FAILED NIGERIAN BANK CHIEFS TO FACE CHARGES

Nigeria will file criminal charges including money laundering on Monday against the former heads of five banks rescued in a $2.6 billion bailout, the anti-corruption agency said.
The central bank injected 400 billion naira into Afribank, Finbank, Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic Bank and Union Bank just over two weeks ago and sacked their senior management.
The banks [...]

FURORE OVER ID CARD SUICIDE

The South African government is investigating the suicide of a young man who was refused the identity documents he needed to start a job.
A local official reportedly refused to issue the papers to Skhumbuzo Mhlongo, 22, accusing him of being a foreigner.
In the absence of his parents, he was looking after his four [...]

GABON’S PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES CLAIM VICTORY

Three different candidates say they gained the most votes in Sunday’s election to choose a successor to Gabon’s long-time leader Omar Bongo.
Mr Bongo’s son, Ali Ben Bongo, veteran opposition leader Pierre Mamboundou and former minister Andre Mba Obame have all claimed victory.
The vote was generally peaceful but tense, with long queues of voters. [...]

AFRICANS ABUSED IN RUSSIA

Nearly 60% of black and African people living in Russia’s capital Moscow have been physically assaulted in racially motivated attacks, says a new study.
Africans working or studying in the city live in constant fear of attack, according to the report by the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy.
A quarter of 200 people surveyed said they had [...]

FRENCH HOSTAGE ESCAPES SOMALI REBELS

One of two French security advisers kidnapped by insurgents in Somalia last month escaped on Wednesday after killing three of his captors and fled to the presidential palace in Mogadishu, police said.
Gunmen had seized the Frenchmen at a hotel in the capital on July 14 then handed one to the Hizbul Islam rebels and [...]

YAR ‘ADUA BACK AFTER MEDICAL CHECK-UP

Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua returned home late on Tuesday after having a scheduled medical check-up in Saudi Arabia and performing the Haj Muslim pilgrimage, his spokesman said.
Yar’Adua, who left for his latest checkup on August 14, regularly has treatment in Saudi Arabia and Germany for a chronic kidney problem.
After he travelled to Saudi Arabia [...]

ZIMBABWEAN OFFICIALS SAY MUGABE IS WELL

Zimbabwean officials dismissed a South African newspaper report that President Robert Mugabe was ill on Wednesday as rubbish and the product of “sick and evil minds”.
The Times newspaper had reported that Mugabe, 85, was taken to a Dubai hospital after falling ill and was undergoing specialist treatment.
“The president is not sick but was away [...]

SUPER RICH, MY FOOT!!

A friend once cracked a joke when he said Nigeria is one country where the puke of corruption stares at you from the pages of the dailies every time from the Government’s press releases and then Government recapitulates the next minute, cold-bloodedly announcing, “We do not have any evidence yet to prosecute.”
CBN’s ‘onigbese’ list is [...]

CBN PUBLISHES LIST OF RESCUED BANKS DEBTORS

CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA
ADVERTORIAL
Following the recent regulatory action of the Central Bank
of Nigeria on the five (5) banks, it has become necessary
to use this medium to request the following defaulting
customers of the affected banks to pay without further
delay their indebtedness, failing which the banks will take
all appropriate legal actions to ensure repayment.
These are the largest [...]

HILARY CLINTON WANTS STRONGER AFRICAN DEMOCRACY

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has begun her 11-day tour of the Africa saying improving democracy is the key to boosting trade and development.
She told a summit in Kenya investors would not be attracted to states with failed leadership and civil unrest.
Later she will meet Kenyan leaders, amid growing concerns over Nairobi’s [...]