Father flogs three-year-old son to death for urinating on bed

 

A 26- year-old man, Ikechukwu Okoro is currently in custody of the Ebonyi State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for allegedly beating his three-year-old son, Chinedu to death.
Okoro, according neighbours woke up by 4.30am on September 13, 2013 to discover that his sick and only son had defecated on the bed.
Apparently angered by the boy’s action, he picked a cane and flogged him repeatedly until the boy gave up the ghost.
He rushed the dead boy to a nearby clinic but he was confirmed dead on arrival.
He told the police that he never knew what came over him, “It was out of annoyance that I flogged my son, Chinedu to death. The boy had been sick for some time. It was when I woke up around 4.30am that fateful day that I discovered that Chinedu had defecated on my mattress.
“He was the only son I had. When I discovered that he had defecated on the bed we were sleeping together. I went outside to look for a stick to flog him, just like any other normal father would have done to his recalcitrant child. I found a bitter leaf stick and used it to flog him twice. I didn’t know that it could lead to his death.
Okoro, a native of Isieta Amanato, in Isu Onicha Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, further explained that his wife, Uchechi abandoned him in 2009 with Chinedu, his only son who is now deceased.

He blamed Satan for the misfortune. “It was Satan that used me. When I was flogging him, I perceived an irritating odour from his mouth and I stopped flogging him immediately. I rushed him to a nearby clinic around my area. The same doctor that I took my son to, took us to another hospital. There, the doctors told me, after examination that my child was dead.”
Okoro said he could not believe it when he brought the corpse of his child home, and raised the alarm that attracted the attention of neighbours. “They came to ask me what killed my son. I confessed to them that he died as a result of the flogging I gave him because he defecated on my mattress.”
“My son had been sick, his stomach was swollen before I flogged him,” Okoro lamented.
One of the neighbours, Ogbonnaya Orie who was the only person who pleaded with Ikechukwu to stop beating his son said all his efforts fell on deaf ears. “And when Chinedu died, he begged me to assist him to bury the child, but I refused,” he said.
Ebonyi State Police Command through its State Criminal Investigations Department, (SCID) is currently interrogating Ikechukwu Okoro at Isieta Amanato Isu Onicha.
The Ebonyi State Commissioner of Police, Mr Maigari Abbati Dikko said that it was a shock to him that the suspect, Ikechukwu confessed to have flogged his own son, Chinedu to death.
The police Commissioner said the case was reported at Isu Onicha Divisional Headquarters of the police and the suspect was arrested with his son’s corpse. The CP said the case had been transferred to the State CID for further investigation. He said the suspect would be charged to court for murder.

Source: Sun news

Military will never solve Boko Haram insurgency – Former CDS, Agwai

 

A former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Martin Luther Agwai, has stated that Nigeria’s military will not end the current Boko Haram insurgency.
Agwai made this declaration on Saturday in Jos at the public launch of a book entitled, ‘Integrity Matters: Men of Honour in the Public Square’, written by the Dean, Graduate School, ECWA Theological Seminary, Jos.
In his words: “You can never solve any of these problems with military solutions. The military can always be an enabling force. They will sensitise; they will stabilise the area. It is a political issue; it is a social issue; it is an economic issue, and until these issues are addressed, the military can never give you a solution.
“So, to say the military has failed or is overwhelmed or has not failed is incorrect. But I will say that if anybody expects the military to give him a solution to this problem, it will be difficult, since it is not a military problem, it is not a war. You are not fighting another country invading Nigeria. So, you cannot get a military solution to that.”
Agwai wondered how he is expected to pass judgement on the performance of deployed troops when he does not have “all the operators gathering the information and what is happening, the overall plan and the exit plan.”

The one-time Chief of Army Staff (COAS), attributed his time in as head of the army and the armed forces to the grace of God, adding that there was insurgency in the southern part of the country at that time but was managed.
On the nation’s 53 years anniversary, Agwai said he was glad when Nigeria became Independent, recalling that he started Senior Primary School that same year.
“I remember vividly how we used to sing the old National Anthem, ‘Nigeria we hail thee’. I remember also vividly the Coat of Arms, the Green White Green they (the British) gave us. We have come a long way.
Continuing, “As human beings, there are always high expectations. And I have always said that the most difficult thing to manage is expectation. There were other challenges, which included the civil war; we had our challenges, but we have also had our good points.
“We have championed freedom in Africa. Everybody knows what role Nigeria played in getting South Africa and the southern part of Africa to become free and independent. Everybody knows what we did in Angola, everybody knows what we have done in our sub-region, in Liberia, in Sierra Leone, in Guinea Bissau and so many other places,”Agwai said

Nigeria Needs Divine Intervention To Tackle Its Challenges – Gov Obi

 

Anambra State governor, Mr. Peter Obi has charged Nigerians to seek divine intervention to tackle the various challenges confronting the country.
Obi, while speaking at an inter-denominational church service to mark the 53rd Independence anniversary of the country at the Women Development Centre, Awka, regretted that Nigerians have failed the country in the way they attend to issues concerning their country.
According to him, in spite of the huge resources that abound in the country, majority of Nigerians were still living in abject poverty, while the privileged few have been exploiting and amassing wealth.
Obi also lamented that some of the people in positions of authority have not shown commitment in seeking the face of God because of their unbridled and blind quest for money.
He added that the Independence anniversary celebration was opportunity for sober reflection to identify the shortcomings and chart a new course for a brighter future.

While thanking God for preserving the country, State chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Bishop Ephraim Ndife, commended Governor Obi for giving the state focused and purposeful leadership and touching many lives since he became governor of the state.
Bishop Ndife therefore enjoined people of the State to pray for a successful election that would produce credible and dedicated leader to pilot the affairs of the State.
In his homily, Reverend Father Peter Akaenyi of Awka Cathedral Diocese, who noted the high level of instability in some parts of the country, observed that over sixty percent of Nigerians were still illiterate and more than that were unemployed.
Reverend Father Akaenyi who described government as God’s way to maintain public good and direct affairs of men, urged those in position of authority to imbibe strong and impeccable moral character.
He said the State had been transformed under Governor Peter Obi as God had used the Governor to show that good governance and dedicated leadership was possible in the State.

Prophet T.B Joshua delivers Nollywood star Jim Iyke from evil spirits [VIDEO]

 

 
Nollywood star actor, Jim Iyke fell at his feet and started crying as he was delivered from demonic spirits that had prevented him from finding love and getting married.
During the deliverance session at TB Joshua’s church, the spirit spoke through him, saying, “it was the cause of his setback and disappointment”.
Read the full report HERE and watch the video – taken off the live recording – below:

NNPC Pipeline burst: Residents of Gombe villages appeal for alternative sources of water

 

Residents of Akko Local Government Area of Gombe State have appealed to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to provide them with alternative sources of water.
The residents, who are in Tudun Wada Malam Jamo, Konkeje and Jauro Baba communities, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Gombe.
NAN reports that an NNPC oil pipeline in Tudun Wada Malam Jamo burst on Friday evening resulting in oil spill which led to the adulteration of the river and only water source in the area.
Spokespersons of the communities, Alhaji Yayari Jungudo and Umar Ajiya, said that following the spillage, the three communities had been without portable water as the only water available was contaminated.
“We woke up around 4.30 a.m. on Saturday only to discover that the stream had been contaminated with petroleum due to the pipeline burst.

“Today, all the residents of these three villages went as far as Gamadaji village, about four kilometres away, to fetch water.
“We do not have wells or boreholes or any other source of water but the river and it has now been contaminated by petroleum.
“We appeal to the NNPC or the authorities concerned to provide us with alternative sources of water supply,’’ Jungudo said.
Also speaking, Ajiya, who is the Youth Leader in the area, said the people in the area were facing difficulty following the development.
He said that a similar incident occurred at the beginning of the raining season this year, when the pipeline burst.
Ajiya appealed to NNPC to address the problem to ease the difficulty being faced by people in the area.
All attempts by NAN to get comments from officials of the NNPC failed.
A staff of the NNPC, who pleaded anonymity told NAN that “nobody will talk to you; even the Branch Manager will not talk to you.’’
NAN also reports that by Sunday morning, the NNPC engineers had completed repairs of the burst pipeline. (NAN)

Yobe Attack: Death Toll Rises To 78

Death toll in yesterday’s attack in Yobe State has risen to 78.
Students of the College of Agriculture, Gujba, Yobe State were first to be attacked by gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram sect members who opened fire on the students at 3a.m. as they slept in their hostels.
The gunmen after unleashing terror on the school, later moved to other houses, where they killed residents at will.
They also blocked the Damaturu-Maiduguri road and killed travellers.
At the end of the attack, 78 persons were confirmed dead, while several others were still missing.
Members of the community said there was no one to rescue them, neither was there anyone to make the gunmen’s task difficult for them, as soldiers arrived the scene two hours after the gunmen had left.
The gunmen were said to be wearing military camouflage with black bandanas round their heads.
According to an official of Damaturu Specialist Hospital, where victims were taken, who spoke in anonymity, “immediately after the attack, 40 bodies were brought to the morgue and all are believed to have been students of the College of Agriculture in Gujba.”
The number, however, increased as more bodies were recovered from the bush.
Military spokesman, Lazarus Eli told newsmen that security forces were at the scene, but that details on the number of dead and injured were not yet available.
He added that the early morning assault was targeted at the College of Agriculture in Gujba, Yobe State.
“It was carried out by Boko Haram terrorists, who went into the school and opened fire on students while they were sleeping,” he added.

Provost of the College, Molima Idi Mato, said: “They attacked our students while they were sleeping in their hostels. They opened fire at them.”
He said he could not give an exact death toll as security forces were still recovering bodies of students mostly aged between 18 and 22.
“The school’s surviving students have fled,” he added.
One of the surviving students, Idris, who would not give his first name, said: “They started gathering students into groups outside, then they opened fire and killed one group and then moved onto the next group and killed them.
“It was so terrible. They came with guns around 1a.m. and went directly to the male hostel and opened fire on them”
Ahmed Gujunba, a taxi driver who lives by the college said: “The college is in the bush, so the other students were running around helplessly as guns went off and some of them were shot down.”
Gujba is about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from Damaturu, the state capital.
By afternoon after the attack, scores of travellers were also killed, by suspected members of Boko Haram in the state.
The militants were said to have blocked Damaturu-Maiduguri Road, shooting indiscriminately.
An eyewitness, who was on his way to Maiduguri, told the media that at least 20 persons were killed.
The witness said: “The situation is terrible. They blocked our way, and were spraying people with bullets.
“Some of us managed to run into the bush. At least, 20 persons were shot dead in the three buses before us.”

Jealous Ex-girlfriend Sets Rival Ablaze

Tragedy occurred at Onugba Nike area of Enugu State when 20-year-old Cynthia Onah allegedly set ablaze another woman, 22-year old Chinwe Igwe for snatching her boyfriend, one Chika Kelechi.

According to police report, Cynthia had gone to her former boyfriend’s house at 11:30pm with a gallon of fuel and emptied its content on Chinwe who was already asleep and set her on fire. The incident happened at Onugba Nike East Local Government area of Enugu State.

The Commissioner of Police Enugu State, Mr. Mohammed Adamu described the incident as very unfortunate. “It is terrible that a girl because of jealousy would set another girl on fire simply because they are befriending the same boy.”

He explained that the incident took place on August 24, 2013 after Chika and Chinwe who had dated each other for almost five years, had a misunderstanding and stopped dating each other.

Chika later met Cynthia, a prostitute and they started dating. And after a month there was a disagreement between them. Later, Chika reconciled with his former girlfriend, Chinwe and they started their love life all over again.

CP Adamu explained that the suspect, Cynthia Onah threatened that she would never leave Chika for any other lady. She was said to have threatened further that Chinwe must steer clear of Chika.

On that fateful day, she had in connivance with another suspect, one Obiora Chukwuegbo stormed Chika’s home and set Chinwe on fire.

The CP explained that there was smoke everywhere and it was through the assistance of neighbours that Chinwe was rescued through the window as the fire consumed the room.

She was said to have been taken to a private hospital before she was transferred to Annunciation Specialist Hospital Emene, Enugu State where she is still receiving treatment.

The Assistant Commissioner of Police, State CID Enugu, Mr. Philip Ogbadu told Sunday Sun that it was a terrible incident. “We have been able to arrest the three suspects, Chika Kelechi, Cynthia Onah and Obiora Chukwuegbo and that the case is still under investigation.

The boyfriend, Chika told Sunday Sun “I am a driver and I’ve been dating Chinwe for the past five years. We had little quarrel and we stopped dating. I meet Cynthia who is a prostitute and dated her for just one month. We separated one month after because at times she would be chasing me with a knife. I couldn’t bear it and so I went back to settle with my former girlfriend.

Cynthia didn’t give up as she threatened that she was going to deal with us. She even threatened to pour acid on me.

Being a driver, I travelled the day Cynthia burnt my girlfriend. It was one of my neighbours that called me to say that my house was on fire and that somebody poured fuel under the door and it exploded and burnt my girlfriend who was sleeping in the room; that they have rescued her through the window.

“When I got home, I saw that all my property had been burnt to ashes. My girlfriend was hospitalized because she sustained injuries from the fire. But I am determined and I have promised God that with the condition of my girlfriend that I am still going to marry her.”

The suspect, Cynthia said “I started dating Chika when he had misunderstanding with his former girlfriend, Chinwe.

Several Students Killed As Boko Haram Attacks College Of Agriculture In Yobe

Boko Haram gunmen on Sunday stormed a college dormitory in Nigeria’s conflict-scarred northeast, firing on students as they slept, the military told AFP, in the latest such attack blamed on the Islamist insurgents.

Security forces were at the scene but details on the number of dead and injured were not yet available, area military spokesman Lazarus Eli said.

The early morning assault targeted the College of Agriculture in the town of Gujba in Yobe state, Eli said.

It was carried out by “Boko Haram terrorists who went into the school and opened fire on students,” while they were sleeping, he added.

A police source, who requested anonymity, told AFP that initial reports
indicated the death toll could be high but he was not prepared to discuss figures.

Gujba is roughly 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the state capital of Damaturu.

Yobe has seen a series of brutal attacks targeting students in recent months, all blamed on Boko Haram.

The worst occurred in July in the town of Mamudo, where the Islamists threw explosives and sprayed gunfire into dormitories in the middle of the night, killing 41 students.

The name Boko Haram means ‘Western education is forbidden’ and the group has repeatedly attacked schools, universities and colleges during its four-year insurgency.

The military has described the spate of recent school attacks as a sign of desperation by the Islamists, claiming they only have the capacity to hit soft targets.

The defence ministry has said that an offensive launched against Boko Haram in mid-May has decimated the group and scattered their fighters across remote parts of the northeast.

While many of the recent attacks have occurred in more remote areas, often targeting defenceless civilians, the unchecked killing has cast doubt on the success of the military’s campaign.

The northeast remains under a state of emergency imposed on May 14.

Scores have been killed this month, including in the northeastern town of
Benisheik in Borno state, where at least 142 people were slaughtered by presumed Boko Haram fighters who came disguised as soldiers, set up checkpoints and fired on motorists and bystanders.

Some of the recent violence has targeted vigilante groups which have formed to help the military.

Boko Haram has said it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north, but the group is believed to made up of different factions with varying aims.

A toll earlier this year said the conflict is estimated to have cost more than 3,600 lives, including killings by the security forces.

2015: New PDP, APC in Secret Agreement

The Group of Seven Governors who broke away from the Peoples Democratic Party to form a splinter group called New PDP has reached a secret agreement with the opposition All Progressives Congress on the 2015 election.

Though the seven governors had been talking with the APC leaders for sometime, they, however, finally decided to enter into an agreement with the leaders of the opposition coalition after their last reconciliatory meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan.

The governors are Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, Babangida Aliyu of Niger, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano, Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto, Sule Lamido of Jigawa and Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara.
THISDAY learnt that after their last meeting with the President, the dissenting governors came to the conclusion that the President was not serious about peace in PDP.

Two reasons informed this conclusion, according to sources close to the governors.

One, after the meeting, President Jonathan carried out a cabinet reshuffle and removed nine ministers, mostly those nominated by the dissenting governors and President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is also perceived to have fallen out with the President.

Among the ministers axed were Prof. Ruqqayatu Rufa’i (Education) who was nominated by Lamido, Olugbenga Ashiru (Foreign Affairs) and Mrs. Olusola Obada (Defence), both of whom were nominated by Obasanjo, and Ms. Amal Pepple (Land and Urban Development) who was said to have pleaded with Jonathan to mend fences with Amaechi.

The other reason, according to sources, is that a day after the Sunday, September 15 meeting where it was resolved that both parties should give peace a chance and continue reconciliatory meeting on October 7, the Kano PDP executive committee was dissolved without consulting Kwankwaso.

A new executive council was constituted with Kwankwaso's opponents and some of the people he had defeated, including son of late General Sani Abacha, Muhammed Abacha, given a pride of place.

“It became clear to Kwankwaso and the other governors that the President was not ready for peace,” one of the sources added.

Besides all that, however, it was further learnt that the governors were also moved to take their decision because they decided against going back to PDP and facing President Jonathan, knowing full well he would move ruthlessly against them the way he had checkmated former Bayelsa State Governor Timipre Sylva.

“So they resolved that there is no turning back. They resolved to eat the humble pie and work with APC,” another source said.
Following their discussion with the opposition party, the seven governors will join the APC jointly at a strategic time and integrate their structures with those of APC.

At the time of the primaries, it was learnt that based on their discussions with APC, the New PDP governors would choose one of them to contest for APC’s presidential ticket along with other candidates from APC.

“If a candidate from the New PDP, ostensibly from the North, wins, he will pick a running mate from the APC fold in the South-east. And if an APC candidate, ostensibly from the North, wins, the New PDP will provide a running mate from the South-east,” another source from the New PDP explained.

The two sides, APC and New PDP, are said to have, however, agreed that former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Tinubu, could run for the Senate and vie for the position of Senate President from the stable.

Meanwhile, Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, Saturday challenged those claiming to belong to New PDP, a breakaway faction of PDP, to get a registration certificate, logo, and other necessary qualifications if they are serious about the existence of the group.

CALL THE COPS: Inmate Dials 911 During Escape

Prisoner Joshua Silverman passed up a taste of freedom this week and called the police instead.
Silverman could have fled with two other inmates who stole the unattended transport van he was riding in, but he dialed 911 and alerted authorities about the escape.
“Uh, yes, ma’am, you’re probably not going to believe this, but I’m a prisoner in a van, and I’m here with a couple of these other cats,” Silverman politely explained to the 911 operator Tuesday. “A couple of the guys that were in the van jacked the van … at the hospital.”
Guards from a private prison transport company had stopped in Weatherford, about an hour west of Oklahoma City, to deliver some ill inmates to a hospital. They left eight other prisoners, including Silverman, in the van unsupervised.
With the guards gone, authorities say inmates Lester Burns and Michael Coleman kicked out a partition in the van and moved up front, where the keys remained and the motor was still running so the prisoners could have air conditioning.
Burns and Coleman drove the van for about a mile before ditching it and fleeing on foot, according to police.
Silverman, one of six inmates left behind, was reluctant to escape. Still shackled, he somehow managed to get out of the van – perhaps through the kicked-out partition – and dialed 911 with a cellphone police believe he might have found in the vehicle.
During the nearly four-minute audio clip that Weatherford police released Thursday, Silverman struggled to explain the van’s whereabouts. After the dispatcher asked for a specific location, the prisoner volunteered to walk to a nearby road to flag down an officer.
“We’re in Oklahoma somewhere. I don’t know because we’re not on a road and I’m not from here,” Silverman told the dispatcher. “I just don’t want to get shot by no cops or nothing.”

27 Killed In Fresh Boko Haram Attacks In Borno

At least 27 persons were killed in two separate attacks carried out by suspected Boko Haram terrorists in the border towns of Borno State, government officials and security sources said.

The Chairman of Gamboru-Ngala Local Government Area, Modu-Gana Sheriiff, told journalists that the 27 persons died when gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram terrorists attacked Fulatari and Kanumburi wards of the local government.

He said the attacks occurred on Wednesday and Thursday nights

“The first attack occurred about eleven o’clock in the evening on Wednesday while the second was carried out last Thursday at about ten o’clock in the evening,” Mr. Sheriff said.

“In the first attack, six people were killed and four others sustained injuries in Fulatari. While 21 people lost their lives in the second attack including the Village Head of Gamboru Lawan Ali Shettima, and two others sustaining bullet injuries and are now receiving treatment’.

The Council Chairman spoke to journalists after condoling some families of those killed by the insurgents. The council chairman donated N100, 000 and a bag of rice to each of the families of the deceased.

He also donated N500, 000 to members of the youth vigilante whose members were also among those killed.

Meanwhile, farmers in the rocky valleys of Gwoza hills in the border area of Borno are fleeing their abode following series of threats from Boko Haram terrorists who are currently hiding in the area.

A local government official, who doesn’t want to be named for security reasons, said “our people are running for their lives from their settlements in Fadagu and Izge-Bita settlements because the Boko Haram who are still hiding on top of the rocky hills are warning of an impending attacks on them.

“We have just returned from Gwoza where we accompanied the council chairman on a fact finding trip. We had to go with a heavy security escort. We met a deserted Gwoza town,” he said.

The local government official also told Premium Times that terrorists had last week chased medical officials from the General Hospital in Gwoza where some victims of the terrorist attacks were being treated. He said the terrorists had also burnt down three public schools in Izge-Bita.

“We the local government officials have shifted our offices temporarily to a hotel lodge in Maiduguri town, which is about 130km away from Gwoza,” he said

2 Sisters Killed As Gas Cylinder Explodes In Abuja

An explosion rocked a village in Abuja on Friday night killing two sisters.The explosion from a domestic gas cylinder in one Miss Rose property, came at exactly 7.37pm, killing Faith Oche, 31, and Mary Oche, 25, said to be co-tenants to Rose.

The explosion, according to eye witnesses, sounded like bomb as it rocked the village to its foundation with people scampering tfor safety.The explosion left a gory impact on the two victims. The head of one was reportedly blown off while the second had her head shattered.

An eyewitness, Mr. Joseph Mark, a tenant in the house, said Miss Rose, who was cooking in her apartment, found that a fire had entered the nozzle of the cylinder and threw it outside the compound.

According to him, when people saw the cylinder with burning fire, they ran and prepared water and detergent solution and sands which they were throwing at a distance to put out the fire.

Mark said the two sisters, Mary and Faith, put up bravery attempts and approached the cylinder with the aim of throwing in more sand but the cylinder exploded suddenly into their faces.

Police officers, who visited the scene, said investigation had commenced into the matter while the bodies of the victims had been deposited at the National Hospital, Abuja mortuary

BREAKING: 42 confirmed dead, 100 missing in Niger boat mishap

No fewer than 42 people were on Friday drowned in a boat mishap on River Niger close to Malilli Village in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that 100 others on board were missing in the mishap which occurred at about 2 p.m.
The Public Relations Officer of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, Ibrahim Hussaini, confirmed the incident in a telephone interview on Saturday.
Mr. Hussaini said the incident occurred around 2 pm when the traders were returning from Malili Village back to Tunga Illo Village across the River Niger, after the day’s market.
He said the details were sketchy, but the boat which had over 150 passengers capsized midway and drowned 42 people, while 100 others were missing.
The spokesman said that local divers from Malili Village had recovered 42 corpses, while efforts were being intensified to rescue possible survivors or the corpse of those drowned.
“At the moment search and rescue is ongoing on the river.
“I will make the details of the incident later, but the agency has dispatch its officers to assist the villagers in the rescue efforts,’’ he said.
Mr. Hussaini said the recovered corpses would be given mass burial close to the river bank, adding that neighbouring villages had been alerted to look out for floating corpses.
The Secretary to the State Government, Saidu Ndako, confirmed the boat mishap.
“I received the information late in the night that a boat had capsized and 42 persons have drowned in the incident, while rescue operation is ongoing.
“We believe that the boat was overload because the boat’s capacity was put at 60 passengers, but over 150 passengers were said to be on board during the incident.
“The debris in the swollen river may also have been responsible for the incident,’’ Mr. Ndako said.
Mr. Ndako said that the government condoled with the family of those who had lost their loved ones, and pray that Allah grant them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
(NAN)

Beneficiaries to receive money transfer proceeds in naira •CBN revokes licences of 20 BDCs

As part of its efforts to curb money laundering, the Central Bank of Nigeria has asked Deposit Money Banks to start paying proceeds from international money transfer firms such as Western Union and MoneyGram only in naira.

Already, the CBN has revoked the operating licences of 20 Bureau De Change operators, which it said purchased “unusually large amounts of foreign exchange from the DMBs and failed to render returns of the utilisation.”

The CBN, in a circular on its website, said, “The affected BDCs did not render returns on the utilisation of the foreign exchange purchased and also failed to provide documentary evidence that their purchases were utilised for eligible transactions in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Money Laundering Act.

“Consequently, the operating licences of the 20 BDCs have been revoked by the CBN. Also, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has been requested to investigate the matter for the persecution of indicted persons.”

The CBN, in circulars posted on its website on Friday, announced new measures to tackle money laundering, which it said was weakening the naira and risked pushing up inflation.

“Available statistics indicate that Nigeria has become the largest importer of United States dollars,” the regulator said in Friday’s notice explaining that its twice-weekly wholesale foreign exchange auction would be replaced with a retail version requiring dealers to reveal the identity of their buyers, according to a Reuters report.

Corruption in the build-up to the 2015 election is partly responsible for the increase, CBN Governor, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, said at the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting on Tuesday, adding that it was “absolutely wrong” for bureaux de change to buy hundreds of millions of dollars without accountability.

“We have seen evidence of huge demand for dollars by bureaux de change, huge purchases of cash that are not accounted for and that signals money laundering, and we’ve got to deal with it,” Sanusi told Reuters by telephone.

“It is a small class of people that has access to huge rents, and that rent has been dollarised,” he said, adding that the bank had been monitoring portfolio outflows and imports, and found that neither could explain the surge in dollar demands

President Jonathan to speak on current national issues tomorrow

President Goodluck Jonathan will host another edition of the Presidential Media Chat tomorrow Sunday, September 29, 2013 at 7pm. See the State House Press Release below
President Jonathan will in the course of the programme, answer questions from a panel of journalists on current national issues and events, as well as policies and actions of his administration. Members of the public who have questions they will like the President to respond to on the programme may send them in via Twitter to @mediachatng1.

The programme will be broadcast live on the network services of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and the Voice of Nigeria (VON). Other television and radio stations are enjoined to hook up to NTA and FRCN to relay the programme to their viewers and listeners.
 
Reuben Abati, https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gifSpecial Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity). September 28, 2013

FCTA: 6, 586 Hawkers Arrested, 4,729 Convicted, 633 Sentenced In Abuja

The Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, yesterday disclosed that it arrested 6,586 hawkers from January to September and 467 minors, out of which 4,729 were convicted with 633 sentenced.
Speaking to Journalists yesterday on the activities of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board, AEPB, Acting Director, Mrs Aishat Adebayo, who noted that the administration could not arraign the minors because of their peculiar situation, however disclosed that the administration has gone into collaboration with the Police to keep them in its Juvenile unit, adding that hawkers must leave the Federal Capital territory against the backdrop that the administration does not allow it and that they must go to designated areas to carry out their activities.
The acting Director who also admitted that some of the staff of AEPB engage in sharp practices, said that over seventy of such staff of the agency have been reprimanded to serve as deterrent to others.

She however did not give answers to how much the AEPB has raked in under the period she reviewed, as well as how much the agency spends in cleaning the nation’s capital city, just as she disclosed that the revenues collected were paid to the central Treasury, adding that the AEPB has fourteen lawyers who are civil servants of the FCTA as well as twenty four Magistrates assigned for the assignment by the FCT Judiciary department.
Mrs Adebayo also said that the monthly environmental programme was cancelled because of its failure as residents of the city use the day to stay in their homes and watch home videos, but said that in the House to House programme of AEPB, enforcement for abatement of nuisances in Gaduwa, Yayal Estate, Birnin Kebbi, Yaba Close, Kano Street, among others have been achieved, adding that between January and August this year, a total number of houses inspected were 2,393, 2,146 alleged nuisances abated, 247 court summons served and 157 convicted.

Police officer caught on camera demanding N10,000 bribe [WATCH]

The cases of Nigerian police officers, being recorded openly asking for bribes, are increasing by the day.
In this clip, the driver who is apparently heading to Umuahia, is stopped for checks by a policeman and an argument ensues over a missing number in his documents.

This led to the officer asking for him to ‘settle’ him with N10,000, to which the driver flatly refused and stated that he would rather drive back to Akure, to get the original documents.

WATCH

Terrorism... Shopping Malls, Tank Farms Under Surveillance

Following the attack on the Nairobi's Westgate Mall in Kenya and in view of the renewed deadly campaign by the violent religious sect, Boko Haram, security agencies have beefed up surveillance around malls, fuel tanker terminals, tank farms and other strategic locations.

The increased surveillance around stratategic locations also coincides with the commencement of activities marking the 53rd independence anniversary.

Top hierarchies of the Nigerian security agencies, who spoke with THISDAY allayed fears that the kind of deadly attack on the Kenyan mall could be carried out in the country, but added that the intelligence community would not leave things to chance.

Director, Department of State Security Services (DSS), Lagos Command, Mr. Ben Achu-Olayi, in a telephone conversation with us yesterday, noted the incident in Kenya and said, "We get over excited when such things happen. We have a more challenging security problem at hand that has given us an edge and ground work.

"However, one thing to do is to sustain and upgrade our security systems. At the moment, we have data bank of all shopping malls and high rise buildings in the state and they are under surveillance. For those owned by individuals, we have advised them to upgrade their security system but generally, we have stepped up security in the state."

Achu-Olayi while maintaining that "Lagos is safe", also disclosed that steps had been taken to ensure that it remains a safe city, adding that a robust security measure had been put around tank farms and tanker terminals.
The General Officer Commanding (GOC), 81 Division Headquarters, Major General Abel Umahi, said security agencies were prepared to ensure the safety of lives and properties around Lagos and neighbouring states.

"Our patrol along with other security agencies is a continuous thing. We also do security threat analysis because we don't believe anything is impossible in today's world of global terrorism", Umahi said.

The army general however added that, "But the first line of defence is for representatives and authorities that run organisations and private companies to act responsibly security wise. We have intimated them that if they have a hunch or breach of security, they should inform us and then we would superimpose our security personnel through covert and overt patrol."

On the latest development on the 42 Boko Haram suspects arrested by the command in Lagos recently, Umahi said intelligence gathering "is a continuous process."

"We have mopped up about 42 of the suspects", he explained, adding, "If we get fresh information, we would act on it but based on what we have so far, they were mopped up but at the same time, we have taken proactive measures."

Debunking speculations that the Boko Haram sect might have acquired equipment that could breach the air defence system, the Director, NAF Information Office, Air Commodore Yusuf Anas, said there was no need for panic.
He said, "As far as I am concerned, it is pedestrian talkbut at the same time, it is our statutory responsibility to defend Nigeria's territorial air space with whatever it takes and that is exactly what we have been doing and will continue to do."

Also speaking, on the measures taken by the Police in Lagos to forestall the kind of attack that happened in Kenya, the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Ngozi Braide, said security had been beefed up.
Braide who spoke through her deputy, Chukwuma Ozoani, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, said it was pertinent to first understand that Nigeria is not Kenya and as such, whatever happened might not be replicated here.

He said if you go round, you will notice a high presence of police patrol vehicles and Armoured Personnel Carriers stationed there.

"Asides that, there are so many police operatives mapped out for surveillance while some others are permanently stationed there to monitor. It is a daily occurrence. So we are prepared all the time."
He added that besides the human presence, they also have beefed up security with the Close Circuit Cameras (CCTV), strategically positioned to give live feeds of activities in the ever busy mall.

He said, "Most of these malls have CCTV and we use the feed to monitor the business activities in and out of the malls. The police are very alert and we are capable of responding to such situations speedily.

Also Friday, the Federal Government expressed its displeasure over online media reports on the state of emergency in three north-eastern states.
Minister of Information and Supervising Minister of Defence, Mr. Labaran Maku described some reports as unguarded and unpatriotic, adding such news undermine military strategy and demoralise the troops.

Speaking in Osogbo, the minister said such reports were counter-productive to the efficient peace enforcement measures in states under emergency rule and were "deliberately contrived to undermine military strategy, demoralise our troops, or even cause incitement to mutiny. This is unacceptable."

Maku also said that the Defence Headquarters had cause to complain on several occasions about inciting online reports which clearly undermined military operations.

Commenting further on the deadly activities of the sect, The information minister said "we are dealing with enemies that have international connection, enemies that use international weapons and enemies with international influence, with good money got from different people around the world."

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army has distanced itself from the controversy surrounding the unauthorized announcement of the death of Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, by the Joint Task Force (JTF) last month following the recent video message released by Shekau to debunk the claim.

Responding to our enquiry Friday, the Director of Army Public Relations, Brig-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, clarified that the Army Headquarters were not in charge of operational modalities during the announcement and therefore not aware of any conflict.

According to Attahiru, all enquiries on the announcement of Shekau's death should be directed to the Defence Headquarters, specifically the Director of Defence Information who was in charge activities during the period the JTF Operation BOYONA made the controversial announcement in Maiduguri, Borno state.

He said: "All these things are not to my knowledge that it was done that way (JTF announcing without authorization) because up until recently I was not operating under that arrangement. The JTF was under the Defence Headquarters.

"So you need to find out from the other man (Director of Defence Information) who was in charge. I was not aware of any conflict (of authority)".

The Army Spokesman however maintained the position that the Army Headquarters was still investigating the latest Shekau's video to verify its authenticity, and assured that the findings would be made public.
"Concerning the latest video, we are still investigating the veracity of the story. Apparently, you are going to get the facts of the matter at the end of the investigation. The findings will be made public", he said.

 

Source: Thisday

Arrest Obasanjo, Atiku, Baraje, others now – Asari Dokubo

Leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, NDPVF, Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, in his usual element has called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the nation’s former President, Olusegun Obasanjo and his estranged Deputy, Atiku Abubakar, for causing unnecessary crisis in the fold of the people’s Democratic Party, PDP.
While encouraging Jonathan to confidently deal with the “New PDP” under the leadership of Kawu Baraje, especially the seven aggrieved governors by arresting them and their associates, Asari said that Jonathan was taking things unnecessarily easy with those suppressing his government.
Asari-Dokubo, who disclosed his position to newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday did not say any indicting thing about former president, Ibrahim Babangida, whom he said had not taken a position in the ongoing crisis in the PDP.
“Obasanjo should be arrested and detained, yes, and Atiku (Abubakar).
” They are ordinary citizens of this country. They are nobody. They are nobody. I don’t know about Babangida, he has not come out to talk about where he belongs.”
Dokubo further asserted that those on the side of Kawo Baraje need to pity, as their action was a total violation of the party constitution, for setting up another faction of what is still in existence(PDP)

According to him, “Those political miscreants; the president should use a hammer against them. There’s no basis indulging these miscreants; they should be treated as such.

“There’s only one registered PDP known to INEC and Tukur is the chairman of that PDP. For the president to indulge them is a slap on the face of politics. He should have hit them if they go against the law.
“If you set up a secretariat for a party that’s not ready, then you should be arrested and detained. There’s no party called new PDP. They should be treated as a lawbreakers.”
Finding an alternative to the issue of immunity, Dokubo said, “Since the governors enjoy immunity, they should pick people around them, then they will know.”
He described the Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi as “a traitor” affirming that President Jonathan was protecting the governor since he goes to Port Harcourt almost every time.
“Amaechi is a traitor to all people, traitor to the interest of all members of the South-South and the South-East. He should be treated like a traitor.
“The President is shielding Amaechi; he is not fighting him, if not he shouldn’t be coming to Port Harcourt every day.”

KOFI AWOONOR: The Poet Who Dared Death

You didn’t need to meet Professor Kofi Awoonor to know him. A poet, novelist, ambassador, university teacher, government official, he was all over the place. In Kenya, where he was as a poet until death last week, he was perhaps also a seer. He saw his death and dared it.

During a poetry masterclass at the Storymoja Hay Festival he was attending in Kenya, he discussed mortality and said he was unafraid of death. Death did go to him; and what a way for such a great man to die.

The Rawlings Revolution
For someone who was at the University of Ghana, Legon, during the early years of the Jerry Rawlings revolution, Awoonor meant a lot more than a poet and novelist. He was in insider.

He explained it himself in an interview with the National Mirror: “I have a feeling that for the first time the Rawlings phenomenon –I use the word phenomenon advisedly– was a rebellion phenomenon. That is a rebellion which had fairly intelligent justification because we were taking a risk after we had adopted the so-called democratic parliamentary system since 1959. That was the last round after the overthrow of (Kwame) Nkrumah. So, 10 years after, Rawlings staged a coup d’état that was short-lived, three months and then election was organised and politicians came back again.

“Within two and half years Rawlings came back with the support of many of us from the universities, the lecturers, the writers; the academic community as a whole.

Not 100 percent but at least, those of us who had been active on the left. The post Nkrumah remnant, most of us who considered ourselves the pan-African children of Nkrumah socialist ideas supported Rawlings and we worked with him for 10 years, 1982 to 1992.

“The first ingredient was the reconstruction of the base government at the local government, we divided the country into new districts and now we have about 175 districts made up of 500,000 people where you can give them a mini parliament where they elect people…..

“In 1992 political parties were allowed to f o r m. We formed the party called the National Democratic Congress, NDC, which won power twice. We lost to John Kufour in 2000, who stayed for eight years and we won in 2008 with John Atta Mills, who passed away and (John) Mahama took over.”

Change of Name
Surprisingly, there aren’t much of Awoonor’s interviews on his writing on the Internet. Surprising! From the little info available he did explain what happened to the Williams in his name. Many of his early readers knew him as George Awoonor-Williams, and it wasn’t a pseudonym.

He said: “That’s not my pen name really, that’s my family name. I come from Wheta, next door to Togo. We were very early Anglicised in that area of the country. My great great grandfather was a member of the people who gave land to the Presbyterians and Christianity became endemic.
“So, this was a family name but I chopped off all the Christian names for the purposes of sheer convenience. And I am a self-confessed Africanist and I don’t feel right to go around with all these ‘Anglo-Saxonist’ tags.”

Nigerian Writers
Awooner knew his contemporary writers from Nigeria very well. He said of them: “I knew Christohper Okigbo very well, he was a fantastic chap. I think we first met in 1952 in Kampala (Uganda). Chinua (Achebe) was there too. He had just published Things Fall Apart. J.P. Clarke was there as well, so was the man who wrote People of the City, Cyprian Ekwensi and Ngugi (wa Thiongu), who was still an undergraduate at Makerere University when he joined us for the conference carrying his manuscript of Weep not Child all over the place. What was also exciting was the presence of Langston Hughes, who came from the Diaspora.

“It was there that we would attempt – I use the word advisedly – to describe or define what African literature is. Resolving the whole debate of whether we, who write in these colonial languages, can actually claim any authenticity to be real Africans. The debate has matured over many decades drawing the conclusion that European languages that came into Africa came to colonise and then we took them over by force of history, we needed to use them.

“The guys who gave articulation to this brilliantly are Chinua Achebe and to a very large extent, Christopher Okigbo. In Okigbo’s hands, the English language acquired its own classical resonance from where he was coming from. And of course, Achebe’s classics, to me, he only wrote two books, Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God.

“The rest are monologues, dialogues sometimes of all kinds of contemporary discourse. I think Arrow of God is his best book because it generates a discourse, a debate. Things Fall Apart is too flat, it is a single directional proposition.
“The stylistics is incredible however, and I see so many people trying to imitate him over the years, but they can’t. He had mastered the English language and many people don’t know that Achebe was a master of the English language.

“He knows the English language inside out, that is why he can use it, and he can turn it around, as Caesar said, as a miraculous weapon against his naïve conquerors. Christopher on the other h a n d didn’t produce much. He has, I think, one single slim volume then a few things scattered all over.

“But the work that he did became a composition of both the linguistic and artistic cultural rostrum on which educated Africans were taught.”
If Awooner didn’t talk much about himself, others did for him. One of such rich sources is the Gale Contemporary Black Biography:

Life’s Work
One of modern West Africa’s best-known writers, the Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor integrated ancient African forms of expression with the techniques of modern poetry. The resulting body of work formed a unique poetic chronicle of West African life in the late twentieth century, encompassing both the effects of European colonialism and the influence Africa exerted on other cultures around the world. Closely aligned with the preeminent leader of modern Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, Awoonor suffered imprisonment for his political beliefs but emerged as an important political figure himself in later life.

Influenced by African Heritage
The son of a tailor and the grandson of a woman who was a traditional singer of dirges or songs of lament in the Ewe culture, Kofi Awoonor was born in his grandfather’s house in Wheta, Ghana, on March 13, 1935....Awoonor’s family was poor, but when he was nine years old he was sent away from his family to attend school; he earned a place to live by working as a servant for a wealthy family. Financing his whole education in the same way, Awoonor was able to attend the University of Ghana in the country’s capital of Accra. He graduated in 1960 and continued to teach at the university and to write. His first book of poetry, Rediscovery and Other Poems, was published in Nigeria in 1964.

During this period Awoonor became allied with the charismatic Nkrumah, a symbol of the aspirations of West Africa’s newly independent countries and of African cultural pride in general. That led in 1964 to a job in Accra with Ghana’s Ministry of Information, but after Nkrumah’s government was overturned in a coup d’état Awoonor left the country. He landed for a year at the University of London, and in 1968 he came to the United States and enrolled at the State University of Stony Brook, on New York state’s Long Island.

Experimental Novel
Earning an M.A. and later (in 1973) a Ph.D. in comparative literature at Stony Brook, Awoonor both deepened his poetry and began to gain wider recognition for it. His first book of poetry was reissued, with added material, by Doubleday publishing house as Night of My Blood in 1971. He also wrote plays and an experimental novel called This Earth, My Brother.

The collection of poems Awoonor had submitted as his Ph.D. dissertation was published as The Breast of the Earth in 1975. By that time Awoonor had become professor and chair of the department of comparative literature at SUNY Stony Brook. That year, the poet took a one-year sabbatical leave to return home to Ghana, intending to teach at the country’s Cape Coast University. But the trip had disastrous results--he was thrown in prison on charges of harbouring a subversive on December 31, 1975, amid rumors of a possible coup. Despite heavy international pressure organized largely by Awoonor’s U.S. colleagues, he was held for a year with little contact with the outside world.

Wrote Poetry While in Prison
Awoonor continued to write while in Ghana’s Ussher Fort prison, and his work of this period was published in 1978 as The House By the Sea. These poems marked a new and more political direction in Awoonor’s work. Unsurprisingly his life after his release from prison in 1976 became more and more entwined with the politics and government of his homeland. Awoonor taught at Cape Coast University from 1977 to 1982, but then embarked upon a period of service to the Ghanaian government in various capacities.

How I escaped death in Kenya mall attack –Soyinka

But for a stroke of luck, Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, would have been among the dead in the terror attack that took place at the Nairobi Westgate mall in Kenya last weekend.

Speaking at a press conference at the Freedom Park, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Friday in honour of the late Ghanaian poet, Professor Kofi Awoonor who died in the attack, Soyinka led a group of eminent Nigerian writers to condemn the Nairobi massacre. Soyinka, who said he, like Awoonor, was invited to the Storymoja/ Hay Literature Festival, said he couldn’t attend because of other pressing engagements he had elsewhere.

M“My absence was particularly regrettable, because I had planned to make up for my failure to turn up for the immediate prior edition. Participant or absentee however, this is one edition we shall not soon forget,” said Soyinka.

The iconic writer said, considering his close relationship with Awoonor, he might have been at the same place with him and could have been shot as well. He said: “Kofi and I could have been splitting a bottle at that same watering hole in between events and at the end of each day.”

Condemning the use of religion to commit atrocities, Soyinka, who spoke on the theme, “Humanity and Against,” said: “Those who organised and carried out the outrage on innocent lives in Nairobi are carriers of the most lethal virus of corruption imaginable – corruption of the soul, corruption of the spirit, corruption of that animating humanistic essence that separates us from predatory beasts. I am no theologian of any religion, but I aver that these assailants delude themselves with vistas of paradise after life, that their delusion is born of the perverted reading of salvation and redemption.”

As the literary community mourned the deceased writer, Soyinka felt constrained to denounce his killers, who he described as “the virulent sub-species of humanity who bathe their hands in innocent blood.” He noted further: “Only cowards turn deadly weapons against the unarmed, only the depraved glorify in, or justify the act. True warriors do not wage wars against the innocent. Profanity is the name given to the defilement of the sanctity of human life. We call on those who claim to exercise the authority of a fatwa to pronounce that very doom, with all its moral weight, upon those who engage in this serial violation of the right to life, life as a god-given possession that only the blasphemous dare contradict, and the godless wantonly curtail. This scalp that they have added to their collection was roof to a unique brain that a million of their kind can never replace.”

Lending his voice to the condemnation of the murder of Awoonor, renowned playwright, Professor JP Clark, said the late Ghanaian writer came across as a non-conformist during his encounter with him at a pan Africa literary conference in Kampala, Ugunda, in 1962

Saddened by his death, Clark said: “I was in a state of shock to hear that Kofi Awoonor could go like that by random bullets in a country far off. It really shows the absurdity of life.” He advised all to do the best they can while alive

Health: All You Need To Know About Bleeding During Pregnancy

Pregnancy is a happy moment for every woman as it shows that you are expecting a child, however, when the pregnancy is associated with bleeding, it could be terrifying. Most of us get easily upset at the sight of blood as we associate it with pain, injury, and death. So when you find blood on your underwear during pregnancy, all sorts of unpleasant scenarios tend to play out on your mind.

If you find that you are bleeding during pregnancy, do not be overtly alarmed, it is an occurrence that affects 1 in 3 women, and this could signal that something has gone wrong with your pregnancy. That is why it is best to check with your doctor each time you bleed during pregnancy as only your doctor can rule out the causes of the threat and take steps to remedy the problem in case something goes wrong.

Causes Of Bleeding During Pregnancy

Bleeding during pregnancy is quite common in the first trimester of a pregnancy. When the egg has been fertilised, it travels up the fallopian tubes into the uterus, where it promptly proceeds to nestle itself in the uterine wall and make its home for the next nine months or thereabout. This can look just like blood but will have a brownish tint. It is absolutely harmless, and a sign that the fertilised egg has settled into your womb. However, if the bleeding is severe or lasts more than a day or two, you should see a doctor.

Miscarriage – the dreaded ‘M’ word that no pregnant woman wants to hear is the first thought that comes to mind when you bleed in pregnancy. It is an unfortunate truth that almost one third of all pregnancies end in miscarriage, and yes, bleeding is one of the signs of miscarriage or a threatened miscarriage. Most miscarriages will happen during the first trimester of pregnancy. Usually, once you are past the 4 month mark, your pregnancy is considered to be safe. The bleeding that signals miscarriage is usually accompanied by backache, pains in the abdomen, and cramping.

You may bleed during pregnancy right after you have had intercourse with your spouse. This is usually because your cervix is rather sensitive during pregnancy due to the increased supply of blood to your organs, and the repetitive movements of intercourse can cause you to bleed.

Breakthrough bleeding is another reason you may bleed during your pregnancy. This type of bleeding occurs around the time that your period would arrive if you were not pregnant. When you are pregnant, pregnancy hormones released by your body prevent your period from coming. However, in the early stages of pregnancy, the hormone levels may not be high enough to prevent the period altogether. So you may experience some bleeding, usually accompanied by your regular period symptoms like cramps, heaviness and bloating. There are a few cases of this kind of breakthrough bleeding occurring throughout the pregnancy with no adverse effects to the mother or the foetus.

The cervix and vagina are so sensitive that even a normal examination by your gynecologist can irritate it and cause it to bleed during pregnancy.

A more serious cause of bleeding during pregnancy is either a cervical or vaginal infection. Other symptoms of an infection would include tenderness or a smelly discharge. If bleeding is accompanied by fever, there is a very high chance that you have an infection and that needs attention right away.

Up to 10% of all pregnancies start off with multiple embryos but end up with just one healthy foetus. If you bleed during pregnancy, it may be a case of the other embryos being expelled.

A few weeks before you go into labour, the thick mucous plug that blocks your cervical opening starts to fall away. This will result in a discharge which will look like bleeding but is merely a sign of impending labour.

Placenta previa occurs in about one of every two hundred pregnancies and is a condition that is characterised by a placenta that is not properly placed. This means that the placenta may be lying too low, almost on top of the cervical opening. Only repeated ultrasounds in different stages of the pregnancy will help to accurately diagnose this condition.

Placential abruption is another abnormality of the placenta which can cause you to bleed during pregnancy. What happens here is that the placenta breaks away from the uterine wall, either partially or wholly. The bleeding from a placential abruption can be quite severe depending on your condition you may be put to bed rest or have to undergo an emergency C-section.

Ectopic pregnancy also causes bleeding during pregnancy. This is when the fertilised egg implants itself outside the uterus, usually on the fallopian tube. This can be an extremely dangerous condition for both mother and baby as the growing embryo will soon result in the bursting of the fallopian tube. Only around 2% of all pregnancies are ectopic. Bleeding will be accompanied by extreme pain in the stomach, nausea and light-headedness to the point of fainting.

Another reason that you are bleeding during pregnancy is that you are close to your due date and going into labour.

Molar pregnancy is a form of cancer and another reason why you are bleeding during pregnancy. This is when an abnormal mass instead of a foetus is growing in your uterus. The mass has been known to be malignant in a few cases and the only way to detect this is through ultrasound.

In rare cases, bleeding during pregnancy is due to a uterine rupture. As the name suggests, this is when the uterus splits open and the baby is expelled into the abdomen.

Remedies for Bleeding During Pregnancy

The remedies for bleeding during pregnancy depend on the cause of the bleeding. If it is simply bleeding because of implantation, then no remedy is required as this is natural and will stop in a day or two. But if you bleed during pregnancy for other reasons like ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage, then you will need to see your doctor and discuss the options opened to you.

Preventing Bleeding During Pregnancy

Unfortunately, there is not much you can do to avoid bleeding during pregnancy as it is a medical condition caused by your body response system. Although it is mostly out of your control, you can still do your best to stay as healthy as possible during pregnancy; get appropriate amount of rest and exercise, and stick diligently to your regular doctor’s appointments so that any abnormality will be detected on time

Please, Don’t Kill Me, Don’t Kill Me, Kidnap Kingpin Kelvin Pleads With SSS

The arrogance and bravado that characterised the reign of Kelvin Ibruvwe, the leader of a notorious gang of kidnappers that had held the entire Niger Delta region hostage for months, has turned out an anti-climax in the custody of the State Security Service (SSS).
Faced with the grim prospect of being brought to justice, the gang leader has seen his stern nature melt like ice in the hot sun, and all he can do is to plead with the law enforcement agents to spare his life.

His victims had included eminent persons like human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Mike Ozekhome, as well as Mrs. Adedoyin Rhodes-Vivour, wife of a Supreme Court judge kidnapped with her daughter and driver on their way to Benin on May 10.

And only a few days ago, he was his boastful self as he addressed a gathering of his kinsmen at his Kokori native town in Delta State, where he gave President Goodluck Jonathan a 60-day ultimatum to address the degradation of his native land and other communities in the Niger Delta or face grave consequences.

All that, however, proved to be no more than a façade that harboured the true weakling that he is, according to reliable SSS sources.

A source who spoke in confidence said that Kelvin, who was brought to Abuja for interrogation, had made substantial revelations.

“Kelvin has made useful and shocking statements which cannot be released to the public now,” the source said. “I think Nigerians, especially the media, will have the opportunity either on Monday or anytime next week.

“Contrary to his posturing, however, Kelvin is a weakling. He is afraid of death. He is downcast in detention. He does not want to experience what he had done to his victims.”

Another source who spoke on the last minutes before his arrest said: “Like criminals before him, he was always in company of girls from one location to the other. He was trailed for many days but the SSS and the Army adhered strictly to the rule of engagement to avoid recording heavy casualties. It was a clinical job.

“Before his arrest by the SSS and the Army, members of the Kelvin gang had held two youth corps members hostage. But when he was picked up, he was afraid of death and he was begging intermittently, ‘don’t kill me, don’t kill me.’

“At this point, the security agents asked him to call his gang members and ask them to release the two corps members if he did not want to die. Kelvin then placed a call to his gang to release the corps members. But the realty was done on him that the game was over.”

Responding to a question, the source added: “We have a strong suspicion that Kelvin and his gang were behind the kidnapping of Mrs. Adedoyin Rhodes-Vivour, who is the wife of a judge of the Supreme Court

Drama As Suspect Escapes From Court

The suspect Ayo Adelaja, was supposed to be arraigned before Magistrate Miss Akinde, over alleged reckless driving and Ilegal U-turn.

It was gathered that Adelaja’s counsel asked the investigating police officer IPO, to let him have a discussion with the defendant, only for him to escape afterwards.

Adelaja, who was the driver of a Honda City Saloon Car with registration number KSF 32 BB, was said to have taken an ilegal U- turn along Kudirat Abiola way at Oregun area of Lagos, on September 23, 2013 at about 4:30pm.

It was also gathered that he damaged a Tricycle, belonging to one Baba Abba, when he allegedly took the Ilegal U-turn, which made him to be charged to court.

Immediately the suspect escaped, the Ipo, held the suspect’s lawyer to produce the suspect

Facebook Owner Mark Zuckerberg’s Modest Lifestyle

It is sometimes believed that someone’s financial worth can be deduced from the car they drive. Although somewhat popular, this assertion has been rubbished by the world’s youngest billionaire, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg.
Some of his contemporaries or multi-millionaires and billionaires drive Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces, Aston Martins and Bugatti Veyrons, which come with hefty price tags running into hundreds of thousands of dollars and even millions.

Zuckerberg, 29, and currently worth $19bn, according to Forbes, drives an Acura TSX and a Honda Fit, which cost about $30,000 and $18,000, respectively.

His Acura TSX, is an entry level luxury sedan which uses a 2.4 litre in-line 4 cylinder engine. It can churn out 201 hp and 172 lb-ft torque and has a 5 -speed automatic transmission, which comes with steering-wheel paddle shifters for optional manual shifting. The car is quite packed with luxury features like leather interior, automatic climate control, a seven-speaker sound system, Satellite Radio, Bluetooth and HandsFreeLink.

Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984 in White Plains, New York, to Edward Zuckerberg, a dentist, and Karen (née Kempner), a psychiatrist. Even though, he was raised Jewish, Zuckerberg had since described himself as an atheist. As a junior student, Zuckerberg won prizes in science (mathematics, astronomy and physics) and classical studies. While most of his mates were busy playing games as young students, Zuckerberg was creating them.

In his early teens he created a music player named Synapse – as a school project – using some help from a friend, which used artificial intelligence to understand one’s taste in music and created a playlist accordingly. Software bigwigs like Microsoft and AOL tried to buy it and even recruit Mark. But he refused both. Instead, he went to Harvard in 2002. On February 4, 2004, with the help of his room mates, Dutsin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, and using the finance provided by another friend, Eduardo Saverin, he launched what was then called, The Facebook. It was an instant hit, and soon made Mark the next big thing.

On September 14, 2012, Facebook hit 1 billion users, a remarkable feat for a company that started in Zuckerberg’s dormitory room while he was at Harvard. Zuckerberg later dropped out of Harvard in his second year to concentrate on his project.

If you think that Zuckerberg’s home will suggest his enormous wealth, you are mistaken. The American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur owns a house in Palo Alto , California, which is his first property investment. But prior to this, he had always stayed in rented apartment. Zuckerberg lives in the house with his wife, Priscilla Chan. The young billionaire is known to be a fan of renting and a relatively modest lifestyle.

The house sits in the area of 5,1617-square-foot, was originally built in 1903. Since the house is of historic times, it boasts gorgeous historical elements, like sash windows, coffered ceilings, French doors, and deep porches. The 5-bedroom house was bought for $7m. Although the house is grand, it is still considered modest, compared to the residences of Zuckerberg’s other IT contemporaries.

Zuckerberg and his wife reportedly bought a new house in San Francisco for almost $10m recently, but the couple have neither confirmed nor denied the mansion, said to be undergoing reconstruction.

The work includes a $65,000 kitchen and bathroom remodel, a $60,000 greenhouse and the replacement of an exterior wall and stairway, plus seismic upgrades.

Zuckerberg does not own a private jet, but Facebook authorised its CEO and COO to use private aircraft for business purposes to maximise such executives’ productive time and ensure their quick availability. On some occasions, the jet could also be used for personal purposes.

On May 19, 2012, Zuckerberg got married to his long time college sweetheart, Priscilla, in an astonishing ceremony at his Palo Alto home in California . The propitious wedding was kept behind the curtains in such a way that even the guests thought they were attending Priscilla’s graduation from the Univeristy of California.

Zuckerberg announced the nuptial on his social networking site ‘Facebook’, via a status update, posting his wedding picture which was liked by more than 280,000 people. Just a day before the wedding, Facebook’s fortune rose to £12bn in the stock market.

Facebook Inc CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has begun a campaign to make the United States government more transparent in its surveillance programmes.

Zuckerberg said more openness regarding the secretive programmes were required because they had been hurting users’ trust in Internet companies such as his.

During a meeting with members of Congress last week in Washington, the 29-year-old social media billionaire urged the US government to inform the public about its requests for data from Internet companies.

He said, “What I can tell from the data that I see at Facebook is that I think the more transparency and communication the government could do about how they’re requesting the data from us, the better everyone would feel about it.

“From reading in the media, you couldn’t get a sense whether the number of requests that the government makes is closer to a thousand or closer to a 100 million. I think the more transparency the government has, the better folks will feel.”

15 interesting facts about Zuckerberg

1. Type @[4:0] in a Facebook comment, and Mark Zuckerberg’s name will appear.

2. You can’t block Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook.

3. Facebook is blue because Zuckerberg has a red-green colour-blindness.

4. In 2009, Zuckerberg wore a tie for the entire year as a symbol of how serious and important the year was, following the recession that began in 2008.

5. He says he’s not that interested in money but in connecting the world.

6. He’s spent a year trying to eat only meat that he kills.

7. By the time he turned 13, he had already created a basic computer network for his family dubbed “Zucknet,” which allowed the computers in the family and his father’s dental office to send messages to each other by pinging.

8. He designed his wife’s wedding ring.

9. At a party one Friday night, Zuckerberg met Priscilla, a Chinese American from Boston , who later became his wife.

10. To be able to communicate with Priscilla’s family members, Zuckerberg started to learn Chinese in 2010.

11. Zuckerberg’s first car was a Subaru Forester SUV.

12. Mark Zuckerberg is also on Twitter as @finkd where he has over 150,000 followers but has posted only 19 tweets in the last three and a half years.

13. Zuckerberg has also created a few computer games.

14. His favourite musicians include Daft Punk, Lady Gaga, Shakira and Rihanna.

15. Eduardo Saverin, one of the four co-founders of Facebook had provided the $1000 seed capital to start Facebook