Sai Baba ! Sai failure !! Why Buhari should retire in 2019 - Archibishop Okogie

Olubunmi Okogie, Archbishop emeritus of the Catholic archdiocese of Lagos, says President Muhammadu Buhari should retire quietly come 2019.

Okogie said President Buhari has performed woefully and does not deserve to be re-elected.

There are indications that the president will seek re election in 2019.

Minister of communication, Adebayo Shittu after a closed-door meeting with Buhari told state house correspondents that the President’s ardent supporters would prevail on him to seek re-election.

Reports emerged that Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, has been appointed as the director-general of Buhari campaign.

Okogie speaking with New Telegraph said it was an insult to Nigerians for the president to be talking about 2019 election despite challenges.

The archbishop further advised Buhari to respect himself and think of finding solutions to the problems confronting Nigerians than re election.

“What has he done in the years he had been in the saddle? He has performed woefully; that’s the verdict of Nigerians.

“Let the president respect himself and retire quietly. Coming out to talk of 2019 is insulting not only to those who voted him to power but to all Nigerians.

“There are so many problems confronting the people and he should be thinking of what to do about them. For second term, he must be a joker.

“That is all I can say for now because I don’t want to dignify them with a lengthy statement. It is not worth it.” Okogie said - Daily Post

‘Restructuring will foster peace, justice, development’ - CWI

The Christian Welfare Initiative (CWI) has joined other Nigerians calling for the restructuring of the country to foster peace, justice and development.

In his welcome address at the 5th National Conference and fund-raising for the creativity centre for the disabled persons, President of the CWI, Professor Magnus Adeyemi Atilade, said there was the urgent need for the nation to be structured “because the present political structure is faulty and lopsided, favouring one side of the country against other.”

He declared: “The national question remains unresolved staring the nation in the face and threatening the unity and oneness of the country. We need to revisit and rearrange the present set-up of the country”.

Atilade said the neglect of the physically disabled persons remains a spiritual challenge to the conscience of the nation.

“Let us give them a voice in governance and space in everyday life and living by making provision to accommodate their special and peculiar needs. We all must provide succour for the weak in our society,”Atilade said.

Professor Atilade, still on restructuring, said there must be fairness, equity and justice in the way Nigeria’s administration is being run, in terms of political appointments, distribution of national wealth and so on.

The CWI president also called on honest Christians to join politics in the interest of their children’s future. Christians’ involvement in politics and governance is an important part of the fulfilment of God’s purpose for the body of Christ, equipped with anointing for dominion and authority. The theme of the conference was “Resolving the National Question: Remembering the physically challenged persons.” It was held in conjunction with Cherish Victory and Jesus People Enabled Band.

Speakers at the conference included Elder Ayo Opadokun, social activist; and Mrs Irene Patrick Ogbogu, Executive Director, Disability Right Advocacy Centre, while Sir Debo Omotosho, Chairman, Bond Group, was the chairman of the event. - The Nation

Transfer updates : Man City ready £35m January bid for Sanchez

City are readying a £35 million bid for Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez amid interest from French giants Paris Saint-Germain.

The Daily Mail claims that City want to ensure they win the race to sign the Chilean by paying a premium for the player who will become a free agent at the end of the season.

An injury to Gabriel Jesus has seen City change their stance on the Chilean and they could look to push through a new over the next month, boosting their chances of competing on four fronts this season.

City were heavily linked with the player throughout the summer and saw a £60 million bid rejected by Arsene Wenger, who is desperate to keep the player at the club.

Arsenal are said to be ready to consider offers in the region of £35 million for the player who has scored eight times in all competitions for the Gunners this season.

Jose Mourinho apologises to Mkhitaryan

Mourinho has apologised to Henrikh Mkhitaryan for substituting him at half-time during Manchester United's 2-0 win over Derby.

Mkhitaryan, 28, was replaced by Romelu Lukaku during the interval at Old Trafford while the game was still goalless.

Goals from Jesse Lingard and Lukaku secured a 2-0 win for United but Mourinho admitted after the match he felt uncomfortable withdrawing Mkhitaryan despite the result.

"[It was] unfair [to take Mkhitaryan off] and I told him that at half-time," he said.

"I didn't like what I did. He didn't deserve it, he was playing well, he wasn't playing bad.

"He had a couple of missed passes but he was playing well and giving a good dynamic to the team.

"My feeling was just that [Marcus] Rashford is not going to score a goal and because of that I'm not going to lose time and I'm going to play Romelu, so then I had to sacrifice a player.

"Mkhi was the one that I sacrificed but it's something that I don't normally do but I did at half-time and apologised to him in front of other people because he didn't deserve it."

Sky Sports News reported in December that Inter Milan were interested in Mkhitaryan, who has struggled to hold down a first-team place under Mourinho in recent months. - Sky Sports

Bank staff arrested for locking up housemaid without food in Lagos

The Lagos State Police command has arrested a banker, Nkechinyere Nwajagu, who locked her 11-year-old housemaid, Precious Nwafor without food and travelled to her village for the Yuletide.

It was gathered that neighbours alerted law enforcement agents when they found the girl locked up in the house at 12 Baderin Street, Mafoluku, Oshodi area of Lagos.

The complaint prompted the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Edgal Imohimi, to lead a team to rescue the girl.

Spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command, Chile Oti, who confirmed the arrest, said “the female banker who hails from Ajali in Orumba Local Government Area of Anambra state but resides at 12 Baderin street, Mafoluku Oshodi, reported at Makinde Police Station Oshodi, last night, from where she was taken to the Human Rights Section of Lagos State Command Ikeja.

“Nwajagu”s apartment was forced open on the instruction of the CP in order to rescue her housemaid, Precious Nwafor , who she locked up. She said she had no choice than to lock her in anytime she goes to work until she returns at night. She was taken to court today (yesterday) by the Human Rights Section of the Lagos State Command, led by Mrs Kemi Adedeji, a Chief Superintendent of Police, CSP.” - Daily Post

Nigerian couple ordered to pay enslaved nanny $121,000 in US

A Nigerian couple, Chudy Nsobundu, 57, and his wife Sandra Nsobundu, 49, living in the Houston-area of the United States has been ordered by an American court to pay $121,000 as restitution to the Nigerian woman who worked for 20 hours a day for two years as the nanny to their five children.

According to the News agency of Nigeria, (NAN), the naturalized U.S. citizens recruited the woman from Nigeria with the promise of a $100 monthly wage but the nanny was not paid throughout the period.

Authorities said they abused her physically and verbally while she worked at their home in the Houston suburb of Katy from September 2013 to October 2015.

Court documents states that the nanny worked every day from 5:30 a.m. to 1 a.m., couldn’t take breaks and had to eat leftovers and not fresh food, including being forced to only drink milk left in bowls in which the children had eaten cereal. She also couldn’t take hot showers.

It was learnt that Nsobundus prevented the nanny from leaving their employment by keeping her passporthowever,the nanny reached out for help and was rescued following a tip to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. Her name has not been released.

Chudy Nsobundu in 2016 pleaded guilty to visa fraud while his wife pleaded guilty to unlawful conduct with respect to documents in furtherance of forced labor.

The Prosecutors said the couple knowingly caused a false visa application for the victim to be submitted to the Department of State with numerous pieces of false information.

The woman’s date of birth was incorrect on the application, listing her 20 years older than she was, said she was married when she was not, incorrectly indicated the purpose of her travel was to attend a niece’s graduation and falsely identified her in a letter that Chudy Nsobundu was her brother. Prosecutors also said he made false representations under oath on the visa application to increase the chances that the application would be accepted and to hide the fact she’d be working for his family as a housemaid and nanny under conditions that violated U.S. labor laws.

Federal prosecutors said Sandra Nsobundu took the nanny to the U.S. Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria, to obtain her visa and provided her with a letter indicating she didn’t speak English well, that she was to attend a family graduation and gave her a picture of her husband with instructions that she tell embassy officials he was the nanny’s brother and that she was married. The nanny’s husband listed on the visa application actually was the Nsobundus’ driver in Nigeria.

OMG !!! Carpenter impregnates mother in-law in Nasarawa

John Ulaha, a 45-year-old carpenter,  has reportedly impregnated his mother in-law.

The man, a native of Awe Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, is currently living in regrets following his shameful act.

It was gather that his wife, Victoria, blessed with a daughter, lived in Lafia where she manages a provision store while her husband runs a carpentry workshop. But by way of augmenting their incomes, they are heavily involved in farming activities in Awe, where they hire labourers to work on their farms.

However, things fell apart after the implementation of anti-grazing law in Benue State pushed over 85% of Fulani herdsmen from Benue to settle in Awe, as they started destroying, at an alarming rate, farmlands belonging to others.

This situation made Victoria to invite her mother who is a widow to come over and help her husband harvest their farm produce of yam and guinea corn since she was very busy with her shop business in Lafia.

In the course of time, sometime in mid-September 2017, John and his mother-in-law, Mrs. Ashetu Igbasue, 42, relocated to Awe in order to fast-track their harvesting.

Amazingly, three months after, Victoria was shocked to know that her mother was heavily pregnant for her husband.

“I’m distressed, I don’t know how to handle this matter,” Victoria told Saturday Sun.

“I got married to my husband nine years ago. The marriage is blessed with a baby girl and my mother used to come around to spend some time with us especially when she lost her husband.

“But this time around, I personally requested that she should come and help us do some work on the farm. Since then she had been in the village with my husband helping on the farm, though both of them used to come to Lafia regularly to pick supplies and go back because they were determined to evacuate all crops from the farm to the house before herdsmen could come to destroy them.

“There was a time my husband came to Lafia to get some cooking ingredients and I asked him whether they were feeding well. He told me lightheartedly that my mother’s cooking was more delicious than mine. I did not suspect anything bad. I believed my husband. And, moreover, the woman in question is my mother, not a rival.”

“The last time my mother came to Lafia from my husband’s village, she shockingly told me that she did not see her period for the first and second month running which implies that she is pregnant and said that my husband is responsible for it. She said she wants it aborted because it would be a shameful thing for her to be pregnant at her age when her husband is not alive.

“I invited her to come and assist me to take care of our farm work since Fulani people have been destroying it, but I did not know that my husband had established a love relationship with her. She confessed to me that my husband was responsible for her pregnancy,” she said.

Expressing her disappointment at her husband’s behaviour, Victoria remarked: “It would have been better for him to get a second wife who will be stationed at home or even look for a girlfriend to satisfy him in my absence rather than going into a love affair with my own mother; it is a very shameful thing and an abomination of the highest order; it is wrong.”

The mother-in-law, Mrs. Igbasue, on her part said that it all started in the farm during a joke which led to sex later in the night when they returned from the farm.

“I agreed to his demand for sex and thought it was just to satisfy his sexual feelings, but somehow, it became a daily thing,” she confessed.

“I never thought I could get pregnant due to my age. I told my daughter the truth so that we can get a solution to it and out of anger she went public with it. I have since regretted my action. My intention is to find a way and abort it. My daughter earlier agreed to look for somebody to abort it for me because I can’t keep it. The whole thing was temptation and I completely regret it. I have pleaded for forgiveness from her,” she added.

John on his part admitted that he has deeply offended God as well as his wife for going too far by sleeping with his mother-in-law to extent of getting her pregnant, adding that the pregnancy won’t stand as he will do his best by pleading with his wife to accept aborting it.

“I have regretted what happened. It is not in my character and the shame this very act has brought to me, my wife and the entire village as well as those who know me is unbearable,” he lamented.

“Since my wife leaked this out, I have not been comfortable and have lost appetite for food. I have been pleading with her to forgive me because it is the devil’s work,” he said. - Daily Post

Google Introduces Games Streaming Service Into Chinese Market

Alphabet Inc.’s Google has joined a funding round for a Chinese games-streaming service, making its second direct investment there since largely withdrawing from the country in 2010.

The Mountain View, California company is joining a Series D investment round for Chushou, whose name translates into “Tentacle,” a Chinese mobile-centric game live-streaming platform with 90 million registered users. Existing backers including Qiming Venture, Shunwei Capital and Alpha X Capital also joined the round, Chushou said in a statement that Google provided. 

The Chinese market alone is expected to generate 3 billion yuan ($462 million) of revenue and attract 140 million users this year, according to IResearch, as users track the online exploits of gamers within PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or League of Legends. Chushou also competes with Huya, DouYu -- or “Fighting Fish” -- and Panda TV for dominance of game-streaming.

Google has been re-building its presence in China, where it defied the government in 2010 by refusing to self-censor search content and later had most of its services blocked. Chushou is only Google’s second direct investment since, after a 2015 decision to back local AI startup Mobvoi. The U.S. giant has been ramping up hiring and promotion of its TensorFlow AI tools, features Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai highlighted when he visited the country last year. It launched a Beijing-based AI research center in December.

With its latest deal, Google’s getting into an industry that’s subject to persistent and aggressive Chinese censorship. Beijing has launched periodic crackdowns on video streaming sites, aiming to root out everything from portrayals of violence to game addiction. Some of Chushou’s most popular streams feature PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, a gore-splattered title in which players duel to the death.

The latest cash injection brings Chushou’s total funding to $120 million and will help it expand services around the world. Like Twitch, it offers viewers the chance to watch gamers hack and slash their way through over 1,000 titles. Since launching in August 2015, the platform has garnered 8 million unique streamers with an average of 250,000 live streamers active on the site each day -- most of whom are viewed via smartphones.

“Chushou has built an impressive platform, with a dedicated and quickly growing base of content creators and consumers, and smart expansion plans,” said Frank Lin, Google’s principal, corporate development for North Asia.

Google’s investment in Chushou comes after it lost out to Amazon.com Inc., which bought Twitch for $970 million in 2014. Since then, it’s attempted to launch live-streaming services for gamers via YouTube. Live-streaming of games has attracted the attention of technology giants, with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. pushing into the sector. - Bloomberg

Fitch: Some Nigerian banks may struggle to remain profitable in 2018

Fitch, one of the big three rating agencies in the world, says Tier 2 Nigerian banks may struggle to remain profitable in 2018.

In a statement released on Thursday, Fitch said reduced treasury bill issuance will affect the profitability of banks.

“However, some second-tier banks with a 9M17 operating ROAE of 4%-6% may struggle to remain profitable in 2018.”

The agency said Nigerian banks were highly reliant on the interest income from treasury bills in 2017 as it made up 30 percent of their income.

“The slowdown in T-bill issuance marks a change of strategy as the government looks to increase its financing from external sources and longer-dated domestic issuances.

“Record T-bill issuance in 2017 helped support the Central Bank of Nigeria’s strategy to maintain naira exchange-rate stability.

“Nigerian banks are highly reliant on net interest income for profitability and T-bills proved to be an important source of profits in 2017.

“We expect falling T-bill yields and lower issuance to put pressure on Nigerian banks’ profitability in 2018.

“We expect falling T-bill yields and lower issuance to put pressure on Nigerian banks’ profitability in 2018.”

While the big banks in the country like Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank, United Bank for Africa, Zenith and First Bank might be able to withstand the pressure, Fitch says Tier 2 banks might not be so lucky. - Cable Nigeria

Ese Oruru: Everyone has abandoned us – Father of raped, Islamized girl cries out

Charles Oruru, the father of the then 13-year-old girl, Ese Oruru, who was abducted and taken to Kano where she was allegedly raped, forcibly Islamised and married off without her parents’ consent, has cried out over government’s failed promises.

Charles said all the promises made by the governments of Bayelsa and Delta states with regard to Ese’s scholarship had not been fulfilled.

Ese was allegedly abducted on 12th August, 2015 at her mother’s shop in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State by a man named Yunusa Dahiru (alias Yellow) and taken to Kano.

She was rescued on February 29, 2016, by the Kano State Police and placed in the custody of the government.

It was later found out that she was five months’ pregnant with her abductor’s child.
Charles spoke with Punch on Thursday, saying, “A lot of things have happened. As Ese was delivered of her baby, three months after, some people attempted to steal the baby but God helped us, they did not succeed.

“After that incident, I had to fight to take Ese and the baby from there. So, we have taken them to Ughelli in Delta State. I am the only one living in Yenagoa. As they left, I started making efforts to get the scholarship the Bayelsa State Government promised Ese after giving birth.

“Since she gave birth, the scholarship promised Ese has not materialised in spite of all our efforts. The government asked one official to look for a house for us . We were given a two – bedroomed flat at Okaka in Yenagoa . But because of some issues, we have left the apartment; even FIDA and the NGOs helping us appear to have backed out.

“Even the court matter is another funny aspect. We went to court last in August 2017 before they took the trial judge to Abuja and up till now, the judge has not come back. Because of the absence of the judge, the matter has been stalled.

“When I tried to find out what was amiss, somebody in the court told me that the trial might commence in 2018 but we do not know when that will be.”

As for Yunusa , Charles said the suspect had been freed from Okaka Prison , Yenagoa and flown to his hometown in Kano State.

On whether Yunusa had been taking care of Ese’s baby, he said, “God forbid! The baby is in our possession . We have been taking care of the baby . He has not called anybody . Anyway, it is expected because the child is not his.

“The child belongs to me . He did not pay any bride price to anybody. We do not marry off our daughters like that in Urhobo land. If you want to marry, you must seek the consent of the parents to give you a wife.”

He added that Ese was well and kicking, stressing that she is now an SSS2 student in a school in Ughelli.

“We pay for her school fees. Contrary to speculation, the government of Delta State is not responsible for Ese’s fees. We sought their help but they did not offer any. The school my wife took her to before, we were not able to pay before one Good Samaritan assisted us in paying for two terms.

“Anyway, by the grace of God, Ese ’s schooling is going on well. Someone is assisting us to offset the school fees. Since September, the baby has been in our possession. I won’t like to give my grandchild to anybody.” - Daily Post