JIMOH IBRAHIM GRANTS FULL SCHOLARSHIP TO CHILDREN OF SLAIN EDITOR.

As a mark of appreciation for his commitment and dedication to duty, the Publisher and Group Managing Director (GMD), Energy Group of which Daily Newswatch is a subsidiary, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim, OFR, has announced full scholarship to the three children of the late Deputy Editor of Saturday Newswatch, Toyin Obadina, up to the university level.

Obadina was killed by gunmen in the wee hours of February 1, 2014, on the way to his house in Ikorodu, Lagos State. The late Obadina left behind an aged mother, wife and three children.

The education of the children, who are currently in primary and junior secondary schools, will henceforth be taken over by the business mogul, according to a statement by the Managing Director/Chief Executive of Newswatch Newspapers, Mr. Moses Jolayemi.

THE BANALITY OF TEEN SEX ON VALENTINE'S DAY - GABRIEL OSAMWONYI

The prevailing wisdom in most media-saturated societies says sex plus money equals the good life. This faulty equation is significantly changing the self-perception of many teenagers, their pursuit of happiness and envisioned future. If they are required to write on postage stamps their ultimate goals, different variants of this would appear: to outdo Cleopatra and make Croesus look poor. This aspiration is brazenly dramatised during Valentine’s season.

Valentine’s Day is increasingly taking on the defining character of a moral holiday. Raging passion largely shape its observance.  Dating violence reaches all-time high.  In the spirit of the day, many teenagers will indulge in carefree sex.  Some will get involved in romance-induced brawls. Others will use illicit drugs for the first time. This is worrisome. Even ardent laissez-faire elite who promote sexually liberal views would agree that the moral health of society is gravely endangered when sex, drug, alcohol and gambling become “teens’ issues”.

SANUSI INSISTS THAT $20B IS MISSING AS MINISTER OF FINANCE IS UNABLE TO ACCOUNT FOR MISSING FUNDS

Day Two of the investigative hearing of the Senate Committee on Finance into the alleged missing $20 billion oil money has concluded in Abuja, with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, insisting the money is missing according to a live blogging of the hearing by Premium Times of Nigeria.

Speaking to the committee, he said that despite the explanation tendered by Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, there is an outstanding $20 billion between what NNPC oil shipments and what it paid to government.

Mr. Sanusi insists the outstanding $6 billion given by NNPC to the NPDC should have gone to the federal government, but that it disappeared into private hands from there, and offered to bring in lawyers to defend that claim on the basis of three advisory opinions the CBN has already received.

#ODUAHGATE - EFCC CLAIMS INVESTIGATION IS ONGOING ON THE SCANDAL THAT CONSUMED FORMER MIN. OF AVIATION STELLA ODUAH

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission  has said  that all those involved in the controversial purchase of  N255m  bulletproof cars  by the Nigerian Aviation Civil Authority, including the sacked   Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, were still being investigated.

A   source at the EFCC, who made this known,  said  the outcome of the investigation would determine those to be  prosecuted. “We are progressing in the investigation into the scandal and I can assure you that anyone who is found culpable will be prosecuted; just wait and see,” he  stated.

The source spoke just  as  the Trade Union Congress, the   Campaign for Democracy, the   Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders,    the Nigerian Voters’ Assembly, Civil Society Network Against Corruption and human rights lawyer, Bamidele Aturu,insisted that  Oduah  must be made to  face trial for corruption.

The  EFCC had late last year interrogated the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mr. George Uriesi;  the Director General of the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency, Mr. Nnamdi Udoh, and the Director General, NCAA, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, over the scandal.

I WILL DO MY JOB UNBIASED - NEW RIVERS CP - OGUNSAKIN

Newly appointed Rivers State Commissioner, Mr. Tunde Ogunsakin has promised to prosecute the state’s security affairs without bias to either the All Progressives Congress (APC), which Governor Rotimi Amaechi is a member of, or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of President Goodluck Jonathan. 

Speaking in Port Harcourt during an official visit to the governor, Ogunsakin assured that he would police the state without bias, as both the president and the governor have their respective roles in ridding the state of crimes.

“The President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces is the Chief Security Officer of the Federation while the Inspector General of Police is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the Federation”, he said.

BOKO HARAM MURDERS NINE SOLDIERS IN DEADLY AMBUSH IN ADAMAWA

A top military source with the 23rd Armored Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Adamawa State has said that members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect ambushed some soldiers earlier on Wednesday, killing at least nine and injuring others. 

The soldiers had been drafted to counter a Boko Haram offensive in Izhe in Madagali local government area of Adamawa State. Our source disclosed that, apart from nine soldiers who were killed, several others sustained various degrees of injury. He also stated that the military killed several terrorists during the attack. 

The source revealed that the attackers from the extremist Islamist sect were operating from forests close to the Republic of Cameroon. He added that the military was planning to intensify aerial surveillance of the area and the launch of air bombardment of the sect’s hiding places as part of a broad counter offensive.

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DETAILS OF WHY JONATHAN FIRED STELLA ODUAH (CAT WITH NINE LIVES) AND CO...

President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday summoned uncommon courage, firing four of his ministers three of which have been enmeshed in controversies and corruption allegations. 

The sack of the four ministers is the second major overhaul of the lacklustre federal cabinet undertaken by President Jonathan in the last seven months. The ministers relieved of their appointments are Stella Oduah (Aviation), Godsday Orubebe (Niger Delta Affairs), Caleb Olubolade (Police Affairs) and Yerima Ngama (Finance).

Briefing journalists after the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting at the Presidential Villa, Information Minister, Labaran Maku, said the president announced the removal of the ministers during the meeting.

BOKO HARAM STRIKES AGAIN - KILLS 40 IN KONDUGA TOWN, BORNO

Over 40 persons were killed by Boko Haram invaders on Tuesday evening in Konduga town in Borno State, SaharaReporters has learnt. 

Sources, said the sect burnt down several houses and a secondary school.  The authorities were forced to down that institution. A military reinforcement has now reached Konduga and taken over the security situation in the area.

It was gathered that the militant arrived in dozens at about 5:30 pm yesterday and launched multiple attacks on civilians as they chanted 'Allahuakubar' and other Islam-related words.  They did their damage and left with no resistance from the security agencies.  Borno State is under emergency rule.

Another source who asked for anonymity said he personally counted over 45 corpses.  SaharaReporters was unable to confirm that claim from Col. Mohammed Dole, spokesman of the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri.

"POST MBU" RIVERS STATE - PEACE RETURNS

The re-deployment of Commissioner of Police, Mr Joseph Mbu to Police Headquarters, Abuja, and the posting of CP Joseph Ogunshakin to  Rivers State,  have heightened expectations that peace would return to the State.

It sounds as if Mbu, who was caught in the middle of the political disagreements between Governor Rotimi Amaechi, his former political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the presidential family,  and the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike was the problem. Was Mbu taking orders or issuing his?

During the crisis, the actors in the crisis helped themselves to series of measures that threatened the peace of the State. They were at the centre of the crisis that ensued from sacking elected officials of Obio/Akpor Local Government Council, the fracas in the Rivers State House of Assembly, political rallies between the contending parties, among other issues.

STELLA ODUAH (THE CAT WITH NINE LIVES) HAS BEEN KICKED OUT OF OFFICE AT LAST

Call her a cat with nine lives and I bet you are not far from the truth. She survived self imposed storms which others could not for several months but today, she has been kicked out of an office she wasn't fit to hold in the first place.

Nigeria’s Corrupt Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, has been fired by President Goodluck Jonathan. Ms. Oduah has been caught in a web of certificate scandals and a scandalous purchase of two BMW armored cars for $1.6 million. 

Ms. Oduah and three other ministers within the Jonathan govt were relieved of their positions on the orders of Mr. Jonathan. However, their sack was passed off as  voluntary resignation from the cabinet.

 The other ministers sacked includes, the minister of the Niger Delta, Godsday Orubebe, minister of police affairs, Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade (rtd) and the minister of state for Finance, Yerima  Ngama

Late last year, we reported that Ms. Oduah had compelled the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to pay Coscharis Motors, an auto dealer, approximately $1.6 million for two BMW bullet-proof cars. Investigations by us showed that the highest cost for each such car in both the US and UK was $267,000 per car. NCAA and other sources further disclosed that the two cars were never delivered, compounding a scam by Ms. Oduah who reportedly split the $1.6 million funds with Cosmas Maduka, the chief executive of Coscharis.

She also claimed she earned a Masters degree from a US college.

TABOO IN EBONYI STATE AS BOY (17) IS NABBED FOR SLEEPING WITH HIS MOTHER AND RAPING 4 CHILDREN

RAPE TRAGEDY is no more news in Nigeria even as many cases are unreported. 

Despite this fact., a combination of rape, taboo and homosexuality is better not imagined, but the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, in Ebonyi State, yesterday, arrested a serial rapist and homosexual, Chibuike Maduka, who allegedly raped four children of different parents at Ndibe in Afikpo North Local Government Area of the state.

The suspect who blamed his strange sexual escapades on his mother, Mrs. Idam Augustina Josephine, confessed to have had sexual intercourse with his mother on several occasions and that he doesn’t know what usually compel him to have sex with children in the area.

MORE THAN JUST FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN GAME AND KHLOE KARDASHIAN

You would think she would be down in the dumps following the breakdown of her marriage. But Khloe Kardashian looked like she did not have a care in the world as she twerked The Game in a Los Angeles nightclub on Monday night.

The reality television personality seemed to be having a great time as she bumped and grinded with the jolly rapper in a video she posted on Twitter.

BRAIN DEAD WOMAN GIVES BIRTH JUST BEFORE SHE GAVE UP THE GHOST

A ventilator kept Robyn Benson breathing for weeks so the baby growing inside her could survive. Doctors delivered the brain-dead Canadian woman's son on Saturday. She died the next day.

"On Sunday, we had to unfortunately say goodbye to the strongest and most wonderful woman I have ever met," her husband, Dylan Benson, wrote on his website.

Their newborn son, Iver, is in a neonatal intensive care unit in Victoria, British Columbia, a hospital spokeswoman said. He could be hospitalized for eight more weeks, Dylan Benson told CNN on Tuesday. "He's doing well, still learning to breathe and all those things. ... But he's the cutest little man," he said. 

NEGLECT OF 2002 IKEJA BOMB BLAST VICTIMS

It was a pathetic spectacle to behold lately when on January 27, 2014, victims of the January 27, 2002 Ikeja bomb blasts carried placards to protest poor compensation and outright neglect by the authorities, 12 long years after the avoidable incident. It was widely acclaimed that the explosions were caused by the negligence of the Nigerian Army and the government. Recall that the bomb explosions led to the deaths of over 1,200 people; 5,000 others injured; 20,000 displaced and over 12,000 left homeless. Indeed, the massive deaths were witnessed when people fleeing from the Ikeja military cantonment, the source of the blasts through Ajao Estate perished in the marshy Oke-Afa canal while trying to connect Ejigbo.

SENATE PRESIDENT STALLS DEFECTION OF 11 PDP SENATORS TO APC.

There was a drama in  the Senate on Tuesday when five senators announced their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress. But they  were immediately  ruled out of order by the  Senate President,  David Mark, who cited a case they instituted against him.

The senators, who announced their  defection during  plenary in Abuja,  are   Bukola Saraki (Kwara Central);  Aisha Al – Hassan, (Taraba North);  Magnus Abe (Rivers South-East); Wilson Ake (Rivers West) and Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa West). They are also  among the 11 members of the upper arm of the National Assembly, who forwarded  a letter to Mark informing him of their defection to the opposition APC. Several  efforts  by the senators to make the Senate leadership read the letter had failed.

Saraki started the process  of formally announcing their defection on the floor of the Senate  when   he raised a point of order, and cited Section 15 of the Senate Standing Orders 2011 as amended. The orders have  to do with privileges of senators. He reminded  the Senate president  of the letter by  the  aggrieved senators, including himself, which had not been read on the floor. He  mentioned  Senators   Abdulahi, Abe, Ake,  Al-Hassan, Shaba Lafiagi, Ibrahim Gobir, Jibrilla   Bindowo, Danjuma Goje,  Ali Ndume, Umar Dahiru and himself as the lawmakers listed in the letter.

ALGERIAN MILITARY PLANE CRASHES KILLING 103 PEOPLE.

An Algerian military transport plane, on Tuesday, crashed in the mountainous area of Oum al-Bouaghi province, killing more than 103 people, Algerian media say.

The plane was en route to Constantine from Ouargla in bad weather, the reports add. The air traffic control of Algeria’s Constantine Airport lost contact with the C-130 Hercules aircraft, adding that the 103 passengers on board were killed in the crash.

The Associated Press quoted Col. Lahmadi Bouguern, spokesman for the eastern military region, as saying that the crash was caused by bad weather.

THE PROBABILITY OF APC WINNING THE 2015 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

The All Progressives Congress has started with a momentum as a radical opposition party in Nigeria. Relatively, it seems to have achieved some visibility nationwide, especially in the media. It has also succeeded in antagonising the ruling Peoples Democratic Party on many issues and has attracted many prominent politicians from the ruling party including five governors and a former Vice-President recently. The party has also caused sizeable apprehension in the National Assembly and in the process “harvested” many senators and members of the House of Representatives into its fold. As a political party that had only recently commenced formal membership registration, this is no mean feat.

However, it must go beyond all these if it intends to successfully displace the PDP and form government at the centre in 2015. Here are three steps it must take urgently and two others that it must stop taking if its desperation to upstage the PDP will be realised.

EFCC ARRAIGNS FEMALE BANKER FOR N450M FRAUD, REMANDED IN KIRIKIRI PRISONS.

GRACE AKPOJIYOUWI

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission , EFCC, on Tuesday February 11, 2014, arraigned one Akpojiyouwi Grace  before Justice Babajide Lawal-Akapo  of the Lagos High Court sitting at Ikeja on one count charge bordering on failure to conduct due diligence in financial transactions.

The accused  a former employee of Union bank is accused of complicity in the mega scam that rocked the bank early this year when some fraudsters hacked into its data base and pulled out hundreds of millions of naira. Akpojiyouwi allegedly failed to conduct due diligence as the account officer of Dan Kawu Bureau De Change before confirming and authorizing the payment of N450,000,000 (Four Hundred and Fifty Million) to the company.