South African rapper 'Jub Jub' guilty of murder

Maarohanye is one of South Africa's best-known musicians

South African rapper Molemo "Jub Jub" Maarohanye has been convicted of murder and attempted murder after driving into a group of schoolchildren in 2010.

Magistrate Brian Nemavhidi also convicted Maarohanye of racing on a public road and driving under the influence of drugs.
Maarohanye smashed his car into a group of pupils in Soweto in 2010, killing four of them and wounding two others.
Family members and schoolchildren cried as the judgement was handed down.
Maarohanye was one of South Africa's best-known musicians, but he fell from grace after the crash, the BBC's Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg says.
'Cocaine and morphine'

We commend the National Prosecuting Authority's aggressive stance of charging irresponsible drivers with murder”

End Quote Mthunzi Mhaga Justice department spokesman

Maarohanye's co-accused, Themba Tshabalala, was also convicted of the charges.

They were allegedly drag-racing when their vehicles crashed into the children.
They had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Both had been out on bail since March 2010 - a decision which sparked protests among pupils who demanded their imprisonment.
Magistrate Nemavhidi revoked their bail and remanded them in custody until sentencing on 30 November.
The court room in Soweto, the main black township in Johannesburg, was packed and there were emotional scenes when the verdict was given.
One of the parents fainted and had to be carried out of the court room.
The court ruled that Maarohanye and Tshabalala were on cocaine and morphine when the accident happened.
The justice department welcomed the ruling, Sapa news agency reports.
"[The conviction] is clear confirmation of justice not only done but manifestly seen to be done," its spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga is quoted as saying.
"We commend the National Prosecuting Authority's aggressive stance of charging irresponsible drivers with murder instead of the usual culpable homicide, which usually attracts non-custodial sentences."

Nigerian terror suspect to be tried in South African blames bombing on his government

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, May 7, 6:08 PM

JOHANNESBURG — An alleged Nigerian terror mastermind has accused his government of being behind a bombing in which he is to stand trial, according to an application for bail made available Monday.

In Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan’s office rejected accusations Henry Okah made in the request for bail in South Africa, where he was arrested and will stand trial for bombings in Nigeria’s capital that killed 12 people during 2010 independence celebrations.

Okah’s lawyer, Jacques van Greunen, said Monday that Okah’s bail request had been delivered to the prosecutor and will be filed with the court Tuesday. Nigerian media had reported earlier on the contents of the affidavit, apparently leaked by Okah from jail.

In the bail request, Okah argues he should be free on bail pending trial because he is innocent. Okah says Jonathan’s government orchestrated the bombing to eliminate a rival and to fan ethnic tensions for political gain.

In a statement issued last week, Jonathan’s spokesman Reuben Abati said the president’s office “categorically affirms that these allegations are false in their entirety and without any factual foundation.”

Abati did not elaborate, but said Jonathan’s government would have more to say to the South African court. The trial is set to start in October.

Okah has been jailed in South Africa since being arrested here shortly after the October, 2010 bombings. He is charged under South African terror laws. Nigeria has not requested his extradition.

A South African judge rejected an earlier bail request from Okah. During earlier bail hearings, prosecutors presented evidence they said was drawn from Okah’s diaries and computer correspondence that they said bolstered accusations he masterminded the October bombings. In his new request, Okah argues the state’s assertions are not supported by its records of his phone calls and messages and emails.

Nigerian officials say Okah leads the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which he denies. Okah alleges in his latest bail application that Jonathan’s government worked with a faction of MEND to launch the attack, and had planned to blame it on northern militants. Okah alleges that plot was derailed when another MEND faction claimed responsibility for the bombings.

MEND accuses Nigeria’s government of failing to alleviate poverty in the delta, even though Nigeria earns billions of dollars from the region’s oil. MEND has issued statements threatening to attack South African interests in Nigeria because of Okah’s arrest and prosecution in South Africa.

Meanwhile, Boko Haram, a militant Muslim group in Nigeria’s largely Muslim north that is not affiliated with MEND, is blamed for the deaths of nearly 500 people — both Christian and Muslim — this year alone in Nigeria. The north-south, Muslim-Christian violence has escalated as MEND activity dropped off.

Okah claimed in his bail request that he has focused on development in the Delta, and had worked closely with Jonathan. Okah claimed Jonathan had sought an alliance with him against northern Nigerian politicians.

___

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria contributed to this report.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed
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Air Nigeria Oncourse , International Flights To Begin.

Air Nigeria

AirNigeria Development Company Limited has concluded its two-year turnaround programme, based mainly on financial engineering.

It now plans to consolidate on flights to its regional routes commencing with the London route on May 16 and the Johannesburg route on May 17.

The Paris route is to follow in June.

The chairman of the airline and Group Managing Director, the Global Fleet conglomerate, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim told senior journalist in Lagos at the weekend that the airline would start with seven flights from Lagos to Gatwick in London each week right from the beginning.

He added that, as new core investors in the airline, he inherited a debt of about $373 million from the Richard Branson-led management of the defunct Virgin Nigeria, which metamorphosed into Air Nigeria, stressing that he was not propelled by a profit motive but rather by the national question.

"First, we had to sort out the identity/name crisis; a period of 60 days was given us by Richard Branson to change the name. The company was financially distressed and had unavoidable flight delays. We then hired about 30 graduates trained directly by myself to do a fact-finding, diagnostic review and we found a lot of irregularities," he said.

"United Bank for Africa, for instance, had a loan exposure to Air Nigeria alone to the tune of $275 million (about N36 billion), which threatened to pull down both the airline and the bank. We thus took an AFREXIM long-term loan of $250 million and cleaned up the renegotiated UBA loan. We also paid out AFREXIM’s loan with a Bank of Industry loan, which we were able to procure at a 2 per cent interest rate. Beyond this, we are not indebted to any other financial institution except the Energy Bank of Ghana, which is a member of our group," he stated.

Commenting on the controversy concerning discrepancy in fares charged by some foreign airlines in the West African sub-region, Ibrahim said that was not an issue and could not be faulted because of the fluctuating exchange rates of the naira to the dollar, while such currencies as the Ghanaian Cedi was relatively stable, which caused a lot of volatility in airline incomes in Nigeria, a situation that could lead to a loss for them if not charged on their customers’ tickets.