President Olusegun Obasanjo

A key member of Nigeria's ruling party and close associate of former president Olusegun Obasanjo has been sentenced to a total of 28 years in jail for corruption, the prosecution said on Tuesday. Bode George and five co-accused "were given 28 years on the charges, but will serve two-and-half years since the sentences will run concurrently," a prosecution lawyer told AFP. The sentence was handed down on Monday and defence lawyers said they will appeal against the conviction. "The big fish has been captured... George has been finally nailed," the lawyer in chambers of Festus Keyamo, who are prosecuting the case on behalf of ... Read Full Story

Nigerian ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar is among more than 600 debtors owing five troubled banks some 450 billion naira (2.96 billion dollars, 2 billion euros), the central bank said Thursday. In an advertisement, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said Abubakar, who was deputy to former president Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007), owed Spring Bank 111.15 million naira (731,490 dollars, 491,592 euros). Four other banks with huge loan portfolios are Bank PHB, Equitorial Trust Bank, Unity Bank and Wema Bank. The CBN also listed billionaire tycoon Aliko Dangote, rated by US Forbes magazine as one of the world's richest Africans with a net worth of around ... Read Full Story

Thousands of jubilant supporters of a key Nigerian militant leader crammed into boats to head for a camp where he was to formally disarm under a government amnesty deal that expires Sunday. Loyalists of Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, filled up boats from the oil city of Warri and made for Oporoza camp, a two-hour boat ride, to witness him giving up his weapons. Hundreds of other supporters who failed to make it due to a shortage of boats, chanted and danced at the jetty in Warri. Tompolo, seen as a kingpin of the militancy in the region, is the last of the ... Read Full Story

Nigeria's main rebel group in the oil-rich south on Tuesday named a team of mediators to open talks with authorities ahead of a deadline to disarm before this weekend. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in an email statement that a team of "eminent Nigerians", including a former military chief and a Nobel laureate, would negotiate with the government on its behalf. "Some eminent Nigerians have graciously accepted to dialogue on behalf of the ...MEND with the federal government of Nigeria whenever the government realizes the need to adopt serious, meaningful dialogue as a means to halting the violent ... Read Full Story

A Spanish court has found a plastic surgeon guilty of negligence in the death of Nigeria's former first lady and was given a suspended sentence of a year in jail. Stella Obasanjo, wife of then President Olusegun Obasanjo, died Oct. 23, 2005, two days after undergoing liposuction on her abdomen and other parts of her body at a clinic in the southern town of Marbella. A court in nearby Malaga convicted plastic surgeon Antonio Mena Molina of negligent homicide. The sentence was issued Monday and Mena was also barred from practicing medicine for three years and ordered to pay euro120,000 ($175,000) in damages to ... Read Full Story