A former lecturer with the Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile Ife, Prof. Richard Iyiola Akindele was on Monday sentenced to two years in prison.
Prof. Akindele was jailed for demanding sex to award marks to one of his students, Monica Osagie.
The sentence followed his change of plea from not guilty to guilty.
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A man who bombed the Borussia Dortmund football team bus in 2017 has been given 14 years for attempted murder.
Sergei Wenergold, a German of Russian origin, had hidden bombs packed with metal pins which went off as the bus passed a hedge on its way to a Champions League quarter-final match.
The blast, which wounded two people, was initially treated as a suspected jihadist attack, BBC reports
But Wenergold admitted the plot, saying he had not meant to hurt anyone.
In a bizarre twist, it emerged that the 29 year old had planned to make money out of the bombing by betting on a fall in Borussia Dortmund’s stock market price.
Dortmund’s Spanish defender Marc Bartra and a police officer were wounded in the attack.
Wenergold was convicted of 28 counts of attempted murder.
President Muhammadu Buhari, says leaders who undermine the economy by denying workers their benefits, while stuffing personal accounts with public funds will not escape the current anti-corruption dragnet.
The president stated this when he received All Progressives Congress (APC) delegation from Benue State, led by Sen. George Akume, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Buhari said the Federal Government’s bailout to states and Paris Club funds were basically to alleviate the sufferings of the people, describing misappropriation as unjust and unfair to workers.
He said: “I honestly don’t know how people sleep when workers have not been paid. The workers have to pay rent, buy food, send their children to school and they have health care to take care of.
“I assure you that my main interest is all Nigerians in all parts of the country.
“Therefore, if anybody who tries to create any impression that I prefer any group across ethnicity or religion let him dare me by being caught red handed stealing public funds. I will deal with him.’’
The President told the APC delegation that the Federal Executive Council had been monitoring the plight of workers across the country and utilisation of the bailout and Paris Club funds by some states.
“I thank you for your courage to come and see me. This visit has resuscitated our morale,’’ he said.
President Buhari said the Federal Government had made significant progress in diversifying the economy, by investing in agriculture and encouraging more individuals and entrepreneurs to go into farming. He expressed optimism that Nigeria would soon become self-sufficient in feeding its citizenry.
“We are proud of what we have achieved with resources at our disposal,’’ he added. The president listed ongoing road, rail, sea port, airport and power projects as hallmarks of his administration’s commitment to improving lives.
According to him, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Bank of Nigeria will be further motivated to work together and support all interested Nigerians to take up farming on commercial scale.
He noted that the killings across the country, including in Benue, Zamfara and Taraba, were carried out by “ungodly’’ people who had no religious or ethnic inclination. “We know about herders. The ones we knew carried sticks, and sometimes cutlasses to cut foliage for their cattle.
The Bankers Committee on Friday warned against bastardising the national currency, saying those who spray and hawk the naira notes at parties risk going to jail.
TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports mobile courts are to try those bastardising the national currency, and if found guilty, sent to jail.
Issuing the warning after its meeting in Lagos, the Bankers Committee said the mobile courts would be deployed nationwide to try those mishandling the currency.
Spokesman of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Isaac Okoroafor, said the Police and Ministry of Justice would be involved in the operation.
“If a celebrant is dancing and you spray him/her, you may go to jail from the party venue because the law enforcement agents will be there, waiting to arrest you.
“It is the duty of law enforcement agencies to catch offenders and take them to court. Our collaboration with the police will intensify as we move to implement the mobile court for offenders,” he stated.
Admonishing Nigerians on how to give cash gifts at parties, Okorafor said: “If you want to give, put the money in an envelope, and give it the celebrant”.
“Let’s know that anybody hawking and writing on the naira will face six months in jail or N50,000 or both,” he added.
Mrs. Handa Ambah, Managing Director of First Securities Discount House (FSDH) Merchant Bank, said people selling naira notes would be punished severely.
“We need to let them know that this is money. The fact that you cannot spray money at parties does not mean that you cannot put money in an envelope and pass it to the celebrants,” she said.
Juan Angel Napout, the former president of South America’s football governing body Conmebol, has been jailed for nine years for his part in the Fifa bribery scandal.
He was found guilty in December last year at a trial in Brooklyn, New York.
The Paraguayan was convicted of racketeering conspiracy and two wire fraud charges.
The former Fifa vice-president will also have to forfeit $3.37m (£2.6m) and pay a fine of $1m (£767,000).
The 60-year-old was found guilty along with the former head of the Brazil Football Confederation Jose Maria Marin.
Marin, 86, was jailed earlier this month for four years and fined $1.2m (£920,000) and ordered to forfeit $3.34m (£2.59m).
Napout was arrested at the Baur Au Lac hotel in Zurich in December 2015, seven months after an initial dawn raid at the same hotel in which seven Fifa officials were detained.
The crimes related to Napout’s participation in schemes to accept millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for the media and marketing rights to various football tournaments.
A 58-year-old self-acclaimed pastor, Abel Olukayode, is to spend four and half years in jail for stealing N984,450 from Wema Bank Plc.
The convict stood trial on a three-count charge bordering on stealing.
An Igbosere Magistrate, Mrs A. T. Omoyele, sentenced Olukayode without an option of fine after finding him guilty of the offences.
Delivering her judgment, Omoyele said the convict was guilty as charged, and accordingly sentenced him to six months imprisonment on the first count and two years each for the count two and three.
She, however, said that the jail term would run concurrently.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the convict a resident of No. 26, Sadiku Ayinla St., Odo-kekere in Ikorodu was arrainged on Nov. 22, 2012.
Olukayode who was 52 years old when he was arraingned, had pleaded not guilty to the charges and was granted bail.
The Prosecutor, Sgt. Cyriacus Osuji, had told the court that Olukayode committed the offences between March 5 and March 6, 2012 through mobile banking App on his phone.
He said “Olukayode with the aid of his mobile phone with sim no. 08034456771, stole the sum of N22,550, through his Wema Bank account, property of Wema Bank plc.
“The convict at the same time and place with the aid of his mobile banking transferred the sum of N701,900, from Wema Bank to his GTB Bank account.
“Olukayode also transferred another amount, N260,000 to his First Bank account, property of Wema Bank plc”.
The prosecutor was able to establish to the court that between March 4 and March 6, 2012, the bank system malfunctioned.
He said the convict who had only N300 in his account at that time, took advantage of the situation to steal the said amount.
The offences contravened Section 285 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011. (NAN)
A High Court sitting in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital presided over by Justice Ibrahim Yusuf, has threatened to imprison the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Idris Ibrahim, for alleged contempt of court proceedings.
The IGP was alleged to have disobeyed the order of the court to release Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed’s Personal Assistant on Political Matters, Mr. Olalekan Alabi.
The threat was contained in a Notice of Consequences of Disobedience of Order of Court (Form 48) dated 10 August, 2018.
The order, which was made available to journalists in Ilorin on Thursday, was signed by the Registrar of the Court and addressed to the IGP, Force Headquarters, Abuja.
Yusuf said, “Take notice that unless you obey the directions contained in the order of the High Court of Justice of Kwara State delivered on the 1st of August, 2018, you will be guilty of contempt of court and will be liable to be committed to prison.”
Alabi has been in Police custody in Abuja since May 30, following his arrest over his alleged link to Offa banks robbery suspects.
However, Yusuf had, on Wednesday, 1 August, 2018, granted Alabi an interim bail after declaring that his continued detention was illegal and not justifiable.
While granting him an interim bail of N20m with two reliable sureties in like sum, Yusuf held that the Police had failed to justify why they had kept the governor’s aide in detention for over two months.
But despite the court order, the Police had refused to release Alabi from their custody.
An Iraqi court sentenced a French man and a German woman to life in prison on Monday after finding them guilty of belonging to Islamic State.
Judge Suhail Abdullah read out the sentences in Iraq’s Central Criminal Court, saying he found French citizen Lahcen Ammar Gueboudj, 55, and the German, Nadia Rainer Hermann, 22, guilty of joining the hardline militant group.
The sentences can be appealed.
Hermann had already been sentenced to a year in jail for entering Iraq illegally. Embassy staff and translators from both countries attended Monday’s hearing.
Islamic State captured a third of Iraq in 2014 but was largely defeated there and in neighboring Syria last year. Iraq’s government declared victory over the group in December.
Iraq is trying hundreds of suspected members, many of whom were arrested as the group’s strongholds crumbled throughout Iraq.
This includes hundreds of foreigners.
Around 20 foreign women, including nationals of Turkey, Germany and Azerbaijan, have been sentenced to death.
Reuters/NAN
UFC fighter Conor McGregor has pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in a deal with prosecutors to avoid jail time.
McGregor had faced multiple criminal charges stemming from an altercation in April with other fighters.
As part of his deal he is required to undergo anger management treatment. The plea will not affect his US work visa.
In a statement outside the New York City courthouse, the 30-year-old thanked the judge and prosecutors “for allowing me to move forward”.
He will also be required to fulfil five days of community service and, in exchange, will be cleared of criminal charges.
McGregor had been facing 12 criminal charges related to the incident at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on 5 April.
The charges against McGregor had included menacing, assault resulting in injury, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief.
The most serious charges carried a maximum sentence of seven years.
In a two-sentence statement outside the courthouse, he said: “I just want to say I’m thankful to the DA [District Attorney] and the judge for allowing me to move forward.”
“I want to say to my friends, my family, my fans: thank you for the support.”
His fans had gathered outside the court, with several holding signs expressing their support for the “champ”.
In April McGregor was filmed throwing a metal dolly into a window of a bus parked at a Barclay’s Center loading bay.
As a condition of the deal with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, he was required to pay full restitution to the bus company, which he has already fulfilled.
The coach bus had been carrying a group of UFC athletes and employees at the time.
Two UFC fighters were injured and forced to withdraw from their scheduled matches.
One of McGregor’s teammates from SBG Ireland – MMA fighter Cian Cowley – was also arrested for his involvement in the incident.
On Thursday, he too pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.
McGregor’s manager, Audie Attar, gave a statement outside the court, saying the Irish fighter would be “getting back to business”.
“Now that this is passed us, we can focus on things that have been on hold for some time,” said Mr Attar.
“Conor’s been training. He’s in shape. He’s ready to go. Now it’s just about getting back to business and we hope to have some news to announce very soon.”
Last month, the father-of-one had expressed his “regret” for the attack.
In August 2017, McGregor launched a boxing career with a fight against ex-welterweight Floyd Mayweather.
The fight, which earned him $100m (£76m), was considered the richest boxing bout of all time.
According to sports journalists, the legal settlement could clear the way for his return to the Octagon later this year.
His manager, Mr Attar, said in an interview after the plea deal that the current champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, will be McGregor’s “likely opponent” in a coming fight.
Nurmagomedov was on the bus that McGregor attacked, and was the target of his hostility.
That match, which his manager said could come as soon as October, could become one of the biggest fights in UFC history.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued stern warnings against spraying, selling and mutilation of naira notes to avoid going to jail.
Expressing worry over the act, which it said is becoming common practice among Nigerians, the apex bank said anyone caught would henceforth be made to face the full wrath of the law .
It assured marketers, merchants, shopping malls and supermarkets of the bank’s continuous injection of huge volumes of banknotes into the circulation.
The development, according to the Acting Director, Currency Operations Department, CBN, Mrs. Priscilla Eleje, was to preserve the pride of the country and ease difficulties being encountered by the traders and customers occasioned by the inadequate circulation of the lower denomination banknotes like N200, N100, N50, N20, N10 and N5.
Mrs. Eleje, who was represented at the public sensitsation and enlightenment campaign at Alesinloye market by a Deputy Director of the bank, Mrs. Olufolake Ogundero, added that the bank recognises the important role markets play in economic transaction, hence the need for ease accessibility of the lower denominations to carry out economic transactions.
She said: “It is a criminal offence punishable by six months imprisonment or a fine of N50,000 or both to sell, spray or mutilate the banknotes. It is also a criminal offence which attracts five years imprisonment without an option of fine for anybody to counterfeit the naira. Naira is our pride as a country. So, respect it.”
The leader of the market women, Mrs. Labake Lawal, assured the CBN of the cooperation of her members, stressing that “we will comply strictly with the agreed guidelines and utilise the banknotes for the intended purpose”.