New York Times

<h1>Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen is the head of Nigeria&amp;#x27;s judiciary, which plays a key role in election matters and has helped resolve disputes in past votes.</h1>

The conduct tribunal, which tries asset-declaration misdemeanors, said in a statement on Saturday that Onnoghen would face six separate counts, without giving further details.

Onnoghen could not be reached for comment.

Under Nigerian law, state officials must declare their assets before taking office and after they leave. The court did not say why it had brought the charges against Onnoghen almost two years into his tenure.

The Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused the ruling party of plotting to destabilize the judiciary ahead of elections by seeking to remove Onnoghen, which could cause a constitutional crisis.

Nigerians go to the polls on Feb. 16 to elect a new president in an election where incumbent Muhammadu Buhari will seek a second term and is campaigning on his anti-corruption record.

In 2016, the tribunal charged the Senate President Bukola Saraki, the country's third most-powerful politician, for false asset declaration. Saraki was later cleared of wrongdoing.

(Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Helen Popper)

Nigeria's chief justice will face trial on Monday for allegedly breaching asset-declaration rules, the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) said on Saturday, a month before a presidential election in Africa's most populous country.

Nigeria's top judge to face trial on asset-declaration charges

<h1>Hundreds of people have died in similar accidents in recent years in Nigeria, Africa&amp;#x27;s largest oil producer, as impoverished people risk their lives to collect fuel leaking from pipelines or trucks.</h1>

"We have recovered 12 corpses and taken 22 persons with serious burns to hospital," police spokeswoman Irene Ugbo told The Associated Press. She said the blast occurred Friday evening in Odukpani in Cross River state in the southeast.

But some residents put the death toll closer to 60.

"The police only recovered a few corpses, many of the other dead were burnt to ashes," witness Richard Johnson told the AP.

He said about 60 people were inside a pit scooping fuel when the explosion occurred. "It is not likely that anyone inside the pit survived as there was a lot of fuel in the pit," Johnson said.

He suggested the blast was caused by an electrical generator that had been brought to the scene to help pump out the fuel for people's containers.

It was not immediately clear what caused the truck to overturn.

About a year ago, more than 30 residents in the same locality were burnt to death while scooping fuel from an oil tanker involved in an accident.

Nigeria's worst such accident occurred in 1998, when more than 1,000 people died as the leaking oil pipeline from which they were scooping fuel exploded in the town of Jesse.

Dozens feared dead in Nigeria as leaking oil tanker explodes (Al Jazeera)

An overturned oil tanker exploded in Nigeria while dozens of people were scooping up the leaking fuel and many were killed, police and witnesses said Saturday.

Dozens feared dead in Nigeria as leaking oil tanker explodes

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Nigeria's top judge to face trial on asset-declaration charges

Dozens feared dead in Nigeria as leaking oil tanker explodes