EFCC wants to force arrested PDP spokesman, Metuh, to write statement — Fayose

EFCC wants to force arrested PDP spokesman, Metuh, to write statement — Fayose

Ayo Fayose, Ekiti state governor.

 

The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has challenged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to charge the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, to court if the commission has evidence of fraud against him.

“The EFCC appears to be operating a system in which an accused person is first arrested, detained endlessly while the anti-corruption agency goes about looking for evidence,” the governor said.

Mr. Fayose, who maintained his support for a genuine fight against corruption, challenged the EFCC to also act on petitions submitted to it against All Progressives Congress chieftains and President Buhari’s election sponsors.

Speaking through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, on Friday, Mr. Fayose cautioned that nothing untoward must happen to Mr. Metuh, adding that the APC’s desperation to decimate and silence the opposition has dragged the Buhari-led government in the mud of lawlessness.

The governor said, “In saner climes, you don’t arrest people for alleged fraud and start to look for evidence to prosecute them.

Rather, before you arrest anyone for fraud, anti-corruption agencies must have established a prima facie case and arresting the suspect will only be to enable for his or her arraignment in court.

“However, what we are witnessing in Nigeria today is a situation whereby the EFCC will arrest PDP leaders, humiliate them by subjecting them to media trial, detain them for weeks in the process of trying to force them to make statements during which the commission will be looking for evidence.

“For instance, in the case of Metuh, we are being told that the EFCC is insisting that he must write statements and one begins to wonder if it has now become mandatory for an accused to write statements in law enforcement agent’s custody. Shouldn’t the EFCC have simply charged Metuh to court based on its own evidence? Or is Metuh’s statement the evidence the EFCC requires to prosecute him?

“The international community, especially the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU), European Union (EU) and others are put on notice on this condemnable act of arresting and detaining opposition leaders by agents of the Buhari-led government before fishing for evidence.”

While challenging the President Buhari to extend his anti-corruption crusade to those who sponsored his election, Governor Fayose said any anti-corruption effort that targets only members of the opposition and those with axe to grind with the government of the day can never succeed.

“If President Buhari did not wait for any petition to move against PDP chieftains, asking people to come forward with allegations of corruption against APC chieftains, especially those who sponsored President Buhari’s election is clearly hypocritical.

“Most importantly, that the EFCC Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu even said the commission do not have any petition against APC chieftains when indeed there are loads of petitions against ministers serving in Buhari’s government and other notable APC chieftains goes to show the hypocrisy of the fight against corruption.

“It is even more hypocritical and anti-democratic for the President to have turned himself to the accuser, prosecutor and judge, carrying on as if those he accused of corruption have already been convicted,” the
governor said.

BISHOP OYEDEPO OF WINNERS CHAPEL REPORTEDLY RETIRES; TO HAND OVER TO  SON 10TH JAN 2016

It seems the General Overseer and founder of Living Faith worldwide Bishop Oyedepo is set to retire from active service.

Bishop David Oyedepo

The church popularly known as Winners Chapel is about to witness a change of baton as the first son of Oyedepo, David Oyedepo Jnr is set to take over the leadership of the church from his father Bishop Oyedepo who has been at the helms of affair of the church since inception come Sunday, January 10.

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Oyedepo Jnr who is the resident pastor of the London Branch of the Winners Chapel is expected to be at the leadership forum of the Church holding on Saturday at Canaanland Ota where he would be officially presented to the leaders of the Church as the new resident pastor in charge of the Faith Tabernacle, Ota.

As the resident pastor of Faith Tabernacle, Ota, he is expected to oversee the activities of the church worldwide and forward such to his father, Bishop David Oyedepo. There is possibility of alignment and re-alignment in the pastorate of the church with the coming of David Oyedepo junior as the resident pastor, as some pastors are likely to be redeploy, to pace way for the young ones in the ministry.

Meanwhile, the proposed hundred thousand sitter capacity auditorium of the Winners Chapel is expected to gulp a whopping sum of 50 billion naira.

This was revealed exclusively to Naij.com by a senior pastor in the ministry. He said: “The church is not taken anything for granted about the edifice, which is a first class structure all over the world. The money needed to complete the structure will not be less than N50 billion according to the findings and discussion on it.”

The project is expected to start before the end of the first quarter of the year and end in less than 24 months.
Meanwhile, a Facebook user, Endy Edeson, who was at this 2015 Winners Chapel Shiloh has claimed that the presiding bishop of the church, Bishop David Oyedepo, miraculously performed a miracle which made a woman’s boobs grow bigger.

Story sent in by Tope Olukole

Half Of Vehicles Delivered To Nigerian Army By US Govt Faulty

Reports credited to The Nation have it that about 50 percent of the vehicles sent in by the United States government to fight insurgency in Nigeria are not working.

Yesterday, the media was awash with reports of the delivery of over 24 Mine- Resistant Armour-Protected Vehicles (MRAP) to the Nigerian Army to boost the war against Boko Haram.

The vehicles were reportedly donated in line with the United States’ Excess Defence Articles programme, and were said to be among those retrieved from Iraq  and Afghanistan.

Some of the vehicles delivered to the Nigerian Army.

According to The Nation, it would cost the military millions in dollars to fix and equip the MRAP to standard use, especially because the spare parts could only be bought from the original manufacturers in America.

Manufactured in 2008, the minimum carriage capacity of each vehicle is five persons and can conveniently carry anti-air misiles, as well as M-15 calibre machine guns. It can withstand attacks from Improvised Explosives Devices (IEDs), dynamites and bombs.

Defence Minister Gen. Dan Ali, who was represented by Major-General Barry Ndiomu, during the presentation, said the vehicles would help protect troops against IEDs and help in the movement of men with little or no casualties.

“We appreciate what the US has done but like Oliver Twist, we will appreciate if more is done. The vehicles came without spare parts. Not all of them are serviceable. The U.S. should provide the spares to enable us repair those that need to be serviced,” he was quoted to have said.

While fielding questions from reporters, US Defence Attaché to Nigeria Col. Patrick Doyle revealed that about fifty percent were in good working conditions.

“The programme provided equipment to partner nations in the conditions that they are when the nations saw them. So, the Nigerian Army inspected the vehicles a few months back and selected the best they could find.

“Originally, we agreed to allow them to have 32 vehicles. Twent-five are in front of you today. Many of these vehicles will need some work.

“Probably about half of them are in good working condition but will need minor work. Others will need some body, electrical works.

“The reason we have excess defence article programmes is because we are downsizing forces in our military. We have left Iraq  with our forces and have downsized forces out of Afghanistan.
“So, these vehicles were gladly provided when Nigerian Army asked.

“The repairs of the vehicles are up to the Nigerian government to do that. They can repair them on their own, but of course,  the spare parts are particular to these vehicles and can be got only from the manufacturers.

“We have been discussing on this and we are working out conditions on how that can be done. The easiest way to do that is to open a government to government case, where we can work with them to ensure they get the correct parts and in a timely manner from the correct manufacturers.

“We have not done the estimate of what it will cost the Nigerian government to fix the vehicles,” Doyle informed.

Nigerians have since reacted to the promise fulfilled by the American government. While some think it is a good step in the right direction, many others remain skeptical about the new arrangement.

Every Black Person Should Read About Sarah Baartman and How Blacks were Abused

This is a very interesting story. Funny how I never knew about her until today when I came across this article that I just had to read, and then share. It’s kinda interesting how some of us just go through life not knowing how we got to where we are, and who made it happen. Most f us preferred to remain oblivious to the history. But if you are one of those who are curious about the past and keen on making the future better, then this story is for you. Happy viewing!


Culled From, SouthAfrica.Info:

Sarah Baartman, displayed as a freak because of  her unusual physical features, was finally laid to rest 187 years after she left Cape Town for London. Her remains were buried on Women’s Day, 9 August 2002, in the area of her birth, the Gamtoos River Valley in the Eastern Cape.
Baartman was born in 1789. She was working as a slave in Cape Town when she was “discovered” by British ship’s doctor William Dunlop, who persuaded her to travel with him to England. We’ll never know what she had in mind when she stepped on board – of her own free will – a ship for London. But it’s clear what Dunlop had in mind – to display her as a “freak”, a “scientific curiosity”, and make money from these shows, some of which he promised to give to her.

Baartman had unusually large buttocks and genitals, and in the early 1800s Europeans were arrogantly obsessed with their own superiority, and with proving that others, particularly blacks, were inferior and oversexed.

Baartman’s physical characteristics, not unusual for Khoisan women, although her features were larger than normal, were “evidence” of this prejudice, and she was treated like a freak exhibit in London.

The ‘Hottentot Venus’

She was called the “Hottentot Venus”, ‘Hottentot’ being a name given to people with cattle. They had acquired these cattle by migrating northwards to Angola and returned to South Africa with them, about 2 000 years before the first European settlement at the Cape in 1652. Prior to this, they were indistinguishable from the Bushmen or San, the first inhabitants of South Africa, who had been in the region for around 100 000 years as hunter-gatherers.

Khoisan is used to denote their relationship to the San people. The label “Hottentot” took on derogatory connotations, and is no longer used.

Venus is the Roman goddess of love, a cruel reference to Baartman being an object of admiration and adoration instead of the object of leering and abuse that she became. She spent four years in London, then moved to Paris, where she continued her degrading round of shows and exhibitions. In Paris she attracted the attention of French scientists, in particular Georges Cuvier.

No one knows if Dunlop was true to his word and paid Baartman for her “services”, but if he did pay her, it wasn’t sufficient to buy herself out of the life she was living.

Once the Parisians got tired of the Baartman show, she was forced to turn to prostitution. She didn’t last the ravages of a foreign culture and climate, or the further abuse of her body. She died in 1815, at the age of 25.The cause of death was given as “inflammatory and eruptive sickness”, possibly syphilis. Others suggest she was an alcoholic. Whatever the cause, she lived and died thousands of kilometres from home and family, in a hostile city, with no means of getting herself home again. Cuvier made a plaster cast of her body, then removed her skeleton and, after removing her brain and genitals, pickled them and displayed them in bottles at theMusee de l’Hommein Paris.

Some 160 years later they were still on display, but were finally removed from public view in 1974. In 1994, then president Nelson Mandela requested that her remains be brought home. Other representations were made, but it took the French government eight years to pass a bill – apparently worded so as to prevent other countries from claiming the return of their stolen treasures – to allow their small piece of “scientific curiosity” to be returned to South Africa.

In January 2002, Sarah Baartman’s remains were returned and buried on 9 August 2002, on South Africa’s Women’s Day, at Hankey in the Eastern Cape Province.  Her grave has since been declared a national heritage site.

Marang Setshwaelo, writing for Africana.com at the time, said Dr Willa Boezak, a Khoisan rights activist, believed that a poem written by Khoisan descendant Diana Ferrus in 1998 played a major role in helping bring Baartman home. Boezak said: “It took the power of a woman, through a simple, loving poem, to move hard politicians into action.”

Whatever the reason, Sarah Baartman is home, and has finally had her dignity restored by being buried where she belongs – far away from where her race and gender were so cruelly exploited.

SHOCKER!!! Islamic Terrorist Publicly Executes His Own Mother

Islamic Terrorist Publicly Executes His Own Mother


In a shocking low even by the standards of the Islamic State, a militant has publicly executed his own mother after accusing her of apostasy.

The activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RIBSS) said 20-year-old jihadi Ali Saqr al-Qasem shot his mother Lena, 45, in the head with an assault rifle in front of a large crowd.

Lena al-Qasem is understood to have been accused of apostasy – a crime that usually means leaving one’s religion but in practise is used by Isis as a justification for murdering anybody who doesn’t support or speaks out against the terror group.

The exact charge against Ms al-Qasem was “inciting her son to leave the Islamic State and escaping together to the outside of Raqqa”, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.

The UK-based conflict monitor said Ali Saqr al-Qasem had reported his mother to his Isis superiors, who then sentenced her to death and ordered him be the one to kill her.

The Observatory said hundreds of people turned out to watch Ms al-Qasem’s execution.

It is not known why her son was given the task of killing his own mother but the reason the execution took place outside Raqqa’s post office is because that is where Ms al-Qasem had worked.

The news comes as Isis’ chief spokesman in neighbouring Iraq, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, was reportedly left with severe injuries following an airstrike.

Al-Adnani, who has been singled out as a potential successor should anything happen to Isis’ leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, required initial emergency treatment in the jihadi-held city of Hit after losing large amounts of blood, Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said.

He has since been moved to Isis’ Iraq-stronghold of Mosul, MailOnline reported, adding that his condition remains unknown.

Naira hits 278 as dollar supply worsens

The naira took further beating on Thursday at the parallel market, trading near its 2015 low of 280 against the United States dollar.

The dollar was sold for N278 at the parallel market on Thursday, as against 273 on Wednesday and 267.5 on Tuesday. The naira had on Monday closed at 265 against the dollar, compared to 263 on Sunday.

The Central Bank of Nigeria had on Wednesday sold about $15.5m to 1,650 Bureau De Change operators, but this was not enough to stem further slide of the nation’s currency at the unofficial market. The official rate ranges from 197 to 199.

The naira had on December 17, 2015 crashed to 280 against the greenback at the parallel market.
The Acting President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, in a telephone interview with our correspondent, said he expected the weakness in the naira to continue.

“The naira has been battered seriously. We are talking about 278 now from 273 yesterday (Wednesday). Dollar demand is coming up and the supply is very limited.

“The CBN sold about $15.5m to 1,650 BDCs on Wednesday. Still there is a drastic short supply. Honestly, I am afraid because it is all about demand and supply and the way the thing is going, the demand is twice the supply in the market. To me, I don’t see the naira getting stronger soon.

The nation’s currency had closed at 262 against the greenback before the New Year holiday started last Wednesday. After the Christmas holiday, the local currency rose from 265 to 260.

Forex scarcity, which has caused significant decline in the nation’s external reserves, prompted the CBN to ration dollar supply to banks, importers, BDCs and the general public.

The nation’s external reserves declined by 15.79 per cent year-on-year to about $29.070bn on December 31, 2015, compared to $34.52bn a year ago, according to data from the CBN.
The nation’s foreign reserves fell by $112m to $28.960bn on January 5, latest data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday showed.

The CBN recently cut its weekly forex sale to the BDCs from $30,000 to $10,000 each.
Earlier, the central bank had refused to sell forex to over 1,600 BDCs over their failure to provide necessary documents for previous allocations.

At the official interbank market, the currency has been pegged since February and stood at 197 against the dollar on January 6. It traded at 199 to the dollar on the official interbank market on Thursday.

The BDCs account for less than five per cent of the total dollar trade in Nigeria, but provide an indication of where investors see liquidity and are willing to trade it.

Since June 2014, the CBN has limited the availability of hard currency to importers and placed restrictions on interbank dealing as it tried to mitigate an oil price crash that has gutted the government’s revenues.
Analysts predict that the naira will inevitably be revalued this year, causing further pain in a country that is heavily dependent on imports. The CBN has spent billions from the country’s already dwindling dollar reserves to shore up the currency.

“The issue is when, not whether they will [devalue]”, the Chief Macroeconomist at Ecobank Capital, Gaimin Nonyane, was quoted by Forbes as saying.

An Igbo makes history in the US as the first appointed African judge in New Jersey

An Igbo makes history in the US as the first appointed African judge in New Jersey.

Jude O Nkama made history on January 6th as he became the first African to be appointed as a judge in the 349 year history of the city and State of New Jersey, USA. Hon. Ras Baraka, Mayor of the City of Newark, NJ also appointed Hon. Ugochukwu Nwaokoro as Deputy Mayor; and Evans Anyanwu, Esq. as Chief Prosecutor of the city.

See photos from the event

Justice nkama and colleagues


Justice Nkama with friends


Justice Nkama and family


Justice Nkama