₦airaland Forum

Which Nigerian tribe does not have ritualist, some of whom have been reported to be cannibalistic? At the moment, there is a news on an Hausa cannibal in this forum.

How does the enboldened name sound? Nigerian or not?

Mohadana is a nonentity. A big dunce who keeps posting the same thing over and over. I guess it is owing to consumption of two much oil-poisoned fish. There is no single high institution in the whole of Ijaw land. Please visit www.Nigeriavillagesquare.com and read what an Ijaw, Mr. Abidde, writes about his people. He said the obvious truth there.

Mohadana is a nonentity. A big dunce who keeps posting the same thing over and over. I guess it is owing to consumption of two much oil-poisoned fish

UK girls on Ghana drugs charges 

Drug prevention posters are outside the airport in Accra
Two 16-year-old students from London arrested in Ghana 10 days ago allegedly carrying £300,000 of cocaine have been "provisionally charged".
Yasemin Vatansever and Yatunde Diya were stopped as they tried to board a plane at Accra airport on 2 July.

The investigating team said the girls had told family they were going on a school trip to France. Instead, they went to Ghana for six days.

If found guilty it is thought they could face at least 10 years in jail.

The Foreign Office said the pair had appeared in court charged with possessing and attempting to export an illegal substance.

  The higher the court, the better it gets - there is corruption in the lower courts and police ranks but the government is very determined to fight against corruption

Ghanaian Narcotic Control Board officers working as part of Operation Westbridge with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) were said to have found the drugs in laptop bags carried by the girls.

Two Ghanaian men apparently paid for their accommodation in Accra. The girls have told police the men gave them the laptop bags.

Fair Trials Abroad (FTA) said one of the girls' family had contacted them and they were looking into the case.

Sabine Zanker, of FTA, said cases such as these were usually dealt with fairly quickly in Ghana, which has a good legal system.

 

She said: "The higher the court, the better it gets - there is corruption in the lower courts and police ranks but the government is very determined to fight against corruption".

She added that the Ghanaian government was working with the UK on drugs cases.

Operation Westbridge is designed to stop traffickers getting drugs into the UK and Europe through the West African country.

British and Ghanaian customs officials have intercepted more than 200kg of cocaine between Accra and British airports since November.

Interpol estimates more than a third of the cocaine arriving in Europe is trafficked through West Africa.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6896435.stm

Ijaw populated places in Nigeria record the most cult-related deaths

Rivers tasks community leaders on end to killings
Community leaders in Rivers State hold the key on end to "mindless killings,'' the state Deputy Governor Tele Ikuru has said. He made the observation on Friday in Port Harcourt when Tombia Council of Chiefs led by Chief Daye Ikiroma-Owiye paid him a courtesy visit. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in the past three years, Tombia town in Degema Local Government Area had been sacked because of cult clashes, communal strife and killings. The development had led to the displaced residents taking refuge in Port Harcourt. Ikuru told the chiefs that the only way to stop the killings and destruction of property was for "chiefs, opinion leaders and elders to tow the line of peace and turn to God.'' Ikuru continued: "Even if two million armed security men are deployed to your community, except the community members live morally, peacefully and tolerate one another, they would find it difficult to achieve peace. My heart bleeds for Tombia because the people have made it difficult to talk about development there in the last few years,'' the deputy governor stressed. The chairman of the Council of Chiefs, Chief Ikiroma-Owiye said the chiefs were in Government House to seek the way forward for the crisis-ridden community.
http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/breaking_news/article01

What is the last respondent driving at? That OBJ was not a common thief? Please spare me o jare.

A Bayelsa lady suspected to be posing as a mad woman in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa State, has been arrested over her involvement in alleged abduction of a baby from a private hospital along Ingbi road area of the city.

The lady, names withheld, was reported to have dressed like a mad woman along the Ingbi road vicinity of the private clinic known as New Uchenna Clinic and Maternity home.

P.M.News gathered that she was alleged to have stayed a few kilometres away from the clinic until her evil plan of abducting a one year old child was hatched.

It was gathered that the purportedly mad lady carried out the crime with the assistance of an Igbo man resident in the area and a nurse employed by the clinic.

The mad lady was claimed to have walked into the clinic and snatched the boy whose mother was a patient in the hospital.

The baby was abducted at about 7.30p.m. on the fateful day when the mother of the baby was said to have gone to the bathroom.

While the search party was blaming the management of the clinic for poor security situation, the father of the child rushed to the Area police division to lay a complaint.

The abducted child was, however, found the next day with the lady along Pancha area of the city while trying to put the stolen baby in a posh car.

A Commercial motorcyclist, popularly who was part of the search party the previous day sighted the lady with the child and raised an alarm.

She was later arrested and handed to the police but she is insisting that she is crazy.

The police reportedly arrested the Laboratory Technician and Nurse on duty during the disappearance of the child.

The management of the hospital and some other eyewitnesses told our correspondent that another suspect was also arrested.

A visit to the Police Station, where the suspects were detained showed that the accused nurse and the Lab. Technician have been released. When this correspondent visited the clinic, a doctor, who claimed he was not on duty at the time of the incident confirmed the report but said the accused nurse was not in any way involved in the abduction and that it was a minor case which they never wanted to be reported.

Sometimes the Kalu guy is unnecessarily truculent. He could have simply answered the EFCC invitiation, so that like others he can go home and enjoy his loot.

FAKE DOCTORS
•One is a herbalist, the other an auxiliary nurse. And they ran a clinic for many years
By NGOZI UWUJARE, Ibadan
Thursday, July 12, 2007
• Amoo and Famakinwa
More Stories on This Section

Police in Oyo State have arrested two men for operating an illegal clinic.
They are, “Dr” Bola Amoo, 45, and “Dr” Kamar Famakinwa.
The former police commissioner, Mr. Jonathan Johnson, said the suspects were operating an illegal clinic known as Kar Clinic and Maternity Home, located at Agbongbon Road, Idi Arere, Ibadan, Oyo State.
http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/crimewatch/2007/july/12/crimewatch-12-07-2007-001.htm

Leadership has failed in N/Delta— IHONVBERE
By Umoru Henry
Posted to the Web: Thursday, July 12, 2007



ABUJA—FORMER Special Adviser to Obasanjo on Project Monitoring and Evaluation, Professor Julius Ihonvbere said yesterday that leadership has failed in the Niger Delta region of the country, just as he described hostage taking by the militants as political.

Presenting a book titled "Towards an Integrated Development of the Niger Delta" compiled by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in Abuja yesterday, Professor Ihonvbere who tongue-lashed the Niger Delta governors for not managing the resources that accrued to them for the overall benefit of the people of their states, said these states got over N600 billion they could not channel properly into developmental projects.
The former Director, CDD, Dr Kayode Fayemi, Stella Amadi and Ololade Bamidele of the CDD edited the six-chapter book with 270 pages.

According to him, if the governors had spent at least N30 million effectively, problems associated with the people of the Niger Delta would have been nipped in the bud, even as he called on the government to put in structures at the local government levels if the problem of militancy in the region and abject poverty must be resolved.

“If you go to the Niger-Delta, some states that collected over N600 billion since 1999, have nothing to show for the huge money. If the governors put N3 billion in each local government and properly spent, not someone supplying goods for one and half million naira, there can be no local government in the Niger Delta without schools, without water, without electricity, and other amenities, it is impossible. It is so terrible in the region”, he said.

The former governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Edo State who frowned at the proliferation of books that only eulogize leaders while in power without actually capturing issues that affect the ordinary people in the society especially the Niger Delta region, said books were not coming out from ivory towers, even as he urged university lecturers to engage seriously on research and churning out educational books for present and future generations.

In his contribution, Lagos lawyer and activist, Femi Falana, who noted that the only panacea for the Niger-Delta problem was that of mobilizing the people to ask governors, local government Chairmen, legislators in each state of the region questions on how much the states got, how much they spent and on what projects, said the major problem was that of ignorance.

Suspected ritualists kidnap 3 girls in Delta
By Emma Amaize
Posted to the Web: Thursday, July 12, 2007



WARRI— SUSPECTED ritualists, two men and a woman, have kidnapped a Junior Secondary School (JSS) One student at Ozoro in Isoko Local Government Area of Delta State, Miss Faith Igbide and two other girls.

Vanguard learnt that Faith was seized near the school, few days ago, but Faith, a native of Oleh, who is now receiving treatment at the Oleh Central Hospital managed to escape alive from the kidnappers. The identities of the other two girls were still unknown as at yesterday.

Reports said that Faith took permission from the Principal of her school at about 12.00 pm on 7 July to go outside the school’s premises to have lunch and buy sachet water.

On her way to the restaurant, she observed that two other girls were tied in a car, parked by the roadside, and she decised to go nearer and find out why they were tied in that manner and also alert her school authorities.

The two victims who had native chalks tied on their forehead by the ritualists told her that they were kidnapped by some men from a place they could not easily remember.

As she was telling the girls the name of the place from their description of the location, two of the suspected ritualists emerged from their hideout, overpowered and dragged her into the car.

Because she was hypnotized she waved off one of her classmates, when she was sent to buy native chalk, who saw her returning to the car after buying the native chalk. She practically pushed her away and made for the waiting car, as she was spirit-possessed.

Like the other two girls, the ritualists tied the native chalk and a coin on her forehead as soon as she entered the car, and drove straight to the outskirt of the town, where the ritual was to be performed on the kids.

But it appeared the money-making ritual was bound to backfire on them as the woman ritualist warned against taking Faith to the shrine, saying that her spirit was too strong for the charm they ritualists wanted to prepare.

“When we got to a particular point, one of the ritualist, a woman now said that my spirit is tormenting her and that if they continue with me I will prevent them from doing what they intended doing and so they ask of my name but I kept silent and the other girls said my name was Blessing instead of Faith,” Faith was reported to have told sympathizers at the hospital.

She was thereafter pushed out of the car and abandoned to her fate on the roadside. The ritualists left with the other two girls. A motorcyclist who was passing by saw her and brought her to Oleh main market. The motorcylist did not wait for fear of being lynched by people who would mistake him for one of the ritualists.

Faith was first taken to the Christ Chosen Deliverance Church, Irri, by the villagers who thought that she was possessed, as she could not make coherent statements and after prayers in the church, she was later taken to the Oleh Central Hospital for further medical treatment.

The mother of the girl, Mrs. Oghale Okoro expressed joy over God’s delivery of her daughter from the hands of the ritual killers, saying that she was in a market at Asaba-Ase when she was called that her daughter was kidnapped and rescued by God.

Yar'Adua names Okeke first female Head of Service, other aides
From Martins Oloja and Madu Onuorah, Abuja
NIGERIAN womenfolk scored another first as President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has approved the appointment of Mrs. E. O. Okeke as the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.
http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/news/article04

NAPTIP rescues 779 victims in four years
• Tuesday, Jul 10, 2007

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) rescued 779 victims in the last four years, a top official said.

The Director for Investigation and Monitoring, Alhaji Mohammad Babandede, made the disclosure to our correspondent in Abuja yesterday.

He explained that trafficking in persons entailed the exploitation and deceitful movement of persons from place to place, either for labour, sex or the removal of human organs.

Babandede said that out of the persons rescued in joint operations with the police, immigration and other agencies, 337 had been trained in various vocations and re-integrated into the society.

He further said that no fewer than 24 victims were repatriated to Spain, Italy, Saudi Arabia, while more than 200 were sent back to Benin Republic, Togo and Burkina Faso.

Most of the rescued victims were given hairdressing equipment, sewing machines and other tools on completion of their vocational training to facilitate their rehabilitation, he said.

The director noted that the affected persons belonged to the age bracket of 13-22 years, with the ratio standing at two males to eight females.

He said that Edo and Delta had the highest number of street girls or 90 per cent of women trafficked abroad.

“Others are trafficked from some Northern states such as Kano and Sokoto, and used as beggars in Saudi Arabia,” he added.

Babandede quoted a survey conducted by an NGO called TAMPEP as showing that 60 per cent of street girls in Italy were Nigerians.

He further said that around 13,000 of such girls were stranded in Libya.

The director listed Italy, Spain, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Ireland and the Netherlands as the major receiving countries, while Benin, Togo, Niger and Chad were the trafficking nations to Nigeria.

Cameroon, Benin, Gabon and Niger, he said, were transit points for most of the trafficked persons.

Babandede said that more than 10,000 trafficking cases had been reported to the agency, while 12 barons, most of them women, had been convicted. NAPTIP lost two cases, while around 20 cases were awaiting trial, he said.

The director expressed regret that radio and television jingles had not been effective in the fight against trafficking as most of the victims were illiterates.

No! Ijaws lead with their Egbesu and witchcraft.

Report rates Jigawa poorest in Nigeria
From Martin Oloja, Abuja
JIGAWA State has been adjudged the poorest in the country. It leads nine other northern states as the poorest in the country.

This was contained in statistics released on Tuesday at a Stakeholders Forum on the Economy where vital figures were released on the Obasanjo Administration Reforms and outcomes covering 1999 to 2004.

The forum, presided over by President Olusegun Obasanjo, had key drivers of the Obasanjo economic reform agenda presenting data on various sectors of the country's economy. One of them was the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo.

One of the revelations is that Lagos State remains the engine room of the country's economy contributing a whopping 48 per cent of deposit, and 69.96 per cent of total loans in Nigerian banks.

Abuja with heavy government presence in monetary transaction comes a distant second with only 16.86 per cent of deposits and 4.6 per cent of total loans.

According to the 2006 census result, the North leads with a total population of 75,025,166 while the South follows not so closely with 64,978,376 in a result that puts Nigeria's population at 140,003,542.

One of the reports on the economy released to the forum held at the State House Banquet Hall revealed that the Northern part of the country is poorer with Jigawa State on top of the league closely followed by Kebbi State. Others in descending order are Kogi, Bauchi, Kwara, Yobe, Zamfara, Gombe, Sokoto and Adamawa.

In contrast, Bayelsa, with the lowest population figure in the entire South, tops the list of "10 states with the lowest incidence of poverty (Richest States)".

In economic terms, Bayelsa State has the highest per capita income rate in the country followed, interestingly by the politically traumatised Anambra State.

Abia State, comes third, others in this category of "Richest States" are: Oyo, Imo, Rivers, Enugu, Ogun, Osun and Edo.
States not listed by researchers are said to be within the range of mediocrity, neither poor, not rich.

According to the report, which did not blame any governor or any governance factors, even individuals in all the geo-political zones were asked to state how poor they felt they were.

But there is a wide disparity between the verdict of the respondent and the actual incidence of poverty with respondents indicating a higher degree of poverty.

On the state of economic activities in the geo-political zones, the North performs poorly.

All the three zones in the North (excluding FCT), according to the report, have less bank deposit than the South zones.

According to the report: "The poverty status in turn is highly correlated with Adult literacy rates; size of average household; orientation to private sector-led wealth creation as opposed to dependence on government or few people; active intervention of States/Local Governments towards empowerment of the people, etc"

On the performance of the economy, the report claims that "poverty incidence is down from 70 per cent in 1999 to 54 per cent in 2004, but the regions differ, "

In a rider to the report, the researchers indicate that poverty is strongly correlated with size of household and level of education".

But the report is unmistakable in the final analysis that the status of poverty in the polity has been largely enhanced by low productivity in the North.

I am talking about Nigeria, not abroad.

Forsythe was a vet and a journalist. He fought the Biafran war up to a point

Who are the most educated Female Nigerians?

Thank God the vice is everywhere: Igbo Yoruba, Hausa, Bini, Ijaw, etc.

105 buildings collapsed in Lagos in the last few years. This is authoritative. It all boils down to shoddy jobs and low building materials used.