Nigeria's Amusan wins 100 metres hurdles gold

Nigerian Tobi Amusan won 100 metres hurdles gold at the World Championships on Sunday in what was initially announced as a world record 12.06 seconds but later ruled ineligible as the wind speed exceeded the legal limit.

Amusan broke the world record earlier on Sunday by running 12.12 in the semi-final at Hayward Field.

She recovered from a slightly slower start to put on a pristine performance over the barriers, .17 seconds clear of silver medallist Britany Anderson of Jamaica.

"The goal was to come out and to win this gold," said Amusan.

"I believe in my abilities but I was not expecting a world record at these championships. You know, the goal is always just to execute well and get the win. So the world record is a bonus."

Puerto Rico's Olympic champion Camacho-Quinn accelerated at the midway mark but lost a close battle with Anderson over the final strides after hitting the last hurdle, going home with bronze in her first World Championships.

"I got my nerves to be honest. It kind of showed on my face but I am just glad to come out here," said Camacho-Quinn.

"From this point on, it is only going to be faster ... I think we had the best event of the whole world champs."

Anderson told reporters she was pleased with her performance, despite clipping some hurdles.

"I feel like everyone is so excited now," she said. "I came out here to do what I had to do and I did it."

The final was without 2019 champion Nia Ali and medal contender Alaysha Johnson, both of the United States, after they hit hurdles and crashed out in the opening round. read more

The United States' Olympic silver medallist Kendra Harrison, whose 2016 record Amusan broke in the semi-final, was disqualified.

Amusan’s world record in the semi-final stunned the athletics world.

“Wow” tweeted sprint king Usain Bolt, while 200m champion Noah Lyles tweeted: "Are you kidding me?"

Amusan said she was shocked to have produced the record in the semi-final but knew she had it in her.

"I could not believe it when I saw it on the screen after the semis. But it was just a matter of time," she told reporters.

Reuters

Video - Defending Champions Nigeria face hosts Morocco in semi-final showdown

 

Title holders and record winners, the Super Falcons of Nigeria will take on hosts Morocco in the semi-final of the Women's Africa Cup of Nations after they defeated the Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon 1-0 in the quarter-finals. Striker Rasheedat Aji-bade scored the winner in the 57th minute for the victory that also automatically qualified Nigeria for a ninth FIFA Women's World Cup, next year.

Nigerian fintech owners bag jail term in US over $167million money laundering

The top executives of a United States-based fintech company, Ping Express have been sentenced to 27 months imprisonment for breaching money laundering rules.

The fintech executives who are Nigerians with the names Anslem Oshionebo and Opeyemi Odeyale pleaded guilty to contravening money laundering rules after sending $167 million to Africa unchecked in less than three years.

While Oshionebo is the chief executive officer, oyedale is chief operating officer and both are suspected to have laundered $160 million out the to Nigeria.

This was revealed by the US Department of Justice at the weekend as it added that the Ping Express failed to seek sufficient details about the sources or motives of the funds involved in the transactions, or the customers initiating the transmissions.

It also said part of the money sent to Nigeria was also suspected to be proceeds of internet fraud.

It went further to state that the company’s Information Technology/Business Development Manager, Aleoghena Okhumale, was said to have also pleaded guilty to knowingly transmitting illegally-derived funds.

Both Oshionebo and Oyedale were sentenced to 27 months in federal prison, but Okhumale bagged a prison sentence of 42 months.

Ping Express also admitted that it conducted money transmission business in states in which it was not licensed to do so, including Nevada, New Jersey, Utah, West Virginia, and Connecticut.

In addition, according to DOJ, one Collins Orogun admitted last week that he accepted a fee in exchange for transferring money for ‘romance scam’ fraudsters and other criminals.

In one instance, an Indiana woman sent $15,000 to ‘Carson Jacks’, a purported oil roughneck in the Gulf of Mexico she fell in love with online, after he told her he’d contracted malaria.

In another, a second Indiana woman sent $6,300 to ‘Thomas Ken,” a purported Irish ship captain she fell in love with online, to fix his ship.

In two years, Orogun received more than $1.3 million in cash, cashier’s checks, and wires into several US bank accounts he controlled and then quickly moved more than $1 million of the funds to Africa through Ping Express.

“He faces up to 20 years in federal prison and is set to be sentenced on Jan. 23, 2023,” the statement said.

Ping Express, the company, now faces five years of probation and a fine of up to $500,000. Sentencing has been set for December 19, 2022.

Vanguard

Nigerian Kemi Badenoch launches bid for UK’s PM

Former Equalities Minister, Nigerian-born Kemi Badenoch, has put herself forward as a candidate to become the next United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister, promising “limited government” and “a focus on the essentials.”

The MP for Saffron Walden said she supported lower taxes “to boost growth and productivity, and accompanied by tight spending discipline.”

Writing in The Times, she also hit out at “identity politics” and said Boris Johnson was “a symptom of the problems we face, not the cause of them.

“People are exhausted by platitudes and empty rhetoric. Loving our country, our people or our party is not enough,” she said.

“What’s missing is an intellectual grasp of what is required to run the country in an era of increased polarization, protectionism and populism amplified by social media.”

She said governing Britain today requires “a nimble centre-right vision” that “can achieve things despite entrenched opposition from a cultural establishment that will not accept that the world has moved on from Blairism.”

Badenoch’s declaration capped off a day that saw many Tories declaring allegiances in the leadership race.

Rishi Sunak declared his much-anticipated intention to run, enjoying public backing from Commons Leader Mark Spencer, former Tory Party co-chairman Oliver Dowden, former chief whip Mark Harper, ex-ministers Liam Fox and Andrew Murrison, and MPs Sir Bob Neill and Paul Maynard.

Kemi Badenoch’s recollection of her childhood in Nigeria brings tears to her eyes. It is only five months since the death of her father, Femi Adegoke, from a brain tumour.

Little could he have imagined that within three years of entering the government ranks, his daughter would be launching a bid to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister.

But Badenoch said her father instilled in her a sense of “personal responsibility”. Last week, she quit the government to help force Johnson’s resignation.

In an interview with The Telegraph, she has now set out her reasons for launching a bid to lead the Conservatives. In short, she believes the government has lost its way.

“I think that we have accepted a consensus that is not right – that the Government should get involved in everything and do everything,” she said.

But Badenoch, who quit as equalities and local government minister in a joint move with four friends and colleagues last week, believed that the government is “doing many things badly and doing things in the wrong way.”

The Guardian

Nigeria's Tinubu picks Muslim senator as presidential running mate

Nigeria's presidential frontrunner Bola Tinubu on Sunday picked as his running mate a sitting Muslim senator and former governor of northeastern Borno state, the heartland of an Islamist insurgency that has killed and displaced thousands of people.

The move by Tinubu, who is also Muslim, breaks with past practice where presidential candidates from major political parties have chosen running mates from a different religion in a bid to foster unity in the country.

Tinubu, 70, was last month elected as the ruling All Progressives Congress party's candidate to succeed incumbent Muhammadu Buhari, who will step down next year after completing two terms.

A Yoruba Muslim from southwestern Nigeria, Tinubu told reporters after meeting Buhari in northern Katsina state that he had chosen Kashim Shettima, 55, to be his presidential running mate.

By picking Shettima, Tinubu may also be looking for a deputy broadly acceptable to powerbrokers in the north, which is a large voting block.

"He is competent, capable, reliable and able," Tinubu said.

Atiku Abubakar, the main opposition candidate and Tinubu's main rival, is a northern Muslim who has picked a Christian running mate from the south.

Since the end of military rule in 1999, Nigeria has followed an unwritten rule where power is shared between the largely Muslim north and mainly Christian south.

Growing insecurity will be a major election issue next year. A decade-long Islamist insurgency and attacks and kidnappings for ransom by armed gangs mostly in the northwest are some of the major security challenges.

During Shettima's 2011-2019 governorship, Borno state grabbed global headlines when Boko Haram militants abducted more than 200 schoolgirls in Chibok community in April 2014.

Shettima was among those who supported the release of low-risk detainees caught up in the government's fight against insurgents, as a good-will gesture.

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

Reuters