Revealed: The woman who was 'thrown to her death from 15th-floor Sydney balcony by her jealous fiancé

This is the stunning girlfriend who fell 15 storeys to her death, moments after being filmed grappling with her 'controlling and abusive' fiancé.
Lisa Harnum was allegedly heard yelling, 'please help me, God help me' as she fought for her life on the balcony of the flat she shared with Simon Gittany in Sydney, Australia, on the night of July 30 2011.
But nobody came. Moments later she was lying dead, her body 150-feet down on the footpath below.
And today it was revealed the 30-year-old's terrifying last moments were captured on the very pin-hole camera Gittany set up to spy on her every move.
Gittany, 37, has pleaded not guilty to murdering his Canadian-born fiancée, claiming he was trying to save her from suicide before she fell.
He has been regularly accompanied to his trial by his current girlfriend.
A neighbour, however, claims he saw a topless man 'fist-pumping' on the terrace after something had gone over the edge, 9News reported.

Another witness walking past The Hyde apartment block in the heart of the city told police he saw a topless man holding what appeared to be black luggage horizontally over the balcony before it fell to earth.
'Of course, it was not a piece of luggage, it was Miss Harnum wearing black clothing,' Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC said today at Gittany's murder trial.
Gittany was so jealous, Mr Tedeschi claimed, that he had banned her from seeing friends, forbade her from taking a job as a hairdresser and even hired a personal trainer to come to their home so she wouldn't go to the gym where he thought she would be ogled by other men. 

Terror: His hand clamped over her mouth to stifle her 'bone-chilling' screams for help, a shirtless Simon Gittany wrestles fiancee Lisa Harnam - minutes before she plunged 15-storeys to her death. The footage was captured on a pin-hole camera that he set up in the flat to spy on her

Describing Gittany as 'controlling and abusive', Tedeschi said he made her become Catholic, do her hair and dress exactly how he told her.
'[He believed] it was her function in life to submit to his will as the male in the relationship,' Mr Tedeschi said.
 But his vice-like grip over her life was still not enough, the court heard. Mr Tedeschi told jurors Gittany even set up a network of mini cameras around the apartment to keep tabs on her and secretly read her emails and text messages.

It was because of this forensic campaign of surveillance that he caught wind of her plan to leave him with the help of two friends, the court heard. As a result he allegedly abused one of them over the phone, advising them to stay away.
In the months leading up to her death, the court heard, Miss Harnum had become so fearful of her fiancé's jealous rage that, when she did venture outside, she only ever stared at the ground or into his eyes for fear he might accuse her of looking at other men.
'The deceased's confidence became more and more diminished,' Mr Tedeschi said.
Giving evidence, Miss Harnum's mother said told the court: 'She told me he was always very controlling and wanted to always know where she was, what she was doing, who she was with, what she was wearing.'
She said when Miss Harnum plucked up the courage to tell Gittany she was leaving him, he threatened to destroy her chances of getting permanent Australian residency - a dream she had harboured since moving to the country.
Gittany's defence barrister Philip Strickland SC said Miss Harnum was a 'conflicted, complicated and confused woman' prone to over-reacting when she didn't get her own way.
Mr Strickland said Gittany only monitored her text messages via a computer programme because she had told him she had a secret that she couldn't disclose to him.
'The secret ate into their relationship,' he said
Her fingerprints were not found on the glass or metal rail of the balcony onto which he said she climbed before she fell.

Reign of fear: In the months leading up to her death, the court heard, Miss Harnam had become so fearful of Gittany's jealous rage that, when she did venture outside, she only ever stared at the ground or into his eyes for fear he might accuse her of looking at other men

Falana demands information on bulletproof cars from NCAA

LAGOS lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, on Monday asked the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to within seven days release information on the purchase of the two BMW bulletproof cars it bought for the Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria argued that the Managing Director of NCAA, Mr. Fola Akinkuotu, was mandatorily required to release the requested information by the virtue of the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

In his letter to NCAA, Falana asked the NCAA boss to supply copies of “all the documents relating to the purchase of the cars, including budgetary approval and due process for the entire transaction”.

The letter dated October 21, 2013, was written on behalf of the activist by a lawyer in his law firm, Mr. Adedotun Isola-Osobu.

In the letter, Falana also asked Akinkuotu to supply records of previous purchase of such cars if indeed it was customary for the NCAA to purchase such cars for the aviation minister and visiting foreign dignitaries.

The letter read, “In your press conference at Abuja held on Friday, October 18, 2013 you did admit that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority actually bought the controversial armoured cars and that ‘it is customary to convey the minister and visiting dignitaries in security vehicles whenever they are in Nigeria’.

“In the light of your claim at the said press conference we are compelled to request you to make available to us certified true copies of the documents relating to the purchase of the cars, including budgetary approval and due process for the entire transaction.

“Since you claimed that it is customary to purchase such cars for aviation minister and visiting foreign dignitaries you are also requested to provide the records of previous purchase of armoured cars by the aviation ministry or the NCAA.

“Take notice that you are mandatorily required to supply the requested information within seven days of the receipt of this letter by virtue of the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011.”

The NCAA had admitted to have spent   a whopping $1.6m (N255m) on the two cars. The purchase of the cars had since ignited calls for the removal of the aviation minister.

Can A Merciless Terrorist Ever Be A Great Mum? - The paradox of White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite!

 These pictures shows the paradox in White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite. According to the news culled from Daily Mirror , Samantha Lewthwaite gently cradles her newborn baby in a picture of bliss that would grace any family photo album.
But the happy scene masks a burning radicalism that intelligence chiefs believe the British Muslim convert was preparing to unleash against Western targets that would lead her to become the world’s most wanted woman.
White Widow Lewthwaite, 29, was later named as a key figure in ­last month’s horrific terror attack in a Nairobi ­shopping mall, which killed more than 70 people, including five Brits, by Islamic ­extremists al-Shabaab.
Within weeks of this snap being taken by an unsuspecting nurse in July 2010 at a Johannesburg hospital, the mum-of-four was spotted allegedly staking out embassies in South Africa.
As Lewthwaite cuddles the hour-old tot Surajah, her lover, jihadi bomb maker Habib Ghani, looks on proudly, wearing a cream sweater and stonewashed jeans. He also scoops up the couple’s son Abdur-Rahman, five.
  READ MORE: Daily Mirror

By her bed stand her eldest boy Abdullah, nine, and daughter Ruqayyah, eight – the offspring of her relationship with 7/7 London suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay.
Just 18 months later, Lewthwaite was linked to a terror plot to murder Western tourists by attacking luxury resorts in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.
As she became a major player inside al-Shabaab, she split with Ghani when he fell out with terrorists in Somalia, where he was eventually assassinated.
A senior security source said: “Samantha Lewthwaite lived a double life of a doting mother and international terrorist side by side.
“After being welcomed into the inner circle of al-Shabaab, her contacts stretched far and wide.
“Her thirst for power and influence became insatiable, leading to her becoming one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists.”
Lewthwaite has been in hiding since December 2011 after Kenyan police linked her and British terror suspect Jermaine Grant, 30, to the Mombasa plot. He is on trial over those allegations.
The White Widow, a British soldier’s daughter from Aylesbury, Bucks, is the subject of an ­international manhunt by nearly 200 countries after being named in a Red Alert by Interpol after the ­shopping mall atrocity.
New information has emerged linking Lewthwaite to al-Shabaab safe houses in Tanzania and Somalia – where she has “become a hero” amongst fanatics in both countries, according to security sources.
Spy chiefs said the “international ­security community” is locked in talks to arrange a huge reward for information leading to her arrest.
Lewthwaite is a prime target for American special forces engaged in a number of “highly classified” operations to capture a dozen of the world’s most wanted terrorists.
Away from her suspected life of increasing Islamic extremism, before now little has been known of her time with Ghani, of Hounslow, West London, and her four children.
These pictures were obtained ­exclusively by the Mirror and show a ­seemingly softer side to the woman hunted by police around the world. She looks exhausted as she cuddles her newborn tot.
The photo is believed to have been taken in Johannesburg in 2010 after Lewthwaite had cut all ties with her family in Britain.

After originally branding first husband ­Lindsay’s Tube bombing as “abhorrent” she is believed to have moved to Kenya in 2007 and South Africa in 2008.
A security source said: “Lewthwaite quickly became immersed in East Africa’s Islamic terror networks and developed an ­understanding of their inner ­workings.
"She became adept at using her children as cover and fitting into her ­communities without arousing suspicion.”
Originally she made contacts with the higher ranks of al-Qaeda which went on to ally with al-Shabaab. They saw her as a valuable propaganda tool.
Using the name Asmaa Shahidah Bint-Andrews, Lewthwaite returned to the UK in 2009 to give birth to third child at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
Within weeks of having Ghani’s baby, and said to be using a fake identity under the name of Natalie Faye Webb, she ­allegedly went to war-torn Somalia to meet with al-Shabaab leaders.
Here, it is claimed, she became more extreme and vowed to become an integral part of the murderous organisation.
In 2010, soon before her youngest daughter was born, she moved with Ghani back to South Africa.
They rented a house in Johannesburg and she worked in a halal pie factory.
Months later Ghani left to fight for al-Shabaab in Somalia. Lewthwaite was spotted allegedly staking out ­embassies, including the British High Commission.
The White Widow, saddled with debt, moved to Nairobi in February 2011.
Over the next six months it is claimed she ­meticulously plotted terror attacks on an upmarket shopping mall and plush district popular with Westerners.

In September that year she left the city to link up with Grant and ­allegedly plot Christmas-time attacks in Mombasa. They were foiled when he was arrested.
As her power and influence increased, Lewthwaite emerged as a rising star in al-Shabaab and her ­relationship with Ghani, 28, soon soured after he came back from fighting in Somalia.
A senior security source said: “When he returned his wife had transformed into a major player within the ­organisation. He was no longer the main focus, the breadwinner.
“Samantha had plans and ideas for the future. The group were listening to her and she certainly wasn’t afraid to go it alone.”
Ghani decided to leave the home in Mombasa and the couple split up.
We showed pictures of them to a former neighbour in the city who said: “Yes, I remember them well.
"The children were always polite and said hello. The woman only wore Muslim dress and she never spoke, she was quite rude actually.
“The man was more polite, he used to hang around a lot and then suddenly he stopped.
“I never saw him again and soon after that the mother and the children moved away from here.”

Ghani went back to the battlefields of Somalia, where al-Shabaab was still fighting to instil the harsh Sharia law.
But after a hiatus from the group and following his break up from Lewthwaite, his influence had diminished.
By summer 2012 he went into hiding after he expressed “differences” with high ranking al-Shabaab officials.
After more than a year on the run the ­explosives expert, also known as Osama al-Britani, was slaughtered in an ambush in a small town 200 miles west of the Somali capital ­Mogadishu.
Gunmen posing as travellers pretended to stop to pray when they cut him down.
Ghani was reportedly with up to eight other armed men, three of who were killed alongside him.
A security source said: “The White Widow has shown herself to be one of the most ruthless operatives in the world.
"She will stop at nothing until she reaches her objectives.
“The international community must do all it can to capture this woman before it is too late.”

LASU Academic Anomaly

Recently this post was sent to me by aggrieved graduating students of Lagos State University external campuses. Please read and share your thought on their plight: 

 "Cambridge University professor F.M Cornford said “nothing is ever done until everyone is convinced that it ought to be done and has been convinced for so long that it is now time to do something else”. After all efforts to get justice over the unnecessary delay of graduating students, there is no better time for this column than now.

The advert was alluring; the newspaper announcement was convincing enough for determined, prospective (adult and young) candidates to respond to. With the inclusion of degree and post graduate courses from various departments of Lagos State University, forms were made available for sale. As was publicized, the course duration for degree was 4/5 years while MBA and the likes were about 2 years.

Of course, with the mindset that ignorance is more expensive than education, many candidates bought the forms, registered and followed through with the admission process. The value would be worth the wait, was the motivation. Matured candidates took solace in the hope that their lots would be bettered and academic status enhanced at the completion. There are those who abandoned major projects to give the race all it takes –making the academic pursuit pivotal on their scale of preference. People from various spheres of human endeavor undertook the program for self improvement.

Alongside family responsibilities (for the married), work rigour, most students endured the pain (of lectures, studies and response to various demands of LASU school of part time studies) for the gain. Sincerely the sail was not as easy and smooth as was envisaged – not because the students didn’t braze up for the inevitable challenges of academic exercise but for the care-free attitude and nonchalance to duty of the management. On many occasion, students had to re-write certain papers they had written before, for the unbelievable reason that examination results were missing. Should the students suffer for the lapse of poor data storage system? Probably, your answer is as good as mine.

Unfortunately after all sacrifice, hopes were dashed, expectation shattered and time wasted like precious pieces of diamond thrown in the ocean.  Nobody argues the fact that eventually transcripts, certificates and necessary credentials would be issued –but the timing! The timing is wrong!  Time is life. A waste of time is a waste of life. If not all, most students had their plans mapped out based on the stipulated time duration of the academic exercise.

Max De Pree observed, “We cannot become what we need by remaining what we are”. Delaying the students – especially the graduating students is hope-shattering and heart breaking. Age is already an issue in the labour market, further delay by management is tantamount to aggravation of plight. Having paid through the nose – the school bills, and suffered the occasional impact of the huge mattock of late registration fee slammed on students (as penalty for not paying on time), it’s been 8/9 years of a designated 4/5 years programme – with no certificate nor transcript to show for completion of academic exercise.  

Many letters have been written, complaints had been lodged, yet no positive response so far. The popular alibi is, “senate is yet to sit on the results”. Was the stipulated course duration without the senate’s knowledge or approval? We plead that the appropriate authorities savour this situation and respect the dreams of the concerned. There are testimonies of people who were called up for job interviews; but had no certificate or statement of result as a proof to secure the opportunities - in spite of rigorous years of academic pursuit.

In some establishments, the opportunities for upgrade were opened, but there were no proof to effect the desired change of level. Above all, countless are the lists of those who intend to run postgraduate programmes in furtherance of their studies but appear to have been trapped; because the forms to their universities of interest could not be purchased for lack of transcript.

As regards time, does the university senate discriminate between full-time and part-time students? When would LASU release the right of these graduating students who have waited these 8/9 years for a 4/5 years degree programme? Must one suffer extra  unnecessary years because he/she  is a part-time student? Does the management of  LASU  respect the sacrifice and plight of their students? Is LASU School of part time studies taking advantage of the vulnerable public? Isn’t the deafening of the management’s ear to the incessant call for justice an abuse of power and office? Or, was the idea of SPTS primarily a money-spinning venture for the school and the franchisee, rather than truly contributing to the education sector?

These all are questions begging for answers from the management of LASU, the office of the governor of Lagos State and the general public. This anomaly requires an urgent response."