The leader of the Indigenous People Of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has been released from Kuje prison.
Mr. Kanu was arrested in October 2015 following allegations of treasonable felony by the federal government.
He was held in the custody of the State Security Service till the ruling in January 2016 when the Federal High Court ordered that the detained Biafra agitator be kept in prison custody.
Nnamdi Kanu
Since his detention, Mr. Kanu has made various applications for bail which were refused by the different judges handling the matter.
He was, however, granted bail on Wednesday by Justice Binta Nyako
On Friday, Mr. Kanu’s lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, told PREMIUM TIMES that his client had fulfilled the bail conditions given to him by Mrs. Nyako.
In a telephone conversation with PREMIUM TIMES on Friday evening, Mr. Ejiofor confirmed that his client had been released.
“Yes, it is true,” said Mr. Ejiofor.
A source close to Mr. Kanu also confirmed the three people who stood as surety for him.They are the Chairman of the Senate’s South East Caucus, Eyinnaya Abaribe; a Jewish priest, Immanuel Shalom; and an accountant and Abuja resident, Tochukwu Uchendu. Mr. Kanu’s lawyer, however, declined comment on the sureties
The Nigeria Police have succumbed to pressure by the National Assembly and returned all items, including budget documents taken from the residence of the chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Danjuma Goje a raid last week.
Senator Goje's house.
A statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Ita Enang, reads, “Further to the visit of the Nigerian Police Force to the residence of His Excellency, Senator Danjuma Goje, CON in the course of routine duties wherefrom certain items were taken by the police, and issues subsequently arising.
“I am to inform all that all the items taken in the course of routine police duties have been returned to the Distinguished Senator at his house by the Nigerian Police.”
Mr. Enang assured that all other issues relating to the subject matter were being addressed with a view to positive resolution.
The House of Representatives had issued a 24-hour deadline to the police to return all documents relating to the 2017 appropriation bill to the senator.
This ultimatum was issued due to an invasion of Mr. Goje’s residence by security operatives on April 20.
The police had also denied carting away appropriations documents.
Mr. Goje, a former governor of Gombe State, claimed the police officers carted away documents, including those on the 2017 budget proposal, N18 million, $19,000 and 4,000 Riyal from his residence in Asokoro
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered an investigation into the
allegations of violations of law and due process made against the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr David Babachir
Lawal, in the award of contracts under the Presidential Initiative on
the North East (PINE).
The President has also directed the suspension of the SGF from office pending the outcome of the investigations.
In a related development, the President has ordered a full scale
investigation into the discovery of large amounts of foreign and local
currencies by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in a
residential apartment at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, over which the
National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has made a claim.
The
investigation is also to enquire into the circumstances in which the NIA
came into possession of the funds, how and by whose or which authority
the funds were made available to the NIA, and to establish whether or
not there has been a breach of the law or security procedure in
obtaining custody and use of the funds.
The President has also
directed the suspension of the Director General of the NIA, Ambassador
Ayo Oke, pending the outcome of the investigation.
A three-man
Committee comprising the Hon. Attorney-General of the Federation and
Minister of Justice, and the National Security Adviser, headed by the
Vice President, is to conduct both investigations.
The Committee is to submit its report to the President within 14 days.
The most senior Permanent Secretary in the SGF's office, and the most
senior officer in the NIA, are to act, respectively, during the period
of investigation.
FEMI ADESINA
Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity) April 19, 2017
A Google doodle has celebrated Ghanian microlending pioneer Esther Afua Ocloo on what would have been her 98th birthday on 18th April 2017.
Who was the celebrated entrepreneur?
After starting a business selling fruit juice and marmalade
as a teenager and realising the financial difficulties poor women faced,
Ms Ocloo helped found and operate a bank specifically designed to help
women on low incomes.
In 1975 as a succeeding businesswoman, Ms Ocloo was invited to the first UN World Conference on Women.
Later that decade, she founded and became the chairman of
the board of directors of Women’s World Banking, which expanded her
earlier goal of helping women obtain the small loans needed to launch
businesses. The not-for-profit organisation has since helped millions of
women start and run businesses, helping boost prosperity in countless
communities.
During a trip to the UK in the 1950s, Ms Ocloo began to
develop recipes for commercial food canning. She was also the first
black person to gain a cooking diploma from the Good Housekeeping
Institute in London.
In the same decade she returned to Africa and set up the first food processing business in Ghana.
She is the daughter of a Nigerian mother, Patricia, nee Eluemunor and Andre Thorpe-White. Ms Thorpe-White, a senior at Morris Hills High School in Rockaway New Jersey got accepted into Harvard, Yale, Columbia, UPenn, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Princeton and Stanford.
"I was shaking, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, oh my gosh,' like this might be eight out of eight and I clicked it and it said 'Congratulations' and I was like, 'Oh my goodness...'" Ifeoma told WABC-TV.
Mrs White-Thorpe told ABC News that she was not surprised by her daughter's feat. "She has always been a hardworking girl," White-Thorpe said. "Last month, she was one of the 2017 Coca-Cola Scholars and that is one of 86,000 students in the United States. They choose 150 students and she was one of them. "As a little girl, she was a great writer," she added. "I remember when she was in kindergarten. She spoke on behalf on behalf of the kindergarten class and it blew our minds away." Principal Todd Toriello told ABC News that Ifeoma has been a student leader throughout her four years at Morris Hills High. "She understands the importance of giving back to her school service and currently serves the student body as the student government association president," Toriello said. "As a senior, she's challenged herself in rigorous course work. ... In my relationship with her, she has always been a respectful individual and we are just so proud of her and her accomplishments. "Whatever school she decides to go to, she will continue on doing great things and will leave her mark on this world and make it a better place," he added.
Ifeoma has joined the leagues of other Nigerians flying Nigerian flag higher in the United States. Last year, Augusta Uwamanzu-Nna, a student of Elmont Memorial High School was also accepted to all eight Ivy League schools. In 2015, a salutatorian Harold Ekeh from the same school got admission to the big eight. According to her mother, Ifeoma will be studying biology and hopes to become a cardiologist.
It has been reported that a Federal High Court in Lagos on Thursday has unfrozen former first lady Patience Jonathan's account containing $5.9m. Sahara Reporters gathered that anti-corruption war suffers another judicial blow as the media outfit tweeted that " court Defreezes Patience Jonathan's @SkyeBank acct # 2110001712 with $5.9million."
It was further gathered that the court premises was earlier on again beseiged by supporters of the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Pictures from the court premises showed large number of women waiting for the judgment that eventually returned Patience's millions of dollars back to her.
