According to details received, Michael Jackson’s will states that if Katherine died before him or couldn’t serve as his children’s guardian,Diana Ross would be nominated to care for them.The will leaves everything to the Michael Jackson Family Trust, stating, “I give my entire estate to the Trustee or Trustees...”In other news Ola Ray, remember her? ?She was Michaels "girlfriend" in the Thriller videoNot only did she sue Michael last month for royalties from the thriller video. She made an appearance in front of her home in Sacramento saying how sad she is that she has lost her “HERO”.
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Monday, June 29, 2009
LAGOS — RESIDENTS of Oyingbo and environs in Ebute-metta, Lagos Mainland Local Government woke up yesterday to the sight of a two-storey building, reportedly built about 45 years ago, reduced to rubble after a downpour on Saturday night.
Rubble of the collapsed 2-storey building at the Iddo Lagos Terminus
As at the time of filing this report, 13 persons were confirmed dead while 30 others were said to have been rescued from the rubble through the combined efforts of rescue workers which include officials of the Lagos State Traffic Authority (LASTMA), Red Cross and the police.
The injured persons are presently at the Lagos Island General hospital where doctors are said to be battling to save their lives.
Victims were said to be mainly children and residents who were fast asleep during the downpour. The cause of the building collapse was not clear but sources said a ‘terrifying noise’ was heard after a thunder storm while it was raining.
According to sources, the collapsed building was originally planned and erected as a warehouse, but was converted to a two-storey residential building later.
Rescue operation at the collapse building site
Many people still feared trapped
The ground floor was still used as a warehouse while the top floor was residential quarters for workers of the Nigerian Railways. Electronic equipment, sources said, used to be stored in the warehouse.
When Vanguard got to the scene yesterday, rescue work was still ongoing with a view to ascertaining whether people were still trapped in the debris.
A member of the Nigerian Red Cross rescue team who did not want his name in print told Vanguard that thirteen dead bodies were pulled out of the rubble while fifteen others who were rescued alive but were in critical conditions have been taken to the hospital.
Chairman of the Lagos State Red Cross Society, Deacon Timothy told Vanguard that they had to remain at the scene to provide medical assistance to the injured persons, most of who have been rushed to the hospital for better attention.
He added that an information centre has been opened for collation of data for those still looking for their missing relations.
A source at the site of the collapsed building said many other people were still trapped in the debris adding that the building actually collapsed around 3.00am during the heavy downpour.
“We heard a loud noise after a thunderstorm during the rain and later discovered that it was a building in the Iddo- terminus. Some of us rushed there because it was still raining heavily and discovered that many people have been trapped.
We could hear people screaming for help but we were helpless because the time was still past 3.00am. So we contacted the police.”
Lagos state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Frank Mba, said he could not confirm any casualty figure yet as he was still expecting more information from the policemen on the ground.
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He however said that immediately the report of the collapsed building got to the police, they moved to the scene and cordoned off the whole area to ward off people who might capitalise on the situation to loot.
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Three weeks ago, gunmen attacked the Aninri Divisional Police Station, Enugu State, killed two policemen and injured three others including a female police officer.
The gunmen did not only leave a tale of sorrow at the station but went ahead to set fire on all police patrol vans sighted within the vicinity at the time of their operation, which was reportedly executed in commando style.
It was learnt that the gunmen stormed Aninri Police Station in exotic vehicles including a jeep and unleashed their superior firepower on policemen, who were on duty as of the time of the attack.
Two of the policemen were caught by the bullets and they died instantly while others including the female police officer escaped with bullet wounds.
The Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) Eneh, narrowly escaped from the gunmen.
The gang, after setting the police patrol vehicles at the station on fire, escaped. However, a source linked the shooting at Aninri Police Station to a disagreement between two rival groups in Mpu community, the home of Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.
It was learnt that a self-acclaimed witch doctor in one group allegedly charmed a young man belonging to the rival group. In reprisal, the other group took laws into their hands and killed the said witch doctor.
Following the killing, the police moved into Mpu town and rounded up some young men, believed to have participated in the killing and who it was gathered, were loyalists of some politicians in the area.
Even as controversy over the killing was raging, a report came to the police station that robbers were operating in a nearby community. The police reportedly swung into action and gave the robbers a hot pursuit but the bandits abandoned their operational vehicles at a point in the same Mpu community and escaped.
When the policemen could not get the robbers, they forcefully arrested some youths of the community and took them to the station.
The arrest of the youths reportedly stirred up the shooting at the police station that led to the death of the two policemen.
However Amaraizu said that only one policeman died in the Mpu incident. The police spokesperson told Daily Independent on phone that the manhunt for the perpetrators was ongoing.
About the same period, Enugu State Focal Person of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Uche Ani, was also abducted from his Enugu residence by suspected kidnappers.
It was gathered that Ani who rode on his official Land Cruiser jeep, was returning to his residence at No 38 Igbariam Street, Achalla Layout, Enugu, when he was waylaid by the kidnappers, who operated on a 604 Peugeot vehicle.
The incident occurred around 9.pm.
Just as the victim parked in front of his gate, the hoodlums parked their car beside his jeep, swiftly alighted and ordered him to come down from the jeep at gun point.
As Ani came down from the vehicle, he was reportedly beaten up and forced into the Peugoet car before the vehicle sped off.
Ani regained his freedom after spending a week in the den of his abductors.
Daily Independent gathered that he has re-united with his family but the details of his release were yet to be disclosed by Police.
The UNDP official added to the long list of those who had fallen victim to kidnappers in Enugu in the past six months.
Other notable victims include Francis Edemobi, younger brother of Minister of Information and Communication, Prof. Dora Akunyili; South East Regional Manager of Guarantee Trust Bank, Kingsley Osuala; son of Ifeanyi Ononiba, an Enugu-based hotelier and Ngozi Ngene, the wife of chairman of Enugu South Local Government Area, Sam Ngene.
Apart from Ononiba, who allegedly paid N5 million ransom to secure his son's freedom, police lived up to expectation in most other cases, setting the victims free and apprehending suspected kidnappers.
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IN a second day of violence protesters in Iran yesterday defied heavy police presence setting fires and smashing store windows to challenge President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad' s re-election.
Anti-riot police lashed back and the regime blocked Internet sites used to rally the pro-reform campaign.
Scores of young people shouted "Death to the dictator!" and broke the windows of city buses on several streets in central Tehran. They burned banks, trash bins and piles of tires used as flaming barricades to block police.
Riot police beat some of the protesters with batons while dozens of others holding shields and motorcycles stood guard nearby. Shops, government offices and businesses closed early as tension mounted.
But Ahmadinejad said his re-election was "real and free" and cannot be questioned in comments yesterday during a press conference - his first since the government announced that he was re-elected to a second term in a landslide victory during Friday's vote.
He dismissed the unrest - the worst in a decade in Tehran - as "not important." He said Friday's vote was "real and free" and insisted the results showing his landslide victory were fair and legitimate.
Along Tehran's Vali Asr street - where activists supporting rival candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi held a huge pre-election rally last week - tens of thousands, according to the Associated Press (AP), marched in support of Ahmadinejad, waving Iranian flags and shouting his name.
Mousavi released his first statement since two days of violent protests began, calling on authorities to cancel the election. He said that is the only way to restore public trust. Mousavi, who has accused authorities of election fraud, urged his supporters to continue their "civil and lawful" opposition to the results and advised police to stop violence against protesters. He has claimed he was the true winner of the election.
The violence spilling from the disputed results has pushed Iran's Islamic establishment to respond with sweeping measures that include deploying anti-riot squads around the capital and cutting mobile phone messaging and Internet sites used by the Mousavi's campaign.
There's little chance that the youth-driven movement could immediately threaten the pillars of power in Iran - the ruling clerics and the vast network of military and intelligence forces at their command - but it raises the possibility that a sustained and growing backlash could complicate Iran's policies at a pivotal time.
United States (U.S.) President Barack Obama has offered to open dialogue after a nearly 30-year diplomatic freeze. Iran also is under growing pressure to make concessions on its nuclear program or face possible more international sanctions.
Vice President Joe Biden yesterday said he had doubts about whether the election was free and fair, as Ahmadinejad claimed. He said the U.S. and other countries need more time to analyse the results before making a better judgment about the vote.
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said his country was "very worried" about the situation in Iran, criticising the Iranian authorities' "somewhat brutal reaction" to the election protests.
So far, Mousavi has issued mixed signals through his Web site before it was shut down. He urged for calm but also said he is the legitimate winner of Friday's election and called on supporters to reject a government of "lies and dictatorship. " He has not been seen in public since a news conference shortly after polls closed.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, closed the door for possible compromise. He could have used his near-limitless powers to intervene in the election dispute. But, in a message on state television over the weekend, he urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad, calling the result a "divine assessment."
Israel, like the U.S., doesn't believe Tehran's claims that its nuclear program is designed to produce energy, not bombs. Netanyahu has said Israel would not tolerate a nuclear Iran and is thought to be mulling a military strike.
A poll for an Israeli think tank published yesterday showed that 59 per cent of the Jewish public would support a military strike should Israel determine that Tehran possesses nuclear weapons. But less than one-fifth said they would consider leaving Israel should Iran develop nuclear weapons, said the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.
The survey questioned 616 adult Jews and had a margin of error of three percentage points.
But while Benjamin Netanyahu sees Iran and its anti-Israel proxies in Lebanon and Gaza as the crux of the Middle East's problems, Obama thinks serious effort toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could weaken Tehran.
The Israeli leader has been under intense pressure from Washington to enter into negotiations on Palestinian statehood and end all settlement expansion in the West Bank - positions he opposes and whose adoption would almost surely fracture his hawkish governing coalition.
Netanyahu had tried to parry that pressure by attempting to redirect attention away from peacemaking with the Palestinians and toward Iran's nuclear programme.
But the U.S. was not won over to that point of view, and in his June 4 address to the Moslem world, Obama forcefully called for a Palestinian state and a halt to the settlement construction that has proven to be a major impediment to peacemaking.
Any hopes by the Obama administration of gaining a result similar to Lebanon's recent election, won by a Western-backed moderate coalition, appeared to be in jeopardy.
"We are monitoring the situation as it unfolds in Iran, but we, like the rest of the world, are waiting and watching to see what the Iranian people decide," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said at a news conference with Canada's foreign affairs minister, Lawrence Cannon.
Minutes after Clinton spoke, the White House released a two-sentence statement praising "the vigorous debate and enthusiasm that this election generated, particularly among young Iranians," but expressing concern about "reports of irregularities. "
Despite the challenge from reformist Mousavi to incumbent Ahmadinejad, many officials and experts thought a Mousavi victory would result in only incremental shifts toward the U.S.
Because real power in Tehran is still wielded by religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, some say an Ahmadinejad re-election may make it easier to build an international consensus against Iran.
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Posted by 9jabook.com on March 26, 2009 at 10:00pm
Like the lava of an active volcano, the on-going personal feud between Nigeria`s richest duo, Ahaji Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola has taken a dangerous turn with no visible end in sight. The schism between the two men assumed melodramatic proportions on Wednesday, March 25, 2009, when Aliko Dangote, chairman of Dangote group of companies, led a team of armed police men to forcefully take over a TOTAL petrol station in Lagos, owned by Femi Otedola. The reasons for the action was not immediately discernible but keen observers claim it might not be unconnected to major differences within the Blue Star Oil Services Limited; a consortium floated by Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola under whose name they bought the Port Harcourt and Kaduna Refineries, in circumstances described as shady.
No one knows how messy it will get between the two men, listed by Forbes magazine as amongst the world’s richest people, but Huhuonline.com learnt that Dangote’s seizure of the petrol station was in violation of a court injunction, highlighting prospects that the bad blood might eventually degenerate and precipitate an unfortunate legal fracas.
Aliko Dangote & Femi Otedola
The lingering animosity between the two billionaires came to the public glare last week, when Femi Otedola took full page advertorials in some national dailies accusing Aliko Dangote and one of his subsidiaries, Nova Finance and Securities of unethical practices, which he said caused the share price of his AP Plc holdings to plummet in the Nigerian capital market. At its peak, Huhuonline.com learnt that Otedola’s AP shares sold for N239, but has plummeted to below N60; a development he blames on Dangote.
The Otedola advertorials read: “Our investigations have revealed that Messrs Nova Finance and Securities Limited, acting under the instruction of, and with the active support and connivance of Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Group, has been primarily responsible for the steep decline in the value of the shares of AP Plc on the floor of the NSE. “Indeed, our investigations revealed that in the last eight weeks, there had been premeditated and orchestrated ‘crossing’ of AP Plc shares among other entities owned and controlled by either Alhaji Aliko Dangote or Nova Finance and Securities Limited.”
Otedola was said to have voiced his resolve and determination to use all machinery and available avenues to pay back Dangote in his own coin. Peeved and embarrassed by Otedola’s public accusations which he interpreted to mean a personal affront, Huhuonline.com was told by sources who elected anonymity, that Dangote too has vowed that he will do everything within his power to instigate frustrations for and make Otedola’s financial misfortunes worse.
There seems to be unanimity of opinion that price fixing and insider trading has been the stock in trade in the Nigerian capital market. Keen observers therefore see Otedola’s accusations as purely a case of the kettle calling the pot black. It is worth recalling that in February 2008, the Security and Exchange Commission accused Femi Otedola and AP Plc of price manipulation, but took no action against him.
The seeds for the rupture of the once cozy relationship between the two men were said to have been planted during the former administration through a series of orchestrated transactions with ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo acting as canon fodder. Sources close to the former president told Huhuonline.com that Dangote felt irritated and short changed by OBJ’s tacit support that enabled Otedola to covertly acquire major shares in Dangote’s cement conglomerate using proxies. The alleged manipulation by Dangote and Nova Finance and Securities and the resulting financial woes of AP Plc was a means of nailing Otedola to the cross; encroaching into his territory, in preparation for a hostile corporate take over.
Huhuonline.com investigations revealed that the cat-and-mouse relationship between Aliko Dangote and ex-president Obasanjo hit a snag when the Bureau of Public Enterprise led by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai (presently a Mason Fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government) sold the Benue Cement Company to the Dangote Group. The former president was so angry that he was not inform and reportedly ordered the privatization agency to cancel the deal. However, relations between Dangote and OBJ warmed up when then vice-president and principal financier, Atiku Abubakar refused to bankroll OBJ’s re-election campaign. Dangote is said to have come to Obasanjo`s rescue with a two billion naira cash donation that helped guaranteed the president’s re-election. And Dangote believes that between him and Otedola, OBJ who acted as “Godfather” to the two men gave him the short end of the stick. That was then. With OBJ no longer in power, the chicken has come home to roost, resulting in a free for all melee, as both men and their proxies are seriously engaged in undoing each other.
As Huhuonline.com reported, in 2007, Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola floated a consortium, called Blue Star oil Services Limited, with which they bought the Port Harcourt and Kaduna Refineries, under shady circumstances. In a consortium, each participant retains its separate legal status and the consortium's control over each participant is generally limited to activities involving the joint endeavor. A consortium is formed by contract, which delineates the rights and obligations of each member. However, the official Blue Star Oil Services tender to purchase the refineries; signed by Aliko Dangote lists only Aliko Dangote and Sanni Dangote of Dangote Group as directors. Femi Otedola or Zenon Oil was not listed. Nevertheless, Nigerians were told by the Bureau of Public Enterprise that Blue Star Oil Services was a consortium of Dangote Groups and Zenon Oil. The KRPC sale, which poses more questions, than answers, has since been annulled, thanks to the citizens of Nigeria.
Last year, after Huhuonline.com broke the story on Aliko Dangote shady deals in the Bureau of Public Enterprises, one Jonathan Ango, ostensibly an Aliko Dangote proxy wrote to us: “Don’t know what your stake is in the Dangote saga. I also do not know Dangote apart from what I hear and read in the media. What I know is we cannot pretend to be a capitalist democracy, if the government must continue to run commercial ventures. I do not see anything wrong in Dangote having his candidate in the BPE or his buying up the refineries, if he can pay for it and it runs efficiently on a profit basis and he dutifully pays his taxes. At least, he will guarantee employment and hence boost the Nigerian economy. At least he has proven himself in the sugar and cement companies he has bought over. Or would you rather have the refineries run by incompetent bureaucrats and civil servants causing a drain pipe in the economy? Capitalism the world over has its short comings, but it is far better than socialism (state controlled business), that is why it collapsed in the countries that practiced it. Except if you have a personal grudge against Dangote as a person. What of Otedola buying up AP”?
With the SEC now wading into the crisis, the question now begging for an answer is: are we actually at the beginning of the end, as Wilson Churchill, one time British Prime Minister once asked - or the end of the beginning? It’s a wait and see game which only time will tell.
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The rivalry between Nigeria`s richest duo, Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola has taken a turn for the worse with pressure mounting on Dangote to resign his post as vice chairman of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) over perceived conflict of interests in the unfolding financial saga that has seen the SEC suspend and fined Nova Finances Securities owned by Eugene Anenih, a Dangote proxy.
The SEC suspended Nova Finance Securities last Thursday March 26, 2009 after investigations uncovered unethical practices. The SEC investigation, Huhuonline learnt, triggered off another investigation into Afribank Registrars; accused of aiding and abetting the unethical practices by Nova Finance Securities. Sources within Afribank Registrars - who are registrar to AP plc - told Huhuonline that the SEC'S complaint rests on the failure of Afribank Registrars' internal control mechanism to detect or prevent the dubious transactions by Nova Finance Securities and that its records were falsified to cover up the illegal transactions.
Aliko Dangote
The suspension and fine of Nova Finances & Securities may not be evidence of the guilt of Afribank Registrars but it provides the clearest evidence of the complicity of the group of Dangote consortium partners in masterminding the fraud. After several months of denial, the suspension of Nova Finances is a very sad illustration of the way business is done in Nigeria and the mindless audacity of some people in authority like Dangote who remains vice-president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. (NSE) As pressure continues to mount, the race to succeed the embattled Dangote by those who believe-or perhaps know-that he be will axed, should he fail to resign, may have begun in earnest. And a few names have been touted. But, curiously, Dangote is yet to sever all his ties to Nova.
CSCS document made available to Huhuonline revealed that during the period under review, Dangote and Nova with the assistance of Afribank Registrars fraudulently swapped a total volume of five hundred thousand units of irredeemable non-cumulative convertible preference shares in ten different transactions, which were admitted to the daily official lost of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The ensuing panic and loss of share value created a scary scenario for AP investors. The resultant effect was shareholders lost of confidence in AP shares, leading to a massive exodus of existing shareholders, who hurriedly offloaded their AP shares and precipitating a sharp decline in its price. Some of the former AP investors, who spoke to Huhuonline, said “they just wanted to get out of the investment, and had no regard for the price at which they sold”.
Despite the fine and suspension of Nova Finance Securities, and the SEC’s threat to sanction operators caught on unethical practices especially, on insider and cross-share trading, it appears the warning is not being taken seriously as practitioners are engaged in premium price war in an attempt to edge out competitors. “Nova and Aliko were just crossing shares between themselves, there were no money exchanged; rather they were even loosing money by paying commissions for the swaps”, the chief executive of an investment firm told Huhuonline, adding: “the practice of cross-share trading is a common tactic within the industry. The SEC should not merely issue threats and small fines; it has the facts and profiles of all operators to ban or impose huge sanctions on those companies that are involved in these unorthodox practices but it has failed to do so.”
The growing calls for his resignation from the NSE came hard on the heels of another unsavory development in the unfolding saga. The latest salvo involves a text message, currently making the rounds, and said to have been originated by Otedola. The text message, featuring the names of some married women who had allegedly engaged in extra-marital affairs with Dangote, was described by one source as Dangote’s “black box”. It contains information whose potential impact might cause considerable embarrassment to Dangote and some of his political allies, a source told Huhuonline. Dangote’s proxies have accused Otedola of employing blackmail and other crude underhand tactics to punch below the belt. But Otedola’s supporters have denied any involvement.
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