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http://ift.tt/eA8V8J *To start lending in August DEVELOPMENT Bank of Nigeria plans to give out up to 20,000 new loans to small businesses within its first year of operation as part of efforts to help unlock credit to the economy. Small scale enterprises make up 60 percent of Nigeria’s economy. Chief Executive Officer of DBN, Tony Okpanachi, told Reuters that the new development bank will lend to local commercial banks and microfinance institutions that will then make loans to small firms, helping boost economic growth and jobs. Okpanachi said the bank will grant loans of up to 12 years’ maturity, longer than usual for the West African country, to enable the financing of new projects that would not be viable with short-term funds and in dollars. “The focus is on new loans. We know agriculture is a focus area, we will encourage that. We know other small industries. We would also try to encourage those sectors that will give maximum impact to the economy,” he stated. The DBN CEO sai...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By Mohammed Adamu IS the ‘whistle blower’ who gets paid also a ‘patriot’? Or do true patriots have to be paid to blow the whistle on crimes that put everyone in harm’s way? A  Pentagon whistle blower, Ernie Fitzgerald, was the one who described ‘whistle blowing’ as “committing the truth”. It was his own way of stating the reverse of ‘committing a crime’. Those who pervert the ‘truth’ by perpetrating an ‘offence’ are said to ‘commit a crime’; and for which the law exacts punishment. Conversely those who ‘tell the truth’ to expose ‘crime’, -in the vengeful perception of those that they expose- are said to be guilty of ‘committing the truth’. And often too they are also made to pay for their ‘truth’. And this is what ‘corruption’ is reputed to do whenever it gets into ‘fight back’ mode: it seeks to punish those who have dared to ‘commit the truth’ by exposing graft. In a sense therefore ‘truth telling’ is essentially at the heart of the ‘whistle blowing’ novelt...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By Evelyn Usman & Onozure Dania L AGOS— Scriptural assertions of wolves in sheep clothing resurfaced yesterday, following a startling revelation by a 16-year-old Senior Secondary School, SSS, I student, on how she has been subjected to sexual violations since she was 10 years by a pastor at the Egbe branch of a popular new generation pentecostal church. The victim, who spoke from the hospital bed around Ikotun area of the state, alleged that the suspect, with the connivance of a medical doctor, had carried out four abortions on her without her consent. Trouble, as gathered, started for the teenager after the demise of her parents six years ago. An uncle she identified simply as George, took her to Delta State from where the suspect, who had just been separated from his wife, took her to Lagos to look after his child, with a promise to train her in school. That was when he allegedly started a sexual relationship with her in his three-bedroom flat at 6, Dola...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By Ben Agande K aduna State Government has ordered an investigation into the discovery of five locally-made AK-47 rifles and magazines in a car that was involved in an accident last week.   Recall that two vehicles were involved in an accident on May 12 at Mazuga, Kachia Local Government Area and during the rescue of trapped passengers, five rifles and magazine were found in one of the vehicles. In a statement in Kaduna yesterday, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan, said after a briefing by the state Sector Commander of Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Salisu Galadanci, Gover-nor Nasir el-Rufai ordered an immediate probe of the source of the weapons and possible prosecution of those involved. The post el-Rufai probes discovery of AK-47 rifles at accident scene appeared first on Vanguard News . Vía Vanguard News http://ift.tt/2rJokZs

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By Olasunkanmi Akoni LAGOS—Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad, RRS, of the Lagos Police Command, have arrested a lady, Miss Onyinyechi Osoneye, 22, along with six other suspects over the sale of a day old baby for N850,000. Confirming the arrest, Commander of RRS, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Olatunji Disu, said Onyinyechi was arrested last Wednesday, based on information over the sale of her baby to Mr. and Mrs. Ike Nwata. Onyinyechi allegedly connived with her mother, Mrs. Joy Osoneye, to conceal the pregnancy from her father, because of his strict position on having a child out of wedlock. It was gathered that Onyinyechi was admitted at Peninsula Hospital, Ikota, on Lekki-Ajah Expressway, where one Mrs. Glory Ehinmi, 35, delivered her of a baby boy on March 1. The source further disclosed that Onyinyechi, when arrested, denied that she was ever pregnant. She later burst into tears and confessed that Mrs Ehinmi took the baby from her after deliver...