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LAGOS—Former Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told the World Bank that about $500 million (N65bn) recovered from the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha in Switzerland was spent in the 2004 and 2005 budgets on roads, electricity, education, water and health across all six geo-political zones of Nigeria. This was contained in the documents the World Bank sent to Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, following enquiries made by SERAP on how the money, tagged Abacha loot was spent.

UGHELLI—SOLDIERS have intercepted about 15 youths of Ndokwa ethnic nationality in Delta State who were going for a peaceful protest against an oil company at Ase Omoku community in Ndokwa East Local Government Area of the state.

K ANO —Chief Executive of the Dangote Foundation, Ms Halima Dangote, has said that the ongoing construction of a multi-billion naira state-of-the-art Operating Theatre and Diagnostic Centre  at the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital, Kano will be completed next year. Ms Dangote, who disclosed this when her team visited the Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, weekend, said the Operating Theatre and Diagnostic Centre will cost the Foundation N7 billion.

Prominent Kurdish lawyer and the president of the bar association in the southeastern Diyarbakir province is dead. Tahir Elci was shot dead by unidentified gunmen while he was giving a public statement to the media in Diyarbakir, South-eastern Turkey. Reports say it was Kurdish insurgents who opened fire, killing him as well as a police officer, and injuring three other people, among them correspondents of two leading Turkish media organizations. Elci was a campaigner for Kurdish rights and had been criticized for challenging Turkey's official stance of calling the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) a terrorist organization. He died while awaiting trial for the comments he made about the PKK on CNN Turk TV. 

The apex Igbo organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo , yesterday, rose from its Imeobi (highest decision organ) meeting in Enugu and called on the Federal Government to release Nnamdi Kanu, the detained Director of Radio Biafra and leader of IPOB, unconditionally. However, the meeting, which was billed to hold with representatives of MASSOB and IPOB was boycotted by the pro-Biafra groups. Ohanaeze ‘s directive was contained in a communique jointly signed by the National President of Ohanaeze , Chief Gary Enwo-Igariwey and the Secretary General, Dr. Joe Nworgu. They said that agitations and public protests over Biafra had been exacerbated by the detention of Mr. Kanu, the director of Radio Biafra.

A BUJA —Tragedy has hit the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, after a suspect in its custody, suddenly developed chest pains, and died. Arowofela Olufemi, who was being investigated by the commission following allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, that he fraudulently converted over N100 million dividend warrants to himself, died in a military hospital, where he was rushed to by officials of the EFCC.

It came as cheering news that the two contractors engaged by the federal government to reconstruct the 167-kilometre Lagos/Ibadan Expressway have moved their equipment back to site to resume work. The Federal Government under former President Goodluck Jonathan had hired Julius Berger PLC to reconstruct and widen the portion from the Shagamu Exchange in Ogun State to the Lagos metropolis. RCC was awarded the Shagamu to Ibadan section. A lot of progress was made, and hopes were high among the road users that the traffic nightmares and frequent accidents experienced on the nation’s busiest highway would soon be a thing of the past.

33 year old rapper, Lil Wayne's daughter turned 17 years old yesterday and received a 2016 Range Rover Evoque for her 17th birthday. Last year, she got a Ferrari for her 16th birthday. More photos after the cut...

In two separate Boko Haram attacks, seven people including a soldier, were killed in both Bam and Gajigana villages of Biu and Magumeri Local Government Areas of Borno State, while an unspecified number of teenage girls were abducted in Bam Village. Several more people were injured in Gajigana village after insurgents set ablaze shops and houses without confrontation.

A 25-year-old mother-of-one who survived a car crash on Sunday morning has died after going back to the vehicle to grab her purse, police claim. Brittany Leith, mother of a three-year-old girl, was left completely uninjured when her Nissan hit the center median and flipped over onto its roof on Long Island's Southern State Parkway at 3.54am.

Chidinma and Flavour who performed their collabo- Ololufe last night at Phyno Fest in Onitsha, shared a kiss at the end of the song. Photo of the kiss after the cut...