Video - Rising debt in Nigeria

The International Monetary Fund has warned The financial body attributes the risk to heavy borrowing and gaping deficits despite overall economic growth. The assessment comes as African countries continue to tap international debt markets and issue record levels of debt in foreign currencies, spurred on by insatiable investor demand for yields. 

According to the IMF's findings, African governments issued a record 7.5 billion dollars in sovereign bonds last year - which is 10 times more than in 2016 - and they plan to issue over $11 billion dollars in additional debt in the first half of 2018 alone.

Bodo villages dispute with Shell over oil spills in Nigeria back in UK court

Lawyers for the Bodo community in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta, which was devastated by two major oil spills a decade ago, went to court in London on Tuesday to fend off what they said was an attempt by Shell to kill off their litigation.

The Bodo oil spills have been the subject of years of legal wrangling. In 2015, Shell accepted liability for the spills, agreeing to pay 55 million pounds ($83 million at the time) to Bodo villagers and to clean up their lands and waterways.

Oil spills, sometimes due to vandalism, sometimes to corrosion, are common in the Niger Delta, a vast maze of creeks and mangrove swamps criss-crossed by pipelines and blighted by poverty, pollution, oil-fuelled corruption and violence.

The spills have had a catastrophic impact on many communities where people have no other water supply than the creeks and rely on farming and fishing for survival.

At the same time, oil companies have run into problems trying to clean up spills, sometimes because of obstruction and even violence by local gangs trying to extract bigger payouts, or to obtain clean-up contracts.

After years of delays, the clean-up in Bodo is currently underway and litigation in the London High Court is stayed, or on hold.

Lawyers for SPDC, the Nigerian arm of Shell, argued on Tuesday that the litigation should be struck off in October 2018, or at the latest a year later, and that it should only be re-activated if SPDC failed to comply with its obligation to pay for the clean-up.

Lawyers for the Bodo community said that was unacceptable, because the clean-up could go wrong for any number of reasons and that under Shell’s proposal the villagers would be left without the recourse of going back to court.

“The effect of what Shell is trying to do is to kill off the case,” said Dan Leader, the Bodo community’s lead lawyer, on the sidelines of the hearing. “It’s only because of the pressure of litigation that the clean-up is getting back on track.”

But Shell’s lawyers, citing an earlier judgment, compared the stayed litigation to a “gun in the cupboard” that the Bodo community’s lawyers wanted to be able to hold to Shell’s head at their convenience, for years on end.

They said the litigation was a hindrance to the clean-up because it gave some local community members the impression that there was still the possibility of a bigger payout, incentivising them to block the clean-up rather than cooperate.

“The previous persistent delays to the clean-up process clearly demonstrate that litigating Nigerian oil spill cases in the English courts does little to resolve the complex underlying security and community issues which can frustrate attempts to clean up areas impacted by oil pollution,” an SPDC spokeswoman said.

“We hope that the community will continue to grant the access needed for clean-up to progress as planned.”

A judgment on the litigation issues is expected on Friday.

Reuters

Leaked audio - Nigerian Professor gives student ultimatum of sex or fail

When Monica Osagie got low marks in a course for her master's degree, she says the professor gave her two options: Sleep with him, or fail the class.

Faced with this stark choice, Osagie says she knew no one would believe her word against the lecturer's, so she recorded one of their conversations using a cell phone app.

 
The audio recording was leaked online and went viral on social media. Osagie says she did not leak it but had submitted it to university authorities before it surfaced online.

The student's allegations, coming amid the conversations around the global #Metoo movement, have now sparked a nationwide conversation in Nigeria about predatory sexual behavior on campuses and bolstered the notion that sexual harassment is a problem women the world over face almost every day.

In the recording, a man can be heard saying that if the student agreed to have sex with him five times, he would improve her grades.

CNN

Video- Nigerian doctors' strike cripples service delivery in public hospitals

A strike by Nigerian health workers is in its fourth week with no end in sight. It's crippled service delivery in government hospitals. The health ministry has now directed managers to start an attendance register, and staff who don't turn up for their shifts could be penalized. Employees across the healthcare sector are calling for higher salaries and improved working conditions.

Medical doctor turned hacker says hacking into Nigerian banks is very easy

A medical doctor turned international hacker, who has been on the Police wanted list, Michael Thompson Williams, has been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command.

Michael, who boasted of his escapades as a hacker, took a swipe at the Nigerian banking system, describing it as the easiest to hack, including government-owned account.

The 28-year-old suspect mentioned an American leading Hollywood actor, John Travolta, as one of his prey, revealing that his (Travolta) account was being monitored through a programmed device, where cash running into millions of US dollars were diverted weekly.

During preliminary investigation, it was discovered that the suspect, who has mastery of the cyber café environment, created credit cards of deceased foreigners through cyber Ghost 12. When the credit cards matures, it would be funded through a hacked Swiss account and then any transaction done by genuine accounts owner through Swiss account would be manipulated by the suspect and wired to his contrived credit card. 

Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, paraded the suspect before journalists yesterday. After a successful transaction, the suspect as gathered would buy posh cars, sending fake alerts to the owners. The bubble burst in March after he bought a Porche car worth N28 million from a car dealer in Lagos and sent him a fake alert before making away with the car. 

However, on getting to the bank to collect the money, the car dealer, Abidogun Adewale, discovered to his shock that no amount was paid. Asked how that was possible, the suspect said he used HTTPtunnel.com to send such fake alert. 

He disclosed that during such payment, the amount would appear on the seller’s account at that moment, even if he visited his bank to confirm the payment, adding that it would disappear after one hour. Three of the vehicles he bought through such process were traced to Asaba, Delta State, and Owerri, Imo State. The number plates on the three vehicles read HRM OGUEZI 1, II and III, respectively.

Vanguard