Fashola Speaks for Nigerians...

...

“I remember we did not go to the Commonwealth Games because of South Africa. I remember we took drastic measures against the foreign collaborators of the apartheid regime and nationalized their assets. There is no home that the anti-apartheid campaign was not then. Our university halls were named after Mozambique and all of these places. We funded all of these organisations in Angola and Zimbabwe among others.

Apart from scholarship to South Africans, I remember when South Africans used to come for exchange programme then. We are now the ones being driven out of South Africa. The British can enter South Africa visa free. We have to take a visa. These are deep questions because they hurt me. People like Fela nearly lost their voices, singing about freedom. I hope that as our president is going for Mandela’s burial, I hope that it would be to go and take the leadership roles that we deserve or we should ask ourselves if we have really lost it, what is the way back.

As I said, history has been revised and our voices are not heard on the international stage. This is our glory because we contributed so much to this course, and perhaps we ask ourselves what the investment payoff has been"

“I remember we did not go to the Commonwealth Games because of South Africa. I remember we took drastic measures against the foreign collaborators of the apartheid regime and nationalized their assets. There is no home that the anti-apartheid campaign was not then. Our university halls were named after Mozambique and all of these places. We funded all of these organisations in Angola and Zimbabwe among others.

Apart from scholarship to South Africans, I remember when South Africans used to come for exchange programme then. We are now the ones being driven out of South Africa. The British can enter South Africa visa free. We have to take a visa. These are deep questions because they hurt me. People like Fela nearly lost their voices, singing about freedom. I hope that as our president is going for Mandela’s burial, I hope that it would be to go and take the leadership roles that we deserve or we should ask ourselves if we have really lost it, what is the way back.

As I said, history has been revised and our voices are not heard on the international stage. This is our glory because we contributed so much to this course, and perhaps we ask ourselves what the investment payoff has been"

NaijaUrban

I want Nigerians to be fair to me - GMB

I want Nigerians to be fair to me. Like this
case of 53, 55 suitcases, like the case of
N2.8billion-Buhari
Thi is an excerpted interview granted with an incorruptible Major General muhammad Buhari with THE SUN NEWS, on his 70th birthday for the controversial 53 suit cases that allegedly came into the country during his government.

Here are his word:
I want Nigerians to be fair to me. Like this
case of 53, 55 suitcases, like the case of
N2.8billion. I want Nigerians to be fair and
to be fair, all these documents are in the
Nigerian archives. As I said, I didn’t do
anything important outside the three
organs of government: the Supreme
Military Council, Council of States and
Council of Ministers. On serious issues,
Nigerians should do some research. That is
why I always make emphasis on
investigative journalism. If you want to be
fair and impartial, I am sure you can have
the capacity, both intellectual and resource
to make an in-depth investigation.
"They said
N2.8billion oil money was missing.
It couldn’t have been missing. The
governor of the Central Bank then, the late
Clement Isong, said it was ridiculous, that
N2.8billion couldn’t be missing because he
said even the king of Saudi Arabia, couldn’t
issue a cheque of N2.8billion. When you
have paid your money for petroleum, they
are normally put in the country’s external
account and no bank will release that
amount of money at a go because it was
deposited. And then, at that time, Nigeria
was exporting about 1.82 million barrels a
day. And the cost of barrel a day was about
$18. You work out N2.8billion. How could
N2.8billion be missing and we still have
money to run the country? So, it was just a
political"
There was nothing like this 53 suitcases. What
happened was that there was my chief of
protocol; he is now late. He had three
wives, and I think about 12 children. He
was in Saudi Arabia as Nigeria Ambassador
to Saudi Arabia. He was in Libya before, as
ambassador and later, he was posted to
Saudi Arabia. And then, I appointed him as
my chief of protocol and he was coming
back. Three wives, about 12 children. And
then, by some coincidence, the late Emir of
Gwandu, the father of Jokolo, who was my
ADC then, was coming back with the same
flight. And somehow, some mischievous
fellows, everything, including the handbag
of maybe, their small daughters, were
counted as suitcases. Atiku then was the
Commandant of Murtala Muhammed
Airport as customs officer. And that day,
we were playing squash. Jokolo my ADC and
I. At some point, I said to him, ‘Mustapha,
is your father not coming back today
again?’ He said, ‘yes, sir, he is coming.’ I
said, ‘what are you doing here? Why can’t
you go and meet your father?’ He said yes,
sir. He went to wash and meet his father. I
am telling you there was no 53 bags of
suitcases. It was a bloody lie. It was a
bloody mischief.
By then,He was not even
about to go. I was the one who made him
to go and meet his father. He was a
respected emir, in fact, if not the most
respected emir in the North then. He was
learned, he had fantastic credibility and
personal integrity. And this man was just
coming on posting with his wives and
children and they counted every imaginable
thing, they said 53 suitcases.
Shagari also did the only honourable
thing. He ordered a judicial enquiry and
put a serving Justice of the Supreme Court,
the late Justice Irikefe, to carry out
investigation. And their terms of reference
were put there. They said anybody who had
an idea of missing N2.8billion, let him
come and tell Justice Irikefe. Nobody had
any evidence. It was just rubbish. Well,
later, Tai Solarin and Professor Awojobi
were confronted and Fela, the late Fela, to
go and prove their case. They had no
evidence, most of them took the
newspaper cuttings of their allegations to
the tribunal.
I know almost Everybody likes money but I am not very
good at making money. Let me put it that
way. I borrowed from the banks to build
the house in Daura,Abuja, kano and this one (Kaduna).
The bank then was Barclays, now Union
Bank. Kaduna State or North Central then
housing scheme and the Federal Mortgage
Bank for the house I am in and AIB, which
was, I think, terminated by Central Bank.
So, when you go through the records, you
find out that the houses I built, I borrowed
from there.
When Murtala/Obasanjo regime
came, they made sure that certain grades
of public officers must declare their assets
when they assumed that office and they
must declare when they were leaving. So,
when I was sworn in as governor of North
East, I declared my assets.
I declared surprisingly, even the number of
my cows then. Even if they were supposed
to be producing every year, but I declared
them the time I was there. And when I was
leaving governorship, I became petroleum
minister. When I was leaving to go to War
College, I declared my assets. I could recall
General Jemibewon then, was the Adjutant-
General of the Army. He rang me and said
he was sending me asset declaration form,
that I must fill it, sign it before I left for the
United States. And I did. General
Jemibewon is still alive. And when I became
head of state eventually, I declared my
assets again. So, all of us; when I say that, I
mean Obasanjo downwards, those who are
alive who were governors, ministers, head
of states, they had declared assets. So, if
you people are serious and interested
about political officers becoming multi-
billionaires, you can find out from Murtala
downwards. And those of us who were not
very good in making money you should pity
us.

 When Supreme Military
Council in 1977 approved the merger of the
Nigerian National Oil Corporation (NNOC)
and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources
and made Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC). I was lucky to be a minister of petroleum and as a minister,I signed the contract
for Warri Refinery, for Kaduna Refinery, for
more than 20 depots all over the country,
for laying of pipelines, more than 3200
kilometers and I couldn’t recall Nigeria
borrowing a kobo for those projects. And
then, by the time I became head of state,
because I went to War College in the United
States before the military handed over to
the Second Republic and came back in 1980
and then, there was coup at the end of
1983. And that time, you can verify from
Professor Tam David-West who was
Minister of Petroleum Resources. We were
exporting 100,000 barrels per day of
refined products not raw one, which is the efficiency of the
subsequent governments!

NNPC Diverted $49.8 billion Meant For The Nigerian Treasury Between 2012-13, Says Central Bank Governor In A letter To President Jonathan

CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi Lamido 

 

By Saharareporters, New York

SaharaReporters has uncovered a document in which the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) complained to President Goodluck Jonathan about the continuing refusal of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to honour its legal obligations, including failure to remit $49.8 billion to the Federation Account between 2012 and 2013.   That amount represents 76% of the value of crude oil liftings during the period.
The CBN complaints are contained in a letter to the President dated 25 September 2013.
“Our analysis of the value of crude oil export proceeds based on the documentation received from pre-shipment inspectors shows that between January 2012 and July 2013, NNPC lifted 594,024,107 barrels of crude valued at $65,332,350,514.57,” the letter said.  “Out of this amount, NNPC repatriated only $15,528,410,098.77 representing 24% of the value.  This means the NNPC is yet to account for, and repatriate to the Federation Account, an amount in excess of $49.804 billion of the value of oil lifted in the same period.”
Drawing attention to an attached table of analysis of the crude oil liftings and repatriations as prepared by the CBN, Governor Sanusi noted that the failure of the NNPC to repatriate the amounts constitutes not only a violation of constitutional provisions  but also of both Nigeria’s foreign exchange and pre-shipment inspection of exports laws.
Also drawing attention to previous occasion in which he had expressed concern about what appeared to be shortfalls in remittances to the Federation Account in spite of the strong recovery in the price of oil, Mr. Sanusi said that a point of departure ought to be to insist that the NNPC account fully for all proceeds that were diverted from its accounts with the CBN and the Federation Account.
“As an indicator of how bad this situation has become, please note that in 2012 alone, the Federation Account received $28.51 billion in Petroleum Profits and related taxes but only $1013 from crude oil proceeds,” he informed Mr. Jonathan.  “In the period January-July 2013, the corresponding figures are $16.65 billion and $5.39 billion, respectively.  This means, Your Excellency, that in the first seven months of the year, taxes accounted for 76% of the total inflow from this sector, while NNPC crude oil proceeds accounted for only 24%.”
Mr. Sanusi specifically recommended to the President to:

• Require NNPC to provide evidence for disposal of all proceeds of crude sales diverted from the CBN and Federation Account;
• Investigate crude oil lifting and swap contracts, as well as the financial transactions of counter-parties for equity, fairness and transparency; and
• Authorise prosecution of suspects in money-laundering transactions, including but not limited to BDCs who are unable to account for hundreds of millions of dollars. 

It is unclear if Mr. Jonathan has read the letter.  Despite claims of fighting corruption, he does not normally take any anti-corruption action against members of his cabinet or implement any reports, and NNPC is famously supervised by Petroleum Resources Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, one of his closest confidantes within the cabinet.
A copy of the letter hand delivered by the Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to President Goodluck Jonathan in September 2013 below:

"EXCLUSIVE: Jonathan, Alison-Madueke, Okonjo-Iweala culpable in diversion of N8 trillion oil funds"

 - by: Ini Ekott and Bassey Udo

President Goodluck Jonathan and two of his top ministers may be attempting a cover-up on what clearly competes as Nigeria’s biggest fraud ever, involving the illegal diversion, or theft, of over N8 trillion crude oil sales proceeds.

In a frantic and unusual memo to the president on September 25, 2013, Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi detailed how government-owned oil firm, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, had systematically diverted the huge sum, being sales proceeds between January 2012 and July 2013.

The CBN governor said for all crude oil sales within the period, the NNPC paid only 24 percent proceeds into the federation account, and diverted or stole the remaining 76 percent-totalling N8 trillion.

As the CBN calculated, the NNPC sold at least 594 million barrels of oil within the period, and should have paid N10.3 trillion (USD65.3 billion) into the federation account. But the corporation paid only N2.5 trillion (USD15.5 billion), Mr. Sanusi said, citing documentation from pre-shipment inspectors.
The whereabouts of the huge balance is unknown.

The weight of the differential is clearer if evaluated against the fact that the tiny percentage remitted by the NNPC managed to finance the nation in that period, raising the question of how much the total would then have achieved for a country unable to pay its university lecturers who have been on strike for five months.

Put simply, for each barrel of oil sold, say at an average of USD100, the NNPC illegally cornered $74 into an unknown account and gave Nigeria only $26.

Mr. Sanusi said he was “constrained” to hint the president after observing the huge shortfalls for years. He accused the NNPC of breaching two key federal laws, and urged the president to act expeditiously by ordering sweeping investigation and prosecution of those found culpable.

Two months on, the president has refused to act on the damning memo delivered to him personally by the CBN governor. In fact, after receiving the letter, the president, presidency sources say, questioned Mr. Sanusi on why such letter should be prepared in the first place and sent to him.

PREMIUM TIMES can also confirm that finance minister and former World Bank chief, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is also aware of the CBN’s information and has done nothing about it; while petroleum minister, Alison Diezani-Madueke, implicated in several corruption probes in the past, is said to be fully in the know about the massive plunder of crude oil money by the NNPC.

President challenged on corruption
Details of the president’s failure to act on such a massive scale of misappropriation came amid an increasing criticism of Mr. Jonathan’s response to corruption, as several senior officials of his government, accused of stealing or wasting public funds, have been spared of indictment and prosecution.

The weightiest of such concerns came on Monday from the speaker of the House of House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, who publicly accused the president of consistently displaying a “body language” that encourages corruption.

Citing past scandals, the most recent being the N255 million armoured car fraud involving aviation minister, Stella Oduah, Mr. Tambuwal said the president’s penchant for duplicating committees to investigate corruption cases, rather than directing law enforcement agencies to probe them, showed Mr. Jonathan was less committed to curbing fraud.

“By the action of setting up different committees for straightforward cases, the president’s body language doesn’t tend to support the fight against corruption,” the speaker said at an event in Abuja.

Between 2011 and 2013, the House of Representatives has investigated the NNPC multiple times, and has in many cases found officials of the corporation wanting. But no one has been sanctioned by government.

In 2012, top management of the NNPC and the petroleum minister, Mrs. Madueke, who directly supervises the NNPC, were recommended for prosecution by the House in a shocking fuel subsidy probe. They accused officials have remained at their posts.

The CBN’s allegation is the most scathing yet for a corporation notorious for secrecy and corruption.

The diverted or stolen amount-N8 trillion between January 2012 and July 2013- is the nearly the equivalent of the total federal budgets for two years.

Put together, the sum can run the entire country for the period, build several new roads and railways, pay wages of millions of workers, cater for the nation’s teeming unemployed, build thousands of hospitals and schools, complete ongoing power projects, and on an urgent note, clear multiple times, all government financial obligations to university lecturers, whose ongoing strike has kept the universities shut for more than five months now.

More losses and the ECA
Even so, when compared with prevailing data from different government agencies, the figure admitted by the CBN is still lesser than what Nigeria should earn from oil sales.

While the bank said its computation, based on pre-shipment details, showed that Nigeria sold N10.3 trillion worth of oil in 19 months, PREMIUM TIMES’ analysis shows the government should rather realize N10.6 trillion in the first 10 months of 2013-Janaury to October-alone.

PREMIUM TIMES’s estimates is based on the government’s data of daily production average of 2.11 million barrels of crude, sold at an average price of $105.84 per barrel.
If multiplied and converted to naira, the government should have realized N10. 6 trillion in 10 months alone.

But in that period, total oil receipts data provided by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, claimed between January and October, the government made N5.8 trillion.

Also, our estimates show that the government has not only lied or misled Nigerians about its total receipts from oil sales, but is also deceitful about its earnings in the contentious Excess Crude Account.

The ECA holds the difference between the real market price for oil and the government’s projection in the national budget yearly.

For 2013, the government approved rate is $79 per barrel (called benchmark for oil price), meaning any raise in price at the international marker, will go into the ECA.

For most of the year, oil sold as much as $112 and $114 per barrel. At a conservative rate of $105 per barrel, the government should have realized $26 as difference per barrel for the Excess Crude Account.

Calculated at 2.11 million barrels per day, that should amount to $17.3 billion (about N2.695trillion) earned as excess crude revenue from crude oil exports as of October 2013.

But the government claims it generated only N986.6 billion in the Excess Crude Account.

No explanation
No government official could explain the huge gaps for the 2013 figures. The ministry of finance did not comment when contacted multiple times. Paul Nwabuiku, a spokesperson for the finance minister, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, promised a response but refused to give one several days after.

A spokesperson for the Central Bank of Nigeria, reacting to our findings (not Mr. Sanusi’s letter) said as the government’s banker, it could not provide the requested information, as it was unlawful for a banker to divulge details about its customer to a third party.

“We maintain a customer/banker relationship with the government in the execution of our mandate. We do not divulge such information to third parties,” Mr. Ugochukwu said on Thursday via a text message.

Controversy over Excess Crude Account
PREMIUM TIMES’s own evaluation of government oil earnings began well ahead of obtaining Mr. Sanusi’s letter to President Jonathan.

The review was prompted by the lingering controversy over the ECA between the finance minister, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala and the Rivers state governor, Chibuike Amaechi.

Mr. Amaechi had accused the government of depleting the account, usually shared between the federal, states and local governments.
The governor said $5 billion had gone missing from the account under Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala’s watch.

Defending the administration, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala accused the governor of “playing politics” on the matter, and said the outstanding $5 billion had been shared to states as monthly allocation and local governments, with Rivers State being one of the major beneficiaries.

The frustration of CBN governor
But in his letter, Mr. Sanusi said he had long been frustrated by the NNPC’s secrecy with oil sales, and that he raised concerns twice to the president as far back as 2010 about his observation that a huge chunk of sales proceeds were not remitted to government treasury.

He said the shortfall in revenue as a result of oil theft and vandalism in the Niger Delta was insignificant compared to the scale of money unaccounted for by the NNPC.

“Your excellency, you will recall that as far back as late 2010, I had verbally expressed deep concern about what appeared to be huge shortfalls in remittances to the federation account in spite of the strong recovery in oil prices,” the CBN governor wrote, indicating the losses extending years back far surpasses the N8 trillion of between 2012 and 2013.
There is no evidence the president acted on those concerns.

By 2012, he said the situation had gone worse that the government made more money from tax paid by oil companies than from actual sales of crude.

“This means, Your Excellency, that in this first seven months of the year, taxes accounted for 76 % of the total inflow from this sector, while NNPC crude oil proceeds accounted for 24%,” he said.

The CBN governor called for a thorough audit of all domiciliary accounts held by the NNPC outside of the CBN, and a probe of companies involved in oil lifting and oil swap.

“As banker to the federal government and Economic Adviser to the President,” he said, “I am obliged to draw the president’s attention to these serious issues of which you have most probably never been aware in this detail,” he said.

The Special Adviser to the President on Public Communications, Reuben Abati, was not available for comments. He did not answer several calls made to his telephone. He is believed to be travelling in South Africa with the president, who is attending the funeral of late South African President, Nelson Mandela.

Killing cancer like the common cold

By Elizabeth Cohen

 

New treatment attacks cancer cells

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Nick Wilkins was out of options for battling leukemia
• He is now cancer free after an experimental treatment
• Doctors taught Nick's immune cells to become adept at killing cancer
• Experts hope the treatment will quickly become more widely available

(CNN) -- Nick Wilkins was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 4 years old, and when the cancer kept bouncing back, impervious to all the different treatments the doctors tried, his father sat him down for a talk.

John Wilkins explained to Nick, who was by then 14, that doctors had tried chemotherapy, radiation, even a bone marrow transplant from his sister.

"I explained to him that we're running out of options," Wilkins remembers telling his son.

There was one possible treatment they could try: an experimental therapy at the University of Pennsylvania.

He asked his son if he understood what it would mean if this treatment didn't work.

"He understood he could die," Wilkins says. "He was very stoic."

A few months later, Nick traveled from his home in Virginia to Philadelphia to become a part of the experiment.

This new therapy was decidedly different from the treatments he'd received before: Instead of attacking his cancer with poisons like chemotherapy and radiation, the Philadelphia doctors taught Nick's own immune cells to become more adept at killing the cancer.

Two months later, he emerged cancer-free. It's been six months since Nick, now 15, received the personalized cell therapy, and doctors still can find no trace of leukemia in his system.

Trusting her intuition led to two cancer diagnoses

Twenty-one other young people received the same treatment at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and 18 of them, like Nick, went into complete remission -- one of them has been disease-free for 20 months. The Penn doctors released their findings this weekend at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

"It gives us hope that this is a cure," Nick's father says. "They're really close. I think they're really onto something."

'A whole new realm of medicine '

At the conference, two other cancer centers -- Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York and the National Cancer Institute -- will be announcing results with immunotherapies like the one Nick received. The results are promising, especially considering that the patients had no success with practically every other therapy.

"This is absolutely one of the more exciting advances I've seen in cancer therapy in the last 20 years," said Dr. David Porter, a hematologist and oncologist at Penn. "We've entered into a whole new realm of medicine."

In the therapy, doctors first remove the patient's T-cells, which play a crucial role in the immune system. They then reprogram the cells by transferring in new genes. Once infused back into the body, each modified cell multiplies to 10,000 cells. These "hunter" cells then track down and kill the cancer in a patient's body.

Essentially, researchers are trying to train Nick's body to fight off cancer in much the same way our bodies fight off the common cold.

Tumor Paint: Changing the way surgeons fight cancer

In addition to the pediatric patients, Penn scientists tried the therapy out in 37 adults with leukemia, and 12 went into complete remission. Eight more patients went into partial remission and saw some improvements in their disease.

The treatment does make patients have flulike symptoms for a short period of time -- Nick got so sick he ended up in the intensive care unit for a day -- but patients are spared some of the more severe and long-lasting side effects of extensive chemotherapy.

Penn will now work with other medical centers to test the therapy in more patients, and they plan to try the therapy out in other types of blood cancers and later in solid tumors.

A university press release says it has a licensing relationship with the pharmaceutical company Novartis and "received significant financial benefit" from the trial, and Porter and other inventors of the technology "have benefited financially and/or may benefit financially in the future."

Searching for one-in-a-million cancer cells

The big question is whether Nick's leukemia will come back.

Doctors are cautiously optimistic. The studies have only been going on since 2010, but so far relapse rates have been relatively low: of the 18 other pediatric patients who went into complete remission, only five have relapsed and of the 12 adults who went into complete remission, only one relapsed. Some of the adult patients have been cancer-free and without a relapse for more than three years and counting.

Relapses after this personalized cell therapy may be more promising than relapses after chemotherapy or a bone marrow transplant, Porter explained.

First, doctors have been delighted to find the reengineered T-cells -- the ones that know how to hunt down and attack cancer -- are still alive in the patients' bodies after more than three years.

Stigma lingers for deadliest cancer

"The genetically modified T-cells have survived," Porter said. "They're still present and functional and have the ability to protect against recurrence."

Second, before declaring patients in remission, Penn doctors scoured especially hard for errant leukemia cells.

Traditionally, for the kind of leukemia Nick has, doctors can find one in 1,000 to one in 10,000 cancer cells. But Penn's technology could find one in 100,000 to one in a million cancer cells, and didn't find any in Nick or any of the patients who went into complete remission.

'It's not a fluke'

One of the best aspects of this new treatment is that it won't be terribly difficult to reproduce at other medical centers, Porter said, and one day, instead of being used only experimentally, it could be available to anyone who needed it.

"Our hope is that this can progress really quite quickly," he said. "It won't be available to everyone next year, but I don't think it would take a decade, either."

Right now patients can only get this therapy if they're in a study, but Dr. Renier Brentjens, director for cellular therapeutics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, says he thinks it could become available to all patients in just three to five years.

"When you have three centers all with a substantial number of patients seeing the same thing -- that these cells work in this disease - you know it's not a fluke," he said.

Two days ago, Brentjens became the co-founder of Juno Therapeutics, a for-profit biotech start-up company that's working on immunotherapies.

"Fifteen years ago I was in the lab looking at these cells kill tumor cells in a petri dish and then I saw them kill tumor cells in mice, and then finally in humans," Brentjens said.

He says he'll never forget the first patient he treated, who initially had an enormous amount of cancer cells in his bone marrow. Then after the therapy, Brentjens looked under the microscope and, in awe, realized he couldn't find a single cancer cell.

"I can't describe what that's like," he said. "It's fantastic."

CNN

EDO STATE

The 1992 gubernatorial election, pitting John Odigie Oyegun (the SDP candidate) against Lucky Igbinedion (the NRC candidate) was annulled on 4 February of that year by the electoral tribunal. Among Igbinedion's claims were that the Oba of Benin and one of his chiefs, Nosakhare Isekhure, unfairly supported Oyegun. Oyegun's victory was upheld on 18 March 1992.
On 20 March 2008, an election tribunal nullified the election of Oserheimen Osunbor People's Democratic Party,(PDP) and declared erstwhile labour leader Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of the Action Congress as the winner. The decision was based on several voting irregularities.
Oshiomhole was voted for a second term in 2012.

 NOTABLE PEOPLE IN EDO STATE.

Professor Ambrose Alli, Former governor of the defunct Bendel State. He created the Bendel State University now named after him.
Chief D.N. Oronsaye, prominent politician instrumental in creation of Midwest region and junior Minister of Finance
Jacob U. Egharevba, a Bini historian and traditional chief
Samuel Ogbemudia, former governor of the Midwest region of Nigeria and later Bendel state
Chief Anthony Enahoro, prominent anti-colonial and pro-democracy activist and politician
Dr. G.Sam Edo, Ph.D - Cyber Security Expert and an adjunct professor at Northeastern University, Boston, Ma
Emmanuel Emovon,- first Nigerian Ph.D. in chemistry and former Minister of Science and Technology of Nigeria
Festus Iyayi,- novelist and first African to win the Commonwealth Writers Prize
Odia Ofeimun, -poet and former president of the Association of Nigerian Authors
Tiamiyu Bello-Osagie, medical practitioner and long-running gynaecologist to several first families of Nigeria
Abel Guobadia, -educator and former Nigerian ambassador to the Republic of Korea
Victor Uwaifo, -musician
Sonny Okosun,- musician
Felix Idubor, -artist
Festus Idehen, -sculptor
Erhabor Emokpae, -painter, sculptor, and graphic designer
Solomon Irein-Wangboje, painter
Ben Osawe, -sculptor
Dominic Osaghae,- Medical Doctor, former National Chairman, Nigerian Medical Association
Festus Ezeli,- basketball player with the Golden State Warriors
Dr. Tunde Obanor,- Distinguished Medical Practitioner, Activist
Modupe Ozolua,- Body Enhancement and Reconstructive Surgery
Cliff Ogiugo, Artist,-Cartoonist (Creator of Little Joe character)
Chief Tony Anenih,- Chairman Board of trustee (PDP) Once Minister of Work.
Dr Tonnie Iredia, -former Director-General of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)
Rawlings Ogedegbe, -Prominent Politician And Good Will Ambassador
Charles Osasere Omere,- Legal Practitioner and Social Commentator
Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe,- former chief of naval staff and vice president of Nigeria
Vice Admiral Augustus Aikhomu,- former chief of naval and vice president of Nigeria
Mike Ozekhome, -Legal practitioner, politician and human rights activist
Gabriel Igbenedion, -foremost and international business mogul and bini high chief
Raymond Dokpesi,- owner of Africa largest private television network and politician
Grace Egbagbe,- former director of Nigerian Television Authority.

OF BENIN.

The Oba of Benin,Omo N'Oba,N'Edo Uku Akpolokplolo is the king of Benin Kingdom, Oba Erediauwa, the reigning Oba of Benin is a leader with a charming personality and background. Oba Erediauwa is the mature fruit of the seed his grandfather Eweka II, planted and nurtured by his father Akenzua II. Hence, a new Oba, groomed and well-equipped, steeped in the culture, norms and traditions of the old Benin Kingdom, but prepared for Nigeria of the 80s and beyond! The six-footer Oba was born in 1923, and he graduated with a B.A. (Tripos) in law at Kings College, Cambridge, England. Prior to his ascension to the throne, he served in several top Federal (national) public service positions in different parts of Nigeria such as Lagos, Enugu, and Ahoada.

During the Nigerian civil war, the Oba in his capacity as Permanent Secretary (Political) participated in the "Aburi" talks which were aimed at resolving the crisis. While he was a Crown Prince and Edaiken, he had gained administrative experience by working in local government, Oba Erediauwa, after the most qualitative education in England's prestigious Cambridge University as an historian, lawyer and an administrator, worked and rose to the very top of both the Regional and Federal Civil Service. He knew, worked with, and advised all the Military heads of state, as well as the potential leaders that would eventually emerge with civilian government.

Oba Erediauwa was crowned on March 23, 1979, as the 38th Oba of Benin. Oba Erediauwa, like his father Oba Akenzua II, and his grandfather Oba Eweka II, ascended the throne of the Benin Kingdom in the throes of impending and profound political changes and re-orientation in Nigeria.

Oba Erediauwa's era has witnessed tremendous intellectual, cultural, social, and economic growth. Dynamism is one of his chief assets because he has succeeded in maintaining and improving the role of the Edo monarchy in the face of massive modernization onslaughts from varied sources. His mother Iyoba ne ovbi Erua is alive and dwells in her palace at Lower Uselu. As crowned prince, he was Prince Solomon Aisiokhuoba Igbinoghodua Akenzua. But he was crowned as Oba Erediauwa. It was as part of the rites of ascendancy to the revered Benin throne that he got the title “Erediauwa,” interpreted to symbolically mean “one who has come to put the house or society in order.”

The Omo N’Oba is seen as a quintessential icon of royalty and splendour. During the 30 years of his charismatic reign, the Benin kingdom has remained unified, peaceful and has witnessed expansion. This is attributed to his large and stately personality and the handling of issues before him with a rarity of wisdom.

Crown prince Solomon Akenzua ascended the throne with the title Oba Erediauwa. Before his ascension to throne the attended, many schools and Cambridge University London. He also held many governmental posts at state and federal levels

He modernized the palace courtyard and created many Enigie (chiefs) to help administer various parts of the kingdom.

One of the most respected Africa monarch. An author, his high educational background help bring to light the correct history of Edo people and the ancient Benin Empire, one of Africa oldest kingdom.

APCSpain

Mandela coverage complaints for BBC

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  Press Association - Nelson Mandela's death was covered extensively by the BBC

More than 1,000 viewers have complained about the excessive coverage of Nelson Mandela's death on BBC services, including some who grumbled about Mrs Brown's Boys being interrupted.

The BBC has defended the extent to which it featured the death of the former South African president, a major news item which led bulletins around the world.
By today the BBC had received 1,350 complaints about too much coverage across its news services, with some saying the emphasis had reduced the coverage of severe weather across the UK that day. Programme chiefs broke into a repeat of BBC One sitcom Mrs Brown's Boys to break the news.
A BBC spokeswoman said: "Nelson Mandela was a hugely significant world leader with an enormous political and cultural influence across the world. His death is of considerable interest to our audiences at home and across the globe.
"We know that people turn to the BBC for authoritative coverage of breaking news and we will continue to provide comprehensive coverage for a wide range of BBC News outlets, across TV, radio and online, as the world reacts to his passing, reflects on his legacy, and prepares for his funeral.
"After the initial announcement we have, of course, continued to cover other major stories as they have developed."

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