An uncompleted four-storey building had a catastrophic structural failure and collapsed at St. Andrews Anglican Church, Odoakpu, Onitsha, Anambra State on 2 June 2014.
 Four persons, all adult males believed to be workers on the site died while numerous students and parishioners who frequent the building thankfully were not affected.
The day before the collapse some 300 students had reportedly used the building for a church event. Hundreds of students were playing in the vicinity of the building when it collapsed.

 The collapse of the building occurred at exactly  1:30 pm at St. Christopher Anglican Church premises, along Old Cemetery Road, Onitsha in the Onitsha South Local Government Area. Within minutes the first responders from the Red Cross lead by Dr Katchy were on the scene followed by SEMA, SSS and police and local government officials.  Rescue efforts commenced immediately and heavy equipment including four excavators arrived consequently from Julius Berger and other contractors to undertake the search and rescue exercise.
Gov. Willie  Obiano who was away in Abuja on official business was informed of the accidents and ordered immediate intervention.  Senior ANSG officials led by SSG Oseloka H. Obaze arrived at the scene and along with the CPS  Tope Fasugba, Army Commander Col. AJ Fagge, Army Engineers Commander Col. Sango Aremu,  Navy Commander Mike Oamen, SEMA Director Dr Justin Ijezie took charge of the rescue operation, assisted by officers of the FRSC, AVSS, and NSDC. LG Council chairman, Mrs Ann Chukwueke and her staff were also on hand throughout the rescue exercise.
On arrival, SSG Oseloka Obaze told the media that the priority was the conduct an efficient search and rescue mission and eventually recovery of any dead bodies. He characterized the “catastrophic failure of the building almost avoidable, if there had been full compliance with building codes.”  Mrs Chukwueke  attributed the collapse on poor materials and supervision by the Anambra Urban Development Board (ASUDEB),which had responsibility for approving building plans.
On the whole, four adult male bodies were recovered from the site, the first at  5:48pm, the second at 6:40pm, the third at 6:50pm and the fourth and final body at 7:35pm  The Police DPO confirmed that they had identified the victims, but would not release the names until the next of kins were informed.
As it got darker and lighting equipments were brought in by the Nigerian Army engineers, it was determined that the search had reached the bottom of the rubble. A decision was made to suspend the search at 8:10pm.
At 8:15pm the Secretary to the Anambra State Government, Mr Oseloka Obaze, the Chief of Staff to Governor Obiano, Prof. Joe Asike, SEMA Director Dr Ijezie, the Army and Navy Commanders, Police DPO, FRSC, Unit Commander, Onitsha, Red Cross and all the first responders present were met by the parish priest and church elders who thanked them for the quick response by the State authorities and emergency officials.
Thereafter SSG Obaze announced the decision to call off the search and recovery exercise and on behalf of Gov. Obiano whom he said was fully briefed on the rescue  exercise,  thanked all those who assisted in the rescue efforts.  He said that the collapse was “a tragic incident  that did not have to happen and that one life lost was one life too many.” He also  indicated that any further official pronouncement on the collapsed building will come later on.
Between 2012 and 2013 Anambra experienced a spate of building collapses, which compelled the government to set up a panel of experts to investigate the incidents and their respective cause and make recommendations.   The panel submitted its report eventually but there was never a government White Paper on the report.
This recent building collapse was the first in Anambra State in 2014.  The collapse happened at a time when the Obiano Administration was already reviewing the activities of ASUDEB in the state.

Though the nationwide warning strike called by the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, is expected to end today, there may be no end in sight to the action embarked upon by the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, chapter of the association as activities there were completely grounded yesterday.

The situation is the same in all public health institution across the country. From National Hospital, Abuja, to LUTH, LASUTH, the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, and National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, NOHE, patients are complaining of ineffective services.

These developments came as Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, MDCAN, blamed incessant strikes in public hospitals in Nigeria on government policies.

The usual beehive of activities at LUTH was not in evidence as the Accident and Emergency ward of the hospital remained under lock.

WhenVanguard visited the hospital, the atmosphere was that of abandonment, especially as there was no electricity.

All the entrance gates were manned by overzealous security men who confronted reporters that entered the premises.

Further investigation by Vanguard showed that while the hospital discharged some patients whose cases were critical to seek help elsewhere, families on their own took their relatives away for fear of their ailments degenerating.

 Abandoned children

At the Paediatrics Ward, Vanguard gathered that while some children have been discharged, those who are still there are not being attended to.

A woman, whose child was on admission and spoke on condition of anonymity, told Vanguard that the hospital management had been discharging children since Monday.

She said: “Before, nurses used to bath our children but today they just managed to give us warm water. We took care of our children ourselves; the only thing they did was to clean children in incubators.”

Asked if the nurses were also on strike, the woman said: “They even refused to attend to my son that has injection to take; not even to clean his wound.”

At the medical emergency, relatives of patients were seen moving their loved ones out.

Asked why, an aged man said: “You want to know? Can’t you see that doctors are on strike and you are asking me nonsense questions? Do you want me to leave my brother here to die? I beg you, look for another person to answer your question.”

Strike continues

— LUTH-NARD

President, LUTH-NARD, Dr. Omojowolo Olubumi, yesterday raised fresh demands stating that due to lack of appreciable progress made regarding their demands, the strike at LUTH would continue.

He said the doctors were demanding that LUTH management issue a letter to individual resident doctors, stating when clearly the tenure of their training based on the 2013 circular.

He said: “The duration of residency training in LUTH has remained a subject of controversy as the management has deliberately shrouded it in secrecy so as to be able to continue to perpetuate the policy of premature termination of employment and abrupt stoppage of salaries of senior registrars.”

Olubumi, who also demanded an immediate review of hospital fees, which had greatly affected their training, said: “As doctors, we are gravely concerned. There is increase in the number of avoidable deaths and morbidity due to inability of patients to afford these fees.

“For instance the price of minor surgery such as incision and drainage and suturing of laceration has jumped from N8,000 to N50,000.

“This has led to reduction in the numbers of patients in the hospital, thus negatively impacting on training of specialist doctors, especially those in the surgical sub-specialties of dentistry, obstetrics and gynaecology and surgery.”

He alleged also that there were no facilities, such as water, to wash hand after seeing a patient at LUTH.

He alleged: “No case note anymore in LUTH. We write with any paper, even with our phones; and these are confidential issues.”

LUTH threatens

At the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, the striking doctors said if their demands, which bothered on improved budgetary allocation to the specialist training programme, was not met by July I, they would embark on an indefinite industrial action.

According to one of the resident doctors in LASUTH, the present structure of funding the programme, which is supposed to expose them to both international and local training, is faulty and can affect the quality of their training.

At the National Hospital, Abuja, patients are complaining of ineffective services rendered at the hospital in the past two days.

One of the patients at the hospital, Olaoluwa Abraham, said it had weakened services in the hospital.

Meanwhile, members of the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, and the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, NOHE, has fully joined the ongoing strike to press home their demand for improved welfare of their members.

The members of the association took the decision to join the nationwide strike at an emergency meeting held Monday evening, where they directed their members to participate fully in the industrial action.

The officials were said to have gone round the hospitals yesterday to enforce the directive, a development that forced all NARD members to abandon their duty posts.

Consultants, nurses overwhelmed

Consequently, patients in various wards at UNTH were left in the hands of few consultants and nurses who, sources said, were finding it difficult to cope.

The few consultants available were unable to go round all the wards, leaving most of the patients unattended to. Officials of NARD in the hospital could not be reached as they did not report for duty throughout yesterday.

The major drawback at the orthopaedic hospital is the shutting down of the Accident and Emergency unit which has prevented the admission of new patients.

Sources said that some accident victims taken to the hospital yesterday morning were turned back by security men at the gate because doctors in charge of the department were absent.

‘Blame govt policies’

Reacting to the situation in Abuja, President of Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, MDCAN, Dr. Steve Oluwole, blamed incessant strikes in public hospitals on government policies.

Oluwole said: “Strike actions by the resident doctors often provoke emotions and spontaneous reactions, which prevent in-depth analysis of the underlying problems and issues.

“We called on the Federal Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Labour and Productivity to avoid political decisions, agreements or memoranda that are designed just to make a striking group suspend its strike, when it is obvious such agreements are not implementable or will conflict with previous agreement with other groups.

“The two ministries should harmonise to put an end to the cycles of strikes over the same issues.”

Asked if consultant doctors could work effectively without the resident doctors, Oluwole said: “The teaching hospitals and many tertiary medical centres are designed to function with resident doctors working with their consultants.

“Any expectation that it will be business as usual without them attending to their duties is deceptive.”

He pledged MDCAN’s commitment to uninterrupted services in the hospitals, stressing that the confidence of patients in health care delivery could not be sustained by industrial actions.

In what could best be described as an example of the increasing corruption in the Nigerian Police Force, two Police Corporals and an Inspector attached to the Rivers State Police Command have been arrested by the police in Aba, Abia State for dispossessing a businessman of his goods and selling same.

 The policemen who are now cooling their heels in detention; Corporals Felix serving at Elelenwo police division and Goodluck of the OPS department, state Command headquarters, Port Harcourt and Inspector Francis of the same OPS department among another policeman, both at large, connived with three clearing agents to dispossess a business man of his goods at gunpoint and diverted same to Okigwe in Imo state where they sold off the consignment containing ice fish.

 Information gathered that the three clearing agents arrested with the policemen; Chukwunyeke Dominion, Prince Dibia and Imhoitsike Okhai were said to have tipped off the four policemen about a truck carrying ice- fish from Onne Port in Rivers State to Aba.

 The policemen later mounted an illegal checkpoint at the Imo gate boundary between Abia and Rivers states, pushed down the driver and his assistant and confiscated the consignment and diverted the truck to Okigwe in Imo state where they allegedly sold some of the goods to a waiting businessman while others were left to rot away.

 The driver of the truck who reported the incident to the owner of the goods accused one of the clearing agents, Dibia of being behind the robbery.

 The matter was later reported to the Police in Aba who arrested the clearing agent, Dibia who on interrogation disclosed how the truck was diverted to Okigwe. The two other clearing agents and two out of the four policemen involved in the act has been arrested while the Inspector and his unnamed colleague have been declared wanted by the police in Aba.

 Police sources said that the truck was later abandoned at Ulakwo in Owerri North LGA of Imo state after the consignments were sold off.

Contacted on phone, police public relations officer of the Abia command, ASP Ogbonna Geoffrey said asked our correspondent, “are you sure the incident happened in Abia state?”

Okwudili Nnagbo, a kidnap suspect fleeing to South Africa, arrested after boarding his escape aircraft to South Africa at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, last month was yesterday paraded at the headquarters of the State Anti-robbery Squad, Awka, Anambra State, alongside 13 other suspects caught for various offences.

Nnagbo, from Nri in Anaocha Local Government Area of the state, said he had been in the business of kidnapping for many years, adding that he had lost count of the number of persons he had kidnapped in the past.
He said he decided to quit kidnapping when one of his relations in South Africa invited him over, noting that he thought he had covered his tracks only to be arrested at the point of departing the country.

Also paraded were Chukwudi Chinedu from Okija, and Kevin Obi from Umuzu who allegedly raped the pregnant wife of a man they robbed of N66,000 and Uba Christian Chukwuemeka from Oji River in Enugu State who had been involved in the kidnap of female students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka where he enrolled for a diploma programme few years ago.

Chinedu said he was living in Lagos and was looking for money to

transport himself back to Lagos and blamed the devil for his action.
Another gang that includes Onyeka Ozoigbo, a vulcanizer, and Harrison Amaukwu, both from Uli in Ihiala Local Government Area were caught with 85 telephone handsets stolen from various people.

Luck, however, ran out on them when one of the people they  approached to buy one of the phones at N1,700 alerted the Police and they were apprehended, while one member of the gang, who scaled the wall on sighting the police, is still at large.

Another suspect, Mr. Chiagorom Ihejiagwa, from Akokwa in Imo State admitted that though he had a shop in Asaba, he was  involved in buying stolen cars.
The one that landed him into trouble, he said, was the Honda Pilot SUV which he bought at N1.5 million, adding that he knew that it was stolen before he bought it.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Emeka Chukwuemeka also displayed various arms and ammunition recovered from the suspects.

The Lagos State Police Command, yesterday, paraded three suspected members of a notorious kidnap gang that killed former Deputy Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chudi Nwike.They were picked up in their den last year.

Nwike was kidnapped on March 19, 2013 and a N30 million ransom was demanded by his abductors who reportedly murdered him after taking N5 million as ransom.

Parading the suspects alongside four others, among whom were three Ibadan‑based alleged hired assassins, who confessed to have been given N140,000 as advance payment to eliminate a businessman in Lagos, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, said the arrest of the kidnap suspects followed the arrest of one Monday Odieto in Benin, Edo State, by the Divisional Police Officer in‑charge of Ikoyi, Aisha Haruna.

How they were nabbed

Manko explained that during interrogation, Odieto confessed to belong to a 30‑man kidnap gang operating in the South‑South and Southeast axis of the country and further confessed to have been involved in the kidnap of a Supreme Court judge’s wife, Justice Rhodes-Vivour, last year along the Lagos/Benin expressway.

His confessional statement, according to Manko, led to a manhunt for those indicted. He said the pursuit led to the arrest of Godspower Ovwigho, 31, and Stanley Efetobor, 29. He said they were arrested by operatives of the Special Anti‑ Robbery Sqaud.

Manko said: “After a long manhunt, one Godspower Ovwigho, was tracked and arrested at Ikorodu, Lagos State on April 23. He was identified by Monday Odieto as being a top ranking member of the gang. On April 24, one Stanley Efetobor, who is also a gang member, was also arrested by SARS.”

How suspects ambushed prisons officials , freed leader

During interrogation, the suspects, according to Manko, confessed to be among those who ambushed some prison officials in Okere, Warri, Delta State while their leader, simply identified as Rufus was being taken to court in March last year. Some prison officials were reportedly killed in the attack.

According to him, “Efetobor confessed to be a member of the gang that rescued one of their former gang leaders, one Rufus, at Okere raid in Warri, Delta State.

“He confessed that the raid was carried out when some prisons officials were taking him to court from prison yard in March, last year. The suspects confessed that several prisons officers lost their lives in that operation.

“He also confessed that their gang kidnapped the wife and daughter of Justice Rhodes-Vivour. The same gang kidnapped former Anambra deputy governor and demanded N30 million as ransom. Although they got N5 million from the family, they still killed the man and told the wife to use the remaining N25 million to bury her husband. But we are still continuing with our investigations.”

Why we killed former dep gov— Suspect

Godspower Ovwigho, 27, told a bewildered crowd that his gang killed the former deputy governor because his wife was heady.

According to him, “we killed the deputy governor because his wife tried to prove difficult. We demanded N30 million but they gave us only N5 million. After the payment, they promised to give us more but did not. It was Rufus that shot him dead when the wife refused to pay more. Rufus is our leader.

“We held him hostage in a three-bedroom flat in Kokori town, in Delta State. When the negotiators brought the money and Rufus discovered it was N5 million, he drove all of them away. He, thereafter, charged into the bedroom where the deputy governor was and told him that his wife was daring us.

“He called the victim’s wife on the phone and asked why the money was slashed. She told him that was all they were able to gather. Out of anger, he shot the former deputy governor four times and called his wife again on the phone and told her to use the balance to organise his burial.”

I got N40,000 out

of the N5m

His alleged partner in crime, Stanley Efetobor, 29, lamented that his share of the N5 million was only N40,000.

Meanwhile, the three suspected hired assassins who left Ibadan for Lagos, to snuff life out of a businessman, one Victor Adelakun, disclosed that they were promised N140,000 after executing the job.

The suspects, according to Manko, were arrested in a nightclub on Allen Avenue by operatives of SARS on May 10, 2014 while strategizing on how to get their target.

But the trio of Ibrahim Lawal (27), Emmanuel Adewale (25 ) and Yomi Olarewaju (25) claimed they intended kidnapping their victim.

Although in an earlier interrogation, they reportedly told the operatives that their mission was to assassinate their victim. But Ibrahim stated yesterday:

“We wanted to kidnap him. That was the instruction given to us. We were promised N300,000 if the deal succeeded. We were given N100,000 as advance fee

“We were just at the club waiting for the victim because we were told he usually drink there. While we were discussing how to get him, we did not know how the Police got wind of our mission and apprehended us.”

Fear has gripped residents of Gusau,  the Zamfara State capital  following the discovery of  arms and ammunition, including grenade  in  the residence of a lawmaker(names with held) in the state by security operatives.

As the news of the scary discovery spread in Gusau and neigbouring Tsafe town,there was panic and tension as motorists and residents struggled for safety, resulting in a gridlock.

A source who pleaded  anonymity, told Daily Sun that the raid  on the lawmaker’s residence followed a tip-off. According to sources , some men who were arrested with arms in Kano,  made confessional statement that they kept  their arms and ammunition in the Zamfara lawmaker’s  house.

“We learnt that it was based on this revelation that the security operatives stormed his two houses  in Tsafe town and Takama in Gusau metropolis,” a source said.

It was further gathered that following the raid, several AK47 rifles,boxes of live ammunition and several tins of teargas were discovered in the legislator’s  residence in Gusau,while a grenade was discovered in his house at Tsafe.

Checks by Daily Sun revealed  that the incident occurred after  a top notcher of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) was invited for questioning about  a month ago for his alleged romance with cattle rustlers in the state.

Observers in the state attributed the current trend to the extension of insurgency in the North.

When contacted, the embattled lawmaker maintained that he was invited by security agents and he had made a written statement.

Speaking on the development,  Police Public Relations Officer(PPRO), in the state,  DSP Lawal Abdullahi, said the raid was carried out by a special team from Abuja but declined further comment on the matter.

A married couple in their early 60s was celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in a quiet,
romantic little restaurant.
Suddenly, a tiny yet beautiful fairy appeared on their table.
She said, 'For being such an exemplary married couple and for being loving to each other for all this time, I will grant you each a wish.'
Description:
The wife answered, 'Oh, I want to travel around the world with my darling husband.
The fairy waved her magic wand and - poof! -
two tickets for the Queen Mary II appeared in her hands.

The husband thought for a moment: 'Well, this is all very romantic,
but an opportunity like this will never come again.
I'm sorry my love, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me.
The wife and the fairy, were deeply disappointed, but a wish is a wish.
Description:
So the fairy waved her magic wand and poof!...the husband became 92 years old.


The moral of this story:
Men who are ungrateful bastards should remember fairies are female.....
- See more at: http://www.nigeriadailynews.com/entertainment/jokes/22629-40-years-of-marriage.html#sthash.osaMPenE.dpuf

Chief Femi Fani-Kayode is a former minister and special adviser. In this interview, he spoke on the controversies over his recent articles, the state of relations between ethnic groups in Nigeria and why the country must address its nationality question. Keep reading

Since you wrote the series of widely circulated articles about the relationship between the Yorubas and the Igbos, there have been a lot of responses, with many condemning you. Did you regret writing those articles?

The answer to your question is emphatic no. Why should I entertain any fear or regret about what I wrote? I don’t regret a word of what I wrote. And I don’t entertain any fear about anything. If people don’t want to hear the truth, that is their problem and not mine.

Some people believe that you went overboard in those articles, that some of the things that you wrote, you should not have written them

Nobody should tell me what to write or what not to write and neither did I go overboard. It’s an intellectual exercise and those essays were based on my knowledge of history and I will be more interested in somebody pointing out where I get the history wrong, rather than trying to telling me what I should say or what I should not say. In a debate like this, I expect informed opinion, I expect somebody to write and challenge my assertions based on their own knowledge, not just abuse and threats and lectures about what to say and what not to say. People should stop being lazy intellectually, they should try to rise up to the occasion and learn from these things, go and do their own research, find out what their history is and come and tell us about their views or opinion about that history. I have no regrets and as far as I’m concerned, this debate is an ongoing one.

So, what is your reaction to those who said you sound more or less like an ethnic champion in those articles?

I think you cannot refer to me as an ethnic champion because I have been a nationalist for many years, I have put my life in politics for the past 20 years, I fought for this country, I stood up against military government, I stood up for the Northern children, the girl child, I stood up for the Igbos and the non Yorubas that were killed in the North. I stood up for people whose rights have been violated by government and I have paid my dues. I was a federal minister in this country, not a Yoruba minister. I was a spokesperson for the presidency, not a spokesperson for the south west. So, I am not an ethnic politician and I believe in Nigeria. If I were, I will tell you and I have no regret about it. However, I don’t believe it is proper for people to lay claims to other people’s lands and other people’s territories. My essays were a reaction to something and that is what so many other people seem to have forgotten. When you create the impression that the Igbos not only own Lagos, but also that the Igbos contribute 65 percent of business and also contribute 65 per cent of revenue in Lagos, I have to reject that because those assertions are not true and I have to react to it. Now, I reacted to it not with insults, not with calling my brother and friend, Orji Uzor Kalu a tribalist or anything like that. What I did was to simply say I disagree and I told them why I disagree and based on their reaction to my first disagreement, we now went into the full scale debate. I haven’t insulted any individual, what I have done is to analyse our history and draw conclusions from that history and that’s the way it is supposed to be in a civilized society, not getting up and insulting people both night and day and trying to intimidate me into silence. And if I am silenced and intimidated by all these insults that is going on, all these subtle threats going, it will them mean no Yoruba man will be able to speak again on this issue because it will then mean that we have been intimidated, but I cannot be intimidated. No Fani-Kayode can be intimidated and no Yoruba man can be intimidated. I am a Yoruba man before being a Nigerian and I owe no one no apology for that. But at the same time, I love Nigeria, I believe in Nigeria and I love all nationalities in Nigeria, but that is not to say I will forget my heritage, I will forget my history, I will forget where I am coming from. I will never do that. I will not sacrifice my Yoruba side on the altar of a greater Nigeria and I will find to defend the interest of my own ethnic group, my own part of Nigeria any day, anytime because I don’t see how any Yoruba man can go to any other part of the country and claim their land and say that they are the ones generating all their money because the local people are stupid and they have no business acumen and they don’t even know their rights. I am not going to accept that.

But the argument, even by those who agree with you, is that you could have made your point without making some references you made in the newspaper articles?
I don’t need the approval or support of anybody. This is not a football match, it is an opinion. Did they understand the meaning of the word opinion? And people are entitled to their opinions and in civilized, pluralized societies, people ventilate their opinions and I am putting it to you that nobody has put a better argument of this matter than me when it comes to the issues concerned. I am looking forward to a person that is in support or against me that can put a better argument on these specific issues. And each of those essays is pretty good. I have been writing for 20 years, they were pretty good, they made the point. The problem here is that many of our people don’t like to say what is on their mind. But I am not like that, I always speak my mind and that’s why with me, sweet or bitter, you will get the truth. I am not like most of our people who will pretend saying something here, saying something in another place. You know very well the articles I wrote painted the mind of every single person in this country about how some of our people behave, particularly the Yorubas, but how many of you will say the same? But I don’t play like that, I speak truly and it is important to speak the truth in order to avoid conflict in the future. It is when you refuse to speak the truth that you are courting disaster and possible violence in the future. You know why? If we don’t say these things and speak up, we will not be able to resolve our differences. We are making what I call the ‘Zik mistake’, I am not attacking Zik, but I will explain what I mean. When Zik and Sardauna met, Zik told Sardauna ‘we should forget our differences. Sardauna said ‘no, we should understand our differences’ and he was absolutely right. Unfortunately though, majority of Nigeria took Zik’s position which is that we should forget our differences and move forward as if we had none. And that led to terrible conflicts in which many people were killed in the first republic and then, the civil war in which so many people also died. That was the price we have to pay for not understanding our differences. If we had followed Sardauna’s advice and not Zik’s advice at that time and had tried to understand our differences and had tried to understand one another, those terrible things would never have happened. And I am afraid that the same thing is happening today. We are pretending as if we had no differences and we are courting danger and disaster. And that is why it’s important when people get up to make very provocative comments, statements and assertions about the rights of other ethnic nationalities in their own areas and we react to it in a very vigorous manner, somebody will get up and say we have no right to do that. And that’s absolutely absurd. It should be the other way round- people that come to our part of the country should be sensitive to the fact that they are visitors and guests and that is not part of the country where they actually come from and so, they should not behave as if they own the place or build the place from their own sweat.

Why do you think the mutual distrust and suspicion between the Igbos and Yorubas have persisted in spite of years of intermarriages, friendship and all other type of relationship between the two ethnic groups?

I don’t think there is really any mutual suspicion or distrust. What I think, as I argued in my article is that the Yorubas have been so accommodating to a point that they forget that at a point you have to draw a line and say enough is enough. I don’t know how it got to a point that an Igbo person will think he owns Lagos and that 55 per cent of financial resources are generated by them. I don’t know how they can say that and then they expect the Yorubas to say nothing in return- those ones that responded have been called all sorts of names and subjected to all kinds of humiliation. And that is what worries me the most because when you do that and you push people into a corner that we cannot even speak for ourselves or for the rights of our people, you are courting disaster. And we do not want to go down the road of Kigali. We got to build a plural society where everybody right is respected. I will not go to the East or the North or any part of the country and try to impose my will or claim territories of other people. I wouldn’t do it and if I did it, I will not complain when the other people raise an objection. Let me tell you the more fundamental aspect of all these analyses and this is something I want to say with all seriousness. The greatest act of wickedness that the military inflicted on Nigerians is to ban the teaching of history in our schools in the 80s. It was an act of sheer wickedness because today younger generation of Nigerians don’t know anything about their history. The consequence of that is that they are easily influenced by historical revisionism and lies. People tell them anything they want to tell them and these young ones believe what they are told and the consequences are that we may now repeat the mistake of the past. And I am talking of all them and not just one section. If they have been taught history in the schools, they would understand where we are coming from and why we have to be very careful about what I will call the nationality question which till today has not been answered in Nigeria and which needs to be answered whether anybody likes it or not. Who are we? Where did we come from? How did Nigeria come together? Do we really want to stay together? If we do; can we not agree on what terms of staying together? Can we not fight on the devolution of power from the centre to the regions, to the states? Do we want to continue on this unitary system of government? These are the fundamental issues of the day. But most Nigerians will prefer that they are buried under the carpet and act as if all is well. But that is a very dangerous thing. But it is very important that we do not make the mistake of yesterday and if we want to avoid the mistake of yesterday, we must ensure that we learn from those mistakes and avoid them. In the South west of Nigeria, there is too much resentment-even though they won’t say it, most Yoruba people are too polite to voice this opinion, but the time for being over polite has long gone- because today, we have graduate unemployment in this country and 70 per cent of our people are living below the poverty line and the country is back in debt and everything is going backward for us in this country. And let me tell you the problem that we have here- from the 50s, if you look at the way in which the Western region of Nigeria was developed- and when I say the West, it is not just Yorubaland, but the Midwest, Nigeria-Delta and Edo States- they were part of the old Western region at a time- the rapid rate of development was really remarkable. That was when we had the first television in Africa, we had places like Cocoa House, Western House was built, Obafemi Awolowo University was built- these were the fruits of Awolowo and Akintola government in the Western region. The Western region built an industrial estate in Ikeja which was part of the region then, it wasn’t part of Lagos. And all those wonderful things were funded and developed from the resources we derived from cocoa production. So we got our money from cocoa export and we funded all our infrastructure development, all government programmes from that money. To add to that, you also have the natural resourcefulness and the ability to work hard as Yoruba businessman, Yoruba professional class and it was so outstanding compared to anywhere else in Africa. Our people have graduated as far back as the early 1800 whereas other people didn’t even know what a school looks like. Our people have gone to Oxford and Cambridge as far back as the mid 1800. We are very advanced people and that reflected in the way in which our region developed so fast in such a way that no region comes close to us. And if we had been allowed to develop that way, today we would have been the Dubai or the Singapore of the African continent. That’s how good we were. But unfortunately for us, when the military came in, everything changed. They centralized authority, the rest of the region through the federal government arrested our development, tied us down to progressing at their own space and that is why we are where we are today. The only benefit that we got in the South west from developing at the slow pace of the rest of Nigeria was the fact that we got some crumbs from the oil money to build the bridges in Lagos, built the airport, built the third mainland bridge and all these things in the 70s and these are all things that we enjoy. But at the same time, we could have done those things ourselves if we have been allowed to develop at our own space. But we were held back by the rest of the country and unfortunately, that is where we are today and it is something of a tremendous concern. And we say okay, fine, we have to develop at somebody else pace and it is a slow space, but don’t now come to our territory and say you own it, you built it and you control all the money there. It’s not acceptable because it is not true. And sooner we all appreciate the fact that if we concentrated more on developing our own areas and our country as a whole, rather than going into another person’s territory and saying we own it and make it what it is, the better it will be for all of us.

But many people believe that the root of the distrust between the Yorubas and the Igbos are rooted in the pre and post independence events like the way the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, according to the Igbos, was not allowed to assume the leadership of Western region parliament, an act which was assumed to be the beginning of introduction of tribalism into Nigerian politics…
It is a good thing that we are all talking about our history. People in my generation know the history very well. If they have done their research, they will know the answer to these questions and that was why I wrote the second essay. The first essay was simple, it was just a straightforward response to the claims that my friend, Orji Uzor Kalu made. But the second essay was provoked by the reactions it generated and I say let me go into history and analyse the historical facts for you, not opinion. Now, if anybody goes to read that, he will know where tribalism itself started, he will know who started it and what the result is. Now, if you start the narrative from the 1959 regional election result, you are starting from the wrong point, you will miss the narrative and that’s the problem with our Igbo brothers and sisters, they always start there- ‘oh, it is the Yorubas that started it by betraying Zik in 1959.’ But if you want to go further back and I challenge anybody to bring evidence that I am wrong, the first statement that was made that created the division between the Igbos and the Yorubas came from an Igbo man and it was a very, very decisive statement and that was where it all started. That was in 1945 when Charles Dadi Onyeama who was a member of the legislative council representing Enugu in Lagos, a very great man who was a representative of Nigeria at the Hague, a great jurist, he made a statement that Igbos domination of Nigeria and of Africa is only a matter of time and he made it at Ibo State Union Address. At that point in time when he said it, nobody in the West is even looking at tribe. Herbert Macaulay, a Yoruba man established the NCNC and handed the party over to Zik, an Igbo man, he didn’t care. NCNC was controlling the whole of the South west, nobody cares. But these Igbo nationalism began to manifest and Zik himself said the god of the Igbos would ensure that they rule Nigeria and Africa that was in 1947. And it was after those two major comments that Yoruba leaders now got together and said we cannot go on like this. If we are not careful, these people will turn us into slaves. Action Group was now created as a consequence of all those things that were said. And then came the regional election which in fact, Zik would have won, but for the fact that AG joined forces with Ibadan Peoples Party to give Awolowo majority of two or something like that. It was that close and Zik would have been the first Premier of the Western region, but because of the statement that was made and things like that. Now, for anybody to say that the Yorubas have not been accommodating when an Igbo man nearly became the first Premier of the West doesn’t make sense at all. After that, came the attempt by the Igbos to grab power in January 15, 1966 coup which was an Igbo coup with about three Yoruba Army officers. It failed and the rest is history. But till today, the Yorubas have never killed the Igbos in our region and by God’s grace, we will never do so. We’ve never attacked anybody from any ethnic group and we believe in peace. But we must stand on our rights and that is how civilized people behave, we are very civilized.

What is the way forward now, how do you think this mutual distrust can become a thing of history?

I don’t even believe that there was distrust. If it is true that there is distrust, the Igbos would not have been so welcomed in Lagos and in the other parts of Yorubaland. The problem is on the other side. The Yorubas are not welcomed in the South east the way Igbos are welcomed in the West. The kind of thing Igbos are allowed to do in the South West, no Yoruba man is allowed to do it in the East. I love the Igbos, that’s the funny thing, I have many Igbo friends. My father was at a time the leader of the NCNC as the leader of the opposition in the Western House of Assembly. My grandfather taught Zik at Methodist Boys High School. When Zik came back after his degree in America, it was my grandfather that chaired the occasion when they did reception for him and we have so many strong links with the Igbos and so many other Yorubas did too. Today in Lagos, you have the Igbo commissioner, Igbo councilors, Igbo spokesmen. The Yorubas have been so accommodating and that’s a good thing. We are open, but some of them believe that as a consequence of that, we have forfeited our right to our heritage; to our history and that we have forgotten that we are coming from somewhere and this is our territory. Why should we be jealous of the Igbos? No, we welcome them and allow them to flourish in our territory and we also want them to also welcome us.

But the argument is that it is not that the Yorubas are not welcomed in the East, but that the Yorubas prefer to operate in their own enclaves?

Maybe we should do more to make them go there. If we say you don’t open your area for somebody and you said it is because those people don’t want to come, maybe they don’t like it for a reason, maybe they don’t feel welcome. But whatever the reason is, that is the reality. I am not saying we are particularly disturbed by that. I am not sure how many of our people want to go there. But the question is if we go, would we be accepted? Many have gone and they tried to establish businesses, to buy land and they come back to say these guys are not opening the place for us. But it’s not an issue for us, it’s okay. I believe in an integrated society, but I also believe that we must not lose our identity. There are many nationalities in this country. Chief Obafemi Awolowo wrote in his book, ‘Path to Nigerian Freedom’ in 1947 that Nigeria is not a country but a geographical expression and within that geographical expression, there are many nationalities, each had its own history, its own heritage, its own ways and its own word view. And that we must recognize those differences and appreciate them. It doesn’t mean anybody is better than the other. What it means is that we must accommodate those differences and treat each other with utmost sensitivity and understanding, so that we can join hands to move Nigeria forward together. And that is what I believe in.

You talk about the nationality question…

If we don’t answer the nationality question, we run the risk of running into a terrible storm and it might lead to a lot of problems in our country. The old Yugoslavia was similar to Nigeria in terms of its ethnic diversity and religious plurality and the kind of attitude we are manifesting here was manifested by the leadership of Yugoslavia. Under Tito, Yugoslavia was held together against the will of most of its people, by a very strong central authority where the President seems to control everything but give little money and resources to the various states and regions just like we have in Nigeria today. But unfortunately, when Tito died, the various ethnic nationalities and also the various religions comprising of orthodox Christians, Catholics, protestants, the Muslims and so on, and all the different nationalities- the Croats, Serbs, Kosovars, Bosnians, very diverse, just like Nigeria, the place started to warm up and eventually disintegrated. And that was because they refuse to sit up and iron out their differences in a humane and civilized way and fashion out a constitution which could guarantee the rights of the various ethnic nationalities and religious inclinations, all of a sudden all hell broke loose and it resulted into one of the most terrible wars in Europe and millions of people were killed, concentration camps were set up and the rest is history. We don’t want to get to that point in Nigeria. If we don’t talk about our differences, and we continue to pretend that we don’t have them, if we don’t answer the nationality question, eventually Nigeria may end up like Yugoslavia; it may not be now, it may not be 10, 20 years from now. People will say I don’t wish Nigeria well, but I pray to God that I am wrong on this. Everybody knows that ethnicity and religion play important role in this country and we have to get it right.

But how can this happen when there is so much fierce opposition to Sovereign National Conference, an avenue which many have argued will be the appropriate platform for addressing such issues?

Those that are opposed to national conference are those at the top of the political class. They are very irresponsible group of people. They are not bothered about the consequences of their intransigence because they are comfortable about the situation as it is because if you are top in this country, it is either you have been a minister, you are a senator, you have worked in the Villa or you’ve been a President or even a governor, you just accept the situation that that things are better for those of us at the top. So, why do you want to change the situation? Why do you want to devolve power? They all want to protect their vested interest and the power configuration that existed in the country. I don’t think there is any country in the world that has come to the sovereign national conference because people decide to do it. Nobody gives up power easily. What usually happens is that some terrible things act as a catalyst and some people will say it’s better to sit down and do this. But we haven’t got there yet in Nigeria, that’s what scares me. We are sitting and acting as if we don’t have a problem. Those at the top don’t want the status quo to change. At the end of the day, the only way you can guarantee that Nigeria will remain in the distant future is if we devolve power from the centre as it is being done in the United Kingdom where power is being devolved from Westminster to Northern Ireland, to Wales to Scotland and so on. We need to understand that it is important that we devolve power to various regions and nationalities and let us have a real federation in every sense of the word and not a unitary state with a federal façade which is what we have today. If you weaken the centre and you devolve power, you will find that the fight for who becomes the President in this country will not be as cut throat as it is and everybody will feel let me control my own part of the country at my own pace which is what most of us want.

In the ancient communities of Amucha, Nkume, Atta and Okwudor in Njaba Local Government Area of Imo State, there is an age-long custom where a man is killed for protecting his wife from performing rituals in the village square in an issue relating to her infidelity. DamianDuruiheoma visited the communities and came out with this report.
Amucha, Nkume, Atta and Okwudor are ancient Igbo communities in the current Njaba council area of Imo State. The communities are referred to as Nnenasa (born of seven mothers) because of their relationship with three other communities that share same father with them. That is the history. But the communities have since multiplied to become 11 following the autonomous status given to them by the state government. They include Amucha, Amucha Ebeise and Umuamusa all from the old Amucha; Nkume, Okponakuma and Umuokpo from the old Nkume community; Atta, Egwedu and Umunam Atta from the old Atta and Okwudor and Ihebinowerre from the old Okwudor community.

 It is from one of these communities, precisely, Amucha community that Njaba River originates. The communities hold a unique place in the cultural history of Igboland.
 
Ndi ochie, Ndi ishi, Ndi okenye or okposhi is a custom that prevents any woman married in any of the communities from having extra-marital affairs. In the area, it is a serious abomination for a married woman to sleep with another man. In fact, it is gathered that such an act comes with dire consequences on the part of both the sinner and her husband.
On the part of the woman, she is usually struck mad after years of concealing her offence from her husband. What she says in the markets and on the main roads during her madness usually tells people her sins.
On the part of the man however, he is struck dead within a space of two weeks through an acute vomiting and diarrhea. This is usually so if the man has an inkling of his wife’s adulterous acts without bringing it to the notice of the village people. It is the usually the elders in the village that should be given the notice of the woman’s sins for necessary land cleansing and communion.
According to Nze Charles Onyedika from Umuokoroezike Umunam Atta community in Njaba council area, it is usually the woman who unwittingly breaks the information of her infidelity to her husband.
“This may take more than 10 years before the information is broken by the woman. Upon hearing this, a man who loves his life will promptly suspend the relationship between his wife and the rest of the members of his family by sending the woman to her father’s house. This is because any of them that eats anything from the woman will be gone. This is not a joke. Just go to other neighbouring communities to ask them and they will tell you better. It is from the woman’s home that she will come and appease the land, if she is still interested in the marriage.
“So, when this is done, the next step is for the man to inform members of his family and the alders in the village for prompt action to save the entire family and the woman”, he said.
The 81 year-old Onyedika disclosed that this is followed with the relative of the woman bringing her to the village square on appointed date so that she will come and name the names of the men that had slept with her since she got married.
“In the past such a woman will come out to the village square stark naked but because we are in a civilised society, such aspects are partially removed. The woman now comes out the village square half-naked in the presence of the entire community. She kneels before the people and begins to name the men she has slept with. Mind you, she cannot hide any of them because doing that is at her own risk. After doing this, she now begs to be reintegrated into the fold of the people.
“It is at this moment that the woman is given some vegetables to pound in a small mortar with a pestle. It is from this mortar that everybody in the community will eat to complete the process of reintegration. This whole process is usually followed to save the woman, the man and the entire community of impending calamity that may befall them if ignored”.
He disclosed that this affects any male indigene of the area living anywhere in the world, saying that most of the people affected were those living abroad who think the custom exists only in the community.
Interestingly, it is also an abomination for a married man in the area to accuse his wife of infidelity no matter any compromising situation he sees his wife with another man.
According to the traditional ruler of Nkume Community, HRH Eze Anthony Onyeka, “the reason for this is because such an allegation if heard by another should be defended in the public”.
He told our reporter that what is involved in this is that the accused woman is summoned to the village square where four pieces of kola nuts are kept on the floor in the presence of many people for her to declare her innocence by kneeling down with her two hands behind her.
“She then bends down to collect the kola nuts with her mouth and without the aid of her hands. This is called ikpu oji. Ordinarily, you can do this in your bedroom and find out that it is an easy exercise that you can do effortlessly. But, if you are guilty, there is no way you can get the nuts no matter the magic you may have.
“But, if the woman gets all the four kola nuts on the floor without any problem, then her husband will be made to do whatever the woman and her people requests. That is one of the major reasons our men don’t accuse their women of infidelity”, said the octogenarian.
To some people in Imo State and Igboland however, such a culture does not exist, and if it does, it is fetish. But the people of the area say those who had doubted and tried it in the past had only few weeks of telling their stories before the consequential tragedies struck them.
But, how did this custom begin? The monarch, Eze Onyeka and Nze Onyedika could not trace its origin. Rather, they said the custom is as old as the communities and that there is nowhere it has a shrine.
They said they the overall intention of their forebears who instituted the custom was to instill fidelity among married women in the area.
Why does it not affect men? The duo argued that men are ordinarily polygamous in nature and that a man is culturally allowed to marry more than one wife.
Interestingly, several unsuccessful attempts had been made in the past to proscribe the custom. Some women are accusing the men taking the advantage of the custom to cheat on their wives with reckless abandon, calling for sustained effort to stop the custom.
Community sources told our reporter that a former parish priest of St. Michael’s Catholic Church, Nkume(names withheld) who served at the parish in the 1990s, had challenged the efficacy ofNdi Ochie and told his female parishioners not to go to the community to confess such sins any time they mistakenly fell into the temptation of adultery. The priest was said to have rather told them to go to the Almighty God to confess their sins. This, it was gathered, led the men in the church to stop attending the church, until the priest apologized.
Also, at the annual general meeting of Umunam Atta community in July 2013, Rev. Fr. Donatus Mba, a native of the community, canvassed for the abolishment of the custom.
According to him, rather than engendering peace in the family, the outcome of the land cleansing tears apart the family and affects the man the most.
Chief Magnus Okwara from Okwudor community called for the communities involved to come together and find a way of abolishing the custom because according to him, “rather than affect the woman, the men are the ones that die as a result of the sins of their wives”.
Chief Okwara recalled that apart from few women that had gone mad in the area as a result of refusing to confess their sins, “it has been our men that have been killed in the last 20 years. Check most of our illustrious sons that had died in the last 15 years. They died for trying to shield their wives and avoid public disgrace. So to me, we should have a second look at the custom.
“Some people instituted it some hundreds of years ago and our people say that if a people come together with one mind, they can do anything. So, what I’m saying is that our people need to come together and do something about it. I know what happened to one of my kinsmen, a former local government chairman, who because of his position in the church and the society protected his wife from defending herself in the community. Today he is no more but that his wife he was trying to protect from coming to the public to confess her sin is still living her life, though no longer in our community”, he said.
According to findings in the villages, most of the people usually affected were the rich and the influential people in the area who, for the shame of seeing their wives half naked in the village square, try to consult spiritualists and dying in the process.
However, to Eze Onyeka, such attempts at and demands for abolishing the custom might not be possible because according to him, there is no particular shrine that could be linked to it.
He said several Pentecostal pastors and churches had tried their best neutralize its efficacy to no avail.
“But if you ask me to lead its abolition, that will not be possible because our people generally believe that that has enhanced the fidelity of women”.
For Nze Onyedika, somebody could think about the abolition but not actually expressing it in public because nobody wants to listen to that.
“If not that you are a journalist, do you think I will be telling you all this. Let me tell you. We’ve heard something like that before from a priest in this community. They can only say it during their homily and not make it an issue of discourse because elderly man can join in that kind of discourse. That is how serious it is”.

Indications emerged during the weekend that some of the Chibok schoolgirls in the custody of Boko Haram sect are currently ill.A prominent Australian cleric, Dr. Stephen Davis gave this sad revelation on Sunday.

Davis, a hostage negotiator, told an online publication of the British newspaper, The Mail on Sunday, that he was hired by President Goodluck Jonathan to negotiate for the freedom of the schoolgirls who were abducted on April 14.

The Mail claims that Davis who was once the Canon Emeritus at the Coventry Cathedral in London and a friend of The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has been in Nigeria working secretly on the release of the girls for almost a month now.

The clergyman revealed he had ‘‘ongoing contacts’’ with the groups involved in the kidnapping in the North-East for seven years.”

He attributed his success in hostage negotiations in Nigeria to “a long process of building trust on both sides.”

He said, ‘One of that small group of girls is ill and we had hoped we might convince the commander of the group holding her that she should be released so we could give her medical treatment.

‘There are other girls who are not well and we have come close to having them released but their captors fear a trap in which they will be captured in the handover process.

‘One girl has what I assume a broken wrist as they demonstrate to me how she holds her hand. I have been told that others are sick and in need of medical attention.

“But I am encouraged by the progress. Everyday, there is the possibility of the release of the girls.

‘This is painful for the parents and the nation. The well-being of the girls is constantly on our minds and we want to see their release as soon as possible.”

The secret negotiator however ruled out the possibility of a rescue since the girls were not being held in one location.

He said, “There are several groups to deal with as the girls are held in several camps across the Nigerian border in Cameroon, Chad and Niger. This makes any thought of a rescue highly improbable. To attempt to rescue one group would only endanger the others. We must not endanger their lives any further.

“The vast majority of the Chibok girls are not being held in Nigeria.

“I say the ‘vast majority’ as I know a small group was confirmed to me to be in Nigeria last week when we sought to have them released.

Former Ghanaian international footballer Nii Odartey Lamptey has revealed that he recently found out that all three children he had with his wife of almost 20 years are not his biological children. He made the shocking revelation in a radio interviewed when asked why he was divorcing his wife.
“…I thought they were my children but upon a DNA test, I got to know that they are not my biological children. The issue is in court so I’m pleading, because it is a legal issue I don’t want to go through so many things, but I am 100% sure that the children are not mine after 20-years of marriage. We had five children but two passed away so we were left with only 3 and they are not mine” The former Aston Villa player told reporters

Meanwhile, his estranged wife Gloria Lamptey (pictured above) is claiming that it was Lamptey who suggested they use artificial insemination after realizing he was infertile. A claim Lamptey denies. A close friend of the former Anderlecht footballer said he’d on several occasions caught his wife cheating on him but stayed with her because of his love for her and the businesses they own together.

The estranged couple are now in court

The three suspects, who were heading to the North from Imo State, were intercepted in Nsukka, Enugu State, by officers and men of the Nigerian Army while travelling in a bus.Items recovered from them include 40 AK47 magazines, 4 boxes of AK47 live ammunition,100 pieces of live cartridges, one piece of Denin Mopol khaki and charms concealed in a cap.

One of the army officers who spoke to reporters under anonymity disclosed that a police corporal serving in Imo State Police Command was also involved in the arms running.
He said: “When we asked the occupants of the vehicle to come down, we discovered a police corporal in uniform among them. The corporal on getting down pretended to be
pressed; he later ran away.

No fewer than 40 people were last night killed in a bomb blast at a football field in Mubi, Adamawa State.French News Agency AFP reported the death toll, citing a police source.

“There has been a bomb explosion at a football field this evening and so far more than 40 people have been killed,” an officer in the town said.

The bomber struck the town of Mubi in the evening, said Emmanuel Akinyele, a church pastor.

A military source said several bodies had been recovered, adding that the dead and wounded were still being evacuated from the area.

A military source told Reuters that the number of those dead and injured is not clear at this time. He added that several bodies were recovered, while the wounded are still being evacuated.

A witness told the news agency that the victims were  watching a televised match.

No group has claimed responsibility, though Boko Haram has staged attacks in the area in the past. The same group abducted over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State, on April 14 and is still holding them captive.

A policeman has told an Igando Customary Court in Lagos, Lagos State, that his wife should return the N1.2 million bride price if she insisted on divorce.

Thirty-eight-year-old  Anthony was responding to a divorce suit filed by Uloma, his wife of four years, who accused him of  battery.

“Uloma should return the money I gave her parents during our traditional marriage if she insists on the  dissolution of our four-year-old marriage,” he told the court.

He accused his wife of hiding her marital status by telling people  she was single.

“She joined a group of single ladies in her church. I  went  to the church  with our wedding pictures  as a proof  that  she’s  married which  led to her suspension,” he said.

Anthony added that Uloma had abandoned their matrimonial home since November 24, 2012, when he informed the church of her marital status.

He, therefore,  pleaded with the court not to grant his wife’s request of  divorce, saying  he still loves her.

On her part, 27-year-old  Uloma, a factory worker, told the court that  Anthony turned her into a punching bag mostly when he was drunk.

“My husband is a drunkard. Whenever he comes home drunk and wants  to make love to me, I always refuse him. I want him to make love to me when he’s  in his right senses.

“And when  I refuse him, he will make love to me by force,’’ she said.

The petitioner alleged that her husband always embarrassed her in public by calling her ‘a prostitute and  barren tree.’

She also accused him of threatening her life and giving out her phone number to unknown persons, who were always calling and warning her not to proceed with the divorce  suit or else, she would be killed.

She begged the court to separate them, saying she was tired of the marriage.

The case was adjourned

For some days, tongues have been wagging especially on the social media, that Nigeria’s immediate past honourable minister of information and communication, Prof. Dora Nkem Akunyili is dead. Her media adviser, Isaac Umunna yesterday denied reports of this spreading rumour, encouraging the public to disregard this her ”baseless” purported death.

Please disregard the rumour about Prof. Dora Akunyili’s purported death. It’s the same baseless rumour circulated every 2/3 days by some people for reasons best known to them. They have been at this for about 4 weeks now and are likely to continue, since they apparently derive pleasure from doing so”, he said on Dora’s facebook page.

According to him, Dora’s health is ameliorating as confirmed by former Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State who paid her a visit in the hospital. ”The situation, as confirmed by former Anambra Governor Peter Obi, who visited Dora in the hospital earlier this week, is that she is getting better. Thank you all”, he opined.

A Medical Doctor Paints A Gory Picture Of Violence In Nigeria And Why She Moved To Jos.Dr. Laeticia Adadau heard , from her residence, as the latest bomb detonated in the once idyllic city of Jos, North Central Nigeria. A medical practitioner who lived and worked with an international organization in Abuja (name withheld) before moving to Plateau State three years ago, Dr Adadau has since lived in Jos, where she founded and runs a wellness centre and resort.

Like many Jos residents, she has watched with dismay as her beloved city continues on the freefall into an abyss of mindless violence. Displaying rare courage, she represents the honest, hardworking and upright and peace-loving citizen who believes we can win the war against terror, as well as religious and ethnic bigotry. In this short chat, she shares the pulse of the city; the fears and hopes with Morenike Taire.

Why move to Jos, of all places?

I needed to relocate to a neutral quiet place

And Jos was a ‘neutral quiet place?

Jos still remains a very beautiful place with affordable standard of living compared to Abuja

As a wellness expert how can people keep some psychological balance in this environment?

Not really psychological issues: there’s been relative peace until the recent bomb blasts. Life seemed to have returned to normal. The insecurity is not peculiar to Jos. Some people relocated from Jos only to meet their death in other parts of the country like Abuja. A lady relocated from Jos only to be blasted to death in the Abacha barracks bomb blast in Abuja

The good thing is that we in Jos are more security conscious because of what we have gone through

But how security conscious can you be, and why do people continue to stay?

Jos is a gorgeous, lovely natural beauty with a matchless temperate weather. No one who has lived here wants to move. There’s a lot of relocation within the town itself.

Well in Jos, in vulnerable areas like churches people are extra careful more than other towns. Most of them do not admit hand bags and cars into the premises.

A lot of people with links with Jos are heartbroken with developments in the last few years. Is that the case with you?

Everyone who used to know Jos will be heartbroken at the polarization of Christians and Muslims, the devastation, the insecurity. There is not much more to say.

You have had encounters with actual people affected by bombings and other violence. Can you share some experiences?

My friend lost her brother who came to school in Unijos (University of Jos). He and his friend were caught in the riot at the old terminus market. His friend escaped, but he was not found, never found. I met a young guy whose mother, a widow lost her only means of livelihood to the violence and had to relocate to Lagos, as she had family there.

My parish priest was saying Mass at Fatima Catholic Cathedral when the mob arrived. He quickly went to ring the bell to alert people of the danger. the mob set the priest house on fire, shot the priest, poured petrol on him to set him ablaze, but a lady security appeared from behind and shot at all of them. Their corpses fell on him. He was carried with the corpses to JUTH (Jos University Teaching Hospital) thinking he was dead.

There was also a bus driver and conductor that were forcefully driving passengers to the area where Muslims were killing Christians; a young passenger, risked his life by taking off his shirt and holding the driver from behind which forced the bus off the road. That was how they were saved.

What are your ideas/suggestions about restoring peace to the city?

For peace to return, first education of the populace is crucial. The next generation is growing up to believe that Muslims and Christians are mortal enemies. Also, there has to be serious commitment on security from the government. For example, hours before the last bomb blast, the police had been notified of the mysterious car, yet nothing was done to prevent the carnage.

Justice Fatu Riman of the Federal High Court Kano today sentenced one Mohammed Basiru Abdulkadir to seven years imprisonment for offences bordering on currency counterfeiting.
The convict was arraigned on May 28, 2014 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a 5-count charge bordering on possession of counterfeit currency. He pleaded guilty to all five counts when they were read to him and was consequently convicted by Justice Riman but the case was adjourned to today for sentencing.

When proceedings resumed today, Justice Riman sentenced Mohammed to five month imprisonment on count one, two and three with no option of fine while he is to serve three years imprisonment with option of N200, 000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira) fine on count four. On count five he was sentenced to three years imprisonment with option of N100, 000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) fine.
The sentences are to run concurrently.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has apprehended a Malian, Kone Ali with compressed cannabis weighing 4kg. The suspect, a businessman and student at Guangdong University of Technology, China holds dual citizenship of Nigeria and Mali. He was arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos whileattempting to board a Kenyan Airways flight to China. The cannabis was hidden inside foodstuff like melon, dried bitter leaf and assorted local spices.

The 22-year-old suspect who is studying Chinese language was travelling with a Malian international passport no. B0563273. Preliminary investigation revealed that his Ibo name is Ebuka Onyedigbo and he hails from Okija, Anambra State. Kone Ali has lived in Guangzhou, China since March 2013. He was found with a student identification card of Guangdong University of Technology, China.

NDLEA commander at the Lagos airport, Mr. Hamza Umar said that the suspect was nabbed while trying to check in his luggage. “The arrest of Kone Ali by NDLEA officers took place at the departure hall of the Lagos Airport when he brought two bags for check. The first bag was searched and no drug was found. While searching the second bag, it was discovered that five compressed parcels of dried weeds that tested positive for cannabis were packed together with foodstuff” Hamza stated.

In his statement, Kone took responsibility for his arrest. “I am a victim of carelessness. My friend in China called me that I should bring a bag containing foodstuff from Nigeria. I had every opportunity to have turned down his request, so I take full responsibility for my actions. A man who identified himself as a Ghanaian brought the bag to me in Lagos. He said that he was instructed by my friend in China to bring the bag. At the screening, the drug was found by NDLEA officers. Now I cannot go back to my school and my parents are angry with me” Kone stated.

Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade said that the suspect has violated the provisions of the NDLEA Act. “It is pertinent to stress the position of the law on unlawful possession and attempt to export illicit drugs. The fact is that drug was found in his bag. Investigation is ongoing and I urge members of the public not to collect bags or items from people when travelling. If they must collect bags, they should insist that the owners must witness the search at the airport” Giade cautioned.

The suspect will soon be charged to court.

Former Deputy Managing Director (DMD) of The Sun Publishing Limited, Mrs. Ethel Nmezi, is dead. She was aged 48.
Mrs. Nmezi died on Monday, May 26 after a protracted illness.

The former DMD lost consciousness at home at about 4. 30am and was moved to the hospital, where she was confirmed dead. Her body has been deposited at the mortuary, while the family said burial arrangements would be announced in due course.
The late Mrs. Nmezi joined The Sun in 2003 as Chief Accountant and was later promoted to the position of Finance Controller.
In 2010, the late Mrs. Nmezi was promoted to the position of Executive Director, Finance/Admin and she became Deputy Managing Director in December last year. She resigned the position three weeks ago on health grounds.
The late Mrs. Nmezi (nee Nwafor) attended the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, where she graduated with Higher National Diploma (HND) in Accountancy in 1988. She also held a National Diploma (ND) from the Anambra State Polytechnic, Oko in 1985.
The former DMD, who qualified as chartered accountant in 1991, also attended Lagos Business School in 2011, as a member of the Advanced Management Programme (AMP 23) class,
Before joining The Sun, the late Mrs. Nmezi had worked as Internal Auditor, Central Bags Export Processing Factory (2001-2003). She also worked at Capital Wealth Consulting Limited as Senior Consultant (2000-2001).
The deceased had also worked at Nwafor & Ugwaja (Chartered Accountants) as Audit Manager (1999-2000); Ifeanyi Onyekwere & Co (Chartered Accountants) as Auditor (1994-1998); Evans Medical Plc (formerly Glaxo Nigeria Plc) as Financial Accountant (food division) (1994), Depot Accountant (1992-1994) and Assistant Internal Auditor (1989-1992).
She also worked at the United Bank for Africa (UBA), Port Harcourt main branch (1985-1986).
The late Mrs. Nmezi was an associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).

CHRISTIANS under the aegis of TEKAN/ECWA, weekend, urged President Goodluck Jonathan to ignore a statement credited to the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, alleging marginalisation of Muslims in the country and that Nigeria will be great only if leaders likethe Sultan will tell the truth.

The Sultan was reported as saying during a national prayer session organised by the NSCIA where eminent Islamic scholars gathered to pray for peace and security in the nation that if the government can address injustice against Muslims, the seemingly intractable security challenges will be surmounted, adding that Muslims are not happy, but willing to support the government in its efforts towards peace and stability.

Reacting to the statement, the National Head of TEKAN/ECWA bloc of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Rev. (Dr.) Emmanuel Dziggau argued that if the head of NSCIA was serious, he should identify those marginalizing Muslims in the country.

 The Christian group also described the Sultan’s claim of marginalization which was widely reported, as inciting.

They explained that a close look at the statement could be interpreted to mean that unless the perceived injustices against Muslims are addressed there will be no end to the current insecurity in the country.

“We are yet to overcome similar statements by an eminent Muslim politician who vowed to make the nation ungovernable if he was not pronounced winner of the 2011 presidential election. When the CAN leadership called for his arrest for making such inflammatory statement many Muslims accused him of heating up the polity, but today Nigerians know those who are heating up the polity,” the statement added.

The Christian group therefore warned traditional, religious and political leaders in the North against such inciting statements capable of motivating uninformed Muslim fundamentalists into killing innocent adherents of other faiths in the name of fighting perceived injustices.

“We therefore call on the Federal Government to call the revered Islamic leader to order before another Islamic group will begin another round of terrorist attacks on innocent Nigerians perceived to be marginalizing Muslims as the Sultan had claimed,” TEKAN/ECWA pleaded.

It maintained that the Christian community in the North in particular and other parts of the country which has been at the receiving end of several untold injustices in the country is, however, happy that the recent adoption of over 275 schoolgirls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok has loosed many tongues who had hitherto remained silent.

“Over the years, Christians in the North had cried themselves hoax over discriminatory laws which had made it impossible for them to practice their religion without let in accordance with the tenets of the 1999 Constitution. As a deliberate matter of policy most core northern governments have refused to sign Certificates of Occupancy, C of O, for Christian organisations to build churches.

“It is also a well known fact that governments in the region have also deliberately discriminated against Christians in appointments into government service for the simple reason that nobody will speak on their behalf. There are several cases of elected Christian politicians who were suspended on some flimsy excuses and who have not been reinstated despite numerous pleas for justice.

“It is only the truth that will save this nation from the present morass that we have inadvertently found ourselves. For far too long we have pretended and lied to ourselves. We must therefore take advantage of the Chibok schoolgirls to tell ourselves so home truth for a proper and true healing process,” the statement said.

Continuing, Dr. Dziggau said: “Nigeria and the international community must appreciate the leadership of CAN for his unwavering efforts to restrain Christian youth from retaliating numerous unprovoked attacks, institutionalised marginalisations of Christians in the hands of political, religious and traditional leaders.

“Our appeal to His Eminence, the Sultan, is for him to ensure that truth is being told at all times even of it hurts, rather than deceiving the whole world with this story of marginalisation of Muslims.

Nigeria will be great only if leaders like the Sultan will tell the truth at all times and in all situations because if there is any seemingly marginalisation of Muslims, it’s the traditional, political and religious leaders of Northern extraction who have pauperised and marginalised their followers that have led to the current mass poverty in the region.