You won’t believe this woman is 70 years old – See Photos

by Rachel Ogbu 
They say ‘black don’t crack’ but 70-year-old Annette Larkins might have found the secret to eternal youth, only hers doesn’t imply using growth hormones and testosterone.
Thanks to the diet and lifestyle she maintains, she looks so young that people mistake her to be the daughter, when she’s out with her husband of 54 years.
So what’s the secret?
Larkins says the secret to her beauty lies in the raw vegan diet, consisting of organic vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts grown in her own garden, she calls the ‘fountain of youth’.
Believe it or not but Larkins doesn’t touch anything that has been cooked. And another strange thing she does is collect rainwater, to keep her garden blossoming, but also to drink.
This is a lifestyle she picked up when she decided to stop eating meatas her husband used to own a meat factory way back in the 1960s.
At first, Larkins was just looking for a few health benefits and never anticipated that she would look like a 40-year-old at the age of 70. In the 27 years that she has been eating raw, Larkins has written two booklets called Journey to Health and also produced a DVD containing all her healthy secrets.
Her husband wishes he had followed her example, because now he looks much, much older and also suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure. He takes prescription medicine every day, but Annette doesn’t even take an aspirin.
YNaija.com

Buhari and Boko Haram

Even the Boko Haram group knows that former head of state, Gen Muhammadu Buhari, is an honourable man, and thus named him in the list of those they wanted to lead the dialogue between them and the Federal Government. Buhari is popularly called Mai Gaskiya in the northern part of the country (meaning honest man, or man of integrity), and with all its anarchist inclinations, even Boko Haram knows it. Here’s a man of integrity, a honest man, who only needs to say the word, and we can take it to the bank. But do some Nigerians know?
With amusement, I watched some small-minded people rejoice and exult at the nomination of Buhari by Boko Haram, since they interpret it to mean that the Daura-born former head of state is one of the sponsors of the insurgent group. How shallow. Vacuous. Even asinine.
Without any shred of evidence, some Nigerians have simply decided to dub Buhari a Muslim bigot, and every attempt to convince them otherwise has been like water off a duck’s back. Tell them Buhari’s personal driver and cook are Christians, it falls on deaf ears. Add to it that one of the people Buhari respects most in the country is Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, a Christian, former Chief of Army Staff, and later Defence Minister, they block their ears with wax. And to further prove that he has no antipathy towards Christianity, remind them that Buhari picked a pastor and preacher as running mate in last year’s presidential elections.
Yet, the cynics and sceptics are not impressed. How else will Buhari convince the naysayers? I don’t see. And they were the ones rejoicing last week when Boko Haram nominated Mai Gaskiya to lead the ceasefire talks. The way they carried on, you would think they had unearthed vital evidence to prove that Buhari was, indeed, the sponsor of Boko Haram. Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has issued a statement that Buhari was not contacted, nor would he have anything to do with the proposed dialogue recommended to hold in Saudi Arabia. But the anti-Buhari forces were still bursting blood vessels, stamping their feet, spitting in the sky and collecting the spittle with their faces, saying the man was not fit to lead the talks.
Who will purge these people of their phobia for honesty? Who will deliver them from the gall and thrall of bitterness? Who will set them free from their self-inflicted bondage? Mai Gaskiya lives his life quietly, honestly, simply, yet they want to send themselves to premature graves, just because Boko Haram asked him to lead talks.
The balloons of the antagonists were finally deflated on Wednesday, when Gen. Buhari not only turned down the Boko Haram offer, but added that he did not know any member of the sect or “of any religion that will tell people to kill others and burn schools.” I am sure some people in government (and out of it) would have been happy if Buhari led the talks with Boko Haram. Not because it would engender peace in the country, mind you, but because it would justify what Sam Nda Isaiah of Leadership Newspaper calls “their pet fantasy.”
Yes, he is the brain behind Boko Haram, that is why they chose him to lead the talks, they would say. I like how Nda Isaiah further put it in his piece, ‘The Buhari I know.’ “The people around President Jonathan have, for long, been insinuating the nonsense about a link between some northern leaders and statesmen who have served the country in the past meritoriously and Boko Haram.
Because they were the sponsors of the Niger Delta insurgency, they believe that everyone must be like them.” Quite enlightening, isn’t it? Those who point fingers at Buhari as being Boko Haram sponsor were the ones behind the Niger Delta insurgency, so they are now using their standards to judge everyone else. Simpletons! Now we know where they are coming from. Daniel Elombah, in an article posted on the Internet under the headline, ‘This desperate attempt to link Buhari with Boko Haram,’ submitted that since the April 2011 elections, “there had been both overt and covert campaigns to tar Gen Buhari with the Boko Haram brush.” Waste of energy. Beating a dead horse, I say. Elombah asked pertinent questions about the olive branch waved by Boko Haram through one Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulazeez, who spoke on behalf of the sect last week. The germane posers are as follows: this purported spokesman had not hitherto been known to the media, how then can anyone be sure he is authentic? Two, he spoke in English, a language never known to have been used by Boko Haram spokesmen, who usually speak in Hausa, and use the name Abu this or Abu that. Three, Abdulazeez did not ask for the implementation of Sharia law across Nigeria, a long-term demand of the sect. Four, the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, had always disowned any idea of talks with the government through videos posted online. Is Shekau now part of this deal? Why not then come out to authenticate it? Elombah concluded: “In my view, whoever masterminded and concocted this announcement no doubt achieved his aim because all over the Internet and elsewhere, many Nigerians opined that this shows Buhari’s connection to the terrorists.” Well, people can believe whatever suits their fantasies, but it often does not change the truth. As Buddha said, “three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth.” Or, as Winston Churchill declared: “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” Despite what some people have decided about Buhari and his connection with Boko Haram, the truth remains the truth. And for me, my position is simple. I don’t see Buhari as Boko Haram sponsor, but let anyone show me unassailable evidence to the contrary, and I will apologize publicly on this page. Yes, I’m a Buhari-for-Life, but show me the slightest scintilla of evidence that he sponsors Boko Haram that has reportedly killed over 3,000 people in cold blood, and I will not only decamp, I will also cast the first stone. Now, to the crux of the matter. Should Buhari have led the talks with Boko Haram? I want the group to sheathe its sword. I want the wanton killings to stop. I’m tired of the boom of bombs. I’m weary of seeing people stream daily into a dark eternity. I want the hell that has enlarged itself against Nigerians to close up. But should Buhari have led the talks? In a sincere country, yes. But Nigeria is filled with too much insincere people. If Buhari led the talks, not all the perfumes in Arabia would have ever sweetened his reputation again. The cynics will say he was able to broker peace because he was the moving spirit behind the insurgency in the first place. Yes, we said it, he was the one behind Boko Haram all along, that was why they listened to him. And an innocent man would be tarred unjustly with the brush of infamy for life. Again, see the cocktail of attacks and bloodletting that followed the ceasefire proposal by Boko Haram last week, which probably confirms that the group is split right down the middle, or that the purported spokesman is an impostor. A civil war hero, Gen Mohammed Mamman Shuwa, was assassinated in Maiduguri. Boko Haram says it didn’t do it. So, who did? Question. The day after, four people, including two policemen were killed in Yobe. Who did it? Another four were killed in Bolori, Maiduguri. Whodunit? And the Joint Task Force (JTF) equally continues to kill the insurgents in their scores. Does dialogue appear to be in the offing with these scenarios? No. The whole matter may have to be re-approached with greater sincerity from both government and Boko Haram. But Nigerians are tired of tough talks from a government that is completely helpless and hapless before insurgents, just as we are equally fed up with unending stories of bombings and assassinations. For me, the naming of Buhari in the proposed negotiating team by Boko Haram was a plus, rather than minus. They wanted a man of honour, man of integrity, whose word is his bond. And who is that man? Mai Gaskiya. Gen. Buhari, a man of unimpeachable integrity and sincerity. Boko Haram knows this truth, but a lot of Nigerians don’t, and that is why they have always conspired to keep Buhari away from power. In Luke 19:42, Jesus Christ looked at Jerusalem, and lamented over the city: “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which pertain unto they peace. But now, they are hid from your eyes.” And I also lament over this country. If only Nigerians know what they have lost in Buhari’s leadership, the probity, the accountability, the integrity, the many salutary possibilities. But they don’t know, because it is hidden from their eyes. And the blindness is self-inflicted. Truly, there was a country.
TheSun

Buhari Rejects Boko Haram’s Mediation Offer

Former Head of State, General Mohammadu Buhari,says he does not  know any Boko Haram member and so, cannot mediate between the sect and Federal Government.

Buhari was last week picked by the Boko Haram alongside other northern leaders to intercede between the sect and government.
He said the government lacks the will to deal with the sect even with the military, police, other security operatives and the resources in the country.
The Congress for Progressive Change leader, who spoke to journalists at the party’s Board Of Trustee (BOT) meeting that lasted over five hours in Abuja, expressed disappointment over what he described as plans by the People Democratic Party government to indict and nail him.
He said: “My party has done an excellent job unless you do not want to believe in what my party believes. Firstly I do not know any member of the Boko Haram sect. I do not believe and I do not know of any religion that will go and kill people, burn schools.”
Leadership

General Shuwa: Tribute to a great civil war hero

The irony of the senseless killings in the North-east of Nigeria, especially the Borno-Yobe axis, came full circle when on November 02, as reports have it, gunmen shot dead General Mohammed Shuwa, a 79-year- old authentic civil war hero, dead, along with his guests in his Gwange, Maiduguri home. It was, indeed, a tragic end to a man, who, even in the heat of war, protected lives and did everything to avoid needless deaths.
I was eleven years old when the civil war broke out but I recall with such vividness its experiences and lessons. Being branded a saboteur in the heat of that war was a summary death sentence, which was instantly carried out. My hometown, Ikom, was a war zone and my father, who was caught up in Biafra, had taken part in the peace talks on the Biafran side. When Ikom fell to Federal troops, the rest of the family became an endangered specie. All that was needed was someone to simply brand you a traitor and what further validation would be required beyond the role my father was playing on the enemy side.
This was to happen sooner than later and, of course, two of my uncles were whisked off to meet their certain fatal fate. Then providence intervened. One of my said uncles had recently met then Major Shuwa, a war commander, struck a friendship with him and had invited him to lunch in our village on the day they were whisked off. Major Shuwa arrived to meet wailing and commotion and he inquired what the matter was.
When he was told he promptly proceeded to seek them out, which he did just as the executioners were awaiting final orders for their dispatch to history and eternity. Both uncles lived to old age with one of them, seeing me through school and becoming the chairman of my State’s Traditional Rulers Council and a successful businessman.
Till this date, my family remembers him very fondly and with gratitude, especially when we got to know that his meeting my uncle was not accidental after all. We got to know much later that he knew my father, knew his circumstances and the situation his family was likely to be in and that he needed to do everything to help. I was to meet him for the last time, as it has now turned out, during my National Service in Bauchi in 1979 when he came on official visit as Federal Commissioner for Trade. He promptly picked me out and inquired after my family.
His death is tragic moreso the manner of it. For a General, who fought and risked his life in the Nigerian civil war to keep the country one, surviving bullets, mortars and the elements, to be summarily dispatched by a band of hoodlums in old age and in the security of his home is a tragic irony. It was like surviving a war to die of dog bite. General Shuwa certainly deserved more respect and a better fate in our mortal understanding but who can question the will of the Almighty ? More than ever before, the Northern elite must do some soul-searching and introspection on the implications of the current security challenge in the North, especially the North-east.
The wanton killings are gravely depleting its best resource, human beings. In the certain event of an economic turnaround, the region will be handicapped in taking full benefits of any positive economic change in the region if this trend continues. The rest of the country will be missing the point if it sees the sad phenomenon in the North as a Northern problem. It certainly is not. The rest of the country can only move as fast as that region moves.
It is, therefore, in our best interest as a nation to get this challenge resolved as quickly as possible. The unfortunate killing of General Shuwa brings a new dimension to the situation. General Shuwa, and many more like him, represent, in these confounding times, forces of moderation. Targeting forces of moderation at a time when what is needed most is reasonableness, introspection and circumspection can only escalate extremism.
It makes the death of General Shuwa even more sad. As we reflect on the tragic end of this fine officer and gentleman, an epitome of rectitude and humility in public life, a true senior citizen, patriot and hero, we pray that the Almighty forgives him his sins and admits his soul to His kingdom and that his death will bring healing to our fractured spirits and broken land . •Victor Ndoma-Egba, Senate Majority Leader, represents Cross River Central Senatorial District
TheSun

Name those who want to compromise you, Presidency challenges Ribadu

by Leon Usigbe and Jacob Segun Olatunji

Mallam Nuhu Ribadu

THE Presidency, on Thursday, challenged chairman of the Task Force on Petroleum Revenue, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to expose those he claimed made overtures to him to compromise the report submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan, accusing him of encouraging “negativism” over the report.The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, who gave the position at a press briefing in Abuja, also said the report had become over-politicised.
Similarly, he accused the committee of failing to carry out a critical part of its mandate to verify data used, which would, therefore, make it impossible to indict or punish anyone that may be found culpable.
The presidency noted that there was a major public disinformation deliberately calculated to overheat the polity and cause disaffection and opprobrium against the president “for doing what is right, needful and profitable for the nation.”
According to Okupe, “his claim of an overture to him to compromise the report is perfidious and false. We respectfully enjoin him to be patriotic enough to name the proponents of this compromise.
“If Ribadu claims that by serving on the committee, he is on the side of the Nigerian people, on whose side is President Jonathan whose idea it was in the first place to set up the task force and approved the appointment of Mallam Ribadu as chairman of the committee?”
The presidency also questioned the leakage to foreign media of a version of the report.
NigerianTribune

Dropped female judge: Inside details of why CJN did not swear her in

by Taiwo Adisa, Lanre Adewole and Tunde Oyesina

PRIVILEGED sources within the top hierarchy of the judiciary revealed that Justice Ifeoma Jombo-Ofo, in an application form for elevation to the intermediate court filled by her four years ago when Abia State had no vacant slot, filled Anambra State, which had vacant slot then, as her state of origin.
Though from Anambra State, she was to have picked the available slot, despite having changed her state of origin in her service documents to Abia State when she got married to an indigene of Abia State.
She reportedly lost the Anambra slot to another candidate.
While applying for the same elevation this year, she reportedly filled Abia as her state of origin because it was Abia that now had a vacant slot, while Anambra State did not have an opening.
Following the discovery of the mix-up in the state of origin column for her in the two applications, the CJN reportedly summoned her to her office and asked whether she filled the two application forms by herself.
She was said to have confirmed filling the two forms with different states of origin.
Justice Jombo-Ofo was reportedly informed of the fate awaiting her at that point by the CJN over the issue.
Since the refusal to swear her in along with other judges by the CJN, there has been pressure from all quarters on the CJN to pardon and reconsider Jombo-Ofo, but as of press time, she had reportedly not shown any signs of yielding.
She reportedly told those who contacted her on Jombo-Ofo’s behalf, that some judges had patiently waited for Abia’s slot to be available and she could not jump ahead those that had been waiting.
An insider told the Nigerian Tribune that the Senate should have asked for all the facts before making a resolution on the matter.
It was gathered that the presidency and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) have kicked off investigations into the refusal of the CJN to swear in Jombo-Ofo as an Appeal Court Judge.
President of the NBA, Mr Okey Wali, who confirmed the Bar’s investigation during a courtesy visit to the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, on Thursday said that the Bar had scheduled a meeting with the CJN over the matter.
He said that the Bar would make its position known after its meeting with the CJN.
Mark, at the meeting, said that the Senate would continue to insist on the swearing-in of the judge, adding that the development amounts to a threat to the institution of marriage.
He said that the Senate did not get any petition against the judge when it screened and confirmed her appointment.
It was learnt that when these inconsistencies were discovered, the CJN confronted her with the facts but there was no reasonable defence.
This had necessitated the CJN to write to the president concerning her issue and subsequently went ahead to put on hold her swearing-in as a Judge of the Court of Appeal.
According to a source close to the CJN, “Justice Mukhtar has nothing personal against Justice Jombo-Ofo. It is unfortunate that people never thought it wise to seek the truth of what happened but rather went ahead to rely on media reports to castigate and vilify the Chief Justice of Nigeria without getting the true facts of the matter.
“When these inconsistencies were discovered by the CJN, she confronted Justice Jombo-Ofo with the facts and when she had no defence, the CJN then decided to defer her swearing-in.
He maintained that Nigerians should always strive to listen to both two sides of the story before jumping to conclusions, adding that “if the CJN were to be vindictive, the woman may have to face disciplinary measures as this borders on the integrity of a judicial officer, but like a mother she wants to ensure that justice is done to all parties concerned.
NigerianTribune

A’Court Reserves Verdict in Airhiavbere’s Suit

Maj.-Gen Charles Airhiavbere (rtd).

The Court of Appeal in Benin City, Edo State, Wednesday reserved judgment on the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the July 14, governorship poll, Maj.-Gen Charles Airhiavbere (rtd).

Airhiavbere had gone to the court to seek a declaration that the issue of qualification is a matter which the Election Petitions Tribunal should assume jurisdiction on, while the state Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, is at the court seeking to quash the remaining reliefs sought by the appellant at the tribunal.

When the matter came up yesterday,  counsel to Airhiavbere, Chief Efe Akpofure, said: “the issues before your lordships are clear. Whether the issue of qualification is a pre-election matter, therefore the tribunal has no jurisdiction. I submit with the greatest respect that that was erroneous and does not have the support of the law and the Electoral Act.

“The issue whether materials for qualification were adequately pleaded before the lower tribunal was not in doubt because the tribunal in its own ruling, admitted so on page 879, Vol 2 lines 11-16.”

Airhiavbere contended that the issue of qualification was not a pre-election matter that ought to have gone to the High Court, saying, “the lower tribunal was therefore wrong to proceed to strike out reliefs 1 and 2 in the petition.”
However, counsel to Oshiomhole (1st respondent), Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), countered the appellant’s argument, arguing that the live issue of qualification had already been determined by the tribunal.

Olanipekun said the PDP which sponsored the appellant was not in court.
He said: “My lord, this is an appeal by an orphan and the court is not an orphanage. His party is saying we concede the election, but he is saying we want to file an appeal.”

He maintained that: “There is no ground challenging disqualification or not of the 1st respondent. They only mentioned corrupt practices. The appellant has also argued that the lower tribunal ought to have taken cognisance of the provisions of the Constitution. The appellant specifically pleaded the Electoral Act and there was no reference to the Constitution and that was the argument we proffered, appeal is a continuation of hearing.

“If there is complaint that the forms submitted in 2007 is different from that submitted in 2012, then those are issues they ought to have ventilated before the High Court which could have led to a disqualification and not annulment of election.”

“My Lord, we are not here for magic, when you are pleading non-qualification, it will be non-qualification as per the provisions of the constitution. The fora for ventilating non-qualification as provided by the Electoral Act, particularly in respect to declaration in INEC Forms as provided by Section 31 of the Electoral Act is either the Federal High Court or State High Court pre-election and not ante-election.”

In his own application, Oshiomhole also sought to quash the remainder of the case before the tribunal, saying that the tribunal “rightly agreed that there was no petition before it and struck out the main reliefs instead of striking out the entire petition. There is no live issue remaining before lower tribunal.

“The court is not to try hollow rituals, it is a serious business when you go to the court. It’s not picnic, it is not an adventure and that must be taken seriously by all of us, litigants, lawyers alike.”

He begged the Appeal Court to hold that “there is no live issue before the lower tribunal to countenance at all.”

Both Governor Oshiomhole and General Airhiavbere were in court yesterday.

ThisDay