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Thursday, 31 March 2016
Davido shoots a gun from the balcony of his home , then this happened!
Wednesday, 30 March 2016
Hotel you can stay near RCCG Camp, Lagos - Ibadan Express way, Mowe. Ogun State
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Activist warns Aregbesola against contempt of court
A human rights activist based in Ilesa, Osun State, Mr. Kanmi
Ajibola, has warned Governor Rauf Aregbesola against going ahead with
the plan to sack 678 workers of the LAUTECH Teaching Hospital.
Ajibola, who is also a lawyer said at a press conference in Osogbo
on Wednesday that the governor could not take any action on the issue
because a case had been instituted against him before an Osogbo High
Court.
Ajibola said “The governor claims he is good and somebody who
respects the rule of law and he must demonstrate it. The case has been
taken to court and he must abide by the rule of law and should not do
anything against it pending the destination of the suit.
“Anything done after the service of the processes becomes illegal
and he should not be involved in such but should rather wait patiently
until the case is resolved in court.”
The lawyer said the vacancies were advertised and candidates
applied for the positions after which they were employed with the
government’s approval.
According to them the affected workers have been working and
receiving salaries for over four years, wondering why the government
would want to sack them now for no reason.
He stated that sacking the workers would render them jobless and add to the problem of unemployment in the state.
The Acting Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof. Akeem
Lasisi, could not be reached for comment on the alleged planned sacking
as calls put across to did not connect.
However, the Chairman, Governing Board of the hospital, Prof.
Oluwole Atoyebi, had queried the former CMD, Prof. Olufemi Fadiora over
the alleged Illegal recruitments in the hospital.
In Nigeria, Most fuel stations now sell petrol above 130 – Poll
Nigerians who responded to our survey on how much petrol costs in their area also indicated that while the “new generation or small” fuel stations are more guilty of selling above the normal price, the “big multinationals” sell at normal price but have longer queues.
According to the survey, only 11.2 percent of our respondents get petrol at N86.50. A mere 1.1 percent buy at N100, while 11.5 percent buy at N130. The highest number of people (27.9 percent) buys the commodity at N140 while the remaining 25.4 percent buy above N140.
Words like “bad”, “terrible”, “horrible”, “hectic”, “insane” and a few unprintable words were employed by almost 70 percent of respondents to describe their experiences on the queues for fuel.
Apart from the physical exhaustion that comes with hustling for fuel, respondents also point out its impact on their business.
“It is a terrible experience to behold,” one respondent said. “Queuing for long hours not even certain of fueling your car; it is quite frustrating and exhausting. Imagine being on queue and business associates are calling to transact a business or to conclude outstanding deals. The experience doesn’t have a better word to describe it.”
“Very pathetic experience, spending more useful time in the queue and more money at that,” another respondent said. “Still salary remains the same. Government should do something fast.”
From Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, a respondent said, there are several people as expected due to the normal price which is N86:50 at MRS filling station, Isale Igbein Abeokuta. The manager has firm control of the surging crowd. I believe she is respected due to her truthfulness and transparency. Several other filling stations in Abeokuta however sell at between N120-150/Ltr.”
From Asaba, the capital of Delta State, a respondent said, “Obviously there is fuel in most filling stations in my location (Asaba), there are no queues actually because of the price. However, there are massive queues in stations selling at govt prices.”
From the capital of Rivers State, a respondent said, “In Port Harcourt city center the stations don’t sell. In the outskirts petrol is sold above N150 in the stations. Where it is sold at N86.50 there are very long queues.”
In “Lokoja, Kogi State capital, very long queues are seen at NNPC filling stations which I cannot bear,” a respondent said. “Major petroleum marketers such as Conoil, Total, etc are not selling as their stations are closed for operation and individual marketers are selling at N170.”
From Ikare Akoko, one of Ondo State’s major cities a respondent said, “No much queues at few private filling stations that are selling in Ikare Akoko. Most Major marketers have no fuel to sell but the private marketers are selling at N150.00.”
“I live at Afikpo Ebonyi State; here Petrol is sold between 180 Naira and 200 Naira a litre,” a respondent said.
“In my area, Aja lekki Lagos, they are selling at the normal price 86.50k but you must be on queues from morning till evening before getting the product,” another respondent said.
From Niger State a respondent said, “I bought petrol for 180 naira in Minna.”
Some respondents even raised issues about the quality of the fuel available in their locations. They call on the government to quickly find a solution.
Police seal off Kogi Assembly
This follows the failure of the Assembly to resolve the leadership crisis that has bedeviled the house in the last three months.
Our correspondent who visited the Assembly complex yesterday morning observed that the main entrance to the assembly complex was blocked by heavily armed policemen and prevented members who were billed to conduct budget defence from accessing the complex.
The road leading to the complex was also barricaded by armed policemen who subjected staff of the assembly to scrutiny and only allowed them in upon confirmation of their employment status through their Identity Cards.
The security agent claimed to be acting based on instructions from the commissioner of police following a directive from the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
Speaking on the seal-off, Mr Aliyu Akuh, deputy to the embattled speaker Momoh-Jimoh Lawal said the crisis remained unresolved as earlier directive to return to status quo ante by the House of Representatives was ignored by the five members.
He said it was an aberration for five out of the then 20 members of the assembly to impeach the speaker on whom the remaining 15 members had passed a vote of confidence in his leadership.
Akuh said that the 15 members considered the action of the minority five members as an infringement on the constitution of the country adding that in a good democratic setting such infringements must be challenged.
“What happened with five members seeking to impeach a speaker in a house of 20 members is an aberration, unheard of and more so that some members’ names and signatures were forged and included as being part of them.
“We had to go to the higher authority which is the National Assembly vested with the constitutional powers to intervene in such situations. The House of Representatives ordered the seal-off and it was concurred by the Senate,” he said.
On the position of the law with the suit filed by the five members at the Federal High Court, Lokoja challenging the intervention of the National Assembly on the impasse, Akuh said there was no injunction or court order restraining the National Assembly.
The factional speaker, Alhaji Umar Imam described the seal-off as illegal saying that for the National Assembly to have gone ahead to seal-off the assembly in spite of the fact that the matter was pending in court smacked of illegality.
Imam who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Umar Ali said the action of the National Assembly was aimed at stunting the growth of the state as all legislative businesses especially the passage of the 2016 Appropriation Bill would be affected.
Efforts to get the state command of the Nigeria Police to confirm failed as the Public Relations Officer, Williams Aya in a text message said he was in a meeting.
FG sacks postmaster-general over stamp duty controversy
Trouble started for Ogun when on Tuesday he was summoned to the Ministry of Communications with his Deputy Postmaster General.
At the meeting which was presided over
by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr. Sonny Echeno, Ogun was
told that the minister had approved his retirement and had directed that
he should hand over to the most senior officer in the organisation, Dr.
Richard Balami.
Although Ogun was due to retire from
NIPOST by the end of December 2015, he was directed to remain in office
until a substantive Postmaster General was appointed.
The process of appointing a substantive
PMG and Chief Executive Officer of the postal organisation has been on
and Ogun applied for the job which was thrown open.
He had been seen as the candidate to beat.
Cosmo learnt that following
the development, Balami’s appointment was announced as the new acting
PMG via a circular.
Until his appointment, Balami was DPMG, Special Duties.
Correspondent had reported that the
Ministry of Communications and the Nigerian Postal Services were on a
collision course over the appointment of agents for the collection of
stamp duties in several sectors of the economy.
NIPOST had last week interviewed about
30 new companies and individuals who had applied to serve as agents to
NIPOST for the collection of stamp duties but Shittu in a statement on
Monday said NIPOST had not been authorised to appoint any new agent for
the collection of stamp duties.
The minister, who has yet to return from
a trip to South Korea and China, said the process should be suspended
until grey areas surrounding the agency’s claims had been sorted and
until a substantive Postmaster-General had been appointed.
He added that before this dispensation, a
few corporate bodies and organisations were claiming to have an
agreement with NIPOST in respect of the matter.
“It is therefore expedient to tread with
caution and ensure that all issues bordering on the administration of
the stamp duty by NIPOST are done in line with the Federal Government’s
commitment to due process, transparency and accountability,” he had
said.
In a telephone interview with our
correspondent, however, a top NIPOST official who spoke to our
correspondent on condition of anonymity said the acting PMG had not just
appointed a committee on stamp duty.
Fuel scarcity’ll end in nine days –Kachikwu …says he won’t resign, apologises to Nigerians
The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr.
Ibe Kachikwu, appeared before the Senate Committee on Petroleum
Resources (Downstream) on Tuesday to give reasons for the acute fuel
scarcity across the country and the efforts being made by his ministry
to resolve the embarrassing situation.
He regretted the situation and
apologised to Nigerians, who he said were really going through difficult
moments, and promised that the scarcity would end on or before April 7.
Kachikwu said he would not resign from
his position as minister and instead asked those who were threatening to
stage a protest in Abuja to save their money because he took the
appointment to work for his fatherland.
The minister stated, “I will not resign.
I am here to do my job. Those who are planning to stage a protest
against me in Abuja should save their fuel money because I have a job to
do, and I am committed to doing it well.
“I share the pains of Nigerians. I feel
that pain every day. I walk the streets and those who are following my
trajectories since I resumed office would see that even on Christmas
day, I was at the refineries. On Easter Day, I was in Lagos monitoring
fuel distribution at the depots.
“I have given 24/7 attention to the
problems in this industry, which are unbelievable. I have continued to
work with one sole purpose in mind, which is that every problem will
have a solution.”
Kachikwu added, “I do apologise if a
comment I make jocularly with my friends in the press about not being a
magician offends some Nigerians; it wasn’t meant to be. It is a side
jocular issue and I did go ahead to explain what needed to be done. I
didn’t intend to create this kind of hyperbole that it did.
“Let me admit that I am not a typically
experienced politician. I am a technocrat. Some of the phraseologies
that I may use, while being acceptable in the arena in which I play,
obviously will not be acceptable in the public political arena. If
anybody’s sensitivities were offended by that, I totally apologise.”
He attributed the current petrol
scarcity to the refusal by the major oil marketers to import, diversion
of the product by marketers, pipeline vandalism, panic buying and
non-computerisation of the distribution network to monitor trucks.
The minister lamented that since the
payment of N600bn subsidy arrears, which the current administration
inherited from the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan,
oil marketers had stopped fuel importation.
The development, he said, had forced the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to overstretch its capacity,
human resources and facilities in order to bridge the gap, but that the
corporation lacked the immediate capacity to handle the task.
Kachikwu said, “Let me put the reasons
for the scarcity in three categories. First, when we came in August,
this country had arrears of unpaid subsidy claims that were in excess of
N600bn, which were not paid for over a year.
“Progressively, over a period of eight
months, prior to my coming on board, people had been staying away from
importation not at a heavy level, but by about 10 to 15 per cent of
allocations were not being met.
“There was hope that ultimately, if the
subsidy regime continued, they would get paid; so, some people continued
to import, but by the time we came in, people had reached a breaking
point and most of the companies didn’t have the liquidity even to go to
the banks and open letters of credit, and that became a major issue.”
He said it was obvious that having
cleared the N600bn subsidy claims, the country could no longer continue
with the subsidy regime owing to dwindling oil revenue and the fact that
monumental frauds were being uncovered in the system.
As of January 1 this year, the minister
stated that the country was no longer paying subsidy, saving a
cumulative amount of over N1tn in a one year period.
Kachikwu noted, “The second major issue
was that once the N600bn subsidy money was paid, the ability of the
marketers to import the product became a challenge, because they could
not raise letters of credit, and up to this point, that still remains a
major issue.
“So, even if they wanted to import, they
needed letters of credit and adequate foreign exchange cover. Some of
them were owing arrears of liabilities as a result of the commitment I
had made on petroleum importation.”
As part of efforts to ensure a lasting
solution to the problem, he stated that the nation was setting up for
the first time strategic reserves of about two million tonnes to provide
products always.
He said these would be operational as from May and would contain between five and seven cargos of fuel per reserve.
Kachikwu said, “Once we do that, we should be away from the incessant fuel crisis that we have.
We expect that between now and about the
6th to the 7th of April, the fuel queues will disappear, the DSDP will
begin and the foreign exchange allocation will see us smoothly through
the track.
“The refineries will be working and the
volumes they will be producing will be sent to the strategic reserves to
address difficult times. In April, we are expected to get 150 per cent
of the volumes that will be needed. A lot of that will go to storage
tanks. Hopefully, that should sort out the problem.”
APC wouldn’t have won without Tinubu –Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari has
attributed the triumph of the All Progressives Congress in the 2015
general election to the vision of a National Leader of the party,
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Buhari said this in a recorded tribute which was presented at the 8th Bola Tinubu Colloquium in Abuja on Tuesday.
At the event, which was held to
commemorate the 64th birthday of Tinubu, the President said the former
governor of Lagos State was the brains behind the merger of Nigeria’s
main opposition parties in 2013.
He said without Tinubu’s vision and intelligence, the party would not have been formed and the APC would not be in power today.
Buhari stated, “If Bola Ahmed Tinubu did
not participate, there wouldn’t have been a merger and there wouldn’t
have been an APC government at the centre. That is absolutely clear.
“He should thank God that he has gone through so much and has remained relevant, that he is healthy and young.”
Earlier in his address, the President
had contended that Tinubu remained one of the most important figures in
Nigeria at the moment.
Buhari added, “There are very few
patriots, alive or departed, who can match the commitment, resilience
and creativity that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has, over the past few decades,
demonstrated in organising Nigeria’s public life for good.
“As he adds another year today, my best
wishes and prayers go out to a man who deserves a lot of commendation
for what he continues to stand for.”
The President’s address, which centred
on the theme: ‘Agriculture: Action, Work, Revolution’, highlighted the
several opportunities which abound in the agricultural sector.
According to him, it is unfortunate that Nigeria is importing food when it should be exporting.
Buhari said, “Nearly all our crop-based
farming activities are dependent on rain-fed agriculture, and this makes
our agricultural productivity entirely vulnerable to the effects of
climate change.
“In the past few years, on the average,
we have spent in excess of $11bn annually importing wheat, rice, sugar
and fish. We need not, and indeed we cannot afford to continue on this
trajectory.
“Agriculture is the key to our economic
growth and social investment policies. Our administration’s key strategy
is to ensure that Nigeria becomes self- sufficient in the foods that we
consume the most.
“Maize, rice, corn, millets, fruits,
poultry products and their derivatives can all be produced at home if we
put our hearts into it. Our policy is simple: We will produce what we
eat! It is not only logical, it is necessary.”
In his tribute, the Minister of
Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, recalled the role Tinubu played in
bringing aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party’s governors into the APC
after the crisis in the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.
Amaechi said Tinubu convinced the members of the APC to allow the New PDP members to join its fold at the time.
He said, “He was able to gather the
leadership of the political class together. He was key; more than
gathering the public because once you gather the leadership of the
political class and ensure that there is unity of purpose, they could
share to the public jointly this change mantra.
“We in the New PDP were in constant
contact with him and we virtually negotiated through him. By the time
the President (Buhari) and others got involved, we had gone far with
Asiwaju. He played a key role.”
Also speaking in the tribute video, the
Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, described Tinubu as a visionary,
noting that the ex-governor of Lagos was dependable and loyal.
Sanusi, a former Governor of the Central
Bank of Nigeria, said, “It was people like Tinubu that insisted that
this country could not afford another four years of that kind of thing
(past administration) and basically laid down their lives, laid down
their resources and gave their all to ensure that change happened.
“He is extremely loyal and that is how
you know your friends. It doesn’t matter where you are or what happens
to you, you can always be sure that Asiwaju will be there.”
Tinubu, while speaking at the event, recalled that the 2015 presidential election coincided with his birthday.
He said Buhari’s victory at the polls was his biggest birthday gift yet.
The ex-governor described the PDP-led Federal Government from 1999 to 2015 as a deceptive one.
The APC leader recalled that the PDP
government claimed that it had established a Nigerian Commodity Exchange
to provide a practical solution to a number of challenges that have
adversely affected the growth and development of the Nigerian
agricultural sector, contending that the initiative was a sham.
He thanked guest speaker and Ethiopian
agric expert, Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, for exposing the dubiousness of
the PDP-led Federal Government.
Tinubu said, “We have had a series of
promises in the last 50 years and particularly in the last 16 years. I
remember the article I wrote after the presentation of the book,
Financialism: Fetching the water from a dry well’. It was about this
commodity exchange.
“The deceptive government at that time
announced immediately that same week that commodity exchange had been
established. It took an Ethiopian to discover its lies, but thank God,
we are taking it more seriously now.
“I salute the President and the entire
cabinet that Nigeria is being redirected. There is no option for us but
to revalidate our faith in our country and take the hard decision now.
Our renaissance must come from within. We have the land, the mind, the
capacity and the ability.”
Earlier, several of the contributors at
the event decried the over $11bn that Nigeria had spent yearly on the
importation of wheat, rice, sugar and fish products.
They noted that the whole of Africa
accounted for a mere 5.6 per cent of the global meat production while
Asia accounted for 42.3 per cent; Europe, 18.7 per cent; Asia, 42.3 per
cent; America, 31.4 per cent; while others accounted for two per cent.
It was generally agreed that the narrative must change for the better.
Some of the dignitaries, who attended
the event, included The Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu; the Emir of
Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II; and the Ooni of Ife,Oba Adeyeye
Ogunwusi.
Others were the National Chairman of the
APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun; the Minister of Works, Power and
Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN); the governors of Lagos, Ogun,
Osun, Oyo, Niger, Kebbi and Imo states; several senators and members of
the House of Representatives.
Senate President Bukola Saraki; and the
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, were, however,
not at the ceremony.
Nigeria loses N89bn to cybercrimes annually
Ajijola said this in an opening remark at the NITDA Public Sector Cyber Security Hands Capacity Building Workshop for IT officers in Ministries, Departments and Agencies organised by NITDA which opened in Abuja on Wednesday.
Quoting the United States Centre for Strategic and International Studies and information security firm McAfee, a subsidiary of Intel which puts Nigeria’s loses to cybercrime at 0.08 per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, Ajijola said the country’s annual losses to cybercrimes was equivalent to the its booming cement industry.
He said, “As technology becomes increasingly pervasive and our dependency on it grows, our economic losses will grow exponentially unless pre-emptive measures are taken to mitigate and eliminate the capacity of cybercriminals to take advantage of our environment.
“This does not preclude major disruptions by cybercriminals to critical national infrastructure like oil and gas; telecommunications; banking and finance, national security and government. For example, in January 2016 the infamous “Anonymous hacker collective has started a cyber-campaign against the government of Nigeria, accusing it of corruption, greed, and theft.
“The Nigerian Communications Commission indicates that, as at September 2015, over 97 million Nigerians used the Internet on a daily basis. According to a 2015 survey by Kaspersky Lab, 45.3 per cent of the internet users in Nigeria suffered attack in the third quarter of 2015. By implication either you or the person next to you was hacked in some way.”
Speaking at the ceremony, Acting Director General of NITDA, Dr. Vincent Olatunji, said Nigeria, like other countries, was facing many challenges such as network design, security, and prevention, as well as cyber-attacks as a result of increasing use of the internet.
“The need for effective security measures to create trust and confidence in our various platforms can therefore not be overemphasised,” he added.
Protest in Arepo over three killed residents
Many motorists were held up in traffic jam on Wednesday as
demonstrators blocked the main entrance into the Arepo Community to
protest against the alleged killing of three men by naval officers
safeguarding the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation pipelines.
The three men were said to have been abducted on Sunday evening at a
beer parlour in Arepo by the naval officers, before their corpses were
found in Voera Estate, Arepo on Wednesday.
A source said the naval officers stormed the beer parlour and arrested the men around 8pm.
He said, “The naval officers wanted to kill them there, but another
person suggested that they should take them somewhere else. They took
them to Voera where they eventually executed them. After killing them,
they took their phones to their friends and said they had killed them.”
Authorities to review lion’s death sentence
South African wildlife officials said
Wednesday they would re-assess a decision to euthanize a lion named
Sylvester who has escaped twice from a national park and killed
livestock.
Trackers are searching for the
three-year-old animal after he slipped through a fence at the Karoo
National Park in the south of the country at the weekend.
The South Africa National Parks
authority had announced it would put down the lion when he was caught,
triggering outrage from some animal lovers.
But on Wednesday it said euthanizing
Sylvester would only be considered if “the damage caused is massive and
may include danger to people.”
“Some members of the public have been
alarmed by reports that the animal will be euthanized, but no decision
can be taken until the animal is safely captured,” it added.
The lion could instead be moved to
another national park or private game reserve, or fencing could be
improved to keep him inside the Karoo park.
On his previous escape last year,
Sylvester killed 28 sheep, a cow and a kudu antelope during three weeks
on the run in which he roamed for hundreds of kilometres.
He was finally captured after being shot
by a tranquiliser dart fired from a helicopter in a hunt that cost
800,000 rand ($54,000; 47,300 euros).
Sylvester, who was fitted with a
tracking collar after that breakout, escaped again on Sunday under an
electric fence after heavy rains.
He has since killed one cow on a private farm, according to reports.
“Though the team of rangers sent out to
search for the lion are experienced in tracking animals in the bush, the
situation on the ground continues to pose a real danger of a possible
ambush by the animal,” the park authorities said.
“The lion is currently roaming a remote mountainous area and it is hoped that it will not encounter humans.”
Locals were warned to use extreme caution and not to approach him.
Lions were re-introduced to Karoo National Park, in Western Cape province, in 2010 after an absence of almost 170 years.
The last wild lion in the area was shot in 1842.
Woman found in well, four days after disappearance
It was a bad Easter celebration for
residents of Isheri Road, in the Ijegun area of Lagos State after the
corpse of a 41-year-old woman identified as Lola Adeyemi, was found in a
well.
Adeyemi, who was married with two
children, was said to have disappeared from the house four days earlier
and had been declared missing.
However, her bloated remains were found
on Sunday by a resident who quickly raised the alarm, drawing the
attention of other people in the area.
Policemen from the Isheri division and officials of the Lagos State Fire Service were subsequently invited to the scene.
The corpse was thereafter recovered and deposited in a mortuary.
We learn that it took the combined efforts of firefighters from the Ikotun and Alausa stations to remove the body from the well.
The Director of the state fire service, Rasak Fadipe, said the victim was naked when she was removed from the well.
He said, “The woman had gone missing for four days and people had gone everywhere searching for her.
“But on Sunday, a resident found her bloated corpse in a well opposite their house and the person raised the alarm.
“Policemen from the Isheri division were
alerted and they called us to the scene. We discovered that she was
unclad, except for the pants she was wearing.”
Fadipe said it appeared like a case of suicide, adding that no one could, however, tell why she decided to take her life.
Horrified residents, friends and family members of the victim were said to have broken down in tears at the scene.
“She had four children, but two died.
One of the children was at the well crying profusely while the body was
being removed. She had actually asked her two kids to drop the laptop
they were playing with and ordered them to go to bed before she went
missing,” a witness, who declined to be named, added.
However, a police source said there were marks of violence on the corpse, adding that murder might not be ruled out.
“The woman had cuts on her head and
some bruises. It is not clear if she actually committed suicide. The
husband was the one that reported the matter at the police station when
she went missing. He told us that his wife just woke up beside him and
he had not seen her since then. But I think an autopsy will reveal what
actually killed her,” he said.
The Police Public Relations Officer, SP
Dolapo Badmos, said the case was under investigations, adding that the
landlord and the victim’s husband were being interrogated.
She said, “The body was found in a well.
The police are already interrogating the landlord and the husband. The
woman’s corpse has been deposited in a morgue.”
This boy wasn't beaten by a teacher...it's special effects (photos)
This picture of a little boy with deep cuts on his back went viral today
with many sites claiming he was badly beaten by his teacher in school.
Fortunately, that is not the real story. It's all special effects for a
Nollywood movie, created by Hakeemeffect. See more photos after the
cut..
Tuesday, 29 March 2016
Two women and some men caught with arms and ammunition hidden inside a coffin
Nigeria Police yesterday, March 28, caught two women and some men carrying arms and ammunition hidden inside a coffin.
The suspected robbers were intercepted on their way to Ondo from Lagos conveying the weapons under the guise of travelling for a burial.
One of the criminal was found in possession of a Bible pretending to be a Pastor.
More photos..
I stopped speaking with Paul since December – Peter Okoye
One half of the musical group known as PSquare, Peter Okoye, has
said that he has not been on speaking terms with his twin brother, Paul,
since December, 2015.
The singer made this known in an interview he granted Nigeria Entertainment Today.
He said, “Truth is: I have not been in talking terms with Paul
since December 2015 and that was why I travelled in January. I had a lot
on my mind.”
In the interview, Peter bared his mind on the sour relationship
between him and his brothers, as well as the crisis that is threatening
to tear the group apart.
Blaming the crisis on his twin brother’s ‘weakness’ and an internal
struggle for control of the PSquare, he said, “You know they say change
is constant, you can’t stay at one spot.
As the industry moves, you move. So I won’t say the problem we have is money.
I think everybody is just dragging power unnecessarily. Imagine
Jude telling me that he’s in charge of Psquare and there’s nothing Peter
and Paul can do about it, and I look at Paul he’s quiet about it”.
Peter also revealed that his insistence on growing a workable
structure for the group was at the root of the quarrel between him and
his brothers.
Waving aside the rumour that the altercation among the members of the
PSquare was deliberately orchestrated by the group as a publicity stunt,
he said, ‘I hear lot of people think it’s all a stunt, and that’s what I
really want to put an end to. It’s not a stunt at all. It has been
going on for a while’.
“When Jude didn’t come to my wedding, people started saying we
broke up and then others said it was a stunt. Then when Paul posted
those lyrics stuff on Instagram people thought it was a stunt too. But
the truth is that, this is not and has never been a publicity stunt”.
Meanwhile, Peter, who had previously announced that he hired a new
manager to replace his older brother, Jude, vowed to move on with his
career, in spite of everything.
North Central leaders, CSOs kick against Saraki’s CCT ordeal
Political leaders in North Central Zone and coalition of civil
society organisations on Tuesday called on the President Muhammadu
Buhari who is also the Leader of All Progressive Congress not to be
indifferent to the alleged injustice and alleged abuse of legal system
in the country as, according to them, is being perpetrated by the Code
of Conduct Tribunal headed by Umar Danladi.Speaking during a media briefing in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital the political leaders under the aegis of Leaders of Thought North Central Zone, said that they rejected the CCT’s judgment of last Thursday.
Spokesman of the group, Senator Ahmed Mohammed, stated that the recent pronouncement by eminent jurists on the alleged illegality of CCT’ actions and that it lacks the power to prosecute the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and dock him like a common criminal were enough to prompt presidential action on the alleged impunity of the Danladi-led CCT.
He said, “On our part we make bold to say that we would reject whatever is the outcome of this illegal and Kangaroo trial under Umar Danladi who himself was alleged to have criminal charges hanging on his neck while the Tribunal has also been declared incompetent by eminent legal luminary.
“Therefore we call for the immediate dismissal of the on going trial at CCT but should this injustice and political persecution continue then Chief Ahmed Bola Tinubu must be re -arraigned immediately.
“The public condemnation of the judgement by erudite jurists and
world class legal luminaries in the persons of foremost constitutional
lawyer and academic; Prof. Ben Nwabueze, former Chief Justice of
Nigeria, Justice Alfa Belgore, former President of the Nigerian Bar
Association, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief
Mike Ozekhome, former Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Samson
Uwaifo and (rtd) many others too numerous to mention have hit the nail
on the head that the trial is essentially political and was neither a
drive to establish corruption nor in the interest of administration of
justice.”Aregbesola seeks more financial allocation to states
In order to cushion the effect of the
harsh economic situation in the country, Osun State Governor, Rauf
Aregbesola, has called for the review of the current revenue sharing
formula to push more resources to the states.
Aregbesola made the call during his
presentation at the economic retreat organised by the National Economic
Council on Monday and Tuesday last week.
The governor regretted that the nation’s economy had increasingly worsened over the last three years.
This, he said, was caused by dwindling crude oil revenue globally.
He noted that the inflow of global wealth into oil-producing countries fell from $1.2tn in 2013 to N400bn in 2015.
“All the three tiers of government are affected. We are facing a national financial crisis,” the governor said.
In offering solutions to the current
challenges, Aregbesola listed three perspectives to be considered. They
included what he termed inter-governmental relations, interstate
relations and regional competitiveness.
Under inter-governmental relations, the
governor called for a “review of the current revenue sharing formula to
push more resources to states; federal-state governments collaboration
on infrastructure; prompt repayment of states for federal roads; Federal
Government-led public sector reforms which include reduction of cost of
government and optimisation of civil service.”
He noted that Osun State was currently being owed over N5bn in Back Duty Taxes.
Under interstate relations, Aregbesola
called for economic collaboration among contiguous states with
socio-cultural affinities and similarities.
He said such states could explore
economies of scale, regional optimisation of assets and endowments as
well as mitigation of afflictions and troubles.
The governor listed areas of
collaboration to include transport infrastructure, education, market
development, human capacity building as well as security and
intelligence sharing.
On regional competitiveness, the governor said monopoly should be discouraged to enhance national economy and shared prosperity.
Also in tackling the current economic realities, Aregbesola stressed the need to demonstrate courage, character and leadership.
He added that there was the need for adequate mass mobilisation of Nigerians towards national economic recovery.
Obasanjo hails Buhari on Boko Haram war
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo on
Monday commended President Muhammadu Buhari on his efforts to end the
Boko Haram insurgency in the North East region.
Obasanjo lauded Buahri’s efforts during a visit to Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima at the Government House, Maiduguri.
“I know that he (Buhari) is very, very
concerned about the insurgency. He has gotten it right that first of all
there must be military ascendency over the insurgents,” he said.
Obasanjo expressed optimism that the
insurgency would be over soon going by the successes recorded by the
military in recent time.
“I do travel a lot in Africa and outside
Africa. Where I have gone in recent times, what the people wanted to
know is how Nigeria is coping with the situation of insurgency.
“I think we are not out of the wood yet, but it appeared we can see the light beyond the tunnel,” he said.
Obasanjo added, “There is no doubt that
with the combined efforts at the local level, at the state level and at
the federal level, even at the community level, that our security forces
are on the ascendency over the forces of destruction and the menace of
insurgency that we have experienced for almost six years now.”
He expressed joy that socio-economic activities had begun to pick up in Maiduguri after many years of the insurgency.
“My experience from the airport to
Government House is that what I experienced in 2011 is different from
what I experienced today.
“There is evidence that things are
changing, the situation is improving. We pray that by the end of this
year no one will be in the Internally Displaced Persons camp again,”
Obasanjo said.
He condoled with the state government over lost of lives and property to the insurgency.
“I must commiserate with all our people
in the state, and indeed the North East, who have been victims of the
insurgency in the way that we have never experienced in the country
before.
“There is no family in this state that
had not really suffered in one form or the other. Please accept my
condolence and that of my entire family.
“We pray that the souls of those who have lost their lives will be with their God,” Obasanjo said.
He appealed to political and opinion
leaders in the country to educate Nigerians on the true situation in the
North East by visiting the area frequently.
“I think the more we have men and women
of goodwill within and outside Nigeria coming here to show that the
situation is gradually getting to normal the better it is for all of
us,” Obasanjo said.
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