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Friday, 23 August 2013

Hon. Makinde marries Miss Osun State

ʉۢHon. Rotimi Makinde & Miss Oyebanke
Nollywood actor turned politician, Hon. Rotimi Makinde, representing the Ife Federal Constituency in the lower House of the National Assembly has taken his somewhat whirlwind romance with the reigning Miss Osun State, Miss Oyebanke Oyelami to the level as the couple is set to be united man and wife this Saturday at the Adah Golf Course, Ile-Ife, in Osun State.

Their romance has attracted some criticisms from people who believed the Honourable legislator dumped his former wife for the beauty queen. But the Honourable has come forth with a strong defence at a recent discuss where he explained why he has decided to marry the 23-year-old damsel.
•Hon. Rotimi Makinde & Miss Oyebanke

•Hon. Rotimi Makinde & Miss Oyebanke

“Naturally, it is not in my habit to discuss my family especially my wife who bore me my grown up kids but just for the records, people need to know that my wife has left me ever before I got elected into the federal house of representatives and I’ve since given her the benefit of doubt for reconciliation but all were to no avail, hence my decision to move ahead and not without the consent of my children…can you believe that, it took me a while to chase this lady, I have never seen her rare type before, that’s why I didn’t waste any time when she eventually gave me the chance” he said.

The wedding reception followed by a night party is billed to hold at same venue from about 6pm where top entertainers, Sir Shina Peters and Obesere are expected to thrill . Ankara Aso-Ebi which sold for about N4000 is the uniform for the day. Top Nollywood stars and high profile political personalities are expected to grace the occasion.

Mosque attack: ‘No community defence shield in place’

 
The President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria, Dr. Ona Ekhomu said that the unfortunate mosque attack in Kondugha, Borno State was possible because there was no community defence shield in place.

According to him, the Community Vigilance Defence Shield should be operated on the local government level and should involve district heads, traditional leaders, clerics and other centers of influence at the LGA, town village and community levels. The shield will also serve as a source of intelligence not only for the JTF and its counter-terrorism operations, but also for the police agency and its efforts to control crime in various rural communities.

The security expert opined that the vulnerability of Mosques and other places of worship had been highlighted further by the attack on worshippers in Kondugha which resulted in the death of 44 Muslim worshippers.

He called for the implementation of a security initiative which he tagged “Community Vigilance Defence Shield” (CVDS), while also urging mosques and Churches to put in place robust security measures that will enable the detection of terrorists before they strike. He also commended the JTF on the elimination of Momodu Bama, the second in command to Boko Haram leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau. He said that decimation of the top leadership of the terrorist organization would lead to early victory in the war on terror and safety of Nigeria lives.

Lagos arrests 22 underage hoodlums, 35 others


 

No fewer than 20 suspected underage hoodlums and 35 others have been arrested in Oshodi, Lagos State.

It was learnt that the suspects were arrested by the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences Unit about 3.30am on Wednesday.

Task force chairman, Bayo Sulaiman, said the underage suspects fell within the ages of 14 and 17.

He added that among other suspects, one Segun Akinlade, was arrested last week, and sentenced to 24 hours community service by the state’s special offences court.

Sulaiman, a Chief Superintendent of Police, lamented that underage children had continued to flood the state, adding that government agencies had not been able to establish the parentage of a large number of them.

He said the youngsters were behind many of the crimes in the Oshodi area of Lagos, adding that they were being groomed by the adult touts.

Sulaiman said the unit had handed over the underage touts to the Office of Youth and Social Department for rehabilitation.

He said, “Of course, the   underage touts will be taken to the family court first and if convicted, they will be taken to remand homes for rehabilitation. Government does not jail underage children as being speculated in some quarters.”

He added that government would rid Lagos of touts as their activities could no longer be condoned.

He said some of the under age children, who ran away from home, had been reunited with their families.

Obasanjo, Jonathan Strike Deal To Make Andy Uba Anambra Governor



 Peter Obi and Andy Uba
 
A huge political tension has developed in Anambra State over a deal struck between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan to impose Senator Andy Uba as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party as well as the next governor of Anambra.
Several sources in Abuja and within Anambra State told SaharaReporters that Mr. Obasanjo was one of the architects of the plan to make Mr. Uba governor. A PDP executive in Abuja disclosed that the Uba deal was one of the conditions given by former President Obasanjo to settle a rift between him and Mr. Jonathan.
In addition, Mr. Jonathan has told his associates that he needs Mr. Uba in control of Anambra in order to guarantee him a landslide victory in the state come the 2015 presidential election. “The president wants to ensure that he carries Anambra and other southeast states,” said a source. “That’s why he needs Chief Uba to be in charge.”
Mr. Jonathan’s administration has been under fire from former President Obasanjo, who has expressed dissatisfaction with the incumbent president’s performance. Mr. Obasanjo has also told his associates that he was seriously considering the option of backing a northern candidate to run against Mr. Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election.
“I can tell you that nothing scares President Jonathan more than Chief Obasanjo’s ability to marshal forces, within Nigeria and abroad, against him,” said a source who is close to the current president. “He has been so jittery ever since Baba [Obasanjo] started launching his attacks. That’s why he quickly agreed when Chief Obasanjo told him that Andy must become the new governor of Anambra.”
Many top political sources within the PDP and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) told SaharaReporters that President Jonathan has enlisted the hierarchy of both parties in the scheme to put Mr. Uba into the governor’s seat in Anambra by hook or crook. In meetings with Governor Obi and other PDP and APGA interests, Mr. Jonathan instructed that all steps be taken to ensure that Mr. Uba’s enthronement as the next governor becomes a success.
But the plan is being stoutly resisted, according to a spokesman for a coalition of interests from across different political parties, including PDP members. “Obasanjo couldn’t help his daughter carry his own polling station in Ogun State, but he thinks he can choose who will be our governor in Anambra,” said the man, who in a telephone conversation declared that his anti-Uba coalition was confident of resisting both Obasanjo and Jonathan. “Our people voted solidly for President Jonathan in 2011. Yet, instead of treating us with the respect we deserve, he sits in Abuja and wants to dictate who will rule us. Their evil scheme will fail.”
According to several of our sources, the recent upheaval in APGA was part of the plot to clear the way for Mr. Uba to coast to the governorship. Last week, APGA announced the disqualification of Charles Soludo, a former Central Bank Governor, Oseloka Obaze, an erstwhile top aide to Governor Peter Obi, as well as other key governorship contenders. “The [disqualifications] were part and parcel of a deal to ensure that Chief Andy Uba becomes the next person to rule Anambra,” said a longtime member of APGA.
Several sources revealed that Governor Obi was previously interested in supporting either Mr. Obaze, a lawyer and retired employee of the United Nations, or former banker, Willie Obiano, to succeed him. SaharaReporters also gathered that APGA chairman, Victor Umeh, once backed Mr. Soludo for the governorship. A source said the former CBN governor, who recently resigned from the PDP and registered as a member of APGA, had provided substantial cash to Mr. Umeh to help run the party.
However, both Mr. Soludo and Mr. Obaze became casualties of President Jonathan’s decision to appease Obasanjo as well as position a dependable ally in Anambra. Several sources revealed that Mr. Jonathan and his associates felt that neither Mr. Soludo nor Mr. Obaze could be fully trusted to help him in 2015. In addition, Mr. Jonathan and his team dread the prospects of Senator Chris Ngige winning Government House, Awka. A few days ago, Mr. Ngige emerged the APC’s governorship candidate in a controversial congress that some party members described as undemocratic.
According to some sources, President Jonathan persuaded Governor Obi to abandon Obaze, his primary choice as successor. SaharaReporters learned that the Presidency also paid a huge sum of money to APGA chairman, Umeh, to persuade him to back away from Mr. Soludo.
A source close to Mr. Obi revealed that the Anambra governor was “taken by surprise and is very unhappy” with the president’s advocacy for Mr. Uba. “He [Obi] wanted either Obaze or Chief Willie Obiano, but what can he do once the president has spoken?”
Of all the serious APGA aspirants, only Mr. Obiano, a respected former banking executive, survived the purge that swept away Mr. Soludo and Mr. Obaze. A source in APGA told SaharaReporters that the Presidency perhaps spared Mr. Obiano because they saw him as a political push-over who would be easily rigged out by the PDP machinery. But the source added that both Mr. Obiano and Mr. Ngige would beat Mr. Uba in any free-and-fair contest in Anambra.  
One of the members of the emerging anti-Uba group told SaharaReporters that the PDP would have had an uphill task winning an election in Anambra even with a good candidate. “But when it becomes clear to our [Anambra] people that Obasanjo and Jonathan are engineering Andy as our next governor, more of our people will rise in stout opposition.”
A PDP member of the coalition vowed that the people of Anambra were tired of what he called “the politics of imposition.” “Don’t forget that Chief Andy Uba did not even win senatorial election. We all know that the seat he has in the Senate truly belongs to [Nicholas] Ukachukwu. I can assure you that our people still remember the role Chief Uba and Eselu [Mr. Uba’s younger brother, Chris Uba] played to destroy Anambra when Obasanjo was president. We won’t allow a partnership of Ogboni members to treat us like boy-boys,” he said.
A source within APGA told SaharaReporters that the blame for what is happening should go to Mr. Obi. “The governor disappointed us and our late leader and father, Ikemba Nnewi [Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu] when he effectively turned APGA into a branch of the PDP and an arm of the Presidency.”
Several PDP members told SaharaReporters that party officials had directly or indirectly told major governorship aspirants within their fold not to waste their money and time. “We were told not to bother spending our money, that the [governorship] ticket will be delivered to Dr. Andy Uba,” said a source who said he was mulling a run for the post. He added that other aspirants like Nicholas Ukachukwu and Annie Okonkwo had received the same message.
“Is this democracy that we are seeing in our country?” the source questioned. “Our party says nobody should run again except Andy. And the oppositions are doing the same thing. Dr. Ngige was just announced like that, without following any real democratic way.”
The source said he had heard of the group mobilizing to fight against the imposition of Mr. Uba, but said he was not a member. Asked if he would campaign for Mr. Uba, the source spoke angrily. “If they impose him, why then should I fight for him? Let those who imposed him come and fight for him.”
By saharareporters New York 

Graduates smile to banks washing cars in Kaduna..Unemployment:

 
Kaduna – Graduates have taken over most car wash businesses in Kaduna metropolis to end their endless search for formal jobs.

A correspondent who went round the city reports that the operators were making brisk business and smiling to the banks.

Julius Samba, a graduate of the University of Maiduguri, who operates a car wash centre at Poly Gate, said he ventured into the business when he realised he was wasting his “precious time searching for non existing jobs”.

According to him, he washes as much as 25 cars on a good day and now makes between N80,000 and N100,000 a month.

He said, “i would not go to work for anyone if offered a job now, with 8 persons working for me.”

Mr kelechi Humphrey, who graduated from the University of Abuja in 2009 and now runs a car washing outfit at Barnawa area of the city, said he makes as much as N120, 000 a month.

He told NAN that he charges between N300 and N500 depending on the nature of the car, and makes an average of N4000 daily.

Humphrey advised unemployed youths to utilise their time positively, instead of resorting to acts that would be inimical to their future.

Mr John Vatt, a patron said his street was bad and needed to wash his car before going out everyday, and commended the initiative of the youths in setting up car wash businesses.

Another patron, Ahmed Usman, said car wash washing centres were contributing significantly to reducing unemployment and urged the government to create a special fund to support them. (NAN)

Thursday, 22 August 2013

Igbos In Lagos State: My Experience, By Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe


Lagos State belongs as much to the ethnic Igbo as to the Yoruba, Ijaw, Hausa, Fulani, Efik, Idoma, Urhobo, Itshekiri, Edo, and so on who live in it, pay tax, identify with it, and settle in it. That compact was made the moment Nigeria became a single nation, and a successor power to the old principalities who were subdued and who ceded their sovereignty for the new commonwealth of Nigeria .
It was pragmatic. The Igbo had the skill and the industry, and Lagos was the seat of the Federal Government of Nigeria and its major port. The Igbo have lived in Lagos since the 15th century when the Aro and other Igbo first settled in good number in a place we now call “Oyingbo” in the era of Benin and the Portuguese trade.
The arrival of  Dr. Namdi Azikiwe to Lagos in 1937 from Accra after his studies in the United States, stimulated the political and cultural environment of Lagos as no other has before or after him. Zik literally resurrected the wizard of Kirsten hall from political death. Zik represented Lagos in the western house. The NCNC was the power in Lagos , and not the Action Group. The Igbo were prominent in the governance of Lagos in the Lagos City Hall .
The institutional development of Lagos – the railways, the ports and ship yards; the education and research facilities; the Banking and Commodities Exchange, the development of towns like Yaba, Surulere, Ebutta-Metta, Festac Town, Victoria Island, and now increasing the Ajah-Lekki axis, and of course, the ghettoes along the Orile-Badagry axis, have profound Igbo imprimatur.  The circulation of the image of Lagos is to date best reflected in the cosmopolitan Igbo imagination of one of the greatest African writers of the 20th century, Cyprian Ekwensi, a thorough Lagosian if there was any. Igbo have built industries in Lagos and have been drivers of commerce and exchange.
Interestingly, I was born at plot number 8, Okoya Street , Idumagbo- Lagos, while the Ojukwu families were residing at number one to three on the same street. I grew up to know the father of Odumegwu Ojukwu. Chimbizie and Azuka grew up with us on the same street. Even the Chibeze small parking space at the end of Okoya Street is called Ojukwu.  I later attended St. Patrick Primary School , Idumagbo, where I had very amiable classmates of Igbo origin in the persons of Azubike Ezenwa and Damian, Ihekuna, both now professors and doctors of today. They were brilliant, resourceful and friendly.
When we were playing bamboo and Tene Felele at Orikoriko at Onola playing ground, the Igbo participated actively. In the area of sports, school football and athletes, Igbo were dominant at Kings College, St. Gregory school, St. Finbars, Akoka, Igbobi College and Ahmadiyya College, Agege. Such boys, Njokwu, George Amu, Stephen Keshi, Henry Nwosu, Patrick Noquapor, Peter Anieke and Sammy Opone were dominant on the field of football, while Asiodu, Empire Kanu were prominent on the field of athletics.
Anytime we went to watch football match at Onikan stadium, my darling team, Stationery Stores and our adversary team I hated most was the E. C. N, where the centre forward, Paul Hamilton, the National Team, Fabian the captain who bit the dust. Our greatest captain was Duru, Oduah Onyenrekwa, Onyeador Onyeali and Opel, the greatest outside right Nigeria ever had, Cyril Azuluka. So, during my early life at primary school, the Igbo were always there and delightful to watch, both in athletes and on the football field.
When I listened to radio at that time, both the commentary and drama series, the Igbo were there for you. The likes of Chris Ndaguba, Ernest Okwonkwo, Ralph Okpara ‘Alawo Sekiseki the traveler’. The episode will end with – The script was written by Ralph Okpara and edited by Yemi Lijadu.
Anytime I visited where I was born today in Idumagbo at Lagos Island , the entire place is covered by Igbo traders in their thousands. They were never troublesome but decent and accommodating. They have virtually taken over all properties of the indigenes. They succeeded in developing all our properties, married to most of our children even from the royal families. There is no single house you will visit without an Igbo man selling wares there.
So, who is saying something else? Only the strangers in our midst will not notice participation of economic development in our state by the Igbos. Most houses and shops in Lagos Island have been purchased, developed and occupied by the Igbos. The value of their investments in Lagos Island alone is in trillions of naira.
Instead of deporting the Igbos, whose contributions to the development of Lagos state are immensurable, you must keep on praising and encouraging them to keep on developing Lagos State .
•Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe is a former Nigerian minister for Works and Housing.

Olusegun Obasanjo’s selective amnesia

 Chief Olusegun Obasanjo signed the green tree agreement

LAST  week, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo was keynote speaker at the fourth annual Ibadan Sustainable Development Summit, organised by the University of Ibadan. Against the backdrop of heightening political tension in the country, he  surveyed the landscape and delivered what the French call a coup-de-poing, against the “younger” generation of political leaders, especially those who emerged as the crop of leaders from 1999.
He said: “we had some people who were under 50 years old in leadership positions. One of them was James Ibori, where is he today? One of them was Alamieyeseigha, where is he today? Lucky Igbinedion, where is he today?”
And Obasanjo was not done; “the youngest was the Rep Speaker, Buhari, you can still recall what happened to him”. Obasanjo particularly remembered his political opponents: “You said Bola Tinubu is your master. What Buhari did was not anything worse than what Bola Tinubu did. We got them impeached. But in this part of the world some people covered up the other man”.
The opprobrium extended to his former vice, Atiku Abubakar. “I wanted someone who would succeed me, so I took Atiku. Within one year, I started seeing the type of man Atiku was. And you wanted me to get him there?”
In the years of studying the Obasanjo phenomenon, I have marvelled at how the man can spew a mix of outright lies and apparent, self-serving truths in the same breath. It is part of his complex persona that he never takes responsibility, no matter how vicarious, for roles he played in the emergence or consolidation of the negative phenomena he seems so able to rail against.
It is true that the individuals that he named have negatives and many are outright bandits. But the Nigerian social space, from military dictatorship and by economic choices made by the ruling class, made possible the emergence of these types of “younger” leaders. The Obasanjo period from 1999, consolidated the phenomenon of thieves as leaders.
He profited handsomely from illegal and unconstitutional sale of national assets, including the creation of TRANSCORP, which he DIRECTLY profited from! Shamefully, Obasanjo mentioned Salisu Buhari but conveniently forgot how he personally organized the chap’s pardon and had attempted desperately to reinstate him Speaker!
Obasanjo mentored characters like Nnamdi Andy Uba, from a nondescript background to a billionaire political operative. The same character used the presidential plane to launder thousands of dollars in America, ostensibly to “purchase equipment” for Obasanjo’s private farm! Obasanjo sees evil only where his political enemies are. Check the list of individuals he named and it suspiciously resembles those he fought at various levels. Ibori and Alams were at the forefront of an effort that almost torpedoed his re-election in 2003; Bola Tinubu was the last man standing in Lagos and the Southwest, when “Hurricane Obasanjo” swept through the region in 2003. Atiku Abubakar became his nemesis in 2003 and most notably in his desperate attempt to tinker with the constitution to achieve a Third Term!
Cynical revenge
It is poignant that he didn’t find Atiku good enough to “get there”, deciding instead, that he was the indispensable leader Nigerians could not do without; and egged on by people like the ex-convict Bode George; Ibrahim Mantu and Tony Anenih, he decided the only acceptable way was for “Saint Mathew” to remain in power. Thank God, Nigerians kicked him in the hind-place and knocked him off his perch! In cynical revenge, we all know the crisis he has wrought on the country.
No Nigerian has been as privileged as Obasanjo, yet the period between 1999 and 2007 brought the worst of the man.
One of the governors of 1999-2007, once told me that when they were sworn in, they actually believed that they must be in their best behaviour, because Obasanjo’s inaugural speech laid a marker for proper behaviour in politics and administration. To his chagrin, they were soon to discover that the man says the right things while being the master of deception, doing all the wrong things! They became emboldened and many went on a stealing spree because the “Oga at the Top”, was no better.
The ambience of the Obasanjo years was one of impunity and presidential irresponsibility when he suddenly discovered that he was so powerful and could very much do what he liked. He recruited people of the “younger” generation who drove his massive privatisation of state assets from which many became fabulously rich! Obasanjo was petroleum minister for eight years without any hint of accountability wherein all was shrouded in secrecy.
Yet, it is also true as Obasanjo said, that Nigeria’s process of leadership recruitment is so faulty, and the process so compromised, that more often than not, it is the worst specimens that get recruited for leadership. At the base is a political economy which valorises money, almost without exception, illegally acquired.
Those who made good within the context become the movers and shakers of society, with the visibility and connection and clout for recruitment.
The worse they come, the easier they got recruited and so Nigeria’s problems get compounded. Obasanjo knew and facilitated the process in his eight years in power. His lamentation last week betrays an old leader’s unacceptable selective amnesia.
 IBB @ 72
LAST weekend, former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida turned 72. There was an effusive outpouring of birthday messages, with Nigerian newspapers raking in a tidy profit from advertisements from friends and associates of the former president, including even, state governments.
It is indicative of IBB’s staying power in the Nigerian public space, that twenty years after “stepping aside”, he has continued to generate deep emotions, both positive and negative, depending on where the individual stands in respect of Babangida’s place in Nigerian history.
I have come to know IBB very closely in the years since I was appointed Editor of DAILY TRUST, in 2002. We held several hours of interview with him that graced our papers; he had been invited to be guest at the Annual Dialogue which the paper holds; and last year, he was the Special Guest at the public presentation of BLUEPRINT newspaper in Abuja.
At a more personal level, I have also had the privilege of holding even longer hours of very wide-ranging discussions with IBB, on several issues that became central to his years in power. As I stated at the BLUEPRINT event last year, with IBB, one cannot seem to be “neutral” in attitude towards the man. People seem to either dislike the man passionately or admire him intensely.
In my view, if one holds a passionate dislike for the man, the best thing is not to meet him, because you’re more likely to begin to re-assess your feeling towards the man, with a close encounter. I also know that it is how a public official has impacted on the social space that must be the basis of our assessment of his place in history.
It is part of IBB’s legacy that Nigerians continue to judge him largely on the annulment of the June 12 elections and its aftermath. On that score, I think IBB failed very significantly and why he has offered apologies and explanations, he has been unable to escape the censure of history on that significant, historical score.
Yet, as the years have rolled by, many Nigerians have also come to appreciate the man even more and because of the poverty of governance in Nigeria today, his years are more positively remembered in many quarters. What no one can take away from IBB is his infectious charm; his magnetic personality and that remarkable ability to make people welcome.
I have seen that severally in the many times that I have encountered him. I have not failed to notice how advancing years have caught up with the man, as it does all mortals, and how twenty years down the line, the aura of power has gradually given way to soberness, a more religious introspection and a general physical slowing down.
Indeed nothing lasts forever! But there is no gainsaying the fact, that General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida will remain a very important and controversial historical personality in Nigeria’s public space.
I have often wondered what he would have done differently, given a different context and with the benefit of the wisdom of hindsight. I will take that up with him before long as much as also interrogating his views of his own place in history. Happy Birthday IBB!
The journalist and peer recognition
AS you read these lines, I should have arrived in Asaba, the Delta state capital, to attend the 9th All Nigerian Editors Conference. It is a gathering which brings Nigerian editors to brainstorm on the place of the media in Nigeria’s development.
This year, I have been nominated as a Fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors and the induction ceremony will hold on Saturday, August 24th. I have never been given to awards or coveting them.
But this is a very significant recognition by professional peers and an acceptance that I have made a modest contribution to our profession, after 36 years of life in broadcasting and journalism. It has been one long, often tortuous journey, but one that I will not trade for any other.
I have been very lucky to be born at a remarkable conjuncture in history, with all the privileges that our country so generously gave me!
That I have been  considered a Fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors is recognition of the journey through the social and historical space by this broadcaster/journalist.
I am very grateful to my peers in the Guild and to all Nigerians for the privileges that I have so generously received from our country. For me, the central issue has always been to use the gifts of broadcasting and journalism for the betterment of our country and of humanity. That has been my mission in the past 36 years and I can only pledge to do that even more in the years ahead!

Kidnappers kill police sergeant in Delta


Inspector- General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar












A Police Sergeant, attached to the Special Anti-Kidnapping Unit of Delta State Police Command, has been shot dead by a five-man gang kidnappers.
Another Police officer sustained serious bullet wound on his leg at Obinoba town in Ukwani Local Government Area of the state.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Lucky Uyabeme, who confirmed the death of the Police man,  Emeke Azolobi, to journalists Wednesday said, “We lost one officer when our men clashed with the hoodlums in an attempt to rescue six persons abducted at Ugha Village in Uhunmwode council and Ekpoma in Ishan West council both in Edo State”.
Uyabeme said the six kidnapped persons include the Vice-Chairman of Uhunmwode Local Government, Mr. Aiwekhoe Osahor Walter, his aide Vincent Igbinedion, Cyracus Osigwe and a middle age woman, Mrs. Glory Barry Naene as well as her two children, Ormene and Zoryil, aged two and three.
He said the police were informed that some suspected kidnappers operating in a sky blue sienna bus, red Nissan Primena and Kia Cerato car had kidnapped their victims, and fled to Delta State.

Shekau’s ‘death’: We reserve our comment, says FG


Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau













The Federal Government has said it will not get involved in the controversy over the military Joint Task Force claim that the leader of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, might have died after being fatally wounded during a gun duel with the Nigerian Army.
The JTF spokesman, Lt.-Col. Sagir Musa, had said in a statement that Shekau sustained serious gunshot wounds in an encounter with the troops in one of their camps at Sambisa Forest on June 30, 2013 and that it was believed that he was dead.
Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, on Wednesday, said the Federal Government’s position since the declaration of state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states was to allow the military carry out their operations and manage information emanating from the operations without interference.
Maku said it was the government’s view that the military should be allowed to tell its story without undue “political comments” by government officials.
He said, “You will notice that since the President proclaimed the state of emergency three months ago, we have kept political comments out of it. We decided that it is better for the military to tell their story and that is why I have not spoken on it.
“We want to remove this security operation from any misunderstanding, especially from politicians. As a government, it is our operation but the most important thing is to allow the military tell the story of what is happening.
“From the story you and I have read, it is very clear that this state of emergency has achieved a lot of result for which all Nigerians are proud of the performance of our military and security services.”
The minister however said the information released by security agencies on the possible death of the sect leader was a morale booster for Nigerians and the military.
He said the implication was that security forces were closing in on the insurgents.
He asked Nigerians to continue to pray for the security operatives so that they could continue to succeed in their bid to rid the nation of terrorists.
He said, “Relating to the story (Shekau’s possible killing) that we have read, I think it is better we leave it at that. These people are on the run and we will allow the military to tell the story.
“The military said that it would appear that in one of their operations, the leader of the insurgents was mortally wounded and they were rushing him from place to place and they believe that he could indeed be dead. There is no question of losing confidence. It should give us more confidence.
“What it means is that the security forces are closing up on some of the kingpins of this murderous group that has denied thousands of Nigerians their lives. Some of the key leaders have been pronounced dead.”
The minister said that normalcy was gradually returning to troubled northern states as a result of efforts of security forces.
He said many parts of Borno State that had already come under siege had been reclaimed and the militants dislodged.

Tonto Dikeh now on braids

She's now rocking braids...really nice!

Every thing rocks.. who is she?

That's actually a rhetorical question. :-). Have no idea who she is...

1,300 Syrians gassed in Damascus suburb..Graphic photos:

Shocking photos have been released showing the aftermath of the deadly chemical weapons unleashed on Damascus suburb, Ain Tarma, where 1,300 innocent Syrians were gassed in their beds

The attack yesterday have left the streets deserted and makeshift morgues piled high with bodies of innocent women, men and children while those who survived the attack are fighting for their lives in makeshift hospitals. The attackers used rockets to release fatal fumes over the suburb in the early hours of yesterday morning as people slept in their homes.

The Syrian president has denied being behind the attack as protests against it erupted in other parts of the world. What I don't understand is why the rest of the world is folding its hands while thousands of innocent people are being slaughtered in Syria. See more photos ...



President Obama had warned Syria in 2012 that using chemical weapons would be crossing a 'red line'
"We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is [if] we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized." - President Obama, August 20, 2012 
So will this attack prompt action from the US?