Fight over land: Winners Chapel in Ilorin burnt down

inShare

Suspected arsonists burnt down a Living Faith Church on Wednesday December 12, destroying property worth millions of naira.
According to the provincial Pastor of the church, Timothy Olaniyan, he got a distress call at about five in the evening informing him about the incident at his church on Airport road, Ilorin.

Reports claim the church and a group were involved in a land dispute and recently the co- secretary of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), Prof. Ish’aq Oloyede had visited the site with some members of the group.

 “We had reported the matter to the Commissioner of Police and wrote a letter to Gov. Abdulfattah Ahmed, who directed his Deputy Chief of staff, Mr Leke Ogungbe, to handle the matter.

“Also one Sharia Court judge, Alhaji Saliu Mohammed, came and said that the Emir of Ilorin instructed him to mediate in the matter in order to ensure peace.

“At about 8.pm on Monday, we noticed some strange people flashing touch light to the church from a distance.

“Again, we reported to the police only for us to wake up to see a burnt church on Wednesday morning,’’ he said.

Ogungbe, who visited the scene,  appealed for calm and urged the church members not to embark on reprisal attack. “It is quite unfortunate that the incident happened, even the security agency is aware of my mediating role,’’ he said.

He assured the public that government would ensure security of lives and property in the state.

Muyideen Akorede, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, also said that government had directed security agents to investigate the incident with a view to allowing the law to take its full course.
The disturbing incident drew  a number of reactions. The Kwara chapters of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) condemned the burning of the church.

CAN Secretary in the state, Rev. Cornelius Fawenu, told NAN that the association would demand that justice be done.

“We are not going to lie low as we did in the past; CAN would explore all means to get to the root of the arson,” Fawenu said.

The NLC chairman in the state, Umar Akanbi, also described the incident as unfortunate, saying:  “We don’t need this kind of thing in Kwara.’’

The NLC boss called for religious tolerance and understanding between adherents of the different religions.

In his reaction, the Chairman of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Kwara chapter, Shakir Akorode, said it was dastardly for anyone to burn down a sacred place of worship.

“I don’t believe that any sane person would commit such a dastardly act. I am sure the fire outbreak is an accident.

“In Kwara State, everybody lives in harmony with one another. Government should investigate the fire and fish out the culprits, ’’ Akorode said.

He asked the youths in the state not to take  the law into their hands.
YNaija.com

Farouk Lawan: Saint Or Sinner?

UCHENNA AWOM

The occasion was meant to be an avenue where the people of Shanono/Bagwai Federal Constituency made their inputs into the ongoing constitution review exercise but it turn out to be a platform where a vote of confidence was passed on one of their sons, Honourable Farouk Lawan UCHENNA AWOM reports
It was ordinarily an occasion to get the people’s input into the on-going constitution review exercise, but it turned out to be more than that. It became a carnival of sorts.
The people came out in their thousands to celebrate their son. Nothing would stop them any way. Not even “those who designed evil against an innocent person”.
A teacher in the crowd, Haruna Adamu Gogori, was full of anger as he declared that those who designed evil against the “innocent person” being celebrated on the occasion would fail.
The mood of the crowd was in tune with the thinking in many quarters that a four-term member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Farouk Lawan was set up by some dark forces for political ruination.
The dark forces in this case are those bent on stalemating the report of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on petrol subsidy by raking allegation of bribery against the former committee chairman, Lawan.
The committee was apparently hard on the fraudsters in the subsidy regime by exposing the rot. This has now been confirmed by the reports of both Aigh Imokede and Mal Nuhu Ribadu whose findings and recommendations substantially tally with the Farouk Lawan report. The bribery allegation is seen as part of the move to rubbish the House committee report. Farouk defended his action.
The lawmaker’s constituents in Shanono/Bagwai Federal Constituency, Kano State used the opportunity provided by the public hearing on the review of the 1999 constitution to give their son a clean bill of health on the bribery saga.
Perhaps there is no better evidence to prove that Farouk acted transparently on the petrol subsidy investigation than those that came from his people who know him intimately.
Prof M D Mukhtar, a professor with Bayero university described the allegations against the lawmaker as a concoction of lies to destroy Farouk’s reputation and career. He lamented the manner in which the system pulls down its best, noting that Lawan has become a first among equals even amongst his colleagues in the National Assembly.
 Another constituent, Alh Muhammad Tukur Gadanya a prominent wealthy businessman in kano who confided that he had known the lawmaker from childhood, said Farouk had always been above board and a dogged fighter who “simply is incapable of the wicked lies they concocted against him”. Aisha, also a constituent and petty trader, said it was inconceivable that Farouk “will do the sort of things they want us to believe he did”.
She added: “Allah is great. The truth is beginning to come out”. The crowd went wild when the serial lawmaker arrived the venue of the public hearing, chanting a victory song: “Shanono/Bagwai Sai Farouk”. For several minutes, Farouk could not disembark from the black SUV that brought him as the crowd surrounded the vehicle.
On alighting from the vehicle, the lawmaker, overwhelmed by the show of solidarity, could only utter a few words. “I thank … I am really grateful to you all. May Allah continue to be with you all. I bear no malice against anyone. Long live Nigeria,” he told the constituents.
Although the occasion was in connection with the constitution review, Farouk’s constituents made the point clear: Our son is our hero and we are proud of him. This became very clear when a thunderous applause greeted the remark by Dr Ayuba Ibrahim, a former director of the National orientation agency that the people identify with him and are very proud of his dogged fight against enemies of progress and good governance.
Addressing the constituents on the business of the day, the lawmaker told the gathering that the House decided to adopt a rigorous approach to the constitution review exercise in order to ensure the credibility of the process in a bid to give Nigerians the opportunity of contributing to a process that would give the country a better constitution.
“The programme is a consultative initiative of the House of Representatives aimed at ensuring a more participatory, inclusive and transparent review of the constitution.”
He, therefore, implored the people “to look critically at the provisions of the 1999 Constitution and suggest new areas they would want included or existing provisions they want amended or expunged from the constitution.”
However, many people from the constituency said they wanted real autonomy for local governments. They also favoured the creation of more states provided that population and land mass will play critical role as part of the defining criteria, but are opposed to the idea of state police.
In his remarks, representative of the Chairman of the Committee for the creation of Ghari state from the present Kano State, Alhaji Haruna Mohammed Shanono, renewed his justification for the proposed state. He said there was no reason that additional states should not be created from the present Kano State in view of its population and land mass.
The agitation for the creation of Ghari state started during the regime of the late Gen Sani Abacha.
The session was well attended with virtually all prominent indigenes of the constituency in attendance. They included traditional rulers, business community leaders, members of various unions, women, youths, physically challenged and people of all walks of life.
Among the dignitaries that graced the public hearing were, former Military Governor of Akwa Ibom State. Col. Yakubu Bako, who chaired the session, Alhaji Mohammed Sani Gadanya, Alhaji Ayuba Ibrahim Adamu, former director, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Alhaji Abdullahi Beza; former National Vice-President North  West, Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ), Hon Lawan Safiyanu Gogori and Alhaji Haruna Mohammed Shanono, Alh Zakari Ibrahim, Hon Ado Isyaku Daddauda, Dr Muhd Ibn Abdullah, Alh Adamu Said Ahmed.
 Leadership

Man In Court For Allegedly Raping Fellow Chorister

A man identified as Chukwuma Iheme was on Wednesday charged before an Ogudu Magistrate’s Court, Lagos, for allegedly attempting to rape a church member.
25-yeaar-old Iheme and his victim are choristers of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Goshen Parish, Ogudu Lagos.
The suspect with no fixed address who pleaded not guilty was arraigned on a three count-charge of assault, stealing and rape.
Police prosecutor Donjor Perizi told the court that Iheme had on August 14 visited Omimi Faith in her residence at No. 1, Samara Street, Elebiju, Ogudu, Lagos, and made s*xual advances to her which was turned down by the complainant.
“After the refusal, Iheme suddenly jumped on Faith and stripped her naked. In the process, the accused beat the complainant and forcefully twisted her left hand which caused dislocation on her wrist,” Perezi said.
He added that the accused stole Nokia X3 phone valued at N23, 000 from the complainant, stressing that the accused was arrested following complain by Faith.
The offences according to him contravened Sections 171, 285 and 260 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Lagos State, 2011.
Adjourning the case till January 14 for mention, Magistrate B.F Williams granted bail to the accused in the sum of N50,000 with two sureties in like sum.
InformationNigeria.org

Boy who turned 12 at 12:12pm on 12/12/12 labelled the Antichrist (PICTURED)

by Hauwa Gambo

When Kiam Moriya turns 12, the whole world will be watching.
The Alabama boy – who loves Krispy Kreme donuts and BMX biking – was born at 12:12 p.m. on December 12, 2000.
His twelfth birthday falls on Wednesday, 12/12/12.
“We’ve joked around that he’s the chosen one,” Kiam’s father, Kazuo Moriya, told Today.com.
Some say his son is lucky, but others fear the boy is a sign of a pending apocalypse.
“There are these weirdos out there online, all these doomsday people, saying he needs to be killed and that he’s the Antichrist,” Moriya said.
“We’re trying to tone it down because it’s a little freaky. It’s just a fun little story.”
The numerically bizarre date has swept the nation into a frenzy, as luck-seekers scoop up lottery tickets and couples seek marriage licenses to wed on Wednesday.
While many people celebrate birthdays on Dec. 12, Kiam’s sparked extra attention because of the exact time he was born. His parents first noticed the strange alignment of twelves while filling out paperwork for his birth certificate.
“The lady who was helping us fill out the forms said, ‘Do you realize your son was born December 12 at 12:12 p.m?” Moriya, originally from Tokyo, told Today.com.
“That’s when it really hit us with all those twelves. I do have to admit that it might mean something, but I have no idea what. It’s definitely a little crazy.”
The Moriyas will celebrate Kiam’s birthday during the sixth-grader’s lunch period at Joseph S. Bruno Montessori Academy in Birmingham. His mom Tamara is bringing Krispy Kreme donuts for the entire school.
They’ll be arranged in the shape of a 12, she told AL.com.
Kiam, who was born premature at a hospital in Bronxville, N.Y., told the website his birthday is “very cool.”
“It’s like one minute out of a lifetime,” he said. “You know, it’s all 12s.”
A similar date won’t happen for 88 years, when 01/01/01 rolls around.

Okada Riders Hurl Stones At Police Over Traffic Laws

Commercial motorcyclists, otherwise known as Okada riders’ protest over the new Lagos State Traffic Laws on Wednesday turned violent in Majidun area of Ikorodu as they clashed with a team of policemen.
Reports say the Okada riders numbering over 300 took to the street at about 8am, wielding dangerous weapons, and in the process attacked a Lagos State Bus, LAGBUS, and also started a bonfire on the road forcing passengers to trek long distances before boarding buses to their respective destinations.
According to an eyewitness, on sighting a team of policemen approaching, the commercial motorcyclists began to hurl stones at them while fleeing in different directions.
In the process, one of them reportedly abandoned his bike and jumped into a lagoon, apparently to avoid being made a scapegoat.
Yesterday’s protest it was learnt was not unconnected with the seizure of several motorbikes by some policemen during Tuesday’s protest.
The new traffic laws bars commercial motorcyclists from plying 475 of the state’s over 9,000 roads.
InformationNigeria.org

Arsene Wenger faces greatest EVER crisis

MAYAN culture has it that the world will end next Friday.

Yet Arsene Wenger’s own world may have come to a conclusion at Bradford on Tuesday night.
Even Wenger loyalists have arrived at the situation where they believe his time is up.
Yes, he has been a brilliant, mould-breaking manager with, at one time, a conveyor-belt of outstanding talent producing the nearest thing to fantasy football.
But seven years of famine at a club like Arsenal is too long, especially when there are few signs that seven years of plenty will follow.
As Alan Shearer argued in these pages recently: Would a club like Chelsea, Manchester United or AC Milan put up with this sort of failure?
Before the rot was temporarily halted by the Gunners’ 2-0 win over West Brom on Saturday, Wenger had used in his defence the fact that the club were still in four competitions. That, though, was being a little economic with the truth.
Arsenal are not in contention for the Premier League and have even less chance of winning the Champions League.
Now, humiliatingly, they are out of the League Cup, humbled by a club from the fourth tier.
The third round of the FA Cup sees them at Swansea, who won 2-0 at the Emirates two weeks ago. No, it doesn’t look good.
Wenger appears like a man in denial. He has loaded the club with some of the poorest players ever to wear the famous red shirt and on Tuesday night, oversaw the worst defeat in his 16 years at Arsenal.
But the most troublesome thing of all is the damage he might be doing himself.
Yes, we have always known how stubborn he is. Yes, we have always joked about his Basil Fawlty impersonations on the touchline.
Except that now he really does appear to have lost the plot. He also looks worryingly gaunt and grey in the face.
On the one hand, he is arguing the whole time with officials and kicking over water bottles. On the other, he’s not talking to the men alongside him.
There certainly doesn’t appear to be much dialogue with Steve Bould. Yes, he promoted Bould to assistant but this increasingly seems to have been merely a sop to his critics.

Wenger speaks following Arsenal's cup humiliation

Football

GUTTED Arsene Wenger faces up to the Press after his side were humbled by League Two Bradford

As Bould has discovered to his immense frustration.
The former defender is not keen on Arsenal’s zonal marking system and yet manager Wenger — still very much the man who runs training — persists with it.
Despite all this, I cannot see Le Boss resigning.
And a club for whom he makes millions every year in the transfer market, a club for whom he masterminded the hugely successful move to the Emirates, are hardly going to dispense with his services before the end of his contract in 2014.
But in the interests of their supporters they SHOULD think seriously about a parting of ways at the end of the season.
People will say: “But who can replace him?”
Dortmund’s Jurgen Klopp, perhaps. Or Swansea’s Michael Laudrup.
Or Pep Guardiola, slowly but surely being put off by Chelsea’s manic pursual, a man raised at Barcelona, a club with a solid tradition of doing things the right way, a club with many similar attributes to Arsenal.
It would be a job he would relish, overseeing everything at London Colney, including an academy that has gone off the boil. Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs and, er, very little else.
As former Gunner Stewart Robson, one of the most astute commentators on the club, said yesterday, Wenger has lost the knack of not just spotting young talent but improving it. Look at Thomas Vermaelen. Consumed by the responsibilities of captaincy, his game has actually gone into reverse.
Yes, Wilshere is still very young but I can see only positives by him replacing Vermaelen as skipper.
But back to Tuesday night. There comes a moment in any manager’s life when it is apparent he has gone as far as he can.
A week or so ago Wenger was complaining his players were tired. Yet, going totally against time-honoured precedent in the League Cup of fielding hungry youngsters, he sends out practically a first team at Bradford when he could have been resting them.
Still, only a few will have played more than 20 games — whereas it was Bradford’s 31st match of the season.
And still Arsenal didn’t have a shot on target until the 70th minute.
When they finally appeared to have got out of jail with Vermaelen’s 88th-minute equaliser, it seemed they would go on to take their place in the semi-final. But they couldn’t even do that.
How many times have we heard Wenger talk of his trust in his players’ attitude, character and spirit?
On Tuesday night, this was once again exposed as the sham it is, the attempted use of emotive words to cloud what most Arsenal fans know to be the truth. That character is the one quality they lack.
There are all sorts of things that no longer make sense, that suggest Wenger, sadly, no longer has the answers. Yes, players have to shoulder responsibility.
But as I touched on the other day, how on earth did he sign — or have recommended to him by Gilles Grimandi or Steve Rowley — players like Santos, Chamakh, Park, Squillaci, Gervinho and the rest?
Gervinho, judging by his comical miss at Bradford, is getting worse.
As one cynical Gooner blogged: “Gervinho ends up as such a menace to anything we are trying to achieve I’m starting to think he might actually support Spurs... ”
Then there’s all the other transfer-market deadwood like Arshavin, Denilson, Djourou and Bendtner, all on £50,000-plus salaries but who no one seems to want other than on loan. And now poor Aaron Ramsey, never the same since his broken leg, is becoming the fans’ scapegoat like Emmanuel Eboue before him.
And is Lukas Podolski really going to work out? He didn’t at Bayern Munich. And will Abou Diaby, on his day a true performer, ever be fit?
Then we come to Theo Walcott, the only player with any real pace.
Despite Arsenal signing a new £150million deal with Emirates, they can’t appear to find an extra £20,000 a week for Walcott.
And yet Wenger continues to be paid £7.5m a year. While Ivan Gazidis, chief executive of Arsenal Financial Corporation, pocketed £2.1m last year including a £675,000 bonus on top of one the year before of £669,000. For doing what? Selling Arsenal’s best players?
From the very top — from the absent American owner ‘Silent’ Stan Kroenke — we hear precious little.
It seems increasingly that the only way there will be any change will be if Arsenal fail to qualify for the Champions League.
There will then be a massive groundswell of opinion that billionaire Alisher Usmanov be finally admitted to the board along with a transfer fund of £100m and the return of David Dein to administer it.
And the ending of the days when the club shops at Asda rather than Harrods.
This scenario might just save Wenger. Yet an increasing number of Arsenal fans are coming to the conclusion that the manager has no white rabbits left to pluck from his hat. Certainly no Vieiras or Henrys.
On Monday, Arsenal are at Reading. Then on Saturday, December 22 they travel to Wigan.
Poor results in these two games and the end really will be nigh.
Provided, of course, the world hasn’t ended on the Friday.
TheSun

Christian Woman Murdered By Muslim Ex-boyfriend For Challenging Him Over Daughter’s Conversion To Islam

A Muslim man was jailed for life today for stabbing his devout Christian ex-girlfriend 13 times after they split following bitter rows about him wanting their young daughter to convert to Islam.

Esther Arogundade, 32, was attacked by kitchen porter Shola Adebiyi in her own home after she began a relationship with another man.
Adebiyi also drank oven cleaner in an attempt to kill himself and phoned Esther’s new lover to say he would never see her again before confessing to the killing to a friend.
Police broke into the mother-of-two’s home in Salford, Greater Manchester, and found KFC worker Esther lying dead on the kitchen floor with multiple stab wounds to her back and front.
Adebiyi was jailed at Manchester Crown Court for a minimum of 20-and-a-half years after admitting killing her.
The court heard how Esther began dating Adebiyi in 2007 and that they later had a daughter now aged two but split up last year after a series of rows.
Rob Hall prosecuting said: ‘These arguments were ignited by differences of opinion over the religion of their daughter – the defendant wanted her to convert from Christian to Islam, but Esther was a church goer.
‘There were arguments about expenses, bills and childcare.’
Last March Esther, who also had a nine-year-old daughter living in Nigeria from a previous relationship began a friendship with another man named in court as Mr Alabi.
While visiting family in Africa Mr Alabi received a sinister phone call from Adebiyi, claiming he would be killed if he returned to the UK.
Mr Alabi told Esther about the call and she spoke to Adebiyi but he initially denied it.

Mr Hall added: ‘Mr Alabi returned to the UK and the relationship took the next step and it turned into a sexual relationship.

‘They spent a great deal of time talking and texting on their mobile phones – it may well be that it came to the attention of the defendant.’
On June 26, Adebiyi cleared out his locker at work at a conference centre in Manchester then left armed with a large kitchen knife and waited for Esther and their daughter to come home.
Throughout that evening there were phone calls between Mr Alabi and Esther and also a child minder who was booked for the next day.

But the following morning Adebiyi was said to have made ‘frantic arrangements’ to get child care for his daughter and handed her over at 9.50am along with her birth certificate and left in her push chair.He then called Mr Alabi, who asked about the whereabouts and welfare of Esther only to be told he would never see her again. He then called a friend and confessed he had killed Esther, claiming it had happened during a fight.
The friend went to the house and saw Adebiyi come out wearing a blood-stained t-shirt and holding a large black-handled knife.
He saw him throw the knife into nearby bushes.
In mitigation defence counsel Michael Lavery said his client had made a ‘very genuine’ attempt to take his own life by drinking oven cleaner.
He added: ‘He took the knife to kill himself and his partner. He’s lost his daughter as well as a consequence of his own actions.

‘It is tragic for the victim of this murder and a tragedy for the daughter and for the father too. It is his own fault, I know, but that is not going to make it easier for her.’

Passing sentence Judge Andrew Gilbart QC told Adebiyi it was not clear exactly when he had killed Esther.
He added: ‘Your relationship had come to an end with frequent disagreements and rows between the two of you.
‘She formed a relationship with another man. You resented it, and tried to warn him off with threats.
‘She let you know that she no longer wanted to be with you and wanted to pursue a relationship with another man.
‘You were most upset at that prospect. She sought friendship elsewhere, including in an affair with another man. You were understandably upset but let me be clear about this.
‘Many men and women have to endure the discovery that the husband, wife or partner is no longer content with the relationship they have.
‘Many are jealous or unhappy. But what the law cannot and will not permit is the use of violence, which is what you used.
‘I am prepared to accept that you were very upset – and indeed distraught – at what was happening to your relationship.
‘When you acted as you did you were under considerable emotional strain.’
After the case Senior Investigator Andrew Tattersall of Greater Manchester Police said: ‘The biggest tragedy here is that a young girl has now been deprived of both her parents.
‘Her mother was taken from her in a vengeful, violent attack and no sentence today can bring her back.’
InformationNigeria.org