Nigeria ex-minister charged with fraud after stampede deaths

Nigeria's anti-graft agency today charged the country's former interior minister with fraud and money laundering over the death of some 20 job seekers in a 2014 stampede.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan's interior minister Abba Moro was arrested last week by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in connection with a recruitment stampede which claimed the lives of desperate job seekers.
Dozens were injured in the March 2014 stampede when job seekers scrambled to take screening tests for employment, according to media reports. There was no official death toll.
Tens of thousands of people had turned up across the country and officials were blamed for not making adequate arrangements for effective crowd control.

The recruitment exercise was cancelled after it emerged that millions of dollars in application fees collected from the young job seekers was unaccounted for.
At the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday, Moro and two senior officials of his ministry were slammed with 11 charges including fraud and money laundering.

The EFCC accused them of defrauding job seekers of about 676.7 million naira (USD 3.4 million/3.1 million euros), charges to which they all pleaded not guilty.
Judge Anuli Chikere ordered that Moro and one of the officials be remanded in prison custody until Wednesday when their bail application would be heard.

Moro, 59, known as a protege of then senate president David Mark, was removed last May following the election of President Muhammadu Buhari who defeated Jonathan in March polls.
Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, suffers from high unemployment and, despite massive oil wealth, a chronic shortage of infrastructure needed to boost growth.