Abdul's Blog: 02/22/18

Thursday 22 February 2018

Ex-Super Eagles coach Sampson Siasia explains his love for Mikel Obi

Former Super Eagles handler and ex-international, Samson Siasia, on Thursday said that there was nothing special in his love for the Super Eagles Captain, Mikel Obi.

Siasia made the assertion when he spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria on the reason for his preference for Obi who he took to the 2016 Olympics and returned with a silver.

A South African court held that Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba violated the constitution in statements he made about his decision to revoke his approval of a company’s bid to open a private airport immigration facility.

The judgment is the latest legal blow to a senior South African government official and came with new President Cyril Ramaphosa considering a cabinet reshuffle after replacing scandal-plagued predecessor Jacob Zuma on Feb. 14.

The senator representing Gombe south, Joshua Lidani, says the country is empowering Boko Haram insurgents by paying ransom for abducted persons.

Lidani said this on Thursday while contributing to a debate on motion on the missing schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe state.

The senator said measures should be put in place to ensure that schools, particularly those for girls, are secured.

Former Lagos State Governor and national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, has accused the chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun, of sabotage.

Tinubu made that allegation in a letter written to the president, vice-president, senate president and speaker of the house of representatives and dated February 21, 2018.

The Kwara State House of Assembly has passed a bill for a law expanding areas where the manufacturing, sales and consumption of liquor are prohibited in the capital, Ilorin. The passage of the bill followed the consideration of the report on the bill by the House on Wednesday.

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have arrested 27 suspected operators of illegal financial institutions, also known as wonder banks.

The head of media, Ibadan zonal office of the agency, Femi Oyewole, who disclosed this on Thursday, said the suspects were arrested at different locations within Ibadan, Oyo State capital.

Police are investigating a package containing a ‘non-suspicious’ substance, accompanied by ‘malicious communications,’ that was sent to a London palace used by senior members of the British royal family, the Metropolitan Police said on Thursday.

“Police are investigating after a package containing a substance was delivered to St James’s Palace on February 12.

A former Catholic priest, Rev. Patrick Henry Edet, has fixed March 17 for his marriage to his fiancée who he would unveil next week. Edet made the disclosure on Tuesday during his Grace Family service.

Edet’s resignation from Catholic Church about six months ago has generated a lot of discourse.

Fela Durotoye, a consulting guru, leadership coach and public speaker, says he will be running for president, come 2019.

The 46-year-old declared his intentions on Thursday, adding that he has researched all the national parties for a few months and has settled for the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN).

Lagos High Court has sentenced a 27-year old security guard to 10 years imprisonment for defiling a five-year old girl.

The guard, Daniel Peter, who lives at Pleasure area, around Lagos-Abeokuta Road, Lagos was arraigned by the Directorate of Public Prosecution, DPP, Lagos State Ministry of Justice on 21 July, 2011 on a one count charge of defilement.

Tinny Entertainment has announced the termination of Ycee’s distribution deal with Sony Music Africa.

Ycee, real name Oludemilade Alejo, is one of the four artists signed to Tinny Entertainment label.

This development comes a little over a year after the contract was signed.

David Adeleke a.k.a Davido, a popular Nigerian musician has released dates for his latest “30 billion Africa tour, ” after expressing excitement on his social media platform successes recorded from his two hits.

The two songs, ‘If’ and ‘Fall’ have gone diamond and platinum respectively.

Surgeons in Mumbai, India, have removed a 1.87-kg brain tumour from a 31-year-old man, saying it to be the largest in the world.

The surgery lasted for seven hours at the Nair Hospital.

News of the procedure was made public recently after the hospital ensured the surgery was successful as the patient, Santlal Pal, had recovered, doctors at the facility told dpa Thursday.

Former Military Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida, for Presidents Goodluck Jonathan, Alhaji Shehu Shagari and Chief Ernest Shonekan were conspicuously absent on Thursday’s Council of States meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

This is as the Senate President, Bukola Saraki was hailed on arrival by the Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal as he sauntered into the venue of the meeting.

For allegedly demolishing a church building valued at N8.7 million, an 85-year-old Muslim cleric, Mudasiru Owoyale, was today, brought before an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court in Lagos.

Owoyale, a resident of Aboru area of Iyana-Ipaja, a Lagos suburb, is being tried for conspiracy and damage.

The Yobe state Governor, Ibrahim Gaidam, has faulted the claim that the Nigerian Army rescued some of the girls of the Government Girls Science Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, Yobe state who were abducted by Boko Haram terrorists on Monday, Vanguard reports.

The Governor who visited Dapchi town today, however, said, contrary to the claim, that no girl has been rescued yet.

Heavy drinkers are at serious risk of dementia, according to a new study that analysed more than a million patients diagnosed with the illness between 2008 and 2013.

The study, published Tuesday in the Lancet Public Health journal, included 1,109,343 dementia patients discharged from French hospitals during the period.

FIFA has lifted the ban on voters publicly endorsing any 2026 World Cup bid.

Last month, the governing body ordered officials not to openly discuss the merits of either the joint Northern American bid, featuring the United States, Canada and Mexico, or the rival bid from Morocco.

Bihar, a state in eastern India, has banned students appearing for this year’s Class “X” board examinations from wearing shoes and socks, to curb cheating.

“The board has decided that candidates wearing only slippers will be allowed to enter the examination halls, those coming to the centres wearing shoes and socks will have to remove them outside the hall,” head of Bihar School Examination Board Anand Kishor told the media.

The Police in Lagos have arrested a 73-year-old man, who allegedly stabbed his nephew to death over a land dispute in Ikorodu area of Lagos State.

However, the suspect, Emmanuel Gbolahan, an ex-military man, stated during interrogation that he never meant to kill his 50-year-old nephew, Adeniyi Oyebanjo, that he only wanted to demonstrate his skills as an ex- serviceman.

Twitter Inc said it would no longer allow people to post identical messages from multiple accounts, cracking down on a tactic that Russian agents and others have allegedly used to make tweets or topics go viral.

The San Francisco-based social network also said it would not allow people to use software to simultaneously perform other actions such as liking or retweeting from multiple accounts.

Twitter, known for freewheeling discussions in short messages, is under pressure from users and Western governments to stem the spread of false news and foreign propaganda, often done with the help of automated accounts known as bots.

The Nigerian Army has demanded for an apology from the Acting Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Kaduna State Branch, Alhaji SI Danladi Wada for his unfounded allegation against the GOC 1 division, that soldiers of the division alongside officials of KASUPDA carried out the demolition of the APC office.

The army in a statement noted that despite the fact that the allegation credited to Alhaji Wada ere not true, the Acting APC Chairman has is yet to be remorseful over such misdeed and futile attempt to tarnish the image of the Nigerian Army through such spurious allegations.

The Dana Air plane that overshot the runway at the Port Harcourt International Airport in Rivers State on Tuesday damaged navigational equipment at the airport, the Federal Government announced on Wednesday.

According to the government, the MD83 aircraft, with registration number 5N-SRI and flight number 0348, had 54 souls on board, including five crew members.

The senator representing Kaduna Noth Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Suleiman Hunkuyi, on Wednesday, alleged that Governor Nasir El-Rufai had started a fresh plot to demolish his personal house on Inuwada Wada Road, Ugwan Rimi, Kaduna North Local Government Area of the state.

On Wednesday evening, the senator in his twitter handle displayed the fresh grand rent bill sent to him by the Kaduna State Geographic Information Service.

Stakeholders at a re-cent seminar organised by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, have called on the Federal Government to comply with the order of the Federal High Court which directed the government to account for the looted funds recovered since 1999 till date to promote transparency and accountability.

This came as a human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of failing to remit over $20.2bn to national coffers since the return of democracy in 1999 to date, saying that, “Instead of piling up external loans, the Federal Government should be compelled by the Nigerian people to embark on the immediate recovery and repatriation of hundreds of billions of dollars from the NNPC.”

The Kogi State Government has warned cattle rustlers that their nefarious activities will not be condoned in the State.

Speaking through his Director of Media and Publicity, Kingsley Fanwo in Lokoja, Governor Yahaya Bello said the state’s hospitality should not be taken as gateway for criminal elements, assuring the people that government will protect them from the hands of criminals.

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi yesterday, frowned at the incessant killings going on in the country even as they called for an end to the senseless bloodshed.

He said this yesterday in Lagos, at a conference on African origins tagged: ‘New scientific evidence on origins of Nigerian peoples’, organised by Adulawo media in conjunction with the Royal House of Oduduwa and Genetics Society of Nigeria.

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the ministers of defence, Mansur Dan-Ali; information, Lai Mohammed; and foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, to go to Dapchi village in Yobe to assess the reported abduction of schoolgirls.

Mr. Mohammed disclosed this when he briefed State House correspondents after the meeting of the Federal Executive Council, FEC.

Singapore is an example of a nation that became something out of nothing. Out of just good managerial kills and political will, Singapore was able to turn their already doomed future around in the 70s and they have now become a country to recon with.

Singapore announces plan to pay bonus to all citizens after surplus budget of almost $7.6 billion. All Singapore citizens aged 21 and above will get a one-off “SG Bonus” of up to S$300 each as the 2017 budget came in with a surplus of almost S$10 billion (US $7.6 billion).

The senate, yesterday, resolved to probe Senator Ovie Omo-Agege (APC, Delta) over his statement that the reordering of elections sequence was targeted at President Muhammadu Buhari.

Oma-Agege had shortly after the passage of the amendment to the 2010 Electoral Act, told newsmen that the change in the sequence was targeted at Buhari.

Churchill Olakunle has reacted to a claim made by his ex-wife, Tonto Dikeh, where she stated that he was married to someone else while while they were married. She made this revelation in an interview with Saturday Sun.

When the actress was asked if she still interacts with her ex-husband and whether she allows him to play a major role in the life of their son, Tonto Dikeh revealed that they just ended a child custody case in court which she wouldn’t like to talk about. Her quote:

There are strong indications that many officials of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) found culpable in the misappropriation of public funds in their care will have their appointments terminated.

An audit team recently discovered that millions of naira generated from the sale of scratch cards to candidates that sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) could not be accounted for in several state offices.

LGBT community criticizes ?Black Panther? after a gay scene was allegedly cut out from the movie

The LGBT community is not happy about their total absence from the Marvel Studios’ blockbuster movie ‘Black Panther’

It was learned that in the early stages of the production, a Vanity Fair magazine reporter claimed that a lesbian scene between Okoye (Danai Gurira) and Ayo (Florence Kasumba) was allegedly cut out from the movie.

Men are now proposing with avocado, instead of using a ring box, and this trend is fast gaining popularity.

It all started on Instagram. Food Deco and mindful_af each shared photos of a sliced open avocado with an engagement ring in the place of the pit, with captions suggesting such a thing would be a "dream" proposal. Men have now adopted the method and so far, women have been impressed with it.

Teenager spends ?1,000 of her parent?s money every month to look like "real life Barbie"

A teenager who aims to look like a real-life Barbie has revealed that she spends over £1,000 of her parents' money each month just to get her dream look.

18-year-old Gabriela Jirackova began modifying her body when she was 16 to get the perfect Barbie look. She started with long blonde hair extensions, massive eyelashes, permanent make-up, eyelash tattoo, and lip fillers. Now aged 18, she has had breast enlargement, increasing her breast form a C cup to a G cup. She also intends to enlarge her breasts more in the future and also get butt implants and rib removal surgery.

President Muhammadu Buhari is scheduled to preside over a meeting of the Council of State on Thursday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. This is the third time Buhari will be hosting the meeting of the council that has all living former Presidents and Heads of Government as members since he assumed office in 2015.

Those expected at the meeting scheduled for the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa include former President Shehu Shagari, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Electricity Meter Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has tasked the Central Bank of Nigeria to establish an intervention fund at single digit interest rate for members to enable them to compete with manufacturers in other countries.

Executive Secretary of the association, Muyideen Ibrahim, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Tuesday.

INTELS Nigeria Limited has paid $42.6 million (N13.2 billion) to the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA)’s Single Treasury Single Account (TSA), NPA Managing Director Ms Hadiza Bala Usman said yesterday.

She told members of the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee probing the strain in relationship between the two organisations, that the company after receiving termination notice from the Agency, wrote to apologise for not complying with the TSA and the new sharing formula.

Professor Itse Sagay, SAN, is the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption (PACAC). He is a former Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Benin.

In this interview, he speaks on President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war, appointment of Ahmed Rufai Abubakar as the substantive Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and what government ought to do to stop herdsmen/farmers clash.

The federal government on Wednesday said it was talking with potential financiers, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) to provide contributory finance to investors in modular refineries in the Niger Delta region.

Four years after the murder of Sergeant Ekaette Dick, the Cross River State Police Command on Tuesday confirmed the arrest of his suspected killer, identified as Effiong Edet.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Hafiz Inuwa, who confirmed this to Southern City News, said Dick was before his death attached to the Mobile Police Force 11 in Calabar.

Troops last night rescued Government Girls Science Technical College (GGSTC) Dapchi, Yobe State, pupils who were reportedly kidnapped by Boko Haram.

The school was attacked on Monday night by the terrorists, who took away some of the girls. The state government put the figure of the girls that were missing at 50.

For about nine hours, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission( EFCC) detectives yesterday quizzed a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, over alleged N13 billion arms cash traced to him and his relations.

Gen. Ihejirika was also asked to account for the transfer of N115m, $132,000, €16,000 and £44,0000 to his relatives who allegedly did no job.

There was panic yesterday in Kubwa, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory, following the death of four pupils at Local Education Authority II Primary School.

They died after allegedly eating biscuits shared by an unidentified classmate on Tuesday.

Two of the deceased, said to be from the same family, were buried yesterday.

The Boko Haram attack on Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, may have created a setback for the efforts to get girls to remain in schools in Yobe State.

One of the pupils, Faiza Mohammed, said yesterday that she would not return to school except Chief of Army Staff Lt.-Gen. Yusuf Tukur Buratai is the gateman.

A group of senior citizens, under the aegis of the Katsina State Senior Citizens’ Forum, has dismissed former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, saying his assertion that the administration has failed was unsubstantiated.

The response of the senior citizens from President Buhari’s home state was contained in an advertorial published in some national dailies yesterday and signed by the group’s Chairman, Hon. Justice Mamman Nasir and Secretary/Coordinator Alh. Aliyu Sani Mohammed.

A 21-year-old housekeeper, Janet Igwe Ogbu, who allegedly stole her employers’ property including jewellery valued at N460,250, is facing trial at an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court.

The accused was arraigned before the Magistrate, Mrs E. Kubeinje, on a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy, felony and stealing.