A former South African president, Jacob Zuma, appeared in court on Friday to face corruption charges relating to a $2.5 billion arms deal.

The 75-year-old, whose scandal-plagued nine years in office were marked by economic stagnation and credit downgrades, faces 16 charges including fraud, racketeering and money laundering.

Mr Zuma denies any wrongdoing and is challenging the decision to prosecute the case, a dramatic development on a continent where political leaders are rarely held to account for their actions before the law.

Wearing a dark suit, a smiling Mr Zuma waved to crowds of supporters and reporters as he mounted the steps of the High Court in Durban shortly before 0700 GMT.

The speed with which prosecutors have booked his day in court is a sign of the loss of control Mr Zuma has suffered since his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, became head of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in December.

However, Mr Zuma still retains some popular support, especially in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal, where the case is being heard.

Heavily armed police in riot gear lined the square outside the court, as thousands of Mr Zuma’s supporters gathered to express solidarity with a leader they say is the victim of a politically motivated witchhunt.

Marchers, many clad in the distinctive yellow, green and black of the ANC, carried placards reading “Hands off Zuma” and performed the high-stepping toyi-toyi protest dance made popular in South Africa’s decades-long struggle against apartheid.

Businessman Siya Khoza said he admired Mr Zuma’s determination to bring in economic policies that he said were designed to spread the wealth in what remains one of the world’s most unequal societies.

“Whatever happens we will still support Zuma because we believe he brought us radical economic transformation and we still believe that him being in the ANC he will push for it,” said Khoza, wearing a waistcoat emblazoned in
ANC colors.

Mr Zuma’ son, Edward, told supporters at nearby park where several thousand people held an overnight vigil that his father was not worried.

“I would want to believe that as an innocent man, he is definitely not worried,” the domestic News24 agency quoted Edward Zuma as saying.

Mr Zuma, who was forced to resign by the ANC last month, was at the center of a 1990s deal to buy billions of dollars of European military hardware to upgrade South Africa’s post-apartheid armed forces.

The deal was mired in scandal and controversy from the start, with many inside and outside the ANC questioning the spending given the massive social issues, from health to education, Nelson Mandela’s party had to address after coming to power in 1994.

Fallout has cast a shadow over South African politics ever since. Mr Zuma was deputy president at the time. Schabir Shaikh, his former financial adviser, was found guilty and jailed in 2005 for trying to solicit bribes for Mr Zuma from a subsidiary of French arms company Thales.

The company is facing charges in the same case.

Charges against Mr Zuma were filed but then set aside by the National Prosecuting Authority shortly before he successfully ran for president in 2009.

The charges were re-instated in 2016.

Since his election nine years ago, his opponents have fought a lengthy legal battle to have the charges reinstated.

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Yesterday, Northern pastors under the aegis, Arewa Pastors Peace Initiative, visited President Buhari at the state house in Abuja and endorsed him for a second term.

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The Nigerian Senate, yesterday, queried the sum of N800 million budgeted for the purchase of security equipment by the Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA).

The lawmakers made its position to the Acting Managing Director, Danladi Ibrahim, when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Marine Transport to defend the agency’s 2018 budget.

The panel wondered why the agency requested for N800 million in the 2018 budget for the purchase of security equipment, which was the same amount it received in the 2017 budget for the same purpose.

The committee noted that out of the N800 million, the agency had spent N790 million in 2017, which amounts to over 90 per cent of the appropriated sum.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, noted that the agency failed to provide details and specifications of how it plans to spend the money it requested for in the 2018 budget.

Yerima noted: “You said you want to do something; the same amount last year, the same amount this year. There are no details, no explanations, no form of specification whatsoever. This is unacceptable.”

Another member of the committee, Senator Mohammed Hassan, said Ibrahim and his team should be asked to go back and do the right thing.

He said: “You are doing construction, the locations are not known. You have a project of N1.2 billion which you requested for in 2017, you have received over 90 per cent, you requested for the same amount in 2018. The right thing should have been for you to request for the balance.”

On his part, NIWA boss told the committee that the security equipment was not meant for one place alone. He also said the 2017 approval was the first time the authority was receiving fund for capital projects.

The committee, thereafter, asked the representatives of the agency to go back and do the right thing.

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President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has disclosed that the president’s recent approval of the release of $1 billion for the purchase of military equipment is not just to fight Boko Haram.

After presiding over a meeting with the National Security Council at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday, April 4, 2018, the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali revealed that the president approved the release of the fund which was withdrawn from the Excess Crude Account by the Federal Government.

“I can inform you that of recent, our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, gave approval for the purchase of more equipment for the military, worth $1 billion,” Dan-Ali said.

While speaking on Channels Television on Thursday, April 5, 2018, Adesina said the fund is not just to intensify the military’s fight against Boko Haram but to fight other forms of insecurity in the country.

He also insisted that contrary to what the critics are saying, President Buhari followed due process in approving the release of the fund.

He said, “It couldn’t have been done before the approval, the approval had to come like it came and then Mr President having approved it, sends a communication to the National Assembly. That’s the right procedure.

“That fund is not meant to battle Boko Haram, it is not Boko Haram fund; it is fund to battle insecurity. Boko Haram is not the only form of insecurity we have in Nigeria.

“As we speak now, the communication to the National Assembly is about ready. Those who have been venting spleen and flexing muscles over the matter should just have bothered to make enquiries from the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters.

“There is not timing that is not good for security. Every time is security time. Those who are reading political meanings to it, it is just very unfortunate they play politics with everything and they will play politics with the very life of Nigerians which is very bad.

Controversy has trailed the release of the fund as the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and especially Ekiti State governor Ayodele Fayose, has kicked against the process that led to the withdrawal of the fund.

While the Federal Government has insisted that the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) had approved the withdrawal of the fund in December 2017, Fayose said he had no input in the decision.

The Buhari-led government has been accused of trying to loot the $1 billion to fund the president’s re-election bid in next year’s election as they failed to see the reason in using the enormous amount to fight a terrorist group that the government has claimed several times has been defeated.

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The Board of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has suspended six directors of the agency indefinitely.

The suspension of the affected officials by the newly-inaugurated board was in connection with the ongoing probe of the finances of NEMA by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The financial years being reviewed by the anti-graft agency are from 2011 to 2015.

Those placed on suspension are the Director of Finance and Accounts, Akinbola Hakeem Gbolahan; Ag. Director, Special Duties, Umesi Emenike; Director, Risk Reduction, Mallam Alhassan Nuhu; Pilot in-charge Air Ambulance and Aviation Unit, Mamman Ali Ibrahim; the Chief Maintenance Officer, Ganiyu Yunusa Deji; and the Director of Welfare, Kanar Mohammed.

The EFCC had in a report to the Presidency recommended the disciplinary measures in order to enable it conduct unhindered investigation and have access to vital records.

Based on the EFCC’s recommendation, the Board of NEMA approved the suspension and directed the management to give effect to its decision.

The Board also mandated the management of NEMA to cooperate fully with the EFCC in the ongoing probe.

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A South Korean court on Friday sentenced the impeached President Park Geun-hye to 24 years in jail with a fine of 18 billion won (17 million U.S. dollars) for corruption.

The court found Park guilty of bribery over a scandal that exposed webs of corruption between political leaders and the country’s conglomerates.

The court ruled that Park colluded with her old friend, Choi Soon-sil, to receive tens of billions of won from major conglomerates such as Samsung and Lotte to help Choi’s family and fund non-profit foundations owned by her.

Park, 66, has denied wrongdoing and was not present in court.

Prosecutors initially sought a 30-year sentence and a 118.5 billion won (112 million dollars) fine for Park, after indicting her on charges that included bribery, abuse of power and coercion.

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A pro-democracy group, the Northern Alternative Forum, NAF, has declared that President Muhammadu Buhari remained the best presidential candidate from the region ahead of the general 2019 elections.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja, the National Chairman of NAF, Mallam Gidado Ibrahim said no amount of campaign of calumny against the President will stop Buhari from seeking re-election to continue his quest to return the country to path of glory.

A pro-democracy group, the Northern Alternative Forum, NAF, has declared that President Muhammadu Buhari remained the best presidential candidate from the region ahead of the general 2019 elections.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja, the National Chairman of NAF, Mallam Gidado Ibrahim said no amount of campaign of calumny against the President will stop Buhari from seeking re-election to continue his quest to return the country to path of glory.

Mallam Ibrahim, who said there was no better candidate than President Muhammadu Buhari for now, advised some Northern elements searching for a replacement for Buhari from the region ahead of the 2019 polls to dump the idea.

According to him, “after reviewing the outcome of meetings held recently by the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, and other interest groups in the North, we in Northern Alternative Forum have come to the conclusion that shopping for a credible presidential candidate other than President Muhammad Buhari will only come to a dead end.”

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THE All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State has said that it will not be moved by what it claimed, yesterday, Read More…

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Former Monaco player, George Weah, has been voted president of Liberia after clinching 12 of the 15 counties in the west African country. Read More…

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Sixteen Local Government Chairmen in Ekiti State have sued the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and Governors of the 36 states over the approval of the sum of $1billion from the Excess Crude Account of the Federation for the fight against insurgency.

In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1264/17, the council chairmen asked the Abuja division of the Federal High Court to declare the approval of the sum of $1 billion by the 36 state governors as unlawful and therefore, null and void.

The suit which was filed on Tuesday at the registry of the court by counsel to the plaintiffs, Ola Olanikpekun (SAN) also listed the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission as a defendant.

The Chairmen include: Deji Ogunsakin (Ado LGA); Bola Alonge (Ikere LGA); Lanrewaju Omolase (Ekiti South West LGA); Dapo Olagunju (Irepodun/Ifeelodun LGA); Samuel Adeniyi (Ekiti East LGA); Olumide Falade (Ise/Orun LGA); Sade Akinrinmola (Gbonyin LGA); Tayo Ogundare (Oye LGA); Chief Ayodeji Arogbodo (Ido/Osi LGA) and Taiwo Oguntuase (Emure LGA).

Others are: Kolawole Omotunde (Ekiti West LGA); Bolaji Jeje (Efon LGA); Adesola Adeyanju (Ikole LGA); Ganiyu Bakare (Ilejemele LGA); Adeniyi Adebayo (Moba LGA) and Abiodun Dada (Ijero LGA).

The suit which is yet to be assigned to any judge for adjudication is supported by a 14-paragraph affidavit deposed to by Everest Igweokolo, a litigation executive in the law firm of Ola Olanikpekun.

The Chairmen are demanding an “order of injunction restraining the Federal government and the 36 states governors, their agents, servants, privies, representatives in interest, howsoever called and by whatsoever name designated, from giving effect to the appropriation and/ or approval of appropriation of the sum of $1 billion or any other sum whatsoever, from the Excess Crude Account of the Federation.”

The Council Chairmen also asked the court for “a declaration that they are entitled to full share of all revenue accrued and accruable to the Federation Account and the Federation Excess Crude Account or any other Account whatsoever operated by and for the Federation of Nigeria, including the sum of $1,000,000,000 (which was purportedly approved for the expenditure of the Federal Government by the 1st-37th defendants at the 83rd, National Economic Council meeting of December 15, 2017, in accordance with section 162 of the 1999 constitution and the provisions of Allocation of Revenue (Federation Account) Act.”

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