TheNewsGuru

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  • Nigeria getting more corrupt, global corruption index reveals

    Nigeria continues to wallow in corruption, according to the annual corruption perception index released by Transparency International in Berlin on Thursday (today).

    After more than four years of anti-corruption campaign by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, Nigeria was ranked 146th out of the 180 countries surveyed by the group, one of the worst ranking in the last few years. Nigeria was 144th in 2018.

    Nigeria’s score of 26 out of 100 points is below the global average of 43. In Africa, countries such as Botswana(61), Cape Verde(60), Rwanda(53), Namibia(52), Senegal(45), South Africa(44( and Tunisia(43) met the average. Benin(41) Ghana(41), Morocco(41), Burkina Faso(40), Lesotho(40), Ethiopia(37), Tanzania(37), Algeria and Egypt(35), Zambia(34), Sierra Leone(33), Niger(32), Malawi(31), Djibouti(30) and Guinea(29) are ranked higher than Nigeria.

    Nigeria is ranked higher than Cameroon(25), CAR(25), Comoros(25), Zimbabwe(24), Madagascar(24), Eritrae(23), Chad(20), Equatorial Guinea(16), Guinea Bissau(18) and Somalia, the worst country in the world, with a score of 8 and ranking at 180th.

    The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, drawing on 13 expert assessments and surveys of business executives. It uses a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

    How Nigeria fared in Corruption Perception Index

    (more…)

  • Real Madrid to offer £50m for Arsenal teenager

    Real Madrid to offer £50m for Arsenal teenager

    Arsenal are set to offer Gabriel Martinelli an improved deal, following Real Madrid interest in the teenager, Daily Mail reports.

    The 18-year-old striker has made a huge impact since his £6.3million move from Ituano last summer.

    Martinelli has scored 10 goals in 21 games for the Gunners this season.

    His form has sparked interest from Real Madrid, who are believed to value Martinelli at around £50m.

    However, the Premier League club will reward the Brazilian with a pay rise from £10,000 a week to around £30,000, despite his current deal running through 2024.

    Martinelli was rejected by Barcelona and Manchester United before signing for Arsenal.

  • FG creating conditions for trouble by neglecting youths- Naira Marley

    FG creating conditions for trouble by neglecting youths- Naira Marley

    Rave of the moment, Naira Marley has said the federal government is creating conditions for trouble by “neglecting youths on the street”.
    The 25-year-old music star took to his Twitter page to reveal this, stating that the youths have “no future” because of the government’s alleged inability to “support them”.
    According to the ‘Tesumole’ crooner, by not giving the needed attention to the youths, governments at various levels are overtly birthing an atmosphere with grave consequences.
    “Our government’s creating conditions for trouble (that can have dramatic consequences)Neglecting youths on the street with no hope, no support and no future,” he stated.

    As expected some of his fans were displeased,wondering why he started commenting on national issues.

     

     

     

    The controversial singer’s comment comes about the same time he urged ‘Marlians’, a coined name for his enthusiastic fans, to enjoy their youth but ensure they don’t destroy their future.
    “As a Marlian u have to enjoy your youth but don’t destroy your future,” he had said.
    The rhythm of Marley’s career changed when he rode to fame last year on the wave of his protracted legal battle with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
    The anti-graft agency had arrested him on account of his controversial 2019 track and social media comments alleged to have endorsed cybercrime.
    The singer had also gotten embroiled in a fresh groundswell of controversy after a Lagos court ordered his arrest over alleged car theft. The case was later dismissed.

  • Impeachment: Trump admits withholding documents from House during trial

    President Trump suggested Wednesday that he is comfortable with the impeachment trial charade going on in the US Senate as he admitted in his own words in Davos, Switzerland that the White House is withholding evidence about his dealings with Ukraine.

    “Honestly, we have all the material. They don’t have the material,” the president told reporters in Davos, Switzerland, where he is attending the World Economic Forum, regarding the documents the White House has refused to turn over and which the Mitch McConnell led majority has blocked from being requessted for.

    “When we released that conversation, all hell broke out with the Democrats because they say, wait a minute, this is much different than shifty Schiff told us, so we’re doing very well. I got to watch enough, I thought our team did a very good job,” Trump said, referencing House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), who has spearheaded the House impeachment inquiry against the president.

    Rep. Val Demings (D-FL), one of the seven congressional impeachment managers, blasted Trump’s admission on Twitter, writing, “The second article of impeachment was for obstruction of Congress: covering up witnesses and documents from the American people. This morning the President not only confessed to it, he bragged about it.”

  • Magu vows to secure Diezani’s extradition

    The Acting Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has vowed that a former minister of Petroleum, Diezani Allison-Madueke will be extradited before the end of the year to face corruption charges.

    He also accused the anti-graft agencies, international partners, especially in the United Kingdom of giving what he described as undue protection to the former minister.

    Magu spoke on Wednesday during an official visit to the Ibadan Zonal Office of the commission where he was received by the Zonal Head, Mr Friday Ebelo accompanied by other top officials.

    He added that the agency is already changing its tactics and strategy of engaging foreign partners to ensure the extradiction of the former minister of petroleum is secured soon.

    Fielding questions from reporters after a tour of the facilities at the Zonal office, Magu expressed sadness at the slow pace of investigation by the foreign partners, especially those involved with the former ministers of petroleum case, saying they could have released her to come and face charges at home having found enough evidences against her in Nigeria.

    Noting that the whistle-blower policy is still active and yielding results, the anti-graft agency boss enjoined Nigerians both with and outside the country to collaborate with the agency by providing needed information that can aid nabbing corrupt individuals in the country.

    He also added that the agency is readier for the concluding elections by fighting vote buying in affected parts of the country, urging the people not to go to the voting areas with huge amount of monies so as not to fall victim of been arrested for vote buying.

    He said, “I want to thank all of you (media) for been partners and for helping us by collaborating with us in doing what we are doing, we are a very essential partner, the edits is very important. In fact, you people are the anti-corruption crusaders because your choice of profession is a desire for you to insist on doing the right thing for people, to fight against injustice to fellow human beings. That is an important aspect that has helped us to this level. We are here and we are doing very well.

    “And we are doing everything possible. This year, we are going to upgrade everything we are doing. Rerun elections and all outstanding elections are to be concluded, we are part of it and we are going to fight against vote buying. Everybody is on our radar, so I want you to join us on that day so that we can expose the vote buyers and collect their money.

    “And if you are going there, make sure you don’t carry more than maybe N25, 000, otherwise, they will arrest everybody that carries unusual amount of money on their body. So, we are going on with the fight against vote buying during next Saturday’s elections in the affected states across the nation.”

    On collaborative efforts with international partners to bring back suspected looters of national treasury finding solace in other climes, Magu said “we are collaborating with everybody including the Nigerians in diaspora, those who lives outside the country, we are collecting a whole lot of information and that is our strength in getting them.

    “We also want to collaborate Nigerians within Nigeria and in Nigeria so that they will give us more information to exposed the looters so that they can return the loot. Wwill insist on them returning the loot. One thing is that, the whistleblower policy is still active and still working, the only thing is that, it is been slowed down because you have to go to the courts and exhaust all the court processes, the court will have to declare the amount that is recovered as loot and forfeited to the federal government, then we will give you your share as the whistle-blower. So, we are relying on you (media) in particular to expose them so that we can go after them.

    Speaking on the agencies relationship with foreign partners including FBI, Interpol and others, the EFCC boss said, “we have a cordial relationship with the FBI, NCA, with the law enforcement agencies in Italy, Switzerland and in almost all the countries, in UAE, Abu Dhabi, you have seen that we have been able to procure the extradition of the former Attorney General and most likely they will arraign him today (Wednesday) in Abuja.”

    Harping on the commissions effort on the return of Diezani, the Acting Chairman insisted “They will bring her back to the country this year. We must get her. They have no reason to keep her there. Why should you keep her without taking her to court. And this is the fifth year and why should you be investigating a matter for five years and its a matter that is straightforward, a financial crime investigation, it is not a murder case that should linger, but financial crimes.

    “The case is straightforward. If you don’t have any evidence or sufficient evidences to establish any offence, bring her back, we have more than enough evidences to take her to court, so we are working and we will continue to work.”

    When asked if he suspects sabotage from the international partners, Magu said “Yes, definitely. I don’t know why they are protecting her. Let them release her and let her come back to Nigeria.

    “They are giving her protection, for whatever reason and they are yet to disclose whatever offence she has committed, they are only relying on the evidences that we have recovered. So, they are not serious people but they are our partners and we work together. They are helping us and we help them too, it’s a two way relationship, just like we are collaborating with you people (media), you abuse us sometimes and at other times you speak well of us.

    “Yes, we are and we have already started another strategy because you would have never heard me talking like this against them openly before you (journalists), so, its a new strategy and I don’t have to disclose the rest of the strategies.”

  • Alleged $2.1bn arms scam: Absence of Fani-Kayode stalls trial continuation

    The absence of the former Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode at the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday, stalled the trial continuation.

    When the court registrar called the case, though Fani-Kayode’s lawyer, Ahmed Raji, SAN, was in court, the former minister, who is the sole defendant in the suit with number: FHC/ABJ/CR/140/2016 before Justice John Tsoho, was conspicuously absent.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had, on Nov. 10, 2016, arraigned Fani-Kayode for allegedly receiving N26m from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

    Some fresh money laundering charges were earlier filed against him by the EFCC before the same court in Abuja.

    The anti-graft agency, in the fresh case, filed a five-count charge in which it accused the defendant of diverting N26m allegedly received from the ONSA while Col. Sambo Dasuki (retrd.) was in office.

    The anti-graft agency also accused him of handling the said N26m without going through financial institution as required under the Money Laundering Act.

    At the resumed trial on Tuesday, the EFCC lawyer, Mohammed Abubakar, told Justice Tsoho that the commission was ready for trial continuation.

    However, Counsel to the former minister, Raji, apologised to the court on Fani-Kayode’s behalf.

    He explained that the defendant was unaware of the new date because the court did not sit in the last adjourned date.

    According to him, we were not aware of the case coming today because this matter was not adjourned.

    He said the information on the new adjourned date came from the court registry.

    “My Lord, I apologies on behalf of the defendant,” he said.

    He, however, told the court that the prosecution had agreed with him to adjourn the matter till March subject to the convenience of the court.

    Reacting, Abubakar, who was unhappy, said it was the duty of the lawyer to inform the defendant of the new adjourned date.

    He, however, urged the court to note that the adjournment was not at the EFCC’s instance but the instance of the defence.

    Justice Tsoho, then, adjourned the matter till March 10 and 11 respectively for trial continuation.

  • Suspected traffickers nabbed in Enugu, nine children rescued

    Suspected traffickers nabbed in Enugu, nine children rescued

    The Police Command in Enugu State at the weekend paraded two suspected child traffickers who were said to specialize in moving children from Plateau State in North Central zone to Rivers State in South-South zone of Nigeria.

    Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Mr Ahmed Abdurrahman, who paraded the suspects before newsmen, said that the suspects were intercepted trafficking nine children on January 4 in a luxury bus coming from the Northern part of the country.

    Abdurrahman explained that they were intercepted at Orba Check-point in Udenu Local Government Area of the state by the army on “Operation Atilogwu Udo 1’’ exercise.

    The commissioner said that the army authorities, however, handed over the victims [children] and suspects to the command for further investigation.

    A total of nine children, comprising four girls and five boys aged between two and 13 years, he said, were recovered from the suspected child traffickers.

    According to him, the suspected child trafficker, 40-years-old Mrs Rebecca Nwachi, who is from Kogi State but married in Ebonyi was moving with the children in the luxury bus before the interception by the army.

    “We also have another suspect, Pastor Isaac David, who arranges the children being trafficked for Nwachi from Barkin Ladi council area in Plateau State.

    The commissioner, however, said that the police was still tracking the end receiver of the trafficked children, one “Blessing’’ who allegedly runs an orphanage home in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

    Abdurrahman said: “This is a type of organised crime where children are trafficked from the Northern part of the country to the South-East and South-South. This syndicate runs their illegal business using orphanage as a cover-up.

    Read Also; Boko Haram executes abducted Adamawa CAN chairman
    “We have reached and contacted the parents of the trafficked children and some said that they gave their children to the pastor on condition that he will provide better welfare and education for them.

    “Some other parents said that they did not know when their children moved out of their homes and they have declared them missing for some time now.

    “While at the end receiver’s point, only God knows what these children are used for; some might be used as sacrificial lambs, child labour; and others subjected to a lot of criminal activities. Parents especially people in Plateau State should be wary of the whereabouts of their children. Parents should endeavour to take care of their children themselves.”

    The commissioner said that the children would be handed over to their parents after investigation on the matter is over.”

    But , the suspect, Mrs Rebecca Nwachi told reporters that she was not into child-trafficking but a missionary based in Barking Ladi.

    She said has been sending under privileged children to an orphanage in Elelenwa, near Port-Harcourt, Rivers State for over ten years.

    She said the orphanage was well-registered at the Corporate Affairs Commission where children of less privileged families are taken care of.

    “If you google our Orphanage, you may read about our organization. We’re not into what the police and army are accusing us of,” she told reporters.

  • MUST READ: Oxford English Dictionary adds mama put, danfo, okada, other Nigerian words

    MUST READ: Oxford English Dictionary adds mama put, danfo, okada, other Nigerian words

    In expanding its representation of written and spoken pronunciations from an increasing number of global varieties of English since 2016, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added some ‘sweet’ Nigerian words.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the January 2020 update to the OED is now online, and OED lexicographers having rubbed their minds together have shared the latest contributions to their work in progress.

    Majority of the new additions are either borrowings from Nigerian languages, or unique Nigerian coinages that have only begun to be used in English in the second half of the twentieth century, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s, according to OED.

    One particularly interesting set of such loanwords and coinages that has to do with Nigerian street food made the new additions. They are buka, bukateria and mama put.

    The informal transport systems that emerged in Nigeria’s huge, densely populated cities have also necessitated lexical invention. Danfo and Okada are among the additions.

    A blog post by OED reads: “A few of the Nigerian words in this update were created by shortening existing English words. One example is the adjective guber (earliest quotation dated 1989), which is short for ‘gubernatorial’—so Nigerians, for instance, would call a person running for governor a ‘guber candidate’. Another frequently used clipping with a longer history in English is agric. It was originally used in American English around 1812 as a graphic abbreviation for the adjective agricultural, but is now used chiefly in this sense in West Africa. In the early 1990s, agric began to be used in Nigeria to designate improved or genetically modified varieties of crops or breeds of livestock, especially a type of commercially reared chicken that is frequently contrasted with ‘native’ (i.e. traditionally reared) chicken. Two decades later, Nigerian students also started to use the word as a noun meaning agricultural science as an academic subject or course.

    “Also originating in the 19th century is K-leg, first attested in 1842 in British English, but now used mostly in Nigerian English. It is another term for the condition of knock knees, as well as a depreciative name for a person affected with this condition, whose inward-turning knees often resemble the shape of the letter K. It is of such widespread use in Nigeria that by the early 1980s, it had acquired a figurative meaning—a K-leg can now also be any sort of problem, flaw, setback, or obstacle.

    “The term ember months was first used in an American publication in 1898 to signify the final four months of the calendar year. Almost a century later, this expression was taken up again in Nigeria, where the months from September to December are usually considered together as a period of heightened or intense activity.

    “The oldest of our new additions that are originally from Nigeria is next tomorrow, which is the Nigerian way of saying ‘the day after tomorrow’. It was first used in written English as a noun in 1953, and as an adverb in 1964. The youngest of the words in this batch is Kannywood, first used in 2002, which is the name for the Hausa-language film industry based in the city of Kano. It is a play on Hollywood, following the model of Nollywood, the more general term for the Nigerian film industry that was added to the OED in 2018.

    “Nigerian Pidgin is another rich source of new words for Nigerian English. Sef, first evidenced in Nigerian author Ben Okri’s novel Flowers and Shadows, published in 1980, is an adverb borrowed from Pidgin, which itself could have been an adverbial use of either the English adjective safe or the pronoun self. It is an emphatic marker added to the end of statements or rhetorical questions, often to express irritation or impatience, as in this quotation from Adichie’s 2013 novel Americanah: ‘He could have given you reduced rent in one of his properties, even a free flat sef.’

    “Also coming from pidgin contexts is the verb chop, which is a common colloquial word in Ghana and Nigeria meaning ‘to eat’. However, beginning in the 1970s, chop also developed the sense of acquiring money quickly and easily, and often dishonestly. The negative sense of misappropriating, extorting, or embezzling funds is also in the earlier reduplicative noun chop-chop (earliest quotation dated 1966), which refers to bribery and corruption in public life. This likening of stealing money to actually devouring it is also reflected in the even earlier synonymous phrase to eat money (1960), as in the following quotation from Nigeria’s News Chronicle in 2016: ‘Our roads were not done. By the end of this year, you will know who ate the money of these roads.’

    “A few other expressions in this update would require some explanation for non-Nigerians: a barbing salon (earliest quotation dated 1979) is a barber’s shop; a gist (1990) is a rumour, and to gist (1992) is to gossip; when a woman is said to have put to bed (1973), it means that she has given birth; something described as qualitative (1976) is excellent or of high quality.

    “By focusing on contemporary language in this update, and adding words and phrases that form part of the everyday vocabulary of today’s Nigerians, we hope to give a flavour of English-speaking which, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie put it, is rooted in a Nigerian experience”.

    Here is the list of the new Nigerian words and senses added to the OED:

    agric, adj. & n.

    barbing salon, n.

    buka, n.

    bukateria, n.

    chop, v.

    chop-chop, n.

    danfo, n.

    to eat money, v.

    ember months, n.

    flag-off, n.

    to flag off, v.

    gist, n.

    gist, v.

    guber, adj.

    Kannywood, n.

    K-leg, n.

    mama put, n.

    next tomorrow, n. & adv.

    non-indigene, adj. & n.

    okada, n.

    to put to bed, v.

    qualitative, adj.

    to rub minds (together), v.

    sef, adv.

    send-forth, n.

    severally, adv.

    tokunbo, adj.

    zone, v.

    zoning, n.

  • Deadly coronavirus in China likely to spread to other nations, WHO warns

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned on Tuesday that the new coronavirus was likely to spread to other parts of China and possibly other countries in coming days.

    “More cases should be expected in other parts of China and possibly other countries in the coming days,” said WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic.

    So far in China, the virus has mostly been concentrated in Wuhan city, where it is thought to have emerged from a seafood market, although isolated cases have also been reported in Shanghai and Beijing.

    On the reason for the expected new cases, Jasarevic said that they would appear as China steps up monitoring.

    “If you increase surveillance and testing you are likely to get new numbers,” he added.

    All international cases are thought to be linked to the original outbreak cluster in Wuhan.

    The WHO does not advise travel restrictions at this time.

    Similarly, Taiwan on Tuesday confirmed the first case of infection from the new coronavirus, a woman in her 50s who had returned to the island after working in the Chinese city of Wuhan where the outbreak began.

    The Taiwan Centres for Disease Control said the woman, from southern Taiwan, had returned to the island on Monday and had been sent to the hospital from the airport after showing symptoms such as fever and coughing.

    It however advised people not to panic, saying the woman had been identified as soon as she arrived in Taiwan.

    Taiwan has already alerted China and the WHO about the case, the government added.

    The outbreak has spread from the central Chinese city of Wuhan to cities including Beijing and Shanghai.

    Other cases have also been reported outside China, including in South Korea, Thailand and Japan.

    Taiwan, which has close economic and people-to-people links with China in spite of political tensions between the two sides, on Monday set up an epidemic response command center to coordinate the island’s response to the virus.

    Taiwan has also prepared more than 1,000 beds in isolation wards in case the virus spreads further.

  • Breaking: Boko Haram executes CAN Chairman, Lawan Andimi

    Breaking: Boko Haram executes CAN Chairman, Lawan Andimi

    Dreaded Boko Haram sect has reportedly executed Rev. Lawan Andimi, Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) Ahmed Salkida, a conflict and terrorism reporter made this known via Twitter on Tuesday, revealing Rev. Andimi was executed by his abductors on Monday.

    “To break some news items can traumatize. I’m battling with one of such. Reverend Andimi, abducted by #BokoHaram was executed yesterday.

    “Rev. Andimi was a church leader, a father to his children and the community he served. My condolences go to his family,” he tweeted.

    Recall Rev. Andimi, who was abducted early January when Boko Haram insurgents attacked Michika village, had cried out from captivity, asking Ahmadu Fintiri, Governor of the State, to rescue him.

    In a video obtained by Salkida, the journalist known to have access to the leadership of the sect, Andimi said the insurgents have not maltreated him since he was abducted.

    “I have never been discouraged, because all conditions that one finds himself… is in the hand of God… God who made them to take care of me. So, the summary of my speech; I am appealing to my colleagues, reverends, particularly my president, Reverend Joel Billy who is a strong man, a man of compassion and man of love. He can do all his best to speak to our governor, Umaru Jibrilla (Fintiri) and other necessary agents for my release here.

    “These people have been doing good to me, they are feeding me with all that I want to eat. They provide a nice place for me to sleep, blanket and every need. So, I believe that they didn’t do anything wrong to me. I believe that He who made them to act in such a way is still alive and will make all arrangements, by the grace of God I will be together with my wife, my children and my colleagues.

    “If the opportunity has not been granted, maybe it is the will of God. I want all people close and far, colleagues to be patient. Don’t cry, don’t worry but thank God for everything,” Andimi said in the video before he was executed.