20 years old Nigerian Woman Defaced with acid in U.K!

20 year old Nigerian woman, Naomi Oni was disfigured for life when a unknown person wearing a muslim niqab threw acid in her face as she walked home from work on Sunday December 30th in Lodge Avenue Dagenham, east London.

Naomi told news men, that she was on her way back from work when  she heard someone behind her. She explains: 'I’d been working a late shift and was talking to my boyfriend about what we were going to do for New Year when I saw this Muslim woman wearing a niqab covering her face. I thought it was a bit strange at that time of night, but she didn’t say anything and I kept on walking. 'Then I felt a splash on my face. It burned and I screamed out. I started running and screaming, holding my face, all the way home. I didn’t look back. I got home and I was screaming and banging on the door. I was hysterical. Luckily my godmother, who is a pharmacist, was at home with my mum and she helped me and kept dipping my face in water and trying to calm me down until the police and ambulance got there. 'I was in shock. Saying: "Who would do that? Who would do that?" How could anyone do this?'.

Naomi recently released photos of her disfigured face after police failed to find the person who did this to her. She's now appealing to the public to help her catch her attacker. She said she would never feel safe with her attacker still at large. She also said the attack has destroyed her life 'I look in the mirror and it just isn’t me. I’ll never look the same again. I’ve always been outgoing and confident in my job and in my personal life, used to getting attention for the way I dress or my hair, but now I don’t want anyone looking at me. I don’t want people to see me in public. I don’t want to get the Tube or the bus. If I have to go to the hospital I take a taxi. 'I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back to my job. I was planning to go to college in September to study media and fashion, but I don’t even know if I’ll be able to do that. Even with the support of my family and friends and boyfriend I feel very alone,' she said. 'Nothing is going to be same anymore.'Naomi faces years of skin grafts and plastic surgery.

Word for the Day: Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein

Brazil Memorial!

Special services are being held in Brazil, in memory of the 237 people who died in a nightclub fire in the city of Santa Maria a week ago.

More than 4,000 people attended a service in Santa Maria itself on Saturday night, and a silent vigil was held in front of the nightclub, Kiss.

Santa Maria's mayor says he plans to turn the building into a memorial site.

The death toll rose to 237 on Sunday after a 22-year-old man died of injuries sustained in the fire.

More than 100 people remain in hospital. Medical kits have been flown in from the US to treat survivors who were exposed to the dangerous fumes.

      

Two owners of the nightclub and two band members have been arrested.

Word for the Day: After a storm comes a calm- Matthew Henry

Halliburton Bribe: Paris Court Sentences TECHNIP!

 A Paris court, Friday, sentenced two former executives of French engineering and construction giant, Technip S.A, for their role in the Halliburton  scam.  

Meanwhile, No bribe recipient has been jailed in Nigeria; and no  Nigerian official implicated in the $180 million (N27 billion) Halliburton bribery scam has been convicted.

TSKJ, a consortium of four international companies (Technip; Snamprogetti; KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton; and JGC), paid the bribe to Nigerian officials over a ten-year period to secure the construction contract worth $6 billion (N900 billion).

TSKJ partners admitted paying $132 million (N9.8 billion) to a Gibraltar corporation controlled by London-based lawyer, Jeffrey Tesler, and $51 million (N7.65 billion) to Marubeni of Japan. The money was meant as bribes to Nigerian government officials.

Jean-Marie Deseilligny, Technip’s General Manager; and Etienne Gory, the company’s Commercial Manager for Africa were ordered to pay fines of €10, 000 (N2.15 million) and €5,000 (N1.1 million) respectively. Prosecutors had asked the court to fine the accused €100, 000 (N21.5 million) each.

Jeffery Tesler, the main go-between for the consortium, is serving a 21-month sentence in the United States prison while Jack Stanley, KBR’s former Chief Executive Officer, is serving 30 months.

Using the Federal Corrupt Practices Act, FCPA, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Security and Exchange Commission has made the companies and individuals that paid the bribe to pay more than $1.7 billion in penalties and disgorgement.

Halliburton, in January 2009, paid a $559 million (N84 billion) fine to the U.S government after the company was found guilty of bribing Nigerian officials.

While the bribe givers have all been convicted and fined, and in some cases jailed in their countries of origin and in the U.S., no Nigerian bribe recipient has been convicted or jailed.

The beneficiaries of the bribe, as revealed by several investigations, include three successive heads of state, former petroleum ministers, officials of the Nigerian oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, and other government officials.

Culled from Premium Times

Word for the day: Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.- Mahatma Gandhi

Nigeria's 'YAHOO BOYS' Arrested!

Twenty suspected internet fraudsters, otherwise called yahoo-yahoo boys were recently arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The arrest which was carried out in a joint operation with officers of the 4 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Benin, followed intelligence report on their activities.

They were nabbed in a surprise raid on their Caber office tucked in an old building located on Silk Road , Benin City- Nigeria .

At the point of arrest, the fraudsters had in their possession forty five (45) laptops of different make, twenty eight (28) telephone sets, eight (8) internet mobile modems and one Nissan car with registration number USL 375 AG.

Internet Fraudsters populary known as 'Yahoo Yahoo boys' at work

The suspected fraudsters who are mostly in their twenties includes: Idehen Obabueki, Adesa Lucky, Usuagu Uche, Eloghosa Olikiabor, Larry Edomwonyi, Amowie Maike, Francis Ezegbede, Itua Samuel and Endurance John Egbeifo. Others are Amego Ovenseri, Iyen Ighodaro, Philip Agbodori, Lucky Robinson, Nnadi Obinna, Osabuohien Osahon, Chinenu Eze, Peter Sunday, Solomon Ogu, Niyi Femi and Osagie Aghedo.

The suspects have made useful statements.

Most of them confessed to be engaged in online dating of foreigners particularly widows.

They also confessed to using different pseudo names and faces to deceive their prospective victims.

EFCC said they will be charged to court as soon as investigation is concluded.

Word for the Day; I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become - Oprah Winfrey

Rev King must die by Hanging! Appeal Court affirms

Nigeria:


A Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos on Friday affirmed the death sentence passed on the General Overseer of the Christian Praying Assembly, Chukwuemeka Ezeugo (a.k.a. Rev. King), by Justice Joseph Olubunmi Oyewole of a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja on January 11, 2007.

 

The lead judgement read by Justice Fatima Akinbami and supported by two other judges, Ibrahim Salauwa and Amina Augie, resolved all the grounds of the appeal against Rev. King.

The appellate court, in a unanimous judgment read by Justice Fatima Akinbami, dismissed Ezeugo’s appeal on the ground that the prosecution had “surely and effectively” proved its case against Rev King at the trial court.

Rev King, through his counsel, Olalekan Ojo, had appealed the judgment of Justice Oyewole, who convicted and sentenced him to death by hanging for the alleged murder of a church member, Ann Uzoh, and attempted murder of five other members of the church.

The appeal panel dismissed the appellant’s contention that there were “contradictions and inconsistencies” in the prosecution’s evidence.

“This appeal fails and is hereby resolved against the appellant. This appeal is devoid of merit and it is hereby dismissed.

“The conviction and sentence passed on the appellant on January 7, 2011 by Justice Joseph Oyewole of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja Division is hereby affirmed.”

Ezeugo was arraigned on September 26, 2006 on six counts of attempted murder and murder on allegations of pouring petrol on the deceased and on five other persons and thereafter setting them ablaze.

One of the victims, Uzoh, died on August 2, 2006, 11 days after the incident, as a result of the injuries she sustained.

Ojo had, among his 32 grounds of appeal, argued that the judgement of the trial court occasioned miscarriage of justice for relying on unresolved contradictions and inconsistencies in the prosecution’s evidence.

He argued that there were contradictions in the testimonies of some of the prosecution witnesses, with some saying that the cleric ordered for matches to set the victims ablaze and others saying he only ordered for matches after a lighter failed.

But Justice Akinbami, while delivering the ruling, held that the contradictions were immaterial to the case of the prosecution.

“Not all contradictions in the case of the prosecution will raise a doubt. For contradictions to be fatal to the prosecution’s case, it must be related to the material fact. All the witnesses are unanimous that the appellant used matches,” she said.

On Ojo’s contention that the evidence adduced by the prosecution did not show that the action of his client was linked to the death of the deceased, Justice Akinbami said the evidence given by eyewitnesses, and that of a pathologist ascribing the cause of death to “hypovolemic” (severe loss of blood and tissues), showed that Ezeugo’s action was the cause of death of one of the victims.

However, all the grounds of the appeal were resolved against Rev. King because the judge said the witnesses gave evidences of how the victim was killed, especially the evidences from the 10 prosecution witnesses.

Some of the witnesses said that Rev. King ordered one of them to bring matches and ordered another to pour petrol on the victim before he set her on fire.

Another witness stated that Rev. King looked for the matches himself before setting fire on the victim.

“The evidence is overwhelming and damning. He was offering them stone when they demanded for bread; he was giving them scorpion  when they demanded for fish,” she ruled.

Word for the Day: 

You must be the change you want to see in the world- Mahatma Gandhi

French president visits Mali to support French troops

French President Francois Hollande arrived in Mali on Saturday on a one-day visit to support French troops fighting a campaign against Islamist rebels in the Sahel nation.

Hollande, accompanied by his ministers for defence, foreign affairs and development, flew into Sevare in central Mali, French TV channels said.

He was due to go on to Timbuktu, the famed Saharan trading town which was recaptured from the rebels on Sunday.



The French leader was expected to outline the next phase of the mission for the French forces, which in a three-week intervention launched at Mali's request have pushed the Islamist fighters into the desert and mountains of the remote northeast.

Hollande has said that the French operation, which has 3,500 soldiers on the ground in Mali backed by warplanes, helicopters and armoured vehicles, wants to hand over to a larger U.N.-backed African force which is still being deployed.

Sustained French airstrikes have forced fighters from the Islamist militant alliance that was occupying northern Mali to retreat into the remote Adrar des Ifoghas mountains near the Algerian border. The rebels are also believed to be holding there seven French hostages previously seized in the Sahel.

In their three-week offensive, the French forces recaptured last weekend, with little resistance from the rebels, the two main towns in northern Mali, Gao and the fabled ancient city of Timbuktu.

culled from Reuters


Word for the Day: "The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear." -Brian Tracy

China fireworks truck blast causes highway collapse!

State media reports that a truck carrying fireworks has exploded on an elevated highway in central China, killing scores of people and causing part of the road to collapse, 

The explosion occurred on national expressway G30 near the city of Sanmenxia in central Henan province at about 8.52am, according to the state-run China Daily, causing an 80-metre (260ft) section of the bridge to collapse and sending vehicles plummeting 30 metres to the ground.

 Search and rescue efforts are ongoing.

Lighting fireworks is a traditional part of Chinese new year celebrations, 

which begin this year on 10 February.

Word for the day: Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements." -Napoleon Hill