NUJ car crash: Kafayat Odunsi, journalist who died in accident is laid to rest!

One of the three journalists who died in an auto crash in Ilesha, Osun state Nigeria on Friday has been buried.



Kafayat Odunsi, a staff of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA 10, was buried on Sunday evening at the Oke-Suna Muslim Burial Ground in Lagos state.

An ambulance with registration number OS 67 A30 belonging to the Osun State Health Management Board brought her remains into the Federal Government-owned television station where a crowd had gathered to receive it at exactly 3.15pm .

An Islamic rite which lasted about 45 minutes was conducted on the corpse after which it was taken to the burial site for interment.

President of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, Garba Mohammed, who was part of the crowd that received the corpse, expressed shock over the incident.

“It is a sad moment for us in the NUJ and the entire media family. God knows best in whatever happened,” he said while expressing commiserating with journalists in the country.

Mohammed also used the opportunity to reiterate the union’s stand on insurance for journalists.
According to him, journalism is bedeviled with many hazards and as such, every media practitioner is supposed to be insured.

“The NUJ insurance is very visible. We are currently going to media organisations to ensure that every journalist is insured,” he said.

Chairman of the Lagos Assembly Committee on Information, Publicity and Security, Olusegun Olulade, also urged the government to support the profession by ensuring that those establishing media houses must be ready to insure the journalists.

“Another is to take the issue of pension seriously.

“Death will come one day but that day is what we don’t know. So everyone is supposed to learn a lesson from this,” he said.

General Manager of the television station, Niyi Oyeleye, also supported Olulade saying journalism is a job with a lot of risk.

He urged that the insurance be taken seriously.

The three NUJ officials were part of a team that was returning from Abuja where they had attended a meeting of the union.

Reports say one of the tyres of the bus in which they were travelling burst causing the fatality.

Kafayat was the treasurer of the NTA 10 chapter of the union and covered the Lagos State House of Assembly for the television station before her death.

She was laid to rest at exactly 5.10pm amidst tears by friends and relatives.

Meanwhile, The Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital (LAUTECH), Osogbo in Osun has discharged all the journalists, injured in the auto-crash at Ilesha on 2 August.

The Chief Medical Director of LAUTECH, Prof. Femi Fadiora, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Osogbo that the nine journalists were now out of danger list.

Fadiora expressed optimism that one of the survivors, Mr Sylva Okereke, who was transferred to Lagos early on Saturday would survive if given adequate care.

“LAUTECH rose to the occasion to ensure that the wounded were given adequate care to stabilise them.

“Three were discharged on Saturday, while the remaining six who are now out of danger have also been released to join their families today,’’ Fadiora said.

A former National Officer of the NUJ, Mr Ayoade Adebayo, told NAN that the survivors were released to Mr Deji Elumoye, the Chairman of the Lagos State Council of the NUJ.

Adebayo said that Elumoye had also gone to Ilesa to convey the body of Kafayat Odunsi, a staff of the Nigerian Television Authority, who lost her life in the crash to Lagos.

He called on Nigerians to continue to pray for journalists, who by the nature of the job were always on the move.

The National President of the NUJ, Mr Garba Mohammed, at a news conference in Osogbo, declared seven-days mourning in honour of the three dead journalists.

The other journalists who died in the crash were Olatunde Ojenike of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Ibadan and Adolphus Okonkwo of the Voice of Nigeria. (NAN)

Rancho Mirage businessman accused of defrauding Detroit bank!

A Rancho Mirage businessman has been accused of defrauding a Detroit bank out of about $5.3 million using an intricate scheme that included one fake person and concealed the ownership of two companies.

Steven Pitchersky, 64, is accused of duping Ally Financial into loaning money to his business, Nationwide Mortgage Concepts, or NMC, by pretending it had a large line of credit with another company named MPL, which was led by a man named “Rick Jay.”

In reality, MPL was also owned by Pitchersky, who pretended to be “Rick Jay” when contacted on his cell phone, according to documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday.

Pitchersky maintained this ruse for about three years, starting in 2008, court documents claim. During that time, Ally Bank extended a $10 million line of credit to NMC.

Pitchersky has been charged with a single count of wire fraud and faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years if convicted. He could not be reached despite multiple calls to his home number. It is unclear if he has hired an attorney.

Pitchersky also made it appear he was using these loans to pay off the mortgages of NMC customers, but actually used the money to originate more mortgages, earning more fees for himself and the company, the court documents claim.

At least one of those customers, an unidentified Michigan homeowner, was supposed to have his mortgage paid off with about $233,000 of loaned funds, the court documents state. Instead, Pitchersky deposited that money into an NMC bank account, then provided a “purported copy” of a check to make it appear the loan had been paid off. The company also made a single monthly payment on the loan, about $1,700, so the homeowner would think his mortgage had been paid off, court documents state.

Normally these transactions would have gone through a third-party company, generally known as a title company. However, Pitchersky is also accused of creating his own title company, Hanover, then concealing his ownership from the bank.

“Unbeknownst to Ally, defendant Steven Pitchersky covertly instructed Hanover to forward to NMC all money it received from Ally to pay off first mortgage banks during the refinancing process,” court documents state. “This subterfuge allowed defendant Pitchersky complete control over money NMC acquired from Ally’s (credit) line. Defendant Pitchersky used Ally’s money for purposes other than for what it (was) loaned for.”

According to the new release, the case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), and the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David L. Axelrod.

Pitchersky’s mortgage company, NMC, was a participant in a federal program that allowed it to originate mortgages for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Federal Housing Administration.

Ally Financial was a recipient of $16 billion of federal funding from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

D’banj Present Brand New Honda CRV As Wedding Gift For His Sister And Husband!

It was an extremely happy moment in the family of the Oyebanjos, as D’banj's younger sister and twin sister to KaySwitch, formerly known as Taiwo Oyebanjo had her white wedding with her beau Dotun of Cool FM recently.



To celebrate their union, big brother D’Banj presented the new couple with a brand new Honda CRV



 The occasion was star studded, as celebrities and show biz stars recorded their presence .












Guests were overwhelmed with the presence of Marvin Boss and Ace Music Producer Don Jazzy.



who made it a date and performed alongside his former label and business partner D’banj to the delight of every one present, especially.... the couple.





Some Pictures:

Malta stops tanker carrying 102 African migrants!

Malta said on Monday 6th of August, 2013 that it had refused entry to a tanker carrying 102 African migrants.

The Mediterranean island has faced a record influx of African migrants, with 1,000 having arrived in the past month.

The Liberian-registered tanker had picked up the 102 migrants about 45 nautical miles off the Libyan coast, but was stopped by a Maltese vessel just outside the island's territorial waters, the home affairs ministry said.

The migrants were not in any danger or distress, it said.

Nigerian Student Breaks World’s Record For Longest Sex Ever!

Witness Claims The OAU Undergraduate Engaged In It Non-stop For 15 Hours 7 mins 23 seconds.

The boy didn’t stop until he was forced to stop. He has Sex for 15 Hours, 7 Mins and 23 Seconds Non Stop.

Prince William Talks Adorably About Fatherhood in First Outing Since Baby George Went Home!

Prince William ventured away from baby George for the first time since his becoming a father to participate in a charity Polo event with Uncle Harry. And really, he was more adorable than ever. I can't wait for the day when little George is on the sidelines cheering his dad on.
 
 
What struck me from seeing Prince William for the first time, since he left the hospital as a family of three, was how at ease and happy he seemed to be. He has this amazing new dad glow. And was more than happy to talk about life as new father.
 

Prince William told reporters, "I was in baby mode out there, thinking about nappies, I wasn’t really in the zone." And joked that he was in need of diapers, saying he was going to have to "pick some up on my way home."
How cute is he?

And as for Kate, she stayed home with her parents in Buckleberry. And I am sure, like the rest of us, is a little sad that Prince Williams paternity leave ends this Monday. But that's the reason, right there, that I love them so much. We can relate to them more than any other royal couple. They just seem so real. So approachable. Don't you get the feeling that they are changing dirty diapers and dealing with sleepless nights, just like we have done?

Amaechi opens up on rift with Patience Jonathan, Wike!

Nigeria:

Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi has shed more light into the political friction between him and the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan.

    

Amaechi who continued to profess his respect for the president and the first lady said the misunderstanding arose when he opted to provide a conducive learning environment for the children of Okrika, Dame Patience’s hometown.

The embattled governor said this during a visit of the  Niger Delta Bishops’ Forum at the Government House in Port Harcourt. The bishops had some weeks back visited the First Lady and Minister of State for Education Nyesom Wike in Abuja as part of their efforts to resolve the issues.

Read what Amaechi had to say below:

“My Lords, I don’t know what to say, believe me, the only thing I want to say to you that I want to  put on record is that the wife of the President said that when my wife came to beg me, I pushed her away. I have never quarreled with my wife publicly, and I will never quarrel with my wife publicly.

So, there is no time I pushed my wife away and there is no time I will push my wife away. I want to also correct that so that nobody goes away with the impression that somebody told my wife ‘go and talk to your husband and she came but I pushed her away’. No. That day, I simply walked away into a bus and I sat down until they finished. So, all I did was go back to the bus to enable my wife perform her official function of someone who had received the wife of the President and escort her to all the places she wanted to go to.

“I hope that it (this mediation) will work. Niger Delta Monarchs came and no result came out of it and since you are men of God, I hope that  God will bless this one. I hope so because that is the same way I spoke to them (the monarchs) and they said, ‘watch out, it will work’, and they never returned because it never worked.

There are so many persons who had come to mediate but nothing came out of it. If it is peace that everybody wants, I am ready for peace. When you say you are seeking for permission, I am wondering why, because if you did not have the permission, you would not have gone to see the wife of the President. The mere fact that you have seen the wife of the President means that you have initiated the peace move. So, you don’t require any further approval than the approval of God that you have started with.

“There are aspects of the story that is public that I need to correct. Lord Bishops, please allow me to correct those ones too because when you spoke with the wife of the President, she spoke publicly. She said and I concede to her when she said she is my mother.

As wife of the President who is the head of government and head of the nation, she is my mother and you expect that as my mother, she should be able to protect her son. No mother takes away a Police Commissioner to the detriment of her son. So when next you see my mother, please tell her that she should try and protect her son.

“The other aspect is the Okrika story when she visited. Like I said, as the Governor, by protocol I will receive the President and you know that the President is not just our President, he is the head of the nation but when the wife of the President came, I went to receive her at the airport and she slept in Port Harcourt. The next day, she came up with a programme that was not part of the official programme, and what was the programme? She wanted her people to receive her in Okrika.

There was no plan, there was no protocol arrangement, nothing. We just had to quickly arrange protocol to take her to the place. But to do that, we wanted to also show her, that part of her  programme, not our programme, was to show her the projects we had done in Okrika.

So we took her to the Rufus Ada-George ring road in Okrika which we started and completed and then somewhere, we saw a health centre and a primary school and I said stop, let me show her this health centre. We looked at the health centre and we were satisfied.

At the primary school, there were houses around the primary school too close for comfort, no football field, no playground, no space at all around the school and I turned to the wife of the President and said ‘Your Excellency Ma, we have not finished with this building, we would buy the houses that are surrounding the primary school and demolish them’.

Once she heard the word ‘demolish’, the wife of the President flared up and took the microphone from me and started all sorts of diatribes that I won’t mention here for the respect I have for the office of the wife of the President. When she finished, I felt that it is wrong to confront the wife of the President publicly.

When she finished, I withdrew and walked into the bus. When we got to the ground of the reception which was not part of our programme, which she just included by herself, I came down from the bus and went to sit in one of the primary schools.

That was where she said my wife met me. How did the wife of the President know that my wife met me and I pushed her away when she was supposed to be in a public ceremony. Was she standing with me and my wife in that primary school and saw me pushed my wife away? So, it is important that you get to know this and it is important that the public knows that the altercation between myself and the wife of the President was as a result of providing services to her place, the Okrika people because you must deal with the issue of paedophiles.

If you build a primary school and the place is surrounded by people who are cooking and selling and buying, that is not a conducive atmosphere for learning and we did not say we would come there with caterpillars and demolish, we say we would buy the houses from the people and pay them off to be able to get a football field and provide playground for the children and fence off the school so that we can protect them from paedophiles, that was what happened.”

The governor also spoke about his disagreement with Nyesom Wike, the Minister of State for Education whom he nominated for appointment as Minister.

“I hear you also visited Nyesom Wike. I try not to talk about Wike. I say so because he is my subordinate, I try not to talk about him but I hear you visited him. Why I won’t talk about him is that Nyesom Wike, his second tenure as Obio Akpor Council Chairman was by the grace of God but I was the architect of that second term.

Nyesom Wike was appointed Chief of Staff by me. Nyesom Wike as a Minister of State, I nominated him. I was under pressure by the President to drop him, I refused. The President persuaded me to drop him and bring a woman but I refused.

I hear he is going all over town saying I didn’t appoint him. I didn’t appoint him, the President appointed him but I nominated him to be a minister as the Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum. I did but you know, character doesn’t come easily, character is a very difficult thing and I am a man of character”, Amaechi said.