EFCC
Photos of stacks of money discovered at a building owned by one of Nigeria’s former oil bosses have been posted on Facebook by the country’s anti-corruption body.
Agents from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) conducted the surprise raid on 3 February:
A special operation… in a building belonging to a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Andrew Yakubu in Kaduna yielded the recovery of a staggering sum of $9.7m [£7.7m] and another sum of £74,000 [$92,500] cash. The huge cash [pile] was hidden in a fire proof safe.”
The money was recovered after intelligence was received that "proceeds of crime" were suspected to be in that area of Kaduna, the EFCC said in a statement.
Mr Yakubu had reported to the commission’s office in the northern city of Kano, admitting his “ownership of the recovered money, claiming it was gift[s] from unnamed persons”, it said.
The former oil executive, who served as head of the state-owned oil company for two years from 2012, was assisting in their investigation, the agency added.
EFCC
AFP
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is tipped to take over from her ex-husband as president of South Africa – but a Xhosa royal family is not convinced she is up to the job… because she is a woman.
Xhanti Sigcawu, the brother of King Mpendulo Sigcawu, told South Africa’s News24 that he agreed she might be too “delicate”:
The King said he wonders, with women's vulnerability, will she be able to handle the role? Men have been struggling with the job. It’s a question that we need to ask. This was not directed purely at Dlamini-Zuma, it’s to all women."
The comments come after Ms Dlamini Zuma, 68, visited the traditional seat of the king, known as Nqadu Great Place, in South Africa's Eastern Cape Province earlier this week.
And it has upset some people.
Nkosikhulule Xhawulengweni Nyembezi, a researcher, analyst and human rights activist, has written an open letter to the Xhosa monarch in today’s Daily Dispatch newspaper:
It is not a place of a king to say who should stand for public office or to imply who ordinary South Africans should vote for. That is a fundamental right of individual citizens."
South Africa’s seven traditional monarchs have little political power, but have an advisory role and resolve local disputes.
The governing African National Congress (ANC) is electing a new leader in December, and its women's league has put forward Ms Dlamini-Zuma as a candidate.
AFP
Land rights are the key to creating jobs, ending poverty and reducing high living costs in Africa's cities, the World Bank has said.
The bank said African countries should reform procedures for buying and selling land, and invest heavily in urban infrastructure.
Africa’s urban population will double over the next 25 years, reaching 1 billion people by 2040.
What Africa needs are more affordable, connected, and livable cities. Improving the economic and social dividends from urbanization will be critical as better developed cities could transform Africa’s economies.”
You can read the full report here, or a report by Reuters news agency via the link below.
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