until Niger Delta Avengers makes a statement on their website or twitter handle...I can't simply believe anything from this government..... not anymore....
The Federal Government and ex-militants have resolved to end the ongoing pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta region, an official has said. Paul Boroh, the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Niger-Delta Matters and Coordinator of the Amnesty Programme, said this at the end of a meeting he convened in Benin. Mr. Boro, a retired Brigadier General, told journalists on Saturday night that the pipeline vandalism in the Niger-Delta was reducing the economic fortune of the country and inflicting pains on Nigerians. He urged the agitators to dialogue with the relevant authorities over their grievances and shun destruction of oil installations. He assured that plans were in the pipeline to provide the ex-militants with welfare and a housing scheme in addition to the existing programme and projects. Mr. Boroh stressed the need to find lasting solutions to the current situation in the region. The common factor is security challenges we are facing in our areas, in our region that is affecting the economy of the country. “Personally it makes me feel bad that we don’t know how to solve our problem.
“To you my comrades, it is our responsibility to make sure that insecurity in our environment is well sorted out. Please let us do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t occur again.” Mr. Boroh, who was optimistic about the success of the meeting, said: “We have all resolved that we will put our heads and hands and all in all together to prevent the re-occurrence of this type of thing.” He assured oil firms in the country that the Federal Government is dedicated to end the problems associated with bombing. “Collectively we (Federal Government and ex-militants) have agreed to work as a team to 2prevent re-occurrence. “We feel bad that it is happening, it is affecting our economy and it is affecting development and we are very concern about it.” Some of the ‘militants’ who were present affirmed to what the special adviser said and pledged to support the federal government to bring lasting peace to the Niger-Delta, the News Agency of Nigeria reports. (NAN)
The ongoing Medical Research Centre at Umuchukwu community in Orumba South Local Government, Anambra State, would soon turn the obscure locality to a city of knowledge. On completion of the 15-storey building project, funded solely by Dr Godwin Maduka, the Chief Executive Officer and Medical Director of the Las Vegas Pain Institute and Medical Centre, the largest pain treatment centre in Nevada, USA, the rural community will become the hub of medical research in the country and African continent.
Dr Maduka, an adjunct clinical Professor of Anesthesiology, Pain Management and Surgery, Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Nevada, USA, tasted poverty during his childhood after the death of his father. He struggled through high school on the meagre income provided by his mother, a widow. Like a child destined to rule, he conquered poverty by dint of hardwork, and bagged three doctorate degrees from Havard University.
The high-rise building, which will serve as the Medical Research Centre, the first of its kind in the country, was at 80 per cent completion stage when Campus Sun visited Umuchukwu community recently. A close aide to Dr Maduka said the centre would be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities in medical science, to assist students in clinical training, as well as provide quality resource materials for lecturers and researchers.
Campus Sun learnt that the edifice, when completed, would also serve as the temporary site for the College of Medicine, Anambra State University. A formal request has been sent to the appropriate authority to consider the befitting structure for the temporary site of the state university, where medical students would be exposed to modern equipment in medicine and pharmacy.
To ensure a delightful campus life for staff and students, a four-storey building, with 40 flats, located few metres away from the research centre, has been completed to serve as residential quarters. In addition, a modern guest- house, furnished to taste, is also ready for use within the premises. A gigantic water plant, constructed by Maduka, supplies water to the community, even as more structures are being developed on the expansive hectares of land that would make the area a campus of first choice.
The legal adviser to Dr Maduka, Ray Onyegu, expressed optimism that Umuchukwu would soon become a university town. According to him, the Medical Research Centre would water the ground for a private university that would raise the bar in medical education and healthcare in the country. He described Dr Maduka as a philanthropist, driven by the passion to transform the rural Umuchukwu community to a modern city.
“Ultimately this is going to be a university town. His interest is in the area of preventive health. He wants to establish a university that would have a strong presence in preventive health”, he said.
Campus Sun learnt that the ongoing Umuchukwu Medical Research Centre, when completed, would be modeled after the Las Vegas Pain Institute and Medical Centre, the largest and most comprehensive pain treatment practice group in Nevada, USA. The facility in the USA is widely respected as the premier, one-stop destination for pain treatment and relief, where teams of experts in pain medicine, physical therapy, radiology, and wellness work together to decrease pain using the latest technologies and research.
With several landmark projects already completed by Maduka in the community, such as: Magistrate Court and the ongoing High Court, modern civic centre, Umuchukwu has become a gold fish that cannot hide. It was gathered that Dr. Maduka’s foundation also attracted the attention of the former Governor, Peter Obi, to the deplorable state of local roads in the community, and volunteered to bear the 50 percent cost of construction. This humanitarian gesture moved Obi, who during his visit to the community was overwhelmed by the laudable development in the area and constructed the Owerre-Ezukala, Umuchukwu-Ogbunka roads while in office.
The President General, Umuchukwu Progressive Union (UPU), Hon Okechukwu Nwele, said Maduka preaches education as the potent weapon against poverty. Having tasted poverty, he does not hesitate to wipe the tears of the poor. According to him, he (Maduka) built the Immaculate Conception International College, a boarding secondary school where students from Umuchukwu enjoy full scholarship from JS1 to SS3. It is believed that out of 100 graduates in the community, Maduka singlehandedly trained 90 percent and helped them secure jobs.
“In Umuchukwu community, money is no longer a hindrance to anybody that wants to go to school. Anybody that fails to go to school has no excuse to give,” he said. “Last year, he empowered 56 youths of the community with N56m to support their business.”
One of the beneficiaries of the scholarship programme at the secondary school level, Ukaegbu John, said the package covers tuition, hostel, feeding and books. Other beneficiaries include: Ikedi Okafor (JS3), Nwabuisi Francis (SS2), Ike Moses (SS2), among others.
During an earlier interview, Maduka, christened as Lion of Africa by his people, said, “I am praying to God to see Umuchukwu town more than where they are now. Most of what I do, though God takes control, that’s where my faith comes in. I will like to see a major university here; I will like to see some kind of factory or some kind of establishments that will get people gainfully employed. I will like to see state, federal or international presence here because, after all Umuchukwu, right now, have everything an urban city has.
“We are very well-protected in terms of security. SARS, Police, Civil Defence and army still patrol here. We have motorable roads, good source of water: you don’t have to dig long here to get a borehole and, it’s still practically a city with fresh air because of the vegetation. We don’t have much pollution yet, and also as you know, we have the tallest building in the whole of the South-Eastern Nigeria, 15-storey high and 17-decking tall. So, I think five years from now, of course, it can’t go down, it has to go up from what is on ground”.
SaharaReporters on Friday published the phone numbers of 15 of Nigeria’s Federal Ministers on Facebook and Twitter as part of its efforts to enhance governmental transparency and accountability in the country.
By arming Nigerians with those contact numbers, SaharaReporters hopes to foster greater interaction and communication between voters and their government.
In April, SaharaReporters published the direct lines of members of Nigeria’s National Assembly and of all the State governors.
SaharaReporters will release the second batch of Minister’s phone numbers in the coming days.
Below are the members of the first batch of Federal Ministers:
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has appealed for calm a day after the federal government scrapped fuel subsidy and increased the price of petrol from N86.50 to N145 a litre.
Mr. El-Rufai was a prominent voice against a similar policy in 2012 when the former administration of Goodluck Jonathan announced the removal of fuel subsidy and the attendant petrol price increase. The announcement, Wednesday, by the minister of state for petroleum, Ibeh Kachikwu, has generated controversy. Many Nigerians have condemned the price hike, and have questioned the sincerity of politicians who opposed the policy in the past, but, as members of the present administration, are in support of the latest decision. In what appeared his first response, through a Kaduna State government statement, Mr. El-Rufai urged calm and praised the orderly response of Kaduna people to the new policy. “The Kaduna State Government wishes to appeal for calm. It commends the people for the orderly response to the fuel price adjustment by the Federal Government, and requests their continued patience for the supply of petroleum products to improve,” the statement said. The governor also spoke about the arrest of beggars in the state. Mr. El-Rufai said the prohibition of begging law will not take effect until after 60 days.
The statement added that it is the police that is currently undertaking arrests within Kaduna as part of security operations directed by the Inspector General of Police. “The Kaduna State Government has not directed the police to enforce the begging law, which is not due to come into force yet. Malam Nasir El-Rufai has repeatedly stated that rehabilitation opportunities would be offered for the disabled. The State Executive Council has just approved a Disability Policy, which is a necessary precursor to the drafting of any bill or other measures to promote the rights of the disabled.
“However, the Kaduna State Government is not in a position to impede security operations that are adjudged necessary by the security agencies. “As part of preparations for the regional security summit, the Police Commands of States within the neighbourhood of Abuja which includes Kaduna, Niger and Nasarawa states and the FCT, are undertaking security operations. This includes actions to remove street beggars, hawkers and all abandoned vehicles along the major roads. “These police actions have nothing to with the Kaduna State Government. The government is engaging with the police on behalf of all residents of the state, including the disabled, for a proper management of the situation,” the statement said.
A video has surfaced of President Muhammadu Buhari saying he knows nothing about fuel subsidy removal in December 2011. President Buhari was in the opposition as a presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) while trying to usurp the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2011 general election. The video which was shared on youtube, showed the president saying that anybody who says he is subsidising anything is a fraud, but about one year into his regime as Nigeria’s president, Buhari has agreed to fuel subsidy removal.
His minister of state for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, had on Wednesday, May 11, announced the removal of subsidy on premium motor spirit otherwise known as petrol, which automatically means that it will now be sold for N145/litre as against the former N86.50.
Nigerians have since reacted to the removal of the fuel subsidy, stating venomously that Buhari deceived them, as the previous administration of Dr Goodluck Jonathan meant well for Nigerians when he spoke about subsidy removal. What do you make of this new development? Did President Buhari’s aides do the fuel subsidy removal without his consent? Or did he remove it because he does not know what it means?
The Manchineel tree, native to the Western Hemisphere, is known as the most poisonous tree in the world. In places where it grows – Florida, the Caribbean and the Bahamas – the manchineel is often marked with a red band to warn passersby not to get too near it.
The tree is poisonous on so many levels that if you ever spot one, it is better you stay at least a few yards away from it. Its fruit resembles a small apple, but eating one could land you right in the emergency room. It was supposedly named ‘manzanita de la muerte’ (little apple of death) by Christopher Columbus. But it might just be the least dangerous part of the tree.
The manchineel’s milky white sap is incredibly caustic and poisonous as well – even a drop could cause skin blisters, dermatitis, swelling or burns. This happens a lot with unsuspecting travelers who use the tree for shelter from the rains. The sap is so caustic that even the rain drops coming from the branches can cause burns. The bark is poisonous too – burning it releases a smoke that causes temporary (and in some cases, permanent) blindness. Considering all the ways it can hurt you, it’s no wonder the manchineel currently holds the Guinness record for world’s most dangerous tree. https://www.odditycentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/manchineel-tree.jpg Legend has it that one of the most infamous deaths by manchineel poison was of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon. He returned to Florida in 1521 in search of gold and to lay claim to the area he thought he had discovered. Of course, the natives weren’t exactly going to hand over their land to him. In the struggle that took place, an arrow laced with manchineel sap struck Ponce de Leon’s leg, leading to his long drawn out death. https://www.odditycentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/manchineel-tree2.jpg Nicola H Strickland, a consultant radiologist, published an article in the British Medical Journal about how she ate manchineel apples during a holiday to the Caribbean island of Tobago. “While searching for exotic shells and coral fragments, I saw some green fruits among the scattered coconuts and mangoes lying on the beach,” she wrote. “They were round, the size of a tangerine, and had apparently fallen from a large tree with a silvery bole and oblique based leaves.” https://www.odditycentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/manchineel-tree3.jpg “I rashly took a bite from this fruit and found it pleasantly sweet. My friend also partook (at my suggestion). Moments later we noticed a strange peppery feeling in our mouths, which gradually progressed to a burning, tearing sensation and tightness of the throat.”
Nicola wrote that the symptoms had worsened over the next two hours, and they couldn’t swallow any food because of the excruciating pain in their throats. Milk was the only thing they found somewhat soothing. It took eight hours for all the symptoms to slowly subside.
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Onome Oruru, Ese’s immediate elder brother, tells ARUKAINO UMUKORO that his sister’s actual age is 14
How old are you? I am 16 years old. I was born on Nov 23, 1999.
How did you know? Because my mother told me so and that is the date I celebrate my birthday every year. I just graduated from secondary school last year here in Bayelsa State, at the age of 16. All my peers are in my age bracket. I am certain of my age because I am old enough to know. Ese and I attend the same school. She was in JSS3 last year when she was taken away.
What will you tell people who claim your sister is 17, and not 14 years old as your mother has said? It is funny that these people are saying all sorts of things about my sister and her age. Everybody can see it, it is clear. I can’t be 16 years old, and my younger sister will be older than me. How can she be 17 years old, when my immediate elder sister, will clock 19 years old on March 7 this year? We all have about two years’ age difference in between. Ese clocked 14 on February 22.
How did you celebrate her birthday? Some people came to encourage us. We were happy, but we were sad that our sister was not there with us on her birthday.
Do you know the man who took your sister away? Yes, Yinusa is one of these normal Hausa guys around. We usually call them aboki; they sell things in our area. Did he look like someone who could abduct your sister? Not at all; he looked very innocent and went about his business without complaint. When I heard he was the one that abducted my younger sister, I was very shocked and surprised. If you look at his face, he looks like someone who cannot hurt a fly, and he was sometimes playful. I didn’t believe he could do such a thing. Everybody in the compound knew him because he used to supply water before he became a keke Marwa (tricycle) rider.
Some people also claim that your younger sister said she does not want to come back home to Bayelsa, but that she wants to stay in Kano. I do not believe them at all. Even if she said that as they claim, then it means they are the ones manipulating her to say such things, because Ese that I know cannot say such a thing. Ese is that kind of person that does not even want to become a Muslim at all; she would not even dream of it. In school, she was one of the strongest Scripture Union members; I know her very well. Then, she also used to tell me to come and join the SU. She did evangelism during break time most times.
What kind of person is your younger sister? Ese is still a small girl and cannot decide many things for herself. Ese cannot even wash clothes very well. She likes singing and she was a chorister in the church. She likes preaching and praying. She used to preach to me and my friends. All those things they are saying she said are not true; they are manipulations by those people. I am sad about all of this. I just want my sister back home. ‘We’ll believe Ese is free when we see her’ The parents of 14-year-old Ese Oruru have dismissed says their daughter is 18 years old, and not 14. Ese had been abducted in August 2015 by one Yinusa, aka Yellow, who was a longstanding customer of her mother, Mrs. Rose Oruru, a food vendor in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital. Yinusa took Ese, who was 13 years old at the time, to Kano where she was allegedly converted to Islam and forcefully married. Subsequent efforts by her parents to get her released, including a visit to the Emir of Kano’s palace, had met a brick wall. In an interview with our correspondent on Monday, Ese’s mother, Rose, said her daughter was forced to lie about her age because she had been manipulated by her abductor, Yinusa, and other elements working with him. “We do not have an official birth certificate because Ese was born in a nursing home on February 22, 2002, in Opolo, Bayelsa State. We did not have money to go to a regular hospital. “Ese’s immediate elder sibling, Onome, a boy, was born in November 23, 1999. I always write the date of birth of all my children down,” she told our correspondent on the telephone. Rose said she had, on the advice of a non-governmental organisation, gone ahead to swear an affidavit to authenticate Ese’s age. In the same vein, Ese’s father, Charles, said his daughter was 14 years old. He told our correspondent that the people that claimed that his daughter was 18 were trying to gain sympathy. He said, “They are all lies. My daughter is 14. They know that Nigerians are now against them and they want to do everything to cover up their crime and make us look like fools. My daughter will never say a thing like that.” Charles said he would not believe his daughter had been freed until he saw her. He said, “I went to see the Commissioner of Police in Bayelsa today, and he said my daughter would be released this week. He said when the Emir of Kano returned from his travel, they would release my daughter to the Inspector-General of Police. I was happy, but skeptical because they have said the same thing before, and they did not free my daughter. I won’t believe anything until I see my daughter, Ese, in person. For now, it is still a probability.” Also, Rose said she would not believe that her daughter had been released as claimed until she saw her. She said, “We have been hearing different rumours, but I won’t believe any of them until I see my daughter. When we went to Kano, the Emir said something about her being released to us, so why should I believe them this time? But I will be happy to see my daughter back home with me and safe. The Orurus also expressed gratitude to PUNCH for the campaign to get their daughter released. “Without PUNCH and the NGO, many Nigerians won’t have known what is happening. “I thank them a million times and all Nigerians for their prayers and support. I pray that what happened to my daughter will not happen to any of their children,” she said. PUNCH.
In the Holy Bible book, Matthew 26:41, Jesus Christ advised his disciples to “watch and pray” so that they would “not enter into temptation”. What God is saying in this quoted passage is the necessity for all His children to walk and tread in consciousness in all we do because one single mistake is more than enough to derail us, even in a well-planned journey. Nigerians need to pay more attention to this advice because forces of “darkness” still hover around us as a people and a Nation. Some years ago, there was a major threat of this country [Nigeria] breaking up. That was the fact that confronted us when the Nigerian civil war broke out with the crack of the first bullet of that war coming from the Federal Government troops in a small village of Garkem, near Ogoja, on July 6, 1967. That avoidable war that was fought for two years led to about two million lives being lost on both sides. Yet, we could not prevent it because we took too many things for granted. Things that bordered on human arrogance, corruption, nepotism, promotion of tribal egotism, uncontrollable greed of some national leaders, total disrespect for rule of law and many other evils brought us to the point where the centre could not hold anymore. Sadlyenough, 45 years after the war ended, all the national maladies that led us to it are recklessly still at play, even at larger level. If this is true, then the fact remains that our inability to learn anything from the calamity of our past while we seemed to have forgotten all the lessons of the failures of yester-years, we are most likely to come face-to-face with the country breaking up still. There are other indicators that we may want to evaluate. Towards the last days of Olusegun Obasanjo’s second tenure as president, the so-called “Police man” of the world, America and some European countries predicted that if care was not taken, Nigeria may “break-up before the end of 2015”. However, 2015 came and is almost gone without Nigeria breaking up, many thanks to former President Goodluck Jonathan’s efforts at up-holding democracy. This success must not blindfold us into believing that the so-called “doomsday conspiracy of the false prophets”, as some Nigerians would like to refer to the prediction, is over. No, as long as the indicators remain germane in our everyday national life, the nearer to the precipice the Nigerian Nation gets. This is where we need to combine prayer for Nigeria not breaking-up to doing what is right for our prayers to be answered. The truth that needs to be told is that there is no way Nigeria will continue without falling apiece given the way we are being presently governed by these fraudulent dealers parading themselves as leaders. I need to cite some pointers and comments from a few notable God-fearing citizens. Speaking at the 25th Anniversary of the Scriptures Union of Nigeria in Abuja on October 31, 2015, General Yakubu Gowon, former Military Head of State, warned of a looming danger to Nigeria. “We face great consequences, if we don’t follow the path of rectitude”, the most respected leader warned, adding that “if we do not arise to bring our youths into the path of rectitude, then their future will appear gloomy, and, therefore, we cannot build a virile nation of trust, integrity and good governance”. He mentioned many other calamities bedevilling the nation. What that man of peace who fought and brought peace and unity back to Nigeria by declaring “no victor, no vanquish” at the end of the Nigerian civil war, has just told us is that unless we watch and pray over most of our national behaviours as a people, we may soon come to that point of total disintegration. In addition, l read with adorable respect, the book of another principal actor in the Nigerian civil war, Brigadier General Godwin Alabi-Isama, appropriately titled: THE TRAGEDY OF VICTORY. He gave good historical back-ground of both the circumstances that led to the first-ever military coup of 1966 and the Nigerian civil war, including an account of the military operation throughout the war, with particular reference to the exploits of the 3rd Marine Commando – first commanded by the late Brigadier General Benjamin Adekunle before General Olusegun Obasanjo took over. In his conclusion, he said that all the maladies like “corruption, tribalism, nepotism and other evils which led to the first military coup of January 1966, and eventually to the civil war, ”which ought to have been eliminated remain with us till today”, adding: ”This Is What I Called Tragedy Of Victory”. My summary in this work is to warn that the Federal Government of Nigeria has a responsibility of showing good example in leadership to the remaining two tier of government – states and local authority. The incumbent Federal Government needs to show its sincerity, respect and total commitment to democratic ethos and ethics, human rights and rule of law plus promotion of welfare of the Nigerian people. There must be paradigm shift from “languages of body movement” which can never be a replacement for sound and enduring economic policy, from uncharted navigational course on fight against corruption to a defined path of wealth creation that shows in the lives of the citizenry. A man [surrounded by a selected few of brain-washed sycophants] who is guided by myopic idiosyncrasy in running a country of 180 million people with two-third of this population being internationally proven egg-heads, can only push Nigeria to a precipice. There is too much poverty in the land today. The Nigerian people are daily being alienated from government’s security machinery which has failed to protect them, hence the emergence of tribal militias and cultists to “protect themselves”. This is the same way the ‘’Mafia and Mafioso” started in those hilly northern cities of Italy some decades ago. By the time these groups become well established, the “roads to Niger Delta militancy, Movement for the Restoration of Biafra, Arewa Defensive Front, Cattle Rustlers, Fulani Herdsmen, Odua People Congress and even Boko Haram would have been paved with gold”. These are the fastest groups that can quicken the break- up of any country. So we need to watch and pray for Nigeria not to break-up. Will PMB walk Nigeria into this grace? *Mr Godwin Etakibuebu, a commentator on current affairs, wrote from Lagos.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in southeast Nigeria on Wednesday to demand the release of an activist who operated an illegal radio station calling for a separate state of Biafra.
The demonstration in Aba was the latest by separatist groups on an issue that has again exposed deep and longstanding ethnic fault lines in Africa's most populous nation.
A previous unilateral declaration of an independent Republic of Biafra in 1967 led to a brutal civil war that left more than one million dead in nearly three years of fighting. In Aba, the commercial hub of Abia state, some 2,000 people carried placards with slogans such as "Biafra or death" and waved the Biafran flag -- a golden rising sun on red, black and green.
Others wore t-shirts and caps with the image of Nnamdi Kanu, the director of Radio Biafra and founder of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) pressure group.
Some sang freedom songs and carried the outlawed Biafran pound currency.
"Getting our leader out of detention is our immediate concern but ultimately we want to be free from Nigeria," IPOB's Abia coordinator, Ikechukwu Ugwuoha, told the crowds.
"We are tired of this forced marriage imposed on us in 1914 by the British colonial authorities. We don't want anything to do with Nigeria again because we have not benefited from Nigeria." Radio Biafra was taken off air in July this year after the government accused it of being a "seditious pirate radio station" which broadcast "unsavoury hate messages".
Kanu was arrested last month and charged with criminal conspiracy, membership of an unlawful society and criminal intimidation.
A judge in Abuja on Wednesday ordered Nigeria's secret police to produce him in court next Monday.
Tension has been building since Kanu's detention, culminating in demonstrations in major southeastern cities and fears of a crackdown against protesters.
In Port Harcourt last week, police fired shots in the air and teargas to disperse hundreds of pro-Biafra supporters.
The Aba demonstration came after a planned blockade of the Niger Bridge on Tuesday was cancelled because of warnings from security personnel.
The bridge crossing the River Niger which links the southeast with the rest of Nigeria was the de facto border during the civil war.
Pro-Biafran sentiment has persisted among the dominant Igbo people in southeast Nigeria because of perceptions they have been punished for breaking away.
But the man who led Biafra during the civil war, Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, warned against a second bid for secession in an interview before his death in 2012.
Nigeria's military ruler at the time of the civil war, Yakubu Gowon, last month said he recognised people's right to protest but the concept of Biafra was "finished".
"I don't think it (the increased pro-Biafran sentiment) is any threat," he told Nigeria's Channels television on October 23.
"If there is anything of this sort, anywhere in any part of the country, just like the problem of Boko Haram, we, Nigeria, should deal with it in a mature way." On the streets, however, there was defiance. IPOB member Jude Chukwu Akiaba tore apart the green and white Nigerian tricolour, calling the country "dead and buried".
"The Nigerian government has neglected the Igbos for long," the group's women's leader, Uzor Amaka, told AFP. "There are no social amenities like roads, electricity, hospitals and jobs in the east.
"Our people are still being made to suffer for the civil war. So, it is better to call it quits with Nigeria and put our destiny in our hands."
Osmond Lekwauwa said he was ready to die for the cause.
"What's the point of belonging to a nation where you cannot have basic necessities like good roads, water, electricity and jobs?" he asked.
"I left school (university) six years ago and have not been able to secure a paid employment. I have been doing menial jobs to survive. At 32, I cannot even raise a family.
"I will rather die being a Biafran than to remain in Nigeria," he said, urging local political leaders to back their campaign.
"There is no going back on the struggle," he added.
Guests could be forgiven for thinking they were seeing things at one very special wedding in Kerala, India, this week.
Identical twins Dinker and Dilraj Varikkassery married identical twins Reena and Reema, in a ceremony officiated by identical twins, after a five year search for one another.
The boys had been inseparable all through school, university and even their careers (working for the same company) until they were posted to different ends of India, they told the Mail Online.
Dinker and Dilraj Varikkassery married identical twins Reena and Reema
Identical twins Dinker and Dilraj Varikkassery married identical twins Reena and Reema, in a ceremony officiated by identical twins, after a five year search for one another.
The boys had been inseparable all through school, university and even their careers (working for the same company) until they were posted to different ends of India, they told the Mail “When we met Reena and Reema, we knew it was them we were looking for all this while. Fortunately, they also had the similar feeling after meeting us,” Dilraj told the Mail Online.
Reena said: “We had to keep searching the suitable boys for three years in a row. When we saw Dilraj and Dinker we nodded yes to each other. It was a wonderful experience.”
Both couples had identical twin bride maids and pageboys, and the ceremony was officiated by twin priests Rezi and Roy Manaparambil, who travelled from Chennai to Thrissur for the wedding. Altogether there were seven sets of twins present, but Dilraj had hoped for more.
freecocoa: Some people and their over sabi sha, you have it on yet wonder if it's okay for a priest, since when is a priest no longer human or aren't you both striving to make the same heaven?
opine ur thought and stop attacking me cos I never judged him neither did I attack him....I just opined my thought
Politics › Re: FG And Ex-Militants Meet In Benin Over Niger Delta Avengers by Surplus90(m): 1:05pm On May 29, 2016
