Okonjo-Iweala Opens Up, Says Nigeria Economy Is In Danger

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On Monday, June 10, at the third round of the 2013 ministerial platform in Abuja, Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, spoke glowingly about the Nigerian economy, saying the fundamentals were strong and that the economy was buoyant beyond danger.

But a few hours later, on Tuesday, when all the doors were closed, the minister sang a different tune. She told her colleagues in government point blank that the Nigerian economy is shaky despite the official fundamentals and that drastic steps are needed to save it from collapse.

Mrs Okonjo-Iweala spoke at the 50th meeting of the 15-member Federal Government Economic Implementation Team held behind closed-doors at the presidential villa.

We are Not Going Back On Same S-èx Marriage..Don't Disturb Us - Mark Speaks

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Senate President David Mark has said the decision of the National Assembly to ban same-s-èx marriage in the country was irreversible. Mark, according to a statement, said this at a dinner hosted in his honour by the Nigerian Community in Prague, Czech Republic, yesterday.

The Senate president explained that the bill, which has been approved by both chambers of the National Assembly, would not in any way infringe on the rights of Nigerians. He said: “The law against same-s-èx marriage is an approval of the wishes of the generality of Nigerians who are desirous of living within our cultural bounds. “The law is not designed to infringe on the human rights of Nigerians in any way.

Also, wherever you go in our country today, our people are completely in support of the National Assembly because the practice of same-s-ex, as you all know, is alien to us.”

Plane crash victims survive after eating their dead friends

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16 plane crash victims remained alive for 72 days until being rescued by eating their dead friends’ bodies, a victim told the news media.

Forty years since the accident that changed his life forever, Dr. Roberto Canessa still vividly remembers having to eat the flesh of friends to survive.

He was one of 16 men who escaped death when their chartered plane crashed in the desolate Andes mountains between Chile and Argentina on October 13, 1972. It took 72 days until they were rescued after Dr. Canessa, then a 19-year-old medical student and another survivor wandered for 10 days to get help.

SEE How South Africans hijack $20billion Dollar ship bunkering business in Nigeria

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The Nigerian Licensed Ship Chandlers Association a week ago took a swipe at the Directorate of Petroleum Resources DPR, apex regulatory organ of the downstream segment of the Nigerian petroleum industry over hitches connected with ship bunkering regulation in Nigeria, which gives South African firms a benefit over their Nigerian counterparts.

Secretary Board of Trustees of the association, Dr. Emeka Enebeli, who spoke in an interview, disclosed that the bunkering business in Nigeria is worthover $20bn, but regretted this segment of the maritime industry has become an exclusive preserved for South African firms.

In accordance with him, till date, no Nigerian individual or corporate has a ship bunkering license, saying that the stringent conditions listed by the DPR makes it almost impossible for almost any Nigerian individual or corporate has a bunkering license.

Gov Rochas Okorocha To Send Uneducated Traditional Rulers and Igwes To School

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Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State has said that all the illiterate traditional rulers in their state would be given the chance to visit school to improve their ability to supply robust service with their people through the Community Government Council (CGC).

Okorocha spoke while addressing the original rulers and other stakeholders at Ahiajoku Convention Centre in Owerri, their state capital. According to the governor, a programme would be introduced next season in tertiary institutions to aid illiterate traditional rulers to obtain basic knowledge in governance.

He said: “Africa and Nigeria particularly can just only develop more if the community government council becomes stronger than the area government; local government stronger than their state government and state stronger than the Federal Government.”

Nigeria Accuses Detained Lebanese Of ‘Serious Terrorism Charge’

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Nigeria authorities have said that the three Lebanese arrested last month for alleged possession of illegal arms in the northern city of Kano and Abuja, the nation’s capital are involved in a much more serious case of terrorism and a threat to national security.

According to court papers filed in response to a lawsuit filed by the three Lebanese challenging their detention by the Department of State Service (DSS), preliminary investigation has established a much more serious case of terrorism and their activities constitute a threat to national security.

The suspects, Abdallah Thaini, Mustapha Fawaz and Talal Roda were brought to court in obedience to a court order directing the secret police to produce them to enable them prosecute their case.

Amaechi Says Rivers Governorship To Rotate Among Ethnic Group

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The Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi

The Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi has said that the process of selecting who govern the oil rich state would rotate among the different ethnic groups in the area.

The governor disclosed this on Thursday while receiving thousands of delegates from Etche ethnic group, who had paid him a solidarity visit at government house in Port Harcourt in support of his administration.

”Any area that has produced governor before should go and sleep and allow other areas to produce,’ Mr Amaechi said. He called for the setup of Etche Enlightenment Committee to educate and mobilise the people on the need to exercise their voting power in the next elections.  He insisted that the people’s vote must count since that is one way the Rivers people will elect their leaders independently without external influence in 2015.

While blaming the current political crisis in the state on some detractors, the governor said his administration is poised to do more for the Etche people promising that his administration will not abandon them. The Chairman of the Etche traditional rulers council, Emmanuel Opurum said Governor Amaechi’s administration is godsend as Etche people has witnessed unprecedented development since his inception.

FULL UPDATE: Information on use of chemical weapons by Syria's Assad fabricated - senior Russian lawmaker

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A senior Russian lawmaker said on Friday that information on the use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces was fabricated and suggested the United States would use it to justify intervention in the conflict.

"Information about the use by Assad of chemical weapons has been fabricated in the same place as the lies about (Saddam) Hussein's weapons of mass destruction," Alexei Pushkov, head of the foreign policy committee in the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, said on Twitter. "Obama is taking the same path as George Bush."

A U.S. official said on Thursday that President Barack Obama has authorized sending U.S. weapons to Syrian rebels for the first time, after the White House said it has proof the Syrian government had used chemical weapons against opposition forces.

See More Updates After The Break

U.S. studying Syria no-fly zone near Jordan border - Diplomats

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The United States is considering setting up a limited no-fly zone in Syria, possibly close to the southern border with Jordan, two senior Western diplomats in Turkey said on Friday. "Washington is considering a no-fly zone to help al-Assad's opponents," (rebels)  one diplomat said. He said it would be limited "time-wise and area-wise", without giving details.
 Reuters

Apartment where Norwegian Terrorist Anders Breivik plotted massacre on sale for $639,000

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The apartment where Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik plotted the country's worst peacetime massacre and where he had been living with his mother since 2006 goes on sale for just $639,000 (£408,000), the Daily Mail reports.

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Google 'not a friend of WikiLeaks' - Assange

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been scathing in his attack on Google in a keynote address at Sydney University. Streaming live from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London an eerily calm Assange left the crowd of media and delegates at the International Symposium of Electronic Arts Conference with no doubt he thought Google was acting as a "mole" for the US government.

Continue After The Break

Britain urges airlines not to allow NSA leaker Edward Snowden ( True Hero) to board flights to UK

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The UK government has issued a statement, urging airlines around the world not to allow US whistleblower Edward Snowden to board flights to Great Britain.

The document, released Monday, said carriers should deny Snowden boarding because he is most likely to be refused entry to the UK.  Any airline that allows the American ex-spy on board of its plane flying into Britain, will be fined 2,000 British pounds. Edward Snowden provided detailed information about a wide-reaching National Security Agency Internet surveillance program to journalists and then revealed his own identity voluntarily.

Until three weeks ago, Snowden worked at an NSA office in Hawaii. On May 20 he left Hawaii for Hong Kong where, according to him, “he would be in a place that might be able to resist US prosecution attempts”.

RT
Read more: http://omoooduarere.blogspot.com/

Family of Madonna Univeristy fire victim speak out

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On Saturday June 8th, a room at Saint Peters boys hostel in the Okija campus of Madonna University, Anambra State, was gutted by fire, killing one student. (Read the story HERE).

The family of the dead student, Chigozie Orluwehuje, (pictured above) just sent me something to publish so people can know what's happening with the case. See it below...

On the 8^th of June 2013 at about 4pm the news of the fire incident got to the hearing of the mother Mrs Norra Orluwehuje and other family members by a student who happened to be a friend of  Chigozie Orluwehuje, crying that the boy was one of the four that were engulfed in fire outbreak in the school hostel. The mother plus few of his relatives while on their way to school enquired of the news in the Elele campus and were directed to see one Father Francis who gave no listening ear to them according to a Rev. sister but asked us to enquire about anything in the information Centre in the school. The information center of the school openly told us that they knew nothing as at the time of the enquiry. They also refused to contact the Okija campus as to know the situation before embarking on the journey to Anambra state where the school is located.

R.I.P: 5 NANS members die in fatal auto crash on their way to UNIUYO

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The Senate President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) Donald Onukaogu and four other students were killed in a tragic auto accident along the Umuahia - Ikot Ekpene federal road on their way to the University of Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State to intervene in the crisis that rocked the school yesterday. The bus they were traveling in collided with a trailer which was said to have lost control.  Donald was a student of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri. May their souls rest in peace. Amen.

NDLEA Arrests Cousins With Cocaine hiden Inside Shoes

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Okechukwu Samson Agwueze                        Ogbonna Onwumere

Nigerian Tribune

Lagos
June13, 2013

Officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, have apprehended two cousins from Enugu State over alleged smuggling of 430 grammes of a powdery substance that tested positive to cocaine.

The first suspect, Okechukwu Samson Agwueze, 23, was arrested when the drug was found inside the sole of the shoe he wore during screening of passengers on an Etihad Airline flight to India, while his cousin, Ogbonna Onwumere, 38, who sponsored his trip, was also arrested and currently being interrogated by narcotic investigators.

CBN orders banks to report B’Haram, Ansaru transactions

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Following the recent proscription of the violent Islamic sects, Boko Haram and Ansaru, by the Federal Government, the Central Bank of Nigeria has ordered banks to check the activities of the terrorist groups.

The central bank in a letter to all banks on Wednesday, directed them to check their database and report activities of the two sects to the regulator.

The letter read, “The Federal Government of Nigeria, in its effort to stem terrorism in the country, has proscribed the activities of Jamaatu Ahlis-Sunna Liddaawati Wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, and Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan in any part of the country. Their activities are consequently declared as terrorist and illegal.

Jungle Justice: Two Robbery Suspects Beaten To Death By Angry Mob In Ilorin

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Two robbery suspects, members of a robbery syndicate that specialize in snatching money and valuables from unsuspecting passengers were nabbed by angry mob along stadium road, Ilorin on Wednesday.

According to the unsuspecting victim, “I went to change some currency from naira to dollars at a bureau de change. After the transactions, I stopped the taxi with the men inside. Getting to my destination, I asked the driver to stop but he said he wanted to pick someone ahead before dropping me so he moved up a bit and stopped.

Why we prefer live human beings – Suspected Human parts dealer

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Though its a bit lengthy but its worth reading for us all to be wise and vigilant...

 Operatives of the Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS, Ikeja have arrested three fleeing members of a syndicate who allegedly specialized in selling live  humans and decomposing human parts for money rituals.

Their arrest came barely three weeks after some of their  members were paraded at the Lagos State Police Command, where they confessed to have sold live human beings for N40,000, hands—N4,000 and head—N8,000.

Natural Disaster: 6.7 earthquake hits Christmas Island

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A magnitude 6.7 quake struck in the Indian Ocean east-northeast of Christmas Island on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake was recorded at a depth of 6.9 miles at a distance of 108 miles east-northeast of the Australian territory at 1647 GMT, the USGS said. There was no immediate report of a tsunami warning from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center

Tunisia jails Femen activists for to-pless protest( Chai See Standing B-oobs)

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A Tunisian court has handed four-month jail sentences to a German and two French feminists for staging the first top-less protest in an Arab country.

The three members of the famous Femen activist organization were faced with public indecency after protesting in support of their imprisoned sister-in-arms Amina Tyler. The court "condemned the three Femen activists to four months and 1 day in prison for an attack on public morals and indecency", their lawyer, Souheib Bahri, told the media. Ms. Tyler was put behind bars after reportedly writing "Femen" on a wall in the religious centre of Kairouan. She previously caused an outrage among some Tunisians by posting photos of herself top-less with the slogan "my body is my own personal" written on her behalf torso.

Tunisia has recently seen an increase in the prominence of ultra-conservative Islamists known as Salafists, who campaign for greater public piety in the country, following the ouster of secularist Ben Ali.

Read more: http://naijagist-omoooduarere.blogspot.com//