Ogun Police uncover underground ritualists’ den

News Sunday, February 3, 2013


Entrance of the ritualists underground den.

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BY DAUD OLATUNJI

ABEOKUTA - The Ogun State Police Command, Sunday, said it had arrested three suspected ritualists and uncovered another ritualists’ underground den in Idode-Imomo, Ijebu North-East Local Government Area of Ogun State.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, who stated this said the command had begun an investigation into the matter.

According to him, the suspects, Kehinde Rufai,Debo Awonaya and one David, are cooling their feet in police custody.

Vanguard gathered that the place was located between Ijebu-Ode and Atan, closed to the border area of Oyo, Ogun and Ondo states.

An eye witness told Vanguard, however, that some youths discovered the ritualists underground den located in a forest after a 70-year-old man identified as Kehinde Rabiu was declared missing.

According to the source, residents of the area were shocked when they saw the underground den which has stairs underneath.

The suspected ritualists were reported to have built a house beside the underground in the forest and planted indian hemp around the place.

Speaking on the incident, Chairman of Community Development Association in the area, Kola Ologbode, described the three suspects as criminals.

He said the trio had been known for criminal activities, adding that, he had overheard them saying they were looking for aged man for a business.

Also speaking, the village head, Durojaye Olugbode, begged the government for assistance to get rid of kidnappers in the area.

http://odili.net/news/source/2013/feb/3/342.html

dominique: Op, tell your 'friend' to go for a vasectomy.

Thanks. But aside the psychological/emotional effects, there are potential unpleasant biological consequences of vasectomy that I am almost sure it is out of the question for my buddy.

Nebo it was who introduced the post UME test in the Nigerian university system. For whatever it is worth, it speaks volume of the innovativeness of the man to have introduced something that others adopted, in an ultra conservative country such as Nigeria.

greatgod2012: This is one of d issues that should have been thoroughly discussed and reached a compromise over.

Under no reason should sex be used as weapon between couples, it shows how immatured and unprepared they are.......and if care is not taken, just like others have opined.....its going to be d beginning of d end.
However, its never too late, d couple can still sit down and discuss. The wife should state her own reasons of wanting more baby, d hubby should also state his own reason for not wanting an addittional baby. Then look at d factors to consider in reaching a compromise, such as
-finance........how financially stable are you both, how secure are you in your jobs.
-Time........d training of kids takes a lot of time and d woman cannot do it alone, so, d time available for both of d parents should also be considered.
-health.......d health of d mother should also be considered.......and so on.
May God help us all.

From what I know, it is not about the finances, as the guy is doing quite well and can take care of even more than an extra mouth. He just wants less overall stress from the number of children to care for and the time it takes to do so. He likes traveling and going out with his wife and he feels the more the kids are, the more they will truncate his chosen lifestyle. Now the question is, how can he continue making love to his wife without a condom (as demanded by her) without impregnating her?

A friend of mine is in a dilemma and wants some ideas. His wife wants an additional baby (they have two kids already)but he does not. He wants to stop at two kids so he and his wife can enjoy life and plan their family economy better, but she insists she wants a third baby. Now, she says no condoms and no pills for her, and he insists no condom, no sex. She seems to be holding out but my buddy is already sex-starved after one month of abstinence forced by her wife's insistence on no condom for sex; she would not make love to her husband with a condom. My guy is sort of stranded and does not want to go looking outside for sex. What else can he do to make love to his own wife, but not make a baby? Is there any male preventive drug out there he can use?

Hausa/Fulani are kidnapping for religion
Igbos and South South people are kidnapping for money
Yoruba are kidnapping for toto (obo). Na waoh!!!

My ex abducted, raped me because I dumped him – Rescued victim

Crime Alert Thursday, December 27, 2012



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By DONALD ARJI

The hitherto quiet atmosphere witnessed in Ligali street, Ojo road in Ajegunle area of Lagos was recently truncated, following the abduction of a 22-year-old lady identified as Bose Ashade, right in front of her compound. Noone could go for Bose's rescue, as the thugs said to have been heavily armed, threatened to kill anyone who dared to thwart their mission. And before everyone, helpless Bose, was whisked away in the thugs operational motorcycles. Time was 6pm last Friday.

Her apprehensive grandmother could not be consoled as she wailed uncontrollably, wondering why any one would choose to abduct her granddaughter who has been in her custody since the demise of her parents.

However, about seven hours later, news filtered in that Bose had been rescued by policemen from Layeni division, somewhere around Arinu Ishola street, Alaba. Upon inquiry, it was discovered that her abduction was masterminded by no other than her former boyfriend, one Ibrahim Bolaji.

Bose as gathered , had been in a relationship with Ibrahim for two years before the relationship went sour, over an unknown reason.

Crime Alert gathered that Ibrahim had on several occasion attempted to win back his girlfriend, all to no avail.

But along the line, he reportedly learnt that one of his friends was going out with Bose, a major reason he told Policemen made him abduct her.

Hear him: "Even if she was leaving me, she should have at least, accorded me the respect by going for another person instead of my friend. It was like a slap on my face. I only sent some of my friends to abduct her so as to teach her a lesson. I never intended to collect any money as ransom", he said.

But while in the hideout, Bose said she was raped by Ibrahim. At first, she said she thought the thugs were kidnappers. Sharing her terrible encounter with Crime Alert, she said: "From the way they operated, I concluded they were kidnappers.

My grand mother sent me on an errand that fateful evening and immediately I stepped out o f the compound, about nine men grabbed me and started beating and dragging me at the same time on the ground. I begged them not to kill me , that I was not having any money with me. But they did not stop.

When I got to their hideout around Alaba, my ex-boyfriend, Ibrahim, came in. I was shocked and asked why he would do this to me. Before I could finish the statement, one of them landed a slap across my face. And right there, Ibrahim raped me asking if that was not what I wanted.

My phone saved me

"When he finished with me, he left me in the room and directed his boys to keep an eye on me. But I had my phone with me and quickly text the location I was to my new boyfriend who contacted policemen at Layeni. The policemen arrived at about 12.30am and rescued me. But for their swift arrival I do not know what would have happened to me", she said, weeping.

Meanwhile, Crime Alert gathered that policemen at Layeni division were on the trail of the thugs who stormed Bose's place that fateful day.


http://odili.net/news/source/2012/dec/27/319.html

A-list robbery kingpins, police serial killers meet Waterloo…after terrorising Lagos, Ogun, Ekiti for years
December 15, 2012 by Comfort Oseghale 57 Comments
The Suspects

The Suspects
| credits: File copy

The long arm of the law has finally caught up with two men suspected to be the leaders of the armed gangs that attacked a branch of First Bank in Ekiti State and the World Oil Petrol Station in Ibafo, Ogun State, a few months ago.

Ejike Mbogu and Ayomide Oyebanji were said to have been arrested by the police in Lagos after an intensive search.

Also, eight other suspected robbers, Gbenga Oni, Taofeek Mumuni, Ogbonnaya Ekweye, Kundus Adetono, Yemi Ayodeji, Shola Ayodele, Gani Moshood and Seyi Aluko, all of who allegedly had participated in some major robbery attacks in the South-West, are currently in the custody of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja, Lagos.

Another suspected robber, Seun Adegboyega, aka Dada, was shot dead during a raid in Ikotun.

Three policemen reportedly lost their lives in the robbery in Ekiti, which occurred sometime in May 2012 and lasted about an hour. An undisclosed amount of money was said to have been stolen by the robbers during the attack.

Also, the robbery at the petrol station in Ibafo claimed the lives of two policemen. Both of them were shot when a gang of daredevil robbers invaded the station.

CRIME DIGEST learnt that three other policemen were killed when the same gang of robbers struck in the Oke-Itoku area of Abeokuta.

On Sept. 10, the gang robbed several bureau de change operators in Agege, Anthony, Ojodu, Itire, Ikeja and Ilasamaja areas of Lagos, killing three policemen and a commercial bus driver.

The end came for Mbogu and Ayodeji about three weeks ago when a Honda car allegedly stolen in Akute, Ogun State, was traced to the former’s aged mother in Anambra State.

Assisted by Mbogu’s brother, a team of policemen from SARS in Lagos succeeded in apprehending the suspected gangster in a hotel in Ikotun. Led by Superintendent Abba Kyari, the team found Mbogu in company with five other members of his gang. In the ensuing stampede, three members of the gang managed to escape.

Mbogu was arrested, but not before he was shot while trying to disarm one of the policemen. Dada was killed as he tried to escape.

On his part, Ayodeji was allegedly responsible for organising most of the major robberies which occurred in the Ikotun/Igando areas of Lagos state this year. “Ayodele is my friend; he lives at Ikotun and usually brings information about thriving businesses in the area. I got to know him as a building developer when I came in the guise of an Omo oni ile (land speculator) to a site he was supervising. We robbed a Coca-Cola depot at Liasu Road; I got N120,000 as my share in that operation. We robbed a super mart at Igando and a turkey cold room at Liasu road. Most of the robberies at Liasu Road were carried out by our gang,” Ayodeji confessed.

On the other hand, Oyebanji’s gang is believed to be responsible for most of the robbery attacks that have taken place in Victoria Island, Lekki and Ajah.

Leading the attacks himself alongside four other members on the run, Oyebanji allegedly dispossessed residents of the island of their cars, money and other valuables. CRIME DIGEST gathered that in one of such incidents, two policemen on guard at a home in VI were killed in a shootout with the robbers.

In an interview with our correspondent, Mbogu confessed that he was lured into armed robbery four years after he moved to Lagos.

He said, “I moved to Lagos after my father’s death and started earning a living as an apprentice to my brother who sold refrigerator parts in Mushin. For a while, things were difficult. Then I met one Segun in Surulere. He claimed to be a soldier. I noticed that he lived on the fast lane and he was not alone. All the boys who moved with him also lived on the fast lane. Although I didn’t know it, Segun was an ex-convict.

“One day after we got talking, Segun invited me for a drink with his boys. He asked me if I had been involved in any crime of any sort. When I answered in the negative, he said I didn’t have the required experience for the kind of work he did. So, he assigned me to pick pockets alongside Opeyemi. For some weeks, I would steal wallets and other valuables during rush hours.

“Segun monitored my progress regularly. Later, I was allowed to drive them on a motorcycle whenever they wanted to snatch handbags. Most of our victims were sales girls going to the bank to deposit or withdraw money.

“Eventually, Segun relocated to Cotonou with some members of his gang when the police were on their trail. By then, I had established contacts with other robbers and one arms supplier known as Tochukwu.”

The Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Mr. Umaru Manko, confirmed the arrests.

“Ever since his involvement in the Wema Bank robbery at Dopemu in 2008, Oyebanji has long been on the wanted list of the police. About 15 armed robbers participated in that robbery attack and 13 of them were arrested. Oyebanji and one other member of the group had been on the run since then.

“Oyebanji’s gang was responsible for the bullion van robbery in Badagry about five months ago. A police sergeant and three other civilians were killed during the attack.

“Oyebanji was arrested last week after he was sighted by a source around Iyana-Ipaja. A SARS team led by Kyari trailed him to Oshodi. He was shot while trying to escape arrest while a receiver of stolen goods, Muyiwa, who was with him at the time, was also arrested,” Manko said.

Oyebanji was said to have made confessional statements which led to the discovery of eight AK-47 rifles belonging to the policemen who were killed in the Ekiti, Badagry and Ibafo robbery attacks.

One English pump action, and 25 magazines loaded, with 30 rounds of ammunition, were also found hidden in a Nissan Almera car which was parked in a mechanic’s workshop at Apapa Road, Oyingbo.

One pump action an AK-47 rifle, two locally-made double-barrelled shotguns, two assault rifles and 10 AK-47 magazines (fully loaded), were also recovered from the gang’s former armoury at Ifo when Aluko led a SARS team to the hideout. Unfortunately, most of the guns and ammunition had been taken away to be used in a robbery attack the same day.

http://www.punchng.com/feature/crime-digest/a-list-robbery-kingpins-police-serial-killers-meet-waterloo-after-terrorising-lagos-ogun-ekiti-for-years/

Would you risk your freedom, and possibly your life, for this seemingly unbelievable offer in Saudi Arabia?

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Not unexpected: Achebe Igbo, Okonjo-Iweala Igbo. The only group that really matter in Nigeria
The rest, especially Yoruba, na dagbo thinkers

Achebe, Banda, Okonjo-Iweala among 100 top global thinkers for 2012
Tuesday, 27 November 2012 00:00 Editor News - National
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Chinua-Achebe

FOR their sterling contributions to their societies through political engagements, the formulation of economic policies and condemnation of corruption and other obstacles to development, two Nigerians have made the list of 100 top Global Thinkers for 2012.

The two Nigerians are the Finance Minister and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the renowned author of Things Fall Apart Prof. Chinua Achebe. Another African on the list is Malawian President Joyce Banda.

The list was drawn up by Foreign Policy. Foreign Policy, a bimonthly American magazine founded in 1970 by Samuel P. Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel was originally, a quarterly.

According to Wikipedia, the magazine under Editor-in-Chief Moisés Naím (1996–2010), changed from an academic quarterly in the 1990s to a bimonthly glossy, winning the 2009, 2007, and 2003 National Magazine Award for General Excellence. The topics it covers include global politics, economics, integration and ideas.

On September 29, 2008, The Washington Post Company announced that they had purchased Foreign Policy from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Foreign Policy publishes the annual “Globalization Index,” and “Failed State Index.” Its report “Inside the Ivory Tower” provides an annual comprehensive ranking of professional schools in international relations.

Banda, the Malawian President, occupies the 22nd position on the list. According to Foreign Policy, Banda made the list for “for stepping in - and up - to fix a broken country.”

When Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika died of a heart attack in April, it wasn’t immediately clear what would become of his vice president, Joyce Banda who had fallen out of favour with the increasingly autocratic president who sacked her from his political party in 2010.

Even Mutharika’s wife publicly derided Banda - a longtime grassroots advocate for women, children, and the poor- scoffing: “She will never be president. How can a fruit seller be president?”

After two days of tension in the wake of Mutharika’s death, however, Banda proved the first lady wrong, becoming Africa’s second-ever female president.

Governing Malawi, where an estimated 75 percent of its more than 15 million residents live on N160 or less a day, presents enormous challenges.

But in just seven months, Banda has largely shown the world how to take charge and work to turn around a troubled country.

Within days of taking office, she dismissed key members of Mutharika’s administration, including the police chief in power when 19 Malawian demonstrators were killed at a 2011 opposition rally.

By devaluing the Malawian currency by more than a third, Banda also secured a much-needed $157 million International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan in June, a first step toward rebuilding Malawi’s debilitated economy.

So far, all signs suggest Banda could become a new model for African leadership, shedding the strongman syndrome and getting down to business to help the poor. She has cut her own salary by 30 percent and put the late Mutharika’s $12 million presidential jet and most of his fleet of 60 luxury cars up for sale. “I can as well use private airlines,” she said. “I am already used to hitchhiking.

“I must demonstrate to Malawians that we are in this together,

“I must be the first person to set an example.”

For Okonjo-Iweala who is 51st on the list, she was chosen “for showing Africa how to break the resource curse.”

As a candidate in this year’s unusually public race for the World Bank presidency, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala seemingly had it all: an MIT education, high-level experience with both the bank and the Nigerian government, the potential to be the first woman and first person of colour to run the institution, and the support of everyone from the African Union to the Financial Times. She just didn’t have the one thing that really mattered: a United States passport.

But though she may have missed out on her chance to run the bank, Okonjo-Iweala is arguably as influential in her role as the powerful finance minister of Africa’s most populous country and one of its fastest-growing economies.

In a previous stint in the position, she successfully negotiated to wipe out millions of dollars of international debt, and since reassuming the post last year she has cut spending and helped establish a sovereign wealth fund to manage Nigeria’s oil riches.

Her driving idea: African countries can’t hope to develop economically until they get their institutions in order.

Although she enjoys a potent mandate from President Goodluck Jonathan, Okonjo-Iweala has seen her reform efforts consistently meet opposition from the ‘godfathers’ - the powerful officials who benefit from the oil wealth in Nigeria’s notoriously corrupt political system. Her efforts to end a popular but economically disastrous fuel subsidy have also so far been slow going. “It has not been easy, and the struggle is still ongoing,” she told Reuters this year.

“You make progress; then you get courage to make more.”

If she can succeed in helping one of Africa’s most pivotal countries overcome the infamous oil curse, it might have a much more lasting impact than anything she could have accomplished back in Washington.

Achebe who is the 68th top global thinker on the list was selected “ for forcing Africa to confront its demons.”

A giant of contemporary African letters for more than half a century, Achebe is still best known for his 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart, which drew on oral traditions to tell the story of a Nigerian village transformed by colonialism and Western-imposed Christianity.

He also achieved renown for his withering critiques of depictions of Africa by European writers, demanding a literature that traveled well beyond the Heart of Darkness clichés to reveal African realities, while urging Africans to be the ones to tell their own stories.

True to that appeal, this year brought Achebe’s own powerful memoir, There Was a Country, an account of his life during the 1967-1970 Biafran war. Achebe had taken the Biafran side in the conflict, which left more than one million people dead, and served as a roving international ambassador for the breakaway government, narrowly escaping Nigerian attacks on multiple occasions. His book makes the case that the Biafran war - Africa’s first civil war to generate major international media attention - was a harbinger of African conflicts to come, from Rwanda to Congo to Sierra Leone, all of which have their roots in the arbitrary drawing of borderlines during colonialism, were exacerbated by natural resources, and proved the inability of the international community to stop the bloodshed.

“Nigeria was once a land of great hope and progress, a nation with immense resources at its disposal,” writes Achebe, today a professor of Africana studies at Brown University.

“But the Biafran war changed the course of Nigeria. In my view it was a cataclysmic experience that changed the history of Africa.”

Many injured as thugs clash in Lagos
November 28, 2012 by Eniola Akinkuotu 8 Comments
Adebisi Coker(Inset : The dead daughters)

Adebisi Coker(Inset : The dead daughters)
| credits:

Many people were injured in the Ajah area of Lagos on Monday after hoodlums believed to be members of rival gangs clashed.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the clash was as a result of a long-standing feud between rival gangs in Ilaje and Ajah.

A police source who craved anonymity, told our correspondent that the clash was as a result of the collecting of money from Keke NAPEP operators.

The policeman added that fighting among the hoodlums had become a weekly affair and the police authorities were working on how find a lasting solution to the problem.

He said, “Around 9am, we received a distress call that hoodlums were fighting at Ilaje Bus Stop on the Lekki-Epe Expressway. So, we rushed down to the scene.

“Immediately we arrived there, the hoodlums took to their heels. The violence has become rampant now. Very soon, an armoured tank will be stationed there permanently to deter hoodlums from fighting.”

However, PUNCH Metro learnt that many residents had fled the area until peace was restored.

Confirming the incident to our correspondent on the telephone, the spokesperson for the state police command, Ngozi Braide, said the area commander, Area J, was already having talks with the warring factions.

http://www.punchng.com/news/many-injured-as-thugs-clash-in-lagos/

99.9% of houses that fall in Nigeria are in Yorubaland and most are owned by Yoruba and built by Yoruba

A clear example of the many differences between Igbo and Yoruba: one is competent and excels by sheer personal effort, the other is incompetence and gets by only with man-know-man strategy.

Reps charge Oduah to sustain airport modernization
Our Reporter November 28, 2012 No Comments »
By UCHE USIM

The House of Representatives, on Tuesday in Abuja, charged the Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah, to sustain the current tempo aimed at modernizing airports in the country. The lower chamber also commended the ministry’s capital budget performance for 2012 fiscal year, saying it ranks amongst the best in the country.

Chairperson of the House Committee on Aviation, Rep. Nkiruka Onyejeocha, who made the position of the House known during the 2013 Budget defence by the ministry, yesterday, said after inspecting the reconstruction and remodelling works of airport terminals across the country, the House was very satisfied with the quality of work and pace of transformation of the sector since the minister assumed office a little over a year ago.

“The Aviation Ministry surpassed other ministries in terms of capital budget implementation for the 2012 fiscal year. The transformation of our airport terminals by the minister is phenomenal and highly commendable,” she said. Onyejeocha called for the early and improved implementation of the 2013 Appropriation Act, which she believes will be passed into law by the National Assembly before the end of the year, assuring that the speaker, the leadership and the entire members of the House are, and will continue to be solidly behind the minister in its dream to leave of a legacy of visible and tangible transformation of the sector.

“The Speaker, the leadership and the entire members of the House are very happy with the work you are doing in the sector. We assure you of our continued cooperation and support because we all have the interest of the sector at heart. “We also believe the growth and development of the Nigerian economy is also tied to the growth and development of the aviation sector.

The economy will not perform well if the aviation sector fails to do well, so we want the sector to be rated as the first in terms of its contribution to the national economy,” the chairperson stated. She, however, insisted that the high tempo of development and transformation of the sector witnessed in 2013 must be improved upon and sustained throughout the 2013 capital budget implementation. “Keep doing what you are doing and remain focused..

The Speaker and the National Assembly assure you that we are solidly behind you and will give you all necessary support and cooperation in order to enable you perform better in the coming year”, the chairperson declared. In her brief remarks, Aviation Minister Oduah, thanked the leadership and members of the National Assembly for the support and cooperation given to the ministry since she came on board, stressing that little or nothing could have been achieved without their solid backing and encouragement.

She reiterated the fact that the aviation sector is pivotal to the economic growth of the nation, and assured that she and her team in the ministry, working in concert with the National Assembly as one family will not disappoint the nation. “We can assure you that we will strive to accomplish and surpass our achievements in 2012 next year”, she stated.

She stated that with 66 per cent of its capital vote released so far, the ministry has implemented and utilised 65 per cent. she said the ministry hopes to complete the second phase of the remodelling projects by the second quarter of 2013’ The minister, who said the theme of the 2013 budget in the ministry is “ Facilities and Infrastructural development and upgrade”, declared that greater attention would be focused on the rehabilitation of safety infrastructure like airfield lighting, fire hydrants, landing instruments, navigational aids, security, amongst others in 2013.

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/business/reps-charge-oduah-to-sustain-airport-modernization/

Emphasis on Growth Is Called Misguided

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By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: September 22, 2009

Among the possible casualties of the Great Recession are the gauges that economists have traditionally relied upon to assess societal well-being. So many jobs have disappeared so quickly and so much life savings has been surrendered that some argue the economic indicators themselves have been exposed as inadequate.

In a provocative new study, a pair of Nobel prize-winning economists, Joseph E. Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, urge the adoption of new assessment tools that incorporate a broader concern for human welfare than just economic growth. By their reckoning, much of the contemporary economic disaster owes to the misbegotten assumption that policy makers simply had to focus on nurturing growth, trusting that this would maximize prosperity for all.

“What you measure affects what you do,” Mr. Stiglitz said Tuesday as he discussed the study before a gathering of journalists in New York. “If you don’t measure the right thing, you don’t do the right thing.”

According to the report, much of the world has long been ruled by an unhealthy fixation on swelling the gross domestic product, or the quantity of goods and services the economy produces. With a singular obsession on making G.D.P. bigger, many societies — not least, the United States — failed to factor in the social costs of joblessness and the public health impacts of environmental degradation. They allowed banks to borrow and bet unfathomable amounts of money, juicing the present by mortgaging the future, thus laying the ground for the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

The report is more critique than prescription. It elucidates in general terms why leaning exclusively on growth as an economic philosophy may yield unhappiness, and it suggests that the incomes of typical people should be weighed more heavily than the gross production of whole societies. But it sidesteps the thorny details of slapping a cost on a ton of pollution or a waylaid career, leaving a great mass of policy choices for others to resolve.

Some Americans may reflexively reject the report and its recommendations, given its provenance: it was ordered up last year by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, whose dissatisfaction with the available tools of economic assessment prompted him to create the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress. Tuesday’s briefing was held in an ornate room at the French consulate. The official French statistics agency is already working to adopt the report’s recommendations. Mr. Sarkozy plans to bring it with him to the G-20 summit meeting in Pittsburgh this week, where the leaders of major countries will discuss a range of policy issues.

But whatever one’s views on the merits of European economy policy, and wherever one sits on the ideological spectrum, these appear fitting days to re-examine how economists measure vital signs — particularly in the United States.

By most assessments, the American economy is now growing again, perhaps even vigorously. Many experts expect a 3 percent annualized rate of expansion from July through September. As a technical matter, the recession appears to be over. Yet the unemployment rate sits at 9.7 percent and will probably climb higher and remain elevated for many months. In millions of households still grappling with joblessness and the tyranny of bills, signs of health served up by the traditional economic indicators seem disconnected from daily life.

This was precisely the sort of contradiction Mr. Sarkozy sought to unravel when he created the commission, tasking it with pursuing alternate ways of measuring economic health.

To head the panel, he picked Mr. Stiglitz, a former World Bank chief economist whose best-selling books amount to an indictment of the Washington-led model of global economic integration. Mr. Sarkozy also selected Mr. Sen, a Harvard economist and an authority on poverty.

The resulting report amounts to a treatise on the inadequacy of G.D.P. growth as an indication of overall economic health. It cites the example of increased driving, which weighs in as a positive within the framework of economic growth, as it requires greater production of gasoline and cars, yet fails to account for the hours of leisure and work time squandered in traffic jams, and the environmental costs of pollutants unleashed on the atmosphere.

During the real estate bubble that preceded the financial crisis, the focus on economic growth helped encourage overbuilding and investment in real estate. Mr. Stiglitz argues that the single-minded focus on growth gave American policy makers a false sense of assurance that their policies were virtuous, as they allowed financial institutions to direct virtually unlimited sums of money into real estate and as consumer debt levels built with unrestrained momentum.

Credit enabled spending, and spending translated into faster growth — an outcome that was intrinsically good, and never mind how long it might last or the convulsions that would accompany the end of easy money.

A growth-oriented policy encouraged homeowners to borrow as if money need never be repaid, and industry to produce products as if the real cost of pollution were zero, Mr. Stiglitz added.

“We looked to G.D.P. as a measure of how well we were doing, and that doesn’t tell us whether it’s sustainable,” he said at the briefing. “Your measure of output is grossly distorted by the failure of our accounting system. What began as a measure of market performance has increasingly become a measure of social performance, and that’s wrong.”

Instead of centering assessments on the goods and services an economy produces, policy makers would do better to focus on the material well-being of typical people by measuring income and consumption, along with the availability of health care and education, the report concludes.

Many of these prescriptions will no doubt resonate with policy makers and ordinary people.

Indeed, the difficulty comes in turning these general principles into new means of measurement. The report notes that its authors concur on the big picture, but diverge on the methodologies to be employed when it comes to factoring in the value of a better education and cleaner skies.

The old mode of measurement has taken a beating, and yet the new one, it seems, is still a work in progress.

I have always wondered how and why GDP is okay as a measure of growth. It is even worse to use it in Nigeria where some economically moribund states claim to have more GDP than others who are actually performing economic activities. The case of Nigeria confirms that GDP is merely calculated based on the amount of money received from the FG N in which case large (yet internally unproductive) states receive more that smaller, very productive states.

For example:

Oyo state (large, receives more money from the fed, economically zero) vs Anambra (small, receives less from the fed, full of economic activity)
The true measure of economic growth is in the article below which exposes the farce that use of GDP for that purpose is.

The facts on the ground tell a better story than some theoretically, often artificially inflated GDP values.

Nigeria has a greater GDP on paper than Botswana, but Botswanans have a far superior living standards than Nigerians. What do you take: paper greatness or a real, palpable one?

chidyhels: May i add that his BA. Philosophy was a 3rd class,no scorn intendend,ofcourse that was b4 he discovered his flare for business and made gud use of it.Just to tell that graduate out there that thinks hes/her grade determines were he/she will end up in life...a whole lot has made it without the best results.

Many things can make you get a third class in Nigeria, including not dropping for your lecturer or buying their hand outs. I have learned not to trust grades given in Nigerian universities.

Photo captions

1. Adeola Thomas, left, was jailed for seven years while his accomplice Abimbola Abiola, right, was locked up for two-and-a-half years for charges relating to identity theft, tax and benefits fraud

2. When the claims were successful, the pair withdrew cash from acquaintances' bank accounts or from bogus post office accounts that Thomas, pictured, had set up

3. Thomas, pictured, was arrested outside a cash point at Upper Clacton Post Office in Hackney, east London last October where he was found to be in possession of 17 Post Office accounts

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210157/Nigerian-couple-tried-claim-3-8m-eye-watering-benefits-scam-using-1-400-identities.html#ixzz2CVHYci86
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 14:46 EST, 28 September 2012 | UPDATED: 16:23 EST, 28 September 2012



Nigerian couple tried to claim £3.8m in ‘eye watering’ benefits scam using 1,400 identities

Adeola Thomas, 38, assisted by his partner, Abimbola Abiola, 34, secured £87,000 from fraudulent claims totalling £3.8million over four years
Thomas used 1,400 stolen identities to complete 2,495 handwritten tax and benefits claims forms
HMRC suspicions were raised when he used the same address for all the claims
Thomas, an illegal immigrant, was jailed for seven years while Abiola, also a Nigerian national with leave to remain in the UK, received two-and-a-half years


A Nigerian couple who tried to claim £3.8million in an ‘eye-watering’ benefits scam using 1,400 stolen identities have been jailed for a total of almost 10 years.

Adeola Thomas, 38, assisted by his partner, Abimbola Abiola, 34, managed to pocket £87,000 after submitting almost 2,500 handwritten applications for tax credits and benefits.

The pair spent the money on designer clothing and electrical items including a 50-inch plasma television.


But the fraud was discovered when benefits staff noticed the same address was being used for multiple claims, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

Thomas, an illegal immigrant, was jailed for seven years while Abiola, also a Nigerian national with leave to remain in the UK, received two-and-a-half years.

Passing sentence, Judge William Kennedy said: ‘This was no less than a criminal industry, with simple and eye watering criminality designed to maximise the loss to the public.

‘It was a difficult investigation carried out with skill and tenacity.

‘The largest single joint conspiracy [of its kind] for these departments and the actual loss was kept down because of the work of both departments.’

Judge Kennedy also indicated that both Thomas and Abiola should be deported at the end of their prison terms.

The pair, who carried out the scam between January 3, 2007 and October 7, 2011, tried to claim £827,000 from HMRC, securing £43,000.

They also claimed £3 million from the Department of Work and Pensions and received £44,000.

With Abiola’s help, Thomas used stolen personal details to complete 2,495 handwritten application forms, which were sent to the appropriate departments for processing.


It is believed that others unknown to investigators, also provided postal addresses and assisted with correspondence.

When the claims were successful, the pair withdrew cash from acquaintances' bank accounts or from bogus post office accounts that Thomas, who masterminded the scam, had set up.

As well as analysing tax credit records, computer systems, hand written application forms and bank account details and listening to hours of recorded phones calls to the Tax Credit Helpline, HMRC investigators viewed CCTV footage showing activity outside various North London Post Office ATMs and carried out surveillance on Thomas.

He was arrested outside a cash point at Upper Clacton Post Office in Hackney, east London last October 7 where he was found to be in possession of 17 Post Office accounts.


He also had two mobile phones and two fraudulently completed application forms addressed to Job Centre Plus.

Abiola, a mother-of-one, was caught on the same day with £4,125 cash in her handbag, which she claimed was child benefit payment.

Thomas, of Hackney, east London, admitted three counts of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering.

Abiola, of the same address was found guilty of four counts of conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and possession of criminal property following a trial at the court in August.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210157/Nigerian-couple-tried-claim-3-8m-eye-watering-benefits-scam-using-1-400-identities.html#ixzz2CVFRUM8w
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

ROSSIKE:

Actually, the poster has REVISED the title, which originally was ''two Igbos make global news'', so it's you that's ignorant.

No, I did not revise it. Why should I? The over sabi sabi mods did.

First and only black polish member of the parliament. He was from Umuahia, Abia State


More here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Godson

They need the oil so, so badly. God help them. Amen.

ROSSIKE: I think you actually reduce the gravitas of these individuals by your ''Igbo'' appendage. Few people on earth have ever heard of ''Igbos'', but everyone's heard of Nigeria.

It's like addressing a Phd graduate as a BSc.

Anybody who matters in any country in the world knows Igbo. Sorry if you do not matter.

''Structure

The Section for Relations with States is headed by an Archbishop, the Secretary for Relations with States, aided by a Prelate, the Under-Secretary for Relations with States, and assisted by Cardinals and Bishops. The secretary is often called the foreign minister of the Vatican. The current Secretary for Relations with States is Archbishop Dominique Mamberti. The current Undersecretary for Relations with States is Monsignor Ettore Balestrero.

The current Delegate for Pontifical Representations is Archbishop Luciano Suriani.

The Head of Protocol Office of the Secretariat of State is vacant, following the Monday, November 12, 2012 appointment by Pope Benedict XVI of Monsignor Fortunatus Nwachukwu to be the next Apostolic Nuncio to Nicaragua and thus Titular Archbishop of Acquaviva.[6]''


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretariat_of_State_%28Holy_See%29#cite_note-6