I don’t know how $32.5m Escrow Account was opened, says Adoke

A former Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), yesterday said he knew nothing about how an Escrow Account was opened and $32.5 million fines from Halliburton Energy Services paid into it.

He said he was not briefed about the existent of any Escrow Account at any time by a member of the legal team of the Federal Government, Mr. Roland Ewubare, who was National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) former Executive Secretary.

He explained that the team was constituted to initiate criminal proceedings against the five companies involved in the Halliburton bribe scandal.

The five firms, which later settled for plea bargain, were: Julius Berger ($35m); Siemens (Euros 30m); Snamprogetti ($30m); Halliburton Energy Services ($32,500,000) and Japan Gasoline Corporation ($26, 500,000).

Adoke, who spoke exclusively with The Nation on the telephone, said he did his best for the nation.

He said: “On assumption of office in 2010, I was approached by then chairperson of the EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri, that she has a request from some American lawyers to sue, on behalf of Nigeria, Halliburton and associated companies involved in the $180 million bribe scandal.

Gawker settles Hulk Hogan privacy case for $31m

The defunct US news website Gawker has settled a lawsuit won by retired US professional wrestler Hulk Hogan for $31m (£25m).

The privacy case forced Gawker to declare bankruptcy earlier this year, after a jury awarded Mr Hogan $140m over a leaked sex tape.

Mr Hogan's legal bill was paid by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who said he wanted to curb Gawker's "bullying".

Gawker shut down in August following the judgement.

The website, launched in the early 2000s, was known for its acerbic tone and aggressive coverage of celebrities.

The case involved a video posted by Gawker in 2012 after Mr Hogan was secretly recorded having sex with his friend's wife.

The settlement was announced on Wednesday in a blog post by Gawker founder Nick Denton, who called the conclusion of the case "a hard peace".

Footballer Andy Carroll threatened at gunpoint on way home from training

West Ham and England footballer Andy Carroll, 27, was on Wednesday threatened at gunpoint on his way home from training while driving his £100,000 Mercedes -Benz G-Class.

Just minutes after leaving West Ham's Essex training ground, two bikers pulled up alongside the striker and then one of them pointed a gun at him.

The striker, then immediately sped off in panic with the two bikers in heavy pursuit, but he managed to lose them. He immediately returned to the well secured Essex training ground.

His team-mates were alarmed as they struggled to grasp his word while the club staff immediately rushed to his aid. 

The incident left the striker 'shaken' and the club have now confirmed the incident with plans to beef up security around the striker already underway.

Young accident survivor meets with Cristiano Ronaldo 2 years after the footballer 'woke him up from coma' @akposcomedian1

A boy from Poland had the time of his life on Tuesday as he met up with his idol Cristiano Ronaldo, who helped him 'wake up from coma' back in 2014.

David, a young Real Madrid/Cristiano Ronaldo fan in 2013, had a bad accident while riding a bike and was in coma for three months.

His family enlisted him in a hospital that tested a new method of recovery from coma leading the doctors in the hospital to suggest that David should listen to commentaries of Real Madrid's games and Ronaldo's voice since everyone knew he was a huge Ronaldo supporter.

Three months later, David miraculously woke up at the exact moment he was listening to Cristiano Ronaldo scoring his third goal for Portugal against Sweden in a World Cup playoff.

Ronaldo invited David to Madrid as his special guest to watch a Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund in April 2014, on Tuesday the football star showed his kind side once again as he invited the young lad and his parents to Real Madrid's team hotel in Poland where Real Madrid will face Legia Warsaw (a Polish club) in the Champions League .

More photos...

Corpse of woman who died 4 years ago allegedly found fresh. Graphic Photos

According to Facebook user Atidade Hassan Abioye, the corpse of a woman that was recently dug out of her grave 4 years after she was buried in 2012, due to the demolition of buildings in the area where the woman had been buried, to allow proper road construction of the said area, was reportedly found fresh, with no stains on her cloths and her body well preserved.

Atidade shared this on his page and wrote:

“What a wonderful surprise, allah is great.there is a woman who has been dead since 2012 and buried in the same year,in year 2016 the government decide to rehabilitate some area around Ojoo and there is going to be a lot of demolition of houses and shop. but to my greatest surprise there is a particular woman buried that need to be dug out in other to construct the road properly, the greatest surprise there is that they dug the ground and met the woman how they buried her,no stains on her cloth,the rope is unloose and all part of her body is well preserved by Almighty Allah. There is heaven and there is hell, always be truthful in life and have a good mind to your other neighbor. It is a wonderful surprise at Ojoo Ibadan.ALLAH is great and believe in him and his messenger (saw)”

FG To Purchase 2 Additional Satellites For Nigcomsat At $550m – Shittu

The Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu, says the Federal Government plans to purchase two additional satellites for Nigeria Communication Satellite (NigComSat)  at the cost of $550 million.

Shittu disclosed this on Saturday while speaking with newsmen at the end of the 4th National Council on Communication Technology meeting in Kaduna.

He said that the Federal Government was already negotiating with China EXIM Bank for the purchase of the two additional satellites for storage of Data.

According to him, efforts are being made to procure two additional communication satellites to complement the existing NigComSat as a means of reaching areas that cannot easily be covered by terrestrial fibre.

“We need just about 550 million dollars to acquire two new satellites; we are already negotiating with China EXIM Bank, who had assured us that they will deliver the money.

“We will negotiate and procure extra satellites for NigComSat,  so that there will be adequate back up for and once this done whatever data is stored in one satellite will equally be shared by the two or three satellites.

“With that, there will not be fear of any problem because there will be enough data collection centre and there will be reliability.

South Africa set to pass a bill that could see comedians serve 10 years in jail for sarcastic jokes

Following the prevention and combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill that was released by the Justice Minister Micheal Masutha last week, South African government is reviewing a proposed bill that could see comedians hit with a 10 year sentence for making sarcastic jokes.
According to BuzzSA, the provisions of the bill, will carry heavy fines and a maximum jail term of 10 years for anyone convicted of showing bias, prejudice or intolerance on the grounds of race, colour, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, belief,  culture, language, nationality, birth, disability, HIV status, occupation or trade, albinism and ethnic or social origin.
Reacting to the proposed bill on City Press, popular comedian, Jason Goliath criticized the bill saying:

‘What comedians do on stage compared with what people like Penny Sparrow, for example, say, shows a definite difference between freedom of speech and hate speech. We do it in the name of fun’

Niger Delta Stakeholders Present 16-Point Demands To President Buhari

stakeholders in the Niger Delta region on Tuesday presented a 16-point demand to President Muhammadu Buhari on issues that bordered on the socio-economic development, security and restoration of peace in the region.

Chief Alfred Diete-Spiff, the Chairman of Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers’ Council, confirmed this development to State House correspondents in Abuja after the meeting between Buhari and stakeholders from the Niger Delta region.

According to him, the demands include the need to fast-track interventions on some of the  regional infrastructure, Presidential Amnesty programme, law and justice issues and the effect of increased military presence in the Niger Delta.

He said that the plight of Internally Displaced Persons, the Ogoni Clean-up and Environmental Remediation, the issue of Maritime University, Okerenkoko, and security surveillance and protection of oil and gas infrastructure were part of the demands.

Diete-Spiff said the stakeholders also presented the issues of the relocation of administrative and operational headquarters of oil companies to the region, power supply, inclusive participation in oil industry and ownership.

Algeria name 'killer squad' to face Nigeria, that includes Player of the year, Riyad Mahrez

Ahead of the must win Russia 2018 World Cup qualifier between Nigeria and Algeria slated for November 12 at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo, Algeria has named it's 'killer squad' to face the Super Eagles and it includes big names like Islam Slimani, Hilal Soudani, Yacine Brahimi, Sofiane Feghouli and PFA player of the year, Riyad Mahrez.

Nigeria must win this game if we are to stand a chance of topping the qualifiers in a group that contains Cameroon, Zambia and Algeria and has been labelled the 'group of death'.

See the full List of invited players below. Do you think the Super Eagles have what it takes to defeat the Algerians man to man?

SQUAD LIST

Goalkeepers: Rais M'Bolhi (Antalyaspor, Turkey)

A big, dirty secret from Donald Trump’s tax returns has been exposed

Unlike past presidential nominees, Donald Trump has declined to release his complete tax returns, which has fostered fervid speculation about what they might contain — especially since the New York Times published a few pages from Trump's 1995 tax documents last month.

Those documents suggested that the Republican nominee could have avoided paying taxes on as much as $916 million in income. The question was how he could do so legally. Experts had put forward a range of intricate theories, but according to new documents disclosed by the Times on Monday, there is a simple explanation for how Trump sheltered the bulk of that money.

“He made it up,” said Edward Kleinbard, a legal scholar at the University of Southern California. Experts had missed Trump's maneuver, Kleinbard said, because they did not think that it would have been allowed at the time.

celebration of the Itsekiri Woman Day

There is no doubt that our women are the best in the whole world with epitome of beauty and good character worthy of emulation.May God almighty continue to strengthen them for the development of our nation.

British banker who killed two Hong Kong prostitutes had sex with transsexuals, surfed gay websites for black men and told bosses he had HIV to justify time off work

Double killer Rurik Jutting had sex with transsexuals and searched for sex with other men as his life spiralled out of control from taking drugs and watching violent pornography, a court heard today.

The British banker even lied to his employers he was HIV positive after missing so much work because of his drug use and addiction to prostitutes.

Jutting surfed the gay website Grindr looking for black men to have sex with, his lawyer Tim Owen QC told the court.

He also had encounters with two transsexuals as well as numerous prostitutes while high on drink and drugs.

British banker Rurik Jutting, 31, pictured in 2014, has pleaded not guilty to the murders of two Indonesian sex workers

Jutting was charged with the murders of Sumarti Ningsih (left) and Seneng Mujiasih (right), whose bodies were found in his upmarket apartment near Hong Kong's red-light district

A court in Hong Kong was told in the two weeks before killing two prostitutes in October 2014 he had failed to turn up for work as he took cocaine and met prostitutes.

The sordid sex life of the Cambridge educated banker was detailed by a top psychiatrist from Broadmoor Hospital for the criminally insane who talked about his lengthy interviews with Jutting in prison.

Professor Derek Perkins spent 15 hours with Jutting earlier this year talking about his early life, work and the death of the prostitutes.

Jutting opened up about his life and how it had spiralled out of control leading to the murder of two Indonesian prostitutes in October 2014.

Jutting, who has admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility but denied murder, told Professor Perkins he wanted 'new experiences'.

The court has previously heard from UK based psychologist Dr Richard Latham that Jutting suffered from narcissistic personality disorder and sexual sadism disorder.

He had also been abused as a boy at top public school Winchester College and witnessed his father attempt suicide.

The court has been told Jutting was addicted to cocaine and violent pornography and tortured his first victim Sumarti Ningsih, 23, for three days before slitting her throat.

His second victim, 26-year-old Seneng Mujiasih, died after she tried to flee from his luxury high rise flat in Hong Kong.

A £350,000 a year highflying advisor with Bank of America Merrill Lynch he called police from his flat to confess.

Half of Russians fear Syria could spark WWIII

Moscow (AFP) - Nearly half of Russians fear that Moscow's bombing campaign in Syria could spark World War III, a poll showed Monday.

Moscow, an ally of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, has been staging bombing raids in Syria since September 2015.

Forty-eight percent of Russians were concerned that "heightened tensions in relations between Russia and the West could grow into World War III," according to a poll conducted by independent pollster Levada Centre last week.

That figure was up from 29 percent in July this year.

Why DO so many young people say they're bisexual? Honest? Confused? Influenced by celebrities? We talk to three youngsters - and their (somewhat bemused) parents

Shannon Scrivens can remember every detail of her first sexual encounter with another woman: the vodka she had beforehand to release her inhibitions; the smell of jasmine perfume; the David Bowie album that played in the background.

She describes the moment afterwards when, hurriedly putting her clothes back on before her mother returned from work, she and her female friend agreed what had happened would not ruin their otherwise platonic relationship.

But what 18-year-old Shannon isn’t as clear about is whether she actually enjoyed the experience. ‘It was disappointing because I think my feelings towards women are romantic, rather than sexual,’ she says. ‘But I am still attracted to both sexes and would describe myself as bi.’

As confusing as this might sound to some — and at times when discussing her sexuality Shannon herself sounds confused — she is far from alone. According to recent figures from the Office for National Statistics, the number of British people defining themselves as bisexual has risen 45 per cent in just three years.

This alleged increase is most notable in the young — for the first time, more 16 to 24-year-olds describe themselves as bisexual than those who say they are gay or lesbian combined. A survey by YouGov last year found that half of young people declared themselves as something other than 100 per cent heterosexual.

So what has sparked this staggering shift in the sexual tastes of our younger generation? Can half of all young people really be sexually fluid? Or are they simply labelling themselves bisexual in order to fit in with what is undoubtedly a fashionable trend?

One glance at the growing list of young celebrities who claim to be attracted to both sexes would certainly help explain this seismic shift in sexual attitudes.

Jaywon welcomes baby boy

The singer who just welcomed a baby boy with longtime girlfriend in Praha, Czech Republic, made the announcement today. Congratulations to the couple! More photos after the cut...