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Buhari’s Anti-graft War Not Selective – US Ambassador …Says Obama May Visit Nigeria By Editor - Jul 12, 2016 0
Tuesday, 12 July 2016 00:00 Written by abusidiquAmbassador of the United States to Nigeria, James Entwistle has said the ongoing anti-corruption war of President Muhammadu Buhari was not selective, saying the President had done what he should do.
Entwistle, who stated this in an an interview with select journalists in Abuja, weekend, said: “I don’t agree (that the war is selective). I have a lot of respect for President Buhari on the corruption issue. He made it clear during the campaigns that he was going to make that his focus.
“He has done exactly what he said he would do. It’s clear that he has unleashed the investigative agencies, and told them to follow evidence and information wherever it goes.
“I have followed all the things you have just mentioned; that there are prosecutions that are politically-motivated and so on.
“I have been following this, looking for either investigations or arrests that are solely politically-motivated, or only political. I haven’t found any. I think there are cases where there might be a political angle to it, but there are also some real evidence to support the real case.
“That’s something we follow very closely, just as you do. Narrow are the paths of investigations, making arrests, but I hope Nigerians will follow very closely in the next few years as these cases go to court.
“How they are handled in court, how the courts do their job, how the government reacts when inevitably they would lose a case in court, what’s the reaction to that. All these are things that have to be observed and handled very carefully.
“But, the premise of your question is absolutely correct. In any country, it is easy for corruption cases to begin to spin out of control. I don’t see that happening here. I hope all Nigerians will follow that very closely, and if you see it, say it.”
On whether the President had met the expectations of Nigerians since he assumed office a year ago, the ambassador said: “I see a parallel between President Buhari and President Obama.
President Obama had not been in office for a long time before people began to have the same kind of impatience.
“I think in the US, a lot of people forgot how difficult the situation President Obama inherited was at the time. I think the same thing is happening with President Buhari to a certain degree.
“It’s completely understandable for people to have high expectations. They are impatient, because they want to see change. But, President Buhari inherited a pretty difficult set of circumstances, and some of the things he’s identified what needed to be done — end corruption, reform the petroleum sector, end the conflict in the North East region — are things that even if he works as hard as he can, they are going to take some time to yield the kind of results people expect.
“I understand why people are impatient. I remember a week after inauguration, looking at the newspapers, there was already an editorial that said: ‘Well, Mr. President, it’s been a week, we haven’t seen much yet.’”
Asked if President Barack Obama will ever visit Nigeria before the expiration of his tenure, Entwistle said: “Nobody would be happier to see President Obama come to Nigeria than me. But, let me remind you that President Obama is in office for six more months, which is a long time.
“So, we’ll see what happens. Keep in mind that there are other ways to do finer relationships than just a visit by a president.
“When President Buhari went to Washington a year ago this month, he met for a long time with President Obama in the Oval Office. So, we have a very good, high level relationship, even when President Obama has not been to Nigeria. But, as I said, he will be in office for six more months. We will see what happens.
Boko Haram Splits Over Ties With Islamic State – US General
Saturday, 25 June 2016 00:00 Written by abusidiquA senior United States of America military General wednesday said the Boko Haram terror group had been fractured internally.
Lieutenant General Thomas Waldhauser, the nominee to lead the US military Africa Command (AFRICOM), disclosed this in Washington during his nomination hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Waldhauser said the problem in the group resulted from some members splitting from shadowy leader, Abubakar Shekau, over his failure to adhere to guidance from the Iraq and Syria-based Islamic State.
According to Reuters/NAN, Waldhauser said the internal division was illustrative of the limits of Islamic State’s influence over Boko Haram so far, in spite of the West African group’s pledge of allegiance to it last year.
“Several months ago, about half of Boko Haram broke off to a separate group because they were not happy with the amount of buy-in, if you will, from Boko Haram into the ISIL brand,” he explained.
He, however, said Shekau had not fallen into line with Islamic State’s instructions, including ignoring calls for Boko Haram to stop using children as suicide bombers.
Waldhauser said: “He’s been told by ISIL to stop doing that, but he has not done so, and that’s one of the reasons why this splinter group has broken off.
“But the Islamic State was trying to reconcile those two groups.”
The military chief said there was no evidence that Boko Haram had so far received significant operational support or financing from Islamic State.
He said the assessment suggested that Boko Haram’s loyalty pledge had so far, mostly been a branding exercise.
Waldhauser acknowledged differing opinions about how much influence Islamic State actually had over Boko Haram, which won global infamy for its 2014 kidnapping of 276 Chibok schoolgirls.
He said: “They certainly have not given them a lot of financial assistance.
“So the point could be that it is perhaps in improvement in tradecraft, in training and the like.”
Waldauser stated that Shekau’s local focus and voiced concern was about whether a splinter group may act more in concert with Islamic State’s trans-regional ambitions.
“What concerns me is the break-off group of Boko Haram, which wants to be more ISIL-like, and consequently buy into the ISIL-brand of attacking western interests,” he said.
Meanwhile, an army officer in Niger Republic said that a multinational force had begun operations against Boko Haram along the border between the country and Nigeria.
Brigadier General Abdou Sidikou-Issa, the Tactical Chief of Staff for troops based in Niger’s southern zone of Diffa, yesterday in Niamey said troops from Chad and Nigeria were involved in the operation.
God Save us!!! Mischievous 4-year-old boy crawls into gorilla enclosure at zoo
Monday, 30 May 2016 00:00 Written by worldwideweirdnews People at a zoo in Ohio, were shocked when a young boy managed to slip into a zoo enclosure.
The 4-year-old of Cincinnati, crawled through a barrier and squeezed himself through bushes before falling into the gorilla enclosure.
Harambe, a 17-year-old gorilla weighing about 400 pounds, grabbed the child and carried him around in the habitat.
Zoo officials quickly gathered to determine what they should do. After the gorilla did not release the boy and carried him around for about 10 minutes, it was determined that the child’s life was in danger.
Staff workers removed other gorillas from the enclosure before shooting Harambe so they should not be injured. The boy was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
However, officials and staff members at the zoo were saddened by the loss of Harambe.
Zoo Director Thane Maynard said: “The zoo security team's quick response saved the child's life. We are all devastated that this tragic accident resulted in the death of a critically-endangered gorilla. This is a huge loss for the zoo family and the gorilla population worldwide.”
Trayvon Martin: Handgun used by George Zimmerman to kill unarmed black teenager fetches £82k on auction site
Wednesday, 18 May 2016 00:00 Written by mirror.co.ukThe hotly contested auction saw around seven prospective buyers chip in offers for the the Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm handgun on the United Gun Group website
The handgun George Zimmerman used to kill an unarmed black teenager has reportedly fetched an eye-popping $120,000 (£82,191) following an online bidding war.
The hotly contested auction saw around seven prospective buyers chip in offers for the Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm handgun on the United Gun Group website.
Earlier reports suggested Zimmerman, who shot and killed Martin at his Florida home in February 2012, had scooped a whopping $138,900 (£95,136) for the firearm after bidding closed at midday today.
But after fake bidders, including one named Racist McShootface, sabotaged the auction by jacking up the price artificially, his attempts to cash in that sum were thwarted.
Alabama-based John Smith, however, was named as the eventual winner after placing his bid in the final moments, according to The Guardian .
However, reports from TMZ , who broke the the story, suggest the identity of the winning bidder is not yet known due to the auction site's rules.
The auction was branded a "national shame" by Leonard Pitts, a Pulitzer-winning columnist for the Miami Herald.
Zimmerman was at the centre of a major firearm debate in America after he was acquitted of all charges over the death of 17-year-old Trayvon at a 2013 trial.
Some of the proceeds from the sale of the gun, described as "an American Firearm icon", will be donated to Black Lives Matter, an American civil rights movement, according to Zimmerman.
Popular News
Eight killed in execution-style US shootings
Saturday, 23 April 2016 00:00 Written by nation.co.ke
Eight members of one family, including a teenager, were executed with a bullet to the head in rural Ohio on Friday.
Seven bodies were found at three nearby homes and an eighth was later found at a fourth site, Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader told reporters.
The victims were "all adults except for a male juvenile" who was 16 years old, he said, adding that all were members of a single family.
The authorities gave no possible motive. And, with at least one suspected gunman still on the loose, no arrests have been made.
"Each one of the victims appears to have been executed, each one of the victims appears to have been shot in the head," Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said.
"The preliminary determination has been made that none of the individuals committed suicide," he added, saying the shooter or shooters "are still at large. We do not know their location."
Several victims were in bed when they were shot, Reader said.
Two babies — one aged four days, the other six months — and a three-year-old child survived the shootings, he added.
The first and fourth crime scenes are separated by 30 miles (50 kilometres), the sheriff's office said.
Earlier, DeWine and Reader said in a joint statement that the first seven victims had been found "in three Union Hill Road homes in Pike County," a rural community about 80 miles east of Cincinnati.
There was no "active shooter," they said.
Schools in Pike County and surrounding areas were earlier placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure, WLWT reported.
Agents from the Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation were leading the investigation, the statement said.
Ohio Governor and Republican presidential candidate John Kasich tweeted that the situation was "beyond comprehension."
Firearms kill some 30,000 people in the United States each year.
However, Republican lawmakers, many of whom are backed by the powerful
American Couple Found Guilty of Harvesting Organs from Ghanaian Daughter
Thursday, 31 March 2016 00:00 Written by FACE2FACEMatthew and Grace Huang, an Asian-American couple, were sentenced Thursday to three years in prison in a Qatar court for starving their adopted daughter to death.
The Huangs, parents to three adopted children, were accused by prosecutors of killing their daughter in order to harvest her organs.
As reported by BBC News, the charges that landed the Huangs in jail were not announced, but outside the court, Mr. Huang presented greater detail.
“We have just been wrongfully convicted, and we feel as if we are being kidnapped by the Qatar judicial system,” said Mr. Huang. “This verdict is wrong and appears to be nothing more than an effort to save face.”
Mr. Huang added, “They accused us of killing our daughter to harvest her organs. That’s how ridiculous this is. This verdict should be overturned immediately.”
Along with the prison sentence, the couple has to pay 15,000 Qatari riyals, or $4,100, in fines. After serving their sentences in Qatar, the couple will be deported. The defense team has been granted 15 days to appeal the sentence and have plans to put that in to motion.
Mr. and Mrs. Huang were arrested in Qatar’s capital city, Doha, back in January 2013, after the death of 9-year-old Gloria (pictured above with her two brothers). The Huang family adopted Gloria from Ghana and have two other adopted children (pictured) also from Africa.
The Huang family arrived in Qatar, after the husband reportedly moved the family to the country for work. Their other children are residing with family back in America.
Via their website, the Huang family claims that Gloria’s death happened as a result of an eating disorder she developed while living in Ghana, but Qatar police officials determined that the Huang family was harvesting the girl’s organs although a second postmortem investigation reportedly revealed that no evidence of organ tampering was found.
Shockingly, this is not the only case dealing with organ harvesting. In 2011, Catholic Online reported on African refugees, attempting to relocate to Israel, having their kidneys and livers removed while they were alive and then being left to die. Then a Somali girl was reportedly smuggled out of her country to Britain for her organs, according to the New York Post, last October. Her case was of particular significance because it was the first time that authorities saw a child being trafficked specifically for her organs.
Another high-profile organ-harvesting, kidnapping case involved the “humanitarian organization” Zoe’s Ark. Back in 2007, Chad’s President Idriss Deby accused the organization of trying to kidnap 103 children and take them to France for illegal adoptions and organ-harvesting. At the time, President Deby told NPR, “Clearly, their goal was to kidnap and steal these kids from their parents, and sell them to pedophile organizations in Europe, or kill them and sell their organs.”
The Americas' Welcomes Hon. Abike Dabiri Erewa, Senior Special Assistant to the President Foreign Affairs & the Diaspora.
Saturday, 26 March 2016 00:00 Written by OASES NEWS.Once again Prof Isa Odidi-Canada and Francis John USA congratulate you on your appointment as the newly appointed and most suitable Senior Special Assistant to the President Foreign Affairs & the Diaspora.
This is in furtherance of your selfless services to humanities, before, now and in continuation of your goodwill towards Diaspora. The appointment came at a better time for you to complete all pending diaspora issues which are well known to you.
Meanwhile, Americas are more than eager to work with you at any given time, in more than the following areas and when you make yourself available. While appreciative of President Muhammadu Buhari's intent towards Diaspora are very numerous. Meanwhile, find below a few expectations:
· We enjoin a thorough communication cutting across all geopolitical groups, ethnicity and professionalism
· Create effective communications (most particularly directed to you) will help with short term or interim solutions.
· Improve on $21 billion Diaspora yearly remittance by creating incentives.
· Technocrats and Professional be persuaded to take their businesses home and woo investors.
· Must fix timeframe, structure and logistics to Diaspora Commission and Diaspora voting by 2019 fixed
· Specifically, publicly task Diaspora, spell it out.
· Facilitate the representation of Diaspora in African Union and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
· Establish Diaspora Bureau, Diaspora Information Data Bank, Diaspora Volunteers, Diaspora Bank, Annual Diaspora Summit, Diaspora Chamber of Commerce, Diaspora Desk at all levels.
All these and many more will make your tenure in office, the most successful. A legacy we are sure you will earn you more than expected accolades like: Mama Diaspora – Hon. Abike Dabiri Erewa – The Wonder Worker!
Several diaspora discussions are in progress cutting across the globe with: Ghana: Neseer N Yakasai, Asia: Korode Oluwagbenga, United Kingdom: Eric Onokif, William John, Temitayo Bowyer, Canada: Dr. Kay Alabi, President/CEO Visible Minority Radio and TV Network (VMRTN), Michael Kehinde Abiodun (Publisher; OASESNEWS), North Cyprus: Amorous Taiwo, Jordan: Abdulganiyu A Adagiri, Saudi Arabia: Abbas Ahmed, Russia: Dr. Mohammed Sagir, South Africa: Engr. Babarinde, USA: Lanrewaju Lawal, Dr. Francis Ugbolu, Iyke Harrison, Mesi Ada Usiade, Ngozi Orabueze, France: Ibifunro Thomas Tatua, Ireland: Jacob Out, Mustapha Garba. These personalities are consistently talking about Agriculture, Alternative Energy, Waste Management and Mining investors pull to Nigeria, reason why listening ears are given.
We are facilitating your Townhall meeting at New York to be successful, scheduled for this Friday March 25, 2016 at 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Taking place at LaGuardia Plaza Hotel by LaGuardia Airport, the address is: 104-04 Ditmars Boulevard East Elmhurst. Proud to say, It's one of our own organizing the Townhall meeting. Many more of these meetings are encouraged with a spread to nook and crannies of each country as to holding meetings in one place - all the time.
Please check out your calendar, Kansas City is open to host you between May 12th to 15th. This will coincide with the upcoming 1St Diaspora Mega Convention, meanwhile, arrangements are in top gear and some of your trusted confrères are in the planning committee.
Francis John, Kansas City - Missouri
+816.359.8527
Hot-looking woman wraps her feces and places it in her purse during date after man’s toilet did not flush
Saturday, 26 March 2016 00:00 Written by worldwideweirdnews. A woman of Canada, went on social media to share her horrific story after using a man’s bathroom during her date.
The woman who identified herself as Makala from Toronto and goes by the Twitter name Blotty, said that she was invited for a date to a man’s home.
During the date, Makala said that she needed to use the bathroom, but it turned into a nightmare when the toilet did not work properly.
Makala wrote about her embarrassing situation on Twitter, and she shared a photo of her conversation with her sister while trying to figure out how to save herself from being humiliated.
“I am a confident, calm and self-assured woman so I felt comfortable using his bathroom,” she wrote.
However, she said that she soon found “this was a mistake” because his toilet didn't flush properly.
“I panicked, and flushed it a million times, making it worse,” she said. When she realized that she has been in the toilet for too long, she became frantic.
There was one single piece that refused to go down. “So in that moment, something came over me,” she wrote.
Makala said she took toilet paper and wrapped the feces in a few layers and placed it into her purse.
When she came out, she was scared that the poop will smell or fall out of her purse. She wrote to her sister and asked what to do.
She told her sister: “He's in love with me, but I can never face him again.” Her sister advised her to go outside and pretend to be smoking, and discard the waste.
Makala said that before they went outside, the man went to use the bathroom and she heard him flush. She realized that he must have fixed the toilet.
She then took her purse into the bathroom and flushed the feces. The Twitter posts went viral and was shared many times.
