PHOTONEWS: Pro and Anti new PDP Party In A Free-For-All Fight At The National Assembly

Pro and Anti Baraje led brand new PDP Members of House of Representatives in a free for all fight during a visit by the Leadership of the New PDP to the National Assembly on Monday.

Viral: Nigerian Student Uses Magnets To ‘Scientifically Prove’ Gay Marriage Is Wrong

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Sept. 17, 2013
NewsRescue- In a viral as can be imagined, story all over the web, in American celebrity blogs and Tabloids, in Huffington post and several other main stream websites, an article from This Day live presents a very interesting Nigerian who ‘discovered’ that same sex marriage is wrong via an experiment with magnets.
Chibuihem Amalaha, a post-graduate student at the University of Lagos in Nigeria, finally discovered a way to incontrovertibly prove that gay marriage is wrong, using scientific methods including magnets and static electricity charged pens:

“To start with, physics is one of the most fundamentals of all the sciences and  I used two bar magnets in my research. A bar magnet is a horizontal magnet that has the North Pole and the South Pole and when you bring two bar magnets and you bring the North Pole together you find that the two North Poles will not attract. They will repel, that is, they will push away themselves showing that a man should not attract a man. If you bring two South Poles together you find that the two South Poles will not attract indicating that same sex marriage should not hold. A female should not attract a female as South Pole of a magnet does not attract the South Pole of a magnet. But, when you bring a North Pole of a magnet and a South Pole of a magnet they will attract because they are not the same, indicating that a man will attract a woman because of the way nature has made a female. Even in physics when you study what is called electrostatics, you found that when you rub particles together they don’t attract each other but when you rub particle in another medium they will attract each other. For example, if you use your biro and rub it on your hair, after rubbing, try to  bring small pieces of paper they will attract because one is charged while the other one is not charged. But if both of them are charged they don’t attract, which means that man cannot attract another man because they are the same, and a woman should not attract a woman because they are the same. That is how I used physics to prove gay marriage wrong.”

Amahala states that no one has found any problems with his findings, and he hopes someday to win a Nobel prize for his work.
Nigeria among most African nations is not very gay friendly. And an anti-gay marriage bill is about to be signed into law in the country.

• HIV Epidemic Persists In US Gays: MSM (male-sex-male) Have 200x Greater Odds of Infection

Mob violence against same-sex attracted in Africa is highly deplorable.
An animal based argument for same-sex intercourse on the blogosphere (between lions as referenced) needs however be squashed. Same sex attraction and intercourse has actually been found in many animals, however this has not been proven to not be abnormal behavior since unlike man, animals lack the higher human conscience, that for instance engages in marriage–which animals do not, at least not just yet–and choose marriage patterns, monogamy, polygamy, etc. Animals are not yet known to choose and publicly announce such marriage patterns after ceremonies conducted in their ‘Churches.’
Some animals (including our dear cats) also engage in filial cannibalism-which is killing and eating their young. Certainly not a practice many animal theorists will like to engage in.

News+rescue

PDP Press Release: No Deal Yet With President Jonathan • Gov. Akpabio deceiving Nigerians

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Sept. 18, 2-013
No Deal Yet With President Jonathan • Gov. Akpabio deceiving Nigerians
The Alhaji Abubakar Baraje-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wishes
to advise Nigerians to ignore the tissue of lies and propaganda from
the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur faction of the party on the outcome of our
meeting with President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan at the Presidential
Villa last Sunday, 15th September, 2013.
We have read various misleading accounts of what transpired at that
meeting between our progressive Governors – Gov Kwankwaso of Kano, Gov
Wamakko of Sokoto, Gov Amaechi of Rivers, Gov Babangida Aliyu of
Niger, Gov, Nyako of Adamawa, Gov Ahmed of Kwara and Gov Lamido of
Jigawa with President Jonathan on how to resolve the self-inflicted
crisis in our party.
We wish to specifically urge Nigerians and our supporters to ignore
the concocted tales of Gov. Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom and Chairman
of PDP Governors Forum. Akpabio lied by claiming that we have accepted
that President Jonathan should contest the 2015 presidential election
and that most of our demands are being met. The fact of the case is
that no agreement has been reached on any of the issues we tabled
before the President and until we see results, Nigerians should ignore
the present efforts by the Tukur camp to deceive them.
On whether President Jonathan should contest the 2015 presidential
election or not, we wish to say that we have a mechanism and system of
electing our flag-bearers for any election and until the time to
choose the party’s presidential flag-bearer comes, any speculation on
this is just a mere academic exercise.
Tukur’s Faction Not Serious About Peace Moves
Meanwhile, we have been vindicated in our claim that Alhaji Tukur and
his faction are not serious about their purported search for the
return of peace in our party. Just few hours after Sunday’s meeting
between the progressive Governors and the President, Tukur’s faction
once more showed its disdain for peace by unilaterally setting up a
Caretaker Committee to run the affairs of our Kano chapter. This was
done without recourse to either the Leader of the party in Kano State,
Gov. Rabiu Kwankwaso, or other stakeholders of the party from Kano.
This illegality is a clear violation of our party’s constitution and
was hurriedly done just to spite Gov. Kwankwaso, the Party Leader in
the state
We hereby urge our people in Kano State to ignore this illegality as
we have set in motion the machinery to organise a proper election as
stipulated by our party’s constitution.
We are still at a loss why Tukur and his cohorts do not want peace to
reign in PDP but no matter the odds we are very determined to ensure
that peace is restored to our party with the prayers of Nigerians.
Along this line, we once more appreciate the efforts of our Party
Elders to resolve the current crisis bedevilling our party and wish
them success irrespective of the evil designs of Tukur’s faction to
elongate the crisis for selfish reasons.
Long live PDP!
Long live Nigeria!!!
Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze,
National Publicity Secretary, PDP

News+Rescue

Court Disqualifies Nwoye As Anambra PDP Governorship Candidate, Upholds Ukachukwu

Tony Nwoye

 

The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State took another intriguing turn on Tuesday as a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt disqualified the party’s official candidate, Tony Nwoye, from contesting the governorship election on November 16, 2013.
In his ruling today, Justice S. A. Aliyu directed the party to forward the name of Mr. Nicholas Ukachukwu to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as its candidate for the election.
The judge gave the ruling after listening to arguments by Mr. Ukachukwu's lawyers, led by Rickey Tarfa, and the PDP’s lead lawyer, Mr. K. K. Eleja, who was accompanied by other counsel. Justice Aliyu stated that, “based on the dictates of paragraph 4 (a) Part IV of the Electoral Guidelines for Primary Elections of the PDP that the first defendant, Tony Nwoye was not eligible to participate and or take part in the gubernatorial primary election conducted on the 24th August 2013 by the second defendant for the selection of its candidate for the Anambra state governorship election scheduled to hold on November 16 2013 or any other date.”
Citing Section 87 of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended, Justice Aliyu said Mr. Ukachukwu was the only qualified aspirant who pooled the highest number of votes in the August 24 governorship primaries in the state. He then declared that Mr. Ukachukwu “is the duly elected candidate of the PDP to contest for the Anambra state governorship election scheduled to hold on November 16, 2013.”
The judge stated that “an order of injunction is hereby made restraining the first defendant (Tony Nwoye) from parading himself and or representing or holding out himself as the candidate of the second defendant (PDP) in the forthcoming Anambra state governorship election or otherwise representing that he was validly elected/chosen by the PDP as its candidate [in the governorship election] scheduled to hold on November 16 2013 or any other date.” He also made an order “restraining the second and third defendants from holding out, parading, recognizing or in whatever manner presenting to the 4th defendant any other person than the plaintiff (Ukachukwu) as the candidate of the second defendant (PDP) for the Anambra state governorship election scheduled to take place on November 16 2013 or any other date.”
Justice Aliyu also gave an order “restraining the 4th defendant from accepting, recognizing or acting upon, any name other than the name of the plaintiff as the PDP candidate for the Anambra state 2013 governorship election or in any way publishing, displaying, screening, putting on the ballot paper or howsoever dealing with any person other than the plaintiff as the second defendant’s candidate for the Anambra state governorship election scheduled to take place on November 16 2013 or any other date.”

He ordered INEC to “recognize, screen the plaintiff (Ukachukwu), publish and put his name on the ballot paper as the authentic candidate of the second defendant for the Anambra state governorship election.”
Clashing factions of the PDP in Anambra held two parallel governorship primaries on August 24, 2013. Senator Andy Uba emerged as the governorship candidate in one of the primaries supervised by INEC, while Mr. Nwoye, a former medical student who was thrown out in his first year by the authorities of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, was proclaimed winner of the other primary that was supervised by PDP officials from Abuja.
A source close to Mr. Ukachukwu told SaharaReporters that court order issued today had been served on all the principal officers and members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP. “We served the order on the relevant officers of the party at 4.40 p.m. today,” said the source.
 

Saharareporters

Swiss Bank Document Exposes Ibori’s Ownership Of 30 Per Cent Of Oando, 50 Per Cent Of Nigerian Bank

A Southwark Crown Court yesterday heard from a British prosecutor, Sasha Wass, how convicted former Delta State governor James Ibori passed himself off to a Swiss private bank in 2004 as being the owner of an Insurance coy, half owner of a bank and owning 30 percent of indigenous oil firm – Oando, which paid $1.2 million into his account that year.

The court also heard that PKB Private bank had in an internal document likened Ibori, who governed Delta State from 1999 to 2007, to a scion of the Kennedy dynasty in the United States.
Ibori was convicted in February 2012 in the UK after he pleaded guilty to 10 counts of fraud and money-laundering worth 50 million pounds ($79.5 million).
Prosecutors say his total wealth was likely to be far greater than that.
Details of Ibori’s assets and how he kept them from public knowledge through a maze of shell companies and off shore bank accounts are being revealed as part of a three-week confiscation hearing which began in London on Monday.
Prosecutor Sasha Wass told the court that while opening an account at Swiss bank, PKB, through a shell company called Stanhope Investment, Mr. Ibori told the bank he owns 30 per cent of Oando.
Quoting from internal PKB documents, Ms. Wass said the former governor presented himself as the owner of an insurance company and 50 per cent owner of a Nigerian Bank.
She said that a total of $1.2 million (N180 million) flowed into the PKB account from Oando in three instalments that year which had later been funneled into other accounts and were part of funds intended for the purchase of a $20 million (N3 billion) private jet.

This is contrary to a statement by Oando on Monday which claimed that Ibori had only an “insignificant” holding in the firm adding that it had sold $2.7 million of its foreign exchange earnings for naira in 2004 to a company that had later turned out to be controlled by Ibori; a fact it did not know that at the time.
It was learnt that following news of Ibori’s involvement with Oando, its shares dipped 10 per cent at the stock market on Tuesday and might still suffer more slip ups in the coming weeks.
Ms. Wass told the court yesterday that despite his assets being restrained in 2008, Ibori had after that date continued to live a lavish lifestyle, travel and pay fees to the English boarding school where his three children were being educated.
Coupled with his unenviable track record of hiding assets, this led to the “irresistible inference” by investigators that Ibori had further hidden assets which had not yet been uncovered, Ms. Wass said, adding that one option of where these might be, was Oando.
Wass also quoted from an internal PKB report from 2004 which said Ibori came from one of a few Nigerian families which had for decades developed Nigeria’s oil industry.
“We could compare these families with the Kennedy dynasty which also mixed business and politics,” the bank document said. Another excerpt said Ibori was “an extremely rich man as he was doing a lot of business before becoming governor”.


InformationNigeria

NADECO didn’t insist on Abiola’s release — ex-Afenifere member

BY LEKE BAIYEWU  

Banwo

An ex-member of the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief Omotayo Banwo, in this interview with LEKE BAIYEWU, narrates his experience in the post-June 12, 1993 struggle

How would you describe your experience in politics so far?

I’m a politician; I’ve been in politics for 40 years in Lagos State. While in the Social Democratic Party (in the Third Republic), I was the Lagos State electoral officer in the 1993 general election that supervised the conduct of Senator Bola Tinubu’s senatorial election; as well as Senator Anthony Adefuye, who emerged from Lagos-East Senatorial District and Senator Kofoworola Bucknor from Lagos-Central. Tinubu was from Lagos-West.

How would you react to the allegation by Sen. Anthony Adefuye that some leaders of the National Democratic Coalition at a meeting with the then Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, to negotiate the release of the winner of the 1993 presidential election, the  late Chief MKO Abiola, from incarceration were compromised?

First, the allegation was not made by Sen. Adefuye; it was al-Mustapha (former Chief Security Officer to ex-military dictator, late Gen. Sani Abacha) who first revealed that our leaders came to Abuja and collected some money from the then military Head of State. I read the entire interview; he only said ‘some’ leaders of Afenifere. Talking about the meeting they held with Abubakar, the mistake our leaders in Afenifere made then was that we, the followers, expected them to insist on the release of Abiola as a precondition for having discussions with them (the military). They shouldn’t have had discussions with them when Abiola had yet to regain freedom. According to Abiola, ‘you cannot shave my head behind me.’ They were trying to dispute that proverb by attempting to shave Abiola’s head behind him. Everybody expected them to have demanded his release because that was what we were anxious about. For not doing that, whatever efforts they made that day, people did not like it; we are not happy about it.

But the NADECO General-Secretary, Chief Ayo Opadokun, and the spokesperson for the Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, have argued that they raised the issue at the first meeting and were to conclude discussions about Abiola’s release at the second meeting, which the military aborted.

I will still blame them because, in their reports, it was not made a precondition for any meeting at all. We would have expected them to insist on the release of Abiola, even before the first meeting was held. I would have expected them to insist that Abiola must be released so that whatever discussions there were going to have would be based on the fact that they were coming for Abiola’s release. Abiola could have been released before the meeting to encourage them to attend the meeting.

What if the leaders had actually made these demands but the military were adamant, during the meeting that was held behind closed doors?

Everybody would have known; we would have read it in their report. Even, the media would have heard it and we would have been aware. But that was never the case.

The events at the meeting still remain a mystery, so how could the public and the media have known?

From what they have said, they did not insist on Abiola’s release. It was just mentioned in a passive manner. At least, we would have known they insisted. If they had insisted, we would have known by now that they threatened to boycott any subsequent meetings.

What about the allegation that they were compromised during the visit?

That was the allegation; but, at least, we trusted some of these leaders. We’re all taken aback. We were surprised because they were tested leaders; we never expected them to have done that. Only God Knows. Al-Mustapha said he had a video clip of that event; let him make it public so that the world can see. It was that Al-Mustapha’s allegation that Adefuye referred to.

Is the allegation true that Adefuye was with Abiola while the going was good but left him for the military rulers when the going got tough?

To the best of my knowledge, I never knew any time that Adefuye betrayed Abiola. During Abacha’s regime, people saw Adefuye as somebody who was against Abacha. I remember there was a time a petition was written to Abacha, alleging that Adefuye, late Engr. Funso Williams, late Chief Adebowale and Chief Opagun of Onward Paper Mills were part of those who planned to overthrow the government. Based on that, people were witch hunting Adefuye, being the most popular politician among them. We had meetings in his house and all the candidates whose names he submitted for elections were disqualified; I was one of those disqualified. Adefuye himself was to run for the Senate but he was disqualified.

Later, on two occasions, there were bomb blasts in his compound where we usually met. The compound was bombed two times. I remember an occasion in which his mother’s car was damaged beyond repairs.

Who was responsible for the attacks?

We don’t know. We only know it was government agents that came. During the Abacha regime, there were bombings here and there. During our meetings, there was usually helicopter surveillance in the air, monitoring us. It got to a stage where most of us decided to back off, as we were no longer safe. I’m sure if Adefuye was with Abacha, all these things wouldn’t have been happening. He would have been spared from all these embarrassments. I don’t think Adefuye worked for Abacha. Not only that, when we were in his house during the period, his mother died. The initial impression we had was that her burial would be postponed. Later, we were told that Adefuye went to sell his property in Ikeja to finance the burial. So, it was more or less having no job then. He was not given contracts. If actually he was on Abacha’s list, he would have been given contracts.

Are you aware if he was a military contractor before he became broke?

He was never a military contractor; he was only a contractor to the Lagos State Government. He was constructing roads during the Lateef Jakande regime. He never worked for the military.

How true is it that Adefuye was out of the country, while Yoruba leaders were fighting for Abiola?

Adefuye never left the country. Throughout the period, he was here with us. He never left Nigeria. We were together all through. There was a time myself and some people were apprehended by the men of Elere Police Station in Agege for distributing (anti) Abacha posters. We were apprehended and detained. It was Adefuye who came to secure our release. If he was not around, we wouldn’t have contacted him. We were all struggling, relying on him for our bailout. If there was any financial implication, he got the money for us. As far as I’m concerned. If he had benefitted from military contracts, most of us would have benefitted too because we are very close to him.

How was his relationship with Abiola?

Adefuye was one of his agents during the Jos Convention. He was one of those who solicited for votes for Abiola. He was very close to him. And when Abiola was in detention, he was very close to his family. I usually accompanied him to late Chief Kudirat Abiola’s residence in Ikeja. She also came to Akoka, where Adefuye lived.

If truly he was close to Abiola, why then did some youths attack him when he paid a condolence visit to his house after Kudirat was killed?

The incident of that day was very unfortunate. When Adefuye heard about the incident, he decided to visit the family. The house was surrounded by youths. If he had told us he was going, we would have mobilised and follow him, and there would have been a pandemonium. Heads would have rolled; many people would have died that day. But as a peace-loving man that he was, he never told us. He went there peacefully and what followed was the attack. We heard about it and were not happy at all.

Was that not enough sign that their relationship was not rosy?

Abiola never knew about it. He did not send them; he did not instigate those boys.

Do you think the attackers were sponsored?

We were told that NADECO or Afenifere leaders were meeting inside Abiola’s house that day. Opadokun had admitted that he was in Abiola’s house, when the boys attacked Adefuye.

Why would anybody have done that?

I don’t know. It was part of the disagreements between them. We were all in Afenifere. I was a member too. I’m now in the Yoruba Unity Forum under the leadership of Mama HID Awolowo.

Is the cold war all about the split in Afenifere or are there’s more to it?

Once the leadership is divided, the followership will be divided. I’m sure it’s as a result of the disagreement between them that extended to us, the followers.

Punch

Amaechi, Aliyu,Lamido, others in closed-door meeting with Jonathan

 by: Augustine Ehikioya, Abuja 

Towards resolving the crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday met with the aggrieved governors at the First Lady Conference room in the Presidential Villa.

The aggrieved governors had on the 31st of August break away from the main party to form the ‘New PDP’ under the chairmanship of Kawu Baraje.
Journalists were barred from entering the venue of the meeting which started some minutes after 4 p.m. They were told that the meeting did not need media coverage.

Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, wearing white shirt, drove himself to the First Lady office around 5:14 p.m. in a Black Range Rover jeep with plate number Nasarawa AE 153 NBB behind Babangida Aliyu, Niger State Governor’s vehicle.

Other aggrieved governors at the meeting included Kwara State, Abdulafatah Ahmed, Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, Jigawa State, Sule Lamido,

Among the Pro-Jonathan governors at the meeting included Katsina State, Ibrahim Shema, Cross Rivers State , Liyel Imoke, Kogi State, Idris Wada, Gombe State, Ibrahim Dankwanbo,

TheNation