6 Storey hotel Building Collapses in Abuja, Trapping Labourers, Others Rescued (PHOTOS)

Five labourers are still reportedly trapped while many others have been rescued after a 6-storey building under construction as a hotel collapsed this morning at about 1.00 am on 444 Crescent, Citec Villas in the Gwarinpa area of the federal capital territory, Abuja. According to online reports, the collapse of the building was allegedly as a result of some concrete works involving iron rods as pillars which were said to be as brittle as ordinary sand.  As at the time of filing this report, the combined efforts of the Police, NEMA and FEMA are still going on to rescue the other innocent labourers trapped under the rubble.

 

Female Kidnapper Who Disguised As A Mad Woman Arrested in Osun State

Barely 2 weeks after an alleged female ‘touch and follow’ kidnapper was nabbed and paraded naked in Osun State, another female kidnapper who disguised as a mad woman has been apprehended.
The suspect was nabbed by a bus passenger on Monday at about 7:30am at the Oriolori area of Ikire.

The yet-to-be named woman was speaking to someone on phone and her conversation was gathered to be in a low tone. This raised suspicion as the bus passenger who stood close to her raised the alarm after the mad woman was alleged to have said in Yoruba ‘Omo Obirin kekere shi wa pelu iya re. Mo nwo na’ meaning ‘The little girl is still with her mother, I am watching.’

An emerging irate mob, upon listening to the passenger’s explanation, pounced on the suspect. She tried to run away after she was noticed to be sane.cri2

The suspect was seriously beaten and was almost lynched but for the intervention of policemen. Although the police is yet to comment on the incident, We gathered that the suspect was handcuffed and taken away in police van.

Shocking! Mechanic's Head Crushed Under Truck While Working Under it (Graphic Photo)

An auto technician was crushed to death yesterday in Onitsha area of Anambra state after a trailer driver failed break and lost control, rammed into him him while working. This sad incident happened along 3-3 road in Onitsha while the mechanic was at his workshop working on a car. May his soul rest in peace.

Two Pastors Mercilessly Beat Up Woman For Refusing To Join Their Church

There was pandemonium outside Bethsaida church, Dandora, when two pastors descended on a woman, beat her to a pulp and used their teeth to design her body while at it. Her offence was refusing to join their church in Nairobi County of Kenya.

According to Reporters, the woman identified as Ms Christine Mueni, claimed that Pastors Timothy Migwi and Maxwell Omari, ganged up with her husband George Makori and ruthlessly attacked her outside Bethsaida Church, in Dandora on August 24.

Not only that, the woman alleged that the two pastors bit her on the stomach while the husband punched and kicked her. She revealed that they attacked her for refusing to join their church.

Quote

    “When I said I didn’t want to join the church, my husband punched and kicked me while the pastors bit me,”

Ms Mueni was quoted by NairobiNews.

Speaking on his part, the husband who has since been locked up with the two pastors at Kinyago Police post in Dandora, denied the claims and said his wife of seven years had stabbed him twice on the right arm.

Quote

   “We have been having arguments. She threatened to kill me on Wednesday morning and went ahead to stab me,”

said Makori.

Mr Samuel Mbatia, a bishop at Bethsaida church who is also the couple’s landlord, said that he sent the two pastors to help Mr Makori who had raised an alarm that he had been attacked by the wife, The Kenyans reported.

Quote

    “I sent them to help him because he said he was dying. The pastors took him to hospital,”

Bishop Mbatia said.

The bishop said he was surprised after the wife accused the pastors of biting her.

photos: OMG!!! Nigerian Man Admitted At Unilag Hospital After Masturbayting With Bolts And Nuts, And It Gets Stucked

A nigerian man who was said to be masturbating has being admitted to the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital.
Reports that arrived stated that he was using bolts and nuts to masturbate, until it stuck to his pen!s, and now he has to be operated on for it to be out.
See another photo below:

We Stole Saraki's N310m 'Cos He Wanted to Bribe Judges with It - Senator's Aide Confesses

Senator Bukola Saraki's aides on trial for stealing the lawmaker's money have revealed why they committed the act.

Some of Senate President, Bukola Saraki's aides involved in the November 20, 2015 theft of N310 million being transported to the senator have disclosed why they stole the cash. The aides snatched the cash from a bureau de change operator at 5 Nana Close, Maitama in Abuja.

Tracked down by SaharaReporters and speaking anonymously, some of Mr. Saraki’s aides, who are currently on the run, said the senator was in the habit of warehousing large volumes of cash, mainly for use as bribes to judges, investigators and prosecutors to ensure the scuttling of his trial for false assets declaration by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

The theft, first reported by SaharaReporters, featured five officers of the Department of State Security (DSS) led by Abdulrasheed Maigari, the most senior of the DSS officers attached to Senator Sarak‎i. Mr. Maigari hails from Dungo local government area of Taraba State. The other DSS officers involved in the heist were Ibbi George from Adamawa State, Patrick Ishaya from Plateau State, Peter Okoye from Delta State, and Solomon Yunusa from Kogi State. Other participants included four other aides of Mr. Saraki and five serving military officers led by one Captain Hassan Mshelia.

The aides at large revealed to a correspondent of SaharaReporters that Senator Saraki often used a house, 18 Lake Chad Crescent, Abuja, as a warehouse for illegally acquired money. They said huge stashes of cash from First Bank Plc. branch located at Coomasie House in Abuja were often stored in the house. The aides added that the funds were then moved on behalf of the Senate President for use in a variety of special “political assignments” ordered by Mr. Saraki.

The sources said cash was regularly moved from the bank and the house on Lake Chad Crescent to Mr. Saraki’s mansion at 5 Nana Close in Maitama, from which lawyers as well as judges and their designated representatives collect the cash to obstruct justice.

They said Mr. Saraki regularly used five of his official security aides, supported by five soldiers usually chosen by Paul Ibok, his Chief Security Officer, to move the funds. The aides disclosed to SaharaReporters that, between October and November 2015, there were three cash movements to No 5 Nana Close.

According to them, the cash was usually received by Mr. Saraki’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Peter Makanjuola, who also has the duty of distributing it to judicial officers with whom various deals had been struck regarding plots to scuttle the Senate President's trial.

In one instance, the aides disclosed, N550 million was delivered to Justice Alfa Belgore, a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, to carry out an illicit assignment of obstructing justice on behalf of Mr. Saraki. On another occasion, DSS officers working with soldiers took the sum of N370 million to a venue. According to the wanted DSS operatives, the Senate President had 23 DSS operatives attached to him. The DSS officers are split into two teams (A and B), with both teams taking turns to provide security for the Senate President, who lives in an eight-bedroom official residence. The building, known as “White House,” shares a wall with the official residence of the Inspector-General of Police.

Our sources said that, having observed the unrestricted movement of large sums to Senator Saraki’s home, some of his DSS aides also developed an appetite for cash. Thus, on November 20, 2015, an aide of Mr. Saraki directed the leader of Team A, Ibrahim Shariff, to call Mr. Maigari, who had been off duty, to return to work for a “special assignment”. On his return, Mr. Maigari was told to join four colleagues and five soldiers to go meet one Ibrahim Kabir, a First Bank employee, to pick up money for the Senate President. They said Mr. Kabir happens to be the account officer for Hassan Abubakar Dankani, Mr. Saraki’s favorite bureau de change operator. One longtime associate stated that Mr. Saraki had been using Mr. Dandani to launder funds since the senator’s days as the governor of Kwara State.

Our sources said that, with the increasing scrutiny on him, Senator Saraki had decided against using the DSS officers attached to him to escort cash movement. Instead, the senator asked the management of the bureau de change to make their own arrangement for security escorts to move the cash to Senator Saraki's home.

However, with their own growing hunger for money, Senator Saraki's security details had hatched a plot to corner the cash. And they recruited other colleagues and Captain Mshelia. Dressed in military fatigue, the security agents positioned themselves near the senator’s home and ambushed the vehicle in which the bureau de change operator was conveying the cash. SaharaReporters learnt that the security officers told those moving the cash that they were under arrest for money laundering. The police officers hired as escorts by the bureau de change operator had to leave the scene when the DSS men showed their identification tags, which gave the impression that they were on legal duty.

Once the policemen had left, the DSS officers, including those attached to Mr. Saraki, told the bureau de change operator that they knew of the destination for the cash and that moving huge sums of cash outside the banking system was illegal. The DSS officers then demanded N350 million in order to allow the vehicle to proceed. After a period of haggling, the officers settled for N310 million.

When Mr. Dankani was informed of the development, he phoned Senator Saraki, who instructed him never to mention his name in connection with the cash. Unaware that those who carried out the theft included members of his security detail, Mr. Saraki thought he was safe from being exposed.

Shortly after SaharaReporters reported the heist, disclosing that the cash belonged to Mr. Saraki, the senator’s spokesman, Yusuf Olaniyonu, issued a statement denying the senator’s ownership of the stolen money.

“We want to say categorically that Dr. Saraki is not the owner of the stolen money. He does not know the owner who is said to be a bureau de change operator. The police that investigated the robbery incident and the SSS, which issued a statement on it, can confirm that there is no link between the Senate President with the ownership of the money,” Mr. Olaniyonu claimed in a statement.

Mr. Olaniyonu also told SaharaReporters that the police had issued a statement on the matter. But when SaharaReporters demanded where to find the said police statement, he said we should check a ThisDay report, which he claimed contained the police statement.

The paper quoted Wilson Inalegwu, Federal Capital Territory Commissioner of Police, as saying: “In the course of the investigation, we were able to get the names and identities of some of them (the suspects). Unfortunately, two of the DSS operatives are attached to the Senate President.”

Every step of the way, Mr. Saraki made valiant efforts, abetted by the DSS boss, to prevent the money from being linked to him. Mr. Dankani, the owner of the bureau de change, said the robbery took place at 5 Nana Close, off Mississippi Road in Maitama and claimed that the robbers dropped off his boys on the outskirts of Abuja. His version of events, however, was disputed by Mr. Saraki's DSS aides, who told this online newspaper that there was no need to have taken them, as there was no confrontation between them and Mr. Dankani's boys. After taking the cash, the aides said, they left for Maigari's house in Keffi, Nasarawa State, where they shared the loot before returning to work with Mr. Saraki.

Mr. Dankani also told SaharaReporters that he is a nephew of former military head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar. Mr. Saraki’s DSS aides disclosed to SaharaReporters that the ex-head of state and the Senate President are very close friends, adding that they had accompanied him numerous times on his visits to Abubakar at his Lake Chad Crescent mansion.

Six days after the theft, both Mr. Maigari and Mr. Ibbi were arrested around 8:30 pm, as they prepared to accompany Senator Saraki to see President Muhammadu Buhari. After their arrest, the wanted aides narrated, they requested to see the DSS Director-General (DG), Lawal Daura, to explain why they stole the money. Mr. Daura declined the request, but sent a DSS officer to tell them that the matter would be resolved internally. He sent firm instructions through the officer that the arrested officers should make statements, but ensure that such statements should not link the stolen cash to Mr. Saraki in any way. As such, the detained officers wrote choreographed statements dictated to them by investigators.

Mr. Saraki's aides on the run disclosed that Mr. Daura and the Senate President are intimate friends and that, on at least four occasions, he secretly met with the senator after the latter’s corruption trial had begun. The first of the clandestine meetings took place at Barcelona Apartments in Abuja. On two other occasions, Mr. Daura and Senator Saraki met at night at the Senate President's official residence. SaharaReporters has constantly reported that the DSS boss, Mr. Daura, was providing strategic support to the Senate President to help him frustrate his trial.

A statement issued by the DSS on December 6, 2015 was carefully tweaked to give the public the misleading impression that the stolen cash belonged to the bureau de change operator. The statement also failed to provide details of the purported robbery.

Signed by Tony Opuiyo, the DSS statement said: “The Department of State Services (DSS) wishes to inform the general public that the Service has arrested two (2) out of five (5) of its staff involved in the robbery and sharing, on November 20th, 2015, of the sum of three hundred and ten million naira (N310m) belonging to a Bureau De Change operator in Abuja. While three (3) of the DSS staff are now at large, the Military Authorities have commenced a detailed investigation of five (5) of its personnel involved in the crime.”

It added that preliminary investigations revealed that Mr. Maigari conspired with four colleagues to steal the money.

Currently, only Mr. Maigari and Mr. Ibbi are in detention at Kuje Prison, awaiting trial. The others are at large. Representatives of the detained operatives said the DSS first charged them to court in April 2016, after media reports revealed that the money stolen belonged to Mr. Saraki. They were charged to court for planning to demand their freedom through the filing of a fundamental right enforcement suit in Abuja.

Mr. Saraki's security aides who remain on the run told SaharaReporters that five soldiers are also in detention at Kuje Prison in connection with the theft. In April, the police charged the soldiers to court for robbery. But curiously, the soldiers are being tried separately from the DSS officers because the DSS refused to hand over Mr. Maigari and Mr. Ibbi to the police for prosecution, claiming it did not trust the police.

Representatives of the detained DSS officers said they recently discovered that Sunday Agaba, a man who accompanied them to steal and was described as a bureau de change operator, is actually a retired Army officer. He was shot by the police as they arrested him. When SaharaReporters blew the lid on this, both Mr. Maigari and Mr. Ibbi were removed from the underground cell where they had been kept and allowed for the first time to meet with their respective families. It was during such interactions that they realized they had been branded armed robbers. They disclosed that if they were prosecuted along with the soldiers, they would give the exact narration of the alleged robbery incident.

SaharaReporters learnt that Mr. Dankani was listed as a witness in the case. But on cross-examination in April, he claimed he was forced to come for the trial. When SaharaReporters contacted Mr. Dankani shortly before this report was written, he claimed to have a hazy recollection of what went on with the bullion van on the day of the incident. However, he insisted that the money stolen belonged to him.

The DSS operatives being prosecuted claimed that the stolen money was recovered from them in full. However, the DSS told the court that it recovered only N96 million.

The DSS operatives are due to appear again at the Federal Capital Territory High Court 18 when judges return from vacation.

Mr. Saraki too is on vacation with his entire family in Ibiza, Spain. The theft of N310 million was not the only time Mr. Saraki’s money laundering had provoked aides to steal from him. A group of aides at his house in Ilorin recently stole cash worth N110 million from his bedroom in Kwara State.

WTF! President Ali Bongo May Lose Gabon Election Because He Was Born In Nigeria

The people of Gabon began casting their ballots Saturday in a vote to decide whether President Ali Bongo will remain in office or be unseated by a career diplomat and close associate of his late father, who ran the country for 41 years.

Ali Bongo The election takes place in a climate of persistent social unrest driven in large part by the economic impact of the slump in the price of oil, which has long dominated Gabon’s economy. Bongo, 57, and ex-African Union Commission chief Jean Ping, 73, who both worked under Omar Bongo until he died in 2009, are seen as the only credible candidates among a field of 10. In the working class district of Rio in the capital Libreville, a polling station set up at a school opened shortly before 8:00 am (0700 GMT) — about an hour after the scheduled time, an AFP journalist said. Elsewhere in the capital, voting had not yet started at several polling stations.

Until recently, Bongo was far and away the favourite, largely because several prominent politicians had declared themselves as candidates, thereby dividing the opposition. But protracted negotiations led all the key challengers to pull out and put their weight behind Ping, with the last of them withdrawing only last week. Some 628,000 of Gabon’s 1.8 million inhabitants are eligible to take part in the election, whose winner will be decided by a simple majority after a single round of voting.

The campaign period has been acrimonious, marked by months of bitter exchanges between the two main camps, including accusations, and strenuous denials, that Bongo was born in Nigeria and therefore ineligible to run.

On Friday, each side accused the other of trying to gain an illicit advantage by buying up voter cards in various parts of the country for sums ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 CFA francs ($20 to $100). Faced with repeated charges of nepotism, Bongo has long insisted he owes his presidency to merit and his years of government service. His extravagant campaign was based around the slogan “Let’s change together”, playing up the roads and hospitals built during his first term. In an overt jibe at Ping’s long association with his father, Bongo has also stressed the need to break with the bad old days of disappearing public funds and dodgy management of oil revenues.

“There’s a risk that certain people who did so much harm to our country will come back” to power, the president told a crowd of thousands during his last rally in the capital, Libreville. – Former brother-in-law rival – Ping has pledged to ensure, if elected, that Gabon would be “sheltered from need and fear,” dismissing the president’s much-touted moves to diversify the economy into rubber and palm oil as mere window dressing. Despite boasting one of Africa’s highest per capita incomes at $8,300, a third of Gabon’s population live in poverty.

Unemployment among the young, according to the World Bank, runs at 35 percent. Recent months have seen growing popular unrest and numerous public sector strikes as well as thousands of layoffs in the oil sector. Fears that this discontent might degenerate into violence are fuelled by memories of what followed Bongo’s contested victory in the 2009 presidential poll. Several people were killed, buildings looted, a ceasefire imposed and the French consulate in the economic capital Port-Gentil torched.

On Friday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on “all political stakeholders, in particular the candidates, to exercise restraint, abstain from any acts of incitement or the use of inflammatory statements, and maintain a peaceful atmosphere before, during and after the election.” He also urged the candidates to use “legal and constitutional channels” in the event of any dispute over the result. Ping and Bongo go back a long way, having worked for years together under Bongo senior, who was responsible for getting Ping his job as chairman of the AU Commission. Ping also has close family ties to the Bongo dynasty: he was formerly married to Omar Bongo’s eldest daughter with whom he had two children.

Ping turned on Bongo in 2014, and in March he told French daily Le Monde that “Gabon is a pure and simple dictatorship in the hands of a family, a clan.”

“I’m Done With Nigeria For Now…. Let Them Eat Their National Team” – Samson Siasia Quits

Coach of the National U-23 team, Samson Siasia has said that he’s leaving Nigerian Football for the time being, pending when there is a change in the leadership and structure of Nigerian Football and Sports in general.

Siasia who led the team to win Bronze at the just concluded Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil, made this known in an interview with Vanguard’s Jude Opara.

He explained what led to their being stranded in Atlanta for days, and why the players rejected the first flight that was supposed to take them to Brazil.

He also spoke of efforts of the Vice President, Minister of Information, and Minister of Finance, in solving the crisis during their time in Atlanta.

Read excerpts below:

The minister accused you of child trafficking for taking the team to Atlanta without his knowledge or consent.

How can I take a national team out of the country without their knowledge of the NFF and the Sports Ministry? I really don’t know were that was coming from. We had the plan to travel from Atlanta to Brazil on the 29th of July. But the agent who was handling that did not get us the chartered flight or pay for our tickets, but nothing actually happened and that was when I, on my own, decided to contact an agent, Greg. But the guy said he would not do anything until he saw that the money was paid into his account. After three days, the guy said he was no longer interested and even told other operators not to deal with us that we were not a serious people.

Back at the camp in Atlanta. How was it?

The first 10 days was like a hell because we had to struggle to pay for hotel accommodation and feeding because the person, Bunmi, who opted to assist us did not get the necessary support he expected. But after the fist 10 days the Ministry came through the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and paid for our bills. But we were stranded in Atlanta because the money they said they paid to one Poopola for us to travel never came and nobody has heard anything about it.

What was your level of communication with the NFF and the Ministry while in Atlanta?

No, nobody called me from the ministry. The Minister was dealing with Mikel, may be because he was the captain of the Olympic team. But when we had the plane issue, the Vice President called and I spoke with him like two times, the Finance Minister called and indeed the first person to call was the Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed.

I must say he did a nice job to see how to solve our problem because I think the President heard about our plight and instructed that they should find a way to solve the problem. They were, I believe, embarrassed because the issue was even on CNN every time.

However, the chartered flight thing never worked out because the guy they were discussing with called me and we tried to see how to arrange the fight but there was no money sent to him and so it didn’t work out too. So the option we had was to arrive Rio the very day we were to play and that could have resulted in a walk-over of our team.

We had a chartered 36-seater flight that was to take us to arrive Rio by 2 o’clock while our game was at 9 o’clock. But the players were afraid of that flight because it was very small and when we got to the airport, Delta called through the same Bunmi guy.

In fact, they were supposed to partner with Delta but I don’t know what happened. When they heard of our plight they called him to offer a big plane to fly us the next day so as to arrive five hours before the match. Indeed we were already at the airport to fly that small plane which was paid for by a friend of mine, but when the players heard that Delta was coming, they insisted that we should watt for it. In fact they were almost dying out of fear.

When I called Mikel to tell him about the development, he said ‘I beg, please let us wait for tomorrow for the bigger plane which is safer and better’. All the players were happy and excited that we were not going to fly that small plane and perhaps that is the reason they came out to play the way they did with all their mind.

Indeed Delta did a great job. Even when the CBN 46 came to the hotel, we refused to tell them about our problems because it was about Nigeria, even though every thing was already in the public domain. Talking to them would not have changed anything.

Now Delta said the cost of flying us was about $250,000 dollars but that they were not charging us. They said if we had it the money could be paid to any charity organization of mine or Mikel but we have not seen anything and that appears like another fraud. We took pictures with Delta to promote them and thank them for their support.

I am telling you what actually happened. We are still waiting to see where the money that was meant for us to fly to Brazil has gone to. Nobody has said anything. The federal government sent the money to the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) and the NOC said they sent the money to the airline in Florida which up till now they have not received anything, even the airline is planning to sue them for breach of contract because they were supposed to pay some money to them even if they were to cancel the arrangement. That is even another issue. We don’t even know how they are going to settle that.

The Minister categorically said he never knew where you were and that you were engaging in human trafficking, is that true?

(Laughs) I don’t know what he was talking about. When I first heard about human trafficking and such stuff, I was angry because the Minister knew that we were going to Atlanta. If not that they stole my phone, I would have shown to you his text message to me before we traveled.

That day the U-20 defeated us 3-2 in our last warm-up match, the Minister sent me a text that I should come so that we can chat but when I went they said he went to the Villa.

He knew exactly what was going on because there was no way he would not know because the Olympic team is statutorily under his control, it is his baby and that has been the way it is. So I don’t understand why he should say I was engaging in child trafficking.

Would you say that yours trip to Atlanta has been justified?

Yes because they say that the end justifies the means and if not for that it would have been very annoying because after working very hard for two years without anything to show for it would have been disastrous.

It would have been a waste of time and effort. I am happy because in spite of all that we went through both here at home and in Atlanta, this is the only team that won a medal for the country.

It felt so good when the Nigerian team was called alongside the Brazilian and German national teams with the Nigerian flag hoisted there, that is what we were talking about, putting Nigeria where so many other countries didn’t have the chance to be and that is why I say that these boys need to be commended for what they did. This is something that money cannot even buy.

It appears that the team has been disbanded because there was no official reception and send forth of the team, so what is the next thing for Samson Siasia?

Personally, I was not really surprised that they did not welcome us because most of them were actually waiting and praying for us to fail but we disappointed them by winning that medal. But most sports loving Nigerians who were not on the saddle came out on their own and they were the ones that really appreciated what we did.

Look at this way, if things were done properly, they should have at least informed the Lagos State government that the Olympic team was arriving so that they could welcome us on behalf of the government but nobody told them anything. There was no connection from the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) or the Ministry of Sports. They knew we were coming. It was only one staff of the ministry that was sent to take us to hotel.

What is your next step with the National team?

My next step is that I am done with Nigeria for now. You can’t keep going to a place where they don’t appreciate you. It’s not worth it. Sometimes it is not about the money but the approach. They seem not to appreciate the sacrifices. I know how much I have sacrificed since the team began camping two years ago. How can you keep going to people who don’t appreciate you? It does not make sense, so I am done for now. I have to go somewhere else where they will appreciate what I have done and what I can do and pay me the respect that I deserve.

But many Nigerians out there still appreciate you.

I know and that is why I keep coming to do the dirty jobs for them because of my numerous fans out there but I can’t just continue because those fans are not the policy makers. How can you keep toiling for five months without even your salary? Nothing has changed in the last two years. It has been from bad to worse, so we must sit down and do something about the structure of Nigerian football and by extension sports in general. It doesn’t worth it to work with the people running sports now in Nigeria. From the Federation to the sports ministry. They don’t have it and will not give what they don’t have. It feels bad.

Imagine any time they have a problem, they will call on me to come and help but they will use me and later dump me. I have not started any team of the Super Eagles from the beginning, not even one time. I want to thank them very very much. Even before I returned from the Olympics, the only car they gave me, they took it away from my wife. That is just awesome. That is not how to treat someone who was out there seeking glory for the nation. Let them eat their national team.