₦airaland Forum

Amaechi, i cant tell you how this will end but i guess you will loose..our democracy has so much powers vested in the center....you should know better...talkless, do more. The best way to silence your critics is to produce results.focus on giving result to rivers people who elected you they will rise to defend you..if you continue this way. you will soon be in the ash bin of history

2015 loading.............75%

Fulani herdsmen have become a pain unleashing fear wherever they go. For Ombatse to be dealing with them may be a good news. They are in every village in Nigeria. they crush your farm land without apology.

In military drills you must understand priority. I remember a robbery going on arround CBN many years back and there were soldiers Manning CBN. all civillians including myself questioned why they will not intervene in the robbery. I grew up and went asking. only to be told by a family friend in the army that soldiers are disciplined men that must focus on the assignment. The robbery beside CBN will be viewed by any soldier on duty as a distraction. Its possible that CBN was the target but they needed to distract the soldiers by robbing close by. so a good soldier wont move. moreover, anything robbery is meant to be handled by the police. Soldiers are in Maiduguri for insurgence not car snatching. i just pity the pretty shuarab women there cosx soldiers have hot pants. Their third leg is not disciplined.

gazilion: Please when next you post comments that are not original, always do so in inverted comma's or post the link. If you don't, it becomes intellectual robbery. The source of your comment is given below and was originally written by Sesan Olasupo!!

http://amazingstoriesaroundtheworld..co.uk/2013/05/lets-offer-prayers-and-applaud-men-and.html

Take it easy bro. I took personal pictures with two of the soldiers and broadcasted my experience on BLACKBERRY. Your blogger must have copied as the article was spreading...ask him his source. If you doubt me send me your email and i will send you the pictures of how it all happened.

subscribing

Every month America is on the news for either natural or man made disasters. They need to start asking questions.

why are these guys fleeing na...is there scarcity of virgins in paradise? whether death by suicide or military bullet...all na death and virgins are guaranteed.

SUPER STORY EPISODE 2015...COMING SOON

While waiting to board a flight from Charlotte to Atlanta sometime last year, I noticed a small number of US Soldiers were also waiting to board the same flight.I was immediately fascinated by their youthfulness and nice camouflage . They looked like boys and girls to me. I even suspected they were cadets.My first surprise came when the flight was about to board. The announcer made it clear that men and women of the US army should step forward and board first the plane first. This was gahead of passengers on the first class compartment . When we had all boarded the flight, the pilot then announced that the airline was happy and privileged to be flying with men of the US army and welcome them specially on board. When we landed in Atlanta, the pilot announced again and thanked the men of the US army for flying with United Airlines and this time everyone on the plane went into a round of applause, clapping for almost a minute. I had to join in clapping for the US soldiers.This is how much America values the men and women, battling insurgents in other to protect the home land.Today lets offer prayers and applaud the men and women battling insurgents from Bayelsa to Nassarawa , from Borno to Yobe, from Katsina to Kano. Staying awake for us to sleep. taking the battle to the enemies so we can live a normal life. These are the real men with balls. Not the cowards that attacks defenseless people and scurry away to hide.I JUST CHOOSE TO CELEBRATE NIGERIAN ARMY.

While waiting to board a flight from Charlotte to Atlanta sometime last year, I noticed a small number of US Soldiers were also waiting to board the same flight.I was immediately fascinated by their youthfulness and nice camouflage . They looked like boys and girls to me. I even suspected they were cadets.My first surprise came when the flight was about to board. The announcer made it clear that men and women of the US army should step forward and board first the plane first. This was gahead of passengers on the first class compartment . When we had all boarded the flight, the pilot then announced that the airline was happy and privileged to be flying with men of the US army and welcome them specially on board. When we landed in Atlanta, the pilot announced again and thanked the men of the US army for flying with United Airlines and this time everyone on the plane went into a round of applause, clapping for almost a minute. I had to join in clapping for the US soldiers.This is how much America values the men and women, battling insurgents in other to protect the home land.Today lets offer prayers and applaud the men and women battling insurgents from Bayelsa to Nassarawa , from Borno to Yobe, from Katsina to Kano. Staying awake for us to sleep. taking the battle to the enemies so we can live a normal life. These are the real men with balls. Not the cowards that attacks defenseless people and scurry away to hide.CELEBRATE NIGERIAN ARMY

While waiting to board a flight from Charlotte to Atlanta sometime last year, I noticed a small number of US Soldiers were also waiting to board the same flight.I was immediately fascinated by their youthfulness and nice camouflage . They looked like boys and girls to me. I even suspected they were cadets.My first surprise came when the flight was about to board. The announcer made it clear that men and women of the US army should step forward and board first the plane first. This was gahead of passengers on the first class compartment . When we had all boarded the flight, the pilot then announced that the airline was happy and privileged to be flying with men of the US army and welcome them specially on board. When we landed in Atlanta, the pilot announced again and thanked the men of the US army for flying with United Airlines and this time everyone on the plane went into a round of applause, clapping for almost a minute. I had to join in clapping for the US soldiers.This is how much America values the men and women, battling insurgents in other to protect the home land.Today lets offer prayers and applaud the men and women battling insurgents from Bayelsa to Nassarawa , from Borno to Yobe, from Katsina to Kano. Staying awake for us to sleep. taking the battle to the enemies so we can live a normal life. These are the real men with balls. Not the cowards that attacks defenseless people and scurry away to hide.

Atedo peterside. Founder of IBTC now Stanbic IBTC. Lets watch and see

Amnesty my foot

hmmmmmmmmmmmm....Ladies are in trouble

This is official....kidnaping is the highest paying job in naija...it may remain so until legitimate employments are created

What do people gain from being harbingers of bad news.

Enigmatic indeed

Can someone please tell me the program APC is bringing to Nigerians...or is opposition all about ranting on the media. I see APC as lesser evil just because they've not been given power.

Yahaya85: We are waiting for them to start,wallahi I promised to kill 10 christian for any muslim they killed,we have plenty of igbos to slaughter here.

Big dogs don't bark...The dog that will bite you won't bark.

Just to remind you that modern wars are not land based...its air based...missiles are the war messengers ..if you get wat I mean..clean that kunu from ur mouth be you talk again

lets go there....am i the first?

Amnesty was and is still a historical mistake...buying time and postponding anarchy. Any society that rewards crime is doomed. Amnesty to Niger Delta, After Bokoharam who next?

Someone shud pls tell Yobo that he expired in Nations Cup. Does he need the brain of an astronaut to figure that out.

Fati is my Favourite first Lady in Nigeria's history. Her hubby was head of state but she faced her career...Told her hubby that there is no office of the first lady in Naija's constitution..she practically stepped aside and till today she is still doin well in her career. Congrats Fati.

Human breasts are different from all the other breasts on the planet.
Humans are the only mammals to have breasts that develop in puberty and then remain permanently enlarged, says Florence Williams, the author of Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History. Other female primates have them when necessary (i.e., their mammary glands grow during lactation and deflate after weaning). Ours, fleshy and fatty, “stick around regardless of our reproductive status,” she says.

By JULIANA TAIWO-OBALONYE

It is 98 years ago that Mary Slessor, the Scottish missionary to Nigeria, died. She was reputed to have led crusades that stopped some societies from killing twin babies at birth. Such births were taboo and not tolerated.

While her history remains alive, as her remains were interred in Nigeria, it seems some communities in Nigeria, even today, are out to rubbish and undo what Slessor did.

It might shock you to hear that there is still a community that still sees twins or multiple birth as abomination. But it is more confounding to find that the communities are in the nation’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT). How awful that even within the world’s newest city, with all the trappings of modernity, the preponderance of religions and inclinations that abhor killing of human beings, twin kids are still sacrificed to the gods of tradition that don’t want them alive like the biblical story of the notions that passed their babies through the fire of Molech.

Imagine yourself visiting a community called Basa Komo in the FCT and all of a sudden, you come face-to-face with a crowd. You move closer and are confronted with a helpless infant, struggling to set himself loose from the grip of community leaders, who want to bury him alive.

This scenario is not from a Nollywood film or a best selling novel. It happens today in a community in the nation’s FCT. In Bassa Komo, it is abomination to be born a twin, or a mother dies within three months of a baby’s birth, or a child grows upper teeth first or is born with defect. These are all faults of the baby or babies involved.

All these, to the people of the community, are signs that such babies were fabricated in the factory of the devil and are themselves evil. Such offences by the evil baby or babies are punishable by burial alive.

Such bizarre drama was witnessed by a couple, Olusola Stevens and his wife. Stevens is the North Central Director of the Christian Missionary Foundation (CMF). He has been in missionary work for 22 years. In all his years as a missionary, nothing prepared him and his wife, Chinwe, for the trauma of hearing or witnessing the practice of killing infants or burying some alive with their dead mothers even in the domain of the FCT.

Mary Slessor’s resurrection

Today, their happiness is that some of the rescued children have been reunited with their families, even though they are still living with the Stevens.

Stevens recalled to Abuja Metro the challenges of taking care of the rescued children but remains happy that: “God has never failed. Though there could be delays but He will surely come through and this we can testify to in our case.”

The Christian Missionary Foundation (CMF) is a non-denominational body with task of evangelising the interior and remote societies. That is the gospel that touches human lives.

“We just don’t preach the gospel. In some of the places we have been to, we have established schools, especially in the North East. We also have medical outreach centres. Basically, we don’t stay in city; we go to the interior to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to people.”

The CMF was launched in Ibadan in1982 by the late Bishop Benson Idahosa.

At the FCT

He said the group came into the FCT in the late 80s, reaching out to the Bassa Komo, the Gbagyi Yama and the Ganagana. “We went into the rural parts of Abuja, preaching, planting churches, organising literacy classes for the local people, who could not read or write,” he narrated.

They discovered some strange practices among the Bassa Komo (Gbajingala clan) that endanger the lives of children and asked God for an opportunity to save some of the children from the clutches of death.

“If you are not very observant, you will not know this practice is going on and it took us some time to actually confirm. Some of the enlightened indigenes of the area deny the practice, maybe out of shame, but it is still happening till date,” Stevens confirmed.

Killing twins

They are considered as strange spirits and not fit to live among men. When they are delivered, they will be poisoned (the child dies gradually) or is strangulated after being forcefully taken from the mother by masquerades that women are not allowed to see. Once they are killed, an altar will be raised on the walls of their huts to worship their spirits and make sacrifices to ward them off from returning. They believe the dead children are spirits that want to come back but they are not welcome.

Mum’s death after birth

Another outrageous practice is the killing of babies whose mothers die after their birth. If a woman delivers and dies during childbirth, the child will be tied to the body of the dead mother and buried alive with her. If the nursing mother should die of any cause without weaning the baby, the baby will be accused of having strange powers that killed the mother, the penalty for this is also death. In some villages, the children may be abandoned on the grave of the dead mother while some are left unattended to in the village, leading to starvation and eventual death.

Wrong teeth child

A child that grows upper teeth first is also bound to die. The couple discovered that babies that grow the upper teeth first are also killed because they are bad omen. This is neatly done, an outsider may never know when and how unless you understand their language and pay close attention to young babies in the area.

According to Stevens, the practice is not common among the Abuja indigenes alone, “We also learnt from some other agencies that we work closely with that twins are not allowed to live in Uturu, Abia State.”

“There is also sacrificing of young children to the fertility god during planting season to have bountiful harvest that is common amongst the Bassa. They don’t physically slaughter the baby but once they pick a baby, a child that is healthy now will mysteriously die. You will hear the child cry and complain of a minor ailment and the next minute, he or she is dead. We have two children in this category, they were brought to us by their mothers so as to save them from being sacrificed by their fathers,” the rescuer couple hinted.

More odds

If a woman delivers triplets or quadruplets, they will be thrown into the Gurara River or strangled and later buried in the bush.

The couple said they learnt that Gbagyi Yama also practise killing of twins but “we are yet to rescue any child. We were to rescue a set of twins two years ago but they did not allow us. They were taken to the ancestral home and usually the babies will not return if taken there.”

The villages in these practices today are up to 40. Some of them are in Gwagwalada Area Council, more of them in Abaji, some in Kwali and part of Kuje.

“Since I live among them, we have missionaries, working in those villages. There are even natives, who are no longer comfortable with the practice after hearing the word of God and they run to tell non-native missionaries once they are about to kill twins or any other child. We tell them if you don’t want these ‘evil’ children, give them to us; we want them.”

A Home for the ‘evil’ kids

To really settle down and handle the rescue assignment, the couple had to set up a home, the Divine Heritage Home as an offshoot of the missionary work in the interiors.

Two weeks after the first rescue, a baby boy was rescued from death. He too is in school now. They call him Wonder Boy. From that time, they mandated the missionaries to do more to save as many children as possible from the strange practices.

“We have rescued about 33 such kids spread across several villages. There are also 13 less privileged children that were picked from the rural areas. All the children are in school. The youngest we have now is a set of twins about four months old, Rachael and Rebecca.”

At the time they started rescuing the children, one of them had asked the villagers if after some four years and the child turns healthy, they would have such back. They bluntly refused, saying the evil spirit would still be in their bodies.

Sacrifice

The terrain through which they pass to the rescue these children is terrible, particularly during the rainy season. The road is usually muddy, that they find it almost impossible to go with motorbikes and sometimes have to walk long distances to get to the kids.

There are days they don’t get back home in Gwagwalada until 2am. “That is how we started raising those children. Since God asked us to raise them we don’t give them out for adoption. God told us expressly to nurse them that He would take them back to their communities so as to stop this practice. How He will do that, we do not know.”

“The practice of killing or rejecting a child that grew upper teeth first was there in the past in Yoruba land where I come from. They didn’t believe such child was normal but today, it is no longer there. In Calabar, it was also the issue but long dropped.

So, it is their culture here but we are working to convince them to drop it because these children are precious. Some of the kids were rescued at tender ages, a day old, two weeks old, a month old, etc.”

Poisoning the kids

Initially, they didn’t know the twin kids are sometimes poisoned before disposing of them. So, the first baby they rescued was involved in that and they later lost her. She was named Olufunmilayo. “When we rescued her, her twin sister had died of the poison but we had thought it was because she was premature. It was a missionary with the Redeemed Christian Church that saw them, trying to kill this baby that rescued her.”

After taking Olufunmilayo to the hospital and running tests, she still was not improving and she was on admission for about four days, and later died.

“I narrated our observations to the national coordinator of the mission, a medical doctor, who left his practice to work in the mission. We asked him to help us find out what could be responsible. So, he brought a team of medical doctors from Ibadan. In the course of their work, they discovered while engaging the local women when their husbands were not around that it was the men who belonged to the cult in their communities that usually poisoned the kids with a particular root. They soak the root in water for some days and then feed the babies with the potion and they will start drying up. That is what happened to Olufunmilayo; she was eating normally and taking her medications but she kept drying up until she died. Till date, we are still trying to find out what root they use.”

Village head’s kids

After five years of work in the area, the couple had two children in their care from the Tumbudu axis, who are grandchildren of the village head. They would have been killed when their mother died but for the intervention of a missionary whose name is Grace. At the time she rescued the children, she was single. So, when she was getting married, some of the villagers, who were happy their pastor was wedding, attended in Gwagwalada. When they visited us, she pointed out one of them and said, ‘that is your village head’s grandson that you called evil child and wanted to kill.’

When they got back and informed the man that his grandson was alive and doing very well, he was shocked and came visiting. He said: “I was informed he is still very much alive”. He was convinced then that the boy was not an evil child, only that he inherited a culture that sees such children as taboo. He was really happy to see his grandson.

“He brought us guinea corn, roasted fish and promised that he would ensure no other such child is killed in his village. He assured us of his assistance to rescue them and also to influence other village heads in the area to join the crusade.

“So, after that visit, it was like a floodgate was opened. We started getting rescued babies from even areas we had no missionaries and from villages I never heard of before, such as Dagiri. It was the collaboration that started working.”

Assistance

They don’t call the place the rescued kids are kept an orphanage but a home because they take them as their own children. “The children all call me daddy and my wife, they call mummy. We eat together, play together and we even watched the final match between Nigeria and Burkina Faso in the African Cup of Nations together. There are days we go out to eateries together. There is one of them that was born on May 27. When we visit such places on celebration days, people ask if we have a school and when I say they are all my children, they usually express surprise. There was one lady, who saw us the first time we went to Mr. Biggs to eat and she was curious and after hearing our story, she has been coming with her friends, bringing things to us. Some of them come here to celebrate their birthday. Churches have been coming here also to be of help to us. In fact, the bus we use was donated by a lady that works with the NNPC. She had come visiting and saw my old BMW with which I took the children to school. So, she decided to support us with a coaster bus. At a time, the place we were wasn’t enough to accommodate us, a former Redeemed Christian Church provincial pastor offered to build a mini-dormitory for us.”

After the rescue of the last set of twins, their father, a Muslim, came from Bassa, four days before Abuja Metro visit. He expressed shock at what the couple and their mission do for their people free. Today, he has relocated to the place the missionary rescued his children to also assist and he has given his life to Jesus Christ. “Our intervention has helped them to come to the knowledge of our saviour. When they visit, I ask them to pick their children and take photos,” Stevens assured

Returned kids

The home has even returned three children to their relatives, who have been established as strong Christians and are willing to take them. They still monitor their progress there. “We heard one of them later died but it was through natural causes. We pray together and share the Bible every morning. To the glory of God, I don’t deny them anything. My wife and I have only one child of our own but you will not tell the difference. I am a domestic man so, there is no stress, taking care of them. Right now, my wife is on her PhD programme and I am right here taking care of them with the help of the nannies. They are doing very well in school and very intelligent kids.”

Needs health facility

When the former speaker visited while still in office, he was very impressed with what the mission had done and they had requested for a health centre, which they said would reduce the child and maternal death rate. Majority of the rescued children come from dead nursing mothers. “So, if we had good health facility it would be reduced but sadly, he did not return to the area council. So, we are still in need of that.”

“I requested recently from my headquarters for a medical doctor and a nurse because we want to start a health facility so we can reach out to other villages. We are going to have an outreach soon and our first training will be for traditional birth attendants (TBAs) We want to teach them signs they can quickly notice on a mother or child to notify us on time so we can assist to save the lives of these mothers.

“At times, we are asked why government has not intervened but I don’t have an answer to that. Some government officials have been here. All I can tell you is that a greater government sent me on this assignment and I cannot afford to fail.”

SOURCE: http://sunnewsonline.com/new/cover/bizarre-40-fct-communities-that-kill-twins/

There is a part of me that hate talkertives...they can't achieve much

Someone shud advice that hamburger-donut pizza eating North korean accidental leader...he shud ask Saddam husseini and Gaddafi what's up....don't start what you can't finish

About 100 soldiers including men of the State Security Service were said to have raided a terrorist hideout in Ijora, Lagos yesterday.

Residents were alarmed when uniformed men in their numbers arrived the area at about 7am in search of suspected members of Islamic fundamentalist sect, Boko Haram.

They military men proceeded to 24 Aromire Street and three others at a location in an adjacent street arresting two people in the process.

According to reports, one of the suspects, Ibrahim Musa, occupied five rooms in one of the buildings. They discovered a bomb in a cooler and another hidden inside the ceiling of one of the rooms where Musa stayed. They also found AK-47 rifles, cartridges and daggers.

Musa reportedly the leader of the gang was described as an illegal immigrant from Chad.

Residents were terrified by the invasion, one local who identified himself simply as Olu told reporters that until he saw the suspects arrested and led out, he didn’t know they were living there.

“When soldiers were taking them away, we wondered if they were living in the neighbourhood. It was my neighbour, who told me he had seen Musa once or twice,” he said.

Olu said the soldiers had warned the residents to be watchful because Boko Haram members had penetrated the area, particularly the Hausa settlement.

Lagos State Director, SSS, Achu Olayi, confirmed the raid but couldn’t go into details at yet.

Thursday raid of Ijora comes a month after the SSS discovered a terror network coordinated by Iranians in Lagos.

The Punch reports:

The security source, who craved anonymity, added the raid was as a result of an investigation which began a month ago.

He said, “Security agents got information a month ago that there was a terrorist hideout in the Seven-Up area of Ijora. Although we were not sure if they were Boko Haram members or not, we did not want to take any chances so we decided to go and raid the place.

“It was discovered that the place was being run by a Chadian and arms were recovered during the raid, including AK-47 riffles. Investigations are ongoing and those who are found not culpable will be released.”

Musa’s neighbour, who craved anonymity, told one of our correspondents that they did not suspect he was a member of Boko Haram.

He said the suspect moved into the house less than three months ago.

“Musa rented his apartment about three months ago. However, since he moved in with his wife, who recently had a baby and a brother, none of them had any known form of livelihood. Musa and his brother, particularly were always going about with their laptops and expensive phones.

“Though he (Musa) was not working, he was usually the first to pay for anything in the house. It was when the soldiers came that we got to know what they truly are. It was in the course of beating him (Musa) that he told the soldiers where he hid the bomb and guns.”

When one of our correspondents met the Ojora of Ijora , Oba Fatai Adeyinka, he said he was shocked that Boko Haram members had infiltrated the area.

The spokesman for the Army 81 Division, Colonel Kingsley Umoh, confirmed the raid but said the army had been carrying out constant raids across the state in response to the rising level of insecurity in the country.

Umoh said over 36 people had been arrested recently. He however said he had yet to receive the details of Thursday’s operation.

He said, “The Nigerian Army is carrying out a proactive approach. We are raiding every nook and cranny of the state in order to rid it of criminal elements. We are not ignorant of the insecurity in the country so we are carrying out preventive measures and we want to make sure that Lagos is safe for all its inhabitants.

“The raids have been in collaboration with sister agencies like the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, the SSS, the police and others. It is the OP MESA of the army that is at the forefront of the raids and we have recorded many successes of late as we have also arrested some soldiers who were found wanting.

“I will not be able to brief you fully about Thursday’s raid.

Open link to view pictures

http:///8B9jr8TfYM

Jerrygotswagg: God why did Police catch them naaaa

So they followed you from the village and till now...you are still manifesting...I just hope you won't catch ur sis or mum and do same.SMH

When for heaaven's sake are we going to stop having bad news in this country.Its more depressing when its avoidable.My greatest fear is 2015...God please visit our land

The process of sharing Nigeria’s oil block national cake is as fraudulent now as when Ibrahim Babangida started the process of discretionary allocation of oil blocks to indigenous firms. Discretionary allocation of oil blocks entails that a president can reward a mistress who performs wonderfully with an oil block with capacity for cumulative yield of over $20 billion dollars without recourse to any process outside of manhood attachments. Babangida, Abacha, Abdulsalami and Obasanjo awarded discretionary oil blocks to friends, associates, family members, party chieftains,security chiefs and all categories of bootlickers, spokespersons and cult members without any laid down procedures.

The recipients of such oil blocks will get funds from ever willing offshore financiers and partners to graciously settle the benefactors, the awarders, facilitators and the Commander-in-Chief through fronts. These settlements mostly paid into foreign accounts runs into hundreds of millions of dollars according to the potential yield of the block. Sometimes, the awarder (sharer of national cake and direct intermediaries) demand additional stakes in the bidding company. The awarder sends fronts as part of the directorship and management of the bidding firms without leaving a link to them. That is how the oil block national cake is distributed to a few Nigerians.

Signature bonuses which are paid when an investor successfully bids, wins and signs agreement with the petroleum ministry, running into tens of millions and sometimes hundreds of millions of naira ,is often waived off. There is actually no waiver; rather a diversion of what would have been paid to government coffers is paid into private purse as appreciation gifts. That is why those in the Petroleum Ministry dread retirement as though it signifies going to hell fire. No matter how little your influence, something substantial must enter your hands especially in hard currency. The nation loses billions of dollars in diverted revenue whenever any round of auction occurs.

Some of these oil field has the capacity of between 300,000 -500,000Â barrels of oil daily. For instance, OML 110 OBE given by Sanni Abacha in 1996 to Alhaji Mai Daribe under Cavendish Petroleum had estimated over 500 million barrels of oil. In layman’s language and using average benchmark of
$100 dollars per barrel, translates to $50 billion dollars worth of oil reserve. This means that $20billion dollars worth of oil in the hands of a family or $170 million dollars worth of oil daily.

OPL 246 was awarded to SAPETRO, a company owned by General Theophilus Danjuma, by Sanni Abacha in 1998. Akpo condensate exports about 300,000 barrels of crude daily.

OML 112 and OML 117 were awarded to AMNI International Petroleum Development Company owned by Colonel Sanni Bello in 1999. Sanni Bello is an inlaw to Abdulsalami Abubakar, former Head of State of Nigeria. OML 115, OLDWOK Field and EBOK field was awarded to Alhaji Mohammed Indimi from Niger State. Indimi is an inlaw to former Military President Ibrahim Babangida.

OML 215 is operated by Nor East Petroleum Limited owned by Alhaji Saleh Mohammed Gambo.

OML 108 is operated by Express Petroleum Company Limited is owned by Alhaji Aminu Dantata.

Obasanjo , with the help of Andy Uba, awarded OPL 2008 to Tenoil Petroleum & Oil Services owned by Tony Elumelu and Jim Ovia while OPL 2009 and 2010 were awarded to Global Energy Group owned by Chief Suleiman Onabiyi and Joseph Obiago .

That is why a lot of major players in the oil industry owes Obasanjo and Andy Uba a lot .

OML II3 allocated to Yinka Folawiyo Pet Ltd is owned by Alhaji W.I. folawiyo. Asuopku/Umuntu ( Egbema marginal oil fields) was awarded to Platform Petroleum in 2003 by Obasanjo. In 2010 Platform Petroleum (owned by Edmund Daukoru,a Bayelsa prince and Lulu Briggs among others) and Seplat ( owned by Prince Nasiru Ado Bayero, cousin to the Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi) teamed up in landmark partnership to manage the venture.

Intel owned by Atiku, Yar’adua and Ado Bayero has substantial stakes in Nigeria’s oil exploration industry both in Nigeria and Principe and Sao Tome. AMNI owns two oil blocks OML 112 and OML 117 which it runs Afren plc and Vitol has substantial stakes in oil blocks. OML 112 is estimated to have 130 million barrels of oil valued with the current price of $100 dollars per barrel at S13 billion dollars with 25 year lease. Afren plc is operating EBOK oil fields in OML 67. Vitol lifts 300,000 barrels of Nigerian oil daily. Rilwanu Lukman, former OPEC Chairman has stakes in all these named three companies.

OPL 245 was awarded to Malabu Oil& Gas Company by Sanni Abacha. Dan Etete, Abacha’s oil minister owns Malabu Oil. In 2000, Vice President Atiku Abubakar convinced Obasanjo to revoke OPL 245 given to Malabu Oil. Etete had earlier rejected Atiku’s demand for substantial stakes in the high yield OPL 245 and it attracted the venom of Ota Majesty who revoked the licence. However, in 2006, Obasanjo had mercy on Dan Etete and gave him back his oil block worth over $20billion dollars.

OPL 289 and OPL 233 was awarded during Obasanjo era to Peter Odili fronts, Cleanwater Consortium, consisting of Clenwater Refinery and RivGas Petroleum and Gas Company. Odili’s brother in law, Okey Ezenwa manages the consortium asVice Chairman.

OPL 286 is managed by Focus Energy in partnership with BG Group, a British oil concern. Andy Uba has stakes in Focus Energy and his modus operandi is such that you can never see his name in any listings yet he controls OPL and OMLthrough proxies.

OPL 291 was awarded to Starcrest Energy Nigeria Limited, owned by Emeka Offor by Obasanjo . Immediately after the award, Starcrest sold the oil block to Addax Petroleum Development Company Limited (ADDAX) Addax paid Sir Emeka Offor a farming fee of $35million dollars and still paid the signature bonus to the government. Emeka Offor still retains stake in ADDAX operations in Nigeria. Mike Adenuga’s Conoil is the oldest indigenous oil exploration industry in Nigeria. Conoil has six oil blocks and exports above 200,000 barrels of crude daily.

The oil block national cake sharing fiesta could take twists according to the mood of the Commander-in “Chief at the particular time. In 2006, Obasanjo revoked OPL 246 which Abacha gave to Danjuma because he refused to support the tenure elongation bid of the Ota Majesty. In 2000, Obasanjo had earlier revoked OPL 241 given to Dan Etete under the advice Atiku. However, when the Obasanjo-Atiku faceoff started, the Ota Majesty made a u-turn and handed back the oil block to Etete.

During the time of Late President Yar’adua , a panel headed by Olusegun Ogunjana was set up to investigate the level of transparency in the award of oil blocks. The panel recommended that 25 oil blocks awarded by the Obasanjo be revoked because the manner they were obtained failed to meet the best practices in the industry. Sadiq Mahmood, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum endorsed the report to then president with all its recommendations. As a result of the report Yarádua revoked eleven oil blocks.

In April 2011 Mike Adenuga attempted to buy Shell’s OML 30 for $1.2 billion dollars. The Minister for Petroleum and Nigeria’s most powerful woman refused the sale of the OML30 to Adenuga citing national interest. This block was sold to Heritage Oil for $800 million dollars eleven months later.

This oil block business is so lucrative that Danjuma’s Sapetro divested of its investment in Akpo condensate for $1billion dollars.

This business is second to none in Nigeria. That is why any attempt to investigate the activities in this sector will always be futile. The money is so much that they give bribes in millions of dollars. A birthday gift or child naming gift from an oil block owner to a government official could be as paltry as $2million dollars, and if the official’s father died, the condolence gift could reach mere $3 million dollars. When they want to bribe legislators, it is in millions of dollars and any ongoing investigation ends within weeks.

They are so confident that with excess money they can buy up Nigeria and they are succeeding.

In the name of competitive bidding, which Obasanjo introduced in 2005, officials bring companies overnight and through processes best described as secretive and voodooist, award blocks to party faithful, fronts and phoney companies. They collect gratifications running into hundreds of millions of dollars which is paid into offshore account and the nation loses billions of dollars of revenue to private pockets. During the third term agenda, Obasanjo was deceived that the allocation of oil block to party faithfuls is to fund the third term agenda. With the failure of the third term, the beneficiaries went home with their fortunes and thanked God or Allah for buttering their bread. Senator Andy Uba co ordinated the award of the last rounds of oil blocks by Obasanjo in 2005 and 2007. The then minister of petroleum, Edwin Daukoru was a mere errand boy who took instructions from the presidential aide.

The regime of President Goodluck is not showing any signs of changing the status quo. Controversies have trailed the activities of the Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Madueke and many players in the Industry accuse her of demanding stakes from every oil deal. It is hoped that President Goodluck Jonathan will remember his transformational promise to Nigerians and endeavor to face the hawks in the oil industry. The angst in the air is so much that if this monster of illegal allocation of oil block is not addressed, the much touted revolution could begin all of a sudden and all who condoned this illegality at the expense of hungry Nigerians may have nowhere to hide.

The religious leaders should tell these oil block beneficiaries, awarders, fronts, brokers and all involved in short changing the Nigerian people to find means or returning all these back to the Nigerian people, through massive development projects. They should curtail their constant visits to Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem for prayers and attend to the poverty they spread in the land. They should build affordable secondary schools, universities, specialist hospitals, roads, silos, etc for the Nigerian people. They should fund talent development programmes and sponsor activities capable of alleviating poverty. The voice of impoverished Nigerians is crying daily and if care is not taken the God who delivered Nigeria from Abacha dark days will visit them with calamities untold.

With the rot in this oil block awarding system and other loot all over the Nigerian nation, something worse than revolution may happen.

(This article was first published in April 2012)

Obinna Akukwe

source:http://pointblanknews.com/pbn/exclusive/injustice-how-babangida-abacha-obasanjo-shared-nigerias-oil-blocks/