Read The New York Times Article On Lamido Sanusi's Removal

Earlier this week, the presidency said: Being determined to urgently re-position the Central Bank of Nigeria for greater efficiency, respect for due process and accountability, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has ordered the immediate suspension of Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi from the Office of Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria while the senior Deputy Governor of the CBN, Dr Sarah Alade will serve as Acting Governor, read HERE.
Read the New York Times article on his removal below..

Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank Is Fired After Warning of Missing Oil Revenue

President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria removed the governor of the country’s central bank from his post on Thursday, after the bank governor repeatedly charged that billions of dollars in oil revenue owed to the treasury was missing.

The dismissal of the bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, was seen as further evidence of the Nigerian government’s weakening resolve in tackling widespread corruption, a problem that has plagued the country since independence, analysts said.

Mr. Sanusi’s removal was greeted with dismay in financial markets. The country’s stock market fell sharply, bond trading was halted and the value of the Nigerian currency, the naira, plunged to a record low against the dollar before the bank intervened to prop it up. Outside investors had generally seen Mr. Sanusi as an effective regulator of the country’s troubled banking sector; his tenure was scheduled to last until June.

His dismissal, along with a series of accusations of misspending by high officials and a presidential pardon last year for a state governor convicted of stealing millions, has prompted Nigerian news outlets to depict Mr. Jonathan’s government as too casual about corruption.

At the heart of the problem are the billions of dollars in oil revenue that accrue each year to Nigeria, the largest oil producer in Africa. Oil yields 95 percent of the country’s total export earnings, and Mr. Sanusi has been saying for months that a substantial portion of the money was missing from public coffers.

Oil wealth has created a small but immensely wealthy elite in a country where poverty is on the rise; by some estimates, nine-tenths of the economic benefits from oil production go to 1 percent of the population. So when oil money goes missing — and Mr. Sanusi has said that as much as $50 billion could be unaccounted for, a figure since revised downward — it touches a nerve in Nigeria.

A parliamentary committee is now investigating the claims of missing oil money, first raised by good-government groups and given added weight by Mr. Sanusi. Even the country’s finance minister, a staunch defender of Mr. Jonathan’s government, has called for an audit.

Mr. Sanusi, an aristocrat from the ancient Muslim city of Kano, raised the issue in a letter to Mr. Jonathan in September, saying that the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, or N.N.P.C., had failed to turn over nearly $50 billion in revenue over an 18-month period, from January 2012 to July 2013, “in gross violation of the law.” Though oil prices were strong, official figures inexplicably showed declining revenue and falling reserves.

Exactly how much money may be missing is unclear, as Mr. Sanusi acknowledged in a letter to the Nigerian Senate this month. It could be “$10.8 billion or $12 billion or $19 billion or $21 billion — we do not know at this point,” he wrote, adding that the apparent diversion “has been going on for a long time” and could “bring the entire economy to its knees” if it is not stopped.

But he may have taken on too big an opponent in the national oil company. The sprawling company acts as the country’s oil buyer, seller, explorer, producer, processor and regulator, and is “at the nexus between the many interests in Nigeria that seek a stake in the country’s oil riches,” according to a 2010 Stanford University study.

The study said that while the company “functions well as an instrument of patronage,” it is neither competent nor efficient in its many operations. Mr. Sanusi went further, accusing it this month of “illegal and unconstitutional acts,” including transferring income from government-owned oil properties to “private hands.”

The oil company reacted to Mr. Sanusi’s accusations with outrage, though it initially acknowledged that about $10.8 billion in oil revenue had not been accounted for. Then on Thursday, Mr. Jonathan’s government ousted Mr. Sanusi, saying his “tenure has been characterized by various acts of financial recklessness and misconduct.”

Anticorruption activists said that explanation for his dismissal would not be widely believed.

“Nigerians will see it as the result of the whistle he has blown on the nonremittances by the N.N.P.C. to the Federation Account,” said Dauda Garuba of the Revenue Watch Institute, which is supported by George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, among others. “Public opinion agrees with Sanusi.”

Another watchdog group in Nigeria, the Policy and Legal Advocacy Center, said in a statement Thursday that Mr. Sanusi’s removal exposed “the wider ramifications and impunity of corruption currently bedeviling the fiscal responsibility and accountability of this government.”

Female lawyer tortures househelp with disused car fan belt

Personally, I think the police should start arresting people who inflict such injuries on others. Call it 'attempted murder' or something like that and lock them up for at least a year. How can anyone be so heartless to do this to another human being?

A female lawyer based in Calabar Cross River State, Florence Ujinka, was picked up and interrogated by the police for torturing her 13 year old househelp, Chidera Asonye Nathaniel. Florence is reported to have used an old fan belt to inflict marks on young Chidera.

The woman was reported to the police by a Child Rights Group called Basic Rights Counsel Initiative in Calabar, who revealed that since the woman and her husband brought Chidera from Anambra state to Calabar in 2012 to serve as their househelp, Mrs Ujinka had repeatedly subjected the young boy to torture and inhuman treatment.

    "Mrs Florence Ujinka has been subjecting Chidera to inhuman and degrading treatment by torturing him with an automobile fan belt and in the process inflicting him with severe wounds on his body”. The group said

The group wants the police to file a case of 'torture, inhuman and degrading treatment and child trafficking' against the lawyer and her doctor husband. The police in Calabar have promised to investigate the matter and said the couple would be brought to book soon and made to face the law

Woman gives birth to stone in Yola

Amina Bello, 25-year old woman in Yolde  Pate in Yola South LGA of Adamawa State, on Tuesday, delivered a sizable stone. Bello narrated her story at the opening ceremony of  Vesico vaginal fistula (VVF) free medical treatment in Yola Specialists Hospital. Bello, who is also a VVF patient, told the gathering that after four years pregnancy, she finally delivered a sizable stone last year.

 

Telegraphng.com reports

"I was holding a pregnancy for the duration of four years, which I bitterly suffered because of the heavy weight of what is contained in the stomach,” she said. “It was last year around June, I started feeling labour and I was in that condition for three days and finally I delivered a stone.”

She said that it was after the delivery she now discovered that she was affected with VVF. Responding, Dr Sunday Lengmang, Director VVF Centre, Jos, confirmed that giving birth to a stone or any object was possible.

Lengmang was in Yola to attain to the VVF patients for the duration of one week .
“Stones and other solid objects can form in a human body in different cases,” he said. “Stones can form in a gall bladder, urinary  bladder and other several  parts of urinary tracks.”

The medical expert explained that why VVF  patients were prone to giving birth to stones or any solid object was because they drink less water to reduce urine leakage.

He said as a result of taking less water their urine become concentrated.

“Inside urine, there is salt, sodium and chlorine, and when the urine becomes concentrated, the salt becomes crystallised and finally forms itself and later ends up as stone,” he said.
Lengmang confirmed that three VVF patients had stones in their placentas and they would undergo surgery.
He said the size of the stones uncovered from the three women was six by seven and three by four centimetres.

Lengmang advised VVF patients to drink more water instead of taking less to prevent them from risk of having stones.

House Committee On Finance, Again, Summons Okonjo-Iweala, Alison-Madueke, Sanusi

The House Committee on Finance on Monday February 2014 summoned the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to explain the answers she gave to the 50 questions posed to her in December 2013.

A statement by the committee’s clerk, Farouq Yakubu Dawaki, states that Okonjo-Iweala must appear before the committee in person and not send a representative.

Also summoned by the committee are petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, minister of national planning, chairmen of National Planning Commission (NPC), Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

Israel builds detention center in the desert for African Asylum seekers

The Isreali government has built a 9,000 person capacity detention facility in the southern desert where illegal African Immigrants would be detained. According to the Isreali government, the illegal immigrants who seek asylum in the country are becoming a burden to the govt and so they would be moved from the Shaharonim detention centre were they are presently being held to the new facility, a place human rights group have called a De-facto prison.

In this new facility which is situated in the desert, the immigrants will be locked down at night, and forced to check-in with the Israeli authorities three times per day. They will also be barred from working outside the centre. Continue...
The illegal immigrants who are more than 1000 would be moved into the facility without any trial or charge and held up in the facility until the Isreali government is able to repatriate them back to their countries.
The Isreali Government through an act of Parliament passed the "Anti-Infiltration Law" which seeks to create a suitable balance between the right of the State of Israel to defend its borders and prevent infiltration, and its obligation to act in a humanitarian manner toward anyone within its borders and protect the human rights due to every person".

There are an estimated 54,000 African asylum seekers in Israel, with most coming from Sudan and Eritrea.

8 Marriage Tips From Pope Francis

Pope Francis met with ten thousand engaged couples today in St. Peter’s Square to celebrate the joy of marriage, offering them sage love advice. The lovers came from all over the world to meet with the pope in an event organized by the Pontifical Council for the Family. They asked him questions about how to sustain a loving marriage.

Here are some of his best words of wisdom for living a successful relationship:

1. Build Love

    But what do we mean by ‘love’? A mere emotion, a psycho-physical state? Certainly, if it is just this, it cannot provide the foundation for building something solid. But if instead love is a relationship, then it is a growing reality, and we can also say, by way of example, that it is built in the same way that we build a house. And we build a house together, not alone!

    

2. Commit To Forever

    Because ‘forever’ is not simply a question of duration! A marriage does not succeed just because it lasts; its quality is also important.

3. Living Together Requires Consideration and Care

    [Living together is] an art, a patient, beautiful and fascinating journey … which can be summarised in three words: please, thank you and sorry. ‘Please’ is a kind request to be able to enter into the life of someone else with respect and care. … True love does not impose itself with hardness and aggression.

4. Be Courteous and Grateful

    St. Francis said that ‘courtesy is the sister of charity, it extinguishes hatred and kindles love’. And today, in our families, in our world, often violent and arrogant, there is a need for far more courtesy. ‘Thank you’: gratitude is an important sentiment. Do we know how to say thank you?

5. Recognize Mistakes and Apologize Sincerely

    ‘Sorry’. In our lives we make many errors, many mistakes. We all do. … And this is why we need to be able to use this simple word, ‘sorry’. In general we are all ready to accuse other sand to justify ourselves. It is an instinct that lies at the origins of many disasters. Let us learn to recognize our mistakes and to apologize.

6. Don’t Expect Perfection

    We are all aware that the perfect family does not exist, nor does the perfect husband, nor the perfect wife.

7. Your Marriage Is More Important Than Your Wedding

    At the same time, it is good for your wedding to be sober and to emphasize that which is truly important. Some people are more concerned with external signs, with the banquet, the dress… These are important aspects of a feast, but only if they are able to indicate the true reason for your joy: the Lord’s blessing upon your love.

8. Don’t Go To Bed Angry

    Do not end any day without asking each other for forgiveness, having peace back in your house and your family. Never end a single day without being at peace with each other. This is the secret in order to preserve love.

The Pope also tweeted:
Pope Francis        ✔ @Pontifex
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Dear young people, don’t be afraid to marry. A faithful and fruitful marriage will bring you happiness

Students Flee Campus Over Boko Haram Threat Letter

Scared that the Boko Haram insurgents could make good their threat to attack their campus, students of Adamawa State College of Education, based in Hong Local Government Area of the state have fled the school.

The threat to attack the institution was said to have been contained in a letter that was allegedly written and signed by persons suspected to be members of the Islamic terrorist group and dropped in the middle of the school by an unidentified person.
The letter subsequently got to some students who alerted other colleagues and the staff about an impending attack on the college.

The development was said to have thrown the institution into panic and precipitated their exodus from the college. Students and even staff members living near the institution immediately fled the area to avoid the threatened attack by the Islamic sect.

The Provost of the college, Dr. Johnson Pongri, confirmed the incident and noted that the management of the institution had appropriately informed the Hong Divisional Police Officer, the Nigerian Army and other security agencies in the state about the said letter.

Pongri further explained that the management of the institution had already informed all relevant organisations in the education sector in order to avoid a repeat of what happened in Yobe State where innocent students were attacked both in their hostels and in examination halls.

The provost said the last letter was the fifth in two months threatening to attack the college, without specifying the time of attack.  He explained that it was the fear that the said attack could happen at anytime that had compelled the students to flee the campus.

“The students have started leaving the campus since Tuesday evening over the alleged threat from Boko Haram, while some left campus yesterday.

“However, the management of the college has been trying to pacify the students to stay back in the institution as security operatives are on alert and trying to beef up security in the college,” he said.

He however said he suspected that the letter could have been written by some disgruntled students and staff members.

But while the college was gripped with fear, no fewer than nine Nigerian soldiers were killed in a deadly ambush by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect at the border area of Izhe village in Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

Confirming the incident, chairman of the council, Mr. Maina Ularamu, who could not ascertain the number of casualties, said the soldiers were on a mission to repel a purported attack planned by the insurgents.

“The soldiers were going to repel a planned attack at Izhe border village when they were ambushed by the heavily armed insurgents,” he said.

Ularamu said the incident had caused fear and tension in most of the villages at the border, adding that some of the villagers had since fled to Madagali, the administrative headquarters, for fear of possible attacks.

An eyewitness, who was on duty, confirmed that the corpses of the nine soldiers were deposited at the mortuary of the Federal Medical Centre, Yola.
Ularamu also said the insurgents were well armed with anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons mounted on their vehicles.

It was learnt that the troops were left to face the heavily armed insurgents, who attacked them from different directions. During the attack, some villagers also revealed that there was aerial support for the soldiers.

Efforts to get the Brigade Commander of the 23rd Armoured Brigade, Yola, Brigadier General Rogers Nicholas, to confirm the casualties, proved abortive as he was said to have gone out for a special assignment.

However, a   top military source said the soldiers had carried out a raid on a Boko Haram hideout in the porous border villages, which resulted in a prolonged gun duel with the insurgents.
“During the attack, a fierce battle ensued between our soldiers and the insurgents which lasted several hours,” he said.

Meanwhile, there was no respite for the Borno town of Konduga, which was attacked by the insurgents on Tuesday, as another attack was launched on it yesterday.

Residents said a gun duel ensued Thursday between men of the Nigerian Army and the Islamic insurgents, when for the second time in 48 hours the terrorist group launched another attack on the town.

Reports from the town also indicated that the death toll from the Tuesday attack had risen from 51 to 57, as four persons who were injured in the attack died Thursday.

Many residents were awestruck by the frequency of the brutal attacks, causing many to flee their communities in Borno.

› Just In: President Jonathan Fires Aviation Minister Stella Oduah, 3 Others

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President Jonathan today, Wednesday, February 12, 2014 fired four of his cabinet members.

Affected are the ministers of aviation, Niger Delta, police affairs, and minister of state, finance.

“They were dropped, they did not resign,” a cabinet source told The Punch.

Namely the ministers affected are Stella Oduah (Aviation), Caleb Olubolade (Police Affairs), Godsday Orubebe (Niger Delta),  and Yerima Ngama (State, Finance).

This is a breaking news report. More details to follow.

Finally! Terry G Set To Wed Baby Mama!

According to NigeriaFilms.com that Gabriel Amanyi popularly known as Terry G the ‘Akpako Master’, is about to tie knots with his baby mama, Mimi Omoregbe.

sources who are close to the singer gathered that, “Terry G has started making moves to settle down with his girlfriend of some years, Mimi Omoregbe. I can authoritatively tell you that very soon; he (Terry G) will announce his wedding plans to the media.”

The source added that Terry G is likely to finalize the wedding plans in mid-2014.
Terry G and his UK based baby mama, Mimi have been dating for sometime and they both had a son in the UK.

SHOCKER! Father Padlocks Sons Mouth, Beats Him To Death In Lagos [GRAPHIC PHOTO]

Unbelievable! You read some stories and just cringe. According to a shocking report by PM News, a father beat his 4 year old son to death and padlocked his mouth to prevent him from shouting while the beating lasted. The full report below...

The incident occurred on Monday afternoon at 7, Adetola Adelaja Street, Meiran area of Lagos. It was gathered that the man, Mr. Chris Elvis, who claims to sell computer accessories, allegedly locked his son, Godrich in the room, padlocked his mouth and beat him to death with an object that inflicted deep cuts all over his body, claiming that the boy was an Ogbanje (evil child that dies and reincarnates repeatedly).

Continue to read but be warned there's a graphic photo of the dead child after the cut...

The man landed in trouble when his landlady, Mrs Popoola who was in the market, was informed that something was happening in her house. She rushed home and discovered that the boy had been beaten to death by his father.

She rushed to Meiran Police Station to report the matter. The police stormed the house around 9 O’clock on Monday night to arrest Elvis who was about to escape.

After allegedly killing the boy, he locked him in one of his rooms. He told the police that nothing happened but when the police forced the locked room open, they found the dead boy with padlock in his mouth.

Husband of the landlady, Mr. Olusola Adejumo told P.M.NEWS that the deceased boy was four years old and that the man had been acting strange since he packed into the compound last year.
According to him, when Elvis came into the compound about six months ago, he came with his children and wife and that he claimed to sell computer accessories, adding that in the first two weeks of his stay in the house, he beat up his wife thoroughly.

He said he had gone to the police station to report the incident and that the police invited them to settle the matter and warned Elvis not to beat his wife again or he would be arrested.

Adejumo explained that sometime ago, the man travelled with his family and did not return with his wife, but came with the four-year old boy and another woman, whom he claimed was now his wife because he had parted ways with his former wife.

He said that on Monday, his new wife rushed out of the house shouting for help that the man wanted to kill his son, adding that the man came out of the house and chased his wife with a cutlass, calling the woman a witch.

It was gathered that the man came back into his room and locked it, padlocked the boy’s mouth and beat him till he died.

The police at Meiran took the boy’s corpse away and deposited it at the Ota General Hospital, while the man was detained and would be transferred to Area ‘M’ Police Division in Lagos later for further investigation.

After the incident on Monday, the police also arrested the landlady who came to report the matter at the police station and detained her till Tuesday morning, while allegedly demanding for N50,000 to bail the innocent woman.

A tenant in the house, Apostle Freedom Damian said Elvis had been a strange man in the house as he do not talk to anybody and was always keeping to himself and nobody could ask him questions.
He described the murder of the boy as gruesome and cruel.

Tenants living in the same compound with Elvis never knew his name and could not tell P.M.NEWS reporter his name because he does not interact with people.