Wednesday 26 October 2016

Patience seeks N200m damages over seized $15m, Gun threat stops Anambra sex scandal press briefing and other major headlines you missed today!


Dear KFBers, we have got loads of interesting stories in tonight's #MajorHeadlinesYouMissedToday feature...enjoy!


Actor jailed for 8 years for sexually assaulting women as they slept at house parties



Actor Nyakeh Kpaka, 26, who appeared in hit TV show Broadchurch has been sentenced to 8 years imprisonment and described in court by the judge as a 'dangerous predator' after it's found he sexually assaulted women who slept off at house parties.
Kpaka - who uses the acting name Nakay Kpaka from Wood Green, North London made his first attack in December 2014 and May 2015 and in both cases lept onto the bed of his victims who didn't know him and assaulted them twice.
He was only arrested after the second attack victim of May 2015- ran out of the house and was screaming when she woke up to find Kpaka seriously 'pounding' her.
He's been found guilty by Woolwich Crown Court of three counts of sexual assault by penetration and handed five years in jail for the two offences in 2015 and three years for the 2014 offence.







3000 oil workers sacked-NUPENG chairman says, issues 21-day ultimatum to FG to stop mass sack


Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers NUPENG, Igwe Achese, today disclosed that oil giant, Chevron, has folded up in the Eastern part of the country, leaving 1500 people out of jobs without entitlements.

Achese made the disclosure at the end of a meeting of the Central Working Committee of the union held in Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State.

Accoridng to him, over 3000 oil workers in Nigeria have so far lost their jobs due to the Economic recession. Achese on behalf of the union, issued a 21-day ultimatum to the Federal government to stop the mass sack in the oil sector or they would embark on a total strike.

“It is painful to say as I address you, Chevron has wound up in the East and their offices closed. A total of 1,500 workers were sacked without their entitlements and nobody is saying anything. As we speak, many companies have left and many others are winding up to go.

Many oil companies are winding up, including ExxonMobil, Pan Ocean, Sapiem Ground Petroleum, and Hercules Offshore Nigeria Limited. About 3,000 workers have already been sacked by the various oil companies. NUPENG will take all necessary action to drive home its demands if FG failed to act in 21 days.




Jay Z bids $40M to acquire unreleased music of late rock icon Prince


Rap mogul and Roc Nation CEO, Jay Z has reportedly bid $40M to acquire the right to buy the unreleased music of late rock icon Prince.

According to TMZ report, Jayz flew Prince’s sister Tyka and her husband, Maurice Phillips to NYC to meet with him for further discussion on the $40M deal. However, it is also believed that Tyka who shares same parent with the late singer that died in April 2016 will have to get sign-off from all her half siblings before Jay Z can have full right to the deal.




Worst of Boko Haram insurgency over, says Buhari


President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday said the worst of the Boko Haram insurgency was over in Nigeria.

He said the major task before the country now was how to rehabilitate the about 2.4m Nigerians displaced by the sect and reconstruct the North-East part of the country which was the epicentre of their terror activities.

Buhari spoke while inaugurating the Presidential Committee on the North-East led by a former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.).


The President described the inauguration of the committee as a milestone in his administration’s desire to restore stability to the North-East.

He said the committee was meant to coordinate all humanitarian efforts aimed at rebuilding the region.

Buhari said, “The devastation of human lives and livelihoods by the insurgency in the North-East is severe, with more than an estimated 20,000 persons killed, an estimated 2.4m persons displaced and billions of naira worth of personal and public assets destroyed.

“Many humanitarian intervention efforts, national and international, have worked overtime to assist in coping with the task of bringing succour to the Internally Displaced Persons in and outside the region, with most of these efforts aimed at providing short-term emergency assistance and relief to the victims of the violence and displacement.

“However, there remains a need for better coordination of these efforts, particularly the humanitarian resettlement and reconstruction of the region.

“Fortunately, the worst of the insurgency is behind us. This we owe principally to the valiant efforts of our military whose gallant efforts have significantly degraded the insurgency.”




Seized $15m: Patience seeks N200m damages




A Federal High Court in Lagos has fixed December 7, 2016 to hear the N200m fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by wife of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Skye Bank Plc to challenge the freezing of four bank accounts containing $15m.

The EFCC placed a ‘No Debit Order’ on the four accounts opened in the name of four companies which were linked to a former Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs to ex-President Jonathan, Waripamo-Owei Dudafa.

The EFCC froze the four bank accounts on July 7, 2016 in the course of investigating Dudafa for money laundering.


But Patience had sued the EFCC and Skye Bank claiming the ownership of the $15m found in the four bank accounts.

The matter came up for the first time before Justice Babs Kuewumi on Wednesday.

At the hearing, Patience’s lawyer, Mr. Granville Abibo (SAN), applied to discontinue the earlier motion filed by his client for the purpose of amending it.

Justice Kuewumi granted the application and struck out the motion.

Abibo then informed the court that he had filed and served a new motion on the defendants.

But the EFCC lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, said the suit was not ripe for hearing.

Abibo then urged the court to restrain the EFCC from tampering with the $15m in the frozen accounts pending the determination of the suit.

He said despite being served with court processes, the EFCC was still making moves that could overreach the court.

But Oyedepo urged the court to discountenance Abibo’s submission, saying that the accounts had long been frozen before Patience filed the suit and so the issue of interference with the accounts did not arise.

After listening to the parties, Justice Kuewumi adjourned till December 7, 2016 for the hearing of the case.

Patience is urging the court to compel the EFCC to immediately remove the ‘No Debit Order’ placed on the four bank accounts in question.

She also wants the court to order Skye Bank to pay her damages in the sum of N200m for what she termed a violation of her right to own personal property under Section 44 of the 1999 Constitution.

Filed in support of the suit was an affidavit deposed to by one Sammie Somiari.

Somiari said it was Dudafa who helped Patience to open the four bank accounts which the EFCC froze.

According to him, Dudafa had on March 22, 2010 brought two Skye Bank officers, Demola Bolodeoku and Dipo Oshodi, to meet Patience at home to open five accounts.

He, however, claimed that after the five accounts were opened, Patience later discovered that Dudafa opened only one of the accounts in her name while the other four were opened in the names of companies belonging to Dudafa.

The four companies, whose accounts have now been frozen and which have also been charged with money laundering along with Dudafa, are Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited; Seagate Property Development & Investment Co. Limited; Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited; and Avalon Global Property Development Company Limited.




Gun threat stops Anambra sex scandal press briefing


A press briefing scheduled for Wednesday for Miss Anambra, Chidinma Okeke, to state her own version of a sex scandal rocking her could not hold.

The briefing scheduled for 10am at the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Anambra State council, in Awka, ended abruptly following information that some gunmen would attack the secretariat.

Miss Chidinma Okeke, was the winner of the 2015 Most Beautiful Girl in Anambra pageant competition.


Her alleged lesbian video went virile on the social media recently .

She was reported to have vowed to expose the complicity of some top politicians and government officials in the sex scandal at the botched press conference.

But no sooner had the journalists arrived the venue of the conference than calls started coming, threatening that some gunmen were on their way to attack the venue.

The journalists had to flee the place for their lives.

“Life has no duplicate,” one of the journalists, quipped.

A message sent by the embattled Okeke using her Facebook account read in part, “The moment I made public this intention to speak with journalists, I have been under threats by my blackmailers and traducers.

“They are seriously threatening to shoot me at the press conference if I ever open my mouth to say the real truth about the ugly episode.

“Since I have no protection, and if I die now, the truth will be buried forever, it’s my intention to save not just myself but other girls and other upcoming pageant by letting the world know the truth and what we go through.”

Okeke said her traducers had continued to assemble all manner of expertise and professionals to edit the video and send them in batches.

She added that she would not be surprised if more videos were published subsequently.

Meanwhile, her counsel, Ikenna Obidiegwu, told our correspondent on the telephone that his client had to stay away from the press briefing after his attempt to get the Anambra State Police Commissioner, Mr. Sam Okaula, to provide security for the beauty queen failed.

“The commissioner said the notice was too short, and that he could not mobilise police security for the queen immediately,” he said.

Obidiegwu said his client’s blackmailers were powerful people in the state, adding that at the appropriate time their identities would be unveiled.

He denied reports that his client had been smuggled out of the country.

“I was with her just 30 minutes before speaking to you,” the lawyer maintained.




Naira weakens to 470 on fresh dollar shortage





The naira tumbled to 470 against the United States dollar on Wednesday, down from 455 on Tuesday as fresh dollar shortage hit the official and parallel foreign exchange markets.




The local currency has been relatively stable, hovering around 455 against the greenback in the last one week.

This came after Travelex and First Bank of Nigeria Limited commenced sale of foreign exchange to Bureau De Change operators following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s approval.


Forex traders, however, said on Wednesdays that the scheme had failed to ease the biting dollar shortage in the country.

“What we get from Travelex is not sufficient,” one trader told Reuters, referring to the demand in the market.

At the official market, the naira closed at 305.50 per dollar, a level it had maintained for more than two months, supported by the CBN interventions.

Earlier, the CBN asked international money transfer operators to sell dollars directly to the BDC operators to boost liquidity and narrow the gulf between the parallel market and the official market rates.

Travelex sells around $15,000 to 1,000 retail currency outlets weekly, but the amount is a fraction of what is required to cover the demand from individuals and small businesses.

Dollar shortages have caused many firms to halt operations and lay off workers, compounding an economic crisis exacerbated by the fall in global oil price, which accounts for 70 per cent of Nigeria’s budget revenue.

The CBN has struggled to support the naira as the nation’s external reserves continue to fall. Traders said the naira had been testing new lows as they tried to find thresholds where liquidity could begin to return.















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