Jonathan wades into NFF, Eagles crises

President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday waded into the crises rocking the Nigeria Football Federation and the Super Eagles.

The President earlier met with the Minister of Sports, Tamuno Danagogo, who was said to have briefed him on the developments.

There were strong indications at press time that Jonathan would also meet with the coach of the national team, Stephen Keshi.

The different parleys were meant to resolve the leadership crisis in NFF with the recent removal of Aminu Maigari and the future of Keshi with the Super Eagles.

There has been speculations in many quarters that Keshi would be dumping the Super Eagles for the South Africa national team immediately after the World Cup.

4 Nigerians die in horrific auto-crash in Ireland

Three Nigerian women and a 10year old Nigerian girl were killed in a horrific car crash on Saturday morning June 28th when their Nissan Almera car collided with an SUV at Portnashangan, just outside of Mullingar, in Ireland, Irish Mirror reports.


All four occupants of the car, including a mother and her child, were pronounced dead at the scene by emergency services and later taken to Mullingar General Hospital for post-mortem. The man driving the SUV suffered only minor injuries.

The accident victims have been identified as cousins Queen Esezbor and Fanny Oraweme Akenbor, said to bee in their 40s, and Pat Jeti and her 10-year-old daughter, Jessica.

They were said to be returning from an evangelical church vigil in the Finglas area of Dublin when the unfortunate accident occurred.

Negotiate with Boko Haram, Chibok community tells FG

The Chibok community under the Kibaku Area Development Association, Borno State, has asked the Federal Government to negotiate with the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram for the release of 219 Chibok school girls abducted by the group.


The association also called for the establishment of an Army battalion in Chibok town to provide security for the residents of the community and its environs.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Friday, the National Chairman KADA, Dr. Pogu Bitrus, said the FG has yet to provide adequate security in the Chibok area since the abduction of the girls on April 14,2014, even in the face of persistent attacks by Boko Haram.

Bitrus noted that the unwillingness of the Federal Government to provide adequate security to Chibok following the abduction of the girls leaves the community with no choice than to call on the United Nations to come to their aid and protect them from imminent annihilation.

He also demanded for the construction of the 40km Mbalala-Chibok-Damboa federal road which he said had been abandoned for over 20 years.

He said, “Today (Friday) is 81 days since the abduction and inspite of the firm categorical statements by the Chief of Defense Staff that the location of the girls is known to the government, the appalling situation and agony encompassing the unfortunate abduction saga and detention of the Chibok girls by the Boko Haram insurgents continues and the rescue efforts by the government is yet to yield any result.

“So far, Boko Haram has carried out 15 attacks on the Chibok (Kibaku) nation involving 19 villages with over 229 killed and over 100 injured; some of the victims of these attacks are parents and relations of the abducted girls and thereby adding more pains to the traumatic condition inherent in the Chibok community.”

Bitrus, stated that while the situation persists, many distressed parents are dying of heart attack and frustration as their dejection had become unbearable.

“On record, seven parents have lost their lives due to the trauma of the situation,” he added.

The Chibok elder demanded for the reconstruction of Government Secondary School, Chibok and building of another secondary school within the community “considering the huge student population numbering 500 in a class.”

Bitrus also asked the government to immediately establish a rehabilitation centre in Chibok to address the psychological, medical and traumatic effects of the abduction on parents, the escaped girls and the whole community.

National Conference approves creation of 18 new states, rotation of presidency between North and South

The National Conference on Thursday adopted a recommendation of its Committee on Political Restructuring and Forms of Government for the creation of 18 new states in the country, as well as for the rotation of the office of the president.



It specifically agreed that in the spirit of reconciliation, equity and justice, an additional state should be created for the South East zone, which currently has only five states.

If the Federal Government accepts the recommendation, the country will have 54 states with nine in each of the six zones.

The Conference also accepted the recommendation for the rotation of the presidency between the North and South and among the six geo-political zones while the governorship seat should be rotated among the senatorial districts in each state.

The Committee co-chaired by Ike Nwachukwu and Mohammed Kumalia had presented its report on Monday.

They said the subject of state creation had remained a huge political issue in Nigeria.

“The Committee examined the reports of the National Political Reform Conference and the report of the Presidential Committee on Review of outstanding issues from recent Constitutional Conferences 2012 (the Belgore Report) and after wide consultations and extensive deliberations and in the interest of equity, justices and fairness,” they added.

Some of the proposed states approved by the Confab are Apa from Benue State, kainji from Kebbi, Katagum from Bauchi, Savannah from Borno, Amana from Adamawa, Gurara from Kaduna, Ghari from Kano, Etiti from South East, Aba from Abia, Adada from Enugu and Njaba-Anim from Anambra and Imo.

The others are Anioma from Delta State, Orashi from Rivers State, Ogoja from Cross River State, IJebu from Ogun State and New Oyo State from the present Oyo State.

The Conference is to later determine the names of the remaining two other states and their capitals, which are to be created in the South-South and South West zones.

The Conference, however, noted that any new states to be created should be economically viable or potentially viable and should have human, natural and material resources. It also resolved that that a new state should have minimum population of one million persons.

It rejected an amendment that said the National Assembly by resolution passed by a simple majority or membership should approve the merger of states and that the merged states shall exist as a region.

The Conference agreed that there should principle of zoning and rotation of elective offices at the federal and state levels on the basis of excellence, equity, gender justice and fairness.

The Committee had recommended that the Electoral Act and the Constitution of Political Parties should provide Principle of zoning / rotation of elective offices at the federal and state levels on the basis of equity, justice and fairness

The Conference rejected a single term of six years and a unicameral legislature for the country.

The Conference accepted a recommendation that there should be quarterly question time for the President and question time for ministers at the legislature to enhance accountability.

Meanwhile, a Civil Society Organisation delegate, Femi Falana, opposed the adoption for the creation of 18 new states.

“Having regard to the several resolutions of the National Conference on the need to reduce the costs of governance, I found the recommendation for the creation of additional 18 states rather contradictory,” he told journalists after the plenary session.

The conference resolutions are not automatic laws and would only be submitted to the president, who could then propose them as bills to the National Assembly.

Amazing pictures of the ongoing constrution of the new Akwa Ibom stadium

Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa ibom state has taken development to another level. Pictured above is the ongoing construction of the new stadium in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital. 

It has a seating capacity of 30,000. The complex is being done in phases. There is provision for a  Games village, indoor sports hall, training pitch, helipad and swimming pool.

Awarded to Julius Berger, the stadium is modelled after the Allianz Arena, home turf of Bundesliga Champions, Bayern Munich.

Allianz arena

Akwa Ibom stadium under construction

The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio recently expressed satisfaction at the progress of construction work at the new Stadium.


He was confident contractors would deliver the project within the time line of September, 2014

Facebook buys video ad tech firm, Liverail

Facebook has acquired LiveRail – a tech start-up that helps companies place more relevant ads in the videos that appear on their websites and apps.


LiveRail also provides a real-time bidding platform for marketers looking to place ads on online videos.

The firms did not reveal the financial terms, but some reports indicate that Facebook paid between $400m and $500m (£233m and £291m) to buy the firm.

Online video advertising is forecast to grow robustly in the coming years.

“More relevant ads will be more interesting and engaging to people watching online video, and more effective for marketers too,” Brian Boland, vice president of ads product marketing and atlas at Facebook, said in a blog post.

“Publishers will benefit as well, because more relevant ads will help them make the most out of every opportunity they have to show an ad.”

According to LiveRail, it delivers more than seven billion video ads per month.

The online and mobile ad sector has been growing rapidly in recent years.

According to a study published in April, more than £1bn was spent on mobile ads in the UK alone in 2013, a rise of 93 per cent on the previous year.

Some other estimates suggest that online video advertising revenues are likely to hit $6bn in the US this year.

As a result, a growing number of firms – especially social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter – have been looking at ways to attract more advertisers and tap into the sector’s growth.

Earlier this year, Facebook said it would start serving ads to third-party mobile apps via a new advertising network.

Twitter, acquired MoPub mobile advertising exchange last year.

MoPub acts as a mediation service, allowing marketers to manage the placement of ads across several networks, including Facebook’s.

Analysts said that given their large user base, social networks were likely to get a big share of this growing market.

“It is no longer about saying, ‘My ad was was seen by so many people,’” said Sanjana Chappalli, Asia-Pac head of LEWIS Pulse, a firm specialising in digital marketing.

“But it is now about knowing who those people are and how they have responded to the information fed to them.

“And on that front, social networks enjoy a tremendous advantage over everyone else.” she added.

Meanwhile, Google’s AdMob and Apple’s iAds platforms and several other smaller firms are also competing to provide the adverts shown on mobile phones and tablets.

Millennial Media, Flurry and Nexage are among the firms promoting their own versions of “programmatic buying” – a way for firms to target their ads at a specific type of consumer via a chosen type of app at an appropriate time and geographic location.

BBC

BREAKING NEWS: Soldiers on rampage in Lagos, beat up civillians, burn down BRT buses

Some soldiers are currently causing chaos in the Palmgroove area of Lagos. NigerianEye gathered that trouble started when a BRT bus hit a soldier on a bike.

The soldiers’ actions was said to be caused by a BRT bus that allegedly run a soldier over at the Palmgrove bus stop killing him.


NE learnt that few minutes later, other soldiers arrived the scene and started stopping all BRT buses on Ikorodu road beating drivers and sending passengers out. Beating even passers-by who move too close to them or take pictures.

According the eye-witness, two civilians were allegedly beaten up including several others caught taking pictures of the saga, their phones were allegedly seized and smashed on the express road.

The soldiers also allegedly started vandalizing the BRT buses.

According to the source, some soldiers left the express and took big sticks from women cooking by the roadside to break the windows of the buses and burnt one of the buses. Furthermore another military personnel took stones and allegedly threw it into the crowd twice to disperse them