₦airaland Forum

former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Tony Anenih, a former Minister of Information, Dora Akunyili, and scores of other passengers are currently stranded at the Abuja airport after one of the toilets in their Arik flight 583 to Benin failed to flush,
Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3836-anenih_akunyili_stranded_in_abuja_after_arik_aircraft_s_toilet_f.html

The National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) was unable to realise its blood bank target for 2011 as a result of the activities of the Boko Haram sect in the northern part of the country.

Adaeze Oreh, the Abuja Centre Coordinator of NBTS, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday that the agency was unable to collect the targeted volume of blood from donors due to the security challenges in the country.

She put the country's blood requirement at more than 100,000 units per annum.

“We could only get less than 50 per cent of the blood requirement in 2011,” she said,

Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/national/3823-government_blames_boko_haram_sect_for_blood_shortage_in_hospital.html

On Wednesday, we requested our readers nationwide to let us know if the police checkpoints around their neighbourhoods have disappeared in line with the directive of the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar.

Following widespread cases of corruption at the checkpoints, Mr. Abubakar had directed the dismantling of all intra-state and highway road blocks nationwide.

But the reports we got from all parts of the country Wednesday is that police officers are disregarding the IG's order, and have continued to extort motorists.

Go to: http://premiumtimesng.com/metro/3807-police-officers-disregard-ig_s-order-police-checkpoints-everywhe.html to view some of the responses we got via Twitter, Facebook and Blackberry.

A trigger happy police officer in the commercial city of Onitsha set off a suden riot against Hausas in the city on Thursday after he murdered a bus driver.

The bus driver suspected to be a member of the Movement of the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) was killed by a police officer mounting an illegal checkpoint and demanding a bribe from motorists, Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3725-trigger-happy_police_officer_triggers_riots_in_onitsha.html

"In answering this call, I go back to the template of my own parents who taught me that honest public service is the greatest asset a person can offer his community."

A former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu, has just issued a statement explaining why he accepted an offer from the Federal Government to serve the country.
Mr. Ribadu was on Tuesday named as head of a 17-member petroleum revenue special task force designed to enhance probity and accountability in the operations of the country’s petroleum industry. Read more here: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3711-nuhu-ribadu-explains-reasons-for-accepting-to-serve.html

The extremist Boko Haram sect this evening descended on Kano again, launching a vicious attacks on two police locations in the city.
Read more at:http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3690-boko-haram-attacks-two-stations-in-kano.html

Some eminent Nigerians have prescribed the convening of a sovereign national conference as the only way to ensure that Nigeria continues to exist as one entity.
At a forum organized in Lagos by the National Summit Group, Monday, participants were unanimous that a sovereign national conference - where the almost 500 ethnic groups and languages will sit down and discuss the terms of existence in Nigeria - is the way out of the current political and economic impasse.
Read More at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3691-nigeria-political-heavyweights-insists-on-sovereign-conference.html

When Nigerian-born illegal, Timothy, couldn’t feed himself, he approached the Dutch food bank. But because he was an illegal, he was refused

Every Thursday, Osaror Timothy rides his bicycle to dispatch 2,600 newspapers to the same number of homes in Tilburg, a Dutch city of over 200 thousand people. Dark and of average height, Timothy’s major problem is not the delivery of the papers, but evading police arrest.

Timothy’s fear of arrest is not borne out of committing any immediate crime, but because his stay in the Netherlands is un-official. By Dutch law, he is an illegal immigrant.

“Each day I move on the streets, I move with the fear of getting arrested by the police,” he said.

Illegals

Timothy is one of the 100,000 illegals living in the Netherlands, READ MORE AT: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/foreign/3689-nigerian-illegals-in-netherlands-live-tough-and-risky-life.html

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Michy Ranny pressed the phone against his ear to hear the news once more as the caller repeated, “We won the case!” He dropped the phone from his ear, grinned and began dialing friends and family to announce his freedom.
Mr. Ranny and 23 others won a case against the Nigerian government, Tuesday. They were prisoners on death row in Libya, rescued during the Libyan uprising but were re-imprisoned by the Nigerian government upon touch down in Abuja in February last year. President Goodluck Jonathan's security adviser, Owoye Azazi, reportedly ordered their imprisonment.

The judge declared that it was illegal for the comptroller general of Nigerian Prisons and the National Security Adviser to imprison the Libya-condemned Nigerians. The judge awarded Mr. Ranny and fellow detainees damages of N100,000.00 each.

read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/foreign/3637-rescued-from-libya-jailed-in-nigeria.html

The now-famous KPMG report, uncovered by Premium Times after over a year in government’s closet, provides a most ample insight into the endemic corruption in Nigeria’s petroleum sector, headlining in forensic details nauseating and shocking systemic abuses in all aspects of our oil and gas industry.

From unauthorized violation of OPEC oil quota for Nigeria, to outright falsification of the exchange rates used for defraying government oil revenue, to barefaced exploitation of the subsidy regime, the report is clear and unequivocal in its observations conclusions. It not only highlighted how rotten the industry is but it also clearly indicted officials and departments found to be involved in monumental corruption.

Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3636-kpmg-report-20-nigeriana-efcc-should-interrogate.html

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has suspended its work boycott over government's refusal to properly fund the university system in particular and the education sector in general. Lecturers are to resume work immediately.
Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3634-ASUU-suspends-strike.html

Former governor of Kano State and presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party in last April’s general election, Ibrahim Shekarau, has been arrested by the State Security Service.
Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3625-sss-arrests-ibrahim_shekarau.html

The former governor of Bayelsa State,Timipre Sylva’s chances to seek re election as governor of the state has been revivedas the Supreme Court sitting in Abuja Monday granted him leave to seek to revalidate his nomination as the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming elections in the state.
Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3624-supreme_court_grants_sylva_lifeline.html

The police in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, say gunmen have attacked an Air force base, a police station, and military check point leaving five people dead just after mid-day on Tuesday,
Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3623-five_people_gunned_down_in_maiduguri.html

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had on Monday told the court that a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, and his Deputy, Usman Nafada, have a case to answer in the on-going case of N38 billion fraud and criminal breach of trust instituted against them,
read more at: http:///yZBT9N

The Independent National Electoral Commission has backed the inauguration of Idris Wada as the governor of Kogi state.

Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/3615-inec-backs-wada-as-kogi-governor.html

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has suddenly shifted his attitude toward the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, as violence spreads across northern Nigeria.
A week ago, Jonathan warned the group had infiltrated the government and security forces and vowed (again) to stamp it out. But in an interview with Reuters news agency Thursday he said that if Boko Haram identified itself and stated clear demands the government was ready for dialogue. He also acknowledged that military action alone would not stop Boko Haram; and northern Nigeria needed economic development,

To Read more go to: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3616-Nigeria-edge-Islamist-group-extends-campaign-violence.html

The Obong of Calabar, Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi Otu V, has been dethroned by the order of the Federal High Court, Calabar, after almost four years of legal battle.

Read More at: http://premiumtimesng.com/metro/3609-court-dethrones-obong-of-calabar.html

New facts have revealed that the closed-door meetings between the federal government and the representatives of Labour and Civil Society during the last nationwide strike never discussed fuel price during the negotiations.

While addressing members of the Joint Action Front (JAF) on Sunday, Dipo Fashina, the chairman, said that the "so called negotiations" were full of blackmails and arm twisting and no mention of the removal of fuel subsidy,
Read More at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3613-untold-story-of-the-labour-government-fuel-subsidy-negotiation.html

New facts have revealed that the closed-door meetings between the federal government and the representatives of Labour and Civil Society during the last nationwide strike never discussed fuel price during the negotiations.

While addressing members of the Joint Action Front (JAF) on Sunday, Dipo Fashina, the chairman, said that the "so called negotiations" were full of blackmails and arm twisting and no mention of the removal of fuel subsidy.
Read More at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3613-untold-story-of-the-labour-government-fuel-subsidy-negotiation.html

About two weeks after he was seized from from his Abuja home, the whereabouts of Zakari Biu, the embattled police commissioner, who is facing a probe over the escape of a key Boko Haram suspect, is unknown.
His colleagues, friends and family members contacted Monday said they do not know where Mr. Biu is being kept.
Mr. Biu Commissioner was the commissioner in charge of police investigations into Boko Haram activities. He ran into trouble after Kabir Sokoto, a Boko Haram kingpin the police said masterminded the Christmas Day bombing of St. Theresa Church, Madalla, Niger State, escaped while in the custody of his team members.

Read More at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3614-zakari-biu_s-whereabouts-unknown.html

A Lagos High Court has sentenced Hamza Al-Mustapha, the former Chief Security Office to late General Sani Abacha to death by hanging. He was found culpable in the murder of Kudirat Abiola, wife of multi-billionaire businessman and politician, Moshood Abiola, who died in government custody while trying to reclaim the mandate Nigerians gave him in the June 12, 1993 election.

Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3608-al-mustapha-to-die-by-hanging.html

Two civilians have been reported killed after gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect attacked two different police stations in Naibawa and Mandawari quarters of Kano Metropolis on Monday.

The state commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Idris, who confirmed the attacks in an interview with AFP said the gunmen who attacked Mandawari police outpost at dawn “could not get access to the station,” and were “repelled by officers”.

Read More at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3606-police_confirm_two_dead_in_fresh_gun_attack_in_kano.html

Sequel to a recent Federal High Court judgment ordering Airtel to reinstate the shareholding of Econet Wireless Limited (EWL) in the company, the United Kingdom-based telecoms firms has today demanded the immediate enforcement of the ruling.

Econet Wireless Group Chairman, Strive Masiyiwa, said in a statement made available to Premium Times from Johannesburg, South Africa that EWL has already written to Airtel management through its lawyers to immediately reinstate and reissue its 5 percent equity interest in the company.

Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/business/3605-econet_demands_immediate_reinstatement_of_interest_in_airtel.html

Maryam Abuabakar, wife of new Acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed D. Abubakar, died this morning at a hospital in Kano.
Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3604-new_police_boss_loses_wife.html

A clash is imminent Monday between Kogi State Acting Governor, Abdullahi Bello, and Idris Wada, who was elected governor of the state last December.
Following the Supreme Court's sack of Ibrahim Idris as governor Friday, Mr. Bello was inaugurated as the state's acting governor by Chief Judge Nasiru Ajana. But ousted governor, Mr. Idris, also got the the President of the State Customary Court of Appeal, Ibrahim Shuaibu, to, in another ceremony, swear in his annointed successor, Mr. Wada.
Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/politics/3597-kogi-political-crisis-takes-new-twist.html

STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE

President Jonathan Did Not Contest for AU Chairmanship



It has come to our attention that some media houses are alleging that President Goodluck Jonathan was "defeated" by President Yayi Boni of Benin Republic in the “contest” to elect a new African Union Chairman at the 18th AU summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This report is false and is only the latest in a series of sensational and fictional reporting in a bid to cast the administration of President Jonathan in bad light. Let me make the following clear:



1. It is not true that President Yayi Boni “defeated” President Goodluck Jonathan in an election; there was no contest in the first place and President Jonathan was not a candidate for the AU Chairmanship position.



2. It is also not true that President John Atta Mills opposed President Jonathan at any time. Ghana and Nigeria enjoy excellent relations.



3. It is true, however, that in the last week, some newspapers have been speculating that President Jonathan may be adopted by the ECOWAS Heads of States and Governments to be the next chairman of the African Union, since it was the turn of ECOWAS to produce the AU Chairman for 2012-2013. Mr. President was indeed approached by leaders within and outside the West African sub-region to take up the challenge of leading the AU for the next one year.



4. While appreciating this kind gesture, President Jonathan resolved that he needed time to focus on domestic affairs in Nigeria, and that it would be practically difficult for him to combine the three positions of President of Nigeria, Chairman of ECOWAS and Chairman of African Union. He therefore rejected the offer.



5. In order to make his position clear, President Jonathan, in his capacity as ECOWAS Chairman, summoned a mini-Summit of ECOWAS at the AU Commission Headquarters on Saturday, January 28, 2012, to ensure that there was a meeting of minds on the position of AU Chairman. His preference, he noted, would be for ECOWAS to adopt the leader of another country, in order to promote a sense of belonging among member-states. Nigeria, having occupied the position of AU Chairman four times in the past, would readily support any such country.



6. As it turned out, the President of the Republic of Benin had indicated interest in the position, which paved the way for his unanimous adoption by the ECOWAS Heads of State as the sub-region’s candidate for the AU Chair. Thus, it becomes obvious that President Jonathan rather than being “defeated” by President Yayi Boni of Benin actually facilitated his emergence as AU Chairman.



Reuben Abati

Special Adviser to the President

(Media and Publicity)

January 30, 2012

President Goodluck Jonathan’s office has just issued a statement denying ever contesting for the chairmanship of the African Union.
In a statement a while ago, Aso Rock’s spokesperson, Reuben Abati, said, “It is not true that President Yayi Boni “defeated” President Goodluck Jonathan in an election; there was no contest in the first place and President Jonathan was not a candidate for the AU Chairmanship position.”
Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3602-jonathan-denies-defeat-by-benin-republic_s-president.html

I passed through Thursday, December 15, 2011 with mixed feelings. The first of those feelings was that of sadness. I was sad because the day was the fifth anniversary of the death of Ayodele Curtis Joseph in Lagos at the age of 86. Of course, the sadness was not over his death as such. Living to be 86 is quite an achievement in contemporary Nigeria. And for a consistent revolutionary and radical patriot it is a feat to live up to 86 years.

Read more at: http://premiumtimesng.com/arts-entertainment/3572-a_review_of_time_to_reclaim_nigeria.html

IBB says goodbye to politics. Former military president, Ibrahim Babangida says he will never seek any elective office in the country again.

Mr. Babangida, who was speaking in his capacity as the Chairman of the annual trust dialogue hosted by Media Trust Ltd at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, surprised the audience when he said, “I feel am the one man in African politics that has received the most bashing by the media”.

“Today I have news for the Nigeria media, although I will still be around to give advice to upcoming politicians, I will not seek re-election for any elective office again. Babangida will not be around for you to kick around anymore”the former Head of State said, borrowing the words of former American President Richard Nixon.

Read More at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3570-i_will_never_seek_elective_office_again_says_ibb.html

abu Daura was indicted several times by the police for aiding criminals, and blocking investigations into armed robbery. Yet he is a commissioner at the Police Service Commission. Parry Osayande, executive chairman of the Police Service Commission, PSC, got a new job Wednesday. He is leading an eight-member committee constituted by President Goodluck Jonathan to carry out the huge task of reforming Nigeria's inept, corrupt and demoralized police force.
Read More at: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/3568--police-commissioner-indicted-for-aiding-criminals-now-number-two-Police-Service-Commission.html

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