Amchidox Blog

Operatives of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission have taken over the residence of the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, in Asokoro, Abuja. The operatives stormed Alison-Madueke’s residence on Friday shortly after she was arrested by the police in the United Kingdom. The EFCC officials, who were fully armed, were sighted in two buses at the gate of the residence as of 8pm on Friday. They had earlier stormed the place with three trucks, one of which was marked ‘police.’ Earlier, the former minister was arrested by the operatives of the National Crime Agency in London, the United Kingdom. Investigations revealed that Alison-Madueke was arrested in relation to offences bordering on fraud and bribery. The Spokesman for the UK High Commission in Abuja, Joe Abuku, confirmed to one of our correspondents that five persons were arrested by the agency. The International Corruption Unit of the NCA, on its website, also confirmed the ...

US President Barack Obama has warned Russia that its bombing campaign to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will suck Moscow into a quagmire that will be hard to get out of. Obama said Russia was also failing to distinguish between Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters and more moderate rebels in Syria. “An attempt by Russia and Iran to prop up Assad and try to pacify the population is just going to get them stuck in a quagmire and it won’t work,” Obama told a White House news conference on Friday. “From their perspective, they’re all terrorists. And that’s a recipe for disaster.” Russia continued bombing Syria on Friday for a third straight day. Targets have included ISIL’s main stronghold in Raqqa, but also the provinces of Hama, Aleppo and Idlib where few ISIL fighters operate. Obama said he would not turn the Syrian civil war into a “proxy war” between the US and Russia. “This is not some superpower chessboard contest,” he said. Aljazeera....

The reserves which fell by $940m (N185 billion), about two weeks ago, has fallen again by $210m, CBN latest data have revealed. The reserves now stand at $30.48 billion, a fall from $30.69 billion two weeks ago, and $31.47 million a month earlier. Though the reserves fell by 3.14 percent by the month, 23.03 percent depletion has been recorded, relative to the September 2014 figures. The central bank has used the reserves to support the local currency, selling dollars to bureau de change operators twice a week, as it narrows the gap between the official and black market rates. The reserves crossed the $30 billion mark in July, when it saw an increment of 5.6 percent from $29.03 billion in June, to $30.69 billion. In August, the CBN indicated that foreign exchange reserves rose by $350 million (N70 billion) to $31.43 billion, but has since then fallen twice, with no succour in view. The dwindling experienced so far has been attributed to efforts of the present...

President Muhammadu Buhari Says Late Submission Of Handover Notes By Goodluck Jonathan Is Major Reason He Delayed Constituting A Cabinet Whose List Of Nominees Is Now At The Senate Following rising anxiety over his inability to constitute a cabinet four months after he was inaugurated as President, Muhammadu Buhari, has given fresh reasons he was unable to select from the array of human capital available to him, to form his cabinet. Speaking in nationwide address to mark the 55th Independence anniversary of the country, President Buhari said late submission of handover notes by Goodluck Jonathan formed a major reason for the delay. He argued that handover notes, which were submitted four days to his inauguration, afforded his transition committee led by Ahmed Joda, little time to thoroughly study it and make the necessary changes. He however argued that rushing to form a cabinet would have been counter-productive adding that the delay was also aimed at making...

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), yesterday, denied playing any part in the process that led to the issuance of Nigerian Visa to the wanted ISIS chief, Ahmed Al Assir in Lebanon, even as it said two men connected to Al Assir, who he was coming to visit in Nigeria, had been arrested in Kano and immediately handed over to the National Security Adviser, General Babagana Monguno (rtd). The Comptroller-General of the NIS, Martin Abeshi, who debunked any complicity of the Service, while speaking at a news conference in Abuja, said “From the record available, the Immigration Service did not issue that visa. It might be the officials of the foreign affairs ministry because they also issue visa on our behalf.” Abeshi however, said the NIS went into action to arrest those connected to Al Assir immediately it gathered an intelligence that he was coming to Nigeria. Said the NIS boss: “When we were told that the person [Al Assir] was heading to Nigeria, the people the ...

The Nigerian Military says it will not be in a hurry to rescue the secondary schoolgirls in Chibok who were abducted in April 2014. The Acting Director, Defence Information, Military Headquarters, Abuja, Col. Rabe Abubakar, who said this at a press conference in Lagos on Thursday, noted that while it was of utmost concern to the military to rescue the girls, the operation required demanded adequate patience and planning. Abubakar added that recent efforts by the military in the rescue of over 200 women and children held captive by Boko Haram proved that the military was on course in recovering the girls. He said, “The issue of the low morale of the Nigerian military men has now become a thing of the past. The operation to recover the Chibok girls is alive and still ongoing. We have continued to make rescue efforts, and we will do all within our powers to bring the girls. “However, we will not rush to do this. It requires diligent intervention and a high-level ...

Nigerian born transgender, Stephanie Rose, has once again called out to ‘God’ as being behind the death of hundreds of pilgrims in the recent Mina, Saudi Arabia stampede when Muslim pilgrims gathered to carry out Islamic ritual of stoning the Devil. It will be recalled that Rose, born Dapo Adaralegbe has before now, put out all sorts of comments to buttress her real hatred for God. In her recent Facebook posts, the transgender alleged that God is actually the Devil that the pilgrims went to stone in the Holy land and He ended up killing them. She wrote: “The same God is the devil that they had gone to stone in Mecca. What else can you expect from the blood thirsty Abrahamic God that delights in killing and destruction? He stoned them back with death…. They did not go to heaven or Hell fire, their souls are reincarnated after many years. “Yes … The Abrahamic God is the God and devil of this wicked World! I know the Abrahamic God so well … He has plotted many ev...

A Kenyan man has been charged with 12 offences including rape, impersonating a gynaecologist and operating a clinic without a licence in Nairobi, BBC reports. The accused, Mugo wa Wairimu pleaded not guilty and has previously denied that he raped his patients. Kenya’s Medical Practitioners Board has denied Wairimu is a registered doctor after a Kenya TV report in a footage revealed an unidentified man allegedly assaulting an unconscious woman on a clinic bed. The secretly recorded footage was filmed by a suspicious staff member. BBC reports that Wa Wairimu has been in custody since his arrest, as it was argued that releasing him might endanger his life because of the public outrage over the affair. The court ordered, Friday, that he remain in custody until Monday 5 October when his bail application is to be heard. Also, hearing in the case will hold November 23. BBC Reports.

AFP – A series of explosions rocked the city of Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria on Thursday, with casualties feared, witnesses and police said. It was not immediately clear how many blasts hit the Borno state capital but one police officer said as many as seven went off and locals reported at least two bombs were strapped to teenage girls. Acting director, army public relations, Colonel Sani Usman confirmed the multiple explosions at Sajeri, Maiduguri and he stated that at least 14 persons were killed and 39 injured. Boko Haram Islamists have increasingly used suicide bombers to target civilians, including in Maiduguri, where on September 20 at least 117 people were killed in a wave of attacks. “The first bomb was strapped to the body of a teenage girl, who wanted to kill worshippers at Ajilari Cross,” said Bashir Ali, a driver in the area. Ajilari Cross, near Maiduguri airport, where there is also a military base, was one of several places in the city hit...

A South African king has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for a series of charges including kidnapping, assault and arson. Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, from Nelson Mandela’s Thembu ethnic group, was jailed by the Supreme Court of Appeals. He had approached the SCA to overturn a 2009 court ruling on the matter, which had sentenced him to 15 years. The charges relate to a dispute he had with some of his subjects more than two decades ago. He was accused of kidnapping a woman and her six children, setting their home on fire and beating up four youths, one of whom died, because one of their relatives had failed to present himself before the kings’s traditional court. The king has never denied the charges but believed his actions were in line with disciplining his subjects, reports say. In Bloemfontein in the Free State Province, a panel of judges looked at his case in August and the evidence presented before sentencing. The Eastern Cape High Court had sentenced him t...