NAIJAFEED

Friday, February 24, 2012

KBR former CEO sentenced to 30 years in prison for bribing Nigerian officials

The former head of US construction company KBR was sentenced to 30 months in prison over the bribing of Nigerian officials to win contracts, the US Justice Department said Thursday.

Albert Stanley, the former chief executive officer of the engineering giant, also must pay his former company $10.8 million in restitution under the judgment handed down in a Houston federal court.

Stanley, 69, pleaded guilty to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

KBR and its parent company, Halliburton, have also agreed to pay a $579 million fine after pleading guilty to corruption charges in Nigeria.

Stanley was accused of participating in a bribery scheme between 1995 and 2004 to obtain construction contracts worth more than $6 billion, according to a US Justice Department statement.

KBR was part of joint venture TSKJ — which also included French firm Technip SA, Dutch and Italian firm Snamprogetti Netherlands BV and Japanese firm JGC Corporation — to build a liquefied natural gas facility on Bonny Island in the Niger Delta.

The joint venture allegedly paid $183 million in bribes to a variety of Nigerian government officials, according to the Justice Department.

Stanley, who was fired by Halliburton in 2004, cooperated in the investigation in exchange for a lighter sentence.

The case sparked criminal investigations in France, Switzerland, Nigeria and Britain.

Two British men, attorney Jeffrey Tesler and businessman Wojciech Chodan, also were sentenced on criminal charges by a Houston judge. Tesler is getting 21 months in prison while Chodan is sentenced to one year of probation.

Last month, Japanese trading house Marubeni, which the TSKJ joint venture hired to help get the engineering contracts, agreed to pay a $54.6 million fine in the United States, the Justice Department said.

In 2010, Technip and Snamprogetti each agreed to pay $240 million fines while JGC settled for a nearly $219 million fine.

Vanguard

EFCC drops charges against Dick Cheney

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Chevron's disastrous gas well fire in Nigeria may burn for months

A gas-fuelled fire, with flames as high as 5m, may burn for months in waters off the Niger Delta in south-east Nigeria.

Two workers died after January's explosion at the KS Endeavour exploration rig, owned by the US firm.

Friends of the Earth says this is the world's worst such accident in recent years.

Chevron spokesman Lloyd Avram says, despite the fire, the situation is now under control and no oil is leaking.

Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa.

A fire is burning in a 40m-wide area on the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, 10km off the Nigerian coast.

The company is trying to put out the fire by piercing a hole in the original gas well - through which cement will be poured.

"There'll be 10,000ft of drilling and interestingly we need to hit an area that is approximately 12sq inches," Mr Avram told the BBC.

"It is going to take some time, but I cannot predict how long that is going to be - conceivably months," he said.

Scientists are conducting tests to find out if local food and water has been contaminated by the gas in the ocean - after local people raised concerns.

Almost 100 people have left towns close to the fire and local chiefs are asking Chevron to relocate more.

A major build-up of gas pressure from drilling caused the explosion that set the rig on fire in the middle of January, according to the Nigeria's state run oil company.

BBC

Video - The Tragedy of oil spills in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Disaster if Chelsea fail to make it into top 4 - John Obi Mikel

Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has admitted that it would be a "disaster" if the Blues fail to attain a top four spot come the end of the season. The west London side currently lie fifth in the Premier League, 17 points behind leaders Manchester City, and face a difficult task away from their domestic worries in the Champions League.

Their status in next year's tournament is being threatened by their poor domestic performances and the Blues have won just once in their last five games.

But the Nigeria international insists the Blues must finish in the top four to ease the pressure on the club and, from there, they can look to establish a fresh title bid next season. Mikel told The Sun: "We must finish in the top four, anything less than that is a disaster. That will ease the pressure off us to look forward to a better season where we can think of winning the title."

Leadership

Related stories: John Obi Mikel frustrated at Chelsea

Video - John Mikel Obi's family speak about kidnapping

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Boko Haram attack leaves 30 dead in Kano market

Security forces patrolled an extensive market in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri on Tuesday where an assault by suspected Islamists killed some 30 people, vendors and residents said.

Gunmen believed to be members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram on Monday afternoon stormed the fish section of Baga market and sprayed stallholders and vendors with bullets, traders said.

The market opened on Tuesday but security forces shut all entry gates except one directly overlooking a police station.

"Most traders in this section of the market have not opened largely out of mourning for their colleagues killed in the attacks of yesterday. We have lost many colleagues," Bunu Ahmad said on the phone.

Witnesses and medics said some 30 people died when the gunmen opened fire and set off bombs inside the market, in what appeared to be a retaliatory attack for the arrest of a suspected Islamist inside the market last week.

The military denied there were any civilian victims, saying it shot eight of the attackers.

Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohammed, spokesman of a special military unit in the city said the military "immediately came to the rescue of the situation and safely detonated three bombs planted by members of the sect and shot and killed eight members of the sect."

Some funerals of civilian victims of the attack took place on Tuesday.

One fish vendor who asked not to be named said he lost two brothers in the attack. He said there was an explosion but he and his brothers chose not to run away at that stage.

"A few minutes after, one of my brothers shouted 'Oh! they have killed me', then another one similarly shouted, 'they have also shot me'. That was when I fled," he said shortly after burying the brothers aged 29 and 31.

"More than 25 people were killed," he said.

Due to the emergency rule imposed on Maiduguri on December 31, only the military responds to any emergency situations in the city, but a relief agency source said from accounts given by witnesses "the death toll from the attack is around 30."

A nurse at Maiduguri hospital on Monday told AFP "the number of dead could not be less than 30," adding it was difficult to establish a precise death toll as security forces did not take the bodies to the morgue but allowed relatives to claim their loved ones for immediate burial.

Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and the home base of Boko Haram, has seen some of the worst violence blamed on the extremist sect, which has focused its attacks on the mainly Muslim north.

The insurgency blamed on Boko Haram has killed more than 200 people already this year, including at least 185 in coordinated gun and bomb attacks in Nigeria's second city of Kano on January 20, its deadliest ever strike.

The shadowy sect has said it wants to create a Islamic state across Nigeria's deeply-impoverished mainly Muslim north and some analysts believe the Islamists are tied to like-minded extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda.

Other analysts insist the sect is pursuing a narrowly domestic agenda.

AFP

Video - Anti-bomb squad member gets blown up by Boko Haram IED

Power generation in Nigeria has increased by 40 percent

The Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, says the nation’s current power generation is 4, 400 megawatts, representing more than 40 per cent of the expectation in 2012.

Nnaji disclosed this on Monday at the opening ceremony of a gymnasium built for workers at Egbin Power Station in Lagos.

He said that the power generation had increased by more than 40 per cent since President Goodluck Jonathan was elected in May, 2011.

“So, this is a tremendous achievement for the president and the government to have improved power supply that way.

“That is why you see people all over the country saying there is availability of power and that they are receiving power now better than before,’’ he said.

Nnaji said that Nigerians should not bother about the amount of power generated, stressing that there were many things to show for it.

He said that discussions were going on between government and electricity workers union in respect of their severance packages and salary increase.

It will be recalled that the minister, had on Feb.17, said that the nation could achieve 9,000 megawatts by December.

Nnaji had also said that the country was losing 1,500 megawatts of electricity due to gas shortage (NAN).

Vanguard

Power generation drops to 3,200MW