Police launch investigation after attack on home of Oba Aremu Olusegun Cole in south-western Kwara state
Gunmen killed a Nigerian traditional monarch and kidnapped his wife after raiding his palace, police said, as outrage grows over a spate of abductions across the country.
Attackers stormed the palace of Oba Aremu Olusegun Cole in south-western Kwara state, shot him dead and abducted his wife and another person on Thursday.
Continue reading...Pidgin English term triggers debate after going viral in new year as a motto for self-reliance and resilience
A Nigerian slang term meaning not letting anyone bully or cheat you is sparking debate after police warned the slogan could be a message of rebellion.
While not new, the pidgin English term “No gree for anybody”, and variations of it, has been going viral since the start of the year as a motto for self-reliance and resilience in the face of difficulties.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Evidence found by Hannah Durkin includes ships landing in Cuba in 1872, and people held in Benin in 1873
Historians have generally assumed that the transatlantic slave trade ended in 1867, but it actually continued into the following decade, according to new research.
Dr Hannah Durkin, an historian and former Newcastle University lecturer, has unearthed evidence that two slave ships landed in Cuba in 1872. One vessel, flying the Portuguese flag, had 200 captives aged from 10 to 40, and the second is believed to have been a US ship with 630 prisoners packed into its hold.
Continue reading...‘Bandits’ started attacks in Bokkos area and spilled into neighbouring Barkin Ladi, according to local chairman
Armed groups have killed at least 160 people in central Nigeria in a series of attacks on villages, local government officials said on Monday.
The toll marked a sharp rise from the initial figure reported by the army on Sunday evening of just 16 dead in a region plagued for several years by religious and ethnic tensions.
Continue reading...US watchdog sues Dozy Mmobuosi for allegedly faking documents and making up companies out of ‘thin air’
A Nigerian businessman who appeared to be closing in on a takeover of the Premier League football club Sheffield United is being sued by the US financial watchdog for a fraud, in which he is alleged to have faked documents and made up companies out of “thin air”.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Monday it had filed charges against Dozy Mmobuosi, claiming he inflated his companies’ financial performance by hundreds of millions of dollars to defraud investors.
Continue reading...Scores of civilians die in one of country’s deadliest military bombing accidents
A Nigerian army drone strike accidentally killed at least 85 civilians observing a Muslim festival in the north-west on Sunday, the country’s armed forces have admitted.
Villagers in Tudun Biri in the state of Kaduna had gathered for the Maulud celebration when at about 9pm they heard what sounded like an aeroplane followed by a huge explosion.
Continue reading...Hiring from ‘red-list’ nations risks destabilising healthcare overseas, warns Royal College of Nursing
The NHS has been accused of “unethical” behaviour after it emerged that it has been recruiting record numbers of nurses and midwives from countries which have serious staffing shortages.
Bringing in staff from “red-list” countries risked destabilising those nations’ healthcare systems and breaching government guidelines, said hospital employers and the Royal College of Nursing.
Continue reading...More than 13,000 Nigerian villagers can bring legal claims against oil firm, rules high court
Thousands of Nigerian villagers can bring human rights claims against the fossil fuel company Shell over the chronic oil pollution of their water sources and destruction of their way of life, the high court in London has ruled.
Mrs Justice May ruled this week that more than 13,000 farmers and fishers from the Ogale and Bille communities in the Niger delta were entitled to bring legal claims against Shell for alleged breaches to their right to a clean environment.
Continue reading...In an exclusive interview, Akinwumi Adesina, head of the African Development Bank, says the outlook is good for a continent with the workers of the future and the best investment opportunities
Africa holds the future workforce for the ageing economies of the west, according to one of the continent’s leading financial figures, who also said it was time to ditch the myths around corruption and risk.
In an exclusive interview before this weekend’s World Bank meetings in Morocco, Akinwumi Adesina said there was a resurgence of belief in Africa’s economic prospects and attacked negative stereotyping, adding that there was “every reason to be optimistic”.
Continue reading...Lagos police chief says unnamed nurse injected singer before his death last month
A nurse has been identified as the “principal suspect” in the mysterious death of a Nigerian Afrobeats star, which triggered days of protests by thousands demanding justice.
Investigations into the death of Ilerioluwa Aloba, better known as MohBad, in the commercial hub of Lagos have pointed to the nurse who treated the late singer before his death, the Lagos police chief, Idowu Owohunwa, told reporters on Friday.
Continue reading...Boss of rising singer’s former music label has denied any involvement in unexplained death
Police in Nigeria have detained the Afrobeats star and record label boss Naira Marley for questioning over the death of the fast-rising singer MohBad last month.
MohBad death’s in unexplained circumstances on 12 September at the age of 27 led to an outpouring of grief among his fans and sent ripples through the multibillion-dollar Afrobeats music genre.
Continue reading...Oil-producing African nations argue they should be able to use fossil fuel resources for economic growth
African leaders and campaigners are at odds over the way forward for the continent as a critical climate summit begins in Nairobi.
Some countries, such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa, have been expanding their renewable energy access and leading transition efforts on the continent, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Continue reading...Despite narrow defeat to England, team’s efforts in Australia win praise after what some saw as a lack of official backing
Nigerian football fans in the Lagos suburb of Shomolu had nothing but praise for their team after their narrow defeat on penalties to England in the Women’s World Cup on Monday.
The suburb, home to much of the country’s printing industry, is usually a hive of industrial activity, but many of its presses fell silent on Monday morning as workers gathered in groups around televisions to watch the Super Falcons take on the European champions in Brisbane.
Continue reading...Defence chiefs demand reinstatement of president after coup, which triggered exodus of foreign nationals
Defence heads from west Africa’s regional political and security bloc have said a military intervention in junta-ruled Niger was “the last resort”, as European countries continued to evacuate foreign nationals after last week’s coup against its democratically elected president.
The 15-nation regional bloc Ecowas – the Economic Community of West African States – has threatened to use force to put down the coup in Niger after giving an ultimatum to those behind it to restore Mohamed Bazoum as president and reinstate the constitution and democratic institutions.
Continue reading...Four men traveled about 5,600km before being rescued by Brazilian federal police in south-eastern port of Vitória
On their 10th day at sea, the four Nigerian stowaways crossing the Atlantic in a tiny space above the rudder of a cargo ship ran out of food and drink.
They survived another four days, according to their account, by drinking the sea water crashing just meters below them, before being rescued by Brazilian federal police in the south-eastern port of Vitória.
Continue reading...Nigerian stowaways survived for at least a week under ship that voyaged from Lagos via Lomé, Togo
The Spanish coastguard rescued two Nigerian men who survived for at least a week balancing on the rudder of a ship as it sailed from the west African country of Togo to the Canary Islands.
The two men were rescued on Monday night in the port of Las Palmas, and taken to a hospital for medical checks. They were later released and were transferred back to the ship, which will return them to their port of origin, the port police tweeted.
Continue reading...President Tinubu’s policies please foreign investors, but a devalued currency and soaring petrol prices mean ‘national sacrifice mode’ is widely unpopular
Nigerians are feeling the strain as their new president pushes through a series of unpopular policies that have earned him praise from foreign investors.
Bola Tinubu, who was sworn in on 29 May, has surprised many observers by taking a running start to his tenure of Africa’s most populous country. In little over two weeks he has banished a longstanding petrol subsidy, ejected the country’s central bank governor and ended restrictions on the rate of the naira, Nigeria’s currency.
Continue reading...Victims, including women and children, were reportedly returning from ceremony
A boat carrying residents returning from a wedding capsized in northern Nigeria killing about 100 people, police and local residents have said, as a search for survivors intensified.
The boat capsized early on Monday on the Niger River in the state of Kwara close to neighbouring Niger state, a police spokesperson, Okasanmi Ajayi, said.
Continue reading...MPs back new bill for medical graduates, designed to limit brain drain to countries including the UK and US
A new bill to impose five years’ mandatory service on Nigeria’s medical graduates in an effort to stop the exodus of doctors to the UK and the US has been attacked as “obnoxious”.
The bill, which could be put to a public hearing in the next few days, passed its second reading in the Nigerian parliament’s lower house last month.
Continue reading...Son of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti arrested after he was shown on video shouting and apparently smacking an officer, police say
The Nigerian musician Seun Kuti, son of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer, Lagos state police said on Monday.
An order was made for the arrest of Kuti, a Grammy-nominated saxophonist and singer, on Saturday after a viral video showed him on a road, shouting and apparently pushing and smacking a police officer, police said.
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