The special assistant on public affairs to the 87 years old Anthony Enahoro, Olawale Okuniyi, has assured Nigerians that the elder statesman is alive and recuperating.

Mr. Enahoro's failing health created anxiety in the public domain on Monday.

"Chief Anthony Enahoro is still very much alive," Mr. Okuniyi said. He acknowledged that Mr. Enahoro, accompanied by his eldest son, Ken, was rushed to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital at about 1.30pm on Monday when his health deteriorated.

According to him, he is under close medical observations of his doctors at the UBTH.

"His health is currently stabilising in Benin, the Edo State capital, after an initial relapse occasioned by stress and old age," he said...

He explained that the statesman had been under close medical guidance for some time due to weakness associated with old age.

Mr. Okuniyi further expressed appreciation to well-wishers, associates, and the general public as well as the international community, on behalf of the Enahoro family, for their concern and prayers.

Cassano (right) with a WAG

Sampdoria striker Antonio Cassano is known for his short temper and on-pitch hissy fits, yet in his autobiography, the 26-year-old reveals his near-legendaryinability to keep his pants on when attractive women are around. Cassano, whoonce called the irrefutably-gifted Rosaria .Cannavò his girlfriend, claims tohave put away somewhere in the region of 700 ladies. Our German friends at Bildreport:

“I was engaged four times in 11 years, and I experienced some adventures. I slept with between 600 and 700 girls, 20 of whom belong to the world of the showbusiness.”.

During his time at Real Madrid – where his constant unprofessional behaviour and displays of “disrespect” towards Fabio Capello saw him sidelined andsuspended – Cassano enjoyed some of his best steamrollering years. The Italiansays sex before games was frequent, and he could invite whomever he wanted tothe team hotel.

Four suspected ritualists were set ablaze by mob between Friday and Sunday in different parts of Ogun State...

PUNCH METRO gathered on Monday that the four victims were set ablaze in Ibara, Isabo, Olomore and Ago-Ika in Abeokuta North and South local government areas of the state.

At Isabo, a young man was allegedly set ablaze after he was accused of attempting to kidnap a school boy from a primary school in the area.

People living in the area, accosted him and demanded an explanation for his alleged suspicious movement.

An eyewitness, who declined to give his name, said the man was clubbed to death and later set ablaze by the mob when he could not give satisfactory answers to the questions.

It was gathered that two persons suspected to be planning to kidnap another boy in Olomore in Abeokuta North Local Government Area of the state were also killed in a similar way...

Also at Ibara near the Ogun State Government House, another young man was killed by a mob for allegedly kidnapping an eight-month-old boy from his mother.

However at Ago-Ika area, two suspects were lucky as policemen arrived on time to save them from being lynched.

An eyewitness, Mr. James Oguntade, said, “There is an increase in ritual killings in the society today and people are conscious of this development. The boy, who was returning from school, screamed as the two suspects were attempting to kidnap him.

“But as the suspects could not provide a satisfactory explanation during interrogation, the mob went into action and would have killed them but for the intervention of policemen from Adatan Police Station, who took the injured suspects to a private hospital in Mokola, Abeokuta.”

The command’s Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, who confirmed the incidents, warned residents to desist from jungle justice.

The African Independent Television/Ray Power station in Kano is on fire.

The immediate cause of the inferno has not been determined but state fire personnel are struggling to put out the fire.

THEWILL Kano correspondent reports that AIT Kano office is a four-storey building along Bompai road in Kano metropolis.

No deaths or injuries have been reported so far.

AIT/Ray Power Fm is owned by Chief Raymond Dokpesi, Director General of the Ibrahim Babangida Campaign Organization..

Round Up: Tonto Dikeh defends new movie

role, P-Square unveil Square-Villa, Annie Macaulay addresses baby mama drama & Ikechukwu talks about his ideal woman

A few things have happened this week on the Naij celeb front. Lets start with Nollywood actress Tonto Dikeh, except you’ve been living under a rock somewhere you’ve probably seen the trailer for her new movie Dirty Secret, which is creating a lot of controversy as it features explicit sex scenes & a gay kiss…I don’t know if Nigeria is ready for this, knowing how conservative the industry is the movie may likely get banned! Anyways Tonto has gotten a lot of criticism over her role, she took to twitter to address them;

Chick does have a mouth on her…If you wanna see the trailer; youtube “Dirty Secrets African Movie” I couldn’t finish watching it…the man in the silver thong killed it for me…I’m not a prude but I had to hit the stop button…#imeanwharrahell?

There has been a lot of speculation about the cost of P-Square‘s new pad in Lagos. I’ve heard N300 mill, N500 mill. From the pictures though you can tell they spent a whole lot . One half of the duo, Peter says;

Getting a land in Omole Estate (Ikeja, Lagos) alone is N100m. When you look at the house, especially the finishing, it is over $2million. When people speculated that the house was worth N300 million, we had not even finished the interior. What do you think is the cost of a mansion that has a swimming pool, six living rooms, ten master bedrooms, all fully furnished? It’s far more than the speculated N300million

Congrats to them, but did Peter have to say that? See pictures of the house below.

Moving on to Annie Macaulay who this week was interviewed by entertainment reporter and blogger Stella Dimoko Korkus. For those who don’t know Annie is an actress & Tuface Baby Mama #3. Stella asked her about the rumoured altercation with Baby Mama #1 Pero Adeniyi at Tuface’s recent concert in Lagos to which Annie said;

Let me state it here now that nothing of such happened (sic), I have not seen the write up but people have been calling me and those who know the truth know the truth of what happened on that day. I didn’t fight or quarrel with anyone on that day. Yes I was at the same place and at the same time with her but we didnt fight or anything.i didnt even exchange words with the mentioned person.

I love how she referred to Pero as “the mentioned person”, it’s clear she can’t stand the chick…LOL. The interview also touched on her career in Nollywood and why she decided to join the league of 2Baba baby mamas. Read the rest of the interview here.

there is an interesting interview with Rapper Ikechukwu, hetalked about his ideal woman, who he sums up in two words…Sarah Ofili. I guess it’s safe to assume he’ll be wifing her up pretty soon. I also found it compelling that he admitted his dislike for recording commercial music. I mean let’s be honest most artistes loathe “selling out” but I guess it puts food on the table…I don’t think anyone, at least not in Naija music has admitted to it before. Maybe this is the the real reason he left Mo’Hits. A bit of the interview:

TARI: Do you get any job satisfaction when you have to make commercial tracks…

IKECHUKWU: NO!!

TARI: (laughing) Really? Not even the paper?

IKECHUKWU: Zero; but I have formulated a way to get satisfaction, which is in interacting with the crowd and me being this… but even now because of P, where we’re posing for the crowd …I hate that stuff I swear…

TARI: Then why do you it?

IKECHUKWU: Because the Nigerian society dictates that it’s the necessity..

No fewer than one hundred patients from the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) today stormed the State Governor’s Office, protesting the pains the on-going strike action by medical and dental officers have cost them.

In a reaction to the protests, the state government issued a statement urging medical and dental officers in the state to return to work in the interest of the citizenry as the strike action by the Medical Guild, an association of the state government doctors, enters its eight-week.

THEWILL gathered that patients suffering from sickle cell anemia, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and typhoid fever participated in the protest which called on Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) to immediately intervene.

During the protest, the patients, who were led by Mr. Adeoye Modecai, explained that the strike had claimed the lives of at least 27 patients since the medical and dental officers downed tools about two months ago.

The protesting patients carried placards with inscriptions like: “Fashola, answer the doctors for the sake of the patients; “Have mercy on the masses; people are suffering for medical treatment; people are dying; we want doctors to start their work; Fashola; don’t let them spoil your good name; Fashola!; and Children are dying, their patients are also your electorates.”

In his address, Modecai, urged Fashola to sign the agreement he entered with the medical guild to enable them call off the strike.

“We have met with the striking doctors, and they said that the only thing they are asking from Fashola is to sign the agreement and not immediate payment of what is in the agreement,” Modecai said.

He said he saw at least 25 dead patients at the emergency ward on Wednesday being carried to the morgue in five ambulances. He added that “just this morning (Thursday), a woman and her baby died for lack of medical attention.” He said the nurses are refusing to attend to patients since there is no doctor to sign their prescriptions.

Also speaking after the protest, one of the protesting patients, Mrs. Yinka Olawale said the patients in LASUTH would relocate to Government House in Ikeja if Governor Fashola does not listen to the doctors by Monday.

Olawale, who is suffering from cancer, said she had paid about N365, 000 for her injections, adding that she has been injected thrice and that in the last 15 days she has not been able to get her two remainder shots because of the strike.

In a statement, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Comrade Opeyemi Bamidele noted with regret that a lot of citizens were being denied access to medical care as a result of the strike action pointing out that no wage increment would bring back lost lives..

Bamidele said government was not opposed to a review of salaries but that such a review must be done through a negotiating process and not predicated on the adoption of the federal government pay structure.

He recalled that the state government “has taken a series of actions to resolve the dispute, some of which include meeting with Medical Guild, Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria and Association of Resident Doctors and setting up of a sub-committee to determine the cost implication of the implementation of the CONMESS salary structure at all levels of healthcare.”

Tel Aviv - A shipment of 13 containers of weapons, disguised as building materials and seized in the Nigerian port of Lagos, may have been on its way to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Ha'aretz daily reported on Thursday, citing Israel defence officials..

The 13 containers, whose bill of lading listed construction materials, when opened on Tuesday was found to contain rocket launchers, grenades and other explosives.

They had been unloaded from an Iranian ship, and according to reports, the Nigerian State Security Service (SSS) had received intelligence beforehand about the intention to smuggle weapons in containers via Lagos.

Ha'aretz quoted an Israeli Foreign Ministry official as saying that the Israeli Embassy in Nigeria has been holding talks with the SSS and the Nigerian Foreign Ministry to try to find out more about the weapons.

A senior Israeli defence official said preliminary information indicated that the seizure of the weapons exposed a possible new arms smuggling route from Iran to Hamas, via Africa.

He said that, owing to beefed-up international supervision of Iranian ships, Tehran may have experienced difficulties in sending arms to Hamas via the Red Sea to the Sudan region and from there to Gaza via the Sinai peninsula..

Transfer by land

"Perhaps the Iranians were planning to unload the weapons in Nigeria and transfer them by land to Sudan and Sinai," Ha'aretz quoted the official as saying.

In March 2009, foreign media reported that the Israel Air Force attacked a convoy of weapons in Sudan on its way to Gaza. Israel refused to confirm its involvement in the attack.

In November 2009, the Israel Navy boarded the vessel Francop in the Mediterranean Sea. The ship was carrying hundreds of tons of weapons from Iran to Syria or Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In September this year an arms delivery from Iran to Syria was intercepted in Italy's Calabria port.

A few days later an arms shipment from North Korea to Syria was captured in a Greek port.