African press review 8 October 2016

President Buhari denies  he has a personal vendetta against Goodluck Jonathan as late payment of his allowances sparks uproar in his predecesor's Bayelsa home State.  And South African tycoon Tokyo Sexwale is named in a giant US graft trial..

Goodluck Jonathan's Bank accounts

 We start in Nigeria, where the papers lead with a denial by President Buhari that he had launched a vendetta against his predecessor.

Vanguard reports that the President's reaction comes on the heels of allegations that Buhari had ordered the freezing of accounts belonging to his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan and also stopped the allowances and those of other past leaders of the country.

According to the paper, the rumours sparked a wave of demonstrations in Bayelsa State on Thursday, prompting President Buhari to issue a denial in a statement by his spokesperson. The Presidency admitted a delay in settling third quarter allowances for the ex-Heads of State but reassured them that the remittances were being processed by the competent financial services.

The paper reports that the issue is so sensitive that the National Security Adviser to the President, the head of the SSS intelligence agency, the anti-graft agency EFCC and the country's police chief, are all distancing themselves from the controversey.

Impunity in Nigeria

Premium Times leads with the alleged overnight assault on the home of  a senior judge sitting at Abuja's Federal High Court judge who ordered the release of a retired Air Commodore. General Mohammed Umar who is being held by the authorities on allegations of fraud, illegal possession of firearms and abuse of trust has still not been released according to Premium Times.

ThisDay also reports that a group of securiyt forces tried to abduct a Federal High Court judge in Port Harcourt at about 1 am on Saturday morning, claiming that they were acting on instructions.

The paper says they finally fled the scene when a large group of journalists stormed the magistrate's residence. ThisDay quotes a top government official as saying that he was convinced President Buhari was not aware of the action of the Federal security services which he said endangers the nation's democracy.

Sexwale in graft scandal?

And in South Africa, Mail and Guardian leads with a bombshell that the name of Tokyo Sexwale, a top ANC official and former minister  has turned up in an American bribes probe.

The paper reports that a Gabonese self-confessed fixer is due to give evidence at a New York next week about the role played by the mining mogul in an international bribery scandal that landed a US firm with a 5.6 billion rand penalty.

Mail and Guardian reports that Sexwale and two South African business partners are clearly identified in the 46-page case file compiled by the US Securities Exchange Commission as having enriched themselves on the back of millions of US investors' funds through various schemes and over several years.

The paper says that Gabonese fixer known as Samuel Mebiame had confessed to prosecutors that Sexwale and his associates bankrolled his lavish lifestyle and provided him cash to pay bribes in African countries such as Chad, Niger, Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo in exchange for mining rights.