News & Announcements

A former aide to the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, Abidemi Rufai has been sentenced to five years in prison for stealing more than $500,000 in pandemic relief benefits in the United States.
Rufai was wearing a $10,000 watch and $35,000 gold chain when he was arrested at JFK International Airport in New York on his way to Nigeria in May 2021, reports The Associated Press.

Rufai pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, Washington, in May to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges, and Judge Benjamin Settle issued the sentence Monday. The judge also ordered Rufai to pay more than $600,000 in restitution.

Prosecutors said the 45-year-old had a history of defrauding the US government, including using stolen identities to file for emergency relief after hurricanes in Texas and Florida.
“When disaster struck, so did Mr. Rufai,” Seattle U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said in a news release.
“Whether it was hurricane disaster relief, small business loans, or COVID unemployment benefits, he stole aid that should have gone to disaster victims in the United States.”

Such fraud was rampant in pandemic relief programmes, according to the US Labour Department’s Inspector General, who said last week that $45.6 billion may have been paid out improperly in unemployment insurance from March 2020 to April 2022.

The Justice Department filed charges against dozens of people in Minnesota last week in connection with a $250 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally funded child nutrition programme during the pandemic.

Rufai, of Lekki, Nigeria, has a master’s degree and is politically connected in his home country, prosecutors said. He had purported to run a sports betting company since 2016, his finances were opaque and his main source of income apparently was defrauding the U.S. government.

He was known as a prolific political fundraiser, and in 2019, he ran unsuccessfully for Nigeria’s National Assembly, Assistant US Attorneys Cindy Chang and Seth Wilkinson wrote in a sentencing memo.
Between April and October 2020, he use a cache of stolen identities — investigators found more than 20,000 of them, with birthdates and social security numbers in one of his email accounts — to file for pandemic-related benefits.

He applied with the workforce agencies of at least nine states, including Washington’s Employment Security Department, in the names of at least 224 Americans. Just after returning to Nigeria in August 2020, Rufai was appointed as a special aide to the Ogun State governor.

He was featured in news magazines, photographed with a luxury Mercedes sport-utility vehicle he had purchased with stolen funds and had shipped to Nigeria. Rufai later returned to the U.S., and on May 15, 2021 — just a day after prosecutors filed an amended complaint against him — he was arrested trying to leave the country on a business class flight.

In recorded phone conversations from jail he discussed moving a large amount of money immediately following his arrest, prosecutors said.

Rufai apologised in a letter to the court, saying “my actions are outrageous and inexcusable.” He blamed them on gambling addiction and pressure to provide for his wife and children. “Your honour, I am now a rehabilitated man that is ready to live a crime-free life and also be a responsible man to my family and my community as a whole,” he wrote.

The defence requested a 2.5-year sentence, citing letters from supporters who wrote that Rufai had a charitable foundation that helped pay educational fees for primary students. The Justice Department sought nearly six years, saying a longer term was necessary for the part to deter others who might commit similar crimes.

A Michigan man pleaded guilty last week to murdering, dismembering and eating the body parts of another man he met on a dating app.
Mark David Latunski, 53, of Shiawassee County, Michigan, admitted in court last Thursday that he killed 25-year-old hairdresser Kevin Bacon after luring the University of Michigan-Flint student to his home in December 2019, according to local outlet Mlive.com.

Latunski pleaded guilty as charged to mutilation of a body and to open murder, which encompasses murder in the first and second degree.
Latunski acknowledged stabbing Bacon in the back and taking parts of his dead body to the kitchen, where he ate them, after meeting the young man on Grindr, which is a hookup app for gay, bisexual and transgender men. He also reportedly admitted to police that he cut off Bacon’s testicles and consumed them.

Police reportedly found Bacon’s corpse hanging from the ceiling of Latunski’s basement in 2019, with parts of him removed, his throat slit and rope tied around his ankles.

“Kevin was a good kid, and he didn’t deserve what he got,” Bacon’s father, Karl, said, according to local WNEM. He said he has been unable to process everything yet but is relieved his family will not have to relive his son’s murder in court.

“We won’t have to go through a lengthy trial,” said Karl. “Seeing Kevin’s pictures again in court, maybe we won’t have to go through all that.”

The victim’s father also reportedly said there is no punishment severe enough for Latunski’s crimes, saying he hopes the homicidal cannibal gets “life without parole.”

Mary Chartier, Latunski’s lawyer, reportedly was against the guilty plea and had hoped to bring an insanity defence.

“The law requires that attorneys must follow the objectives of clients found to be legally competent as it relates to decisions, such as pleading guilty, even if the attorneys believe that it is not in the best interests of the client,” Chartier said in a statement to local TV5.
“We will continue to vigorously advocate for Mr. Latunski at the degree hearing and sentencing,” the attorney added.

Latunski faces another court hearing on October 18, when it will be decided whether he is guilty of first- or second-degree murder or manslaughter. He faces a possible life sentence in Michigan, which in 1847 became the first government in the English-speaking world to outlaw capital punishment. *Courtesy: Fox News

The Duke of Sussex Prince Harry had snubbed dinner with King Charles III and his brother the Prince of Wales at Balmoral following the new monarch ‘banning’ Meghan Markle from joining the grieving Royal Family on the day Queen Elizabeth II died, The DailyMail reported on 23 September.

According to the report, Prince Harry wanted his wife to join him as royals raced to the Scottish estate to say their final goodbyes to Queen Elizabeth on 8 September.
Though, Britain’s new King allegedly phoned his youngest son and told him it was ‘not appropriate for the former Suits actress to be there.
In his attempt to persuade his father to allow Meghan to come with him, he missed a flight carrying William and their uncles Andrew and Edward to Scotland, reports said.

Angry with the turnaround event, Prince Harry missed his first flight and it is reported that he also refused to have dinner that evening with Charles, William and Queen Consort Camilla. He preferred to eat with the Duke of York and the Earl and Countess of Wessex before leaving early the following day, The Sun reported.
“Harry was so busy trying to get Meghan to Balmoral and rowing with his family that he missed the flight. Charles has an open invitation for Harry to dine with him whenever he is in the country,” The Sun reported.
“But Harry was so furious that he refused to eat with his father and brother. It was a massive snub. And he got out of Balmoral at the earliest opportunity to catch the first commercial flight back to London,” the daily added.

The report further added that Prince Harry was the first member of the Royal Family to leave, boarding an early British Airways flight from Aberdeen. After reaching Aberdeen airport at 9.20 am, he boarded a flight to London leaving at 10 am.
Earlier, Prince Harry and his duchess sensationally quit royal duties and left the UK for California two years ago.

The US says it will ease internet curbs on Iran to counter Tehran’s clampdown on protests which were sparked by a woman’s death in police custody.
“We are going to help make sure the Iranian people are not kept isolated and in the dark,” said US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

The relaxation of software controls will allow American tech firms to expand their business in Iran, reports the BBC.
At least 35 people have been killed in the worst unrest in Iran for years.
Mahsa Amini, 22, fell into a coma last week, hours after morality police arrested her for allegedly breaking headscarf rules.

Officers reportedly beat Ms Amini’s head with a baton and banged her head against one of their vehicles. The police have said there is no evidence of any mistreatment and that she suffered “sudden heart failure”.

Anti-government protests continued for an eight straight night on Friday, while pro-regime rallies also took place in Tehran and other cities.
Blinken said the partial relaxation of internet restrictions was a “concrete step to provide meaningful support to Iranians demanding that their basic rights be respected”. It was clear, he added, that the Iranian government was “afraid of its own people”.

The US treasury said the move would help counter the Iranian government’s attempt to “surveil and censor” its people.
But it is unlikely to have an immediate impact as it “does not remove every tool of communications repression”.

Billionaire Elon Musk said on Twitter that he would activate his satellite internet firm, Starlink, to provide internet services to Iran in response to Blinken’s announcement.
Starlink provides internet services via a huge network of satellites and is aimed at people who live in remote areas who cannot get high-speed internet.

US officials said that the updated license did not cover hardware supplied by Musk but his firm and others were welcome to apply for permission to the treasury.
Footage shared on social media on Friday showed large crowds of protesters gather in several Tehran neighbourhoods after dark, while other incidents occurred elsewhere the country. In the protests women have defiantly taken off their hijabs and burned them, or cut off their hair in front of cheering crowds.
While spreading across much of the country, many of the early protests were concentrated in western Iran, particularly areas with large Kurdish populations, the group Ms Amini belonged to.

On Friday, reports emerged from Oshnavieh, in Iran’s West Azerbaijan Province, which borders Kurdistan, showing widespread protests, as well as suggestions demonstrators had taken control of large parts of the city. The BBC was unable to confirm this.

Videos posted from Oshnavieh showed large crowds of people marching through city streets with no police presence, while loud explosions could be heard.
Friday also saw pro-regime demonstrations in Tehran and other cities, with those present declaring support for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been a target of anti-government protesters.

President Ebrahim Raisi spoke at a pro-government event, saying he would not allow the country’s security to be “threatened”.
“We will not allow people’s security to be put at risk under any circumstances,” he said, shortly after returning from the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Stressing that Iran’s “enemies” wanted to exploit the unrest, Raisi said the government would listen to criticism over Ms Amini’s death, but would not be influenced by “rioting”.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has given final clearance to the 18 candidates nominated by the registered political parties, to contest next year’s presidential election. The Commission also said 4, 223 candidates have been cleared to contest various positions in the National Assembly.
The breakdown of this figure showed that 1, 101 are vying for the 109 seats in the Senate while 3,122 are contesting for the 360 House of Representatives positions. Among presidential candidates cleared by INEC, according to a statement by the National Commissioner Festus Okoye, including the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, despite the case instituted in the court challenging the claims he submitted with his nomination form.

The candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, his Labour Party (LP) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) counterparts, Mr. Peter Obi and Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, respectively, were also cleared.

A Federal High Court in Abuja, on Monday, refused to disqualify Tinubu and Obi for using ‘placeholders’ as running mates before substituting them with substantive candidates.
The suit was filed by the PDP. Okoye explained that the list published contained: “The names of candidates validly nominated for national elections at the close of party primaries and the period earmarked for withdrawal and substitution of candidates.”

He, however, stated that in accordance with section 31 of the Electoral Act, voluntarily withdrawn candidates within the stipulated period allowed, and substituted by their parties, were cleared to contest.
Okoye, however, warned that no withdrawal or substitution of candidates would further be “allowed except in the event of death as provided in section 34(1) of the Electoral Act or pursuant to an order of a court of competent jurisdiction.”

INEC had given July 15 as the last day of substitution of candidates for national elections, and August 12 for state elections.
According to the list, David Umahi, governor of Ebonyi, is the All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial candidate for Ebonyi south, while for Yobe north district, there is no senatorial candidate listed for the APC.

For Yobe north, there has been some controversy over the APC senatorial ticket, and the matter is currently in court. At a primary organised by the party in May, Bashir Machina had won unopposed, but Ahmad Lawan, senate president, was said to have participated in another primary organised by the APC, after he contested the party’s presidential ticket and lost in June.

Meanwhile, Godswill Akpabio, former minister of Niger Delta affairs, also made the final list as the APC candidate for Akwa Ibom north-west. The National Commissioner disclosed that the final list of candidates for state elections (governorship and state constituencies) would be published on October 4.
He stated that INEC was aware: “That not all the political parties conducted primaries in all the constituencies, submitted the particulars of candidates that emerged from valid primaries or substituted their candidates after fresh primaries within 14 days as provided in section 33 of the Electoral Act.
“This has led to numerous litigations, some of which are ongoing. Where the Commission was served with court orders by aggrieved aspirants or candidates before the publication of this list, these have been indicated under the remark column.

Hope rises for the cessation of hostilities in the middle east as Israeli authorities finally agreed to a two-state solution to end decades of  Isreal/Palestine war.
Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid pledged support for a two-state solution with Palestine, as he repeated Tel Aviv’s determination to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb.

The two-state solution agenda ignored by Israeli leaders in recent years is back on the table as Lapid voices  support for the framework in the #UNGA speechHis mention of a two-state solution, the first by an Israeli leader in years at the United Nations General Assembly, echoed U.S. President Joe Biden’s support in Israel in August for the long-dormant proposal.

Despite existing “obstacles,” he said, “an agreement with the Palestinians, based on two states for two peoples, is the right thing for Israel’s security, for Israel’s economy and for the future of our children.”
He added any agreement would be conditioned on a peaceful Palestinian state that would not threaten Israel.

Lapid spoke less than six weeks before a Nov. 1 election that could return to power the right-wing former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a longstanding opponent of the two-state solution.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move that the international community has never recognized. Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital – a status not recognized internationally. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Gaza has also been under a tightened Israeli blockade since 2007 and most basic goods enter the region through highly restricted measures.

Meanwhile, Israel has been conducting an intense diplomatic offensive in recent months to try to convince the United States and main European powers such as Britain, France and Germany not to renew the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

For the past 10 days, various officials have suggested the deal might not be renewed until at least mid-November, a deadline that Lapid has tried to use to push the West to impose a tougher approach in their negotiations.

“The only way to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is to put a credible military threat on the table,” Lapid said in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly.
Only a “longer and stronger deal with them” can be negotiated.
“It needs to be made clear to Iran that if it advances its nuclear program, the world will not respond with words, but with military force,” he added.

And he made it clear that Israel would be willing to engage if it felt threatened.
“We will do whatever it takes,” he said. “Iran will not get a nuclear weapon.”

Lapid accused Tehran’s leadership of conducting an “orchestra of hate” against Jews and said Iran’s ideologues “hate and kill Muslims who think differently, like Salman Rushdie and Mahsa Amini,” the young woman whose death in the custody of Iran’s morality policy has triggered protests across the Islamic republic.

Israel, which considers Iran its archenemy, also blames Tehran for financing armed movements including the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas.

Ebrahim Raisi, Iranian president, on Thursday, withdrew from a long-planned interview with CNN’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, after she declined a last-minute demand to wear a head scarf.

Amanpour, the renowned journalist and TV host, took to her Twitter account @amanpour, on Thursday, to narrate how Raisi failed to turn up for a scheduled interview, only to send an aide 40 minutes after the scheduled time to demand that she puts on a headscarf.

Amanpour, who is of Iranian decent, said the interview would have been an opportunity for the president to address ongoing protests sweeping across Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, following her arrest by the “morality police”.

She wrote, “Protests are sweeping Iran & women are burning their hijabs after the death last week of Mahsa Amini, following her arrest by the “morality police”. Human rights groups say at least 8 have been killed. Last night, I planned to ask President Raisi about all this and much more.
“This was going to be President Raisi’s first ever interview on US soil, during his visit to NY for UNGA. After weeks of planning and eight hours of setting up translation equipment, lights and cameras, we were ready. But no sign of President Raisi.

“40 minutes after the interview had been due to start, an aide came over. The president, he said, was suggesting I wear a headscarf because it’s the holy months of Muharram and Safar.
“I politely declined. We are in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves. I pointed out that no previous Iranian president has required this when I interviewed them outside Iran.
“The aide made it clear that the interview would not happen if I did not wear a headscarf. He said it was “a matter of respect,” and referred to “the situation in Iran” – alluding to the protests sweeping the country.
“Again, I said that I couldn’t agree to this unprecedented and unexpected condition.
“And so we walked away. The interview didn’t happen. As protests continue in Iran and people are being killed, it would have been an important moment to speak with President Raisi.”

Iranian President, Raisi Withdraws From Interview Over CNN’s Amanpour Refusal To Wear ‘Head Scarf’

Ebrahim Raisi, Iranian president, on Thursday, withdrew from a long-planned interview with CNN’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, after she declined a last-minute demand to wear a head scarf.
Amanpour, the renowned journalist and TV host, took to her Twitter account @amanpour, on Thursday, to narrate how Raisi failed to turn up for a scheduled interview, only to send an aide 40 minutes after the scheduled time to demand that she puts on a headscarf.
Amanpour, who is of Iranian decent, said the interview would have been an opportunity for the president to address ongoing protests sweeping across Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, following her arrest by the “morality police”.

She wrote, “Protests are sweeping Iran & women are burning their hijabs after the death last week of Mahsa Amini, following her arrest by the “morality police”. Human rights groups say at least 8 have been killed. Last night, I planned to ask President Raisi about all this and much more.
“This was going to be President Raisi’s first ever interview on US soil, during his visit to NY for UNGA. After weeks of planning and eight hours of setting up translation equipment, lights and cameras, we were ready. But no sign of President Raisi.

“40 minutes after the interview had been due to start, an aide came over. The president, he said, was suggesting I wear a headscarf because it’s the holy months of Muharram and Safar.

“I politely declined. We are in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves. I pointed out that no previous Iranian president has required this when I interviewed them outside Iran.
“The aide made it clear that the interview would not happen if I did not wear a headscarf. He said it was “a matter of respect,” and referred to “the situation in Iran” – alluding to the protests sweeping the country.
“Again, I said that I couldn’t agree to this unprecedented and unexpected condition.

“And so we walked away. The interview didn’t happen. As protests continue in Iran and people are being killed, it would have been an important moment to speak with President Raisi.”

Rotimi Akeredolu, governor of Ondo, says the state will procure arms for operatives of the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Amotekun.

The senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) said if the federal government can allow a security outfit in Katsina to carry arms, then Amotekun should be granted the same right.

“The video making the rounds showing the equivalent of the Western Nigeria Security Network (Amotekun Corps) in Katsina, obtaining the approval of the Federal Govt. to bear arms is fraught with great dangers,” he said.

“Denying Amotekun the urgently needed rights, to legitimately bear arms is a repudiation of the basis of true federalism which we have been clamouring for.

“That Katsina was able to arm its state security force, with the display of AK47 means we are pursuing one country, two systems” solution to the national question.

“If the katsina situation conferring advantages on some, in the face of commonly faced existential threats, it means that our unitary policing system, which has failed, is a deliberate method of subjugation which must be challenged.

“The Independence agreement was based on a democratic arrangement to have a federal state and devolved internal security mechanics. We must go back to that agreement.

“Denying Amotekun the right to bear arms exposes the Southwest to life-threatening marauders and organized crime. It is also deliberate destruction of our agricultural sector. It is an existential threat.

“We want to reiterate, that what is sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander. Ondo State government under the doctrine of necessity have decided to fulfil its legal, constitutional and moral duty to the citizens of the State, by acquiring arms to protect them.

“This is more so, given that the bandits have unchecked access to sophisticated weapons. The State government cannot look on while its citizens are being terrorized and murdered with impunity. We will defend our people.”

Akeredolu’s statement comes a few weeks after Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue, said if the federal government refused to approve the licence for arms for the state’s security outfit, he would get approval from his people.

The federal government had said security outfit set up by various state governments cannot bear firearms.

A man has been arrested after he approached Queen Elizabeth’s coffin from a queue of mourners in Westminster Hall.
He was arrested under the Public Order Act and was taken into custody, Metropolitan Police said.

The incident in Parliament occurred at about 22:00 BST on Friday night, the force said in a statement, reports the BBC. The live video feed of the Queen lying in the state cut away for a brief period during the incident.

A statement from Scotland Yard said: “Around 22:00 on Friday 16 September officers from the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command detained a man in Westminster Hall following a disturbance.”
A Parliament spokesperson said: “We’re aware of an incident in Westminster Hall, in which a member of the public moved out of the queue and towards the catafalque.

“They have now been removed from the hall and the queue restarted with minimal disruption.” Earlier in the evening, the King was joined by siblings Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, in a vigil in the hall.

The late Queen Elizabeth II will lie in state in Westminster Hall until the day of her funeral on Monday.
Meanwhile, Mourners in London have been braving a chilly night and waiting times of at least 24 hours to pay their last respects to the Queen.

Officials say the queue, nearly five miles long, is at near total capacity. They appeal for people to stop joining the line for now.
It’s been confirmed that, at the King’s request, both Princes William and Harry will be in uniform when they take part in a vigil beside the Queen’s coffin on Saturday evening.

The Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps  (FRSC), in Cross River, Maikano Hassan, has confirmed a lone incident that killed a middle aged woman in Calabar on Sunday who was in a hot chase of her husband over his “mistress”.
The Sector Commander who spoke on Sunday night, said the incident was caused by over speeding.

He said the incident involving a Toyota Highlander  which occured on the Muritala Mohammed Highway in Calabar claimed the life of the lone female driver who veered off the road into a ditch by the road.
His words :”Though the woman was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital, but she was said to have  died few minutes later due to the injury sustained from the incident.”

It was gathered that the woman was said to be in pursuit of her husband who was alleged to be with a “side chick” in his car when she lost control of her vehicle , killing herself in the process.
A source who didn’t want her name in print said that the woman sighted  her husband leaving SPAR shopping Mall  in the company of another female when she tried to block her husband’s car with the Toyota Highlander she was driving in.

“Her husband was said to have maneuvered his vehicle out of the attempted blockade then took the Murtala Muhammed highway, with his wife is serious pursuit.
“In a bid  to outrun her husband, she lost control of the speeding vehicle, veered off the road and slammed the vehicle, head long, into a tree, damaging the vehicle beyond repairs and also killing herself,” the source revealed.