₦airaland Forum

The first few episodes of a new Game of Thrones season always struggle with having to set up future conflicts, which is why things really get going by the midway point which was this week. The fifth episode was powerful and jam-packed, with quite a few big moments that we will talk about below.


Editor's note: spoilers below for fifth episode of Game of Thrones' sixth season.

Things started at Mole's Town, with Sansa Stark meeting Littlefinger on the outskirts of Castle Black. She brought Brienne for company, and then went on to shame the scheming Lord Baelish for everything he had done to her - "You freed me from the monsters who murdered my family, and you gave me to other monsters who murdered my family", she says in conclusion for her point. It's rare that Littlefinger is taken aback like this, but he's struggling for words. He does eventually get in a word, informing Sansa that her uncle Brynden "Blackfish" Tully has taken Riverrun back from the Freys. And should she need the Blackfish's services in retaking the North, he could be of help, adding Jon is only "half-brother".

Across the Narrow Sea, the other Stark sister - or rather a girl/ no one - is still practicing and repeatedly losing to the Waif, who derives much joy in beating up the young apprentice. Afterwards, Jaqen H'ghar tells her the history of the Faceless Men and sends her out to scout a new target - an actress called Lady Crane - at a stage performance. The play is a re-enactment of the events Arya is personally invested in - from the beheading of her father to the treacherous treatment of Sansa - but a girl is not supposed to have a past. Or questions, as Jaqen reminds her when she asks about Lady Crane and who wants her dead. She does do a good job of blending in, and finding out the best way to end her target's life - the rum.

Then came the episode's first big moment, inside another one of Bran's visions. The Children of the Forest, with Leaf (who had rescued Bran at the end of season four) among them, have a human captive. She goes up to him and slowly drives an obsidian dagger straight through his chest, converting him into a White Walker. That is a big revelation - the fact that the Children of the Forest are responsible for the first White Walkers - read more at[http://www.technetcruz.com/2016/05/game-of-thrones-s06e05-door-recap.html?m=1]

HE ongoing investigations of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s aides and calls for his probe may have stirred unease across the nation, espe­cially within the camp of the former president, fuelling speculations that agents of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC may soon knock on his door. Talks on this have sim­mered over time, but gained currency last week when the Senate leader, Senator Ali Ndume demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari should authorize the commission to probe and prosecute him. His intervention, according to him, has become expedient owing to the need for the ex- president to throw more light on the fallouts from the explanations of some of his aides that are being held. Ndume had said, “Nobody is sup­posed to be above the law. If Jonathan is a cul­prit, he should face the law. If there is evidence that the former president should face the law, then, he should. After all, he is presumed guilty.” As if on cue, the President’s Special Adviser on Media and publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, while answer­ing reporters’ questions on the subject declared emphatically that ,” The President does not tele-guide the EFCC in any way.” The president’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, corroborated him, adding that Buhari did not sign any pact with Jonathan, or any past president to exempt him (Jonathan) from probe. Expatiating further, Shehu said that Buhari’s open and transparent nature would not allow him to enter into any secret pact with any­body, especially on the ongoing war on corruption.
The resurgence of the clamour to probe and rein in Jonathan, according to Sunday Sun’s findings emanated from pressures mounted on Buhari by some of his adversaries who are now in the rul­ing All Progressives Congress, APC, and who are bent on capitalizing on the fallouts of the probe to extract a pound of flesh from him. A source within the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP pointedly ac­cused a former governor from the South- south as spear heading the pressure group. “Until recently, Buhari had sought to maintain the unwritten tradi­tion in Nigeria whereby past presidents are always treated with respect and left unruffled on issues of transparency, no matter the agitations, or clamour. That espirit de corps is about to be broken.” In a thinly veiled reference to an all encompassing probe that will brook no sacred cows, the Presi­dent told Nigerians in an interactive session with them last week in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea that “We will be merciless and relentless in pursuing all those who abused public trust. Nigerians will see how some of the elite conspired to run the na­tion down.” Although the president did not set out on a witch hunt mission against Jonathan, recent pressures that are basically hinged on the mind-boggling revelations from investigators of Jona­than regime may also have assisted in compelling him to buckle under and develop a thick skin. His stance is equally buoyed by a tacit endorsement by civil society groups, leading opinion moulders and a sweeping percentage of ordinary Nigerians who are outraged by the huge loots. read more at[url][http://www.technetcruz.com/2016/03/pressure-mounts-on-buhari-to-arrest.html#more]

At 12, the world of Queen (surname withheld) has literally turned upside down. Her dreams are crumbling as she undergoes medical treatment owing to alleged abuse by her father, Bamekpa.
Her injuries are serious enough to warrant urgent surgery in one of the hospitals in Yenagoa, Bayelsa
State.
Queen is no doubt in pains. At a point, she bled profusely from her private part.
Her father, who hails from Imiringi, Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, allegedly started to defile her at the age of 11.
He was alleged to have serially raped and eventually impregnated her. Then he forced her to abort a four-month-old pregnancy through a crude process that currently threatens her life.
Queen told Operation Rescue (OPER), a human rights group, led by Princess Elizabeth Egbe, that she ran away from the house when she could no longer bear her father’s devilish craving.
She said: “There was nobody to help me. He kept doing it despite my efforts to stop him. It was a painful and violent experience. I ran away from home because there was a time I bled so much from my private part.”
Sobbing, she said: “When I became pregnant and he heard about it, he handed me over to a lady who took me through an unsuccessful process of abortion. I have been suffering series of health issues after the abortion.”
Speaking on the travails of his niece, her uncle, David Apigi, expressed shock at the way she was allegedly
violated by her father.
He said: “My niece told me the trauma she has been passing through in her father’s house and how her father has been using her, turning her to his second wife. read more at[url][http://www.technetcruz.com/2016/03/father-rapes-12-year-old-several-times.html#more]

The President of the Nigerian Women in Clergy and Overseer of the New Wine Ministries World Wide, Nonnie Robertson, visited Suleja prison to celebrate her birthday.
According to her she decided to visit the prison because she had heard about some people who have been incarcerated for committing petty crimes and unable to meet their bail conditions or pay the fine set for their release.
She said she was shocked to see children in prison with their parents. She said she didn’t think it was fair for children to be incarcerated for crimes committed by their parents.
She said:
“There is an eight-month-old baby in this prison. I asked myself why? What was the crime? The mother is incarcerated! And you know what it means for a child to grow up in prison environment where there is no good food, no clothing, no baby food, and no good medical care. Is a child who grows up in that kind of environment not condemned for life?”
“I was really shocked when I saw the eight month-old-baby. The woman lives on dry food, that is, garri that outsiders provide for them. They don’t give them food. They depend on what people take to them. That is what they share among them and they drink garri even in the morning with little or no sugar. You can just imagine! There are many children living in this condition in Nigerian prisons but people would not know. There are issues. I weep for this country”.
“I always like to do things differently. I heard about what I could describe as ‘forgotten’ victims in Nigerian prisons; though I didn’t take it seriously because I was not led by the spirit; I prayed over it and few, days to my birthday, God asked me to visit prisons. read more at[url][http://www.technetcruz.com/2016/03/but-why-8-month-old-baby-remanded-in.html#more]

According to Nigeria’s main opposition party, PDP, the president has allegedly withdrawn $23m forex from CBN for foreign travel expenses and estacode.
See another accusation against presidential spokesman Garba Shehu,at [http://www.technetcruz.com/2016/03/president-buhari-has-withdrawn-23.html#more]

The General Overseer of The Lord”s Chosen Charismatic Revival Movement, Pastor Lazarus Muoka, has again, barred armed robbers, prostitutes, cult­ists, women on trousers and kid­nappers from giving offerings, pledges and paying tithes in the church.
This is even as the revival preacher urged Nigerians to turn to God in repentance for divine intervention that would lead to the revival of economic and political fortunes of the country.
Preaching to hundreds of thou­sands of worshippers that con­verged on the headquarters of the church at Ijesha, Lagos for the last lap of the two-day crusade, Muoka harped that God is not interested in ill-gotten wealth and riches but want everybody to worship him in truth and in spirit.
Hear him: “If you are here and you are an armed robber, a kid­napper, cultist, adulterer, among others and you don’t want to re­pent, please we urge you not to give offering, tithe or pledge be­cause we are here to lead people to Christ and not money.
“The God who called us is al­ways with us and we know that God will supply all our needs including money to finance the church. We urge you to repent from all evil and God will forgive you and give you good business that conforms with the word of God.
“We may not know you but God knows you and will judge you if you go against his will.”read more at[http://www.technetcruz.com/2016/03/nigerian-pastor-bar-robbers-prostitutes.html#more]

– The National Assembly has condemned President Buhari’s recent move to admit Nigeria into the Islamic coalition against terrorism
– NASS says it was not consulted for approval before the move was made
– President Buhari has also been faulted for a declaration made in an interview with Al-Jazeera Emerging reports suggests that there is a rift between the National Assembly and President Buhari over the president’s move to admit Nigeria into the 34-member Saudi Arabia-led coalition fight­ing Islamic terrorism.

Members of the National Assembly, including the Office of the Senate President, have disowned the move, saying that Pres­ident Buhari did not seek the ap­proval of the National Assembly before the government made such a weighty international commit­ment in the name of the country. Breaking Times reports that the Office of the President of the Senate denied knowledge or endorsement of Nigeria’s mem­bership of the Saudi-led coalition. According to the special advis­er to the president of the Senate on media and publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, there was no knowl­edge of a presidential communi­cation to his principal either pri­vately or officially on Nigeria’s membership of the Saudi Arabia coalition against the Islamic ter­rorist.

He explained that if there had been such a correspondence from the presidency under “Letter from President Muhammadu Buhari,” it would have been read on the floor of the Senate before now. Reacting to Nigeria’s possible member­ship of the Saudi-led anti-terror coa­lition, a member of the Senate, Sen­ator Adeola Solomon Olamilekan (APC- Lagos West), said although Nigeria is already a member of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), it still behoves on the presi­dent to seek approval from the Na­tional Assembly before engaging in such a treaty. “As I speak to you, the President has not sought the Na­tional Assembly’s permission and I know he would not engage in any such thing given the economic re­cession and paucity of funds in the national treasury. But for all I know, he has not sought the National As­sembly’s approval to enter into such a coalition. “It is not like the President has dragged Nigeria into membership of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition. Nigeria is a member of Organisa­tion of Islamic Countries (OIC) and if the president is going to join any Islamic group to intervene or to bring Nigeria on board to fight ter­rorism, he still needs to seek approv­al from the National Assembly,” Senator Olamilekan said. The lawmaker, who doubles as the vice chairman of the Senate com­mittee on communications, ar­gued that though the president has the right to initiate any good part­nership with other countries of the world, he still has to get the approv­al of the National Assembly in line with the constitution of the Feder­al Republic of Nigeria. In reaction to the issue, a mem­ber of the House of Representa­tives, Hon Oghene Emma Egoh, representing Amuwo Odofin fed­eral constituency of Lagos state, de­nied any knowledge of the National Assembly’s approval of the purport­ed membership of the coaliton. read more at>[http://www.technetcruz.com/2016/03/nass-and-buhari-clash-over-islamic.html#more]

Samsung last year in August launched its flagship phablet, the Galaxy Note 5. However, seven months since the launch, we are now hearing the initial rumours for its successor, the Galaxy Note 6.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 6 will reportedly be launching in July instead of August like last year,according to a Korean website The Bell (via Phonearena), which cites people close to the matter. The handset will reportedly launch in mid-July, and is said to be codenamed as 'Grace'. The device is even tipped to run Android N operating system out-of-the-box, which is plausible, as the OS is already in beta testing and will be publicly announced in May at the Google I/O 2016 conference.

The report however, does not mention anything else about the smartphone. Some other rumours from multiple sources hint towards the inclusion of a 5.8-inch display as compared to Galaxy Note 5's 5.7-inch offering. Other rumoured specifications include 6GB of RAM, a 12-megapixel rear camera (which might be the same modules used in the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge) up to 128GB storage expansion, and obviously, the S Pen. Nothing has been confirmed just yet.

Talking about Samsung's rumoured handsets, the South Korean tech company for now is being tipped to work on a Galaxy S7 Mini smartphone. As per preliminary reports, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Mini will reportedly sport a 4.6-inch HD (720x1280 pixels) resolution display and will either be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor or Samsung's own Exynos 8890 SoC. It would also include 3GB of RAM, 12-megapixel rear camera, and will be 9.9mm thick. A separate accessory namely the "Periscope Lens" with 3x optical zoom is also mentioned for the handset. see more at..[url][/http://www.technetcruz.com/]

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday responded to talks that his administration has not done anything since coming to office last May, promising to deliver on his election promises in the next three years.
Speaking at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja, the President sought Nigerians’ understanding to enable his administration meet their expectations.
He said with the National Assembly’s passage of the budget and savings of over N3 trillion in the Treasury Single Account (TSA), things would begin to move fast.
Turning to his party leaders, the President said: “I will like you to continue to make sacrifice. I know you are being harassed since the election, with people saying that they have not seen anything on the ground. Well if you have any explanation that could be accepted, it is that you have three more years to go.”
The President added: “When we came in after 16 years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), there were 42 ministries. We reduced them to 24; removed 21 Permanent Secretaries.
“So, imagine the volume of work …So, you have to appreciate the position we are in”.
The agencies, Buhari said, had to be pruned and their boards reconstructed following the reduction of ministries.
His administration, the President said went back on it decision to reconstitute the boards of some universities after discovering that the law was breached... read more at[url][/http://www.technetcruz.com/2016/03/nigerians-will-see-results-in-next.html#more]

National Vice-Chairman, (South-South), of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Dr Cairo Ojougboh has pleaded with Nigerians to consider the party for the 2019 presidency.
The erstwhile ruling party, which was in control of the central government for 16 years, lost to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 general elections. It also lost 17 states in the North, believed to be its traditional strongholds.
Ojougboh told newsmen yesterday in Abuja, that the poor performance of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) would soon endear Nigerians to PDP.
“We want to caution against that statement of impunity that there is no vacancy in Aso Rock in 2019.
Speaking on the Rivers rerun election, the PDP chieftain accused the APC of instigating violence which, he noted, led to the suspension of announcement of results by the Independent National Electoral Commission and the cancellation of the exercise in eight local government areas. “It would have surprised all Nigerians, if APC won a seat because Rivers has always been a PDP stronghold. “We are calling on INEC to please, complete the collation that they had started. Results already announced at polling units can’t be cancelled and that’s what the law says.” see more at...[url][/http://www.technetcruz.com/]

Text of President Muhammadu Buhari’s remarks at the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja, March 24, 2016.
PROTOCOLS
We are members of the legacy party, plus APGA and DPP. We realized since 2005 that to remove the PDP from power, we must sink our differences, come together and form a party. God willing, that eventually happened and that is why we are where we are today, coming together inspite of our differences, both personal and ideological. We must not forget that. Having identified that as members of the legacy party, we again identified three fundamental things facing us. read more at[url][/http://www.technetcruz.com/2016/03/we-may-fail-nigerians-buhari.html#more]

boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau appeared on video for the first time in more than a year on Thursday, rejecting rumours about his death but appearing to signal his time in charge of the Nigerian jihadist group may be coming to an end.
In a message that contained none of the defiant bluster, taunts and denunciation of political leaders of previous videos and will likely be interpreted as an admission of defeat, the dejected-looking Shekau declared in the Hausa language: “For me the end has come”. read more at...[url][/http://www.technetcruz.com/2016/03/for-me-end-of-bokoharam-has-come-says.html]