A WORD FOR MUHAMMADU BUHARI - OLUSEGUN ADENIYI.

As the Coaster bus tried to meander through the surging crowd and the sea of human heads, chanting “Sai Baba”, Mr. Muhammadu Buhari tapped his running mate, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, by the shoulder, pointed in the direction of the vehicle’s window and asked: “Look at that man; what can you see from his face?”

Osinbajo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who was then apparently just adjusting to life as a politician, replied: “I can see real excitement on his face. Like many others here, the man is obviously very happy to see us.”

Evidently not satisfied with the response he got, Buhari asked Osinbajo to look at the man again. When the former Attorney General of Lagos State returned the same answer, Buhari decided to lecture him: “That man you are looking at believes that if we win this coming election, all his problems will be solved within 24 hours after we take over.”

IF YOU PROBE ME THEN YOU MUST PROBE OBASANJO, ABDULSALAMI, SHONEKAN & BABANGIDA - JONATHAN SAYS TO BUHARI.

President Goodluck Jonathan has advised the incoming president, Muhammadu Buhari, not to single his administration out for probe.

He said if Mr. Buhari must investigate him and his administration, he should do the same for the past governments.

A probe centred only on the Jonathan administration will amount to a “witch hunt”, the president said Wednesday at a valedictory cabinet meeting attended by ministers ahead of his handing over to Mr. Buhari on Friday.

NDLEA ACCEPTS COURT ORDER TO QUIT BURUJI KASHAMU'S HOME.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has said that it will obey the decision of the court of “competent jurisdiction” on the ongoing case involving Senator-elect, Buruji Kashamu.

In a statement by Mitchell Ofoyeju, its Spokesperson, Wednesday, the NDLEA said that as a government agency and a law enforcement institution, it has respect for the rule of law.

A Federal High Court in Lagos had on Tuesday ordered NDLEA operatives, who had laid a siege around Mr. Kashamu’s home since Saturday, to vacate the Senator-elect’s house.

SUPREME COURT DISMISSES OMISORE'S SUIT AGAINST AREGBESOLA'S RE-ELECTION.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal filed by Iyiola Omisore, challenging the Court of Appeal’s judgment, which affirmed Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s election victory in Osun.

Mr. Omisore, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the election held on August 9, 2014, had challenged Mr. Aregbesola’s victory at the Election Petition Tribunal, and lost.

He appealed against the tribunal’s judgement at the Appeal Court but lost again as the court upheld the tribunal verdict.

Not satisfied, Mr. Omisore approached the Supreme Court to set aside the Appeal Court’s judgement, claiming that there was miscarriage of justice in the process.

SIX FIFA OFFICIALS ARRESTED OVER $100M CORRUPTION SCANDAL. #FIFA

Six Fifa officials, including vice-president Jeffrey Webb, have been arrested on suspicion of corruption in dawn raids at a Zurich hotel ahead of Friday's presidential election.

The members of the world governing body were held by Swiss police at the US Department of Justice's request. They are suspected of having received bribes totalling millions of US dollars, the Swiss authorities said. 

The FBI and US Department of Justice will hold a news conference later.

I DARE YOU TO PROBE ME. AMAECHI TELLS WIKE.

Out-going Rivers State governor, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, has challenged the state governor-elect, Mr Nyesom Wike, that he (Amaechi) was not afraid of his administration being probed.

Speaking at his 50th birthday public lecture in Port Harcourt, Amaechi said “Listening to the governor-elect, Wike, I am trying not to respond to him because he has been accusing me of corruption, forgetting that he was the Chief of Staff to this government and knows well how this government is being run. So, how can he turn back and accuse me of corruption? Then he must be part of the corruption himself.”

Meanwhile, Amaechi at Government House during the inauguration of the 22 local government chairmen, elected at Saturday’s council elections, said that Wike cannot dissolve the 22 councils elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as such power only lies with the court.

REMOVE FUEL SUBSIDY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last week, the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, told the nation in an interview with a national newspaper that he gets confused when Nigerians talk about subsidy.

He said: “One of the problems I have, other than the military, is the petroleum industry where I served for three and a half years under General Olusegun Obasanjo. When people start talking about subsidy I honestly get confused. I will tell you this, and I hope it will answer what you want to know. 

Back then we had a refinery in Port Harcourt, which was refining 30,000 barrels a day of Nigerian crude.

“Later, it was upgraded to refine 100,000 barrels a day. Another refinery was built in Port Harcourt to refine 150,000 barrels per day of Nigerian crude. So, Port Harcourt alone had the capacity to refine 250,000 barrels per day of Nigerian crude.

BOKO HARAM MURDERS 43 PEOPLE IN A FIVE HOUR ASSAULT IN GUBIO, BORNO STATE

Boko Haram militants have killed at least 43 people in a five-hour assault on the town of Gubio in Borno State, witnesses told Reuters on Tuesday.

Thousands of people have been killed and several millions displaced in a six-year Boko Haram insurgency that once saw the group control an area the size of Belgium. But the Islamist insurgents have since lost most of their gains to military counter-offensives.

The latest attack, which a military source said involved a convoy of around 50 Boko Haram members storming Gubio, lasted for around five hours on Saturday afternoon and ended about 9.30 p.m., local resident Mallam Yusuf Mohammed said.

HOW JONATHAN LOST POWER IN THE END.

First impressions, they say, are everything. Not the same for anyone who is president of a country like Nigeria. With Nigerians, last impressions are just as important as first impressions. Goodluck Jonathan’s last week as President has seen Nigeria shut down due to power cuts and fuel scarcity. Lives have been lost, airlines cancelled flights, media houses and banks closing early, telecom companies declaring their services would be hampered by the scarcity of diesel. One could argue, despite the turmoil that characterised his tenure, that this has been Jonathan’s worst week as President. In the midst of what has looked increasingly like a national security issue, the government has offered nothing in terms of explanations or an attempt to offer the way forward.

FEMALE CORPS MEMBER FOUND DEAD ON THE STREET IN ILORIN. #NYSC

The death of a female corps member has been reported in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara state.

According to Vanguard, tragedy struck in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, on Sunday night as a member of National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, serving in the state, Miss Yetunde Shukurat Idowu, was found on the street, dead.

It was reliably gathered that her last visit before she was found dead was to the popular shopping mall, Shoprite, located along Fate Road.

WE WILL NOT LEAVE THE PREMISES OF BURUJI KASHAMU - NDLEA.

NDLEA insist that its officials will not leave the premises of Buruji Kashamu who is wanted in the USA for drug offences.

It said this in reaction to an order from a Federal High Court in Lagos today directing officials of the agency to vacate the premises of Kashamu. 

In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Mitchell Ofoyeju, NDLEA said it has not received the reported court injunction and that the siege is within the law. 

Read the statement after the cut...

ASISAT OSHOALA NAMED BBC WOMEN'S FOOTBALLER OF THE YEAR.

Nigeria and Liverpool forward Asisat Oshoala has been named as the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year.

The 20-year-old forward is the first player to win the new award from the BBC World Service, voted for by football fans around the world.

She beat Spain's Veronica Boquete, German Nadine Kessler, Scot Kim Little and Brazilian Marta to the honour.

"I would like to say thank you to the BBC, to my fans around the world and to everyone who voted," she said. The award is the first of its kind hosted by a global broadcaster.

BEAT FM'S OAP TOOLZ (@ToolzO) IS ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Popular BeatFM OAP "Tolu Oniru" (TOOLZ) got engaged to her boyfriend Captain Demuren in the Dominican Republic where they are both on holiday...  She is officially off the market.

Congrats TOOLZ...

See more pictures after the cut.

UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN SHUTS DOWN FOR 2 WEEKS DUE TO FUEL CRISIS.

The UI management urged the students to immediately vacate the institution premises, NAN reports.

Muhammed Oladejo, the director of communication, said the alumni were asked to proceed on a two-week mid-semester break.

A UI official, who pleaded for anonymity confirmed the recent development:

BUHARI CANNOT PERFORM A MIRACLE TO REPAIR EIGHT YEARS OF BAD GOVERNANCE - OLUSEGUN OBASANJO

Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, said Nigerians should not expect miracles from the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, saying, he will not be able to repair eight years bad governance overnight. He, however, warned the President-elect against cover up,urging him not to take Nigerians for granted when he assumes office as the president from May 29.

Obasanjo said this while addressing a delegation of South West women leaders under the leadership of the Iyalode of Yorubaland, Chief Alaba Lawson, who paid him a visit in his Abeokuta country home.

The South-West women leaders which include Iyaloja General of Lagos, Folashade Tinubu-Ojo; Iyalode Otan-Ayegbaju; Stella Olubunmi among others, begged Obasanjo not to abandon the President-elect when he assumes office.

REAL MADRID SACKS CARLO ANCELOTTI.

Real Madrid fired their coach Carlo Ancelotti on Monday, club president Florentino Perez said, making the popular Italian pay for a disappointing season without a major trophy.

“The board of directors has taken the decision this afternoon to relieve Carlo Ancelotti of his duties as coach of Real Madrid,” Perez told a news conference at the club’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

“It has been a very hard decision… but Real Madrid is extremely demanding and we believe it is time to give a new impulse” to the club.

HOW BOKO HARAM BURNT MY FAMILY ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Boko Haram survivor, James Yaduma, has given a graphic and detailed account of how he lost almost all the members of his family to the violent terrorist group, Boko Haram.

Yaduma, a native of Zha, Hong Local Local Government Area of Adamawa State, who currently resides in Mararaba Gurku near Abuja, in his account narratwd to Mohammed Ismail of Leadership Newspaper, revealed how members of his family were burnt alive by the Boko haram insurgents when they attacked Zha.

Yaduma, who said his life will never remain the same, said he witnessed how his aged father, mother and other relatives were burnt alive by the insurgents.

REASONS CHOCOLAT ROYALE WAS SHUT DOWN BY NAFDAC - PRODUCTS THAT EXPIRED 11 YEARS AGO WERE USED TO MAKE CONSUMABLES FOR CUSTOMERS.

 

The real reasons the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) Tuesday night, sealed completely the business outlet of a popular elite and confectionary company, Chocolat Royal has emerged, The City Reporters can exclusively report.

Apart from the importation, storage and use of fake, unregistered and expired/unwholesome food products to produce consumables for customers, we can authoritatively report that Chocolat Royal was sealed by NAFDAC on discovery of six illegal 40ft cold rooms fully stocked with contaminated food products built on top of sewages (suck away pit) and in front of toilets.

Not only that majority of these food products discovered, have expired since 2004, (11- years ago) and the least 2013, the most worrisome aspect of it all was the discovery to the consternation of NAFDAC officials that the management of Chocolat Royal had revalidated the expiring dates of almost all the food products, while 90 % of them were not even written in English language and therefore not registered.

THE FAILED GENIUS.

In one of her last face-saving measures, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Coordinationg Minister for the Economy, CME, “directed the immediate termination of the partnership between the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme and Forcecom Networks Limited on the Graduate Internship Scheme.”

Even before reading the story to the end, something told me that it was another contract given to one of “our brothers” which now threatens to put everybody in trouble when the new government takes office in June.

And sure (pardon the pun) enough, the Managing Director of Forcecom Networks turned out to be one Paul Okafor, who allegedly “coerced the interns to sign an undertaking to pay N7,500 out of their monthly stipend for training with the Lekki Business School.”

IFEANYI UBAH'S CAPITAL OIL SET TO RELEASE 13 MILLION LITRES OF FUEL TO EASE SCARCITY.

Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited, said it is releasing about 13 million litres, approximately 400 trucks of petroleum products including premium motor spirit, popularly called petrol, to ease the scourge of the endemic fuel scarcity that Nigeria had been plunged into.

The move has therefore, broken the ranks of oil marketers and depot operators, who have refused to import any more products until their outstanding subsidy claims of over N200billion is paid by the Federal Government.

Read full statement after the cut.........