Hassanbunhussein Abolore Lawal, 24, from Nigeria’s Osun state was flown to the US on Saturday after an agreement was reportedly reached with the Nigerian government that he would not be sentenced to death if found guilty.

Lawal appeared in a federal court in Columbia, South Carolina, on Monday US media reported.

He entered a not guilty plea to charges including child exploitation resulting in death and the production and distribution of child sexual abuse material.

The investigation which led to the Nigerian’s extradition was launched after Gavin Guffey, a 17-year-old took his own life after he was allegedly victimised by Mr Lawal.

The accused allegedly posed as a young woman on social media and coerced the teen into sending compromising photos.

He then extorted and sent harassing messages to the victim threatening to leak the photos and ruin his reputation unless he sent him money. Mr Lawal was said to have later done the same thing to members of the victim’s family.

Mr Lawal faces the possibility of life in prison. The charge of child exploitation resulting in death carries a mandatory 30-year sentence.

He will continue to be held without bail. His next court hearing is Monday.

Last year, the parents of a British teenager who took his own life after becoming a victim of sextortion made a direct appeal to criminals in Nigeria to stop “terrorising” the vulnerable.

Their son, Murray Dowey, from Dunblane, was only 16 when he died last year.

He was believed to have been tricked by criminals into sending intimate pictures of himself and then blackmailed.

In September 2024, two brothers from Nigeria who targeted a 17-year-old in a sextortion scam were sentenced to 17 years and six months in jail in the US, It was the first successful prosecution of Nigerians for sextortion in the US.

Instagram owner Meta says it has removed thousands of accounts in Nigeria that were trying to target people in sextortion schemes.

The director of Nigeria’s National Cyber Crime Centre Uche Ifeanyi Henry has previously told the BBC that Nigeria’s government had spent millions of pounds on a state-of-the-art cyber-crime centre, to show it was taking the issue seriously.

2Baba formarly known as Tuface got married to Annie in 2012. The couple has two daughters together.

In a post on Instagram, the African Queen singer said they had been separated for some time and had taken steps toward a divorce.

The post was later deleted but 2Baba then released a video to confirm that its contents were accurate.

The singer is seen as being one of the pioneers of the Nigerian music scene that is now popular around the world, paving the way for musicians like Wizkid, Davido and Burna Boy.

The couple had a star-studded wedding ceremony in 2013, an event which was widely followed in Nigeria even though it took place in Dubai.

The star is still widely known as Tuface even though he announced in 2014 that he had changed his name to 2Baba.

News of the separation has shocked fans and admirers across the continent as the couple had overcome previous problems and are one of Nigeria’s longest-lasting celebrity couples.

The former Plantashun Boyz member says he plans to hold a press conference to provide more details, adding that he is committed to sharing his perspective directly with his supporters and music lovers around the globe.

“I and Annie Macauley have been separated for a while now, and currently filed for divorce,” he said in the Instagram post.

In a bizarre twist, the post was deleted minutes later, followed by another saying the account had been hacked.

But 2Baba then went live on his Instagram account to confirm his initial post about the separation.

“No-one hacked my account, I said what I said, I come in peace,” he said in the video.

The couple have also cut ties on social media, unfollowing each other on their respective platforms, backing the performer’s statement about their split.

In the video of his most popular song, African Queen, Annie played his love interest and it is believed that their relationship blossomed from there.

Annie, an actor, recently trended on social media after she shared personal details about her marriage, including a miscarriage and struggles with her husband’s other relationships, on the reality show Young, Famous & African.

Kumar Tsukwam, a sector commander for Niger State with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), said on Saturday that people rushed to scoop up the spilled petrol after the truck overturned. “The tanker burst into flames, engulfing another tanker,” he said in a statement.

“Most of the victims were burnt beyond recognition,” Tsukwam said. “We are at the scene to clear things up,” he said, adding that firefighters had managed to put out the fire.

Mohammed Bago, the Niger governor, confirmed the incident in a statement and said that many people are believed to have perished in a huge fire caused by the tanker explosion.

He described the incident as “worrisome, heartbreaking, and unfortunate”.

Such accidents have become common in Africa’s largest oil producer, killing dozens of people in the country grappling with its worst cost of living crisis in a generation.

The price of petrol in Nigeria has soared more than 400 percent since President Bola Tinubu scrapped a decades-old subsidy when he came into office in May 2023. This has led many to risk their lives to recover fuel during tanker truck accidents.

In October 2024, more than 150 people were killed after a nearly identical incident took place in the Jigawa State also located in northern Nigeria.

About 100 other people were also injured in that incident, with a growing crowd approaching an overturned tanker to pick up fuel that they could then sell in the black market. Many of the victims were buried together in a large funeral organised by the authorities.

In September of the same year, another 59 people were killed in Niger State after a fuel tanker collided with a truck carrying passengers and cattle.

After the October incident, Nigerian President Tinubu reaffirmed the government’s commitment to reviewing and enhancing fuel transportation safety protocols. He also said police would strengthen measures to prevent further accidents, including increased patrols, stricter enforcement of safety regulations, and other highway safety mechanisms.

Authorities have also been engaged in an effort to fight the theft of oil, having improved their security measures including adding gunboats on important waterways.

Fighters from the Boko Haram group and ISIL (ISIS) affiliate in West Africa Province (ISWAP) were suspected of carrying out the attack, Borno State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum and State Information Commissioner Usman Tar said on Monday.

Tar said the groups rounded up dozens of farmers in Dumba on the shores of Lake Chad and shot them dead late on Sunday.

“Initial report indicates about 40 farmers have been killed while the whereabouts of many who escaped the attack are being traced for reunion with their families,” Tar said.

The state government has ordered soldiers battling rebel fighters in the region “to track and obliterate the insurgent elements” operating around Dumba and their enclaves in the wider Lake Chad area, Tar added.

The farmers “strayed off” the safe limit set by the armed forces for farming and fishing in the area that is a sanctuary for fighters from ISWAP and Boko Haram and is dotted with landmines and “prone to nocturnal attacks”, the commissioner said.

Governor Zulum warned civilians to stay within designated safe zones that have been cleared by the army of both fighters and munitions.

He also called for an investigation into the attack by the armed forces.

Lake Chad, which straddles Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad, serves as a hideout for Boko Haram and ISWAP, which use it as a base to launch attacks.

Boko Haram took up arms in 2009 to fight Western education and impose their version of Islamic law.

Some 35,000 civilians have been killed and more than two million have been displaced in the northeastern region, according to the United Nations.

The boat was carrying about 200 passengers from the state of Kogi to a food market in the neighbouring state of Niger when it capsized late on Thursday, with more than half reportedly missing, according to Ibrahim Audu, a spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency.

By Friday evening, rescuers had managed to pull 27 bodies from the river while local divers were still searching for the missing passengers, according to Sandra Musa, spokeswoman for the Kogi State emergency services.

“It’s not clear what caused the accident,” Musa said. Among possible causes, she listed turbulence on the waterway and the age of the boat, attributing the death toll to the absence of life jackets. None of the bodies recovered had life jackets on, she said.

Rescuers had trouble finding the location of the accident for hours, according to Justin Uwazuruonye, who is in charge of Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency operations in the state.

Kogi State Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo said in a statement that most of the victims were women, traders and artisans “involved in legitimate business activities to earn a living and contribute to the economy of the state”.

Villagers and volunteers downstream of the accident were urged to be on the lookout for bodies.

The accident was the latest in a series of mass drownings on the country’s busy waterways, as authorities struggle to enforce safety measures and regulations for water transportation.

Last month, some 100 people were feared dead after a boat carrying 300 passengers, many of them women and children, to a Muslim festival in Niger State flipped over in the river.

In September, an overloaded boat sank while carrying more than 50 farmers across the Gummi River in Zamfara State, killing more than 40.

In June 2023, more than 100 people died when a riverboat carrying about 250 passengers capsized in the north-central state of Kwara.

Most of the accidents have been attributed to overcrowding and a lack of maintenance of the boats, often built locally to carry as many passengers as possible in defiance of safety measures.

Also, authorities have not been able to enforce the use of life jackets on such trips, often because of lack of availability or cost.