₦airaland Forum

Bossforeva: Lol! Dz guy askz crazy questions. The other day dz dude was comparing a Murano and a Matrix.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was involved in an underground attempt to cut a slice of oil bloc OPL 245 in the dubious Malabu oil deal, the man at the centre of the scam, Dan Etete, told a British High Court.

According to details of the approved judgment by Lady Justice Gloster of the Commercial division of the Royal Court of Justice, London, in a breach of contract case between Malabu Oil and middleman Emeka Obi, owner of Energy Ventures Partners Limited (EVP), Mr. Etete, a convicted felon and sole signatory to Malabu accounts, said his licence to the oil block was revoked in 2001 because conflicts erupted after Mr. Obasanjo made personal demands on the controversial oil bloc.

Mr. Etete, as Petroleum Minister in 1998, had fraudulently awarded OPL 245 to a company he had interest in, using a false identity Kwekwu Amafegha. The oil bloc has since gone through different ownerships, legal tussles and deals before it was controversially sold for $1.1 (over N170 billion) to Shell and ENi in controversial circumstances last year, with the Nigerian government playing a shady role in the deal.

Mr. Etete suggested that Pecos Limited, which was listed as a previous shareholder in Malabu’s records with the Corporate Affairs Commission, was a company connected to Mr. Obasanjo’s regime.

Sources knowledgeable about the Malabu deal told PREMIUM TIMES that Pecos, owned by businessman Oyewole Fasawe, was used to secure ownership of a significant percentage of the oil bloc in 2001 at a time Mr. Obasanjo and his then vice president, Atiku Abubakar, were very close; with Mr. Fasawe doing deals on behalf of both leaders.

Pecos was controversially removed as a shareholder in 2010 after licence to the oil block was re-awarded to Malabu and replaced with Munamuma Seidougha and Amaran Joseph, both of whom had 10 million shares each. Both men have close links to Mr. Etete and anti-corruption investigators believe they were fronts used by Mr. Etete to outmaneuver his business partners.

A career of bribery and fraud

The court document also shows that Mr. Etete, who was convicted for money laundering in France, collected bribe in excess of N375 million ($2.5 million) between 1996 and 1998 when he was the country’s petroleum minister.

The document also shows that the government was surcharged N2.7 billion ($18 million) in signature bonus accrued from the award of licence for OPL 245. Out of the $20 million obligatory bonus that should have been paid to the government Malabu only paid a paltry N300 million ($2.04 million) in 1999.

Flawed personality

The judge while delivering judgement also spent time profiling the former minister.

According to Lady Gloster, during the course of the trial, Mr. Etete came across as one with inherently flawed personality. The judge described his evidence as “self-serving, self-contradictory, unrealistic, argumentative or, at times, almost impossible to follow.”

The judge said Mr. Etete “frequently changed his story, often within a few minutes of having given a directly opposing answer. The manner in which he gave his evidence was argumentative and extravagant.”

“He was prone to make wild allegations of fraud and forgery, or point the finger of blame at others, including his own trusted financial advisers and lawyers, without any appreciation of the serious implications of his accusations. His recollection was very poor and, at times, the only conclusion which I could reach was that he was being deliberately dishonest.

“My ultimate conclusion was that I could not rely upon him as a witness of truth. I also conclude that, in a commercial context, he would have presented an almost insuperable challenge as a counter-party to negotiations,” the judge said.


http://saharareporters.com/news-page/malabu-11bn-fraud-obasanjo-demanded-share-bribe-etete-tells-british-court-premium-times

The whole charade is a huge joke to the chagrin of the poor Nigerian student almost lagging behind their peers at private institutions.

Anybody with a useful link,pls post,I wan see the barger dey laff...as reported...

noblezone: The Northern political gladiators have unsheathed their swords!

If and when power returns to the North, who will be the last man standing?

Pls who has an idea of what this chap is trying to say

APC has only proven one thing...they are a Worthy distraction.

I think these chaps called el- Rufai and Buhari have a consistent and persistent acute short term memory that is why they are always reminded of their statements made in the past which ALWAYS contradicts their present stance. really sad.

I don't meddle with spiritual leaders issues cos I can see a sinister attempt to malign reputable spiritual leaders on this section...***off I go***

"there was no cabal, we created the myth to neutralize Turai"- El-Rufai..May,2010.. A man that can lie about "Turai Cabal" when the simple woman was facing the most difficult time of her life can lie about anything.

This is for the IG of Police,i saved it when it was given in a radio programme a long time ago...thats if he has not shut it down...he is also on whatsapp... 08059666666

Hmmn...long weekend indeed!!!

Nigeria’s Federal Government has declared Thursday 8 August and Friday 9 August as public holidays to mark the 2013 Eid-el-Fitri celebration.
According to a statement issued in Abuja on Monday on behalf of the Minister of Interior, Mr Abba Moro, Muslim faithful were urged to use the spiritual benefits of Ramadan to contribute to the development of the nation.
The statement also urged Nigerians to exploit the spiritual benefits of love, joy and peace in their daily living and to use the opportunity of the holidays to reflect on the imperative of peace in nation building.
The statement was signed by Mrs. Fatima Bamidele, permanent secretary in the ministry.


http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2013/08/05/nigeria-shuts-down-thursday-friday-for-ramadan/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PmNewsNigeria+%28PM+News+Nigeria%29

[size=14pt]Abeg make una no change my thread to religious jihad/ crusade ground abeg[/size]

Mr Aboki: WTF!!!


This just goes to show that the Nigerian Police no get work..

_{Allahu Akbar}

Another example of an individual whose head is for decoration... Those charges are well deserved and served.,,,what if a relative of a victim of the blast saw him doing that? wahala don gas be dat!!!

The FRSC confirmed the incident.
The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has warned motorists plying the Nigeria-Chad route along the Mararaba-Michika road to be cautious as a bridge on the road has been washed off by the flood.
The FRSC said in a statement on Monday in Yola that the bridge in Wasu Village of Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa was washed-off following a heavy downpour at the weekend.
The statement, signed by Luka Ikpi, the Sector Commander in the state, called on the general public, especially motorists using the road to exercise caution.
“Due to the heavy downpour on July 30, a bridge at Wasu village, along Mararaba-Michika road in Michika Local Government Area, has collapsed.
“The bridge plays a vital role in linking North-eastern parts of Nigeria and the Republic of Chad,’’ the statement said.
It said that anyone that wished to travel from Adamawa to Borno and the Republic of Chad via Michika should divert through Yamwe Village also in the Michika Area Council.
The statement noted that the diversion was only 19 kilometres.
When contacted, the Executive Secretary, Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency, Shadrack Barub, confirmed the development.
He said that the agency had sent a team of personnel to ascertain the extent of the damage in the affected areas.
(NAN)

http://premiumtimesng.com/news/national/142242-flood-cuts-off-road-linking-nigeria-chad-republic.html?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=flood-cuts-off-road-linking-nigeria-chad-republic

Four men, who claimed to be Muslim clerics, were on Monday charged with a N43.55 million fraud at an Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, Lagos.
The accused — Jimoh Kadiri, 61; Mohammed Ibrahim, 36; Mohammed Isa, 29; and Ogunlade Ojo, 50 — are facing a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy, fraud and theft.
The Prosecutor, Raymond Odion, told the court that the accused, whose addresses were unknown, committed the offences sometime in January 2012 on Victoria Island, Lagos.
He said the accused allegedly conspired with others still at large to defraud one Bashirat Akinbisehin of N43.55 million.
“The accused, who claimed to be Alfas (Muslim clerics), obtained the money from Akinbisehin under the pretext of helping to cure her daughter’s undisclosed ailment,” he said.
Mr. Odion said the offences contravened Sections 285, 312 and 409 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
The accused pleaded not guilty of the offences.
In his ruling, the Magistrate, J.A. Adegun, granted them bail in the sum of N500, 000 each with two sureties each in like sum.
He adjourned the case to August 21 for mention.
The accused could be sentenced to 15 years imprisonment if convicted.

http://premiumtimesng.com/regional/142246-4-muslim-clerics-face-n43-55m-fraud-charge.html

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega has described the conduct of some politicians as a major concern as it prepares for the 2015 election.

Speaking while meeting with a coalition of youth groups in Abuja; he said the commission is prepared to ensure the coming elections in 2015 are better than the last.

Jega said it is a good omen that the political parties have however reviewed the code of conduct for political parties adding that “if they respect it, it will help ensure the elections are free, fair and credible”.

http://www.channelstv.com/home/2013/07/31/conduct-of-politicians-rattles-inec-chairman/

thirty: I need a job. can you provide one? SMU

Yes...i can provide u one by showing u the way.. If its really a job u want,go to the nearest company in ur area and volunteer for free. Now u gat a job...the money will come later.

sexymoma: I came across this woman in hospital, The Nurse called ' Mrs abokusoro'( Ghost Speaker) i was like wtf
What made you change your father's name. Abeg i might consider it o.

Ur still young dats why ur thinking in dis direction... The ticking of ur biological clock wuld make u loose any idea of dis ur opinion wen the time comes...except ofcourse if u get lucky.

@OP,u need a job,there are better issues to discuss on Nairaland than generating a mud-slinging thread.

President Barack Obama recently stated the United States was not taking sides as Egypt’s crisis came to a head with the military overthrow of the democratically elected president.
But a review of dozens of US federal government documents shows Washington has quietly funded senior Egyptian opposition figures who called for toppling of the country’s now-deposed president Mohamed Morsi.
Documents obtained by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley show the US channeled funding through a State Department programme to promote democracy in the Middle East region. This programme vigorously supported activists and politicians who have fomented unrest in Egypt, after autocratic president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising in February 2011.
The State Department’s programme, dubbed by US officials as a “democracy assistance” initiative, is part of a wider Obama administration effort to try to stop the retreat of pro-Washington secularists, and to win back influence in Arab Spring countries that saw the rise of Islamists, who largely oppose US interests in the Middle East.
Activists bankrolled by the programme include an exiled Egyptian police officer who plotted the violent overthrow of the Morsi government, an anti-Islamist politician who advocated closing mosques and dragging preachers out by force, as well as a coterie of opposition politicians who pushed for the ouster of the country’s first democratically elected leader, government documents show.
Information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, interviews, and public records reveal Washington’s “democracy assistance” may have violated Egyptian law, which prohibits foreign political funding.
It may also have broken US government regulations that ban the use of taxpayers’ money to fund foreign politicians, or finance subversive activities that target democratically elected governments.
‘Bureau for Democracy’
Washington’s democracy assistance programme for the Middle East is filtered through a pyramid of agencies within the State Department. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars is channeled through the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), USAID, as well as the Washington-based, quasi-governmental organisation the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
In turn, those groups re-route money to other organisations such as the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and Freedom House, among others. Federal documents show these groups have sent funds to certain organisations in Egypt, mostly run by senior members of anti-Morsi political parties who double as NGO activists.
The Middle East Partnership Initiative – launched by the George W Bush administration in 2002 in a bid to influence politics in the Middle East in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks – has spent close to $900m on democracy projects across the region, a federal grants database shows.
USAID manages about $1.4bn annually in the Middle East, with nearly $390m designated for democracy promotion, according to the Washington-based Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED).
The US government doesn’t issue figures on democracy spending per country, but Stephen McInerney, POMED’s executive director, estimated that Washington spent some $65m in 2011 and $25m in 2012. He said he expects a similar amount paid out this year.
A main conduit for channeling the State Department’s democracy funds to Egypt has been the National Endowment for Democracy. Federal documents show NED, which in 2011 was authorised an annual budget of $118m by Congress, funneled at least $120,000 over several years to an exiled Egyptian police officer who has for years incited violence in his native country.
This appears to be in direct contradiction to its Congressional mandate, which clearly states NED is to engage only in “peaceful” political change overseas.
Exiled policeman
Colonel Omar Afifi Soliman – who served in Egypt’s elite investigative police unit, notorious for human rights abuses – began receiving NED funds in 2008 for at least four years.
During that time he and his followers targeted Mubarak’s government, and Soliman later followed the same tactics against the military rulers who briefly replaced him. Most recently Soliman set his sights on Morsi’s government.
Soliman, who has refugee status in the US, was sentenced in absentia last year for five years imprisonment by a Cairo court for his role in inciting violence in 2011 against the embassies of Israel and Saudi Arabia, two US allies.
He also used social media to encourage violent attacks against Egyptian officials, according to court documents and a review of his social media posts.
US Internal Revenue Service documents reveal thatNED paid tens of thousands of dollars to Soliman through an organisation he created called Hukuk Al-Nas (People’s Rights), based in Falls Church, Virginia. Federal forms show he is the only employee.
After he was awarded a 2008 human rights fellowship at NED and moved to the US, Soliman received a second $50,000 NED grant in 2009 for Hukuk Al-Nas. In 2010, he received $60,000 and another $10,000 in 2011.
In an interview with the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, Soliman reluctantly admitted he received US government funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, but complained it wasn’t enough. “It is like $2000 or $2,500 a month,” he said. “Do you think this is too much? Obama wants to give us peanuts. We will not accept that.”
NED has removed public access to its Egyptian grant recipients in 2011 and 2012 from its website. NED officials didn’t respond to repeated interview requests.
‘Pro bono advice’
NED’s website says Soliman spreads only nonviolent literature, and his group was set up to provide “immediate, pro bono legal advice through a telephone hotline, instant messaging, and other social networking tools”.
However, in Egyptian media interviews, social media posts and YouTube videos, Soliman encouraged the violent overthrow of Egypt’s government, then led by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party.
“Incapacitate them by smashing their knee bones first,” he instructed followers on Facebook in late June, as Morsi’s opponents prepared massive street rallies against the government. Egypt’s US-funded and trainedmilitary later used those demonstrations to justify its coup on July 3.
“Make a road bump with a broken palm tree to stop the buses going into Cairo, and drench the road around it with gas and diesel. When the bus slows down for the bump, set it all ablaze so it will burn down with all the passengers inside … God bless,” Soliman’s post read.
In late May he instructed, “Behead those who control power, water and gas utilities.”
Soliman removed several older social media posts after authorities in Egypt took notice of his subversive instructions, court documents show.

Egyptian women supporters of ousted president Morsi [EPA]
More recent Facebook instructions to his 83,000 followers range from guidelines on spraying roads with a mix of auto oil and gas – “20 liters of oil to 4 liters of gas”- to how to thwart cars giving chase.
On a YouTube video, Soliman took credit for a failed attempt in December to storm the Egyptian presidentialpalace with handguns and Molotov cocktails to oust Morsi.
“We know he gets support from some groups in the US, but we do not know he is getting support from the US government. This would be news to us,” said an Egyptian embassy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Funding other Morsi opponents
Other beneficiaries of US government funding are also opponents of the now-deposed president, some who had called for Morsi’s removal by force.
The Salvation Front main opposition bloc, of which some members received US funding, has backedstreet protest campaigns that turned violent against the elected government, in contradiction of many of the State Department’s own guidelines.
A longtime grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy and other US democracy groups is a 34-year old Egyptian woman, Esraa Abdel-Fatah, who sprang to notoriety during the country’s pitched battle over the new constitution in December 2012.
She exhorted activists to lay siege to mosques and drag from pulpits all Muslim preachers and religious figures who supported the country’s the proposed constitution, just before it went to a public referendum.
The act of besieging mosques has continued ever since, and several people have died in clashes defending them.
Federal records show Abdel-Fatah’s NGO, the Egyptian Democratic Academy, received support from NED, MEPI and NDI, among other State Department-funded groups “assisting democracy”. Records show NED gave her organisation a one-year $75,000 grant in 2011.
Abdel-Fatah is politically active, crisscrossing Egypt to rally support for her Al-Dostor Party, which is led by former UN nuclear chief Mohamed El-Baradei, the most prominent figure in the Salvation Front. She lent full support to the military takeover, and urged the West not call it a “coup”.
“June 30 will be the last day of Morsi’s term,” she told the press a few weeks before the coup took place.
US taxpayer money has also been sent to groups set up by some of Egypt’s richest people, raising questions about waste in the democracy programme.
Michael Meunier is a frequent guest on TV channels that opposed Morsi. Head of the Al-Haya Party, Meunier – a dual US-Egyptian citizen – has quietly collected US funding through his NGO, Hand In Hand for Egypt Association.
Meunier’s organisation was founded by some of the most vehement opposition figures, including Egypt’s richest man and well-known Coptic Christian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, Tarek Heggy, an oil industry executive, Salah Diab, Halliburton’s partner in Egypt, and Usama Ghazali Harb, a politician with roots in the Mubarak regime and a frequent US embassy contact.
Meunier has denied receiving US assistance, but government documents show USAID in 2011 granted his Cairo-based organisation $873,355. Since 2009, it has taken in $1.3 million from the US agency.
Meunier helped rally the country’s five million Christian Orthodox Coptic minority, who oppose Morsi’s Islamist agenda, to take to the streets against the president on June 30.
Reform and Development Party member Mohammed Essmat al-Sadat received US financial support through his Sadat Association for Social Development, a grantee of The Middle East Partnership Initiative.
The federal grants records and database show in 2011 Sadat collected $84,445 from MEPI “to work with youth in the post-revolutionary Egypt”.
Sadat was a member of the coordination committee, the main organising body for the June 30 anti-Morsi protest. Since 2008, he has collected $265,176 in US funding. Sadat announced he will be running for office again in upcoming parliamentary elections.
After soldiers and police killed more than 50 Morsi supporters on Monday, Sadat defended the use of force and blamed the Muslim Brotherhood, saying it used women and children as shields.
Some US-backed politicians have said Washington tacitly encouraged them to incite protests.
“We were told by the Americans that if we see big street protests that sustain themselves for a week, they will reconsider all current US policies towards the Muslim Brotherhood regime,” said Saaddin Ibrahim, an Egyptian-American politician opposed Morsi.
Ibrahim’s Ibn Khaldoun Center in Cairo receives US funding, one of the largest recipients of democracy promotion money in fact.
His comments followed statements by other Egyptian opposition politicians claiming they had been prodded by US officials to whip up public sentiment against Morsi before Washington could publicly weigh in.
Democracy programme defence
The practice of funding politicians and anti-government activists through NGOs was vehemently defended by the State Department and by a group of Washington-based Middle East experts close to the programme.
“The line between politics and activism is very blurred in this country,” said David Linfield, spokesman for the US Embassy in Cairo.
Others said the United States cannot be held responsible for activities by groups it doesn’t control.
“It’s a very hot and dynamic political scene,” said Michelle Dunne, an expert at the Atlantic Council think-tank. Her husband, Michael Dunne, was given a five-year jail sentence in absentia by a Cairo court for his role in political funding in Egypt.
“Just because you give someone some money, you cannot take away their freedom or the position they want to take,” said Dunne.
Elliot Abrams, a former official in the administration of George W. Bush and a member of the Working Group on Egypt that includes Dunne, denied in an email message that the US has paid politicians in Egypt, or elsewhere in the Middle East.
“The US does not provide funding for parties or ‘local politicians’ in Egypt or anywhere else,” said Abrams. “That is prohibited by law and the law is scrupulously obeyed by all US agencies, under careful Congressional oversight.”
But a State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity, said American support for foreign political activists was in line with American principles.
“The US government provides support to civil society, democracy and human rights activists around the world, in line with our long-held values, such as respecting the fundamental human rights of free speech, peaceful assembly, and human dignity,” the official wrote in an email. “US outreach in Egypt is consistent with these principles.”
A Cairo court convicted 43 local and foreign NGO workers last month on charges of illegally using foreign funds to stir unrest in Egypt. The US and UN expressed concern over the move.
Out of line
Some Middle East observers suggested the US’ democracy push in Egypt may be more about buying influence than spreading human rights and good governance.

Egyptians celebrate in Tahrir Square after Morsi’s removal [AFP]
“Funding of politicians is a problem,” said Robert Springborg, who evaluated democracy programmes for the State Department in Egypt, and is now a professor at the National Security Department of the Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, California.
“If you run a programme for electoral observation, or for developing media capacity for political parties, I am not against that. But providing lots of money to politicians – I think that raises lots of questions,” Springborg said.
Some Egyptians, meanwhile, said the US was out of line by sending cash through its democracy programme in the Middle East to organisations run by political operators.
“Instead of being sincere about backing democracy and reaching out to the Egyptian people, the US has chosen an unethical path,” said Esam Neizamy, an independent researcher into foreign funding in Egypt, and a member of the country’s Revolutionary Trustees, a group set up to protect the 2011 revolution.
“The Americans think they can outsmart lots of people in the Middle East. They are being very hostile against the Egyptian people who have nothing but goodwill for them – so far,” Neizamy said.
Emad Mekay is a journalist with the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, which conducted this investigation.
First published in Aljazeera English, this investigation was done by Emad Mekay, a journalist with the Investigative Reporting Program (IRP) at the University of California, Berkeley. We have IRP’s permission to republish.
http://premiumtimesng.com/news/141378-investigation-u-s-bankrolled-anti-morsi-activists.html

Following the recent proscription of the violent Islamic sects, Boko Haram and Ansaru, by the Federal Government, the Central Bank of Nigeria has ordered banks to check the activities of the terrorist groups.

The central bank in a letter to all banks on Wednesday, directed them to check their database and report activities of the two sects to the regulator.

The letter read, “The Federal Government of Nigeria, in its effort to stem terrorism in the country, has proscribed the activities of Jamaatu Ahlis-Sunna Liddaawati Wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, and Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan in any part of the country. Their activities are consequently declared as terrorist and illegal.

“All banks and other financial institutions are, by this letter, required to check their database for the names: Jamaatu Ahlis-Sunna Liddaawati Wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, and Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan, as well as their associates, and to report same to the CBN.”

President Goodluck Jonathan had last week approved the proscription of the Islamic terrorist groups and authorised the gazetting of an order declaring the groups’ activities illegal and acts of terrorism.

The proscriptive order coincided with a statement by the United States government that Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, could be tried in the US, when arrested.

The order, which has been gazetted as the Terrorism (Prevention) (Proscription Order) Notice 2013, affects both Boko Haram and Ansaru, and was approved by Jonathan pursuant to Section 2 of the Terrorism Prevention Act, 2011 (as amended).

A statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, explained that the Act “officially brings the activities of both groups within the purview of the Terrorism Prevention Act and any persons associated with the two groups can now be legally prosecuted and sentenced to penalties specified in the Act.”

The proscription order warned the general public that any person “participating in any form of activities involving or concerning the collective intentions of the said groups will be violating the provisions of the Terrorism Prevention Act.”

Accordingly, Section 5 (1) of the Act prescribes a term of imprisonment of not less than 20 years for any person who knowingly or indirectly solicits or renders support for the commission of an act of terrorism or to a terrorist group.


http://www.punchng.com/news/cbn-orders-banks-to-report-bharam-ansaru-transactions/

The group said it plans to locate the banks outside hospitals.
A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Afribaby Initiative, said it plans to establish breast milk banks in Nigeria to enable proper breastfeeding of babies including the motherless.
The founder of the organisation, Oscar Odiboh, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Wednesday that the banks would collect, screen, preserve and distribute human milk to babies.
Mr. Odiboh said that the banks would be non-profit making and committed to ensuring effective and consistent breastfeeding of babies, including the motherless and those of women with lactation problems. He solicited the collaboration of governments and private organisations in the implementation of the project.
The founder said that his organisation would not be able to fund the project alone and needed the support of governments and well meaning individuals and groups. He said that the breast milk banks would address infant mortality by helping babies to develop properly and increase chances of survival.
“We need storage tanks to support up to 1000 babies with breast milk at the same time everyday for six months, and this requires a lot of capital.
“We are really concerned about the plights of babies. We want all babies, irrespective of their situations, to be able to have breast milk and have it exclusively.
“Breast milk is a milk of human kindness; the babies that will benefit from the banks will be healthy like any other,” he said.
He said that the NGO was already discussing with some hospitals on the possibility of establishing the banks in the hospitals, temporarily with a long term plan to site the banks outside hospitals.
Mr. Odiboh said that the banks would be established as soon as funds were available.
He explained that breast milk built babies’ immunities against diseases and reduced the rate of their death before age five. He also said that breast milk was the most complete form of nutrition for infants, adding that it could not be replaced by any other food, including infant formulae.
He noted that breast milk contained lactalbumin which, he said, helped in the prevention of cancer.
Mr. Odiboh urged education of lactating mothers in Nigeria on the need to donate breast milk, as obtainable in developed countries. He dismissed the myth that breastfeeding another person’s child had negative health implications.


http://premiumtimesng.com/news/138560-ngo-to-establish-breast-milk-banks-in-nigeria.html

The House of Representatives yesterday passed for second reading a bill seeking to make the impeachment process of the president and vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria less ambiguous.

The bill was passed amidst intense debate.

Leading the debate, the lead sponsor of the bill, Yakubu Dogara (PDP Bauchi), while advocating its passage, said: “The essence of the bill is meant to hold the executive accountable so that checks can be created, and it is not meant to target this term but rather make the process less ambigous on grounds of misconduct. Let’s all look at this and do it in the interest of Nigerians.”

The debate was devoid of any bipartisan politics as the House Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila (ACN) joined those opposing the bill. He argued that the bill, if passed into law, may be subject to other ambiguities since gross misconduct can be subjective and redefined in any case. In his submission, he further urged the House to be mature with the passage of the bill as it may send wrong signals to the public.

“I will very quickly go on to shoot the bill down”, Gbajabiamila said. “The timing of the bill is wrong and people will read meanings into to it; we must be mature about. The United States House of Representatives were caught up in something similar when the impeachment of President Clinton was going as regards to his affair with an intern.”

The bill in question seeks to copy the American model of impeaching a president by making the process less complex. The lawmakers seek to initiate the process and investigate it rather than the process lying solely with the chief of justice of the federation.

Though the bill seemed to be skewed towards rejection as most members aired similar opinions to that of the minority leader, but when it was put to voice vote it scaled through.


http://leadership.ng/news/050613/reps-pass-bill-fast-track-impeachment-process-president-vp