Corruption rules !!! 55 politicians, high-level public officials stole N1.3trn in seven years - SERAP

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) says N1.354 trillion was stolen from the nation’s coffers by “55 politicians and high-level public officials” between 2006 and 2013.

SERAP said this on Wednesday in Lagos while unveiling its report titled ‘Letting the big fish swim’.

The organisation said the amount of money “embezzled, misappropriated or stolen by public officials and leaders in the private sector between 2013 and 2017 has galloped beyond the contemplation of average Nigerians”.

It said, “evidence abound that judges, judicial officers, lawyers and military officers are participants in the frenzy of despoliation of national wealth”.

The organisation said part of its discoveries is that those accused of high-level corruption are “getting away with their crimes and profiting from Nigeria’s legacy of impunity”.

In the report obtained by TheCable, SERAP said although the nation’s anti-corruption agencies handled more than 1,500 non-high profile corruption cases between 2000-2017, they could only secure ten of such cases

“Out of the 10, only three convictions were obtained after full trial while seven convictions were based on plea bargaining,” the report read in part.

“Most corruption cases against high profile defendants witness delays tactics and tricks by defendants to truncate fair trial. The cases depict the stark reality of a captive justice system at the mercy of high profile offenders and their platoon of defence counsel.

“The negligible number of conviction of high profile defendants explains the probable calculus of offenders that the risk of apprehension and conviction is low. The record of proceedings from courts and law reports paint a vivid and irrefutable picture of the causes of truncation of prosecution of high profile in Nigeria.

“The trajectory of cases through investigation to trial and appeals qualitatively reveals strong evidence of a nexus between weak institutional capacity on the one hand and attitudes of actors in the criminal justice sector that hamstring orderly and efficient collation and presentation of evidence in court, which militates against impartial determination of corruption cases.

“The sense of simmering undercurrent of commodification of justice and commercialised legal contortions and reasoning pervades investigation, prosecution and trial of high profile corruption cases in Nigeria.

“Justice stands in the dock this game of musical chairs presided by technical justice while high profile offenders gleefully sit in comfort with their loot, fortified by the efficacy of a vast array of subterfuge and jiggery-pokery of their lawyers, with seeming active and passive connivance of actors in the legal community.” - Cable Nigeria

Fulani Herdsmen kill 3 Policemen in Nasarawa

The Nasarawa state Policemen Command has lost three of its officers to gunmen suspected to be herdsmen in two separate attacks in Awe and Keana local government areas on Wednesday.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Bello  who confirmed the incidents while addressing newsmen at the command’s headquarters in Lafia yesterday said five persons have been arrested in connection with the murder.

The Police commissioner gave names of the culprits as Bawa Alhaji, Aliyu Waziri, Muhammed Auta Riga, Sale Muhammad and Alhaji Adamu Auta, adding that they were all arrested in Riga Auta along Radio House in Keana local government area of the state.

He said items recovered from them include one AK 47 rifle with 30 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition, adding that the command had since commence investigation into the senseless killings at the Southern senatorial of the state.

Ahmed said: “It is quite unfortunate that these attacks were not only unleashed on innocent citizens, but also on security personnel who are trying to restore peace and order in the affected communities.”

“On April 16, 2018 there were attacks on our men while responding to distress calls in Awe and Keana local government areas, which led to the loss of three police personnel on peacekeeping mission,” he added.

CP Ahmed said so far sixteen suspected Fulani herders have been arrested by Nasarawa state police command in connection with the ongoing killings and for committing various offences in Obi, Awe and Keana local government areas of the state.

The police boss also disclosed that the command had also arrested four Fulani mercenaries whom he said migrated from Shendam in Plateau state

to Azara  in Awe local government to unleash terror.

Those apprehended were Mohammed Sani- Adamu, Shuaibu Alhaji, Saidu Mahammadu and Adamu Jatau. - The Nation

IMF advises Nigeria to remove tax exemptions, says economy still at risk

Catherine Pattillo, assistant director, fiscal affairs department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has advised Nigeria to remove tax exemptions because the economy is still at risk.

Answering questions from journalists on the sidelines of the ongoing Spring meeting of the Bretton Wood institution, she said Nigeria needs to increase its revenue base because debt interests are eating up most of it.

Nigeria currently gives a three-year tax holiday to practitioners in 27 industries under the pioneer status incentive. Also, companies receive tax waivers for carrying out certain projects on behalf of the federal government.

“You have seen the most recent IMF staff report on Nigeria which was emphasising that with a constraining debt servicing as you know the ratio of federal government interest payment to debt revenue is extremely high, 63 percent,” Pattillo said.

“There is a need to build revenue so that you have more space to spend for infrastructure, social safety nets, etc, otherwise interest is eating up most of your revenue so building revenue is key and how do you do that?

“The recommendation in the IMF staff report is to broaden the tax base by removing exemptions, to rationalise tax incentives in particular to strengthen tax compliance and our recommendation to raise the VAT rate. So those were the recommendations for Nigeria on tax.”

Pattillo said the government’s strategy of favouring foreign debts over domestic ones has merit.

“Factors that support that is that Nigeria’s current external debt to GDP ratio is low so the external interest payments are relatively low. The benefit of that switch is a reduction in overall interest payments and a lengthening of maturity,” she said.

Speaking further, Pattillo said lenders may become scared to have dealings with countries with high-interest payments like Nigeria because of the risk of repayment. - Cable Nigeria

Conte is not our target - Italy

The report claims that, unless there is a big surprise, Conte will not be Italy’s next manager.

Italy are not looking to make Antonio Conte their next national team manager, according to Calcio Mercato.

The Italian national team are looking for a new manager after they failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia this summer.

The Chelsea boss’ future is becoming more unclear by the day, with a number of conflicting reports and claims.

Some claim that Conte will leave the club at the end of the season, whilst others believe he will stay.

There were reports earlier in the week claiming that he had been sacked, which later turned out to be false.

He previously managed the Italian national team between 2014 and 2016

Conte was thought to be one of the favourites for the job, but Roberto Mancini now appears to be in pole position to land the role. - Read Sport

Shocking !!! 4-Year-Old Boy Was Summoned for Jury Duty

The law of the land in the United States is that anyone charged with a crime must be convicted by a jury of peers. So if any four-year olds are headed to court soon, Pennsylvania is ready. 

Four-year old Damien Shrader received a summons in the mail, and according to WNEP, it ordered the preschooler to report to the Luzerne County Courthouse to fulfill his civic obligations. Unfortunately, Shrader has a conflict on his schedule (“He has preschool that day,” according to his mother) and won’t be able to take the day off to sit on a jury.

Shrader’s parents went to the Luzerne County Courthouse Tuesday and explained the situation. As anyone who has tried to get out of jury duty know, normally it’s pretty difficult to convince the court that you need a deferral. Luckily for Shrader, the court quickly realized that they did not need a four-year old juror and the preschooler was granted a formal excuse from jury duty for at least 15 years or so. “He’s always been a very serious child, but I didn’t think he was quite ready for that kind of a thing, there,” Shrader’s mom Desiree told WNEP.

According to WNEP, the court administrator believes the child’s name was added to the list of potential jurors thanks to being listed on tax documents after his great-grandmother bought him stocks.- Time

Shocking !!! 3-year-old girl raped to death in Kano

A lifeless body of 3-year-old Khadijah Abubakar Abdullahi who was declared missing for four days was found inside an office at Khairat community school in Walalambe quarters, Nassarawa Local Government Area of Kano State.

It was gathered that Khadijah was found dead with blood stains noticed all over her private part, suggesting that she was raped, DailyTrust reports.

Narrating the incident, the father of the victim , Malam Abubakar Abdullahi popularly known as IBB, said he found his daughter naked and in fool of the blood that oozed out of her private part and anus.

He said, “The condition I found my daughter suggested that she was raped. Seeing her in that condition, we could not even touch the lifeless body.

“The body has started decomposing, causing an awful odour. We called the police who took the corpse for investigation and later released it to us for burial. Khadijah is dead, but I want justice to be done. It is Khadijah today, only God knows who will be the next target.

“There is a need for the authorities concern to do something on this inhumane act in order to safeguard the lives of our children.

“We went on a search for late Khadijah after she did not return home with her siblings after the school hours.

“We went to several houses of neighbours and relatives looking for her but could not find her for the first day.We continued searching for three days with no clue of her whereabouts, only to find her corpse abandoned inside an office in the school on the fourth day.

“Her mother is a teacher in the school where her lifeless body was found and late Khadijah and her siblings are students of the same school. On the fateful day she got missing, she was not accompanied to the school by her mother because she (the mother) was sick.

“After the school hours, Khadijah’s siblings came back home with the news that she was nowhere to be found after the closure of school around 5:30pm and that was the beginning of our travails.”

The Police Public Relations officer, SP Magaji Musa Majia, confirming the incident, saying nine suspects mostly teachers of the school had been arrested in connection with the murder.

Majia assured members of the general public that culprits of the dastardly act would be arrested within four days. - Daily Post

PL news :Jose Mourinho salutes Pogba display as Man United return to winning ways

Mourinho said Paul Pogba was "a good choice" for the Man of the Match award after playing a starring role in Manchester United's 2-0 win over Bournemouth.

Pogba has endured an inconsistent season for United, often receiving criticism for not doing enough in games despite his undoubted ability.

Mourinho has also made an example of him on numerous occasions, withdrawing him early in games and even leaving him on the bench at times.

Such an approach has seen Pogba linked with a move away, but Mourinho was eager to praise his performance against Bournemouth, as he added his 10th Premier League assist of the season for Romelu Lukaku's second-half strike.

"I'm not very good on Man of the Match [awards], especially as I'm a team manager, not a player's manager," Mourinho told BT Sport.

"I'm not a big fan of it [the award], but Paul Pogba played very well. Against Man City he was phenomenal, but today he was very, very good. A good choice [as Man of the Match]."

The win saw United bounce back from Sunday's woeful 1-0 home defeat to rock-bottom West Brom, a result which presented bitter rivals Manchester City with the Premier League title.

Up next for United is a trip to Wembley for the FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham and Mourinho accepts he now faces a selection headache given some of the performances at the Vitality Stadium.

"Every player on the pitch was positive and put himself available for Saturday," Mourinho said.

"The players were good. It was a good professional performance with good effort and responsibility. There was desire to score and a desire to cope with the defensive responsibilities against a fast team.

"All of them were professional and responsible. The first ambition was to finish in the top four and now one point is probably enough. When we have that resolved we can think about third and second place.

"Everything was faster, it was simple. The players were in the right positions and not trying one more flick, one more trick. Everything was good, I am happy." - Goal

IMF decries infrastructural governance in Africa

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday said the leadership of Africa nations must take responsibility of the infrastructural growth of their respective countries.

IMF also urged the people of the continent to demand better and more insfrasture from their leaders.

Miss Ha Vu, a Public Financial Management Specialist of the IMF stated this on Wednesday at the institution’s headquarters in Washington DC, United States.

DAILY POST reports that Ms Vu and and Mr Karim Barhoumi, IMF Resident Representative in Benin and Togo, jointly spoke on the theme ‘Public Investment Efficiency in Sub-Saharan African Countries: What Lies Ahead?’ on the sidelines of the IMF Spring Meetings 2018.

In response to our correspondent’s question on why Africa was still battling economic issues despite suggestions by the IMF and the World Bank, she said the bodies only provide framework and have no powers to implement.

She said: “Your question is very good. We try to help African counties to improve infrastructural governace. Now, who do you think should be the key actor?

“It is you, Africa. We are here to support, to guide. Infastructural governace won’t improve if the framework we provide is not applied.

“The role of the framework is to guide you, to find the issues, to know where to look at. So what the IMF do is provide the technical assistance to implement reforms.”

Also speaking, Mr Barhoumi said: “You are right. There are political issues. It depends on the commitment you have at the political level.

“The Fund is always ready to help. Other developmental partners are ready to help. But more importantly, you, in Africa, must help too because we would like to see more and better infrastructure for the people.” - Daily Post

UK to announce new £50m malaria programme for Nigeria

The United Kingdom (UK) says it will announce a new malaria programme worth £50 million in Nigeria that will run until 2024.

The UK said it would also provide a £9.2 million of new research funds to develop new triple artemisinin combination treatments.

A statement issued by Ready to Beat Malaria, an NGO, said the UK Government had re-affirmed its commitment to spend £500 million a year on malaria through to 2020-21.

The statement said that the UK would also announce additional £100 million match fund commitment to the Global Fund to match new contributions from private donors pound for pound.

It said the funds were part of the Britain’s renewed commitment to accelerate progress against malaria.

The statement said the UK government would make this known at the Malaria Summit London 2018, co-hosted by the UK Government, and the Heads of State of Rwanda and Swaziland.

It said 15 Heads of State and Government from across the Commonwealth were to attend the Malaria Summit together with senior ministerial attendance and leaders from the world of business, science, civil society and international organisations.

It said the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria would also announce commitments totalling 2 billion dollars from 46 countries affected by malaria between 2018 and 20.

According to the statement, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will extend its investments in malaria by an additional 1 billion dollars (£700 million) through to 2023.

It said the 1 billion dollars investment was to reduce the burden of the disease towards ending malaria for good.

The statement however noted that most effective tools in the fight against malaria such as nets, sprays and treatments are under threat from drug and insecticide resistance.

“ The malaria parasite and the mosquitoes that carry it are evolving resistance to existing interventions – malaria is fighting back.

“The Malaria Summit call for new tools to stay ahead of the disease, announcing commitments to invest in future innovations,’’ it said.

It said GSK is committing to invest a further 175 million dollars in its research and development efforts against malaria.

The statement added that Novartis would invest more than 100 million dollars through 2023 to advance research and development of next-generation treatments to combat emerging anti-malarial drug resistance.

It quoted Ms Theresa May, Prime Minister of United Kingdom, saying that: “UK is a proud leader in the fight against malaria, which has seen deaths cut by 60 per cent and saved seven million lives since 2000.

“We have made a major contribution to that progress, including investing 500million dollars each year over the next three years, developing new drugs and technologies and making life-saving solutions available to millions at risk from malaria.

“But the job is not yet done. Today there are millions still at risk, economies held back and a child’s life needlessly taken every two minutes from this disease.

“This is why I am championing a new Commonwealth commitment to halve malaria across member countries by 2023.

Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who are co-convening the Malaria Summit, said: “History has shown that with malaria there is no standing still – we move forward or risk resurgence.’’

He added that the commitments made today, from the UK, country leadership and the private sector, show that the world is ready to beat malaria. - NAN