Jonathan orders tight security at nation’s airports

By KINGSLEY OMONOBI
…As FAAN allays fear of insecurity at Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport
President Goodluck Jonathan has directed tight security measures in and around all Airports in the country in order to forestall any possible attack at the nation’s airports, even as the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria , FAAN, has maintained that there were no security threats at Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport during the Christmas celebration.
Also, soldiers and other security agencies have been put on red alert to forestall any attack from the dreaded Islamic sect, Boko Haram.
Army spokesman, Bridadier General Mobolaji Koleoso, who disclosed this, said that all security agencies have been put on 24-hour surveillance.
General Koleoso said that more successes are being recorded through the mounting of roadblocks and stop and search operations as many arms and ammunitions and suspects have been arrested.
He said that Nigerians should appreciate what the security agencies are doing even though it is causing delays on the highways, but it is for the interest of Nigerians.
On when the roadblocks will be removed, General Koleoso simply answered, “When the president directs”.
However, informed military sources revealed that officers and men of the Armed Forces were not granted pass to travel during the Christmas and the New Year.

Murtala Mohammed Airpot, Lagos

According to the source, the signal released by Defence Headquarters directed all officers and soldiers to remain on their duty posts during the yuletide festivities.
On the retirement of the 36 Generals and 15 Colonels, the Army spokesman stated that the terms and conditions of service of the Army stipulates that at the age of 56 years as a Major General, “You must be prepared to go home”.
Also, at the age of 52 as a Brigadier General, “and you are not promoted to Major General, you must be prepared to go home”.
The conditions also stipulates that six months to your attainment of the age of 56, you must put in for voluntary retirement, failure to do that, the Army Council will retire you compulsorily.
Why there is so much acrimony over the retirement is that some generals wanted a year extension which can only be granted by the President and Commander-In-Chief but were all turned down.
…As FAAN allays fear of insecurity at Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Friday said there were no security threats at Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport during the Christmas celebration. Mr Henry Ofobi, FAAN’s Chief Security Officer (CSO) at the airport made this known to newsmen in Abuja.
He said that this was due to the tight security measures put in place by the authority, adding that it would continue through the New Year. Ofobi reassured airport users of tight security during and after the yuletide.
He said that passengers and other airport users had free and safe movements during the period compared with the level of crime recorded in 2011 and previous years.
Although, he did not release statistics to back up his statement, Ofobi said that many security measures had been put in place by Ms Stella Oduah, the Minister of Aviation. He stressed that the measures were to ensure that no security threat was experienced at the airports across the country.
He added that transactions were conducted in a smooth manner, adding that the kind of stress that passengers normally experienced at this period was absent. “This is due to the remodeling of the airports initiated by the minister.
Vanguard

Opposition Set to Float New Party March

By Onyebuchi Ezigbo

Ongoing talks among the opposition parties may lead to the formation of a new political party by March, a leading member of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim, has said.

Ibrahim, a former Yobe State governor and member of the ANPP's contact committee on opposition merger talks, told some reporters in Abuja that after a series of negotiations, the opposition parties had resolved to form the new party.

“Before March 2013, we are all going to reach an accord on this merger, that is the deadline for the merger materialising. From all indications, the parties are looking forward to forming a totally new party where all the opposition parties will come together as one entity,” he said.

Speaking on the activities of the contact committee, Ibrahim said the members had toured the North-central and South-east zones, during which they consulted with party members on the merger plan.

According to him, the committee is about to start reaching out to the South-south, South-west and North-west zones to rally support for the merger.

He also disclosed that only the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), of all the opposition parties engaged in the merger talks, was yet to come up with its committee members, adding that the party might do so soon.

He said the merger talks between the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), CPC and ANPP were being widened to include the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and some elements in the Labour Party (LP).

“We are talking with the APGA through the Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, on joining the coalition. We are also hoping that part of the Labour Party will join us and then we can form a new party.  That I think will happen.

“This plan appears to be more popular than any other arrangement and I believe there is sufficient time to register a new party,” he added.

He explained that the ACN was doing a similar thing and that the opposition parties were working hard to meet the deadline.

“The ACN has appointed their team, and ANPP has appointed its team and I am part of the committee. We have met several times here; we have even toured the zones.

“We have toured the North-central zone and we connected with all our supporters in Lafia, where we went to address them and they all cheered us over what we’re doing.

“We were in Enugu in the South-east for a whole day, and we are going to go to visit other zones,” he said.

Ibrahim was quite optimistic that this time around, the merger by the opposition parties would not flounder like in previous attempts.

He said: “This plan appears to be more popular than any other arrangement and I believe there is insufficient time to register a new party.

“All the groups were together before – CPC, ACN and ANPP – they were all one when we started the political process in 1999.  It was because of the fragmentation over the years that we became what we are today.

“But it is not impossible for us to get back together, whatever reasons we had for breaking up at that time, we can now rewind everything and find our way back as one family.”

On the issue of a common ideology for the aligning opposition parties, Bukar said there was sufficient evidence of compatibility among the parties engaged in the merger talks.

“Since we are all now in the opposition and we have been calling ourselves members of the progressives, we are going to join hands with some other groups to confront the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),” the former governor stated.

ThisDay

Police Arrest Con-Man Pastor

The police in Lagos State said they have arrested a pastor and a travel agency operator, who allegedly specializes in defrauding intending pilgrims of using the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission.
Lagos State Police Command Spokesperson, Ngozi Braide, who confirmed the arrests, disclosed that the suspects had been granted bail pending the completion of investigations.
The suspects, identified by the police as Lanre Onabanjor, a staff of Ashton & Dave Travel Agency and Rev. Joshua Taiwo, an Ibadan-based pastor, with the Gospel Faith Mission International (GOFMINT), were arrested when policemen attached to Bar-Beach Police Station following a complaint from a victim who accused the suspects of defrauding him of about N1.3million.
A police source says the victim, Fatayi Osholonge, had approached the travel agency, located at Saka Tinubu Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, after speaking to one of their agents assured him that the agency would assist him and his wife arrange a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Vatican in Rome.
Naij

Cleric, Wife And Son Perish In Midnight Inferno In Kano

An Islamic cleric in Rajiyar Zaki area of Kano metropolis, was on Wednesday killed with his wife and their eleven year-old son in a midnight fire that razed the house they were sleepingf in.
The victims, Malam Habibu Abdulhamid Sokoto 55, his wife Malama Aisha Muhammad 35 and their eleven year old Halifa, were asleep when the incident occurred.
The inferno, believed to have been caused by a water heater around 12am, engulfed their three bedroom apartment, trapping the family in one of the rooms, before killing them.
It was gathered that the family were withdrawn into their bathroom to escape from the fire, during which they suffocated from thick smoke and eventually died.
Witnesses and fire officials confirmed the victims did not suffer any visible burns, but had swollen bodies.
The deceased’s house help, Rabi Abdullahi, who witnessed the incident, said that she was woken from sleep by thick smoke after the building had gone up flames. She explained that it was after her efforts to open the victims’ bedroom door failed, that she rushed outside for help.
Operations Officer of the Kano State Fire Service, Kasim Musa, confirmed the incident.
InformationNigeria

Governor Sullivan Chime to return next week after three months abroad – Report

Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State who has been out of the country for about three months is expected back to Nigeria on Monday December31, THE CITIZEN can authoritatively report.
Contrary to speculations that he travelled to India for the treatment of an undisclosed ailment, THE CITIZEN was informed by a source who has 100 per cent accuracy in matters relating to Enugu State Government that the Governor is indeed in a London hospital where he is being treated for cancer of the nose.
Gov. Chime, who had been out of the country since September 19, 2012, had in a letter to the state’s Assembly said he was travelling abroad on a consolidated annual leave. The officials of his administration in the state have continued to insist that he was on accumulated annual leave.
They maintained their ground even when the governor had stayed well over two months which he had set out to stay.
However, the secrecy surrounding the reason for his trip and his state of health helped to fuel speculations as some accounts said he was down Kidney ailment, others said, heart problem, while yet another group said he was poisoned.
About a fortnight ago, there were speculations that he had died in an Indian hospital.
The State’s Commissioner for Information, Mr. Chuks Ugwuoke, swiftly moved to dispel the rumour.
Already preparations for a welcoming ceremony are high gear in anticipation of his coming back.
An elaborate ceremony, which will include the local government area councils, is planned to receive him.
Attempts by THE CITIZEN to speak to Ugwuoke proved abortive, as he did not respond to calls made to him.
 DailyPost

Governor Okorocha, Senator exchange words over motorcade row

The motorcade fracas involving the Governor of Imo State Rochas, Okorocha and Senator Chris Anyanwu is already generating bad blood between both camps.
An indication of this is the divergent accounts of the incident which occurred at Azaraegbelu, Owerri North in Imo State on Wednesday.
Briefing newsmen in Owerri on Thursday, Anyanwu, who represents Imo East Senatorial District, said she had visited Okorocha earlier in the day to felicitate with him on the up-coming wedding of his daughter.
Thereafter, she proceeded to Mbaise for a function and was on her way back at about 5: 30pm, when she noticed, “an intimidating convoy bearing down on her convoy with full compliments of security operatives, conventional and non-conventional”.
Narrating further, the former broadcaster, said she directed her convoy to swerve and stop for the governor’s convoy to pass, but to her surprise, the governor’s security men stopped and blocked her convoy, dragged out the driver of her pilot vehicle and beat him to a state of coma.
She added, “The unwarranted beating and assault on my convoy compelled me to alight from my vehicle and even at that, the assault continued.
“They had dragged my driver into the bush to shoot him when I started shouting that their action was ungodly and barbaric. To my utter shock, Okorocha was watching the entire episode complacently and had even shouted orders to his men saying ‘disarm her security.”
“The act was a misplaced show of power,” she added.
However, the Governor’s Special Assistant on Media, Ebere Uzoukwa, rose in defense of his boss, describing Anyanwu’s claim as false. In fact, the aide said Okorocha escaped death when the Senator’s convoy rammed into his convoy.
Uzoukwa said the Senator after breaching the Governor’s convoy, alighted from her vehicle and ordered her Naval security personnel to open fire.
He said, “The Senator further went berserk and descended on the security men slapping both the Governor’s Aide-de-Camp and Chief Detail. She also rained abuses on the Governor as well as calling him unprintable names.
“However, it is interesting to mention that the Governor’s security men exhibited decency, professionalism and maturity as they never fell into the temptation of manhandling anyone in the Senator’s convoy irrespective of her unruly attitude and that of the Naval ratings in her convoy.”
The statement added, “Recall that His Excellency, Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha recently banned the use of siren by unauthorized persons in the state as part of stringent security measures to fight crime. This calls to question why a serving senator, who obviously is not authorized to use siren, has chosen the path of dishonor, lawlessness as well as refusing totally to subject herself to constituted
authority.”
Analysts say the brawl is likely to heat up political tensions in the South-East state.
DailyPost

Nigeria’s 50 Greatest Footballers Of All Time By SuperSports

SuperSports have compiled a list of Nigeria’s 50 greatest football players of all time, the list which includes football greats such as Kanu Nwankwo and Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha is reproduced below.
1. Nwankwo Kanu
2. Austin Okocha
3. Sunday Oliseh
4. Rashidi Yekini
5. Segun Odegbami
6. Stephen Keshi
7. Emmanuel Amuneke
8. Finidi George
9. Christian Chukwu
10. Muda lawal
11. Peter Rufai
12. Daniel Amokachi
13. Taribo West
14. Uche Okechukwu
15. Teslim “Thunder”Balogun
16. Victor Ikpeba
17. Samson Siasia
18. Adokiye Amiesimaka
19. Vincent Enyeama
20. Celestine Babayaro
21. Thomson Usiyan
22. Taiye ‘Taiwo
23. Henry Nwosu
24. Emmanuel Okala
25. Felix Owolabi
26. Haruna Ilerika
27. Joseph Yobo
28. Aloysius Atuegbu
29. Richard Owubokiri
30. Elkanah Onyeali
31. Patrick Ekeji
32. Best Ogedengbe
33. Bright Omokaro
34. Peter Anieke
35. Yisa Shofoluwe
36. Ben Iroha
37. Julius Aghahowa
38. Osaze Odemwingie
39. Albert Onyeawuna
40. Augustine Eguavoen
41. Yisa Shofoluwe
42. Obafemi Martins
43. Yakubu Aiyegbeni
44. Tijani Babangida
45. Tony Igwe
46. John Obi Mikel
47. Sam Garba Okoye
48. Friday Okoh
49. Etim Esin
50. Dan Anyiam
InformationNigeria