UNILAG students protest university name change

LAGOS  Students at one of Nigeria's premier universities protested an announcement renaming the school on Tuesday by President Goodluck Jonathan, saying that while the institution has been neglected, its name is still a famous brand they want to hang on to.

The president announced on state-run television that the University of Lagos popularly known as UNILAG  would be renamed Moshood Abiola University in honour of Bashorun MKO Abiola.

Abiola was a successful businessman widely believed to be the winner of a 1993 presidential poll annulled by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. Babangida's military successor, Gen. Sani Abacha, then jailed Abiola, who died in detention in 1998.

The name change is meant to honour Abiola's "martyrdom," Jonathan said, on a public holiday marking the West African nation's 13th year of uninterrupted democracy.

Within a couple of hours of the announcement, however, hundreds of students had flocked to the university's main gates, some in flip flops, hair nets, and even pajamas.

The university is a federal government university with its main campus at Akoka, and a college of medicine located at Idi-Araba, all in Lagos.
The University of Lagos was founded in 1962, about two years after Nigeria gained its independence.

Qatar: Pastor Adeboye leaves Doha with a mark

DOHA General Overseer of Nigeria-based Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Pastor Enoch Adeboye praised Qatar ’s economic growth and development during a programme at the Hilton Hotel in Doha , on Friday.

The clergyman made special prayers for peace in Lebanon , Syria , Yemen and the Middle East region. “Let us pray for the peace and progress of Qatar and wisdom for the leadership of the country,” Folu, wife of the clergyman said.

The congregation stood, some of them singing along, as a flute sounded off songs like Jehovah Gbe gbe letima at the conference hall where a multitude of Christians gathered to welcome Daddy GO as members of the RCCG fondly call him.

At 10:15a.m. Adeboye walked to the pulpit, knelt and prayed that God would bring transformation through peace, unity, love and good governance to Qatar , before preaching his sermon.

The hall filled to the brim, with some delegates from the UK , the UAE and Nigeria standing close to the pulpit to listen to the revered preacher from Nigeria . With emphasis on the theme of the programme, ‘Let the Wind Blow’, Adeboye said, "Whenever the wind of the Holy Spirit blows, several things like healing, progress and transformation take place."

No doubt, the congregation had faith because each member claimed his/her miracle as the soft-spoken clergyman preached. He urged every Christian to embrace the wind so as to receive their blessings.

Head of the Redeemed Christian Church in Qatar Tokunbo Balogun said, "It’s a great time to have our father in Doha . He is carrying a special package and we must be ready to receive it."

The event was enlivened with a special performance by the RCCG choir in Qatar under the ministration of Tomiwa Ogundare. The special song titled ‘Jehovah Gbe gbe letima’, a South Africa song was sung in different languages.

The clergyman, who recently turned 70, had earlier admonished Nigerians residents in Qatar to live peaceably and project the image of the country rightly.

Named one of the 50 most powerful people in the world by Newsweek in 2008, Adeboye said that when God wants to perform a miracle, it does not take Him a long time. He added that people just needed to be on the right track with God to enjoy rapid growth and progress.

He had earlier met officials of the Nigerian embassy from the UAE and Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation, Qatar chapter .

Moroccan rapper jailed for video insulting police

RABAT One of Morocco's most famous rappers and activists was handed a one-year jail sentence on 11 May for "insulting the police" through a video, report the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), Human Rights Watch and Freedom House.


Mouad Belghouat, better known as "al-Haqed" (the sullen one), was arrested in March after a video of his song "Kilab ed-Dowla" (Dogs of the State) was posted on YouTube. He was jailed because the video "showed contempt" toward police with the intention of "undermining their honour," reports Human Rights Watch.

TV5 reports that the song has been circulating online for over a year, but the video, with a photomontage of a police officer whose head had been replaced by a donkey's, was the major incentive for the charges. The video is no longer available online, and Belghouat denies any involvement in its creation, says TV5.

The case has mobilised the country's activist community due to Belghouat's strong voice in the pro-reform 20 February youth movement, formed shortly after Arab Spring protests broke out last year across the region. He is a well-known critic of corruption, injustice and wealth disparity in Morocco.

As such, Belghouat had previously been arrested for allegedly beating up a pro-government protester, a trumped-up charge according to his supporters, report ANHRI and Human Rights Watch. He was found guilty in January 2012 and sentenced to four months' imprisonment, which he had already served in pre-trial detention, say the members.

Despite its highly-touted constitutional reform, Morocco has shown a pattern of severely punishing criticism of the King or public institutions, particularly on social media. Earlier this year, 18-year old student Walid Bahomane was sentenced to 18 months in prison on a charge of "attacking the nation's sacred values" for posting content on Facebook ridiculing the King, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Activist Abdelsamad Haydour, 25, was sentenced to three years in prison in February for criticising the King in a YouTube video he made with another activist from the 20 February movement, reports ANHRI.

As Human Rights Watch notes, Morocco's constitution, which was amended in 2011, makes no provision for punishing freedom of expression. To the contrary, it includes strong free expression guarantees.

Nigerian jailed for identity theft

LONDON  A Nigerian national, who rented his identity to two illegal immigrants so they could get jobs and stay in Britain, has been jailed for 4 years, following an investigation by the UK Border Agency.

Uzezi Samuels Elor, 50, of Ecclesbourne Road in Thornton Heath was granted settlement – Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), in the UK in 1992, and as such was allowed to live and work here.

The agency did not confirm whether or not he had applied for UK Naturalisation or British Citizenship.

UK Border Agency Investigators discovered that he allowed his identity, and his passport, to be used by two other men, both Nigerians in the UK illegally, to make it look like they had the right to work in the UK.

But he was not helping the two for nothing. Money earned by them was paid into Elor’s bank accounts. He then claimed this income as his own when he applied for a mortgage.

Both of his co-conspirators were then jailed for ID offences, one has already been removed from the UK.

On Monday 23 April at Croydon crown court Elor pleaded guilty to 2 counts of facilitating a breach of immigration law, and 1 count of fraud by false representation. He was jailed for 3 years and 9 months.

Anyone from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) who is sentenced to 12 months or more in prison is automatically eligible for deportation on completion of their sentence.

However, if the person is a British Citizen, as opposed to a permanent resident, it is less likely that he will be deported.

Foreign criminals have also evaded deportation on human rights grounds.

Crime Act proceedings, designed to confiscate any money Elor may have made from the scam, have now begun.

23 arrested in Spain as 'Nigerian Letter' scam is broken up

Twenty-three people have been arrested by the Spanish National Police who have broken up an organisation which defrauded an estimated two million Euros in the "Nigerian letters fraud", and a variant of a false inheritance.

There 18 arrests made in Madrid, 4 in Albacete, and one in Ciudad Real. The nationalities of those arrested are Nigerian, Spanish and Romanian.

A statement from the National Police said that they laundered the enormous profits from their scams, and pretended that they were building a commercial centre in Lagos, Nigeria, similar they said to the one in Alcobendas in Madrid.

Thousands of letters and emails were sent out daily to potential victims in an attempt to convince them that they were about to receive an important sum of money, from an inheritance of an unknown relative, or that they had won a prize in the Spanish lottery. However to get their money they had to pay a sum for administration and taxes which is where the fraudsters made their money. They even arranged interviews in luxury hotels and showed up in top of the range vehicles to try and make the frauds stick.

Police have carried out 12 searches and found false dollar bills, names and addresses of potential foreign victims, hundreds of prepared envelopes, more than 90 mobile phones and computer material. 54 bank accounts have been blocked and three properties and three vehicles embargoed.

The investigation started last August when the authorities in Denmark raised the alarm, after a Danish subject had fallen victim to the Spanish group.