₦airaland Forum

The disappearance of a former Boko Haram bride who recently returned home after three years in the militants’ stronghold in northeast Nigeria has stoked concern about the difficulty of deradicalising and reintegrating women seized by the jihadists.

The wife of a Boko Haram commander, 25-year-old Aisha, was among 70 women and children who in February finished a nine-month deradicalisation programme, having being captured by the army in a raid on the militants’ Sambisa forest base last year.

Last month Aisha vanished from her family home in Borno’s state capital Maiduguri, taking the baby boy fathered by her Boko Haram husband and some of her clothes, according to her younger sister Bintu Yerima.

“Before she left … she had received a phone call from a woman who was with her (in the programme),” 22-year-old Yerima told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Maiduguri. “The woman said that she had returned to the Sambisa forest.”...

Read more http://alabingo.com/2017/06/worries-boko-har…bride-disappears/ ‎
Read more http://alabingo.com/2017/06/worries-boko-har…bride-disappears/

If you and your partner love to sleep naked, chances are that you are happy in your relationship —perhaps even happier than couples you know who sleep wearing pyjamas or some other pieces of clothing!

This is because a new survey has revealed that couples who sleep naked have a happier relationship.

The study from Cotton USA asked couples what they slept in at bedtime and then asked them to rate how happy they were in their relationship...

Read more http://alabingo.com/2017/06/couples-sleep-naked-happier-relationship-study/

Aided by former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Transport Minister, Umar Idris, a company belonging to a Senator, Goodhope Uzodinma, hustled the Nigerian Ports Authority into a deal which saw it receive $12.5 million without competitive bidding and without delivering on the job.

The company, Niger Global Engineering and Technical Company Limited, and the NPA entered into a partnership in October 2014 for the management of Calabar access channel, one of the nation’s key waterways.

The pact followed a presidential approval, which ignored technical advice and overruled required procurement procedure. Mr. Jonathan’s approvals followed recommendations by the transport minister, Mr. Idris.

On May 18, 2015, just before Mr. Jonathan left office, the director-general of the Bureau of Public Procurement told the president that awarding the contract, worth N26 billion in all, to a company that failed or refused to bid for the contract, amounted to “gross violation of due process”.

Insiders in Nigeria’s maritime industry describe the contract as phony, saying it might have been concocted to raise funds for PDP campaign in 2015.

But the BPP suggested Mr. Jonathan might have been misled by Mr. Idris and the former president’s chief of staff, Mike Oghiadomhe...

Read more http://alabingo.com/2017/06/jonathan-approve…hout-due-process/

The Kaduna State Government on Wednesday formally announced the introduction of residency card for all its residents.

The government said the move was to enable it plan and provide social services.

The state’s Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Muhammad Abdullahi, told journalists the initiative was crucial for planning purposes.

He spoke shortly after he was registered for the card at the North West Zonal Office of the National Identity Card Management Commission (NIMC) in Kaduna.

He said: “Kaduna State Government is currently providing a number of free social services for the people in the state.

“But to achieve the desired impact, we need to have the accurate figure of those residing in the state. We need to know who and who resides in our state and where...

Read more http://alabingo.com/2017/06/kaduna-govt-intr…s-residency-card/

Nigeria’s Minister for Transport and former governor of oil-rich Rivers State, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, on Wednesday, said that former President Goodluck Jonathan posed more threat to the survival of Nigeria than current agitation for Biafra by the Nnamdi Kanu lead IPOB.

Amaechi said, ”the removal of Goodluck Jonathan as Nigeria’s president, was a bigger threat than Biafra.”

“The removal of President Jonathan was a bigger threat than Biafra. Nigeria was inching towards the civil war. So, forget the talk about secession; Nigeria cannot break up,” he said.

Amaechi, spoke in Lagos at a forum convened to discuss the place of social media in Nigeria’s political and socio-economic development. said the social media contributed to the erroneous perception Nigerians have about him.

The minister who said that social media contributed to the erroneous perception Nigerians has about him, also claimed that he once rejected N1bn bribe from a contractor while serving as the Governor of Rivers State...
Read morehttp://alabingo.com/2017/06/removal-jonathan-bigger-threat-biafra-amaechi/

A few hours after the Apex Igbo Socio- Political group distanced the Igbos from IPOB's call for secession, the Ralph Uwazurike, lead Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has appealed for peace as he holds consultation with Northern groups in Kaduna.

Mr. Uwazurike, who led a delegation of Igbo leaders from the South East, told some youth groups in Kaduna on Monday that MASSOB had pursued the path of peace since its creation in 1999.

“MASSOB had existed for 18 years without violence, but in 2009, I went to London and opened Radio Biafra and handed it over to Nnamdi Kanu as the director...
Read more http://alabingo.com/2017/06/massob-disowns-n…-northern-groups/

Seven Nigerians emerged victorious in the recent parliamentary election held in the United Kingdom. Most of them retained their constituencies, having secured victory in the 2015 general election. We bring you highlights of these citizens who have brought honour to the most populous black nation on earth.

CHI ONWURAH

Prior to the election, Onwurah, 52, has been the shadow minister (department for business, energy and industrial strategy) (Industrial Strategy).

A labour party politician, her major political interests are in the areas of business, innovation, and skills.

Born to Nigerian parents in Wallsend Newcastle in 1965, she studied Electrical Engineering at Imperial, College London.

Her family relocated to Awka, capital of Anambra state, when she was a baby, but following the breakout of the Biafran civil war, her mother returned Chi to Newcastle, while her father enlisted in the Biafran army.

Before venturing into politics, she worked in the private sector in Nigeria, UK, France, and Denmark.

In 2010, the 50-year-old contested under the Labour Party and got elected as the Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne Central, replacing the previous Labour MP Jim Cousins, who decided to step down. She is Newcastle’s first black MP...

Read more http://alabingo.com/2017/06/meet-seven-briti…ed-uk-parliament/

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe is not a stranger to the followers of Nigerian politics. He came into the political limelight following his election in 1999 as the deputy governor of Abia State. He later left office in controversial circumstances over his principled standoff with the then governor of the state Chief Orji Uzor Kalu. The ranking Senator representing Abia South Senatorial district has become the voice for most people in the South East who are unhappy with the Nigerian State for various reasons.

Recently the soft-spoken Chairman of the powerful Senate Committee on Power Senator sat down with Alabingo.com in Lagos and shared his thoughts on a wide range of issues as they affect the Igbos; Biafra, The controversial federal rail project, Igbo Marginalisation, Power Challenges etc. Enjoy!

The exclusion of the Southeast in the proposed rail project has generated debate. And when you raised the issue on the floor of the Senate one of your colleagues was said to have retorted that the Igbo should wait till 2018. How do all these come across to you?

Well, let me say that I didn’t hear any of my colleagues make that statement, I cannot really respond to a statement I didn’t hear. Let me also say that I didn’t say that the Igbo were excluded. I said that the eastern railway corridor – because the Nigeria Railway is made up of two corridors. There’s the western corridor which starts from Kano and terminates in Lagos. There’s eastern corridor which starts from Port Harcourt and terminates in Maiduguri. So if you want to do a revolution in the railways there is no way you can do one part and leave the other part. In actual fact, in the letter written by Mr. President to the Senate asking an acceleration of the debate on the request for the loan, the President specifically said that there is an ongoing negotiation for the concessioning of the eastern corridor.

In other words, you’re taking a loan to do the western corridor - that is Kano-Kaduna-all the way to Lagos, Lagos-Ibadan to Port Harcourt to Calabar - that is the coastal one. And so, if you’re taking a loan by the Federal Government what it means is that the whole country will pay for it. Then if you concession a section of it - concessioning simply means somebody takes it over, builds it and charges you. So what it means is that only those who are within that eastern corridor will pay. So people from the eastern corridor now – starting from Port Harcourt coming down to Aba to Umuahia, Enugu, Makurdi, Laffia, Bauchi, Jos all the way to Maiduguri – everybody on that line will now pay for the concessioning.

So everybody on that eastern corridor will now be subject to what I will call double jeopardy. First, you pay for what is being used to build for one side. Then you turn around again and now pay exclusively for the one that is done on your own side - that is one. The second thing is we don’t have a very good history with concessioning because it is a relatively new thing in Nigeria. The second Onitsha bridge has been bulged down by the fact that they are looking for concession all this while. The only concesioning we’ve seen that seems it is a little successful is the Murtala Mohammed 2, which is also bulged down with all manners of litigation and problems. Somebody now tells us to wait, until we can concession that side.

So we feel that this in effect is a constitutional matter. Section 16(2a) of the Constitution states very clearly that you are going to do economic development in a fair and balanced manner. So when you have eastern and western corridors and then you’re doing only West with our resources - that is not balanced. So when I brought up the motion, my essential aim was to say; this is not balanced, it is against the constitution. The constitution says in taking these responsibilities you must make sure that everybody in the country is captured. This is exactly what that is all about.

There is a strong feeling among people in the eastern part of the country that the Federal Government is not carrying them along. Where do you stand?

I’m the chairman of the Southeast Senate caucus. Sometime last year, I think about September, we went to have a discussion. We sought for an audience with President Buhari. We went and met with him. And we asked him, and we made it very, very clear to him that the Southeast is totally excluded from happenings within the country. We’re not part of the security network in the country. There’s a security council for which every component part of the country is supposed to be represented. And that his pattern of appointment into the security architecture of the country we feel it is not representative of the country. So how will the Southeast as a whole be excluded?

And we also told him about so many other things that have happened that have shown us that he is completely blind to the feelings of the Southeast. Of course, after our discussion, he promised that they’re going to look into it. But up till today, nothing has come out of it. We also told him very clearly that the agitations that they see and the feelings of the younger elements in the Southeast are feelings of alienation. And that feeling of agitations is making people say why don’t we have our own country? If you don’t want us, let’s go. And we felt that if you need to build a more inclusive nation, then you must be sensitive to the feelings of every component part of this nation.

And we still stand by those feelings that we’re not being well treated within the country, and it’s very pervading on the whole side. I think Ohanaeze under John Ninia Nwodo has very clearly articulated it. Several other groupings and organization have also articulated it very, very clearly to say if you want us to be part of what you’re doing then bring us into the tent, don’t put us outside of the tent...

Read more http://alabingo.com/2017/06/biafra-agitation…-senator-abaribe/

In these Bachelorette-obsessed times, it’s easy to assume that everyone who isn’t already in a happily committed relationship is either desperate to find love, or they’re players. One blogger decided to choose a different path, celibacy, and she makes it sound like a pretty good (if difficult) option.

“This summer will mark five years since I have had sex,” Jasmine Turner wrote on her blog, Dreams of Jasmine. “It has easily been the most peaceful five years I’ve experienced to date. It hasn’t always been easy but I’m in it for the long haul and in the meantime, things have changed.”

After getting out of a three-year relationship, Turner said she is now “SUPER single,” particularly since she decided not to have sex with men she casually dates. “Let me tell you something; when you take sex off the table, your phone be REAL DRY.”

Read more http://alabingo.com/2017/06/happens-dont-sex-5-years/

A visibly angry Pastor Enoch Adebayo, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG on Friday at the June Holy Ghost Service of the Church rained curses at kidnappers who has decided to make life unbearable for the generality of Nigerians, especially those who last week kidnapped innocent students at the Lagos State Model College, Epe...

Read more http://alabingo.com/2017/06/adebayo-declares-war-kidnappers-epe-students-herdsmen/

Former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has urged Nigerian youths not wish him and other elder statesmen dead because the Country, according to him still need them.

The Owu chief gave the advise at the youth governance dialogue on Sunday held by the Youth Development Centre of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun state.
“Don’t wish us dead; don’t wish us to disappear because you will need us. You need us to mentor and prepare you for the future. You need our experience and assistance of some of us to guide you through life...''

Read more http://alabingo.com/2017/05/dont-wish-dead-s…-obj-urges-youth

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu on Sunday said that the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB and the Movement for the Actualization of Independent State of Biafra, IPOB has no right to force people to stay at home against their wishes.

Ekweremadu spoke at an inter- denominational Church service of the Presbyterian Church Abakiliki to mark this year's democracy day in response to the May 30th stay at home order issued by IPOB and MASSOB to mark 50 years of the Biafran civil war.

The Deputy Senate President also warned against the use of force or other forms of armed struggle...

Read more http://alabingo.com/2017/05/cant-force-peopl…arns-ipob-massob

Ahead of the 50th Biafra anniversary celebrations scheduled for next week, the Nigeria Police Force has declared that IPOB and MASSOB, two leading umbrella groups agitating for the Independent State Of Biafra, are illegal groups.

The Force has therefore asked Nigerians to reject the group and their agenda.

The Ebonyi State Police Command through its spokesman, Jude Madu articulated the position of the Police in an interview with NAN.

Madu confirmed that some pro-Biafra agitators were arrested “for unlawfully sensitising” the public to stay at home on May 30, in observance of the group anniversary.

Madu said those arrested in Ebonyi would be charged to court, adding that the command would ensure that they are duly prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others...

Read more https://alabingo.com/2017/05/ipob-massob-illegal-groups-police/

There is anger at the Chapel of Christ the Light, Alausa, Lagos State, after the Presiding Chaplain, Venerable Femi Taiwo, was sacked by the Governing Council allegedly on the order of the state Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, according to Punch.

Taiwo got the sack on Monday, May 15, without any query or official reason stated in the sack letter.

He was said to have been ordered out of his official quarters where he lived with his wife and two children within 24 hours of receiving the letter.

Despite pleadings from church leaders and other reputable elders in the church, the government was said to have insisted that the cleric must leave the church.

Some church members reportedly contributed money to buy a gas cooker and other household items for the family as they vacated the vicarage.
Investigations by the Newspaper showed that Taiwo had angered the Governor’s wife, Bolanle Ambode, who had visited the chapel on Sunday, May 14, when the church held an anointing service.

The church is under the Lagos State Ministry of Home Affairs, while the Office of the Lagos State First Lady supervises church...
Read more https://alabingo.com/2017/05/ambode-sacks-cha…srespecting-wife/

Elder statesman and Nigeria's former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has advocated for dialogue with those agitating for the independent state of Biafra.

According to him, that will be a sure way of resolving the crisis.

The two-time head of state spoke in Abuja on Thursday at a conference on Biafra where he attributed the problem of the country to lack of national leadership.

He said, “We never had a national leader. Our leaders at the beginning were mindful of their regions. That is our problem till today...''

Read more https://alabingo.com/2017/05/let-us-beg-agita…-biafra-obasanjo/

Businessman and frontline politician, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has said that the Igbo do not want to secede from Nigeria.

Speaking as a special guest of honour at a National Unity summit organised by Arewa Ambassadors Congress of Nigeria in partnership with Youth Assembly of Nigeria on Wednesday, Iwuanyanwu said that the people of the South East zone would fight anybody who wanted to secede from Nigeria, including the Arewa and Oduduwa people.

The program which held in Owerri, the Imo State capital, had youths across the six geopolitical zones taking part in the conference.

He said that the Igbo were major stakeholders in the country and would not be party to any move to divide it.

According to him, the Federal Government did wrong to have arrested the leader of the ingenious people of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu...

Read more https://alabingo.com/2017/05/igbo-invested-ni…hausa-iwuanyanwu/

The defence headquarters on Wednesday said that there is no confirmation of a coup plot in the Country.

The clarification from the defence headquarters became necessary following reactions that have trailed the warning last week by that chief of army staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai to soldiers to desist from getting into a unwholly alliance with politicians.

The warning seen by many as a sign that some military officers were planning to overthrow the civilian government drew reactions from prominent Nigerians, the civil society, the ruling All Peoples Congress, APC and the British government through its high commissioner in Nigeria.

But speaking with journalists on Wednesday, John Enenche, spokesman of the DHQ, said...

Read more... http://alabingo.com/2017/05/cannot-confirm-coup-plot-dhq/

The wife of Nigeria's former Vice President and businessman Mrs Titi Atiku on Tuesday told an Ikeja High court how a man he trusted because he is a Pastor took advantage of that and defrauded her of N918m.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had slammed the accused with a 15-count charge bordering on conspiracy, stealing and fraudulent conversion of property worth N918 million belonging to THA Shipping Maritime Services Ltd

“I thought that the first defendant, being a pastor, he will not defraud me,” she said.

“I thought that he was being genuine with me during our business dealings,” she said while being cross-examined in the ongoing fraud trial againstNsikakabasi Akpan-Jacobs, a pastor, Abdulmalik Ibrahim and Dana Motors Ltd.

While cross-examining Atiku’s wife, Amos Ibe, counsel to Akpan-Jacobs, questioned why she used different monikers in company documents relating to the fraud...

Read more http://alabingo.com/2017/05/pastor-trusted-d…918m-atikus-wife/

The Minister of state for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has said he will resign from his current position if Nigeria continues with the importation of petroleum products by 2019.

Kachikwu made the comments in an interview with BBC's Stephen Sackur when he appeared on his programme Hard Talk.

The minister who described himself as a man of his own words said during the interview that he has kept every promise he made since he was appointed into government by President Muhammadu Buhari...

Read more http://alabingo.com/2017/05/will-resign-nige…el-2019-kachikwu/

The national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has warned the military against staging any coup.

He was speaking on Monday in an address to the Lagos state house of assembly.

There have been rumours of a coup in recent times in the wake of President Muhammadu Buhari’s medical leave in London...

Read more @ http://alabingo.com/2017/05/lagos-will-resis…u-warns-military/

The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa'ad Abubakar 111, on Sunday described Almajiri system practised in various part on Nothern Nigeria as unIslamic.

According to revered Islamic scholar and leader, the system which encourages children to be sent to distant places in the guise to learn the Qua'ran enthrones poverty and hunger and should be largely discouraged.

The Sultan who spoke in Kaduna at a Pre-Ramadan gathering said that Islam frowns at laziness but encourages entrepreneurship and urged the government, especially those at the state level to pay more attention to the welfare of their citizens...

Read more @ http://alabingo.com/2017/05/almajiri-system-…ic-sultan-sokoto/

Chidi Samuel || The federal government has finally confirmed that the minimum wage as paid to Nigerian workers presently is overdue for review.

The Minister of Labour and employment Dr. Chris Ngige made the disclosure on Friday in Abuja and assured that the Federal Executive Council, FEC, will next week review the report of the joint committee on National minimum wage.

According to the minister, the 16-man technical committee on minimum wage and palliatives had submitted its report to the main committee, headed by the secretary to the government of the federation...

Read more@ http://alabingo.com/2017/05/fg-agree-fix-new…mum-wage-workers/

Chidi Samuel || Following the outcry over the alleged exclusion of the Igbo heartland from the ongoing rail projects across the country, the federal ministry of transport on Friday disclosed that South East Nigeria was not excluded from the ongoing rail projects in the Country.

The Ministry in a statement through its director of public relations said there are two major rail line projects it is embarking on in the Country; the coastal rail projects from Lagos-Calabar and the Lagos-kano lines...

Readmore @http://alabingo.com/2017/05/seast-not-exclud…ansport-ministry/

Chidi Samuel || The Islamic terror group, Boko Haram waging a bloody war against the Nigerian Army in the North East has opened a new front in their quest to establish an Islamic caliphate in Nothern Nigeria.

The bloodthirsty terror group ousted from their spiritual base in the Sambisa forest of Bornu and Yobe states by the Nigeria military late last year are believed to have relocated to Suntai Daaji forest in Taraba state.
The troubling information was provided by Taraba State Governor, Daruis Ishiaku when...

Read more@ http://alabingo.com/2017/05/dislodged-boko-h…a-forest-sambisa/

The AFP News agency has detailed the mind-boggling fallout between corrupt ridden secretive arms dealers and a corruption-riddled government of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The weapons deal collapses in acrimony but instead of a shoot-out, the embittered parties fight it out in court.

In this real-life saga, Ara Dolarian is the US arms dealer, Hima Aboubakar the weapons contractor and the foreign government Nigeria, which has been locked in a battle with Boko Haram since 2009.

The $246m (221 million euros) order at the height of the jihadists’ insurgency in 2014 was for weapons and equipment, including helicopters, bombs, and ammunition...

Read more@ http://alabingo.com/2017/05/arms-scandal-con…opters-price-20m/

Pili Hussein wanted to make her fortune prospecting for a precious stone that's said to be a thousand times rarer than diamonds, but since women weren't allowed down the mines she dressed up as man and fooled her male colleagues for almost a decade.

Pili Hussein grew up in a large family in Tanzania. The daughter of a livestock keeper who had many large farms, Pili's father had six wives and she was one of 38 children. Although she was well looked after, in many ways, she doesn't look back on her upbringing fondly.

"My father treated me like a boy and I was given livestock to take care of - I didn't like that life at all," she says.

But her marriage was even more unhappy, and at the age of 31 Pili ran away from her abusive husband...

Read more @ http://alabingo.com/2017/05/acted-man-get-work-accused-rape/ ‎

Sexual satisfaction is what every woman desires. many women are known to have walked out of a relationship and sometimes marriages because of the inability of their male partners to satisfy them sexually.The knowledge of what a woman wants in bed to a very large extent determines how far she can be satisfied, according to sex relationship experts.

The knowledge of what a woman wants in bed to a very large extent determines how far she can be satisfied, according to sex relationship experts.

To know how to satisfy your woman in bed here is what to know in the words of sex experts...

Read more @http://alabingo.com/2017/05/6-things-women-want-bed/

Chidi Samuel || The United Progressive Party, UPP, has advised all the Igbo politicians rushing to Abuja to lobby for the position of Secretary to the Governmenment of the Federation, SGF to stop wasting their time because President Buhari will never appoint an Igbo man to the post.

The Party maintained that APC would never accept an SGF of southeast extraction, describing the party as a wrong association for Ndigbo...

Read more @ http://alabingo.com/2017/05/buhari-will-neve…igbo-man-sgf-upp/

The Managing Director/Chief Executive of Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim has called on members of the public to ignore rumours of financial distress in some banks that are being circulated through text messages and social media to de-market those banks and destabilise depositors’ confidence in the banking system.

Alhaji Ibrahim made this call during a courtesy call on the Corporation at the NDIC head office in Abuja by the Executive Members of the Alumni Association of the National Institute (AANI), Abuja chapter led by its Chairman, Arc. Bola A. Balogun...

Read more @ http://alabingo.com/2017/05/ignore-rumours-f…-banks-ndic-boss/

A hairdresser, Yetunde Oladipupo, aka Iyabo, has committed suicide on Onabola Street, Owotutu, in the Somolu area of Lagos State.

Oladipupo it was learnt took an insecticide, Sniper, on Friday shortly after seeing off some friends who had visited her.

Although the cause of the visit could not be ascertained, it was gathered that the mother of four went to a shop afterward and bought the insecticide.

She was alleged to have taken it and was later rushed to the General Hospital, Gbagada, where she died.

It was learnt that the Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State indigene, had taken a loan of about N150,000 from a microfinance bank and the creditor had been pestering her to pay...

Read more @http://alabingo.com/2017/05/lagos-hairdresse…ide-n150000-loan/ ‎