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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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Confusion in ACN over Ribadu, Buhari •Govs, Tinubu part ways •Pressure mounts on Ribadu to withdraw

Posted by Paul "EFCC" Hawk Adams on January 27, 2011 at 11:20pm
A huge crack has developed in the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), following moves by loyalists of former governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu, to get the party’s presidential candidate, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to withdraw from the presidential contest. Sources close to the party said that pressure had been mounted on the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to withdraw from the race and concede the seat to the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), General Muhammadu Buhari, in line with the ongoing alliance talks between the CPC and the ACN. It was confirmed that the pressure being mounted on Ribadu to quit the presidential race was at the instance of former Governor Tinubu, who is hopeful of picking the vice-presidential slot of the CPC/ACN alliance. Investigations revealed that Ribadu was almost falling for the bait to withdraw from the race, especially after his meeting with General Buhari last week, but some governors of the ACN were said to have insisted on having his name on the ballot. It was gathered that the governors, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State; Dr Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State and Mr Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, were said to have insisted that they wanted the party to field Ribadu, irrespective of whatever any sector of the polity would say. The governors were said to have insisted that the ACN should not fall into the same pit which consumed the Alliance for Democracy (AD) when it failed to field a presidential candidate in 2003. A source knowledgeable about the development said that one of the governors argued that the ACN should learn from the mistakes made by the AD, when it failed to field candidates for the presidential slot in 1999 and 2003. “In 1999, the AD went into alliance with the APP and in 2003, its name was not on the ballot at all and that led to the extinction of that party. Today, we are trying to build a new structure out of the ashes of the AD,” the source quoted one of the governors as telling the leaders of ACN. The position of the governors was also said to tally with that of the national chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, who was also said to have argued in favour of Ribadu. The decision on Ribadu’s candidature was said to have negatively affected the push for an alliance between the CPC and the ACN. It was gathered that while Tinubu had sanctioned the alliance with the aim of neutralising Ribadu and then clinching the vice-presidential slot, the governors, who influenced Ribadu’s entry into the presidential race, believed that his name could be used to popularise the party among a new set of Nigerian voters, the youth. It was learnt that Tinubu initially did not oppose the bid to recruit Ribadu into the presidential race as a result of his belief that the former EFCC boss could bolster his (Tinubu’s) credibility and withdraw some negative comments he made about the former governor when he was EFCC chairman. But it was further learnt that Tinubu knew Ribadu might end up being used if his own vice-presidential bid sailed through. It will be recalled that when Ribadu held sway as the boss of the EFCC, Senator Tinubu, who left office in 2007, was one of the governors alleged by the EFCC boss to have corruptly enriched themselves. He said then that Tinubu’s case had international dimensions as he made no bones about his readiness to prosecute all corrupt governors. A source explained that Senator Tinubu, being a very shrewd and calculating politician, did not forget the role of the former EFCC boss in the corruption issue and part of his plan was to gain some level of credibility by associating with the former EFCC boss. This claim was corroborated by Saharareporters, an online news blog which recently quoted Senator Tinubu as telling some of his close associates that with his association with Ribadu, he had gained a “clean bill of health regarding the allegations of corruption against him as governor of Lagos and his continued dominance of the financial and political scenes.” A source said that Tinubu’s ambition to be vice-president, is “partly the reason he wants to form an alliance with CPC of General Muhammed Buhari. Even after Mallam Ribadu was picked as the presidential candidate of the ACN, the party leadership, at the insistence of Senator Tinubu, was still holding alliance talks with the CPC.” Sources said that the alliance talks were ongoing at press time on Thursday but it was learnt that fundamental differences about party platform and choice of running mate had stalled the talks. While Tinubu’s camp is pressurising Buhari into joining the alliance and fly the ACN flag, Buhari’s loyalists are afraid that if he dumps the CPC, his supporters in the North could have serious problems tracking him. It was also gathered that Buhari’s men are already pointing to the way former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar was shoved aside by Tinubu in the AC as an example of what could befall Buhari if he joined the ACN. Another source said while Ribadu was aware of Tinubu’s plot, he was uncertain of broad support in the party until the governors decided to back him.. “Mallam Ribadu was aware of the plan to dump him. That is the reason he refused to sign the clause in the form that says the ticket can be withdrawn from him at anytime, which candidates for other positions were made to sign,” said the source, confirming also a meeting between General Buhari and Mallam Ribadu in Kaduna, where the former EFCC boss bluntly refused to step down for the former military head of state. “Ribadu is aware of the game plan of Senator Tinubu and is ready for a counter move of his own,” he said. But the spokesman for Ribadu campaign organi-sation, Alhaji Ibrahim Modibbo, in a telephone interview, said his team was going ahead with the campaigns. He said the campaign team was unaware of moves to stop Ribadu and gave the ticket to the CPC candidate. Spokesman for the ACN, Alhaji Lai Moha-mmed, did not respond to a series of questions on the state of affairs in the party, especially following the protracted negotiations between the CPC and the ACN.
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Obafemi Martins 3Trillion Naira Jamboree Extravaganza Lifestyle

Posted by Choochoo Sports Book on November 21, 2009 at 6:00am
It has been revealed how Super Eagles striker, Obafemi Martins, extranvagantly squandered about N3.1 trillions while a player of Newcastle.MartinsadvertisementHis former management company, NVA Management Limited who has dragged the player to court over breach of contarct, told the jury how the player’s account almost went red because of his lifestyle.Obafemi Martins was paid £75,000, but allegedly squandered the earnings on an extravagant lifestyleA former Premiership footballer routinely blew his £75,000 a week wages in a matter of days and was constantly overdrawn, a court was told yesterday.Obafemi, ex-Newcastle striker 25, was paid the handsome salary after he joined the club for a £10million fee in August 2006.But despite his extraordinary earnings, his former management team yesterday claimed they repeatedly bailed him out after his bank account continually slipped into the red.The High Court heard that the Nigerian international player would withdraw £40,000 in cash from his bank account at the end of the week.But that would only last him two days, the court heard, as he topped up with a further £25,000 on the Monday morning.He was always overdrawn and repeatedly relied upon NVA Management Limited to ‘manage his life’, the High Court was told.Martins, who owned several fast cars including a top of the range Porsche 4X4, spent the money funding an extravagant lifestyle of luxurious penthouse homes and fine dining.He is now being sued by his former management company which claims that he still owes them 300,000 for sorting out his finances.He told the court that Martins would withdraw £40,000 for the weekend, followed by another £25,000 on the Monday.‘Despite earning these vast sums of money he was constantly overdrawn,’ added Mr Tennink.He said the firm, which looks after the affairs of several footballers, film and music stars, said that Martins had agreed to pay them for simply managing his life.It was under their stewardship that Martins agreed a £2million image rights deal ‘simply for being Mr Martins’.It’s claimed Martins was constantly overdrawn despite earning £75,000-a-weekHe also had lucrative sponsorship deals with various companies including Pepsi and Nike but had not been paid.When the company stepped in to run his affairs they sorted the unpaid contracts, bringing in thousands of pounds.They also organised visas when he travelled to Italy, where he once played for Inter Milan, and sorted out his passport, his mortgage and property valuations.They even arranged critical illness cover and were constantly running up and down the motorway from their London offices to Newcastle in a bid to do all that he required.‘But surely these were things a secretary could do?’ asked Judge Richard Seymour QC, referring to the size of fees charged.‘It was a Jeeves-type of role that they performed.’Mr Tennink protested that managing every aspect of his life was just part of what they did, and asked the judge to bear in mind the sort of figures these players earned.He said Martins had come to them in July 2007 and had agreed a fee of around £300,000 plus 20 per cent of any sponsorship monies they managed to acquire on his behalf.“He asked for these services to be carried out,” Mr Tennink told the court.Before they managed his affairs, Martins had not been paid a penny for his image rights for the use of his name on Newcastle shirts and mugs and had received nothing from his sponsorship deals.He could not even find the contracts he had originally signed, Mr Tennink added.Martins paid the company £67,500 in January last year and another £25,000 in April last year.But the question for the court to decide, said Mr Tennink, was whether there was a ‘binding obligation’ for him to pay the outstanding bill of over £300,000.After Newcastle were relegated from the Premiership last summer Martins was sold for £9million to German Bundesliga Champions Wolfsburg.Martins, who once owned a penthouse apartment overlooking Newcastle’s exclusive Quayside, is fighting the claim.The hearing is scheduled to last for three days.
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