Friday, 14 June 2013

Mallam Sanusi Lamido in sex scandal......Dates , married women inside CBN!

Twenty minutes to midnight on February 25, 2013, and a day before the board of the Central Bank of Nigeria was due to meet, Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi developed a craving for romance €”he badly needed a kiss.
The governor, married, with children, grabbed his mobile phone and typed out a message.  €œMaybe you should come kiss me before board meeting tomorrow, Mr. Sanusi wrote and then squeezed the send button.
At about 9 a.m. the next day, Mrs. Maryam Yaro, a married mother of two, an assistant director and subordinate to the governor at the CBN, arrived Sanusi'€™s unnamed Abuja hotel, seeking to keep the date and help address her boss craving for a kiss.  (Insiders say board members, including those who live in Abuja, are usually lodged in hotels ahead of board meetings).

But by the time Mrs. Yaro left the hotel to return to her official desk at the CBN, the duo had also struck out an arrangement to spend the rest of the week together in Lagos.

So, in the evening of Wednesday February 27, Mrs. Yaro flew to Lagos ahead of Mr. Sanusi and checked into a hotel in the city, skipping work, at taxpayers expense, on Thursday February 28 and Friday, March 1.

To keep faith with Mrs. Yaro'€™s date, the CBN governor arrived Lagos, travelling on a chartered flight, on the night of February 28, and checked into the Federal Palace Hotel, passage and boarding all at taxpayer's expense.

Both Mr. Sanusi and Mrs. Yaro rendezvoused in the hotel till Sunday when both of them returned to Abuja, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

"I had such a wonderful weekend",€ Mrs. Yaro confessed to the governor while aboard her Abuja-bound flight. "€œYou have revived in me what I thought I lost long ago. I thought I lost the passion to love again",€ she claimed.

"Alhamdulillahi. Love you", Mr. Sanusi responded in a measured tone.

Insiders say repeated violation of the statutory code of conduct for public office holders such as hiring his girlfriends and mistresses without complying with public service rules, dating married and unmarried women within the bank, and flirting with them during official work hours have become defining characters of Mr. Sanusi'€™s governorship of the central bank.

An official of the bank spoke of how Mr. Sanusi had enthroned nepotism at the bank, arbitrarily hiring girlfriends and relatives and engaging in extramarital relationships with staff.

"€œThis man (the CBN governor) is the most morally bankrupt governor the CBN has ever had, the official, who did not want to be named for fear of retribution, told PREMIUM TIMES. €œForget all the pretenses, he is a shameless man of loose character".

Investigations by this newspaper revealed that Mr. Lamido hired his latest mistress, Mrs. Yaro, without complying with the CBN recruitment policy that stressed, €œall appointments shall be made on the basis of merit, through a fair and open selection process.

€œThe principles underlying the recruitment process are those of fairness, credibility, equal employment opportunities, merit and optimization of career prospects for currently employed staff, the bank said on its website.

But Mrs. Yaro, insiders say, was hired in July 2012 without adherence to these principles. Those who should know say Mrs. Yaro, who was a staff at the National Programme on Food Security, an agency under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, was brought into the bank as assistant director without  advert for the vacancy and after a kangaroo interview.€

When contacted, Mr. Sanusi said due process was followed in hiring Mrs. Yaro.

He said having worked for years in the ministry of agric, Mrs. Yaro came highly recommended and qualified for the job for which she was hired.

The CBN governor continued, "I have known Dr. Yaro since 1981. She was my student in Yola and she later came to ABU Zaria. We have been very good friends but this is not why NIRSAL took her. You may wish to check her CV against all the other CVs in NIRSAL. And she did go through an interview process with the NIRSAL CEO making the decision not CBN HR.
"As for the personal allegations, this is all strange to me but I have a personal policy of not responding to such allegations since in Nigeria anything can be published on any public officer without proof.  I have limited myself to what concerns official allegations and leave you to your God and your conscience on whatever else you want to publish. Thank you for telling me though".

Mrs. Yaro however declined comments when contacted by PREMIUM TIMES.

"Be careful what you are saying", she told one of our reporters on the telephone. "€œI have nothing to comment to you on anything".

When asked if she would be willing to respond to specific questions about her trips to Lagos to keep dates with Mr. Sanusi, she simply said, "Whatever it is, I don'€™t know. Will you just let me be?"€

But our investigations revealed that the governor'€™s claim was far from accurate. Through several interviews and review of records, PREMIUM TIMES was able to determine that Mrs. Yaro and Mr. Sanusi had dated each other for at least six months before she was hired.

Insiders say Mr. Sanusi repeatedly pestered the human resource department of the bank ordering it to bring Mrs. Yaro's application to him for approval. And once the file reached his table, the governor wasted no time in treating it.

On June 25, 2012, Mr. Sanusi, who was travelling in South Africa at the time, telephoned Mrs. Yaro to break the news to her that he had approved her recruitment in what critics consider a clear conflict of interest and a violation of a provision of Nigeria'€™s Code of Conduct which stipulates that €œa public officer shall not put himself in a position where his interest conflicts with his duties and responsibilities.€

Mrs. Yaro, (whose businessman husband, Ahmed, is largely based in Kaduna but visits Abuja regularly) assumed duties at the CBN in the first week of September 2012 and was deployed to the Development Finance Department.

The department then put her in charge of the bank's Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System For Agricultural Lending, (NIRSAL), a unit that attempts to fix the agricultural value chain, so that banks can lend with confidence to the sector and, encourages banks to lend to the agricultural value chain by offering them strong incentives and technical assistance.

Sources said Mrs. Yaro married Ahmed (or Shuaib, according to another source) six years ago after her first husband, Waisu Yaro Bodinga (then an executive director at the Nigeria Ports Authority) died in the ill-fated ADC plane crash of 2006.

The romance between Mrs. Yaro and Mr. Sanusi became even hotter after she began work at the bank, with the two lovers regularly exchanging telephone calls and text messages during work hours to profess love for each other.

At times, Mrs. Yaro would remain in her office far beyond close of work to enable her to keep appointments with the CBN governor, records show.

Sometimes, Mrs. Yaro would raise concerns about Mr. Sanusi'€™s other girlfriends and mistresses (such as Sutura and Rose) and how they were blocking her from getting the governor'€™s full attention, but the relationship continued nonetheless.

Mrs. Yaro also began to have access to confidential information known only to top management and board of the bank, insiders say.

At a point, one source said, she began to strategies to corner contracts for one Goke Akinboro, the Chief Executive Officer of Lagos-based Cellullant Limited, an information technology company. Mr. Akinboro is also described as very close€ to Mrs. Yaro.

On March 15, 2013, the CBN lovers headed to Lagos again for another weekend of fun. The initial plan was for the duo to fly to the nation's commercial capital on Saturday, March 16, returning to Abuja on Sunday. But the trip had to be brought forward by a day after the lovers realized that the Area Council election in Abuja was holding that Saturday and that movement might be restricted.

Mrs. Yaro arrived Lagos on the night of March 15, and immediately checked into the Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel on Victoria Island. Mr. Sanusi flew from Kano to Lagos via chartered jet on the bills of the Nigerian taxpayers. He arrived at about 11 p.m., stopped by his Ikoyi home, before dashing to the hotel where Mrs. Yaro was waiting in a seductive dress in Room 23. The lovers spent that night and the next day together in the hotel.

As he flew into Abuja March 17 on a chartered jet, Mr. Sanusi sent a message to Mrs. Yaro saying, "€œLove, Just landed in Abuja. Thank you for a wonderful weekend".€ Mrs. Yaro replied, "œAlhamdulillah, I had a wonderful weekend too. I am able to get the 3:15 flight on Arik Air. Love you".€

But in-between those rendezvous in Lagos, Mr. Sanusi and Mrs Yaro also found time to get together elsewhere.  They were to meet on March 11, 2013, in Makurdi but somehow Mrs. Yaro could not make it to the Benue State capital.  But earlier on February 14, (Valentine's Day), the lovers had a good time together in Maiduguri. Although, the two of them traveled to the city on different missions, they somehow found a way to get together.

At a point, Mrs. Yaro voiced open frustration when Mr. Lamido delayed in taking her calls as she tried, frantically, to track him down. "€œI'€™m thinking that one Shuwa girl has snatched you away from me", Mrs. Yaro wrote in a message. "€œI don'€™t trust them (Maiduguri girls) with you".

A velvet-ranking figure within Nigeria'€™s economic and political circles, Mr. Sanusi, is generally perceived as one of the intellectual anchors and moral conscience of this administration. When his five-year term expires next year, he has indicated he would not renew his contract. Mr. Sanusi has a well-advertised ambition to become the future emir of his native Kano, where he is already a top chieftain (Dan Maje Kano). Dan Majen Kano, a historic title, which means Son of Emir-Maje, is reserved for the royal family members from the Kano Habe dynasty.

A zigzag prospect to run for the Nigerian presidency is also believed to be floating in the horizon for Mr. Sanusi.

Multiple sources at both the CBN and First Bank, where Mr. Sanusi was managing director before his appointment to the central bank, describe the governor as "an €œincurable womanizer".€

"This guy seems unable to resist anything in skirt, and it is unfortunate that a lot of young people look up to him as an example," one of Mr. Sanusi's aides in Abuja said, expressing widely held concerns in banking circles that It is sad that he would'n€™t even let married women be.

Mr. Sanusi, 51, appointed CBN Governor on June 3 2009, is a smart economist and award-winning banker with a background in risk management.

He holds a graduate degree in economics from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and a diploma in Sharia and Islamic Studies from the African International University in Khartoum, Sudan. Today, Mr. Sanusi is also commonly regarded as an important voice in Islamic jurisprudence.

The Banker, the UK-based financial magazine honored him in 2010 as global Central Bank Governor of the Year as well as African Central Bank Governor of the Year. In 2011, the TIME magazine listed Mr. Sanusi in its annual publication of 100 most influential people.

At the African Banker Awards gala dinner held Wednesday in Morocco, Mr. Sanusi also emerged the 2013 Africa Central Bank Governor of the Year.€

€œThere  is no doubt that he is a fairly effective banker,€ an official of one of Nigeria'€™s leading banks, who requested anonymity  for fear his bank might be targeted, told PREMIUM TIMES. "But he is a man of zero morality despite his public posturing". 


culled from :Premium Times

Thursday, 13 June 2013

Pregnant Duchess Makes Final Solo Trip!


The Duchess of Cambridge will conduct her last solo public engagement later before giving birth in July.

Attending a ship naming ceremony in Southampton, Kate will become godmother of the Royal Princess when she smashes a bottle over its hull.
The Duchess, now in the final weeks of her pregnancy, will also board the ship for a brief tour.
Although it is the 31-year-old's last solo engagement, she is expected to attend Trooping the Colour on Saturday.
A key figure missing from the ceremony, which sees the trooping of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards' colours, will be the Duke of Edinburgh, who remains in hospital after undergoing an operation last Friday.
The Royal Princess, built at a construction yard near Venice, will be blessed in the ceremony, which will be attended by charities of which Kate, Prince William and Prince Harry are patrons.
The 3,600-passenger ship includes an over-water 'sea walk' and a top-deck glass-bottomed walkway, which extends 28ft beyond the edge of the ship.
The vessel, which will make her maiden voyage on June 16, also boasts the largest pastry shop at sea as well as poolside cabanas.
The naming ceremony is a long-standing royal tradition.
The predecessor to the Royal Princess was launched by Diana, Princess of Wales in 1984.
From the podium, she said: "I name this ship Royal Princess. May God bless her and all who sail in her."
She then pulled a lever to send the traditional bottle of champagne against the ship's hull.
The Queen named the Queen Elizabeth in 2010 and the Duchess of Cornwall named the Queen Victoria three years earlier.

Drunk Women 'Made Boy, 10, Drive Them Home'!


Two women have been arrested after making a 10-year-old boy drive them home because they were drunk.

Police in Louisiana responded to a call about car being driven recklessly on Interstate 10 - and when they pulled it over discovered it was being driven by a boy.
The child's grandmother and another woman were in the car along with a 15-year-old child.
Police said they told officers that they made the boy drive because they were intoxicated.
Brenda Byrd, 54, and Sheila Joiner, 48, were arrested for "contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile and allowing an unlicensed driver to operate a motor vehicle".
The young driver and a 15-year-old passenger were later released to family members.

Mother Saves Baby After Taxi Slams Into Them!


A mother managed to pull her baby daughter out from under a taxi after they were both struck by the vehicle in an accident captured on video.
Alondra Gervacio and Perla after taxi hit them
Alondra Gervacio, 17, and eight-month-old Perla were on their way to school for the teenager's final exam when the car driver reportedly had a heart attack, lost consciousness and the car mounted the pavement.


CCTV footage showed the pair being hit by the taxi which then smashed into the front of a shop in the Bronx, New York.
The baby was knocked out of her buggy and ended up underneath the vehicle. Ms Gervacio immediately rushed to the car and managed to pull her free.
She said she felt no pain after the car slammed into her, and could think only of her child.
Both mother and daughter suffered only minor injuries but the driver was pronounced dead after being taken to hospital.
Ms Gervacio said: "If I didn't pull myself and her a little bit back it would have crashed into us and the store."
She believes she and her baby are lucky to be alive, and she cannot bear to watch the footage.
"I was putting her in the stroller and when I lifted my head up I saw the car coming. I'm like 'Oh my God.' I tried to push her on the side but I couldn't," the young mother said.
"She fell out of the stroller. She was below the car."

The student at Jane Adams High School and little Perla were taken to Lincoln Hospital. The teenager has pain on her left side.
Speaking about her baby's condition, she told WABC: "They took x-rays all over and of her head. But she's all OK. She just has scratches on her head and on her hand. And that's it."
Dr Rachel Rosansky, who works at Montefiore Hospital, was near the scene at the time of the accident.
Video footage of a woman who was hit by a taxi, trapping her baby under the car
She said the driver was slumped over the wheel well before the crash, and she rushed over to help.
"We felt the impact," she said. "I couldn't really find a pulse, but he was still breathing a little bit."

George Martinez, the cab firm's owner, said: "He's a nice responsible driver, never do anything, always responsible."

Syria death toll more than 93,000: UN!




More than 93,000 people, including at least 6,500 children, have perished in Syria's brutal civil war, a new study from the United Nations human rights office showed Thursday.

"Unfortunately, as the study indicates, this is most likely a minimum casualty figure. The true number of those killed is potentially much higher," UN rights chief Navi Pillay said in a statement.
The exact figure released on Thursday - 92,901people - is much higher than the UN's last death toll back in January of 59,000 people.
An average of more than 5,000 people have been killed every month since last July, while Rural Damascus and Aleppo have recorded the highest tolls since November, the UN said in its latest study compiling documented deaths.
Al Jazeera's diplomatic editor James Bays, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, described the figures as "staggering".

The UN has not had much access to Syria, and therefore has been unable to count bodies. Instead, the body did a statistical survey.
"They have gone through sources which had the names, dates and locations [of those killed]," our correspondent said, adding that body acknowleges it has "underreported the number of deaths."

Rebel-led mass killing
Meanwhile, Syrian rebels reportedly killed at least 60 people, including civilians government loyalists, in a battle in Halta, a Sunni-majority village in the country's east, activists said.
The fighting over the past few days targetted members of the Shia community, highlighting the increasingly sectarian nature of the country's civil war.

The opposition fighters reportedly stormed and burned civilian homes in the village in the eastern Deir Azzor province. 

The attack is said to be in retaliation for an earlier assault by Shias from Hatla that killed four opposition fighters.
A Syrian government official denounced the attack on the Shia-section of the Sunni-majority Hatla village as a "massacre" of civilians, the Associated Press news agency reported on Thursday. 
A video posted online by rebels on Tuesday, entitled "The storming and cleansing of Hatla", showed dozens of fighters carrying black flags celebrating and firing guns in the streets of a small town as smoke curled above several buildings.
One fighter shouts in the video: "This is a Sunni area, it does not belong to other groups."
Most armed rebels in Syria are from the country's Sunni majority, while President Bashar al-Assad has retained core support among the minorities, including his own Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam, along with Christians and Shia.

US debates strategy
Meanwhile, the US has again debated how to help the Syrian opposition, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said.
The US has weighed for months whether to give arms to the rebels, but the issue is now firmly on the table given increased involvement by Hezbollah, the armed Lebanese Shia group, and as Iran backs President Assad on the battlefield.
Government forces are also reported to be preparing for majour offensive on rebel-held parts of the northern city of Aleppo.
"We are focusing our efforts now doing all that we can to support the opposition as they work to change the balance on the ground," Kerry said at a joint news conference with William Hague, UK foreign secretary, in Washington DC on Wednesday.

The Obama administration is meeting this week on whether to arm the Syrian rebels, a topic that Kerry said he discussed with Hague.
Brigad

About 6,000 Flee Boko Haram Crisis To Niger Republic!

According to a United Nation's report, no fewer than 6,000 people ,mostly  women, children and elderly, displaced following the military onslaught against members of  Islamist militant sects,  Boko Haram and the al Qaeda-linked Ansaru,  in Northern Nigerian villages have fled to neighboring  Niger Republic.

Nigerians gathered to register as refugees in Bosso, Niger.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, also  known as the UN Refugee Agency,  made this known in a report  it  presented in  New York, United States, recently by  its  spokesperson, Mr Adrian Edwards.

The report stated that, “Those who spoke to UNHCR say they escaped for fear of being caught in the government-led crackdown,”.

Edward who read the report, added that the presence of the Nigerian refugees in Niger Republic was  “putting a strain on meager local food and water resources” on the country which  “struggles with food insecurity due to years of drought.”

According to Edward, the “refugees  are either renting houses or staying with host families, who are themselves living in very precarious conditions.”

Edward stated that a UNHCR staff member who  visited several border villages hosting  the refugees met some Nigerian families living out in the open  and some under trees.

He further disclosed that the agency would help the Nigerien authorities to register the refugees, and that plans are under-way to deliver relief to the refugees and their   host communities. The report revealed that in the past few weeks, about 240  additional refugees, comprising Niger nationals and people from other nationalities, equally fled Nigeria to Niger,  while some of them fled to Cameroon and Chad; two countries that also share boundaries with Nigeria.

The report  also  stated that the Nigerian  “refugees reported that air strikes by government forces are continuing from time to time, and that planes are regularly flying over the states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa where a  state of emergency has been in force since May 14.”

Adding that, “People arriving in Niger also mentioned the increasing presence of roving armed bandits in several states in Nigeria. The people also spoke of rising commodity prices coupled with pre-existing food insecurity which is also becoming  a major concern for the populations of the affected states.”

Nigerian forces are engaged in a  four- week-old operation to regain territory from Boko Haram fighters. They had  destroyed key Boko Haram bases and arrested more than 150 suspected insurgents in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.

Although the military was not immediately available for comment, Defence Headquarters Spokesman,  Brig -Gen. Chris Olukolade, in a recent statement,  denied a report that Nigerian refugees were “pouring into” Niger.

This contradiction came as  the National Emergency Management Agency  said it was responding to the humanitarian needs of the displaced Nigerians in Niger Republic to alleviate their living conditions. NEMA  said the basic needs  were identified by a special assessment carried out by its team  that was dispatched to Niger Republic to ascertain the conditions of Nigerians that had crossed over the border into the country. 

Meanwhile, during a recent courtesy visit to Nigeria's Minister of State for Defence, Mrs. Olusola Obada in AbujaSpecial Representative of the UN Secretary- General  for West Africa,  Mr. Said Djinnit, who is also the Chairman, Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commissionobserved that the threat of extremism and terrorism is affecting all West African countries and the Africa continent in general and tasked West African countries  to collaborate and tackle terrorism in the sub-region.

Djinnit said the visit was to explore how he could work closely with ECOWAS and its leaders in stabilizing the West Africa region and creating conditions for peace: The threat of extremism or terrorism is affecting all  the  countries in West Africa and  Africa in general. So there is need for a general effort. This should be a national effort, though Nigeria is putting its own effort but we need to mobilise the entire region to work together to address the root cause of the problem, address the concern and challenge in a coordinated manner within the framework of the existing plan of action with ECOWAS, African Union and the UN.” He said.

Djinnt advised that Nigeria should take into account, the issue of Human Rights, which he believed the government was aware of, in responding to the challenge  of ensuring safety of its citizens. He commended the Nigerian government for its role in the fight against piracy the Gulf of Guinea.

The President of the Czech Parliament, Mr.  Milan. Stech, sympathized with the Nigerian government over Boko Haram insurgents attacks.

Nine-month-old baby dies in Lagos building collapse!


Debris of a collapsed three-storey building at No. 353 Challenge Road, off Amu Street, in Mushin, Lagos ... on Tuesday.

A nine-month-old baby died while three others sustained injuries after a three-storey building collapsed on Agege Motor Road, Mushin, Lagos State, Nigeria.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the building, located on 353 Agege Motor Road, Challenge Bus Stop, collapsed around 3pm on Tuesday. The baby’s parents were among the injured.


According to rescue officials, most of the occupants of the residential building were not at home when the incident occurred.
The building was said to have been built as a conventional apartment but two stories were added to it which weakened its foundation.
A police source at the scene said, “The building was built like ‘Face me I face you’ (single rooms apartment) behind a four-storey building in the same compound but the landlord added two floors which weakened its foundation.
“The building came crashing around 3pm and we all rushed there to rescue people. Three people were saved and have been taken to the hospital for treatment. Unfortunately, a baby of about nine months was found buried under the rubble.”
It was learnt that sympathisers were able to salvage some properties even before the arrival of the rescue officials.
The incident expectedly worsened the usual heavy traffic in the area.
The Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Razaq Fadipe, told our correspondent that rescue efforts had ended.
He said, “We received a distress call at our station at Isolo that there was a building collapse and we rushed down to the scene. Three people were rushed to hospital while a baby of about nine months was found dead.
“Rescue operations continued until no other person was found under the rubble.”
It was learnt that state officials had sealed off and marked the building next to the collapsed one for demolition.
According to state officials at the scene, the building had earlier been identified as a distressed. He said that some of its occupants had vacated while some ignored the warning and stayed behind.
When contacted on the telephone, the Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Damasus Ozoani, said, “The incident occurred during the rain. The Divisional Police Officer, Mushin, received a distress call and mobilised his men to the scene.
“Four people were rescued, including a baby but on getting to the hospital, the baby gave up the ghost.”