₦airaland Forum

LAGOS—NOBEL Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has said that some Niger Delta militant groups had reached out to him in their efforts at interfacing with the Federal Government on the current militancy in the region, pleading with the government to genuinely listen to the agitators.
This came as traditional rulers from the region listed the cessation of hostilities by the military, reopening of Maritime University and release of individuals detained, among others, as conditions for enduring peace.
Noble Lareate, Playwriter and Poet, Prof Wole Soyika
Soyinka also said he had passed on the message of what was happening in the region to some international figures in London, but emphasised that no international interventionist group had been formed on the matter.
Briefing newsmen, yesterday, in Lagos at an event convened to update the nation about the activities of Wole Soyinka Foundation, Soyinka debunked reports where he was credited to have said that an international interventionist group had agreed to meet President Muhammadu Buhari on the crisis.
Soyinka, who demanded accurate reportage of the issue, given its sensitive nature, disclosed that the Cedars Institute, Notre Dame University, Lebanon, and the Wole Soyinka Foundation would partner on a programme designed to promote cultural dialogue.
He, however, said the programme, entitledThe Sail Project,was an intensive course for international students, adding that it would assist in bridging the social, racial and cultural gaps inherent in human relations.
Begs FG to positively listen to agitators
He said: “I wish to make an appeal to the government to respond positively to the outreach from the militant groups. That is the request which has been made by some of the groups.
“At the moment, they feel that the government of President Buhari is not seriously responding to them. And I will make a personal appeal to the government to respond positively and let us see where it ends.
“But I am not part of any international group, I was approached personally and I have been responding personally to some of these groups just as I did when President Jonathan was in power and MEND was the umbrella group of the insurgents.
“So, I make that appeal once more to the government to please respond to the efforts of these militant groups to arrive at a holistic and comprehensive solution.
“When I was ambushed at the villa the other day, I did say that I would answer questions on my visit to the Villa at a press conference that I had already planned, which is this one as a matter of fact.
‘’What I have to say is that today is not the day I will talk about that visitation and the real reason is this, I had a meeting with the House of Lords in London. The meeting was not about the main subject that took me to Aso Rock which, among other things, is the problem we have in the Delta.
“But I used that opportunity to meet a certain number of international figures, parliamentarians, royal heads to pass on a message internationally to prospective interveners in what is happening in the Delta at the request of some of the militant groups.
“That meeting was reported in the media and it was badly distorted. Let me make a plea, it is bad enough distorting whatever happens on certain subjects. But on an issue like the insurgency in Nigeria, the Delta, in particular, we have very delicate grounds and the media has a huge role to play in that.”
lalasticlala

A day after blistering public remarks on his economic policies by the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido, President Muhammadu Buhari has requested top traditional rulers in the country to henceforth put their advice across to him in private written memos.
Buhari made the request yesterday through the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, who visited him at the Presidential Villa as follow up on a private memo he wrote to the president on the state of the nation.
The influential Kano Emir , who is the immediate past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) hadon Wednesdayused a public function in Kaduna to blast Buhari’s handling of the economy, particularly the unproductive subsidy on certain foreign exchange transactions.
Emerging from his meeting with the President, Oba Adeyemi told State House correspondents that the President invited him over on the strength of the advice contained in his written memo.
The revered monarch said “As a Nigerian and one of the topmost traditional rulers in the country, I sent a memorandum to the President which he acknowledged and asked me to come and endorse those things I have written.
“I think it was time for me to use the proper channel to reach the President for suggestions and advice.
“Where he deserves commendation, I should also do that especially as it concerns the multi-dimensional problems Nigeria is facing like the Avengers and bombing of oil installations, MEND and Boko Haram insurgency in the North East.”
According to the Alafin, “The President listened attentively and has asked me to pass the information to other traditional rulers in my domain to assist the government by giving advice because he is a good listener; but that such advice should be put in writing so that he can then relate it to the problems affecting Nigeria.”
He commended the President for acting swiftly to flush out criminal elements that wanted to extend militancy to Lagos and the rest of South-West.
“I have met with the President and offered some suggestions. We are losing huge resources to the activities of the Niger Delta Avengers. Coming close to that is the infiltration of the militants in Lagos and Ikorodu where in the last three weeks, 10 landlords were massacred.

ganisucks:
Nigerians will regret ever voting for APC. When people say that by 2017, Nigerians will be eating each other due to extreme poverty, APCites will be talking balderdash. Without investment, let us see how the government will reach its $42 per barrel pipe dream.

wowmenow:
If not for the igbos in Lagos this how the Yoruba would have been begging in Lagos

Hundreds of Internally Displaced Persons have left their camps and have taken to the streets to protest against hunger and thirst in their respective camps.
Mostly women and children, the visibly angry IDPs barricaded the city’s main entry point, causing a gridlock along the Kano Maiduguri highway.
Security operatives seemed helpless as the IDPs refused to leave the highway.
“We are not fighting but fighting for our survival. The foods are not being supplied, there is no water. No medication for our sick kids; we want food or they should send back to our villages,” said an IDP who identified herself as Aisa from Marte.
“They don’t allow us to go out to beg. We are kept like prisoner without food….”, she said.
No government official has addressed the protesters yet.
Details later

APCHaram:
Buy yourself a gun already because if you think this same fulani controlled army and police will protect you then you are destined to be killed by these rodents

Agunechemba1:
Buhari why?

Hiroto:
Jeez! They look like dead fishes. They have been sacrificed to the gods of their land...No Doubt

eshietIntrepid:
Hypocrite why have u not resigned?

The Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai on Thursday disclosed that the worst job to do in Nigeria today is to be a Governor.
He stated this in Kaduna while delivering an address of welcome at the ongoing Progressive Governance Lecture Series, organized by governors elected under the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
“The worst job in Nigeria today is to be a governor because we are having to deal with an inherited problem which we didn’t have a hand in it, but which we have to solve,” El-Rufai said.

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday debunked newspaper reports quoting him as saying that he and a few others brought President Muhammadu Buhari to power.
He dismissed the reports as baseless, untrue and calculated attempts to smear him.
Obasanjo, who is in Jalingo, Taraba State, said President Buhari was overwhelmingly voted by many Nigerians.
“ No single individual or group can claim that glory,” he said.
During a courtesy visit to Governor Darius Ishaku, Obasanjo spoke about the economic potentials of the state.
He said the Mambila Plateau in Taraba had the potential of becoming the hub of tea production in Africa.
He expressed determination to promote the tea production potential of the state using his connections and experience.
“ The Taraba tea factory is a symbol of national greatness. The tea potential of this state can attract global demand and earn the nation foreign exchange,” he said.
Obasanjo noted that beside tea, the state also had potentials in cattle rearing, poultry, power generation, among others.
“ The livestock potential of this state surpasses any kind of cattle rearing known in this country.
“ likewise in poultry which of course is in commercial quantity.
“ The Mambilla Hydro-Power Project, if completed, has the capacity to generate more than half of our power demand in this country.
“ Therefore, Taraba is indeed a blessing to this country,” Obasanjo said.
There are over 50,000 hectares of land suitable for tea production on the Mambilla Plateau.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/not-bring-buhari-power/

A UK-based Nigerian lawyer, Mr. Bennett Igbani, whose MTN line was hacked into by an unidentified person, has slammed a N200 million suit on MTN Nigeria Communications Limited.
In an amended statement of claim filed on Mr. Igbani's behalf before a Federal High Court in Lagos by Lagos lawyer Festus Keyamo, the UK-based lawyer claimed that he had been using his SIM card with the number 08067251116 for over eight years. He also claimed that during the compulsory card registration exercise mandated by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), he personally registered his SIM card with MTN Nigeria Communications Limited and had been using the same exclusively without any interference from anybody until October 4, 2014.
Mr. Igbani, a PhD law student in the United Kingdom, said he roamed his line when he traveled to where he is studying. But three days after his arriving the UK, he added, the line became inoperative. A few days later, he said he observed that his e-mail address was being accessed from Nigeria, as his e-mail account had been hacked into by a third party using his MTN Number.
Mr. Igbani alleged further that his account officer at Sterling Bank Plc called to inform him that one Mrs. Nora, claiming to be his younger sister, called her with his MTN number and requested that the sum of N5 million from his bank account be released to them for because Mr. Igbani required urgent medical attention overseas, as he was gravely ill and on admission in a hospital.
The lawyer, however, stated that he was neither ill nor has a sister named Nora. He added that he was scared, as his MTN line is linked to all his six bank accounts, as well as his e-mail account and social media accounts.
Mr. Igbani averred further that after the attempted fraud on his account, he petitioned the Nigerian Police, stating that his number was reclaimed by a third party through MTN and the third party had access to his PhD thesis and deleted vital documents, thereby causing him serious setback in his academic pursuit.
Upon his return to Nigeria, he went to the MTN office in Lagos and laid a complaint. He said it was confirmed that his MTN line was reclaimed by one Mr. Ndubisi Daniel on October 7, 2014. Subsequently, he requested for the particulars of the person that reclaimed his number but the communications company refused to disclose same.
The refusal compelled him to instruct his lawyer, Mr. Keyamo, to write to MTN, stating that the action of the company was fraudulent.
Mr. Igbani similarly averred that he suffered enormous damages, ranging from being kept incommunicado for over five months to loss of business, psychological stress, financial loss, extraction of vital information and infringement on his privacy.
For these, Mr. Igbani is seeking the sum of N200 million as damages.
He is also seeking an order of the court mandating the MTN to return his number to him and restrain the company from further tampering with his with his number.
The case has been adjourned until September 23 for hearing

seunmsg:
They want to negotiate because the identities of their sponsors have been revealed. Nigeria is bigger than any selfish or bigoted interest. I guess they have finally learnt the bitter truth that no unholy interest can hold down the country.

mars123:
Embrace sense so that in the future you'll know the difference between an advice and "begging on ones knees".

lalasticlala,mynd44 abeg push dis to front page

Adesiji77:
Thanks emamos. Nice share

canDy4eva:
Men una don hear?
Abi make I break am dwn?

According to the Mayo Clinic, one of the world’s largest medical research groups, the causes of male infertility come under three broad categories; medical causes, environmental factors and lifestyle.
The Mayo Clinic said medical causes of infertility may come from infection or antibodies attacking the sperm. There are many other medical causes like undescended testicles and hormone imbalance.
The following are the other factors that may destroy your fertility:
*.Exposure to lead or other heavy metals
*.Exposure to radiation or X-rays
*.Overheating the testicles through frequent use of saunas or hot tubs
*.Sitting for long periods, wearing tight clothing or working on a laptop computer for long stretches of time
*.Use of anabolic steroids taken to stimulate muscle strength and growth can cause the testicles to shrink and sperm production to decrease
*.Use of cocaine or marijuana may temporarily reduce the number and quality of your sperm as well
*.Drinking alcohol can lower testosterone levels, cause erectile dysfunction and decrease sperm production.
*.Liver disease caused by excessive drinking also may lead to fertility problems.
*.Tobacco smoking
*.Emotional stress
*.Obesity can impair fertility

The inch-long scar on the neck of 53-year-old Mrs. Christiana Ashinwo, is one of the physical reminders of the horror of Sunday, April 24, 2016.
She sat on a chair quietly in the sitting room of a house in Agbado area of Lagos, which she built with the sweat and suffering of many years as a single mother and plank vendor. Her head was bowed when our correspondent went to meet her.
But when Mrs Ashinwo looked up, her eyes were glazed with a faraway look that would easily giveaway the fact that she could have witnessed trauma, great trauma that she obviously had yet to recover from.
Who would blame her? Watching her daughter killed before her presence, is enough to give her chills every moment for the rest of her life. The horrific incident she witnessed and survived few months ago in Kwara State remains so fresh on her mind.
Our correspondent had reported on April 30 how Mrs. Ashinwo and her daughter, 30-year-old Oluwatosin Ashinwo, an employee of MTN in Ilorin, Kwara State were attacked by a knife-wielding obsessed suitor of the young lady, 45-year-old David Ogundele.
Mrs. Ashinwo survived the attack, her daughter didn’t.
The older woman’s injuries were no less extensive, as she spent many days in the emergency unit of a hospital in Ilorin as doctors battled to save her life. She would later spend another two months in the intensive care unit of the hospital.
Our correspondent paid her a visit in Lagos, days after she was discharged and brought back home.
With a very raspy voice and intermittent cough that came out with each word, one would conclude that all was still not well with the woman, who was left for dead in the pool of her own blood in Ilorin that fateful day.
For her, the agony she feels with each morsel of food and gulp of liquid passing through her knife-damaged throat was nothing compared to the daily torment of thinking about how she lost her first child, breadwinner, and daughter.
“I knelt down to beg my daughter’s killer as he held the knife that later took my daughter’s life. I thought kneeling would pacify him,” she said.
The story Mrs. Ashinwo told was one of agony, climaxing at the moment she laid in a pool of her own blood and tried with every ounce of her waning strength to crawl to where her daughter laid lifeless.
“I was dead; I don’t know why God brought me back. But I am sure I was dead that day. I tried to crawl and touch my daughter but my strength failed. I could see she was not breathing. There was blood everywhere; mine and my daughter’s,” she said.
According to her, the day of the attack was the first time he would meet the killer, Ogundele.
Mrs. Ashinwo said, “The first time we spoke, he called me and introduced himself as Engineer David. He told me he was my daughter’s friend and I should help him to appeal to my daughter to marry him.
Mrs Ashinwo
“I was surprised but I told him that my daughter was a 30-year-old woman. She was free to make her own decision about who to marry.
“He called again some weeks later and said he and my daughter had settled the issue.
“The next time, he called, he was very angry. He said he had never been humiliated the way my daughter humiliated him. It was few days after my daughter’s birthday. He said he organised a birthday party for her and invited his friends and even bought a car as gift but she did not honour the invitation.
“I did not know what to say. My daughter already had a car and already has someone else she wanted to marry. I told him not to be annoyed and forget about the issue since my daughter had made up her mind.
“Prior to April 30, I started having some bad dreams about my daughter and became really concerned. I decided that it was time to go and check on her to know how she was doing.
“On my way to Ilorin, the man (Ogundele) called again and said as soon as I get to Ilorin, he would come and pick me at the park. I said nothing. But since I did not even know him I went straight to my daughter’s place without calling him.
“When I met my daughter, she took me to a woman, who seemed to be her confidante. We ate and the woman told me that my daughter had a fight with one man called Engineer David that day and the man threatened to kill her.
“I did not waste time; I stood up and told her I must report to the police. But my daughter told me to let the matter go. She said I was just making a big issue out of a small matter.
“She said that was why she did not like telling me some things some times. I let the matter go because I did not want to be like an overzealous mother.”
But that was one decision that would haunt Mrs. Ashinwo every second of every day.
The following day, Sunday April 30, without any hint about the danger that lurked in the shadow, she and her daughter had just got home from somewhere that day. As they entered Oluwatosin’s flat, Ogundele, who was said to be have been hiding around the flat, cornered them in the flat.
Mrs. Ashinwo said, “He entered and locked the door behind him and put the key in his pocket. I had just finished bathing when my daughter called out to me that he was in the flat. I quickly dressed and prepared to meet the man that had been disturbing me so much with calls. When I saw him, I said ‘Good day, pleased to meet you’ and he replied that, ‘there is nothing good about today.’
“As soon as I saw him, I sighted the knife he was holding. I asked him what the problem was and he kept quiet. I did not understand what was happening. He was saying so many things I did not understand. I asked him if my daughter owed him anything. I promised to pay back everything. He said she did not owe him anything. He was just angry.
“I told him that even if they offended each other, it should not be that bad that it would require the use of a knife. I told them they could still be friends. When I realised he had no intension of dropping the knife, I went down on my knees. I was begging him to drop the knife. Then, he came to where I knelt and carried me up.
“Just when I thought the issue would end, he rushed at Tosin and held her down on the bed. He started stabbing her furiously. As my daughter screamed, I rushed at him. I could not just stand and he stared stabbing me too over the body.”
Scars from stabbing on Mrs. Ashinwo’s back
By the time the attack was over, Mrs. Ashinwo had been stabbed at least 10 times in her torso, with the knife going through her throat in the
As all became quiet in the room where the dying women lay, Ogundele, dropped his weapon, the bloody knife and locked his victims in the room,Saturday PUNCHlearnt.
Minutes went by as Mrs. Ashinwo tried to call out to her daughter who was bleeding from every parts of the body.
She said she was so weak she could not even call out to her daughter who had become lifeless at that point.
Lucky for her, she heard someone in a kitchen behind her daughter’s window. The woman said she used the last ounce of her strength to call the person, who later raised the alarm.
By the time the door was broken down, it was too late for Oluwatosin. She was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
As Mrs. Ashinwo told this story, there was no doubt it was with tremendous agony as she relived the gory details.
Saturday PUNCHhad earlier reported that Ogundele was arrested in Osun on Saturday, May 14, after the police tracked him down with undercover agents.
But Mrs. Ashinwo said the police have not even contacted her to give evidence. She said she could not understand why Ogundele has not been charged to court.
The spokesperson for the Kwara State Police Command, Mr. Ajayi Okasanmi, said he did not have information about the prosecution of the suspect when our correspondent called him.

The Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Paul Boroh, has said 500 ex-militant youths from the Niger Delta will be trained in various agriculture-related skills as a means of engaging the youths in the sector.
Boroh stated this at the graduation of ex-militant trainee pilot scheme at the Bio Resources Development Centre, Odi, Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
The Amnesty boss described the pilot scheme as a success, saying the potential that abound in agriculture was enormous.
He said some of the ex-militants would be sent to Songhai Farms in Delta State, while others would be deployed to the various agriculture programme departments at the Delta State University, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, and the Peremabiri Rice Farms in the state.
Boroh, who decried the nation’s overdependence on oil, said agriculture remains the best alternative in the Federal Government’s diversification programme.
He said, “The shift from reliance on agriculture to overreliance on oil income has had a tremendous impact on agriculture and the localities where crude petroleum is found.
“It has become the harbinger of hunger, starvation, unemployment and ecosystem degradation and that is the bottom line of the resource-based conflict in the Niger Delta.”
In his remarks, the Director, OBDC, Mr. Josiah Jabu, said the centre was capable of providing scientific and technical knowledge towards improving agricultural production in the country.
lalasticlala,mynd44

Five state governors have advocated the establishment of the Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission.
The governors of Kebbi, Kwara, Kogi, Niger and Plateau states made the demand known to the Federal Government during a meeting held at the Niger State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja.
The Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Mustapha Baba-Shehuri, represented the Federal Government at the meeting.
In a joint communique issued earlier today and signed by the Governor of Niger State, who doubles as the Chairman, HYPPADEC State Governors, Dr. Abubakar Sani-Bello, the five-man group of governors said residents of the affected states were facing severe hardship as a result of the non-establishment of the commission.
They noted that the HYPPADEC bill was passed in 2008 and was subsequently signed into law in 2010, but stressed that the recommendations of the bill had not been observed, as payments due to the states from power generating companies were not remitted.
Sani-Bello, according to the communique, said, “Considering the exigencies of the signed bill, the meeting noted with deep concern the incessant hardship, loss of lives, land and property being experienced by communities in the states along the River Niger.
“This is as a result of annual flooding of the river and its tributaries resulting from the activities of the three hydro-electricity dams located at Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro in Niger State. Hence, the coming together of governors of the affected states to press for the eventual actualisation of HYPPADEC, whose bill has been passed and assented to in 2008 and 2010 respectively.”
lalasticlala,mynd44