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James Ibori, former governor of Delta state, has been jailed for 13 years for fraud totalling nearly £50m (12.5 billion Naira ). He was sentenced by a a Southwark Crown Court in London . This brings to an end years of probes both in London and Nigeria, where the ex-governor once held great political sway. According to the Associated press, James Ibori had admitted in February to fraud and money-laundering involving sums of approximately 50 million pounds (12.5billion). He was accused of stealing $250 million from the public purse and funneling much of the stolen funds to banks in England to fund a lavish lifestyle of private jets and luxury cars. Ibori, who evaded capture in Nigeria after a mob of supporters attacked police, was arrested in Dubai in 2010. He was extradited to the UK, where he was prosecuted based on evidence from the Metropolitan Police. One of the counts Ibori admitted related to a $37m (£23m) fraud pertaining to the sale of Delta State's share in Nigerian privat...

 Tensions ran high in the central Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday in the aftermath of an explosion outside a Catholic church that left six people dead, according to hospital and government officials. The apparent car bomb attack happened outside of St. Finbar's Catholic Church, according to Plateau Gov. Jonah David Jang. A spokesman for the Plateau state government, Machias Abraham Yiljab, said three bodies were at the scene of the explosion. Ishaya Pam, chief medical director of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, said in a statement that the hospital had three bodies and was treating 14 people for wounds suffered in the explosion. He said additional people had been wounded in the blast, but had been treated and released. Images sent by Mark Lipdo, program coordinator for the Stefanos Foundation, showed a charred crater in the pavement, a vehicle bumper in the road and smoke rising in the distance. Stefanos is a foundation that aims to help persecuted Christians in Nigeria and el...

Security agencies at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport ( MMIA) under the aegis of the Nigeria Customs Service(NCS), Murtala Muhammed International Airport ( MMIA), Command Friday intercepted eleven cartons of explosives weighing 95 kilogrammes which were allegedly smuggled into the country. The eleven cartons of explosives labeled catridge powder devices and chargers were flown in from South Africa since February 24, 2012, but vigilant personnel at the Nigeria Aviation Company Limited ( NAHCO), warehouse alerted security agencies, when they observed that the importer wanted to smuggle them out of the cargo terminal without declaring the items, even as the relevant duty on the items were not been paid to government. Speaking on the seizure, the Customs Area Controller, MMIA Command, Mr Charles Eporwei Edike, while parading the suspect, before journalists affirmed that the importer, who claimed that he is a miner in Kaduna State brought i...

Online is the way to go these days, and the people at Alaba International Market have finally recognised that fact. If you live in Nigeria and shop a lot at Alaba Market, then this must be good news to you. You don't have to got through traffic and all the hassle to buy stuff at the market, it's now online. Alaba International Market is unarguably the largest electronics market in Nigeria, maybe even West Africa, and buyers can now shop for goods online and have their products delivered to their doorstep via courier . NO MORE BUT THIS

Nigeria on Wednesday night deported 33 South Africans on arrival in the country through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. The Southern Africans, who arrived aboard a South African Airways Airbus A330  around 8.30pm, were denied entry. South Africa and Nigeria are embroiled in a diplomatic feud after the authorities at Oliver Thambo Airport in Johannesburg deported 125 Nigerians on Friday, alleging their yellow fever vaccination cards were fakes. Nigeria responded by deporting 84 South Africans within two days. A top immigration official, said the deportation of South Africans would continue until the problem was resolved. However, a  preventive Health expert, Dr. Abiye Kalaiwo on Wednesday in Abuja claimed  the deportation of the Nigerians resulted from the recent outbreak of Lassa fever in some parts of the country.  Kalaiwo, who is also a medical practitioner with TREM Vision House medical team, faulted South Africa, saying “exportation” of Lassa ...

Nigerian writer and blogger,  Teju Cole, has won this year’s Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for a ‘distinguished’ first book of fiction. PEN New England, a regional branch of the international writers organisation, and the Hemingway Foundation announced on Tuesday that Cole, 36, would receive $10,000 for ‘Open City.’ Cole’s story of a Nigerian doctor’s physical and spiritual journey also is a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award. The author grew up in Nigeria and currently lives in New York City. The Hemingway award was founded in 1976 by Mary Hemingway, widow of the Nobel laureate. Previous winners of the Hemingway prize include Marilynne Robinson and Edward P. Jones. According to his website, tejucole.com, he is a writer, art historian, street photographer and Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College. It says he was “born in the US (1975) to Nigerian parents, raised in Nigeria. Lives in Brooklyn. Author of two books, a novella, Every Day is for the Thief,...

ABUJA  (Reuters) – South Africa and Nigeria are embroiled in a diplomatic spat after the authorities at Johannesburg airport deported 125 Nigerians, alleging their yellow fever vaccination certificates were fakes – the latest twist in a long-standing rivalry between Africa’s two biggest economies. Nigeria has responded with undisguised tit-for-tat deportations of 84 South Africans in the past two days, according to a senior official at the State Security Service who could not be named. “South Africans will know we are very serious with this matter and that any deportation of any Nigerian, we will meet it with equal reciprocal measure,” Foreign Minister Olugbenga Ashiru told a hearing at the National Assembly late on Tuesday. “What you see playing out is … xenophobia by South Africans against all Africans, not just Nigerians, including even those from their neighbouring countries,” he said. A spokesman for South Africa’s home affairs department said the decision to deport the Niger...

Ms.Kine, mother to the Grammy Award Nominee International Artist, Akon who recently signed three of Nigeria’s top musicians, 2face Idibia, P-square and Wizkid. Recently Ms.Royalty caught up with 2face Idibia discussing being signed to Konvict Muzik and more. However, prior to that, she had a chat with Akon’s mother about his recent collaboration with P-square on, ‘Chop my money,’ the differences in family values between American families and most African families..

HOUSTON (AP) — An attorney who persuaded a Texas jury to award one of the largest civil verdicts ever says he and his clients don't expect to collect any of the $150 billion judgment, but they hope it helps persuade prosecutors to seek charges against a man they say doused a boy with gasoline and set him on fire. Robbie Middleton survived his horrific injuries for 12 years before dying last year of a rare form of skin cancer, which attorneys argued was related to the extensive burns he suffered on his eighth birthday. Lawyer Craig Sico and Middleton's family said they now hope for a renewed investigation of Don Wilburn Collins, who Middleton accused of setting him on fire. Collins never faced criminal charges in Middleton's case, in part, prosecutors said, because of inconsistencies in the evidence and difficulty obtaining information from such a young victim. Now 26, Collins is in prison for an unrelated sexual assault conviction against another 8-year-ol...

A Federal High Court sitting at Ikeja, this morning sentenced the General Overseer of Christ Redemption Apostolic Church, Pastor Eunice Owoyele to 14 years imprisonment for child trafficking. Others sentenced along with the 40-year-old pastor is one of her accomplices, Mariam Mohammed, 50, who will stay behind bars for 14 years. They were jailed for luring an 18-year old girl from Nigeria to Libya for prostitution. Having committed the offense in August last year, the two convicts were arraigned before the court on 4 February this year on a three count criminal charge of organizing foreign travels for young girls for prostitution abroad especially in Libya, procurement for prostitution and deceitful inducement to go from place to place contrary to section 15a, 16 and 19b of NAPTIP Act. The prosecuting lawyer, Mr. Kehinde Falade called four witnesses while the convicts who testified for themselves were led in evidence by their lawyer, Mr. R.O. Akande. The mother of the victim reporte...

The story of ‘Omo Night Club’ (1&2) appears simple enough even though it covers many disks: Adesewa (Ireti Osayemi) can get whatever she wants from any man she desires and she milks these men to emptiness, even death. She takes no prisoners and is like ‘she who must be obeyed’. It’s also simple enough to understand that she derives all her powers from ‘agboluaje’, a powerful medicine man who she summons at will through the special mirror hanging inside her wardrobe. Her first victim is Jide Kosoko’s character who is addressed both as Chief Bolajoko and Banjoko. However, the story gets rather ambitious and complicated when club girls - including Kemi (Mosun Filani) - convince Adesewa as their ‘chairlady’ to introduce them to her source of wealth and power. It’s at this point the women all appear to forget the rules of the game and bite more than they can chew with disastrous consequences. As far as stories go, this one uses a sledgehammer to make the point about dangerous club g...

Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo lied when he denied writing a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan on the performance of some agencies and the changes he wanted him to effect. According to the lead story of The Nation newspaper of yesterday, Obasanjo, in the letter, advised Jonathan to sack five heads of Federal Government agencies. The men are of Northern origin. The leadership of the North expressed disappointment at the letter and recommendation of the former president alleging marginalization and victimisaiton. The protest of the North perhaps motivated Obasanjo’s denial of the letter. Speaking with airport correspondents in Lagos yesterday, Obasanjo denied writing the offensive letter. He threatened to institute legal action against The Nation newspaper. However, the newspaper reacted to the threat this morning by publishing the photocopy of the controversial letter on its front page. In the letter, Obasanjo wrote inter alia: “I have observed with deep concern the con...

A Federal High Court sitting at Asaba, Delta State, southsouth Nigeria, has ordered that self-acclaimed Pastor, Glory Okeoghene Abrefera, alleged to have swindled 492 unsuspecting members of the public to the tune of N1.2 billion should be remanded in prison custody.  Also to be remanded in prison custody alongside the accused pastor is one of his accomplices, Reverend Vincent Okpogo. The wife of the pastor involved in the scam is currently at large. Pastor Abrefera owns a wonder bank called Mustard Seed Micro Investment Limited, while his co-accused Reverend Vincent Okpogo is the managing director of the bank. The bank has branches around Asaba-Port Harcourt axis with customers virtually in all towns and villages in Delta State. The accused pastor allegedly lured unsuspecting members of the public by giving them mouth watering interest on their investment. This generous deceptive interest made customers make huge deposits tagged investment. But it got to a stage the company fail...

A farmer was at work in the afternoon on Thursday when he heard a baby crying.  He followed the sound to discover  a baby girl, who seemed to have been buried alive. She had managed to push her head above the ground.   The farmer, who is from Madhya Pradesh's Bodna village in India, rushed the child to a local hospital.  Doctors believe she was 48 hours old before she was rescued. She is now recovering well. Minister for Education Archana Chitnis has visited the child and ordered the hospital to monitor the baby carefully.  The police is trying to locate her parents.  But the baby is unlikely to be returned to them. Madhya Pradesh had the highest number of recorded cases of both female feticide and infanticide in 2009.

New Music Of Black Origin (MOBO) Best African Act award winner, Ayo Balogun, who is popularly known as Wizkid, has recently made his mind known on his winning of the just concluded 2011 edition of the awards held in Glasgow, Scotland on October 5. Wizkid won the coveted award in the category where D Banj, Seun Kuti, Smod, Cheikh Lo, Liquideep, Owiny Sigoma band, Fatoumata Diawara, Vieux Farka Toure and Spoek Mathambo were also nominated in. Though Wizkid has recently been in the news for the negative reasons when he was alleged to have impregnated a University of Legon undergraduate student named Sola, but this MOBO awards news will now come as a nerve soother to his faithful fans. Just some weeks ago, he was involved in an alleged leaked sex tape that went wild on the internet like an hamattan fire. Not long afterwards, it was an alleged assault on a female fan at an eatery around Opebi area of Lagos. In a reaction to his winning of the award, the Holla At Your Boy crooner ...

Although he is one of the biggest and most influential musicians in Africa, King Sunny has one regret, his l ack of University education. Pained by this short -coming, he has forbidden his daughters from getting married without acquiring a University degree. He bared his mind to Saturday Vanguard at the wedding of one his daughters’ Ruth, last Sunday in Ondo, Ondo State and advised would- be suitors to steer clear of his daughters who are yet to meet his expectations. Why did you decide to make your daughter wed in a low- key event? The request was hers. She told me that she just wanted to go to the registry and have a small reception. I had to start calling my friends and apologising that we are not having an elaborate wedding. Besides, I have other things to celebrate , like my 65th birthday and my mum’s one year remembrance. So, there was no need to invite the whole world to the wedding and call them again a few days later to come for my mum’s anniversary and my birthday. How mu...