Supreme Court orders Pastor Akingbola to face trial over N5bn fraud

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered a former Managing Director of the defunct Intercontinental Bank Plc, Dr. Erastus Akingbola, to face trial for alleged N5bn fraud charges.

A five-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Tanko Muhammad, unanimously affirmed the February 2015 judgment of the Court of Appeal, which overturned the Federal High Court’s decision to strike out the charges.

Justice Sidi Bage, who read the lead judgment, said Akingbola’s appeal challenging the Court of Appeal’s verdict lacked merit.

He ordered that the case be taken back to the Federal High Court in Lagos, handled by another judge and given “expeditions trial.”

The trial was stopped by Justice Charles Archibong, who struck out the 26-count charge, in April 2012.

He held that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was not diligent in the handling of the case.

The judge also described the EFCC prosecution team as a drain in the public purse and directed the then Attorney-General of the Federation to disband the team.

Justice Archibong was later sent on compulsory retirement by the National Judicial Council (NJC) over the decision. - The Nation

Zimbabwean minister says corruption can be productive

Terrence Mukupe, Zimbabwean deputy finance minister, says corruption can be positive for a country.

According to New Zimbabwe, Makupe said this at a roundtable in Harare, the nation’s capital, on Tuesday.

The minister explained that corruption could be the motivation that could ensure “that the transaction works”.

“I read an article to the effect that corruption can be also positive for the country. After going through that article I can actually give you some life lessons I had,” he said.

“I remember when I was advisor to ESSAR (An Indian company that wanted to invest in Ziscosteel) and ESSAR wanted to come into Zimbabwe, someone approached me and said the fundamental mistake you are making with ESSAR is that you don’t have a local partner.

“Make sure that you have a local partner if your things are going to work well. And I remember the Indian investor said to me; but the government is my partner and I would like to believe that everything would work well. And the response that this guy made was that government is not a person and it does not eat, it does not breath, it is not motivated to make the transaction work well.

“So by you giving away part of your transaction to someone else, that person is going to make sure that they wake up every day because they are motivated to make sure that the transaction works. So that is a case of positive corruption.”

Mukupe said people of Zimbabwe are generally corrupt.

“It’s the moral fibre of our society and what I always say is that as Zimbabweans we are generally corrupt people and the reason why I say we are generally a corrupt people is that if we were to do a quick survey privately, anonymously in this room here probably over 90 percent of the people here have bribed some police officer sometime,” the minister said. - Cable Nigeria

Eight dead and many injured in Texas school shooting

At least eight people are dead and a number of people have been injured in a shooting at a Texas high school on Friday, according to local reports.

Students evacuated Santa Fe high school, about 35 miles south-east of downtown Houston, amid a heavy presence of law enforcement and medical first responders.

“This morning an incident occurred at the high school involving an active shooter. The situation is active, but has been contained. There have been confirmed injuries the Santa Fe school district said in a statement.

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An assistant principal said the shooter “has been arrested and secured”, according the Associated Press.

Local media reported by Friday mid-morning that at least eight people were dead, a local law enforcement source told ABC TV. The shooter was reportedly a student. One student told KHOU local news that he saw a girl limping after being shot in the leg.

Major Douglas Hudson of Galveston county sheriff’s department, said units were responding to reports of shots fired, but said he had no immediate details on whether anyone had been hurt. 

One student told Houston television station KTRK in a telephone interview that a gunman came into her first-period art class and started shooting. “We thought it was a fire drill at first but really, the teacher said, ‘Start running,”’ the student told the television station.

“We were in class, it was first period. The alarm started going off, everybody went outside, all the teachers were like ‘get this way, get this way, come over here’. Next thing you know we hear the booms and everybody starts running as fast as they can,” Dakota Shrader, a 10th grader, told reporters. A friend was shot in the leg, she said, “and the next thing you know all the art [class] windows are getting shot, shattered.”

Authorities have not yet confirmed that report. Aerial footage from the scene showed students standing in a grassy field and three life-flight helicopters landing at the school.

The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said it was responding to a shooting at the school.

There was a large law enforcement response to the same school in February when it was placed on lockdown after students and teachers said they heard “popping sounds”.

Santa Fe police swept the campus but found no threat.

Santa Fe is a city of about 13,000 residents located 30 miles (48km) south-east of Houston. - The Guardian 

Why there is increase in divorce – Anglican Primate, Okoh

The Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, Primate of All Nigeria (Anglican Communion), has appealed to Christians to understand marriage before going into it.

Okoh said this in an interview with journalists on the sideline of the opening service of the Second Session of the Tenth Synod of the Diocese of Abuja, at the Basilica of Grace, Gudu, Abuja, on Thursday.

Okoh, who is also the Archbishop and Bishop of the diocese, advised would-be couples to understand the dos and don’ts of marriage instead of making children to be produced from their unions suffer what they knew nothing about.

“If you notice, there is an increase in divorce; people rush to marry but soon afterward, they are going to court to file for divorce.

“We want to be sure that people understand what they are entering into when they say they are getting married,’’ he said.

The primate urged parents to discharge their duties very well at home so that their children would have good foundation and the society would be a better place.

“We discovered that the problems we find in our society, schools, colleges and universities actually have their foundations in the home.

“If the homes do their work very well, if children are properly taken care of, if fathers know their jobs and mothers know their jobs, I think the society will be a better place.

“That is why we decided to concentrate on the family,’’ Okoh said. - Daily Post

Police arrest SARS operative in Lagos for obtaining N5k bribe

The Police Command in Lagos has arrested one Insp. Charles Omotosho, an operative of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) for allegedly extorting N5, 000 from a hapless citizen in Ikorodu, near Lagos.

The Head of Public Complaints Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU) of the command, ACP. Abayomi Shogunle, made the disclosure in a statement on Friday in Abuja.

He explained that Omotosho was arrested, following a complaint from a citizen via twitter on May 16.

Shogunle said that Omotosho forced his victim to make a bank transfer of N5, 000 into his account for an arrest over a flimsy reason.

He said that in the course of preliminary investigation, a copy of the officer’s statement of bank account was obtained and the amount transferred was discovered.

“It has also been established that there was a contact between the officer’s patrol team and the complainant and others at Ikorodu as contained in the complaint.”

Shogunle said the officer had been removed from front-line police duties and taken into custody.

The PCRRU head said that the inspector-general of police had ordered immediate commencement of disciplinary action against Omotosho in line with the police Act and other regulations.

“PCRRU has handed the erring officer to the AIG Zone 2 Command Lagos, together with a print out of his statement of bank account for necessary action, the outcome will be made public soonest,” Shogunle said.

The PCRRU was established by the police authorities in 2015 with a mandate to receive and resolve cases of professional misconduct brought against officers. - NAN

A Burger King worker thought a black man’s $10 bill was fake. He was arrested. Now he’s suing.

Emory Ellis, who lived on the streets in Boston, ventured into a Burger King in November 2015 to buy breakfast.

He left the restaurant under arrest, wrongfully accused of trying to pay for his meal with a fake $10 bill. He spent more than three months in jail.

This week, Ellis, 37, sued Burger King and the store franchisee for nearly $1 million, saying he was discriminated against for being black and homeless. The lawsuit comes amid a resurgence in a national debate about the treatment of black people in businesses and public spaces. From the two men who left a Philadelphia Starbucks in handcuffs, to five women reported to the police for golfing too slowly, to the graduate student who fell asleep in her dorm’s common room, the stories have refocused public attention on the risks and daily struggles of simply living while black.

“I know that had I walked into the Burger King with the exact same $10 bill, nobody would have scrutinized it,” said Ellis’s attorney, Justin Drechsler. “I never would have been accused of anything. I certainly wouldn’t have had the police called on me, no matter what the series of events.”

Drechsler said he is the same age, to the day, as Ellis — but Drechsler is white. Given his appearance alone, Drechsler said he believes that had the Burger King employee doubted whether his cash was authentic, the employee would have politely asked whether Drechsler could pay with something else.

“That’s not what happened here,” Drechsler said. He said Ellis could not comment for this article because of ongoing litigation.

The lawsuit, which was reviewed by The Washington Post, said the Burger King cashier refused to return Ellis’s money and threatened to call the police if Ellis didn’t leave the restaurant.

The cashier, who is named in the lawsuit, “was plainly discriminating against Mr. Ellis based on Mr. Ellis’s appearance,” according to court documents. The cashier had not returned the money to Ellis when he called the police.

Ellis was arrested and charged with forgery of a bank note. The arrest spurred a probation violation, and Ellis was held without bail until his final probation violation hearing, the lawsuit said.

Ellis’s lawsuit was reported by Law360 and the Associated Press.

Ellis is suing in Suffolk Superior Court for $950,000.

The lawsuit says that not only did Ellis lose three months of his life to incarceration, but he also suffered substantial emotional distress, public humiliation and shame. He suffered from “sleeplessness, anxiety and depression associated with defending himself against this baseless charge that exposed him to a potential criminal sanction of life in prison,” according to court documents.

Ellis was held until February 2016 after the Secret Service determined the $10 bill was real, according to the lawsuit. His money was never returned.

A Burger King spokesperson told The Post that the company doesn’t tolerate discrimination “of any kind” but could not comment on ongoing legal matters. The company told the AP that franchisees are responsible for training employees and handling legal issues.

Two Guys Foods, the franchisee named in the lawsuit, could not be reached by The Post on Thursday.

Drechsler said Ellis’s story is “important for the ongoing national conversation that we are having about the different life experiences of individuals of different races in this country, and particularly the people of color in this country.”

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“It’s important that these types of situations see the light of day,” he said. - The Washington Post

Ekiti governorship election that produce Fayose full of ‘hanky-panky’ – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has insisted that the 2014 governorship election which produced Governor, Ayodele Fayose was characterised by “hanky-panky.”

Speaking while hosting members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, South-West caucus to a dinner at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Buhari described the situation as an unfortunate saga.

The President urged APC leaders to do everything possible to prevent subversion of the will of the people again.

Buhari said, “This is crucial because I remember the hanky-panky that attended the last gubernatorial election in Ekiti State in 2014. I recall the firsthand account I received from some of the dramatis personae in that unfortunate saga.

“We must do everything to ensure that we do not allow any subversion of the will of the people this time round.

“Now that the primary is over and we have a candidate, all hands must be on deck to achieve a positive result.” - Daily Post