Colonel Gaddafi's eldest son Saif has hired a group of South African mercenaries to smuggle him out of Libya and into a friendly African country, according to information received by the International Criminal Court.

The Court, based in the Hague, said Saif, 39, whose current whereabouts are the source of much speculation, had been in contact with them through intermediaries to discuss the possibility of surrendering for trial.

Saif escaped even though his motorcade was hit by a Nato air strike as it left Bani Walid on Oct. 19, the day before his father died in Sirte. Three of his brothers were killed in the war.

Sources this week reported he had taken refuge with Tuareg nomads, who his family had helped financially in the past, in the borderlands between Libya and Niger.

Driven either by greed or the desire to generate more income from an alternative source, over 13,000 ‘investors’ had in 2007 fallen for the juicy investment package offered by a supposedly oil and gas firm, NOSPETCO Oil and Gas Limited. And before their very eyes, they were conned of their hard-earned money amounting to over N22 billion. Their investment had not only disappeared like smoke, they have also been left in the cold without a trace of the promoters of the so-called oil and gas firm turned wonder bank.

Worse still, no fewer than 25 out of the 13,618 investors have been certified dead. There could be more unreported dead victims elsewhere. These investors, some of whom are retirees from the public service and the private sector, have been living in abject poverty. They have suffered untold hardship in the form of psychological trauma, high blood pressure, diabetes, nervous breakdown and acute depression among others. Among the 13,618 registered investors, I can authoritatively confirm that I now have the death certificate of 25 persons.

The identity of the dead investors was given as Ajanaku Abayomi, Ogunya Emmanuel Olabisi, Akinpelu Henry Bosede, Abama Alex and Alhaji Obayemi Anthony. The list also includes Fatai Adebola, Oshilaya Ademola Surajudeen, Ishmael Bimbola Oritsejafor, Otse Sunday, Kenny Abiodun Nafiu, Ogbe Solomon, Fabelarin Samuel, Bernard Adeyemi Adeniran and Adewale Anthony Ajayi.
Others are B.D. Ali, Seyan N.C., Osuagwu Magdaline, Udofia Udofia and Sunday Adekamimo.
NOSPETCO is owned by Alhaji Miyaki Abubakar and his two daughters. He hails from Katsina State. According to Adeleke, the man is so powerful that each time the police went to arrest him, he runs into an Emir’s palace for protection. That is how he has been able to evade arrest since the scam became public knowledge.

One year after ex-beauty queen died in controversial circumstances in police station, family alleges
plot for cover-up

When Princess Zainab Chinasa Uwakwe won a beauty pageant in Lagos, in 1992, at a younger age, she was full of life. Even at 39, she was still beautiful, with an arresting smile. However, she was not just a beauty. She’s also had brain, for business and politics. A professional caterer with sublime skills, her business interests had expanded into oil marketing and she did raise her outfit, DZ Wins Company Limited, Aba, to a notable brand. And she wanted to become a legislator in Abia State. But she died. She died a few months away from tying the nuptial knot with her heartthrob, Ray, who lives abroad.

Zainab died on October 5 last year in controversial circumstances. She died in the office of a Divisional Police Officer (DPO), in Aba. Her ugly story started after a political meeting, in connection with her ambition of representing Aba North State Constituency in the Abia State House of Assembly. She had got a call to come to Cameroun Road Police Barracks, Aba, to see the then Division Police Officer (DPO), Mr. Kabir A. Ishaq, a Superintendent of Police (SP). She did not leave the DPO’s office alive.

Since last year October till date, nobody has been docked for her death. Also, nothing has been said about her burial, as her corpse has remained in the mortuary. And her family is worried. Also, members of the family of the late Mazi Peter Uwakwe of Amakpor autonomous community, in Igbere, Bende Local Government Area, Abia State, are alleging plot to swept the incident under the carpet.

Zainab’s younger sister, Favour Nkechi Peter, said that the DPO, in whose office the lady died, has been transferred to Katsina State. She also alleged that other officers who were at the police station when the incident happened have been transferred to other police formations.

For the first time these lawmakers seem to be acting in the interest of the people. Must our President bow to the pressure of the governors to remove fuel subsidy so that they will be able to pay the new minimum wage of just 18k? Removing fuel subsidy in a country where there are no jobs, social security, electricity and other basic comfort for the masses as obtainable in advanced countries is just sentencing Nigerians to serious hardship.

Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Finance Minister, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has come under fire from the National Assembly over proposals by the Presidency to remove oil subsidy in 2012. Leadership of the National Assembly, led by Senate President David Mark and committee chairmen in both chambers pointedly refused to commit to the proposal to remove oil subsidy as from next year.

Rather, the lawmakers demanded details of the proposed removal of oil subsidy from the Finance Minister at a meeting between the Presidency and the National Assembly on Monday night.

Against the backdrop of public outcry against the removal, the Presidency commenced lobby of the National Assembly in a bid to ensure that the 2012 Appropriation Bill does not run into a hitch.

President Goodluck Jonathan is scheduled to present estimates of the 2012 budget to a joint sitting of the National Assembly in November.

A committee chairman present at the meeting told Daily Sun that the meeting, which was called at the instance of the Presidency was more of “a lobby of the National Assembly to support their proposal to remove oil subsidy. 
“The President was present at the meeting and our cooperation was sought concerning government proposals as contained in the MTEF Report sent to us.
“From the body language of the President and the Finance Minister, they seem bent on going ahead with the removal of the oil subsidy
In fact, committee chairmen pointedly told the Finance Minister that since they do not have details of the subsidy removal, they are at a loss as to how to even defend the move with their people.

Barely 24 hours after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested former governors of Ogun, Nasarawa and Oyo states, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Alhaji Aliyu Doma and Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala respectively, the anti-graft agency has declared ex-Gombe State governor and serving senator, Alhaji Danjuma Goje, wanted.

This is coming at a time the three arrested former governors are still in EFCC custody, where they are undergoing interrogation.
According to a statement by Mr. Femi Babafemi, EFCC head, media & publicity, yesterday, Goje is being wanted over allegations of mismanagement and diversion of over N52 billion state funds.

The EFCC explained that it decided to declare the former governor wanted  “after an endless search for him and his failure to submit himself for interrogation over the alleged fraud, even when he was in receipt of a letter of invitation giving him up to 12noon today(yesterday) to come out of his hiding.

The commission asked anybody who has information on the whereabouts of Goje to “send same to any of the EFCC’s offices across the country or the nearest police station.”
 The anti-graft agency said that it would continue its search for Goje, while promising to always work within the ambit of the law in the discharge of its responsibility. It urged Nigerians, “especially those being investigated, to respect and obey the laws of the land.”
Meanwhile, Goje has said that he would appear before EFCC on Monday to clear his name of alleged corrupt practices

The Lagos State Government in line with the recommendations of the visitation panel report has approved new regime of tuition fees for fresh students of Lagos State University (LASU) starting from 2011/2012 academic session.

The new tuition fees are contained in government views (white paper) on the report of the visitation panel to LASU dated September 2011, even as it directed the governing council and the Senate to take action on the implementation.
New students admitted to the College of Medicine are expected to pay the highest amount of N348,750 with N80,000 being tuition, accommodation attracts N60,000, N50,000 for laboratories/practical/workshop/studio, examinations N25,000 while acceptance fee and manuals go for N20,000 each.



But in a swift reaction to the tuition fees increment, the Students Union rejected the action and vowed to oppose the implementation on campus, saying the body was not carried along by the government and the university management before it was approved.

A breakdown of the new tuition fee per faculty indicates that fresh students in Faculties of Arts/Education would cough out N193,750. Further details revealed that tuition fee is N50,000, acceptance fee, laboratories/workshop/practical/studio attracts N20,000 each and it also include N15,000 for field trip/teaching practice and development levy.

For Faculties of Social and Management Sciences, the new students would pay N223,750 from 2011/2012 academic session with N60,000 going for tuition fee, laboratories/practical/workshop/studio attract N25,000, acceptance fee is N20,000.
The new fee for Law programmes is N248,750, with breakdown as follows, N80,000 for tuition, N50,000 for MOOT court Law, while examinations and acceptance goes for N20,000 each as development levy is N15,000.

Communication/ Transport faculties new intakes are to pay N238,750, with N60,000 going for tuition fee, N30,000 for laboratories/practical/workshop/studio, N25,000 for examinations and N20,000 for acceptance fee.
According to government, fresh students in Science Faculty would pay N258,750, made up of N60,000 as tuition fee, N40,000 for laboratories/ practical/workshop/studio, examination N25,000, and N20,000 each for acceptance fee and manuals.

In Engineering Faculty, the new intakes would cough out N298, 750 with breakdown as follow, N80,000 for tuition fee, N45,000 for laboratories/practical/workshop/studio, N25,000 for examinations, while acceptance fee and manuals attracts N20,000 each.
It further stressed that “Government directs that the new tuition fees shall not be applied retroactively as current students are exempted from the increase. The new tuition fees will take effect from 2011/2012 academic session.

The Presidency has indicated plans to remove the controversial fuel subsidy as from 2012 fiscal year. The Federal Government claimed it was subsidising petroleum products by over N600 billion yearly.

If removed, critics of the fuel subsidy removal argued that the pump price of fuel may rise from its current N65 to between N120 and N150 per litre.
The removal may likely feature in the N4.8 trillion budget estimate President Goodluck Jonathan may present to a joint sitting of the National Assembly in November.

Bombing roll call

•October 1, 2010 – Eagle Square bombing - 15 deaths
•Christmas eve bombing in Jos, 2010 - 32 deaths, 50 injured
•New Year’s eve bombing in Abuja Mogadishu Cantonment - 4 deaths
•January 30, 2011, police foil bombing at a church in Bauchi
•March 3, 2011, Suleja PDP campaign rally bombing – 10 deaths
•April 8, Suleja INEC office bombing – 25 deaths
•May 29, 2011, Zuba market bombing – 10 deaths
•May 29, 2011, Bauchi bombing at a market near a military barracks, 12 deaths and 25 injured victims.
•May 29, 2011 bombing in Maiduguri – 13 deaths, 40 injured.
•June 16, 2011, Police headquarters bombing – 4 deaths and 2 injured.
•June 16, 2011, bombing in Maiduguri (Damboa) – 4 children dead, one injured.
•June 26, Maiduguri bombing of a beer parlour - 25 deaths and 12 injured persons.
•July 10, 2011, Bauchi bombing of a church at the All Christian Fellowship Mission - 3 dead, 7 injured.
•July 10, 2011, bombing in a church in Suleja - 3 deaths.
•August 23, 2011, bombing in Maiduguri near Shehu of Bornu palace - 3 soldiers injured.
•August 26, 2011, Abuja UN House bombing - 25 deaths, about 200 injured.
•August 28, 2011, bombing in Bauchi at the home of former Police Minister, Yakubu Lame. No life lost.
•August 29, 2011, another bombing in Bauchi.
•September 6, 2011, two bombings in Maiduguri at the Baga and Kaleri districts, no death.
•September 6, 2011, bomb factory found in Suleja, manufacturers arrested.
•September 12, 2011, bombing of Bauchi police station and bank - 6 cops and one civilian killed in Misau.

It’s October 1 today, exactly one year since Mr. & Mrs. Donatus Arua, a trailer driver with Julius Berger and indigene of Obukpam, in Nsukka Local Government Area, Enugu State lost their two sons: John Chidera Arau (11) and Paul Onyekachi (7), his nephew, Ambrose Onyeme Ozioko (27), and Alfred Ona (32), from Obollo, Udenu Local Government Area, Enugu State, two young men he took as adopted sons, in the bomb blasts close to Eagles Square, Abuja last year.

While the families of NYSC members, who lost their lives during the April polls elections, have been compensated with N5 million, the Araus said despite the visits of Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, Senator Ayogu Eze and the then Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Fidelia Njeze-Akuabata, assuring him of their intervention to ensure they were compensated, nothing has been heard from them, neither have government officials bothered to get in touch.

They said that aside the assistance got from Julius Berger and their town union in Abuja, Nkalagu Obukpa Progressive Association, for the burial of his sons, nothing else has been forthcoming.
Arua said during the course of the burial plans, he was made to visit a number of offices and the court to get documents that would enable him to claim the compensation. He revealed that an official of the FCDA, who was a member of the committee set up by government, had informed him that they had recommended N500, 000 compensation to the injured, while families, which lost dear ones were to be given N3.5 million. But to date, nobody has got back to them.

A 34-year-old mother of four, Rebecca Emmanuel who killed her 9-year-old son, which she had outside wedlock to save her marriage is to die by hanging, a Maiduguri High Court has ruled. Rebecca, according to the court decision deliberately poisoned her son, Ishaya whom she had for another man in an attempt to hide his existence from the marriage. After killing the boy with the N20 rat poison, she reportedly burnt the corpse of the innocent boy using dry grasses and his cloth to conceal his identity.

During investigation, Saturday Sun learnt that she had told the police she committed the crime after she was pressurized by her family members to live with the little boy in her new matrimonial home where she already had had four children.

It was gathered that her husband had objected to accommodating a child she had outside wedlock in his home; hence in fear of his anger she had to kill her child to save the union.
The convict could not keep the secret of her heinous act. She went to tell her father of her deeds after she had repeatedly told one of her sisters that she had taken her son, Ishaya to his father in
Maiduguri.

During the trial, she in futility tried to disown her first confessional statement she willingly gave to the police that she was responsible for the death of her son when she came to take him away on January 23, 2008, from Biu in Biu Local Government to the Azare in Hawul Local Government.

But Justice Pindar Haruna Ngada held the arguments of her lawyers that no medical records had proven before the court that she actually poisoned her child did not hold water because both circumstantial evidence and her confessional statement had roped her in, adding that even the excuse given by the defence counsel that Rebecca was suffering from the pains of lactation at the time she gave her confessional statement couldn’t have saved her from going to the gilotine; because no medical record had suggested that she was under the pains of lactation, neither had any suggested that she has once suffered any form of psychiatric challenges in the past.

The judge recalled in quotes that Rebecca in her confessional statement told the CID department of the police that: “I came to pick my son Ishaya on January 23, 2008 from Biu to take him to Azare but since I had not informed my husband who was against my son staying with us, I was afraid of taking him home so I had to buy N20 rat poison and matches and I took him into the bush and gave him the poison and watched him die after 30 minutes. Then I used his cloth and some dry grasses to burn his face and body so that he could not be traced to me.”

Going by her confessional statement and the fact that her son was seen last in her company, Justice Ngada said, there was enough evidence to convict her, in accordance with the Section 27 Subsection 1 and 2 of The Evidence Act.
All pleas for leniency for Rebecca failed as the court ruled that Section 221 of the Penal Code is incontrovertible even as she commended the humility of the convict throughout the trial despite the fact that she was granted bail.

She however added in her ruling that “by virtue of Section 294 of the Criminal Code Procedure Laws of Borno State, 1994, I shall make recommendation to the governor as soon as the trial is typed and also the judgment to consider granting pardon to the convict or lessen the term of punishment”.

Justice Ngada of High Court No. 10, Maiduguri, said the offence committed by Rebecca was culpable murder which Section 221 of the Penal Code of Nigeria does not allow her the luxury of tempering justice with mercy.
“I wish I could temper justice with mercy; but I can’t; my hands are tied. Consequently the convict is hereby sentenced to death. And she shall die by hanging” the judge held in response to the pleas of Barrister Abba Yusuf, who stood in for Akila Shettima who pleaded for a softer sentence for the condemned murderer.

COLONEL Gaddafi's spokesman Mussa Ibrahim was last night (September 29th, 2011) believed to have been captured outside the former Libyan leader's hometown of Sirte.

Reports say Ibrahim was dressed as a woman and driving when troops surrounded him.

Local TV claimed he had mixed with a group of villagers fleeing the besieged town.

Mustafa bin Dardef of the National Transitional Council's Zintan Brigade said: "Misrata fighters contacted us and gave us the information that Mussa Ibrahim has been captured."

Ibrahim, 37, was the public face of Mad Dog's regime until NTC fighters took Tripoli last month.

Ibrahim — who studied politics at Exeter University — had continued to denounce the new government from his bolt-hole in Sirte.

The naira weakened further against the United States dollar on Thursday as the persistent strong demand for the foreign currency only received limited supply.


After closing at N158.45 to the dollar on the inter-bank market on Wednesday, the naira fell to an all-time low of N159.75 to the dollar at the close of activities on Thursday.


This fall in the local currency persisted regardless of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s attempt to raise supply at its bi-weekly auction and after it allowed the naira to appreciate at the official window.


On Wednesday, the CBN sold $700m at 154.60 to the dollar at its bi-weekly forex auction, a figure which represented the apex bank’s highest single sale since the beginning of the year, and against the $703.05m demanded.


Reuters reported that traders were sceptical about the regulator’s intentions to defend the naira, which fell beyond a target band of N150 +/-3 per cent at the previous auction and currently sells at 0.06 per cent beyond the range as posted on the official window.

It was a pay back time for a community leader in Umuihi in Ihitte/Uboma Local Government Area of Imo State as he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, for stealing a dog, belonging to one of his friends.

Stephen Ugwunali, who is the President General of Umuihi Town Union, was handed down seven-year jail term by an Imo State Magistrate Court, sitting in Etiti, for fraudulently stealing a Moroccan Durban hybrid dog, entrusted to his care by his friend and a Lagos-based legal practitioner and rights activist, Theo Nwaigbo.
The trial magistrate, Chief Magistrate E.O. Ibeawuchi, found Ugwunali guilty as charged at the conclusion of the trial, which lasted for over a year.

The accused, who was charged with the offence of stealing under section 383 of the Criminal Code, was found culpable for criminally breaching the trust reposed in him when he sold the dog, valued at N150,000, for a paltry N4,600, to a dog butcher in the area, Nzeribe Enwerem, without the consent of the owner. The convict, who committed the act with brazen impunity, had been collecting N5,000 per month, from the complainant for the maintenance of the dog.

Indeed, it was ironic twist of fate as the dog was taken to the convict for safe-keeping to prevent it from suffering the same fate that befell its counterpart, which was killed by the owner’s domestic servant, while he was away in Lagos. The complainant purchased the two hybrid dogs for $1,000 dollars each during his trip to Casablanca, Morocco, sometime in 2008, when he went on official engagement with his client to the North African country.
Nwaigbo had emotional attachment to the dog, which always followed him about in the village and the neighbouring communities as he cruised about in his power bike anytime he visited home.

The Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. ’Dibu Ojerinde, has said only 60,000 out of 498,000 candidates who sat for this year’s tertiary institutions examinations have gained admission.

Ojerinde said a majority of the successful candidates were given admission based on their first choice institutions.

He spoke in Ilorin while declaring open the 2nd Combined Technical Committee Meeting on Admission to Tertiary Institutions at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State on Monday. The JAMB Registrar added that the list for the most preferred second choice institutions would be released after the end of the technical committee meeting on Wednesday.

Former Eagles’ captain, Austin Jay Jay Okocha, has come out with a startling revelation on Nigerian football that might jolt those who are rating our national teams high in Africa. Speaking at the Governor Godswill Akpabio’s Unity Cup final in Uyo last weekend, Okocha said Nigerian football was overrated by its administors.

He warned that if that notion is not dropped as soon as possible, Nigerian football might nosedive to an irredeemable state.

Okocha wondered why any right thinking individual could rate Nigerian football over those of South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, Algeria and others that have developmental programmes.
“We have deceived ourselves for so long and I think it is right time we call a spade by its name to redeem what is left of our football,” Okocha began.
“Nigerian football is overrated and this affects our players anytime they are on national duty

everytin is just goin jagajaga...gosh

ok, am listening

ABIA State Government has said its statement on the gang rape video clip was based on claims by the Vice-Chancellor of the state University, the institution’s student union government and the state police commissioner.

Five suspected members of a cult group had gang-raped a student of ABSU, recorded the incident and posted it on the Internet, a development that had triggered an uproar across the country.

The state government had earlier described the claim that five students from the state university gang-raped a female student as false, insisting that such an incident did not take place within the university.

But the Media Adviser to the State Governor, Mr. Bonny Iwuoha, explained that the earlier position of the state government on the matter was based on the report credited to the Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Chibuzor Ogbuagu, the institution Students Union Government and the police.

Iwuoha, who argued that the matter was still an allegation, recalled that Ogbuagu, the school’s SUG and the police had maintained that there was no rape incident.

He said, “The statement that was made initially by the state government was based on the report of the Vice-Chancellor, President of the university’s student union government and the police.

“The Vice-Chancellor said nothing of that nature happened. The university’s SUG and the police also said there was no rape incident. So the state government reacted based on that.”

Iwuoha said the state government would still rely on the ongoing investigation by the police before taking a position on the matter.

The Abia State Commissioner of Police, Bala Hassan, on Sunday confirmed that the police had apprehended two of the five suspects allegedly involved in the rape.

Hassan said the police acted on the information given about the identity of the suspects on the Internet to make its arrest, adding that they were working hard to apprehend the remaining three.

The CP said the suspects were arrested within the Uturu campus of the university.

On October 1st, 2011 Nigeria will clock 51 as an independent country. But I want to know if at this age the country is a fool or really the giant of Africa. What do you think?