NACIWA URGES FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF ECOWAS PROTOCOL.

The Network of Anti-Corruption Institutions in West Africa (NACIWA) has called for the development of comprehensive guidelines for the full implementation of the ECOWAS Protocol on the fight against corruption.

The assembly made the call in a communiqué adopted and signed by all the member states of NACIWA at the end of its 6th General Assembly  yesterday in Abuja.

The conference, which began on Monday, deliberated on modalities for deepening the fight against corruption in the West African sub-region.

The Network stated that comprehensive guidelines for the implementation of the ECOWAS Protocol on the fight against corruption had become a necessity.

It stated that guidelines would help to conform to international instruments such as the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and the African Union (AU) Convention against Corruption.

Other highlights of the communiqué include advocacy for better funding and resourcing of anti-corruption agencies in the sub-region.

It stressed that adequate human and material resources were essential for the effective discharge of their mandates.

It called on the ECOWAS commission to expedite the establishment of a Technical Commission for the effective implementation of the ECOWAS Protocol on the fight against corruption.

The communiqué also addressed the need to harmonise legal and regulatory frameworks across the region to prevent safe havens for corrupt individuals and facilitate more effective cross-border anti-corruption efforts.

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NBA SAYS DOMESTIC REFINING WILL ADDRESS FUEL SCARCITY, QUEUES.

The Nigerian Bar Association(NBA) has called for full implementation of the directive of President Bola Tinubu on the supply of crude to Dangote refinery and modular refineries in the country.

Describing the establishment of the refinery as a nationalistic and patriotic endeavour, the umbrella professional association of lawyers, urged the Federal Government and Nigerians to support the Dangote Petroleum Refinery to end the reign of fuel scarcity and perennial queues at filling stations in the country.

It expressed disappointment that the major project is encountering strong resistance from fuel importers, who have stifled the economy and kept it reliant on imported refined petroleum products, despite Nigeria’s status as a leading crude oil producer.

The President of NBA, Yakubu Maikyau, who led other leaders and members of the association on a visit to the facility, praised the President/Chief Executive of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, for remaining steadfast despite the opposition faced.

He urged the Federal Government to create a supportive environment for the refinery, aiming to transform Nigeria into a net exporter of refined petroleum products and to alleviate the severe hardships caused by fuel scarcity.

He lamented that it is shameful for the refinery to import crude from abroad and export refined products due to opposition from local players

“Anyone serious about turning around the fortunes of this country cannot ignore Dangote’s efforts. This is a people-centered investment that must be supported. This is the type of investment we need, and wherever such investments exist in this country, we urge the government to create an enabling environment for the benefit of the people.

“If we establish a supportive environment for this refinery to operate, we will eliminate the queues on our streets and resolve the difficulties associated with the scarcity of petroleum products.

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WEST AFRICAN JUNTAS WRITE TO UNITED NATIONS OVER UKRAINE’S ALLEGED REBEL SUPPORT.

The military juntas of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have written to the U.N. Security Council to denounce what they said was Ukraine’s support for rebel groups in West Africa’s Sahel region.

Mali cut diplomatic ties with Ukraine in early August over comments by a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, Andriy Yusov, about fighting in Mali’s north that killed Malian soldiers and mercenaries from the Russian Wagner group in late July.

The military government of Niger followed suit days later in solidarity with its neighbour.

Yusov had said Malian “rebels” had received necessary information “to conduct a successful military operation”.

Mali and Niger interpreted Yusov’s comments as an admission of Ukraine’s direct involvement in the conflict, and accused it of supporting international terrorism as a result.

Ukraine has repeatedly called the allegations groundless and untrue. Its foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

The country is still locked in heavy fighting with Russia more than two years after Moscow’s invasion.

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FIVE KENYAN POLICEMEN ARRAIGNED OVER JAIL BREAK OF SUSPECTED SERIAL KILLER.

Five Kenyan police officers have been arraigned, accused of helping a suspected serial killer and 12 others escape from a police station in the capital Nairobi.

Prosecutors asked the court to detain the policemen, who were on duty during Tuesday’s jail break, for two weeks to allow officers to complete an investigation into their alleged involvement.

Prosecutors asked the court for more time to collect statements, scour CCTV footage and examine the policemen’s phones.

Among the escapees was Collins Jumaisi, arrested last month over the murder of at least six women whose bodies were discovered wrapped in plastic bags in an old quarry, which is now used as a rubbish dump.

Police say Jumaisi admitted to killing 42 women including his wife, but his lawyer told a court he was tortured into making a confession.

Prosecutors deny he had been mistreated.

Preliminary investigations showed that insiders aided the escape, police said in a statement, adding that they had launched a man-hunt to re-arrest the escapees.

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AT LEAST OVER TWENTY KILLED AS CONGOLESE BOAT OVERTURNS.

At least 24 people died after an overloaded boat capsized on a river in Congo’s Mai-Ndombe province, and the death toll is expected to rise as many passengers are missing.

Kutu territory administrator, Jacques Nzenza, said the boat carrying about 250 to 300 passengers overturned on Sunday night after it hit tree trunks underwater.

Overloading was the main cause of the accident, he said saying there was an imbalance in the boat and the panicked people went to put the weight on one side, causing the boat to tip over.

A civil society leader in the territory, Fidele Lizoringo, said 43 people survived but angry villagers lynched the boat manager because some of their relatives had died in the accident.

River travel and deadly boat accidents are common in the central African country, which has few paved roads across its vast, forested territory and vessels are frequently loaded well beyond their capacity.

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SOMALIA’S BOMB DISPOSAL EXPERTS FACE DOWN FEAR TO SAVE LIVES.

Wearing a bulky protective suit and helmet, Mohamed Ahmed inches towards the truck where explosives wired to a mobile phone have been planted in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.

Fortunately for Ahmed, a police officer, this is a training exercise and the device is a dummy.

Bombings using this technique, or suicide attacks with vehicles, are a common occurrence in Somalia, where insurgents linked to al Qaeda have been fighting the government since 2007.

In one of the most recent attacks, fighters from the al Shabaab militant group used a car bomb to blow up a restaurant in the capital where soccer fans were watching the final of the Euro 2024 tournament on television, killing five people.

“We fear and feel like we are risking our lives,” said Ahmed, a member of the police’s Explosive Ordnance Unit. “But we work carefully together and consider that we’re saving the lives of our citizens.”

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UGANDA IS EXPLORING FOR OIL IN TWO NEW REGIONS.

Uganda is exploring for oil in two new regions where potential discoveries of crude could increase the East African country’s proven reserves of 6.5 billion barrels.

Commercial quantities of crude oil were discovered in the Albertine Graben basin in Uganda’s west near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo nearly two decades ago, but production is not projected to start until next year.

Government geologists are exploring two new regions located in Uganda’s north and northeast.

This is according to Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa at a news briefing in the capital Kampala.

“The ministry is conducting preliminary petroleum exploration studies in the Moroto-Kadam Basin to assess its oil and gas potential. Similar surveys have started in the Kyoga Basin,” she said, referring to the two new regions.

Uganda has five basins where hydrocarbon potential is suspected, with only one, the Albertine, successfully explored so far, the energy ministry says.

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BIDEN CALLS NETANYAHU, STRESSES URGENCY OF GAZA CEASEFIRE.

United States President Joe Biden, in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed the urgent need to conclude a Gaza ceasefire-for-hostages deal and pointed to upcoming Cairo talks as crucial.

According to the White House, their call followed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s whirlwind trip to the Middle East that ended on Tuesday without an agreement between Israel and Hamas militants on a truce in the Palestinian enclave.

Negotiators who have struggled for months to conclude a ceasefire deal plan to meet in the coming days in Cairo.

A White House statement about the call said the president stressed the urgency of bringing the ceasefire and hostage release deal to closure and discussed upcoming talks in Cairo to remove any remaining obstacles.

The statement said Biden and Netanyahu also discussed U.S. efforts to support Israel “against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, to include ongoing defensive U.S. military deployments.”

Iran has vowed retaliation over the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, which it blamed on Israel. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it was behind the killing.

The United States has ordered a guided missile submarine be deployed to the Middle East and ordered the Abraham Lincoln strike group to accelerate its deployment to the region to be on hand to bolster Israel’s defense.

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ISRAELI TANKS PUSH DEEPER INTO GAZA.

Israeli forces pressed deeper into areas of the central and southern Gaza Strip as they battled Hamas fighters, while Palestinian health officials said Israeli strikes had killed at least 22 people across the enclave.

The new escalation comes hours after U.S. President Joe Biden pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the urgency of sealing a deal for a truce in Gaza and the release of hostages.

Months of on-off talks on a ceasefire have circled the same issues, but Israel and Hamas have stuck firmly to their demands.

In the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, a strike on a house killed 11 people, while another killed six, including a local journalist, in a house in Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.

Five others were killed in separate strikes in the south.

The Israeli military said its forces had intensified their operations in Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, and Khan Younis, in the south, dismantling dozens of military structures, locating rockets, and killing militants, over the past 24 hours.

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KAMALA HARRIS’S VP PICK TIM WALZ RALLIES DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.

Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz led fellow Democrats in a political pep rally vowing that he and presidential running mate Kamala Harris would triumph over Republican Donald Trump in November’s U.S. election.

The Minnesota governor, who was little known in America 15 days ago, acknowledged he had never given such a big speech but said that as a former high school football coach, “I have given a lot of pep talks.”

Walz brought his plain-speaking style and small-town values to the national stage, joined by a litany of political luminaries and star entertainers on the third night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Walz, 60, accepted his party’s nomination for the No. 2 job.

He said America should be a place where children don’t go hungry, healthcare and housing are human rights, “and the government stays the hell out of your bedroom,” referring to Republican assaults on abortion rights and same-sex marriage.

He spoke of preserving the freedoms that Democrats say are under attack from Trump, 78, who is making his third major-party run for the White House.

Walz said a second Trump White House would serve nobody except the wealthy and most extreme.

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PROTESTS ACROSS INDONESIA AS PARLIAMENT DELAYS CHANGE TO ELECTION LAW.

Indonesia’s parliament postponed ratifying changes to an elections law on Thursday amid protests in multiple cities, following outcry over legislation seen to strengthen the political influence of outgoing President Joko Widodo.

The plenary session to pass the changes was delayed due to a lack of a quorum, legislator Habiburokhman told reporters outside the parliament building.

It is unclear if parliament will reconvene to pass the law before the registration for regional elections opens next Tuesday.

The parliament planned to ratify changes that would have reversed a ruling by the constitutional court earlier this week.

The legislative changes would have blocked a vocal government critic in the race for the influential post of Jakarta governor, and also paved the way for Widodo’s youngest son to run in elections in Java this November.

The power struggle between the parliament and the judiciary comes amid a week of dramatic political developments in the world’s third-largest democracy, and in the final stretch of the president’s second term.

Widodo downplayed the concerns, saying on Wednesday the court ruling and parliamentary deliberations were part of standard “checks and balances”.

The home affairs minister said the changes were intended to provide legal certainty.

More than 1,000 demonstrators gathered on Thursday outside the parliament building in Jakarta and across multiple cities in Java, some holding banners accusing Jokowi of destroying democracy.