Global stocks sank Wednesday after US President Donald Trump said he was not satisfied with talks that are aimed at averting a trade war with China. Equities were also dented by poor eurozone economic data, and as Trump cast doubt on a planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “Trump (is) continuing to drive uncertainty over global trade,” said analyst Joshua Mahony at trading firm IG. “European markets are following their Asian counterparts lower, as a pessimistic tone from Trump is compounded by downbeat economic data,” he added. Markets had surged Monday after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said they had agreed to pull back from imposing threatened tariffs on billions of dollars of goods, and continue talks on a variety of trade issues. However, Trump has declared that he was “not satisfied” with the status of the talks, fuelling worries that the world’s top two economies could still slug out an economically pain
The former campaign chief of Nigeria’s ex-president Goodluck Jonathan has been arrested for allegedly stealing $48.5 million from state coffers to fund his failed 2015 re-election bid, an official said Tuesday.
Ngozi Olojeme was head of Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) and siphoned off this amount from the fund, an official from the national anti-corruption agency EFCC told AFP.
“She is in our custody for an alleged fraud totally $48,485,127 belonging to NSITF,” he said, and added that the EFCC had also seized 38 properties traced to Olojeme.
“The properties have been placed under an interim forfeiture in line with a court injunction pending further investigation and trial,” he said.
Key members of the Jonathan administration have been arrested and charged with corruption by the government of President Mohammadu Buhari, who won the 2015 election.
Buhari’s electoral pledges included a promise to rid Nigeria of endemic corruption which has stunted its growth.
Critics have accused Buhari of a witch-hunt as only members of the opposition have been targeted in the corruption campaign.
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