Somalia probes 'plane explosion' after emergency landing

Somalia has launched an investigation after a commercial plane made an emergency landing with a gaping hole in its fuselage in the capital, Mogadishu.

There were fears that the hole in the Daalo Airlines flight, bound for Djibouti, was caused by a bomb.

Reports said a person fell out of the hole, which appeared shortly after the plane took off from Mogadishu airport on Tuesday.

But Daalo Airlines says all 60 people on board have been accounted for.

Security officials say two passengers were hurt in the incident.

Some reports say a fire broke out shortly after take-off.

Serbian captain Vlatko Vodopivec said he and others were told the explosion was caused by a bomb, though civil aviation authority officials said they had found no evidence so far of a criminal act.

"It was my first bomb; I hope it will be the last,'' Mr Vodopivec said. He said the blast happened when the plane was at around 11,000ft (3,350m).

"It would have been much worse if we were higher," he added.

Darren Howe, who had a colleague on the plane, told the BBC that "it was not an explosion but a fuselage failure at 10,000ft".

Mohamed Hassan, a police officer in Balad, an agricultural town 30km (18 miles) north of Mogadishu, said residents had found the body of a man who might have fallen from the plane.

Abdiwahid Omar, the director of Somalia's civil aviation authority, told state-run Radio Mogadishu that authorities were not sure if the body was that of a passenger.

Daallo Airlines flies regularly from its base in Dubai to Somalia and Djibouti.

Somalia is battling militant Islamist group al-Shabab that has been carrying out deadly attacks in its quest to establish an Islamic state.

The apparent explosion happened before the Daallo Airlines plane had gained high altitude and before the cabin had been pressurised.

This allowed the pilot to bring it back down for an emergency landing. If the plane had been much higher up, its fuselage could have been ripped apart and the passengers sucked out.

Photographs of the plane show the seats next to the hole still intact, meaning any explosion probably came from the overhead compartments.

This should raise questions about the security procedures for passengers flying from Mogadishu's Aden Adde Airport, in light of the security issues in the country.

Local media reported that Turkish Airlines, one of the few flying to Somalia, suspended its flights from Mogadishu in December following a failed al-Shabab attack on the airport.

The airline soon resumed operating the route, although a flight expected on Tuesday did not show up, raising questions about whether the Turks had intelligence about a security breach.

With BBC

Israel's unwanted African migrants

For nearly a year Israel has been offering African migrants cash and the chance to go and live in what is supposed to be a safe haven in a third country - but the BBC has spoken to two men who say that they were abandoned as soon as they got off the plane. One was immediately trafficked, the other left to fend for himself without papers.

Adam was 18 when he arrived in Israel in 2011. Attackers had burned down his home in Darfur at the height of the genocide, and he had spent his teenage years in a UN refugee camp in another part of Sudan. With no prospects in the camp and no sign of an end to the conflict in Darfur, he made his way north through Egypt and the lawless Sinai peninsula to Israel.

But Israel - which has approved fewer than 1% of asylum applications since it signed the UN Refugee Convention six decades ago - has not offered asylum to a single person from Sudan. It turned down Adam's application, and last October, when he went to renew the temporary permit allowing him to stay in the country, he was summoned to a detention centre known as Holot, deep in the Negev desert.

This was no surprise for Adam. As most Sudanese and Eritreans in Israel know, it's just a matter of time before they get the call to Holot.

The government calls Holot an "open-stay centre", but it's run by the prison service and rules are strict, including a night-time curfew, which, if broken, will land you in jail.

It's in such an isolated area that there's very little to do and nowhere to go.

I talked to Adam and a group of his friends just outside the gates of Holot, where, at that time, they spent most of their day playing cards or snooker, and eating and cooking in makeshift restaurants.

They told me they took turns to make the hour-long bus ride into the nearest town, Beersheva, where they bought food. The meals served in Holot were insufficient, they said, and contained little meat or protein.

Most of the men there were young - in their 20s or early 30s. Some had been teachers, activists or students in their own countries.

"We are wasting our youth here," Adam says. "If someone lives in Holot, they have no future... You find many people here go crazy."

Since I visited Holot, those makeshift restaurants and game areas have all been demolished on the orders of the government, leaving those inside with even fewer ways to pass the time.

Court orders arrest of ex-PDP secretary

Following a Motion Ex-parte filed by the Ekiti State Government against former State Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Temitope Aluko over alleged perjury, a Chief Magistrate Court in Ado-Ekiti, has ordered the State Commissioner of Police to arrest Aluko.

Chief Magistrate Adesoji Adegboye gave this order on Wednesday, upon a Motion Ex-parte number MAD/10cm/2016, filed by the State Government against Aluko and the State Commissioner of Police, pursuant to Section 117 of the Criminal Code Law, Cap C16, law of Ekiti State 2012, Section 79 of the Ekiti State Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2014 and Section 23 (D) of the Magistrates’ Courts Law 2014.

In the Motion, which was filed and moved by the State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Mr Gbemiga Adaramola, an order of the court was sought to issue warrant of arrest against Mr Aluko to be executed by the State Commissioner of Police for the purpose of committing him (Aluko) for trial for the offence of perjury.

Chief Magistrate Adegboye said the order was granted as a means for the first defendant (Aluko) to attend the court for defence.

The matter was premised upon an application to the State Attorney General by a lawyer, Mr Sunday Olowolafe, calling for the prosecution of Aluko for alleged perjury.

The legal practitioner said; “I hereby apply to your office that Dr Temitope Kolawole Aluko be arrested and sued for perjury in view of the interview recently granted on Channels Television by ‪8:00pm on Sunday 31 January, 2016.

“The said Dr Temitope Kolawole Aluko now recanted the evidence he gave in the cause of the hearing of the Ekiti State Governorship Election Petition as a star witness even up to the Supreme Court. The Certified True Copy of the State on Oath, evidence of Dr Temitope Kolawole Alukoin Court on the 12/11/14 and Nigerian Tribune and The Punch newspapers of Monday, 01/02/2016 that reported the interview granted are hereto attached.

“It is to be noted that this if this act (Perjury) is not looked into, it will definitely defile the cause of justice and consequently rubbished the judicial proceedings.”

In the affidavit filed in support of the motion ex-parte by Special Assistant to the State Governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, he said Mr Aluko, who was a witness before the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sworn to a Statement on Oath on August 4, 2014 wherein he stated that the Election was not only
free and fair, but devoid of violence, thuggery, hooliganism, snatching of ballot boxes, and related forms of electoral disorderliness.

Olayinka further averred that Mr Aluko tendered and adopted his Statement on Oath on November 12, 2014 and further gave evidence under cross examination.

He stated that all what Aluko said on Channels Television on Sunday,January 31, 2016 were contrary to and opposite in direction to his evidence before the Ekiti State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.

Issuing the warrant of arrest against Mr Aluko, Chief Magistrate Adegboye said since the court had the power to grant the order and it will serve the interest of justice, the State Commissioner of Police should arrest Aluko for the purpose of investigating and prosecuting him.

With The Guardian

NNPC reports N267bn loss for 2015

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation recorded a loss of N267.14bn in 2015, the latest data from the group’s financial report for the month of December 2015 shows.

According to the report, the national oil firm lost N11.861bn in the month of December alone, down from the N14.29bn loss recorded in November.

Its gross revenue was put at N2.046tn, while its expenses stood at N2.3tn, leaving a loss of N267.138bn for the 2015 financial year.

The refineries continued their poor performance through the out 2015 with the three refineries posting a combined loss of N82.09bn in the period under review.

The Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company lost N34.7bn, while Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company and Port Harcourt Refining Company lost N24.308bn and N23.09bn, respectively.

With The Punch

Alleged $620,000 bribe: Emenalo to testify against Farouk Lawan

Former co-accused to the ex-Chairman, House of Representatives ad hoc committee on fuel subsidy, Farouk Lawan, Boniface Emenalo will testify against Lawan in the case of acceptance of bribe brought against him and Lawan.

Until yesterday, Lawan and Emenalo, who acted as the committee’s secretary, were listed as defendants in the seven-count charge brought against them by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).

But yesterday, prosecution lawyer, Adegboyega Awomolo announced that the prosecution has amended the charge, reduced the counts to three and deleted Emenalo as a defendant.

The amended charge indicated that Lawan demanded $3 million from Mr. Michael Otedola and did collect $500,000 from the businessman. The offences are said to be contrary to sections 8(1)(a) and 17(1) (a) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000, and punishable under sections (8)(1) and 17(1) of the same Act.

Awomolo, through Emenalo as first prosecution witness, tendered some documents in aid of the prosecution’s case. The documents include:  Order Paper for the special session sitting of the House of Representatives on Sunday, January 8, 2012; votes and proceedings of the special session on the same date; Order Paper, vote and proceedings of the House on Wednesday April 18, 2012; and Order Paper, votes and proceedings of Tuesday April 24, 2012.

Also tendered was ‘Report of an ad hoc committee to determine the actual subsidy requirement and monitor the implementation of the subsidy regime in Nigeria (Resolution number HR.1/2012)’.

Trial Judge Justice Angela Otakula dismissed the objection by the defense lawyer, Sekop Zumka, who contended that the documents were not admissible as exhibits because the prosecution failed to provide the evidence of payment for its certification by the House of Representatives as provided for in the Evidence Act 2011.

But Justice Otakula held that unpaid fees does not render a document inadmissible in as much as it is relevant to the case. She also held that there was no provision of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 which prohibited the tendering of documents obtained after a case was filed.

She, however, gave the prosecution seven days to pay the fees and fixed further hearing for February 9.

With The Nation