Friday 16 December 2016

Mimiko is stupid !

Mimiko is Stupid !
Honestly , I think so
And I am sure avery few of us who are stupid
people are thinking this way
I don't know whether you are among
And for me ? I think I am one of them
And I am sure we are many
Those that believe that the Governor Olusegun
The outgoing Governor of Ondo State has been Abayomi Mimiko acting ,
Stupidly after his candidate , Eyitayo Jegede lost the election
In circumstances which was engendered by high level of
Judicial and political conspiracy
We are angry that Mimiko is not a Nigerian politician
We are doubting if he is a HUMAN being
We do not believe he is a made in Nigeria politician
We cannot just believe that a Nigerian politician
Can and should behave like this
Going by the whole scenario and circumstances
which surrounded the denial of victory of Eyitayo Jegede
We are expecting Mimiko to behave like some of his counterparts
Who had suffered electoral humiliation while in power
And particularly some of whom who were
Never traumatised with judicial instrument
None of whose candidate was prevented from campaigning
And none of who whose candidate was not excluded from
the various debates in their states
Yet , Mimiko, whose candidate suffered plethora of injustices
Has refused to GO to the Tribunal to slug it out !
Mimiko and his candidate has rather taken their fate in graceful latitude as if there are no genuine grounds for judicial engagements
And just like he did when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo verbally abused and assaulted his parental sensibility
Mimiko , as a responsible and well brought up Yoruba ,Egi,
Warned all his media friends
Not to return or exchange any salvo of insult to the Statesman. Unlike a counterpart of his who would have rained torrents of abuses on the Ebora Owu
And unleashed his internet mad dogs after the baba
Nay , Mimiko never did that
He and Jegede is not contemplating going to the Tribunal
While some of us
i mean those of us
Who wold have profited financially and otherwise
From the legal tussle one way or the other
have been telling him
Pointing out the grounds of laws
Citing the necessary sections of the statutes
And quoting legal authorities and luminaries
Pointing out the various mis-step
Which are brazen in their illegalities
Committed by INEC and the Courts
Some good grounds which we have told him
have remained inconsistent with the Constitution
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria law
And aberrations and dirty slaps to the Electoral
But this strange politician of our time
Has obstinately like an Egi refused our entreaties
To go to the Tribunal
Has rejected our prodding to 'Sue the bastards '
As the lawyer will say
The best performing Governor to my opinion
Has remained unconvinced
And refused to be convinced
Why he should waste his time
Waste his money and goodwill
And expended productive efforts
On series of legal gymnastics
To challenge the conduct of
the 2016 Gubernatorial election
in Ondo state despite the brazen malpractices
political and legal conspiracies
It is this singular refusal of his
that some of us
Foolishly think that
He is stupid ! .
Is he not ?

How Rawlings ruined NDC electoral victory in Ghana

How Rawlings ruined NDCelectoral victory 

Jerry John Rawlings
The massive defeat suffered by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in last week’s general elections has created confusion among top officers of the outgoing governing party.
Gurus in the party are at one another’s throat over who actually caused the party’s humiliating defeat in the December 7 polls, with one group insisting that former President Jerry John Rawlings, who founded the NDC, should take the blame, saying he did not campaign for President John Mahama’s re-election bid.
 JJ’s Influence
The Greater Accra Regional Organizer of the NDC, Anthony Nukpenu, has insisted that no personality other than Mr. Rawlings contributed to the party’s defeat, claiming that he (the ex-president) continuously tagged the Mahama administration as corrupt and that gave the opposition the weapons to fire more salvos.
“We as a party have a founder in the person of Jerry John Rawlings and as party members, we felt he should be a protective cover for the party and the government; but he chose to arm the opposition against us,” he said, adding, “The NPP got to our heels by campaigning against us heavily on this so-called corruption perception and anytime they made that claim they claimed that the founder of the NDC is the one who said the president is the most corrupt person and his appointees are very corrupt so they should be voted out.”
Corruption Weapon
Mr Anthony Nukpenu underscored, “So if you have this message being used against you by your political opponents and courtesy the founder of your party, it goes a long way to affect your political fortunes. And that has been one of the tools that caused us to have this humiliating defeat.”
He said President-elect Nana Akufo-Addo’s acknowledgement of President Rawlings in his acceptance speech was an indication that the former president ‘armed’ the opposition with a ‘weapon’ for the elections.
“One of the tools he gave them was corruption, and Nana Akufo-Addo in his acceptance speech congratulated him. On what basis was he congratulating him, thanking him so much for what he has done for him?” he queried.
Founder’s Hesitation
Mr. Nukpenu also claimed the former president shut his doors to the NDC but allowed the NPP to come in, saying, “We as a party made moves to have a meeting with our founder, he did not agree; but he had the time and opportunity to open his doors to Volta Regional NPP executives to have a meeting with them.
“What is he telling the world? So things have gone bad; we don’t want to go there. I know the several moves that we made when we needed him and he turned us down. He has brought us to opposition which has been his call, so he should call us; we are ready to go to him.”
In JJ’s Defence
However, in a sharp rebuttal, the party’s National Organizer Kofi Adams, who was the Campaign Coordinator of the NDC, dismissed the Regional Organizer’s claims and said the party was yet to take stock and know what went wrong.
Kofi Adams, who was once President Rawlings’ spokesperson said, “Nobody has done any research to show why we lost, and until we have done so, the blame game must cease, and our former president and founding father must be allowed to have his peace while we work around a strategy to bring everything on board.
“We went into the elections with the hope and desire to win. We did not win the elections. Leadership would have to take the responsibility for our inability to win the elections. Let us blame nobody, especially our founder.
“Those of us in active leadership at the national, regional and at all levels, should take responsibility for what has happened and let us focus for the next agenda which is making sure that once we hold the government to its promise and also make sure that no matter what, we get back to power to continue the great job that the country deserves.”
Conspicuously Absent
The absence of the former president on the NDC campaign trail was so conspicuous that it has become talk of the town.
Apart from Cape Coast in the Central Region where the NDC launched its national campaign in August, Mr Rawlings was never seen at any NDC campaign event, including the manifesto launch in Sunyani, Brong-Ahafo Regional capital, in September.
Mr Rawlings refused to endorse John Mahama when he attended the Cape Coast campaign launch, but asked the party supporters to wait till after the elections before he would go round the country ‘to rebuild the party.’
He refused to disclose whom he voted for on December 7 when asked, saying that his vote was secret.
Old Man
At a point when everybody was asking about the whereabouts of the former president in the NDC campaign, the party’s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, said brazenly that the former president was too old to campaign for the ruling party.
He had queried cheekily on Joy FM that “If Jerry is your father will you pull him to campaign at this age?”
By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday 29 November 2016

Brazilian soccer team's plane crashes in Colombia; 75 dead !

Brazilian soccer team's plane crashes in Colombia; 75 dead
LA UNION, Colombia (AP) — A chartered plane carrying a Brazilian first division soccer team crashed near Medellin while on its way to the finals of a South American championship, killing 75 people, Colombian officials said Tuesday. They said six people survived.
The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, operated by a charter airline with roots in Venezuela, declared an emergency and lost radar contact just before 10 p.m. Monday (0300 GMT Tuesday) because of an electrical failure, aviation authorities said.
The aircraft, which had departed from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was carrying the up and coming Chapecoense soccer team from southern Brazil for Wednesday's first leg of a two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellin.
"What was supposed to be a celebration has turned into a tragedy," Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez said from the search and rescue command center.
The club said in a brief statement on its Facebook page, "May God accompany our athletes, officials, journalists and other guests traveling with our delegation."
Expressions of grief poured in from all over the soccer world. South America's federation canceled all scheduled matches in a show of solidarity, Real Madrid's squad interrupted its training for a minute of silence and Argentina legend Diego Maradona sent his condolences to the victims' families over Facebook.
Rescuers working through the night were initially heartened after pulling three passengers alive from the wreckage. But as the hours passed, heavy rainfall and low visibility grounded helicopters and slowed efforts to reach the crash site.
At daybreak, dozens of bodies were quickly collected into white bags while rescuers scavenged through pieces of the plane's fuselage strewn across the muddy mountainside.
Images broadcast on local television showed three passengers arriving to a local hospital in ambulances on stretchers and covered in blankets connected to an IV. Among the survivors was Chapecoense defender Alan Ruschel, who doctors said suffered spinal injuries.
Two goalkeepers, Danilo and Jackson Follmann, as well as a journalist traveling with the team and a Bolivian flight attendant, were found alive in the wreckage. But Danilo was later reported as dead, and authorities said another defender, Helio Zampier, had survived amid a confusion of sometimes conflicting early reports.
The aircraft is owned by LaMia, a company with roots in Venezuela and that has a close relationship with several premier South American squads.
 
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Argentina's state-run news agency said the plane involved in the crash had transported Barcelona striker Lionel Messi and the national team this month from Brazil to Colombia between World Cup qualifier matches. The airliner also reportedly transported Venezuela's national squad and several top teams from Bolivia in the past.
LaMia's website, which is no longer online, said it operated three 146 Avro short-haul jets made by British Aerospace and with a maximum range of around 2,965 kilometers (1,600 nautical miles) — about the same as the distance between Santa Cruz and Medellin, the route it was flying when it went down.
Alfredo Bocanegra, the head of Colombia's aviation authority, said initial reports suggest the aircraft was suffering electrical problems although investigators were also looking into an account from one of the survivors that the plane had run out of fuel about five minutes from its expected landing at Jose Maria Cordova airport outside Medellin.
Bolivia's civil aviation agency said the aircraft picked up the Brazilian team in Santa Cruz, where players had arrived earlier in the day on a commercial flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Spokesman Cesar Torrico said that the plane underwent an inspection before departing for Colombia and reported no problems.
British Aerospace, which is now known as BAE Systems, says that the first 146-model plane took off in 1981 and that just under 400 were built in total in the U.K. through 2003. It says around 220 of are still in service in a variety of roles, including aerial firefighting and overnight freight services.
A video published on the team's Facebook page showed the team readying for a flight earlier Monday in Sao Paulo's Guarulhos international airport. Photos of team members in the cockpit and posing in front of the plane ahead of departure quickly spread across social media.
The team, from the small city of Chapeco, was in the middle of a fairy tale season. It joined Brazil's first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it last week to the Copa Sudamericana finals — the equivalent of the UEFA Europa League tournament — after defeating two of Argentina's fiercest squads, San Lorenzo and Independiente, as well as Colombia's Junior.
"This morning I said goodbye to them and they told me they were going after the dream, turning that dream into reality," Chapecoense board member told TV Globo. "The dream was over early this morning."
The team is so modest that tournament organizers ruled that its 22,000-seat arena was too small to host the final match, which was moved to a stadium 300 miles (480 kilometers) to the north in the city of Curitiba.
"This is unbelievable, I am walking on the grass of the stadium and I feel like I am floating," Andrei Copetti told the AP. "No one understands how a story that was so amazing could suffer such a devastating reversal. For many people here reality has still not struck."
Joshua Goodman reported from Bogota. Associated Press writers Mauricio Savarese, Renata Brito and Steve Wade contributed to this report from Rio de Janeiro and Carlos Valdez from La Paz, Bolivia.A previous version of this story has been corrected to show that the name of the South American soccer federation president is Alejandro, not Luis.

Wednesday 12 October 2016

Corrupt judge prostrates, begs DSS boss after seeing proof of N500m bribe

Corrupt judge prostrates, begs DSS boss after 

seeing proof of N500m bribe

Published on October 12, 2016 by    ·
Mr. Lawal Daura, DSS DG
Mr. Lawal Daura, DSS DG
One of the seven judges arrested by the Department of State Services, DSS, has admitted that he took bribes running into millions of naira.
A DSS source revealed that the judge on being confronted with the proof of the N500 million bribe he collected prostrated before the DSS boss and begged him not to expose him.
He was rolling on the floor and this was captured, the source told The Nation newspaper.
The judge had refused to unlock the safe in his house for DSS operatives to have access to its contents.
The DSS, however, plans to take possession of the safe to uncover its contents, the source said.
It was gathered that the agency has been questioning bank chiefs and directors over links with some of the alleged corrupt judges.
Those arrested were two Supreme Court Justices ­– Sylvester Ngwuta and Inyang Okoro; – the suspended Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Ilorin Division, Justice Mohammed Ladan Tsamiya, who was picked up in Sokoto; Justice Adeniyi Ademola (Federal High Court); the Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice I. A. Umezulike; Justice Kabiru Auta of Kano State High Court; and Justice Muazu Pindiga (Gombe State High Court).
The source said: “Corruption in the Judiciary was based on our intelligence gathering and alerts from informants and petitions. It is not based on the perception of Nigerians. We have been on the trail of some of these judges in the last few months.
“For instance, we started probing one of the seven judges in detention since the Ramadan period of 2015. When we got sufficient intelligence on him, bordering on over N500 million bribe, we invited him.
“The judge was given a copy of our report on him. By the time he read it halfway, he prostrated, held the legs of the security chief (Lawan Daura) and begged for forgiveness. We captured the way he was reeling on the floor.
“We later sent a security brief on him to the National Judicial Council (NJC) with enough evidence. But he was cleared by the NJC as having committed no wrong. Since the NJC could not do the needful, we have decided to subject him to a judicial process.
“We also have a case of one of the judges who refused to unlock a safe in his house when our operatives went to his house. We may actually secure the leave of the court to relocate the safe to Abuja.
“Another detained judge got a contract from Bauchi State Government and obtained a loan from a bank. But when he defaulted in paying back the facility, the bank filed an action against him before the Federal High Court in Bauchi. What is the business of a judge with contract?”
Another source gave insights into the ongoing operation against 15 judges by the DSS.
“We are digging more and getting fresh revelations from these judges. For instance, a Federal High Court judge in detention actually spread the N54 million and $171,779 recovered from his residence in different rooms. He kept them in different parts of the rooms like a thief.”
“There is no immunity conferred on judges, we are only duty bound to protect the court because it is a sacred place, a temple of justice. Once you have issues, you go to court but immediately a judge is outside the court, he or she is like you and me.
“There is nothing unusual about the arrest of judges other than it has not been the practice. But it is normal. Once a petition is lodged, it is normal that you just have to look into it as a security agency.”
“We have started looking into allegations against some banks; we have torn all banks apart. Some bank chiefs have been coming to the DSS office in Abuja for clarifications on some transactions we are investigating.
“Every week, not less than three bank officials come here. We will let you know the outcome soon.”