Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 .

The Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 has repealed the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004 by providing for, among other things, that no person or body corporate shall, except in a transaction executed through a licensed financial institution,
make or accept cash payments of a sum exceeding N5,000,000 (Five Million Naira) or its equivalent in the case of an individual, or N10,000,000 (Ten Million Naira) or its equivalent in the case of a body corporate
Any Financial Institution or Designated-Financial Institution that fails to comply with the above provision by making the appropriate compliance report to the regulatory authorities commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of not less than N250,000:00 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) for an individual and not more than N1,000,000 (One Million Naira) for a body corporate, for each day that the contravention continues unabated.

Huawei launches dual SIM Android phones in Nigeria

By Prince Osuagwu
Nigeria’s burgeoning mobile sector attracted yet another additional investor last week as Huawei Technologies Ltd, announced the introduction of series of mobile devices into the highly competitive Nigerian mobile phone market.
Huawei is regarded as one of the world’s biggest telecom service providers. It is also one of the prominent telecom Infrastructure providers for many telecom operators in Nigeria, playing in the B2B genre of the technology business for many years.

Many children go unregistered in West Africa: NGO

DAKAR  (AFP) – Some 66 percent of births still go unregistered in parts of Africa, children’s rights group Plan International said Monday as the world marked the world’s population hitting the seven billion mark.
“Who’s counting the unregistered children in West Africa?” the organisation said in a statement.
Plan warned of the need for children to have their births registered in these countries where populations are doubling every 20 years, and authorities are unable to keep up with the growing demand for schools, health clinics and housing.

In Niger Delta, one rebel leader faces a choice: computer engineering or fighting

As leaders of Nigerian militias promise to restart their war against the government in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, one young commander weighs life as a rebel vs. life as a computer engineer.

By David Francis, Correspondent / October 30, 2011

• 

Nigerian rebels of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force patrol the creeks of the Niger Delta near Port Harcourt in Nigeria September 28, 2004. Blessing Dumo is a commander in the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force, but would prefer to become a computer engineer after college if only there were job prospects.

George Esiri/Reuters/File

Move over Boko Haram, Nigeria's MEND rebels set to restart oil war in Niger Delta

Leaders of Nigeria's MEND rebel group – and other militia commanders in the oil-rich Niger Delta – say they're ready to launch fresh attacks after two years of relative quiet following a 2009 amnesty.

By David Francis, Correspondent / October 30, 2011

• 

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan gives a speech during the lunch "Unleashing Africa's Potential: A New Vision" in Perth Wednesday. The Niger Delta region has been targeted by Muslim groups Boko Haram and the Movement to Emancipate the Niger Delta (MEND) over governments' failure to keep promises.

Daniel Munoz/Reuters

QOTD

Only the very ignorant are perfectly satisfied that they know. To the common man the great problems are easy. He has no trouble in accounting for the universe. He can tell you the origin and destiny of man and the why and wherefore of things.
-- Robert Green Ingersoll, "Liberty In Literature" (1890)

As The House of Reps Objects to Diaspora Voting

 By Sonala Olumhense
Of all the jokes emerging from Abuja, the one from the House of Representatives has to be the most serious. 
Last week, it suspended discussion of a bill which will amend the 2010 Electoral Law to extend voting rights to Nigerians abroad.
It is a simple proposition that is obvious especially in the lower house of bicameral legislatures worldwide: the more the number of citizens who are able to participate in national elections, the deeper that nation's democracy generally is.  That is why every democratic nation is working to ensure that its citizens abroad are not deprived of their same voting rights simply because they have ventured beyond the border.
Nigeria, on this point, has a crying need.  There are about 10 million citizens living abroad.  They are important participants in the political process from the point of view of their education levels, advocacy and economic capability. 

Beyond the Financial Crisis: Germany's Plan to Regrow the Global Economy

by: Jeremy Rifkin

At the moment, Germany is embroiled in a fierce debate over how to save the Eurozone and, with it, the future of the European Union. Although stringent austerity programs will have to be enacted in the member countries to reduce government debt, and new regulatory mechanisms put in place to oversee European financial institutions and markets, there is a dawning realization that these measures alone will be insufficient to assure the future of Europe and its member states. What's required, above all else, is a new sustainable economic growth plan that can take Europe into the future. That's beginning to happen.

Gaddafi, son buried in secret location

MISRATA (AFP) – The body of Libyan ex-leader Muammer Gaddafi was buried overnight in a secret location after days of being put on display in a market freezer, a Misrata military council member said Tuesday.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Gaddafi’s remains were buried “overnight in a religious ceremony” along with the corpses of his son Mutassim and ex-defence minister Abu Bakr Yunis Jaber.
According to guards at the entrance to the market on the outskirts of Misrata, 215 kilometres (132 miles) east of Tripoli, a convoy of four or five military vehicles took away the bodies late Monday night to an unknown location.

Edo govt to immortalise Sam Loco

Edo State Government, Sunday, announced plans to immortalise the late veteran actor, Mr. Sam Loco Efe, who passed on in August. Governor Adams Oshiomhole said government will rename a street after Sam Loco while making his speech at the lying-in-state of late Loco at Oba Akenzua Cultural Centre, Benin.
Oshiomhole said: “In Edo State, I believe that it would not be enough to make all the rhetoric. We have decided to immortalise the late Sam Loco by naming a street after him. It will be a street that has been rebuilt and not one with potholes. When people drive on it they will remember the contributions of our late brother.
“Sam Loco, by his contributions, simply cannot possibly die because his works will be played back and even children yet unborn will be able to watch and see his contributions to Nigeria’s entertainment industry.
“As I remarked in the condolence register, Sam reconnected all of us in our living rooms at various times. Several governors sent me condolence messages.
“It shows that this man wrote his own history by his works. So to the family, you have every reason to be proud to say I am the son or the daughter of Sam Loco.”

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/10/edo-govt-to-immortalise-sam-loco/

Millionaire Nigerian Pastor TB Joshua's Church Linked To Fraudulent AIDS Claims

UK health officials are looking into the role of evangelical churches including the Synagogue Church of All Nations, with UK headquarters in Southwark, South London, for advising parishioners to abandon HIV drug treatments in favor of prayer according to a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) report.

Already several AIDS patients who stopped taking their medications on the advice of their pastors have died.

US-EX-IM bank in Nigeria, offers $1b in credit facility

PRESSING its interest to engage Nigeria by offering financing options in key sectors of the economy, top officials of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (US-EX-IM) are in the country intent on reversing a situation where Nigeria is not tapping about 70 per cent of about $1 billion in products and financial facilities offered directly to the country by the US bank, Empowered Newswire reported, on Tuesday.
Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States, Professor Adebowale Adefuye, said the chairman and president of the EX-IM bank of the United States, Mr Fred P. Hochberg, is currently visiting Nigeria. The visit,  which began on Tuesday, will end tomorrow.

Landslide hits Enugu

By Tony Edike
ENUGU— OVER 20 communities in Awgu and Oji-River Local Government Areas of Enugu State have been thrown into serious difficulties, following a major landslide which cut off a portion of the Awgu-Achi-Oji River federal road.
The landslide on the road now under rehabilitation, reportedly occurred at Egu-Agbo Ifitte Mmaku end last Friday after a heavy rainfall.
The rehabilitation project was awarded by the Federal Government last year as a constituency project of the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, and work had progressed steadily before the unfortunate disaster which has rendered the road impassable.

We won’t release Baba Suwe until…, says NDLEA

By Albert Akpor
LAGOS— FOR the sixth day, detained ace comedian Babatunde Omidina alias Baba Suwe, was still under observation by officials of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.
Sources said the popular actor has not defecated since Sunday. Spokesman of the anti-drug agency, Mr. Mitchell Ofoyeju allayed fears, yesterday, that the drugs allegedly in Baba Suwe’s system could burst open, saying that could only happen if there was leakage in the wrappings.

AU chair laments Africa’s inability to conduct reliable elections

Addis Ababa -  The Chairperson of the AU Commission, Dr Jean Ping,  on Wednesday said Africa’s inability to conduct reliable elections was one of the challenges to sustainable democracy on the continent.
Ping said this in Addis Ababa at the Second AU/Organisation of American States (OAS) forum on Democracy and Human Rights in Africa and the Americas.

FG plans 50,000 jobs

BY MICHAEL EBOH
ABUJA—The Federal Government, Monday, said it is targeting the creation of about 50,000 new jobs and 6,000 young entrepreneurs within the next three years with the launch of the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria, YOU WIN, project.
The YOU WIN project, a youth empowerment and entrepreneurship programme conceived by the Federal Ministry of Finance in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Communication and Technology, Federal Ministry of Youth Development, the private sector and the World Bank, will be launched by President Goodluck Jonathan at an event with over 2,000 youths in Abuja.

Touched by the loss of Jobs

By Pini Jason
To know that you are going to die is the best way to avoid falling into the trap of thinking that you have something to lose.
Steve Jobs, at Stanford University, 2005
THE world was thrown into mourning last week Wednesday October 5, 2011 by the death of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc at the youthful age of 56. Even at that youthful age, it seemed as if Jobs had always been with us since the beginning of time. His contributions at that age gave him the timelessness that wealth or political power does not confer on ordinary mortals.

Death Penalty: 14 Year Old Executed in USA May Have Been Innocent

Photo: George Stinney Jr -
UAlbany National Death Penalty Archives

Activists are seeking to clear the name of seventh grader George Stinney Jr, one of the youngest people ever to receive the death penalty in America.

In 1944, George Junius Stinney Jr was just fourteen years old, when he became the youngest person ever to be executed on the electric chair. Activists have questioned the validity of the sentence for decades, but now South Carolina attorney Steve McKenzie has asked Claredon County Attorney General Ernest Finney to reopen the file.

Mr McKenzie cited no physical evidence linking the boy to the murder of two young girls, a coerced confession and a fundamentally flawed trial. The case is igniting another fierce debate over the use of the death penalty in America.

Post-merger: Shareholders save Nigeria from losing over N3tn

By Peter Egwuatu
Shareholders of the five rescued banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), last week saved the country from losing over three trillion naira if they had disapproved of the various merging proposals by the Board of Directors at the court-ordered Extra Ordinary General Meetings (EGMs).
Similarly, depositors of rescued banks have been assured of the safety of their money post-merger, following approvals received from the shareholders at the various court-ordered EGMs in support of the acquisition deals.

Flood: Task force demolishes 100 houses, shanties in Agege

By Monsor   Olowoopejo
LAGOS  – About 100 houses and shanties on water channels in Agege area of Lagos State, were, yesterday demolished by  Lagos State Task Force on Environment to give way for the reconstruction of canal in the affected areas.
Governor Babatunde Fashola had, on July 11, 2011, during an on-the-spot-assessment of areas devastated by flood of  July 10  heavy rainfall, ordered the demolition of all structures built on drainage, which was the major cause of the flood.

Gunmen kill 19 villagers in Zamfara

Gunmen armed with machetes attacked a village in Zamfara State on Sunday morning.

Eyewitnesses said the assailants were going house to house, posing as visitors before shooting and slashing their victims to death.

Tunji Abayomi joins Ondo gov race

A lawyer, Dr. Tunji Abayomi, declared his intention to contest the 2013 governorship election in Ondo State after unveiling his billboards and posters at his Oke-Agbe country home on Saturday.

Abayomi, who said he would contest under the umbrella of the Action Congress of Nigeria, said he was out to transform the state into a better place if elected.

Nigeria records first stem cell transplantation

Hospital, Edo State, medical experts have recorded the first successful stem cell transplantation operation in the West African sub-region.

The team led by a haematologist, Dr. Nosakhare Bazuaye, performed a successful surgery made on an indigent sickle cell patient, who suffered a stroke at seven.

Chief Medical Director of UBTH, Prof. Michael Ibadin, said the cell transplant began three years ago, when the institution assembled a team of 18 experts, which it sent to Switzerland in an effort to bring comfort to Nigerians suffering from sickle cell anaemia and other diseases.

Good news, sort of

The number of deaths among babies is declining
THE first 28 days of life are among the most dangerous in a human’s existence. In 2009 3.3m children died before they were four weeks old, down from 4.6m in 1990, according to a new paper from the World Health Organisation. The burden is not spread evenly. Five populous countries—India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and the Congo—now account for more than half of all neonatal deaths. And though mortality rates for newborns are falling, progress is much faster in some regions than others. If current trends continue, neonatal mortality rates in Africa will not reach the rich world's levels until 2166.

Graph Below: