"Imprisoned" Enugu First Lady, Clara Chime, hires Falana to secure her release

I still find this story strange though I have confirmed it's 100% true. An update from SaharaReporters

Human rights lawyer Femi Falana has asked the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. MD Abubakar, to ensure the immediate release from unlawful detention of Mrs. Clara Chime, the First Lady of Enugu State who is being held hostage at Government House Enugu by Governor Sullivan Chime, or be dragged to court.  

In a letter dated November 1, 2013, Mr. Falana, representing Mrs. Chime, pointed out that his client has been kept incommunicado in solitary confinement for over four months on the directives of Governor Chime.

“Thus our client’s fundamental rights to the dignity of her person, personal liberty, fair hearing, private and family life and freedom of movement guaranteed by the Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 have been violated without any legal justification,” it said.

“Although our client’s dehumanizing detention conditions have had deleterious effects on her psychological state as well as her mental and physical health she has been denied access to her doctors by her abductors,” the petition said.  “It is particularly disturbing to note that some of the police and state security service personnel assigned to secure the safety of the Enugu State governor, his wife and other family members have aided and abetted Mr. Chime in subjecting our client to egregious infringements of her aforesaid fundamental rights.”

It pointed out, however, that unlike the governor who is currently immune from prosecution under the constitution, the police and state security service officials involved in the illegal arrest and detention of Mrs. Chime ought to be sanctioned under the relevant laws.

In a letter exclusively published by SaharaReporters on October 28, Mrs. Chime complained that Governor Chime had placed her under house arrest, and begged human rights bodies to come to her rescue.

She said that eminent personalities such as President and Mrs. Goodluck Jonathan and the Bishop Callistus Onaga of Enugu State and other top priests had attempted to intervene in the matter without success.

Among other things, Mrs. Chime said she had been introduced to two psychiatrists, Dr. Onwukwe and Dr. Agumo, who prescribed “all kinds of drugs that ends up keeping me acute depressed and also drives me into hallucinations.”

Aluu4: Gone but not forgotten

Yep, we are still on it! And we will continue until they get justice. Continue to rest in peace Tekena, Ugonna, Chiadika and Lloyd.

Sterling Bank Launches the Sterling-Arsenal Debit Cards

The highly publicized partnership between Sterling Bank and Arsenal Football Club has been formally sealed with the launch of the co-branded debit cards for the use of millions of fans and card holders in Nigeria.

As part of Sterling Bank’s unique focus on satisfying the deepest needs and passions of its customers, these co-branded debit cards, (available in VISA and VERVE) are one of numerous benefits of the initial three-year partnership between the bank and Arsenal Football Club. Continue...

Commenting during the event which held at The Emirates Stadium, London, Yemi Adeola, the CEO of Sterling Bank Plc explained that “the initiative underscores the Bank’s strategic retail market focus while Ivan Gazidis, the CEO of Arsenal Football Club highlighted the rich history of the Club and ‘noted the deep similarities in history and values between both organizations; promising that “the Club will remain true to its founding ideals”. 

With the formal launch now off the ground, Sterling Bank customers; especially the Arsenal fans and holders of the Sterling-Arsenal co-branded debit cards can now begin to enjoy access to Club-related benefits and incentives to help them live their passions as well as more value-added privilegessuch  as official merchandise and tickets to see the team in action at Emirates Stadium, youth coaching clinic for coaches on the auspices of Sterling Bank in Nigeria and lots more.

Sterling Bank Plc is a leading commercial bank in Nigeria and one of the country’s fastest growing banks. Originally incorporated in 1960 as NAL Bank (the country’s first investment banking franchise), it acquired the operations of the erstwhile Equitorial Trust Bank in November 2011 in pursuit of its growth and expansion plans. The bank currently operates out of 165 branches, about 4,648 POS and 241 ATMs across the Nigeria.

Ruggedman vs Abuja promoter part 2. Promoter tells his side of the story

You guys already read Ruggedman's version of events (If you missed it, check on it HERE) Now it's the turn of Abuja promoter, Ejiro Okhipwo. He just sent me a statement. Read below....

First of all, I'm embarrassed that this man, Ruggedman, could bring himself so low by exposing his own shame publicly in the media. I'm embarrassed because no artiste could have done what this guy did to us even when we felt we were doing him a big favour. Look, I have organized several editions of this event, and different artistes have graced our event, but we have never been swindled before.  This is our first experience, and unfortunately, it's an artiste who has lost audience appeal that did this to us. I had wanted to let this pass, but since he has gone to humiliate himself in the media, I will follow this up. I'm consulting with my lawyer at the moment, and we may be suing ruggedman for defamation of character, and his failure to heed to our earlier agreement with him.

It's amazing the way Ruggedman misbehaved. As a supposed respected elder in the business of entertainment, we never expected that from him. No wonder he had a fight with his boy, 9ice who became bigger and better than him in the music game.

Now my story:

Quite frankly, what we do when we are bringing an artiste to our show is to pay the person upfront, you give us your most convenient time to travel, and we book your return ticket. It's laughable and extremely ridiculous that Ruggedman is claiming we were to pay him honorarium of N100,000. I couldn't have paid him N100, 000 when he was the one who begged us for the show. He said he wanted an award to get himself acquainted with his Abuja fans. This is not what we would have loved to say in the public domain, if not that he has gone public, because we respect all the artistes we deal with, no matter the status. Having called me personally to beg for the award, we told him, look, we will appreciate your appearance after our event as we did not put you in our budget earlier. We then booked for his flight, we sent him the tickets reference number and he came into Abuja on Friday, the 25th of October, 2013 and was picked up from the airport without delays. He was also checked into a classic hotel with a four star value as agreed, with food and drinks on ground for him to enjoy a day before the event.

Ruggedman refused to pick up his calls: He had over 30 missed calls from us.

 Unfortunately for the MBGA organizers, Ruggedman refused to pick up calls placed to him. In fact, He went ahead to even show some other artistes that were in the hotel with  him , that "see, see, see, the organizers of the event are calling me, but I will not pick, I will make them go through hell since they have refused to see me since yesterday that I arrived’’ How could he have made such claims. Who picked him up from the airport then? The pack of lies is clearly childish and pointless.

Our Bewilderment

We wondered at the change of agreement and his refusal to pick up calls. The question was why was our own Ruggedman disgracing himself over N50, 000 that we agreed to pay him after the event? At list, we expected him to pick up his calls and give us his new terms, but he never did. Information got to us that he was to have a meeting with some people that time over his album, the reason he used our show to transport himself to Abuja. We never believed that in the first place, but it got clearer to me the next day, when this guy showed no remorse towards his actions. Funny enough, he was waiting for his return ticket, and his honorarium, and we kept wondering ‘’ what are we honouring him for?’’. Appreciating him for eating our food, drinking our bear, wasting our ticket money, time and energy? Appreciating him for rudely and unapologetically denying that we brought him into Abuja, appreciating him for ignoring over 30 missed calls? These were the series of questions begging for answers. Ruggedman, even at that, had the guts to take our case to the media; the world is very funny.

Why only Ruggedman? Why not other artistes?

If we can invite all the Nollywood acts, artistes and comedians like him, why should we not want to pay him a little amount of N50, 000 only?

His unbearable attitude and its effect on his career

With an apology, I want to say that Ruggedman is really not a good role model, and that has resulted to his poor performance over time. I think the name rugged is influencing his life and his career. He needs to redefine his name, and what he represents as an artiste. You cannot continue to fight people who try to make you relevant as an entertainer. It's sad.

Why did we invite Ruggedman and not an A-list artiste?

We knew this guy was not an A-List artist, yet we went ahead to invite him to be awarded, Just to have him get on track. He attested to the fact that we were creating visibility for him, but we were shocked at what we received from him; insults, by putting up a very sad news just to tarnish the good name and record of MBGA event.  We won't just let this pass. We will ask some legal questions on why he should come out to castigate us without reasons. We are very sorry for him, because he is going to pay the MBGA for all damages he had caused the event.

Why we abandoned him in the hotel after the event

We admit that we abandoned him at the hotel in Abuja after the event because he refused to perform his own part of the gentlemen agreement we had. would it have been nice to pay him even when he refused to pick up our calls to perform at the show? Had he performed at the show and we refused to pay him, then his media query would have been a little reasonable. How would he have expected the MBGA to pay for his fare back to Lagos? He is a very nonsensical element and should be treated as such. This same Ruggedman stayed in that same hotel on our bills from Friday, a day before the event till Monday; that is two days after the event. So, we told the hotel to check him out once its 12noon on Monday, the 28th of October 2013. What kind human being is he?  How could he be talking about God, when God is already angry with him? This God don suffer for people mouth  jor.

Our legal war!

Rugged man will hear from us very soon. Our lawyers will serve him for damages and he will pay from his nose.  It’s funny and unfortunate that he can't even afford to answer a case at a competent court of law. I think he needs some help, but he is yet to realize that. How can an artiste be fighting all through his career? Is that supposed to be his own calling?

Who threatened who?

I did not threaten him, nobody did that, instead, he was using different people to threaten us. I think the guy wants to use us to promote his album, but we won't let his gimmicks distract us, as we will continue to pull great events for Abuja people."

Our appeal

We sincerely appeal to all our fans to remain calm and focused, believing that we have better things for them. Everybody is a partner in what we do. We do not have any police bosses as claimed by ruggedman. He just deleted me from his Blackberry contact; else, I would have copied all the chats I had with him for you. He did that purposely to conceal our gentleman agreement.

Whoever feels  so concern can call me on 08034523698 to hear more.

I Thank you.

Mr. Ejiro,

Organizer, MBGA.

Twitter war: Waconzy finally responds to Davido

Lol @wet dream.

I Took Part In 3 Robbery Attacks - Pregnant Woman

•Taiwo Obafunsho, the pregnant robbery suspect

A pregnant female robbery suspect, who was paraded on Monday in Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, has narrated her exploits with other members of the gang.
The 28-year old woman, Taiwo Obafunsho, who said she was selling frozen fish before she joined the robbery gang, told journalists at the Lagos State Police Command where she and other members of the gang were paraded, that she had only taken part in three robbery operations.

Obafunsho said she did not participate in the operation that resulted in the death of two policemen in Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos in October.
She, however, declined to speak further on her exploits and how much she made from the three operations she participated in.
Her gang members who attacked policemen at Iju-Ishaga also confessed to how they fired at the policemen, killed one of them, injured three and snatched two AK-47 rifles from the cops.
One of the gang members, Wasiu Rafiu, 23, said that it was their gang leader, Ife, that fired at the policemen in order to collect their rifles.

The weapons recovered from her gang

According to Rafiu, “I was inside the car, watching through the side mirror, when Ife and other members came down and opened fire at the policemen. After a few minutes, they came back with the two police rifles. I did not know that the policemen died. It was later one of them told me that the policeman died and some of them were wounded.”
Operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Lagos State Police Command led by Abba Kyari, a Superintendent of Police, SP, smashed the gang on Sunday.
During the operation, Kyari arrested seven of the robbery suspects, while one identified as Taiye Agege died during a gun battle with the SARS team.
Other suspects arrested are 29-year old Ife Olubaba, said to be the gang leader, Saheed Wasiu 23, Segun Idowu, 20, Odelade Kabiru, 26 and Waliu Sonni, 29.
Recovered from the robbers were two AK-47 rifles, one automatic pump action gun, four locally made pistols, two AK-47 fully loaded magazines, 135 live cartridges and a Hyundai Tucson SUV with registration number MUS 350 BG..
The suspects were paraded by the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command, Umar Manko.
Manko said that the arrest of the suspects was a follow up to the attack on policemen attached to Iju Police Station on 9 October, 2013 by the robbery gang.

Talks with Jonathan: ASUU to brief members says Fagge

President Jonathan exchanging pleasantries with

the ASUU leaders

After meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja on Monday, for about 13 hours, the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities said they would now go and brief their members on the details of the discussions.Dr. Nasir Fagge, chairman of the striking union told reporters early Tuesday at State House that the leaders would take the president’s message back to their members.
Fagge, who wore broad smiles after emerging from the meeting venue at about 3.35 a.m did not say what the message was when he spoke with the correspondents.
“We have had lengthy meeting with Mr. President, rubbing minds on how best to address the problem of university education in this country. We now have a message from Mr. President that we are going to take to our members and we are expecting that our members will respond appropriately to the message of Mr. President.”
He declined to disclose the message he would be taking to the members or whether the ASUU will be ready to call off the strike.
The Labour Minister, Emeka Wogu, who also spoke with the press, just said what was discussed did not go beyond the 2009 agreement.
Wogu said that the meeting ended positively and the message of the President to ASUU “is full of hope and high expectations.
“The message is full of hope and expectations and our prayer is that they come back with positive response.
“They might not even come back to meet us; they might even take decisions there that will meet your expectations.”
Wogu noted that the offer made by the president was in line with the 2009 agreement reached with the union.
“The offer is within the issues that led to the strike; the issues contained in the 2009 agreement and we did not go beyond the agreement,” he said.
He appealed to Nigerians to be patient with ASUU and gave an assurance that the outcome of the meeting would be positive.
The meeting with the President had begun at about 2.40pm on Monday, after ASUU had also met with the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark.
It was the first meeting between the union and President Jonathan since the strike began 1 July, shutting down almost all state and Federal government owned universities in Nigeria.
The Federal Government had initially offered the striking teachers N30billion to pay for allowances piled up since government and the union hammered out an agreement in 2009. Government also offered N100billion to pay for improvements of facilities in the universities and later increased this to N200billion on a yearly basis.
ASUU rejected the offer as too small and insisted on government implementing in full the 2009 agreement.
The negotiation with the president’s team reportedly went on a short break at about 6.30 p.m.
The meeting started in the afternoon, at about 2:40 pm inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
On the President’s negotiating team were the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, who had held a deadlocked meeting with ASUU in the past, Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Pius Anyim; Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike; and Minister of Labour, Emeka Wogu among others.
The ASUU team was led by its Chairman, Dr. Nasir Isa Fagge, Prof. Abdulahi Sule-Kano, Prof. Dipo Fashina and Prof. Festus Iyayi, Prof. Suleiman Abdul, and Prof. Abdullahi Sule-Kano.
Also at the meeting were the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Abdulawahid Omar and that of the Trade Union Congress, Bobboi Kaigama.
In banters with the ASUU team before the marathon meeting, President Jonathan while shaking hands with Fagge said:
“My president, I hope it will end today. Our children have suffered enough. We must find a solution.”
All those in attendance responded with a loud “amen.”
Jonathan also expressed similar optimism when he greeted the NLC president:
“My president with you around today, there will be no problem, our agreement is signed, sealed and delivered.”

See the $48m Las Vegas mansion with its own runway and airport

This is the mansion of 'King of Las Vegas' Wayne Newton that is up for sale. The 40-acre mansion has a car museum, personal zoo, 'equestrian pool' and jet with its own terminal. The outrageously massive property, which is located in Las Vegas, is on sale for $48million. More pics after the cut...

The best bit has got to be the F28 jet and terminal for 'entertaining on the ground'

 

The jet, like the property itself, is enormous

The property is located in the heart of Las Vegas, just minutes from McCarran Airport - not that the new owner needs it with the handy jet, pictured

Every home needs its own airport

The luxury ranch hit the market in September for $70 million

But the estate could now be yours for the just $48 million

But the estate, which comprises a main house and seven additional homes, could now be yours for the just $48 million.
According to Synergy Sotheby's International, Casa de Shenandoah, as the property is called, comes with a 37 stall stable with office and tack rooms, 16 stall stable with office, an equestrian pool and acres of corrals and pastures.

 

It also boasts car museum with 7 double doors, gaming room, green room, a Zoo, tennis court, ponds with fountains and too much more to list.
But the best bit has got to be the F28 jet and terminal for entertaining on the ground.
The home was originally built in 1952 but the listing explains 'the new owner has invested in excess of $15-20 million in improvements.'

 

The estate comprises a main house, pictured, and seven additional homes

The property is listed with Synergy Sotheby's International

The property is called Casa de Shenandoah

The place comes with a 37 stall stable with office and tack rooms, 16 stall stable with office, an equestrian pool and acres of corrals and pastures

The home was originally built in 1952

It boasts a car museum with seven double doors

Marble floors and gold interiors ooze opulence

As well as the main house, there are seven additional homes plus stables and offices

It also has a gaming room, green room, a zoo, tennis court, ponds with fountains and too much more to list

The listing explains 'the new owner has invested in excess of $15-20 million in improvements'

The Las Vegas home was reduced in price by 31 per cent last month

At $48 million, each square foot costs $4,288

The property boasts at least one elevator and a peacock

A marble tub with a chandelier tops off the indulgent home

Culled from UK Daily Mail

Building under construction collapses in Victoria Island

A building under construction at Muri Okunola street in Victoria Island just collapsed. Several people are believed to be trapped under it. The building is beside the Eti Osa Local Government building on the street. Not sure if a rescue operation is going on right now. More exclusive photos after cut...

 

Davido once again takes a swipe at Waconzy + says he will give away N1m on his birthday

Lol at 0 brain! See the genesis of their beef HERE. Meanwhile, Davido says he will give away N1m on his 21st birthday coming up 21 of this month...

Pics: Esama of Benin host friends to super lunch at his London home

The Esama of Benin Chief Gabriel Igbinedion hosted friends and business associates, including Dele Momodu, ONTV CEO Akin Salami and pastor Ituah Ighodalo to a 'super turkey' lunch at his home in Hampstead, London yesterday. See photos from the lunch after the cut...

Pastor Ituah Ighodalo at the lunch

The Esama with his grandson