Newscast - Africa

Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja has refused bail to the suspended deputy commissioner of police Abba Kyari.
The court held that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has placed sufficient evidence before the court enough for it to refuse bail.
The NDLEA in its counter-affidavits to Mr Kyari’s bail application held that it is inappropriate to grant bail to the applicant because of the facts and circumstances of the case.
The court says the medical challenges of the applicant are not beyond the capacity of the NDLEA.

All 132 people on board the plane that crashed into a mountainside in China earlier this week have been confirmed dead.
Officials say an air traffic controller tried to contact the pilots several times after seeing the plane’s altitude drop sharply but got no reply.
Hu Zhenjiang, deputy director-general of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, says all 123 passengers and nine crew members of flight MU5735 of China Eastern airlines have been killed on board on March 21.
He says the identity of 120 victims has been determined by DNA identification.

US media reports that President Joe Biden’s administration will include more taxes on the wealthiest Americans in its 2023 budget proposal, due to be released.
The Billionaire Minimum Income Tax would require the 700 or so American households worth more than $100 million to pay at least 20 per cent on their full income.
A white house document states that this minimum tax would make sure that the wealthiest Americans no longer pay a tax rate lower than teachers and firefighters.
The tax would also target unrealized gains in the value of liquid assets, such as stocks, which are not taxed until they are sold.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Ukraine is prepared to discuss adopting a neutral status as part of a peace deal with Russia, but the move would have to be guaranteed by third parties and put to a referendum.
He says Russia’s invasion had caused the destruction of Russian-speaking cities in Ukraine and said the damage was worse than the Russian wars in Chechnya.
Zelenskyy says a peace deal would not be possible without a ceasefire and troop withdrawals.
He ruled out trying to recapture all Russian-held territory by force, saying it would lead to a third world war, and he wanted to reach a compromise over the eastern Donbas region, held by Russian-backed forces since 2014.

Jersey’s government says Millions of dollars of public funds allegedly stolen by two of Kenya's richest men will be returned to the country to buy life-saving Covid-19 equipment following a landmark agreement.
The High Commissioner in the UK, Manoah Esipisu says the deal with Jersey has been hailed as a victory for the people of Kenya.
Samuel Gichuru, the wealthy boss of Kenya's power company, and his wife Salome Njeri were divorced in 2006
She alleged some of her husband's assets were being hidden from the proceedings and, in court, listed details of accounts she said belonged to Mr Gichuru in Jersey, which is often associated with secretive offshore banking and a low-tax environment.

Activists are demanding the return to Gabon of a rare 19th Century wooden mask sold in France for nearly $5m.
Activists disrupted the auction in the southern French city of Montpellier, saying whoever bought the mask was receiving stolen goods.
The auctioneer insisted the sale was entirely legal.
The mask would have been worn by a member of the Ngil secret society, a group that travelled through villages dispensing justice and hunting down sorcerers.
The Gabonese are demanding the return of precious artefacts stolen during colonial times.

The federal government urged Julius Berger, the contractors handling the multi-billion-naira new office building belonging to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission to speed up work on the project.
The government explained that this should be done in time before President Muhammadu Buhari’s exit from power next year as earlier agreed.
Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva stated that although the government was satisfied with the quality of work, the pace had been unnecessarily slow.
Sylva noted that although some progress had been made, it was important for the project to be completed before May 29 next year, stressing that the 36 per cent work already carried out should have been higher by now.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has urged Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission to widely publish the details of safeguards and mechanisms put in place to protect the privacy and security of election information and data in the custody of INEC, including in its servers, databases and other electronic formats.
SERAP urged him to clarify whether any third party is involved in the collection, control, and use of election information and data, the legal rules and processes guiding the choice of any such third party.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alabi, warned all Area Commanders, Tactical Commanders and Divisional Police Officers in Lagos State to strictly ensure that their men do not carry out police duties in mufti.
CP Alabi consequently vowed to vicariously hold liable any supervisor or head of the department under whose jurisdiction this directive is flouted.
He enjoined the general public to report sightings of any officer found on duty in mufti to enable the command to take appropriate disciplinary actions.

The Treasury Department says the United States has imposed new sanctions on individuals connected with Nigeria’s armed group Boko Haram,
Six Nigerian nationals who were found guilty of setting up a Boko Haram cell in the United Arab Emirates to raise funds for fighters in Nigeria have been placed on the sanctions list.
Under-Secretary of the Treasury Brian Nelson says with this action, the United States joins the UAE in targeting terrorist financing networks of mutual concern. The men, identified as Abdurrahman Ado Musa, Salihu Yusuf Adamu, Bashir Ali Yusuf, Muhammed Ibrahim Isa, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan and Surajo Abubakar Muhammad, were convicted in the UAE of attempting to send $782,000 from Dubai to Nigeria.
Adamu and Muhammad were sentenced to life in prison for violating UAE anti-terrorism laws, while Musa, Yusuf, Isa and Alhassan received sentences of 10 years in prison followed by deportation.