Abubakar has said that the decision on whether it is the turn of the South East to have a shot at the presidency in 2019 lies with Nigerians.
Fielding questions from journalists after a more than two hours closed door meeting with former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida at his uphill residence in Minna on Tuesday, Atiku said such sensitive decision is a collective one.
Asked if the recent position of his former boss, former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the subject would subsists, Atiku said it was for Nigerians to decide.
He said that the restructuring of Nigerians is not up to an individual to decide but for Nigerians to decide, "It is up to Nigerians to decide on the restructuring on Nigeria."
When asked on his advice to the Federal Government on the state of things in the country, the former vice president said he cannot do so through the pages of newspapers.
The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday said he and President Muhammadu Buhari who is currently on medical vacation have heard the cries of Nigerians on their sufferings “loud and clear.”
He promised that the present administration would ensure that all Nigerians get a fair deal.
Osinbajo spoke at a Consultative Forum on the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan held at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He admitted that the nation is in what he called a serious economic situation.
He said while the President had acknowledged it, he himself saw it while going round the country.
Thank God for smart NCS officers at the sea port. Nigeria Customs Service intercepts a huge cache of pump action rifles concealed in 40ft container in Lagos. See pictures below
THE Nigeria Labour Congress has denied calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to address the nation on his rumoured death.
Ayuba Wabba, the President of the NLC, said this in a statement issued in on Friday in Abuja.
Wabba was apparently reacting to some media publications credited to the NLC on the alleged death of the President.
He said: “We would want to state emphatically and unequivocally that we did not at any time make such a statement. The reasons for this are quite obvious.
“As an organisation, we do not work on rumours. Secondly, we are aware that Mr President is on leave and that before he proceeded on leave, he handed over to Mr Vice President.
“We also recognise the fact presidential powers and immunity do not cover health. Thus, like any other human being, Mr President could take ill once in a while.
“But most importantly, issues of life and death of any citizen, let alone that of the number one citizen are too sacred to be trivialised.
“We therefore distance ourselves from the rumour mills on the health status of Mr President.”
Wabba said that the NLC wished the President the very best during his holiday in the UK or wherever else he chooses to be.
However, the NLC president advised the media to resist the temptation to misrepresent or sensationalise in order to sell.
He said: “As we look forward to welcoming him back to the country whenever he resumes, we also urge the citizenry not to allow themselves to be put on a panic mode by virtue of unsubstantiated stories in the media.
“President Buhari met all the conditions precedent regarding his absence from office before proceeding on leave to which he is entitled.”
As shared by human rights lawyer Emeka Ugwuonye.....
'A MAJOR BREAK IN THE TRACKING OF THE DUBAI MADAMS AND THEIR AGENTS
- A KEY MADAM REVEALED AS A SOCIALITE WITH APPARENT CONNECTIONS TO NIGERIAN POLITICIANS.
I wish I always had good news to report to you, but our world has as much evil in it that it is impossible to keep to that wish. Today, I am ready to make public some snippets of the outcome of a long standing investigation we have been pursuing on the Dubai Madams, their agents and sex-trafficking / sex slavery in Dubai, Greece and Italy with connections to Nigeria.
The report of my investigation was not to be released until the end of January. But events have forced me to act sooner by disclosing the identity of, by far, one of the major master-minds and super agents in the human trafficking rings with Nigeria and abroad. This woman goes by different names to various people. To the 15 girls in UAE, Italy and Greece that we have linked to her, she is known as “Aunty Lolly”. To some people that have worked with her in Dubai, she is simply “Lolly”. To those who have worked for her, she is “Madam” or “Aunty”. To the ordinary people who meet her on social network, she is Lauretta Onochie. These various names belong to the woman whose pictures are shown here. She maintains a Facebook page in which she projects herself as a sympathizer of the Nigerian ruling party.
On the surface, judging by our apparent silence in the past three months, one might think that we had given up on our fight against the Dubai Madams and their agents in Nigeria. But far from it. You must know that I have been representing the two girls, whose n*de video clips outraged the world. When you undertake such tasks, you cannot give up easily. I had thus continued deep underground investigation of the Madams while preparing a major legal challenge to their operations. I needed to do that because I owed professional obligation to those girls and I have a task in this group to fight human trafficking.
It has not been easy to fight the war against human trafficking. The first obstacle we have had is that the victims are too ashamed, too scared and two poor to come out to tell their stories. I managed to have inbox exchanges that run into volumes and thousands of pages with these victims. Gradually, they began to trust and to find the confidence to tell their stories. Even at that, they remain vulnerable to law enforcement agencies both in the countries where they are and back here in Nigeria if they were to attempt to come back. They are fugitives, made so by others. They are outcasts, hunted by law enforcement, exploited by the wicked traffickers and their agents, and despised by all else.
The second challenge we have is that those who engage in human trafficking – the Madams and their Agents in Nigeria – are very powerful people. They belong to powerful networks of criminal gangs, politicians, financiers and racketeers. They are savvy. They have incredible ability to intimidate and awe anyone who dares them. Because of their access to powerful people, they have posed a major threat to me personally and to any group that tries to fight them. This has been so abundantly revealed through my investigations both here in Nigeria and foreign countries like the UAE, Italy and Greece.
Ms. Lauretta Onochie is clever as much as she could be cruel and mean-spirited her victims. As part of her cleverness, she has associated herself with the Abuja politicians. She likes photo-up opportunities with the most powerful politicians, including Presidents and Vice Presidents. Even though these politicians may not know about the details of her connections with the international human trafficking rings, this woman uses her pictures with the powerful people as a key instrument of shining her credibility and intimidating the victims of human trafficking and their families. Seeing a picture of her and the President is enough to silence the parents of a victim of human trafficking. That is enough to silence any official likely to ask questions. That is enough to get any curious immigration official who intercepts her girls to let them go unstopped. That is enough to cause you and I to believe that she cannot kill an ant. Yet, she is a vicious trafficker of poor girls into international prostitution.
My attention was first drawn to Lolly in August of last year. But she was just a mirage them. She was simply defined vaguely as the big Madam. Instead of getting to her, my investigation led me to one Ms. Blessing (which is certainly not her real name – just the name they give the girls). Blessing works for Aunty Lolly; that was the information I had. I pursued Ms. Blessing and the information I shared with the authorities led to the arrest of Blessing with 3 girls at the airport in October. (I reported this arrest before, but then I had not known who Lolly was). But my curiosity was triggered further when Blessing and the three girls were released in less than 24 hours. And Blessing vanished into the thin air. I knew there was a bigger fish behind the scenes. I returned to my contacts in Dubai. Again the investigation kept coming to one Lolly.
We came to the conclusion that whoever Lolly was, she must be a big player in the business. This is the business of recruiting young girls, promising them good life in Dubai and elsewhere, swearing their parents to shrines, selling them off for $5000 to $15000, making nude videos of them and using thugs to intimidate their parents back here in Nigeria, and making sure that immigration officials are bribed at the airport to let the girls through despite being underage. Two girls we have been tracking in Italy apparently came through a Lolly by another sub-agent, not Blessing. This suggests that the Lolly is big in the business. We would not have suspected that Lauretta Onochie could be the Lolly for many reasons. Lauretta Onochie based on her Facebook presence looked like a decent lady. Her support for President Buhari seems so honorable and something we would not expect from someone in the business of human trafficking. But something yielded in three days ago, which resolved the puzzle within 3 days.
As you well know from at least one previous incident, the Dubai Madams had attempted to mount a major reputational or credibility attack on my person. Their goal was simply to wage a scandal campaign against me and to project me as a bad person. This was their way of discouraging their girls from dealing with me and to scatter my social media support base, as well as to get certain officials working with me to develop cold feet. They made various efforts and have spreading various fabricated stories against me. In other words, they have always planned serious of information attack against me. I have to recognize that they are brilliant and quite organized in this.
In a last bid in this effort, Lauretta Onochie brilliantly recruited a number of person who have grudges against me, especially some people that were removed from our Facebook group. She recruited a man I removed from the group after so many complaints from married women that he sexually harassed them. She recruited a man in New York, whom I almost sent to jail for beating his wife and nearing killing her. She recruited Anne Nkwocha, a former DPA admin that I removed for gross misconduct. They has these people and more lined up in the information attacks against me. (I have sms from Anne Nkwocha to confirm their plot). I don’t think that these recruits are involved in human trafficking. They are just people angry with me, and Lauretta identified them.
The attack on me was launched on Sunday morning on the Facebook walls of Lauretta Onoshie. My mind went to the most important project I have at hand, which has been so sensitive I have had to pursue it discretely. That was my work on the Dubai cases. By Tuesday morning, I had to confront the girls. I started with one girl I has been reluctant to tell me much. I assure her of protection if she would talk. She was prepared to talk. But I suggested that she should simply send me the Facebook profile picture of Aunty Lolly. Low and behold: there she was – Lauretta Onochie, as in the Facebook page.
I couldn’t believe my eyes as I looked at the picture of Lauretta Onochie. I had to control my excitement. I needed further verification. I sent her pictures to many of the girls we are in contact with, asking for them to confirm if they knew the person on the pictures. Two girls in Greece, one girl in Italy and four in UAE have responded to my querry. They all said that was Aunty Lolly. Note that the girls in UAE did not know about the girls in Greece or Italy – the girls did not know about the other girls in the other countries. But wait. You haven’t heard the last.
After my court activities in Abuja on Thursday, I was so tired, not having slept since Monday. I got to my hotel and fell into a very deep sleep from 6pm to 11pm. I woke up and logged on to Facebook. I had a message from someone I had never known before. The message was simple: “Sir, the lady attacking you on her Facebook is a Madam. Be careful.” I responded: “Which lady is attacking me?”. The person just got back to me and confirmed it was Lauretta Onochie'
MTN will be stopping Blackberry services in Nigeria starting from the 27th of January 2017.
In a message sent to subscribers on Thursday, MTN said:
“Dear customer, MTN BlackBerry service will be decommissioned on 27/01/2017. Please upgrade to a smartphone and enjoy 100% bonus on any data bundle purchased.”
When contacted on this issue, MTN said: ” it means you won’t be able to subscribe to any blackberry service by that date. However, you can upgrade to a smartphone and purchase any of our data bundles.”
This notification follows Whatsapp’s announcement that it will discontinue services for Blackberries on December 31st, 2016, a deadline which was eventually extended to June 2017.
The Federal Government has said that it will not approve a fresh electricity tariff hike at least for now, stating that it is still meeting with stakeholders in the country’s electricity sector, including the World Bank to provide some level of interventions to the market.
Speaking on Monday in a Channels Television Talk Show, Sunrise Daily, which was monitored in Abuja, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, said the government was meeting with the World Bank to find solutions to the financial challenges of the power sector.
Fashola by this, confirmed a THISDAY report in December 2016 that the government and the World Bank had initiated efforts to bail the country’s power sector from the existing liquidity challenges threatening its survival.
Also, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is expected to, this month, announce new cost-reflective electricity rates to reflect current operational indices in the industry.
Statutorily, NERC undertakes periodic reviews of the tariff to factor in changes in operational indices like foreign exchange and inflation rates, price of gas for power, as well as changes in generation capacities.
Fashola, however, said that if the government’s deliberations with the World Bank on the financial challenges of the market end well, Nigerians would be protected from a possible electricity price hike.
He said: “Government still has to deal with how to stabilise the value of the naira to the dollar, and again that will be impacted by how much money we get from oil production, which is still our major foreign income earner. We have used our leverage in OPEC to get OPEC to agree to a production cut, which heralded a price rise but can we as a protagonist take advantage of this by stopping to fight?
“People must be clear that if government accepts the recommendations that we will make to intervene, it is not to give the Discos a golden parachute, but first to protect citizens from price hike in terms of power for now and also to keep the subsectors so that they don’t lose their businesses.”
Fashola provided an insight to the deliberations with the World Bank, saying: “You would have heard that there are liquidity issues in the power sector that came from the way the privatisation itself was structured, essentially through bank loans. Most of the people who bought them had very little if any skin in the game in terms of their own private equity.”
He said technically, the banks owned the power assets, explaining that that was part of the problems of the Discos because of their debt burden, which had made it difficult for them to get more money to expand their distribution assets, their transformers and to get meters.
The minister explained: “Now all of that underperformance is not necessarily only their faults, it is also the way the economy has played out. Assets they bought and loans they took at N197 to a dollar has certainly lost value. We had a tariff increase to cushion that effect but all of that was almost wiped out by the depreciation in the naira to the dollar.
“Gas as a component of power production is indexed in dollars but the collection is in naira, so the bills that you could pay if you need only N200 to pay, you now need N400 to pay and you can’t increase the tariff to deal with that and those are the liquidity gaps.”
He explained further: “What we have seen in many parts of the world where these things have taken place, [is that] there have been a transitional funding support and when we recommended it or proposed it to the World Bank, they looked in their books and saw very correlative historical precedents that government still needs to intervene but not necessarily by giving money to the Discos and this is not a concluded policy, but perhaps in a way in helping them manage their debts with certain conditions either in governance, diminution of shares, requiring them to recapitalise or take some technical expertise.”
Fashola also said that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) had increased its electricity wheeling capacity to 7200 megawatts (MW), claiming that the transmission network was no longer the weakest link in the sector as often stated by stakeholders.
According to him: “The generalisation about the grid not been able to carry what we generate is really an inaccurate reflection of realities. We have expanded the grid; additional projects are going on, and the Kudenda substation in Kaduna is part of the grid expansion.”
Terrorist group adopts new strategy of attacking residences in wave of attacks
The Nigerian army has issued a warning to Nigerians about a new tactic terror sect, Boko haram has devised in their attacks. In a statement signed by the deputy director army public relations, Mustapha Anka, the terrorists send suicide bombers to knock on houses, and when answered, they detonate their explosive vests.
Below is the statement in full;
This is to draw the attention of the general public to recent trend used by desperate remnants of Boko Haram Terrorists (BHT). Recently, two female suicide bombers knocked at the door of one Bulama and Usman about 200 meters apart in Kalari general area of Maiduguri. The daughter of the Bulama opened the door, while the Usman himself opened his own door immediately the suicide bombers detonated their suicide vest, in the process killing the unsuspected little girl, Usman including the two female suicide bombers.
The general public is hereby advised to be cautious and weary of strange persons knocking at their doors. Security is a collective responsibility; the public is to engage in neighborhood watch. Suspicious movement of persons should be reported to security agents without any delay. The public is once again reminded that curfew is still enforced by 10pm daily, any defaulter will be prosecuted accordingly.
You are please requested to disseminate this information to the public through your medium.
Thank you for your usual cooperation.
Boko Haram has in recent times launched a flurry of separate attacks barely two weeks after the Nigerian army announced that they had been defeated. On Sunday, January 8th, eight people have been confirmed dead in explosions that took place in different areas of Maiduguri, Borno state.
5 soldiers were killed after insurgents attacked an Army brigade in Buni Yadi, on Saturday, January 7. click here to read
Nigeria is targeting the opportunity to join the list of countries producing air crafts as the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is set to establish an Aviation University.
The Nation reports that Hadi Sirika who is the minister of aviation confirmed this plan when he toured the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) in Zaria, Kaduna State on Saturday, January 7.
He said: “The aviation university will be different from NCAT; the university will be fully into research and development and production of higher level management manpower need of the industry.
“The university will go into deep research, with the hope that in the near future, we will be able to manufacture aircraft components, until when we are able to produce the aircraft itself.
Since the technology is available around the world, is no longer a hindrance, it is our own ability and capability to pursue it.”
The minister of aviation noted that Brazil and India have joined aircraft producing countries and that Nigeria can do same too.
He said: “If such countries could do it, why not Nigeria’’.
“The technology is known, we are not reinventing it; we just put our act together in doing it. So, the university will cater for that, while NCAT will continue to provide the services in the institute.”
Sirika said the decentralisation of NCAT by the previous administration would make it difficult for the college to do what it was established to do.
He said: “Remember, it was the UNDP that partnered with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and Nigerian government to produce this institution.
“And it is one of its kind, so why are going to reduce its capacity and capability?. Our own task is to improve, enhance and upgrade the capacity and ability of the college to do more.
“But if somebody feels that he has funds to go and establish a facility somewhere to do some kind of training, of course, we will support him.”
Capt. Samuel Caulcrick who is the rector of the college identified funding and obsolete facilities as some of the bane to the development of the institution.
MMM must come back was the number one trending topic in Nigeria this morning.
Since the Ponzi scheme froze accounts of its users in December 2016 promising to return on January 14, 2017, Nigerians have been on the edge and simply can’t wait for the Ponzi scheme to return. Check out all the hilarious tweets below.
The Nigerian military yesterday said it has commenced the construction of roads into the Sambisa and Alagarno havens of the Boko Haram insurgents. The military also revealed that over 80 per cent of Sambisa forest has been captured from the insurgents as it insisted that the counter-insurgency war in the North-east is near it’s end.
The military equally disclosed at a press conference by the head of counter-insurgency operation in the North-east (Lafiya Dole Operation), Major General Lucky Irabor that 1,880 civilians mostly women were rescued from the insurgents in the last one week.
Irabor also revealed that in the last one week, 504 suspected Boko Haram insurgents were arrested with 19 voluntarily surrendering.
He noted that 37 foreigners are in the net of the military and presently undergoing interrogations to ascertaining their complicity.
Irabor during the press conference in Maiduguri, televised live to the nation said: “We have embarked on road construction within the Sambisa forest to open up the area and also ease our operations within the theater.”
“I call on individuals and cooperate organisations to come in and support the military, as everything cannot be left to government even with construction materials and other materials, as roads are essential in reviving the economic development of the North-east,” he said.
Irabor warned members of public, especially female students of tertiary institutions to be wary of new recruitment website, insisting that Boko Haram insurgency is an evil that was meant to destroy the society.
“I also urge the general public to continue to support the military in our final move to wipe out insurgency in the north-east through the provision of useful information and not to follow the ways of some media outfit that are bent on bringing down the military,” he appealed.
The ‘fake plastic rice’ has continued to trend across Nigeria after the Federal Operations Unit, Ikeja, of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, intercepted 102 bags of plastic rice branded “Best Tomato Rice’’ with no date of manufacture.
Several reports have revealed that China produces fake rice which is mixed with plastic for exportation to African countries including Nigeria and as the Yuletide draws close, there are indications that most people will fall victims to consuming the fake product.
Daily Post is reporting that you can determine if your rice is fake by carrying out some of the tests.
According to Daily Post, an expert, Emmie Shield revealed that the plastic rice is made by forming potatoes and sweet potatoes into regular rice grains shape, then adding industrial synthetic resins.
Shield said it remains hard after cooking and can cause serious health issues.
Nigerians have raised the alarm of possible flooding of the Nigerian market with the plastic rice, although, the NCS has assured Nigerians that it will uncover the person(s) behind importation of the deadly plastic rice.
Shield disclosed to Daily Post the various ways to discover the fake plastic rice.
So, Here are various ways of identifying the fake plastic rice
1. Water Test: Get a glass of cold water, pour a tablespoon of raw rice in the glass and stir. If the rice goes to the bottom, it is all good. If it floats at the top, it means it contains ‘plastic rice’.
2. When molding a few grains of rice with a mortar and pestle, if the powder gives a quite white colour, it’s fit for consumption but if it has a yellow discoloration, it is fake.
3. Boiling test: Observe the rice while boiling. If it starts forming a thick layer at the top of the pot, it is plastic rice.
4. Hot oil test: Take some of the rice drop into some real hot oil, it will melt or stick together or stick at the bottom of the pan if it is fake.
5. Fire test: Get a lighter and burn a handful of rice – If it catches fire and smells like burnt plastic, it is fake.
6. Mold test: Boil the rice and leave it in a warm place for like 2-3 days. If mold does not appear in a few days, the rice is fake. It will not get mold because plastic is not affected by the weather or temperature.
