₦airaland Forum

In other news after the public outcry after PMB supported southern Morocco and oil being
our major binding factor.
PMB might have taken a decision for explore for oil in the Lake Chad
basin and if that is successful they will now let the southerners go as they now have what the southerners think they can't have.

my personnal opinion though.

Standing5:
If true, then i am dissapointed in Buhari. You have a commodity that whose market value is on the all-time low and you are still looking for it like its some hotcake. Who funds this ego-massaging venture that's merely meant to prove the north has oil? Who does?

this is shear cluelessness
Price of crude has fallen, for any right thinking person their shouldn't be any need
exploring and wasting money searching for new reserve rather invest half of that
money in Agriculture and use the remaining half to fund the production and maintain your output from our proven reserve in the Niger Delta region.

oil exploration is very expensive with lots of probability, so their is no point using the already scarce resources to chase oil where previous people has been chasing and nothing seems to come out and HungerBad will come hear and run his mouth for the clueless one.

hand her over to yinusa since she is a moslem, and under 14yrs let Sanusi bless them.

seankafor:
I wrote my exam on 27th Feb. so this morning I saw an alert from Jamb telling me that my score is 161.
meanwhile I am sure what I wrote that dat shii can not be my score.
now to the whole truth.. teachers of the subjects I sat for were the ones who helped and answered all of the questions.. I also croschecked the ones I knew especially biology, and it was all the correct answers.
now only for Jamb to send me161.. I have gone online to check it but it seems that their portal isn't yet opened..
so who has had this experience before.. and can this be a sort of mistakes or what?
(


MODIFIED.... ITS OFFICIAL. 161..

THATS MY FATE AND I ACCEPT IT.. .. I TRIED.. EVERY BODY TRIED.. BUT NATURE SAYS OTHERWISE....

..LIFE GOES ON.

TO THOSE CRITICIZING.. ITS GOOD BUT IT WILL BE BETTER TO CATCH A GLIMPSE, REASON OUTSIDE THE BOX BEFORE U CRITICIZE... LIFE CHANGES, WHO KNOWS IT MIGHT BE U TOMORROW.?

when small pikin like you start having sex to the point of looking for lepton as contraceptive, tell me how you plan to settle down and read your book.
I pity you though I will still wish you well and advice you to use your score (161) and try COE (Ekiti state College of Education) na there you go see your type.

Small small children just invade Nairaland like Boko haram invade Chibok.

seankafor:
I wrote my exam on 27th Feb. so this morning I saw an alert from Jamb telling me that my score is 161.
meanwhile I am sure what I wrote that dat shii can not be my score.
now to the whole truth.. teachers of the subjects I sat for were the ones who helped and answered all of the questions.. I also croschecked the ones I knew especially biology, and it was all the correct answers.
now only for Jamb to send me161.. I have gone online to check it but it seems that their portal isn't yet opened..
so who has had this experience before.. and can this be a sort of mistakes or what?
(


MODIFIED.... ITS OFFICIAL. 161..

THATS MY FATE AND I ACCEPT IT.. .. I TRIED.. EVERY BODY TRIED.. BUT NATURE SAYS OTHERWISE....

..LIFE GOES ON.

TO THOSE CRITICIZING.. ITS GOOD BUT IT WILL BE BETTER TO CATCH A GLIMPSE, REASON OUTSIDE THE BOX BEFORE U CRITICIZE... LIFE CHANGES, WHO KNOWS IT MIGHT BE U TOMORROW.?

just like KOWA party election results. Are you a card carrying member of KOWA Party? Pls double check.

Johnson & Johnson Ordered To Pay $72m For Cancer Deaths


Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $72 million in damages to the family of a woman whose death from ovarian cancer was linked to her use of talc-based Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for several decades.

Jurors in a Missouri court ruled that the family of Jacqueline Fox should get $10 million of actual damages and $62 million of punitive damages, according to court records.

It is the first verdict to award damages in a string of allegations over cancer risks relating to talc-based products.

Around 1,000 cases of cancer linked to Johnson & Johnson talc products have been filed in Missouri and another 200 in New Jersey.

Fox claimed she used Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for feminine hygiene for more than 35 years before she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer three years ago. She died in October aged 62.

Jere Beasley, a lawyer for Fox’s family, told journalists that Johnson & Johnson “knew as far back as the 1980s of the risk,” and yet resorted to “lying to the public, lying to the regulatory agencies.”

Carol Goodrich, a spokeswoman, said Johnson & Johnson were disappointed with the outcome of the trial.

“We sympathize with the plaintiff’s family but firmly believe the safety of cosmetic talc is supported by decades of scientific evidence,” Goodrich said.

Trials in several other talc lawsuits have been set for later this year.

(Independent)

source
www.cubteq.com/2016/02/25/johnson-johnson-ordered-to-pay-72m-for-cancer-deaths/

NLC petitions Minister over Togolese govt’s rejection of ECOWAS travel certificate from Nigerians
February 23, 2016Bassey Udo

The Nigeria Labour Congress on Tuesday petitioned the minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, demanding an immediate investigation into an allegation that the Togolese government was rejecting travel certificates issued by the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) to Nigerians travelling to the country.
Copies of the petition were also sent to minister of Foreign Affairs; executive secretary, ECOWAS Commission; Togolese ambassador to Nigeria; and comptroller-general of the Nigeria Immigration Service.
The petition, signed by the general secretary of NLC, Peter Ozo-Eson, said the national president of the NLC, Ayuba Wabba, was personally humiliated by officials of Asky Airline at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja on Monday, when he was about to board the flight to Lome, Togo.
Mr. Ozo-Eson said Mr. Wabba was denied boarding and prevented from travelling out of the country by officials of the airline after tendering his ECOWAS Travel Certificate duly issued by the Federal Government of Nigeria on behalf of ECOWAS.
The NLC scribe said officials of Asky Airline who denied Mr. Wabba boarding on the flight said they were acting on the instructions of the Togolese government.
He explained that the travel document issued on July 16, 2015, with an expiration date of July 15, 2017, was previously used by the NLC president on trips to Senegal and Ghana, both members of ECOWAS.
Urging the federal government to consider the issue as a matter of national significance and urgently intervene to save Nigerians the humiliation and embarrassment, Mr. Ozo-Eson said he did not understand why Togo would not recognize a travel document issued by ECOWAS, of which it is a member.

“It is curious that at the time of ticket purchase, Asky Airline did not deem it necessary to warn prospective passengers of ECOWAS origin that the Togolese government does not accept or recognize the ECOWAS Travel Certificate,” the NLC scribe stated.
He said the NLC believes Nigerians, wherever they are, deserve protection if they act within the law, pointing out that by denying Mr. Wabba the right to make the trip, the central labour body was denied the representation at the International Trade Union (ITU)-Africa activity held in Togo.
“The disruption of his travel plan and by extension, denial of his participation at this major activity, has caused the NLC president considerable embarrassment as well as constituted a set-back to the Nigeria Labour Congress and Nigeria,” Mr. Ozo-Eson noted.
When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Sandra Elleingand, the director of communications of ECOWAS, she declined comment, saying she was in a meeting.
But another senior official of the community said on the condition of anonymity that ECOWAS had since stopped issuing travel certificates.
“They should know that ECOWAS does not accept travel certificate anymore, because we do not issue it anymore. What we issue is laissez-passer (a kind of travel document).
“ECOWAS travel certificate is only issued by the embassies in a country when somebody is stranded and is coming back.
“If he said he has used the certificate to travel to Senegal and Ghana before, how long ago? If you go to immigration, being a government official, it does not take a few minutes it would be issued to you at N5, 000 and save yourself from all those embarrassment.
On the petition to the minister, the ECOWAS official said nothing is going come out of it as all government officials already know that travel certificate were no more accepted.
“I don’t know what purpose the petition would serve. He can’t get anywhere with that petition. There was a time ECOWAS was publicising that everyone should get laissez passer. Everybody, including traders, has it,” the source explained.



source:
www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/198900-nlc-petitions-minister-togolese-govts-rejection-ecowas-travel-certificate-nigerians.html

Why will i go for Stockfish (Okporoko), while cat has more flesh?

And he is still ranting
incase you don't know him

Professor Nnamdi Obiaraeri, Former Dean Faculty of award winning Imo state university College of Legal Sciences and the Present Special Assistant to Rochas Okorocha on Parks logistic and road transport.

And more

More pics

More

More pic

Prof. Of Law And S.A To Okorocha Fights Dirty On Facebook Over N5m Bribe (Pics)

I stumbled across this on facebook


The Professor (Prof. Obinna Obiaraeri) is a former HOD of Law depth IMSU, a former Dean of Legal Studies IMSU former SA to Former Imo state governor Udenwa, Ohakim and now Owelle Rochas, and also former commissioner to Ikedi Ohakim.

He asked the Senator for 3m the man gave him, as Oliver twist he came again for N2m the Senator gave him, when he now realised the Senator is a potential Magga, he came to ask for Ford Explorer the Senator said NO, he later asked for Hilux the Senator also said NO then he'll what let loose.

Read through how the Prof was being ridiculed by his people with their comments calling him political prostitute and an unpredictable vision less public servant.


please the stuff should be given a special treatment




Source;
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1033370293367853&id=100000846758332

onatisi:
Nice concept,fantastic idea but to be honest there is virtually on ground at that construction site,it seems they are just starting the project. How many years project is it supposed to be ?

Op you are high on Aguleri weed. You call the picture of a land rig positioned hopefully for drilling or inspection a power plant being built?
Anyway, because you don't know let me just say you try...but to correct you it's a Land rig.

ebeekay:
Good day nairalanders, I need. to make an inquiry about something urgent. My mom was born in the uk in the 1966s and her broda two years after, both were brought back to Nigeria after a while when she was like 4 yrs old..the brother returned in 1989 and claimed his citizenship after taking all their joint documents together. when my mom started pressure in him that she needs the documents for her own processing he kept saying he has misplaced all the documents. We the children have now been making resarch on how to get her back to the uk to claim her citizenship only to find out like one month ago that she is being impersonated in the uk by someone.She has all the prove she is the real citizen birth certificate,pictures of her growing up in the uk, pictures of her parents and her parents documents.please should she go with a Nigerian passport and make a legal suit there or she should try claiming the citizenship from here.
please your help is highly needed.Thanks

*Guy 1966-2016=50yrs

*Guy you don grow up, I'm sure you are thru with university

*Guy wetin you mama wan go UK go do again after 46yrs

*Guy hussle taken care of ur mum and burst that UK idea

*Guy nothing dey for UK, except you want her to go and be doing nanny and sending your money at your age

*Guy save you mum the stress, if you want to go to UK apply for school, life here na die

*Guy if you are hoping you mum will travel to UK and u become a citizen then your hope will be like that of 100 million Nigerians waiting for change.

Thank you as you enter the street to hussle and support you mum.

Ugosample:
I am billed to go to Accra soon, and I'm torn between these two options, as Arik air has fallen my hand.

Please house, which one do you think is better?

Aero or Medview.

Thanks

.

Uptownfemi:
Police report always come with vehicle documents when registering your car.. It is a proof to show your car is not a stolen vehicle. I think this should cost you at most 1k naira at any divisional police station around you.

my problem is not the 1k even is is 500. My problem is, is it a mandatory document for one to have before your own and drive your car in Nigeria?
just like insurance, road worthiness and tinted permit, different police men share different views about the police clearance. If the law says is mandatory then all Nigerians needs to know.
but if is not mandatory even if is 100 people need to be informed to avoid the police preying on innocent Nigerians.

Flexherbal:
OP you are right. What is it for?

p


I really don't know, I have never been convicted before and don't have any cash with the police.
wonder why I must be cleared before I drive a car.

Please help,
I have been having this issues over time, when ever I get to Police check point,
after they finish checking my papers everything okay they will ask me for
police clearance.

Though some other motorist used to show it, but I really dont know must police
clear me before I own and drive a car in Nigeria?

Police in the house, can you please help, is the Police clearance one of the Mandatory papers a are owner must have in Nigeria?

Lalasticlala
mynd44

can you please help me I keep it where I will get fast responds me and other unsuspecting Nigerians really need help on this....

What Is the Difference Between Sunni and Shiite Muslims--and Why Does It Matter?

The Islam religion was founded by Mohammed in the seventh century. In 622 he founded the first Islamic state, a theocracy in Medina, a city in western Saudi Arabia located north of Mecca. There are two branches of the religion he founded.

The Sunni branch believes that the first four caliphs--Mohammed's successors--rightfully took his place as the leaders of Muslims. They recognize the heirs of the four caliphs as legitimate religious leaders. These heirs ruled continuously in the Arab world until the break-up of the Ottoman Empire following the end of the First World War.

Shiites, in contrast, believe that only the heirs of the fourth caliph, Ali, are the legitimate successors of Mohammed. In 931 the Twelfth Imam disappeared. This was a seminal event in the history of Shiite Muslims. According to R. Scott Appleby, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame,"Shiite Muslims, who are concentrated in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, [believe they] had suffered the loss of divinely guided political leadership" at the time of the Imam's disappearance. Not"until the ascendancy of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1978" did they believe that they had once again begun to live under the authority of a legitimate religious figure.

Another difference between Sunnis and Shiites has to do with the Mahdi, “the rightly-guided one” whose role is to bring a just global caliphate into being. As historian Timothy Furnish has written,"The major difference is that for Shi`is he has already been here, and will return from hiding; for Sunnis he has yet to emerge into history: a comeback v. a coming out, if you will."

In a special 9-11 edition of the Journal of American History, Appleby explained that the Shiite outlook is far different from the Sunni's, a difference that is highly significant:

... for Sunni Muslims, approximately 90 percent of the Muslim world, the loss of the caliphate after World War I was devastating in light of the hitherto continuous historic presence of the caliph, the guardian of Islamic law and the Islamic state. Sunni fundamentalist leaders thereafter emerged in nations such as Egypt and India, where contact with Western political structures provided them with a model awkwardly to imitate ... as they struggled after 1924 to provide a viable alternative to the caliphate.
In 1928, four years after the abolishment of the caliphate, the Egyptian schoolteacher Hasan al-Banna founded the first Islamic fundamentalist movement in the Sunni world, the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun). Al-Banna was appalled by"the wave of atheism and lewdness [that] engulfed Egypt" following World War I. The victorious Europeans had"imported their half-naked women into these regions, together with their liquors, their theatres, their dance halls, their amusements, their stories, their newspapers, their novels, their whims, their silly games, and their vices." Suddenly the very heart of the Islamic world was penetrated by European"schools and scientific and cultural institutes" that" cast doubt and heresy into the souls of its sons and taught them how to demean themselves, disparage their religion and their fatherland, divest themselves of their traditions and beliefs, and to regard as sacred anything Western."14 Most distressing to al-Banna and his followers was what they saw as the rapid moral decline of the religious establishment, including the leading sheikhs, or religious scholars, at Al-Azhar, the grand mosque and center of Islamic learning in Cairo. The clerical leaders had become compromised and corrupted by their alliance with the indigenous ruling elites who had succeeded the European colonial masters.


Osama bin Laden was a Sunni Muslim. To him the end of the reign of the caliphs in the 1920s was catastrophic, as he made clear in a videotape made after 9-11. On the tape, broadcast by Al-Jazeera on October 7, 2001, he proclaimed:"What America is tasting now is only a copy of what we have tasted. ... Our Islamic nation has been tasting the same for more [than] eighty years, of humiliation and disgrace, its sons killed and their blood spilled, its sanctities desecrated."

Juan Cole, a well-known historian of the Middle East, has pointed out on his blog, Informed Comment, that the split between Sunni and Shiites in Iraq is of relatively recent origin:

I see a lot of pundits and politicians saying that Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq have been fighting for a millennium. We need better history than that. The Shiite tribes of the south probably only converted to Shiism in the past 200 year s. And, Sunni-Shiite riots per se were rare in 20th century Iraq. Sunnis and Shiites cooperated in the 1920 rebellion against the British. If you read the newspapers in the 1950s and 1960s, you don't see anything about Sunni-Shiite riots. There were peasant/landlord struggles or communists versus Baathists. The kind of sectarian fighting we're seeing now in Iraq is new in its scale and ferocity, and it was the Americans who unleashed it.


In 2014 Professor Cole summed up the differences between Sunni and Shiite this way:

Shiites are more like traditional Catholics in venerating members of the holy family and attending at their shrines. Contemporary Salafi Sunni Islam is more like the militant brand of Protestantism of the late 1500s that denounced intermediaries between God and the individual and actually attacked and destroyed shrines to saints and other holy figures, where pleas for intercession were made


In December 2006 the New York Times reported that it is not just ordinary Americans who find it difficult to remember the difference between Sunnis and Shiites:

SURPRISE quiz: Is Al Qaeda Sunni or Shiite? Which sect dominates Hezbollah?
Silvestre Reyes, the Democratic nominee to head the House Intelligence Committee, failed to answer both questions correctly last week when put to the test by Congressional Quarterly. He mislabeled Al Qaeda as predominantly Shiite, and on Hezbollah, which is mostly Shiite, he drew a blank.
“Speaking only for myself,” he told reporters, “it’s hard to keep things in perspective and in the categories.”
Not that he’s alone. Other members of Congress from both parties have also flunked on-the-spot inquiries. Indeed, some of the smartest Western statesmen of the last century have found themselves flummoxed by Islam. Winston Churchill — in 1921, while busy drawing razor-straight borders across a mercurial Middle East — asked an aide for a three-line note explaining the “religious character” of the Hashemite leader he planned to install in Baghdad.
“Is he a Sunni with Shaih sympathies or a Shaih with Sunni sympathies?” Mr. Churchill wrote, using an antiquated spelling. (“I always get mixed up between these two,” he added.)
And maybe religious memorization should not be required for policymaking. Gen. William Odom, who directed the National Security Agency under President Ronald Reagan, said that Mr. Reyes mainly needs to know “how the intelligence community works.”
Yet, improving American intelligence, according to General Odom and others with close ties to the Middle East and the American intelligence community, requires more than just a organization chart.
A cheat sheet is in order.
The Review asked nearly a dozen experts, from William R. Polk, author of “Understanding Iraq,” to Paul R. Pillar, the C.I.A. official who coordinated intelligence on the Middle East until he retired last year, to explain the region. Here, a quick distillation.
What caused the original divide?
The groups first diverged after the Prophet Muhammad died in 632, and his followers could not agree on whether to choose bloodline successors or leaders most likely to follow the tenets of the faith.
The group now known as Sunnis chose Abu Bakr, the prophet’s adviser, to become the first successor, or caliph, to lead the Muslim state. Shiites favored Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law. Ali and his successors are called imams, who not only lead the Shiites but are considered to be descendants of Muhammad. After the 11th imam died in 874, and his young son was said to have disappeared from the funeral, Shiites in particular came to see the child as a Messiah who had been hidden from the public by God.
The largest sect of Shiites, known as “twelvers,” have been preparing for his return ever since.
How did the violence start?
In 656, Ali’s supporters killed the third caliph. Soon after, the Sunnis killed Ali’s son Husain.
Fighting continued but Sunnis emerged victorious over the Shiites and came to revere the caliphate for its strength and piety.
Shiites focused on developing their religious beliefs, through their imams.
- See more at: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/934#sthash.uYmHxtph.dpuf



Source:
historynewsnetwork.org/article/934

A particular chemist dealer around my neighbourhood sells fake and unregistered drugs.
The first drug I bought from him was a fake strepsil I for used as first aid for sore throat, the pains increased after taking it until I went to the hospital they me the original one which cleared the pain after two days. I noticed his strepsil was sold to my friend for either 6 or 4 for 100 while the original strepsil is being sold for 12 N500.

Secondly, I had a pain in my chest two so weeks later I called my doc and he said I should get Diclofenac 50mg and take to relieve me before I come to the hospital since I will drive myself, i sent my friend to tell the man someone has chest pain and he should buy me the drug and if the chemist man must add any drug he should give him the name and the mg so I will tell my doc before taking and when I get to the hospital, the man gave him he drugs without the details of the drugs.

I went back to the man pls note that this is the same chemist I bought the fake strepsil drug. I asked the man the name of the drug he gave my friend.

Him; na the name u want abi na ur chest pain to stop u want?

me; both

him: I don't know where I dropped the pack

me: Abeg look for am

Him: reluctantly brought it out after my persistence

me; after reading through I discovered name of drug is (chest and lungs, it's made in India, very large expiry date from production date, no nafdac approval)

Me; oga this drug no get nafapdac approval/no

him: na nafdac approval you want abi na wetin go stop ur pains u want

me; both of them

him: Abeg take your money I no want over sabi person this morning

me; collect my money and left and drove straight to the hospital with the pains

please connected people on Nairaland, I need the phone number of any Nafdac enforcement/monitoring team in Port Harcourt.
I have to stop this dude before he stops people life in the neighbourhood.

Una just want create chopping for one Senator now, preferably Dino Malaye........
If they tell you the millions they will use to change that chair u will regret sharing the pics in the first place.

oatzeal:
[img]http://1.bp..com/-g4uvKDwk4n4/Vo1d4cI-c-I/AAAAAAAALqQ/kBJl_fFPVLY/s640/Buhari%2BAdviser%2Bon%2Bpolitics.jpg[/img]
Senator Babafemi Ojudu has been appointed as the new special adviser to President Buhari on political matters The Senator who represented Ekiti central senatorial district in the upper legislative chamber of the 7th National Assembly, collected his letter of appointment late Tuesday, January 5. ..


Senator Ojudu was a member of the Senate between 2011 and 2015 on the platform of then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) before it joined other parties to form the All Progressives Congress (APC).

During his stay in the upper legislative chamber, he was the vice chairman of the Defence Committee of the Senate as well as being the spokesman for the APC Senate caucus in the Red Chamber.

Senator Ojudu was one of the active lawmakers in the 7th National Assembly but decided not to seek re‐election in 2015.

However, he devoted his time to workings for the party right from the period leading to its formation, onto the campaigns and the post swearing in activities.

An accomplished journalist, Senator Ojudu was one of the leading media practitioners who devoted their time to fighting military dictatorship during the dark days of the Abacha regime.

This constantly pitched him against the military authorities and he was incarcerated several times, the climax of which was his nine month detention in a solitary cell at the State Security Service (SSS) cell at Awolowo Road Ikoyi. Gazelle

SOURCE http://www.nairanaijanews.com/2016/01/breaking-news-buhari-appoints-senator.html

To me this guy is a dullard like his master from his CV as a senator I deduce the following:
1. He is a vice chairman, if he gat level n mouth he will be made a chairman.
2. Vibrant senator yet u didn't originate any bill, you are as vibrant as David Mark at the 8th senate.
3. Vibrant senators always have unfinished business at the senate that usually make them to see re-election

homeboy205:
An iPhone and a beautiful 6 month old daughter-lobatan

Plus an Iphone ear piece.

DedeNkem:
Stupid Nigerian illiterates kill any animal they see.
Why kill the snake? I doesn't attack humans unless it feels threatened!

Those id*iots should have scared it away into a nearly bush!

Nigerians should stop killing wild animals!! We have many farm animals to eat.

you sound like when Mr. Akpabio just arrived Nigeria from America after spending fourth something years overseas.
my dear do something before something do you...that's all.

viickerz:
See as the two of you black like engine oil...

Why wont a snake be scared of u guys... U are dark people na

not just engine oil but condemn engine oil

drshrewd:
hahaha. you call an incompetent sleeping Care taker governor performing. a man that has no administrative blue print . what is program for infrastructure in the start apart from the substandard open gutter road patching projects?. what are his blue print for Education apart from sacking hundreds of lecturers in Riv poly, planning to sending back over 600 students on over seas scholarship, allowing weeds and grasses to overgrow the beautiful primary schools he inherited from the previous gov't their by forcing kids to remain at home for months , what are his blue prints for security when kidnapping has been a norm in the state, what are his blue print in youth empowerment when he has disbanded RSSDA as well as Tima Riv

God I beg you with the name of my ancestor abeg no mention Tima Riv here. Pls pls pls

God bless you

The First African Made Car of Igbo extraction..

Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu : How the Izuogu Z-600 dream was destroyed

In 1997, a brilliant Igbo Electrical Engineer and Lecturer at the Federal polytechnic Nekede, Dr. Ezekiel Izogu designed and developed the Izuogu Z-600, the first African indigenous manufactured car.
The car was described by the BBC as ‘ the African dream machine’ as 90% of its parts were sourced locally . At a projected sales cost of 2000 dollars, it would have taken the world by storm and become the cheapest and most affordable car on earth. With mass production planned under Izogu Motors plant in Naze owerri, the prospects of an industrial revolution in Igbo land and Nigeria, was in the making.

The car was equipped with a self made 1.8L four cylinder engine that got 18mpg and allowedthe car to achieve a top speed of 140 km/h. Front Wheel Drive (FWD) was chosen over Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) because a transmission tunnel, which RWD would require, would be more expensive to fabricate.
So 90% of the car’s components were made locally. General Sani Abacha set up a 12 man panel of inquiry made up of professionals to ascertain the road worthiness and authenticity of the car and after several days of probing, the committee gave Dr. Izuogu’s car a clean bill of health recommending that some of the bumps on the body of the car be smoothened. It is worthy to note that this was five years before India built their first car known as the Indi.

At a well organized unveiling ceremony which had General Abacha represented by Oladipo Diya, over 20 foreign ambassadors and thousands of people in attendance, the federal government promised a grant of 235 million naira to Dr.Izuogu.

An excited Dr Izuogu is still waiting for that grant till today. No dime was released to him. In 2006, the government of South Africa invited Dr. Izuogu to do a presentation about the car in the presence of several world class engineers . Being impressed with his presentation, they invited him to come and set up a plant in South Africa and begin the production of the car.

Dr Izuogu reluctantly agreed, though he wasn’t happy that the benefits of employment generation will be lost on the locals of Naze and the Nigerian human resources environment . On Saturday the 11th of March 2006, at about 2.00 a.m, a total of about 12 heavily armed men broke into Dr. Izogu’s factory in Naze and carted away various machines and tools including the design history notebook of Z-600, the design file Z-MASS, containing the design history for mass production of Z-600 car, and the moulds for various parts of the car.

According to Dr. Izogu:
“It seems that the target of this robbery is to stop the efforts we are making to mass-produce the first ever locally made car in Africa. Other items stolen included locally produced timing wheel, locally produced camshaft, locally produced crankshaft, locally produced engine tappets, all 20 pieces each.
Also stolen were ten pieces of locally produced Z-600 engine blocks, ten pieces of locally produced pistons, four pieces of engine block mounds, four pieces of top engine block moulds, ten pieces of engine fly wheel and two pieces each of rear car and front mudguard moulds.”The inventor regretted that not only did they lose over one N1 billion in monetary terms, but also time (about 10 years) and the energy it took to design and produce the moulds. “To worsen the matter, our design notebook was also stolen,” he stated.

He regarded the incident as a national economic disaster because the nation had lost a technological and intellectual property. This Press was quiet about this story. The set back and governments attitude frustrated Izuogu and his dream died.

source:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=971535556241628&id=378378918890631


.................

Serious violence and sporadic shooting was recorded at southern Ijaw LGA
during the election and has left more than 5 persons dead and several others injured.

Source:
Https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10207041538730196&id=1032070648

Court jails oil thieves for 84yrs


Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos yesterday convicted seven men to 84 years imprisonment for illegal and unlawful dealing in 1,459 metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol. The court sentenced each of the convicts to a jail term of 12 years each  commencing Friday after the Judge found them guilty of the five count charge preferred against them.
The convicts are; Adedamola Ogungbayi; Olaniran Olabode; Suraju Gasali; Moses Emmanuel; Wilson Bonsi; Okaraodi Uche and Onyeogo Happy. Apart from the jail term, Justice Abang also  ordered the forfeiture of the vessel, ‘MT Good Success’, used by the convicts in stealing the said petroleum product, as well as the recovered petroleum product to the Federal Government.
The judge also ordered the forfeiture of the sums of N66.6m and $975,000 belonging to the convicts’ company, Hepa Global Energy Limited, domiciled with the First City Monument Bank to the Federal Government. To ensure a compliance to his judgement, Abang ordered the filing of an affidavit of compliance with the order within 21 days of the judgement.
The convicts, were arraigned alongside their vessel and company on August 28, 2014 on five counts alongside one Padoun Jacob, who was discharged and acquitted by the court. The judge, in setting Jacob free on all the five counts, described him as a desperate job seeker, who became a victim of circumstances.
The judge noted that the stolen petroleum product had been loaded  before Jacob was employed by Hepa Global Energy Limited on February 7, 2014.



Source:
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/10/court-jails-oil-thieves-for-84yrs/