Monday, 22 June 2015

Cossy Orjiakor wants a bigger backside

14:58 22/06/2015
Lagos - Buxom controversial Nollywood actress, Cossy Orjiakor has revealed her desire to make her backside bigger, reports Information Nigeria

Opting for a backside  in the range of American rap act, Nicki Minaj’s, Cossy recently said if she’s wealthy enough to go for a plastic surgery, she will go a bigger backside.

The actress reportedly insured her ample breasts for the pumped up amount of N253 million in 2013.
The actress’ breasts are now fully insured by the Enhanced Silicon Incorporated Company – the same institution famous for insuring the assets of Pamela Anderson and Dolly Parton.

Read more at Information Nigeria

U.S-based journalist appointed as Osinbajo’s spokesperson

14:58 22/06/2015
Abuja - President Muhammadu Buhari has named a former North American Bureau Chief of The Guardian, Laolu Akande, as a Senior Special Assistant to lead the media and communication unit in the office of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Akande’s appointment would be among several others to be announced Monday or Tuesday.
He would be deployed to work with Osinbajo, our sources said.

He was in Nigeria in May to cover the inauguration ceremony for his media agency, Empowered Newswire. He returned to the U.S. shortly afterwards.

Akande, a pastor, is a former editor of Saturday Tribune. He cut his journalism teeth at The Guardian in 1989, and was a foundation staff of The NEWS magazine.

He moved to the United States in 1997 after agents of then dictator, Sani Abacha, began harassing him over perceived critical stance of his paper (Saturday Tribune) to the administration.

He has also exclusively interviewed American folk hero, General Colin Powell, as well as billionaires like Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Donald Trump and several African leaders and presidents.

An adjunct college professor, Akande worked with leading American newspapers including the Philadelphia Inquirer, and New York Newsday.

He worked briefly at the United Nations as a press officer and later as advocacy consultant between 2002 and 2004.

NFF says Keshi will honour two-year contract

14:58 22/06/2015
Abuja — The Nigeria Football Federation says it has been assured that coach Stephen Keshi will honor his two-year contract despite being named as a candidate to take charge of African champion Ivory Coast.
The NFF says Keshi, who signed a new contract in April, is "very happy" with his job in Nigeria.

Keshi was on a list of more than 50 candidates published recently by the Ivorian federation to take over from Frenchman Herve Renard.

The NFF says Keshi's manager, Emmanuel Addo, has given assurances that Keshi will stay for the duration of his contract.

Keshi coached Nigeria to the 2013 African Cup of Nations title, but has had a turbulent time in charge. He resigned in 2013 and was fired last year. He was reinstated both times.

Saraki loyalists reject Lawan, Akume as Senate leaders

14:58 22/06/2015
Abuja - Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and leaders of the party, who are billed to meet with the party’s senators on Monday are in for a hard time as senators loyal to the Senate President Bukola Saraki have vowed to resist any attempt to impose Senators Ahmed Lawan and George Akume as the Senate leader and deputy, respectively, reports Punch.

Monday’s meeting, which is coming a day before the Senate resumes on Tuesday, is expected to broker a truce among the warring factions in the Senate.

Saraki’s loyalists have declared that the plans by the leadership of the APC to fill the remaining four principal-officer positions with ranking members of the other faction will be resisted.
The APC senators are currently divided into two camps; Senate Unity Forum and the Like Minds.
The Unity Forum led by Lawan, who lost out to Saraki, is believed to have the backing of the national leader of the party, Bola Tinubu.

Read more at Punch.

Saturday, 20 June 2015

Ganduje slashes salaries, allowances of political office holders by 50 %

16:49 20/06/2015
Kano - Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State on Saturday announced a 50 per cent cut in the salaries and allowances of all political officer holders in the state.

Ganduje made the announcement in Kano during the swearing in ceremony of 13 new commissioners for the state.

"I hereby announce that the salaries and allowances of all political office holders are reduced by 50 per cent.
"We shall pursue an aggressive internal revenue generation in view of the dwindling oil revenue from the federation account as business will no longer be as usual,'' he said.

The governor disclosed that the new administration had also introduced new reforms including reduction in the number of ministries from 19 to 14, to cut cost of governance.

He said that the commissioners were selected on merit and urged them to deploy their expertise to the service of the state.

Ganduje added that they must discharge their responsibilities with utmost sense of accountability, transparency and fear of Allah.

The new commissioners include the immediate past NUJ President, Malam Mohammed Garba as Commissioner of Information, Youth and Culture, Alhaji Murtala Garo, Local Government and Community Development and Haruna Falali, Justice.

Others are Dr Kabir Getso, Health, Alhaji Usman Ririwai, Water Resources and Rural Development, Professor Kabir Dandago, Finance, Hajiya Zubaida Sharif, Women Affairs, Alhaji Ali Makoda, Environment and Alhaji Rabi’u Bako, Commerce.

The rest include Hajiya Aisha Mohammed-Bello, Planning and Budget, Garba Lambu, Works and Housing, Alhaji Faruk BB Faruk, Lands and Physical Planning while the Deputy Governor, Professor Hafiz Abubakar will oversee the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

Chad to round up beggars, foreigners after Boko Haram attack

19:48 19/06/2015
N'djamena - Chad said on Friday it planned to round up beggars and some foreigners as part of a security clamp-down, days after two suicide attacks on its capital blamed on Boko Haram Islamist militants from neighbouring Nigeria.

The apparently coordinated blasts in two police offices on Monday killed 34 people and injured dozens in the largest attack of its kind in the Central African nation.

Chad's Prime Minister Kalzeube Pahimi Deubet said on Friday the detained beggars and foreigners would be held in a centre in Baga Sola, a town near Lake Chad, close to the Nigerian border. He did not go into further detail on how the round-up would improve security or the nationality of the foreigners.

Deubet also said that boating and fishing would be banned on parts of the River Chari that flows into the Lake Chad. Boko Haram militants have launched several deadly attacks around the lake, often arriving in motorised canoes from Nigeria.

Chad has played a leading role in helping Nigerian forces win back territory from Boko Haram, which has mounted a six-year insurgency to carve out an Islamist caliphate in Nigeria's northeast and attacked that region's other neighbours - Niger and Cameroon.

Chad, whose capital is a command centre for a regional anti-Boko Haram task force, has already made at least five arrests. It banned religious head-to-toe burqas earlier this week on the grounds that they might be used as camouflage by militants, though residents say people on the streets of N'Djamena have continued wearing them.

Chad has also said it retaliated with air strikes against Boko Haram positions soon after the attacks, though a military spokesman in Nigeria denied this.

Saraki loyalists hit back at Kwankwaso

16:22 19/06/2015
Abuja - Senators loyal to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki has hit back at one of their colleagues, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso for attacking Saraki, reports Leadership.

The senators, under the aegis of the Like Minds, expressed shock over the uncouth language of Kwankwaso on the President of the Senate.

Dino Melaye, the spokesperson for the Like Minds, accused Kwankwao, who was the immediate past governor of Kano State, of pursuing a personal agenda with his hate campaign and vile language against Saraki.

Melayo noted that Kwankwaso  should not allow his unrealisable dreams of contesting the 2019 presidential election distort his reasoning in 2015.

Kwankwaso had in an interview described the emergence of Saraki as Senate President as a dangerous signal to the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Read more at Leadership.