High Court Bombed In Rivers State

A High Court in Ahoada East LGA of Rivers State was bombed  Monday January 6th, according to reports from the state.

The Will Nigeria reports
The bombing of the court where Justice Charles N. Wali usually holds court, reportedly occurred on Monday morning a few hours before a politically charged suit against Hon Evans Bipi, a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly and leader of a group of 6 lawmakers, who has been unlawfully parading himself as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Justice Wali had about a month ago ordered Bipi to stop parading himself as Speaker of the House as the tussle over control of the state government between loyalists of the Presidency and the Rivers Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, lingers with an end in sight. No casualties have been reported over the bombing as at the time of filing this report.

Sammie Okposo Renounces COSON Membership

Renowned gospel act and Glo Ambassador, Sammie Okposo has renounced his membership of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), due to what he says is the lack of transparency and accountability on the part of the CMO. This is coming barely two weeks after he carpeted NBC for its failure to reach an agreement with COSON while also calling for transparency at the CMO.

In the statement made available to the media, the multiple award winning artiste who has been an avid member of the CMO since inception declared that COSON should desist from collecting royalties and acting on his behalf with immediate effect. “I, Sammie Okposo, a proud Nigerian artiste wishes to notify the general public and all stakeholders alike that I have stopped being a member of COSON.”

Reiterating his earlier statements, Okposo insisted that for COSON to be taken seriously, the need for transparency and accountability could not be overemphasized. “The registration of COSON is commendable and may have set the Industry on the path to growth and consolidation but accountability and transparency is very important. My facts reveal that there is nothing in COSON’s constitution that limits the number of terms the Chairman of the Board could serve and this is extremely dangerous. I read Onyeka Onwenu’s interview and she cited it as one of the reasons she left the board of COSON. All effort must be made to ensure COSON does not end up the property of one man. COSON is now delving into awards and competitive activities that are not related to its core responsibilities and this is a distraction".

Advancing reason why he chose to part ways with the CMO, the singer said “The leadership of COSON must also desist from pursuing selfish interests of some of its members and our artistes must get their due respect and recognition. The organization needs to imbibe the art of transparency in the disbursement of funds. How do you disburse royalty payments without showing the artistes the logs? It’s unacceptable. This issue must also be looked into with a view to ensuring that monies collected actually go to deserving artistes”.

Okposo finally called on government to beam its search lights on the activities of peculiar organizations like COSON through the enactment and implementation of laws and oversight function. He also called for the registration of another CMO with a view to breaking the monopoly currently being enjoyed by COSON.

Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu : How the Izuogu Z-600 dream was destroyed.

In 1997, a brilliant Igbo Electrical Engineer and Lecturer at the Federal polytechnic Nekede, Dr. Ezekiel Izogu designed and developed the Izuogu Z-600, the first African indigenous manufactured car.

The car was described by the BBC as ‘ the African dream machine’ as 90% of its parts were sourced locally . At a projected sales cost of 2000 dollars, it would have taken the world by storm and become the cheapest and most affordable car on earth. With mass production planned under Izogu Motors plant in Naze owerri, the prospects of an industrial revolution in Igbo land and Nigeria, was in the making.

The car was equipped with a self made 1.8L four cylinder engine that got 18mpg and allowedthe car to achieve a top speed of 140 km/h. Front Wheel Drive (FWD) was chosen over Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) because a transmission tunnel, which RWD would require, would be more expensive to fabricate.

So 90% of the car’s components were made locally. General Sani Abacha set up a 12 man panel of inquiry made up of professionals to ascertain the road worthiness and authenticity of the car and after several days of probing, the committee gave Dr. Izuogu’s car a clean bill of health recommending that some of the bumps on the body of the car be smoothened. It is worthy to note that this was five years before India built their first car known as the Indi.

At a well organized unveiling ceremony which had General Abacha represented by Oladipo Diya, over 20 foreign ambassadors and thousands of people in attendance, the federal government promised a grant of 235 million naira to Dr.Izuogu.

An excited Dr Izuogu is still waiting for that grant till today. No dime was released to him. In 2006, the government of South Africa invited Dr. Izuogu to do a presentation about the car in the presence of several world class engineers . Being impressed with his presentation, they invited him to come and set up a plant in South Africa and begin the production of the car.

Dr Izuogu reluctantly agreed, though he wasn’t happy that the benefits of employment generation will be lost on the locals of Naze and the Nigerian human resources environment . On Saturday the 11th of March 2006, at about 2.00 a.m, a total of about 12 heavily armed men broke into Dr. Izogu’s factory in Naze and carted away various machines and tools including the design history notebook of Z-600, the design file Z-MASS, containing the design history for mass production of Z-600 car, and the moulds for various parts of the car.

According to Dr. Izogu:

“It seems that the target of this robbery is to stop the efforts we are making to mass-produce the first ever locally made car in Africa. Other items stolen included locally produced timing wheel, locally produced camshaft, locally produced crankshaft, locally produced engine tappets, all 20 pieces each.

Also stolen were ten pieces of locally produced Z-600 engine blocks, ten pieces of locally produced pistons, four pieces of engine block mounds, four pieces of top engine block moulds, ten pieces of engine fly wheel and two pieces each of rear car and front mudguard moulds.”The inventor regretted that not only did they lose over one N1 billion in monetary terms, but also time (about 10 years) and the energy it took to design and produce the moulds. “To worsen the matter, our design notebook was also stolen,” he stated.

He regarded the incident as a national economic disaster because the nation had lost a technological and intellectual property. This Press was quiet about this story. The set back and governments attitude frustrated Izuogu  and his dream died.

FrSoutheastnigeria

Basketmouth under fire over rape joke

May lose multi million naira deal

Ace comedian, Bright Okpocha, popularly known as Basketmouth came under fire as friends and followers on social media (facebook and twitter) attacked him over his ‘rape joke’ on Sunday.

Most followers felt the joke, he posted on his facebook account encourage rape and within a few hours it went viral, with some followers calling on telecommunication giant, Globacom limited to terminate his deal as an ambassador with the company.

The controversial joke is about ‘white girls’ and ‘African girls’ date, with many arguing that the comedian encouraged rape at the 9th attempt.

He later apologized to his fans and assured them that he will never encourage any act of violence against the female folks.

The joke merchant has made name for himself in the comedy industry with international concerts platforms and anchored gigs that included the likes of Joe, Boyz II Men, Sean Paul, Wyclef Jean, Kool & The Gang, Akon, Dru Hill, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Fat Joe, Snoop Dogg, Ciara, Chris Brown and many more.

From Vanguardngr

GREAT PHOTOS from the A-Town Christmas Bash: FOA

It was a great start for "AGT" Kick off show, tagged A-Town Christmas Bash' on the 29th day of December in 2013!

The event was graced by the likes of the Nollywood Icon Uche Ndigwe, Miss Nigeria in World Supranational Belema J. Afiesimama, Nigerian Australia based singer ASAN plus more.....

Check out all the awesome photos from the Agulu-Town Hall, the show venue and red carpet activities.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Uche and Justin

Belema J. & Asan

Decency

South East Finest; DJ Device

Asan, Belema J, Justin, Chizi and Sylvia

FMBZ live on stage

Staga G, live on stage

Bach boy live on stage

Mr. Spy, Bach-Boy, Bosalin and Bob.

Mista Spy, Bach-boy, Bosalin and Bob

MistaSpy live on Stage

MistaSpy done with 3 songs..

Skini live on Stage

Skini`s performance was awesome

the Stage

FOA Anambra State

AGT Suppoters

Nollywood Icon, Uche Ndigwe and Justin Kingland (4real Records)

Actor: Uche Ndigwe @ AGT Kick off show in Agulu, by FOA

 Judy, Spy, Seeize and Skini

Mr.&Mrs.Justin Kingland

Nigerian Australia based artiste ASAN and Miss Nigeria in World Supranational 2011, Belema J. Afiesimama

Nollywood Icon Uche Ndigwe and Miss Nigeria in World Supranational 2011, Belema J. Afiesimama @ the AGT kick off show tagged, A-Town Christmas Bash in Agulu

                                                                                   Justin Kingland and his daughter Chizi, Miss Nigeria in World Supranational and Sylvia Kingland

Uche Ndigwe and Decency (MAYBOND Ent)

Uche Ndigwe and Justin Kingland

Suppoters of AGT

Judy, MistaSpy, Seeize and Skini

Uche Ndigwe and MistaSpy

AGT kick off stage

Belema J Afiesimama on stage

Annie Idibia and her new born baby girl

Tuface Idibia has finally welcomed his child number seven as his wife, Mrs. Annie Idibia on Friday evening delivered a baby girl, their second child at an Atlanta, US hospital. Photo credit; LIB

Reno Omokri responds to El-Rufai's claims that he's No.7 on GEJ's snipers' list

Lol. I find this snipers' list talk funny. If this government had a snipers' squad, I don't think anyone would be talking anyhow online about this government and the president. Even some of you on social networks will be scared to in case they trace your IP addresses...lol.

See Reno's response to a question concerning El-Rufai's claims after the cut...

E! News presenter Marc Malkin marries his partner, Fabian Fuentes

If  you watch E! News, then you should know Marc Malkin. He's the senior editor and writer at the entertainment network, covering Hollywood 24/7. He married his longtime partner, Fabian Fuentes in LA..