Preacher allegedly killed in Ogun motor park, buried by roadside... We will come up with a statement on the issue in the next few days,” the state Commissioner of Police said.


A graduate of Computer Science at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Oluwatosin Onadipe, was said to have died after he was allegedly hit with an iron rod by an official of a motor park in Ago, Odogbolu Local Government Area of the state for preaching.

This is just as his body was said to have been buried by the roadside by officials of the Odogbolu Local Government Area after his body was dumped by police officers.

PUNCH Metro gathered from the father of the deceased, Raymond Onadipe, on Wednesday, that Oluwatosin left home on December 17 to attend a programme at the Redemption Camp but was unreachable after he had spoken with his brother on the phone.

Onadipe noted that after several efforts to reach him proved abortive, a case of a missing person was reported at the Ago Police Station. However, some days after, his phone rang and was picked up by someone who said he saw it on the roadside.

He said further, “On Friday, December 22, the brother tried the line again and it rang. The person who picked the call told us they found the phone on the road and that the owner could come and pick it at Ode-Remo. I was then suspicious that Ode-Remo and Ago are distant to each other and how come his phone got to Ode-Remo.

“The next morning by 6 am, I went to Ode-Remo and I reported at the police station where I was assigned with police officers to accompany me to get the phone. When I got to the point of collection, the person introduced himself as the Seriki Hausa of the community. The Seriki told us that two of his boys who went to Ijebu-Ijesa in Ago-Iwoye were the ones who saw the phone. The police arrested those who found the phone and we moved to Ago Police Station.

“On Monday (December 25), I was called that those who picked the phone took the police to where they picked it from, but they discovered that a corpse was buried along the roadside by health workers from Odogbolu Local Government Area, which was said to be his corpse, and that I have two options of either exhuming his body or leaving it where it was buried.

“I met with the local government chairman on the process of exhuming his body from where he was buried and presented his picture. There were disparities in the pictures I presented and the one presented by the LG chair who said they learnt it was a case of a hit-and-run accident. The disparities made me suspect foul play, but I decided to let it go and accept fate that my son was dead."

The father noted that the circumstances surrounding his son’s death took another turn when an eyewitness told his eldest son that the deceased was allegedly hit by an official of the Ago motor park when he was preaching on the premises on the day we last spoke with him, which the police confirmed after several back and forth.

“When I told the police about the allegation of being hit at the motor park, they said truly they went there but they did not pick him up, and that he had no injuries on his body. Later, when one of the police teams that went to the park was asked to show the pictures taken at the scene, there was blood all over his body.

“I queried why they left him alone and how it was possible for someone drenched in blood to walk that long distance from the park to where his body was found. I moved the case to the Area Command where the Area Commander ordered the arrest of officials of the park where my son was allegedly hit on the head and the police team that went to the park. I later learnt from the Area Command that the police actually picked him up after he was hit by the said motor park official but how he got dumped by the main road and his eventual death remained a mystery begging for an answer.

“I am appealing to the police authorities to bring the killers of my son to justice because I have been in sorrow since I learnt about his death,” Onadipe said.

Confirming the incident to our correspondent, the state Commissioner of Police, CP Abiodun Alamutu, said the suspects had been taken into custody while preliminary investigation was on to unravel the circumstances behind his death.

“The incident happened. The person alleged to have hit him with an iron rod and the police officers allegedly involved have been taken into custody.

We are conducting a preliminary investigation into the reported position of the family. We will come up with a statement on the issue in the next few days,” Alamutu said.

https://punchng.com/preacher-allegedly-killed-in-ogun-motor-park-buried-by-roadside/

Sangoamadioha1:




You think your rant on Twitter influenced anything
Some of you take yourselves too seriously 😒

You prefer silence?

The Pope reads alot...good response..even some historians and political scientist don't know this Aristotle's quote[/quote]

Simple Pol 101course

Download Whatsapp and Whatsapp business.

May all be well.

Pictures pls

420

450k

450,000

Happy Sunday

450k

can it fly for 350k, not interested in the comprehensive insurance, need it b4 tuesday.

E yah, pẹ̀lẹ́, sorry o.

The trial of seven suspected corrupt judges earlier slated for today has been shifted till next week.

The shift, according to top security officials involved in the matter, is to attend to new information thrown up by aggrieved litigants, who claimed that they lost huge sums of money to the suspects.

The source disclosed that since the suspects were arrested and their names made public by the Department of State Service, DSS, aggrieved victims of the suspects’ financial misdeeds had been coming forward with stunning revelations against them.”

The agency said it could not overlook the new evidence being volunteered by Nigerians against the suspects and would only arraign them after going through the new petitions brought against the judges.

One of the top officials said: “We are almost through with the investigation of the judges. The ongoing investigation is not supposed to go beyond this week.

“We have written the National Judicial Council, NJC, about what has happened and we expect it to take some decisions on the affected judges this week.

“Once that is done, hopefully, by next week or thereabout, we should arraign them in court. For now, more facts in the form of petitions are trickling in about the judges. It’s like everyone who had cause to go to court for one reason or the other had been a victim.

“More facts are trickling in and we cannot ignore them. It is our statutory responsibility to investigate painstakingly, every complaint. Some victims have even indicated their readiness to testify in court.

“We assure the public that we will do a thorough job. We are investigating all the properties linked to them.

“The kind of things we observe as regards the forms they submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau is another kettle of fish.

NJC keeps mum

Meantime, NJC rounded-off the emergency meeting it convened over the arrest of the judges, last night.

Vanguard learned, last night, that though the Council has fully deliberated on the matter, it decided to keep mum until, today.

A source said: “There is rumour that they might be arraigned before the end of the week, possible tomorrow (today). I believe that is what has delayed release of NJC’s position on the issue.”

All must be well.

‘My sister prays die, die every night for hours on end’
By Chioma Gabriel, Special Features Editor


A woman visiting her daughter for omugwo from the South East Nigeria had her first baptism of fire the first night she slept in her daughter’s home when during the midnight hour, she overheard somebody in the next apartment shouting die, die, die.
She listened briefly to be sure of what she was hearing and the shout of die, die, die continued and it was too close. Just the next flat.
She checked her time and it was 12:30am and she began to panic, thinking somebody was being strangled to death nearby. She rushed out of the guest room to the room her daughter shared with her husband and knocked frantically at the door.


When they opened, she almost jumped on them in fear. “I think somebody is being killed in this compound. It must be armed robbers”, she lamented but her daughter calmed her down.


“They are praying, Mama”, she explained. But her mother was disturbed. What kind of person would be praying for others to die, she wondered. She listened again and the prayer was still on. She shook herself in disbelief as her daughter walked her back to the guest room. Throughout the night even till about 3am, the shout continued. The woman soon realised that it was going to be an everyday ordeal. Her daughter carefully explained to her that pentecostal churches pray like that and that nobody was being killed.


‘He who comes to equity must come with clean hands’


Charles, an engineer in a communication company narrated how he made a call to a female friend and obviously the person he called was supposedly praying in the church. “What I was hearing at the background was Die, die, die. Any person who is against me shall die, any person who is against my progress shall die. God let my enemy die and the person told me she was in church.


A male voice would say it (apparently the pastor) and she would repeat it. A day later, I got this woman on phone and I told her what I heard her say in prayer and that God does not answer such prayers. I told her that it was better to pray to God to touch her enemy and change him or her so that the world will become a better place. She became angry, telling me not to question her over her religious beliefs. I have always known this woman to be dating married men. I simply said to her: “What if all married women pray that God should kill all women who sleep with their husbands? The call went off and the conversation ended there.


A woman who is having an affair with a married man and at the same time wearing the toga of a pentecostal Christian of a church where she was shouting die, die ,die! Tell me, what manner of prayer is that, especially when it was coming from a woman like that who goes after married men? Even if she has enemies, shouldn’t she be praying for their repentance? Who does she want to be dead?


“I may not know the Bible like they do but I know the Bible said: Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Galatians 6:7-9


“He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. Is she binding herself or someone else? Because if you ask me, she is a cheat of a Christian.” Have you ever prayed for someone’s complete ruin? That God would destroy them and wipe them off the face of the earth? It doesn’t seem very Christian, does it?


‘Kill them’ brand of prayer


Nevertheless, these kinds of prayers are first recorded in the Bible especially in the Book of Psalms. Prayers that call for the death and destruction of others are called imprecatory prayers. You may not have given much thought to this kind of prayer before. Or have you? Those who read the Bible seriously can’t ignore the passionate plea for the violent destruction of enemies. Check out a few of them for yourself in the following Psalms: 5, 10, 17, 35, 58, 59, 69, 70, 79, 83, 109, 129, 137, 139, 14.


When asked why his church prays the ‘die’ prayer all the time, a pastor of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, MFM, said people from outside the ministry misconstrue the concept of MFM prayers and therefore cannot judge the church.
“Nobody prays for anybody to die. In life, people do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. When a sick man comes to church to pray for healing, it is the contrary powers that inflicted the sickness that was being addressed.

“People face all kinds of challenges in their everyday life and those challenges weigh them down. They come to church to pray for such forces to releases them. The concept of death in these prayers is spiritual because it is the spiritual that controls the physical.
“But unfortunately, people who copy prayer styles don’t understand and they inject other meanings to it.

That is their problem, not MFM’s problems because many people who don’t understand the prayer points of MFM pray them without understanding. Nonetheless, we pray violent prayers because these are the end times and strange things are happening in the world everyday. The Bible tells me that from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. That is just the truth.”


‘My sister prays die, die every night for hours on end’


Chinonye, a broadcaster said she actually wanted to start worshipping in one of the branches of the church but was shocked by the reception she got from the branch she went to.

“I had just finished my NYSC in Calabar and came to Lagos to live with my sister. We were Catholic but inclined towards Pentecostalism. My sister told me that since I’d finished NYSC, I needed to undergo deliverance before embarking on the search for work. She also decided to join me in the deliverance programme and so, early on a Monday morning, we set out to the nearest branch of the church.

My sister and I are both very fair and needed spiritual intervention because her marriage was not going well. I just came back with long braids, fixed nails recently done and we headed to the church. We were barely at the entrance when some ‘holy’ people rushed at us with jars of anointing oil and shouts of ‘Holy Ghost Fire, Holy Ghost Fire.’ They almost blinded us with the oil as they shouted ‘marine spirit.
Die, die, die.’ We were overwhelmed and flabbergasted. Then my sister asked them whether it is the way they welcome new people to the church. We didn’t understand when we became marine spirit. They asked us to pull everything, including jewelry, and almost barbed my hair.
“I have no qualms if that is their way of doing things but at least, they should allow a new member to sit down before explaining their doctrine and definitely, not the way they did. They were too aggressive. Somebody who had no knowledge of God will never go to any church after that experience. Well, I left the church and didn’t go back.


I joined Redeemed Christian Church of God and I have no regrets.
It is indeed a loving church because they accepted and welcomed me with love and made me feel at home before taking me through the doctrine of the church.

My sister is still in the die,die,die church and because of her fair fine looks, they have not accepted her completely. My sister is one of them but they still complain about her but she will always tell them when they complain that God is sees her heart.
“There are some good ones who encouraged my sister to keep on when she becomes completely overwhelmed. She told me there are many bad people inside the church even when the Founder is a good man. And she also prays the ‘die’ prayer. You won’t believe it, midnight hours are her prayer times. It’s like she prays die, die, die every night for hours on end.

“The die prayers work from what I can see in my sister’s life. We dread her because she’s very spiritual and prayerful. Now, she sees visions and knows the thoughts of people and she said she is not praying for anybody to die but for her problems to cease.”


A leader of the female evangelism team of a Pentecostal church said her church also prays the
die prayer.
Evangelist Tinuke said she faces her ‘enemies’ squarely because the holy book says ‘ Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.’
‘The soul that sinneth shall die’
“I was married for fifteen years without any child. My husband and I separated many times and reconciled. He is the only son and you can imagine the predicament of not having any child. It was as if their generation was ending with him. That was when I went Pentecostal. The first deliverance service I attended did it all.

The doctors had said nothing was wrong with my husband and I.
“So, that night in the church, I prayed with everything in me. I poured out my heart before God. I prayed the die prayer in a special way because I got a seat and sat the enemy on it. I used clubs and anything I could lay my hands on in the fight. I didn’t know whether anybody was responsible for my predicament or not. I was just praying and fighting whoever or whatever.

“When I got home in the morning, my husband and I got a call from the village that his mother’s sister was seriously sick and confessing unto death. She equally confessed she was responsible for my woes because since I got married to my husband, I was never paying her attention, that I didn’t greet her on my wedding day despite all her contributions to the success of the wedding, that I was proud. She died after her confession. Did I kill her? The soul that sinneth shall die. I was praying for God to take away my problems and if somebody somewhere is responsible for it, too bad for him or her.”


‘The best form of defence is attack’


Reminded that such prayers contradict the teaching that said ‘Love your enemies’, Evangelist Tinuke shook her head and said the best form of defence is attack.

“If I pray for my enemies, I would be pouring hot coals of fire on them. So, its the same thing. My prayer against the enemy worked. My enemy died even though I didn’t know she was an enemy and today, I have three children. Anybody who has to die for me to make progress should die. Isaiah said ‘In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. ’

“Dear journalist, Isaiah said King Uzziah had to die for him to see the glory of God and that is my prayer. If anybody has to die for me to see the glory of God, let him die. The enemy will not destroy my life and later repent. He will die before he destroys me and so, the die, die prayer has to stay.”

One of the biggest problems Christians have with such prayers is that Jesus’ words seem to contradict the idea of praying for the destruction of your enemy, like in the following:

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Mat 5:43-45


But Pastor Ayodele of the CAC who claimed the die, die prayer originated from it said:

“I don’t believe that either of these solutions work well. Neither Jesus nor any of the other New Testament writers specifically corrected the prayers that asked for the punishment of the enemy. In fact there are some New Testament texts that also seem to be like that. For instance, in the Book of Revelation, those martyred cry out to God: “ They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev 6:10 )
“No prayer is about personal revenge. When a man’s soul is troubled and he cries out to God and He shows mercy on him, He could kill for the person. Yes, Jesus said we should love our enemy and pray for those who persecute us but He made it clear that when we pray for our enemies, we pour hot coals of fire upon them.

“Churches like MFM that pray the die prayer in English and interpret in Yoruba spring from CAC. Daniel Olukoya was a choir boy in CAC. He is well read and understands the issue of prayer and demons very well. But you cannot vouch for everybody in the church. There are all comers amongst the pastoral hierarchy just like Jesus had Judas who betrayed him. You cannot use the bad behaviour of few bad eggs who claim they attend a particular church to judge the rest of the people inside the church. No.
“But no matter what you say, prayers are for different purposes. They may be calls to God for healing, guidance, or even a bit of rain to drench a drought-ridden field. Some prayers of petition are meant to kill.”
‘God may respond by choosing to kill someone’


Pastor Goodluck of Gloryland Assembly said God can answer prayers by killing someone.

“An acquaintance who suffered abuse from an alcoholic father once said that, as a child, he prayed for God to kill his dad. And in some religious narratives about prayer, specifically those found among certain kinds of evangelicals who practise spiritual warfare, God may respond by choosing to kill someone, regardless of whether the human who made the prayer wished such an outcome.
“I first became acquainted with spiritual warfare several years ago, when a student came into my office, sat down, and told me that he was very tired from being out late the previous night. He told me that he had been out all night on a “prayer walk”. He was part of a small group of evangelical students who had walked the campus and town, using prayer to discover “demonic strongholds”, and then praying and reading Bible verses at those spots in an attempt to banish the pesky resident demons.

“One tale that the student shared from the spiritual warfare conference described how a “witch” died when they prayed persistently. So, spiritual warfare marks boundaries, divides pure from impure, distinguishes orthodox from heretical, and separates godly from satanic. And, sometimes, within this religious imaginary, prayers can kill.
“The truth is, answered prayer may have many more consequences than you have ever thought about before. You may not even pray for anybody to die but in the process of answering someone’s prayer, God can kill.
“Consider this, everything we do has consequences. Every decision we make influences our own future and the future of those whom our lives touch. The same holds true with answered prayer. If God answers a prayer and makes something happen that normally wasn’t going to happen, everything else is going to change after that answered prayer. People will live and die that would have died or lived in a different way.

You can’t change something without changing everything. That is, unless we can imagine God keeping track of all the answered prayers and continually manipulating happenings so that the answered prayer really doesn’t affect anything else. This would make answered prayer infinitely more difficult than just, for instance, healing someone who was supposed to die. That person who should have died now takes up space that he shouldn’t be in. He will affect other people’s lives just because he is in that space. Everything is different, infinitely.”
‘The die, die prayer has become part and parcel of the Pentecostal movement in Nigeria’


The book “Prayer is Good Medicine” by Larry Dossey, tells a story about a man who was injured in an automobile accident. According to him, “Stephen was involved in a near fatal auto accident and sustained serious injuries. We immediately marshaled several prayer chains in our church and the other churches as well. His surgeons were astonished that he survived the operations to save his life, calling his response a miracle. As the man’s recuperation continued, so did our prayers.

But, although he had been a successful businessman and ideal father and community leader, things were not the same. He seemed to have lost his vitality and zest for life. He was apathetic, as if he didn’t care. He was argumentative, grouchy, and hard to tolerate. This was a complete change from his previous jovial self. He was indifferent to his wife and children. Nothing seemed right.
Ten years later, he died of natural causes. Several days after Stephen’s death, I was startled in my meditation by his presence. He stood in front of me laughing his previous happy demeanor and said, “I finally won out over all of you.” And then he was gone. As I pondered this, I could come to only one conclusion, Stephen hadn’t wanted to live or perhaps hadn’t been meant to live. But the power of all those prayers for his recovery had bought him back.


“In the Pentecostal churches where they pray die prayer, I know for sure that those who understand the true doctrines may not specifically be asking anybody to die. Nevertheless, the die, die prayer has become part and parcel of the Pentecostal movement in Nigeria. In His bid to answer prayers, God can kill and that is a fact.”

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/sister-prays-die-die-every-night-hours-end/

slimfit1:
Well where is the government going to get money to finance project some people need to think properly out of the box. Avengers are crippling our country and the country was badly managed by the past government. Its difficult to work with limited funds.

The Government too need to think properly out of the box, Sir. They seems out of ideas and zeal.

Young, influential Nigerians are bolting away from Buhari – 5 takeaways on why this is deeply important.

Today, Feyi Fawehinmi – not someone you would know if you don’t spend any time on Nigeria’s social media echo chambers, but someone you can’t (and shouldn’t) ignore if you are interested in what Nigeria’s young, digitally-connected intelligentsia is saying – sent Twitter a-flutter: he is sorry to have voted for President Muhammadu Buhari
.
Fawehinmi was one of the then-candidates most vociferous supporters, even allowing himself defend him as vehemently towards the first 9 months of the administration. In losing him, Buhari’s government has lost an important digital voice.

He is not alone. Over the past few weeks, past supporters including journalist Cheta Nwanze (@chxta),
activist Gbenga Sesan (@gbengasesan), blogger Japheth Omojuwa (@omojuwa), culture critic Tola Sarumi (@AfroVII), even Lagos government official Akintunde Oyebode (@ao1739) who with his cryptic tweets has made it abundantly clear – there is a young elite consensus that Buhari’s government is a hot mess.

If this were the US election, we would certainly be talking about this in terms of demographics – it would be the equivalent of young college-educated whites leaving a candidate or the president. In present-day America that would be a huge loss, in terms of income, numbers, and influence. In Nigeria, it may not be so big a loss but its significant.

There are 5 reasons why this matters – a lot.
1. This is the beginning of the end
I remember the point at which this same thing happened to GEJ. First, with his Independence Day statement supporting MEND, and then eventually with the arrogant disregard with which he treated #OccupyNigeria protests and the litany of corrupt-laden actions that he refused to defend or reverse course on. With GEJ it was corruption, with PMB it is policy illiteracy. In both cases, it’s not really the faults that matter to a once-fawning youth audience, it is the arrogance of it – the refusal to admit failings, to accommodate criticism, to even pretend to be listening, especially when one failing. The public waits a while to see if it’s a fluke or if it’s a pattern. Once a pattern is established, the consensus builds and the backlash is swift. Once it happens, and you are as insulated, oblivious and foolhardy as this government has copied from GEJ, there is no going back. It takes a fundamental change in substance or a fundamental review of communication (the latter more difficult when you are dealing with over 35 ministers each with their agenda) for the government to recover. GEJ didn’t – and didn’t realize how terrible things were until 2015. I’ll wager you a bet Buhari too can’t hear the rustlings of disavowal, and won’t self correct. So history will self-repeat.

2. They may not have the numbers, but they have the voice
True, the mass numbers of people who voted for Buhari everywhere from Alimosho to Kano don’t listen to a cocooned Oyebode sitting in an air-conditioned office in Lagos sharing wisdom gained by privileged insight, and they sure as hell will not listen to a Fawehinmi who is safely ensconced in the United Kingdom. And Nigerians on Twitter are barely a few hundreds thousands if that. BUT! Much as the Jonathan government was ultimately brought down not by a vocal, insistent minority whose malice first formed on Facebook and Twitter, crystallized, boiling over onto traditional media, and then going viral through WhatsApp, chatrooms and office water coolers, they will have the same effect on a Buhari government. Even worse, they don’t stand in isolation – from The Nation’s op-ed pages to the ThisDay Backpage, the consensus has tightened, and it is soon hardening. Very shortly, there will be social permission for the general populace to begin to loudly curse a tone-deaf gogovernment.
Did I say very shortly?
It’s already cool to dismiss this government as a failure. Watch this video from a popular Lagos comedy show last month –


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSX6bWPR5wM

watch from the 3mins 23secs mark. It’s already here.

3. The international media will get the message that Buhari is a failure
Then there is social media. That’s where everyone from Amanpour to Piers Morgan, Quartz to Reuters gets their opinion about what exactly is going on in Nigeria – and what the public mood is. Still unaware of what tiny sliver of the popular social media reaches, conclusions are quickly reached on whether a government is loved or not by listening to Nigerian influencers on social media. Indeed, how does CNN primarily get its feedback when it is doing a story on anything about Nigeria? Yeah, no prizes for guessing: Twitter. Twitter now has nothing good to say about Buhari, except for those who get paid from state coffers, or a virulent, increasingly marginalized, few who insist the king isn’t naked. For a government which has enjoyed global goodwill for perception rather than substance, this is going to a big loss. And it won’t matter if it’s an unfair, hasty or alarming conclusion – it will be the defining narrative.

4. The intellectual case for Buhari’s government has collapsed
There was Sam Omatseye telling you why Buhari was the only option Nigeria had to be saved. There was a certain Femi Adesina deploying the Sun’s back page to mould public opinion on his way to a job at Aso Rock. There was Olusegun Adeniyi as usual saying-without-really-saying that Jonathan had become a problem needing to be solved, and Buhari was the only possible option. There was Simon Kolawole extricating himself from a government he could no longer be ‘balanced’ towards. And of course there was Dele Momodu making it clear – Jonathan had blown it, Buhari was the saviour. They have all changed their minds. They can’t say anything else with a straight face – from monetary policy to partisan investigations, there appears no one who can appear to muster an intellectually honest argument for why this government is on the right track. The remaining holdout was social media, where the cost of admitting defeat is high – in a space where PDP stalwarts and The Wailers (as Adesina calls them) have been baying for blood, waiting to say ‘I told you so’! Buhari’s online supporters have decided that the cost of that ridicule is lower than the price for supporting a government that looks set to fail. There is no good face to put on that.

5. It’s APC in free-fall
2019 has already begun – your move, Atiku (actually make that your NEXT move). Restructuring, rumours of forming another party. Abubakar Atiku, who lost embarrassingly to Buhari in the 2014 primaries is certainly going to run in 2019. He has been very strategic about this ambition – fully supporting Buhari in public, even if his defenses make it clear he is his own man. With Buhari apparently losing public trust (his approval ratings per an NOI Gallup Poll is now below 50 less than a year into his government), Atiku is certain to step up his moves. There is no time to waste. There is after all a Bukola Saraki section of the party that, with Dino Melaye as attack dog and an aligned PDP arm, is positioning for that same office. And of course there is the architect of the party himself, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who must move to protect his party from its biggest beneficiary while ensuring that the progressive path he is passionate about are not hijacked by either Saraki or Atiku, with whom he has never really been in bed, forget how many smiling faces and big embraces you see at his son’s wedding. The war will be beginning even sooner than we thought. And it won’t be pretty.

And a bonus 6:
The countdown begins until another #EnoughisEnough rally
For the larger public, you will be concerned about groups like #SaveNigeria, for the youth population, the most significant activist group is Enough is Enough Nigeria. It has stood there along with its partners including BudgIT at each significant protest in Nigeria’s history over the past 5 years.

The noises from its end of the road are not at all good for Buhari, as are the noises from other civil society organisations including the trigger-happy SERAP. There is enough to protest against with this government – its hypocritical silence on the House of Representatives’ budget-padding scandal, its backward steps on monetary policy, its coddling of the Chief of Army Staff through apparently doctored corruption reports, amongst very many others.

It is almost inevitable. Civil society will soon be back on the streets.
Only one man can stop them now. President Muhammadu Buhari might urgently need to begin paying attention.

http://ynaija.com/young-influential-nigerians-bolting-away-buhari-5-takeaways-deeply-important/

Why did God allowed His Son to be killed on the cross?

The 2g is working well for me. My download speed sometime reach 356kps. My 3g, when switched on shows, but I will be informed that I have no data plan and should purchase one.

Eze Ndigbo Outside Igboland: A Needless Distraction By Joe Igbokwe

There is this adage in Igboland which says that when elders are not at home Children may wear snakes as necklaces. Another one says only a foolish elder will be at home when a she goat delivers while in tether. The holy Book added a great voice when it says;woe betides a nation whose leaders are Children.


There is this adage in Igboland which says that when elders are not at home Children may wear snakes as necklaces. Another one says only a foolish elder will be at home when a she goat delivers while in tether. The holy Book added a great voice when it says;woe betides a nation whose leaders are Children. Another school of thought rebuked that evil triumph in any society when good men doing nothing.


The needless encounter between HRH ,Deji of Akure and one Mr Gregory Iloehike who is claiming to be the Ezeigbo in Akure has once again put in the front burner the vexed issue of Ezeigbo outside Igboland in Nigeria. In the South West, Northern Nigeria and even South South this reoccurring decimal , noise and confusion about Ezeigbo titles outside Igboland has lingered on for too long for it to be given a deserved attention. Disturbed by the deluge of crisis being generated in cities outside Igboland by the so called Ezeigbo titles few years back, Ohaneze Ndigbo asked that the title should be Onyendu Ndigbo not Ezeigbo. Few of these jesters and impostors complied for a while but within a very short time these clowns returned to continue to embarrass themselves and Igboland. I had thought that Ohaneze will stand up to carry the big stick and beat these pretenders back on the track but not Ohaneze. I had thought that Ohaneze will write a strong letter to all Governors outside Igboland to convey their strong position of this very important matter but not Ohaneze . I had thought that Ohaneze will go extra mile in introducing heavy sanctions for any nonentity that will flout the directive but not Ohaneze . Rather we have continued to live with this comic drama and primitive display of inanities outside Igboland.


In Lagos we have these Ezeigbos in all the 54 local governments and LCDAs and this writer has witnessed all the troubles and confusion associated with this misnomer . One Chief Nwachukwu who lives in Okota in Isolo and one Chief Ohazurike who lives in Oko Oba ,Agege have engaged each other in a supremacy contest of who will be the Ezeigbo of the whole of Lagos for years now with no respite in sight. At a time Mr Babalola , the former Chief of Staff Lagos wrote to me to help him clarify the real Ezeigbo of Lagos among the two. I never reported back to the Chief of Staff of Lagos because I considered the drama as a needless distraction that needed no government attention. While Ohazurike is tilting towards PDP , Nwachukwu pitched his tent with APC. It is all about politics of the stomach and that of survival.


But how did we come to this sorry pass that ordinary people who left Igboland in search of a better life in other parts of Nigeria got themselves entangled into this power struggle in order to get something to eat? Who introduced this aberration into our moral and cultural lexicon? Who are the progenitors of this shenanigan outside Igboland? What points were they trying to score in the first place? What is the purpose? Is it another form buy and sell phenomenon Igbo is known for all over the world? Is Ezeigbo title now goods to be sold in an open market? What is the benefit or for whose benefit? When these Ezeigbos get to Igboland what do we call them? Do we call them Igwes or Obis when when the royals gather? Does anybody know the background and antecedents of these people who parade themselves as Ezeigbos?


From my little investigations I have found out that these local Ezeigbos left Igboland as common traders, carpenters , bricklayers, motor mechanics, barbers, house boys, drivers, apprentices, etc. Some of them made some money in business and needed some political power to raise their status both at home and outside Igboland . Some are failed business men who are looking for a way to earn a living and be important again. Some resort to it to attract attention to themselves and attract political , social and economic patronage. All they need to do is to buy red caps and piece together some attires that look royal and kingly. Some of them who are landlords build meeting halls in their compounds where they call palaces. Soon they will start inviting people of like minds to start coming to meetings. Soon they start organizing new yam festivals just to get gifts , money inclusive. Paid singers and drummers will also be in attendance to make the drama to be complete. Elections times are also times for government recognition and money is involved also. The local Ezeigbos get money from governments for mobilization and support . At government functions they are sometimes invited to add Colour to the event. Politicians use them a lot to try to reach Igbo in their local governments and development areas. It is pure business and those who know about the gains have seized the space and they are not in a hurry to let go. No wonder the craze is now all over Nigeria except Igboland .


The Ezeigbo title outside Igboland may be an embarrassment to Igbo culture and dignity but politicians outside Igboland exploit it to their own advantage. While the governors and other politicians need them win elections, the Obas and Kabiyesis see them as intruders, interlopers and impostors who are encroaching into their kingdoms. They see them as rivals and competitors who are taking some of what belong to them. They see it as a case of two captains in one boat given the way the Ezeigbos carry themselves about with deafening noise and arrogance . This is the reason why HRH The Deji of Akure is fighting back. The real king does not want a fake king in his kingdom. The Deji of Akure does not want a divided kingdom or divided royalty. He wants total control of his people including those who came from other lands.


I suggest that Igbo leaders especially Ohaneze Ndigbo should move into action now and stop this nonsense forever working with the governors outside Igboland. We must produce a position paper on it and compel our people to abide by it. We must stamp our feet down by doing the needful before it gets out of hand. Our people must care about the feelings of other Nigerians outside Igboland where they do businesses and must be told in the strongest terms to respect the rules of engagement and rules of business anywhere they are. This craze for titles outside Igboland is making a mockery our tradition, culture and cherished ideals. Now, who are these Ezeigbos? What are their pedigree? What do they do for a living? Where are they coming from? Do we know whom they are and what they represent?


What is their status in their home towns? A situation where drug kingpins, 419ers, armed robbers, kidnappers, failed business men hide under Ezeigbo titles to continue to embarrass us calls for immediate attention and concrete actions. We cannot continue to pretend that all is well when these pretenders sow seeds of discord between our people and the host communities. We need to convince other Nigerians that we care about peaceful co existence and the need to understand our differences. We need to have the courage to do away with this dangerous trend which tends to cause disaffection between us and the host communities across Nigeria. Let us abolish this Ezeigbo title outside Igboland for peace to reign.


saharareporters.com/2015/10/24/eze-ndigbo-outside-igboland-needless-distraction-joe-igbokwe

may truth always prevail

After reading through this Special Report,
any shred of doubt in the reader's mind that
Nigeria is doomed and heading for a
headlong, downward Plummeting will simply
dissipate.

The details of the remuneration of
an average Nigerian Senator is detailed
below:
Basic Salary (B.S) - N2 484 245.50
Hardship Allowance (50 per cent of B.S) -
N1 242 122.70
Constituency Allowance (200 per cent of
B.S) - N4 968 509.00
Newspapers Allowance (50 per cent of B.S)
- N1 242 122.70
Wardrobe Allowance (25 per cent of B.S) -
N621 061.37
Recess Allowance (10 per cent of B.S) - N
248 424.55
Accommodation (200 per cent of B.S) - N4
968 509.00
Utilities (30 per cent of B.S) - N828 081.83
Domestic Staff (70 per cent of B.S) - N1 863
184.12
Entertainment (30 per cent of B.S) - N828
081.83
Personal Assistants (25 per cent of B.S) -
N621 061.12
Vehicle Maintenance Allowance (75 per cent
of B.S) - N1 863 184.12
Leave Allowance (10 per cent of B.S) - N248
424.55
Severance Gratuity (300 per cent of B.S) -
N7 452 736.50
Car Allowance (400 per cent of B.S) - N 9
936 982.00

TOTAL MONTHLY SALARY = N29 479
749.00 ($181 974.00)

TOTAL YEARLY SALARY = N29 479 749.00 x
12
= N353 756 988.00 ($2 183 685.00)

EXCHANGE RATE: $1 = N162

LEGISLATORS PAY WORLDWIDE PER ANNUM
Britain - $105 400.00
United States - $174 000.00
France - $85 900.00
South Africa - $104 000.00
Kenya - $74 500.00
Saudi Arabia - $64 000.00
Brazil - $157 600.00
Ghana - $46 500.00
Indonesia - $65 800.00
Thailand - $43 800.00
India - $11 200.00
Italy - $182 000.00
Bangladesh - $4,000.00
Israel - $114 800.00
Hong Kong - $130 700.00
Japan - $149 700.00
Singapore - $154 000.00
Canada - $154 000.00
New Zealand - $112 500.00
Germany - $119 500.00
Ireland - $120 400.00
Pakistan - $3 500.00
Malaysia - $25 300.00
Sweden - $99 300.00
Sri Lanka - $5 100.00
Spain - $43 900.00
Norway - $138 000.00

In terms of lawmakers’ salaries as a ratio of
GDP per capita, the gap is even much wider.
While the salary of a Nigerian lawmaker is
116 times the country’s GDP per person,
that of a British member of parliament is
just 2.7 times.

The average salary of Nigerian worker based
on the national minimum wage is N18
000.00,
So, the yearly salary is N18 000.00 x 12 =
N216,000.00 ($1 333.00)
Remember, Yearly Salary of Nigerian Senator
= $2, 183, 685.00
Proportion: $2 183 685.00/$1 333.00 = 1
638
It will take an average Nigerian worker 1,638
years to earn the yearly salary of a Nigerian
Senator."

Source: The Economist

http://www.agendang.com/index.php/news/item/655-special-report-salary-of-nigerian-senators

May the good Lord keep you and all yours.

Contentious NITEL acquisition challenged in
court

An indigenous company, Arabian
Amlak for Investment Limited (AAIL), has
challenged the sale of Nigerian
Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and its
subsidiary, Mobile Telecommunications
Limited (MTEL) at the Federal High Court in
Abuja.

Retired General Abdullahi Bagudu Mamman,
leads the court challenge.
In a motion for an Order of Interlocutory
Injunction, AAIL and others are asking the
court to restrain stakeholders and Otunba
Olutola Sembore from sourcing for buyers,
accepting offers for purchase or payment for
the assets, shares or business of the NITEL/
MTEL and from taking further steps in the
liquidation process of NITEL/MTEL.

The company challenged the seeming
government preference for comparatively far
less than $919,9 million offered by the
willing buyer.
This process is one after a series of failed
processes to sell off NITEL/MTEL by the
government of Nigeria.
Investigations by this publication show that
AAIL expressed interest to buy NITEL/MTEL
after the first bidding and liquidation, which
started since 2009 failed due to the poor
payment schedule handed different
organisations that expressed interest in the
process.

The company was pre-qualified and given a
letter of acknowledgement by Bureau for
Public Enterprises (BPE).
In the letter titled: Re: Expression of Interest
for the Acquisition of NITEL, dated
November 16, 2011, and signed by Allwell
Ibeh, Director of Information and
Communication, and addressed to Muazu
Domiha Omolori, Chief Executive Officer of
AAIL, BPE promised to contact the company
“as soon as appropriate to discuss” the
proposal.

In the light of this process, AAIL had made
an offer of $919,999,999.00, which was
above the benchmark value for the process
dated 5th March, 2012. The offer was based
on BNP Paribas, French Bank (2009)
valuation of $850million. Therefore AAIL
was invited by the Chairman, National
Council On Privatisation (NCP), Vice
President Namadi Sambo, for a meeting at
which AAIL was verbally asked to present a
Proof of Funds, and also transfer the offered
amount ($919,999,999) to an escrow
account within two weeks.
Considering the government verbal request
for Proof of funds, which was made
available, and the transfer of the offered
funds, AAIL posited that it should be given a
formal letter to the effect, which would
necessitate their instructions to their
financiers, also based on the fact that no
international financier would agree to move
funds without documented directive. Ever
since the verbal request by the government
for the funds transfer and the expressed
position of AAIL, government has remained
adamant to the process, in spite of a series
of letters and reminders to the government.
Surprisingly long after, AAIL has found out
that government has obviously abandoned
midway the second option of willing buyer/
willing seller, and rather chose to embark on
the third option of liquidation without
recourse to due process.

Even more
surprising is the fact that government is
considering comparatively far less value for
the sale of the assets under its “guided
Liquidation”.
In view of the seeming government abuse of
due process, blunt negation of the option of
right of first refusal and lack of further
interest in the process, AAIL is in the
Federal High Court challenging in suit no:
FHC/Abj/CS/937/2014 government and its
agents’ decision to embark on the third
option, which is liquidation.

Meanwhile, in a bid to perhaps evade court
process and for any other reasons
whatsoever, government has decided to fast
track the process of liquidation by moving
backward the earlier fixed date from
December 11 to December 3.
In this hurriedly-executed liquidation, a
telecommunication consortium, NATCOM
has emerged the preferred bidder with an
offer of $252,251 million under a guided
liquidation.

http://m.news24.com/nigeria/National/News/Contentious-NITEL-acquisition-challenged-in-court-20141205

A pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God  who was kidnapped 10 months ago escaped from Boko Haram militants in Borno on Tuesday.

Pastor Rotimi Obajimi, who served as a pastor in the rural area of Borno/Yobe province, was on his to Maiduguri on January 6th this year when Boko Haram militants abducted him.

According to a pastor in Redeem church in Maiduguri told SaharaReporters that they were surprised to see Mr. Obajimi emerge from nowhere, he said, “we were so amazed to see him because we have been praying earnestly for long time trusting Jesus that he would surely come back but lo and behold he was brought to our headquarters in Maiduguri by the  military.”

The pastor told his colleagues that was taken to Sambisa Forest where he was tied down for months, he was later  moved to an unknown destination and thereafter  brought   back to Sambisa forest again. He reportedly told his colleagues that his escape was made possible by a heavy downpour that led to massive floods which sacked everyone in the camps.  
Due to the rains, armed men left him and others so he was able to escape and for days he  wandered in the forest before he could arrive to a village where the military picked him up after narrating his experiences to them, they later brought him to Maiduguri.

He  was later driven to Maimallari Hospital by military escorts,who had his face covered. 

Another pastor revealed that the senior military official at 7 Division has advised them to relocate  the pastor to Redemption Camp in Lagos for his safety, in fact, adequate provision has been made to fly  him out of Maiduguri according to the pastor.

A military source at 7 Division confirmed the escape of Pastor Obajimi claiming that he has been fully debriefed by the military