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The first week of testimony in the sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs included a witness core to the case: Casandra Ventura, the music mogul’s ex-girlfriend who accuses him of harrowing abuse, coercion and rape.

Combs, 55, is facing federal charges of sex trafficking and leading an illegal sex ring that enforced its power with crimes including arson, kidnapping and bribery — and faces life in prison if convicted.

Here are takeaways from the trial’s first week, which is expected to last upwards of another two months.

– Key witness Ventura –

Ventura, the 38-year-old singer known as “Cassie,” took the stand as a star witness mere weeks before she is due to give birth to her third child.

She was largely composed but at times openly wept as she recounted degrading sex parties she said Combs coerced her into for years, at times weekly.

Combs would direct her to take drugs before the elaborately choreographed sex that routinely involved male escorts, which he dubbed “freak-offs.”

The drugs were a “buffer” to withstand the “humiliating” and often-filmed sexual encounters, Ventura said.

The jury was repeatedly shown disturbing surveillance footage of Combs brutally beating and dragging Ventura.

It was a regular experience, she told jurors.

“He would mash me in my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me on the head if I was down.”

– Drugs, sex and violence –

The defence acknowledged that violence played a role in the relationship but said both of them were party to it.

They showed jurors reams of text messages in a bid to cast Ventura as a willing participant in the freak-offs.

Their relationship was tumultuous and had toxic qualities, the defence admitted, but they showed loving — and sexually graphic — texts to indicate that it was still based on a foundation of love.

Ventura didn’t deny that, but she said that love — along with her reputation and career — was also a chip Combs played to control her and force her into freak-offs against her will.

The defence spent significant time on issues of drug abuse, with Ventura testifying that both she and Combs were opioid addicts.

Combs’s counsel implied that withdrawal symptoms and “bad” batches of party drugs could have resulted in erratic behaviour.

– Domestic abuse vs trafficking –

There’s no question that physical assault was part of Combs and Ventura’s relationship: it’s evident in the widely publicised surveillance footage from the hotel incident that was already seared into the public consciousness prior to trial.

But the defence contends that while Ventura’s relationship with Combs included domestic abuse, it did not amount to sex trafficking. They said that she behaved erratically and even violently herself.

Ventura was the first of two anticipated witnesses — the other is anonymously identified as Jane — included in the sex trafficking charges Combs faces.

During opening statements, Combs’s defence lawyer, Teny Geragos, called Combs’s accusers “capable, strong adult women,” and said his situation with Ventura was a “toxic relationship” but “between two people who loved each other.”

– Combs familial entourage –

Lawyers on both sides, as well as Ventura, have described Combs as “larger than life.”

The artist made hundreds of millions in the music, fashion, media and liquor industries and is often credited with helping to take hip-hop mainstream.

But the rap producer and global superstar, once famous for his lavish parties, now appears visibly aged after months in prison, his once jet-black hair now grey.

His court entourage has included his mother along with a rotating cast of his seven children, including his 18-year-old twin daughters.

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– What’s next –

To successfully convict Combs, prosecutors must prove that he ran a criminal enterprise in which he and employees conspired to do his bidding at all costs.

The government also alleges that Combs sex-trafficked Ventura and Jane through coercion or force.

The prosecution is expected to show that Combs’s inner circle committed or helped with crimes at his behest, including sex crimes, but also arson and kidnapping.

Other witnesses have included a former hotel security guard who responded to a distress call from Ventura after a freak-off, a male escort who participated in the sex parties, and a special agent who was present for Combs’s arrest last year.

Currently on the stand is Dawn Richard — a singer who found fame on MTV’s reality show “Making the Band,” which Combs produced. Richard previously filed a separate civil suit against Combs alleging sexual assault and battery.

After that, prosecutors indicated Kerry Morgan, Ventura’s former but longtime best friend, and Ventura’s mother are expected to testify.

No fewer than 23 farmers and fishermen were killed in an attack by the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists in the village of Malam Karanti near Baga, in the Kukawa Local Government Area of the northern part of Borno State, sources have said. 

Our correspondent gathered that the attack occurred on Thursday morning in Malam Karanti, a village five kilometres from Baga.

Sources said the terrorists gathered farmers and fishermen near the village and killed 23 bean farmers.

“The terrorists spared an elderly man, who later alerted the community. The terrorists assembled people in Malam Karanti and killed them. Most of the victims were bean farmers,” a source said.

Residents attempting to recover bodies were forced to retreat after ISWAP launched another attack.

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“We tried to organise a rescue mission with security agencies to recover the victims’ bodies, but the terrorists returned and prevented us. Many families are waiting for their loved ones,” another source said.

Malam Karanti is an ISWAP enclave where civilians often farm and fish despite risks.

Meanwhile, the Chief of  Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, during his visit on Thursday, assured residents of Borno State and the North-East that the military is frantically working to deal with the terrorists and flush them out of their enclaves to end the crisis.

He added that the military is synergising with friendly countries such as Russia, France, among others, to deploy sophisticated weapons that could bring the war quickly to an end.

General Musa added that recharging of the Lake Chad will also enable troops to navigate the Lake Chad axis to eliminate the terrorists, especially the ISWAP, who have capitalised on the economic fortunes of the Chad Basin, such as fishing and farming, to boost their logistics base.

On Friday, General Musa assured Nigerians that the military is committed to addressing the recent surge in insecurity.

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General Musa gave the assurance while briefing the State House correspondents immediately after a closed-door meeting with President Tinubu and defence chiefs at the Aso Rock Villa.

He stated that additional equipment has already been procured to strengthen the fight against terrorists, who have intensified their attacks in recent months, particularly in the northern region of the country.

“Mr President has given a directive as to what to do next for us to intensify all efforts, collaborate with all our sister countries around us, because it is the porous nature from there that is aggravating our own issues on the ground.

“And so all our theatres have been enhanced, equipment has been bought, and Mr President has given us much approval for air assets, and other aspects of security and as we said, it is not only the kinetic aspect, the non-kinetic aspect is most important.

The 2023 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, has stated that Nigeria must reconsider its current presidential system of government, insisting that the system is not suitable for the country.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, Cole stated that most people in Africa are uncomfortable with the political systems practiced in their respective countries.

“This American system that we call Presidential system in Nigeria, we need to go and readdress it,” Cole said. “We cannot import the parliamentary system of the UK and it will work here, we cannot import a presidential system, it will not work here.

“Every African in their country, are they satisfied with the political system they have and the democracy they have, they will tell you no. Why? Because it is contrary to who we are, absolutely contrary.”

He noted that every successful country has developed a system of government tailored to its unique context, citing Arab nations and China as examples of countries that rejected Western political models.

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Cole emphasized that Nigeria’s system of government should be rooted in its own culture, noting that the country had an indigenous political structure before colonization and should consider returning to it.

“Let us build an African, Nigerian focused political system and we have had it. We had a political system before the Europeans came, we had a political system even when the slave trade was going on. So, what are we running away from? We know what to do,” he said.

The politician explained that part of the reasons the presidential system cannot work in Nigeria is because it can be exploited by a few people, adding that it has not built institutions that can hold people to account.

A former vice-president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has said that leaders after former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, did little in checkmating insurgency and the rise in terror groups across the nation.

Atiku made this assertion on Wednesday in Abuja during a visit by stakeholders from Kogi East Senatorial District, led by former Kogi State Deputy Governor, Simon Achuba.

“So I hold our leadership responsible for all the insecurity that is going on all over the place”

According to the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) flagbearer during the 2023 presidential election, Obasanjo was decisive in quelling Boko Haram when it reared its head over two decades ago in Yobe.

“You remember when the Boko Haram started in Yobe? It was actually in 2002. We were in the office. The president sent for me. ‘VP, what do we do about this?’ Then I said, ‘Mr President, let’s call the Service Chiefs and give them a deadline. If they can’t put it down, then they should put down their uniform and go away. We will get some other people,” Atiku said in a video shared on his official Facebook handle.

Atiku added, “So, I will say there’s a lack of political will on the leaders. When they’re killing your citizens, how can you even eat? They’re killing your citizens and you don’t give a damn; that is the greatest irresponsibility by any political leader, anywhere.