₦airaland Forum

The Inspector General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo has ordered the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ekpo U. Udom, Assistant Inspector General of Police in-charge of Zone 5 Command, Mr. Mohammed D. Abubakar and the Commissioner of Police, Delta State, Mr. Samaila Alkali to produce the former governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori within 48 hours.

In a statement, the Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu on Tuesday in Abuja said the IGP gave the directive following a High Court order to the police to produce the embattled former Delta State chief executive.

According to the Police Spokesman; “The IGP has directed DIG Ekpo U. Udom currently on special duty to Delta State to coordinate the arrest alongside the AIG Zone 5 and the CP Delta State. The exercise is ongoing”, the statement read in part.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had last week declared Ibori wanted over financial scam during his tenure as governor of the state.
Meanwhile, reports from the State indicate that Ibori might have escaped from the country since last weekend through the help of some militants who are loyal to him.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/apr/21/national-21-04-2010-001.htm

Mother of an 18 year-old teenage boy has filed a suit seeking for the dissolution of a marriage contracted between her son and a 60-year old woman.

The mother of the teenage boy, Malama Aisha Umar told the court that her son, Bashir Umar married A’i Maikare who has clocked 60 years old.

Describing the affair as unfortunate she told the presiding Judge, Alhaji Bashir Dan Maisule that her son was charmed by the woman who lured him into marrying her.

The mother told the court that her son had never thought of marriage even to young girls hence, prayed the court to dissolve purported the marriage to a woman old enough to be his grandmother.

"Pleading she told the Judge that the woman had charmed her son making him to marry her so I appeal to this honorable court to save my son from this shameful act," he said.

The mother of the boy affirmed that she had three witnesses to testify that her son was charmed by Malama A’i Maikare who made him to lose his senses.

The mother said A’i Maikare has been her good friend for a long period of time and each of them used to visit each other, adding that she later became suspicious of the cordial relationship existing between her son and the old woman.

The Presiding Judge asked whether it is true that A’i Maikare charmed Umar to capture his attention for marriage, the old woman said that it was not true.

According to the old woman she said there was nothing like the use of charm but it was only the true love and appealed to the court not to dissolve the marriage as prayed by the mother of the boy.

The Judge however asked whether the marriage was done in his consent the teenage boy said he was in his senses when he proposed Malama A’i Maikare for marriage, adding that he paid the woman a dowry of N5, 000 to contract the marriage.

He said one Malama Umar Dattijo of Zawayyah area contracted the marriage and many people witnessed it as enshrined by God.

Speaking to Daily Champion after the court session, the teenage boy Bashir Umar said he would never dissolve his beloved wife as demanded by his mother. The Presiding Judge later adjourned the case for continuation of the case in April this year.

http://www.champion.com.ng/index.php?news=31146

Seun that is supposed to be begging us to use nairaland is banning his members over little issues.
its always like that, because ppl are already plenty here, you are now forming,
Dont worry, the game will soon get competitive

, The General Overseer of the Evangelical Bible Outreach Prayer Ministry International, Prophet Isa El-Buba, has implored Nigerians not to bother themselves about the political aspiration of former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, saying that the hand of God was not upon him and could never rule Nigeria again.

Speaking with newsmen in Jos, Prophet El-Buba said Babangida was simply dissipating his energy and resources in vain, adding that those whom God had not chosen could not force themselves on Nigerians, as leaders, otherwise they would incur the wrath of God.

The general overseer stated that all the hardship being experienced in the country currently started as a result of his bad style of leadership, induced by high level corruption.

Said he: “The pains of Nigerians originated from Babangida through his bad economic policies. He messed up the country and institutionalised corruption. If he cannot change the phase of the country as military president with such an enormous power, there is nothing he can do in this present situation.”

“The most important thing is that God has rejected him; the hand of God is not upon him as far as 2011 presidential election is concern. He is simply dissipating his energy and resources in vain,” he said.

Prophet El-Buba said the circumstances surrounding the emergence of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as the acting president of Nigeria depicted that the hand of God was upon him and advised him to steer the affairs of the nation in line with the desire of the common people, adding that his commitment to pursue energy and electoral reforms was a welcome development.

According to him, his name would go down in history, if he can show full and total commitment to the sectors as one of the great leaders of Nigeria.

He added added that to achieve this, the acting president must shut his ears to those parading themselves as godfathers.

The clergyman condemned those clamouring for power to remain in the North, adding that the era where the North thought it could go it all alone as far as leadership of Nigeria was concern was over. He scaid what the nation needed now was a leader that could address the myriad of problems confronting the country.

“We the North should not think we have the monopoly of power, we cannot do it alone. It is high time we put aside the mentality that the vote of the North can make any candidate become the president of this great nation.

“All what we need as a nation is a good leader no matter where he comes from, a leader who can pursue the need of the common man,” he said.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/sat/index.php/front-page-articles/888-prove-that-im-a-thief-ibb-dares-nigerians-lists-2011-winning-strategies-hes-wasting-his-time-prophet.html

FORMER governor of Delta state, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, has slammed a N10 billion suit against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for what he called libelous publications against him.
In a 32-point statement of claims filed at the Federal High Court, Asaba, on Thursday, April 15, by his counsel, Ekemejero Ohwovoriole and J.B. Daudu (SAN), the plaintiff sought an order of perpetual injunction to restrain the anti-graft commission from further publishing any libelous publication about him.

Chief Ibori wants the court to declare that the defendant’s (EFCC) publication, dated 13th April, 2010 , headlined: “Why we are looking for Ibori – EFCC”, predicated on twisted falsehood, was libelous and defamatory.

The plaintiff catalogued the series of publications in the media against by EFCC since April 10, 2010 , saying that the publications exposed him to public odium, ridicule, disdain, hatred and that it had lowered his integrity in the estimation of the right thinking members of the society.

He claimed that the publications were read and viewed by third parties world wide through the television, radio broadcasts, the Internet and newspapers.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/sat/index.php/front-page-articles/887-ibori-slams-n10b-suit-on-efcc.html

The gulf between the camp of President Umaru Yar’Adua and that of the Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, appeared to have widened yesterday, as Daily Champion gathered that the first Lady, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua is not happy with Jonathan.

It will be recalled that Jonathan who returned to Nigeria yesterday after a four-day official visit to the United States (US) had in an interview with the Cable Network News (CNN) said the family of Yar’Adua was preventing him from seeing the sick President, even as he insisted that he would not force himself to see Yar’Adua.

Jonathan said the last time he saw Yar’Adua was on November 26, 2009.z

"I have not seen him…the thinking of the family is that they should isolate him from most of the key actors in government. I have not seen him. The Senate President has not seen him , and at every single government function, I have not seen him…but we cannot influence his family’s thinking."

However, a reliable source in the Presidency told Daily Champion that the statement by Jonathan infuriated the First Lady and the family. The source said: "As I am talking to you now, the family of Yar’Adua is not happy with the Acting President. He has met with Turai on a number of occasions and he knows the issues at stake. When he wanted to visit the President was not the appropriate time. And since then, he has made no effort no effort again. It is unfortunate that he decided to go the US to play to the gallery and to heap all the blames on the family.

"He has merely succeeded in widening the gap in the relationship between the two leaders and I can tell you that Yar’Adua’s family is beginning to feel that all his actions since the President left for Saudi Arabia were deliberate and they were intended to wrestle the Presidency from Yar’Adua. This latest outburst is unfortunate," our source added.

http://www.champion.com.ng/index.php?news=30973

There was a stampede at the Oyo State headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Ibadan, on Tuesday, as no fewer than 20 applicants who came for written test sustained injuries.
The Nigerian Tribune gathered that about 15,000 job seekers stormed the INEC office on Mokola-Secretariat road from about 5:00a.m. for the test aimed at employing about 150 people for the various jobs earlier advertised by the commission.

The commission’s Head, Public Affairs, Mr. Ayodele Folami, who confirmed the incident in an interview with newsmen, said he could not confirm the number of the applicants who sustained injuries during the stampede, adding that those who sustained “minor injuries were treated by the commission.”

According to him, the advertisement was placed by the INEC national headquarters and the examination was conducted by some national commissioners led by Prince Adedeji Soyebi.

While the Nigerian Tribune learnt that about 500 people would be employed by the commission throughout the country, Folami stated that it was only the national headquarters of the commission in Abuja that could determine the number of those to be employed in Oyo State.

He said that the stampede was as a result of the unruly nature of the applicants, as all control measures put in place were ignored.

He said because the applicants were desperate, “they became unruly; they disobeyed security operatives as some of them had to scale through the fence.”

Folami said that between 9:00 am and 10: am the crowd became uncontrollable as they overwhelmed the 20 regular policemen sent by the state police commissioner, Alhaji Baba Adisa Bolanta, for crow control.

He said the initial arrangement was that the applicants would be allowed to sit for the examination in batches of 500 but the arrangement was disrupted as the applicants caused traffic hold up on the road.

According to him, since the commission did not want to postpone the examination, it was shifted to the mainbowl of the Lekan Salami Sport Complex, Adamasingba, where the applicants sat for the examination under one hour.

Some of the applicants who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune described the incident as pathetic.

When the Nigerian Tribune visited the INEC headquarters, some of the applicants were seen trekking from the Adamasingba to come and pick their valuables left behind during the incident.

violent:
its not about my satisfaction, it has more to do with the credibility of your post!

I ve always known you to be sick!

violent:
[size=17pt]LET THE POSTER PROVIDE SOURCE[/size]

http://www.tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/3962-kalu-writes-jonathan-seeks-end-to-corruption-trial

Are you satisfied now

THE former governor of Abia State and presidential candidate of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), Orji Uzor Kalu, has written to the acting president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, begging for the discontinuance of the corruption trial initiated against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The commission had arraigned Kalu for allegedly stealing billions of naira belonging to the state while he was governor between 1999 and 2007.

In a letter dated April 9, 2010, entitled: Request to withdraw politically-motivated charge against Dr Orji Uzor Kalu, the former governor alluded to the nolle prosequi entered for erstwhile chairman of the anti-graft commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, on his asset declaration trial by the Federal Government, saying that what was sauce for the goose should be for the gander.

The letter which was signed by his lawyer, Phina Wilson, was addressed to the acting president with the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice copied.

“We are solicitors to Dr Kalu, former governor of Abia State, on whose instruction we write you this letter.

“We want to thank you for having the courage and the candour to begin to review criminal cases against past public office holders. We make particular reference to the move to discontinue the case against a past public office holder, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, which is pending before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

“We also noticed that you have not publicly told Nigerians whether the charge is being withdrawn on compassionate grounds or because you reviewed the case and discovered that Ribadu actually declared his assets on assumption of office as EFCC chairman.

“However, whatever the case is, what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. In our client’s case, the charge that is pending against him was politically motivated because of his well-documented opposition to the third-term agenda of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and other anti-people policies he initiated and pursued.

“Our client has done nothing wrong and he has not committed any offence,” the letter read.

A student of Princely International University, USA E-learning centre was recently sentenced to 100 days imprisonment for giving false information to mislead a public servant as well as attempting to commit an offence.
The accused, Samuel Akuwanne of Block 1, flat 33, Abacha Barracks, Abuja, committed the offence on the March 31 and was arraigned for offences contrary to Sections 140 and 95 of the Penal Code Law.

Prosecutor Philips Akogbu told the court that on the said date, one Naomi Tawo, a female police officer on counter duty at Asokoro Police Station arrested the accused between the hours of 0600 and 1800 for deceitfully and falsely trying to smuggle bread with a telephone and charger to detainees in the cell.

He said the accused wanted to facilitate the escape of some detainees from police cell and was arrested in the process, adding that he wrote a confession statement to that effect, admitting the offence.

When the charge was read to the accused, he pleaded guilty and Magistrate Ahmed Ilelah sought to know why he should not be convicted.

The accused responded that he has an aged mother to look after and begged the court to be lenient with him.

The magistrate sentenced him to 100 days imprisonment or to pay N4,000 as fine option.

The former Vice President and presidential candidate of Action Congress in the 2007 election, Atiku Abubakar said yesterday in Benin City, Edo State, that his decision to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in response to the wishes of his political associates.

Mr Abubakar, who was in Benin to felicitate with the national leader of the Action Congress and a one-time minister for foreign affairs, Tom Ikimi, on his 66 birthday, shocked millions of his supporters when he made public his intention to return to the PDP. He, however, said that his action amounts to "playing politics."

The former Vice President lost out in a power contest with his former boss, then president Olusegun Obasanjo in a doomed campaign to contest the 2007 presidential election on the platform of the PDP. He later dumped the party for the Action Congress to further his political ambition.

Mr Abubakar, in an interview with journalists at the Benin airport, however said "in the game of politics, you don't have to agree with everyone all the time."

Pressure to decamp

Ikimi's birthday attracted prominent dignitaries including the former governor of Imo State, Achike Udenwa; governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi; former governor of Edo State, Lucky Igbinedion and other top PDP and Action Congress politicians.

NEXT gathered that a closed door meeting between Mr Abubakar and Mr. Ikimi lasted into the early hours of Monday morning, but the details of the meeting was not disclosed as at the time of filing this report.

But a source said part of the issues discussed by the two political associates was to further mount pressure on Mr Ikimi to return to the PDP. The former minister had vowed not to return to the party even at the risk of rupturing his relationship with the Atiku group.

Ahead of the expected exit of the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Maurice Iwu, in May this year, the Federal Government may have picked former President Olusegun Obsanjo to lead the search for a successor.

The Nation learnt yesterday that Obasanjo, who remains influential in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been mandated by a powerful caucus in the PDP, to look for a candidate that would succeed Iwu, whose controversial tenure recorded a string of electoral irregularities. The source hinted that the federal authorities, this time, favour an INEC Chairman from the South-West geo-political zone.

"Obasanjo is leading the search for Iwu’s successor. The thinking is that this time, a Yoruba man should be the next INEC Chairman," a source at the Presidency told The Nation.

However, many observers think the involvement of Obasanjo in the search for Iwu’s successor casts a big cloud on the prospects for a free and fair election in 2011. The former President is notorious for his lack of commitment to a credible poll as demonstrated in his infamous ‘do-or-die’ slogan. The 2007 elections conducted by Iwu drew global outrage.

Iwu’s is required by law to leave in May. He would be leaving behind an INEC marred by corruption, several unresolved legal battles related to the 2007 General Elections which he supervised and a lingering debate on electoral reforms as contained in the Justice Mohammed Uwais Panel’s recommendations which the National Assembly is yet to adopt.

Sources told our correspondent that the preference for a Yoruba candidate was informed by the development that has taken place in the Presidency since President Yar A’dua took ill, leading to the emergence of Acting President Goodluck Jonathan. With a South- South leader in the saddle instead of the Northern head, this has upset the political balancing in the Presidency.

In the recent past, the bosses of the electoral body have come mainly from the South East or the South South. The list of chairmen of the organization since 1979 includes Justice Ovie Whiskey from the then Bendel State, Professor Eme Awa and Professor Humphrey Nwosu from the South East, Dr Abel Goubadia from Edo State and Professor Iwu also from the South East.

Ahead of the 2011 General Elections, Iwu recently released a tentative timetable, which has drawn criticism from various quarters. It is not clear what his motive could be, considering that he should be on his way out. It is an unlikely scenario that Iwu would keep his job, as this would certainly heat up the polity. There have been intense calls for his resignation or removal, especially from the opposition, since Election 2007 which was widely condemned as fraudulent. It is not clear how far-reaching the anticipated electoral reforms would be, but it is hoped that they would lead to the emergence of a more credible electoral body.

The opposition insists that INEC in its current shape cannot organize free and fair elections, and one of its key demands is that the appointment of the head of the electoral body is too important to be left in the hands of the government of the day.

Dude
the link

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/apr/11/national-11-04-2010-001.htm

FORMER Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori, has petitioned the Attorney General of the Federation over reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has begun a manhunt for him in connection with a petition on his transaction in the Ascot-Wilbros matter, which took place while he was in office.
Despite the fact that the Delta State Government had cleared him, a report by Saturday Punch indicated that that the anti-graft agency has re-opened investigation into the matter and wants the former governor to appear to make a fresh statement.
In a letter by his lawyers J.B. Daudu and Co. to the EFCC, copied the AGF, Ibori reminded the body of series of efforts to investigate him on various allegations, all of which had come to nothing and wondered what would have necessitated another effort.
“It is a matter of public record and judicial decisions that you have on behalf of the Attorney General vigorously investigated every aspect of our client’s tenure as governor of Delta State and failed to find any crime committed inclusive of allegations of conspiracy, official corruption, diversion and misappropriation of public funds, stealing and money laundering for the period of 29th May 1999 to 29th May, 2007.
“That the said investigation was predicated upon the instruction of the first respondent and the petition of various persons, including, but not limited to a group christened “Concerned Elders and Citizens of Delta State.”

The said investigation covered among other issues the purchase of Wilbros by Ascot and the role of the applicant in respect thereof.”
The petitioner also reminded the anti-graft body that the matter had been dismissed in court, for which the Commission, dissatisfied had gone on appeal in Benin, wondering why it would not subject itself to a process it had begun and allow it to run its full judicial course.
In very simple term, elementary terms, Ibori’s lawyer said, “What your organization is doing by seeking to reinvestigate a matter you have already investigated and charged to court and for which the alleged offender has been discharged (which in this instance amounts to acquittal) amounts not only to complete infraction of the Nigerian Constitution but is a breach of our client’s fundamental human rights.

“Nowhere in the world, except of course, in some notorious banana republics is the rule of law and constitutionality trampled upon so aggressively as you are doing in this instance.”
Arguing that the commission should have done a thorough investigation on the matter before going to court to avoid running foul of the principle of double jeopardy, they regretted a situation where it had begun criminalising the former governor on the pages of newspapers without any formal invitation to clear his name.
The letter, signed by J.B. Dauda (SAN), threatened to head to court to seek judicial redress should any attempt be made by the EFCC “merely because you control the coercive forces” to interfere with Ibori’s liberty.
Daily Independent had reported of an alleged concerted pressure from both Ibori’s traducers in his state, championed by Chief Edwin Clark and the Presidency with the full knowledge of Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan on the EFCC to cage the former governor ahead of 2011 elections.


http://independentngonline.com/DailyIndependent/Article.aspx?id=11870

Michael Aondoakaa, the notorious AGF!, i cant wait 4 the day you will be sentenced life in prisonment
or sentenced to death by hanging or firing squad.
your dayz are numbered!

Some federal lawmakers, including Northerners, are rooting for President Umaru Yar’Adua’s removal from office, but are divided over the modus operandi.

The odds for the President to survive the plot are tough, with his doctor stating at the weekend that he cannot recover from his heart problem well enough to preside over the affairs of an unwieldy crowd of 150 million Nigerians.

National Assembly (NASS) members in both Chambers had a marathon meeting between Thursday and Friday last week in a highbrow area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

They agreed to see the back of Yar’Adua, just that they could not determine the best route: through Section 143 or Section 144 of the Constitution.

Section 143 deals with the outright impeachment of the President.

Section 144 empowers the Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF), with the co-operation of the President of the Senate, to declare the President unable to continue in office after a medical team would have declared him incapacitated.

At the meeting were pro-Acting President Goodluck Jonathan Senators assembled under the aegis of National Interest Group (NIG) and Nigeria First Forum (NFF), their counterparts in the House of Representatives, and a sprinkling of the Northern political elite.

There was no consensus on which Section to activate, but they agreed, it was learnt, that Jonathan must be made substantive President.

The Northerners insisted that the North “can no longer allow Jonathan operate in Aso Rock as a sole administrator,” and tacitly concurred on the need to invoke either Section 143 or 144 so that the North “can get a foot in the Villa, preparatory to taking control in 2011.”

NASS sources recounted that the North is “not willing to trade away” the agreement that “power should rotate between the North and South every eight years.”

The agreeement at the meeting is the removal of Yar’Adua, and the making of Jonathan as substantive President, to ensure the North returns to power through the appointment of a powerful Vice President.

Some lawmakers, however, mulled over the fact that invocation of Section 143 may be difficult and tortuous and may not be “immediately achievable.”

The Section has a long winding requirement for the impeachment of the President or his Deputy, including “a notice of any allegation in writing signed by not less than one-third” of the members of the NASS “presented to the President of the Senate.”

Section 144 is seen as a much shorter route for Yar’Adua’s removal as it would be done on the advice of “a medical panel” appointed by the President of the Senate, comprising “five medical practitioners in Nigeria.”

One of the doctors “shall be the personal physician of the holder of the office concerned; and four other medical practitioners who have, in the opinion of the President of the Senate, attained a high degree of eminence in the field of medicine relative to the nature of the examination to be conducted in accordance with the foregoing provisions.”

http://independentngonline.com/DailyIndependent/Article.aspx?id=11810

IT was recently reported that less that five percent of those who sat for most recent NECO examination passed at the relevant credit levels. This is a cataclysmic news that should have shaken the very educational foundations of any visionary society that plans for the next generation but surprisingly nobody gave a hoot as there were lots of other issues to discuss and legions of demons to exorcize such as Gaddafi, Jos crisis, the cabals and cabalistic intrigues, even erratic weather and other endless issues that prevent a cogent thought from being given to puzzling problems confronting the next generation as future leaders.

These critical issues however are never the least important, it is only that an articulate society must simultaneously carry along such daily issues without being totally oblivious of the needs and problems of its future leaders. And the mass failure at NECO is one of such monumental national malaise of no mean significance when one thinks of it. The causative factors point to many variables such as low educational budget and a disdain for human resource development and capacity building due to lack of exceptionally gifted technocrats within the public service planners that should help move a nation forward as Japan did. There is also the problem of low teacher morale due to frequent industrial actions, and most importantly the recent influence of English premiership league football that occupies much of the energy and time of these students at all educational levels to the extent that most have lost the most rudimentary art of time management and personally developed time-tables.

A friend who is a university don once told me about a day he held a lecture when an important English premiership match was in progress and the students grudgingly attended and were not happy that he “punished” them with lectures instead of giving them handouts and setting them free to watch the big matches and of course the big noise of that match was emanating too from a nearby student hostel until suddenly a favourite team scored a goal and a big volcanic noise of merry students erupted so loudly that all his students ran out of the class with speed and he had to dodge fast to avoid being trampled by these modern Roman barbarians. So, these are our future generation of doctors, lawyers, lawmakers, engineers, accountants?

READ MORE ON:
http://www.nationaldailyngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=930:english-premiership-league-and-massive-neco-failures&catid=55:comments-a-issues&Itemid=413

.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday met with the United States President, Barack Obama, at the White House although administration officials toned down its historic significance by describing it as “a courtesy call.”

Nigeria’s security and electoral reform were part of the discussions.

Jonathan is among more than 40 Heads of State invited by Obama to attend a two-day summit on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.

He and Obama met for about 15 minutes, but there was no official statement on what they talked about.

However, sources said the status of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian on trial in the U.S. for attempting to blow up a U.S. airliner in December last year was brought up.

Jonathan also reportedly pressed Obama to remove Nigeria from the list of terror nations after disclosing that Abuja has met and exceeded American airport security requirements by installing scanners and approving the use of armed air marshals on all Nigeria-U.S. bound planes.

Last week, the U.S. and Nigeria announced the formation of a Commission that will help Nigeria promote good governance and fight corruption.

Aides of Jonathan confirmed he will hold discussions with the Council on Foreign Relations and then have lunch with Vice President Joe Biden.

He will also meet with the World Bank President, Robert Zoellick, before participating in the Nuclear Security Summit.

An itinerary released by the Nigerian Embassy said Jonathan would have a breakfast meeting at the Center for Global Development and hold a lunch meeting with members of the Corporate Council on Africa.

And he will also meet the President of ExxonMobil.

Jonathan is expected to depart on Wednesday after a media briefing at the headquarters of the Voice of America in Washington.

This is his first official trip outside the country since he became Acting President on February 9.

On his entourage are Minister of Foreign Affairs, Odein Ajumogobia; Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Aliyu Hong; Minister of Finance, Olusegun Aganga; Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke; Petroleum Adviser, Martins Uhomoibhi; and Permanent Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

http://independentngonline.com/DailyIndependent/Article.aspx?id=11811

Me_Aboki:
Middle belt vs middle belt, uninformed NLDers please take note, no hausa - fulani in this one.
My sympathy to the poor woman though.

Mugu, thats what u are!

No Evidence
Beef was drunk when such idea struck his head
he probably must have heard ppl discussion such thing in a beer parlour and he ran here without a 2nd thought
even if something like that will materialise, its likely no going to be from the partial Beef
what postive contribution can he confidently say he has contributed to nairaland
other than his unrelaistic tribalistic bash at the slightest instance
my very first post here was something related to development
the guy chanllenged me and spoiled the idea of the whole thing
here is he talking of development, bloody hypocrite
is the politics not enough to say things about development
since the stuff is potentailly a sub-section of politics
let the idea come from posting under politics
lets allow him post and see if anything positive can ever come out from him

Hoodlums suspected to be hired thugs last Sunday attacked a housewife and mother of eight children, Mrs Mbacilin Ayem in Uhondo village of Guma Local Government Area in Benue State with clubs and machetes.
The attackers struck in the night while she was sleeping outside her room in her family compound to avoid the intense heat.

The incident attracted the villagers who gave the attackers a hot chase, leading to the arrest of one of suspected hoodlums, Awule Indyeryo, now in police custody.

It was learnt that the thugs went for the woman’s husband, Ayem Shalegh Uhondu, a farmer in the village who had barely left the spot when the attackers arrived.

Uhondu, on hearing the screaming of his wife, rushed to the scene to rescue her but before he could do that, the attackers had chopped off her two fingers and leaving her with machete cuts all over her body.

The 35-year-old mother, who is now receiving treatment in the Intensive Care Unit of the Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi, told our reporter on the phone that she was still shocked by the attack because neither she nor her husband constituted a threat to anyone. “I see no reason why I will be attacked,” she said.

The Benue State Police Command confirmed the incident. “One of the suspects has been arrested but it is too early for me to make further comments as investigation is on-going,” said Mr Opaluwa Aku, the Public Relations Officer of the Command.

Although it is not clear at the time of this report as to why the woman was attacked by the thugs, there are speculations in the state that it is likely that the victim was attacked because she are related to Clement Uhondo, a former member of the Benue State House of Assembly and now acting secretary of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in the state.

Last year, his son was widely reported to have been kidnapped after one of his petitions against top officials in the state attracted the attention of the EFCC which arrested some of them.

I DOUBT if there is another country on earth that is as dramatic, politically, like Nigeria. Nigeria is a country of one week one drama and the epitome of theatre of the absurd. In Nigeria, anybody that is close to the seat of power is at liberty to write or rewrite a script and to create a plot and sub-plot to achieve a political aim. Remember all the shenanigans of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the third term. If Nigerians did not cry out and protest, Obasanjo would have gotten his wish.

The bigger drama playing out at the moment in Nigeria can be titled The Curious Case of an Afflicted President. It is one in which the main character can not deliver his lines, not because he has natural speech impairment, but because the affliction has made it so. In supporting role is the wife of the afflicted president; defined as her role may be, it also comes with a lot of ambiguities and confusion. We also do not hear her deliver any lines directly and like her husband, she also has not been seen in public since the commencement of this drama. However, a lot has been attributed to her from wanting to be vice president, to her denying the man holding the fort for her husband an opportunity to see the President after he was brought back into the country from a Saudi Arabia hospital.

There are also other characters that belong in the group known as the ‘cabal’; they are, up till now, faceless and unidentified and are determined to make their mentor relevant in the present political equation.

What can be more absurd than a drama with no speeches staged and seen behind the curtain? The press is the court jester; the only character with real lines to deliver, therefore the bearer of news - good, bad, comic and confusing.

We also have the audience of people filled with mixed emotions of anger, awe, irritation, confusion and disbelief at the grandness of the whole plot.

Where I start getting weary is the introduction of religion. It is ok for religious leaders to pray for the President, but they should be quiet after performing a religious duty for a sick man. Apparently inundated with requests from the press to comment on the state of the ailing president, the clergymen reserve the right to decline. But we are grateful to those who told us that the president could ‘move his hands’, ‘move his lips in prayer’ and ‘grunt an amen’.

I am curious to know why the people directing this whole drama chose this mode when they have the more enticing option of making their mentor a hero. Dramas with heroes are more interesting, didactic and appeal to a larger audience.

I wonder if the man knows what is happening around him.

However, unlike the theatre where the playwright and director can manipulate plots and resolutions of conflicts, real life drama is different; the supposed plotters and directors are actually puns, players in the hands of a bigger director who determines the denouement. Think about Sani Abacha, MKO Abiola and the resolution of June 12.

Also commenting on the wave of rancour being generated by the visit of Christian clerics to Yar’Adua, the Prelate of the Methodist Church, Nigeria, Dr. Sunday Ola Makinde, said there was no need for the move to create rancour, as the clerics concerned went in their individual capacity as pastors and not as representatives of CAN.

He stated that since pastors are expected to minister to the sick, the afflicted and bereaved like Jesus Christ did while on planet earth, what these pastors have done is purely pastoral and has no political undertone.

Speaking in a telephone interview, Makinde told Saturday Independent that “the likes of Archbishop Onaiyekan, Bishop Oyedepo and others are not people that can be placarded with money as they are men of integrity.”

He therefore urged aggrieved parties to “divorce politics from religion and let the sleeping dogs lie.”

Asked whether it is right for the visiting clerics to conceal the facts on the true state of the President from the concerned populace, the Prelate said they are not in the right position to divulge such information since they are not medical doctors.

“These pastors are not medical doctors but spiritual leaders. As pastors, we have a oath of secrecy in our profession. It is against our pastoral ethics to divulge confidential information, hence religious leaders should not be held responsible on such issues,” said Makinde.

Taking a rather opposing stance, a member of the National Advisory Board of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, (PFN), Rev. Moses Iloh, berated the national leadership of CAN for the conduct of the visit, saying that it is “scandalous and injurious to the Christian community in Nigeria.”

Iloh’s argument is against the backdrop of the fact that there are five units under CAN but none of these were contacted, neither was there any consultation or agreement between the stakeholders before the visit.

Said he: “There should have been some form of agreement. The way this visit was done is wrong. It shows indiscipline. It shows that there is something sinister about it all.”

Reacting to the refusal of the visiting clerics to divulge information on the true state of Yar’Adua’s health, Iloh said, “The clerics should have told those who invited them before embarking on that visit that whatever they see, they would make public because Nigerians have a right to know the truth. After all, the Acting President is a Christian too. If he still cannot see the President, what entitles these pastors to see him? It is against the law. It is not proper and it does not paint Christian leaders in good light at all.”

To the Founder of Later Rain Assembly, Lagos, Pastor Tunde Bakare, the visit has no value just as it was unconstitutional. Although he maintained that “a family is entitled to invite anybody” and those so invited may decide to go or not but argued that in case of Yar’Adua as the President, it was supposed to be the Acting President that would have gone to see him first rather than the clerics.

“There is nothing Constitutional in what they have and I don’t know the value they have added. They are never doctors who could verify the state of his health,” the clergyman who said he was also invited but declined to go because he did not know the motive of the visit said.

The leader of Save Nigeria Group (SNG) maintained that those clerics, who visited Yar’Adua could not have claimed to have gone there as representatives of any Christian body, even as he advised Nigerians to think of how to tackle the numerous problems facing the nation.

“Don’t let us make the visit more important,” he advised.

The founder and General Overseer of Dispensational Gospel Mission (Worldwide), Archbishop Peter Okoduwa, faulted the visits not only of the Christian clerics but also that of Islamic, saying it was meant to distract the Acting President.

According to him, there are some people in Aso Rock, who are using the religious people to create problem because of Yar’Adua’s ailment.

“The visit is a distraction. It is a ploy to distract the Acting President, as he is the first person who ought to have seen the President and tell the nation his situation not religious leaders. It is not in the Constitution that when the President is sick, the religious leaders should be the ones to see him,” he explained.

Okoduwa, who is a senior member of CAN and national security adviser to PFN, asserted that if he had been invited on the visit, he would not have gone but instead have a private prayer for the ailing President.

“l will pray for him at home because people are using the religious leaders to embarrass the Acting President because of the way Yar’Adua’s sickness is politicised,” he said.

Rev. Hayab of the Kaduna chapter of CAN, however, cautioned that at this moment, the only thing Nigerians are supposed to do is pray for the President

Beaf:
It is Beaf please.
Not everybody can hold or understand a technical discussion, not everybody can go out to raise money or put money in the hands of the common man and downtrodden, not everybody is interested in selflessly contributing to the development of Nigeria. More than all the above, those who are uninterested will find our topics boring (and good riddance too). These things will be the natural filter. Have you visited the Programming section of NL? Please do and report back with how much abuse you found there. https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/board-34.0.html

If you are not ready to contribute anything, at the very least, support those who are (or keep away), because we are not joking.

Hypocrite

My very first post on Nairaland, you bashed me with tribalistic insults and here you are talking of development
get real and move ahead with life and stop pretending.

@BEEF AND ALL OF YOU

The truth must be said, If a development subsection is created, it must definately be abused, are you going to bet with me?
wether you call it an holy section, it must still be abused.
You guys in this place are all fake. I dont think any real person is here, we dont know our faces, we can say anything we like without fear or shame.

As blacksta wisely said, lets have a trial run on the topic. I bet you na curse and bashing go end am last last.