For Mercy Chinenye Eke, winner, Big Brother Naija reality TV show, her greatest fear is ending a failure.
Having polled the highest votes after 99 days the show lasted, the 26-year-old video vixen and graduate of Imo State University won herself the grand prize of N60 million including a brand new Innosson SUV.
In an interview with The Sun, Mercy talks about her days in the Big Brother House, love life and the controversies dogging her big bum.
On why she participated on Big Brother Naija reality show, she said: “It’s simply because of my personality. I auditioned four times and God ordained it after the fifth time, and here I am as the winner.The first time I watched the show, I fell in love with it and ever since I had wanted to be an housemate. For countless times, they said ‘no’ to me but I persisted till the last time that I was selected at the audition in Warri, Delta State.”
The special feature that made her got picked to enter the Big Brother House: ” Nothing. I remained myself, and like I said earlier, God had ordained it that this will be my time. To be honest, I never believed I will win the show.”
On her love for Ike and the strategy: ” Falling in love in the House didn’t play a major role in your winning the show. No. In the first place, I never really wanted a relationship. I came in to play the game all by myself.”
On present relationship with Tacha : “We are friends. While we were in the House, what happened just happened. I don’t bear grudges against anyone. Tacha and I are friends and I don’t think there is any need for make-up when we remain friends.
Tacha has congratulated me. Look, friends fight, family fights. Things happen and as human you just show the anger side of your life and later you come back to your senses. That Tacha and I had issue in the House doesn’t change the fact that we are still friends. People would soon see us together. Trust me, you guys would soon see us together.”
On her N5m bum bum: ” I never said I did surgery on my bum and it cost you N5 million. My Bumbum is real. This interview is getting too personal. But I won’t tell you whether my bum is real or not. People are free to have their opinion about my bum. Let the rumour continue, I am actually enjoying it.”
Suspected Boko Haram insurgents on Friday, October 4th reportedly launched an attack on Mifa, a village in the Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State.
According to reports, several houses were said to have been razed during the attack by the insurgents, who arrived at about 8pm.
“They are burning houses as I speak to you, many of them arrived with motorcycles and started attacking the village,” a source said. Adding that many of the villagers have escaped while the attack has caused panic in the whole of Chibok and neighbouring LGAs.
“They have burnt so many houses especially because it is night and the terrain of the place. We don’t know of any casualty yet. The troops just arrived although the insurgents are still inside the villages.”
Mifa, eight kilometres away from Chibok town, is the last settlement which shares a border with the dreaded Sambisa forest. The attack comes amid continued claims by Nigerian authorities that the war against Boko Haram which has lasted a decade, has been largely successful.
Two soldiers on Friday disclosed that 10 of their colleagues who allegedly protested against poor feeding, lack of special promotion and poor welfare on the battlefield have been in detention since July 15, 2019, without trial.
They said the detained soldiers attached to the 143 Battalion of the Nigerian Army were inducted into operation Lafiya Dole in Adamawa State on November 30, 2014, and were subsequently advanced to Madagali and Limankara in Borno State.
One of the soldiers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said their detained colleagues in the unit which has its headquarters in Madagali, Adamawa State, had allegedly complained about poor feeding in their separate locations within the unit on social media platforms.
The source further said one of the infuriated soldiers wrote an article that was published on another social media platform in which he lamented the alleged inhumane treatment of soldiers on the battlefield by their commanders.
According to the source, the soldiers also complained that they had overstayed in their unit for over four years without rotation as against the two-year rotational principle in the embattled North-East region.
It was learnt that some top Army officers in the unit were not pleased with the revelation, which prompted an investigation into the matter.
“However, on July 15, 2019 when 144 Battalion finally changed the 143 battalions from operation back to their unit as a result of the said articles, the 10 soldiers in the unit were held back and subsequently arrested and accused of masterminding the write-up on the grounds that they had earlier decried their poor feeding in a WhatsApp group,” he disclosed.
It was learnt that the soldiers, who had been under detention in the Battalion’s guardroom at Madagali since their arrest on July 15, had been moved to 7 Division Military Police guardroom in Borno State without trial.
Another military source told Saturday PUNCH that the soldiers might be detained for long without trial considering President Muhammadu Buhari’s mindset towards dissenting voices and criticisms.
Wife of BBNaija housemate, Mike steps out in bum shorts for his final campaign in Lagos. Gistmore reports
Perri Shakes Drayton land in Nigeria a few day ago for the first time to support her husband, Mike who is among the top five finalist of the reality TV show.
Today is the final day for users to vote their favourite housemates to the win Big Brother Naija season 4 which is taking place this sunday.
Tanzanian President John Magufuli has praised a senior government official for caning a group of secondary school students who were accused of setting fire to their dormitories.
A widely-shared video shows regional commissioner Albert Chalamila administering beatings to a group of students who were lying face down, BBC reported.
Earlier, a Tanzanian government minister had criticised Mr Chalamila as only headteachers are allowed to carry out corporal punishment.
But President Magufuli, who has become known for his no-nonsense attitude, has also called for the law on corporal punishment to be changed so that it can be meted out by all teachers.
The president also wants to relax the rules on when caning a student might be appropriate.
According to BBC report, currently, even headteachers are discouraged from resorting to corporal punishment, they have to have a strong reason to do so, and are limited to four strokes.
Mr Magufuli dismissed those who say that physically punishing students is an abuse of their human rights.
‘’I have spoken to Mbeya regional commissioner [Mr Chalamila], and I told him: ‘You did a great job caning them’.
“He should have caned them even more. Those who advocate for human rights should pay for the dormitories – these buildings were built by poor parents’ contributions,’’ the president said.
Residents of Atan-Kekere in the Ayobo-Ipaja Local Council Development Area of Lagos State have lamented the hardship they are facing as a result of the dilapidated state of the Atan-Kekere Road and the poor drainage channels causing the area to be flooded during rainy seasons.
The residents, while speaking with PUNCH Metro, alleged that the road and drainage channel being constructed by the Chairman of the Ayobo-Ipaja LCDA, Shakiru Yusuf, at Atan-Nla would increase their suffering, because it would direct flood from adjoining areas like the Borbit filling station road, Amule bus stop and Atan-Nla Road, among others, to the Atan-Kekere Road, which is currently in a deplorable state due to incessant flooding.
One of the landlords in the community, Adeniyi Adeola, said tenants were moving out of the area due to flooding, adding that the road and drainage construction, when completed, would turn Atan-Kekere into a depository for flood.
The engineer stated, “The construction being done by our chairman, Shakiru Yusuf, at Atan-Nla Road will have consequences on the adjoining streets, including the Atan-Kekere Road, which is currently in a bad state. In fact, the water passing through the drainage on the Atan-Kekere Road has no link to another road; so, the whole area is always flooded and this has negatively affected the road and our source of livelihood as tenants have been packing out of Atan-Kekere, but some of us cannot leave because our properties are here.
“Our area is usually in a very terrible state during the rainy season; fences are collapsing, because the volume of water coming from Atan-Nla is deposited on Atan-Kekere. For instance, the flood coming from Atan-Nla Road is from areas like Owolabi Street, Adogan playground, Borbit filling station road and Amule bus stop, and it settles on Atan-Kekere Road, especially, Unity-Agedo Street, among others.
“As I speak to you, the Atan-Kekere Road is no longer motorable; so, the construction of the Atan-nla Road will worsen our situation. This is because the volume of water coming from the road, which is on the high side, is too much for the Atan-Kekere Road, which is by the lower side of the community and leads to nowhere.
Another resident, Toba Fatiregun, while urging the chairman to redirect the drainage to another location or extend it to the Atan-Kekere Road instead of stopping at the Atan-Nla Road, said residents living on the Atan-Kekere Road were no longer safe.
The Osun State indigene stated, “A lot of residents, including myself, had to abandon our homes as a result of flood. We are not safe; in fact, I have left the place for months. Before I built my house, this was never the case; car owners can hardly drive into their houses now.
“Our plea is that the local government should extend the construction to the Atan-Kekere Road, or redirect the drainage to another location, because the Atan-Kekere Road is being used as a water depot without considering that people live and have their properties there.”
Another resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, while urging the state government to partner the Ayobo-Ipaja LCDA to extend the construction of the Atan-Nla Road to Atan-Kekere Road, alleged that Yusuf said he had no budget for an extension when the landlords and residents complained to him regarding the problems that the construction of the road was posing.
He said, “We implore the state government to partner the LCDA; we have met with the chairman to express our concern that the project will make our lives worse and that he should extend it. But he told us that he had no budget for the project to be extended to the Atan-Kekere Road, but said he would open the Atan-Kekere Road to connect Asipa Street.
“But that has not been done and the water has been flowing into surrounding compounds. We want him to redirect the drainage to another location because we are suffering.
When contacted, the secretary to the Ayobo-Ipaja LCDA, Abiodun Agbaje, said the local government’s tender board committee had approved the extension of the construction to Atan-Kekere, adding that the project would commence soon.
Agbaje said, “The road in question is the continuation of Atan-Kekere to link the main road at Asipa; as I speak to you, the second phase of the project has been awarded to the contractor. Any moment from now, the contractor will move to the site to continue the project from where the construction at Atan-Nla stopped.
“The Unity-Agedo Road at Atan-Kekere had been constructed before, but that area is waterlogged and because of that, this new construction will be done with interlocking stones like that of the Atan-Nla Road.
“The drainage will be widened to accommodate the water coming from the Atan-Nla Road so that it will not be spilling onto the Unity-Agedo Road. The local government’s tender board committee has already approved the contractor that will execute the project.”
Constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome, has lamented the sorry state of affairs in Nigeria, saying that at 59 years of age, Nigerians now live like walking corpses or the walking dead due to the poverty and hunger in the land.
Noting that Nigeria, once upon a time the biggest economy in Africa and the 3rd fastest growing in the world, Ozekhome said: “Parents now sell their children to survive and the children do like wise. Husbands kidnap wives and wives kidnap husbands’ for cheap ransom.”
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria made the disclosures in a statement titled, “Tears, Sorrow, Blood, Lamentation for Nigeria at 59”
“Termites and maggots eat up the national edifice.
“Chaos and anarchy reign supreme. Impunity triumphs.
“Irredentism, cronyism, clannishness and nepotism strut around like a proud peacock.
“Corruption multiplies geometrically, ravaging the land.
“Nigeria is now the second most corrupt country in West Africa and one of the 148 most corrupt in the world.
“Rule of law is subsumed, human rights crushed, Democracy is vanquished.
“Even basic civil liberties are suppressed and subjugated. Judges are brutalised, humiliated and denigrated, for doing their jobs.
“The Judiciary is weakened, traumatised, pauperised.
“The legislators haemourrage the national purse with fantastic and indefensible out-of-the-world pay packets.
“The Executive acts imperiously, untramelled, uncontrolled, like Louis X14 of France.
“The cabal holds the nation down by the jugular. Less than 20 people dictate the fate of 200 million Nigerians. There are no checks and balances.
“Absolutism, dictatorship, fascism, brutality, bestride our democratic space like a collosus.”
Ozekhome added that “Yet, the people, the Civil Society, remain docile, complicit, frightened and cowed.
“Mediocrity is enthroned in place of meritocracy.
“Hypocrisy, lies, revisionism, propaganda are elevated, celebrated and dressed in the false garb of truth and patriotism.
“Genuine criticism, dissent, opposition, plurality of views, are treated as treason, and at best as treasonable felony. Nigerians now murmur, rather than discuss freely.
“Soliloquy and monologue take the place of robust dialogue. Nigerians now live like walking corpses, like the living dead.
“The common man and woman languish in abject penury.
“The middle class diminishes. Industries relocate to neighbouring countries. Massive disinvestment becomes the order of the day.
“Nigeria, once upon a time the biggest economy in Africa and the 3rd fastest growing in the world, is today the poverty capital of the world.
“Parents now sell their children to survive and the children do like wise. Husbands kidnap wives and wives husbands for cheap ransom.
“Insecurity becomes the order of the day. Boko Haram, herdsmen, kidnappers, armed robbers, hired assassins, control our highways, pathways and forest routes.
“Nigeria has been turned into a gruesome crimson field of bloodbath.
“There is mass suicide and homicide. Mass unemployment is the order of the day. Retrenchment becomes a norm.
“Education and certificates are racketeered.
“Children learn under uncovered roofs in rain, storm and sun, sitting on bare floor.
“Graduates roam the streets without jobs.
“Our beautiful daughters and sisters are sold into second slavery as sex objects.
“Young able-bodied men take to kidnapping, armed robbery, internet scams and Otokoto rituals.
“Money bags are celebrated, no matter the illicit sources of their wealth.
“The church and the mosque are complicit in this societal degeneration.
“Morals, ethics, values, recede into the abyss of historical oblivion.
“Prices of food have gone out of the of the roofs, leaving the poor prostrate and defeated.
“The tail now wags the dog, the leaders molest the people whose mandate they utilise.
“They laugh the people to scorn, exploit them, beat them, scourge them, impoverish them and misuse them.
“God, where, when, how and why did we find ourselves in this scandalous state of nadir, doldrums and national calamity?
“Nigeria at 59!!! A woman still crawling, misused, dehumanised and degraded.
“There will still be sunshine at the end of the storm.
Operatives of the Advanced Fee Fraud Section of the Abuja Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on Monday September 30, 2019 raided the residences of suspected internet fraudsters at Flats 1 and 3, Life Camp Extension Estate, Abuja. . . The operations which was carried out following information regarding the alleged criminal activities of the suspects, led to the arrest of the following: Raphel Chibuzor, Oyewumi Adewale, Onyeogheni Isioma Progress, Ayo Abiodun Richard, Oloyede Faith Damilare and Ibrahim Yusuf Waziri. . . Some of the items recovered from the suspects include mobile phones, laptop computers, a Toyota Highlander SUV and Toyota Corolla car. . . They will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.
The present crop of political leaders should give practical expressions to forces of integration
“Though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand.”
That line from the first anthem of our country has for long remained an ideal to which Nigerians subscribe. With over 250 ethnic groups, two dominant religions that historically view each other with suspicion, social and political classes that engender disaffection and disillusionment and a political leadership that appears doomed to mediocrity at practically all levels, there are, to say the least, serious challenges. But so are opportunities. As we therefore mark the 59th independence anniversary of the country today, the ideal in the first national anthem will serve us better as citizens.
To start with, our diversity should be a veritable tool for intellectual and cultural strength – two indispensable prerequisites for societal development and growth. China, which also marks the 70th anniversary today, for instance, is far larger than Nigeria in terms of land mass and population. It is also culturally diverse. Yet, its monstrous demographic credential has not weighed it down. The United States equally presents a glowing example for Nigeria. As host to all the world’s races and with a population twice as large as Nigeria’s, it draws its moral and political strength directly from its heterogeneity.
Even the enemies of Nigeria do not deny its social and economic potential, despite the generations of waste and abuse it has so far experienced. Also, as home to about one out of every four black persons on earth, its abundance of human resources is not in doubt. But there is a structural challenge that holds us back. The counter-veiling mechanisms that ensure some level of accountability at the centre are either non-existent or too weak in the fragmented units. The logical result is that the promise of good governance embedded in the theory of decentralisation is delivered almost always in the breach. For that reason, the potential for strengthening the structural design for good governance and human development in Nigeria is a sound idea that should be subjected to a national conversation.
But for such a conversation to be meaningful, the present fallacies and prejudices must be dealt with. The two largest religions in the country – Christianity and Islam – both originated from the Middle East and were only transmitted here. They should not continue to be used as divisive instruments. As for ethnicity, the nations that are linguistically homogeneous must be very few indeed. For those who imagine and propose the dissolution of the nation along ethnic or regional lines as a solution to what ails us, they are merely day-dreaming. History is replete with protracted intra-tribal wars as there is no guarantee that acrimony would disappear in the unlikely event of cultural homogeneity.
So, the task before the present crop of political leaders is to mobilise and give practical expressions to the forces of integration. Emphasis should be placed on being Nigerian while those who claim to speak for the various religious, ethnic and regional groups should do so with every sense of responsibility and not make utterances that alienate or infuriate others. The National Assembly in particular has a critical role to play here by giving attention to genuine citizenship. Political and social rights should be based more on residency than the so-called state of origin.
Whatever may be the misgivings of some citizens either over the amalgamation of the country in 1914 or the distortion of our federal system by the military, Nigeria has come a long way as a nation. All our citizens must now look beyond primordial considerations and artificial differences to collectively fight poverty, ignorance and underdevelopment. There is a lot to gain from harmonious living.
We wish all Nigerians happy 59th independence anniversary.
Tragedy has struck in Imo State after generator fume killed a couple and their daughter in the state on Sunday.
The incident happened in the Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of the State.
When contacted on Monday, the police spokesperson in the state, Orlando Ikeokwu, said that the police had taken over the investigation process.
Ikeokwu said that the deaths were”was sudden and unnatural.”
He said that the Police Divisional Police Officer in the area led his men to the scene and found the lifeless bodies of the victims.
He gave the names of the deceased as Luscious Iwunze, Ngozi Iwunze and Geraldine Iwunze.
The police spokesperson said, “A report was received at the Divisional Police Headquarters, Isiala Mbano LGA, about the mysterious death of three persons.
“In view of that, the DPO led a team of policemen to the scene and met the lifeless bodies of Luscious Iwunze, Ngozi Iwunze and Geraldine Iwunze.
“However, preliminary investigation revealed that they died as a result of fume (carbon monoxide) emitted from a power-generating set.
“The corpses have been evacuated to a morgue, and the Commissioner of Police, Imo State Command, has ordered a full-scale investigation into the incident.”
Three suspected kidnappers were burnt to death at the Dutse Alhaji area in Abuja on Monday, September 30th.
Eyewitnesses say the men were apprehended after they allegedly pushed their female victim out of a moving vehicle when she began screaming for help.
A motorist who claimed to have witnessed the lady being pushed out of the vehicle, reportedly pulled over in front of the suspected kidnappers' vehicle and blocked it under the Dutse Bridge. Passersby and motorcyclists who also claimed to have witnessed what happened, immediately surrounded the vehicle.
Unable to answer their questions, the mob poured petrol on the suspects inside the vehicle and set them ablaze.
Efforts are currently being made to evacuate the charred remains of the suspects to the mortuary while the female victim was taken to Kubwa General Hospital for treatment.
Celebrities › Lovely Photos Of Bbnaija Couple, Ike And Mercy At Headies Awards by GistUpdates(op): 6:32pm On Oct 20, 2019
