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Stampede in Ibadan: Parents storm schools, withdraw pupils as the rumour mills went abuzz that Alao-Akala planned to use 200 people for rituals to obtain 2nd Term victory

Posted by Paul "EFCC" Hawk Adams on February 12, 2011 at 11:40pm
Stampede in Ibadan: Parents storm schools, withdraw pupils as the rumour mills went abuzz that Alao-Akala planned to use 200 people for rituals to obtain 2nd Term victory From YINKA FABOWALE and GBENGA ADESUYI, Ibadan 
Friday, February 11, 2011• It’s blackmail - Oyo Govt
Akala
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There was pandemonium in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital as thousands of panic-stricken parents besieged public schools in the metropolis to withdraw their children, following rumours that some pupils died after eating meal allegedly poisoned but provided free by the Adebayo Alao-Akala government.
The poison scare was coming even as the rumour mills went abuzz that Governor Alao-Akala planned to use 200 people for fetish rituals to realize his second term ambition But the state government and the governor’s campaign organization, swiftly dismissed the reports, describing them as wicked lies and blackmail. Governor Alao-Akala’s Special Adviser on Communication, Dotun Oyelade, in a reaction, said the development was an attempt by political opponents to blackmail his principal as his administration does not run a free meal programme in schools.
He assured state residents of their safety.
Many public schools in the city had become empty by 100pm, after news made the round that some officials and politicians seeking elective offices in the state were distributing free food packs from government round the schools in the metropolis, of which some school children had died after eating thereof.
The food poison scare which hit the city about noon spread like wild fire, as anonymous callers made calls to parents and teachers in schools, warning them not to accept or allow their wards to partake of the meal.
Parents, including civil servants, market women and housewives stormed primary and secondary schools to withdraw their children and wards, on receiving the alarming messages.
But most school premises were scenes of chaos as hot arguments ensued between them and school authorities following the latter’s attempt to prevent the parents, who headed for the classrooms to pick the pupils. Hundreds of parents were sighted at Mokola,, Oniyanrin, Odo Iye, Oke Are, Opo Yeosa, Oje and other parts of Ibadan rushing to schools in the areas ostensibly to beat the arrival of the food distributors.
Similar situation played out in areas such as Oke Ado, Liberty road, NTC area, Molete, Sango, Ojoo, Mokola, Agodi gate,Old Ife road,Alakia,Challenge,Muslim/Odinjo area,Bodija,Basorun.
Some head teachers had to resorte to locking school gates, but this provoked serious protests and agitation by the teeming parents, some of who threatened to break the gates. Some even assaulted teachers.
The development caused security to be quickly beefed up with armed policemen stationed at strategic locations including Oniyanrin area to forestall break down of law and order.
Some of the parents vowed not to allow them back to school until the state government could publicly assure their safety.
A nursing mother met at St. Stephens Primary school,Oniyanrin, however told Daikly Sun that she had to go to the school and pick her seven year old daughter when she heard the rumours, declaring” You don’t take risks with politicians. I heard some pupils ate akara(baked beans) and died. They even said some disappeared after eating.,
So I had to rush here and pick my daughter.” Investigations at Adeoyo General Hospital, the University College Hospital (UCH) and some private hospitals located around Yemetu and Mokola areas of Ibadan , where some of the victims of the poisonous meal were said to have been taken, did not, however, reveal any reported case. Teachers declined comments on the development, but some at C and S New Eden Primary School Mokola were overheard saying they rexceived phone calls warning them not to receive the toxic food package from the Akala men.
But, Oyelade, assured residents of the state of their safety, describing the whole development as blackmail.
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Aimee Michael: Daughter and Mother Get Long Prison Sentences for Hit and Run

Posted by Dan WebNutritionist/Motivator on November 11, 2010 at 8:50am



Aimee Michael (pictured left), for the most part, seems to be a lot like the rest of us. She's a 24-year-old black femalecollege graduate with two parents who love her. Her parents have beenmarried for 28 years, and her mother is a 52-year-old former schoolteacher. On Easter Sunday in 2009, though, Aimee found herself facing upto 50 years in prison. While she didn't get the entire 50 years, she did get 36 of them.

Aimee Michael was the cause of a massive car accident in Atlanta, achain reaction that caused the deaths of five people, including anewborn baby, a 6-year-old and a 9-year-old. After being sideswiped byanother car, Michael's BMW hit another car, causing it to collidehead-on with another vehicle. Michael is going to prison, because aftercausing this terrible accident, she fled the scene and tried to cover upthe evidence.

Aimee Michael's mother, Sheila (pictured right), wasgiven eight years in prison for her role in the cover up. This has leftthe Michael family devastated, but not nearly as much as the families ofthe victims.

"I want to say that I am wrong. I have wronged three families and for that I am sorry," Michael said in court.

Michael was arrested two weeks after the accident, when neighbors calledthe police. She was found guilty on five counts of vehicular homicide,six counts of hit and run and several misdemeanors.

The judge was actually brought to tears and said she prayed about thedecision before rendering the sentence. The deciding factor in the crashwas the fact that Michael left the scene of the accident. She alsoexpressed disappointment in Michael's mother for not turning herdaughter in to the police.

When it comes to the sentencing of Aimee Michael, I'm going to have tokeep it real: Based on what I've read about Aimee and her family, it appears that much of this could have happened to any of us.While most of us would not have left the scene of the accident, I can'thelp but imagine Aimee as a frightened 24-year-old young adult who didsomething incredibly stupid.

Also, while we can easily criticize Aimee's mother for protecting herdaughter, I am willing to bet that at least half the people reading thisarticle may at least consider doing the same thing if it meant keepingtheir child from prison. This does not, in any way, condone Aimee'sactions (or those of her mother), but it does highlight the difficultyof the decisions that this family had to make.

Aimee's attorney made a very good point. She said that we shouldconsider what the sentence would have been had Aimee not left the scene:

"What Sheila Michael did was driven by fear and attempt to protect her child," said Renee Rockwell,Aimee's attorney. "It was the worst move she could have made. If AimeeMichael had gone back to the scene, we would be talking about six to 12months at most."

Personally, I see the accident as the thing that it was: an accident.She was side-swiped and hit another car. Given that's the case, I am notsure if a long prison sentence would be appropriate. But one thing thatmust be considered is that Aimee Michael has been cited numerous timesfor driving too fast. In the state of Pennsylvania, she received severalspeeding tickets within a very short amount of time. She is also knownto be someone who regularly smokes marijuana and there was even a"marijuana cigar" found in the car during the police investigation. Thisinformation tells us clearly that Aimee, like many young people acrossAmerica is both reckless and inconsiderate in her personal choices. Inspite of her shameful behavior, I can't help but feel that 36-years inprison is simply too long of a sentence.

On a secondary note, there is no doubt in my mind that Aimee Michael andher mother deserve to go to prison. My heart dropped to the ground whenreading about the three young children killed in this accident. I alsomourn for the families of all of the victims. This story serves as acautionary tale to all of the kids across America who think it's cute orcool to speed down the highway or to get involved in drugs. You mightthink you're having harmless fun, but you could end up ruining the livesof yourself, strangers and people you care about. When Aimee Michaelshowed up to her mother's house after getting involved in this accident,she instantly destroyed her family. Should it be the case that she wasdriving irresponsibly, the guilt of this experience will be with herforever.

The fact that Aimee and her mother were so selfish as to ignore thesuffering of these families by attempting to hide their involvement issimply sickening. With that said, I will also say that 5 - 10 years inprison for Aimee might have been a more reasonable sentence. I don'tagree with 36 years in prison, and I sincerely doubt she would havegotten this much time if she were Paris Hilton or someone from an affluent Georgia family.

On that note, this is an incredibly painful story to read, and I wishthe families the best. The sadness of this tragedy resonates through allof our psyches, and we can learn quite a few lessons about vehiclesafety and doing the right thing. When you get behind the wheel, pleasebe careful. Driving is an important responsibility.

By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Nov 4th 2010 9:41PM

Extracted from Blackvoices.com

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Scientists develop 'fake' genetically-engineered blood for use on the battlefield

Posted by technology on July 10, 2010 at 10:14pm

Next is to develop artificial soldiers ! dis oyinbo people na wonder dem dey betta.


Article:

American scientists have developed 'artificial' blood that could soon be used to treat wounded soldiers in battle..

The genetically-engineered blood is created by taking cells from umbilical cords and using a machine to mimic the way bone marrow works to produce mass quantities of usable units of red blood cells.

Known as 'blood pharming' the programme was launched in 2008 by the Pentagon's experimental arm, Darpa, to create blood to treat soldiers in far-flung battlefields.

The firm Arteriocyte, which received $1.95 million for the project, has now sent off its first shipment of O-negative blood to the food and drugs watchdog in the US, the FDA.

U.S. soldiers carry a wounded soldier in Iraq. The breakthrough could help provide enough blood for battlefield transfusions

U.S. soldiers carry a wounded soldier in Iraq. The breakthrough could help provide enough blood for battlefield transfusions

The blood is made by using hematopoietic cells taken from umbilical cords in a process called ‘pharming’ – using genetically engineered plants or animals to create mass quantities of useful substances.

One umbilical cord can be turned into around 20 units of usable blood. A wounded soldier in the field will require an average of six units during treatment.

Blood cells produced using this method are 'functionally indistinguishable from red blood cells in healthy circulation', the company claims.

‘We’re basically mimicking bone marrow in a lab environment,' Arteriocyte boss Don Brown told Wired magazine.

‘Our model works, but we need to extrapolate our production abilities to make scale.’

If approved it could revolutionise battlefields where a shortage of blood donors can hamper treatment of wounded soldiers.

The process of giving transfusions in war zones is also made more difficult because donated blood has to be transported long distance before it reaches the field hospitals where it is urgently needed.

Enlarge Darpa launched a search for a renewable blood supply in 2008

Darpa launched a search for a renewable blood supply in 2008

Some blood is already 21 days old before it reaches patients, meaning it only has around a week-long shelf-life before it must be discarded. There are increased risks of infection or organ failure if blood is too old.

Mr Brown said: ‘Until now, the military’s strategy has mainly been contained to basically using stale blood,’

‘And they’ll set up mobile blood banks in a war zone, but even every troop rolling up their sleeve might not be enough when you’ve got a crisis with dozens or more injuries.’

Human trials are not likely until 2013, but the firm predicts the ‘pharmed’ blood could be used by the military within five years if the Pentagon calls for it sooner.

A unit of blood is around a pint and the human body contains between eight and ten pints of blood in total.

Currently, each unit made by Arteriocyte costs $5,000 to produce. If approved, the firm expects to bring this down to around $1,000 per unit by scaling up the production process.

As well as being needed by the military, 'pharmed' blood could also be used in hospitals to make up for shortfalls in blood donations if it is approved.

The 'pharmed' blood is type O negative which is the most sought after variation because it can be used with any patient, regardless of their own blood type.

Last month the US Red Cross issued an urgent appeal for blood donors to come forward after it said that its supply of O Negative blood was hitting 'critically low levels.



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Oil Spill in Naija Vs BP Oil Spills what is all the Fuss about that

Posted by 9jabook.com on June 18, 2010 at 3:30am
Weekend Trivia:KAITA(Noun/Verb): A man who single handedly hinder the hope of his country for reason best known to him. "Kaita" can be use in place of words like Jeopardy, Hinder, Sabotage, Disrupt, Antagonist, fool etc.
Example

Noun: IBB is a kaita, so is Ota boy. Verb: Don't kaita what we have been building for 11 yrs in one day." I like that girl, please don't be a Kaita" Or In a Foolish Person's Thought: We are winning 1 - 0, let me kaita this game, so that I can get a red card and my opponent can win.



BODO, Nigeria — Big oil spills are no longer news in this vast, tropical land. The Niger Delta, where the wealth underground is out of all proportion with the poverty on the surface, has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years by some estimates. The oil pours out nearly every week, and some swamps are long since lifeless.


Perhaps no place on earth has been as battered by oil, experts say, leaving residents here astonished at the nonstop attention paid to the gusher half a world away in the Gulf of Mexico. It was only a few weeks ago, they say, that a burst pipe belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the mangroves was finally shut after flowing for two months: now nothing living moves in a black-and-brown world once teeming with shrimp and crab.

Not far away, there is still black crude on Gio Creek from an April spill, and just across the state line in Akwa Ibom the fishermen curse their oil-blackened nets, doubly useless in a barren sea buffeted by a spill from an offshore Exxon Mobil pipe in May that lasted for weeks.

The oil spews from rusted and aging pipes, unchecked by what analysts say is ineffectual or collusive regulation, and abetted by deficient maintenance and sabotage. In the face of this black tide is an infrequent protest — soldiers guarding an Exxon Mobil site beat women who were demonstrating last month, according to witnesses — but mostly resentful resignation.

Small children swim in the polluted estuary here, fishermen take their skiffs out ever farther — “There’s nothing we can catch here,” said Pius Doron, perched anxiously over his boat — and market women trudge through oily streams. “There is Shell oil on my body,” said Hannah Baage, emerging from Gio Creek with a machete to cut the cassava stalks balanced on her head.

That the Gulf of Mexico disaster has transfixed a country and president they so admire is a matter of wonder for people here, living among the palm-fringed estuaries in conditions as abject as any in Nigeria, according to the United Nations. Though their region contributes nearly 80 percent of the government’s revenue, they have hardly benefited from it; life expectancy is the lowest in Nigeria.

“President Obama is worried about that one,” Claytus Kanyie, a local official, said of the gulf spill, standing among dead mangroves in the soft oily muck outside Bodo. “Nobody is worried about this one. The aquatic life of our people is dying off. There used be shrimp. There are no longer any shrimp.”

In the distance, smoke rose from what Mr. Kanyie and environmental activists said was an illegal refining business run by local oil thieves and protected, they said, by Nigerian security forces. The swamp was deserted and quiet, without even bird song; before the spills, Mr. Kanyie said, women from Bodo earned a living gathering mollusks and shellfish among the mangroves.

With new estimates that as many as 2.5 million gallons of oil could be spilling into the Gulf of Mexico each day, the Niger Delta has suddenly become a cautionary tale for the United States.

As many as 546 million gallons of oil spilled into the Niger Delta over the last five decades, or nearly 11 million gallons a year, a team of experts for the Nigerian government and international and local environmental groups concluded in a 2006 report. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 dumped an estimated 10.8 million gallons of oil into the waters off Alaska.

So the people here cast a jaundiced, if sympathetic, eye at the spill in the gulf. “We’re sorry for them, but it’s what’s been happening to us for 50 years,” said Emman Mbong, an official in Eket.

The spills here are all the more devastating because this ecologically sensitive wetlands region, the source of 10 percent of American oil imports, has most of Africa’s mangroves and, like the Louisiana coast, has fed the interior for generations with its abundance of fish, shellfish, wildlife and crops.

Local environmentalists have been denouncing the spoliation for years, with little effect. “It’s a dead environment,” said Patrick Naagbanton of the Center for Environment, Human Rights and Development in Port Harcourt, the leading city of the oil region.

Though much here has been destroyed, much remains, with large expanses of vibrant green. Environmentalists say that with intensive restoration, the Niger Delta could again be what it once was.

Nigeria produced more than two million barrels of oil a day last year, and in over 50 years thousands of miles of pipes have been laid through the swamps. Shell, the major player, has operations on thousands of square miles of territory, according to Amnesty International. Aging columns of oil-well valves, known as Christmas trees, pop up improbably in clearings among the palm trees. Oil sometimes shoots out of them, even if the wells are defunct.

“The oil was just shooting up in the air, and it goes up in the sky,” said Amstel M. Gbarakpor, youth president in Kegbara Dere, recalling the spill in April at Gio Creek. “It took them three weeks to secure this well.”

How much of the spillage is due to oil thieves or to sabotage linked to the militant movement active in the Niger Delta, and how much stems from poorly maintained and aging pipes, is a matter of fierce dispute among communities, environmentalists and the oil companies.

Caroline Wittgen, a spokeswoman for Shell in Lagos, said, “We don’t discuss individual spills,” but argued that the “vast majority” were caused by sabotage or theft, with only 2 percent due to equipment failure or human error.

“We do not believe that we behave irresponsibly, but we do operate in a unique environment where security and lawlessness are major problems,” Ms. Wittgen said.

Oil companies also contend that they clean up much of what is lost. A spokesman for Exxon Mobil in Lagos, Nigel A. Cookey-Gam, said that the company’s recent offshore spill leaked only about 8,400 gallons and that “this was effectively cleaned up.”

But many experts and local officials say the companies attribute too much to sabotage, to lessen their culpability. Richard Steiner, a consultant on oil spills, concluded in a 2008 report that historically “the pipeline failure rate in Nigeria is many times that found elsewhere in the world,” and he noted that even Shell acknowledged “almost every year” a spill due to a corroded pipeline.

On the beach at Ibeno, the few fishermen were glum. Far out to sea oil had spilled for weeks from the Exxon Mobil pipe. “We can’t see where to fish; oil is in the sea,” Patrick Okoni said.

“We don’t have an international media to cover us, so nobody cares about it,” said Mr. Mbong, in nearby Eket. “Whatever cry we cry is not heard outside of here.”
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NETWORK SECURITY TIPS How to use Google Webmaster tools to help protect your site

Posted by technology on February 18, 2010 at 3:48am

I often use a search engine to explore and review my clients' websites and check if anything is untoward. The other weekI came across a report on one client's site that was obviously intendedfor internal consumption only. I immediately rang my client to warnthem. They explained that the report had been posted to the publicwebsite instead of the internal intranet by mistake and they'd removedit as soon as the error was discovered. Obviously they were quitealarmed that I could still access it more than a week later.

This is a great example of the all-consuming nature of Web searches, Google searches in particular. Google takes a snapshot of each page itssearch crawlers examine and caches it as a backup. It's also theversion used to judge if a page is a good match for a query. Myclient's report was only on the Web for about three hours and yet acopy of it ended up stored in Google's cache and was still availablefor anyone to read. The fact that sensitive information that getscrawled can remain in the public domain means data classification andcontent change processes are vital to prevent this type of data leakagefrom occurring.

Unfortunately, private or sensitive business information makes its way onto the public Internet all too often. In this tip, we'll discussreasons why this happens, and some strategies to help enterprises keepprivate or sensitive data off the Web.

Problems that can cause website information leaks

The incident noted above gave me the opportunity to address with my client some specific information security problems that led to thereport being posted on its website. The first problem was that theorganization didn't properly classify its data and documents.Implementing a system of data classification and clearly labellingdocuments with that classification would make such an incident far lesslikely.




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Robbers use exotic cars to raid commuters

Posted by Choochoo Sports Book on May 21, 2009 at 8:10pm
Armed robbers appear to have developed a novel idea of attacking unsuspecting victims at bus stops, using exotic cars.Their latest victims were two young men and a woman who were waiting for a bus at Mangoro Bus Stop on the Lagos/Abeokuta expressway.Our correspondent learnt that at about 10.15pm on Sunday, a fairly new lemon colour Peugeot 406 car pulled up about 20 metres away from some commuters at the bus stop.Immediately, three men alighted from the car, giving the impression that the driver was just dropping them off.However, the men, it was gathered, turned out to be armed robbers.One of the victims, Emmanuel (surname withheld), who spoke with our correspondent on Wednesday about his ordeal, said he lost everything on him on that night to the "corporate" bandits.He said, "I closed for work at about 9.50pm and when I discovered that my colleague who usually drops me on his way home was still busy in the office, I decided to find my way home."I was the first person to get to the bus stop. Afterwards, a woman joined me and some minutes later, another man met us their."As we were waiting for a bus, this car stopped a few metres away from us and three men came out of it."Ordinarily, I thought they were just alighting from the car to go to their different homes, but suddenly, I discovered that the three of them had surrounded us."They pulled pistols and asked us to sit on the ground."The victim said his Sony Ericsson W800i phone, two United Bank for Africa ATM cards, N5, 000, and an ID card were lost to the bandits, who later zoomed off towards Iyana Ipaja.When contacted, police spokesman in Lagos, Mr. Frank Mba, said he was not aware of the incident.
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