Thursday 3 October 2013

BACK TO SCHOOL: Osun State Governor (Aregbesola) Rocks School Uniform (PHOTOS)

The Osun State government yesterday inaugurated the Salvation Army Middle School in Osogbo, the state capital.

The school is one of the 100 elementary, 50 middle and 20 high schools being built under the O'School initiative.

Governor Rauf Aregbesola said the inauguration was a reaffirmation that Osun's education policy is headed for success.

According to him, the Elementary and Middle Schools would each accommodate 900 pupils, while the High School is to accommodate 3,000 pupils.


He said, "We have since been working assiduously to implement the reforms. The inauguration of this school is evidence that all is going as planned with our reform. As part of the reform, we decided to reorganise the school system into Elementary, Middle and High School categories".


Aregbesola therefore, urged parents to support the government by preparing their wards for the new system and dressing them up in the new uniform.

BREAKING: Associated Airlines plane reportedly carrying late Agagu’s body crashes in Lagos (PHOTOS)

Unmarkeed airplane

There are indications that an Associated Airlines aircraft has crashed at the Murtala Mohammed Domestic Terminal leaving an unknown number of casualties.
Sources say the light plane, which was carrying the body of the late former governor of Ondo state, Olusegun Agagu, burst into flames with fire trucks deployed to put out the fire.
The plane which was supposed to have an emergency landing but it reportedly crash-landed instead.
Yakubu Datti, the spokesman of the Nigeria aviation agencies, has asked for more time to get concrete details of the accident.
Associated airline crash-Oct2013
The circumstances surrounding the unfortunate incident are yet to be confirmed but we shall bring you details as we get them.
However, Segun Demuren, the son of Harold Demuren, has tweeted his own account of the crash:
Screen_20131003_10227

Update: The crashed plane had eight persons on board – two men and six women. One of the men was believed to be late governor Olusegun Agagu’s son.

Photos: Niyola Shoots Video For New Single In New York

EME's first lady, Niyola has just concluded the shooting of her latest single 'toh bad' video in New York. The video was directed by Kemi Adetiba and would be released anytime soon. See more pics after the cut.


Resident Doctors’ Strike Paralyses Public Hospitals, Many Patients Left Stranded



Patient and relations leaving the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital ...on Wednesday.
Patient and relations leaving the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital …on Wednesday.
The strike embarked upon by members of the National Association of Resident Doctors has paralysed activities in public hospitals across the country. NARD had embarked upon the strike to force the Federal Government to pay arrears of salaries being owned the medical doctors.
Reports by some of our correspondents and the News Agency of Nigeria revealed that more branches of the association had joined the strike.
Consequently, patients are being hit hard while relatives of some of the sick are being forced to take their sick to private hospitals.
Resident doctors in Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Bauchi, Kwara states and Abuja have joined the nation-wide strike called by their national body.
The NARD Chairman at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Dr. Babatunde Babasanya, said on Wednesday that the doctors were seeking the payment of salaries being owed them.
He also said the Federal Government’s implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System had not been effective in spite of the fact that many doctors were short paid.
Babasanya said, “Some House Officers in Lagos have not been paid for four months till recently when they paid them only two months.
“We have been paid as cooks; in a month some of us received N1,000, some N20,000 and some may not even receive at all.”
The NARD boss also said that the residency training programme had come under severe challenges, especially in terms of under funding.
A NAN correspondent, who visited the tertiary health institution on Wednesday, reports that consultants and other health workers were attending to patients.
In Abeokuta, striking resident doctors at the Federal Medical Centre appealed to the Federal Government to embrace dialogue in order to end the strike.
The NARD president at the centre, Dr. Ibrahim Adewale, made the appeal while speaking with journalists on Wednesday in Abeokuta.
Adewale, who noted that patients were always at the receiving end whenever doctors embarked on strike, urged the two parties to resolve the dispute.
A NAN correspondent, however, sighted a few consultants and other health workers on duty at the medical centre.
The Chief Medical Director of the centre, Dr. Dapo Sotiloye, declined comments, saying “ it is between the doctors and the Federal Government.’’
Some of the patients, who spoke in separate interviews, appealed to the two parties to consider the plight of ordinary Nigerians.
One of the patients, Alhaji Fatai Salisu, lamented the attitude of some nurses at the centre and appealed to the doctors to return to work.
Mr. Dada Abiodun, whose wife was on admission prior to the strike, said he might relocate her to another hospital.
Also reacting to the strike, the Chairman, Nigerian Medical Association, Kwara Chapter, Prof. Mikail Buhari, said the doctors were committed to the full implementation of the strike option.
He said that the strike followed the expiration of a 21-day ultimatum earlier declared by NARD.
Buhari said members were directed to embark on the strike due to “persistent unwillingness of the Federal Government to articulate a comprehensive guideline for residency training.”
Also, medical activities were paralysed at the University Teaching Hospital Ilorin, Kwara State.
Our correspondent who visited the hospital on Tuesday observed that many patients that trooped into the hospital for care oblivious of the strike were surprised when none of the resident doctors attended to them.
Though consultants at the hospital took over the responsibilities of the striking resident doctors, it was obvious that they were overwhelmed by the number of patients waiting for medicare.
Efforts by one of our correspondents to get the responses of the UITH Chief Medical Director, Prof. Abdulwaheed Olatinwo and the Kwara State Chairman, NARD, Dr. Dele Tajudeen proved abortive as their phone numbers indicated they were switched off.
But the Kwara State Chairman, Nigerian Medical Association, Prof. Olayinka Buhari, who is a consultant at UITH, said the consultants had taken over the treatment of patients that were being attended to by the striking doctors especially, those in critical conditions.
Also, doctors at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi commenced strike in the early hours of Wednesday.
A Bauchi resident, Malam Auwal Bala, told NAN that he took his pregnant wife to the hospital around 1am, but was told that doctors were on strike, and advised was to move her to a private clinic.
In Lagos, only consultants offered skeletal services to patients in all the public hospitals particularly those owned by the Federal Government.
President of the association’s LUTH Chapter, Dr. Emeka Ugwu, told NAN in Lagos that they joined the strike on Wednesday.
A Consultant Psychiatrist at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Dr. Olugbenga Owoeye, said that the resident doctors at the hospital joined the strike at midnight on Tuesday.
In Abuja, resident doctors were on Wednesday conspicuously absent at their duty posts.
However, in some of the hospitals monitored in Abuja except for National Hospital Abuja and University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada which were affected by the strike, doctors were seen attending to patients.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, has expressed disappointment over the strike, saying that the action was uncalled for as those issues brought by the association were already being looked into.
Speaking through his special assistant on media and communications, Mr. Dan Nwomeh, he said that the issues were currently being addressed by a committee set up by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.
However, the minister said that a meeting has been scheduled with all the parties concerned including the minister of labour, Emeka Wogu on Thursday (today).

Evangelist Eucharia Anunobi returns to acting, features in "Heart of Angelina" (photos)

I thought she had quit acting! Well she hasn't and she's still got loads of movie script lined up for her....I wonder how she manages both (preaching and acting, after all one can not serve God and Mammon together).
The best part is, Hilda Dokubo also features in the new flick.

The veteran actresses have been working in the Lord’s vineyard as evangelists until they were recently called upon to continue from where they seem to have dropped the baton.
See B-T-S photos of them below:


eucharia, funke, hilda and eniola badmus
eniola badmus, hilda dokubo, funke akindele and eucharia anunobi

Movie star, Bimbo Akinsanya acquires customised Cruiser jeep (PHOTO)


bimbo akinsanya1

These are good times for Nollywood actress, Bimbo Akinsanya as she recently acquired a Toyota FJ cruiser jeep.
Movie moments reports that Bimbo acquired the automobile in August 2013 and went ahead to get a customized plate number, ABIMBOLA, for it a few days ago.
See photo below:


abimbola akinsaya's new car

Dancehall artist General Pype and white girlfriend welcome baby boy


I mentioned white girlfriend in case some of you are wondering why the baby is light skinned. The baby mama is white American. Pype and his girlfriend welcomed a baby boy yesterday October 1st. Big congrats to them.

Nollywood Actor Shot Dead Three Weeks After Wedding


Flavian Okojie is a Nollywood actor who lived in Benin City, Edo State. He was shot dead by unknown gun men three weeks after his wedding. His wife announced his death on Facebook on monday. Her words;

Boko Haram: Fighter Jets Deployed In Yobe



Brig.-Gen. Chris Olukolade
Brig.-Gen. Chris Olukolade
Fighter jets have been deployed in Yobe State as part of the crackdown on Boko Haram insurgents who killed 41 students at the College of Agriculture in Gujba. The Federal Government has also ordered the military, the police and other security agencies to protect all schools in the state.
There are indications that the state government may not close schools following the killings.
The Defence Headquarters has directed the Air Force and the Artillery Unit of the Army to join forces with the infantry troops, The Nation learnt.
For the third day running, the troops have engaged Boko Haram members in a battle in the forests between Yobe and Borno states, a source said.
The source, who pleaded not to be named, said: Air raid is a vital component of our manhunt for insurgents still lurking in some forests in this axis.
“And with the backing of the Artillery Unit, heavy bombardment has been going on in these forests in the last three days.
“So far, we have been able to dislodge the camps of the insurgents, most of which were just being established along the Borno-Yobe axis.”
The directive to protect schools covers day and boarding schools.
It was gathered that both the Federal and Yobe State governments believe that closing schools will amount to bowing to the wish of the insurgents to stop any form of Western education in the Northeast.
A government source said: “There are some suggestions that the schools should be closed in the state again, but we are not thinking along this line because this might be a defeatist approach. We know that parents and children may be disillusioned but we cannot give up to insurgency.
“We are, however, waiting for a comprehensive security plan from the military and other security agencies on how to provide adequate security in all schools.
“What we have done is to put all communities on the alert to notify the military and security agencies of any suspicious movement.
“The encouragement the state government is getting from all citizens of the state borders on the need to cooperate and resist the insurgents.”
Defence spokesman Brig.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, said: “We have a mandate from the Federal Government to protect all schools in Yobe State.
“We have mapped out plans to secure the schools and prevent a repeat of this dastardly act.”
On the combing of forests for insurgents, Gen. Olukolade said: “The operation is still on; we will let the public know accordingly.”

Police Quiz Officer Caught On Tape Demanding N10,000 Bribe


The Policeman
The Policeman
The Anambra State Police Command on Wednesday said it had begun questioning the policeman attached to one of its divisions in Onitsha, caught on video demanding a bribe of N10,000 from a motorist. The state conmmand’s Police Public Relations Officer, Emeka Chukwuemeka, who spoke with our correspondent on the telephone, said the outcome of the investigation would be made public as soon as it was concluded.
Chukwuemeka, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, said the manner the video was shot made it easy for the authorities to identify the policeman in question.
The police spokesman, who assured members of the public that the policeman would be made to face the full wrath of the law if found guilty, said the police would not condone any acts of corruption.
He said, “His identity was clearly revealed in the video that went viral on the Internet. An in-house investigation has since started and when we conclude, we will make the outcome public. It is noteworthy that the Nigeria Police Force remains one of the few organisations in this country that punishes one of its own whenever they err.
“Corruption is bad and anybody caught in the web of corrupt practices will be punished in accordance with our statute books. All acts of corruption are condemnable and we will never condone it. Corruption is evil. We appeal that nobody condones it.”
When asked for the name and rank of the policeman, Chukwuemeka declined to provide the information and directed our correspondent to check for it online.
In the three-minute 18-second video which has since become an Internet sensation, the man in uniform was seen seated in the front seat with the driver demanding the N10,000 bribe after he had observed some discrepancies between the vehicle particulars and its chassis number.
Several appeals by the driver who was coming from Akure, Ondo State, to Umuahia, Abia State, before he was stopped in Onitsha, fell on deaf ears.
The drivers had explained that the mix-up was unintended, adding that the vehicle was not a stolen one. He even offered to pray for the policeman.

ASUU Accuses FG Of Deception, Vows To Continue Strike



wpid-asuu.jpeg
 As the national struggle of ASUU to save Public Education especially the University system entered its third months, the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU has accused the Federal Government of paying lip-service to Education development in Nigeria.
Dr Karo Ogbinaka, ASUU Acting Zonal Coordinator, Ibadan Zone said: “ After the meeting of Tuesday, 19th September 2013 with the Vice President, it is clear that the FGN is merely paying lip-service to Education in Nigeria and deceiving the Nigerian Public on their commitment to its transformation agenda.”
Ogbinaka who urged the Nigerian people not to be deceived by the Federal Government said, “How can there be a meaningful transformation when the Education sector is neglected and gradually taken over by Private entrepreneurs including government functionaries who are busy building private Universities with stolen funds in and outside Nigeria?”
He re-affirmed ASUU decision not to back-out in its struggle for the emancipation of Nigerian people through ensuring that the government of the day is made to do what is right in the Education Sector.
According to him, this is a commitment that all members of the Union have vowed to pursue to its logical conclusion.
“Our appeal to all patriotic Nigerians is for them to support ASUU in this struggle to safe our Public Education in Nigeria and secure the future of this great country, he added.
In a released, Ogbinaka said that in spite of the spirited efforts of the Union to revamp the rot in the system, the government has remained adamant and intransigent in honouring the agreement it freely entered into with the Union in 2009.
He noted that ASUU has demonstrated great commitment and patriotism since 2006 when the negotiation started and culminated in the 2009 agreement. He pointed out that the Union has allowed government to use its agencies to verify the claims of decrepit infrastructure in the University System. “This resulted in the production of the Needs Assessment Document of 2012,” he said.
Ogbinaka disclosed that in the negotiation of the agreement, the government was made up of important personalities in Nigeria under the Chairmanship of Deacon Gamaliel Onosode with Professor Musa Abdullahi, Professor Greg-lwu, Professor Mahmood Yakubu adding, Professor Julius Qkijie, Professor ibidapo Obe, Professor Peter Adeniyi and several notable individuals served as Advisers.
He explained that for many years after the agreement was signed by both parties, ASUU has expressed its frustrations at government negative disposition in honouring the agreement.
He said: “When it became obvious that the Federal Government is bent on reneging on the 2009 ASUU/FGN Agreement and 2012 MOU, the Union had no alternative than to commence this painful strike action.
“Since the commencement of this strike, government has equally demonstrated to Nigerians its unwillingness to implement the agreement freely entered to with ASUU, After several meetings between ASUU team and representatives of the Federal Government of Nigeria, there has been absolute demonstration of bad faith by Government.
“This led to the intervention of the Vice President of Nigeria, Arch, Nnamadi Sambo.
“The Ibadan Zone of the Union comprising University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, Onabisi Onabanjo University, University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Lagos State University, and Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijebu-Ode are resolved to continue with this crusade to force the FGN to faithfully implement the 2009 Agreement and 2012 MOU in order to safe and secure the future of our children.
The highlights of the agreement which involves amongst other things: to reverse the decay in the University System in order to reposition it for greater responsibilities in National development, to reverse the brain drain plaguing Nigerian Public Universities, to restore Universities through immediate massive and sustainable financial intervention (proper funding); and to ensure genuine University autonomy and academic freedom.

PDP Crisis: PDP Governors Call Off Oct. 7 Meeting With Jonathan

The much-publicised October 7 resumption of peace talks between President Goodluck Jonathan and the breakaway faction of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will not be — after all.

The Abubakar Baraje-led faction, which includes no fewer than seven governors has asked for a postponement. Baraje said some key members of the faction, including some governors, would be on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia on October 7.

In a statement signed yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Chukwuemeka Eze, the faction said it had already sent an emissary to President Jonathan seeking a postponement.

According to the Baraje camp, the decision was taken Tuesday night at a caucus meeting of the New PDP held at the Adamawa State Government Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja.

It said: "It was discovered that the date of the proposed peace meeting clashes with this year's hajj, in which several of our key members are billed to participate.

"Our National C hairman, Alhaji Baraje and most of our other key members, including most of the G7 Governors and the five other governors that have indicated interest to join us by next week, as well as members of the National Assembly, former governors and business moguls, are billed to perform the Hajj, which is already in operation."

But a source said last night that the hajj excuse was just convenient. The faction has lost interest in the talks, he said, pleading not to be named.

"They are now thinking of another party to join," he said.

In a swift reaction, the Bamanga Tukur-led PDP slammed the Baraje faction for making the decision to postpone the talks public.

In a telephone conversation with our correspondent yesterday, the National Publicity Secretary of Tukur's PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, took strong exception to what he described as the overdramatisation of the postponement by the Baraje faction.

Metuh said: "It is inconceivable that they are dramatising a matter that's being discussed with the President. If they are responsible enough, they would not be making a public show of it by taking it to the pages of newspapers.

"It's the height of irresponsibility for them to be discussing a matter they had with the President on the pages of newspapers. I am not sure that even some of the governors are aware of this.

"They are being childish and clownish. They can as well go to the National Assembly and hold a public hearing on it. They are free to go wherever they want to go."

But the Baraje faction said their members on the hajj train had been mandated to use the opportunity offered by the holy pilgrimage to pray for the restoration of peace and unity in PDP, as well as peace in the country.

The faction assured its supporters and Nigerians in general of its commitment towards bringing the "glorious days" back to the PDP and the country.

It said: "We thank Nigerians for their understanding and support while appealing for continued prayers for the restoration of peace as there can be no progress in an atmosphere of chaos.

"The fact remains that we are not only committed to restoring peace to our party but resolute about it. We enjoin our teeming supporters to be steadfast in their support for our struggle to enthrone genuine democracy devoid of abuse of the rule of law.

"On our part, we as leaders are committed to ensuring that our current struggle does not end as an exercise in futility but would achieve the set objectives of restoring our party to the path of honour and greatness.

"In this regard also, the party's NWC billed for October 5th is hereby called off until our chairman comes back from the Hajj.

"We sincerely regret the inconvenience(s) in any form this may cause our beloved President, party faithful and Nigerians'; as praying to our God should be the utmost part from us, particularly now, knowing very well that with God, the elusive peace in our party and country can be achieved", the statement said.