NewStats: 3,263,951 , 8,182,060 topics. Date: Monday, 09 June 2025 at 01:23 AM 682h3u

One of the respected coaches on the domestic scene, Kelechi Emeteole, is dead. The former Heartland coach died in the early hours of Wednesday, June 21, in an Indian hospital after battling with cancer of the throat, which has seen him bedridden for over six months
Emeteole, up until his death, had difficulties in breathing and swallowing and had a pipe inserted in his throat to aid him.

He ed on before a corrective surgery could be performed on him, a family friend and media officer of Heartland, Solomon Onu, told TIMES. “Kelechi Emeteole has ed on,” Onu confirmed. “Just spoke with his wife. I woke up to see 13 missed calls and quickly grabbed the phone “The wife broke the bad news and I’m devastated “I spoke to the wife on Monday and she even called me back through WhatsApp video call. I saw coach on a bed receiving a drip getting ready for the surgery to remove the pipe on his neck. He waved at me, little did I know it was a sad goodbye wave.”

The ‘Caterpillar’ as he was popularly known during his days in the national team, managed top teams like Heartland FC, Enugu Rangers and El Kanemi in the Nigeria Premier League before his death.

Source: http://www.timesng.com/news/more-news/234649-nigerian-coach-kelechi-emeteole-dead.html

The man who allegedly killed his wife in the Egbeda, Lagos area, Lekan Shonde, has told PUNCH Metro that his wife, Ronke provoked him by describing vividly how her lover slept with her in a hotel in Abuja. Lekan, a depot worker in the Apapa area of Lagos State, said his wife of eight years changed after she allegedly started dating the general manager of a publishing company. The Abeokuta, Ogun State indigene, said he regretted marrying Ronke, explaining that his late mother had warned him against the union, but he never listened.

Our correspodnent had reported that Lekan and his wife, Ronke, lived on Tiemo Close, Off Awori Street, in the Egbeda-Idimu area. The marriage, which was blessed with two children, aged six and four, was said to have been marred with domestic violence. The crisis culminated in the death of Ronke on Thursday, after which her husband fled the house and locked up the children with their dead mother. He said the last time he beat his wife was three years ago after a disagreement, saying he had never touched her afterwards. He said, “Since I married my wife eight years ago, she has never bought anything into the house. I gave her N5,000 on Saturdays and N3,000 on Tuesdays for soup. I also gave her money to make her hair.

“She was working with GTB as a marketer, but she got sacked three years ago. For that period, I was the one feeding her and taking responsibility for everything in the family. I would wash her pants, bathe the children and buy foodstuffs in the house. She later got a job with a publishing company owned by her uncle. “But my wife changed sometime in March, when she started dating the general manger of a publishing company. My wife was going to the office from Monday to Sunday and she wasn’t going to church again, all because of this man. She called him ‘Eyitemi’ (My own).

“Last week Friday, she went to Abuja and came back on Monday. She never told me that the lover was there with her. I learnt later that the lover was there and they slept together in the same room for four days. “When she came back, she didn’t know I was inside the house. She started talking with the man on the phone that he really had fun with him and I didn’t know how to make love. She again said her private parts were paining her. He said he confronted his late wife and she confirmed that she was dating the other man, adding that she asked her to concentrate on a relationship. Lekan said his wife refused to leave the house despite his insistence on her leaving.

Recounting the incident of that night which led to her death, he said they had had an argument over money. He said, “It was around 9pm on Thursday. We had paid our nanny N20,000. Then we needed to pay our children’s teachers N30,000. I discovered she had taken N20,000 and when I asked her to return my money, she said she had spent it. “I was angry because for the past three months, she didn’t allow me to have sex with her. I pushed her hand away from me on the staircase and I left her. She never tumbled or fell. In fact that night, I bought the food that we both ate because she said she didn’t want to cook. “I didn’t know anything had happened to her until Friday when I saw her on the staircase. I thought she was still pretending. I just left her and walked away.”Asked why he shut the gate against his children, he said he never did, adding that it was his son that closed that gate.

Lekan also denied taking the victim’s phone away, saying he left it on the bed. He said he had no reason to kill his wife, adding that he bought her two cars and always provided for her needs. He said, “Jide, her family’s second child lived with me for three to four years. Their eldest daughter, Bolatito, has lived with me too. “Although I am not a saint, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke. I am a responsible man. The problem with my wife was that she was temperamental. She shouted at me whenever she talked. “I am a Lagos boy and I can be in this Lagos for the next 30 years and nobody would see me.”

Meanwhile, Ronke’s sibling, Bolatito, said their mother had just arrived in Lagos from Ilorin, Kwara State, adding that the family would not want to talk about the inci dent yet.
Our correspondent gathered that Ronke’s brother and the second born of the family, died in a ghastly motor accident in Abuja. Bolatito, who is the first born, is the surviving child of three children. She said, “My mother just arrived from Ilorin and the family wants to devote time to attend to her; we don’t want to talk about the incident. I am not in the right frame of mind to talk. “But all I want to say is that her husband is somewhere out there and has been calling. The police should reach out to the telecommunications company to know where he is. He called me and he said he wanted to see me.

“He also said he wanted to see his children and I should tell him where they are because we might never see him again. The aunt of the victim, Bunmi, explained that the suspect had been threatening suicide, saying their mother had forgiven him. She said, “Mummy is very sad with this, but she has forgiven him and does not want him to commit suicide.” A family source told PUNCH Metro that the domestic violence had been on for some time, saying at a point, the matter was reported at a police station. He said the suspect always accused his wife of extra-marital affair. He said, “He always beat her because of his belief that she was into an extra-marital affair. “The beating reduced a bit when the wife of her late brother who was one month pregnant before his death, moved into the house with them. She stayed for about eight months. She was like her saviour.”

The Convener of the Women Arise for Change Initiative, Mrs. Joe Odumakin, while condoling with the family, said the group would pursue the case till the end.She said, “I am shattered and heart-broken. Their mother had been a widow since they were all little and she has lost two of three children in less than one year. And it is hard to believe that the killer husband has been chatting with people, asking to see his children and blatantly lying that he only slapped her. “Neighbours must learn to intervene when they hear unusual noise. And women, who are in abusive relationships, must speak out before it is too late. Lekan should come out and submit himself so he could be tried in a court, where he will have the chance to prove his innocence.”

NB: Lekan spoke with PUNCH Metro on the telephone line provided by his in-law, Bolatito, which was also confirmed by the police spokesperson, Dolapo Bos.

Credit: http://www.punchng.com/alleged-killer-husband-speaks-hiding/

The wrestler was awarded $115million in damages by a jury in Florida after the website posted a leaked sex video that showed him engaging in intercourse with his best friend's wife.

The jury awarded Hogan $55million for economic injuries and $60million for emotional distress. Hogan broke down in tears in the courtroom as the foreman read the jury's verdict.

Gawker will appeal the case, but under Florida law will have to hand over the monetary damages.

Credit:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3499664/Hulk-Hogan-breaks-tears-wins-sex-tape-lawsuit-against-Gawker-jury-awarding-wrestler-115MILLION.html?ito=social-facebook

The deputy governor of Yobe state, Abubakar Ali, was on Monday involved in an auto accident along the Kaduna- Kano expressway. A witness, Sunusi Abdul, told TIMES that the incident occurred in Daka-Tsalle town, along the expressway. “The SUV he was travelling in had a head-on collision with a Toyota Avensis vehicle,” Mr. Abdul said. Fortunately, the deputy governor’s vehicle did not somersault, but the Toyota car was badly damaged and some of its occupants injured.”

Mr. Abdul, who said the accident occurred around 9:30 am, added that he also narrowly missed hitting Mr. Ali’s car. He said the deputy governor’s convoy later continued its trip to Kano. The accident happened a day after the Minister of State for Labour, James Ocholi, his wife and son died in a crash along the Kaduna-Abuja expressway. Efforts to speak with the Yobe deputy governor was unsuccessful. He did not answer or return calls.

Credit:http://www.timesng.com/news/headlines/199697-breaking-yobe-deputy-governor-abubakar-ali-auto-crash-kano.html

A former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, has dissociated himself from funds allegedly diverted by the erstwhile National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, saying his linkage with N1.7billion transfers is false. In a statement made available to TIMES on Wednesday, the former Director of Publicity for the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation said he was neither given N1.7billion by Mr. Jonathan nor Mr. Dasuki. “I have never received one kobo from President Jonathan himself, Colonel Dasuki or any other member of President Jonathan’s government,” he said. ” I have not ever been in receipt of any public funds and neither was I the beneficiary of any payments in cash, transfer, cheque or otherwise from any government official during the tenure of President Jonathan. “As Director of Media and Publicity of the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign organisation I received money on behalf of the Directorate of Media and Publicity which I headed from private individuals and companies during the election campaigns but these were not public funds but rather private contributions specifically for the Presidential and other campaigns.

“Such moneys were transfered into my by the Director of Finance of the Presidential Campaign Organisation and that was specifically set up for the purpose of running the publicity and media aspect of the campaign for the whole country and my Directorate. ” Mr. Fani-Kayode further explained that the “private individuals” and companies paid their contributions into a designated which was provided and controlled by the Director of Finance and that from there, she transferred it to the s of the various directors and individuals that ran for public offices that the PCO ed.

“The money that was sent to me for my Directorate by the Director of Finance was used in a lawful and responsible manner and by the time the campaigns were over my Directorate had paid all of its bills for services rendered and was not owing any media house or anyone else one kobo,” he said. According to Mr. Fani-Kayode, President Jonathan, the D-G of the PCO, the Auditor of the PCO, the Advisor to the PCO and the Director of Finance of the PCO received reports and saw the results of the efforts of his Directorate and expressed their satisfaction and commendations. He noted that even though his party ended up losing the election, the PCO ran a strong and virile campaigns, stating that the encounter with the APC was an epic one and probably the most active and gruelling electoral battle in the history of Nigeria.

“Not one kobo of public funds was spent by or given to my Directorate during the campaign and as far as I am aware not one kobo of public funds was spent by or given to the PCO,” he said. “Presidential campains all over the world cost huge amounts of money and Nigeria is no different. This is especially so when it comes to publicity and media. My Directorate was difficult to run and our work was capital intensive. We did not use marshmellows, pebbles and grass to pay for all the services rendered to us and all the television and newspaper adverts were fully paid for with money.” Mr. Fani-Kayode asserted that nothing was done or given to his campaign organisation free of charge, as such it was not surprising as the APC and President Buhari’s campaign organisation did the same. “I opened an specifically for the funds that were used to run my Directorate and fund all our activities in order to ensure ability and transparency,” he said.

“We also audited our s regularly and insisted on the highest level of professionalism from all those that worked for or with us.
“Since when such matters have become a crime or subjects of criminal investigations I dont know. If it was a crime to speak up for Jonathan during the campaign they should just say so. "If it is a crime to be a member of the PDP and to be in opposition they should just say so. If it is a crime to speak up for and defend President Jonathan and key of his government after he has left office they should just say so. “If it is a crime to oppose the Buhari istration and speak up against his gross violations of human rights that they are indulging in and the violation of court orders they should just say so.”

Mr. Fani-Kayode noted that during the 2015 elections, the PCO and its Directorate on Media and Publicity spoke up and campaigned for many PDP who were running for public offices and were funded too. He said he was aware of the attempt by the government and his “enemies” to discredit and smear his name and silence him by alleging that he was involved in wrongdoing. “I know that this government is capable of doing anything, of inducing anyone to say anything and that they have no sense of decency, justice or fair play,” he said. “They are prepared to charge anyone just for breathing the air if needs be and they can attempt to frame up anyone that they believe is a thorn in their flesh.”

Mr. Fani-Kayode said he would neither run away nor be silenced or cowered, expressing confidence that his innocence would fight for him.
“Though I have been warned and told over and over again by those amongst them who care for my wellbeing that I have been listed down and targeted for persecution, I am not in the least bit concerned about their evil plans for me,” he said. ” My life and destiny is in the hands of God and not theirs and He will fight for me and vindicate me.
“As I have always said, the night may be dark but joy comes in the morning. If it was a crime to use monies that were freely donated by private individuals from lawful and legitimate sources to fund the Presidential and other campaigns let them say so.

“No election campaign anywhere in the world, including that of President Buhari was run with just words, goodwill, grass and pebbles and neither were we given free campaign adverts or air time. All these things were run and paid for with large sums of money. ” I repeat, there is nothing that we did in the campaign organisation or that my Directorate did that Lai Mohammed, Buhari and the APC did not do in theirs. As a matter of fact they spent far more than we did but I have no idea where they got their money and whether they were private or public funds. “Most importantly my Directorate and, as far as I am aware, the Jonathan Sambo Presidential Campaign Organisation did not receive any public funds from any government official or office to run our campaign. “Of this I am absolutely sure and I am very confident because I made a point of asking and insisting that this must be so. These are the facts and I eagerly await my accs, persecutors and detractors.”

Mr. Fani-Kayode-Kayode said he would continue to live his life in peace and not be intimidated by the “boastful threats of the enemy” and would remain law-abiding.
“This has happened on a number of occasions and sadly they use such mediums to tell all manner of lies about the case and the accused to the public. By the time they finish they would have convicted their victim in a vicious smear campaign and media trial which is usually plagued and fuelled by lies and falsehood,” he added.
“It is for this reason that I have taken this opportunity, whilst I am still at liberty, to tell the Nigerian people the truth and let them have all the facts.
“I sincerely hope that my statement will help to clarify matters in the eyes of the public regardless of whatever lies that they will soon be inundated with by a desperate, weak and wicked government. I fear them not because my life is in God’s hands. God bless Nigeria.”

Credit: http://www.timesng.com/news/top-news/196272-fani-kayode-speaks-up-on-allegations-he-got-n1-7billion-from-dasuki-says-i-wont-run-away.html

The Osun State Government has unveiled a new Ooni of Ife. He is Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, a 40-year old real estate entrepreneur and prince from the Giesi Ruling House in the town. The Secretary to the Osun State Government said the selection of the new Ooni followed the completion of all processes for the filling of the exalted stool Mr. Ogunwusi was selected from 21 candidates presented by the Giesi ruling house for the exalted stool.

The statement, made available to TIMES Monday on morning, said, “The Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola has approved the appointment of a new Ooni of Ife. “He is Prince Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi of Girsi Ruling House of Ile-Ife, State of Osun.

“This choice follows the completion of the due process by the kingmakers and the communication of their decision to Government.”

The announcement of a new traditional ruler for the ancient stool came 89 days after the death of Oba Okunade Sijuwade at a London clinic. Mr. Sijuwade ed on after a brief illness on July 28, although Ile-Ife chiefs only confirmed his death on August 10.


Who is Adeyeye Ogunwusi?

Born 40 years ago to the Ojaja Royal compound of Agbedegbede in the Giesi Ruling House, Mr. Adeyeye attended The Polytechnic, Ibadan, where he obtained a Higher National Diploma (HND) in ancy.

After school, he grew rapidly in business, becoming a successful real estate merchant. His bio on the website of Imperial Homes Mortgage Bank Limited (a subsidiary of GTBank) on which board he sits as non executive director, reads, “Mr. Ogunwusi is a graduate of ancy and a certified member of the Institute of Chartered ants of Nigeria and of the Institute of Management.

“He has been involved in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts locally and abroad for over 11 years. “He was involved in the development of the Northern Foreshore Estate, Cityscape International Limited’s Buena Vista project in Lekki, Primewaterview Limited’s projects, Westcom Limited’s projects, and the Ajaokuta Steel’s and Delta Steel’s resuscitation projects

“Adeyeye is currently the Managing Director of Howard Roark Gardens Limited which is undertaking multi-million naira Jacob Mews Estate project in Yaba and the Lakeview real estate development in Lekki.”

Credit: http://www.timesng.com/news/192150-adeyeye-enitan-ogunwusi-is-new-ooni-of-ife.html

Officials have disclosed Lille goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama will head back to the Eagles training camp in Belgium on Saturday to meet with top officials of the NFF over a major falling out with coach Sunday Oliseh. The NFF president Amaju Pinnick as well as his two vice-presidents, Seyi Akinwunmi and Shehu Dikko, are all in Belgium for the friendlies against DR Congo and Cameroon.

Enyeama left the Eagles camp in Belgium on Thursday to return to his base in after Oliseh announced CSKA Moscow forward Ahmed Musa as the team’s new skipper. Meanwhile, the Eagles’ players have elected Ogenyi Onazi -Vice Captain,Kenneth Omeruo-2nd Vice Captain & Efe Ambrose as spokesperson of the team to assist captain Ahmed Musa with istrative matters concerning the team.

Credit: http://footballlive.ng/footballnews/9ja-news/enyeama-returns-to-eagles-nff-to-hold-talks-with-feuding-groups/

Former governor of Rivers State and ministerial nominee, Rotimi Amaechi, last Tuesday night visited Senate President Bukola Saraki where he begged the latter to help clear him ahead of the ministerial screening which starts next week Tuesday. Amaechi arrived the Maitama, Abuja residence of the Senate President at about 11:45pm and left at about 1am, last Wednesday morning. Ministerial nominees have intensified their lobby for the Senate’s clearance since the release of their names. The Senate must screen and confirm them before they could be sworn in.

In the case of Amaechi, no sooner did he have his names announced that the three senators from Rivers State, George Thompson Sekibo (Rivers East), Osinakachukwu Ideozu (Rivers West) and Olaka Nwogu (Rivers South-east) submitted a petition against Ameachi’s confirmation, alleging that the former governor allegedly misappropriated N70 billion belonging to Rivers State while as governor of the state.

A source privy to the visit of the former governor, said this would be the first time Amaechi would be visiting Saraki since the Senate President’s emergence. He had stayed away and even worked against the Senate president’s emergence which was against their party (APC’s) stand.Amaechi who drove himself to the residence in company of an aide pleaded with the Senate President to forget the past and help clear him.

The embattled former governor faces stiff opposition as the three senators from his state are set to oppose his nomination, just as several petitions are said to have already hit the Senate President’s table ahead of the screening. A source revealed that Amaechi succeeded in extracting a promise from the Senate President that he would do everything possible to make his clearance come easy. The former Rivers governor was the director general of the Buhari Campaign Organisation and was said to have spent huge funds during the APC presidential primary and the campaigns.


Credit; http://leadership.ng/news/466169/ministerial-screening-amaechi-in-make-or-mar-visit-to-saraki

Mr Gamaliel Onosode, a reknowned technocrat and is dead. He was born on the 22nd of May, 1933 and he was a Nigerian technocrat, and a former presidential candidate of the All Nigeria People's Party of Nigeria.

He was educated at the Government College, Ughelli and the University of Ibadan, he emerged in the 1970s, as one of Nigeria's leading educated chief executives, when he was at the helm of NAL merchant bank of Nigeria.

Over the years, he has risen to become a leading boardroom player in Nigeria's corporate environment. He was also a former presidential adviser to President Shagari and a former president of the Nigerian Institute of Management.

He was also a one time Group Managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation during the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidency. According to a statement by the family, Mr Onosode died in early hours of today. He was aged 82. His burial arrangements will be announced later.

Credit: http://www.leadership.ng/news/463939/mr-gamaliel-onosode-dies-at-82
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamaliel_Onosode

President Mohammadu Buhari on Saturday morning held a secret meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in New York in a bid to calm the tension going on in the All Progressive Congress (APC) over the ordeal of Senate president, Senator Bukola Saraki. The meeting which was held behind closed door at the Millennium Plaza Hotel in New York lasted for about 45 minutes.

Sources who were part of the meeting at its early minutes before being excused said that the former president had called the protocol officers of President Buhari to schedule the talks in order to plead for a soft landing for Saraki.However, former Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, was sighted by our correspondent at the door of the room where the meeting took place, and all efforts to speak with him proved futile as he was busy struggling with security men who repeatedly stopped him from gaining entry.

However, the source confirmed that a former member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Abike Dabiri, has been pencilled down as the next Nigerian Permanent Representative to the United Nations as a result of the wealth of experience she garnered in foreign affairs and diplomatic issues when she was the chairperson, House Committee on Diaspora Affairs.All efforts by newsmen to speak with Obasanjo on his way to his hotel after the meeting met a brick wall as his security men prevented any interview from taking place.The former president simply said to his security men that: “E fi won s’ile”, meaning “leave them alone”.


Credit: http://www.leadership.ng/news/463437/saraki-pmb-obj-hold-secret-talks-in-new-york

Adebowale Ibidapo Adefuye, a historian who served as Nigeria’s ambassador to the United States, has died in Washington, DC, SaharaReporters just learned. Mr. Adefuye died at a yet to be disclosed hospital in the US, a source in the US told our correspondent. Mr. Adefuye was recalled to Nigeria after President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in as President. He was still waiting to hand over to a new ambassador when he suddenly died today. A former professor of history, Mr. Adefuye was in 2010 appointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan as Nigeria’s ambassador in the US. An outspoken person and fierce defender of Nigeria, the deceased diplomat tackled critics of Nigeria in the US. He vociferously lobbied against Nigeria’s classification as “a country of interest” in America’s terrorism watch list.

Mr. Adefuye hailed from Ijebu-Igbo was born in 1947, and he studied at the University of Ibadan where he earned his first degree in 1969 as well as a PhD in history in 1973. He also received a Fulbright Fellowship that enabled him to do research work at Columbia University, the University of North Florida, and the University of Florida in Gainesville. Ambassador Adefuye, who wrote several history texts, taught at the University of Lagos, earning a professorship and heading the History Department 1985 to 1987. Prior to his appointment to Nigeria’s Embassy in Washington, DC, Mr. Adefuye served as his country’s ambassador to Jamaica (where he was concurrently accredited to Haiti and Belize) from 1987 to 1991. In 1991, he was appointed Nigeria’s Deputy High Commissioner in the U.K., leaving to work for fourteen years as a Deputy Director at the Commonwealth. On leaving the Commonwealth, the former professor accepted a position as an advisor at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).


Credit:http://saharareporters.com/2015/08/27/nigerian-ambassador-us-ade-adefuye-dead

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of the Executive Vice Chairman of ExxonMobil Africa, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, to head Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Kachiku is expected to take over from from Joseph Darwa at the NNPC headquarters in Abuja around 3:00 PM Nigerian time. Kachikwu, trained lawyer, was born and raised in Onicha Ugbo in Aniocha North local government area of Delta State.

Credit: http://saharareporters.com/2015/08/04/president-buhari-appoints-exxonmobil-vice-chair-head-nigerias-petroleum-corporation

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has denied the allegation by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that the Director-General of the State Security Service, Lawal Daura, is a card-carrying member of the APC, calling the accusation absurd and frivolous. In a statement issued in Lagos on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party challenged the PDP to publish any evidence it may have to confirm the allegation, adding: ”After all, it is trite that he who alleges must prove.” ”In the absence of that, the PDP must call another press conference to publicly apologize to all Nigerians for engaging in barefaced lies,” it said. APC expressed shock that the PDP has started exhibiting all the “symptoms of hallucination so soon after its gravy train derailed, saying it’s obvious that the party has now started hearing voices”.

”We know that the psyche of the PDP has been badly affected by its loss of power at the centre. Even the party itself has itted that much. That situation has now been compounded by the fact that the party is broke. It is therefore not a surprise that it is no longer able to think straight. The reality of its new situation is just beginning to dawn on it. ”But we warned the PDP early on that being in opposition is not a walk in the park. We warned that while the party was used to eating its bread with butter on both sides, it will now be lucky to even have bread to it,” the party said. The APC warned the PDP to spend more time in patching its tattered and battered umbrella than acting as a cog in the wheel of progress of the new istration.

Credit:http://www.timesng.com/news/top-news/187485-sss-director-general-not-our-member-apc.html

Motorists plying the Umaru Yar’Adua expressway leading to and from the city centre to the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja often experience incessant hardship whenever President Muhammadu Buhari travels out of or returns to the capital city. On every occasion that Mr. Buhari travels, the 10-lane expressway is often closed for prolonged periods before the President’s convoy eventually comes along. During those periods, motorists trying to access the road or those already on it are made to halt their journeys. On Wednesday morning, as Mr. Buhari travelled to Cameroun on a state visit as part of regional efforts to combat the Boko Haram sect, the traffic situation caused by the presidential movement was terrible and heart wrenching for residents and motorists. A motorist who resides at the Federal Housing Estate in Lugbe, Oluyinka Akintunde, told TIMES that he set out for work at some minutes after 8 a.m. but was forced to stop, alongside hundreds of other motorists, because the road was closed to traffic.

“The entire stretch of the road from the Federal Secretariat to the Airport, a distance of over 40 kilometres, was closed and we had to stop there until about 9:10 a.m. when the president’s convoy eventually ed,” he said. Mr. Oluyinka also recalled that his wife experienced the same scenario last week. “My wife was going to the Church very early last week, but she could not enter the expressway because it had already been closed,” he said. Mr. Buhari had shortly after his election as President, and before he was sworn in, directed his aides to always respect traffic light. His convoy was seen obeying traffic light on occasions when he shuttled between the Defence House and his office in Wuse 2 and other destinations. Mr. Oluyinka said although it is normal practice for a president not to share the road with other road s, he blames the security agents who he said “appear as if they take delight in blocking the road even when the president was clearly not ready to start moving”.

“I am not sure the President is aware we are suffering like this under this reign,” he said. Another Abuja resident, Maikudi Shuaib, recently narrated to this reporter how he missed the Eid El-Fitr prayer some days back due to road closure by security agents. “We were on the road quite ahead of time, but we saw some soldiers and police officers along the Bolingo Junction blocking the road. All our pleas to let us as we were heading to the Eid fell on deaf ears. “They said the road has been closed for presidential movement. I happily saw the President in a modest convoy, but I missed my prayer,” he said. The current situation concerning Mr. Buhari’s movement appears to be business as usual in of the traffic gridlock presidential convoys cause during departure to or arrival from a travel destination. TIMES had earlier this year reported how trips by former President Goodluck Jonathan exposed Abuja residents to insecurity. In that report, which detailed Mr. Jonathan’s travel out of Abuja for campaigns on a Saturday, over 200 police officers and about a hundred soldiers were withdrawn from their beats around the nation’s capital and made to line the route to the Abuja Airport four hours before the then President left his home at the Presidential villa.

Some of the police officers were seen standing with their rifles on their shoulders, some sitting on pavements, stones and bare ground while others snored away in patrol cars. This time around, although there is high security presence along the airport road whenever Mr. Buhari travels the withdrawal of security agents from the city centre does not appear to be as high as it was during President Jonathan’s reign.

Credit: http://www.timesng.com/features-and-interviews/187441-how-buharis-airport-shuttles-foist-hardship-on-abuja-residents.html

In recent days, several online media have reported that Ms. Alison-Madueke was critically sick in a London hospital. However, two sources in the UK who are quite conversant with the former minister’s physical condition told SaharaReporters today that her condition had not deteriorated, contrary to media reports.

One of the sources went as far as suggesting that the ex-Petroleum Minister might be orchestrating the reports about her grave ill health as a strategy to attract public sympathy as well as official leniency from President Muhammadu Buhari who has received extensive intelligence from US authorities detailing the extent of Ms. Alison-Madueke’s looting of petro-dollars under the watch of Mr. Jonathan.

One of our UK sources disclosed that the beleaguered former minister recently concluded a course of treatment for cancer, adding that she is not hospitalized in London as being touted by some of her family.

Another source revealed that he and others were in touch with the former minister as recently as yesterday. “She is definitely not in an ICU [intensive care unit] as I understand that some press people have been reporting,” the source said. According to him, “All I know is that there is a fair amount of anxiety on her part about all the reports coming out about her management of the affairs of the oil sector. Perhaps this anxiety is translating into efforts to portray her as sicker than she is, in reality. That strategy is understandable, as a way of lessening public reaction to reports that are out there. And there’s considerable uncertainty about what [President] Buhari is going to do. So, yes, there’s an advantage to the reports [of her critical ill health], but I can tell you she’s not in any devastated shape. Far from it.”

A series of coordinated reports about Ms. Alison-Madueke’s ill health began to surface after SaharaReporters revealed that US officials handed a dossier of the former minister’s billion dollar fraudulent deals to President Muhammad Buhari during his visit last week to America.

Yesterday, in a move that corroborated our report, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State told reporters at the State House in Abuja that US officials informed Mr. Buhari that a Nigerian minister under President Jonathan stole as much as $6 billion from the Nigerian treasury. Even though Mr. Oshiomhole did not disclose the name of the minister involved, a source at the Presidency confirmed to SaharaReporters that Ms. Alison-Madueke was the minister in question. Governor Oshiomhole was the only governor in President Buhari’s delegation when he held a critical meeting with US Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, at Blair House in Washington, DC. Ms. Lynch, who is known to be tough on crime, especially international fraud, reportedly pledged US assistance to arrest and prosecute the former Petroleum Minister and others who have defrauded the Nigerian people provided that Mr. Buhari would take steps to identify and flush out corrupt judges from the Nigerian judiciary.

Mr. Oshiomhole said that US officials, who were astonished by the size of looting that took place under Mr. Jonathan’s istration, declared that the funds stolen by one minister were staggering even for an economy as big as that of the United States. The former Petroleum Minister was known to be extraordinarily close to Mr. Jonathan, who refused to remove her from his cabinet despite numerous credible reports of her illicit and corrupt deals.

SaharaReporters earlier reported that Ms. Alison-Madueke had attempted to send emissaries to President Buhari offering to return $250 million from her loot in return for being shielded from prosecution. One of the associates she ed is a northern governor known to be close to Mr. Buhari. A highly reliable source told SaharaReporters that Mr. Buhari rejected the offer, contending that he would uncover how much Ms. Alison-Madueke and her fronts looted from the Nigerian treasury. “Mr. President is not interested in settling for small change. He has sworn to the Nigerian people that he will recover the vast sums stolen by officials of past government, especially those of President Jonathan. He is determined to keep his pledge to the Nigerian people.”

Former Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), an agency under Ms. Alison-Madueke, of failing to deposit more than $20 billion of oil earnings at the CBN. Rather than launch a serious investigation, then President Jonathan ran to the former Petroleum Minister’s defense, and eased Mr. Sanusi out of his job at the CBN.

Fresh reports are surfacing of how Ms. Alison-Madueke used cohorts she handpicked to systematically deprive Nigerians of billions of dollars of oil revenues. Among the big players in her web of oil scams are Kogi-born businessman, Jide Omokore, Ben Peters, Igho Salome, and Kola Aluko. The mega scams the former minister pulled off with her trusted hands involved opulent acquisition of at least four private jets, a yacht, real estate in various world locations, including New York, Dubai, and London, and the transfer of huge sums to bank s operated by shadowy companies in Switzerland and several tax havens.

Ms. Alison-Madueke famously fell out with Mr. Aluko over the latter’s reported romantic involvement with ex-super model Naomi Campbell. It is believed that Mr. Aluko absconded with more than $1 billion that was in his custody as a result of shady transactions engineered and approved by the former Petroleum Minister.

Credit: http://saharareporters.com/2015/07/28/former-petroleum-minister-diezani-playing-sick-card

Rowland Nakanda, a Nigerian national, had previously been found guilty of two counts of money laundering following a month-long trial at Southwark Crown Court and was sentenced today, Friday, 24 July. The investigation into Nakanda commenced during the wider inquiry into the corrupt activities of the former governor of Delta State in Nigeria, James Ibori, between 1999 and 2007. Nakanda, 54 (29.01.61) of Tyne Gardens, South Ockendon in Essex is the older brother of Teresa Ibori, James Ibori’s wife. James and Teresa Ibori were convicted of fraud and money laundering in 2012 and were sentenced to a total of 18 years’ imprisonment for corruption. Following the conviction of the Iboris, the Nakandas became guardians of the Ibori’s three children. Police identified that the Ibori children, despite their parents’ convictions, were being educated at a private school and it was established that Nakanda had continued to pay the considerable school fees. Enquiries revealed that he had paid the fees to the school’s bank in cash over the counter through his local Lloyd’s bank in Grays, Essex.

CCTV revealed that on one day alone, Nakanda paid over £15,000 in cash for the school fees of two of the children. A financial investigation was able to trace £350,000 in unexplained cash deposits going through Nakanda’s s following the convictions of the Iboris. The investigation was undertaken by the Met’s Proceeds of Corruption Unit, which has now transferred to the National Crime Agency (NCA) to become the International Corruption Unit. Rupert Broad, formerly a Detective Inspector in the Met’s Proceeds of Corruption Unit, said: “Rowland Nakanda previously worked for the Royal Mail and lived a modest lifestyle with his wife in Essex. I am pleased that we were able to demonstrate that Nakanda knew that the money he was dealing with was the proceeds of criminal conduct and had originated from James Ibori’s corrupt activity during his governorship of Delta State. This sentence should act as a warning that we will go after everyone involved in fraudulent activity, however complex and wide-reaching the fraud." A total of nine individuals have now been convicted of money laundering offences in linked cases, and have received sentences totalling over 50 years. Nakanda was acquitted of cheating the Revenue. Rowland Nakanda’s wife, Chifu Nakanda, was acquitted of all charges.


Credit: http://saharareporters.com/2015/07/28/ibori%E2%80%99s-brother-law-sentenced-two-and-half-years-money-laundering

The make or mar meeting between opposing factions of All Progressives Congress in the House of Representatives, ended early Tuesday with the two sides adopting an earlier directive from the APC leadership on the zoning of key leadership positions. The party had zoned the positions in a letter to the speaker, Yakubu Dogara, on June 23. In the letter, the party presented Femi Gbajabiamila (South-West) as the house leader; Ado Doguwa (North-West) as deputy leader; Mohammed Monguno (North-East) as chief whip; and Pally Iriase (South South) as deputy chief whip.

The letter from the APC was in response to the lingering leadership crisis that has rocked the house since its inauguration June 9. Mr. Dogara rejected the nominations, and suggested other candidates for the offices. But at Monday’s meeting, at the behest of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Dogara faction and the APC leadership agreed the letter from the party be respected, several sources told TIMES.
However, the names nominated by the party will no longer stand, both sides agreed, lawmakers who attended the meeting said. Instead, each zonal caucus will conduct elections to decide the winners of the slots based on the zoning formular conveyed in the party’s letter.

The agreement has broadened the chances of Mr. Gbajabiamila emerging the majority leader, a key demand that has been at the centre of the nearly two-month old crisis. The adopted formular zoned House Leader position to the South West; Deputy House Leader – North West; Chief Whip – North East; Deputy House Whip – South South. The zonal caucus elections are expected between Tuesday and Wednesday. The house crisis started after the speaker, Yakubu Dogara, emerged speaker in defiance of the APC leadership’s decision to anoint Mr. Gbajabiamila for the position.

The party later adjusted its demand and nominated Mr. Gbajabiamila as the majority leader, a proposal Mr. Dogara again rejected. The speaker said Mr. Gbajabiamila’s south west region had produced the deputy speaker, Yusuf Lasun. In his response, Mr. Dogara nominated who ed Mr. Gbajabiamila as majority leader and chief whip, proposals rejected by Mr. Gbajabiamila, a former minority leader. Mr. Buhari told the lawmakers on Monday that the dispute had emboldened the opposition, and warned that it was unacceptable for the PDP to be allowed to dictate who occupies positions in an APC istration he heads, a member who attended the meeting told TIMES.

The president is expected to be briefed today on the outcome of the meeting. However, a source from Mr. Dogara’s camp disputed the agreement reached at the meeting. he source said the party settled for the group’s nomination of Alhassan Doguwa as the majority leader, Pally Iriase as chief whip, Umar Jibrin as deputy leader and Chike Okafor as deputy whip. our correspondent says the claim by the Dogara camp may portend fresh dispute as the house reconvenes today. The Gbajabiamila camp, meanwhile, has warned that any contrary decision on the floor of the house, different from what was agreed at the meeting, will be “strange” and considered an “affront against our collective interest including that of the President”.

Credit: http://www.timesng.com/news/headlines/187359-house-crisis-reps-adopt-apcs-zoning-formular.html

A randy banker identified as Mike (surname withheld) in Asaba, Delta State, is currently helping the police at the Police ‘B’ Division in Asaba in their investigation into his alleged sexual affairs with a housewife whose name was given as Mrs. Rosemary Ehikwe. Sources said the suspect, a staff of a popular bank from the North situated along Okpanam road in Asaba, is well known with married women and oftentimes, gives them loans from his bank to improve their businesses after allegedly sleeping with them.

This Auchi-born indigene of Edo State was said to have been transferred from Kaduna to Asaba where the bank has its headquarters as branch manager. Since his transfer to the state, the suspect has allegedly slept with many married women especially around Infant Jesus Way where he frequents in his jeep before the bubble burst. Police sources confirmed that Uncle Mike as he is fondly called was arrested at the weekend by police detectives acting on a tip-off. The detectives at the ‘B’ Division arrested him in a hotel room where he had allegedly gone with the housewife.

One of his victims, Winifred (surname withheld) said, “He used me and dumped me with my two kids; I cursed him that God would expose him, and today, God has exposed him”. At the Police ‘B’ Division, officers who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity said the suspect was arrested in a hotel room with the housewife and two packets of condom, adding that upon interrogation, the woman confessed that the suspect had been disturbing her for sex for over two months after he allegedly offered her N200,000.00.

Credit: http://leadership.ng/news/450071/banker-arrested-over-alleged-affairs-with-housewife

(CNN)A Tripoli court has sentenced slain Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam Gadhafi to death in absentia. He has been ordered to face a firing squad for his role in the 2011 revolution that led to his father's ouster. Saif al-Islam Gadhafi was not at the trial, as he is being held by a militia group in Zintan.

Details later..

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/28/africa/libya-saif-al-islam-gadhafi-sentence/index.html?sr=cnnifb

Apparently wary of the negative impact the lingering National Assembly leadership crisis is having on the current istration, President Muhammadu Buhari has commenced last-minute moves to settle the fracas in the legislature once and for all. Accordingly, the president will, for the first time since the crisis erupted, meet with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, his deputy and all the All Progressives Congress (APC) of the house today in Aso Villa, Abuja. The senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, confirmed the meeting to State House correspondents yesterday.

LEADERSHIP gathered reliably that top on the list of agenda of the meeting scheduled to hold at the banquet hall of the presidential villa by 5pm is how to resolve the issues of key positions in the House that have torn the APC caucus apart. A dependable presidency source told our correspondent that the meeting with the APC Reps is one among other parleys President Buhari will be holding with APC federal lawmakers, as another meeting with APC senators is also in the offing. According to the source who preferred not to be named in print, “the president has concluded that he cannot just fold his arms and watch the legislature, which is also an integral part of the federal government under his watch, stray for too long when the APC government is supposed to be acting as one in setting the pace for good governance in line with their campaign promises for Nigerians. “The meeting tomorrow (today) is an indication that, as the leader of the country and the party, President Buhari, who had hitherto vowed not to meddle in the affairs of the National Assembly, has finally resolved to wade into the crisis for the interest of the party and the entire country. A dependable presidency source told our correspondent that the meeting with the APC Reps is one among other parleys President Buhari will be holding with APC federal lawmakers, as another meeting with APC senators is also in the offing.

According to the source who preferred not to be named in print, “the president has concluded that he cannot just fold his arms and watch the legislature, which is also an integral part of the federal government under his watch, stray for too long when the APC government is supposed to be acting as one in setting the pace for good governance in line with their campaign promises for Nigerians.“The meeting tomorrow (today) is an indication that, as the leader of the country and the party, President Buhari, who had hitherto vowed not to meddle in the affairs of the National Assembly, has finally resolved to wade into the crisis for the interest of the party and the entire country. “To avoid the crisis from continuing unabated now that the House has resumed its session, hence frustrating the legislative process under his government, the president feels he should discuss with all parties involved in the rift and urge them to come up with a better way of achieve their aim without necessarily resorting to rancour”, the source added. As for the Senate crisis, he said, “There are also plans by the president to meet with the APC in the Senate to address the fracas. But this will come only after the issue of fraudulent forgery of the Senate rules must have been properly investigated and treated by the relevant security agencies”.

Obviously in preparation for the reconciliation parley today, a factional leader of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, was at the presidential villa on Friday where he had a closed-door meeting with the president. The source added that “the idea of tomorrow’s (today’s) meeting is to talk to Speaker Dogara and his faction to stop anti-party activities in the House and begin a reconciliation process that would unite the APC in the House, with a view to forming a formidable majority in the Green Chamber of the National Assembly”.LEADERSHIP recalls that at the meeting with the president on July 1, the Gbajabiamila faction had implored President Buhari to call Speaker Dogara and of his group to order. LEADERSHIP also recalls that senior special assistant to the resident on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, who had explained why Buhari did not want to interfere in the National Assembly crisis, had noted, however, that in the event where the governors wrre unable to resolve the matter, the president would wade in directly. In the Green Chamber, an attempt by Speaker Yakubu Dogara to ensure the use of federal character principle in sharing the principal offices in the House has further polarised . The Speaker had come up with what is now referred as ‘Dogara Formula’ which is a clear deviation from the instructions of the leadership of the governing APC, which had earlier directed him to announce the names of Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, Alhassan Doguwa, Mohammed Tahir Monguno and Pally Iriase as majority leader, deputy leader, chief whip and deputy chief whip of the House respectively.

Prominent of the Gbajabiamila-led The Loyalists Group, namely Doguwa, Iriase and Monguno, openly bought into the Dogara formula during a t press briefing at the weekend in Abuja, but their group immediately disowned them, saying they acted on their own. Meanwhile, the group yesterday said it had accepted Monguno’s apology, adding that he was misled during earlier t press conference with the Dogara’s Consolidation Group on Saturday. At a press conference in Abuja yesterday addressed by the spokesman of the Gbajabiamila Group, Hon. Nasiru Sani Zangon-Daura and attended by about 20 of the group, they insisted that they will not allow Nigerians to be short-changed over the ‘change’ they voted for. The group further alleged an “unholy” alliance between Speaker Dogara and of the opposition PDP in the House in order to, according to it, thwart President Muhammad Buhari’s change agenda. “We are also cognizant that in politics there are always the subversive activities and antics of 5th columnists in any political movement to contend with. We are also aware that this unholy alliance is a bid to truncate President Muhammadu Buhari’s agenda, which includes his anti-corruption stance, by using the National Assembly to, at the very minimum, slow it down if they cannot stop this presidential initiative dead cold.

“We know that this unholy agreement between the disloyal Dogara group and the PDP entails the deployment of PDP and the disloyal APC group in strategic positions in the structures and committees of the House. The purpose of this strategic deployment is to enable the PDP to indirectly dictate the pace and activities of the National Assembly to the detriment of our party’s goals and objectives,” Zangon-Daura said. The group deplored what it called the continued defiance of the APC and the party House Caucus by Dogara as indicated in his “disloyal letter” to the APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, saying that it was not aware of any concession made by the Dogara group to theirs (Loyalists Group), contrary to insinuations in the media. “To have a genuine agreement that is not tainted by the PDP, the Dogara group will have to, first of all, cut off the umbilical cord between them and the PDP and, secondly, engage in candid reconciliatory discussions with our group as a whole through our approved under the leadership of Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila,” he added. For his part, Hon. Aliyu Sani Madaki (APC, Kano), who was present at the briefing, argued that Speaker Dogara and his group cannot rely on the principle of federal character when he (Dogara) as the Speaker of the House and Senate President Bukola Saraki are both northerners.


Gbajabiamila’s Men Blackmailing For Selfish Reasons – Jibrin

Reacting to the allegation that the Speaker is in an unholy alliance with the PDP to truncate Buhari’s agenda, the spokesman of the Consolidation Group, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, said it was unfounded and “cheap blackmail” by the rival group. “What has Buhari brought to the House or what has Dogara done to undermine Buhari?” Jibrin queried. He also said that there was no plan to bar any member of the House from gaining access to the chamber tomorrow, wondering how a member of a majority party could be denied entry by a minority group. Jibrin added that of the Loyalists Group had now resorted to blackmail, having failed to stampede Speaker Dogara into written commitments over their headship and hip of ‘juicy’ committees of the House.

Tension Mounts In Senate

In the Senate, the alleged falsification of its Standing Rules 2011 ahead of the elections of Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as Senate president and deputy respectively on June 9, which is being investigated by the police, is already causing ripples in the upper chamber, with law enforcement agents said to be closing in on the perpetrators for possible prosecution. LEADERSHIP gathered that senators will raise the issue on the floor when they reconvene tomorrow as it borders on the propriety of the elections of Saraki and Ekweremadu as presiding officers. Speaking on the development, spokesman of the Senator Ahmed Lawan-led Unity Forum, Senator Kabiru Marafa (Zamfara, APC), when ed by LEADERSHIP on the alleged impeachment moves against the Senate leadership and the suspension of of the Unity Forum, he responded via a text message. “How do you impeach what is not there? Anyway, my understanding of the case is: we are in court challenging the events of June 9, 2015 based on the evidence we gave the police. “The police report will help the court in determining our case. If the court agrees with the police, it will, in addition to handing down appropriate sanctions, nullify the events of that day. That’s all! On the rumoured suspension, I pray it is true.”

Atlanta (CNN)Two days before she was found face-down in the bathtub at her home outside Atlanta in January, it seemed like Bobbi Kristina Brown's career might have been picking up. "Let's start this career up&&moving OUT to TO YOU ALLLL quick shall we !?!!" she said in an enthusiastic tweet. It's not clear what projects she may have been working on, but they won't be completed now. Brown, the daughter of late superstar Whitney Houston and singer Bobby Brown, died Sunday at the age of 22, a representative of the Houston family said in a statement.

"Bobbi Kristina Brown ed away Sunday, July, 26 2015, surrounded by her family," the statement said. "She is finally at peace in the arms of God. We want to again thank everyone for their tremendous amount of love and during these last few months." She was treated in a hospital and then a hospice facility in the nearly six months since she was found unresponsive and not breathing in the bathtub at her Roswell home on January 31 -- nearly three years to the day after her mother accidentally drowned in a bathtub in Beverly Hills, a victim of the vices she had fought for much of her career. As rumors flew, family took sides Brown was placed in a medically induced coma, relatives have said. Rumors flew about her condition, with family and loved ones taking sides in the drama.

In April, her maternal grandmother, Cissy Houston, said Bobbi Kristina had "global and irreversible brain damage." "Meeting with the doctors and understanding that she can live in this condition for a lifetime truly saddens me," Houston said. "We can only trust in God for a miracle at this time." The statement was released days after her father and Whitney Houston's former husband, R & B singer Bobby Brown, told an audience in Dallas, "I can say today, Bobbi is awake. She's watching me." On June 24, Bobbi Kristina's aunt, Pat Houston, announced that her niece had been moved to a hospice facility.

"Despite the great medical care at numerous facilities, Bobbi Kristina Brown's condition has continued to deteriorate," Houston's statement said. "As of today, she has been moved into hospice care. We thank everyone for their and prayers. She is in God's hands now." Many had worried the young woman was haunted by some of the same demons as her mother. Love, grief and family tensions Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown married in 1992 and welcomed Bobbi Kristina in 1993. The little girl was doted upon by both her parents and Houston often brought the youngster on stage.

Houston told Rolling Stone magazine in 1993 that "having Bobbi Kristina ... I could never do anything that could top that. There's been nothing more incredible in my life than having her." "God knows, I have been in front of millions and millions of people, and that has been incredible, to feel that give-take thing," Houston said. "But, man, when I gave birth to her and when they put her in my arms, I thought: 'This has got to be it. This is the ultimate.' I haven't experienced anything greater."

Mother and daughter grew even closer after Houston's divorce from Brown in 2007. Houston and Bobbi Kristina performed together on ABC's "Good Morning America" in 2009, singing "My Love Is Your Love" in Central Park.

After Houston's death on February 11, 2012 -- an accidental drowning in a bathtub, a coroner ruled, with heart disease and cocaine use named as contributing factors -- there was a great deal of concern for Brown, who was 18 at the time. She opened up to Oprah Winfrey during an interview in March 2012 about how she was coping with the loss of her mother. "No one knows what an amazing spirit she was," Brown told Winfrey. "She wasn't only a mother, she was a best friend." Brown said her grief came in waves, but that she still communicated with her mom. "I can hear her voice telling me to keep moving, baby, I gotcha," she said. "She's always with me. I can always feel her with me."Brown was ed in her grief by Nick Gordon, who was taken in by Houston when he was 12 years old and who was raised alongside Bobbi Kristina.

Gordon and Brown became romantically involved after Houston's death, and tensions between the Gordon and Houston families over the relationship were part of the storyline on Lifetime's short-lived reality show "The Houstons: On Our Own." There was speculation that Brown may have suffered from some of the same problems as her parents (both Houston and Brown had documented issues with substance abuse) after she appeared to be intoxicated during some scenes of the reality show.

Those concerns intensified in July 2014 after a picture was posted on her Instagram showing a young woman who looked like Brown appearing to be smoking from a bong. The image had made the media rounds two years earlier. Brown later denied that she posted the photo and tweeted that it was done by someone attempting to tarnish her image. Brown and Gordon announced their engagement in 2013 and she took to her Facebook page to clear up the misconception that he was her adopted brother. Far from being bothered by the relationship were she still alive, Brown said her mother had predicted they would fall in love. "People need to seriously stop judging my relationship," Brown wrote. "Pretty sure it's my own decision who I want to be with."

Criminal investigation
It was Gordon and a male friend who discovered Brown unconscious in her townhome. While Brown called Gordon her husband (she had tweeted a picture believed to be of their hands wearing wedding rings with the hashtag #HappilyMarried) there is no court record of a marriage between the two and family say the couple was never legally wed. Police had been called to Brown's home January 23 after someone reported a fight there, but no one answered the door and officers found no evidence of an altercation, a Roswell police spokeswoman said.

After Brown was found in the bathtub, authorities launched a criminal investigation. A family friend said police questioned Gordon about the bruising on Brown's chest and said he told them it was a result of his giving her R. Gordon gave an emotional and sometime explosive interview that aired in March on the "The Dr. Phil Show" in which he complained of being denied access to Brown.

"I can't lose Krissy, I just can't," he cried. The talk show host persuaded Gordon to enter a treatment program for substance abuse and in April his attorney, Randy Kessler, confirmed Gordon was no longer in rehab. In June, a civil lawsuit was filed against Gordon in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, alleging that Gordon's behavior "caused, among other things, substantial bodily harm to Brown." It also alleged that since Brown's hospitalization in January, Gordon accessed her bank s and stole more than $11,000. Brown was initially taken to North Fulton Hospital and placed in a medically induced coma, and was later transferred to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, where she was on life in the neuro intensive care unit. In March she was moved to a rehabilitation center.

Despite reports of fighting over her care, on June 19 Bobby Brown said the family was working together on behalf of his daughter. "I am making decisions with (Bobbi Kristina's aunt) Pat Houston and we are working together for the medical care of my daughter," Brown said in a statement. "Right now we are focused on Bobbi Kristina's medical prognosis and the criminal investigation. These are the priorities for us. Whoever had a hand in causing my daughter's injuries needs to be brought to justice."Her death cut short the dreams she had of following in her mother's footsteps by pursuing a career in music and acting. In 2012 she made her acting debut on Tyler Perry's TBS show "For Better or Worse." Perry is a close family friend who frequently visited Brown while she was hospitalized.

Credit: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/26/us/bobbi-kristina-brown-dies/index.html?sr=cnnifb

he Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has summoned Kingsley Kuku, a former special adviser on Niger Delta Affairs to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, for questioning. A reliable source in the commission told TIMES that Mr. Kuku and two others are wanted by the EFCC over allegation of embezzlement and fraudulent diversion of funds running into hundreds of millions of Naira. Details of the allegations against the former presidential aide are not immediately available, but there have been concerns that the amnesty programme of the last istration was fraught with massive corruption. Mr. Kuku, our source said, has been directed to appear before a team of interrogators at the EFCC office on Tuesday, July 28. Mr. Kuku could not be reached for comments Friday afternoon.

In a related development, the anti-graft agency has grilled Baraka Sani, a former special assistant to President Jonathan on Schools and Agricultural programme. TIMES learnt that she was questioned by operatives for more than 10 hours on July 22, over allegation that she diverted funds meant for the schools agricultural programme of the istration. She was however released on istrative bail to enable her to return with documents she said would help her explain her involvement in the alleged mega scam. When ed, the spokesperson for the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed that Kuku has been invited by the agency. He also confirmed that Ms. Sani was quizzed by the agency.

Credit:http://www.timesng.com/news/headlines/187203-breaking-efcc-moves-against-jonathans-adviser-on-amnesty-kingsley-kuku.html

The wife of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has said she will respond to an invitation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and assist the commission with its inquiries over corruption allegations against her. Toyin Saraki confirmed Wednesday she had been summoned by the commission, but denied knowing the motive of the invitation. TIMES had reportedly exclusively on Wednesday that the EFCC was moving against Mrs. Saraki, and Zainabu Yar’adua-Dakingari, the daughter of former President Umaru Yar’Adua, over alleged corruption.

Mrs. Dakingari, also the wife of a former governor of Kebbi State, is accused of N2billion fraud perpetrated during her husband’s tenure as governor of the Northwest State. She was initially expected to report for questioning at the EFCC headquarters Wednesday, but sent words that she was away to Saudi for Umrah (lesser hajj), and pleaded to be allowed to report on ‎ July 27, 2015. She is expected to explain the source of the steady stream of cash into her companies, while she held sway as first lady of Kebbi State.

Mrs Saraki, a source at the anti-graft agency disclosed, was invited by the EFCC in relation to questionable inflow of funds into companies where she has interest, when her husband was the governor of Kwara State. She is expected to report at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja on July 28, 2015; where investigators have already been assembled to grill her. Mrs. Saraki confirmed Wednesday, following Times’ report, that she received EFCC’s invitation.

She said she “will be delighted to assist them with any lawful enquiries they may have, as a law abiding, transparent and able private citizen”. A statement by Akeem Olagoke, the private secretary to Mrs Saraki, said the senate president’s wife had no idea of the intent of the anti-graft agency’s invitation. “Her Excellency, Mrs Toyin Saraki, Founder of Wellbeing Foundation Africa and wife of the Senate President has been informed by her office that a letter of invitation was delivered to her office, by and from the EFCC,”

Mr. Olagoke said. Mr. Olagoke said, “She has directed an immediate and formal response, to the EFCC, that she will be delighted to assist them with any lawful enquiries they may have, as a law abiding, transparent and able private citizen.” He added that Mrs Saraki has further confirmed an appointment date to honour the EFCC’s invitation at a mutually agreed convenience.

Credit:http://www.timesng.com/news/top-news/187123-alleged-corruption-im-ready-to-cooperate-with-efcc-sarakis-wife.html

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday hurriedly abandoned President Muhammad Buhari in the United States following his open onishing of him on Monday. A Presidency source told SaharaReporters that Mr. Emefiele asked to see President Buhari and then requested to leave for an “important” meeting in London. The President is said to have granted the request.

On Monday, the president had warned his aides against smuggling Nigerian businessmen into meetings during his visit. Later that evening, he openly onished the CBN governor for smuggling the former Managing Director of Zenith bank, Jim Ovia, into a dinner organized by the US Chamber of Commerce. Presidency sources said the CBN governor’s request to leave Washington DC came as a surprise, as he had not previously informed President Buhari of any other meeting he had to attend, especially one that would deprive the President of a prominent member of his delegation.

It is unclear as of the time of publishing this report if Mr. Ovia, who was the beneficiary of Mr. Emefiele’s efforts, has also left the US. Also on Monday, President Buhari took advantage of the meeting with his aides to order the opening of a desk at the presidential villa in Abuja where Nigerians who wished to see him could apply to do so. It is common knowledge that in the preceding istration, wealthy Nigerians paid millions to be allowed to see the President.

Credit:http://saharareporters.com/2015/07/22/nigerias-central-bank-gov-emefiele-hurriedly-leaves-us-after-pres-buhari-tongue-lashing

A bomb has just exploded at the Eid prayer ground in Damaturu, Yobe state capital. Sources said people were killed. The Eid ground hit by the blast is located at an area called phase-one along Maiduguri Road.

A resident, Abdul Malik, told TIMES that “It happened at about 8am. Now we are being asked to return back home. Those that had gotten close to the Eid ground said many people were affected.

Credit:http://www.timesng.com/news/top-news/186829-bomb-blast-hits-damaturu-eid-prayer-ground.html?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter

President Muhammadu Buhari has terminated the appointment of Patrick Ziakede Akpobolokemi as Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime istration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).

A statement by Femi Adesina, the special adviser to the President on media and publicity, the termination of Mr. Akpobolokemi’s appointment takes immediate effect.

“He is to hand over the management of NIMASA and all government property in his possession to the most senior officer in the agency who will remain in charge until a new Director-General is appointed,” the statement said.

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President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Tolu Ogunlesi, a journalist, as his Special Assistant on New Media. Officials at the presidency told TIMES Mr. Ogunlesi has undergone security screening and his appointment is to be announced in the coming days. Mr. Ogunlesi is one of Nigeria’s most active Twitter s, and was clearly in favour of Mr. Buhari’s election in the 2015 general elections.

He will be the Buhari istration’s social media anchor, a role played by Reno Omokiri for former President Goodluck Jonathan. Mr. Ogunlesi describes himself as a poet, photographer, and fiction writer. Before his appointment, he was a freelance writer, contributing articles to various publications, mostly abroad. He also syndicated opinion articles in many Nigerian newspapers, including TIMES.

Mr. Ogunlesi, who trained as a pharmacist, worked as Features Editor for the defunct 234NEXT newspapers. In 2009 he was awarded the Arts and Culture prize in the annual CNN Multichoice African Journalism Awards. He won the CNN award again in 2013 in another category. He was also shortlisted for the inaugural PEN/Studzinski literary prize.

Mr. Ogulesi tweets via @toluogunlesi and has 143,000 followers.

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In demonstration of his readiness to do closer business with Nigeria, United States President Barrack Obama will be breaking his istration’s tradition when President Muhammadu Buhari arrives in Washington D.C. on a state visit on Monday next week. The American leader will host President Buhari as his personal guest at the Blair House, right opposite the White House. When President Muhammadu Buhari arrives in the United States of America on Monday next week, he will be hosted at the Blair House, the official guest house of the American President, the Daily Times has learnt.

This is in clear departure from the American government’s attitude to visiting Heads of State, particularly Nigerian leaders. It is also in demonstration of US President Barrack Obama’s iration of President Buhari and to the Nigerian leader’s acclaimed frugal lifestyle and disdain for ostentatious lifestyle. The decision to host President Buhari in the official Guest House of the United States President will not only cut down the cost of the trip but also allow time for informal discussions by both leaders.

Buhari is said to have pegged his entourage at 32, a clear departure from the immediate past istration of President Goodluck Jonathan who was once reported to have embarked on a two-day trip with a team of about 100 persons. It was also learnt that although the Nigerian protocol unit had planned the trip to be for two days, the US government offered to accommodate the visitors of three days. During official visits to Washington D.C. while in office, former President Jonathan and his entourage usually stayed at the Westin Grand Hotel. At other times, he booked Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and the Pierre Hotel.

During the coming visit of the Nigerian new leader, according to sources, Presidents Buhari and Obama will exchange “wish lists.” These will contain the requests of both leaders from each other, as well as firm pledges on how they plan to come to each other’s aid. It was learnt that top on the US government’s pledges is greater assistance in the fight against terrorism. In return, the US government wants Nigeria to show greater commitment to war on corruption, particularly transparency in public service. According to Wikipedia, the Blair House is located at 1651–1653 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., opposite the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House, off the corner of Lafayette Park.

The main house was built in 1824. The original brick house was built as a private home for Joseph Lovell, eighth Surgeon General of the United States Army. In 1836, it was acquired by Francis Preston Blair, a newspaper publisher and influential adviser to President Andrew Jackson. It would remain in his family for the following century. In 1859, Blair built a house for his daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth Blair Lee and Captain Samuel Phillips Lee, at 1653 Pennsylvania Avenue, next door to Blair House at 1651 Pennsylvania Avenue. Captain Lee (later an iral) was a grandson of Richard Henry Lee and third cousin of Robert E. Lee. The houses have since been combined, and the complex is sometimes referred to as the Blair-Lee House, though Blair House is the official name today.

Source:http://dailytimes.com.ng/obama-to-break-tradition-for-buhari/

Many travellers were yesterday stranded on the dangerous highway linking Maiduguri and Damaturu, the capitals of Borno and Yobe states as Boko Haram terrorists operated for over five hours. The town of Mainok were destroyed yesterday as the attacking terrorists went wild shooting and setting ablaze virtually everything in the town.

Eyewitnesses said a gang of heavily armed Boko Haram terrorists invaded the town at about 2pm and continued to unleash terror on the hapless residents as well as unlucky motorists who ran into them. Mallam Abubakar, a Maiduguri bound enger who was among the stranded travellers said he saw the entire Mainok town in thick smoke as soldiers escort them through the dangerous highway at about 9pm last night.

Speaking in hushed voice, Abubakar said, “We have been stranded since 2pm today (Monday) when we heard that Boko Haram terrorists have taken over the highway at Mainok. We were stopped at Benisheik town which is 75km away from Maiduguri until about 5pm before soldiers okayed that we could move but at a snail speed.

Female Suicide Bombers kills 16 In Cameroon Village

Meanwhile, 16 people have been reported killed in a suicide bomb attack in Fotokol, Cameroon Far Northern Region, sources told Hausa service of the BBC. The country’s top military officer told the agency that 12 civilians, 2 Chadian soldiers and the bombers were among the dead. Boko Haram has been waging a years-long campaign of terror aimed at instituting its extreme version of Sharia law in Nigeria and cross border attacks. Boko Haram’s tactics have intensified in recent years, from battling soldiers to acts disproportionately affecting civilians — such as raids on villages, market bombings and attacks on churches and mosques.

The Multi-national t Task Force comprising of Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin Republics slated to begin offensive to ending Boko Haram insurgency. Cameroon lawmakers have earlier demanded that President Paul Biya’s government outline a detailed security plan to prevent the frequent attacks on civilians by the Boko Haram militant group.

The presidency has again accused the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of falsehood, by claiming that the relief package approved for states last week was drawn from the savings bequeathed by the Goodluck Jonathan istration.
After the National Economic Council, NEC, announced President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval of $1.2 billion for the states to enable them pay their workers’ outstanding salaries, the PDP in a statement said the money came from the savings in the Excess Crude Revenue left behind by its immediate past government.

Despite Presidency’s explanation that the money came from part of the dividend paid by the Nigeria LNG to the Federal Government a week earlier, the PDP spokesperson, Olisa Metuh, insisted the new istration and the All Progressives Congress, APC, were deceiving Nigerians. He said the disbursement contradicts the earlier came by Mr. Buhari that he met a near empty treasury upon assuming office.
But, Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, who appeared on a Channels TV discussion programme at the weekend gave further insight to how the Federal Government came about the money. “What happened was that the Nigeria LNG held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in May and declared profit and dividend. Tax accruable to the Federal Government was about $2.1 bn. The money did not hit the Federation until June 30,” Mr. Adesina said.

“Don’t mind the PDP that said the Jonathan government left the money. If the money got into the Federal Government coffers on June 30, how could they have left it, when the istration left office on May 29?” Mr. Adesina said it was only on July 7 that the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, confirmed to the Federal Government that the money was in the . In view of what was happening, where most states could not pay salaries of their workers, Mr. Adesina said the President had to direct that the NLNG money that just came in be shared, so that the states could use part of it to settle their debts.

When the President met with the governors and gave them the information that the NLNG money had come out, Mr. Adesina said Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, had noted that he, as a member of the Council, did not when the previous government ever told them when the NLNG money came into the federal coffers. “Yet, NLNG was paying tax every year. Nobody heard when they paid in the past years. The money would just come in and disappear,” Mr. Adesina quoted Mr. Oshiomhole as recalling.

At the peak of the recent allegations of unauthorized withdrawal of $2 billion from the ECA, Mr. Oshiomhole told Channels TV that he had reason to confront the former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, about details of the revenues, including payments of between $1.5 billion to $2 billion every year by the NLNG to the Federal Government. This time when the money came in, Mr. Adesina said the President decided to inaugurate the NEC, under the Chairmanship of the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, to liaise with the states to disburse the money, since they also have a right to part of it.

Regardless, the presidential spokesperson also clarified that although the relief package came from the Federal Government, it was never a bailout, as was erroneously referred by a section of the media. “A bailout is when money is given out as a grant to a beneficiary without any expectation that it would be paid back. The money that was given out actually belongs to the states,” Mr. Adesina explained. On the criticism by the PDP that the president was very slow in his handling of issues since taking over, Mr. Adesina said those behind such criticisms were “victims of inordinate expectations”, who are obsessed with “too many unrealistic expectations.
”
“They had thought when President Buhari comes in, he would just wave a magic wand and every problem would disappear, and because that is not happening, they say he is slow,” he stated. “The President may seem slow, but there are certain problems that would never be tackled properly, unless you are sure-footed and contemplative in properly diagnosing it first. “Indeed, there are problems one cannot rush into solutions. If one does, there would be a lot of body movements. People may even applaud, at the end of the day, not much would be achieved. We are all faced with a cardiac arrest patient’s situation. If one is too much in a hurry to get immediate solutions, one may even lose the person.”

Although a picture of change could have been created during the campaigns, Mr. Adesina said the problem was dependent on how the people internalized that picture about the way things would eventually happen. “The kind of change that President Buhari seeks to bring, which will happen in the life of his istration, is one that would be enduring, which successive istrations can build upon. It is not magic.
“We trusted him and voted him to be our president, let us him to exercise that mandate. Let’s trust him and his capacity to deliver, and he will get the job done,” Mr. Adesina said.


Credit: http://www.timesng.com/news/top-news/186560-again-presidency-accuses-pdp-of-falsehood.html

President Muhammadu Buhari’s current slow approach to governance is affecting the prosecution of the war against extremist group, Boko Haram, in the north east, findings by TIMES have shown. Officials in the istration and some retired security and military experts who spoke to TIMES, expressed the view that the decision by the president to continue working with the service chiefs and the National Security Adviser he inherited from the istration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, is greatly affecting the war.

“Service Chiefs are currently sitting at the edge of their seats; there is a regime of uncertainty because it was clear to them and everyone that they would not be part of the new istration, as such, they presently do not go the extra mile,” one official said. We also gathered at the Defence Headquarters that there is presently no long term commitment on the part of the Service Chiefs and other top commanders, owing largely, to the uncertainty regarding their tenure. “All the Service Chiefs have cleared their desks including the NSA, and each day, they expect to receive the news of their sack, in that case, how do you expect someone to be in the right frame to prosecute a war as complex as the one against Boko Haram who use civilian targets as shield,” he said.

Our source added that the Service Chiefs are presently hardly taking any decision on the war and security matters. “They are often only called in to be given directive to carry out, the president is the one in charge,” he said. “Take for example the decision to remove military checkpoints; an order was simply given without recourse to brainstorming on the issue,” he said. Another retired army general, who also asked not to be named for “personal reasons” said other high ranking military officers, sensing the insecurity on the part of the service chiefs have begun to show signs of indiscipline.

He said top commanders are unable to enforce discipline at present because “everyone knows that the leadership are living on borrowed time, and so, hardly carry out directives”. Our source added that the tenure of Service Chiefs is usually two years and the current chiefs were appointed in January 2014, as such, they know sack or not, they would leave by January 2016. “I know that what is agitating the minds of our chiefs at present is planning their post retirement life and not any long term plan to prosecute a war“.

What I would advise the president is to allow them leave, so that he, himself would be focused with a fresh team he personally put in place, the earlier we do this, the better for us as a nation,” the source said. Just like what obtains at present in the military, this newspaper had reported recently how the delay by Mr. Buhari to make key appointments more than three weeks after assumption of office was taking a serious toll on government businesses.

We reported that the president’s delay in filling important government positions, especially the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, was hurting the smooth running of government businesses. TIMES investigations revealed that the day to day operations of the different ministries, departments and agencies have been weakened, while coordination of important government policies and programmes has become a mess. “The country can ill-afford further delay by the president to make these vital appointments,” a federal permanent secretary said on Wednesday. “From the presidency to the ministries, departments and agencies, everything has come to virtual standstill.”

Credit: http://www.timesng.com/news/headlines/186492-how-buharis-slow-pace-is-affecting-the-war-against-boko-haram.html

Reports reaching TIMES say Boko Haram militants have taken over the highway linking Maiduguri and Damaturu, capitals of Borno and Yobe states respectively. A police officer stationed in one of the villages along the highway, told TIMES that travellers are being asked to return as the terrorists have taken over the road between Benisheik (a town 85km away from Maiduguri) and Ngamdu (35km away from Damaturu).

The officer, who asked that his identity be protected for security reasons, said the terrorists had attacked Ngamdu village and killed 10 persons there. “As I am talking to you now, soldiers are moving towards Benisheik, while we are here asking motorists to return to Maiduguri until the road is cleared,” he said. There is no security checkpoint between Benisheik and Ngamdu, which is about 25km stretch of road.

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