For turning themselves to sex machines as a means to make ends meet, five female teenagers are now in police net in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital
The suspected prostitues were arrested by the police, alongdise their sponsor, Maltina Opara at Terminus Hotel, Sagamu, their base of operations.
LEADERSHIP
reliably learnt that, the police, acting on a tip-off, had stormed the hotel in the night where the alleged prostitutes were arrested and subsequently transfered to Eleweran Headquarters, Abeokuta
Thier names are: Nafisa Adams (Kaduna State) , Patricia Sunday (Edo State) , Jennifer Edejo (Benue State) , Bukky Ilesanmi (Ondo State) and Precious Nmadi (Imo State) .
As at the time of filing this report, the arrested ladies are singing like parrots over their roles in the shameless profession, with the excuse that they are into the trade to make a living.
The ladies disclosed that their fee is as low as N300, adding that in a day, they realise the sum of N1,500 as maximum profit, having paid their daily payment of N500 as tenancy.
Speaking on the ugly development, Muyiwa Adejobi, the state Police Command Public Relations Officer said, all the suspects would be transferred to the National Anti-Human Traffic Unit for further prosecution.
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Leaders and proponents of the proposed mega party in the country will on June 12 rally eminent Nigerians to support their alternative bill on electoral reform before it goes to the National Assembly.
The mega party movement announced last week in Abuja that it would send an alternative bill on electoral reform to the National Assembly, even as the legislature is already discussing six bills forwarded by the presidency.
Briefing the press in Abuja at the weekend, Mr Wale Okunniyi, the group's director of organisation, said leaders of the mega party would, at a meeting with the leadership of labour and civil society groups adopt the final draft, ahead of the electoral reform rally on Friday, where the bill would be presented for mass mobilisation.
The secretariat of the mega party movement also disclosed that the electoral reform rally would feature goodwill/solidarity speeches as well as signatures from eminent Nigerians for endorsing the alternative bill.
According to the group, those already invited to the rally are frontline political allies like former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and former governors like Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande, Chief Olusegun Osoba, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa and Alhaji Lam Adesina.
"Governor Olusegun Mimiko and Comrade Governor Adams Oshiomhole are billed to speak at the gathering, while Governor Peter Obi, Governor Ikedia Ohakim, Governor Theodore Orji among other progressive governors, are also invited to play important roles at the rally", Okunniyi said.
"Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State is slated to be the chief host of the historic celebration, which will hold at the Lagos Airport Hotel at 10am prompt", he said.
It will be recalled that the leaders of political parties in the new movement, last Friday at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, resolved to field one single presidential candidate to contest the next election on the platform of the mega party.
Some notable political leaders, including the presidential candidate of the ANPP, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar, who was represented by Alhaji Ahmed Yusuf from Taraba State, and the National Chairman of the Labour Party, Mr Dan Nwanyanwu, among others, also openly declared their membership of the mega party at the summit.
The group further clarified that its proposed national summit and the launching of the mega party will both take place before the last quarter of this year.
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Team Leader, Richard Lander Brothers Memorial Expedition Group, Steve Dunstone, has urged the Nigerian media to stop negative reports on the country and the oil-rich Niger Delta region.
Dunstone, who is on a tour of tourism sites in Delta, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Asaba on Sunday that the negative reports in the international media were portraying the country in bad light.
He said that these reports were scaring investors and tourists away from Nigeria.
Dunstone said that the team had been enjoying peace and hospitable reception from the people of Delta since they arrived in the state on June 3.
He explained that since they came to Delta, the team had not witnessed any violence as portrayed in many international media reports.
"Delta is peaceful and hospitable and investors are welcome," he said.
On developing the tourism potential of Delta, Dunstone said that documentation of the rich tourism potential and cultural heritage of the state was needed for easy marketing.
According to him, tourists and investors need information on these potential for planning and investment.
He said that there were numerous untapped rich tourism potential and cultural heritage of Delta and noted that deliberate efforts should be made to develop and exploit them.
Dunstone said: "Having moved from Niger State to Delta State, I discovered that Delta is one of the states with the highest tourism opportunities.
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I am certain Armed Robbers,Immigration authorities,Drug Courts and even the JTF kill less people .THE National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has said that the number of people who die in road accidents is likely to increase over the next 10 years from the current 1.3 million annually to about 1.9 million by 2020.According to the agency, the over 50 million injured victims annually will also increase except concerted efforts are made to stem the tide of road accident.Assistant Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, Mr. Apollos Jediel, made the prediction while receiving a delegation that paid a condolence visit to the zonal office over the death of the immediate past Zonal Coordinator, Hajiah Fatimah Usman with her children recently in a road mishap.He said: "These hidden road casualties and injury epidemics, which take away our agile and skilled manpower are a crisis for public health and a major contributor to the causes of poverty."Therefore, it is high time we treat it as a national emergency as we are daily being confronted by an epidemic that kills and maims on the scale of major infectious diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS."Information Officer of NEMA, Maiduguri zone, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, said in a statement, that Jediel listed the menace of petroleum tankers, trailers and large-and-slow moving vehicles' drivers as the major cause of road accidents in the country.Jediel stated that over 70 per cent of road accidents could be prevented, if petroleum tankers, trailers and large-slow moving vehicles' drivers adhere to section 15 of the Highway Code.According to him, the section 15 of the code states that "it is an offence for large and slow moving vehicles to allow smaller or fast moving vehicles queue behind it whenever the driver can pull over safely to make way for other vehicles".The Assistant Zonal Coordinator stated that NEMA has observed that large and slow moving vehicles do not care about the highway regulations that stress the need for them to pull-in and slow down or stop as soon as it is safe to give fast moving vehicles a chance to overtake them safely.He noted that the act by small and fast moving vehicles of queuing behind a trailer or slow moving vehicles most times lead to multiple and fatal accidents as the smaller vehicles struggle to outwit one another.Jediel also drew the attention of the Federal Road Safety Commission to the provision of Section 26 on the indiscriminate parking of fuel tankers, and other long vehicles on our highways.Non-compliance with this provision, he said, also constitutes another major obstruction to other road users as parking on both sides of the road at the same time, known as double- parking, causes hindrance to free movement of other vehicles.The nation has lost many lives and valuables because of accident at the converging spots in various part of the country.The assistant zonal coordinator therefore, urged motorists and other road users to call the attention of the security enforcement agencies' personnel to reckless driving for appropriate sanction against drivers who constitute danger to other road users.NEMA PREDICT
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IT was victory for women as the current administrative policy of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) compelling a married Nigerian woman to produce a letter of consent from her husband as a condition for issuance of international passport has been declared unconstitutional by the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt.
The presiding Judge, Justice G.K. Olotu, made this declaration in a suit by Dr. Priye Iyalla-Amadi, wife of renowned author, Elechi Amadi, against the director general of the Nigeria Immigration Service (first defendant) (NIS), (second defendant) and the service itself.
Justice Olotu, in his judgment, said this requirement for processing of application for international passport as it concerns married women, is a violation of Section 42 (1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution and Article 18(3) of the West African Charter on the People's Human Rights, being discriminatory on grounds of sex, hence unlawful and unconstitutional.
Following the loss of her international passport, Dr. Iyalla-Amadi had applied to the NIS for the issuance of another passport and the officer who attended to her request gave a list of documents that she would attach to the her formal application, among them a letter of consent from her husband.
Irked by this condition, the plaintiff protested against it on the ground that a mature adult citizen of the country like her should not require the consent of any person before she could be issued a Nigerian passport, but her protest fell on deaf ears, thus the decision to file the suit against the NIS.
The defendants did not really dispute the facts adduced by the plaintiff in their counter-affidavit but sought to justify the requirement of a letter of consent from the husband of a married woman who wants to be issued a Nigerian passport on the basis that Nigerian married women are classified alongside with minors by the government as persons who require consent from the head of the family.
NIS argued that the requirement for consent was put in place to perpetuate the authority of the man over his wife, no matter the status she had attained in society. It also stated that the requirement was set to avoid unnecessary breakdown of marriage institution in the country.
Another argument advanced by the NIS was that obtaining a Nigerian passport from the Federal Government by a Nigerian is a privilege, hence any person applying must fulfil all the conditions laid down by the sole agent of the government, which is the NIS.
But counsel to the plaintiff urged the court to declare the requirement unlawful and unconstitutional on the ground that it discriminates between Nigerian citizens on grounds of sex, contrary to Section 42 of the constitution.
She added that the requirement offends the equality of citizens' principle enshrined in Section 17 (1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution.
Iyalla-Amadi' s counsel argued that the condition for issuance of passport to married women violates internationally- accepted standards of non-discrimination against women, which to Nigeria is a signatory.
Justice Olotu explained that he had directed the plaintiff and the defendants to present the facts they wished to rely on for and against the plaintiff's action.
According to him, while the plaintiff complied with the order of the court, the defendants did not. He also stated that the defendants did not challenge the averments in the affidavits of the plaintiff.
He observed that the defendants seemed to have thrown in their towel after filing what he called their spurious and sociological dissertation in the name of counter-affidavit.
The judge observed from the wordings of the constitutional provisions in Sections 17 (1) (2) and 42 of the 1999 Constitution that all citizens of Nigeria are put on the same pedestal irrespective of sex and status.
Olotu declared that the policy is obnoxious, repugnant and unconstitutional, stating that the defence of the defendants merely showed that the policy was a cunning, surreptitious and high-powered calculated attempt to subjugate women as if they are still in the medieval times.
According to him, "this kind of policy has no place in the 21st Century Nigeria."
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From Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu, BeninA SOCIO-CULTURAL group in Edo State, the Benin National Congress (BNC), yesterday called on the Federal Government to intervene in its fight to prevail on the British government to return Benin artifacts carted away since 1897.The group also urged President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to return 27 oil wells belonging to Edo, which were ceded to Ondo and Delta states by the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida.They also called for amnesty for the 27 soldiers sentenced to life imprisonment in Akure for mutiny.In a letter to the President and signed by the association' s vice president and secretary, Omowemwen Imadiyi and Osazee Erhiamato, the group said it would not hesitate to begin mobilisation with a view to instituting legal action against the British government to force it to return the artifacts.It argued that Britain's continued retention of the "historical and ancestral" materials ran contrary to diplomatic relations between the two countries."It will be fair and patriotic for the Presidency to review its foreign policy relations with Britain within the context of the backlog of oppressive tendencies, which have undermined Nigeria's collective aspiration - to be together for peace, progress and justice, as any attempt to downplay these fundamentals of unity and accord will have far-reaching negative effects on our national integrity, if not now, certainly later."The Benin National Congress as you may well know is a foremost pan-Edo socio-cultural organisation that has been at the forefront of the struggle for the just and unconditional repatriation of all Benin artifacts, which were looted from the palace of the Oba of Benin, 'primitive' museums and the shrines of the people of the kingdom under the pretext of colonialism" , they added.The statement said the ceding of Edo oil wells to other states was an injustice and depletion of the state's revenue, which is needed for its development.The group urged that the soldiers be granted amnesty, since according them, it was discovered that they were actually shortchanged by their superiors.
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Nigeria civil war hero and former Secretary General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Joe Achuzia, has faulted government’s strategies for solving the Niger Delta crisis insisting that both the Federal and the governments of the South South zone have been parochial in their handling of the problem.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Daily Sun in Asaba, Chief Achuzia said the Nigerian Government was yet to pursue the right option for ending the tension and hostilities in the oil-rich region.
The former Biafran warlord who confessed that he introduced setting oil fields on fire as a war strategy, offered to solve the Niger Delta problem in six months.
He urged both in governments to humble themselves and seek the help of more knowledgeable hands
Excerpts:
Military incursion right option?
What you should really ask is, ‘Is Nigeria government pursuing the right option?’ My answer is ‘No’. You see, the government of Nigeria, the government of Delta State and all the governments in South-South are seeing the problem with a jaundiced eye.
It is for that reason that Obasanjo made a terrible mistake at Odi. I operated within the whole of these Creeks during the war and if there is anybody that taught them in Nigeria, how to set fire on crude oil, I am the one who did because, it is not easy to set fire on crude oil unless you know how. That I did during the war but the terrain from the West to Burutu and so on, is still the same.
When Gowon declared 12 states and created Rivers State, part of why I did not fight back into Rivers State is that I had hoped that Diete Spiff and the rest would be able to transform the area.
But having lived long enough to see Saro-Wiwa lament the decadence and bad situation existing within the Creek area, I realized that our people have not learnt a lesson.
Why the crisis has persisted
The problem is straight forward. They say those who must come to equity must come with clean hands. The governments that govern within our state and the whole of the South- South region have people with tainted hands. They are unable to come to equity with clean hands.
Centrally, efforts have been made to give us certain concessions. If the 13 percent concession given for each state is devoted to develop the region, what is happening today wouldn’t be happening. Those areas would have become an Eldorado. But greed which is characteristic of Southern politicians has made it impossible and unless you belong to that club, you have no voice within the activities of governance.
Way out of the mess
Even if you ask me today to give an advice on how to bring the whole problem to a halt, it wouldn’t be MEND that would be pursuing me; it would be our own government. So, it will be senseless to ask me what should the government do. If I was able to go into Liberia at the height of their war to help solve their problem, I went to Kinshasa when Kabila was on his way to Kinshasa to make sure that Mobutu was not killed at the time that there is a peaceful transition of government, how much more the problem that is here.
But it suits the present government to brand us as those the Federal government has rejected and as such, they don’t seek our advice. Rather, children, some whom my children are older than, look upon us as renegades and rebels forgetting that what affects me affects them, what affects them affects me.
And the reason for their thinking that way is greed, as if you were coming to take part in what they call their own special preserve. The leaders of those South South governments will not tell you that they were not party to the creation of those people called MEND and the others across the Creeks.
I Can fix it
Any day they want me to prove it, call on me and within six months, this rubbish would stop. I don’t boast. When they were taking us when the war ended, one of our officers said that we would be killed.
I told him not a hair of one person will be pulled. We were interviewed and I was sent to detention for seven years. My seven years I spent in Katsina Prison. Everybody thought I was dead but I can assure you I was treated like a Head of State. The North knows the value of valour.
The country belongs to all of us, It will be in my interest to see the oil flowing again.
False mediators
I read about people who call themselves mediators. Foul. All these are pretenders. I don’t have to sit with Yar’Adua to tell them what to do. All I have to do is to tell them … … . We have armchair Generals and we have field Generals. I am not an armchair General. I ended the war as a Brigadier General but I chose to be addressed as a Colonel.
Me and my convictions
I don’t care what other people think. All I know is that once I am convinced, I believe God is with me and nothing will change it. People ask me that, “you said during the war, ‘not for me, not for my boys”. I said, Yes. I didn’t create the war; I didn’t invite them to come to fight. They came on their own. Whatever they are doing wouldn’t touch me. We wish them no evil, we have nothing against them, and I pass any person on my way and do my best not to hurt any person.
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5 Mistakes Women Make - By Ekene AgabuBefore I begin or rather let you into what I have written, I must confess that I had completed this article months ago but was a bit apprehensive in publishing it. I didn’t want to come across as being judgmental and if after reading this you feel judged or put down as a woman, please excuse my unskilled delivery, for that is not my intent. And if you feel that I have crossed the line as man sharing these with you, do not hesitate to express your disdain for my impetus.Having said that, I feel qualified to write this as a man because I stand as an unbiased observer and also one who has had the opportunity to take advantage of these mistakes. But I must confess, we as men have been @$$#*%*$ . Where we should have given, we took; where we should have loved, we lusted and where we should have preserved, we devoured. As a Man, I must call myself to higher standards. Before I touch you, I must respect you like my mother, protect you like my sister and look out for your best interest like my baby – after all, that’s what I call you when I want you! We’ve failed to realize that the significance of our masculinity does not lie in how many girls we can dis-virgin but rather the honor we can bestow upon one. We fail to understand that the purpose of our strength and dominance is to defend and protect not to attack and destroy.But the first mistake was not yours. You were born into a world that didn’t even give you the chance - the chance to be who you really are without any pressure or expectation. From day one you were unconsciously groomed from childhood to be an acceptable accessory to a man’s life. You were constantly made conscious of a false milestone that suggested your value was based upon a man finding you worthy to be his, instead of being made aware of who you are by virtue of your own unique existence. Your worth as a woman was reduced to two things; being a wife and your ability to bear a child – and in some cultures, you had to bear the right type of child. And if per chance you failed in one of these areas, you were nobody, no one – you were nothing.Unfortunately, along the way, you may have made some mistakes in trying to fulfill this false notion of who you are supposed to be. Bad relationship after bad relationship continually emphasized the lie that you were nothing without a man. Not only do you sit there as one with mental wounds from childhood, but also with hurts and wounds that are self inflicted as you sincerely tried to fulfill the so called destiny of the woman – being someone’s woman.As I share this with you, I do not come as one who claims to understand your plight, but rather I stand as one who has heard you. From my mother to my aunts to my cousins and my friends, I have heard you and will continue to listen whenever you speak.That being said, I do not believe we are responsible for the things that are done or said to us, but I do know that we are responsible for allowing those things continue in us. It’s in this light that I share with you the five common mistakes women make in relationships.Your Personal Standards! Don't leave home without them!By not setting your standard, you’ve just set the standard. The standards I speak of are not standards for the relationship; I speak of your personal standards irrespective of the relationship. What is your life’s moral compass? This could get a bit confusing, so let me explain. Often times, at a certain point in life, people turn to religion for some sort of moral guidance or law. It’s an acknowledgment of some sort that they have made numerous personal mistakes and are in probable search for a turn around. So you might have a young lady who’s been around the block and has now become a Christian, and professes that she will be celibate until she gets married thereby claiming this new belief to be her standard. This is a religious belief that she has now adopted and not a personal standard. Your personal standards are born and realized from within you and become your principles rather than a law. A principle is born out of understanding; an understanding of who you are and why you are here on this earth. If you are roaming the earth like a lost sheep in search of a man to give you relevance, you will always find yourself jumping from relationship to relationship with each one leaving you even more confused than you were in the beginning. But when you understand that you are not here by chance and your presence on this earth has significant relevance, the aura about you changes and the people and things you accept into your life will only be a reflection of your internal essence or your personal standard. A man can cause you to go against a belief because it was never yours in the first place, but he can never sway you away from your principle because you are one with your principle. A lady who lives from her principles takes personal responsibility for her own actions and responses. She takes charge and never leaves her fate to the opinions or actions of men. She doesn’t go on a date with every man that asks her out because she doesn’t need a man – she would want a man but she fully well understands that her worth is solely appraised on who she is and not who she’s with. She would not change her principle to have or keep a man. She’s doesn’t need to sleep with a man to have or keep him. She understands that whatever she can’t get by way of her principles will never be her own. That you are sleeping with a guy does not mean he’s yours. If you had to sleep with him to keep him, he was never yours in the first place. In the absence of your personal standards, you end up trying many things and many people, but you never experience the love that is already within you. Allow that love within to write your standards and begin to live from them. That love will never lead you astray, never ever!Why are you making excuses for him…..again?I have come to observe that ladies often see the man as the prize. So once it looks like they have him – especially if he appears to be a good one – they want to do everything in their power to keep him. I understand that, but I don’t accept that and neither should you. You are the Prize. We should fight over you and want to do things to get and keep you. We should want to make sure you are ok. A man who loves and respects a woman will never want her in doubt when it comes her knowing of his feelings towards her. When we are crazy about a woman, we are no longer the reserved and non emotional creatures you think we are. We become a mess - drooling internally when we think of you. We would never want you to feel you are on shaky ground concerning your status with us. We will publicly profess and show you to the whole world. We will put up a picture with you in it as the our profile pic, tag you in all photos you appear in and most importantly make sure that our status box shows that we are in a relationship with you. Yup, that’s what we do when we love you - we say it out LOUD! And when we are out and about with you, our professions are usually crystal clear: ‘Meet my girlfriend, Sandra’ or ‘Meet my fiance, Sandra.’ Not, ‘Meet Sandra’ who is Sandra??? When we love you, we want the world to know that we love you. But I get amazed when ladies see the writing on the wall and continually make excuses to justify a man’s blatant abuse towards them. What do I mean? Take for instance the introductions highlighted above; He introduces you as just ‘Sandra’: you know you don’t like it, but you make an excuse within yourself and say, ‘he’s a private kinda guy, he doesn’t like to publicly show stuff.’ Really? Ok, let me ask, “Are you enrolled in midnight gymnastics with him?” In other words has he bent your body in ways you didn’t think possible? Well, there is only one thing worse than a guy sleeping with a woman in secret; and that is, a woman allowing that to happen. Before you allow a man do to you privately what can affect you publicly, he must first of all acknowledge you publicly as the woman he respects and loves. If he can’t do that, you need to tell me why you are still sticking around. How can you allow a man to knock you up when you are just ‘Sandra’ to him? You know you deserve better, so stop the excuses. Instead of making excuses for him, take charge – not of him or the relationship, but of yourself. Never remain in an environment where your integrity is compromised. Remember, you are the prize and we should work hard to get and keep you. And after all our hard work, you still have a right to say NO.Why are you looking for ‘something’ in a bag of ‘nothings?’A few years ago, a friend who was engaged was getting ready for her wedding which was just a couple of months away at the time. She called me occasionally during the preparation process, but on this one phone call, things were pretty bad. She was mad, upset, disappointed and unhappy that she was marrying this guy. So I asked her why she was still going on with the wedding if she felt the marriage wouldn’t work out. She said to me that she did not want the last four years of her life spent with him to go to waste. Hmmm! When she said this, I looked at my phone because I couldn’t look at her (she was in a different city) and in that instant – if I had a private jet – I would have flown to her city to give her a knock on her head - not a hard one, just a gentle knock - to help tilt her brain back to the center of her skull, because obviously it seemed out of balance with what she had just said to me. Let’s think about this, You are willing to screw up the next 50 years of your life, create babies in a hostile environment with a man you despise thereby screwing up the next generation, raising kids that would need therapy for the rest of their lives based on the abuse they will experience in that home, all because you don’t want the last four years of your life - 1,2,3,4 - to mean nothing (I’m having a headache just rehashing the story). So you are trying to create a love marriage from a four year crappy relationship. Needless to say, this lady was a young beautiful 28yr old lawyer. With good life habits she could easily live another healthy 50 years (Have you seen Barbara Walters lately? She’s 80). And here you are, willing to mortgage a future on four years with this jerk? She was desperately trying to make something out of nothing. That you’ve been in a long term relationship does not mean you should continually stay in it. Unfortunately for some ladies, it takes a while to see the light and muster up courage to get out of a bad situation. But when you see the light; RUN, GO, your life deserves it. If you don’t make that change, you’ll never know what’s out there? And when I say out there, I don’t mean what’s out there in another relationship; I mean what’s out there in you that you are yet to discover. Some of you ladies are afraid – afraid that you might not be married by a certain time. You begin the calculations, ‘Ok, I’m 28 now, if I break this up, how long will it take to find another guy and get married? Oooh! It may take another 4 years and I’ll be 32. No! I can’t be single at 30.” You are killing yourself with this kind of dialogue. Like she later said to me, she always saw herself married by 29. Needless to say, she was divorced by 29. They got married alright, but their divorce was made final before a possible 1st wedding anniversary. Sometimes we allow fear to dictate what we should do. We will never get from fear what love has to give. Love is bold, confident and fearless. Why are you scared? Why are you letting fear keep you in a relationship that you know you don’t want? Why do you want to marry a guy who has already made you feel like trash? Why are you choosing to be with someone you are not crazy about? Ok, so you are more concerned about looking good and successful on the outside at the expense of how you truly feel on the inside. You are too special for that. Let people think what they think, you know what you know and that’s all that should matter. Sometimes, we don’t believe; we don’t believe in ourselves, so we settle and then try to make something out of nothing. You can’t change another human being, it’s impossible. You haven’t even changed some things about yourself; how then do you think it possible to change another?You’ve gotta think before you have his baby!Often times when I’m in conversation with one of my numerous lady friends, something always cracks me up. I know they been having sex for years in and out of relationships and that fact is not hidden between us. But on some occasions, when I ask them if they have been pregnant before, their voice takes on a new tone of ‘How dare you?’ And then there is a resounding NO, like, ‘how could I get pregnant?’ Wait a minute! Am I missing something here? If you are having sex – sexual intercourse, you are potentially making a baby. You are filing an application. As soon as he ejaculates into you, the application is submitted and the outcome of that process is no longer left to you or him but to the Department of Conception. And if they approve it, you become pregnant whether you want it or not. Sex is not just about the pleasure derived, neither is it an antidote for loneliness. Sex is Responsibility; meaning you will have to respond to the outcome of that sexual encounter and sometimes it could be a lifetime of responses especially when a child is conceived. And when that child is born, you will forever have a symbol representing your union with your ex. Once a child is conceived, there is no moving on from that relationship. It begins the strongest bond known between a man and a woman. That man holds a special place in your heart regardless of how you feel about him today. You may have an abortion in trying to cut any future ties to this man, but may I have you know that the power of conception outweighs the power of birth. For something to be born, it has to be conceived. We are all on this earth first because of conception then birth. Without conception they will be no birth but without birth there can be conception. A strong bond is created when you allow a man’s sperm to start life within you. It is a major privilege to give to someone and not everyone should have that kind of access to you. If a man is horny and wants to be relieved, tell him to use his hand. You are no object and certainly no substitute for a man’s hand. So if you don’t want to have his baby, don’t make his baby.I know there’s Pressure, but why are you under it?I have come to observe that whether she’s 21 or 29, she always feels she’s running out of time. One thing you must understand is that pressure is not real. You are real and when you give attention to or come under the dominance of something that is impotent, you give it potency – you give it power. That is why this thing we call ‘pressure’ has the effect it has. You give it the effect. You are the effect. Sometimes we are driven by those voices of ignorance that may have come from people we love, so we try hard to get into a relationship and make it work. “Oh! This one has to work cos I’m almost 30.” Screw him and screw 30. You are more valuable to yourself and to the world than the timeline of your eggs or your age. Your world will not come to an end if you are not married by 30; in fact, it may just be beginning!A few years ago, a lady friend of mine, who was 21 at the time called me up to talk about her ‘man' troubles. During our conversation, I observed that she had always been in a sexual relationship since she was 15. She confessed to me that she didn’t want to be alone; actually she didn’t know how to be alone. You see, you do yourself a huge injustice when you spend your formative years interrupted. Sex interrupts. It stops your creative and intellectual development and gives strength to your emotional cravings which should still be asleep. Your formative years are years you spend forming your person and your identity in readiness for your service to the world. Unfortunately, ladies give that time and space to some guy – a guy who may not even be in your life past your 30th birthday.Have we as men failed you? Oh yes we have! As fathers some of us weren’t present in your young life. As uncles, instead of being fond of you, we fondled you. As friends we were more focused on the benefits instead of the sacrifice. We used you when we should have added value. We took advantage instead giving the advantage. We failed you quite all right, but you don’t have to do to yourself what we did to you – You don’t have to fail yourself. You can’t afford to fail yourself. You are the door to humanity. Life has to go through you to enter this earth. Even God needed a woman to come back into the world.There’s no need to dumb yourself down or compromise your true integrity. We need the true you. We can’t exist without you and we will adjust to whatever standard you set for us – so why not make it high, why not make it YOU?
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Nigerian-born British woman, Samantha Orobator, 20, jailed for life in Laos, Vietnam, for smuggling drugs, has confessed that a fellow British prisoner, John Watson, 47, is the father of her unborn child.
This is coming against the backdrop of frantic diplomatic efforts by the British authorities to ensure quick transfer of pregnant Orobator to the UK, to serve her sentence, as she gets into the third trimester stage in her pregnancy.
Reliable sources have also confirmed that Watson, who is also serving a life sentence for drug smuggling and had agreed to father her baby to save her from death sentence, is also being transferred to serve his remaining sentence in UK jail.
Orobator, last Wednesday, pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle heroin out of the country, but her death sentence was commuted because she is pregnant.
Orobator had been held in Phonthong since she was arrested at Wattay International Airport on August 5, 2008, with 1.5lb (680g) of heroin, and reportedly conceived last December, claiming the father was a Buddhist monk, and later said she had inseminated herself using Watson's sperm. A syringe was found among her belongings.
There is, however, palpable fear that Orobator may not be transferred to the UK before her pregnancy reaches term.
Although the UK and Laos signed a prisoner transfer agreement last month, it does not come into effect immediately, so she may end up having the baby in Laotian jail. It is gathered however, that she is being visited by medical team to ascertain her state of health and fitness, preparatory to a possible flight home. She has been reported to have expressed her worries that the prison diet will harm her baby and had been described by her mother, Jane, as "very fragile."
Caroline Morten, of Human Rights group Reprieve, said: "she's just into her third trimester now and needs to be given a doctor's approval to fly, but we are hoping to get her back in a week. At the moment, we don't want to talk too much about what's going on, but we are optimistic."
Confirming the repatriation, a spokesman from the Foreign Office said, "we are working on the goodwill of the Laotian government to repatriate Ms Orobator as soon as possible and Mr Watson would of course benefit from that too, in making an application."
Watson was arrested in 2003 and given a life sentence in 2006. His health has deteriorated in jail and he is said to suffer from depression. He has been denied visits from anyone except officials from the Australian embassy, who are able to meet him once a month, and he is able to send occasional emails home. The UK has no consulate in Laos.
"I know it sounds like an old cliche," Watson said last year to the Foreign Prisoner Support Service, an online campaigning group based in Australia, "but honestly, being in here, I do truly believe now that you don't know what you've got till it's gone."
Meanwhile, following the new development, Watson is facing sanctions in prison as his mobile phone had been confiscated by officials at the squalid Phonthong prison in Vientiane, where the pair are being held He could face further sanctions from the authorities if he was proven to have helped Orobator.
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RegardsCONFESSION OF AN IJAW KIDLittle Diepriye came into the kitchen where his motherwas making dinner.His birthday was coming up and he thought this was agood time to tell his mother what he wanted."Mom, I want a bike for my birthday." Little Priye wasa bit of a troublemaker.He had gotten into trouble at school and at home.Priye's mother asked him if he thought he deserved to get a bike for his birthday. Little Priye, of course, thought he did.Priye's mother wanted Priye to reflect on his behaviorover the last year."Go to your room, Priye, and think about how you havebehaved this year.Then write a letter to God and tell him why youdeserve a bike for your birthday." Little Priye stomped up the steps to his room and sat down to write God a letter.Letter 1Dear God,I have been a very good boy this year and I would likea bike for my birthday. I want a red one.Your friend,PriyePriye knew that this wasn't true. He had not been avery good boy this year, so he tore up the letter and started over.Letter 2Dear God,This is your friend Priye. I have been a good boy thisyear and I would like a red bike for my birthday.Thank you.Your friend PriyePriye knew that this wasn't true either. So, he toreup the letter and started again.Letter 3Dear God,I have been an "OK "boy this year. I still wouldreally like a bike for my birthday.PriyePriye knew he could not send this letter to Godeither. So, Priye wrote a fourth letter.Letter 4God,I know I haven't been a good boy this year. I am verysorry. I will be a good boy if you just send me a bike for my birthday.Please!Thank you,PriyePriye knew, even if it was true, this letter was notgoing to get him a bike.Now, Priye was very upset. He went downstairs and toldhis mom that he wanted to go to church. Priye's mother thought herplan had worked, as Priye looked very sad."Just be home in time for dinner," Priye's mother toldhim.Priye walked down the street to the church on thecorner. Little Priye went into the church and up to the altar. He looked around to see if anyone was there. Priye bent down and picked up a statue of the Mary. He slipped the statue under his shirt and ran out of the church, down the street, into the house, and up to his room. He shut the door to his room and sat down with a piece of paper and a pen. Priye began to write his letter to God.Letter 5God,I'VE KIDNAPPED YOUR MAMA. IF YOU WANT TO SEE HERAGAIN, SEND THE BIKE!!!!!!!! !!The hit man.Diepriye
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SOLUTIONS FOR NEGATIVE THINKING:Try to find the lesson in every challenging situation; you will find there is always something wonderful to learn from it.Look for something good in every experience. There will always be something positive.If you have a negative thought, immediately replace that thought with a positive one. It's easier than you think.Compare yourself to someone worse off than you. That always puts things into perspective.Give all the negativity up to God to handle, because there is nothing too hard for God to handle
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Even the loquacious foot soldiers of Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua have accepted the fact that the past two years have been another locust years in the annals of Nigerian state. It has been two wasted years arguably comparable to the locust years of the Ibrahim Babangida military misrule the number one General of fortune in Nigeria. The PDP, Party of the deceptive people is the first foot soldier to acknowledge the fact that their Principal did not perform because he has been distracted by the Niger-Delta militant? I beg your pardon PDP. A lazy man will always quarrel with his tool and will always advance all the excuses he can muster.First and foremost, Alhaji Yar’adua was never prepared for this job, and therefore he had no idea of what leadership in such big capacity is all about. Running a state like Katsina where the level of literacy is 8% cannot be compared to a vibrant and ‘‘great’’ country like Naija. To make matters worse for himself, he surrounded himself with incompetent persons as his ministers. Tell me while Obasanjo was crude and probably intellectually deficient, he surrounded himself with intellectuals reputed worldwide for their positive contribution to making our world better.. This is attested to by the fact that virtually all of them have been employed by the World Bank and the IMF immediately they left the OBJ government. But you start asking me but who are they, where is Dr Oby Ezekwesili? Where are Dr Ngozi Iweala and many others? All at World Bank and IMF offices in America.President Yar`duaBut when you have people like Adamu Aliero, Shamasudeen Usman, Rilwanu Lukman, Abba Ruma and even Shettima Monguno as ministers, for God’s sake what do you expect? These are people who ruin Nigeria in various other capacities in the time past. School drop outs like Ibrahim Kazaure and Dasuki Nakande are ministers. Let me digress and tell you joke we use to crack about the late Sabo Bakin Zuwo while we were in the university. The story goes like this, during the short lived administration of Bakin Zuwo in Kano, his then Deputy I think his name is Sani has a diploma in sharia law from God knows where. As the story was told then, there was this proposal to build and allocate a low cost housing in Kano during Bakin Zuwo’s time. I know he was famous then for his Danta cola and Afri cola minerals in Kano. When the document was brought to Sabo Bakin Zuwo to sign as the Governor, it was reported then that he signed the document and minuted on it in Hausa language ‘’Na yarda nima a ajiye mani guda goma’’. Meaning, he has accented pleas allocate and keep ten for my person. I believe that may be what is happening in this Yar’adua circus.For this past two years there is nothing the Yar’adua government can point to as an achievement or accomplishment. It is simply good in blaming others for its woes. He is either blaming the Senate for lack of implementation of the budget or the Niger-Delta freedom fighters for his woes. There is rumours going round that he wants to appoint another Kano man as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria as if Nigeria belongs to Kano with their sharia despite the fact that they contribute nothing to Nigeria but trouble and unnecessary killing of patriotic and real peace loving Nigerians. In my article on Sharia Police in Kano state published in the Guardian newspaper of Friday 15 May, 2009, I had intimated readers of the key ministries being manned by Kano people in addition to the key Army positions. It was the same Hausa Muslims who accused OBJ of being anti-Muslims even when the Vice President was a Muslim. Chief of Defence Staff Ibrahim Ogohi was a Muslim. Inspectors General of Police Musulmi Smith and Tafa Balogun were all Muslims respectively. Even chief of Naval Staff was a Muslim from Kwara state. Obasanjo never appointed his tribesmen as Chief of Army Staff, Minister of Finance, Minister of National Planning, Minister of Agriculture. His chief of Staff, Central Bank Governor and the FCT minister like Yar’adua has done know. We only witnessed this abuse of power during Babangida’s military misrule apart from his dragging Nigeria into the OIC.A Hausa man is still the Director general of NTA, Group Managing Director of NNPC, MD of the almost dead PHCN which I prefer to call NEPA, because when it was NEPA it could still give us electricity for four hours every other day.In addition to the above anti federal character or anti quota system appointment which the Hausa Muslim will look up when it suits him, rascals like Ibn Na Allah and Kabiru Mato ‘PhD’ who grew up on the streets courtesy the almajiri system and therefore lack home training and have no value for human life is calling for the total annihilation of the over 30 million Niger-Delta people for simply asking for their rights in the Nigerian Federation. Do we still wonder why there is always incessant religious crises in Northern Nigeria? Sponsors and promoters are gradually showing their true colours even in the so called National Assembly. Otherwise how can people who are suppose to make laws for the good governance of the state vote to promote anarchy and the total extermination of a section of a country for the sake of possessing their fuel? Would Ibn Na Allah or Kabiru Mato support the total destruction of Kano state which is notoriously well known worldwide for religious riots and zero tolerance for other religions except Islam?Apart from the Key appointments mentioned earlier, Kano state and Katsina state have more local governments than all the oil producing states put together..While Kano state has 44 local governments, Bayelsa state has just Eight (8), while Cross River has just 18 local governments, Katsina state has 35. While Jigawa state has 27 local governments, Delta state which produces the wealth of the nation has just 25.We have all agreed that military regimes were an aberration especially the Babangida/Abacha regimes which were epitome of corruption, nepotism, fascism, self centeredness and aggrandizement. They just behaved true to the above characters in creation of states and local governments and they deliberately inserted those states and local governments in the constitution to look to make them sacrosanct. Thank God that we have equally all agreed that that constitution is deficient, one sided and undemocratic and a travesty of justice and need to be radically amended to suit all Nigerians if we still want to stay together as one Nigeria.The plausible and most reasonable way to resolving the Niger-Delta crisis is a sovereign national conference where we can define a new Nigeria through consensus and mutual agreement that will usher a new dawn in our Federalism.It is not by unnecessary blood bath as is being witnessed now. The Niger-Delta issue is a constitutional issue that can be sold by a sovereign national conference but certainly not by warring or ethnic cleansing.Isaac Boro was murdered in 1964 because of this issue. Ken Saro-wiwa was judicially murdered for the same reason, yet crop of young men and women still take it upon themselves to fight for their rights. Justice can only be delayed but surely it cannot be defined.Isn’t it time for somebody in the National Assembly to move a motion for convening of the much sought after sovereign national Conference and be a hero like George Washington? Is there no body there that will bell the cat? We have had two wasted years, do we still wait to have another two precious years wasted? By Ndiameeh Babrik
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Prof Charles Soludo did not after all make the type of history that, before May 2007, he appeared to be on his way to making. I don’t think anyone has ever had more than one spell at the helm at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Just three months into Yar’Adua’s administration, it became obvious that Soludo was going to be kicked out. Yes, Soludo was finally put out of his misery and put out to pasture last Monday 1 June 2009.In the USA, the long standing number one economy in the world, when it comes to fiscal policy, stability is the watchword: Alan Greenspan was the Chairman of that country’s Federal Reserve from 1987 – 2006 spanning the presidencies of Regan, Bush Snr, Clinton, and Bush Jnr. Across the pond in the UK, Sir Montagu Norman served as the Governor of the Bank of England from 1920 – 1944 covering the tenure of 10 Prime Ministers (must have been a rough political time for the Brits!) and Lord Cameron Cobbold served from 1949 – 1961. And since 1973, Governors of the Bank of England have served a minimum of 10 years in office. It is not that these countries did not have bosses of their apex banks who served short terms or just one term, the point is that proven successes were retained in the post for obvious reasons.In Nigeria, we reward success with aggravation, condescension and, sometimes, demotion. Na today? Is that not how we routinely pick the head of our Customs’ service? OBJ did it to Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Yar’Adua did same to Ribadu not too long ago.Soludo was very easily the best, the most articulate, competent, relevantly qualified and the most productively active person to have occupied the chair of the Governor of CBN. Together with Okonjo-Iweala, he put a proper structure to Nigeria’s fiscal policy for perhaps the first time in her history. But when in 2007 he brought about a convergence between the official exchange rate and the unofficial market rates, he was immediately at daggers-drawn with the black market traders and their nefarious partners in the financial sector. Interestingly, this was when concerted stories about Soludo’s corrupt dealings began to hit the media. But Soludo never claimed to be perfect – I mean, he is a Nigerian official. He then compounded matters a few months later by announcing a positive initiative to re-denominate the Naira. That was it. He had gone too far to antagonise the un-antagonisables. Yar’Adua immediately removed him from his National Economic Management Team and Soludo has been in the cooler ever since. But what were his other sins?Well, the first time I think almost everyone took notice of the “governor of the central bank” in Nigeria was back in 2004 when he initiated the consolidation exercise of our banks. That exercise (which not a few people doubted, was lampooned and, in some very high quarters, declared as unworkable and dead on arrival) was successfully concluded by December 2005. This is what the bank consolidation programme has delivered as at September 2008 – just four years: All the banks in the country are robust with shareholders funds of about N2.7 trillion. This is some 822% higher than the N293 billion cumulative funds of the 89 existing banks pre consolidation. Furthermore, the number of bank branches nationwide rose from 3,247 in 2004 to 5,247 in 2008. Similarly, the number of the foreign branches of Nigerian banks increased from 7 in 2004 to 69 in 2008.Just as it had done with the commercial banks, the CBN in 2006 launched the Micro Finance Bank (MFB) scheme to replace Babaginda’s community banking system and fixed the capital base for operation at N20 million. Today, the country has more than 900 MFBs that are providing credit facilities to the poor without collateral. The CBN also backed up the MFBs with the establishment of entrepreneurial development centres to teach the poor how to manage finance profitably. Afterwards, CBN brought the MFBs under its direct supervision and the deposit cover of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Co-operation, NDIC.The enhanced banking supervision and enforcement of corporate governance by the CBN under Soludo reduced the percentage of non-performing loans in the banking sector from 21.6% in 2004 to 6.2% in 2008. The CBN also launched the electronic Financial Analysis and Surveillance System, e-FASS, which enables it to monitor transactions in the commercial banks without being physically there.All of these led to the increased professionalism of our banks and tremendous manpower growth. Concomitant with this was the introduction of more robust IT applications (including ATMs and internet banking) in the Nigerian banking sector.Under Soludo, the long ailing Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC) was acquired by the CBN in 2004 and by 2007, the NSPMC has been transformed into a profitable venture and also saved the country the dishonour and national security risk of perpetually relying on importation to meet its currency needs. Today, the NSPMC is not only satisfying the country’s currency needs, it also handles other security printing works for the government and the private sector. Other West African countries - like Ghana, for example - have similarly approached the NSPMC for business.Though the CBN tried to re-introduce the use of coins, that policy has so far been unsuccessful as Nigerians are still unable/unwilling to use the coins for business transactions.But predictably, since Soludo was stopped dead in his tracks by Yar’Adua as soon as the latter stole into office, things have been changing. When Soludo assumed the leadership of the CBN, inflation rate was 10%. It went up to 11% in 2005 before declining to 8.5% in 2006 and 6.4% in 2007. In 2008, inflation was up again hovering around 12%. GDP that achieved a steady growth between 2004 and 2007 and in fact grew at 6.2% in 2007 only grew by 0.8% in 2008. Our foreign reserve rose from $11.44 billion in June 2004 to $60.89 billion in August 2007. That reserve is currently near extinct. The Naira is falling again to a weak Dollar and to an even weaker Pound Sterling. Yar’Adua and his economic team have expended most of our foreign reserves trying to defend the Naira. In 2009 alone, the Naira has lost some 30% of its value.Once one of the world’s most profitable Stock Markets, foreign and local investors are now divesting from the Nigerian capital market. Two years in, you’ll have to ask: What is our economic policy?Soludo was very successful at his job and he was recognized accordingly. In November 2008 he was appointed to a high-level United Nations’ task force (the Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System) to examine the reform of the global financial system, including the IMF and the World Bank, in the wake of the current economic turmoil. The seven member task force as announced by the United Nations General Assembly President Miguel Descoto, was chaired by Joseph Stiglitz, a former Chief Economist at the World Bank and winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics. Descoto said Soludo was appointed to the task force on the basis of the successful work he did in revamping the banking sector in Nigeria. He added that that market-induced consolidation exercise has helped save Nigerian banks from the current global financial crises that have seen the US and European governments pump several billions of Dollars into their economy to bail out their respective financial institutions.In London 2006, Soludo won the world's most prestigious banking award, ‘The Banker magazine's Global Central Banker of the Year’ award. This is the pinnacle in terms of achievement that the Governor of any Central Bank in the world can hope to achieve. It was a first for Nigeria.But a good man is not recognised in his home. After sacking Soludo, Yar’Adua asked the Senate to confirm the appointment of the CBN Deputy Governor for a second term and Sanusi Lamido was appointed the CBN Governor.Curiously, as Soludo was being prepped for removal, the following were the only seriously considered candidates as his replacement: Falalu Bello from Kaduna State who is Chief Executive of Unity Bank; Mohammed Hayatudeen from Bornu State who is the former chief executive of FSB International Bank; Obadiah Mailafia from Kaduna State who is currently head of Nigeria's Centre for Policy and Economic Research; Lamido Sanusi from Kano State who only took over as Managing Director of First Bank January this year after previously serving as Head of Risk Management; Yakubu Tanimu from Katsina State who has been Chief Economic Adviser to Yar'Adua since May 2007; Atedo Peterside from River State who is Chairman of Stanbic IBTC Plc, the Nigerian subsidiary of Standard Bank of South Africa; and Shamsuddeen Usman also from Kano State who was a failed Finance Minister but nevertheless is the current Planning Minister with the responsibility for making us a top twenty economy by the year 2020.Reading through Sanusi’s bio, it would appear that he obtained his BSc at the age of 19, and MSc at 21. Hhmm. Very impressive. At 39, the man headed to Sudan’s International University of Africa, where he took a diploma in Sharia and Islamic Studies. He was the Managing Director of First Bank for all of five months before being appointed to the governorship of CBN. I have read a couple of his articles on GAMJI, the online forum. Sanusi is very articulate and comes across as very intelligent – an intellectual of sort. However, the man is a deep, deep political animal with a revisionist bent. He is a rabid Islamist who has always insisted that his Islamic faith comes before everything else.It is now this man’s lot to formulate fiscal policies for ALL of us. I hope we are not entering an era where we have to be extra vigilant about the CBN or completely lose interest. Hopefully, the Naira would not revert to carrying exclusive Arabic inscriptions. Since Soludo got shackled, investors have put everything on hold to see what is going to happen at the CBN. Those of us who have some financial investments in Nigeria are holding our breaths and hoping for the best. We can only pray that we are not headed back to the era of three different exchange rates.Just last month, May 2009, First Bank donated N20million to Anne's Nursery and Primary School, Kaduna, at the celebration of that school’s 50th anniversary. St Anne’s is Sanusi’s alma mater.
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A NURSE has been suspended after allegedly chatting to a friend on a mobile phone while performing blood tests on a patient.
Calista Ukaegbu is being investigated after apparently using hand gestures to direct the female patient because she was so engrossed in her conversation.
When the patient a relative of former newspaper editor and radio station owner Kelvin Mackenzie made her displeasure clear, the nurse simply mouthed "sorry" and carried on chatting, it was claimed.
She only stopped the call when a colleague walked in and "shamed" her into hanging up.
It emerged today that bosses at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich had suspended the nurse.
The incident happened when the patient, in her thirties, visited the hospital to have a blood test before undergoing minor surgery at a later date.
She claimed she was greeted by Nurse Ukaegbu, talking on the phone in a foreign language, who indicated she should roll up her sleeve to have her blood pressure taken. Once the readings were taken she pointed to a wall chart indicating that she should measure herself, it was alleged.
Mr Mackenzie said his relative, who did not want to be named, had wanted to ask the nurse questions as she had suffered from high blood pressure, but was denied the opportunity because of the six-minute phone call.
He said: "Incredibly, for six minutes this nurse held a social conversation on her mobile phone while indicating to my relative through hand signals what to do.
"All this went on while this nurse continued with her conversation with a friend. It was quite clear it was a social conversation from the tone of her voice. It was nothing to do with work."
He said the call only ended when a second nurse came into the room and stared at Nurse Ukaegbu.
Nurse Ukaegbu, from Woolwich, is understood to have arrived in Britain from Nigeria in 2000 and qualified to work in British hospital in 2002.
A spokesman for the hospital said: "We have received a complaint and the actual allegations made are pretty appalling.
"We have taken immediate action to look into this case and should be able to report on our findings within 25 days.
"If proved the appropriate disciplinary action would be taken."
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NEW YORK -- Royal Dutch Shell agreed to a $15.5 million settlement Monday to end a lawsuit alleging that the oil giant was complicit in the executions of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and other civilians by Nigeria's former military regime.
Shell, which continues to operate in Nigeria, said it agreed to settle the lawsuit in hopes of aiding the "process of reconciliation." But Europe's largest oil company acknowledged no wrongdoing in the 1995 hanging deaths of six people, including poet Saro-Wiwa.
"This gesture also acknowledges that, even though Shell had no part in the violence that took place, the plaintiffs and others have suffered," Malcolm Brinded, Shell's executive director of exploration and production, said in a statement.
The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York claimed Shell colluded with the country's former military government to silence environmental and human rights activists in the country's Ogoni region. The oil-rich district sits in the southern part of Nigeria and covers about 400 square miles. Shell started operating there in 1958.
The primary complaint against Shell focused on activities by the company's subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited.
The lawsuit said in the 1990s, Shell officials helped furnish Nigerian police with weapons, participated in security sweeps of the area, and hired government troops that shot at villagers protesting the construction of a pipeline.
The plaintiffs also say Shell helped the government capture and hang Saro-Wiwa, John Kpuinen, Saturday Doobee, Felix Nuate, Daniel Gbokoo and Dr. Barinem Kiobel on Nov. 10, 1995.
Saro-Wiwa, leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, led rallies against Shell. He blamed the company for myriad oil spills and gas fires in the Ogoni region.
"I think he would be happy with this," Saro-Wiwa's 40-year-old son, Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr., said in a telephone interview from London. Though Shell denied any wrongdoing, "the fact that they would have to settle is a victory for us."
Besides compensating the families, the money from Shell will pay for years of legal fees. And a large chunk of the settlement - roughly a third - will create a trust that will invest in social programs in the country including educational endowments, agricultural development, support for small enterprise and adult literacy programs.
Altogether, the settlement will have a negligible effect on Shell's shareholders, amounting to less than one-hundredth of a percent of Shell's annual revenue. It's comparable to the annual cost of renting one of the supertankers that Shell uses to deliver Nigerian oil to other countries.
Shell has consistently maintained that it never advocated violence and that it lobbied Nigerian officials to grant Saro-Wiwa clemency.
Critics say that Shell did so because of the bad publicity the case had generated.
"Is it enough to bring back the lives of our clients? Obviously not," said Jenny Green, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York who helped file the lawsuit in 1996.
But Green said it will send a message to Shell and other multinationals that operate in developing countries.
"You can't commit human rights violations as a part of doing business," she said. "A corporation can't act with impunity. And we think there is accountability in this settlement."
Ralph Steinhardt, a George Washington professor of international law, said he doesn't think Shell got off easy with the settlement.
"It's not the size of the company that's the right measure here," Steinhardt said. "At the end of the day, it's to get some acknowledgment of the plaintiffs and their suffering and the role of the company."
The Shell settlement ends one of several legal battles brought against energy companies by indigenous peoples where they operate.
Villagers in Indonesia are suing Exxon Mobil, claiming it employed guards who kidnapped, tortured and murdered civilians. Chevron is awaiting a verdict from a judge in Ecuador that could lead to a potential $27 billion judgment stemming from a dispute over the role of Texaco, which Chevron bought in 2001, in environmental damages in the Amazon rain forest.
The case against Shell was based on Alien Tort Claims Act. The 18th-century law was originally meant to combat piracy and allows foreigners to pursue corporations in U.S. courts.
At least one additional lawsuit alleging human rights abuses by Shell in Nigeria is pending in U.S. District Court in New York.
Fourteen years after the Nigerian activists were hanged, Saro-Wiwa said he thinks Shell has started to acknowledge that it needs a "social license" to operate in a foreign countries. For example, the company has agreed to pay for a study of environmental damage that drilling has caused the Ogoni region.
"They have a long way to go," he said. "But at least they realize some of their actions can come back to haunt them as we saw in New York."
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Husbands And Wives - “Husbands, Likewise, dwell with understanding, giving honour to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered, “(1Peter 3:7)”. Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband” (Ephesians 5:33)If you look at our culture closely, you will discover that the main reasons for this high rate of divorce are not adultery or incompatibility, but selfishness and a lack of respect.Mutual respect between husband and wife is a must. Unless we respect each other, we cannot have the marriage God has in mind for us or love each other the way we should. According to Peter, disrespect for our spouse will hinder our prayers and drive a wedge between us. Husbands and Wives must learn to accept each other as they are, encourage each other to use the gifts God has given them, and build each other up. To do so requires respect.Ask yourself these questions:-Do I live in such a way as to earn respect?Am I showing respect to my spouse by my words and actions?And if you are dating, if not, that’s a big problem and you may need to look elsewhere.“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25, Read also 1Conrithians 13:1-7) In Ephesians 5 Paul tells husbands to love their wives “as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her” and to love their wives as they love themselves. When they do that, their marriages show it.Some men as a matter of fact need to spend less time with self and more time showing attention and care to their wives.“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the Church and he is the Saviour of the body. Therefore, just as the Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for her that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. That He might present her to Himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemishSo husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies, for he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own fresh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does to the Church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband “(Ephesians 5:15-33).The terms “submit” and being submissive” are fighting words to some. Yet terminology that sometimes makes us uncomfortable is part of the Bible’s message. A window of understanding opens when we recognize that the idea of submission has often been misunderstood by both husbands and wives. Some husbands have interpreted it to mean that the wife is to wait on him hand and foot, and some wives have thought that it means to be inferior.But such thinking is of-track. Submission does not mean a wife becomes her husband’s servant. Instead, submission is based on Christ’s giving of Himself for the Church. In Christ, husbands and wives give up themselves willingly out of love for one another. In such a relationship of mutual service, yielding is not a BURDEN but a BLESSINGLord, please help us to respect each other and accept each other. Forgive us for not always showing one another the respect you ask of us. Fill us with your love so that we can love others for your sake. Give us wisdom to be patient and kind in all our relationships.Help us understand our roles as husbands and wives in Christ. Fill us with Jesus’ love so that we may serve one another as He served us. AMEN.Marriage, home and family –How do you know who’s right for you?“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double – minded man unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5-8).Though marriages are pre-arranged in some cultures, most people make their own choice and it is one of the most important choices we can make. Our choice of marriage partner affects our children, our grandchildren, and the surrounding Christian Community.Sometimes the choice is made carelessly. Today’s divorce courts are filled with people who have decided they are incompatible. You hear someone say, “I should never have married him. It was a huge mistake” (what a bitter experience)If you are dating or have already set your wedding date, ask yourself whether you are right for each other.Ask the Lord whether you can build a marriage that is a true blessing to both partners. James says that if we ask for wisdom, God gives it. Listen carefully to your parents and to Christian counselors, and use the kind of pre-marriage counseling that will help you be sure you are making the right choice.In all, we need the Holy Spirit to lead us through. When you and I ask for the Spirit in our lives, we will be able to show the fruit of the Spirit in all our endeavours. (Galatians 5:22-23) . When the spiritual fruit matures, our marriages will become more and more what God intends them to be. Our homes will reflect the kind of relationship God has in mind for us.Ask God today for a personal Pentecost in your life, in your marriage, and in your family. Ask Him each day to fill you with His fullness, and when you do, you too will be able to show the fruit of the spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.Lord help those who are dating, and thinking about getting married to follow your guidance into marriages that truly bring honour to Christ. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us: Melt us, mold us, fill us, use us. In your strength help us to produce fruit that shows we are children of God.“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice, And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ Forgave you” (Ephesians 4:29-32)Many of us are much better at talking than at listening. Some of us struggle to listen because we have a habit of speaking too much. We listen impatiently, thinking only of what we want to say next. Some parents also never listen to their children and some children never listen to their parents.Marriages, homes and relationships have been destroyed because someone did not bother to tune their ears to what was said. That is why we need to develop the art of communication as described by James: Be quick to listen, and slow to speak. Ask the Holy Spirit to make you a better listener today.“Marriage is honourable among all and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge “(Hebrews 13:4) “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price, therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (I Corinthians 6:18-20)..written byMOSES EVBUOMWAN
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HelloA Nursery 1 student in a danfo bus from school was reciting the day’s lesson at school, it went thus:If my father is a cock and my mother a hen, I will be a chick, if my father is a lion and my mother is a lioness, I will be a cub, if my father is a king and my mother a queen, I will be a prince etc, etc.The bus driver was irritated by the boys ‘noise’; he shouted at the boy asking him to shut up. But the boy continued.Then the driver shouted, "what if your father is an ‘armed robber’ (thief), and your mother an ‘ashawo’ (prostitute) what will you be?"The boy replied; I will be a ‘Danfo Driver’.Frankly speaking what will u do if u were the danfo driver?
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This writer’s meeting with Agomoh Paul, a former junior prophet in the Synagogue Church of All Nation, Lagos had to take place in a secret location because of several alleged attempts by Pastor T.B. Joshua’s to kill him. Paul, who was Joshua’s deputy for several years, was brought out of hiding by a Pentecostal pastor, who has been giving him refuge for several months.Paul was cool and calm when this writer met him. He did not show any sign of a man being hunted. He came for the appointment with his wife who was also a former devotee of Joshua’s Church, looking fulfilled. For years, he says he was part of the alleged torture, rape, hypnotism, murder, deceit and occultism in the church. But now, he says he has found Christ; He’s now a true born again and wants to fully expose Pastor Joshua, to put an end to the “deceit called Synagogue Church of all Nation.” Everything about Pastor Joshua is fake, he tells this writer, with so much venom.This decision must have influenced Paul’s key role in the home video, ‘The Rise of the Nigerian Antichrist’, which has been circulating for a couple of weeks. He was one of the ex-devotees who “exposed Joshua’s atrocities.” Paul wants the police to quickly arrest Joshua to save the lives of thousands of people in bondage in the church. In fact, he has sent a petition to the police, detailing Joshua’s alleged atrocities.“Joshua is involved in alarming and horrific activities that require the intervention of the police. Devotees are hypnotized, canned with horse whip and humiliated. Disciples are not allowed any contact with the outside world – no newspapers, radio or television. I lived with the prophet for more than ten years, rising from the position of a disciple before I was eventually made a prophet. We lived under dehumanising conditions before we are finally confirmed as prophets. We are dehumanised, threatened and incarcerated most of the time. In fact, Joshua is running a concentration camp and not a discipleship quarters.“We lived in fear and agony and afraid to leave because those who escaped were either brought back with mysterious sicknesses or end up with bizarre ailments outside the Synagogue. We were brainwashed to deny our parents and relatives and most of us changed our surnames to Joshua. Joshua has committed so much crime against God and humanity. In the beginning, he taught us how to arrange miracles through brainwashing people to accept what they are not.”Paul says Joshua is also responsible for the death of many HIV/AIDS patients who he allegedly stopped from taking medications, with the promise to heal them without the aid of any medication. “A footballer from Liberia who plays in Scotland once brought a sister who is HIV positive, but was on drugs which made her strong. Once in the Synagogue, she was asked to stop her drugs. Soon, her situation became worse and Joshua sent her back to die in her country. When she got home, she died. One prince came to the Synagogue HIV positive, but he was very strong. When Joshua asked the man to discontinue his drugs, his situation became worse and the man died. There are more than a thousand of such cases that I witnessed. I know if an advert is placed in newspapers, calling for the families of those who died through Joshua's spiritual advice to come forward, it will be amazing the number that will turn up,” Paul alleged.Paul is also worried about the Europeans and other foreigners who flock to Joshua’s church. “We enter their rooms with spare keys, search their bags and get their personal details and problems, while they are on tour of the church. We then pass this information to Joshua, which he uses during services to bemuse them. They think he gets these details about them because of his spiritual power. It’s all lies. We steal the information for him.”This ex-devotee also claimed that Joshua consistently abused women and even minors sexually in the church. “Most of the big girls you see around him today came as virgins. They have all been sexually abused by Joshua. None of these girls has been allowed to marry by Joshua and some of them are in their mid or late thirties.”Paul claimed that Joshua often kill disciples who rebel or try to leave the church. “Death means nothing to Joshua,” he alleged, as he (Joshua) “has the machinery to cover up deaths.” Joshua, Paul claimed, maintains a killer squad which he uses to eliminate enemies. “Apart from people who died mysteriously, there are others beaten to death by the squad on Joshua’s instruction. Even Chris Okotie was lucky to escape Joshua's hit men. When Okotie exposed him, I overheard Joshua complaining to some people. After that occasion, Okotie began to complain that Joshua was after his life. Now that I have finally decided to expose this antichrist who parades himself as a man of God, he has left no stone unturned to eliminate me.”Paul alleges that Joshua's philanthropic strides shown on television are deceptive and deliberately done “to court public goodwill and not necessarily as a humane gesture.” Marriage by disciples was also strictly prohibited by Joshua, so says Paul and “Joshua always ensures he stops any blossoming relationship amongst his disciples.” The ex-devotee alleged that Joshua poisoned one prophet Benson who informed Joshua of his proposed wedding. He said his own attempt to marry a Ghanaian lady and Joshua’s opposition eventually opened his eyes to the atrocities in the church and led to his departure. “After a lot of argument over my plans to marry after I had passed 40 years, Joshua eventually asked me to bring the lady to him. She died mysteriously two weeks after she returned to Ghana.”Another ex-devotee that featured in the “The Rise of the “Nigerian Antichrist,” was one Bisola Johnson, who did the voice over in Joshua’s television programmes. Bisola claimed she joined the church at 14 and that she was also sexually abused by Joshua. She also alleges that Joshua practices occultism and bizarre initiation. “We were made to drink strange water during initiation as disciples,” she claimed. She also accused Joshua of false miracles, deceit and fraud.A website, www.antichrist.com has also been opened by “concerned Christians” to “expose” the purported atrocities of Pastor Joshua. The website is flooded daily with confessions of Joshua’s ex-devotees. Comments and articles of other pastors, criticising Joshua abound on the website. The promoters of the website say they are out to destroy “the antichrist called Joshua.”Pastor Joshua has since responded to the allegations contained in the video and the antichrist website, describing them as false. In fact, he has done a counter-video, tilted’ “Beware of Blasphemers,” which is now being widely circulated free of charge, to douse the tension raised by the “The Rise of the Nigerian Antichrist” video. In it, Joshua accused Paul and Bisola of falsehood purportedly aimed at making money. “Don’t just sit down and come to hasty conclusions. What they have produced and packaged are all falsehood,” the synagogue pastor maintained.Joshua claimed Paul left the church because of his misconduct. “He’s another blasphemer. Paul abused his position by getting involved with one of the female members of the church in Ghana,” claimed Joshua. In Joshua’s video, (from the church’s video archive) Paul was shown in the church, in abject poverty and asking for Joshua’s help. He was also shown in another section, begging for forgiveness and apologising to Joshua after his recall from Ghana. In another section, Paul was shown in Ghana, confessing to Joshua’s healing power and claiming that the Synagogue pastor healed his sister. When confronted, Paul claimed he was hypnotized into doing all these. He also disputed allegations that he was a poor man when he joined the church.Bisola was also shown in a video from the church’s archive, claiming to be a witch and tormented by evil spirits. She desperately asked Joshua for help and deliverance. Bisola was shown confessing to all sorts of atrocities, including setting her husband’s home on fire. In another section, she was seen begging Joshua for forgiveness. “It was after this that she left and started spreading falsehood about the church,” said Joshua. Bisola also claims to have been hypnotized when she was made to confess to being evil at the church.However, Joshua’s video failed to answer many critical question raised by Paul and other former devotees concerning alleged occultism, murder, hypnotism, sexual abuse, torture, slavery and deceit. This is not the first time Joshua will be accused of being an antichrist by his former followers. A few years ago, Pastor Chris Okotie of the Household of God waged an all out war with him for several weeks over his deeds, calling him a phony man of God and a dupe.Okotie said: “Joshua is involved in satanic manipulation of adherents and has transferred the same evil power to Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, hence the similarities in their ministries and the emergence of a fake healing ministry for both pastors. Joshua is a practitioner of Shamanism.”Okotie continued: “Joshua is involved in Docetic Gnosticism. I have studied the Bible for over 14 years and I know what I am saying. Joshua is not qualified to talk about Jesus Christ and the Bible. The Bible is also very clear when it said that I should have nothing to do with a person like Joshua.“No one knows his (Joshua) past. All the stories he tells are not verifiable. Joshua claimed that his birth was prophesied, and that he quoted from the scriptures at a very tender age before knowing the Bible. The only way that can happen is by spiritual impartation. So, he is claiming equality with Jesus Christ. There is no way we are going to sit back and allow him to carry on. We don’t want what he is doing to this country. He is more dangerous than Abacha was.”Wale Adefarasin, another Pentecostal preacher said during Joshua’s crisis with Okotie: “On TB Joshua, the PFN makes it clear that any member who fraternises with TB Joshua will be suspended until they repent. We do not believe at this point in time that it is a Ministry of God. What we want people to know and find out is that when somebody says he is as Christian, pastor/minister, you ask him when he became born-again. Most people know when they get born again. But T B Joshua said he was converted from his mother’s womb. We know that is not possible.”Bishop Abraham Olaleye, President, Abraham Evangelistic World Outreach, Lagos also added to the controversy when he said: “I have taken time to watch many of Joshua’s TV programmes and came to the conclusion that there is something not clear, something about him is not clear. I kept watching, so that I can be sure before I make my opinion known. Having watched him over the years, I have no doubt, not even an iota of doubt left in me that this man called T.B. Joshua is not a man of God.”“Due to my personal encounter with T.B. Joshua and my involvement with Bayo Ajede (an ex-devotee) I knew without a shred of doubt that the ministry was diabolical but the actual magnitude of the deception far exceeded my thoughts. Joshua has successfully undermined the Nigerian Church,” said Ladi Thompson, another Pentecostal preacher.Clearly, Joshua has his hands full. Devotees are absconding by the day and “exposing” him. The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria thinks no genuine Christian should have anything to do with him. He would need more than videos to prove that he’s not an antichrist. He would need to show by his deeds that he’s a true Christian.
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A MELODRAMA was played out yesterday as a woman, who claims to be the wife of Gen. Shehu Yar'Adua, the late elder brother of President Umar Musa Yar'adual was arraigned along with one Linda Anyanwu over allegations of fraud and attempt to defraud the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
EFCC docks Yar’Adua’s "wife": Hajiya Asabe Shehu Musa Yar’Adua (right) with Linda Anyanwu (left) charge to court by EFCC for false pretence at Federal High Court, Abuja.
The woman identified as Asabe Willaims alias Asabe Shehu Musa Yar'Adua and Anyanwu pleaded not guilty to the three-count charge of fraud. They were remanded in Suleja Prisons by the trial Judge, Abubakar Talba till June 22, this year when their bail applications would be heard.
Asabe had told the court that she is the wife of the late former number two-man and rejected the alias 'Asabe Shehu Musa Yar'Adua' appellation attached to the charge sheet.
The prosecutor, Aso Larry-Peters had obtained the leave of the court for the charges against the accused persons to be read and for their pleas to be taken.
Counsel to Asabe, Adamu Williams had after the two accused persons had pleaded not guilty to the charges, urged the court to admit his client to bail. "May I respectfully apply for the bail of the 1st accused person, I recognise that this is a court of records and by the rules of the court, bail applications ought to be brought formally.
"It is in recognition of this that we have filed a written application for bail and we are prepared to move the said motion," he added.
But Larry-Peters told the court that "the learned defence counsel is familiar with the rules of the court, he has just served me the motion less than 10 minutes ago and has raised very serious averments that I have to study and respond to. We would be opposing his moving the application."
Ruling on the matter, Talba said the prosecution was entitled to the mandatory 48 hours within which to respond to the issues raised in the motion. He remarked that due to the court's congested programmes for next week, the matter could only be taken on June 22 and therefore adjourned the matter to that date.
The charges against the accused include:
That you, Joy Asabe Williams alias Hajia Asabe Shehu Musa Yar'Adua and Linda Anyanwu on May 13, 2009 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of the High Court of the Federal High Court conspired among yourselves to collect money from the Comptroller-General of Customs under false pretence and thereby committed an Advance Fee Fraud contrary to section 1(3) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Act;
That you Linda Anyanwu on May 13, 2009 in Abuja, attempted to collect money from the Comptroller-General of Customs under false pretence, an offence punishable under the EFCC Act.
That you Joy Asabe Williams alias Hajia Asabe Shehu Musa Yar'Adua on between January 1, and May 13, 2009 in Abuja falsely presented yourself as the wife of the late Gen. Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, which you know to be false with the intention to collect money from the Comptroller-General of Customs and thereby an offence punishable under section 1(3) of the EFCC Act.
The accused persons were first arrested by operatives of the State Security Services (SSS) on May 13 and later transferred to the custody of the EFCC on May 22, 2009.
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Safe and covertly vicious, university campus pimps in the country have coolly wormed their ways into the social circuits nationwide.Parties hardly click until one or two of them “grace the occasion” with a bevy of pretty girls in their notebooks and on their payrolls.HighflyersAt LASU, a self effacing pimp simply called Ben “freights” and airlifts girls to Abuja.“Whenever there’s a big event, I get an order for 20 – upto 30 girls. So, I package them for the ‘pay masters’ who will, of course pay into my account. The money is for ticket and taxi, and small, small expenses. After the show, the pay master will pay the agreed amount and we fly back”, Ben explained.Mr Fix-itAccording to Ben, a night out for each of his girls attracts N10,000. A weekend in Lagos, the girls grudging charge between N50,000 and N30,000.For Ben, “Mr. fix-it”, for the deal to go through, you must stuff his pocket with N150,000. To prove his class, Ben rides a clean Toyota Camry lives in a tastefully furnished 3-bedroom apartment off campus. Though the dictionary defines a pimp as a man who engages women in prostitution in brothel and on the streets, but in the Nigerian context, women have a large share of the business.At University of Lagos, Akika Star is the toast of most social events in the city of Lagos. Though her real first name is Stella but her alias, Star, twinkles and winkles as brightly as her reputation.For four weeks our reporter traversed some campuses around the country, delving deep into the world of undergraduate sin city barons.WHO IS THIS GIRL ? WATCH VIDEO !For fun or material gains their “pawns” – fellow students blindly fall into their traps and clutches without knowing.A big ‘Gbedu’Most times it begins with an invitation to “a big Gbedu with the correct guys in town”. Linked by a source, pimpmynaija sources posed to ‘Star’ as a potential client and sneaked into her closely guarded world.Known around as “a happening babe”, when a client ‘places an order’, Star quickly sends text messages, connects and recruits the girls she wants for the outing and summons a meeting, and most times adds a few extras to the number of girls ordered.“I have some regular girls I go out with. They are up to 20 but if your demand is more, I can double the number. But I need time”, she said.Star preferred a week or at least four days notice. Hear her: “What I hate is someone rushing me. Imagine coming to me on Friday night for a Saturday night out. That’s too tight. I can only listen to you if I’m not booked”.Fair in complexion and friendly, Amina of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Kaduna State bears an iconic first name. Like the legendary Queen of Zaria, she says “the girls have a choice to go out and play with whoever they like.“We’re all adults. Anybody can decide who to go out with. Here at Samaru, we don’t force anybody. If I call you and you don’t want to go out, no problem”.Patrons in high placesAt the University of Jos, Bulus holds sway. He forays with his tight network of girls to adjoining states like Bauchi, Kaduna, Gombe, Taraba and Nasarawa.His patrons – “my powerful friends”, as he prefers to call them, are mostly top government functionaries and businessmen.Coming from a humble background, Bulus over the years uses proceeds of his wheeling – dealing in women to pay his way through school.Smiling broadly, he told pimpmynaija sources pimping is not an easy job. “Hmm, to arrange girls on campus no dey easy-o. You have to spend and spend and prove you are capable before any girl will agree to follow you”.Depraved tasteAs pimpmynaija found out, it is a lot easier for pimps to hook up with girls. But the difficult part is in ensuring the girls “behave well” on outings and treat the clients well.“You must also make sure that the men you are giving the girls are good. Some men are wicked.They will use the girls and pay little money, Bulus revealed.Another worrisome part for pimps is that some men have a penchant for kinky stuff. Some have wild depraved tastes.“The men don’t care. These girls they carry are even young enough to be their daughters. A good organizer must make sure the men you give girls to, do not use them rough. If any thing happens to the girls, people will start to ask questions, “Akin of University of Ilorin said.Territorial controlCampus pimps imitate the viciousness of their counterparts in the cults of the ivory tower: they fiercely fight and scramble for girls and clients.As pimpmynaija sources’s investigation reveals, they start vying for girls at the beginning of every academic session.“When Jambites (new students) come, you have to rush after them, target the pretty, classy ones. If you try hard, before the end of the first semester, they will become your friend and play along with you”, Mike, a popular undergraduate at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, said.Tatoo brandingSome campus pimps brand their girls with tattoo. As a badge of pride and social class, some girls willingly get branded with floral, butterfly or a heart pierced with arrow on their biceps, ankle, tigh, hip or on other private, intimate parts.To ensure loyalty of the girls in their “notebooks”, the pimps keep them under their thumb with “pecks” (gifts) and “red eyes” (threats).“You don’t understand, we invest in those girls. It’s like trading and buying a product. For this, you must not fail to sell for profit”.Ade, Lagos State University (LASU) undergraduate said.Cult ConnectionThe pimpmynaija sources investigation reveals that some campus pimps have links with cult groups ravaging campuses across the country. These boys use the money generated to fund cult activities. It’s really a dangerous trend.When they graduate, they become bigger and menacing”, a lecturer at the University of Calabar, Cross River State, who craves anonymity said.Punishable offenceThe campus pimps are obviously aware of the legal implications of their illicit, exploitative, morally bankrupt business. This explains why they shy away from publicity and scrutiny.A lawyer with Adekunle Ojo and Associates Barrister Godwin Ewa says the nation’s Penal Code (for the north) stipulates 10 years imprisonment without option of fine for any offender.The Criminal Code (for the south) states that first offenders risk two years imprisonment with caning.“Our law book is adequate. Sections 216 – 227 of the criminal code make ample provision against lacuna. The courts are ever ready.But the problem is the ever compromising law enforcement agencies especially the police,” he said.
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