SABC Boss Under Probe For Taking A ‘Wife As Gift’

Angered by allegations that the acting chief operations officer of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Hlaudi Motsoeneng was given a wife as a gift, South African women’s groups have protested against the act culminating in an investigation into the allegations, an official said Friday.
“We have received plenty of complaints on the matter,” the government’s Commission for Gender Equality spokesman Javu Baloyi told AFP.
In response, the commission had launched “a serious and intense investigation,” he said.
Motsoeneng was allegedly given a young woman — along with a cow and a calf — by a lobby group of traditional leaders.
A Soweto-based newspaper reported last week that about 10 women were lined up in Thohoyandou, Limpopo province, by traditional Venda chiefs seeking greater exposure of their culture, and Motsoeneng was invited to choose one.
The 22-year-old woman chosen by Motsoeneng, a human resources management student, Vanessa Mutswari — was pictured in the newspaper bare-breasted next to him, standing behind a trailer on which the cow and calf had been loaded.
“The use of women as gifts as if they were livestock is a serious regress and an insult to the gains of 20 years of democracy and freedom, particularly the contribution of women,” women’s ministry spokeswoman Kenosi Machepa said.
Gender commission spokesman Baloyi said the investigation into the complaints was expected to be completed within a couple of weeks.
Motsoeneng has not responded publicly to the allegations nor the investigation.

Kelly Rowland Proudly Shows Off Bare Baby Bump

Former singer from the great female band, Destiny’s Child — Kelly Rowland, announced that she is expecting her first child with husband/manager Tim Witherspoon earlier this month.

The mom-to-be shared with the world a photo fans have been craving to see.

Rocking a crop top and yoga pants, Kelly flaunts her sweet cargo as she meditates.

Lupita Nyong’o Stuns On Her First Vogue Cover

It’s been one endorsement deal here and there since Lupita walked away with a Grammy months ago.

The Kenyan actress gets another landmark as she landed her first ever Vogue cover this July.

On the cover, Lupita smoulders in a print dress with a plunging neckline and cut outs.

In the editorial spread, she rocks pieces by Rodarte, Proenza Schouler, Givenchy, Jonathan Saunders, Prada, T by Alexander Wang and J. Crew.

Eagles to Earn 30% from Fifa Cash, NFF Clarifies Win Bonuses

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have agreed to pay the senior national side not less than $2.7m for their participation in the group stages of the Fifa World Cup, with an option of further increment as the team progresses in the tournament.

The disclosed amount is part of the monies the federation earns from the football governing body (Fifa) during its fifth appearance at the World Cup.
And as revealed by the NFF technical committee chairman, Chris Green, who is in Curitiba with the team ahead of Monday night opener against Iran, Super Eagles players will get 30 percent from the Fifa largesse for first round appearance, believed to be about US $9m- meaning about $2.7m.

Nigeria Stars Will Earn $2.7m of Fifa World Cup Reward.

“When the Senate President, Dr David Mark came here to meet with us and the players, he was totally convinced at our sincerity with the players and what we have on board as the team progresses but some people are just hell bent on ensuring that they raise issues that don’t even exist,” Green said.
“When we unveiled this before the President of the Senate who represented President Goodluck Jonathan, he was full of praise for us and promised that he will add a special bonus from government to the players and promised further surprises if the team goes far in the tourney.”
The Fifa earnings is expected to increase as the team progresses in the tournament. NFF have agreed to give the team 40% for the second round, 50% for the last-8, 60% for the semis and 70% for a progress to the final.
Green further explained that the NFF have also agreed with the playing staff to pay $10000 win bonus for group stages matches, $12500 in the round of 16 and $20,000 for semi-final per players.
Should the team reach the final and go on to lift the trophy, each member of the squad is expected to earn $25000.
The Eagles also plays Argentina, 2-1 winners over Bosnia-Hercegovina on Sunday, and the European debutantes, after today’s opening group game over Iran.

6 Boko Haram Members Trying To Plant Bomb At Winners’ Chapel Arrested In Imo

Men of the Imo State Police Command, Sunday arrested six suspected Boko Haram members inside the Winners Chapel Owerri, along Port Harcourt road, while planting bombs in the church premises.

According to an eye witness account, the security personnel attached to the church noticed strange movements within the church premises and monitored their movements.
The security men alerted the senior pastor of the church, Moses Oyedele who instructed them to alert the police which they did and the Police immediately rushed to the scene with soldiers and other security agents.
It was discovered that about six suicide bombers have taken over the church perpetrating their nefarious activities.
The source said that the police immediately cordoned off the church premises in search of the suspects leading to the arrest of the suspects.
It was discovered that the suspects had planted a bomb at the entrance gate of the church and had taken position round the premises of the church so as to plant more bombs.
The police anti-bomb squad which detonated the bombs, conducted a thorough check
round the premises so as to detect any hidden bomb within the premises.
When interrogated the suspects confessed to be suicide bombers who had stormed the state with the intention of bombing five churches within the state.
The church authority on getting the information in respect of the latest development alerted members of the congregation to relocate the service to the Heroes Square near Imo Concorde Hotel where they conducted their first service which was supposed to begin by 7am.
When contacted, the State Commissioner of Police, CP Adbulmajid Ali advised the citizens to be very vigilant now that the Boko Haram men have penetrated the State. He confirmed that the anti-bomb disposal Unit of the state police command has detonated bombs, adding that investigation to unravel the circumstances surrounding the incident was being carried out.

Meet Sanusi, The New Emir Of Kano’s Two Wives and Kids

That’s his first wife, Hajia Sadiya on the left and Hajia Maryam, the second wife on the right. See pictures of his kids below:.

Akunyili For Burial August 28 – Family

Former Minister of Information and Communications, Dora Nkem Akunyili, will be buried on August 28, 2014, the family has announced.

“Details about the funeral arrangements will be made available to the public in due course”, the deceased’s husband, Chike Akunyili, said in a statement Sunday.
Mr. Akunyili thanked Nigerians for the great love they extended to Dora both in life and at death.
He also expressed his family’s appreciation to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for the special valedictory session of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, held in honour of the late minister.
Mr. Akunyili advised anyone who has a tribute or testimonial in honour of Dora to send it by e-mail to amazon4life@doraakunyilionline.org, amazon4laif@yahoo.com, or amazon4laif@gmail.com.
He advised people who wish to make enquiries regarding Dora’s funeral to call any of the following numbers: 08181333222, 08103198444, or 08098020976.
Mrs. Akunyili, a former Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, died last Saturday, June 7, in an Indian Specialist Hospital after a two year battle with cancer.
The former minister, who was a delegate to the on-going National Conference in Abuja, would have turned 60 on July 14, 2014.

World Cup: Super Eagles Demand Appearance Fee From NFF

The Super Eagles reportedly demand from the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to pay them appearance fee for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Super Eagles demand appearance fee for the World Cup

Despite the fact that the players are paid the match bonus, starting from $10,000-a-man for a first round match win, the Eagles led by Joseph Yobo and Mikel Obi were said to have met with the Federation president Aminu Maigari demanding for the additional payment “for at least featuring in the first round of the World Cup”, AfricanFootball.com reports with reference to the top source.
Nigeria will earn over $9 million for qualification and participation in the first round of the 2014 World Cup. More benefits are coming, if Keshi’s men reach the knockout stages .
For the Scotland, Greece and USA friendlies each team player received an appearance fee of $3,000.
For comparison, their Ghanaian colleagues are on an appearance fee of $75,000-a-man for the 23 players, included in the final squad.
It would be recalled that arguments on the issue started for the Super Eagles at the 1998 World Cup and continued recently jeopardizing country participation in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil. It took intervention of the Presidency to resolve the conflict.

FG Grounds Amaechi’s Chartered Aircraft In Kano

The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) on Sunday reportedly grounded Rivers Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi’s chartered aircraft.

The aircraft, which was allegedly grounded in Kano State when Amaechi paid a condolence visit to Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, came on the heels of the release of the state-owned bombardier aircraft to Rivers after it was grounded for over a year by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA.
According to an online news medium, TheCable, the Kano State Commissioner for Home Affairs, Aminu Abdulsalam Gwarzo, told sympathisers, who came to condole with Kwankwaso over the death of the late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, at the Government House, Kano, that the chartered aircraft was grounded by officials of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency on “orders from above”.
The aircraft, which also conveyed the former governor of Gombe State, Senator Danjuma Goje, and a former acting chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, was reportedly grounded at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano.
Confirming the development, Rivers State Commissioner for Information, Ms Ibim Seminitari, said the aircraft was grounded around 11.30pm.

MUST READ: Asari Dokubo Reveals How He Met Leaders Of Boko Haram

Former Ijaw Youth Council President and leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari has revealed how he met some leaders of islamist militant group, Boko Haram.

Speaking in an interview done by the Vanguard, the son of a former judge in Rivers State judiciary said while he met a lot of the leaders of the terror group while he was in solitary confinement in SSS underground for 10 months and 11 days.
According to Asari Dokubo, who clocked the golden age of 50 on June 1, 2014, some of the Boko Haram’s leaders he met while in prison were Muda Shiru, Mohammed Isam, Yusuf Hussein, Asan Yusuf and Mohammed Bello.
Below are excerpts from the interview where he tells the story of his many struggles among others:
Let us start with your many encounters with the law and arrests. We recall you were a regular guest to the offices of security agencies.
Arrest was a regular thing. I can’t really tell. I became used to arrest. In fact, the police and SSS in Port Harcourt, maybe they advised the government, saying ‘pls, just leave this guy alone. This guy, arrest no dey do am anything’. (Laughing and speaking in pidgin English). ‘Just leave him alone. The guy enjoys getting arrested’.
Yes, that was one of the greatest undoing of Obasanjo because he thought I could be cowed. Go and look at my trial videos. There is trial like that where the judge was put in the dock. I was the one questioning the judge. It is not possible. So, the government and Obasanjo really, really, really did not understand the type of person he was dealing with. May be in Nigeria, there were no such people then. Today, we have Boko Haram. So, a new group of people has started.
Were you ever taken to any dungeon…?
(Cuts in) I was in SSS underground for 10 months and 11 days in solitary confinement.

How did you cope?
I would have run mad. Many people did. But because I had memorized parts of the Koran, instead of talking to myself, I just recited the Koran. That was what kept me alive. If I had not memorized the Koran, I would have been mad. Talking to yourself is a different thing. But this one, you are reading, edifying your soul.
So, while in prison, did you get to meet with any of the people now linked to Boko Haram?
I met with so many people, not only Boko Haram militants. Yes, I met with a lot of them: Muda Shiru, Mohammed Isam, Yusuf Hussein, Asan Yusuf, Mohammed Bello.
Who were these people?
They were leaders of the group that is now called Boko Haram. They were arrested and repatriated from Libya.
Do you know if they are still alive?
Yeah. But some of them are no longer with them. Isam is no longer with them. I don’t have their contact. But I believe that the majority of those people may have been dead because we had very close relationship when we were in prison even though we didn’t see face to face. They were in their cells and I was in mine; so we hit the wall and talked. During prayers, we prayed together by shouting.
If that is the case, don’t you get to talk to them to broker ceasefire and all that or do we have new faces now?
No, no, no. It depends on government approach. Someone in government thought it could be wished away, that it was easy. Boko Haram? ‘It will fizzle away’ and all the warning we gave them, they did not accept. They misled the government into believing that it could be wished it away. If they had taken a decisive action at that time, I don’t think that this would have reached the stage it has reached now.
But a decision was taken on their leader, Yusuf Mohammed?
That was not the sort of decisive action. The killing of Yusuf Mohammed was a mistake. If Yusuf Mohammed were to die, he should have gone for trial. Nobody should use his whims and caprices as the law like what Saddam Hussein said “whatever I wrote with my hand, that is the law”. That was what Yar’Adua did. Why should you kill somebody extra-judicially? Take him to court if he had committed any offense. You have the laws. If they had followed due process, it would have mitigated what is happening. But they did not follow. They went outside the law. When you go outside the law, you are also telling the other person to also meet you outside the law.
The thinking in many quarters now is that these people are taking a revenge on the government while some people disagree, saying it is pure terrorism. You have also said they are acting on a wrong ideology. How do you reconcile all these?
Yea, they are acting on a wrong ideology but even if it was a revenge, Islam does not permit you to take people who are not combatants. When you take the lives of people who are not combatants, then you are not longer fighting the cause of Allah because Allah SWA clearly said in the Koran that if you kill an innocent man, it seems you have killed the whole world.
Let’s go back to the struggle. Do you think it has paid off?
Not 100 percent. Maybe 20 percent. We have somebody that looks like us, dresses like us, eats our food, dances the way we dance as President. It is a victory over those who feel that they were born to rule. Who says they are born to rule? It is a negation of that erroneous position.
But to everyone in Nigeria, the President is Nigeria’s President not an Ijaw President even though he is coming from that background.
Yes, it is true. But he came from somewhere. He did not fall from the sky.
The President has been accused of not really been presidential in the real sense of the word. Again, you have very many challenges bedeviling the country which many Nigerians had expected him to deal with decisively.
Yes, most of us feel that he has not done things the way they ought to be done. But there are individual differences. For instance, does Mr. President believe in things that the ordinary Ijaw man believes? The ordinary Ijaw man who was at the airport to bring the corpse of Isaac Boro; that the Ijaw nation must be liberated, must be independent? Do most of the elites share the same beliefs that we share? No.
You are quoted as saying that the abduction of the school girls in Chibok is a scam. Some people feel shocked by that statement coming from you even when we have seen the international community coming in…
(Cuts in) which international community? The United States of America with her allies Britain and the European Union cajoled the whole world and told us that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. At the end of the day, were there weapons of mass destruction? There was none. So the international community for whatever intent and purpose that is compelling them to do what they are doing is best known to them. But it will not be far from economic interest. How can you believe that 270 girls will be taken? How? It is not possible. If you tell us that 20 girls were taken, 30, maybe 50, fine. How will you tell us that 270 girls were writing physics exam? How? In which school? Where? Even in the most educationally advanced part of this country, can you find any school where even 20 students are writing physics? I run a school. How many of my students are writing physics? They just finished their SSCE? And this is an elitist school, we make very good results. How many people are writing physics? Who are they telling? So, if you are not into education business, somebody can cajole you and tell you a lot of stories. When they took the students, the Principal, who said she thought they were soldiers, again said she was in Maiduguri for medical treatment when they came. Her daughter too was in the school. Why didn’t they take her daughter? Why did they take other peoples daughters? The military was aware four hours before the attack; the people who sent the information that Chibok was to be attacked four hours to the military, why did they not inform the chairman of Chibok, SSS Rep, DPO or anybody in Chibok? The Chibok community leader who has been talking, why didn’t they say, ‘Please, move the girls, we are suspecting that there was going to be an attack on the school? Move these children out of the school’. Why was it only the military they told? They couldn’t reach any other person but the military? What are they telling us now? Ok, today, one of the girls said she ran and jumped over the fence. She climbed the tree and then the man was saying come down, come down o’. What sort of thing is this now? So, the girl can climb a tree faster than a man with a gun? Why didn’t you just simply shoot her and he left her and went away? And some four persons were found in their house and they said they escaped and came back? What sort of stories?
How has it been in the last 50 years you have lived?
Ah! My life at 50. My experience. How am I going to put it? Well, I got into the university at the age of 21 in 1985; the University of Calabar. And from that age of 21, death became my constant companion at every turn.

If i should expose the Secrets of Boko Haram in connection with APC, Nigeria will Burn- Fani Kayode .

A former Minister of Aviation, Chief Fani-Kayode, has advised his former boss, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to put an end to his romance with the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) because the party hierarchy detests him and are only ‘using him’ to ride to power.

He revealed that it was unfortunate that the ex-president has not seen beyond the veil in his relationship with the leadership of APC, which he described as ‘evils’.
Fani-Kayode made this startling revelations in a statement on Sunday, where he detailed the operations and true color of the APC leadership, as well as their contribution to the security challenges currently facing the country.
The former APC member revealed that he chose the right path (returning to the Peoples Democratic Party) after carefully studying the workings in the party, one he said when brought to light, would shock many Nigerians to their marrow.
According to him, “I will also use my good offices to talk to Baba Obasanjo to stop flirting with these demons in the APC, because deep down, they secretly hate him. Other than those that left PDP to go to APC, the rest of them despise OBJ and are only using him. We must save OBJ from them.
“I once described the party (PDP) as a ‘sinking ship’ and, at the time, I meant it. However, it is now my firm resolve that we shall join hands with all men and women of goodwill from now on and, together, we shall stop that ship from sinking. This is because we have no choice but to do so.
“I would rather go back to a sinking ship and salvage it rather than be in bed with a bunch of ruthless men and women, who have blood on their hands and whose desperation for power and to rule over those that they believe were born to be their slaves, borders on obsession.
“Despite all its defects and challenges, I have gone back to my family, the PDP, and I am glad to be back there. I am also glad that they have welcomed me with open arms. Now the work begins”.
Fani-Kayode further revealed that he was ready to expose the atrocities of APC, which, according to him, was parading itself as an alternative to the PDP.
“So far, I have only revealed 10 per cent of what I know because I do not want to create havoc in this country. But slowly, the whole truth about the APC will emerge. Who really started the party, what its real agenda is, whose interests it is designed to further and protect, what foreign links it has, what its historical antecedents are, where its real funding comes from and so on and so forth will soon come out.
“Simply put, the Haramites in the APC cannot be trusted with power. It is as simple as that. They are the greater evil and they are the greatest of all evils. They are the darkness that seeks the darkness. Whether we like to accept it or not, PDP is the only party that can stop them from winning power at the centre in Nigeria and that is why I have gone back to that party.
“If I choose to speak out, fight back and tell the world who and what they are, what they represent, how they love to shed blood, their relationship with Boko Haram, the truth about Chibok [abducted girls] and the role some of their leaders played in it, their Islamist agenda, their links with the Middle East and the Arab world, their born-to-rule mentality, their desire to use the South West and later dump them, their utter disdain for southerners, the Middle Belt, the northern minorities, the moderate Muslims and the Christian community and so much more this country will burn.
“For 38 years, they enjoyed power and now they are destabilising the government, making the country ungovernable, slaughtering innocent civilians at will and abducting children just to get it back. They have also infiltrated the military and our security agencies with their moles and they have divided our army. Yet, these are the people that are talking and pointing fingers at others”, Fani-Kayode stated.
The former minister said the overwhelming majority of the party’s membership never had an inkling on the idea or agenda of the party.
He, however, expressed the hope that Nigerians would commend him for taking the bold step of exposing the agenda of the party.
“Sadly, the overwhelming majority of its members have no idea what is really going on behind the scenes and what the agenda really is. Those are the ones that I really feel sorry for.
“They will cry at the end of the day if the APC is ever able to seize power at the federal level, because if that happens, we will all become second class citizens in a new colony.
“In addition to this, most of the more reasonable and rational leaders in the party are complaining bitterly behind the scenes, but they are too scared to speak out or to leave the party. I urge them all to do so