X-Men Actor Has Cancer Growth Removed From Nose

Actor Hugh Jackman has had a fifth cancerous growth
removed from his face.
The X-Men star posted a picture on Instagram of his nose
covered with a plaster and a caption: "PLEASE USE
SUNSCREEN"
It is the fifth time in two years the 47-year-old has had a
basal cell growth removed from his face.
He puts the repeated bouts of cancerous growths down to
a childhood in Australia where sunscreen use was not
encouraged.
The star has been vocal in urging people to use
protection, even launching a range of creams for children,
and has advised sun-worshippers to get several check-
ups each year.
He wrote on Instagram: "An example of what happens
when you don't wear sunscreen. Basal Cell.
"The mildest form of cancer but serious, nonetheless.
PLEASE USE SUNSCREEN and get regular check-ups."
Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin
cancer, affecting more than 90% of US skin cancer
patients.
The carcinomas generally do not spread but can damage
surrounding tissue when removed.

Why I cannot do without Funke Akindele – Ayo Makun

30 Days in Atlanta was a success story, how were you
able to conquer the movie industry with just one
movie?
Well I cannot categorically say that I conquer the
movie industry but what I can say is that I got
blessed and I got rewarded as a result of taking a risk,
as a result of getting myself involved with something
that I’m passionate about. I will just say I’m lucky
and at the same time say that it all happened as a
result of hard work and content that was good enough
to share to the rest of the world.
You said you took some extra miles to achieve
success with the movie, can you highlights them?
Yeah, like I said earlier I have always had a
relationship with people like RMD, Ramsey Nouah and
building on the relationship and making it business
was easy because we’ve always known ourselves,
we’ve all been together in the past and it wasn’t that
easy but I just give it to the fact that we had a
relationship going and all of that came as a plus in
trying to get them.
30 Days in Atlanta was in the cinemas for a long time
and made so much money. There has been this outcry
by move producers that the cinemas reap of them,
what’s your take on this?
The cinemas know what they are doing, they set up
their own business just the way we go there with our
movies. The basic thing is not to see that one person
is reaping off the other person. I think the best thing is
to have the kind of agreement that will work for both
parties and that way nobody will complain that one is
reaping off the other.
You are already putting a finishing touch to your new
movie A Trip To Jamaica. First it was Atlanta, now
Jamaica, why names of cities?
Yeah because Akpos is an adventurous fellow, Akpos
is somebody who loves to see the world and
anywhere you see Akpors you just have to accept it
so there is no specific reason why he is touring.
Jamaica yes because they love our contents, they
love our movies. The Caribbean’s and Jamaicans can
trace their root to West Africa so taking a movie to
them is like bringing their brothers to them and at
the same time I also know that Nigerians love
Jamaica as well so I think why we don’t have this
cultural blend. That was what gave birth to the idea.
Can making movies take AY away from comedy
business?
No, movie cannot take more of AY. Stand-up comedy is
still very solid, the AY Live brand is still very solid and
movie is just 10% of every other thing that the AY
brand stands for. Ay Live is coming up on Easter
Sunday, March 27 and it promises t good, it’s
something that we do year in year out and we give
people happiness.
There is this strong bond between you and Funke
Akindele, she is always by you either during AY Live or
in your movie. What is the bond?
Yes, it’s relationship, it is talent. Iron sharpeneth iron;
it is just gaining the right connection with somebody
you believe you can work with. And Funke shares that
same believe like if it is AY I am ready to go. It is
going to be Funke because the connection is there and
she also can deliver so it is not only about connection,
it is about who she is, her gift and her talent as well.
She is somebody who has it and nobody will drop that
idea of working with somebody like that.
When should Nigerians be expecting A Trip To
Jamaica?
A Trip to Jamaica will be coming up in the middle of
the year in Nigeria. It will also go to the other part of
the world; we’ll do a tour of the UK, Canada, Jamaica
and the US.

Where coffin-making is a lucrative business

The atmosphere in John Mutau's coffin-making workshop
feels sombre.
Coffins ready for the market are lined up across the room,
leaving little space for his workbench.
But even in this environment, the young coffin-maker still
affords an infectious smile.
Based in the city of Mutare, in eastern Zimbabwe, he is
quick to say that coffin-makers are not as heartless as
many people in the country think they are.
Instead, he says, with an air of importance in his voice:
"We actually want to make decent burials affordable."
The 28-year-old is one of a number of young Zimbabwean
entrepreneurs who in recent years have gone into coffin-
making, after recognising that it remains a lucrative
industry because of Zimbabwe's continuing high rate of
Aids-related deaths.
While this may seem exploitative to some people, the new
entrants say they are simply helping to meet a need,
especially - they add - because their coffin prices are
usually much cheaper than the country's established big
funeral parlours.
Discarded wood
Despite Aids-related deaths having fallen by more than two
thirds in Zimbabwe since 2001, as a result of education
campaigns and the increased availability of free
antiretroviral drugs, more than 60,000 people a year still
die because of the virus, according to the country's
National Aids Council.
Meanwhile, the United Nations says that Zimbabwe has
the fifth highest prevalence of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa,
with an infection rate of 15%. This equates to 1.4 million
people, and 15% of adults.
Currently only 618,000 of these infected Zimbabweans -
less than one third - have access to the antiretroviral
treatments.
To keep his costs down, Mr Mutau makes his coffins
predominantly from wood discarded by local timber
companies.
This means that his coffins can cost as little as $40,
compared with between $200 and $2,000 at the large,
decades-old funeral director businesses.
Still, Mr Mutau admits that he, and the other new entrants,
have their critics.
Many people think we celebrate death but we don't," he
says.
"We are here to provide cheap coffins to the bereaved
families."
Mr Mutau ventured into coffin making in 2005, but he
admits that it was his business of last resort.
"I never dreamed of becoming a coffin-maker, but I need to
feed my family," he says.
"There are no jobs out there. I get up to $500 per month
selling coffins."
While Mr Mutau mostly works alone, if business is busy he
brings in extra workers.
Another coffin-maker plying his trade in Mutare is 30-
year-old Gift Olesi.
He went into the industry back in 2005 after he lost his job
at a local timber company that was scaling down its
operations due to falling sales.
Despite complaints from some people that he charges too
much, Mr Olesi says he made a conscious decision to
target the middle class, and so only makes coffins for
more than $250.
"I get at least $900 a month, and I am able to feed my
family," he says.
'Good nutrition'
While the new breed of coffin-makers is assisting the
bereaved families of people who have died from Aids, other
businesses are trying to help people with HIV or early
stage Aids while they are still alive.
Green World Zimbabwe, a Harare-based company that
manufactures herbal medicines and nutrition supplements,
helps people with HIV start their own businesses selling its
products.
It also markets its supplements to people with HIV.
Osmond Tafadzwa Chakauya, the company's senior
consultant, says: "Yes some people living with HIV are
getting antiretroviral drugs, but for the drugs to work they
need good nutrition. Hence we provide such supplements."
So far the business has helped train up to 3,000
independent sales people, of which 1,000 have HIV.
Yet Phyllis Muloyi, who has been living with HIV for 18
years thanks to her antiretroviral drugs, cautions that such
business support schemes mean little if people with HIV
cannot get funding from a bank, something she says can
be very difficult indeed.
Jephias Mundondo, an independent HIV/Aids campaigner,
says that due to the increased availability of the drugs,
banks should only be looking at the likely strength of
someone's business, and his or her ability to run and grow
it, not the fact that they have the virus.

Brand it like Beckham: How social media is changing fashion

When Brooklyn Beckham revealed on his Instagram feed
that he would be photographing Burberry's latest fragrance
ad campaign, the outrage was palpable.
Commentators rushed to criticise the fashion house's
choice of the 16-year-old son of David and Victoria
Beckham for the shoot, instead of an established industry
professional.
"Insulting to every artist out there"; "completely
disrespectful to the artist community"; and "so tired of
these celebrities buying their kids into everything" were
some of the printable reactions.
But Burberry boss Christopher Bailey suggested it might
have been Brooklyn's 5.9 million Instagram followers,
rather than his parents, that got him the gig.
"Brooklyn has a really great eye for image and Instagram
works brilliantly for him as a platform to showcase his
work," he said.
And this is the new reality: the choice of Brooklyn as
photographer was less about how well-connected famous
people can get their kids into competitive professions than
a reflection of just how much social media has shaken up
the fashion industry.
It's now the number of followers on Instagram, Pinterest,
Facebook and Twitter, rather than your experience
necessarily, that can secure you a top job.
"You don't want to be a commercial photographer unless
you're famous," says Scott Galloway, clinical professor of
marketing at the NYU Stern School of Business in New
York, and founder of "digital benchmarking" firm L2.
Model behaviour
The influence of social media has also rapidly changed
how models are chosen.
Kendall Jenner, who shot to fame thanks to the Keeping Up
with the Kardashians reality TV show, has been dubbed the
"ultimate Instagirl" for her huge social media fan base: 48
million followers on Instagram and 15.3 million on Twitter.
It was probably this status as the most-followed model on
Instagram, as much as her looks or talent, that scored her
the top job as the face of cosmetics giant Estee Lauder,
says Mr Galloway.
"You're seeing a reshaping of an industry," he argues. "My
friends don't forward me a picture of a really great air
conditioner, but forwarding fashion is fun and interesting."
While trying to work out whether sales are directly linked
to social media campaigns is difficult, companies with
higher levels of engagement on Instagram are tending to
grow their online sales faster than their less clued-up
rivals, turning the traditional fashion hierarchy on its head.
In L2's Digital IQ Index, which ranks fashion brands
according to their website offerings, e-commerce, digital
marketing and social media awareness, US women's
clothing designer Tory Burch beats well-known global
luxury brands such as Gucci, Hermes and Chanel.
Domenic Venneri, founder of digital marketing agency
Vokent, says his firm always looks at the social media
profiles of people before deciding who to use in a
campaign.
In some cases, not just the models but the entire
backstage team - including the make-up artists, stylists
and producers - are selected according to their influence
on social media.
"We won't do a photoshoot that goes on a billboard
somewhere unless everyone involved has some sort of
[social media] following and some sort of leverage," says
Mr Venneri.
'Loose and conversational'
For fashion firms, the appeal is two-fold: it's cheaper and
it seems more personal and authentic.
Lee Friend, founder of fashion photography company
Fashot, says that photos firms share on social media are
often at the very bottom end of the budget range.
"They're trying not to make it look too slick. It's meant to
be loose and conversational rather than structured and
professional," he says.
For customers, the appeal is obvious: they think they're
getting a peek inside a famously exclusive and private
world.
The reality is rather different, says Emma Parlons, head of
digital at fashion and beauty public relations agency Push
PR.
"They don't reveal too much. What we see is highly
curated. Yes, fashion houses are using social media to
engage with their fans, but it's in a very controlled way."
Controlled or not, she says it's effective, bringing in a new,
typically younger audience than the customers who use a
brand's website or shops.
"It's a walking, living magazine," she says. "People think
'oh that's what it looks like with a denim skirt'."
The three key platforms for fashion houses are Instagram,
Facebook and Twitter, says Ms Parlons.
Fast-growing channel
It's worked for Burberry. Behind-the-scenes pictures and
videos shared on its Instagram and Snapchat feeds of the
Brooklyn shoot had some 15 million impressions in the
eight hours the shoot was live.
The fashion retailer has nearly 40 million followers across
20 different social media platforms and openly admits that
it has become as much a media content producer as a
design company.
It was the first of the big fashion houses to "live stream"
its catwalk shows over the internet. On some platforms
customers can click through to buy certain garments as
soon as they see them on the catwalk. And it has its own
Instagram-style micro-site - Art of the Trench.
In September, it debuted its spring/summer 2016
collection on photo messaging app Snapchat ahead of the
official show.
While the company is coy about the exact breakdown of
online versus shop sales, it says the "majority of traffic" to
its website now comes from mobile, its "fastest growing
digital channel".
Yet not all the big fashion houses have embraced social
media due to concerns over the potential loss of control
over their brand image.
This may be a risky approach, however.
Online sales in 2014 accounted for just 6% of the $250bn
(£172bn; €224bn) global market for luxury goods, but
they're growing at a much faster rate than shop sales,
according to management consultancy McKinsey.
Its latest research, based on analysis of 7,000 shoppers,
found that three out of four luxury purchases, even if they
still take place in shops, are influenced by what consumers
see, do and hear online.
"The question is no longer if and when luxury brands
should embrace the digital opportunity, but how they
should go about doing it," it said.

The potato farmer who swapped bankruptcy for making millions

For a Herefordshire potato farmer, William Chase is
impressively savvy about the need for positive publicity,
and the importance of telling a good story.
It is a talent that helped him move from being bankrupt,
aged 32, to becoming a multimillionaire by the time he was
48.
Along the way he created and sold best-selling upmarket
crisps brand Tyrrells, and won a high-profile battle against
supermarket giant Tesco.
Now 56, and the founder and owner of Chase Vodka, a
luxury version of the spirit made from potatoes grown on
his farm, the serial entrepreneur says: "People love stories,
the real stories behind things.
"And the media was very important to me from the first
days of Tyrrells.
"I was a guy who had been beaten up by the supermarkets,
and people love to support the underdog."
'Ashamed'
The son of potato farmers who lived near the Herefordshire
town of Leominster, Mr Chase bought the family farm from
his dad when he was 20 after he "managed to find a bank
manager brave enough to lend me £200,000".
As the cost of potatoes can rise and fall sharply, business
was up and down for the next 12 years, until torrential rain
in 1992 meant he couldn't harvest his crop, which he had
to leave to rot in the fields.
Overextended financially, the business collapsed, and Mr
Chase had to file for bankruptcy. He says: "I was very
ashamed and embarrassed."
After "running away to Australia" for a few months, he
returned to Herefordshire, and was able to borrow funds to
buy back the farm from the receivers, and start up in
business again.
This time, to make extra money, he became a potato
trader, buying spuds from a number of farms, and then
selling them on to supermarkets.
Yet while he got himself back on his feet financially, Mr
Chase says he became increasingly frustrated that
supermarkets would reject potatoes that weren't
"cosmetically perfect".
He adds: "I'd send off 10 loads of spuds every day, and I'd
be getting five back. It was very painful how the
supermarkets were treating us farmers."
Mr Chase's life-changing moment came in 2002 when he
found out that rejected potatoes were being bought up by
the UK operation of US crisp-maker Kettle.
At the time Kettle was one of new companies making so-
called "posh crisps", potato crisps which were cut a little
thicker than the mass-market brands, and fried by hand.
Despite having no crisp-making experience or knowledge,
Mr Chase was convinced he could set up his own
upmarket crisps brand.
So he phoned a few UK crisp-makers to ask if he could
see how they did things, and all said "no". Undeterred, he
flew out to the US and visited facilities in Pennsylvania
and Colorado.
Returning to the UK, he built a crisp-making facility at the
family farm, and Tyrrells [taking its name from the
property] was up and running six months later.
Tesco row
Quick to tell his story to local newspapers to build up
publicity, Mr Chase hit the road to spend two weeks
visiting independent food shops across the UK with
samples of his crisps.
He says: "Tyrrells grew and grew very quickly, and it was
a brilliant cash cow. We'd sell the bags to shops for £1
and they would retail them for £2. For us the net profit was
35%."
Supermarkets such as Waitrose soon followed suit, but Mr
Chase was adamant that he would not sell to the largest -
Tesco - because he didn't like what he saw as the
pressure it put on farmers to lower their prices.
Then one day in 2006 a friend told him that Tesco was
selling Tyrrells' crisps. It transpired that Tesco had been
buying them on the grey market, and selling them below
the recommended retail price.
An incensed Mr Chase demanded that Tesco stop selling
them. After the supermarket refused, Mr Chase started a
media campaign that included an appearance on BBC
Radio 4's Today programme. Tesco then did back down.
With sales of Tyrrells crisps continuing to grow over the
next few years, and annual turnover hitting £14m, Mr
Chase borrowed money from his bank to expand
production. The condition the bank set was that he had to
bring in a management team to help him run the business.
Mr Chase, who had previously been very hands on, and
liked to help out with all parts of the business, says that
bringing in new managers ultimately changed the business
- to its detriment.
"We got to a stage where I didn't like where the business
was going," he says. "We were employing corporate people
who were arranging meetings about more meetings."
Unhappy with Tyrrells' new big business ethos, and going
through a "messy divorce", Mr Chase - who was the sole
shareholder - decided to sell up in 2008 to a private
capital business for almost £40m.
Spirits business
Looking for a new business venture, and with the new
owners of Tyrrells choosing to buy their potatoes from
elsewhere, Mr Chase came up with the idea of turning his
spuds into premium vodka.
So with money no longer a problem, he bought a
distillation system, and Chase Vodka was born.
Aimed at the luxury end of the market, it retails for £35 a
bottle.
While Mr Chase admits it isn't anywhere near as profitable
as selling crisps, it appears to be very much a labour of
love. And focused very much on exports, he spends a lot of
time travelling the world to build up sales.
And showing that he has lost little of his public relations
skills, every year he flies influential barmen and women
from around the world to visit his farm in Herefordshire to
see how the potatoes are grown, and vodka is made.
Also now making a gin and a whisky, the Chase Distillery
sells 10,000 bottles a week.
Mr Chase says: "You have to tell people your story if you
want to build your brand. But there has to be real DNA
behind it if you want to be successful."

India outpaces China in 2015 growth

India's economy grew at an average rate of 7.5% in 2015,
faster than the 6.9% growth in China, official figures show.
In recent history it has been unusual, but not
unprecedented, for India to grow faster than China.
According to the IMF it happened in 1981,1989,1990 and
1999, and 2015 was the first instance in this millennium.
India's government said growth in the October to
December quarter was 7.3%, a slight drop on previous
quarters which were revised sharply higher.
Even though the economy lost steam in the last quarter,
its pace of expansion was faster than the growth posted by
China in the same quarter.
India measures its economy over a fiscal rather than a
calendar year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government said growth
for the fiscal year ending March 2016 is forecast to
accelerate to 7.6%.
'Counterintuitive'
However, some economists say the latest growth figures
are at odds with other data for Asia's third largest
economy, including weak exports, railway freight, cement
production and investment and flat order books.
Ritika Mankar, an economist at Ambit Capital, said: "The
new GDP series and the information it is conveying, not
just in terms of level but also in terms of the direction,
seems counterintuitive."
Shubhada Rao, chief economist at Yes Bank in Mumbai,
said the figures were "difficult to correlate" with other data,
including a contraction in agriculture.
A year ago India's statistics ministry revised GDP growth
rates higher - closer to that of China - by updating the
base year used for price comparisons.

It's fair to say there's been a lot of scepticism about
India's GDP data since the government revised the way it
calculates those numbers in January last year.
All of the economists I've spoken to recently have said
that they don't see this rapid pace of growth reflected on
the ground.
But all of them also say that there's no dispute India's
economy is expanding, making it a rare bright spot among
emerging nations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been travelling the
globe and telling companies to come make in India.
But the country is still a difficult place to do business in,
and while the government has been working to try to
reduce bureaucracy - some laws that could help ease
problems are still stuck in parliament.
Perhaps when that changes we'll really begin to see the
impact of faster growth.

Tokyo shares follow Europe and US falls

Tokyo shares fell sharply in early trading on Tuesday,
following the trends set in Europe and the US.
The Nikkei 225 was down 4.6% at 16,226.3 by midday.
Earlier, US and European shares were pulled down by big
falls among banking and technology stocks. Deutsche Bank
led the fallers, dropping 9.5%.
The Dow Jones dropped 1.1%, the FTSE 100 in London fell
2.7% and the Athens stock exchange dropped to a 25-year
low.
The banks were the biggest fallers in Tokyo, with
Mitsubishi UFJ dropping 7.2%, Sumitomo Mitsui down
6.6% and Mizuho Financial Group losing 5.3%.
The strengthening yen also hit big exporters, with the
currency up 0.8% against the dollar.
Toyota dropped 4.5%, Honda lost 5.3% and Nissan fell
5.1%.
'Struggling what to buy'
The Nikkei 225 is down more than 20% from its peak
levels, reached last June.
"When the strong yen is a concern, you would buy
domestic-demand sensitive stocks like banks, but we
can't buy them now so we are really struggling what to
buy on a day like this," said Masashi Oda, senior
investment officer at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.
Meanwhile, in Australia the ASX index was down 105.1
points, or 2.1%, at 4,917.0.
There was little trading elsewhere in Asia, with China's
mainland markets shut all week for Lunar New Year
celebrations. Hong Kong and South Korea are both closed
for three days.
Oil prices have been continuing their falls, with Brent crude
down another 2.7% at $33.13 a barrel.

The alley where one kiss brings 15 years of luck

The enchanting Mexican city of Guanajuato feels lost in
time. Narrow cobblestone streets and staircases wind
around Colonial era buildings, while estudiantinas –
roaming bands of musicians dressed in 17th-century
Spanish attire – sing traditional love ballads in the small
plazas of the historic centre. However, nothing is more
romantic than the Callejon del Beso, or the Alley of the
Kiss, in Plaza de Los Ángeles.
It was here – where two, nearly touching balconies hang
over a thin stone staircase – that I encountered Alejandro
Martínez and Paulina Acevedo waiting patiently for their
turn to kiss on the stairwell’s third step, which is painted
red, to ensure good luck in love.
“It’s her 20th birthday,” Martínez explained, smiling with
his arm around his girlfriend of seven months.
As a birthday present, Martínez had brought Acevedo to
Guanajuato from their home city of San Luis Potasi,
Mexico. “We heard about [the alley] through word of mouth.
A lot of other people had told us we had to come,” Martínez
said.
When I asked if they would follow the alley’s special
kissing tradition, they blushed and giggled, and then
jokingly said “no”. Minutes later, they got on the red step
and embraced tenderly.
Like Martínez and Acevedo, my girlfriend Paulyna and I
travelled to Guanajuato for a quiet weekend alone, and had
come to the famous alley to kiss, as had so many others.
Couples of all ages – some holding hands and others with
children in tow – stood in a long line along the wall, as
pair after pair before them connected lips.
For a small tip, local guides waiting at the entrance to the
alley would tell the tragic tale of Ana and Carlos, the
lovers who made the alley famous.
“Ana was a rich Spaniard who lived on the balcony on the
left. Carlos was a poor miner who worked in the nearby
mine of Valenciana,” a guide explained. “One night, Ana’s
father caught them kissing in the narrow space between
the two balconies. The father angrily said that if the same
thing happened again the following night, he would kill her.”
The next night, the couple kissed again, and the father went
up to the balcony and buried a dagger into his own
daughter. Some stories say that as Carlos jumped to
protect Ana, he fell to the ground and broke his neck,
landing on the third step.
Now, the droves of couples passing through the alley must
kiss on that step – where Carlos’ spirit is thought to be
watching over lovers – if they want their romance to
endure. “If they don’t kiss, then they’ll be cursed with
seven years of bad luck. If they do kiss, they’ll receive 15
years of good luck,” the guide said.
After getting onto the step and laying a long kiss on my
girlfriend, the two of us entered the building where Ana and
her father had lived. Upstairs was a small gift shop in what
would have been Ana’s bedroom and a doorway that led
out to the fateful balcony. Here, visitors had written their
names, messages and meaningful dates on small locks,
which they attached to the balcony’s metal bars. In honour
of love, we did the same.
As we left, we met Rosario and Maria Sauceda, who had
travelled to Guanajuato from Guamúchil, Mexico, with their
two adult children. Married for 43 years, they apparently
didn’t need any luck – but wanted to add a little more
anyway. When it was their turn to kiss, the entire alley
cheered.
Finding luck in love around the world
These five legends – from New York to Taipei – will boost
your chances for everlasting romance.

Chelsea's Zouma faces six months out

Chelsea defender Kurt Zouma faces six months out
because he needs surgery on the knee injury he suffered
on Sunday.
The 21-year-old landed awkwardly after contesting a high
ball and was taken off on a stretcher in the 1-1 Premier
League draw with Manchester United.
"Scan today has shown I injured my anterior cruciate
ligament. I will have surgery this week and will come back
stronger," Zouma tweeted.
Chelsea said he would be out for "approximately six
months".
The France centre-back has made 32 appearances for the
Blues this term.
The most recent of his two France caps was in an
international friendly with Denmark in October.
France host this year's European Championship, which
begins in June.
Zouma and John Terry have become preferred starters in
central defence as Chelsea have gone nine matches
without defeat under interim manager Guus Hiddink.

IS widow charged over US hostage death

The widow of a former senior leader in the Islamic State
(IS) group has been charged with conspiracy in the death
of a US hostage, US authorities said.
Kayla Mueller was abducted when working in Aleppo, Syria
and died last year.
The woman charged - 25-year-old Nisreen Assad Ibrahim
Bahar, known as Umm Sayyaf - is currently in Iraqi
custody.
Prosecutors say Sayyaf kept Ms Mueller captive, allowing
her to be repeatedly raped by IS chief Abu Bakr al-
Baghdadi.
Who was Kayla Mueller?
Nisreen Bahar's husband, Abu Sayyaf, is described in an
affidavit as IS minister for oil and gas, reporting directly to
Baghdadi.
Abu Sayyaf died last May when his compound in Syria was
raided by US special forces.
His widow was handed over to the Iraqi authorities for
prosecution.
A US justice department statement said they supported
the prosecution but would "continue to pursue justice for
Kayla".
"We will always be relentless in our efforts to identify,
locate and arrest those who are responsible for the
kidnappings and murders of American citizens," said the
FBI's Assistant Director in Charge, Paul Abbate.
Mueller had travelled to Syria as an aid worker when she
was kidnapped in 2013.

Police and vendors clash in Hong Kong

Clashes have broken out in Hong Kong's Mong Kok district
as police cleared illegal food stalls set up for Lunar New
Year celebrations.
Violence erupted overnight as food and hygiene inspectors
tried to remove vendors from the junction of Portland
Street and Shan Tung Street.
Angry protesters threw bricks and other missiles at
police.
Police used batons and pepper spray and fired two warning
shots into the air. At least 23 people were arrested.
At least 44 people, including police and journalists, were
injured.
Chief Executive CY Leung has condemned the unrest,
saying Hong Kong "can never tolerate that and the police
will spare no effort to arrest the rioters".
It is the largest unrest in Hong Kong since the massive
pro-democracy street protests in 2014.
Street stalls are common in the Mong Kok area year-
round, but particularly during the New Year holiday, where
they are popular with locals for selling traditional new year
snacks.
The BBC's Juliana Liu in Hong Kong says officials usually
turn a blind eye to the hawkers' lack of official permits, but
this year decided to crack down.
Ahead of the clearance operation, hundreds of people had
gathered in the area to defend the hawkers.
Police said the vendors and activists were told to leave
but ignored the warnings.
Clashes then broke out in the early hours, and carried on
past dawn. But the scene was quiet by Tuesday morning.
Among the protesters were reportedly some "localist" -
anti-Beijing - groups.
Baggio Leung, leader of the Youngspiration political party,
told the BBC he and 10 other party members went to
protest. The group said they were defending local culture.
One of them was arrested, Mr Leung said.
Acting District Commander Yau Siu-kei confirmed reports
that an officer had fired two warning shots into the air. He
said the officer had to act protect colleagues, the South
China Morning Post said.
He said 44 people, including police, were injured and
blamed "radical elements". for the unrest.
The unrest was widely referenced on social media, where
it was dubbed #fishballrevolution after one of the food
delicacies sold by the hawkers.

The real reason Japan hunts whales

Hunting whales is irrelevant to feeding Japan's population,
draws global condemnation and is certainly not economic.
So why does Japan still do it?
The answer from the Japanese government is that whaling
is an ancient part of Japanese culture, that fishermen have
caught whales for centuries, and that Japan will never
allow foreigners to tell its people what they can and cannot
eat.
One Japanese official once said to me: "Japanese people
never eat rabbits, but we don't tell British people that they
shouldn't". I pointed out that rabbits are not exactly an
endangered species.
Still, there is some merit to the government's argument.
A number of coastal communities in Japan have indeed
hunted whales for centuries, and continue to do so. Taiji in
Wakayama prefecture is well known, many would say
infamous, for its annual dolphin hunts. There are other
places, in Chiba Prefecture and in Ishinomaki in northern
Japan, that also do coastal whaling.
So, yes, coastal whaling is part of Japanese culture, like
Norway and Iceland and the Inuit of northern Canada. But
only Japan continues to sail a fleet of ships half way
across the globe to hunt whales in the Antarctic and
maintains a large factory ship that can process hundreds
of whales at sea.
Nothing about these Antarctic whaling expeditions is
historic. Japan's first whaling voyage to the Antarctic took
place in the mid-1930s but the really huge hunts didn't get
going until after World War Two.
Japan lay in ruins, its population starving. With the
encouragement of General Douglas MacArthur, Japan
converted two huge US Navy tankers into factory ships
and set sail for the Southern Ocean.
From the late 1940s to the mid-1960s whale meat was
the single biggest source of meat in Japan. At its peak in
1964 Japan killed more than 24,000 whales in one year,
most of them enormous fin whales and sperm whales.
Today Japan can afford to import meat from Australia and
America. There is no deep-sea commercial whaling in
Japan. The fleet that is now hunting in Antarctic waters is
paid for by Japanese taxpayers to carry out what the
Japanese government describes as "scientific research".
Japan's other justification is that it needs to kill hundreds
of whales each year to study them. But the International
Court of Justice (ICJ) has systematically dismantled that
argument. In 2014 it ruled that there was no scientific case
for Japan's programme of "lethal research" in the Southern
Ocean, and ordered Tokyo to stop.
For a year Japan stopped. But last year it sent its fleet to
sea again insisting, to widespread disbelief, that its new,
smaller, Antarctic whaling programme satisfies the ICJ's
requirements.
Junko Sakuma used to work for Greenpeace in Japan. For
the last 10 years she has been researching Japan's
whaling industry.
"There is no benefit to Japan from whaling...but nobody
knows how to quit," she tells me at Tokyo's famously
chaotic Tsukiji fish market, the biggest in the world
renowned for its pre-dawn tuna auctions.
Of the thousands of fish wholesalers in Tsukiji only two
still deal in whale meat.
At one stand we find a few large hunks of minke whale
meat, deep red and oozing blood. At the next there are two
long slabs of lighter-coloured fin whale meat, an
endangered species its trading banned by CITES.
Business is bad, complains the stall owner. Last year
Japan caught no whales in the Antarctic, so there is less
minke whale meat available, he says.
If there is a whale meat shortage, the price should be
soaring. But according to Junko it is not.
"The fact is, most Japanese people do not eat whale
meat," she says. "Consumption has been falling for years,"
and adds that "even as the amount of whale meat
decreases, the price doesn't go up".
According to Junko's research, the average consumption
of whale meat by Japanese people in 2015 was just 30g
(one ounce) per person.
If eating whale is such an integral part of Japanese culture,
why are so few eating it?
I turn to my old friend Estuo Kato. Over the 20 years we
have known each other he has, on occasion, tried to
persuade me to eat whale meat with him. Kato-San grew
up in Kita-Kyushu in western Japan, close to the big
whaling port at Shimonoseki.
We are sitting in a cosy restaurant in Tokyo's notorious
red light district, Kabukicho. Above us hangs a very large,
and rather ancient, mummified whale penis. On the wall
are picture of whales.
The first plate to arrive is whale sashimi - it is raw. The
owner points to the different delicacies; steak, heart,
tongue and even raw whale skin.
My stomach turns, but I steel myself. Gingerly, I put a bit
of raw whale steak into my mouth. It has a strong gamey
flavour, chewy and fibrous. Next, I try the tongue. It is salty
and fishy. Kato-San points to the heart. I politely decline.
"When I was a child I ate this every day," he says. "Meat
meant whale meat. I didn't know what beef was, or pork.
Steak was whale steak, bacon meant whale bacon."
But if Japan stopped whale hunting you would be sad?
He looks at me smiling and gently shaking his head.
"I don't need whale hunting" he says. "Once you have eaten
beef there is no need to eat whale meat."
The other customers in the restaurant are all middle-aged
salary men. Eating a bit of whale meat is nostalgic,
remembering school meals 50 years ago.
So I come back again to my original question: why does
Japan still do it?
Recently I was at a private briefing with a high-ranking
member of the Japanese government. Japan had just
announced it was going to resuming whaling. I outlined to
him why I thought it made no sense, and asked him to
respond. His answer was astonishingly frank.
"I agree with you," he said. "Antarctic whaling is not part
of Japanese culture. It is terrible for our international
image and there is no commercial demand for the meat. I
think in another 10 years there will be no deep sea whaling
in Japan."
"So why not stop now?" asked another journalist.
"There are some important political reasons why it is
difficult to stop now." he said. He would say no more.
But Junko Sakuma thinks the answer lies in the fact that
Japan's whaling is government-run, a large bureaucracy
with research budgets, annual plans, promotions and
pensions.
"If the number of staff in a bureaucrat's office decreases
while they are in charge, they feel tremendous shame," she
says.
"Which means most of the bureaucrats will fight to keep
the whaling section in their ministry at all costs. And that
is true with the politicians as well. If the issue is closely
related to their constituency, they will promise to bring
back commercial whaling. It is a way of keeping their
seats."
It may seem incredibly banal. But Japan's determination
to continue whaling may come down to a handful of MPs
from whaling constituencies and a few hundred
bureaucrats who don't want to see their budgets cut.

» N500bn Social Welfare: '1million Poor Nigerians To Get N5,000 Directly' – Akande «

The Senior Special Assistant on Media in the Office of the
Vice President, Adeolu Akande, on Sunday revealed that
one million extremely poor Nigerians would be direct
beneficiaries of the N5,000 monthly cash transfer.
A statement by Akande disclosed that a total of N60 billion
would be directly transferred to one million extremely poor
Nigerians in accordance to President Muhammadu
Buhari’s vision of building human capital.
The payment which is to commence once the budget is
approved by the National Assembly, is in addition to
another five social interventions that include the provision
of one meal a day to school pupils in some selected
states.
He revealed that other elements of the social intervention
scheme, include the 500,000 direct jobs, which will see
unemployed graduates being trained and deployed as
volunteer teachers in their communities.
According to Akande, the current government is putting
together a youth employment plan which will see the
training of 370,000 non-graduates youths in different skills
and vocational programmes.
Akande said, “The recruitment of beneficiaries into the
volunteer teaching jobs and the skill acquisition training
scheme for non-graduates would be done on state basis,
including the FCT and opened to all Nigerians of different
shades.”
He also disclosed that one million Nigerians, mostly small
scale traders, artisans and market women, through micro
finance would get a one-time soft loan of N60,000 each
through the Bank of Industry.
Akande also revealed that the current administration plans
to pay tuition fee for 100,000 students of Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, STEM.

» Revealed!! The Nigerian State Where Cleaner Earns N375,000 Monthly – Leadership «

Facts are emerging from the on going verification of the
Niger State workforce on how government paid top
government functionaries double salary and the way salary
of junior officials are inflated to divert government fund. A
messenger at the Ministry of Finance earns N265,000
monthly while a cleaner at General Hospital Minna earns
N375,000 monthly.
It was learnt from sources close to the verification firm,
Sally Tibbot Consultants that no fewer than three
permanent secretaries in Niger State civil service earned
over N1.3 million monthly.
It was revealed that ordinarily the salary of a permanent
secretary should be between N400,000 and N500, 000 but
the said permanent secretaries because of their
professional background earn another salaries as
consultants to another government agency bringing their
monthly earnings to N1.3 million.
The source revealed that “ the irony is that some of the
said permanent secretaries were members of the
committee set up by the government to guide the
consultants in the ongoing verification exercise.”
Similarly investigation also revealed that a messenger
earns N265,000 in Ministry of Finance and a cleaner also
earns N375,000 in General Hospital Minna whereas they
are supposed to earn less than N30,000 each monthly.
In the same vein at the Veterinary Department in the
Ministry of Agriculture a man who took cows for grazing
earns accelerated salary scale of N375,000 while originally
his salary is only N23,000 monthly.
It was gathered that when the junior staff were confronted
they denied collecting the said money rather it was
discovered that their names were being used by top
government officials to divert the said amount even as
they collect their actual salary at the end of the month.
Consequently a ring of top officials who ran the scam with
the names of the junior officials were being unveiled by the
consultants and it has started sending fears to some
officials in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)
in Niger State who are now running for cover.
The leader of the consultancy firm (Sally Tibbot
Consultant) conducting the verification exercise Sa’adatu
Bakrin-Ottun Sally in an interview confirmed that the
Permanent Secretaries earned salaries from their
profession as well as their present status.

» ''Buhari’s Foreign Exchange Policy Encourages Corruption'' - Sanusi «

Muhammad Sanusi II, the emir of Kano and the immediate
past governor of the Central Bank (CBN), says President
Muhammadu Buhari’s endorsement of the CBN foreign
exchange policy encourages corruption.
Lauding Buhari’s removal of “wasteful and corrupt fuel
subsidies”, Sanusi said the current forex policy endorsed
by the president encourages similar rent seeking and
corruption which trailed the subsidy regime.
“He (Buhari) has put an end to the [crude] swap regime
which is also one side of rent-seeking and corruption . . . 
he has made the NNPC start producing accounts, so there
is greater transparency,” Sanusi told Financial Times.
“These measures are good for the economy and display
strong political will to change the system. But getting
monetary and fiscal policies right will be crucial for broader
progress in structural reform.”
FT quoted the emir as saying the president’s anti-
corruption stance was “totally inconsistent” with the
foreign exchange regime he supported, adding that it
“encourages corruption and rent-seeking similar to the fuel
subsidy regime”.
The emir, who was CBN governor from 2009 to 2014,
expressed his displeasure with the monetary policy regime
which he said has “very obvious drawbacks that far
outweigh its dubious benefits”.
“Unfortunately, because the exchange rate is right out
there in front now, monetary policy is being seen as the
barometer for broader economic thinking,” he said.
“It is sad that on this one policy you get it so wrong that
you risk taking away attention from everything else you
are doing.”
Sanusi who resisted devaluation during his own tenure as
CBN governor said he did so because he “had reserves of
over $40bn and an oil price at over $110,” admitting that
there are no easy ways out of the current situation and
“devaluation is a bitter pill”.
The country’s economic woes were now being
exacerbated, with the currency peg and restrictions in the
foreign exchange market creating “a lot of speculative and
precautionary demand,” Sanusi argued.
Exporters and investors “are holding on to foreign currency,
as no one would sell at the rate the government is
setting”, while “the government does not have the reserves
to keep the exchange rate at its official level in the
market”.
“These policies have been tried in different parts of the
world and in this country before and they have just never
worked. No matter what the stated intention behind them,
they are wrong,” he said.
The gap between the black market rate and the “artificial”
official exchange rate would keep widening until the bank
adopted a more realistic policy or the price of oil climbed
and dramatically increased reserves, he further said.
He said a more flexible exchange rate policy at this point
would be the “least bad option”.
“We are hopeful that given all the other positive things
done so far, policy will head broadly in the right direction
and flexibility will come in down the line.”
Buhari and the CBN have continually insisted that
devaluation of the naira is not the way out, with the
president insisting that he would not want to
“murder” (devalue) the naira.
The parallel market sells at N306, which is 50% higher
than the official rate of N198.

» EFCC Targets 750 New Employment, Moves To Investigate Diezani «

The ongoing fight against corruption by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will soon enter the
petroleum industry as all preliminary investigations have
been concluded, acting chairman of the commission,
Ibrahim Magu said on Monday.
He said towards strengthening the crusade, the anti-graft
agency plans to recruit additional 750 different cadre staff
this year that will add to the core work of the commission.
The EFCC boss revealed this when he appeared before the
House of Representatives financial crimes committee to
defend the 2016 budget proposal.
Magu was asked by Rep Razak Atunwa (APC, Kwara) on
whether the agency will go after the former minister of
Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke; Kola
Aluko; former Finance Minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
and some oil companies in its ongoing fight.
But he wasn't specific in his response, as he only replied
that "very soon, we will go into the petroleum industry."
On the EFCC's 2016 budget, Magu complained that a slash
to the commission's allocation of N1.60 billion may
undermine its ongoing operations.
He said the ministry of Budget and National Planning had
reduced the agency's overhead cost for 2016 from the
proposed N2, 999 billion to N1, 389 billion which could
affect corruption crusade.
Areas to be seriously affected, he said, are the
investigative activities, manpower development and
maintenance of logistics.
He urged the lawmakers to consider the approval of an
additional N500 million for the agency in order to aid its
operational activities "as more sectors of the economy
may likely come under investigative activities during the
year."

» "Accept Electricity Tariff Hike As A Painful Pill" – Fashola Tells Nigerians «

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde
Fashola (SAN), has appealed to Nigerians to bear the pains
of the new electricity tariff hike, describing it as painful pill
they must swallow in the interest of the country.
Fashola, who had a meeting with all stakeholders in power
sector in Lagos on Monday, and inspected ongoing works
at the Alagbon Local 2x15MVA, 33/11 KV injection
substation in Ikoyi, told journalists that the right thing
could have been to increase the power before the tariff but
unfortunately it was not possible considering the rot the
government met on ground.
He assured electricity consumers that they will get value
for their money, adding that the electricity distribution
companies (DISCOs) have been directed to significantly
improve service delivery.
Besides, the 10-year tariff order, will from the next two
years begin to come down, he added.
He said: “I understand that people who have been
disappointed over a long time will feel the sense of
concern that again tariff has gone up. But the truth is that
this tariff ought to have been there from day one, and I
don’t know why government of yesterday was not
courageous enough to tell us this was the tariff.
“This is why you have this MYTO (Multi-Year-Tariff-Order)
every two years. So they (past governments) have given
the impression that the price of power will increase every
two years. What we have done now with the Nigerian
Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is to give a 10-
year tariff. In that tariff, about two years from now, it will
begin to go down. Whatever price the tariff offers now, is a
lot cheaper than diesel, inverter and petrol generation. My
relations also asked me, Minister, what is this? So I’m not
exempted. It is a painful pill that I must appeal that
Nigerians swallow. It is like quinine and malaria. It is
painful, not sweet, and I know that, but I chose it because
we are not left with many choices. This is the first major
decision in power that this administration is taking.
Another problem is transmission, and we are fixing it.”
Fashola stated that people are not interested in investing
in gas, adding that are just beginning to show interest.
“So even if you have all the power plants, where is the
fuel? So it will get better, and I can only appeal for some
understanding that we do this in the best interest of our
country.
“We have to improve certain deliveries and that is why we
have these meetings with the DISCOs. They have to roll
out meters, install lines and transformers, among others,”
the minister said

» "North Will Never Discover Oil In Chad Basin" – Senator Shehu Sani «

KADUNA – The north will never discover oil in the Chad
basin of Nigeria even after it has wasted $3 billion,
approximately (N900 billion) in oil exploration in the basin,
said Senator Shehu Sani, Chairman, Senate Committee on
foreign and domestic debts.
Sani, made the above affirmation Monday when members
of Kaduna State Students Union paid him a courtesy call in
his Kaduna office.
This in variance with the position of the Chairman, of the
Northern Nigeria Development Company, (NNDC) Alhaji
Bashir Dalhatu, who had said last year NNDC would
commence the exploration of oil and gas in the said basin
and the upper Benue trough.
Said Sani: “Oil exploration in the north has been carried out
back to days far beyond that of former President Jonathan
Goodluck.
I am calling on President Mohamadu Buhari to order a
probe into this questionable search for oil. Past leaders
have amassed wealth through this venture, and I want the
president to investigate this.
“If we cannot fine oil, we must get our money back because
so far over $3 billion US Dollars had been wasted on oil
exploration in the north, particularly in the Chad Basin and
Benue trough.

» China To Invest $60Bn In Nigeria And Other African Countries - Punch «

The People’s Republic of China has said it will invest
$60bn in Nigeria.
Chargé d’Affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria, Mr.
Qin Jian, who said this in a statement commemorating the
45th anniversary of its diplomatic activities in Nigeria,
described economic cooperation between both countries as
fruitful.
Qin said China was willing to integrate its development
with independent and sustainable development of Nigeria
and other African countries, so as achieve common
development.
He noted that at the “successful and historic” second
edition of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit
held in Johannesburg, South Africa, Chinese President Xi
Jinping proposed five major pillars for China-Africa
relations.
According to the Chinese envoy, China and Africa should
seek equality and mutual trust in politics, cooperation in
economy, mutual learning in civilisation, mutual assistance
in security and unity and coordination in international
affairs.
Qin said, “(China’s) 10 key cooperation plans with Africa in
the fields of industrialisation, agriculture modernisation,
infrastructure, etc. will serve as an all-around blueprint for
China’s cooperation with Africa in a period to come and
symbolise that China-Africa relations will take a big stride
and enter a new era.
“To fulfil the 10 plans, China has pledged 60 billion US
dollars in development funding to Africa. When carrying out
cooperation with Africa, China sticks to the principle of
‘Four noes and three priorities.’
“These include attaching no political conditions, interfering
in no African country’s internal affairs, raising no
demanding requirements and making no empty promises.”
Among the listed priorities of the Asian nation were
Africa’s demands, improvement of African people’s
livelihood and enhancement of Africa’s capacity for
independent development.

» $1m On Foreign Trips: Fayose Can Say ‘ Whatever He Likes’ – Buhari «

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that contrary to
the claims by critics of his incessant foreign trips, none of
the trips he had made so far can be said to be frivolous.
He said there were always political and economic
justifications for his trip.
Buhari said this on Friday in London while answering
questions from some Nigerian journalists shortly before he
commenced a six-day vacation that would end on
Wednesday.
Our correspondent obtained the transcript of the interview
on Saturday.
It will be recalled that Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele
Fayose, had asked Buhari to stay at home and govern the
country instead of junketing from one country to the other.
Fayose had said that the President’s incessant foreign
trips were already bleeding the economy with about $1m
being spent per trip.
But Buhari said he did not know how Fayose arrived at the
figure he gave.
He said, “Every one of my trips can be politically or
economically assessed. I recall that the first trip I had
was to go to Chad and Niger. The trip was mainly because
of Nigeria’s security.
“We campaigned based on three issues -security,
economy (employment) and corruption. And then the G-7
invited me to Germany. After that, I went to Cameroon. I
then went to the United Nations General Assembly.
“I have not seen any frivolous journey that I undertook. I
understand that the governor of Ekiti State said that every
trip I make costs Nigeria at least $1m. I do not know how
he worked that out but every trip that I have made, there
must be economic and political reasons that justified
them.
“Those who do not see it the way the government sees it
have the right not to agree and say whatever they like. But
we will try and give them the appropriate reply.”
Buhari also promised to take his administration’s ongoing
anti-corruption war to all sectors of the economy.
“We have to go the whole hog into other sectors because
unlike what some people believe that the fight against
corruption is selective, although they have failed to define
the selectivity in their own understanding, there is no way
we can get a public officer on record that has
misappropriated public fund and we will leave him alone.
“It is one of the undertakings that the Federal Government
made and we are going to see it through,” he said.
The President identified the need for firm evidences
against corrupt persons as one of the main challenges
facing the war.
“The challenge mainly is to affirm evidence. If you just
hear our story that somebody built 12 houses in Abuja,
houses do not move. Do they?
“It is for us to do verification. We need to verify and
quantify before the man is invited to justify how he
acquired those properties while he is a public officer,”
Buhari explained.
He promised to make a representation to the Chief Justice
of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Muhammed, on the various
complaints being made against judges in the country.
He recalled that a lot of allegations had been levelled
against some of the judges who served on election
tribunals.
He, however, declined to comment on the recent Supreme
Court verdict that validated the elections of Governor
Nyesom Wike (Rivers) and Governor Udo Emmanuel (Akwa
Ibom) until he holds a discussion with the Ministry of
Justice.
Buhari insisted that despite the killings being witnessed in
public places, his government is winning the war against
terrorism.
He said, “We are winning the war. I have said that Boko
Haram used to effectively control 14 local governments,
they hoisted their flag and declared a caliphate of some
sort.
“But now, Boko Haram is not holding any local
government. They have been dispersed. They have
reverted to technology.
“They use Improvised Explosive Devices. They use
cooking gas, some wires and metals, put them together
and get girls from the age of 15 downwards and explode
them in churches, mosques, markets or motor parks and
kill people en masse.”
Punch Logo
Home News
News
My trips are not frivolous, Buhari replies Fayose
February 7, 2016
President Muhammadu Buhari
16674
President Muhammadu Buhari has said that contrary to
the claims by critics of his incessant foreign trips, none of
the trips he had made so far can be said to be frivolous.
He said there were always political and economic
justifications for his trip.
Buhari said this on Friday in London while answering
questions from some Nigerian journalists shortly before he
commenced a six-day vacation that would end on
Wednesday.
Our correspondent obtained the transcript of the interview
on Saturday.
It will be recalled that Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele
Fayose, had asked Buhari to stay at home and govern the
country instead of junketing from one country to the other.
Fayose had said that the President’s incessant foreign
trips were already bleeding the economy with about $1m
being spent per trip.
But Buhari said he did not know how Fayose arrived at the
figure he gave.
He said, “Every one of my trips can be politically or
economically assessed. I recall that the first trip I had was
to go to Chad and Niger. The trip was mainly because of
Nigeria’s security.
“We campaigned based on three issues -security, economy
(employment) and corruption. And then the G-7 invited me
to Germany. After that, I went to Cameroon. I then went to
the United Nations General Assembly.
“I have not seen any frivolous journey that I undertook. I
understand that the governor of Ekiti State said that every
trip I make costs Nigeria at least $1m. I do not know how
he worked that out but every trip that I have made, there
must be economic and political reasons that justified
them.
“Those who do not see it the way the government sees it
have the right not to agree and say whatever they like. But
we will try and give them the appropriate reply.”
Buhari also promised to take his administration’s ongoing
anti-corruption war to all sectors of the economy.
“We have to go the whole hog into other sectors because
unlike what some people believe that the fight against
corruption is selective, although they have failed to define
the selectivity in their own understanding, there is no way
we can get a public officer on record that has
misappropriated public fund and we will leave him alone.
“It is one of the undertakings that the Federal Government
made and we are going to see it through,” he said.
The President identified the need for firm evidences
against corrupt persons as one of the main challenges
facing the war.
“The challenge mainly is to affirm evidence. If you just
hear our story that somebody built 12 houses in Abuja,
houses do not move. Do they?
“It is for us to do verification. We need to verify and
quantify before the man is invited to justify how he
acquired those properties while he is a public officer,”
Buhari explained.
He promised to make a representation to the Chief Justice
of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Muhammed, on the various
complaints being made against judges in the country.
He recalled that a lot of allegations had been levelled
against some of the judges who served on election
tribunals.
He, however, declined to comment on the recent Supreme
Court verdict that validated the elections of Governor
Nyesom Wike (Rivers) and Governor Udo Emmanuel (Akwa
Ibom) until he holds a discussion with the Ministry of
Justice.
Buhari insisted that despite the killings being witnessed in
public places, his government is winning the war against
terrorism.
He said, “We are winning the war. I have said that Boko
Haram used to effectively control 14 local governments,
they hoisted their flag and declared a caliphate of some
sort.
“But now, Boko Haram is not holding any local
government. They have been dispersed. They have
reverted to technology.

» "Shut Down Your Facebook And Twitter Accounts" - Senator Shehu Sani Tells Buhari «

Senator Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna Central, has
given President Muhammadu Buhari rules on how to handle
his vacation.
According to the Senator, President Buhari Buhari must
follow these 11 tips in order to enjoy his five days
vacation....
- President Buhari needed rest and must avoid anything
that could distract him
- Shut down your Facebook account for the duration of the
holidays. “Freeze your twitter accounts for the duration of
the holidays.
- Shut down your phone and get a new foreign SIM card
only accessible to your immediate family members and
instruct them not to give that number to anyone outside of
the family. Nigerian SIM card will always have a way of
popping up local news through bulk sms.
- Avoid reading newspapers both foreign and local; and if
you must read foreign avoid the Africa section.
- Avoid watching local TV stations via cable and even BBC
and CNN; our north east problem are always there. If you
must watch just stay tuned to Sunna TV or national
geographic or discovery or Comedy Central.
- Don’t attend to office files, leave them till you are back.
- Ask not to be updated on the current price of crude oil or
the state of the naira or the state of the foreign reserve.
- Avoid the temptation of calling any Governor, Senator or
Minister or party chieftain for any briefing.
- Avoid people who want to pay a ‘courtesy visits to our
president who is on vacation”
- Avoid business men and politicians who will trail and
trace you there.
- Just eat, pray, engage in sports, read your religious books
and sleep for the duration of your well deserved holidays.

» See The Amount Of Money Recovered From Treasury Single Account According To Buhari «

I was going through my Facebook timeline and ran into
this video of President Muhammadu Buhari addressing
Nigerians living in the United Kingdom after the supporting
syria Conference in London, according to President
Muhammadu Buhari, he claimed that during the former
government NNPC had 40 bank accounts, Nigerian Army
had over 70 accounts and CBN directors short-changing
Nigeria through forex
Highlights
* NNPC had 40 bank accounts!
* Nigerian Army had over 70 accounts!
* 2.2 trillion recovered just because of TSA.
* CBN directors short-changing Nigeria through forex...

» "How I Was Blessed Because Of A Blind Beggar" «

Just this morning,I dressed up for church,made sure my
offering money is safely in my bible...I took it upon myself
to always give a begger that always sit by the side of the
road,a young blind boy of about 10 years.he has a tin,that
he always beat with a lovely song....
so this morning,as I stepped out from my house,walked
along the road,I saw the boy and as usual dipped my hands
in my bible and brought out a little money,dipped it in a
nylon bag sitting next to him!....
I don't even know what came over me during the service,I
had a strong conviction to give just ones in the offering
today,because we normally give offering three times in the
church.....so while returning from church,I saw the boy
again,singing with his melodious voice and beating the
tin...I decided then to drop the remaining money from my
Bible.....
immediately I opened the gate of my house to get in,a
little girl of about 6 years ran up to me and tapped me on
my dress,when I looked back at her,she just muttered
"Sister God bless u"smiled and ran off!.....I was
astonished!....
friends....its good to help those in need,as u do may God
bless u!

» Buhari's Aide Sues Us-Based Blogger Over Facebook Post «

A civil rights activist and member of the Buhari Media
Support Group, Ms. Lauretta Onochie, has sued a blogger
and US-based lawyer, Emeka Ugwuoye, over a libellous
publication on Facebook.
The plaintiff, who is a volunteer in Buhari’s Support
Organisation, is demanding N1bn as damages as a result
of the publication, which she said did tremendous damage
to her reputation.
According to her,if the defendant is not restrained, he will
further publish injurious articles against her.
Onochie in the suit filed by her counsel, Festus Keyamo, at
the High Court in Abuja, and obtained by journalists on
Sunday, also demanded a retraction and an unreserved
apology from the defendant for the words he had used with
her photograph.
According to the court papers, no fewer than 163 persons
have ‘Liked’ the post, while over 80 people have ‘Shared’ it
with 198 ‘Comments.”
Ugwuoye had in the post entitled, “A major break in
tracking of the Dubai Madams and their agents – A key
Madam revealed as a socialite with apparent connections
to (sic) Nigerian politicians,” published on January 21
2016, in his Due Process Advocates Facebook page,
alleged that Onochie, using names like Aunty Lolly, Madam
or Aunty, operates an international girls trafficking ring
across the United Arab Emirates, Italy and Greece for
prostitution.
The plaintiff, therefore, asked the court for an order of
perpetual injunction restraining the defendant, whether by
himself, agents, privies or servants from further publishing
or causing to be published any libellous, injurious or
defamatory words against her.
In her statement of claims, the plaintiff, who is a
grandmother and a member of the All Progressives
Congress, averred that the defendant falsely and
maliciously described her as “an international human
trafficker who belongs to a powerful network of criminal
gangs and racketeers.”
While describing the allegations as false and untrue, she
added that the defendant did not conduct any investigation
before publishing them.

» Hoodlums Beat Up & Injure Worshippers During Church Service In Osun «

Worshipers at the Divine Victory Evangelical Church of God
Gospel Ministry last Sunday escaped death by a whisker
as hoodlums armed with guns and other dangerous
weapons invaded the church, beat them up and injured
some.
Our correspondent gathered that one of the youths at Isale
Agbara in Ita Olokan area of Osogbo where the church is
located was seen defecating very close to the church and
was challenged by some of the worshippers.
The youth was said to have left the place in anger and
went and mobilised some hoodlums who were armed with
guns, cutlasses and other weapons. The hoodlums, on
getting to the church, unleashed terror on the worshipers
during service. The incident happened on Sunday January
31st, 2016.
Some of the youths in the church were said to have
engaged the hoodlums in a fight but they were
overpowered and some of them were reportedly injured by
the hoodlums.
A resident of the area, who identified himself simply as
Taye, told our correspondent in Osogbo on Saturday that
the service was disrupted as most of the worshipers fled
the scene of the incident after about 10 of them had been
injured by the rampaging hoodlums.
He said, “I heard that one of the area boys went to
defecate close to the church and he was chased away by
the church members.
The boy was said to have gone and brought some of his
colleagues to come and attack the church.
” Some of the church members were injured by the area
boys but the arrival of the officials of the National Security
and Civil Defence Corps prevented the hoodlums from
destroying the church completely and even killing some of
the worshippers.”
The Head, Public Relations and Protocol Unit of the NSCDC
in Osun State, Mr. Wale Folarin, confirmed the incident
while speaking on the telephone with our correspondent.
He said seven of the attackers were arrested and weapons
including a locally made gun were recovered from them.
Folarin said, “The timely intervention of officers and men
of the Civil Defence prevented the fracas from escalating.
“Hoodlums and other trouble makers are warned not to
jeopardise the peace being enjoyed in the state. Anybody
caught will be severely dealt with and those on the run will
soon be arrested.”

» "Boko Haram Controls Half Of Borno", Says Senator Garbai «

PunchNG: The Senator representing Borno Central, Baba
Kaka Garbai has said that the story that the insurgents
have been degraded is nothing but a lie as the terror group
still hold on strong to about 50 percent of troubled Borno
State.
Garbai who spoke to journalists on Saturday evening
during a condolence visit to Dalori village where 65
persons were reported killed last week by the insurgents
said, the truth about the accomplishment of the military in
Borno State was never truly spoken as the Boko Haram
and the Nigerian nation are presently administering about
the same territories in the state.
He said both the military and Boko Haram have full control
of three separate local governments in troubled Borno
State and share control in all the 21 other local
governments.
Garbai, who was in Dalori with financial and material
assistance to the people of the village, said: “I feel highly
demoralized, devastated in the sense that this is the
village we came during the election and they were going
about their normal business. The activities that were
ongoing was like confidence building.
“They actually got the signal a few days before the attack
that the insurgents were likely to attack them,they
reported to the constituted authorities but nothing was
done.
I will like to appeal to the military to intensify their effort
in ensuring they beef up security around the villages and
communities that share borders with Maiduguri
metropolis. It is very important and more so that this
place is porous, there could be attack from any direction.”
He said it was a lie and misconception that the insurgents
have largely be overpowered by the military, insisting that:
“It is a wrong assumption that most of the local
governments in Borno are recapturedfrom the Boko Haram.
In reality this is not true in the sense that apart from
Maiduguri Metropolis, Bayo and Kwaya Kusar, these are the
three local government that are under the occupation of
the Nigerian government where the military and police are
maintaining law and order.
“Mobbar, Abadam and Kala Balge are 100 percent occupied
by the insurgents. There are some local governments that
are partially occupied by the insurgents especially as the
local government secretariats have been liberated but their
hither-lands are still controlled by the insurgents.”
Garbai gave an instance of Konduga which was liberated
but still has many communities in the local government
area under the insurgents.
He also said “though Gwoza town has been liberated there
still remain six wards in Gwoza local government area still
occupied by the insurgents.”
He said: “From my count, only three local government are
fully liberated, 21 local governments partially occupied by
insurgents, that is there is still some level of Boko Haram
occupation side by side the military or any other
constituted authority. The local government fully occupied
by Boko Haram are Abadam, Mobbar and Kala Balge.’He
advised that: “We should not live under the illusion that
Boko Haram are decimated or weaken, these are not
reality and neither a true reflection of the reality. The
reality is that most of the local government in Borno is
partially occupied by Boko Haram.”
On the proposed reconstruction, rehabilitation and
relocation in the troubled areas, Garbai said it was
inadvisable at least for now.
He said: “If the people are moved back to their homelands
you are making them vulnerable to attack. Unless you
provide maximum security and return of law and order in
these areas, relocating these people would be endangering
their lives.”
The Senate Leader, Mohammed Ndume, representing Borno
South in the Senate however believed that much had been
achieved by the military in retrieving captured Borno
communities from the insurgents.
He also said it was not out of place to begin the
reconstruction, rehabilitation and relocation of the
destroyed communities.
He told journalists in Maiduguri on Sunday that: “I still
have confidence in our military, I still want to believe that
our military are on top of the situation. What is happening
these days is the issue of intermittent suicide bombing
and desperate attacks by the insurgents because their
supply routes have been cut off and they attack in other to
get supplies. They have been carting away foodstuffs of
attacked communities.”
He said that the reconstruction and relocation should still
continue in spite of recent attacks. He however admitted
that if not immediately, at least the preparation should not
be set aside.
The Senate Leader while arguing that the insurgency is
winding out, said the recent setbacks are not limited to
Nigeria alone, insisting that United States and recently
France have come under isolated terrorist attacks.
He noted that the people of Borno displaced by insurgency
are willing to go back to their homelands. He particularly
mentioned that the people of Gwoza, his homelands are
ready to return home, insisting that arrangements have
already been concluded for this.

» Deadly Earthquake Leaves 7 Dead And 318 Hospitalised In Taiwan. «

According to Taiwan's disaster response centre , an
earthquake in Southern Taiwan on early Saturday morning
has killed seven people leaving hundreds injured.
The collapse of eight buildings which was caused by the
disaster is the main cause of death for the victims. While
a 10-day - old baby and a 40-year-old man are among
those that lost their lives, 318 people are currently
hospitalised as of the time of filing this report .
The collapsed 17-story Wei Guan building which is located
Yongkang District of Tainan, houses more than 90
households which accounts for 256 people. As a result ,
246 people have been evacuated from the building after the
disaster, making it difficult to ascertain the whereabouts of
10 residents in the building .
Firefighters and soldiers were seen using excavators and
ladders to take survivors out of the rubble and broken
windows as the Wei Guan building had collapsed hence
lying on the ground.
China mainland has also offered to help Taiwan following
the crisis. Also 2 million yuan (US $304,268) has been
offered to Taiwan by China's mainland's Red Cross Society
to help relieve the displaced.
According to China Earthquake Networks Centre, the
earthquake that hit Kaohsiung City had a magnitude of 6.7,
with a depth of 15km at 3:57 a.m Beijing time on Saturday.
Taiwan is not new to earthquakes though the are usually
minor with the heaviest been the September 21, 1999
earthquake which left more than 2,000 people dead.

» 101 Die From Lassa Fever In Nigeria - NCDC «

A growing Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria has killed 101
people, as West Africa battles to contain a flare up of the
virus, according to data from the nation's health authorities
released Saturday.
Nigeria Centre for Disease (NCDC) statistics show that
reported cases of the haemorrhagic disease -- both
confirmed and suspected -- stood at 175 with a total of
101 deaths since August.
"As at today, 19 (including Abuja) states are currently
following up contacts, or have suspected cases with
laboratory results pending or laboratory confirmed cases,"
the NCDC said in a statement.
Deaths from the virus were recorded in the nation's
political capital, Abuja, Lagos, and 14 other states, the
NCDC said.
While health authorities assure Africa's most populous
country of more than 170 million they have the virus under
control, there are fears the actual scale of the outbreak is
under-reported.
The outbreak of Lassa fever was only announced in
January -- months after the first case of the disease
happened in August -- with subsequent deaths reported in
10 states, including Abuja.
Last year, 12 people died in Nigeria out of 375 infected,
while in 2012 there were 1,723 cases and 112 deaths,
according to the NCDC.
In neighbouring Benin at least nine people have died in a
Lassa outbreak, with a total of 20 suspected cases, health
authorities said Tuesday.
Benin was last hit by a Lassa fever outbreak in October
2014, when nine people suspected of having the virus died.
The number of Lassa fever infections in West Africa every
year is between 100,000 to 300,000, with about 5,000
deaths, according to the US Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
Lassa fever belongs to the same family as Marburg and
Ebola, two deadly viruses that lead to infections
with fever, vomiting and, in worse case scenarios,
haemorrhagic bleeding.
Its name is from the town of Lassa in northern Nigeria
where it was first identified in 1969.
Endemic to the region, Lassa fever is asymptomatic in 80
percent of cases but for others it can cause internal
bleeding, especially when diagnosed late.
The virus is spread through contact with food or household
items contaminated with rats' urine or faeces or after
coming in direct contact with the bodily fluids of an
infected person.

» "My Personal Doctors Are In London" - Buhari «

The President had on Friday via his Special Adviser on
Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina announced that he
will be going on vacation.
Buhari may use the opportunity of the short holiday to
undergo medical check-up in London, United Kingdom.
Buhari had told some Nigerians resident in United Kingdom
earlier in the day that his doctors who he has been using
since 1978 are based in London.
According to a transcript of his interactions with Nigerians
living in UK, the President had said, “The court process
during my first attempt at the Presidency lasted 30
months. I only missed four sittings.
''One, when we went to bury late Chuba Okadigbo, my vice
presidential candidate.
''The other three times, I came here (London) to see my
doctors who I have been using since 1978 when I was in
Petroleum.”

» "I Lost My Man Because I Slept With So Many Men" «

I’m in deep poo over relationships. I’m a 35-year-old
woman and met a very handsome 43-year-old man. We’ve
been dating for five months now and still haven’t slept
together. My problem is that in the beginning of our
relationship, he asked me how many men I’ve slept with
and worried about how he would react, I lied and told him
I’d slept with seven men. But after a few months, I could
not live with the lie and finally decided to tell him the
reason why I still haven’t slept with him yet. I told him I
didn’t want to make love because I was scared that he’d
lose respect and eventually leave me like all the other
men. At this point he asked me again, just how many men
were there, to which I replied forty-three. His reply was,
“Hmm, one for each of my birthday.” And from that day on,
I never heard from him again. I don’t get it , why is it that
when men sleep around, they’re studs , yet when women
sleep around, they’re sluts ? Why can’t women have their
fun too?
Dudu, Abuja
Dear Dudu, I’ve spoken with quite a number of women
asking the same question. I don’t want to pass judgment
on women, nor am I saying that women shouldn’t enjoy
themselves sexually. But men and women are never the
same.
You expressed fear about losing respect and the way I feel
as a woman is that women should be worshiped by their
men. An object that has value is worshiped, respected,
cherished, and shared with very few deserving people. As
soon as you start sharing that object with anyone and
without care, the object starts to lose value. The more
people use the object, the more it depreciates and the less
bargaining power it has: this is a plain psychological fact
of life.
Most women don’t realize the importance men place on a
woman’s promiscuity. Women think that because men
don’t care about how many women they’ve slept with, they
won’t care about how many men their woman has slept
with. But the reality is that most men, those looking for a
serious relationship and not a one-night stand do place
great value on a woman’s sexual restraint.
There was a time when many women cherished their
bodies much like a sacred temple where only a noble man,
one who respected and loved her, had access to her body.
But over time, it seems that women have failed to realize
the important role their sexuality plays in finding a long-
term mate.
Thanks to the women’s movement, women are so busy
trying to compete with men, including in the sex
department, that they fail to realize the consequences of
their actions. Today, it seems that women are the ones
who are collecting notches on their Prada belts by giving
their bodies away too easily. But if women themselves
don’t value their bodies like they used to, why should men?
Some women will argue that if men have the right to sleep
around, so should women. But I ask only one question: If
women adamantly believe this, then why is it that when
faced with the question of how many men have they slept
with, most women who have slept around with truckloads
of men always lie? Some women will rationalize that they
must do so because men can’t handle the truth. But if this
is the case, why don’t women let men decide for
themselves if they can or can’t handle it? Why do women
need to lie to protect men’s egos? I think women lie to
protect themselves rather than men because if it’s not
shame or regret that’s making you hold your tongue, then
the potentially dire consequences of the truth surely are.
The power lies with women…

» "Nigeria's Reputation For Crime Made Them Unwelcome In Britain" - Buhari «

Nigeria's president has warned his fellow citizens to stop
trying to make asylum claims in Britain, saying that their
reputation for criminality has made it hard for them to be
"accepted" abroad.
Muhammadu Buhari, the tough ex-general elected last
year, said those who had joined the migrant exodus to
Europe were doing so purely for economic reasons rather
than because they were in danger.
He added that because of the number of Nigerians
imprisoned for law-breaking in Britain and elsewhere, they
were also unlikely to get much sympathy.
"We have an image problem abroad and we are on our way
to salvage that"
"Some Nigerians claim is that life is too difficult back
home, but they have also made it difficult for Europeans
and Americans to accept them because of the number of
Nigerians in prisons all over the world accused of drug
trafficking or human trafficking," he told The Telegraph.
"I don't think Nigerians have anybody to blame. They can
remain at home, where their services are required to
rebuild the country."
Mr Buhari's remarks may upset refugees' rights groups,
who claim that the vast majority of asylum cases lodged
by Nigerians are genuine. In recent years, many have said
they are fleeing Boko Haram, the Islamist group that Mr
Buhari's army is now struggling to stamp out in northern
Nigeria.
However, only around one in ten of the 13,000 asylum
claims lodged by Nigerians in Britain in the last 15 years
have been accepted.
And the claims of persecution appear to cut no ice at all
with Mr Buhari, a headmasterly figure who famously waged
a "war on indiscipline" on his fellow Nigerians while serving
as the country's military ruler in the 1980s.
Back then, Nigerians could be whipped if they did not stand
in line at bus queues, while lazy civil servants were forced
to do frog jumps in the office if they arrived for work late.
While he has not re-introduced such measures as a
civilian ruler, he makes it clear that a minority of his
countrymen could still do with improving their behaviour.
"We have an image problem abroad and we are on our way
to salvage that," he said.

» "I Have More To Say, Fayose Shouldn’t Force Me To Spill All" – Aluko «

Former Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti
State, Dr. Tope Aluko, in this interview with ADEOLA
BALOGUN and GBENRO ADEOYE, says his life is in God’s
hands
Did you give what you are doing a thought and consider
the risks?
Yes, I did but you will find out that it’s better for you to
add value to your community to make people feel better
and it will make you feel better too. Jesus was only 33
years only and he was known all over the world. What I’m
saying in essence is that getting into this is more of
purging myself (of these things), more of restitution, more
of saying I’m sorry to Ekiti people and more of saying that
I want Ekiti vehicle to move forward properly.
But isn’t it because of your self interest that you are
coming out now as you didn’t get what you wanted?
You are talking about 20 months ago and saying that I’m
reacting now. No, what about House of Representatives
election? That one is about eight months ago? But what
I’m saying is that it’s about moving forward and not about
the past. It is about the future and I’m saying that we need
to get the past corrected.
You said you have known Governor Fayose for 41 years.
Can you describe the relationship you have had with him?
It was very cordial; I saw him like a big brother. He was at
Orita Challenge and I was at Felele, which were close to
each other in Ibadan. We were family friends; we used to
call ourselves the Ekiti people in Diaspora. We were young
and he was a smart brother, always adventurous, so some
of us wanted to follow him. We always found fun in
whatever he was doing. We grew up together. During his
first tenure, I was the Chairman, Government Advisory
Committee, like a chief adviser. When he was about to be
removed from office, I was one of those that were still with
him till the last day. In fact, after he left, they came for me
in the church. I was arrested and before that time, they
had arrested like five others. Some spent three years,
some four years. I spent six months in detention and we
were not convicted at the end of the day.
What really happened between you two if you have known
each other for 41 years?
One remote thing I can think of is between the two of us,
known only to us. I have decided not to talk about that.
But the other one is that while we were doing the Ekiti
project, he was derailing gradually and he was using the
Peoples Democratic Party platform to feed his returnees
from Labour Party and that was not good. People started
complaining to me. We were telling him, but he was not
okay with it. He started seeing me like a rebel. He had
already betrayed Femi Bamishile (former Ekiti House of
Assembly Speaker), so I was on the lookout for him. Later
he betrayed me. But I still felt that Ekiti and the party were
bigger than all of us and that if we could manage him, he
would only spend four years and go. That any move we
wanted to make with the Ekiti project could then be made.
So I was willing to be patient for him to step aside but it
got to a level that even the leaders and stakeholders in
the PDP started complaining; they were disgruntled and
disenchanted.
With the disclosure, do you believe that you could still
continue in politics or have you decided to retire?
Why? I am still in politics.
People are saying it is a betrayal of trust and that if you
could do this to a close friend, why should they trust you?
You still don’t understand it. I am not the one betraying
him; he is the one that has betrayed us. He is the one that
has betrayed so many of us. He did that to Adamu Mu’azu;
Senator Iyiola Omisore; Senator Teslim Folarin; Goke
Olatunji. At a stage, it was he and Folarin who were forming
the South West executive council and when it was
Folarin’s time to contest for governorship primaries,
Fayose started backing Christopher Alao-Akala. From
Akala, he moved to Seyi Makinde. He betrayed Mu’azu
also.
Why were you supporting him if you knew all of these?
Because I had trust and I believed in what we had used to
bind ourselves together-God. He said that if he should
betray me, all the terrible things in the Bible should come
on his head. He said it.
But people are saying this action of yours would hurt your
chances in politics. Don’t you think so?
Why? Because I told the truth?
Is it telling the truth or being hired to tell the ‘truth’?
By who? By the people I sent out of office in this manner?
Do you think they will like me? Do you think so? It is
Fayose that has pushed me into a corner. He used me to
fight those people and then dumped me, so what will I do
than to purge myself of this, apologise to Ekiti people, sit
down and allow people without evil intentions to come near
me? If you are saying that because of this, you cannot
relate with me, then it means you have evil intentions and
want to do something illegal.
Special Assistant on Public Communications and New
Media to Fayose, Lere Olayinka, and the governor have
insisted that you were sacked from the University of Ado
Ekiti, but you are claiming that you were not sacked and
that you are a pensioner. What should we believe?
I’m a pensioner and I have the letter of acceptance that
followed my resignation letter with me. I was paid gratuity.
Two years ago, I participated in a verification exercise. I
‘m still a pensioner and I have collected pension for
January.
But Olayinka said that nobody in Ekiti State has been paid
pension for January, that the last one was collected in
October 2015.
He is a misinformed person; you can cross check from
anybody in UNAD. Later, they were querying the school’s
Vice Chancellor to find out where he got the money to pay
us from. He said it was from a special fund. Will I be lying?
Call any professor there; don’t just call anybody.
We hear it was Prof. Kolawole who eased you out of the
school.
Prof. Kolawole was the VC when I was going for election.
You are talking about 2011, I left 2010. We did primaries
before general elections.
It was also said that you were involved in admission
racketeering.
What is admission racketeering?
It was said that it was what gave you so much money and
power.
I’ve worked in the banking industry, in financing, I have
petrol stations, and I was into wood business. How would I
be a lecturer of Business Administration and not be able to
manage one or two businesses? Even lecturers in Arts will
still do consultancy, write text books and do other things.
So once you are a lecturer, it means you are above
average. And you will not be like other people; you must
also have a means of augmenting your income.
Are you saying you were not into admission racketeering?
Why should I be? Why?
What about allegations that you were a prominent cultist,
even as a lecturer?
What is the meaning of a cultist?
We hear that you were a Capo and even more powerful than
the VC of the school and that you were eased out of the
system because of that.
You are giving me three, four, five reasons why I was
eased out and I am telling you that I was not eased out. I
moved on to do other things. If you check the date of my
resignation, my giving three months notice, my eventual
exit and when we had the primaries, you should be able to
know now. Do your investigation. I told you that I
contested in the general elections. If I had all of these
things in my records, wouldn’t the opposition have used
them against me? And remember that we were not in
power at the time; it was Fayemi that was the governor at
the time.
You have not told us if you were a cultist or not because
you have only been trying to explain.
And I asked a basic question, and then the other thing is
that I am bold. If you are bold, people will say things like
that. People will look at me saying things to governor
Fayose and say it is because I belong to a particular cult.
No, it is because I have this innermost respect for myself
and I can look you in the eye and tell you the truth. So if
you are asking if I was a cultist, I was not. If you are also
asking if I was the most powerful person in the university
then, I would tell you that in terms of hierarchy, the VC
was the most powerful. In terms of administration, the
Registrar was the most powerful. Even I had a Dean and
when you look at all these things, you will just be
wondering and mind you, there were other things I was
doing when I was in school. And there are other things I
am doing now. I must be able to practise my profession.
So nobody can come and say he made so much money
because he was selling certificates. Am I still selling
certificates now after seven years that I left the school?
Fayose said you have a lust for money. Is that true?
What about him? Don’t let me open a can of worms here
because I have records of the people that donated to us
and I know how much was expended and how much he
kept. We did not touch any of his money because we
thought we were working for the positions of deputy
governor and chief of staff. He was the one that was taking
everything away so he should not allow us to go into that. I
have invested over seven years in this venture. Bamishile
sold his house in Ghana and put the money in this venture.
I know so many things I put up for sale to go into this
venture, so if he is saying that, I will open another can of
worms. An average Nigerian will hear me talking again and
say you should not have said that. They should have
cautioned him not to say what he is saying now. That is
why I said he should stop it or I will further spill the beans.
He should stop it now or else I will talk.
Are you saying he didn’t spend his own money for the
election?
He had issues with the EFCC so don’t let me tell you the
story of how the funding of that project started. I can
mention names and sources that are not too ‘okay’. But I
don’t want to go into that because they helped us at that
time. I should not go into that but he should stop upsetting
people. How much have I got from him? I have been using
my money. He recovered his money while he was
governorship candidate. We have records. So he should not
allow us to go into that and so he should stop that.
Olayinka said you are not a family person. What was
Olayinka trying to say?
They should ask them what they have done to my family.
They should ask Governor Fayose what he has done to my
family. That is the other side I described as personal and I
don’t want to go into it. Ask him, as a big brother to me,
what he had done to my family.