₦airaland Forum

Fresh killings at Okija shrine says Orbed Igwe
Written by Emma Nnadozie
Saturday, September 13, 2008
• Speaks on ex IGP, Tafa Balogun connection








On July 1, 2002, his strident voice rang out like a lone voice in the wilderness. Then he was just 44. He petitioned Police authorities in Abuja alleging that herbalists attached to Okija shrine in Anambra State were deeply enmeshed in not just ritual killings but forceful confiscation of people‘s hard-earned properties.


He went further to brand them cultists eager to drink human blood. Based on this, Police authorities under the embattled former IGP, Tafa Balogun, swung into action and raided the infamous Okija shrine. Their findings were as astounding as they were mystifying. The Police proceeded to arrest some of the Chief Priests of the shrine and at the end of the day, charged them to court.


Unfortunately, few months later, the same Chief Priests were discharged and acquitted and they found their ways back to the same Okija shrine, practicing what they know how best to do.


While police investigations were in progress, the man that exposed the alleged atrocities of the chief priests, Orbed Igwe ,was in constant threat by other worshipers and adherents of the shrine who are touted to be stupendously rich and brutal.


Severally, he escaped attempts on his life by what he tagged “seen and unseen forces”. At a stage, Igwe ran away to India only to resurface few months later boasting openly that he had been equipped to battle the dreaded Okija shrine Priests and worshipers.


Based on these threats, the Police provided security for him and at a stage, the diminutive but suave Igwe was parading virtually everywhere with heavily armed police escorts.


Today, Orbed Igwe who was seen without his usual retinue of armed police escorts is a very sad man. He said that all his sufferings and tribulations in the course of fighting for a saner society in Okija have failed woefully because the Chief Priests of Okija have started their bloody trade in human skulls and bones again. He spoke with Crime Guard exclusively.


Excerpts;


Chief, what has been happening to you after the Okija saga.


Nothing has been happening to me. I am very sad at the outcome of the whole thing. I think we have a fundamental problem in this country and that is cultism. From all indications, it is obvious now that those in power are very comfortable with the bloody killings at the Okija shrine.


A situation whereby human beings were made to swear a fetish oath and at the end of the day killed in the most bizarre manner and worse still, a group of fetish, blood-tasty people who masquerade as chief Priests, will compel the grieving family of the man they killed to unwillingly surrender all his hard-earned property to the shrine, is not only blood cuddling but highly inhuman.


It is shocking that this is happening in the twenty first century when our fellow human beings are seriously concluding plans to go and live in the moon.


But Police has taken up this matter and even arrested those involved in, 


No, No, No. Those people that were arrested bribed their way out of prison. I have evidence to show that they paid those concerned in order to be set free and as soon as they regained their freedom, they went back, full blast into their bloody business. You see, the problem we have is that of government nonchalant attitude to such serious issues.


Government just ended up arresting some of the fetish Chief priests and at the end of the day, did not care to ensure that such things did not rear it‘s ugly head again. This is just because most of them are involved in cultism and wanton destruction of human beings. After the Priests were rounded up, I called on government to convert the evil forest where the killings were taking place to a tourist attraction or erect either a military base, Police barracks or even school there but nobody heeded my advise. The forest is a vast expanse of land that stretched up to Kwale in Delta State.


It could even be turned into an Airport. But they left the evil forest filled with human bones and skulls and when these priests regained their freedom, they came back to the same devilish trade and it is presently booming.


How did the whole thing start Our forefathers were worshiping these shrines but after their death, youths aged between 18 and 19 years, most of them who were engaged in petty trading in different cities ran back home and took over the shrines.


During the time of our fore fathers, they use to bring people to the shrine once every nine years or more and they will readily justify that by making open the crime committed by that person and it must be a very serious crime. But these youths are now using it to extort huge sums of money from people.


They show their ill‘gotten wealth brazenly by sleeping in expensive hotels, winning and dinning with women. I joined Okija shrine in 1969 -73 and then, I found out that the Priests were doing their work with the fear of God. Between 1999 and 2000, some young men who were selling Okirika (second hand cloths) at Yaba, Lagos and those involved in selling Timber in the Mid-West abandoned their trade and came home.


They started by mystifying trees, giving them different fake names like ‘Ogwugwu Ka Ogwugwu‘, Ogwugwu Ogbudaa etc. They hired some people, especially commercial motorcyclists to scout for customers for them on 50% percentage basis. Before we knew what was happening, people including white men started thronging to the different fake shrines.


Then, in order to prove the efficacy and power of their fake shrine, they concocted some devilish native medicine which they use in killing people. They do this by writing the person‘s name in a piece of paper mixed with their concoctions after which they will put the whole thing in a fetish gun powder which will be blown either in a canon or a double barrel gun. After mixing these herbs and other unknown fetish materials, they will shoot the gun and where ever the person whose name was written on the piece of paper was, he will die.


The moment that persons dies, they will proceed to the family and claim that it was Okija shrine that killed him and they will demand that all the properties acquired by the man including that of his forefather, be turned over to the shrine, failure of which they would be visited with more death. They will also order relatives of their victim to take the body to the mortuary for embalmment.


From this stage, they have people that monitor the activities of members of the victim‘s family. As soon as the victim was buried, they will now go to the burial ground and exhume the body and take it straight to their shrine. If the casket is expensive, they will dispose it off without delay.


The dead body would then be left on the ground inside the evil forest after the insertion of gamalin 20 and insects would not go near because of the chemicals used for embalmment.


When rain falls, erosion will deposit these deadly chemicals from the dead bodies to the nearest stream where people go to fetch water for drinking and other daily needs and, of course, you know how dangerous this is to the health of the innocent villagers. That was how they kept on defrauding, intimidating, harassing and endangering the lives of people.


That was why I raised alarm and alerted government in 2000 and they were arrested by the police. The same suspects later spent over N40 million naira to buy their freedom.


They were responsible for the fate that later befell former IGP Tafa Balogun using their powerful connections in high places. You know Tafa was hell bent on prosecuting these devils and he had already gathered the recovered decomposing bodies of human beings dumped inside the evil forest for forensic analysis after which they would be prosecuted accordingly.


But their members in highly placed positions discreetly worked on Tafa without his knowledge and ended up implicating him in the scam that led to his downfall. That will show you how connected and powerful they are and what they can do naturally and supernaturally.


They did it so that the coast will be clear for them to continue with their evil trade which is spiritual assassination. They were able to achieve all these by convincing people to trust more in Okija shrine for instant justice than the almighty God.
http://odili.net/news/source/2008/sep/13/310.html

[size=14pt]Pressure on FG to cripple Glo, MTN, Zain, others - The ethnic dimension[/size]
Idowu Samuel, Abuja
Saturday, September 13, 2008
IF the secret plot by some Federal Government officials to exploit NigComSat as a tool for launching a mainstream telecommunications service provision in Nigeria is anything to go by, then the happy days of GSM providers would soon be over in the country.


Sunday Tribune can reveal that some managers of NigComSat had concluded plans to do away with the original motives for which the Federal Government launched its own communication satellite and had thus resolved to launch a broad-based telecommunications network to provide voice and data services meant to cripple the operations of all GSM providers in Nigeria.



If the President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua government eventually endorsed the plan by the NigComSat managers, the implication is that it would have rubbished the initiative by the past government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in launching GSM services through which providers like Zain, MTN, Glo, Visafone and now Etisalat came on board one after the other.



Meanwhile, the original motive for launching the communication satellite was to enhance national security network of Nigeria, fast-track the process of information gathering for the government and provide comprehensive transmission and application services via digital or analogue system. It is also to engage in transponder leasing services. NIGCOMSAT shall provide comprehensive,



The GSM providers, which started operating in Nigeria since 2001 had exposed the inefficiency of the government-controlled Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) which could not provide more than 412,000 telephone lines to Nigerians, whereas the operators of GSM had provided easy communication services for more than 50 million Nigerians within three years of serious business.



The resolve by the government of former president Obasanjo to deregulate the telecommunications industry in Nigeria has, up till date, been credited as the most successful of all the government initiatives ever in Nigeria, following instant relieves derived by Nigerians in their world of communication.



However, Sunday Tribune scooped in Abuja weekend that even with the knowledge of the NigComSat Managing Director, Alhaji Ahmed Rufai, a proposal for the crippling of GSM services had been placed before President Yar’Adua by some officials who are said to be urging him earnestly to approve the proposal. http://odili.net/news/source/2008/sep/13/606.html





However, investigations by Sunday Tribune revealed that the NigComSat officials had gone ahead to forge partnership with a Chinese Company, ZTE, and had proposed to use the company to raise a loan of $500m from an international financial institution, Exim, to implement the project.



It was learnt further that the officials are already parleying with the a bank in Nigeria to serve as a guarantor for the proposed loan. Investigations revealed that the proposal before Yar’Adua on the use of NigComSat for telephone business was packaged with the intention of drafting the Federal Government to once again become involved in telecommunications business in Nigeria the way it got involved with NITEL.



It was learnt also that Yar’Adua is being pressurized to approve the proposal on ethnic ground, more so with the general belief that the entire telecommunications business in Nigeria had been hijacked mainly by the South.



It is in that regard that the involvement of the government in the management of mainstream telecommunications provision being proposed is considered imperative, if only to give the North a sense of belonging.



Sunday Tribune findings revealed that even the president would have to approve the proposal with strong endorsement from relevant authorities including the Ministry of Communications, National Communications Commission (NCC), National Galaxy Backbone Project, National Security Adviser, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and others, while the Federal Executive Council (FEC) would be the final approving authority.



The Nigerian Communication Satellite, or NIGCOMSAT-1, which was launched May 13 2007, by the government of President Obasanjo a super hybrid geo-stationary satellite designed to provide communications services for Nigeria and by extension Africa, parts of the Middle East and southern Europe.



China launched the communications satellite for Nigeria having been contracted by Nigeria, the first of its kind for an African country. The initial contract to build the satellite was signed in 2004.

Our mum stopped us sharing one wife
09.13.2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008

There is a mystery about these Bayelsa born twins that watchers of the music industry would find difficult to unravel. They are identical, they are singers and married to twins from the same parents. Just as Anthonio Akpos and Andos Andrew Dixon popularly known as Mamuzee twins have some things in common so have they gone through thick and thin while trying to bail themselves out of the shackles of poverty. With a background that many would attest to as rosy, what could have prompted them to pitch their tent at the beach, Victoria Island and live in an uncompleted building weathering the storms of life? Their father, Chief Binnawaifia Dixon Engbi was Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Ghana when they were born. But the Bayelsan high chief and diplomat surrounded himself with nine wives and ten concubines. “It is amazing to know that poverty inspired us into music. I mean poverty led us into music. I came from a family where my father had nine wives and ten concubines. There was competition in the house because everybody wanted to be the best; everybody wanted the best for her child. So right from the onset apart from the fact that we are brothers, we decided to carve out a niche for ourselves”, the duo told Glitterati recently.

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Looking back at their catalogue of songs in the last nine years from their debut, “Abi you know know say Jehovah na God”, it is hard to imagine that the duo have since put their past behind and have now become celebrities in the Nigerian music industry. The Mamuzee twins spoke with FUNKE OLAODE.

How would you describe your upbringing? Our growing up days were full of lessons in the sense that we grew up with a lot of wives in the house. And of course, you were exposed to a lot of ideologies. There were lots of ups and downs. But it was still fun because despite our polygamous setting, I was close to my brother. We went to school together, church together and all that.

What led you into music?

It is amazing to know that poverty inspired us into music. I mean poverty led us into music. I came from a family where my father had so many wives. There was competition in the house because everybody wanted to be the best; everybody wanted the best for her child. So right from the outset, apart from the fact that we are brothers, we decided to carve out a niche for ourselves where two of us would be friends, partners and so on. That was how we opted for music. We had our primary and secondary education in Ghana where we were born and later came back to Nigeria. Our father, Chief Binnawaifia Dixon Engbi was Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Ghana when we were born.

You said that poverty pushed you into music. That is a contradiction considering your background as sons of a diplomat?

Diplomats weren’t exposed to a lot of money in those days. My father was just okay, I mean comfortable. You can imagine a man with nine wives in the house and ten concubines in the house. Altogether we had nineteen women in the house. They were more like teachers to us. But for the fact that everybody wanted to practice her own ideology, style, ways of discipline made it difficult for the children to really understand one another. Honestly, that setting helped the bond between us and we thank God for that.

How did you survive what could be termed a house of commotion?

Originally, my father was married to nine wives and then had in-house concubines. Interestingly, our mother was the ninth wife. Like I said earlier, there was competition among the wives and children. But fortunately for us, we were the loved children of our father. He showered us with a lot of love because when we came into his life a lot of things changed in his life and his business. It would interest you that my father was a very strong man who could manage any situation in his household. He was a disciplinarian and up till today, he is the wisest man. I mean he was able to put his house in order even amidst problems.

Back to your profession. When did you actually launch yourself into the limelight?

We came to the limelight in 1999 when we launched a single titled, “Abi you know no say Jehovah na God”. Today, that track is still the most widely played gospel song in the whole of West Africa. A lot of people have re-mixed it in the North, South, East and West of Africa. I have listened to it a couple of times and they don’t give us kudos. That same year we did a follow up of that song by doing another version of it. That shot us to the limelight in 2000 when we won the Black Pearl Awards, the biggest award in South Africa for best New Act in West Africa and Most Entertaining Artiste in West Africa.

People see you as dancers more than artistes. How do you juggle the two together?

Funny enough we started out as dancers when we were living at the Bar Beach on Victoria Island struggling with life. We had a tent on Bar Beach and at the same time, over two hundred people had tents on the same bar beach. And for you to have people come around to your tent your tent must be neat and the chairs must be well kept.

You mean you didn’t have money to rent an apartment?

Well, that period was one of the hardest periods of our lives and I would rather leave that story for another day. We lived at the bar beach and while we were there we started dancing to attract all the expatriates that were coming to the beach with their families. The entertaining aspect we added to our tent attracted more patronage. The music too was part of it and we started going to clubs to sing, mime. We started with reggae and we felt we didn’t have enough audience like when we did the African song. And we started turning reggae, blues to African songs and people appreciated that.

So far how many albums have you released?

We have released a lot of successful albums in the last nine years. We released the first album “Abi you know no say Jehovah na God” in 1999, Awigiri (African indigenous dance) in 2002, Aristos in 2005. Honestly, music has really exposed us both locally and internationally. Awigiri is the most popular indigenous dance in the whole of Niger Delta. We modernized the dance and it shot us to the limelight and we travelled round all over Europe in 2002/2003. Aristos too was popular and it gave birth to a non-governmental organization called RONDY-Reaching Out to Nigerian Determined Youths. We released Aristos when we came back on tour from Paris. We found out that a lot of Nigerian girls engaged themselves in sexual act. And the major cause is that they are undergraduates and they have to engage in relationships with sugar daddies to sustain themselves. And this sugar daddy sent them abroad and they later got stranded. That was what prompted us to launch the album and the NGO. We later took it to all the universities in Nigeria. We are planning to release another album before the year runs out.

What gave you the confidence that you were going to succeed through music?

Looking back at how we started in the cold on the Bar Beach we believe that God Almighty is on our side. Apart from our horrible sojourn at the Bar beach, we lived in an uncompleted building in Park View Estate. In fact, that particular house has been bought over by Jay Jay Okocha. With that background, we realized that if one is determined and focused in whatever profession you find yourself you would definitely succeed. We had that conviction and we thank God that it has paid off.

Having bailed yourself out of poverty through music, what is money to you?

I don’t know your own definition of poverty. To me, poverty may mean different things to different people. When somebody is poor, it might necessarily mean he doesn’t have money or he doesn’t have a good home. When you are unhappy that may be your own side of poverty. Money is a means and not the end. We can say that we are okay now and not that we have several millions in our account. We don’t have to have a fleet of cars now to describe us as being rich, but the fact that we can render little assistance to the less privileged and ability to take care of our family.

Both of you are very close. Can you describe a typical instance of mistaken identity?

Yes we are identical twins and that got us into trouble even when we were in Ghana as both of us were punished for an offense committed by one. Though we are identical, we still have our own characteristics. I am stubborn and my brother is on the quiet side. We also have problem with women because you can be dating one girl and confusion may set in when the girl tries to find out the true identity. Yes there are sometimes cases of mistaken identity and when it happens it makes our bond stronger and healthier.

Inspite of your strong bond, is there anything both of you can’t share?

We can share every other thing but the only thing in our lives that we cannot share is our wives. When we were growing up we promised that we were going to get married to one woman. That was our heart’s desire but God didn’t make it possible. Today we are married to identical beautiful twins from the same parents. We are more like friends and we don’t see ourselves as couples. We don’t hide anything from each other. In fact, we have been able to inspire others through our marriage.

Do you think it is possible to share the same wife?

Yes it would have been possible because we got a lot of girls, who agreed to do that, but their parents didn’t agree and our mother objected to it.

How many children?

Right now we are expecting twins each. And we know it will happen.

You have been doing things together. How can each of you chart an individual course that will later become complementary?

Why do we have to do things differently? We have seen a lot of twins that started well together and later parted ways. We have always tried things together while we were growing up. My bother was in science class and I was in arts class. He was once in medical school while I was pursing a career in law but it didn’t work out. We also went to the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) but it didn’t work out too.

If you were to choose one person, other than your brother, who would it be?

Nobody. Not even my wife. My brother comes first before anything in my life.

Considering all the suffering, what lesson has life taught you?

It is a big lesson, that one should never give up whatever one’s situation or circumstance. Believe in yourself. God kept us alive for a purpose. And the biggest lesson is that with God all things are possible and when men say it is over God takes over. We had a mother who didn’t encourage us in anyway because she believed that our elder brothers abroad would take care of her. Today it is different. The house she is living now we bought it and even her car. My advice for my fans out there is to believe in their dreams, they shouldn’t give up. Whatever they set their minds to do they should believe God and He would take it to the end because nothing surpasses Him.


http://odili.net/news/source/2008/sep/14/201.html

This transgendered sef. I am spokes person against injustices towards any group. I know you like what's happening to the Ijaws at the moment. Deny it.

whatever

How can a sane person begin to reason with you?. You may soon enter my ignore list here because i have a lot of members on my ignore list.

Big lie. Whatz the big deal with Brandy sef?

When I told you that the Igbos controls and dominate everything in Nigeria you guys hasten to see me as a tribalistic man.
The poll is not yet open till people notice that such do exist. we'll be clocking 90%

whatever.

It's a pity that an Ijaw man Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is his spokes person in this kind of issue. Talk about smearing his already down people in the name of serving his masters. The Gods of Ijaw land should smack that guy.

You've jumped from ibo spokesman to ijaw spokesman?

Can a moderator plz delete those Google satellite map or w/e it is.
It's taking up valuable space

Lol

How stupid is this title. He killed his children and his wife and satan are to blame? May he rot in hell.

I think it's better to ask God to forgive him. Men can be so callous.

Are they Nigerians?

I just like the guy.

@QuotaSyste:
You haven't answered my question; are you scared?

He doesn't have the answer.

Please! Where did they get 75M naira?

Even okocha or kanu or Obafemi can hardly vomit that amount of money. That's about $700K

[size=14pt]Nigeria: A molue without a driver[/size]
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

"This is an example of a country that has fallen down; it has collapsed. This house has fallen" - Prof Chinua Achebe



Last week, the Action Congress (AC) described Nigeria as a plane on auto pilot. That was not the first time the party had deployed such a penetrating and haunting imagery to attempt making some form of meaning out of the whole maze of juvenile confusion going on in Abuja in the name of Government. Earlier this year, on January 7, 2008, to be specific, the AC while lamenting the ''depth of the confusion in the Yar'Adua administration" insisted that the government which President Umar Musa Yar'Adua claims to be running in Aso Rock was "on auto pilot, with no one in charge!''

I think the Action Congress has only grossly understated the matter. A plane on auto pilot is at least airborne, moves, follows a clearly determined course, and unless somebody enters the cockpit and touches a wrong button, the plane would remain on course, cruising and heading to a definite destination as already determined by the pilot. But here, the plane called NIGERIA which crash-landed several years ago is yet to take off. And like we know, the auto pilot is totally useless to a grounded plane. It only becomes useful when the plane had taken off, gained appreciable height and stabilized. But most unfortunately, what we have here is a pilot who is incapable of appreciating our eagerness to see our plane take off without any further delay. Instead he is sitting passively and watching the further vandalisation of the plane and carting away of its essential parts by the prodigal and thieving elements among us. He just does not know what to do and does not even care that the country is further decaying as a result of this criminal neglect.

The eight years of organized banditry effectively supervised by Gen Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999 to 2007 still ranks as the most devastating calamity to hit this nation since the Biafra-Nigeria War. That outrageous regime not only effectively gang-raped and ran the country aground, it ensured it left its battered, bruised and demobilized body in the hands of an unwilling and critically unfit fellow who is more engrossed with his own equally critical personal challenges to appreciate the urgency the rehabilitation a gasping nation like ours requires. President Yar'Adua was imposed on Nigerians for only one self-serving reason, namely, he could be relied upon to not allow any probing enquiry by the agents of the state into the calamitous eight year misrule of Obasanjo and his sizeable army of ravaging locusts; he would never allow the slightest hint of light to be beamed on the source of his sudden, incredible, boundless wealth or that of post-office loyal accomplices. The media may write about it, but that's where it would just end. And for Yar'Adua, once he has been able to remain faithful to this singular most important duty of shielding his benefactor from "embarrassment" (and, to be fair to him, he has been doing this very efficiently) any other matter, including seeking the urgent healing of a fast dying nation, remains secondary. That is why, for instance, even though the power probe had played out and entertained us all, no action may be taken on its report. Certainly, not as long as Mr. Yar'Adua is president in Aso Rock. So much for anti-corruption and rule of law!

So, because this regime is not in place to seek the well-being of ordinary Nigerians, that is why a sitting president could abscond from his office and for more than two weeks, and it did not occur to him that he owed the people he was supposed to be ruling any coherent explanation, beyond the irritatingly discordant and infantile lies recklessly spat on the nation by his grossly inefficient and shameless aides.

Certainly, Nigeria does not deserve this. Given the extent of dilapidation that currently defines this nation, what we need now is an up and doing ruler - an unambiguous rehabilitator, a clear-eyed surgeon with a sharp scalpel to arrest the pervasive decay before it devours the whole edifice. For such a ruler, nothing can do except a war cabinet and certainly not an assemblage of light-minded fellows who are yet to appreciate the enormity of the task on their hands. But if the leader is yet to understand the emergency situation the nation is presently in, how then would he be able to appreciate the need for a war cabinet filled with deft, competent hands? If the Obasanjo regime was an abandoned project, an excellent example of how a nation can be in the absence of any form of government, you can then imagine what we have in our hands after those years of mindless pillaging and unimaginable decay. Nigeria is just a horribly vandalized molue bus abandoned at a lonely spot on the highway, with neither a driver nor a conductor.

Yes, Nigeria in 2008 is too sick and gasping for breath, and left too far behind by even its leanly endowed neighbours, to be left in the hands of a critically overwhelmed president evidently unsure of his next move, and grappling with snail-speed some hurriedly packaged ideas he is not even sure would work. To fill the gaping void created by a pitiably immobile executive cruelly trapped on some kind of suspended animation, the National Assembly has gone on rampage, prodigally allocating outrageously unrealistic salaries and jumbo allowances to themselves and painting the nation red with their obscene advertisement of extreme profligacy and affluence-flaunting.

President Yar'Adua should shake off all the leeches holding him hostage in Abuja and take a critical decision now in the interest of the nation, which would earn him national and global respect. Yar'Adua once unfolded what he called his Seven-Point Agenda, but I doubt if he would even be able to recite all of them now. He once mouthed something about anti-corruption and rule of law, but right now, even he himself would attest that those have since become obsolete terms in Nigeria. This regime neither abhors corruption nor has the slightest hint of soft spot for the rule of law. I am appealing to President Yar'Adua to kindly give up Nigeria and retire to the serenity of his Katsina village to squarely tackle his personal challenges. His name has already entered the record books as a one-time president of Nigeria. That name would further glitter like diamonds if he would immediately relinquish the office whose leadership he is just inadequately equipped and seemingly unfit to occupy. He should put a halt to all these perennial groping and dumb guesswork, hand in his papers, retire to Katsina in peace, and save the nation further trauma of having to perennially wait for a man who may never be able to respond to the challenges of such a high and strategic office. Although hangers on and parasites feeding fat on the grounded system may hold a different view, certainly, the line action I am recommending to him would attract a kinder verdict from history to him. The nation is just tired of painfully watching him going on like a little child handed a terrible complicated strange toy to decode which he neither has the strength or vision to attempt. This aimless groping has gone on for too long, and is being complicated by unparalleled insensitivity. Nigeria has done nothing to deserve this.

http://odili.net/news/source/2008/sep/12/708.html

Again, Yar’Adua wants ‘Blood Diamond’ concept for stolen oil
From Patrick Ugeh in Abuja, 09.12.2008
Friday, September 12, 2008

President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has again urged international community to regard petroleum products stolen from conflict areas as blood oil, in the same mould as blood diamond.



Speaking yesterday at the opening ceremony of the West Africa Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), Yar'Adua, who spoke through his deputy, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, said: "Of keen interest to the Nigerian government is the application of the Kimberly process to elements of extractive industries other than diamond. The Nigerian experience shows that there is a sense in which we can talk of blood oil."

According to the president, there were definitive challenges which EITI must face up to in the various countries of the West African sub-region, adding: "It must be stressed that, desirable as it is, EITI is not a magic bullet. This is because mere implementation of EITI will not provide the omnibus solution to all the developmental challenges of a society. By the same token, EITI cannot be a stand-alone item on the agenda for development."

He said there was therefore the critical need to strengthen the link between transparency, accountability and overall development, adding that meaningfully addressing these challenges would require innovative strategies that speak to "our peculiar situations."

Yar'Adua stated that given the strategic importance of oil, gas and solid minerals in the economies of West Africa, and given the urgent need for a more transparent and prudent management of revenues from these sectors, the ongoing conference was a timely forum.

"Six short years after its birth in South Africa, we are beginning to see that EITI is not an empty call: it can work, and it does work," he said.

"Even this early in the day, early fruits are becoming manifest: searchlights are being beamed on dark places; civil society, companies and government are collaborating for a win-win solution to resource governance".

"Sharp practices are being exposed; perceptions and incidences of corruption are reducing; citizens and civic groups are asking hard questions, becoming more constructively engaged, and in the process, strengthening the levers of democracy and development."

The president, who said Nigeria's experience was a living proof of the usefulness of EITI, stated that 50 years after it started exporting oil in commercial quantity, the country was yet to diversify its economy satisfactorily, or provide requisite physical infrastructure, and develop its human capital adequately.

"Rather, oil seemed to fuel corruption and bad governance," he said, noting however, that because of the government's resolve to reverse this trend, the Nigerian government initiated a package of anti-corruption and governance reforms, a major part of which was the reform of the petroleum sector."

As a result, he said, it was no surprise that Nigeria was one of the first countries to sign on to, and implement EITI, a feat that was acknowledged by the AU Executive Director, M.H. Khalil Timamy, Netherlands Ambassador, Arie van der Wiel, Norwegian envoy, Mr. Tore Nedrebo, World Bank's Country director, Mr. Onno Ruhl and ECOWAS president, Dr. Ibn Chambas, among others.

Chair of NEITI, Prof. Assisi Asobie, listed the impact of the reforms on Nigeriaís economy to include an increase in the Foreign Direct Investment inflow ffrom US$1.47 billion in 2000 to US$7.6 billion in 2007 while GDP per capita rose from $875 in 2003 to $1,500 in 2007, while the Transparency Internationalís Corruption Perception Index improved from 1.6 in 2000 to 2.2 in 2007 and 2008.

http://odili.net/news/source/2008/sep/12/214.html

Yar’Adua orders building of new refineries • Says oil caused Nigeria’s woes

Soji-Eze Fagbemi and Ayodele Adesanmi, Abuja
Friday, September 12, 2008
TO solve the incessant increase in the prices of petroleum products, President Umaru Yar’Adua has given a directive that new refineries should be constructed.





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Minister of State for Energy in charge of Petroleum, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, disclosed this on Thursday, even as he told the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) that the Federal Government would require N1 trillion to subsidise petroleum products.

Mr. Ajumogobia, speaking at a public hearing organised by the committee on “Alarming Increase in the Prices of Kerosene and Diesel,” said the Federal Government was now set to commence the building of new refineries to permanently solve the problems of fuel scarcity and fuel price increase.

He stated that President Yar’Adua had directed that “high power refineries and petrochemical industries should be built to address the incessant increase in petroleum products prices.

“President Yar’Adua has directed that more refineries should be built to solve the problem of petroleum products price increase,” adding that the president gave the directive because the government was handicapped in controlling the situation in the sector due to the alleged unwholesome practices of those licensed to build refineries as well as those licensed to import kerosene.

“The Federal Government is set to commence building more new refineries. Those who won the previous licences issued are not interested in building refineries. The government is handicapped on the issue of kerosene.

“Petroleum sector had been deregulated, but those licensed to import fuel to the country prefer to import aviation fuel because it is more profitable. The allocation to import kerosene is therefore diverted to import aviation fuel.

“Our local refineries are not working, even if working and operating at optimal capacity, it cannot be enough. We still need to import 40 per cent to meet local consumption,” the minister said.

Already, Mr. Ajumogobia said the government had spent N500 billion on fuel subsidy this year adding that this would increase to N800 billion before the end of the year.

When the minister was probed further on the need to subsidise diesel by the committee, he stated that this would require N1 trillion before the end of the year.

He, however, explained that with the Federal Government’s commitment to improve power generation, demand for diesel by industries would reduce, adding that once there was improvement in power supply, there would be less dependence on diesel.

The minister stated that the market prices were what was obtainable in the international market, explaining that the price of crude oil which was $139 in July was now $99 per barrel, adding that this might have negative effects on the budget which was predicated on a fixed price.

The Senate President, Senator David Mark, said the National Assembly must provide the needed framework that would further help government’s efforts at achieving a virile energy sector.

He pointed out that the executive arm was putting together a comprehensive Petroleum Sector Reform Bill, which would be brought to National Assembly for consideration very soon, saying that the Senate would treat it with dispatch while making sure that it meets the aspirations of Nigerians.

Also, President Yar’Adua on Thursday said that discovery of oil in Nigeria had fuelled corruption and bad governance. The president noted that “fifty years after we started exporting oil in commercial quantities, we are yet to diversify our economy satisfactorily, provide requisite physical infrastructure, and develop our human capital adequately. Rather, oil seems to fuel corruption and bad governance”

Yar’Adua who spoke at the opening ceremony of the West Africa EITI Conference, said that his administration had resolved to reverse the trend as a result of which the government initiated a package of anti-corruption and governance reforms.

He added that the resolve informed the ongoing reform in the petroleum sector, which he said was a natural thing to do “because it was in tandem with our reform and developmental agenda” The president, who was represented by Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, stated that “our commitment to institutional and structural reform in all facets of our national life is informed by the imperative to create the enabling environment for us to deliver on our seven-point agenda and our social contract with the Nigerian people.”

Today, he said, Nigeria had attained the status of one of the leading EITI-implementation countries in the world. The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, (NEITI), according to him, had succeeded in putting both the supervising government agencies and oil companies on their toes and ensuring that transactions were done in line with due process.

He explained that it was not surprising that Nigeria was one of the first countries to sign on to and implement EITI, promising that before the end of the year, “Nigeria would formally pass the EITI validation test and move up to the status of a compliant country.”


http://odili.net/news/source/2008/sep/12/605.html

you know EFCC is yeye body, do you want to know why i said so. they claim ladoja stole N6.4 billion of oyo state money. You just know that is ethnics playing its head.

Here is the truth, how much was oyo state getting when ladoja was governor of the state. it was less than 2 billion a month. By the time ladoja pays teachers and works in the state, how much would remain?. Do you calculation,

Now image how easy it would be for abia state governor to pay teacher, how many people live there,

Now how did ladoja get 6.4 billion, that is like 4 month of oyo state federal allocation. so did ladoja pay teachers and workers when he was in office. I know this for a fact, that by the end of the month, sometime oyo state government borrows money from banks to pay workers and oyo state is in debt.

Not from ladoja, but from over population.

Why were they out to destroy Ladoja? If it was tribalism, they will target every Yoruba governor or are they still planning to do it? Now, I don't know how much Abia is getting but remember that being an oil producing state may be another reason to increase their resources.

How do you figure out the population from these satellite images? Number of houses do not equate to population by the way. Remember the easterners love to build tall houses. Onitsha is flooded with 4 story buildings everywhere so a plot can contain between 10-20 households. Same may be applicable to Aba and Umuaha.

Land mass is not the same as population otherwise Sokoto will be more densely populated than London.

Can you tell us why he ran to Ghana? https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-21299.0.html

He ran to Ghana because Obasanjo and his group were persecuting him for not supporting the third term.

That is what my mom said. Cause i think Ike means Strength, so that is why they "ordered" me to stay with them until the storm passes. Btw Deepzone, it is Igbo, not ibo.

What a coincidence and this one is coming with enormous "ike/strenght" towards the coasts of Texas. That's why i think it's an angry IGBO god(from the Niger Delta side).

@Deepzone

You re finished, Quotasystem is coming for u. Now u ve actually outdone yourself.

Lol, I'm waiting for him. Abi, wetin I talk na lie?

What an insult, why is my name not dia.
DeepZone carry time oooh.
Even my papa name no dey

Who be your papa? Obasanjo?

Hurricane Ike? Why give it an igbo name? Ibo people always cause katakata anywhere dem go including their gods. See the havoc their god, Ike is causing around the world.

_{I can hear Quotasystem thumping his feet now. Na joke I dey joke my brother.}

Is that even real? Juju against gunshots?

It's realooo.

Ohh, you dirty tribalist. Why didn't you say "Whatever, Dangote made his money from SCRATCH" It's so glaring that you are here to protect your own even when he is the most corrupt. More than Dangote.

Is there any thing wrong with protecting your own as long as you are not protecting evil? What evil did Adenuga commit in Nigeria? At least, there are indications that Dangote got some help from the Federal govt coffers but not Adenuga. Why not discuss dirty Ibo billionaires like Globe Motors or Car Links or Fred Ajudia?

Remove Dangote and Adenuga from that list. Those were people that their bank accounts were stuffed with government stolen money. Their system is not how millionaires are made.

Whatever, Adenuga made his money from SCRATCH.

jakande

Quotasystem is back again with his usual tribal opata.

A ti ri furo adiye!!! My Beloved ebute PHCN people don reveal the mago mago wey them don they do for tey?? ROFLMAO!!

Yesooo.

Before their ships gets to the shore of nija, and the are ablet o get a place to anchor the ships, most nigerians would be dead.

If we can use juju to protect ourselves from gun shots, why not hurricane?