Christiane Amanpour interviews Nigerian President!

Nigerian President: Goodluck Jonathan

In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan agreed that Boko Haram could pose an existential threat to his country.

                 

“If Boko Haram is not contained, it would be a threat not only to Nigeria, but to West Africa, Central Africa and of course to North Africa,” he said. “Elements of Boko Haram link up with some of al Qaeda in northern Mali and other North African countries.”

For that reason, he said his government is “totally committed” to working with friendly nations to help contain problems in Mali. Like many other world leaders, Jonathan said the problem there has been exacerbated by the free flow of weapons out of Libya since the fall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

President Jonathan admitted that initially Boko Haram caught Nigeria off guard; now, he said, the country has been making progress to contain “the Boko Haram saga.”

 
He said his government is working day and night to make sure that the deadly attacks on an Algerian oil field do not happen in Nigeria.

The Economist reports that the death toll from Boko Haram attacks in 2012 was 1,099 – double was it was the previous year.

Boko Haram sect

“If you look at the last six months, incidents of killing started dropping,” President Jonathan contended, insisting that the government is gaining control.

He denied suggestions from the U.S. State Department that the Nigerian government has conducted a large quantity of arrests and killings that have been indiscriminate, possibly driving more people into the hands of Boko Haram.

“The United States of America is completely wrong,” he told Amanpour. 
“No security agency arrests anybody just for the love of arrest. We have intelligence that enables us to arrest the people who have been arrested.”

President Jonathan also insists that poverty and unemployment are not fueling the violent rise of Boko Haram – citing religion as the primary motivation of this jihadist group.

As part of a counter terrorism effort, President Jonathan’s national security adviser has sought to engage in dialogue with Boko Haram.

Jonathan told Amanpour that the discourse has helped the situation, and that he will continue to pursue this strategy.

The Power of the Presidency

Christiane Amanpour was the first journalist to interview Goodluck Jonathan when he assumed the presidency in April 2010. One focus of that conversation was about the endemic electric outages that average Nigerians face.

Three years later, despite continued problems and a report by Nigeria’s Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission that says 60% of Nigerians are without access to power, Jonathan said that the country has made significant strides.

“That is one area where Nigerians are quite pleased with the government – that our commitment to improve power is working,” he said. “I promise you before the end of this year, power outages will be reasonably stable in Nigeria.”

On: Endemic Corruption

“You cannot change the mindset of people by waving your hand. You must take means to make sure that you don’t create an environment where everyone will be corrupt and we are doing it very well,” Jonathan said.

He cited the previous elections as signs of success against corruption. International observers, The African Union, and the Independent National Electoral Commission all praised the polling.

But there is still widespread corruption in the oil industry.

Last April, Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that 400,000 barrels of oil a day were looted from the country in just one month.
The International Energy Agency said that $7 billion dollars a year is lost annually to oil theft.

“Frankly speaking, I want the international community to support Nigeria because this stolen crude is being bought by refineries abroad and they know the crude oil was stolen,” Jonathan told Amanpour. “The world must condemn what is wrong.”

Source: CNN

Man who buried baby alive Arrested!

Nigeria:
 Unbelievable!

A 25 year old labourer, Macaulay Onitcha, has been arrested by the police in Delta state- Nigeria, for allegedly burying his new born daughter, Edna Macaulay, alive. 

Macaulay took the young baby to the bushes, dug a shallow grave, threw the baby in the grave and covered it with sand.

The shallow grave where baby edna was buried

Fortunately for the little angel, someone had witnessed him burying her alive and hurriedly exhumed her after fighting and overpowering Macaulay at the scene. The person, Saturday Ekama, took the child to the police station to report what had happened. 

Baby Edna: after she was dug out of the shallow grave

Little Edna had a neck injury after she was dug out and she is currently undergoing treatment at Saint Francis Hospital, Okapra Inland in Asaba, while her dad is in police custody at the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Asaba.

Edna receiving treatment at the Hospital

Macaulay told police that he attempted to kill his daughter because since his wife gave birth to her, she had refused to sleep with him. He said he did it in anger and was sorry!

Peter Okoye welcomes new baby

Proud dad, Peter okoye

Psquare‘s Peter Okoye   and his fiancée Lola Omotayo have welcomed their second child, a baby girl  in a San Francisco hospital in the United States of America; and she’s already got a name too! The baby has been named Aliona.

Lola and baby Aliona

Lola Omotayo delivered the child a few hours ago and according to pop singer both mother and daughter are doing fine.

                               



Reports say Lola, a Public Relations expert, jetted out of Nigeria to America late 2012 to prepare for the delivery.

Peter took to social media site Twitter to announce the birth of the baby. He tweeted that: 

Peter said in an interview that coming from a heavy loss – the death of their mother last year -, it was refreshing to be blessed with a baby girl. 

“We lost our Mum last year, but God has blessed us with a baby girl; I’m very happy,” he said.

The couple, already have a son, Cameron.

Peter and son Cameron

Cameron

                                           

Meanwhile, Paul Okoye, the twin and other half of the music duo, is also expecting his first child.

Paul Okoye and Girlfriend

His fiancée, Anita, who is currently pursuing her Masters in Scotland, is pregnant and is expected to be delivered of her baby in Scotland soon.

Paul and Peter Okoye of Psquare

   

Catholic Church 'Temporarily' Pulls out of CAN!

Nigeria:

                                              

Catholic Church of Nigeria has withdrawn its membership from Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

Monsignor Christopher Ajala

The Diocesan Administrator of the Catholic Diocese of Abeokuta, Monsignor Christopher Ajala, stated this at a news conference organised as part of the activities to mark the 15th anniversary of the creation of the diocese. Monsignor Ajala stated that the Catholic church suspended its activities in CAN because it was too close to government.

Ayo Oritsejafor

He alleged that the Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor-led CAN had derailed from the objectives of the body, adding that the Catholic Bishops Conference was not comfortable with the development, hence its decision to pull out.

His words: “The Catholic Church took their stand before the purchase or the aircraft was donated to him. But what the Catholic Bishops Conference is complaining about is about the way they are running the national CAN now that is not meeting the objectives and the goals of CAN and the forefathers of CAN.

“CAN is now being run as part of the government and we said no.

“Because they (government) will dictate to us what to do and they will not take our advice seriously. The Catholic Church decided to withdraw from the activities of CAN at national level; we are still part of the state. We made our stand clear in November, last year, and by December, the man bought a jet. I don’t know how he got it but the president was there on that day the jet was delivered to him.

“So, what we are saying is that our religious leaders should be honest, upright and they should also be the conscience of this nation.

“If you are bought, the masses of this country are finished. If you can use money to buy our religious leaders, then there is no hope for the common man. That is the Catholic Church’s stand. We are supposed to speak for the people to correct the wrongs in the society and assist every government to know the will of God for them and we still stand by that” he declared.

Man Kidnapped and murdered a 7 year old!

Lagos:

This story tell of how a 24 years old man, identified as onyeka, lured, kidnapped and strangled to death, seven years old Ayuba, a neighbor's child who had gone to play with his friends in the next compound where Onyeka happened to reside with his elder brother and (elder brother's) wife.

The suspect, Onyeka

The story below was gotten directly from the culprit:

On the faithful day, Ayuba had gone (as usual) to play with his friends in a neighboring compound, on number 14 state avenue, Ikotun, Lagos.   when Onyeka called him into the apartment he lives in with his elder brother's family. unsuspecting of any sinister motives, the innocent boy went in to answer the call.

On entering the house, Onyeka grabbed him and held him against his will, a couple of hours later, he strangled the boy (who by now was mounting pressure on him to let him go home), put his body in a sack and at dusk, just before his elder brother or wife got back home, quickly took the body in the sack, to an uncompleted building on the street, and threw it into a suck-away pit.
after which he wrote and discretely  dropped a note at Ayuba's parent's house, demanding a 5 million Naira ransome, if they want to see their son again; he also left a gsm number which he could be reached.

the socker-away pit 

when the boy's parents who by now were worried over the where about of their son, saw the note,  their fears could only be imagined. they tried calling the number on the note, but Onyeka knowing that, the number will easily give him away, threw away the sim card, thereby making him unreachable.

  Luck however ran out on him, when his sister inlaw, noticed some changes in His character and asked her husband to call and question his brother very well, as she suspects that he knows something about Ayuba's where-about.

heeding his wife's advice and also recalling the striking resemblance of the "kidnapper's written note's hand- writting" with that of his brothers', he handed Onyeka over to Ayuba's  father, to tell them what he knows of their son's missing.

Ayuba's father did not hesitate to hand Onyeka over to the police at the Ikotun area of Lagos state.

After intensive interrogation,  Onyeka owned up to kidnapping and killing Ayuba.

He later took the police to the suck away pit, where he threw the body into.

Viewers discretion advised!

Ayuba's decomposing body brought out of the suck-away pit

Ayuba's body was taken to the morgue, while Onyeka has been charged for kidnaping and murder!

Ayuba's body being taken to the murtuary

'Jewelry thief' syndicate apprehended in Lagos!

Lagos: 

A woman simply identified as Freedom James was arraigned along side her husband,  James and one Hassan, a commercial bus driver that plies the "Obalende - Ajah" route;  and a jewelry Hassan,  for conspiring and stealing Gold jewelry estimated to worth about 2.8 million NGN, (one million, three hundred thousand naira). while the fourth accomplice, a certain Dennis is still at large.

Freedom and James

According to the culprit (Freedom James) , it all started when Dennis, who posed as an Agent, got her a job as a house keeper in the home of Mrs Esu and gave her a hand set, with an instruction never to use it to make or receive calls, until he calls her and tell her what to do. 

Five days into her new job, Dennis called her to "act", by stealing her 'madam's  Jewelry. By now, Freedom has surveyed the house and taken note of where some of the valuables are kept; and the best time to strike. Hence it was not very difficult for her on the said day, as she dressed to work prepared for her mission. she wore a "boubou" gown, monitored her boss, and quickly went into her bosses room as soon as (she her boss) left the house; she went to the dressing table where the jewelry are, picked them up, hid them in her bougous gown and left.

On getting to the gate, the gate keeper, asked her where she was going to at that time of the day, as he was aware that their boss was not around and it is not proper leaving the house without permission, especially in the boss's absence. Freedom feigned ailment, lied to the gate keeper that she was not feeling too good, and will like to go get some medications.

 According the statement she gave, the gate keeper (acting out of concern) told her to go back in and rest, while he rallies round to see what he can get for her until their 'madam' gets back. But she told him not to worry that she knows exactly where to go get her medications. After some pressure, and pretense that her condition was getting worse, the gate keeper permitted her to "go get her medications". That was how she left the premises with the stolen Jewelry

After she left the house, she immediately contacted and gave the stolen jewelery to her husband, who in turn sold them to Hassan for 1.3 million naira. James testified that he got the sum of 400 thousand naira from the deal.

Hassan, the jewelry dealer

Shooting reported At Lone Star College In Houston Texas

Investigators say a fight between two people erupted in gunfire Tuesday at a Lone Star College campus in suburban Houston. A maintenance man was caught in the crossfire, and students and others were sent cowering in classrooms.

A 22-year-old man has been charged in the shootings at a Houston-area community college campus that left him and two others wounded.

A statement from the Harris County Sheriff's Office identifies the suspect as Carlton Berry. Spokesman Alan Bernstein says Berry is charged with aggravated assault but remains hospitalized with wounds suffered in the shooting.

No one was killed, but the volley of gunshots heard shortly after noon fear of another campus massacre just over a month after 26 were killed at a Connecticut elementary school.

The incident occurred at a campus of Lone Star Community College, which is located in the Houston area, at about 12:30 p.m. local time (1830 GMT) on Tuesday.