MANCHESTER UNITED'S DEFENDER "CHRIS SMALLING" APOLOGISES FOR POSING AS A SUICIDE BOMBER

The Manchester United and England footballer Chris Smalling has apologised for his ‘ill thought out and insensitive’ decision to dress as a suicide bomber at a fancy dress party.The 24-year-old sparked outrage after being photographed dressed in an Arabic kaffiyeh headdress and military-style vest with a fake circuit board and cables attached.

Smalling claimed the outfit was ‘an attempted comedy play’ on the popular ‘Jagerbomb’ alcoholic drink, which is thought to be why he attached bottles of Jagermeister and Red Bull to his belt as imitation grenades.

The costume has caused fury among survivors and relatives of those affected by terrorist attacks.

RICHEST WOMAN IN AFRICA "FOLORUNSO ALAKIJA" DENIES INTEREST IN LAGOS GOVERNORSHIP SEAT

Africa’s richest woman, Folorunsho Alakija has disowned the posters advertising her interest in the Lagos Governorship election in 2015.

Alakija in a statement urged the people to ignore whatever they may have read purportedly portraying her as a governorship aspirant. According to the statement,”It has come to my notice, that there are posters and fliers being circulated in Ikorodu and other parts of Lagos State announcing me as a Governorship aspirant.

“This is not true and I hereby confirm that I have no such intentions. Therefore, I disassociate myself from any persons or group of persons, posters or fliers in circulation about me contesting for governorship.

“I have been paying attention to my calling from God to look after widows and orphans through The Rose of Sharon Foundation and I am also in service most importantly to God’s work as a Minister of his Word through His Ministry committed to us as the Rose of Sharon Glorious Ministry International.

“God has not called me into politics and I have never been involved in politics. Please ignore whatever you may have read purportedly portraying me as a governorship aspirant.

HILARIOUS VIDEO - STUBBORN RAM ATTACKS WOMAN

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO

DRAMA AS PRESIDENCY PLOTS EARLY EXIT OF CBN GOVERNOR "SANUSI LAMIDO SANUSI"

SANUSI LAMIDO SANUSI

An untidy succession race is currently apace in the country’s business and finance community following rising tension between Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Lamido Sanusi, and the presidency which inside and knowledgeable presidential sources in Abuja, Thursday, say might lead to the suspension of Mr. Sanusi “any time from now.”

The tension between Mr. Sanusi and the Presidency was brought to public awareness as it was reported that the CBN governor had rejected a call from the presidency to resign voluntarily ahead of his planned exit in June.

Presidency sources say this rejection has triggered a “palpable air of anger and frustration” leading hawks in the presidential villa to propose a suspension and swift replacement which will circumvent the constitutional bottleneck that has tied the hands of the president from summarily firing Mr. Sanusi.

NEW VIDEO - "IFEOMA" - LYNXXX

Naija's HipHop Artiste LYNXXX has released the video for his single "IFEOMA"...........

Clean video but......................lol......the usual bumbum issshhhhh.... Rated PG........

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO

JAMES IBORI IS COMING HOME AS NIGERIA & UNITED KINGDOM AGREE TO EXCHANGE PRISONERS

Nigeria and the United Kingdom  signed  an agreement on Thursday  on the exchange of prisoners between them.Under the agreement, high-profile prisoners like  former  Governor James Ibori of Delta State, and other Nigerians in  the UK  prisons  will  be transferred to Nigeria to complete their  jail terms.

The UK Minister of Justice, Mr. Jeremy Wright, signed on behalf of his country while the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, SAN,  signed for Nigeria in Abuja.

Wright, who  visited the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Viola Onwuliri, and the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, added that the  British government  would  give the Federal Government  £1m [about N280m} for a  comprehensive reform  of  Nigerian Prisons.

During the visit to Onwuliri, Wright  told journalists  that under the agreement, the consent of a prisoner was not required before  his repatriation could take place.

ANOTHER PETROL TANKER CRASHES IN LAGOS FEW DAYS AFTER 15 PEOPLE WERE ROASTED TO DEATH IN THE APAPA INFERNO

Just few days after the tragic and painful death of 15 people in Lagos when a petrol tanker crashed in Apapa, Lagos, another tanker laden with 33,000 litres of petrol fell in the Iju area of Lagos State on Thursday, spilling some of its contents on the road.

The truck, belonging to Conoil, with number plate, XB467AKN, also hit an electric pole along Ajuwon Road. It was learnt that no life was lost in the incident.

Fire fighters from Agege Fire Station, as well as technical staff of Power Holding Company of Nigeria and policemen prevented vehicles from plying the road while the incident lasted.  Around 8am, the remaining fuel in the vehicle was transferred into another tanker.

The Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Razaq Fadipe, told correspondenst that the tanker fell around 2.21am. He said, “Around 2.21am, another fuel tanker laden with 33,000 litres of petrol fell close to the entrance of Grain Movement premises. There was heavy spillage of fuel, but we were able to prevent a fire.”

MOTHER OF BOY WHO CLAIMED HE KILLED A 12-YR-OLD VIRGIN TO MEET PASTOR FIREMAN'S DEMAND DEFENDS THE PASTOR

The Suspect - Ikechukwu

The mother of the 18-year-old boy, Ikechukwu Lucky, who was arrested by the police in Lagos State for strangling a 12-year-old girl, Bose Ogoja, to death for money ritual, in Badagry area of the state, has said her son is possessed of an evil spirit that has been tormenting him and was not sent to obtain the faeces of a virgin as the boy had earlier told the police.

Read previous post HERE.

The mother of the boy, Esa Egbo, told newsmen, yesterday, that her son had been arrested four times for attempting to rape little girls between the ages of 10 and 15 years by the police in Badagry Division. Mrs. Egbo also said she and her family are members of Perfect Christianity Mission in Surulere area of Lagos, where Dr. Ofuche Ukoha (aka Sign Fireman) is the General Overseer,  adding that her son does not know or have any access to the cleric, whom he claimed sent him to kill the girl.

She explained that two years ago, a neighbour laid a curse on her son and after then he started behaving strangely, thereby attempting to rape little children whenever he sees them. She also stated that the boy has been arrested four times for rape.

According to her, “He started two years ago to molest girls in attempt to rape them. It is not an ordinary thing. You know some people are very good in hurting other people’s children. So for that reason I am suspecting that. He has been staying with me from birth and just two years ago when he was 16 years old, a man who lives close to us laid a curse  on him.

YAYA TOURE IS THE AFRICAN FOOTBALLER OF THE YEAR FOR THE THIRD TIME IN A ROW

Ivory Coast and Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has been named the Confederation of African Football (Caf) Footballer of the Year for the third time in a row.

He beat fellow Ivorian Didier Drogba, of Galatasaray, and Nigeria and Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel.

Toure, 30, emulates Abedi Pele and Samuel Eto'o with a hat-trick of wins. Ghanaian Abedi Pele won three in a row between 1991-93 while Cameroonian Eto'o took the award from 2003-05.

Toure may not have won a major trophy for club and country last year but his class has shone through at both domestic level and for the Elephants of Ivory Coast.

Toure's form also led to him being the only African to be included on the 23-man shortlist for Fifa's World Player of the Year. His closest rival for the Caf award was Mikel, 26, who helped Nigeria win the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa and also featured in Chelsea's Europa League win.

Former Arsenal striker Nwankwo Kanu was the last Nigerian star to win the prestigious award in 1999.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 TO FEATURE "EYE SCANNING SECURITY"

Samsung's Galaxy S5, the next generation of its flagship smartphone, will be released by April and may include innovative eye-scanning technology.

An executive for the Korean tech giant confirmed to Bloomberg that the phone will hit stores this year on roughly the same time table as previous iterations of the device, which has emerged as the chief rival to Apple's iPhone.

The Galaxy S4 was announced last March and released in April.

Lee Young Hee, executive vice president for Samsung's mobile business, also told the news service that a new version of the company's Galaxy Gear smartwatch will be released at the same time as the new phone.

We've been announcing our first flagship model in the first half of each year, around March and April, and we are still targeting for release around that time," Lee said. "When we release our S5 device, you can also expect a Gear successor with more advanced functions, and the bulky design will also be improved."

EMBATTLED MINISTER OF AVIATION "STELLA ODUAH" IN FRESH DOCTORATE DEGREE SCANDAL

Investigative Journalism Media outfit PREMIUM TIMES may have burstes yet another LIE  by the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah.

Twenty-four hours after her claim to have acquired a Masters degree from the  St. Paul’s College in the United States was punctured, PREMIUM TIMES has uncovered another false claim by our embattled Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah.

This time, the minister lied on oath to the Nigerian Senate, claiming another American ‘university’, Pacific Christian University awarded her an honorary doctorate degree in 1998. Mrs. Oduah made the claim in a 7-page resume she distributed to Nigeria’s 109 senators during her confirmation hearing on July 2, 2011.

On page four of the document, the minister claimed the university, which she said was based in Glendale, awarded her an honorary doctorate in Business Administration.

LAGOS HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY OFFERS N1.25MILLION REWARD FOR INFORMATION ABOUT PERPETRATORS OF "TORTURE OF PEPPER SELLERS"

Lagos State House Assembly lawmakers frustrated over the lack of information about the perpetrators of an alleged sodomy of two Ejigbo women, is today offering a reward of N1.25M for any information.

CLICK HERE AND HERE FOR PREVIOUS POST.

The Chairman of the committee, Mr. Ajibayo Adeyeye announced the reward of Naira 1M for information leading to an arrest, and said he would personally add N250,000.

The reward is offered following a public hearing today at the Lagos State House Assembly where testimony was heard from the Chairman of the Ejigbo Local Government, Kehinde Bamigbetan, the Police Department, civil society leaders, community leaders and market women.  

FIFTEEN PERISH & PROPERTY WORTH MILLIONS OF NAIRA DESTROYED AS PETROL LADEN TRUCK EXPLODES IN APAPA-LAGOS

Update on the petrol tanker explosion reported yesterday reveals that Fifteen people were actually roasted to death on Tuesday night, after a petrol-laden tanker somersaulted at Cement bus stop, near Oshodi-Apapa expressway, Lagos.

About 54 lock-up stalls situated in four buildings, including a Sterling bank branch, and property worth millions of naira, were also razed by the inferno which raged for about three hours before it was put off by fire fighters.

                            

BASKET MOUTH, AFRICAN WOMEN AND RAPE JOKE

Bright Okpocha, a Nigerian comedian also known as Basketmouth is known for his rib cracking jokes. But his latest rape punch line has provoked an outrage. It was not funny at all. It was the type of joke Nigerians like to refer to as ‘expensive’. Basketmouth had in a tweet which was also posted on his Facebook page compared dating white girls to dating African women. In the tweet, he recommended rape for members of the latter group who failed to give in to a man’s lustful advances after nine dates, which include dinners and shopping sprees. The joke was inconceivable. However, for those familiar with Nigerian comedy scene, it was nothing new. For long, Basketmouth, like many other Nigerian comedians, had always delighted in entertaining their audience with explicit and insensitive jokes that stereotype women and people with physical disability.

Such a joke as told by Basketmouth is the staple of many comic shows.  No matter at whose expense the jokes were cracked. The audience, which also include women, do not seem to mind as they often pay appreciable sum to be part of sell-out comedy shows. In less than a decade, the Nigerian comedy scene has witnessed a boon. Comedians are raking in ‘monster’ appearance and endorsement fees from private and corporate clients. Never in the history of the entertainment industry had comedy been this lucrative. In the years when old school comedians like Gringory, Zebrudaya, Samanja, Baba Sala, strut the entertainment scene. Such jokes were rare. Now it seems the more explicit the joke, the bigger the audience with comedians smiling to the bank. In recent years since Ali Baba blazed the trail, the game has changed tremendously. Comedians like Basketmouth have changed the perception of comedians as unemployed ‘alawadas’. (Jesters)

MORE TROUBLE FOR PDP AS 27 OUT OF 30 LAWMAKERS IN SOKOTO DEFECTS TO APC

The PDP were punched hard yet again when the majority of the members of the Sokoto State House of Assembly defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC. Twenty seven out of the 30 members of the Assembly took the decision to move the APC on Wednesday, lawmakers said.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Malami Basakkwace, informed that the that the members decided to move to the APC to follow the state governor, Aliyu Wamakko, who was one of the five governors that defected to the APC.

“We are moving in line the decision of his Excellency Governor Aliyu Wamakko to also move over to the APC,” he said. The defectors include the speaker of the assembly and other principal officials.

GOVERNOR KWANKWASO'S FATHER ESCAPES DEATH IN KANO

KANO State Governor’s father, Alhaji Musa Saleh Kwankwaso, on Tuesday night escaped death when unidentified gunmen attacked and opened fire on worshippers  at a mosque  in  Kwankwaso town, in Madobi Local Government Council of the state.

The governor’s father was said to be among the congregation at the time the gunmen struck.

It was gathered that it was a long gun battle between the gunmen and the police attached to the mosque. However, at the end of it all, three persons were killed, while 12 others sustained varying degrees of injuries. They were said to be receiving treatment at a nearby hospital.

PASTOR FIREMAN HAS BEEN ARRESTED OVER ALLEGED MURDER OF 12-YEAR OLD VIRGIN GIRL FOR RITUAL PURPOSES

Pastor Ofuche Ukoha popularly called "Sign Fireman, a controversial Lagos miracle Pentecostal priest  has been implicated in a ritual murder scandal involving a boy in his church who strangled 12 year old teenage girl while trying to obtain feces from her for ritual purposes.

The disclosure of Pastor Fireman's involvement in the scandal was made by an eighteen year old boy paraded by the police in Lagos. The teenage suspect stated during the parade that he was sent on the ritual mission by Pastor  Fireman.

He said he had always dreamt of becoming rich and had approached the pastor personally, after years of attending the church without his own financial miracle happening, Mr. Fireman reportedly told him the way to get his Sign for finance was to get the feces of a virgin girl. The suspect said Pastor Fireman promised him a reward of N100,000 for the assignment.

TANKER EXPLOSION AT APAPA AREA OF LAGOS KILLS FIVE

Tragedy occured at Apapa area of Lagos earlier today as five people were killed as a result of a fuel tanker that exploded.

The driver of the tanker carrying fuel lost control after the brakes failed, resulting in it somersaulting, and resulting in an explosion. The accident, which occurred along the Berger bus stop, Mile 2 area, also resulted in the injuries of a number of residents in the area.

The General Manager of the Lagos Emergency Management Agency, Mr. Olufemi Osanyintolu, confirmed the incident.

TEN ARTISTES WHOSE ALBUMS SHOULD DROP IN 2014

It is 2014 already and the Nigerian entertainment industry, particularly the music sector, is gearing up for a busy year. With some artistes failing to release their anticipated album in the previous year -2013, we expect loads of albums in 2014. Take a look at singers whose albums will most probably be released this year.

WizKid

Star Boy and EME artiste, Ayo ‘Wizkid’ Balogun, whose second studio album was postponed thrice in 2013, is expected to release the anticipated musical work this year. Expected to be loaded with international and local collaborations, and top notch productions from top producers, Wizkid’s yet-to-be titled second album might go the way of the first album; an all hit musical work.

Wande Coal

Remember he trended worldwide on social network, Twitter, when he released three singles back in 2011. Wande who ended the year 2013 with a Glo endorsement deal after a split with his former label boss, Don Jazzy, is expected to release his second long awaited album under his Black Diamond imprint.

STELLA ODUAH ATTEMPTS TO COVER UP CERTIFICATE FORGERY SCANDAL

Embattled Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, and her associates have spent the last several hours scrambling to clean up the minister’s biographies on the Internet, following allegations that she lied about her academic qualifications.

SaharaReporters, had Monday quoted authorities at St. Paul’s College, where Mrs. Oduah claimed she studied for Bachelor and Masters degrees, as saying they did not award her an MBA at anytime as the university does not  even have a graduate school or graduate programme.

The minister is yet to respond to the allegations. Efforts to get her to comment for this story were unsuccessful. Joe Obi, her special assistant on media, did not answer or return calls.