What did Obama say?
In Wednesday’s interview with the Breakfast Club, a podcast, Mr Obama said: “People were surprised about a lot of Hispanic folks who voted for Trump.
“But there are a lot of evangelical Hispanics who, you know, the fact that Trump says racist things about Mexicans, or puts detainees, undocumented workers in cages, they think that’s less important than the fact that he supports their views on gay marriage or abortion.”
Mr Obama also told hosts Charlamagne tha God, DJ Envy and Angela Yee that Mr Trump’s Republican party had encouraged white men to see themselves as victims.
“You’ve seen created, in Republican politics, this sense that white males are victims,” he said.
“They’re the ones who are like under attack. Which obviously doesn’t jibe with both history and data and economics.”
Mr Obama was appearing on the podcast to tout his new book, A Promised Land, which has sold 1.7 million copies in North America in its first week.
What’s the background?
It is not clear what Mr Obama was specifically referring to in his remark about gay marriage. A week after being elected in 2016, Mr Trump said he was “fine with” the US Supreme Court decision to allow same-sex unions, though he told CNN a year earlier he was for “traditional marriage”.
Mr Obama first ran for the presidency in 2008 opposed to gay marriage, before saying in 2012 that he was in favour.
In this month’s presidential election, Mr Trump won 28% of the LGBT vote, the highest percentage for any Republican presidential nominee since George W Bush in 2000.
Mr Obama’s mention of “cages” refers to border facilities where hundreds of children separated from adults at the US-Mexico border were held in 2018 under a Trump administration policy that was tougher than anything that had come before.
But these chain-link enclosures were built during the Obama presidency. Some 60,000 unaccompanied minors stopped at the southern border were detained in these cells during one summer alone in 2014.
The Obama administration also separated migrant children from adults at the border, though only in rare circumstances.
Mr Trump has long been criticised for his 2015 campaign launch when he said of undocumented migrants from Mexico: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
What’s the reaction?
Republican pollster Frank Luntz tweeted of Mr Obama’s comments: “This is lazy analysis which likely will become the conventional wisdom of his followers: ‘People who don’t support us are bigots.'”
Steve Cortes, a Trump 2020 campaign adviser, said Mr Obama had insulted Latinos.
The Hispanic political strategist tweeted: “As important as life issues are, the economic factors drove most working-class voters to Trump, including Latinos.”
Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas tweeted: “Once again, Barack Obama is very, very disappointed in Americans, this time in evangelical Hispanics for putting their values and economic interests ahead of woke liberal obsessions.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbot tweeted that Mr Obama’s comments underlined why Mr Trump’s share of the Hispanic vote grew in this election.
“Some Democrats think they can criticize the values & religious beliefs of Hispanics but still get their vote by using the race card,” he tweeted.
![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 "Is Anthony Odiong still a priest after life in prison sentence over rape?")
