Wednesday 12 December 2012

Nollywood Actress, Stella Damasus Marries Again


The beautiful Nollywood actress, Stella Damasus who is obviously living on past glory may be walking down the aisle soon.
It was gathered that the mother of two recently displayed an engagement ring at the 2012 Mode Men of the Year Awards and she said if it looked like engagement ring, then it’s, when she was asked about.
“It’s a simple thing, I am refusing to talk about, my private life”. She later said “If it looks like it then it is. For me to boldly wear this, I know what it would cause, so I am saying let them talk”
So is it for real or it is just a stylish accessory? She finally agrees that she is wearing an engagement ring. “Yes I am wearing an engagement ring, whether it is for fashion or for real nobody knows.
It is left for you to decide whether it is for real or I am wearing it for fashion or I am simply looking for trouble”.
Stella was once married to Jaiye Aboderin, who died mysteriously. She dated other men before she got married to Nzeribe, the wedding didn’t last six months before it got dissolved.

Source

Pope Benedict XVI posts first tweets, admonishes followers


Pope Benedict XVI lived up to his promise on Wednesday by posting his first set of tweets to hundreds of thousands of followers.
The Vatican had indicated on December 3, 2012 that the pope had opened a major Twitter account in English and others in Italian, French, German, Polish, Portuguese, Arabic and Spanish.
The Vatican also said the Catholic pontiff would begin tweeting on December 12 via @Pontifex.
The 85-year-old pope pronounced a blessing in the first 140-word tweet.
He wrote, “Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart.
As at the time of posting his second tweet, the account had risen to 709,610 followers.
USA Today reports that he launched his first tweet at the end of his weekly general audience.
The text of the tweet, in Italian, flashed on the jumbo screens in the modernist Pope Paul VI Hall, where the audience was held.
Then, about an hour later, he answered the first of thousands of questions sent to him in the past nine days.
It went out to someone in the United States, who asked in English, “How can we celebrate the Year of Faith better in our daily lives?”
The pope responded thus: “By speaking with Jesus in prayer, listening to what he tells you in the Gospel and looking for him in those in need.”
His tweets are in keeping with his teaching on Advent on Wednesday morning, that God “comes to us in different ways.”
He is expected to answer two more questions in the course of the day, in two other languages from two other continents, sent to him with the hashtag #askpontifex, says Greg Burke, the Vatican’s communications strategist.
Source

Boko Haram: Jonathan Asks U.S To Help Nigeria


President Goodluck Jonathan has made a passionate appeal to the United States government to help the federal government in the bid to tackle the security morass the country is enmeshed in, following the gory activities of the Islamic extremist group, Boko Haram.
According to the president, “Nigeria is facing various security challenges, such as Boko Haram, policing the nation’s extensive maritime borders, crude oil theft and kidnapping”, adding that the USA government must “support the Government’s efforts to find lasting solutions to these problems”.
Jonathan made this appeal to General Carter Ham, Commander of the United States’ Africa Command (AFRICOM) who paid him a courtesy call at the presidential villa, Abuja, as part of activities marking his presentation of a paper at the National Defence College, Abuja.

All Yoruba-Men Must Be Proud Of Obasanjo – Aregbesola


Osun State governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, has praised the virtues of former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, describing him as a man whom every Yoruba man must be proud of.
Governor Aregbesola, who gave the commendation in Osogbo, on Monday, when he led a delegation of Owu Foundation to the governor’s office, said the state government held the former president in high esteem, a reason he was accorded the honour he rightly deserved by being asked to unveil the statue of late Bola Ige erected at the entrance to the governor’s office.
According to the governor, “It is not for nothing that Chief Obasanjo is a Yoruba person. As a Yoruba man, we must be proud of his achievements.
Governor Aregbesola said that once the powers that be recognise in the Yoruba people a lover of federalism and freedom, they would find the Yoruba the best of people to befriend and be with.

"I will consider plastic surgery if..." Omotola Jalade Ekeinde


When asked if she would ever consider having plastic surgery, the stunning actress and reality star replied:
Seriously I am thinking about it. I have four kids. That has taken its toll on my body. I am not against plastic surgery as long as you're not doing it for extremely vain reasons. If you need it, you should do it. If I see any irregularities in my body that I cannot control, I will do it.

Enebeli Elebuwa’s body arrives from India on Saturday



The body of the late veteran actor Enebeli Elebuwa will arrive from India on Saturday, December 15, 2012, NET has gathered.
Elebuwa passed on in an Indian hospital on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 after a long battle with an undisclosed illness.
He was ill for over a year, and suffered a stroke before he was flown to India in October to receive better treatment.
No burial details have ben announced yet.

Source: NET

Ex-gov Audu to be declared wanted by EFCC


The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday said it had concluded arrangements to declare Kogi State ex-governor, Alhaji Abubakar Audu, wanted over alleged N4bn fraud.
A statement by the spokesperson for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said the decision followed alleged evasion of arrest of the embattled former governor.
EFCC said he “fled when operatives of the commission stormed his 32 Suleiman Barau Street, Aso Villa, Asokoro-Abuja residence in the early hours of today.”
According to him, Audu was alleged to have fraudulently enriched himself to the tune of over N4bn while he was governor of Kogi State between 1999 and 2003.
He added, “The latest effort to arrest the ex- governor followed a Supreme Court ruling of November 23, 2012, which dismissed his appeal to continue to protract his corruption trial by the EFCC. The Supreme Court ruling therefore clears the way for his fresh arraignment.”
Uwujaren added, “Audu was arrested in Jos in 2006, after a six months manhunt by operatives of the Commission, before his earlier arraignment at the Kogi State High Court on December 1, 2006, on an 80 counts of conspiracy, fraud, criminal breach of trust and embezzlement of public fund.

Nelson Mandela ‘spirit and sparkle is fading,’ says wife


Former South African President Nelson Mandela, 94, who has been in hospital since Saturday for tests, has suffered a recurrence of a lung infection but he is responding to treatment, the government said yesterday.
The revered anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace laureate is spending his fourth day in hospital in the capital, Pretoria.
Known affectionately by his clan name “Madiba”, Mandela remains a hero to many of South Africa’s 52 million people and two brief stretches in hospital in the past two years made front page news.
“Doctors have concluded the tests and these have revealed a recurrence of a previous lung infection, for which Madiba is receiving appropriate treatment and he is responding to the treatment,” the government said in a statement.
Mandela was admitted to the Pretoria military hospital on Saturday after being flown from his home village of Qunu in a remote part of the Eastern Cape province.
Until now, authorities had given few details about the reason for his latest visit to hospital.
In an interview broadcast on South Africa’s eNCA television channel, Mandela’s Mozambican-born wife Graca said the former president’s “sparkle” was fading.
When he was admitted to hospital on Saturday, officials stressed there was no cause for concern although domestic media reports suggested senior members of the government and people close to him had been caught unawares.
On the streets, ordinary South Africans crossed their fingers for his recovery. Leading cartoonist Zapiro depicted Mandela asleep in his hospital bed with hundreds of “Get Well” cards flying through the window like a flock of birds.
“He’s old and I hope he gets better soon. He means a lot to the world,” 25-year-old legal researcher Liezel Jacobs said.
Source

Messi’s new goalscoring record ‘was broken in 1972′ by an African star decades ago


Lionel Messi has been showered with praise after establishing a new world record by scoring 86 goals in a calendar year.
Regardless of what you might think of calendar year as opposed to season-by-season records – our blogger Early Doors certainly did not approve – you can’t help doffing your cap to the diminutive Argentine for his goal tally. At the age of just 25 he is already a legend of the game, and even Gerd Mueller – the man whose record he took – has paid homage to him.
Yet it seems that Messi’s latest entry in the footballing record books might have to be scrubbed out: the Zambian FA have claimed that one of their own legendary strikers put the Barca star’s tally in the shade way back in 1972.

Things have fallen apart in Nigeria – Maitama-Sule


FORMER Nigerian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Yusuf Maitama-Sule, has expressed disappointment over Nigeria’s failure to develop its politics, philosophy and economy.
Maitama-Sule, who bagged a Lifetime Achievement Award alongside a former Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr. Christopher Kolade, at an annual dinner organised by the Academy for Entrepreneurial Studies in Lagos, also described the situation facing the country as “meaningless”.
According to a statement in Lagos on Tuesday, the diplomat said present Nigerian leaders had betrayed the efforts made by the  nation’s founding fathers to bring orderliness and greatness to the country.
He said, “Honestly, everything in the Nigerian state has become meaningless. In short, today there is meaningless in philosophy, intellectualism, politics, immorality in the society, corruption in the economy, fraud in act, and lack of creativity.
“Nigeria today is not what it used to be. Our founding fathers made all efforts to give us foundation and dream that between the next 15 and 30 years, Nigeria will become a great country. But things have fallen apart. The family institution today has broken down. Respect for elders and constituted authority, which used to be a standing order in our society, has now become a wasted effort.”
He, however, urged Nigerians to love one another, saying there was still hope in the country.

Source

Nigeria Police, worst violators of human rights


THE International Society for Social Justice and Human Rights has described the Nigeria Police as the worst violator of human rights in the country.
The ISSJHR stated that if the number of human right violations perpetrated by the police were presented to the international community, Nigeria would be regarded as an “animal farm” and another Cambodia of the past.
Chancellor of the rights group, Chief Jackson Omenazu, expressed worry that Nigerians had continued to suffer in the hands of those paid to protect them, adding that the Human Rights Day was an opportunity for the security outfit to turn a new leaf.
Omenazu, who spoke in a telephone interview with The PUNCH on Tuesday, said the proposed reform of the Nigeria Police should be total, even as he observed that the security outfit, as an institution, was disconnected from the people.
He added that it was becoming difficult for the police to get information from members of the public as a result of the frosty relationship between the two of them.
The chancellor recalled that many Nigerians had lost their lives as a result of the overzealousness of the police and added that a change in the system was required for Nigerians to feel protected.
He said, “Go to the police station where they tell you that the bail for a suspect is free, the truth is that Nigerians end up paying to bail suspects. It is difficult for you not to part with money if you go to most police stations to bail anybody.”
The ISSJHR chancellor also accused government at all levels of the violation of the citizens’ economic rights through the refusal to provide housing, employment, education and healthcare for Nigerian.

PUNCH

Nine-year-old girl, one other need N2.5m to fight cancer


A lthough nine-year-old Eniola Adepitan and 22-year-old Omolara Onibudo, are not relatives, fate has brought them together in their quest for good health.
Adepitan suffers from cancer of the bone, Onibudo has cancer of the lip.
Speaking with PUNCH Metro on Monday in Magboro, Ogun State, Onibudo said her guardians had spent hundreds of thousands of naira on her yet her problem persists.
She said, “In May 2010, I discovered that I had a wound on my upper lip then I started bleeding from the affected lip. I sought medical attention at the Epe General Hospital, Epe, Lagos State, before I was referred to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.

“If Fashola Still Smokes Despite Warnings, Then Okada Riders Have A Right To Operate”


The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) headquarters in Lagos on Monday, came short of a war front, as Motorcycle (Okada) riders encountered armed policemen, causing gridlock on the Yaba-Ojuelegba road.
Apparently acting on orders, the policemen surrounded the NLC building, take-off point of the protest. This however did little to deter the organisers, Joint Action Front (JAF), as they remained adamant, saying they needed no permit to hold a peaceful rally.
As tension grew, the police who were already overwhelmed by the gathering, called for reinforcement from nearby stations. Four of the people distributing leaflets among the crowd were later arrested, an action which further angered the protesters.
Protesting further against the obstruction of the rally, JAF Secretary, Comrade Abiodun Aremu, told the police team thus “If Fashola still smokes despite warnings that tobacco smokers are liable to die young; motorbike operators also have a right to continue their operations with provided warnings that bike passengers are liable to be injured in an accident”.