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

I Shall Expose PDP’s Atrocities Soon – Atiku Abubakar

Former Nigerian Vice Presidents Atiku Abubakar has vowed to expose the atrocities of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), come the 2015 elections.

Atiku Abubakar vows to expose PDP’s atrocities

Speaking in Yola, Adamawa (his home state), at the commissioning the office of the Atiku Abubakar Support Group, the official spoke about the 2015 elections urging Nigerian to reject the PDP. He attributed the country problems to the party’s lack of commitment and malfeasance, promising to reveal the latter when the electioneering campaigns start.
He was quoted saying by Leadership:
“We never started hitting PDP until campaigns commence.”
Atiku berated the failure of the PDP to rescue Chibok girls, abducted almost 2 months ago, adding that party which cannot rescue the country citizens cannot definitely rescue the country.
Atiku’s Group director general Alhaji Abdulrazak Namdas claimed commitment of the ex-Vice President to the political ideals and called on Adamawa residents to support the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku’s aspirations.
It would be recalled that Atiku Abubakar, defected from the PDP to the APC in February, explaining that he was disappointed with the ruling party politics directed against the Nigerians.

Obasanjo: Akunyili Was One Of The Jewels In The Glamour Of My Administration

Former president of Nigeria Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed regrets at the death of former Minister of Information, Prof. Dora Akunyili, in an Indian hospital weekend.

He described her death as a “passage of one of the jewels” of his administration.
Chief Obasanjo noted that Akunyili’s death “is a great loss to Nigeria”, which needs men and women of high integrity, industry, patriotism and honesty to make it great again.
The ex-president also noted that such virtues enabled the late Akunyili to make a difference in the nation’s Health sector.
According to him, the former minister’s death from cancer in India is “traumatic and a transfiguration of once active and vibrant personality”.
Obasanjo recalled that Akunyili’s courageous and successful crusade against fake drugs saved Nigerians from sundry dangers associated with adulterated drugs and foods.
The former President, who paid tribute to the late amazon in a telephone interview with reporters, added that as Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Mrs. Akunyili took the fight against fake drugs round every corner of the globe, preventing the circulation of unwholesome substances that could have proved fatal to unsuspecting Nigerians.
Obasanjo said: “Her death is shocking. She was one of the jewels in the glamour of my administration. I am shocked, because she could not survive the traumatic and transfiguration of a once active and vibrant person.
“Her death has left a vacuum to be filled and the country has to search and motivate such person to achieve the standard she left behind. There are two things involved: One is to search for the person. Men and women of such standing abound.
“Secondly, after the search, we have to tap them, motivate them and ensure that they are well directed. Akunyili was a workaholic member of my administration. I sincerely appreciated her service. Her life made a great change in one specific area – the fake drug. She was there, everywhere, to fight the fake drug war, which could have been fatal if she had not taken the bull by the horn.
“I commiserate with Nigerians, particularly the people of Anambra State, for the loss of this great icon of this country. She threw everything she had to the service of her fatherland. May her soul rest in peace”.

My Mother’s Final Moments – Akunyili’s Daughter

One of the children, Chidiogo, of the late former NAFDAC DG/ex-infromation minister, Dora Akunyili who died on June 7 in India after a two-year battle with cancer has paid tribute to her mother.

Chidiogo a Economics and International Relations graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, United States wrote on her Facebook of the happy moments she spent with her mother before she died.
She wrote; “To many, she was an icon, to others, she was an inspiration, to me, she was my mother and all of the above. What I told her just last week stays with me, ‘I am your daughter, and you raised me, you have been in the midst of everything, mummy and that is the strength that is now mine and all of us your children.
“‘It is also the strength of a whole nation; you touched so many lives, and that is a blessing that must not be taken lightly.’”
“Thank you all my dear friends from the bottom of my heart for your kind words. Mummy, may your soul rest in eternal peace, one with God, who you loved and served above all else,” she added.

Annie Idibia Shares Stunning New Photos

Wife of 2face Idibia — Annie has shown us that she can roll with the sexiness and finest.

Annie Idibia shared new photos of herself looking like a million bucks.

Remember she’s a mother of two!!

More pictures below: -

Religious War Brews In Borno

Over 100 persons were yesterday killed in a communal clash involving three border communities in Gwoza Local Government Council of Borno State, with members of Attagara, Aghapalwa and Gwoshe border communities also said to have taken up arms against one another.

The clash, which started as a communal clash later turned out to be a religious war between Christians and Muslims.
At least nine Christian worshippers were said to have been killed last Sunday by Islamic militants during a Sunday service in Attagara village, leaving many others critically injured. Reports said the youths of the village mobilized and killed 37 of their attackers in a reprisal.
The reprisal attack, according to sources, however made matters worse, as some Muslim youths believed that the Christian youths killed other Muslims rather than Boko Haram members who were responsible for the death of the nine Christian worshippers as well as the burning of churches in Attagara Village.
The Muslim youths were said to have mobilised against Christian youths, leading to the burning of the whole village and the killing of more than 100 villagers.
Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed, an elder and member of the community told journalists in Maiduguri that Boko Haram members attacked the villages at about 1 a.m for killing their members, who earlier attacked churches and communities in the area. He explained that most of the villages in Gwoza are now divided along religious lines, as Christians who are living among Muslims have fled their homes to settle in Christian-dominated areas, while Muslims who were living in areas dominated by Christians have also fled their homes for Muslim-dominated areas. [Vanguard]
 

Escapee Chibok School Girl Reveals What Sambisa Looks Like

One of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls who managed to escape from her abductors who held them hostage in Sambisa forest has revealed that the camps they were taken to were all trees and shrubs, with no buildings for shelter.

The 20-year-old student who pleaded anonymity disclosed this to journalist during their visit to Shettima, the governor of Borno state at the Government house in Maiduguri.

The Chibok school girls who luckily escaped Boko Haram’s den were recently hosted by the Borno state governor.

The escapee said after they were abducted, the insurgents tore through the forest, avoiding trees and thick shrubs and even when the tyres of the car burst, they kept moving until they got to the place where they said was their destination, adding that there was no visible road leading to the place.

Describing where they were taken to, the escapee said, “The place they took us to after abducting us from the school was all forest with short trees and shrubs everywhere. There is no single building or house there, but there are tents made from plastic sheets in some places. I don’t know if that is where they call Sambisa. Some of the areas are thick and dark; some places have pools of water.”

Explaining how she managed to escape, she said it was when they were asked to go and fetch water the next day that she and some other girls summoned courage and ran as fast as they could, far away from their abductors.

“We ran all day, we kept on running until we got to some place where we were assisted by villagers to get home,” she said.

According to her, she doubted whether the other girls who are still in being held hostage were comfortable there.

It was reported on May 29 that the Borno State Commissioner for Education, Musa Kubo revealed that a total of the 30 escaped girls have reunited with their families.

The Borno state governor had hosted the Chibok School Girls who were lucky to escape from Boko Haram’s den after being kidnapped by the sects in Borno, on April 14.

Governor Shettima promised to relocate the girls to safer schools in different states of the nation, from Abuja to Lagos so as to complete their studies.

Cameroon’s Military Kills 60 Boko Haram Members

Cameroon’s state radio reported that the country’s military has killed at least 60 Boko Haram members who crossed over from Nigeria seeking refuge.

According to the national radio, the heavily-armed militants, reportedly killed in the village of Dabanga in far Northern Cameroon, crossed over from Borno State. They were then ambushed by Cameroonian soldiers, the report said.
Fonka Awah, governor of the far north region of Cameroon, said his office had received information that some Boko Haram members might be hiding in Cameroonian villages, and asked for specialized troops to be deployed.
He told the Voice of America, VOA that the military had done a good job.
“Of course yes, without mincing words, after such a situation, you reassemble the forces and map out strategies, you galvanize them and put them back into action and I think that is what we have just done,” he said.
Ebenezer Akanga, a journalist who works with Cameroon’s national broadcasting station, told VOA in a telephone interview that if the military had carried out similar attacks in the past, Boko Haram would not be using Cameroon as a safe haven.
“The opinion many people have is that from the beginning, the government seemed to have been caressing the Boko Haram, the government did not seem to have been taking this fight very seriously. This is what was expected to be done from the very word ‘go.’ In fact, if the military had this type of reaction it would have deterred the Boko Harams from crossing to Cameroonian territory,” said Akanga, adding that security forces from Cameroon and Nigeria should work together to eliminate Boko Haram from the two countries.
“The military has to adopt different strategies because it does not only suffice chasing away the Boko Haram.
“The fight needs to be taken to their backyard. Even if officially there may not be agreements authorizing the Cameroonian military to cross over into Nigerian territory, I personally think that this fight can not be won by fighting the Boko Haram only in the Cameroonian territory.
“The fight should be taken to their own camp out there in Nigeria.”
Last month, Cameroon and Chad both declared war on Boko Haram. Cameroon has since deployed 2,000 troops along its border with Nigeria.