Imagine For instance as a parent, your four-year-old daughter comes home telling you an “uncle” in the neighbourhood took her to his room, made her lie down, removed her clothes, made attempt at penetration, before ejaculating all over her?

This is the nightmare Emeka Okafor (not real name) has been living with since July 30, 2010, when his second child and only daughter recounted how earlier that day, while playing around his wife’s shop on Shamura Street in Oshodi, a suburb of Lagos, a 22-year-old man, Onyedikachi Samuel, lured her into his room nearby in the pretext of wanting to give her “something”.

“I had just come back from work after picking them from the shop when my daughter called me and said ‘Uncle Onye put his wiwi in my ansarot and urinated on me.” Three times I asked her what do you mean. And each time, she repeated the same thing. At that, I melted. This was precisely by 8pm on that Friday,” said Mr. Okafor.

By “urinating”, she meant ejaculating. Mr. Okafor then took her into his room, inspected her, and in his words, “I could see traces of well cleaned sperm on her body.” The little girl said the man she called “uncle” gave her milk and told her he would beat her if she revealed their “secret”, in an attempt to cover his act.

Mustering the little sanity left in him, Mr. Okafor that same night reported the case at the Makinde Police Station, where officers interviewed his daughter and asked her to take them to the crime scene and identify her abuser.

Shocked beyond words “I didn’t know the boy in question. My daughter took them to his room where we met his step-mother who said her son had gone for night vigil. But outside the Boy’s Quarters where he lives, he emerged and my daughter pointed at him. In his presence she repeated what he did to her and he was arrested,” Mr. Okafor said.

At the station, Mr. Samuel denied having any carnal knowledge of her. But according to Mr. Okafor, he accepted taking Miss Okafor into his room and offering her milk, and asking her not to tell anyone because he had taken the milk without the consent of his step-mother.

Mr. Samuel was eventually charged for indecent assault at the Igbehin-Adun Magistrate Court 15, Oshodi, on August 2, 2010 where he pleaded not guilty. He met the court’s bail conditions of N200,000 and two sureties before the scheduled hearing of his case on August 16.

Efforts to reach Mr. Samuel failed as his elder brother and step-mother denied access to him. But a man who introduced himself as a human rights lawyer, Bello Hassan, working with Strong Towers Chambers, said Mr. Samuel is the one being persecuted. He couldn’t, however, explain why a four-year-old would make such allegations against his client.

“I don’t know why. I can’t attest to the veracity of their claims but my client is aggrieved because I know the other party has gone to great lengths to report this matter to several places. What is unknown is more than what is known. The court will decide. I won’t speak because the case is in court,” said Mr. Hassan.

But on August 16, the case was adjourned to October 18. The reason advanced was that the judiciary was on recess.

On October 18, it was deferred to November 8, as the magistrate was said to be indisposed. The case was again postponed to November 25 as Mr. Okafor was told the magistrate was attending a seminar.

Frustrated, Mr. Okafor took his case to Media Concern Initiative for women and children. The non-governmental organisation offered the family trauma management free of charge and also notified on their behalf, the Lagos State Social Welfare Service, the Department of Public Prosecution and the Office of the Public Defender, which gives free legal services.

“The case is in an open court when it should be in a family court, and this is a major concern because open courts are still handling cases of children. So we need the court to sit, for a motion to be moved to transfer the case to the family court. This is especially important to avoid the child becoming more traumatised,” said Princess Olufemi-Kayode, Media Concern’s executive director..

A haunting trauma

For the Okafor family, however, four months after, the alleged abuse is still fresh in their memory. Mr. Okafor says he has since stopped his children from referring to non-relatives as “uncle” as this connotation sends a wrong signal to children to believe strangers are family. He says he is fighting for his children and as many others his action will save from becoming the next victims.

“For months she kept asking ‘why did Uncle Onye urinate on me?’. All I could reply her is don’t mind him, he’s just a stupid boy. What else can I tell her? And each time I brought her to court, she would ask ‘Daddy why are we in court?’,” said Mr. Okafor.

“There are so many women out there, why an under-aged who doesn’t even know the difference between one and two. I can’t let it go because if nothing is done he will not know the gravity of what he has done. Will he not do it to other people’s children? I only have two kids and that is my only daughter. My reason for living is for them, so if I can’t defend them, then my life is worthless,” lamented Mr. Okafor.

DECEMBER IS APPROCAHING ! THE months when Accidents occur . BE WARNED ! PICTURE ADVISORY

Road accidents have continued to claim several lives despite intense road safety campaigns. Weekly Trust reports on why the scourge has not calmed down.

At the trailer park in Gusau, a group of men were busy loading cattle into a trailer, preparing the cattle for the trip from the north to the south where they would end in the various abattoirs where they would be butchered for meat. And just as they finished loading the animals and began to leave, some twenty-three men began climbing aboard the trailer, jostling for space with the cattle. Some improvisations were introduced with long planks placed on top of the trailer to provide more space for the humans looking for opportunity to hitch a ride with the animals...

Some hours into the journey, maybe it was just minutes (eye witnesses account differ), the humans in the trailer would share the fate of the cattle: butchered, not in the abattoirs, but on the highway together with the cattle when the trailer was involved in an accident at Gidan Kano village, along Sokoto-Gusau Road. Eyewitnesses said the driver lost control when he approached a very sharp bend at high speed at Gidan Kano and could not negotiate it. The articulated vehicle skidded off the road and somersaulted. Twenty of the passengers, some of whom were hanging on the side of the trailer, died on the spot while three others died in the hospital. Sixteen other passengers sustained various degrees of injuries.

That was in December last year, precisely on a Wednesday evening on the 23rd. Just two weeks ago, another reenactment of that gory incidence where the fate of humans is indistinguishable from the fate of cattle took place in the same state, Zamfara, where 20 persons were confirmed dead and 33 others sustained serious injuries at Kaura-Namoda Local Government Area of the state. This time around, the vehicle was carrying more than 100 bags of potatoes with 42 people on board hitching a ride together with the potatoes, all coming from Sokoto. Just like the cattle driver, the potato driver was over-speeding when the trailer had a burst tire and skidded off the road, said the FRSC Assistant Corps Commander of the Kaura-Namoda Unit to newsmen, Sani Abdussamad.

The mass deaths are not confined to heavy vehicles only. On the same day, 20 kilometres from Kaura-Nomada at Kaura-Shinkafi Road, a Peugeot 505 salon car had a head-on collision with a Toyota Carina II vehicle where 11 people, mostly women and children, were burnt beyond recognition. Eight others were taken to the hospital with various degrees of injuries.

Wastage of human lives, butchered with such careless abandon by a combination of reckless driving, overloading, poor and narrow roads occur on all Nigerian highways, not just on the Sokoto-Gusau axis. The Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, had said recently that road accidents kill 14 people daily on Nigerian roads, totaling on average over four hundred deaths in a month. “Out of this number,” said a Commander of the Corps, Kayode Olagunju, “tanker driver-induced accidents claim at least three lives every day.”

The tanker drivers are road cousins of the trailer drivers, a law unto themselves on the road. Speeding with the latest consignment of fuel from the south to the north, just as the cattles and potatoes make the journey from the north to the south, the tanker drivers are kings of the road because of the essential importance of the commodity they transport: petroleum. Nothing embodies this pompous status more than at Tafa, a village located some few kilometers from Abuja where both shoulders of the highway have been appropriated by tanker drivers, who despite causing so many accidents and so many deaths over the years, remain untouchable. “I always remind myself that I am approaching a danger zone whenever I drive close to the village,” said Ashafa, a salon car driver at the Jabi Park in Abuja who plies the road daily on his way to convey passengers from Abuja to Kano.

Ashafa said: “Most of the tanker drivers are just boys, they think the machines are toys, something they could play with. But a trailer or tanker is not just a mere toy; the slightest carelessness will cause so much pain and anguish. So many families are robbed of breadwinners and loved ones.”

The Lokoja-Abuja Road, a link road between the north and the south, where daily hundreds of trailers, tankers, trucks, salon cars and buses hurry with passengers and goods is a hot spot that brings into relief how government failure to construct new roads and rehabilitate old ones have contributed to the statistics of deaths from road accidents in the country. One of the country’s busiest roads, it is nevertheless the narrowest. A road contract awarded since 2005 to dualise the road has mostly seen work move at the pace of a snail. But the devastation wrought by the road on human lives comes very easily and fast. In the month of October only, the road has claimed about 59 lives. Just some few months ago in July about fourty people had lost their lives at a go when an accident occurred on the road. The road has been eating lives, and still counting.

Statistics from Koton Karfe, Abaji, and Yangoji as well as Gwagwalada unit commands of the FRSC shows that 39 vehicles were involved in accidents in which 236 people sustained various degrees of injuries between the months of October till November, 12, 2010. Twenty-two out of the 39 crashes were fatal mostly occurring as a result of wrongful overtaking, a mistake which the narrow road does not forgive.

Other causes of crashes on the road from the FRSC statistics include, lost of control, tire burst, over-speeding, obstruction, fatigue, dangerous driving as well as break failure.

Abaji unit commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Mr. Joseph O. Ezeh said the state of the Abuja-Lokoja Road has contributed to some of the accidents along the road where some drivers who are in the process of trying to avoid a pothole crash into an oncoming vehicle from the opposite direction.

While the physical factors that contribute to the scourge of accidents on the roads is taking a long time in being addressed by the concerned authorities, the FRSC unit commander of Yangoji, Abdullahi Umar, has introduced a way of taming the human elements, mostly recklessness, that contributes to the spates of accidents on the road. The command has adopted a system where any driver arrested for reckless driving is taken to the command for education for 45 minutes and in the process shown pictures of corpses of accident victims on the road with the hope of using fear to educate him on the hazard of reckless driving. “These drivers never care to stop when we observe some recklessness in their driving and this is why we have devised another method,” Umar said.

On a nationwide scale, the FRSC Corps Marshal, Osita Chidoka has introduced a system of reward for Corp officers who were able to reduce the accidents in their units to the barest minimum. He said: “The commission’s gesture is to create a kind of competition among all the 36 state sector commands of the FRSC in redoubling their efforts in reducing accident and at the end reward the best command. And we are involving the state government. Infact, the state governors will be the chairmen of this committee so that they can be able to partake and as well monitor the performance of every sector command.”

It remains to be seen how far the new initiatives will go in curbing road accidents as the recklessness has somewhat been taken to a new level, especially by salon drivers who enact the human/cattle scenario by filling their car boots not only with luggages and sacks but with humans. This is after packing the front of the car with three or four passengers including the driver and the back seat with four passengers or more supported on human laps.

The culprits in this practice are the new crop of commercial drivers who favour using the Volkswagen Golf because of its speed and lightness. The practice is common along rural roads and roads linking one local government area to the other where few FRSC officers are on watch. The few police manning the various checkpoints, as usual, stretch their hands for the usual bribe and look the other way.

Salihu, a driver in Jabi Park Abuja blames the practice on passengers who often prefer to pay less than the standard amount for a ticket. “The boots cost less, sometimes half the price of a seat inside the car. In addition, the more people you carry inside the car whether in the back or front seats, the less the passengers pay compared to when you take only one passenger in front and three passengers in the back of a salon car.”

When accidents occur in such instances identifying the identities of the victims becomes a problem because such vehicles are either boarded on the highway or in illegal parks were passengers’ manifest are not kept before boarding. In Yobe for example, where two buses had a head-on collision last week where 33 people were burnt beyond recognition, identifying the victims was a big problem as their identity cards were also burnt save for one passenger whose identification survived the fire. In the end, all the victims were buried in a mass grave since relatives could not be contacted to identify their corpses.

Statistics made available to Weekly Trust by the FRSC’s Media Assistant to the Corps Marshal, Sani Abdullahi, shows that within the last three months of September, October up to 7th November this year a total number of 1,053 crashes took place. The number of vehicles involved in the crashes within the same period is 1,722; number of people killed in the crashes is 820 while the number of injured victim is 3,366.

The FRSC claims there have been an improvement. Based on its analysis it says comparison between incidence of accidents between last year and this year in a three months review shows that while 1,357 cases of road crashes were recorded in 2009, 939 were recorded within the same period in 2010, representing a reduction of 44.52 per cent. The figures also claim that while 4,167 people were injured in the same period in 2009, this year the figure dropped to 2,981, representing a reduction of 39.79 per cent.

The figures do not show improvement in the number of persons killed within the period under review. While 744 people were killed last year within the same period, this year 759 deaths were recorded, representing an increase of 1.97per cent.

The FRSC says it research has shown that the increase in fatality was as a result of more accidents involving 14-seater buses carrying 18 passengers and incidences of crashes involving tankers who claim many lives at a go.

The passengers hitching a ride with cattle and potatoes may have thought they were paying less, but as the inevitable happened they must have realized that they have sold their lives cheap....

Ram sellers blame low sales on the ravages of floods this year. Weekly Trust went round the markets.

Malam Yakubu Mairago, a ram trader in Mararaba, a satellite town close to Abuja, is worried over the low sales of ram this year even as the Idel-Kabir festivity is less than a week away. While he says the low sales is because of the high cost of ram, he blames everything on the flood that ravaged most states of the north within the past few months of the raining season. He told Weekly Trust: “To some extent, it is possible that the flood that ravaged the north could be responsible for the high cost of ram in markets in Malumfashi, Maradi and Jigawa. Big rams that we bought at the rate of N40-N45, 000 last year now goes for N50-N55, 000, while medium and small rams go for N25, 000 and N20, 000 respectively. By the time you add the cost of transporting the rams to the market, you will have no choice but to sell the big ones for N60-N70, 000 while the medium and the small ones go for N35, 000 and N25, 000 respectively.”

Something that has also added to the high cost of ram, he says, is the high cost of feeds. “Even the feed for the animals too have jumped from N1, 200 to N2000,” he laments. “We in Abuja depend on government patronage through the supply of rams ranging from 50 or 20 rams as the case may be. By this time last year, we had started supplying. But things have been very slow in the market this year. All the same we still thank God and hope things will pick up before Sallah.”

Hajiya Zuwaira Salihu who came to purchase ram in the market says the ram she bought for N25, 000 last year now goes for N30, 000. “Rams are untouchable this year,” she says, lamenting. “When will things that go up come down in Nigeria? I think since I have a large compound I will start rearing animals. I can imagine paying N30, 000 a ram that I bought for N25, 000 last year. These things are for religious purposes for God sake!”
In Kano, the problem seem to be that there are fewer rams for sale this year compared to last year’s Sallah festivity, Weekly Trust investigations has revealed. The small number of the animals for the religious festival this year is due to the long period of rainfall that was experienced this year in the north, the ram sellers say. But that notwithstanding, the short supply and lack of funds has affected demands and caused a fall in prices of the rams as against last year, many ram dealers say.

A ram dealer at the Zoo Road animal market, Babangida Abdullahi, says many villagers did not rear a lot of animals this year because of the high rainfall. Rearing and fattening rams is done in a conducive environment, with proper shelter to protect the animals from rain. If such conditions are not met, he explained, the rams will not do well and the business may end in a loss. The dealer said he came all the way from Jahun in Jigawa State to trade in the livestock in Kano.

As most of the farmers could not afford to provide shelter for the rams against the rains, they abandoned the business and took to something else, he says. “Previously, the rains would stop about three months to the Sallah and that gap was enough for us to rear the rams to marketable size,” says Abdullahi.

The chairman Zoo Road market, Alhaji Lawal Kazaure, explained that because of the rains, many livestock farmers ventured into other trades, fearing that rearing animals will not yield much gain.

Ram dealers in Kano attributed this development to the short supply of ram for this year’s Sallah ritual. Similarly, Weekly Trust observed that the usual street shepherding of rams for sale that is common during the religious festivity in the state has declined significantly.
There were few people herding rams along busy roads in order to woo buyers. Mostly, the animals are found at various livestock markets within and around the city.

In spite of the seeming shortage of rams, the dealers say the prices have dropped compared to last year, attributing the change to non-availability of funds on the buyers’ side. Abdullahi, who has the biggest rams in the Zoo Road market disclosed that a ram that was sold for N120, 000 during the previous year’s Sallah, now sells for N80, 000. He told Weekly Trust that while he was able to sell 55 rams before Sallah day last year, this year he was only able to sell 20 rams – five days to Sallah.

“I hope there will be money in the hands of people before Sallah day so that I can sell all my rams just like last year,” he says. “The last time we witnessed such low patronage was two years ago.”

An average ram, according to Alhaji Lawal Kazaure, is sold at N45, 000 in the market. However, a buyer who gave his name as Alhaji Lawan Garba says he was happy with the prices of the animals this year as “all classes of people can afford them.”
Like the dealers, Alhaji Garba observed that shortage of money in circulation may be the only hindrance for people who want to get Sallah rams. The fact that the Sallah period falls in the middle of the month, many people may be precluded from observing the slaughtering ritual this year as salaries have not been paid.

The ram dealers disclosed that their biggest customers are politicians who buy the animals to offer them as gifts to associates, relations, bosses and even supporters. “A politician can buy as many as 50 or 60 rams and they usually buy the biggest rams,” Alhaji Kazaure says. “All these rams you are seeing with marks on their necks have been paid for by a politician and very soon a truck will arrive to convey them,” he adds.
Cattle dealers say their business have not witnessed any decline as they have been making sales since the approach of Sallah. One Alhaji Auwalu Maishanu says he has been able to sell about seven big-sized bulls whose prices range from N250, 000 and above, as well as 23 others of various prices.

The high patronage of cattle may not be unconnected with the growing practice of collective buying and sharing (popularly called Watanda) among Muslim faithfuls in various parts of the state. The practice has helped bridge the gap in the purchasing power of many individuals by affording them the chance of taking meat home to enjoy the festivities.
There is hope, nonetheless, among animal dealers and their prospective customers that before Sallah day, money will be available for all to enjoy the religious feast.

In Kaduna, a ram dealer at the popular Tudun-Wada ram market, Rabiu Bala, says that the flood killed some of their animals, which led to a shortage in rams available for sale compared to the number that was available during last year’s Eidel-Kabir celebration.
He says, however, that the flood did not significantly affect the price of rams following complaints by many people that they lack money, something which has led to low patronage.

He says a big-sized ram which was sold at 60,000 naira last year now goes for N50, 000, while a medium and small sized ram which sold for N50, 000 and N15, 000 last year now goes for N40, 000 and 10,000 respectively.
Another ram dealer from Zamfara State, Abubakar Kada, says that the market is not as busy as it was last year due to the shortage of rams caused by the flood which destroyed a culvert that leads to the gidan dawa in Maradun Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

He also said that the flood led to the collapse of buildings, damage of farm crops which are used in feeding the animals and most importantly the death of their animals, especially the ones that are not big enough to escape the flood. One of the buyers, Suleiman Yusuf says, “The size I bought last year for N20, 000 is sold for N22, 000 naira this year.”

The Tudun-Wada ram market, popularly known as Tudun-Wada Zango in Kaduna is a major market for buying and selling of rams, goats, cattle, cows and sheep. Traders of livestock from Kano, Zamfara, Sokoto, Jigawa and other northern states throng the market during festive periods.
In Bauchi, all the three cattle and domestic animals markets visited by Weekly Trust had hundreds of available domestic animals for sale but they were waiting for buyers to come and price them....

The leader of the ram dealers and marketers and Sarkin Tuken Bauchi, Alhaji Musa Firo told Weekly Trust that the major problem this festive season is poor sales due to low patronage, because people now wait for government and the politicians to buy rams and distribute to them free of charge.
Alhaji Musa Firo, says, “The low sales are discouraging since the prices of the rams were not high when compared with the prices we sold the animals last two years’ festive seasons where an average ram was sold from N8, 000 up to N100, 000, cows from N40, 000 up to N150, 000 and camels were being sold from 70,000 up to N120, 000.”

Another dealer Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu Shekal says, “There are good rams in the market, but we are not making good sales, and we have problem of feed. Livestock production is expensive because of the high cost of feeds. Sheep and cattle breeders have to purchase feeds; that is the reason why we sent most of our animals to the bush in the morning to look for food and returned them in the evening.”

Since majority of the people cannot afford to buy small ram at the cost of N8, 000 they now change their decision to contribute money and slaughter a cow and share it among members of the group who contributed the money, an arrangement called “Ton Ton”. Mallam Ubayo Baba Gana told Weekly Trust that about ten of them contributed N5,000 to purchase a big cow that has more meat and they realised it is cheaper and better than purchasing a small ram that has no meat.” Maybe, as the Sallah day approaches nearer, the sales will pick up.

When Bashir Abdullah, 45, a staff of the Kaduna State Water Board was feeling pain on the lower part of his abdomen, he went to a nearby hospital and he was diagnosed with appendix. Days later, he went to the Yusuf Dantsoho Hospital for treatment but a staff of the hospital introduced him to a private hospital at Unguwar Mu’azu. Bashir’s 24-year-old nephew, Ahmed said they were on queue at the Dantsoho Hospital when a man told them that the centre has exhausted their budget for this year and that the operation would not be carried out until the next. Ahmed said the man referred them to one Dr. Sani. “When we met Sani, he described his hospital to us but we could not locate it because there was no signboard. So we called his GSM line and he led us there,” he explained.

Ahmed said when they reached Sani’s hospital, the doctor asked them to get him razor blades in order to perform the operation. “Few minutes after we gave him the razors, he cut my uncle open and brought out an object. He then told us that that was the problem.” Ahmed told Weekly Trust that his uncle who went to the Hospital with his motorcycle could no longer walk or talk after the surgery...

Few days later, he said the condition of his uncle deteriorated and that they rushed him back to Sani’s hospital. “When we reached the hospital, pus was coming out of the operated area. We later rushed him to a government hospital, where he died. It was after his demise that we got to know that the so-called doctor, Sani, has killed over 20 people in our area,” Ahmed alleged.

Like late Bashir, Alhaji Abdulraheem Gambo of Ruma Road in Sabon Gari went to Yusuf Dantsoho Hospital for medication where one Alhaji Abbas introduced him to Dr. Sani. According his son, Adamu Gambo, who is a fashion designer in Kasuwar Barchi, his late father was suffering from urine-related disease. He said when they got to Sani’s hospital, he was operated on the 15th of June, this year. “Sani demanded for N38, 000 and we paid him N24, 000 but my father died the following day after the operation.’’

Speaking to Weekly Trust, Dr. Sani denied the allegation of using razor blades to perform the surgery. “When they brought the patient to me, I asked them to get me a razor blade which I only used to clear the hair around the patient’s abdomen,’’ he said. Sani heads the theatre unit of the Yusuf Dantsoho Memorial Hospital, owned by the Kaduna State government. “You know the society we find ourselves in, people call me doctor because I have been working in the hospital for years. I have never for once told anybody that I am a medical doctor. Yes, I perform minor operations in my private hospital, even here at the government hospital at times, but it’s because of my experience,’’ Sani said.

He said he secured approval from the Kaduna State Ministry of Health to operate the clinic and that he removed the signboard of the clinic because he has concluded arrangement to renovate it. He also said that he has stopped admitting patients because of the renovation.

Sani continued: “I don’t have any syndicate I use in diverting patient from Government hospital to my own. People always come to me for assistance. Like the case of the Water Board staff, he came to me that I should assist him and I did. He was only able to pay me N10, 000 out of the N15, 000 naira I charged them. Hours after I operated him for appendix, he insisted that I should discharge him, which I did. He was anxious to leave.’’

On reports that 20 people died at his hospital, he said: “No. No-one has died in my hospital. But you know death is natural and it comes at any time. People are only out to dent my image.’’

The Chief Medical Director of the Yusuf Dantsoho Memorial Hospital, Dr. Mrs. A. E. Usman said the case has been referred to the technical committee of the hospital and that she has reported the case to Director in charge of Nursing in the state Ministry of Health. “We are not going to hide anybody but I am not aware that a syndicate is diverting patients from our hospital to private ones,’’ she added.

However, when contacted to verify Sani’s claim that he registered his private hospital with the state government, the Head of Private Health Establishment in the Kaduna State Ministry of Health, Dr. Dogara Bok said the name of the hospital was not on the list of registered private health centres in the state. “He is operating illegally. Even as a maternity clinic, he is not expected to perform surgery,” Bok said. When Weekly Trust visited the clinic at Ikara Road in Unguwar Mu’azu, three ladies wearing nurses’ uniforms were seen, but no patients.

My Question Really would be What about Drunken Christians, Stealing Chrisitians, Lying Christians,Fornicating Christians WE ARE ALL CHRISTIANS IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE GAY "LIVE" WITH IT AND REPENT !

As more states consider whether or not to legalize gay marriage, church leaders have been forced to examine their theological position on homosexuality. They find themselves asking the question about gays and lesbians: What would Jesus do?

And they are coming to very different conclusions.

Some churches have decided to take the "hate the sin, love the sinner" approach by actively lobbying against gay marriage. Catholic leaders in Minnesota have turned to mass mailings as part of a media blitz to try to keep marriage between a man and a woman.

In Denver, an evangelical Christian pastor has split with his former church and started his own evangelical church that fully welcomes gays as worshipers and leaders.

The Rev. Mark Tidd says he does not see a discrepancy between the Bible and accepting members of the homosexual community.

"There's times when we change how we approach scripture because we observe how God is making God's self known in creation," he said. "We don't consider it a sin to be gay and we don't consider it a sin if you are gay and seek a relationship which is the only natural one you can have which would be someone of the same gender."

Video: Colorado candidates debate same-sex marriage issue

Lisa Crane and her husband Ryan left their more traditional evangelical church for Tidd's church, and have no plans to go back.

"Do we ever worry like, 'Oh God am I wrong about this?' and 'Am I going to get to heaven and God is going to be like – No, you weren't supposed to let the gays serve communion!'" Lisa said.

"You know, I don't think so. That doesn't jibe with the Jesus that we learned about from the Bible"

About 1,000 miles away, Gretchen Thibault hears a much different answer.

"What would Jesus do?" she wondered. "Jesus loves us, but the activity would not be appropriate. Jesus loves the sinner not the sin."

Thibault is a Roman Catholic living in Minneapolis, where the archdiocese has distributed 400,000 DVDs encouraging its members to support the idea that individuals and not judges should vote on an amendment that would define marriage between a man and woman.

Something imitating an outrage is brewing about Tonto Dike, the light-skinned Nollywood actress with eminently kissable lips. Tonto–some contend her name is sexually evocative–is hardly a stranger to controversy. The imitation of the controversy brewing this time is Tonto’s role in a yet-to-be released movie, Dirty Secret. In the movie clip already uploaded on Youtube, the actress was shown in a steamy scene with Mura Obiekwe, swapping French kisses and showing fractionally little more flesh than is normally seen in Nigerian movies. The movie, produced by Sanga Entertainment, a US-based company, also featured Jibola Dabo. As at press time, it had recorded 45,201 views–hardly a viral hit. Obiekwe was also shown wearing a G-string revealing the upper part of his ass cheeks while passionately kissing another man.

The clip, with a running time of 65 seconds, has attracted varied reactions, especially on the social media. On Youtube, viewers accused it of promoting obscenity, which they allege is a product of the influence of relative explicitness of Ghanaian movies.

A viewer, who identified himself as “Devil Forbid,” wrote: “I am so ashamed, I was amongst the people critisising Ghana for their soft porn. Is this all about money, fame, or just emulating the western world? This is insane, proper Nollywood malfunction. I hope they put a ban on this movie and penalise the actors respectively. This is a sign of the end. Muna is kissing a man.” Pobosky 100, another viewer, wrote: “I hope you realise movies like this were created for controversy and creativity, and may or may not reflect the sexuality of the actors and writers of the movie. It’s not like incest and homosexuality isn’t occurring in Nigeria anyway, so this rant and pretence on display is sardonic.”

Gentlelyke85 was scathing, in less than gentle language. “Did I really just see that? Lord have mercy upon my eyes. Wow, what the f**ck are Africans doing in their movies these days. That’s so disgraceful,” he wrote.

Glenakin, who also took a dim view of the clip, wrote: “Guess they saw it worked for Ghana and trust Nigeria, they had to take this to the next level.”

Not every viewer has been sanctimonious. For example, one who called himself Amblors could not understand what the fuss is all about. “Look at Nigerians getting all holy and sh**t like they don’t have sex or do kinky things like wear thongs,” he wrote.

Tonto feels–naturally–the same way too. “Why would we enjoy seeing nudity in Hollywood? It’s a f**cking profession, peeps. Grow up. I’m all out with my job and f**ck you hard if you find it otherwise,” she wrote.

She said that change is inevitable and wonders why the society will want to remain in the past. “I hate fake damn tradition. I have got a mind and heart my profession requires,” she wrote on Twitter.

Reactions from Tonto’s colleagues are similarly varied.

Emeka Ike believes that films like Dirty Secret dent the image of the industry. “I don’t know what the movie industry is turning into now. It will be a sorry-scene if this is true,” he said. Ike, who is yet to see the film, said soft porn is not what Nollywood wants at the moment.

Stella Damasus argued that Tonto is old enough to decide what she wants to do and should not be slated for that. She, however, said she does not believe that the movie qualifies as porn. “I doubt the fact that she will star in a porn movie,” she added.

Segun Arinze, National President, Actors Guild of Nigeria, AGN, believes that measures will be taken, if it is true that Dike acted nude. “I’m yet to see the preview of the movie, but if it’s true that she acted nude measures must be taken to curb such practices,” he said.

Arinze added that the interest of the actress is paramount to the Guild and that he will have to watch the film before he makes more comments.

The equally provocative Shan George argued that there is no need to make a big story out of the movie. “I have been told that there’s no big deal about the movie. I don’t think there’s need for a fuss over this,” she said.

Actress Halima Abubakar is of the opinion that Tonto did her job to the best of her ability. “It’s time Nigerians realised the difference between reality and fiction. She’s a professional and she knows what’s good for her,” she said. “For people to be talking about it this way means she played her role very well.”

Claims that she starred in anything akin to pornography, especially when the whole movie has not been seen, are exaggerated. Beyond the scenes of wet kisses and show of G-string for a few seconds, nothing heavy is on display.

Dike, 25, came to prominence through a reality show, The Next Movie Star, from which emerged as first runner-up. Her ascent has been meteoric. But so has been the speed at which she attracted controversy.

Celebrity journals have linked her to marijuana use, alcohol abuse and bi-sexuality. All these were denied.

She was also reported to have a fondness for peeling off her dresses in public places, especially after having a drink too many. This was reported to have happened on location as well as at Lagos’ Eko Hotel, New Expo Centre, where popular hip-hop artiste, Tu Face, was performing.

Tonto, a graduate of Petroleum Engineering, grew up without her mother in a family of nine. She idolises American actresses, Julia Roberts and Sharon Stone.

A 24-year-old man committed suicide live on the internet, Japanese police said Friday.

Some online chat forum users egged on the man after he posted that he was considering suicide, local media reported. Some chatters urged him not to, while others said he was lying, local media said.

The man started live-streaming his own hanging. Viewers called police.

The suicide was reported to police in the northern Japanese city of Sendai about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, said the vice chief of the Sendai North Police.

Officers found the man at his home, after he had hanged himself. They determined his address with help from internet chat sites.

Police released no further information, citing privacy protections in cases of suicide.

An image has been floating around cyberspace, showing a person hanging from what looks like a fabric belt, looped across a horizontal pole or rod.

The streaming service Ustream said the image was not doctored and that it shows the man who killed himself....

Ustream removed the image after users flagged it, said spokesman Fumihiro Ito.

The company planned to beef up monitoring of user content following the suicide, Ito said.

In September I wrote about Google’s “extraordinary” efforts to stop employees, particularly engineers, from resigning to joinpre-IPO startups like LinkedIn, Twitter and especially Facebook. In onecase we confirmed an engineer making around $150,000 turned down a 15%raise plus $500,000 in restricted stock and left for Facebook anyway.

That’s all chump change now. We’ve confirmed today that a staff engineer at Google being heavily romanced by Facebook was offered a jawdropping $3.5 million in restricted stock by Google (this means Googleis handing over stock worth $3.5 million based on its value today, andthat stock will vest over time). He quite wisely accepted Google’scounter offer. Facebook lost this one...

From our previous post in September:

Sources close to Google told us that about 80% of people stay when they’re offered a counter to a Facebook offer. But some stillleave. Part of that may be that Facebook is quietly telling people,never in writing, that there’s no reason their stock won’t hit $100billion in total valuation over the next couple of years. No guarantees,yadda yadda, but hey if you get 1/10 of 1%, that’s $100 million instock. Now it’s a party.

Google isn’t making these kind of counter offers to everyone, but it’s not a one off, either. It seems to me that every Google engineer atleast should be taking a personal day to go collect a Facebook offer.Even if it’s just to get a counter offer from their current employer.

However effective these counter offers are, they sure aren’t good for morale internally at Google. Unless, of course, you’re one of the ones winning the lottery.

Back in February we wrote about Facebook’s secret Project Titan —

a web-based email client that we hear is unofficially referred to internally as its “Gmail killer”. Now we’ve heard from sources that this is indeed what’s coming on Monday during Facebook’s special event, alongside personal @facebook.com email addresses for users...

This isn’t a big surprise — the event invites Facebook sent out hinted strongly that the news would have something to do with its Inbox, sparking plenty of speculation that the event could be related to
Titan. Our understanding is that this is more than just a UI refresh for
Facebook’s existing messaging service with POP access tacked on.
Rather, Facebook is building a full-fledged webmail client, and while it
may only be in early stages come its launch Monday, there’s a huge
amount of potential here.

Facebook has the world’s most popular photos product, the most popular events product, and soon will have a very popular local deals product as well. It can tweak the design of its webmail client to
display content from each of these in a seamless fashion (and don’t
forget messages from games, or payments via Facebook Credits). And
there’s also the social element: Facebook knows who your friends are and
how closely you’re connected to them; it can probably do a pretty good
job figuring out which personal emails you want to read most and
prioritize them accordingly.

Oh, and assuming our sources prove accurate, this explains the timing of the Google/Facebook slap fight over contact information.

We’ll keep digging for more details and will have full coverage on Monday...

Posted on: Friday, 12 November 2010, 06:59 CST

British scientists have created genetically modified sterile mosquitoes in an experiment to kill off others in their species, and researchers are hopeful that early field trials could help to stave off the rapid spread of dengue fever.

This is the first time genetically altered mosquitoes have been set loose in the wild, after years of lab experiments and calculations. But while scientists believe the trial could lead to a breakthrough in halting the disease, critics argue that mutant mosquitoes could possibly wreak havoc on the environment.

Dengue fever, a potentially life-threatening febrile disease that occurs in the tropics, is spread through the bite of infected female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. More than 2.5 billion people are at risk and the World Health Organization estimates there are at least 50 million cases every year. There is no treatment or vaccine.

“This test in the Cayman Islands could be a big step forward,” Andrew Read, a professor of biology and entomology at Pennsylvania State University, who was not involved in the project, told the Associated Press (AP). “Anything that could selectively remove insects transmitting really nasty diseases would be very helpful.”

Scientists from Oxitec, a company that uses modern biotechnology to develop insect strains that are sterile and that can be used to control pests of both public health and agriculture, ran a small trial with the Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU) in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. They found that releasing the genetically altered insects into a small 40-acre area three times a week from May to October managed to wipe out 80 percent of the species in just six months.

Luke Alphey, Oxitec's chief scientist and co-founder, said with such a small area, it would have been very difficult to detect a drop in dengue cases. But their modeling estimates suggested an 80 percent reduction in mosquitoes should result in fewer dengue infections.

“The idea is based on releasing sterile males who will go out ...and mate with wild females,” Alphey told Reuters. “One of the main advantages is that the males actively look for the females -- that's what they are programmed to do.”

Larvae are produced but most die before they hatch and the rest survive only a short time as mosquitoes.

While there currently is no treatment for dengue fever, French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis is one of various groups seeking to develop vaccines. It is testing its candidate in late stage clinical trials, but experts say it could be many years before a vaccine is on the market.

Alphey’s team bred male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes which can attract and mate with females but are genetically engineered to die if they do not feed on a certain antidote, in this case an antibiotic called tetracycline.

“We put a segment of DNA into the mosquito which means it will die unless it gets the antidote,” Alphey told Reuters at a briefing in London on Thursday.

“By giving them tetracycline in the lab, we can keep them alive and breed large numbers of them, but when we release the males into the environment and they mate with wild females, all the offspring inherit a copy of the gene that kills them if they don't get the antidote...so they die,” he said.

Angela Harris of the Cayman MRCU, told Reuters that she was very encouraged by the results of the trial. “This kind of technology really has a place for reducing dengue and having an impact on human health,” she said.

“One of dengue's main problems is that there's no cure, there's no vaccine and there are no drugs you can take to avoid it or get better from it. So the only control you can really come by ... is killing the mosquitoes and making sure they're not there to transmit the virus in the first place,” she added.

But some experts warn that the genetically modified mosquitoes could become an environmental nightmare.

“If we remove an insect like the mosquito from the ecosystem, we don't know what the impact will be,” Pete Riley, campaign director of GM Freeze, a British non-profit group that opposes genetic modification, told AP.

Mosquito larvae might be food for other animal species, which could starve if the larvae disappear, said Riley. Or taking out adult mosquito predators might open up a slot for other insect species to slide in, potentially introducing new diseases.

The track record of humans interfering with natural ecosystems has been rather sketchy, he said. In the past, such interventions have led to overpopulation of species including rabbits and deer. “Nature often does just fine controlling its problems until we come along and blunder into it,” said Riley.

Alphey said the genetically modified mosquitoes cannot permanently change the ecosystem because they only live for a single generation. But to halt dengue in endemic areas like Asia and South America, billions of the modified mosquitoes would likely be needed to choke off their wild counterparts.

Yeya Toure, who leads the World Health Organization's team on Innovative Vector Control Interventions, told AP that the Cayman Islands trial was promising and said it's worth continuing the genetic modification experiments.

He said genetically altered mosquitoes aren’t meant to replace existing applications such as insecticides, but to compensate for their limitations, especially when mosquitoes develop resistances.

Alphey said his Oxford-based firm is talking with officials from various countries, including Malaysia, Brazil and Panama about conducting larger trials in those countries to stifle dengue fever.

Meet the Top 7 of Glo Naija Sings – Find Out Who Is On TOP & Decide Who will EXIT this week

7-foot 14-year-old from India is ready to follow in Yao's footsteps

By Kelly Dwyer

Size, in and of itself, is no guarantee when it comes to trying to predict NBA stardom. Or even a chance at an NBA roster.

Through the years, we've seen countless 7-footers from several countries fall short, so to speak, time and time again when it comes to trying to hold
their own at the NBA level. The Americans clearly lead the league in
failing at this aspect, but a dozen other countries have flubbed as
well.

One country that hasn't taken to the ring, or the court, yet? India. And though this massive nation hasn't had a player play or even be drafted by an NBA team, it's not easy to see why Satnam Singh
Bhamara might not be the exception to the rule. After all, the 7-footer
has scouts drooling over his skills.

The catch?

He's only 14.

But he's also 7-feet tall.

Once again, if you missed that: 7-feet tall, and 14 years of age.

[Rewind: Terrell Brown may be the largest football player you've ever seen]

Tim Povtak of FanHouse has the story:

"Satnam is on track to be a very, very good long-term basketball player,'' said Dan Barto, director of player development at IMG Basketball Academy,
who recently returned from India where he conducted several coaching
clinics. "His biggest weakness now is our biggest strength here when it
comes to developing players -- neuromuscular firing -- overall body
control. His potential is pretty amazing.''

That potential starts with his size, which is incredible itself. At age 14, he is expected to
grow for another couple of years. For now, he wears a size-22
basketball shoe. His hands swallow the ball. His father, Balbir Singh
Bhamara, is 7-2. His grandmother on his father's side is 6-9.

He already has a man's body with broad shoulders and a thick chest.
Although his leg strength is not good yet, there is nothing skinny about
him. Through the normal maturation process -- if he continues to work
-- he should become quite a specimen in the next five years...

It's a bad joke at this point, but if you're a 7-footer and you can walk and chew gum, then you have a shot at the NBA. And, to be fair, most of the
7-foot NBA washouts just didn't have the coordination needed to compete
at this level.

An attempt to immortalise late Ken Saro-Wiwa, an Ogoni environmental activist who was hanged in 1995 by the military regime of Sani Abacha, was on Thursday blocked at the senate.

The proposal came through a motion sponsored by Lee Maeba (PDP River state) which sought the senate’s consent to name a prominent national monument and major road in Abuja after the late Saro-Wiwa. Mr. Maeba was also seeking that the senate declare 11th November of every year to be named and recognised as ‘Ken Saro-Wiwa Day’ in Nigeria.

However, all his pleas were turned down by his colleagues at the senate...

The senators argued that if the motion was accepted, it will contradict the state action which carried out the execution of Mr. Saro-Wiwa and that it will only attract unwanted public attention that can’t be afforded now.

Human rights groups had condemned the military tribunal that found Mr Saro Wiwa and other Ogoni activists guilty,

saying it was closed to the public and did not meet global standards of fairness.

But some of the senators who opposed the motion to honour the man argued that it excluded several other late pro-democracy fighters such as Moshood Abiola and Shehu Yar’Adua who lost their lives to military governments. Incidentally, an earlier motion to honour Mr Abiola was also rejected by the lawmakers.

No silence in senate

But while leading the debate on the motion, Mr. Maeba argued that the late Saro-Wiwa, who was the founder of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, dedicated himself to solving the problems of oil rich region through a non-violent movement for social and ecological justice.

He said the late Saro-Wiwa was a strong advocate of the actualisation of the rights of the Ogoni people as articulated in the Ogoni Bill of Rights.

“Saro-Wiwa’s devotion of his life to human rights and environmental struggle in the Niger Delta lead to his unjust imprisonment for several months without trial and his execution for trumped-up charges along with eight others,” Mr. Maeba said.

However, not even his prayer that a minute silence be held in his honour was admitted by the senate.

A 13-year old boy, Kabiru Sanni has drowned in an abandoned soak away pit at 17, Orisanu Street, Ijegun in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria.

It was learnt that Kabiru drowned in the pit covered by flood as the victim attempted to pass through it.

P.M.NEWS gathered that the landlord of the house, the late Ogunsake Saba attempted to construct the soak away but could not complete it before he died a few years ago.

The house was inherited by the late Ogunsake’s children. But they also did not complete the soak-away.

According to the tenants, they paid advance rent to enable the landlord’s children complete the soak-away but they did not do it or refund their money.

Efforts by the tenants to compel them to complete the project did not yield any result until the incident occurred.

Following the death of Kabiru Sanni, the owners of the storey building were arrested by the police at Isheri Oshun for allegedly causing the death of the boy.

Those arrested were Idowu Saba and Kehinde Saba while other members of the family have gone into hiding to escape arrest.

When P.M.NEWS visited Isheri Oshun Police Station, the reporter was referred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Yaba, Lagos where further investigation has commenced on the matter after the suspects were transferred there.

At the time of filing this report, the suspects were still in SCID custody.

Photo:previous soakaway pit victims from enugu

Enugu Incident in June:

On Friday 22 May, the staff of One With God Sewage Services in Enugu had finished evacuating the septic tank at 15 Umuaniabor Street Awkunanaw, Garki, Enugu and were about to go when a woman in the house asked them whether they had done a thorough job. Confident that his team had done a marvelous job, Sunday Chukwu, one of the staff of the sewage company who cleared the faeces, opened the lid of the pit. But the pungent fumes emanating from the pit overpowered him. He fell into the pit, unconscious.

The Killer Soak-away pit

When Chukwu did not come up, Chibuike Okoye, a Nigerian Law School student and tenant in the said house who invited the sewage company, went into the tank to rescue him. But he, too, fell unconscious. This prompted a third person to attempt a rescue. This ended in disaster as the man also succumbed to the fumes and passed out. When tenants of the house saw that the three men in the pit were lying motionless in the tank, they fled from the building, screaming and crying.

At this juncture, personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, led by Mr Paul Inaya, arrived the scene but discovered that they were too late to save the three men. Officials of the Enugu South Local Government Health Department later came to dilute the strong gas in the tank with chemicals and water before people could go down to bring out the corpses. But before this was done, a live cock was dropped inside the tank and it survived. The dried up corpses of the three men were later released to the Police coroner for autopsy.

The Coordinator of the Health Department, Mr. Christian Egbo said the tragedy occurred because the septic tank was not allowed to cool for at least two hours before the men went in. He added that human feaces has chemicals that can kill. Egbo advised sewage service providers to always study the environment of houses/yards they intend working on for air escape routes before opening such tanks. He also urged them use ample chemicals to neutralise the poisonous gas before going inside septic tanks..

The landlord of the building, Mr. Bartholomew Mbaorji was said to have travelled. But his wife was later detained and released by the Police in Awkunanaw. She absolved herself of any blame, saying that she engaged the services of a registered sewage company which ought to know its job...

President Goodluck Jonathan is making efforts to pacify chieftains of the Peoples’ Democratic Party in Delta State bent on ensuring that Emmanuel Uduaghan, who was recently sacked as the state governor, does not contest the rerun election expected to take place in the next three months.

Mr. Jonathan is reportedly talking to Edwin Clark, a foremost Ijaw leader who is allegedly bent on truncating the re-election bid of Mr. Uduaghan.

The former governor who was in Abuja on Wednesday to meet Mr. Jonathan told journalists at the Presidential Villa that he had come to, “brief President Jonathan, the leader of our party, on the political development in my state.” He later met with the president in the evening, and Mr Jonathan was said to have assured him of his support.

The national leadership of the PDP is also working to reconcile all warring parties in the state to ensure that all those likely to work against the re-election of Mr. Uduaghan listen to the appeal of the president and work in “one accord” to make sure the party wins the rerun election.

Mr. Uduaghan has had a long-running battle with a faction of the party under the influence of Mr Clark. The group had publicly celebrated the former governor’s ouster and announced its opposition to his nomination as the party’s candidate in the rerun election expected to hold by early February. Mr. Clark is also one of the staunchest supporters of Mr. Jonathan in the country.

Mr. Jonathan, a source privy to the meeting said yesterday, threw his weight behind the former governor, just as he has done in previous cases in which he had supported incumbent PDP governors.

This support is critical for Mr. Uduaghan, who is currently battling to return to the Delta State Government House, amidst strong oppositions ahead of the re-run election for the gubernatorial seat in the state....

Mend thy ways

A presidency source said although Mr. Jonathan re-assured the former governor of his support, he admonished Mr Uduaghan to be more amenable to his critics in the future.

“The president may have really been angry with the former governor because of his past alleged disloyalty. However, he reassured the governor of his support to re-contest the seat,” the source said.

“The former governor has been directed to go and do a few things to correct his past mistakes,” the source added.

The former governor had earlier told journalists at the presidential villa that he was set to do battle with his political opponents in the rerun election.

Obviously counting on the president’s support, Mr. Uduaghan said he was confident that he would win the election, maintaining that he was confident in the electorate, whom he said “will decide.”

New voters register

Meanwhile, a body known as Good Government Initiative (GGI) has called on the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC) to use the conduct of the re-run election in Delta State to prove it has the ability to conduct a free and fair election. The group, in a statement signed by Eric Omare, its coordinator, urges INEC not to use the present voters register to conduct the re-run election in the state because it is fraught with irregularities.

The statement condemned what it called the inconsistent judgments of various panels and tribunals, adding that yesterday’s judgement was an indictment on the Nigerian judiciary.

“The voters register was deliberated manipulated in the last voters’ registration to favour Emmanuel Uduaghan. This manipulation was done in some wards in some local government areas where Dr.Uduaghan was perceived to have strength,” he said. “We therefore call on Jega to ensure compilation of a new voters register before conducting the re-run election in Delta State. The present voters register in Delta State cannot guarantee a free and fair election”, the statement said.