₦airaland Forum

Chioma Ajunwa, a police woman, made the jump of 7.12 meters that won the long jump gold at the Atlanta 96 Olympic Games. It meant more to her than any other thing in the world.

Sixteen years before that, she was a “village girl” somewhere in Imo State who later played some handball and football for the Larry’s Angels Football Club of Port Harcourt that later became Rivers Angels.

She was drafted into the Nigerian Police and had represented Nigeria several times in the sprints as well as the long jump.

However, in the few seconds after she was confirmed gold medal winner at the Olympics, her mind would have probably flashed back to 1992 when she failed a drugs test.

“I never one day went to the chemist to buy something to take to enhance my performance,” she told Nigerian Telegraph in an exclusive interview. ”What most chemists, pharmacists and even doctors give to athletes if you are sick, or in pain, have banned substances in it and they don’t even know. Maybe if you have a dislocation or something like that , when you get to a doctor, he will give you something that you don’t know.”

Those were the most trying moments of her life as her morale fell to its all time low.

“It was a sad part of my life for me,” she said. “The thing about drugs testing is that as soon as you test positive, nobody listens to you again and nobody gives you a chance in life. At that time, I was so young and ignorant and I had no idea of what drugs were. I never knew that some of these over-the-counter tablets we buy could contain banned substances. That was my case and that is how they caged me and branded me a drug cheat.”

She added that it was people like Segun Odegbami, the former Nigeria National football team attacker, who encouraged her and saw her through her psychological recovery before she was able to represent Nigeria again and even win the Olympics gold medal

“The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) didn’t want to have anything to do with me anymore; and if it was left for them I wouldn’t have taken part in the trials that qualified me for the Olympic Games in 1996,” she said. “Chief Odegbami stood by me, and even after I had taken other tests to confirm I was clean, the AFN refused to let me participate and I remember him standing right there on the tracks making series of phone calls before they allowed me compete.”

Ajunwa also said she cannot complete her story without talking about the Nigeria Police Force who stood by her even when all others had given up.

“Without the Nigeria Police Force, I do not think anybody would have remembered Chioma Ajunwa today,” she said. “How could I have made it? How could I have travelled to do all those tests? They stood by me through thick and thin and I thank God I made it out successfully to become what I am today.”

Today, she has a foundation she simply calls the Chioma Ajunwa Foundation and its aim is to educate athletes about the dangers of using drugs to enhance their performance and also to let them know of banned substances in drugs so they don’t take them ignorantly.

“The truth is that most of them do not even know and could be buying such drugs off the counter without knowing that they contain banned substances just like it happened to me,” she said. “That is why, by the grace of God, I started this project and I go round to sporting meets to talk to athletes so that they don’t go through what I faced. Some of them too may knowingly take drugs and I want to tell them it is wrong. That is what my foundation has been doing since its inception and we hope to continue that.”

In Port Harcourt, before the commencement of the 10th Biennial Police Games, the Chioma Ajunwa Foundation held a road walk on the streets of the city to spread their message not just to athletes competing at the games but to residents of the city.

Win a FREE ticket to see Thespian Family Theatre’s “CRYSTAL SLIPPER” !

The play starring Van Vicker, Gideon Okeke, Iyke and Florence Okechukwu, Lala Akindoju, Nedu of WazobiaFM, Adesua Etomi, Kryptic Kidz, Shafi Akinrimisi and many more celebrities will be showing at Muson Centre, Onikan.

How to win;
Simple put up the tweet (below) with your handle and amass the highest number of RETWEETS that you can. Highest number of RTs gets the FREE ticket.

Here’s the tweet: “FREE ticket to see Van Vicker singing LIVE on stage in Theatre unusual. cc @thespianfamily @ooderanews #crystalslipper”

Rules: To be an validated participant, you need to follow @thespianfamily and @ooderanews and also use the hashtag #crystalslipper

Nokia will release navigation apps update for Windows Phone 8 users this weekend.

Updates will be available for Here Drive, Here Transit and HERE Maps.

The aforementioned apps, which were exclusive Nokia apps before they became available on other Windows phones (Samsung, HTC and
Huawei), will have a refreshed design.

Here Drive upgrade will now receive live traffic updates that will enable the app to determine routes that have heavy traffic, thereby re-routing users.

It will also add a feature called “My Commute”, which will learn routes frequently travelled by users and display estimated transit time in a Windows 8 Live Tile.

Users needing global navigation will be able to download Here Drive from the Windows Phone Store for €34.99 (about N7 200) or as an upgrade for €15.49 (about N3 300).

The House of Representatives has steered away from the Senate’s decisions on the constitution amendment by removing the immunity that bars presidents and governors from prosecution, and rejected the Senate’s plan for a single term of six years for the leaders.

In its constitution amendment report tabled on Thursday, the House retained the current two terms of four years each for presidents and governors, and turned down a proposal for a post office pension plan for the Senate President and the Speaker of the House.

The pension plans were part of the Senate’s submissions in June, but remains unapproved as the Senate has yet to debate the clauses of the its constitution amendment.

If the legislation had passed, current Senate President David Mark and House Speaker Aminu Tambuwal would be the first beneficiaries provided they are not impeached out of office.

The House did not state whether it considered the proposal before rejecting it, or whether it never came up throughout the process that has lasted more than one year.

But in far-reaching proposals that also remain subject to confirmation of the entire House, concurrence by the Senate and at least 24 state Houses of Assembly, the House constitution review committee said the immunity promotes impunity and should go.

“In line with the results from the Peoples’ Public Sessions, the Committee also removed the immunity from prosecution from criminal offences for persons occupying the position of president, vice president, governor and deputy governor, and to stem impunity levels,” the report said.

The House has also barred the president and governors from altering existing laws, and introduced a constitutional role for traditional rulers.

Under the House plan, local government will also enjoy absolute autonomy from their often predatory state authorities as elections will henceforth be held as due, and the third tier will enjoy direct funding from the federal government.

Elections to the local government councils will also be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission as the state electoral commissions will be abolished.

The House, however, agreed with the Senate that the offices of the Attorney General, Minister of Justice, Accountant General and Auditor General, be separated.

Both chambers have also rejected the creation of new states, saying none of the dozens of proposals sent in across the country met the statutory requirements.

The proposals are to be considered on a later date, the House said.

Nigerian theatre has, over the years, consistently suffered from little patronage, however, the theatre culture has recently been revived through the active support of corporate organisations — Thespian Family Theatre is one of those organisations.

The organisation will be staging a theatre play titled ‘The Crystal Slipper’ this month, after it hosted theatre lovers to an unforgettable experience last Christmas season, with the well attended ’Mad King of Ijudiya’ stage play.

According to Thespian Family, Crystal Slipper is a story based on a protagonist called Adesewa, who lives in a world craved by everyone; a world of beauty, love and joy.

However, there’s a twist of fate when she loses her mother and her father decides to re-marry.

Crystal Slipper is a 90-minute play that will feature some of the best known names in the Nigerian entertainment industry, including Van Vicker, Gideon Okeke, Iyke and Florence Okechukwu, Lala Akindoju, Adesua Etomi, Shafi Akinrimisi, Nedu of WazobiaFM, Kryptic Kidz and many more.

The play will be holding at Agip Hall, Muson Centre, on July 20, 21, 27 and 28.

More information on the play can be found on their blog: thespianfamilytheatre..com

The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) on Tuesday night called off its three-day warning strike after a meeting with the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Andrew Yakubu.

The NUPENG President Achese Igwe who announced the suspension of the strike during a news conference, said the decision to end the industrial action was for the interest of the public and the intervention of Mr Yakubu.

Mr Igwe listed the major issues which had led to the warning strike to include the high level of insecurity in Nigeria, bad state of the roads, rising oil theft in the Niger Delta, non-adherence to guidelines on contract staffing in the sector and abuse of expatriate quota.

NUPENG on Monday directed all its members at the depots to stop loading petroleum products for the next three days to protest the alleged inhuman treatment of its members by the management of Chevron, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and Agip Oil Company.

The strike was also called to protest the refusal of Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) to implement the signed collective bargaining agreement with petroleum tanker drivers.

Mr Igwe said if these issues are not quickly resolved, the union will not give further notice to the government before embarking on an indefinite strike.

The NNPC boss pleaded with the management of the three oil companies to rectify the employment status of casual tanker drivers in their organisations.

A queue at a Conoil petrol station in Lagos, July 2, 2013
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Motorists had stopped coming to this station
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Many commuters may be stranded or forced to pay higher fares as petrol stations across Lagos State are observing a three-day warning strike by the National Union of Petroleum Employers of Nigeria (NUPENG).
Most of the filling stations visited along the Lagos-Ikorodu Road shut their gates as they refused to sell fuel to motorists.


The petrol attendants were idle while motorists waited outside in vain.


Our correspondent, who visited the FORTE Oil Petrol station at Onipanu, was informed that the station had fuel but could not sell due to the strike.

“We are a member of NUPENG so we are observing the three-day warning strike. We have fuel but we cannot sell due to the strike. We do not want NUPENG to victimise us by preventing petrol tanker drivers from supplying us fuel after the strike. They did it to us the last time and we do not want their problem again that’s why we are observing the strike,” the source identified as Quadri said.

Total, Conoil, Mobil, and Oando filling stations also did not open their gates, while some filling stations were observed to be selling fuel in the state.

A motorist, Hannah James, said, “I bought fuel at Mobil today. The queue was long but I’m happy they sold because my tank was empty.”

On July 1, NUPENG embarked on a three-day warning strike which called for filling stations nationwide to stop selling fuel until certain demands are met.

Wimbledon 2013 is becoming one for the upsets as young Turks send the top seeds tumbling on a daily basis whether they are losing or retiring due to injury.

The ATP and WTA will have to find a way round this because they will begin to lose followership when the players that the fans pay to come and see are knocked out consistently by the second day of tournaments.

After the shock loss by Rafael Nadal to Steve Darcis on Day 1 though the Belgian has had to pull out also with a hand injury, the 2013 Wimbledon championship has continued to witness upsets on a daily basis.

But Wednesday was especially cataclysmic for the top seeds and will go down in Wimbledon history considering the number of top seeds that were sent tumbling out of the glamorous tourney.

Headlining the losers on Day 3 was seven-time champion; Roger Federer was beaten in four sets by 116th ranked Sergiy Stakhovsky. This was Federer’s earliest loss in a Grand Slam since 2004.


Roger Federer was knocked out by the world number 116.
Before Federer’s exit, Wimbledon saw the humbling of the Ladies number three, Maria Sharapova by 131st ranked Michelle Larcher de Brito in two straight sets.

We also saw withdrawals starting with Ladies number two, Victoria Azarenka. She fell awkwardly and badly on her knee in her first-round match on Monday and she has failed to recover. Also World number nine, Caroline Wozniacki finished her second-round match despite being injured as she lost to Petra Cetkovska and Wozniacki’s wait for a Grand Slam title goes on.

Then Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, sixth seed retired with a knee injury during his second round match against Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis on Centre Court.

There have been loud and muted complaints from players concerning the grass been used for the tournament. In the first two days, Argentine Guido Pella was carried off court on a stretcher after a fall while Romani Oprandi was also injured after slipping on court.

Sharapova complained about the slippery surface, saying “this court is dangerous” and she slipped severally before succumbing to the defeat. Azarenka also complained about the treacherous nature of the playing surface saying; “The court was not in a very good condition that day,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s the court or the weather.”

The British are still in this one with Andy Murray going great guns and Laura Robson lifted the women also by defeating 10th seeded Maria Kirilenko to continue her participation at the All England Club.

Oprah Winfrey has been named the most powerful celebrity by Forbes after two years of being a runner-up. She leads the six women and four men, who make up this year’s top 10.

This will make it the fifth time the former talk show host, who runs her own TV network OWN, is heading the annual ranking of 100 celebrities.

Singer Lady Gaga came in second followed by director/producer Steven Spielberg and singers Beyonce and Madonna.

“There is nobody else with that kind of consistency and power,” said Dorothy Pomerantz of Forbes.com. “There are only three people who have been on every single one of our lists since 1999. It is Oprah, Howard Stern and Steven Spielberg.”

Singer and actress Jennifer Lopez, who was No. 1 last year, dropped to 12th place.

With earnings of $77 million from June 2012 to 2013, Winfrey was not the highest-earning celebrity, an honour that went to Madonna, who made $125 million. But Forbes said Winfrey’s position in Hollywood and her presence in the press, on television and in social media propelled her to the No. 1 spot.

“She still wields an enormous amount of power, which is really what we look for in our fame matrix. She is taking this cable network and turning it around just through the sheer force of her will, her connections and her ability.”

Despite hip surgery, which forced her to cut short a tour, Lady Gaga earned $80 million in the past 12 months which, along with her army of fans and powerful social media presence, assured her second place.

“She is still a huge force in pop music. Even when she is not playing, people are talking about her and speculating about her,” Pomerantz said.

Spielberg, with earnings of $100 million in the last year, was the top man on the list, ahead of rock star Bon Jovi at No. 7, tennis champion Roger Federer and Justin Bieber, the youngest member of the list, who squeezed into the top ten at No.9.

Although only 23, singer Taylor Swift in at sixth place, made the list for the first time and rounded out the top 10 along with Emmy-award winning TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.

Forbes based a celebrity’s earnings on income from tours, books, contracts, endorsements, movies and residuals. Each celebrity was given a marketability score, developed by California market research firm E-Poll.

It gauged fame and influence by how often celebrities appear in the media. It used Starcount, a Singapore-based company that looks at 11 social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to determine their presence in social media.

“In today’s world, celebrities have this enormous ability to reach out to their fans, who really are their customers, and to sell their product, which is really themselves. If they don’t take advantage of that it hurts them,” said Pomerantz.

Pop stars, most notably Bieber, Lady Gaga, and Barbados-born singer Rihanna, are particularly good with handling social media, according to Forbes.

Top celebrity couples include Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z (32), American football quarterback Tom Brady (65) and his model wife Gisele Bundchen (81), and actor Ashton Kutcher (53) and his girlfriend Mila Kunis (89).

Best actress Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence, who was No. 49, is a newcomer to the list this year, as is Hugh Jackman, who was No. 11, and new father Channing Tatum (23).

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Friday said it had seized over 2,139.7 kilogrammes of hard drugs and arrested 143 suspected drug dealers within the last six months in Kaduna State.

The State Commander of the agency, Mohammed Jibrin disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Kaduna on preparations by the agency for the commemoration of the United Nation’s Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Five of the drug dealers arrested were female while the 138 others were male.
The theme for this year’s celebration is “The New Psychoactive Substance and its Consequences.”

Jibrin said five of the drug dealers arrested were female while the 138 others were male.
He listed some of the seized drugs to include cocaine, heroin, cannabis sativa and psychotropic substances.

According to him, 25 of the drug dealers arrested have been convicted and are serving various terms in prison.

Jibrin lamented the abuse of unconventional substances by youths, which he said had contributed immensely to the increasing crime rate in the state.

“Unfortunately, while we are celebrating these modest achievements of our battle against the abuse and trafficking of conventional hard drugs, our youths have gone into the abuse of unconventional substances such as lizard dung, plantain bar, sniffing of petrol and rubber solution, inhaling of pit latrine and gutter and many others to get intoxicated.”

Jibrin, however, said the agency was taking proactive measures to address the abuse of unconventional substances in the state.

“We have already started work before now with the Kaduna State Ministry of Justice on production of legal platform for combating the abuse of these new substances in the state.

“We have compiled the list of all the unconventional substances being abused in the state with the aim of sending a bill through the Executive Governor to the State Assembly to enact an edict against their abuse,” he said.

The NDLEA commander called on stakeholders in the fight against drug abuse and trafficking to partner with the agency for better results.

“Hard drug problems have become a universal phenomenon. There is need for synergy of efforts and commitments by individuals, organisations, institutions and nations in finding solutions to the problem.”
Jibrin said the agency would hold lectures for students in various institutions in the state on the danger of drug abuse as part of activities to mark the Day.

Nigeria’s ambassador to Russia has said that no fewer than 200 Nigerians girls are trafficked every month into Moscow.

Ambassador Asam Asam, who disclosed this in an interview in Berlin, said that the crime had declined in Western Europe following strict laws on illegal migration and joint efforts by the Nigerian government.

However, attention had shifted to Eastern Europe as the new destination for the trade.

“The major consular challenge we face in Moscow is the influx of trafficked persons from Nigeria. Not less than 200 girls are trafficked every month, and we have so many of them exposed to danger,” the ambassador revealed.

“Some are thrown out of the window and treated harshly. There must be a way of stopping these racketeering , these girls are not tourists, students or government officials yet they are given visas from the Russian embassy in Abuja.”

So far we have deported over 240 girls since 2012, you will be shocked, at the extend of resistance from the girls, we tell them Russia is not a destination for prostitutes yet they still come.”

According to him, the mission tries to curb the menace by arranging deportation for those caught, but the challenges are enormous.

“For instance a well known Russian human trafficker who has been in the trade for about 20 years was caught in Nigeria,’’ Asam said.

“The National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) was on the verge of releasing her before I filed a protest from Moscow to the Comptroller General of Immigration.”

The ambassador said even some of the parents of those trafficked encourage their children

“I spoke to the mother of one of the girls and she said her daughter should remain in Moscow and try to survive the ordeal; this is very sad indeed coming from one’s parent.’’

He tasked the media on sensitising the public on the dangers of trafficking in Russia, saying: “This East European nation has become a new destination for them, and believe me it is a very big crime here.’’

Asam, however, said that other Nigerians who reside in that country were students and professionals in various fields of endeavour.

iyatrustee: [s]See old men claiming to be in their mid 20s[/s]