whyteheart:


UUTH? Never mind, my bother works there. It's a small clinic. LMAO

spyg1:
I fear those kind of ladies, they are sexy, romantic, confident is true, but there are highly and extremely arrogant, they can quarrel, fight, in short they are trouble makers,
example my aunty

missjenna:
Op you are correct These points you stated are for winning the hearts of girls, not women

PunkyBrewster:
What is a low cut?

You must have the "correct" features to rock short hair imo. Nothing too fat & wide. Like these cute girls...

The Federal Government may defy the Court of Appeal judgement barring the use of soldiers in the conduct of elections in the country, Saturday PUNCH has learnt.

A top government official, who pleaded anonymity, in an interview with one of our correspondents on Thursday, gave an indication that President Goodluck Jonathan might order the deployment of soldiers for the March 28 and April 11 general elections.

The official was responding to a question on what step the President will take on the letter written by the All Progressives Congress in which it called attention to the court order.

He said there was no issue in the matter as Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, had replied the APC on the matter.

He said the governor’s response was enough.

The Ekiti State governor was quoted on Thursday to have said Jonathan would continue to deploy soldiers for elections in the country.

The governor had further said that the APC did not want the military to be involved in the elections in order to have the opportunity to perpetrate violence during the elections.

“It is the constitutional right of President Goodluck Jonathan to deploy soldiers to provide security anywhere in Nigeria and not even the APC allies in the judiciary can take away this right,” Fayose was quoted as saying.

The governor added in a telephone conversation with one of our correspondents on Thursday night that it was the responsibility of the Federal Government to ensure law and order and protect the nation’s citizenry.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, could not be reached for comments at the time of filing this report.

But the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Prof. Rufa’i Alkali, who also spoke to Saturday PUNCH on Thursday, confirmed the response of the top government official.

He said military troops would be deployed to protect the lives and property of Nigerians before, during and after the elections.

Rufa’i said only people with sinister motive are afraid of the deployment of troops.

Alkali said, “Soldiers, as far back as when Edo State Governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, was being elected, were deployed and Oshiomhole even with his radicalism swallowed his pride and came to thank the President for supporting the elections with adequate security.

“Now, look at what happened in Ekiti, when they lost they were crying but when the military was also deployed in Osun and they won they kept quiet.

“I challenge them to say since they didn’t want the deployment of security for elections, and soldiers were deployed for the Osun election, I thought they were going to reject the outcome of the Osun elections but they didn’t. What the APC is doing is crass opportunism.”

The Peoples Democratic Party national leadership refused to comment on the court ruling, preferring to concede the decision on the type of security officials to be used for the elections to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Olisa Metuh, in an interview with one of our correspondents, said the security measure being planned by the INEC should be enough to guarantee free, fair and crisis-free elections.

When asked to be specific if he was satisfied with the Court of Appeal ruling which barred the deployment of soldiers for elections, he said he needed to study the judgement first.

Metuh said, “Well, I need to study the judgement and seek the opinion of our legal adviser. But suffice to say that we believe that the army is doing a marvellous job and that by the time we are due for the elections, there would not be any security crisis in any part of the country.

“Also, we are of the opinion that any security plan being put in place by the INEC would be acceptable and enough to have peaceful elections.

“We would work with the electoral body to have free, fair and acceptable elections across the country.”

Meanwhile, INEC has said that soldiers will not be deployed at polling units during the elections.

The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, stated this in an electronic mail exclusively sent to one of our correspondents on Thursday in Abuja.

Idowu was responding to an enquiry from Saturday PUNCH on the deployment of the military for the elections in view of the recent court judgements barring soldiers’ involvement in polls.

He acknowledged that the military would provide peripheral security cordon such as manning entry points into towns to check the trafficking of arms that could be used to disrupt the elections.

Idowu said, “They are also positioned in covert readiness for rapid deployment if there is a security crisis beyond the capacity of the police to handle. The military are never near polling units.”

According to him, under the platform of the Interagency Consultative Committee on Election Security that was created in 2011, the role of the military has been limited to providing INEC with logistics support.

This, he said, included Air Force planes and Navy boats that will transport election materials over hazardous or difficult terrains across the country.

He said, “As a matter of fact, all security men at the polling units are never armed. It is because malevolent people could exploit this and harm voters as well as polling officials that the armed agents are in readiness for rapid deployment.

“(It is) only if occasion warrants it. Luckily, occasion has not warranted it since this security design was put in place in 2011.”

The Court of Appeal in Abuja, which affirmed Governor Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party as the winner of the June 21, 2014 governorship election in Ekiti had described the use of Armed Forces in the conduct of elections as a violation of Section 217(2)(c) of the Constitution and Section 1 of the Armed Forces Act.

It cited a judgement delivered by Justice R. M Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Sokoto on January 29, 2015 barring the use of the armed forces in the conduct of elections.

The appellate court therefore barred the use of the Armed Forces in the conduct of future elections in the country as such constituted a violation of both the constitution and the Electoral Act.

However, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Lai Mohammed, in a phone conversation with one of our correspondents, questioned Fayose’s claim that President Jonathan would deploy soldiers for the forthcoming elections in spite of the Appeal court ruling.

He alleged that Fayose and the PDP are in support of the use of the military during the elections because soldiers had rigged elections for them in the past.

He said, “Is he (Fayose) the Commander-in-Chief? Fayose wants the military to be deployed because he knows that was how the election was rigged for him. And they (PDP leadership) want the military to be deployed because the PDP wants the military to rig elections for them.

“But what we are saying is that the court of appeal has ruled that the military has no business in election duties. And we hope that Jonathan will not only obey that ruling, we will insist that soldiers are not used.”

When asked what the APC would do should the Federal Government defy the court ruling by deploying the military for the elections, Mohammed said, “When we get to that bridge, we will know how to cross it.”

In a statement issued on Wednesday, by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose had argued that the military was used in governorship elections in some states not won by the PDP in the past, including Edo and Ondo.

Also recently, an audio recording surfaced online alleging that the last governorship election in Ekiti State was rigged in favour of the eventual winner, Fayose, with the support of the military.

The audio file released by Sahara Reporters, an online medium, detailed how Fayose; former Minister of State for Defence, Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro; Senator Iyiola Omisore; Minister of Police Affairs, Mr. Jelili Adesiyan and the military allegedly rigged the poll.

The audio recording was reportedly made by one Captain Sagir Koli of the 32nd Artillery Brigade in the state, who was allegedly present at the meeting.

The debate on legality of deploying the military in elections has since become a major subject of public discourse.

A former Director of Army Legal Services, Col. Akin Kejawa (retd.), said there are provisions in the Nigerian constitution and the Armed Forces Act allowing the deployment of soldiers for operational use, which includes providing law and order during elections.

He, however, said the provision as allowed by the constitution does not give the military the right to conduct elections.

He said, “Section 217 (2) says one of the duties of the military is suppressing insurrection and acting in aid of civil authorities to restore order when called upon to do so. So if soldiers are deployed to maintain law and order, that is supported by both the constitution, as well as the Armed Forces Act.

“This is the provision that empowers the military to go out. What we have in Nigeria- Boko Haram- is a form of insurrection. The military is covered under the constitution as well as the Armed Forces Act as long as the soldiers don’t go and be taking ballot papers.

“The fact that soldiers are present at a polling centre does not mean that they are conducting the election. The military is not there to conduct elections because INEC officials, the representatives of the parties and the international observers are there. I don’t think it’s illegal for the military to be deployed for elections as long as it is for the maintenance of law and order.

According to Kejawa, the law also gives the President the powers to deploy the military in maintaining law and order in the country, particularly to aid civil authorities.

He said, “Section 8 (1-2) of the Armed Forces Act specifically states that the President shall have power to deploy the armed forces for operational use. It goes further to state that the President shall have power to delegate the power to deploy armed forces for operational use to either the Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, the Chief of Naval Staff and that of the Air Force Staff as the case may be.

“Section 3 ( 8 ) defines what is meant by the operational use of the armed forces. It includes provision of aid to civil power.

“If you go to Section 239 of the Armed Forces Act, it says where the army provides aid to civil power, it can never be liable for anything it does, that is, any act of omission or commission they commit in the process of providing aid to civil power.

He condemned using the military to intimidate members of opposition parties, saying the military should apply professionalism in their duties.

He said, “I don’t support that the military should be politicised since they are subject to the political authorities. The President is the person who orders the operational use of the military.

“But using the military to intimidate the opposition is abuse of power. That is where the professionalism of the military comes in. The military should not be used to intimidate political the opponents, when they are maintaining law and order, it is not the members of a political party that they are there to protect, but everybody. So they are not there for political objective, they are there to perform their professional duties.”

An undisclosed number of inmates on Friday gained entrance into the armoury of the Calabar Prison in Cross River State and attempted to escape after a gun duel with warders but were overpowered by combined team of security agents.

The incident, which occurred at about 11:00am, was said to have caused pandemonium as residents of neighbouring Afokang, Iman and Jebbs areas of the metropolis scampered for safety.

The Afokang end of the prison fence was broken during the incident while two inmates were said to have escaped but the Comptroller of Prisons in the state, Mr. Clement Udosen, denied the claim.

It was, however, not clear how the inmates gained access to the armoury, but it was learnt that a total of 53 rifles were recovered after the incident while one could not be accounted for.

An anonymous prison official said about 17 hardened criminals consisting kidnappers, drug barons, ex-militants and armed robbers were brought to the prisons two weeks ago. He said their arrival sent an alert that something untoward might happen.

An eyewitness, Solomon Okoro, said two of the inmates escaped through the broken fence but one of them was apprehended by vigilant youths in Afokang Street while the other escaped.

Reacting to the development, Udosen said, “By 11 o’clock in the morning, the DC in charge of this prison called me that there was a serious problem. When I came, the whole place was filled with people with rifles, people who had come here to help us, the soldiers, police, civil defence, state security service and others.

“Two cells of about 70 prisoners each organised themselves and overpowered the prison staff and rushed to the armoury, seized some rifles and went back to fire at the staff. In that confusion they broke other cells and the whole yard was filled with inmates.

“Luckily for now they have all been rounded up and nobody has escaped.

“A lot of people have been injured and one staff had been rushed to the hospital.”

Chanchit:


Even if they were, it was not this obvious.

derrick333:

My broda ,d "I in inec is invisible , de dnt v ani autonomy

By Efio-Ita Nyok,

In view of the political maneuvers, perceived shady dealings, accusations and counter-accusations between the opposition All Progressive Congress, APC and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party PDP, etc that has characterised the 2015 general elections in Nigeria; and in view of the fact that our political campaigns has not been quite mature in that ours has not been a campaign of issues or ideology but rather sentiments of varied orientations especially but regrettably religion and tribalism; it has become necessary to reflect with a critical bent on our political space with the aim of putting things into perspective and clearing the political cobwebs that may have overshadowed the minds of the less suspicious or even very sophisticated minds as well. While I do not claim unprecendented expertise in essays of the nature, the fact still remains that the question begging for authentic responses still remains: How independent is Nigeria’s INEC?.

I must admit that, what I term, ‘mechanical wranglings’ which has characterised this year’s general elections isn’t or shouldn’t be viewed as being totally out of place. There are obtainable elsewhere, even in so-called advanced societies. Nevertheless, irrespective of the political shenanigans, there is always an important infrastructure in any political process of this kind to checkmate the unbecoming of major political players, and thereby give credibility to the entire process in the long run. This supposed infrastructure is expected to be above board or unbiased. In fact, it is construed to be independent of whatever influences. It is the objective umpire who determines the rules of the game and is charged with ensuring that actors play according to the set down rules. In Nigeria’s case it’s the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC).

INEC has been under the able leadership of Professor Attahiru Jega. He came on board when INEC badly needed a facelift from the disrepute Professor Maurice Iwu sunk it into, in the hay days of former President Olusegun Obasanjo(1999-2007). Jega was reputed to be the right man for the job considering his antecedent in public service as vice-chancellor of Bayero University and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) boss in the 1990s where he was seen to be oppossing the military junta of General Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) before his appointment as INEC boss on June 8, 2010. Is he still who he is? Or, was he what he was perceived to be?

Jega slated the 14 & 28 February 2015 date of general elections. But the Presidency for whatever reasons insisted for a change of date. Addressing the Council of State, the INEC boss insisted that he was ready for elections come 14 February. The Presidency had to bully INEC into compliance by using Nigeria’s already biased armed forces who formally notified INEC of its inability to ensure adequate security come 14 and 28 February owing to the security challenge of the country and an intention to have a-6 week operation against the insurgency in the northeast of the country. The mere fact that the Presidency could pull through this clout suggest among other things that INEC isn’t independent as it were. The implications, to my mind, are such that undermine how free, credible, and fair this year’s elections would be.
To begin with, out of the 68 million eligible voters only 48 million had collected their Personal Voters Cards, PVCs. But Jega’s INEC insisted on their readiness. There may be explanations but other considerations discredit these alleged justifications. For instance, it has been revealed that of the 20 million remaining to collect their PVCs, majority were from the south-east and south-south of the country where we have traditional supporters of the presidential aspirant of the PDP. Why was it so? How did the north succeed to distribute about 95% percent of its PVCs despite the present security challenge?

Again, How will Jega dislodge the information making the rounds that thousands of Chadians, Cameroonians, and citizens of Niger have been successfully registered in order for them to be employed to rig the elections in favour of the APC seeing that he approved so many registration centres outside the country against international protocols?

How will Jega respond to the information suggesting that under-aged citizens have been registered and are seen to flaunt their PVCs in the northern axis of Nigeria seeing that some argue that this is common place in the north? I saw a picture of such kids. It is even estimated that about 3 million of such kids have been registered in Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
Again, amputees totalling about 70,000 in Zamfara alone have been registered. Millions have been reported to have been registered in the north? How many amputees do we really have in Nigeria, Sir?

Why are polling materials already been seen in London before 28 March and 11 April? How are these taking place?

Why are appointments in INEC pro-northerners? These and many other questions seek clarification.

But, until then, that is, if at all they ever surface, it seems to me that Jega’s INEC is not above board. It may suffice to say that Jega may be an appendage of the northern hegemony who intend to perpetuate the ‘born to rule’ mantra of the north. This is perceived to being the case especially when we recall that Jega as Vice Chancellor of Bayero University had used his privileged position to discourage the proliferation of Christian fellowships in the university campus, but practically restricted Christian campus fellowship meetings to just the chapel, as against the multiplication of muslim campus worship centres in virtually all departments; more still, the contracts he made as Vice Chancellor have been discovered not to be based on due process but was heavily characterised by nepotism.

Be that as it may, with the influence from the presidency and that from the APC, it seems to me that this INEC is not independent. As such, the quality of freedom, fairness and credibility is under doubt. The 28 March and 11 April general elections may be another sham.

Thanos:

By Yudy Colenz,

Warm greetings to our esteem readers, guess what its valentine’s day otherwise known as lover's day, a WOW day to some people and also an ordinary day to most. What significance does Febuary 14 hold in your life? Is it just a day for love merriment and all the excitement that follows? To some people it is a day of sober reflexion on how to carryout their dealings with their fellow humans on their day to day life with love and i wish you follow suite, to some its the day to taste carnality and reach the height.

But its quite unfortunate that most of us celebrate what we don’t have in detail its genesis, most people flaunt smart phones around but fail in the aspect of making the phones to affect their life positively in the sense of gaining knowledge, why did i say so? if you ask the juvenile crops of this century the origin of St.Valentine day they could hardly tell thats why the ignorantly indulge in activities on this particular date and any other date of the year and later live the rest of their life in regrets. I wont educate you on what and what to do on Valentines day because that tutorials wont be free, but i will tell you that this day should be spent with those who really need love, like visiting the orphanage, recognising with the needy, even joining`an NGO today may give you a better feeling and justification.

Finally, Valentine’s day should be a turning point in once life and not a day of life’s mishap, like a wise man once said ”When a purpose of a thing is not known abuse is inevitable”.

I pray you celebrate this day with all sense of maturity.

God bless you.

By Raymond Ekemini,



* FIRST SEMESTER:

MARCH, 2015

FRI. 20th — Freshmen & Returning Students Arrive Campus
MON: 30th — Payment of School Charges/Registration
•Lectures Begin for all Students.


APRIL, 2015
FRI. 3rd —-End of late registration for all students
•Screening Ends for all Freshmen

WED.15th—- Orientation Begins for all Freshmen

FRI. 17th—- Orientation Ends for all Freshmen

WED. 22nd—- INAUGURAL LECTURE
MON. 27th— Late Registration Begins for all Returning Students.
WED. 29th—- SOLEMN ASSEMBLY @UNICAL CONF CENTRE



MAY, 2015

MON. 4th —- Continuous Assessment

• Late Registration Ends for all Returning Students.

THUR. 7th— Summer Exams
FRI.15th—- Matriculation

WED. 27th— INAUGURAL LECTURE.


JUNE, 2015
WED. 24th—- INAUGURAL LECTURE.


JULY, 2015

FRI. 3rd—- Lectures end for all students.

MON. 6th— Exams Begin for Pre-Degree & Final Year students
MON. 13th—- Exams Begin for GSS Courses

MON. 20th— 1st Sem Exams Begin for all except CES
MON. 27th—- 1st Sem Exams Begin for all CES

FRI. 31st—– End of 1st Sem.


** SECOND SEMESTER:


AUGUST, 2015

FRI. 14th— Students arrive Campus


NOVEMBER, 2015
FRI. 11th—— Lectures End
WED. 18th— Exams Begin for Education and Final year Students.


DECEMBER, 2015

FRI. 18th— End of Second Semester.

Not less than twenty local and foreign investors have indicated interest in the proposed Akwa Ibom Deep Seaport. Already, the ministerial project development and steering committee has submitted a copy of the final Outline Business Case (OBC) to the Federal Ministry of Transport and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

Members of the committee comprise officials of the Federal Ministry of Transport, NPA and the consulting firm, Felak Concept Limited.

Secretary of the Committee, Dikko Bala, who spoke during the submission of OBC to NPA in Lagos, commended the Managing Director of the parastatal, Habib Abdullahi, for "his support and unflinching commitment to the project".

He explained that the project would be executed under the Long Term Amortization Scheme (LTAS).

Highlight of the event was the presentation of the OBC to Abdullahi by the Managing Director of Felak Concept, Dr [Mrs] Aisha Achimugu.

Abdullahi also used the opportunity to reiterates what he described as the "unflinching commitment of the Authority" to the successful take off and timely completion of the Ibom Deep Sea Port.

According to the Managing Director,NPA as a stakeholder and a technical regulator has much to gain from the success of the Ibom Deep Sea project, adding that the Authority's participation in such projects, under the Private Partnership Projects [PPP] has been very beneficial "as demonstrated in the Onne Port project".

While appreciating the zeal and hard work of the committee members, Abdullahi commended the Governor of Akwa Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio for initiating the project "considering its enormous economic potentials to the well-being of the state and the nation at large".

He enjoined other states in the federation to emulate Akwa-Ibom state in this direction by embarking on projects, which according to him will promote the well being of their citizenry and "improve their economic empowerment.

Abdullahi was also quoted in a statement signed by NPA's Principal Manager, I.A. Suwaid as saying the Federal Government desire to encourage state Governments invest in the maritime sector, under PPP prompted NPA's current involvement in other proposed deep sea ports projects in Lekki Deep Sea Port, Badagry Deep Sea Port, and Olokola Deep Sea Port.

The Minister of Transport, idris Umar had recently announced commencement of the procurement procedure for the Ibom deep seaport project.

Umar said: "The necessary evaluation will be carried out with the transaction advisers. We have to work assiduously with the OBC document to ensure that the procurement processes commence as soon as possible."

The State Governor, Godswill Akpabio recently reiterated the commitment of his administration to the construction of the project.

The Governor said: "The Ibaka Seaport would be an avenue for job creation. And Nigerians must know that a port in Akwa Ibom State is not to create jobs only for Akwa Ibom people, but for all Nigerians.

He added: "I am determined to correct the mistakes of the past where industries were created or located only where prominent people came from; and nobody thought of job creations or of economic activities that would sprung out of the companies."

The Governor said: "If you look at the map, we are located within the Gulf of Guinea, which would improve the economic activities, security of the country. Other African countries would also benefit from the port.

With the tense political atmosphere in the country, Triple MG’s artiste, Tekno and Chocolate City’s rapper, Ice Prince, have released a new single titled Pray for Nigeria.

The song, which passes as a dancehall genre, especially with its slow reggae beat, is centred on the problems of the nation. It opens with Tekno questioning the happenings in the country from his point of view as “one small musician.”

“Do you see what I see when I look at me country. Do you feel what I feel from the heart of a true Naija soldier. It feels like me fighting me. Tell me how is it fair, fair upon me. Cos we are one but we are fighting instead of to be loving and jumping, celebrating…,” he croons.

The chorus of the track which could be described as sombre, calls on Nigerians to come together in love, peace and urges them to pray for the country.

Delivering his verse, Ice Prince comes tough on the incessant reign of terrorism, especially as it relates to his city, Jos in Plateau State.

The Chocolate City’s international recently released his latest body of works called The Trash Can EP as free music for loyal fans. The Trash Can EP is a project which the artiste says he plans on releasing every January.

Enegod:
OP why are u talking about balls when you don't have balls?

20pounds:
Whew! I just read this story with a heavy Calabar accent and it made more sense. I pretended I was Okon reading the news from his oga's newspaper.

Why didn't Liyel Imoke introduce free education like his counterpart in Akwa Ibom? The writer of the story is ready to learn, but has no opportunity.