Monday 18 February 2013

Fashola’s project tour, another attempt to deceive Lagosians—Lagos PDP






Opeyemi Adesina

The Lagos State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the Governor Fashola led ACN government in the State as now terminally diseased, bound to worsen and will be laid to rest in the Propagandists graveside of history.

The Party is making this description as a reaction to the ongoing manipulated project tour of the Governor aimed at justifying the very bogus claim of 89% budget success in 2012.

The Party asserts that the so-called project tour is a charade and the budget success claim only exposes the desperation of the ACN Government to force mediocrity into lagos Government.

"We are indeed not comfortable to allow the ACN Government in the State continue to run a propagandists Government. Especially because lagos is fast moving away from 'Centre of Excellence' to 'Centre of Mediocrity'. Imagine the ongoing charade being referred to as project tour and the claim that this administration attained 89% budget success in the Year 2012. Honestly, this is deceitful, fraudulent and deliberately meant to fake performance"   

The Party is particularly surprised that Governor Fashola can boldly lay claim to such bogus success when its Government has continuously plunged the state into local and Foreign debts of well over 900Billion Naira, even when the State now realises over 40Billion naira Per Month as Internally Generated Revenue and has collected over 16Thrillion Naira from the Federal Government, since 1999.

Notwithstanding these monies, the few major projects being flaunted on the tour are not directly linked to the said budget but actually contributions of Private investors, Philanthropists, Concessionaires, Federal Government and Community Associations.

Such projects include the: Lekki-Epe Expressway, BRT, Light Rail, rehabilitation of Oshodi-Oke road, Modern Markets.

"We wonder how the Government of ACN in Lagos State can shamelessly award performance success to itself when it has actually failed to address its promises to lagosians such as: A 4th Mainland Bridge, rehabilitation of Isheri-OkeAfa road, provision of qualitative & affordable Education, affordable housing, payment of 18000 Naira Minimum Wage, Provision of employment, Portable Water, Qualitative and affordable health Services, affordable Markets etc"

The Party Opines that these prevalent deficiencies in the State indeed manifest in the number of Pure Water factories, Private Hospitals, Area Boys, Street Traders, Traffic jams all over the State.

The Party has thus rated any budget year of Lagos State under former Governor Bola Tinubu and Governor Fashola as not exceeding 45% and Challenges the Government to a live debate.

"We have our Data and thus convinced that under Governor Tinubu and now Governor Fashola, lagos has never attained over 45% success in its budget implementation. We challenge them to a project tour, where representatives of NUJ, Labour, Students Leadership, Opposition Parties, NGOs, Civil Society Organisations, Engineers will partake.

As a matter of fact, we shall acknowledge and do a public apology if our claim is wrong"

Njiko Igbo, best way to actualize Igbo presidency - Igbo leaders in Europe



Igbo leaders in Europe have said that the best way for the South East zone to produce the president of Nigeria in 2015 is by aligning with Njiko Igbo, a group specifically set up for that purpose.

At a meeting of Igbo leaders in Luxembourg over the weekend, the leaders agreed to pursue the Igbo presidency through Njiko Igbo.

The Igbo leaders, from all over Europe, thus endorse endorsed Njiko Igbo for its ideology of Igbo unity.

They also commended a former Governor of Abia State and Protem Chairman of Njiko Igbo, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, for the formation of the group.

Speaking at the meeting, the Coordinator of the Igbo leaders in Europe, Dr. Basil Okeke, advised Ndigbo to rally around and support Kalu, whom he described as "the true Igbo leader of our time."

Okeke added: "Being an Igbo leader is not by wealth but by the level of sacrifices made in order to protect the interest of Ndigbo.

"Constructive criticism is welcomed in the 21st century but not when it is detrimental to the progress of ones ideology.

"We do not need sycophants to lead Ndigbo because of some double standard publications accredited to Senator Ben Obi, Senator Uche Chukwumerije and one would be wondering if these are the people that will represent the interest of Ndigbo.

"The 2015 presidency of Igbo extraction is real and we shall all work together to achieve this great task."
The representatives of Njiko Igbo in the United Kingdom thanked the organisers for putting together the event.

They said they would continue to pressurize Kalu to lead Ndigbo in 2015 because statistics have shown that he has the qualities and the spirit of unity.

They added: "We advise Ndigbo to come together and stop witch hunting themselves."

Tuesday 12 February 2013

SEAL who shot bin Laden speaks out



Yahoo News



The U.S. Navy SEAL who shot and killed Osama bin Laden is speaking out for the first time since the May 1, 2011, raid on the al-Qaida leader's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

In an interview with Esquire, the former SEAL—identified as "The Shooter" due to what the magazine described as "safety" reasons—said he's been largely abandoned by the U.S. government since leaving the military last fall.

He told Esquire he decided to speak out to both correct the record of the bin Laden mission and to put a spotlight on how some of the U.S. military's highly trained and accomplished soldiers are treated by the government once they return to civilian life.

Despite killing the world's most-wanted terrorist, he said, he was not given a pension, health care or protection for himself or his family.


"[SEAL command] told me they could get me a job driving a beer truck in Milwaukee," he told Esquire.

Plus, he said, "my health care for me and my family stopped. I asked if there was some transition from my Tricare to Blue Cross Blue Shield. They said no. You're out of the service, your coverage is over. Thanks for your 16 years. Go f--- yourself."

The problem seems to be that "The Shooter" left the military well before the 20-year requirement for retirement benefits.

(Esquire)

According to the magazine, the government provides 180 days of transitional health care benefits, but the Shooter was ineligible because he did not agree to remain on active duty in a support role or become a "reservist." Instead, the magazine noted, he will "have to wait at least eight months to have his disability claims adjudicated."

The SEAL also gave his account of the historic raid, including the moment he pulled the trigger and shot bin Laden.

“In that second, I shot him, two times in the forehead," he told Esquire. "Bap! Bap! The second time as he’s going down. He crumpled onto the floor in front of his bed. He was dead. I watched him take his last breaths. And I remember as I watched him breathe out the last part of air, I thought: Is this the best thing I've ever done, or the worst thing I've ever done?

"I'm not religious," he added. "But I always felt I was put on the earth to do something specific. After that mission, I knew what it was."

He also recalled watching CNN's coverage of the first anniversary of bin Laden's death.

"They were saying, 'So now we're taking viewer e-mails. Do you remember where you were when you found out Osama bin Laden was dead?' And I was thinking: Of course I remember. I was in his bedroom looking down at his body."

In September 2012, fellow former SEAL Team 6 member Matt Bissonnette published a controversial book, "No Easy Day," under a pen name about the raid, drawing the ire of both his fellow SEALs and the Pentagon.

A spokeswoman for Esquire told Yahoo News that the magazine did not pay the SEAL for the interview.





Monday 11 February 2013

Merger plans will fail - PPA chairman



Opeyemi Adesina

The National Chairman of the Progressive Peoples Alliance, Chief Sam Nkire, has predicted the failure for the proposed merger of four opposition political parties in the country. 

Nkire, in a statement on Sunday, said the best and most workable arrangement would have been for the parties involved to keep their structures but field one candidate during the presidential election.

According to the PPA national chairman, the real problem will start when it comes to filling party positions at the federal, state, local government and ward levels.

He said for every new party position created in the new All Progressive Congress, three former office holders in the four merging parties were bound to lose their positions, which may lead to mass defection to other political parties such as PPA. 

Nkire said it was difficult to ask a Nigerian political office holder to step down for another and become an ordinary member and expect 100 per cent loyalty from the person.

The PPA boss further said that already there were signs of a serious crack within the merger as expected.
According to him, one of the four parties is already dissociating itself from the marriage, a crack that is widening by the day.

In anticipation of mass exodus from the merging parties, the PPA national chairman said his party would not reject anybody who willingly wants to join it.

Njiko Igbo condemns murder of MASSOB members


Opeyemi Adesina

The platform for the actualization of the Igbo presidency in 2015, Njiko Igbo, has condemned the alleged killing of members of the Movement for the sovereign State of Biafra and the dumping of their bodies in a river in Anambra State.

Njiko Igbo said it it was true that the corpses found in the river belonged to members of MASSOB, those who carried out the extra-judicial killing must be found and punished.

A statement by the Director of Operations of Njiko Igbo, Senator Emmanuel Onwe, said the government must as a matter of urgency set up a commission of enquiry into the killing.

The statement by Onwe reads in full: “Three weeks ago, citizens of Anambra and Enugu States were justifiably petrified when unidentified corpses, estimated to be forty or more in number, were discovered dumped in Ezu River. The cause of those deaths remained indeterminate. Yesterday, however, the leadership of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) were reported to have alleged that the victims of these apparent extra-judicial executions were its members.

“If MASSOB’s claim were to be established as factual and correct, it will set off consequences of seismic proportions in Igboland. Indeed, right at this moment, the atmosphere is growing tense and charged. And it is for this reason that Njiko Igbo is compelled to sue for calm as a first reaction. Then an immediate public judicial enquiry led by a Justice of the Supreme Court of proven integrity must be instituted by the Federal Government with a wide-ranging remit to conduct a thorough investigation that will lead to the establishment of the identities of the victims, the cause or causes of their deaths, the perpetrators of the crime, the entity in whose custody they were held, the extent of the health hazards created for the people of Enugu and Anambra whose source of water was so recklessly and negligently contaminated and adequate compensation recommended for the community that fell victim to this heinous crime in addition to the imposition of criminal liability on the perpetrators. It is imperative that now that the security forces stand accused of these crimes that they must stand aside and let experts from the Nigerian Bar Association and the Nigerian Medical Association to bring their professionalism to bear on the work of the proposed public judicial inquiry.

“This matter must not be fudged if violent reaction of catastrophic proportions by Igbo youths who are thoroughly fed up with police brutality is to be averted. The Igbo nation is not and must not be treated as a conquered and occupied zone by men and women of the Nigerian security forces.

“Even if it transpires that the dead young men were people of disreputable or even criminal bent, it still remains a fundamental fact that no individual or authority or agency of government reserves the right to execute a Nigerian citizen without a full and due process of the law.

“MASSOB is a benign organisation reminiscent of the political agitprops of the 1970s. Its rhetoric is far more lethal than its cold war for Biafran independence. It is the Nigerian security forces that have declared an astonishingly savage hot war on the members of MASSOB. Members of the group have been subjected to intense campaign of harassment, intimidation, unwarranted arrests and detentions without trial, and there have been examples of extra-judicial execution of members of the group. Njiko Igbo condemns without reservation the systematic violations of the civil liberties and constitutional rights of members of MASSOB as long as they remain citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We further call for the immediate arraignment and trial of all its currently detained members in open courts of law, or, failing that, their immediate release without further delay.

“A good police/community relations is an indispensable condition for the smooth maintenance of law and order and the effective combating of crime in society. Where this fails to take root, anarchy can be expected to reign. It is clear that the Nigerian police have failed in this respect in many part of south-eastern Nigeria and they must wake up and address this matter with urgency and a recognition that they are operating in a civilized society.”

Friday 8 February 2013

UNILAG’s Golden Jubilee Convocation Ceremony (PHOTONEWS)




The University Of Lagos (UNILAG) today at a convocation for its 2011/2012 graduating students marked 50 years of its existence.

At the event, the staff, alumni and friends event of the institution proudly expressed confident that the institution will continue with its name unchanged. 

It would  be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan on May 29, 2012, tried to rename it Moshood Abiola University, a move that was resolutely opposed nationwide.

During today’s jubilee ceremony, the institution posthumously conferred an Honorary Degree on former Prime Minister, Late Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, as well as upon a former Vice Chancellor of the University, Mr. Afe Babalola, and Mr. Arthur Mbanefo.

The university also conferred professorship and distinguished professorship titles on persons it said were deserving of it.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who is the Visitor, described the university in his message as “a great and leading institution” in the country.   He was represented by Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufai, the Education Minister.


Sahara Reporters

Thursday 7 February 2013

“I was paid $3,000″ – Barber, 45, caught with N50 million worth of cocaine at Lagos airport



Ozoh Chukwuemeka, 45, a Nigerian barber living in South Africa was caught at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos with N50m worth of cocaine, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) reports.

Weighing 6.1kg, the drug was detected during the outward clearance of Arik Air passengers to South Africa.

NDLEA Airport Commander, Hamza Umar, said they identified the packages at the baggage check in desk at the departure hall.

“The drug, which was neatly hidden in a false compartment of his luggage, was discovered during routine check on passengers,” he said.

According to reports, the suspect who has a child, had lived in South Africa for 10 years, during the search, it was alleged that he had insisted that the bag contained chemicals.

“A friend of mine in South Africa requested that I bring a bag containing chemicals from Nigeria to South Africa for $3,000. I asked him if it was drug but he said it was just chemicals. He paid for my return ticket.

“I am only struggling to take care of myself with my barbing business. If I had known that things will turn out this way I would have rejected the proposal.

“I have a daughter but I am separated with my wife,” Uzor had pleaded.

But the Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, was unimpressed with the excuses; he described the suspect’s action as sad. “This is sad and the explanation unacceptable,” he said.



YNaija