Sunday, 8 November 2015

Dele Moody speaks on " How I Met A Cancer Stricken Die and Alison-Madueke in London..

woman of Nigeria’s Petroleum Ministry, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke in London had hit the airwaves like thunderbolt. No member of President Goodluck Jonathan’s government held the nation spellbound like Madame Diezani. Controversy dogged her every step just
as she spawned loads of salacious gossip. She is a newsmaker per excellence.
For starters, Madame Diezani is a paragon of beauty. She’s also very simple but chic and elegant in dressing and appearance. At 54, she would give our much younger ladies a run for their money in the prettiness stakes. She is intelligent to boot and boasts a decent academic pedigree. 
She is that hot and even her most vociferous critics agree that she combines brains with beauty. Add to that is her marriage to retired Rear Admiral Allison Amaechina Madueke, a former Chief of Naval Staff which boosted her national and political profile.
The only problem was the almost unanimous belief that she had abused her privileged position and appurtenances of office in the discharge of her ministerial duties. It was reported that billions of dollars literally disappeared under her watch. 
She was under intense heat and scrutiny throughout her reign but seemed unrattled and unfazed by the deluge of dirt splashed at her from every direction. She stayed invincible and definitely unshakeable to the end.
Her firm grip on the President was palpable. It was a subject of discussions everywhere. There were rumours of constant clashes with the former First Lady, Dame Patience Faka Jonathan. No one really knew the true story.
 Mrs Alison Madueke did not help matters by studiously ignoring the lurid pictures painted of her. 
She rarely granted interviews and when she did, hardly responded to the monumental gist from unrelenting talebearers.
I always wished to have a one-on-one interview with our own Alice in Wonderland or Cleopatra, if you like. Such is the nature of gargantuan fables around this mythical lady.
 She is the dream of every celebrity reporter. A nice interview and some photo-shoot as icing would be no mean achievement. There are few women in her mould anywhere at any time.
I had studied her trajectory to determine what makes her tick.
 She was born with silver spoon to the family of Chief Frederick Abiye and Mrs Beatrice Oyete Agama in the garden city of Port Harcourt and grew up in the Shell Camp where she schooled and learnt to speak both English and Dutch. 
She wasn’t a regular kid like most of us. The way her life was suddenly disrupted at Shell Camp she says would later inform her philosophy during her time as Petroleum Minister. 
Her family was unceremoniously evicted from the Shell Camp because her father dared to question the promotion process of Nigerians by Shell. 
She believes that Nigerians must occupy and enjoy the resources God has blessed us with and accordingly she sought to empower Nigerians as a principle, she claims.
The young Miss Agama studied Architecture in England and then at the renowned Howard University in the United States where she graduated. She later obtained an MBA from Cambridge University. She worked at Shell, following in her father’s footsteps, and rose to become its first female Director. The first part of her life story ends there.
The second part begins with her stint in the government of Nigeria where she managed several important ministries including Mines, Works and Transport and finally Petroleum, the chicken that lays the golden eggs. Once she got the juiciest portfolio in the land she was transformed from an Angel to being labelled a femme fatale, a nomenclature that has stuck to her like flies to palmwine. 
Political opponents of President Jonathan blamed her for all the sins of omission and commission of that Government and she really never was able to keep her head under the parapet. This is why she is in hot demand by reporters, local and international, alike.
Anything about Madame Diezani makes news and goes viral. We met only once at a public function hosted by Alhaji Aliko Dangote in Abuja. We spoke very briefly and she was going to give me her telephone contact but a personal aide intervened and promised to send it to me but never did. So I missed interviewing her. 
I had loads of satanic questions to ask her and was unsure of how she would have reacted, with calm or fury, but I would have thoroughly enjoyed that auspicious moment as I am sure would have been my readers.
Anyway, the dream never materialised. I simply shrugged my shoulders and moved on. After the demise of the Jonathan government, I assumed it was goodbye to a good story but man proposes and God disposes. 
I was sitting quietly at home when the news of Mrs Alison-Madueke’s arrest exploded like a bomb. Social media instantly caught fire. 
We were regaled with tales of how she was captured at home by the London Metropolitan Police for money laundering running into atrocious and unimaginable sums of cash.
 Some reports said she was planning to buy a property worth billions of pounds in London and even gave a famous address. 
Those who know London fairly well immediately doubted the veracity of such claims but anything is believable in this season of anomie.
We were later informed by the National Crime Agency (NCA) that arrested her, that only £27,000 pounds was recovered and that she had been released on bail. 
Then came reports that the energetic EFCC in Nigeria had also invaded her home in Abuja and we imagined this invasion must have been well choreographed and perfectly co-ordinated by the governments of Nigeria and Britain only for NCA to tell us this wasn’t so.
My interest in speaking to Madame Diezani by all means was re-ignited. I was greatly saddened by the dearth of investigative journalism in our clime. I remembered with nostalgia our days at Concord Press of Nigeria, owned by the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. 
I had a flashback to the Weekend Concord days when that paper broke all records by publishing endless scoops and I earned repeated accolades from my Editor, and boss for life, Mr Mike Awoyinfa, for the manner I gained incredible access to very important personalities and topical news.
My dream is for Nigerian media to return to those halcyon days and it is not too difficult to achieve. What it takes is for us to have credible journalists who can manage stories responsibly without using media power to terrorise or witch-hunt anyone no matter their personal views or political ideology.
 A seasoned journalist knows that facts are sacred! Proper investigative reporters have access to even terrorists and rabid insurgents for this reason. However in Nigeria, we tend to reflect our prejudices in the stories we write. Such bias should be reserved for opinions and editorial pages.

Back to Mrs  Alison-Madueke, the more I read the conflicting and contradictory reports the more I wished someone could penetrate the seemingly impregnable wall erected by our leaders to get the news behind the news. 
There were reports that Madame Diezani was battling with the much dreaded breast cancer. Not a few said she was merely pretending in order to escape justice. 
I wondered aloud how nice it would be to find a journalist who could be trusted with this massive story and bring us face to face with one of Africa’s biggest newsmakers.
About the same period, I was spending sometime seeking treatment for cataracts in London and this gave me the opportunity to investigate the Diezani conundrum myself.
 I made calls to several credible sources including a close lawyer friend who has a solid reputation in such matters. First, I confirmed that, contrary to the belief that she was feigning her illness, she was actually receiving treatment for a most chronic and aggressive form of breast cancer. 
She had undergone surgery and chemotherapy on several occasions and was being prepared for radiotherapy. Indeed, she had slipped into both natural and induced coma which lasted five days on July 28, as steroids she was receiving had inadvertently raised her sugar level abysmally. 
Her doctors declared her condition a near-miss. All my sources said it would be unfair and unthinkable for a reporter to invade her privacy in that state.
I believed the world deserves to hear from her, for good or for bad, and so never gave up my dream of getting exclusive access to Nigeria’s most talked about woman. 
My tenacity paid off two nights ago as I came face to face with Mrs Alison-Madueke at a secret location in London. My bosom friend had called to say someone had mentioned to her that I was critically on her case. 
Madame Diezani had wondered why a known and certified critic of the Jonathan Administration would want to interview her but was told that despite my opposition to their regime I remained one of the most objective writers in Nigeria. 
She told my female contact that she reads Pendulum and was impressed at the level of maturity often displayed even when she disagreed with my views. 
However, Madame Diezani was particularly worried that even in the throes of a most debilitating ailment, she was still being virulently attacked by her fellow citizens.
I told my source that without being judgmental, I think she should understand that many Nigerians believe she and the government she served had brought untold hardship upon the generality of Nigerians especially through the mismanagement of the main source of revenue in our country. 
She may know better than the rest of us but it is up to her to tell her story. Those who will believe are waiting to hear while those who won’t may never subscribe to her defence. What is important is for her to purge her soul and where necessary offer sincere apologies and penitence.
I was stunned when I got a call from my contact: “are you available to meet Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke on Thursday evening at a private location in London?” I don’t know how many reporters would miss such humongous opportunity.
 My response was an instant, yes. I was told the location would be communicated to me one hour to the appointed time. That was fine by me.
The only one I could trust to drive me on such a mission was my wife accompanied by her younger sister. We got to the venue almost dead on time and scanned the vicinity. Having read too many James Hadley Chase novels in my school days, I expected to see some unobtrusive bodyguards around if I looked well. I imagined I was right when I saw a dark stocky man in suit prancing about furtively and restlessly.
 I pressed a buzzer as instructed and the main door swung open. I approached one of the elevators as directed and headed to a particular apartment where my contact opened the door even before I knocked, and ushered me in.
I didn’t see my interviewee but only a fair lady, who looked vaguely familiar. I took a comfortable position and waited with bated breath. I was undergoing a stream of consciousness at supersonic speed. Where is Madame Diezani? Will she meet me or chicken out? 
Would she open up or just whet my appetite for nothing? How will I ask my satanic questions and in what order? What can I do to make her relax and pour out her heart? Can she trust anyone with her story in her present condition and state of mind?
I was in this interior monologue when Madame Diezani herself sauntered in. I stood up to greet her as she stretched out her hand.
“My name is Diezani, the most misunderstood and abused Nigerian…” I didn’t know whether to say yes or no. I was perturbed and disturbed.
 The Diezani before me was not the ebullient woman I used to see on television and in newspapers. Her head had become a Sahara desert of sorts almost totally bald with a sprinkle of freshly growing hair all grey. She requested to sit on a classroom chair as her back was hurting badly and she could not sit so low. 
Wow, what a terrible time she must be having, I almost screamed out but cautioned myself. Sitting across from me was a woman who was a shadow of herself, almost like an apparition or ghost. I’m sure she saw the horror in my face.
I knew I had to tread gingerly so as not to ignite trouble. I expressed sympathy about her battle with cancer. I told her I was one of the doubting Thomases and wished her God’s mercy and miracle having seen her shocking state. 
She summarised how her ordeal started and that moment when her worst nightmare was diagnosed. As she spoke she belched and gasped intermittently, a by-product of the aggressive treatment she’s been receiving.
 I was visibly worried at a point thinking she may end up in an ambulance if care was not taken. The other lady I met earlier soon came out from wherever and insisted we must stop but Madame Diezani was just getting into the flow of our chit-chat. We were told to round up in five minutes by this chaperone.
I fired shots at her in staccato fashion and raced through my questions.
 I wanted to cover enough grounds before she returns to hospital after this weekend. I asked about Jonathan, Chris Aire, Kola Aluko and others linked to her in business transactions and otherwise. She said as much as she possibly could in the little time available and promised to say more later.
 The fair lady soon returned to stop our session. I would have been atrociously wicked to ask for more time though I felt she was in the mood to talk. She stood up delicately and she and the two ladies with her disappeared into the cold night…

Check out how student his student was killed and the reason why.........

basir
Last Friday, a 300-level English student of Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State, Bashir Musa, 26, was reported to have been killed in a fight over a girl friend in Yalwanzai area of the metropolis.
was learnt that the trouble that led to his death began when his girlfriend, Aisha Saleh, a National Diploma student of Accounting department of Jigawa State Polytechnic, Dutse, alleged to befriend six others, including the deceased – all from same university – visited one of her boyfriends, Abdulnajib Ibrahim in
Yalwanzai area of the state capital.
A group of five other boyfriends, including the deceased, stormed the house of Ibrahim, whom Aisha had visited, and attacked him, leading to a serious fight that resulted to the death of Musa.
However, another source alleged that the police killed the deceased while in their custody after being
tortured into a coma. That when the gang of five attacked Ibrahim, who was alleged to be cohabiting with Aisha for the last two years in his Yalwanzain residence decided to report the matter to the police, it led to the arrest of the deceased and one other person from the gang.
According to the source, the duo were tortured because they refused to disclose the whereabouts of the other three members of the gang who are still at large, and that in the process, late Musa passed on while in the police clinic where they were taken for treatment.
Daily Trust gathered that all the while Ibrahim had been with his girlfriend, he had been having quarrels with her over her other boyfriends.
Another student from the University who identified himself as Mohammed said on Saturday that late Musa was not a boyfriend to Aisha but only a member of the gang that went to Ibrahim’s house on behalf of one of them.
He added that Musa is the friend to Aisha’s boyfriend who was said to have dropped out of the university because he could not pay for his registration fees for the last academic session as he used the money in taking care of his girlfriend, Aisha.
“He was so irked over the attitude of Aisha despite all that he has done for her and based on this he organized his gang to attack his rival and in the process one of them died,” said Mohammed.
All efforts to speak to the leadership of the Student Union Government of the university failed.
In a statement issued over the incident, the university’s registrar, Yusuf Adamu said the institution will make its position known to the public after police investigation.
When contacted, the State Police Command Spokesperson, DSP Abdul Jinjiri confirmed the incident but denied police involvement in the death of late Musa saying, investigation revealed that the deceased died after a scuffle over a girlfriend with her other boyfriends.
Explaining, Jinjiri said when the police received complain from Ibrahim that he was attacked, they discovered that one amongst the suspects, Bashir Musa was injured and took him to the police clinic where he later died as a result of the injury he sustained during the fight.
He added that investigation by the police revealed that the deceased took part alongside four others in a fight against Ibrahim where they inflicted injuries on him in the process.
On noticing the injuries sustained, Ibrahim rushed to the police to report the matter but on his way home he met the gang along the way, leading to another fight and in the process late Musa was struck with a stick on his head in retaliation, and that led to his death.
Pointing out that the investigation on the matter is being handled by the police presently, so the details of the cause of his death would be made known in due course.
The DSP also disclosed that all the suspects, including Aisha Sale, are at present in police custody undergoing interrogation.

Shocking moments two girls were Stripped After They Were Caught Drugging A Rich Man


Big Girls Stripped 
These ladies are said to be specialize in dating rich men, follow them to hotels, drug them, steal their cash and other valuables, and escape. But they ran out of luck recently after a guy busted them in the act and call the attention of others in the hotel where a businessman had taken them for ‘private’ time.
When people got to the room they saw the businessman on bed and it became obvious to everyone that the girls had drugged him. Guys pounced on the ladies and beat them up.

The police where later called in but it was a difficult issue taken them away before all their clothes were in shreds and they are too curvy to be taken to the station like that. They later got two wrappers.

Check out Dangote ranked among top 100 most powerful people in the world (Full list of top 10)



Aliko Dangote who is the owner of Dangote Group was at the weekend, rated among the 100 most powerful people in the world by Forbes Magazine.
Aliko Dangote ranks as #71 most Powerful People in 2015. He was #68 in 2014
He also ranks as #67 Billionaires in the world 2015. He is #1 in Nigeria  and #1 Africa's 50 Richest (2014).
President of Egypt, Abdel el-Sisi, is the only other African listed apart from Dangote and he was placed at number 49.

Aliko Dangote and US President Obama are the only black people on the list.

Top 10 most powerful people in the world are:

1. Vladimir Putin
2. Angela Merkel
3. Barack Obama
4. Pope Francis
5. Xi Jinping
6. Bill Gates
7. Janet Yellen
8. David Cameron
9. Narendra Modi
10. Larry Page

The list continues...

13. Warren Buffett
14. Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
16. Francois Hollande
19. Mark Zuckerberg
20. Jamie Dimon
 

Shocking but really sad : Mother and her Newborn Baby Die while Looking for Doctor in Lagos (Photo)



The late Shonuga when she was pregnant

Poor attitude of health workers claimed the life of this pregnant woman in labour. 

Her husband related the very sad ordeal that happened last week to PUNCH, saying the hospital’s negligence had turned him into a widower. Please read:

When Omowumi Shonuga tapped her husband that her water had broken at 5 am on Thursday morning, being a sign of labour pain, anxiety took hold of him. Although he, Ayobanji Shonuga, was remotely happy that his second child was about to be born, he was as nervous as many men would be in that situation.

As the wife’s labour pains increased, the 33-year-old man quickly packed his baby’s things and 
rushed her to the Rauf Aregbesola Health Centre in Egbeda. Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos.

His joy and hope began to diminish when he got to the health centre and found out that the hospital gates were locked.

Shonuga said:
 “We got to the hospital around 5 am to meet the hospitals locked. I horned and horned, nobody came out. After a while a woman came out and said there was no doctor to attend to me, that I should take her to the Igando General Hospital.
“I said it was impossible for a doctor not to be on duty in a hospital as big as this. She ignored any other enquiry I was trying to make. As I got back to my car, I saw that my wife had delivered the baby and that she was in a pool of blood and she was also bleeding. It was when I started shouting, ‘Blood! Blood! Baby’ that two nurses rushed out from the hospital.”
Instead of coming to his wife’s aid, Shonuga alleged, the nurses blamed him for not shouting loud enough to have attracted their attention to get the keys to open the gate.
“After they opened the gate, I drove in. One of the attendants picked the baby, but the nurses refused to touch my wife. I asked for a stretcher to take her in, they said they didn’t have. I asked for an ambulance to take her away from there, they said they were not with the keys. 
I had to carry her upstairs with no help from them because they didn’t want to touch her. They said there was no doctor to attend to her.”
After much persuasion from him, the nurses told him to go and buy some injections and drugs that would stop the bleeding while they began stitching a cut his wife had.
“She was shouting that the pain was too much while they were stitching her but they kept telling her to keep quiet. I knew something was wrong and told them to get a doctor. They said he was on his way,” he added. 
‘We cannot handle this case, take her to Igando’
Shonuga said that in spite of the stitches, Omowunmi did not stop bleeding and the doctor who came in while they were cleaning her up said they should take her to the Igando General Hospital as her case was too critical for them to handle.
“ He looked at her eyeballs and said that she had lost a lot of blood and would need to be transfused but they could not do that at that moment.
“ I asked again for the ambulance so I could take her to Igando. They said they didn’t have the keys yet. It was just packed there doing nothing. It was then I asked after my baby. They kept quiet. Later, someone went out to check the room the baby was supposed to be and said the baby was no longer breathing.
“It was obvious that they abandoned the baby. I went in to carry my wife with the drip on her but insisted that they must give me a referral note and a nurse to go with me to Igando so that her case could be treated as an emergency. 
They refused until their supervisor instructed them to go with me when she heard me shouting. It took another 25 minutes before they came with a note and one of the members of staff went with me,” Shonuga lamented.

  • No bed space, please go to another hospital

It was a similar scenario that played out when Shonuga got to the Igando General Hospital with Omowunmi around 6am on the same day.

She was rejected. Shonuga said the nurses told them to go to another hospital as there was no bed space to admit his dying wife.
“For another 45 minutes, we couldn’t get a bed. After I threw a tantrum that attracted some attention, they began running up and down and said they had created a bed space for her.
“They took her blood sample and insisted that they wouldn’t transfuse her till I had paid N20,000. We argued again that it was an emergency that they should go ahead but at this stage she was already losing consciousness. While they were trying to secure a drip for her, she died.”
Shonuga told our correspondent that he buried his late wife and his newborn baby later that day.

Omowunmi , a graduate of Accounting from the Lagos State University, died at the age of 30, leaving a three- year-old baby girl behind.

Still shaken by the circumstances that led to his wife’s death, Shonuga said he would petition authorities of the public hospitals and vowed that he would not relent until justice was served.

According to the widower, Omowunmi and his baby would have been alive if health workers at the two hospitals had given them the speedy attention they deserved.
“The most painful thing for me is that she suffered so much before she died. She cried and bled on and on, but that did not even move them. There was no doctor on duty and they could not give me an ambulance to handle her case. I only took her there because that was where she had her antenatal and they knew her and her health history. If I had known I would have taken her to a private hospital.”
When contacted, the Medical Officer, Alimosho Local Government, Dr. Micheal Ariyibi, said that the Ministry of Health had received a complaint and had begun an investigation into the case. The ministry, he said, would not hesitate to punish those involved in the unfortunate incident

Photos of Bishop Mike Okonkwo's daughter on her white wedding today


Uche, the only child of senior pastor of TREM Nigeria, Bishop Mike Okonkwo had her white wedding with Katchie Asugha at her father's church in Lagos today November 7th. Makeup Artist - facesbylabisi shared some photos of the bride. More photos after the cut...




Russian media mogul found dead in Washington

Controversial Russian media mogul Mikhail Lesin, who helped found the RT English-language television network, has been found dead at a Washington hotel. He was 57.

RT, formerly known as Russia Today, said the former minister of media affairs died of a heart attack.

"Lesin died. It's impossible to believe this," tweeted Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT, which is state funded.

ABC News, quoting a Russian and a US official, reported late Friday that Lesin had been found in Washington's Dupont Circle Hotel the day before.
A controversial figure, Lesin had been accused of limiting press freedom in Russia.

In a terse statement, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters late Friday that the "president highly values the enormous contribution Mikhail Lesin made helping establish Russian media." 

Washington police would not confirm his death, saying only that they were investigating the death of someone on the block where the hotel is located in a fashionable area of Washington.

US officials notified the Russian embassy of Lesin's death and authorities from both countries are trying to determine the circumstances in which he died.
Lesin was Russia's minister of press, television and radio between 1999 and 2004 and later served as a Kremlin aide.

Lesin was supposed to be probed last year on suspicion of money laundering and corruption, ABC said.

He allegedly amassed millions of dollars in assets in Europe and the United States while working for the government, including $28 million (26 million euros) in real estate in Los Angeles.
"That a Russian public servant could have amassed the considerable funds required to acquire and maintain these assets in Europe and the United States raises serious questions," Wicker wrote, according to ABC.
It said it was unclear whether the FBI had actually opened an investigation. 
In 2014, Lesin told Forbes he thought it was okay that most television channels in Russia were state-controlled.
"I am a state man," he said.

Photos from Kris Jenner's Great Gatsby themed 60th birthday bash




Courtney Love, Will & Jada Smith, John & Chrissy Legend and others graced Kris' Great Gatsby themed 60th birthday bash at The Lob in West Hollywood. See more photos after the cut...



















Ebola virus transmission has been stopped in Sierra Leone

The World Health Organization tiday declared that the Ebola virus transmission has been stopped in Sierra Leone. 42 days, that is two Ebola virus incubation cycles, have now passed since the last person confirmed to have Ebola virus disease had a second negative blood test.

According to WHO Representative in Sierra Leone, Dr Anders Nordström, "Since Sierra Leone recorded the first Ebola case in May 2014, a total number of 8,704 people were infected and 3,589 have died, 221 of them healthcare workers, all of whom we remember on this day."

The country now enters a 90-day period of enhanced surveillance which will run until 5 February 2016 and WHO will continue to support Sierra Leone during this period. This new phase is critical for ensuring early detection of any possible new cases of Ebola virus disease.

Karrueche Tran shows some cleavage on the cover of Kontrol Magazine

           


Chris Brown's ex, Karrueche Tran showed some major cleavage on the covers of the Fall 2015 issue of  Kontrol Magazine.

The Kardashian-Jenner cover Cosmopolitan Netherlands issue

 Momager Kris Jenner, Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian-West, Khloe Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner all posed on the December issue of Cosmopolitan Netherlands. 

Saturday, 7 November 2015

UK reportedly planning the deportation of 29,000 Nigerians

According to reports, The UK is planning to deport 29,000 Nigerians and they claim they are working with the Nigerian authority to do this. The people that they are deporting are those who don't have the right to remain in the country they said. And they say the deportation is necessary because of the migration crisis created by the troubled regions in the world.

Speaking about the planned deportation last month, the acting Nigeria High Commissioner in London, Olukunle Bamgbose, told Vice President Yemi Osinbajo
“I think about 29,000 Nigerians have been designated to be deported. We are insisting that due process must be followed before Nigerians are really removed from the UK to Nigeria” Bamgbose had said

Graphic photos: Pro-biafran protester shot dead in Anambra

One of the Pro-Biafran protesters was shot dead during the groups rally in Anambra today November 6th. See the photo after the cut...