Policemen Come To Aid Of Banker Robbed But End Up Shooting Him And Security Guard In Lagos

Mr. Femi Badejo, an employee of Access Bank Plc, and his security guard, Joshua Moses, were on Saturday, shot by policemen in Lagos after they responded to a distress call about a robbery at the banker’s home in Ikota area of the state.

Badejo On Hospital Bed. Insets: Lagos CP, Umaru Manko, and Empty Bullet Shells Fired By The Policemen.

The robbers had attacked Badejo and his neighbours around 4am and one of the neighbours made a distress call to the police, but by the time the policemen arrived about an hour later, the robbers had fled.
Badejo who is currently receiving treatment at St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos Island, said he and his neighbours were in the compound discussing what had transpired when the policemen stormed the building and started shooting sporadically.
According to him, “I live in a one-storey building and there are four tenants occupying the ground floor. Around 4am, armed robbers stormed our house.
“The robbers robbed all of us occupying the ground floor. They stole my clothes, money, phones and other valuables. While the robbery was ongoing, one of the tenants called Maroko Police Division.
“We (neighbours) were all inside the compound counting our losses when we heard a bang on the gate. Immediately the security guard opened, one of the policemen started shooting indiscriminately.
“The security guard was shot in the pelvis and in the back but the bullet pierced through his chest. I immediately took cover under a car but the policeman came to where I was and started shooting at me.
“Another policeman came behind me and shot. The first shot came through my feet and fractured my leg. Two shots grazed my thighs. Another shot went through my biceps and came out, while one went through my wrist.”
Badejo and the injured guard who were immediately rushed to the hospital, said it took the intervention of neighbours as well as the Divisional Police Officer of the station to prevent him from being killed. The guard who is said to be in critical condition, was subsequently transferred to General Hospital, Broad Street, before he was then taken to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
Badejo, who berated the police for lack of professionalism, said, “When the policemen came into the compound, they didn’t even ask any questions. One of them just started shooting. Even the armed robbers did not even assault me, they only took my belongings.”
The spokesperson for the state police command, Ngozi Braide, on Sunday could not be reached for her reaction to the incident.
 InformationNigeria.org

Opinion: On pastors and jets – Let’s not get carried away as Christians

inShare

by Olayinka Olorisade

Criticisms are flying all over the place and emotions are running high, but bottom line is, many think that ‘pastors’ have become day-time robbers. I think that people need to re-evaluate themselves and I have a few (maybe not a few) questions I want us all to answer.

There has been so much talk from people. This issue of pastors owning private jets instead of doing charity work with all of their life and money, has evoked so much emotion from people. The latest news is another prominent pastor has been given a private jet as gift and he dared to receive it and even keep it!
“What audacity!” many say.
Many are of the opinion that he should sell it and use the proceeds for charity, while some think that if it was a gift to him, then by all means, he should keep it. The arguments are that ‘pastors’ now buy private jets and ‘big cars’, live large while the congregation suffers. They take offerings and tithes, impoverish the already poor congregation, do not pay taxes, and then live large.
Criticisms are flying all over the place and emotions are running high, but bottom line is, many think that ‘pastors’ have become day-time robbers. I think that people need to re-evaluate themselves and I have a few (maybe not a few) questions I want us all to answer.
I want us to think through them carefully and be open to answering them honestly (please be honest with yourself at least). Here goes my questions:
Do you think you deserve the best?
Are you working hard and smart to achieve that best?
Are you materially responsible for anyone (no matter how little) asides your family whether at work, where you live or just anywhere?
Do you give part of your income to charity or just give part of it to people who need money, food, shelter or clothing, asides your family?
Do you provide food, shelter or clothing to people asides your family?
Do you think about the fact that your neighbour might not have had anything to eat for days before you take that bite of your precious sliced bread (even though we’re thought to break bread and eat as the proper way of eating bread) or sink your teeth into that apple or dip your hand in your pocket for money to buy Shawarma and Ice cream?
Do you want a house(s), a car(s)?
Do you want to be able to travel the world, go anywhere you want to, whenever you want? And If you get the opportunity, would you go?
Do you think you deserve to receive and keep your gifts?
(And here goes the not so nice questions)
Do you cut corners?
Do you cheat in exams or have cheated before and did not think there was something wrong with that?
Do you take or give bribe?
Do you change figures at work?
Are you diligent, honest, and loyal at work?
Can you say you genuinely love and care for others (asides family and friends, those are easy to love) like God says we should?
Do you jump queues?
Do you lie and cheat?
Do you throw rubbish on the floor/streets/roads? (Yes, you read that right. It is illegal behaviour which is corruption, so, if you do, you are corrupt!)
Are we not all to be like our Lord (whoever yours is)?
As Christians ( I am a christian, so I would speak as one), are we not all to be like Christ, giving materially, emotionally, with our energy and time?
Caring for the oppressed and poor, healing the sick and brokenhearted?
Are we not all referred to as Priests (‘Pastors’)?
Are we not the body of Christ, the Church? Don’t we all make up the Church? Or is the building the Church? Is the Church not the people who come in to the building?
Now I know people may have gotten carried away by some things, but I don’t want us to get carried away by the thought that a ‘pastor’ is that man or woman that stands on the pulpit in that building every Sunday and gives sermons from the Bible, because we are all pastors.
No christian is excused from what the Bible says Christians should do. And you don’t even have to have a religion to genuinely care and cater in every way you can, for your neighbour. If we all do what we say only the ‘pastor’ and the ‘Church’ ought to do, the world would be a better place to live in.
YNaija.com

Revolution coming, Obasanjo says‘...the danger ahead is real and potent’

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed fears that Nigeria will witness a revolution soon unless government takes urgent steps to check growing youth unemployment and poverty.
Speaking at the West African regional conference on youth employment in Dakar, Senegal at the weekend, Obasanjo said the danger posed by an army of unemployed youth in Nigeria can only be imagined.
“I’m afraid, and you know I am a General. When a General says he is afraid, that means the danger ahead is real and potent,” he said.
Obasanjo added that despite what he called the imminent threat to Nigeria’s nationhood “there is absence of serious, concrete, realistic, short and long term solution” to youth unemployment.
He made reference to the doctorate degree holders who applied for jobs as drivers at the Dangote Group, saying Nigerian youths have been patient enough and that this patience will soon reach its elastic limit.
According to the former president, youth unemployment rate which was 72 per cent in 1999 when he took over power had been reduced to 52 per cent by 2004 but that the rate rocketed to 71 per cent by 2011.
Obasanjo left office in 2007, succeeded by Umaru Yar’Adua who died in 2010, and President Jonathan has been in office since then.
The former president lamented that the unemployment situation had given rise to the prevalence of social crimes being perpetrated by three categories of youth whom he identified as area boys, Yahoo boys and, recently, Blackberry boys.
He told the diverse audience that in Nigeria people talk of growth without corresponding development, and that what is visible is increased poverty.
Obasanjo said national leaders must create incentives that will encourage entrepreneurs to flourish and that special attention should be given to agriculture business as against mere farming.
He reiterated the need for easy access to land and micro credit, while advocating for a review of school curriculum to enable undergraduates spend additional one year to learn entrepreneurship.
At the sub-regional level, Obasanjo called for a review of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) to accommodate issues of youth unemployment and job creation.
The conference, which was sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the African Development Bank, was attended by top bankers from across Africa including the Managing Director of Nigeria’s Bank of Industry, Ms. Evelyn Oputu.
DailyTrust

5 things one should never do while sleeping

Sometimes a word isn’t enough for the wise, so medicos have decided to give so many words to explain to us how to save us from a lot of medical disasters. check this out..
1 – DON’T SLEEP WITH WATCH Watches can emit a certain level of radioactivity. Though small, but if you wear your watchto bed for a long time, it might have adverse effects on your health.
2 – DON’T SLEEP WITH BRA Scientists in America have discovered those that wear bras for more than 12 hours have ahigher risk of getting breast cancer. So go to bed without it.
3 – DON’T SLEEP WITH PHONE Putting the phone beside your bed or anywhere near you is not encouraged. Though some of us will use phones as alarm clocks, but please put the phone as far as possible. Scientists have proved that electrical items including mobile phone and television sets emit magnetic waveswhen used. These waves can cause disruptions to our nervous system. Therefore if you need to put your mobilephone near you, switch it off first.
4 – DON’T SLEEP WITH MAKE UP People who sleep with make up might have skinproblems in the long run. Sleeping with make up will cause the skin to have difficulty in breathing and problem in perspiring. You will also need a much longer time to go into deep sleep. Lastly….. & Most Important,
5 – DON’T SLEEP WITH OTHER PEOPLE’S WIFE/ HUSBAND You may never wake upagain.
InformationNigeria.org

Steve Oronsaye under fire over “shameful” antics to discredit Ribadu panel report

Ata Udo

Activists say Mr. Oronsaye’s conduct is “shameful and irresponsible” and might undermine the war against corruption

Furious reactions have continued to trail the acrimonious altercation between members of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force during the formal submission of their final report to President Goodluck Jonathan  Friday.

Some Nigerians, who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday, described the open disagreement and rejection of the report by the deputy Chairman of the committee, Steve Oronsaye, as not only “shameful and irresponsible”, but also an “attempt to undermine President Goodluck Jonathan’s determination to fight corruption and entrench transparency and accountability in the country’s petroleum industry.”

Mr. Oronsaye, deputy Chairman of the Committee and former Head of Service of the Federation, and Bon Otti, a member, openly discredited the report submitted by the Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, former Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on grounds that the process adopted in its compilation was flawed, as all members were not alloweds to see the final draft before submission.

In his reaction, Mr. Ribadu revealed that Mr. Oronsaye and Mr. Otti’s decision to reject the report stemmed from their angst after their desire to tone down the recommendations, which they described as “too harsh”, was turned down by other members.

According to Mr. Ribadu, Mr. Oronsaye had abandoned the assignment in pursuit of his personal ambition to be appointed into the Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, while Mr. Otti was distracted following his appointment as director of finance of the NNPC in the course of the assignment.

But the National Coordinator, Publish What You Pay, PWYP, Nigeria and member, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Board, Faith Nwadishi, said the Federal Government should not, under any guise, use the misguided disagreement and confusion to rubbish and throw out the report.

“The Federal Government should not be misled into thinking that because Mr. Oronsaye allowed himself to be used to rubbish the report that the recommendations should not be considered,” Ms. Nwadishi said.

“Every letter of the recommendations must be considered and implemented. Government should forget about going in circles with all these probes and begin to take more serious interest in the various NEITI audit reports since 1999 if it is serious about checking corruption and promoting transparency in the petroleum industry.

“If the President said that another committee will be constituted to consider the Ribadu report, that should not be done in isolation of NEITI audit reports, and others, like the KPMG and other probe reports on the industry.

“The Ribadu report is not saying anything different from what either the Farouk Lawan Committee Subsidy Report said, or what the NEITI audit reports have been saying over the years about corruption in the petroleum industry. It might be saying the same thing in a different language.”

Ms Nwadishi, who noted that Mr. Oronsaye showed the lack of seriousness most senior citizens exhibit when entrusted with serious national assignments, said he should have been asked to resign from the committee and sanctioned seriously, including being made to refund whatever allowances he might have received as member of the committee if indeed he did not participate in the meetings and deliberations as expected.

“How can a deputy Chairman of a serious committee like that not attend meetings and participate in deliberations where decisions were taken only for him to show up a day before the presentation of the report to complain about process.

“For such lack of seriousness, he should be sanctioned and asked to refund all allowances he may have been paid. It is the very height of irresponsibility for a supposed former Head of Service of the Federation to behave so shamefully.

“If he did not participate in the deliberations of the committee, it is a shame that he still showed up on the day of the report presentation to publicly ask questions and condemn the report. Clearly, Oransaye lent himself to be used to rubbish that report. But, what they should understand is that Nigerians would not allow that report to be rubbished under any guise.”

Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Awwal Rafsanjani, who said there was nothing the Ribadu committee said that is new to Nigerians, noted that  Mr. Oronsaye not only “ridiculed himself by his conduct”, but he was also “clearly undermining President Goodluck Jonathan’s authority and resolve to fight corruption in the country’s petroleum sector.”

“Describing the recommendations of the committee as harsh and demanding that it should be toned down after accepting appointments into the Board of the NNPC and as the Director of Finance, NNPC shows that Mr. Oronsaye and Mr. Otti were serving their selfish interests and not the interest of Nigeria, as they were desperate to justify those appointments,” he said.

For the Chief Economist, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Ozo Esan, it was unfortunate that the members of the committee could not work together to deliver on their mandate, pointing out with the conduct, the “unnecessary controversy appears to have detracted from whatever recommendations they had made in the report, such that instead of facing the real issues of serious corruption and lack of transparency in the petroleum industry, the committee is now debating the disagreements.”

Though he said it was not compulsory that members of committees must always agree, the Labour leader said it was important that they buried their differences and work together, adding that if the differences cannot be resolved, some members may chose to present a minority report that would be presented along with the majority.

“To have come out in public to argue against each other at the point of presentation the way the Ribadu Committee members did was shameful and irresponsible,” Mr Esan said.

PremiumTimes

Doyin Okupe, NNPC, Postpone ‘Briefing’ of Nigerian Editors

Presidential "attack dog", Doyin Okupe

By SaharaReporters, New York

Efforts by President Goodluck Jonathan's attack dog, Doyin Okupe to recruit editors in Lagos towards thrashing the report of the Nuhu Ribadu committee today fell apart after SaharaReporters exposed the plot.
Yesterday, we reported that the presidency, through the Office of the Special Assistant to President Jonathan on Public Affairs, was collaborating with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to host selected journalists at lunch this afternoon in order to brief them.
Following that story, Okupe's people today sent out a text message announcing cancellation of the event and announcing that a “private” new date is in the offing.
The text message sent to the journalists involved reads as follows: "SaharaReporters has carried that d meeting is holding. Dr. Okupe says we shd cancel. A new private date will be communicated. He sends his apologies. Thanks"
The pre-empted meeting was scheduled to hold at the upscale Lagoon Restaurant in Victoria Island Lagos at 1PM Nigerian time.  The text message is code language that a secret meeting, which is often held in the middle of the night, is forthcoming.  Such selected journalists often walk away with lucrative packages, including parcels of land in Abuja.
At today’s event, Mr. Okupe had planned to distribute three different copies of the Ribadu committee report to the journalists as a way of discrediting it.
Mr. Jonathan’s government has a reputation for promising large-scale response to corruption, but it routinely suppresses reports which repeatedly and predictably indict members of the government, their party, and friends.

Ondo Guber: Bitter Tinubu speaks up against Mimiko

AS the tumultuous cloud raised in the build-up to the Ondo State governorship election of October 20 gradually settles, the major actors are still evaluating the process and its outcome.
While Governor Olusegun Mimiko, who was returned winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), finds it convenient to explain the game plan that fetched him the winning results, the two major opposition parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) are still searching for details of why they lost.
As at last week, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State and leader of the ACN, did not concede victory.
Instead, he alluded to being tricked by Mimiko to stay action on an offensive to overrun the State, in the understanding that Mimiko’s Labour Party needed time to blend into the ACN.
Not realising early enough that Mimiko was only buying time to stabilise himself and his lonesome Labour Party (LP) platform, Tinubu said he refused to put life into the structures of the ACN in Ondo State, to give it competitive edge. By the time it became a reality that the LP and ACN would not be together, at least for now, the latter did not have any other choice than to hurriedly mobilise for the October election. The outing was, thus, more of an afterthought and less effective.
Tinubu, the acclaimed master political strategist, was outsmarted and he conceded that much.
Apart from starting late, Tinubu also raised issues with pre-election processes of INEC and the security arrangements, which he said could not have provided the best of level-playing ground.
Tinubu explains how he waited patiently for Mimiko to make up his mind. “We did; we consulted leaders, some leaders even approached us, but there was a limit to our patience here. Just realise one thing, I am not a skater on the wheel of Nigerian politics. I have a party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). I can only promote along with others and other leaders, the interest of that party. I cannot belong to two parties at the same time. So, if there was no commitment of any kind, there is no way I will join hands with a Mimiko for a Labour Party.
“I would have worked hard then for their failure or their destruction, but we waited only on the promise of Mimiko coming to our party. Then we said ‘ok, if you will share that common goal, and vision, we will work together to actualise your dream,’ and we did. We said to him; ‘if you know you were cheated, we will work with you,’ and we did. Then, he promised that within 30 days of his inauguration, within one month, he would move over; that is the truth! Then, the first, second, and third year went; we left our party un-serviced. Men of goodwill came and discussed with us, and suddenly, we saw the shifting.”
Tinubu disclaimed insinuations that the loss of Ondo is a signal that Southwest is no longer within his control. According to him, it only thought him a lesson on the need to be firmer on future political collaborations.
On 2015, he said the opposition must come together to dislodge the PDP, adding that President Jonathan has failed to perform.
On Pa Obafemi Awolowo’s legacy, Tinubu said: “I have read Awolowo in several books, and he is our hero and mentor, but I cannot but be Bola Tinubu. I can only thread the path of Awolowo, without his shoes… I didn’t know his size; I can’t step into his shoes because they are either bigger or smaller, and his image and legacy are bigger than myself. I can only use and share the vision. He went away with his shoes and his cap, but he left a legacy, a vision.”
The ACN leader also said that attempts to rubbish the report of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force headed by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu with the motive of undermining his integrity would not succeed.
LibertyReport