Arrest warrant issued for Nigeria ex-oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke

Nigeria’s main anti corruption body has issued an international arrest warrant for its former oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

The authorities accuse her of misappropriating public funds worth several millions of US dollars.

Alison-Madueke is currently being investigated in the United Kingdom but Nigeria wants her to face trial in her country for an alleged act of illegal acceptance and giving gratifications.


The former Nigerian Minister in charge of oil is currently in London. She is to appear before Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on February 25, 2019.

Alison-Madueke is also associated with alleged money laundering cases in several countries like the United States and Italy.

She’s been released on bail from the British courts, which arrested her in 2015 and seized her passports.

Alison-Madueke, was oil minister of former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan from 2010 to 2015.

She became the first woman to lead the organization of oil exporting countries (OPEC).

President Muhamadu Buhari pledged to fight corruption when he assumed office as president of Africa’s most populous nation in 2015.

Africa News

Video - Striking teachers, rigid government and students’ misery in education in Nigeria

It has been nearly a month since the students of government universities in Nigeria have had any class. For, the teachers have been on a strike protesting funding for education in the country. While those who can afford are moving towards private institutions, those who can’t are staring at an uncertain future as the deadlock between the government and the teachers continues.

Nigerian Moses Peter becomes 2018 Africa Scrabble Champion

Just as the Super Falcons overcame South Africa to win the Africa Women Cup of Nations football title in Ghana on Saturday, Nigeria’s Scrabble national team captain, Moses Peter, also emerged the new Africa Scrabble Champion in the 13th edition of the championship held at the Resort Centre, Kiriyangi, Kenya at the weekend.

The Africa tournament, which featured seven countries that included Nigeria, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia with 62 players in attendance, saw Nigeria once again stamping its feet at the African scrabble scene by retaining both the individual and country titles for the 12th time.

Peter proved beyond reasonable doubt that he was the world second best player and Africa’s number one scrabble player when he defeated his opponents after game 30 of the just concluded Africa Scrabble Championship.

The national scrabble coach, Anthoney Ikolo, commended the 11 players that took part in the Africa championship and for giving their best and flying high the nation’s flag in Kenya.

He noted that the country’s representatives would not relent in dominating the continent in the game scrabble in Africa, adding that Nigeria’s success in the East Africa country could be attributed to hard work and determination to succeed by the players.

Guardian

President Muhammadu Buhari denies death and body double rumours

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has denied rumours that he had died and had been replaced by a lookalike.

Some people thought he had been "cloned", but "it's [the] real me, I assure you," Mr Buhari said.

Rumours that he had been replaced with a body double called "Jubril" from Sudan had been widely shared online.

The 76-year-old Mr Buhari, who is seeking re-election in February next year, has been beset by ill health since taking office in 2015.

He was on "medical leave" in the UK for three months in 2017.

He revealed after his return to Nigeria that "I have never been so sick", but did not disclose what he was suffering from. He insists he is now in good health.

According to an AFP Fact Check investigation the rumours began late last year and have appeared on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Posts promoting the rumours have been viewed more than 500,000 times.

A former aide to Mr Buhari's predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, is among the high profile individuals who have promoted the rumours.

Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of secessionist group Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), has also been fuelling the rumours, AFP found.

In one instance, Mr Kanu shared two images of Mr Buhari, one reversed, to allege that the Nigerian leader, who is right-handed, was using his left hand - "proving" that that meant he was a body double.

One of Nigeria's main newspapers, Guardian, published a story in November about the rumours which the paper said "has refused to go away".

A scene from the 1997 film "Face/Off" has also been used by those promoting the rumours to show how a dead Buhari's face could have been transplanted to a body double.

Mr Buhari, who is in Poland attending a UN climate change conference, was asked about the rumours during a meeting on Sunday with Nigerians in the country.

Mr Buhari said those spreading the rumours about his health and identity were ''ignorant and irreligious.''

''A lot of people hoped that I died during my ill health. Some even reached out to the vice-president to consider them to be his deputy because they assumed I was dead.

"That embarrassed him a lot and of course, he visited me when I was in London convalescing… It's [the] real me; I assure you,'' Mr Buhari added.

A former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, 72, has emerged as Mr Buhari's main challenger in next year's election.

The opposition is expected to make the president's health a major campaign issue, but he insists he is healthy and fit to serve a second term.

BBC

Boko Haram overrun army base in Nigeria - 3 soldiers dead

Boko Haram jihadists have killed three soldiers in an attack on a military base in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state near Lake Chad, military and civilian sources said.

Fighters from Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) driving in several trucks attacked the base in Cross-Kauwa village on Tuesday and engaged troops in an hours-long gunfight, the sources told AFP late Wednesday.

“We lost three soldiers in the fight,” said a military officer who asked not to be named. “The soldiers fought the terrorists but were overpowered and had to withdraw from the base,” he added. A Cross-Kauwa resident said the Islamists stormed the village in trucks fitted with anti-aircraft guns around 8:00 pm (1900 GMT). 

“The insurgents fought the soldiers for three hours and forced them to abandon the base,” said the resident who wanted to be identified only by his first name, Bukar, for fear of reprisals. Buba said troops withdrew to the garrison town of Monguno, 18 kilometres (11 miles) away while others stopped at another base in nearby Kekeno which Boko Haram has made several failed attempts to overrun in recent weeks. 

The news of the attack was slow to emerge due to a lack of communications in the region following destruction of telecom facilities by the jihadists. Boko Haram has in recent months intensified attacks on military targets in Borno and Yobe states in the northeast. Since July, AFP has tracked 17 attacks on military bases, most of which were claimed by ISWAP. 

In the most audacious attack on November 18, ISWAP fighters killed at least 43 soldiers when they overran a base in Metele village near the border with Niger, although soldiers who survived the raid said more than 100 of their colleagues were killed. On Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari visited troops in Maiduguri, the epicentre of the insurgency and urged the military to show more commitment in fighting the jihadists. 

The Nigerian leader was due in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, on Thursday for talks with his regional counterparts in a fighting force against the jihadists. Buhari who came to power in 2015 on the promise to end the violence has come under pressure following the recent surge in Boko Haram attacks as he seeks re-election in February polls.

Vanguard