₦airaland Forum

Revealed: Rochas’ Lamonde Hotels Staff Receive Salaries From Imo State Govt
By 247ureports

There is a strong indication that the staff of Lamonde Hotels and Lamonde Guest House both in Owerri receive their monthly salaries from the Imo State government.

The two hotels are two of the many business properties owned by the state governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha.

247ureports.com gathered from reliable sources that Governor Okorocha compelled the State Ministry of culture and tourism under the first commissioner, Mr Alex Ogwazuo to include the staff of Lamonde Hotels in the state government’s payroll.

Ogwazuo was removed last year as commissioner and is currently the new chairman of the Imo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (ISOPADEC).

This, according to some of the sources, is the reason Ogwazuo was brought back to the Okorocha’s cabinet in order for him not to reveal the secrets after his scandalous performance in the ministry of tourism, where he impregnated three women with promises of marrying them.

None of the staff members of the two outfits volunteered to talk even on condition of anonymity.

But, it was learnt this has been going on since two years now, explaining the reason Lamonde Hotel, Okigwe Road Owerri, suddenly began competing with others in the city in terms of patronage.

The news came as the governor gave the people of the state the impression that he was a billionaire businessman and that he descended from his presidential aspiration to accept to rescue the people of the state.

It will be recalled that upon assumption of office, Governor Okorocha terminated the job of 10,000 youths employed by the state government under the administration of Chief Ikedi Ohakim.
http://247ureports.com/revealed-rochas-lamonde-hotels-staff-receive-salaries-from-imo-state-govt/

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Some comments from the link

Anthony Achoronye · Works at Pgpd
what is wrong with these people,the only thing they know is read, read , read, with nothing to show for. the can not run a country organize a simple meeting, the only know how to enjoy what others have done well.the most corrupt
Reply · Like · Follow Post · about an hour ago

Charles Ugboajah · Top Commenter · Ceo and founder PECK VENTURES at Self employed
I witness what happened in New York city which cannot be denied by our Ambassador and his consulate.The preparation was very poor i hope The president will have to do something about it.
Reply · Like · Follow Post · 2 hours ago

Emmanuel Smith Chukwukaodinaka Egeonu · Follow · Uni. Ghana
Something has to be done in this issue here
Reply · Like · Follow Post · 2 hours ago

Tony Percyigwe · Follow · AutoCAD Designer at Contractor
that is why they have been assign to be they.

automaticcars: Adejoro is so predictable to show his f00lishness. Save us some time by describing and showing us what exactly the so called two Ibo women did that the U.S Ambassador failed to do.

In case you are blind:

''Credit must be given to the current Foreign Affairs Minister, Prof Viola Onwuliri & the Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for being able to salvage this nearly-marred (by Adefuye) first engagement of President Jonathan''.... K Alabi (Yoruba reporter)

See. Two Igbo women do what Adefuye, a Yoruba man, is too incompetent to do.

Anyone remembers how the former US Ambassador, Brig Rotimi, also mismanaged the US embassy?

Lemme guess: Adefuye was busy hating on Ojo Maduekwe (for obvious reasons) and forget to do his job preparing logistics for his employer's outing

Pres.Jonathan gets first hand experience of Nigeria’s abominable consulate services in U.S.
by nigeriangazette on Sep 24, 2013 • 7:17 pm 4 5 Comments
A concerned citizen in diaspora sent in the following report from New York where Mr.President was almost embarrassed at an event organized by the Nigerian Embassy and Consulate office in New York.

“Whilst President Goodluck Jonathan has, reportedly, had a largely successful series of outings in New York (including his very highly-rated private meetings with the US’ President Obama & Mr Bill Gates; meetings with Nigerian professionals with emphasis on the growing Nigerian Agro-Industry and his epochal foreign investment drive on the floor of the NYSE) the Nigerian Mission to the US (under the watch of Ambassador Adebowale Adefuye) has proven, as usual, to be inefficient and unprepared!
Amb Adefuye and his New York Consular General have been, reportedly, putting Nigerians through hell-on-earth with very abominable consulate services and this dismal style was witnessed first hand by Pres Jonathan & his delegation, as they nearly became victims to the badly-planned Millenium Hotel meeting with Nigerian professionals in the USA & Canada. It was so bad that Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Canada & former Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minster, Ojo Maduekwe was shut out of this vital process!
Credit must be given to the current Foreign Affairs Minister, Prof Viola Onwuliri & the Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for being able to salvage this nearly-marred first engagement of President Jonathan. These two Ministers and Minister for Trade, Segun Aganga saved Nigeria from shame. - K. Alabi

- See more at: http://thenigeriangazette.com/pres-jonathan-gets-first-hand-experience-of-nigerias-abominable-consulate-services-in-u-s-2/#sthash.iBPKmnis.ValgJfNY.dpuf

Finally, Onitsha looks like a befitting Eastern gateway
September 24, 2013 by Azuka Onwuka (azuka.brand@augustconsulting.biz) 22 Comments



Azuka Onwuka

Azuka Onwuka
| credits: File copy

A few years back, driving from Delta State into Onitsha, the major gateway of the former Eastern Nigeria, one was hit by squalour and chaos. At the entrance into Onitsha, just after the Niger Bridge, sellers of goats, chickens, yams, onions and vegetables haggled with their customers; commercial bus operators and their touts shouted themselves hoarse for passengers; pushers of wheelbarrows and carts bumped into pedestrians. The touts and thugs around the Upper Iweka area were so brazen that the notorious area boys of Isale Eko and Mushin in Lagos would be mere “learners” in comparison.

Beholding the nest-like Niger Bridge from Asaba always gave me the joyful feeling of “home at last”. But once I had crossed over the bridge, a feeling of sadness and annoyance overtook me, because of the filth and rowdiness that jumped at me. Therefore, on June 27, 2011, I wrote a newspaper article with the heading: “How Onitsha can help boost Governor Peter Obi’s image.” In that article, I noted that Onitsha, being the main gateway to the old Eastern Nigeria, presented a golden opportunity for Governor Obi of Anambra State to shine, as millions of people passing through it to the South-East and the South-South zones as well as those passing from these areas to the South-West and the North would judge the governor’s performance based on the looks of the eastern approaches to the Niger Bridge.

I got some emails which suggested that the governor was planning to give that area of Onitsha a facelift. I took such information with the proverbial pinch of salt. But months later, I began to see signs that something was being done about the entrance into Onitsha.

Onitsha was the city that laid the golden egg but was never attended to. So much wealth was made from the city, yet not much done for the city. In Onitsha, especially in Awada, it is almost impossible to see a two-storey building. What fill the streets are either four-storey or five-storey buildings, built to maximise the value of the land, which is high. Yet, these rows of building were erected on streets that were littered with potholes and muddy water.

Onitsha, being on the bank of the River Niger and the first point of call of the British missionaries and colonialists, was ahead of other Igbo towns in terms of modern facilities and infrastructure. A big market sprouted in Onitsha. In fact, Onitsha is perhaps the only town or city in Nigeria where every inch is a market. Even though there are official markets in the city, every house or kiosk in Onitsha on any street is a shopping outlet. Igbo people from all parts, as well as others, migrated to Onitsha and settled. Some only visited to buy or sell and return to their towns.

While Enugu was the civil service city of Igboland, Onitsha was the commercial city. Being a commercial city, peopled by traders, most of whom are not lettered and don’t bother about writing protest letters to governments, Onitsha was always neglected by successive governments either in Enugu or in Awka, when the new Anambra State was created in 1991. Even the well-read indigenes of Onitsha, who were the first to acquire Western education in Igboland and occupy top political and civil service positions in Igboland, seemed to have lost their voice.

Onitsha became so run down and dirtied that if anyone wanted to describe another as very dirty, he would call such a person, “Ezi Bida!” (the pig of Bida), Bida being a street in Onitsha. If one wanted to describe another as greedy, the appropriate name for that person would be “Udene Fegge” (the vulture of Fegge), Fegge being an area in Onitsha.

Because of the chaos and bad roads in Onitsha as well as the absence of a second bridge across the River Niger, traffic jams were a permanent feature travelling into Onitsha from Asaba. Someone who had spent five hours from Lagos to Asaba could spend between three and six hours to get to Oba, which is about three kilometres from Onitsha.

But most people who passed through Onitsha to other parts of the South-East or South-South or those en route to Lagos and other parts of Nigeria would only see the Upper Iweka area and the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu Way, a stretch of about two kilometres. It was, therefore, difficult to understand why the military governors and civilian governors of the old Anambra State and the new Anambra State were not embarrassed by this very important entrance into Onitsha. In our personal lives, even people who have dirty toilets and bedrooms make efforts to keep the facade of their homes and the living room, where they receive their guests, clean. So, why not Onitsha?

It was, therefore, heart-warming to see that the sellers of goats, chickens, onions, and the like could be relocated from the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu Way. It was a pleasant surprise to see that flowers could be planted along that stretch of road and that they could grow. It was fulfilling to see that that stretch could be reconstructed, with the roads and gutters widened that one could barely spend 10 minutes to get to Owerri Road or Enugu Expressway. It was exciting to see the sidewalks and medians painted in black and white. One could wind down the glass on that stretch of road and take some fresh air.

I used to assume that there was a divine order not to plant flowers around the Upper Iweka area to avoid divine punishment. I used to wonder whether the River Niger would overflow its bank and wipe out the entire South–East if the stretch from the Niger Bridge to Upper Iweka overhead bridge was kept clean and beautiful.

It is heart-warming that Governor Obi has taken advantage of this golden opportunity that other governors before him did not see. There is no law that says that Onitsha must forever be a dirty and neglected city.

It is good to know that Obi identifies problem areas in the state and solves them. And he does not make much noise about such. Since the 1980s when I began to travel through Anambra State as a young man, I had never had a smoother ride through the state like I did recently. The network of roads and bridges actually showed how near each other Anambra towns and villages are. One minute you are in one town; within five minutes, you are in the next town.

The task before anyone who will take over as the next governor of the state in a couple of months is to take the state to a new level. Anambra has immense human resources in politics, academics, finance, technology, arts, sports, etc. It has kept the annual record of producing the second highest number of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination candidates, after Imo State, in Nigeria. In the last Unity School admission, it was given the highest cut-off mark of 139 in the nation because of the number of its candidates and their performance.

Such a state needs a visionary leader who can harness these human resources and convert them to assets for the transformation of the state from a commercial state to an industrial-cum-commercial powerhouse in the nation. And voters at the forthcoming election must have that in mind when they go to the polls.

http://www.punchng.com/opinion/finally-onitsha-looks-like-a-befitting-eastern-gateway/

Savage tribesmen

See leg like dry stockfich (panla/okporoko). The man is quarter to go.

Thankfully no Oladipo (sounds like the machete-wielding British terrorists) and Mutallab (sounds like the Detroit underwear bomber) this time, but who knows for how long?

Islam is fighting the rest of the world, and the earlier the rest of us wake up the better for humanity

Americans, Europeans, Africans, Arabs were all involved. One common denominator though is their names and religion.
This is a war of Islam against others.

Here is the list (UNCONFIRMED!) of the alleged attackers released by Twitter account allegedly affiliated with Al-Shabaab:

Sayid N. from Kismayu, Somalia.

Zaki Jama C., from Hargeisa, Somalia

Saad D., from Damascus, Syria

Mohamed B., from Aleppo, Syria

Qasim Said M., Garissa, Kenya

Ismail G., from Helsinki, Finland

Ahmed Nasir S., from London, UK

Mustafa N., from Kansas City, US

Abdishakur Sheikh H., from Maine, US

Abdifatah Osman K., from Minneapolis, US

Ahmad Mohamed I., from Saint Paul, US

Abdikarem Ali M., from Illinois, US

Shafie D., from Tucson, US

Abdirazak M., from Ontario (Canada)

Eliko M., from Dagestan, Russia

Mohammed A., from Svalov, Sweden

Moulid A., from Sweden

http://beforeitsnews.com/war-on-terror/2013/09/list-of-kenyan-mall-attackers-including-6-americans-2444250.html

Hope they are banning agbo sellers as well.

Bump

Hero is brewed by SabMiller of UK with breweries in four cities in Nigeria including Onitsha and Port Harcourt

http://www.sabmiller.com/index.asp?pageid=2458

99cent: this stupid article is written by a silly igbo man (Kenechukwu Ezeonyejiaku)
Obasanjo was a christian. what exactly is the point of this article? does he wish for yoruba christians and muslims to fight one another? how many yoruba pastors do u see going into politics? unlike pastor Chris Okotie (igbo) running stupidly for president every year like a desperate clown. you have people like pastor Adeboye (yoruba) having the president kneeling before him.

You village urchin. Abiodun Fagbemi the lead reporter is your fellow stupid Yoruba man.

Christians move to produce political leaders in Lagos, Kwara
Friday, 30 August 2013 00:00 From Abiodun Fagbemi (Ilorin) and Kenechukwu Ezeonyejiaku (Lagos) News - National

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/national-news/131388-christians-move-to-produce-political-leaders-in-lagos-kwara

Besides, Guardian is not owned by an Igbo man and the Editor in chief who is responsible for all articles is Yoruba

Yoruba villager smugglers killing Nigerian govt officials. They should give them Zaki Biam style

mikeansy: We have not yet given up on Soludo appearing on the ballot come November 16th

I hope he gets his groove back, or they let him get his groove back. I hate the idea of APC in Anambra, but Ngige for now is the best.

otokx: Chief Obi Wali is fron Rumuigbo in Port Harcourt, the writer should do a proper research next time.

Rumuigbo=Umuigbo=Igbo people (children)

The ''r'' is an after-1960 (Biafra war) artefact

Sagamite: You are a person!

First of all, people don't recite off hand. Cretin, do you think people's memory are in their hands?

Secondly, "off head" is a commonly used casual short form of ''off the top of their head''.

Off hand means without any aid, you olodo.

Odenigbo Aroli: Tell me Fashola will deport the people who will vote Ngige in....

Forget that deportation thing. There are no less than 7 million Igbos in Lagos (35% of those are Anambra alone) and only 14 were deported. That makes ABSOLUTELY no dent on Igbo population in Lagos. Besides, by 2015 Fasola the rotten neck monkey will be history.

Anambra people should be wise. I hate APC with my life but this is about comparison with the current alternatives and besides, Ngige is from Anambra too.

Obiano is a Peter Obi crony and business partner; he will cover up on all the corruption, if any, that Obi has been engaged in

Ngige is a freelancer of sort and is beholding to no Anambra Godfather. Tinubu (who is half way to his grave)cannot dictate for him from Lagos

Uba of Capital Oil should be the last person to rule Anambra. He could not manage his company which has now been taken over by AMCOM, so how can he manage a State? He will so loot Anambra that the state will become broke as a broken bottle

Uba of PDP is an Obasanjo errand boy who will be answerable to the Otta farmer. Plus, his thuggish brother will hold sway in Anambra


Except Soludo finds a way to get back in the game, Ngige is it.

Sagamite: I bet those 1m kids can recite the Quran off head.

Cretins!

It is ''off hand'' not ''off head''.

You could also say ''by rote'', or ''off the top of their head'' (quite close sha)

Semi olodo dey talk about Olodo.