The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigerian news

  • N1.162bn fraud: Ex Gov. Dariye closes case

    N1.162bn fraud: Ex Gov. Dariye closes case

    Former governor of Plateau, Joshua Dariye on Tuesday, in an FCT High Court sitting in Gudu, closed his defence in the alleged N1.162 billion fraud trial.

    Dariye is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC ) in a 21-count charge of money laundering and diversion of ecological funds to the tune of N1.162 billion belonging to the state.

    Dariye closed his case after calling 16 defence witnesses.

    Dariye’s counsel, Mr Kanu Agabi ( SAN ), told the court that they have closed their case and applied for a written address.

    “My Lord, I am pleased to inform your Lordship we are closing the case for the defence and we will like to address you,’’ Agabi said.

    Mr O. Atolagbe, holding the brief of Mr Rotimi Jacobs ( SAN ), the EFCC prosecution, did not object to the application.

    Atolagbe said that the prosecution will also be grateful to address the court.

    Justice Adebukola Banjoko adjourned hearing until Dec. 7, for the written addresses.

    Dariye, on Sept. 18, employed Agabi, a former Attorney General of the Federation, as his new counsel after his lawyer, Mr Garba Pwul withdrew from the case.

    NAN

  • Niger to enact law regulating weight of trucks

    Niger to enact law regulating weight of trucks

    The Niger Government, has concluded plan to enact a law that would regulate the weight of trucks, plying the state roads, Gov. Abubakar Bello said on Tuesday in Minna.

    The disclosure was contained in a press statement signed by Idris Ndache, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor and made this available.

    Bello expressed displeasure on the damage being done to major roads in the state by heavy duty and articulated vehicles.

    Aside from the proposed legislation, the governor of Niger state, said government would reintroduce weighbridge in order to ensure that operators of the affected trucks comply with the carrying capacity of our roads.

    The governor particularly expressed dismay on the deplorable state of Minna/Suleja federal highway.

    He said that the frequency at which repaired roads were damaged was due to the activities of overloaded vehicles plying the roads.

    Bello noted that despite the economic downturn in the country, the state had committed huge resources in rehabilitating major roads in the state.

    He expressed dissatisfaction that all efforts had failed to deliver the desired result, as the roads were damaged by overloaded heavy duty trucks as soon as they were fixed.

    “We cannot continue to use public funds to repair roads while heavy duty trucks destroy our efforts.

    “We have tried our best to see to it that our roads are in good condition for the benefit of our people.

    “But the more we repair the roads, the more overloaded heavy duty and articulated vehicles damage the roads.

    “We are coming up with strong laws that will prohibit trucks carrying overloads on our highways”.

    Gov. Bello tasked the law enforcement agencies to enforce various highway codes and laws, by ensuring that overloaded vehicles are not permitted to ply the roads.

    NAN

  • Customs seizes 3, 278 bags of rice, 55 vehicles

    Customs seizes 3, 278 bags of rice, 55 vehicles

    The Niger Area Command of Nigeria Customs Service, says it generated N1.9 billion from January to September.

    The Area Controller, Mr Benjamin Binga, on Tuesday in Minna said that the command also seized 3, 278 bags of rice and 55 vehicles with Duty Paid Value of N52.6 million and 51.6 million respectively during the period.

    According to him, the command, made up of Niger, Kogi and Kwara states, will meet its 2017 revenue target of N2.8 billion by the end of the year.

    The controller stressed that customs personnel would continue to mount surveillance and adopt measures to make smuggling impossible in the area.

    “The command has deployed competent officers to manage all identified illegal routes used by smugglers to bring in unwholesome goods into the country,” Binga said.

    He solicited for the support of community leaders in the three states to assist customs field officers with vital information on the movement of smugglers.

    NAN

  • U.S lied about anti- ISIS campaign in Syria – Russia

    U.S lied about anti- ISIS campaign in Syria – Russia

    Russia accused the United States on Tuesday of pretending to fight Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

    Russia also accused U.S. of deliberately reducing its air strikes in Iraq to allow the group’s militants to stream into Syria to slow the Russian-backed advance of the Syrian army.

    In the latest sign of rising tensions between Moscow and Washington, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the U.S.-led coalition had sharply reduced its air strikes in Iraq in September when Syrian forces, backed by Russian air power, had started to retake Deir al-Zor Province.

    “Everyone sees that the U.S.-led coalition is pretending to fight Islamic State, above all in Iraq, but continuing to allegedly fight Islamic State in Syria actively for some reason,” said Major-General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesperson for Russia’s defense ministry said.

    The result, he said, had been that militants had moved in large numbers from Iraqi border areas to Deir al-Zor, where they were trying to dig in on the left bank of the River Euphrates.

    “The actions of the Pentagon and the coalition demand an explanation. Is their change of task a desire to complicate as much as they can the Syrian army’s operation, backed by the Russian air force, to take back Syrian territory to the east of the Euphrates?,’’ asked Konashenkov.

    “Or is it an artful move to drive Islamic State terrorists out of Iraq by forcing them into Syria and into the path of the Russian air force’s pinpoint bombing?’’

    He said Syrian troops were in the midst of trying to push Islamic State out of the city of al-Mayadin, southeast of Deir al-Zor, but that IS tried daily to reinforce its ranks there with “foreign mercenaries’’ pouring in from Iraq.

    NAN

  • NYSC corp members drown in Nasarawa

    NYSC corp members drown in Nasarawa

    The National Youth Service Corps ( NYSC ) in Nasarawa State, has said that two members of the service drowned in a river in Assakio community, Lafia Local Government Area of the state.

    Hajiya Zainab Isah, the NYSC Coordinator in the state made this disclosure to newsmen in Lafia on Tuesday.

    Isah said that Oguntola Babatunde and Danjuma Salihu went to the river in the evening of Oct. 8 to swim but drowned, following which an Assistant Commissioner of Police informed the service about the incident.

    “It is very sad but I know God will grant them eternal rest and grant all of us, including their families, the fortitude to bear the loss. I can only say that we are bereaved but God knows better,” she said.

    She called on other corps members to be very careful and always obey the rules of their host communities.

    “What I heard from a very reliable source was that some farmers had drowned in that river some years back.

    “So when corps members enter a community, they should ask questions and watch their steps,” she said.

    Isah added that the bodies of the deceased had since been deposited at the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital in Lafia.

    NAN

  • Court remands men over car theft

    Court remands men over car theft

    Two men – Sunday Ibrahim and Abdulwahab Usman, were on Tuesday arraigned in a Minna Magistrates’ Court, over alleged attempt to steal a car.

    The defendants, however, denied the 3-count charge of criminal conspiracy, attempt to commit an offence and mischief levelled against them.

    Magistrate Fati Auna ordered that the defendants be remanded in prison custody and adjourned the case until Oct.16 for further mention.

    The Prosecutor, Insp. Emmanuel Danladi, had told the court that one Ogbodo Afam of Tunga Minna, reported the matter at the police station on Sept. 30.
    Danladi quoted the complainant as alleging that on the same date at about 5:35p.m, the accused persons damaged his car in the process of attempting to steal it from where he parked it at Maitumbi area.

    He said the offences contravened Sections 97, 95 and 327 of the Penal Code.

    The prosecutor thereafter prayed the court for an adjournment as investigation into the matter was still ongoing.

  • Liberia set to elect new president

    Liberia set to elect new president

    Voters in the West African nation of Liberia are set to elect a new head of state, as President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf prepares to step down after 12 years in power, an official poll has said on Tuesday.

    Report says Tuesday’s polls are expected to mark the first time in 73 years that a democratically elected president is peacefully handing over power to a successor chosen by the people.

    Twenty candidates are in the race for president, with 72-year-old Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Prize-winner often dubbed the “Iron Lady,” retiring after two six-year terms in office.

    The official report said that there are only three contenders who analysts believe have a real chance of winning.

    They are Vice President Joseph Boakai of the ruling Unity Party ( UP ), former international football star George Weah, who leads the main opposition Coalition for Democratic Change ( CDC ) and Charles Brumskine, the head of the Liberty Party ( LP ).

    Boosting the economy, creating jobs and fighting corruption are high on the agenda of all candidates’ campaigns.

    The last peaceful transfer of power between two democratically elected presidents took place in Liberia in 1944 when former President Edwin Barclay handed over to William Tubman.

    Liberia remains one of the poorest countries in the world and continues to struggle with the aftermath of the 2013-15 Ebola crisis, which killed over 4,000 people nationwide.

    As well as a brutal 14-year civil war that ended in 2003 after having claimed over 250,000 lives and displaced about a million people.

    The roughly 2.2 million registered voters in the country of 4.1 million are also set to elect 73 members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

    NAN

  • Court charges 2 men, companies with N3.3bn oil fraud

    Court charges 2 men, companies with N3.3bn oil fraud

    Two men, Ogbor Eliotand, Godwin Okoronkwo were on Monday arraigned Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo of a Federal High Court in Lagos charged with N3.3 billion oil fraud.

    Also charged alongside the men are two companies  Danium Energy Services Ltd and Petrosol Energy Ltd.

    They are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC ) on a 10- count charge bordering on fraud.

    The accused, however, denied the charges.

    Justice Oguntoyinbo remanded them in the custody of the EFCC until Oct. 11 when their bail applications will be heard.

    According to the prosecution, the accused conspired to defraud a financial house to the tune of N3.3 billion.

    The EFCC said Eliot and Danium Energy Services Ltd had on Jan. 30 or thereabouts conspired to induce the new generation bank to deliver to Danium Energy Services Ltd a sum of N3.3 billion.

    The funds were said to be paid on the pretext that Total Nigeria Plc contracted the energy firm to supply 15,000 metric tonnes of Automotive Gas Oil (diesel).

    It was also alleged that Eliot and the energy firm on Feb. 3 induced the financial institution to deliver to Danium Energy Services N3.3 billion for the supply.

    Besides, the anti-graft agency alleged that the duo on or before Feb. 9 also conspired to commit fraud to the tune of N2.8 billion by making similar false representation.

    The offences contravened the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences 2004.

    NAN

  • Monkey pox: Enugu urges residents to avoid contact with animals

    Monkey pox: Enugu urges residents to avoid contact with animals

    The Enugu State Ministry of Health has urged residents of the state to be wary of touching or coming in contact with wild animals, for self protection against Monkey-pox virus.

    The ministry’s Director of Public Health Services, Dr Okechukwu Ossai, gave the advice when he spoke on Tuesday, on measures taken by the ministry to prevent the disease in the state.

    Ossai said the ministry had begun sensitisation in local radio and television stations about the disease, its signs and symptoms.

    He said that the ministry had also gone ahead to orientate its disease surveillance officers in all the local governments and border areas on the disease.

    The orientation, he said include the physical manifestations and signs of the disease.

    “At the grassroots, we have alerted our health focal persons to monitor the environment and ensure that no one incubates any strange disease in his or her house,’’ he said.

    The director said that personal, family and environmental hygiene especially hand washing, was key and necessary for all residents of the state to observe, to avoid any form of virus or contagious disease.

    He said monkey-pox could be contacted through touching the body or body fluid of wild animals, adding that apart from monkeys, antelopes and wild rats could also harbour the virus.

    “I will also urge hunters, butchers and those that prepare bush meat from these animals for consumption to be wary.

    “However, if the meat from these animals mentioned are cooked very well beyond boiling point, the meat is safe as the virus is destroyed via proper boiling.’’

    Health experts explain that Monkey-pox, a virus found in monkeys and other wild animals is, however, rare in humans, adding that  it belongs to the same family of Chicken-pox and Small-pox.

    NAN

  • Ex- Thailand PM denies insulting monarchy

    Ex- Thailand PM denies insulting monarchy

    Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has denied insulting the monarchy, following media reports that the authorities were seeking to charge him with lese-majesty.

    “I have no intention to offend the institution at all,’’ Thaksin tweeted on Monday in Bankok.

    “I do not know the individual in question, I will seek legal actions against anyone who involved me in their defamation against the monarchy,’’ he said.

    It is unclear which individual or incident Thaksin is referring to, but he was accused of defaming the monarchy by mentioning the country’s regent in a 2015 interview with a South Korean media outlet.

    Thailand’s strict lese-majesty law prohibits criticism, defamation, threats and insults made against the king, queen, heir apparent or regent.
    Perpetrators face up to 15 years in prison per offence, if found guilty.

    Speaking at a news conference upon beginning his new post as Attorney-General on Friday, Khemchai Chutiwong said his predecessor had decided that there was enough evidence to charge Thaksin.

    The authorities had not charged Thaksin because his presence is required, but Khemchai said it was now up to police to locate him to proceed with the charge and extradition request.

    In 2008,  Shinawatra was sentenced to two years in prison over land corruption.
    He fled Thailand shortly before the verdict and never returned.

    Thaksin is known to live in self-imposed exile in Dubai and London.

    His daughters’ social media posts indicated he was in London in September before moving back to Dubai last week.

    Thailand does not have an extradition treaty with the United Arab Emirates.

    NAN