Charges
SBF signs extradition papers, set to return to face charges in the US
Sam Bankman-Fried, the jailed founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange has reportedly signed papers on Dec. 20 that will soon see him handed over to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and flown to the United States to face criminal charges. The move was expected, as Bankman-Fried was reported to have agreed in principle to being extradited to the U.S. earlier this week on Dec. 19, despite earlier reports indicating he wanted to see the indictment against him fir ABC News reported the development that Bankman-Fried signed extradition papers on Dec. 20 citing The Bahamas’ acting commissioner of corrections Doan Cleare. A Dec. 21 report from Bloomberg said the exchange founder signed surrender documents on Dec. 20 citing Cleare, with another set of papers waiving h...
AGF: Ohanaeze legal monitoring group on Nnamdi Kanu not necessary
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, has said the legal team formed by the umbrella group for Igbo people, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, to monitor proceedings of the trial of leader of the prescribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, was not necessary. He, however, welcomed the Ohanaeze team, saying it was in line with the doctrine of the right of fair hearing rooted in Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution. Recall that the separatist leader was arrested in June 2021 outside the country. Kanu is facing charges bordering on treasonable felony instituted against him at the court in response to years of campaign for the independent Republic of Biafra through IPOB. He had been granted bail in April 2017 but jumped bail. After his re-arrest in June 202...
Court remands father for ‘giving out 12-year-old daughter in marriage’
A Family Court in Ilorin, on Monday, ordered the remand of one Oyefeso Saheed in Oke-Kura Correctional Centre, Ilorin, for allegedly giving out his 12-year-old daughter in marriage. Magistrate Shade Lawal also ordered the remand of the victim’s purported husband, Ismail Lawal, 32, before adjourning the case till Wednesday, for further mention. Earlier, the Prosecutor, Sgt. Akinjide Adisa, said that the matter was reported at Adewole Police Station by Aishat Temem, a member of the state branch of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA). He said that the matter was reported after the complainant had received a call from the victim’s school principal. The prosecutor also told the court that the purported husband gave the victim a HP laptop as bride price for the ‘marriage’. He th...
Seven Indians, Nigerians docked for ‘cocaine importation’
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency on Friday arraigned seven Indians and three Nigerians before the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court for allegedly smuggling 43.1 kilogrammes of cocaine into the country. The Indians include Shedrack Yurama; Singh Vikash; Kunnaserypallam Ashraf Inzam; Xaiver Fernando Santhanaria; Mandal Surjeet Ashok; Tandel Pratikkumar Pravinbai; and Barthwal Rohan Sunil. Their Nigerian alleged accomplices are Tobi Ojo; Kunle Animashaun and Omozusi Enorose Terry. Also arraigned before the court alongside the defendants was a limited liability company, Oilways Logistics and Energy Limited. The defendants were arraigned on a two-count charge of conspiracy and unlawful importation of cocaine. The defendants, according to the charge marked FHC/L/100c/2021, were ar...
Court jails three for Facebook scam
Justice C.L. Dabup of the Plateau State High Court sitting in Jos, on Wednesday sentenced three internet fraudsters, Nbubuisi Kerian Ozomba, Paul Obide and Samuel Chukwuebuka Nduchukwe to one-month imprisonment. The trio were convicted for obtaining money by false pretence through the social media platform, Facebook. They were arrested in a sting operation by the Abuja Zonal Office of the EFCC following intelligence on their alleged involvement in an internet-related scam. Investigation revealed that Ozomba created a Facebook Account with the name James Hicks with a profile picture of an American military officer and obtained the sum of $350 USD from Mary Lovely, a Filipino; while Obide (alias Javier Espinal) posed as a military officer from Spain and obtained $2000 from another Filipino, ...
Igbo group urges Nigerian government to charge Nnamdi Kanu for murder
The Igbo Peace Forum (IPF) has urged the Federal Government to press charges of mass murder against the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr Nnamdi Kanu. The group made the call on Sunday, in Abuja, at a solidarity rally to register their support for President Muhammadu Buhari and the security agencies for their accomplishments in recent security operations in the country. The Group’s National Coordinator, Mr Emeka Okpara said Igbo citizens were concerned that certain individuals had taken up arms against constituted authority, leading to loss of lives and property of several innocent citizens. “It would be recalled that the leader of the proscribed IPOB, Kanu, who was standing trial on several charges, including treason, jumped bail, but was re-arrested recently...
South Africa’s Jacob Zuma mounts last-ditch legal fight against jail term
South Africa’s ex-president Jacob Zuma on Friday mounted a last-ditch legal bid to avoid prison after the country’s top court ordered him jailed for failing to appear before graft investigators. In a landmark ruling, the Constitutional Court on Tuesday handed Zuma a 15-month term for contempt after he snubbed a probe into the theft of state assets under his tenure. If the 79-year-old fails to turn himself in by Sunday, police will be given a further three days to arrest him and take him to jail to start the sentence. As the deadline loomed, Zuma pleaded on Friday that the order be “reconsidered and rescinded.” “It will not be futile,” Zuma said in papers filed to the court, “to make one last attempt to invite the Constitutional Court to relook its decision and to merely reassess whether it...
Courts fixes date for ruling in Sheikh El-Zakzaky’s no-case-submission
A Kaduna High Court on Thursday, fixed July 28 for ruling in the No-case-submission filed by the leader of the proscribed Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Ibrahim Zakzaky and his wife Zeenat. Justice Gideon Kurada fixed the date after the prosecution and counsel to the defendants, addressed the court on the no case submission prayer. Mr Femi Falana, SAN, and lead counsel to El-Zakzaky, who spoke to reporters shortly after the adjournment, prayed the Court to rule in favor of his clients. “The prosecution and the defence addressed the court on the the no-case-submission prayer. ” We did indicate last time that even though the prosecution called 15 witnesses, we felt that no case has been established to warrant our clients being in court. ” In other words, we addressed the court that there...
IPOB’s lawyer reacts to Nnamdi Kanu’s arrest, extradition
The lead counsel to the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Ifeanyi Ejiofor, has said the arrest and arraignment of Nnamdi Kanu earlier Tuesday was without his knowledge. “We have just confirmed through a correspondence from the Federal High Court Abuja about the arrest and the extradition of my Client- Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by the Nigerian State,” Mr Ejiofor said in a statement on Tuesday evening. “He was brought before the Federal High Court No 2 Abuja today on an Eleven count charge, though without our knowledge,” the attorney added. He said regardless of the offences or charge against his client, he is still presumed innocent of the allegation under the law. Mr Kanu, who is being prosecuted on charges of treasonable felony, was re-arrested and returned to Nigeria on Sunday, the A...
AGF: Nnamdi Kanu re-arrested, returned to Nigeria
Pool Photo The leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has been re-arrested and brought back to Nigeria to face his trial, Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has said. At a joint press briefing on Tuesday with the Department of State Services (SSS) in Abuja, Malami disclosed that international collaborative efforts with security agencies led to Kanu’s arrest and repatriation to Nigeria. Kanu and his co-defendant are facing treasonable felony charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja. Kanu fled the country in September 2017 after an invasion of his home by the military in Afara-Ukwu, near Umuahia, Abia State. The Nigerian government obtained a court order on September 20, 2017, to designate IPOB a terrorist group and to pr...
‘Hotel Rwanda’ hero never joined rebels – co-accused
Paul Rusesabagina, the ex-hotelier immortalised in the film “Hotel Rwanda”, never belonged to a rebel group that sought to overthrow President Paul Kagame, one of the former rebels accused with him of terrorism told a court on Wednesday. “Rusesabagina was never a member of the National Liberation Front (FLN), he was a civilian … He is not a soldier,” former FLN spokesman Callixte Sankara told the court in Kigali. He said the prosecution had presented no evidence to substantiate its claim that Rusesabagina had given orders to the FLN, which has claimed responsibility for attacks in past years that it said were aimed at ousting the president. Sankara is one of 20 Rwandans being tried alongside Rusesabagina, who is 67. Prosecutors describe them as fighters for the FLN. Most were captured in s...
Egyptian TikTok influencer to appeal 10-year trafficking sentence
Egyptian TikTok influencer Haneen Hossam will appeal a 10-year prison sentence handed down by a Cairo court that found her guilty of human trafficking, her lawyer said on Monday. In the latest twist in a nearly year-long saga, the court also fined the 20-year-old Cairo University student 200 000 Egyptian pounds ($13 000) on Sunday for encouraging women to share footage on the video-sharing app in exchange for money. “We will demand restoration of the case proceedings because there are contradictions between the verdict and the merits on which the court’s decision is based,” said lawyer Hani Sameh. “We hope that she can get a reduced jail sentence or an acquittal,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Several women have been accused of “inciting debauchery” for challenging Egypt’s conser...
