Friday, April 14, 2017

$43 million found in apartment in Lagos, Nigeria

The Nigerian anti-corruption unit discovered more than $43 million in US dollars at an upscale apartment in Lagos. 

The anti-graft agency said in a statement it raided the apartment Tuesday after a tipoff about a "haggard" woman in "dirty clothes" taking bags in and out of the apartment. 

The agency said it also found 23.2 million naira (Nigerian currency worth $75,000) and £27,800 (UK currency, worth $35,000 US) "neatly arranged" inside cabinets hidden behind wooden panels of a bedroom wardrobe.

The commission said the funds are "suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity" but no arrests have been made yet. 

Nigeria has struggled with corruption and looted funds for decades, but the watchdog unit has been on a lucky streak.

Earlier in the week, the agency discovered around 250 million naira in cash ($817,000) in a Lagos market and a further 448 million naira cash ($1.5 million) at a shopping plaza.
These gains have been credited to a whistleblowing policies launched in December by Nigeria's finance minister.

Whistleblowers can now anonymously provide information through a secure portal, if the information leads to the recovery of stolen public funds, the whistleblower is entitled to between 2.5%-5% of the total money recovered. 

In February, the minister of information, Lai Muhammad, said the policy has led to the recovery of over $180 billion.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Video - U.S. deal to sell war planes to Nigeria still needs Congress approval



The US Government is set to sell high tech military planes to Nigeria to help it fight ISIL affiliate in West Africa-Boko Haram. The deal will however need congress's approval.

Boko Haram survivor to provide prosthetics for victims in Nigeria

When 29-year-old Member Feese woke up in a London hospital one month after a Boko Haram bomb attack in Nigeria's capital Abuja blew off her left leg, she knew it was a blessing to be alive.

Feese's family flew her to Britain days after the August 2011 bombing. There the postgraduate student received care over a six-month period, and was fitted with a prosthetic limb.

Inspired by the care she was lucky enough to receive, Feese set up Team Member, an advocacy group to aid victims of bombings in Abuja, which has been hit by several blasts bearing the hallmarks of the jihadist group Boko Haram since 2010.

"I was fortunate because of the network I had ... to fly out of Nigeria. But there are many who are not fortunate enough," Feese told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in her home in Abuja.

"Some of the victims are just hawkers and mechanics. They just go to the National Hospital and they can barely afford their hospital bills," she added. "How do they start their lives back? How do they get money to start their businesses again?"

Every time a bomb strikes Abuja, Feese, her parents and volunteers race to hospitals to offer victims food, arrange counseling and start raising money for care and surgeries.

Few Nigerians have health insurance, leaving many patients trapped in hospital by their debts, responsible for feeding themselves and clinging to the hope their bills will be waived by hospital directors or paid off by well-wishers.

"Some of the victims have no family in Abuja, so we support them," Feese said. "We take food, milk, sugar, toiletries ... then we get their contact details and keep in touch with them."

Dozens of bomb blast victims in Abuja have benefited from the group's support, including a man who needed several surgeries to remove a nail lodged in his head, Feese said.

Yet she is concerned about those who need prosthetic limbs, and said Team Member is raising money in the hopes of opening a rehabilitation center for bombing victims in Abuja.

"We've not identified any hospital that specializes in advanced prosthetic limbs ... the technology is not advanced.

"Not everybody can afford to go to the United Kingdom or South Africa. We want to give Nigerians a chance."

The 2011 attack which injured Feese struck the U.N headquarters in the capital Abuja, killing at least 24 people.

While the last bombing to hit Abuja was in late 2015, Boko Haram has continued to target markets, bus stations, places of worship villages in Borno state during its eight-year insurgency to carve out an Islamist state in the northeast of the country.

Nigeria negotiating with Boko Haram to release remaining Chibok girls

The Nigerian government is in talks with the terror group Boko Haram to release the remaining Chibok girks, the country's president has said.

Some 276 young girls were abducted by the Islamist extremists in 2014, shocking the world and sparking a huge campaign with the slogan "Bring Back Our Girls".

More than 20 were released in October in a deal brokered by the International Red Cross and others have escaped or been rescued, but 195 are still missing.

A day before the third anniversary of the kidnapping, President Muhammadu Buhari said the government "is in constant touch through negotiations, through local intelligence to secure the release of the remaining girls and other abducted persons unharmed".

In 2015, the Islamist militants pledged their allegiance to so-called Islamic State.

They have been waging an eight-year military campaign to carve out an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.

Last year, several senior Boko Haram fighters were killed by Nigeria's air force, with the group's leader believed to be among the dead.

Several months later, the terror group was ousted from its last major camp in the northeastern Sambisa forest stronghold.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Video - Much-anticipated Nigerian Basketball League finally begins after several delays



Nigeria's long-awaited Basketball League has finally started after repeated delays. The Nigerian Basketball Federation had been forced to postpone the competition as it had yet to conclude contractual agreements with sponsors. The women's league got under way on Monday, while the men's is set to begin on Thursday. The federation has announced several changes to the league. It says the 2017 season will consist of 28 regular games, with four rounds of action. For the players, the start of the league is welcome news.