D’banj, Banky W, Davido Absent at Channel O Awards

 

   As Stated by thenet.ng, D'banj, Banky W and Davido chose to stay back in Nigeria and attend the Johnnie Walker Event.

Uche Iwuji's husband, Juwon Lawal, denies marriage break up tale

Actress Uche Iwuji's husband and CEO or ABD Fuel, Juwon Lawal, has denied reports that his one year marriage to Uche has packed up.

The Kogi state businessman told Encomium magazine when contacted for his reaction;

"Our marriage has crashed? That's very strange. I am hearing it for the first time. Anyway, I don't even have time to be reading all those rubbish. I don't have time for Tales by Moonlight. Maybe when I'm less busy I will invite you for a chat

2013 BBC African Footballer of the year is Yaya Toure

Cote d' Ivoire and Manchester United Midfielder,Yaya Toure, has been voted the 2013 BBC African Footballer of the Year.

Photos: Here is why Actress Uche Iwuji's Marriage Ended

Pics Below:

My Warning to Jonathan - Governor Amaechi

Read his tweet below:

ASUU LATEST: How Members Are Mobilised Against Resuming Lectures

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the weekend embarked on mass mobilisation of members not to comply with the ultimatum by the Federal Government to resume lectures by December 4, 2013.



The members of the union were also directed not to sign any register that may be opened by their Vice Chancellors.

ASUU leaders directed all branches chairmen to find means of mobilising their members not to fall for the threats of the Federal Government, describing the threat as “empty”, pending the next National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Union, which will be held in Minna.

The Chairmen were also advised not to hold public congresses in order to avoid any face off with police and security forces the government deployed to all institutions for the implementation of the December 4 deadline of re-opening.

ASUU have started using the short message service (SMS) and other social media platforms to reach out and to mobilise members not to succumb to the Federal Government’s threat.

The Nation published some of these SMS:

“Dear members, FG decision to threaten us with sack confirms our suspicion that FG may not be honest and can not be trusted. Don’t sucumb (sic) to this empty threat. The strike continues. We shall triumph again. Please, DO NOT SIGN ANY REGISTER. ALUTA CONTINUA- CHAIRPERSON”.

“Dear Congress member, I’m appealing we should stay calm and remain resolute. There is nothing wrong in asking govt to do what it says it will do immediately. ASUU is not making any new demands as the Minister is propagating Govt is only repeating a ‘one act play’ scripted by the IBB dictatorship in early 90s. It didn’t work then, and, it won’t work now ALL BRANCHES are intact. We cannot be intimidated!!! UNITED WE BARGAIN DIVIDED WE BEG!!! ALUTA CONTINUA”.

A professor at the Federal University of Technology Minna, who spoke with the newsmen on conditions of anonymity, expressed shock over the ultimatum:

“One is shocked by the deadline. If they sack all of us, government will go to Kasua Gwari to pack lecturers or pick Professors on the streets. It is a pity, our leaders are reckless.

“We are not moved by the ultimatum. We are waiting to see how they (govt) intend to wriggle itself out of the self inflicted problem. Do they know how the system runs? The era of intimidation is gone,” the university don stated.

At the same time, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), and Enugu State University of Science and Technology are set for reopening.

Italian Woman Leaves $13 Million to Her Cat

Maria Assunta was the wealthy widow of an Italian property tycoon. She passed away two weeks ago at age 94. What makes Assunta’s passing so unique is all of her fortune was left to her 4-year-old cat, Tommaso, according to ABC News. The cat inherited $13 million in real estate and cash.

Assunta had no children. When her health started to fail in 2009 she bequeathed her estate to Tommaso. Italian law prohibits animals, such as pets, from a direct inheritance, states the New York Daily News. Assunta could not find a satisfactory animal shelter to care for her cat when she passed away.
Instead, her nurse Stefania took care of them until her passing. Stefania and Tommaso are living in an undisclosed location away from potential kidnappers and avoiding con artists. The cat is not the first to inherit a huge fortune.



Blackie — $13 Million



Blackie’s owner, Ben Rea, died in 1988. Rea’s $13 million estate went to his beloved cat and other cat charitiesin the U.K. His relatives were not too pleased with the decision, according to The Pet Gazette.



Beryl Reid’s cats — $1.8 Million

British comedic actress Beryl Reid died in 1996. In her later years she began adopting stray cats at her home in Berkshire, England, reports The Independent. Coco, Boon, Hamish, Eileen and Tuffnel acquired a fortune of $1.8 million. Reid designated friends to look after her cats.



Red — $1.3 Million

TV NZ News reports Canadian David Harper, a bachelor and recluse, died in March 2005. Harper left all of his fortune, 1.3 million Canadian dollars, to his cat, Red. The United Church of Canada makes sure to care for Red’s needs such as food and veterinarian bills for the rest of his life.



Tinker — $226,000



Margaret Layne was 89 and acquired an 8-year-old cat named Tinker. Layne did not have any children, according to BBC News. When she died in 2002, she left her North London home and a trust fund to Tinker. Layne’s neighbors, Ann and Eugene Wheatley, are the designated caretakers of Tinker’s home and overall care. Other cats from the neighborhood are enjoying Tinker’s comfortable lifestyle.

FG deploys policemen to federal universities

Inspector- General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar
The Federal Government has directed the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, to deploy policemen to all federal universities in the country in its bid to ensure resumption of academic activities in universities on or before December 4.

Saturday PUNCH learnt this development was disclosed at an emergency meeting the Federal Government held with all vice-chancellors of federal universities at the National Universities Commission building in Abuja on Friday. The Acting Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, and the Executive Secretary of the NUC, Prof Julius Okojie, were also at the meeting.

Though Friday’s meeting was held behind closed door, a source at the meeting who craved anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with the press, told Saturday PUNCH that the Federal Government directed the IG to draft policemen to federal universities to prevent members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities from disturbing some of their members that might want to resume work in line with government’s directive.

The meeting, Saturday PUNCH further learnt, also discussed other modalities for calling off the bluff of ASUU whose members have been on strike for over five months.

The Friday meeting began at 9am and lasted for two hours. Part of the meeting’s deliberations, Saturday PUNCH gathered, also centred on how to recruit new lecturers to fill the space of ASUU members who might refuse to obey government’s directive. Also, the vice-chancellors were directed to call students back to campus on Sunday in preparation for academic activities which should start on Monday.

Wike, had on Thursday ordered lecturers to resume duties on or before December 4 or face being sacked summarily by the Federal Government.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that already Okojie had been mandated to start the process of recruiting new lecturers by placing vacancy adverts in international journals and media.

Also, the vice-chancellors were directed to open registers in their institutions where ASUU members that resume work would sign so that those who failed to resume could be sacked.

Saturday PUNCH further learnt that the Federal Government was planning to adopt the Ghanaian method where lecturers were asked to re-apply for their jobs after two years of strike.

“Not all lecturers are members of ASUU. Most professors don’t belong to the union, people think every lecturer in public university is a member of ASUU, which is not true. Government means business this time around and it is going to call off the bluff of ASUU,’’ the source explained.

Nigerian universities are currently in need of at least 30,000 lecturers because of acute shortage of lecturers in the university system..

There are also indications that the Federal Government and university lecturers may be heading for a clash as the December 4 deadline given by the Federal Government for the lecturers to return to work is also the date set aside by ASUU to bury a former President of the union, Prof. Festus Iyayi.

Iyayi died in a ghastly auto accident along the Abuja-Lokoja Road when the vehicle in which he was travelling had a collision with the convoy of Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State on November 12, 2013.

The former ASUU chairman was on his way to Kano to attend a crucial meeting of the union which was called to deliberate on the Federal Government’s offer to the lecturers.

The Federal Government had claimed it decided to go tough on ASUU because the union made fresh demands in its letter to the government as a condition for calling off the lingering strike action.

ASUU had demanded payment of the four-month salary arrears of its members from July when the strike commenced and the release of N200bn that President Goodluck Jonathan promised to inject into the university system within the next two weeks.

The union also said the agreement reached between it and the Federal Government should be signed by the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of the Federation.

Though the President of ASUU, Dr. Nasir Faggae, refused to pick his calls and also did not respond to a text message sent to him on the latest development, the Enugu State Police Command confirmed that its men had been directed to man universities to quell any protest that might result from the Federal Government’s order on lecturers to resume work on or before Wednesday.

The command told Saturday PUNCH that police officers had also been directed to be stationed at the universities to forestall any disturbance from various groups or lecturers on Monday.

“There is no cause for alarm and we are combat ready in the event of any violence or disturbance,” the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, said.

Also, the Police Public Relations Officer, Akwa Ibom State Command, Mr. Etim Dickson, confirmed that the police had been mandated to provide security for lecturers that want to resume work against molestation by their other colleagues, who may not want them to do so.

“We are not going to their houses to force them to come and teach in the universities. Even though the Federal Government has taken a stance, we are not in the military rule to molest lecturers,” he said.

But reacting to the latest development, the Chairman, ASUU, UNIBEN chapter, Emina-Monye, said ASUU members were not bothered about government’s latest strategy.

He said, “They can go ahead with that. We are not perturbed. Let them call the police; let them advertise vacant positions and see how many international scholars will want to accept what Nigerian university lecturers are taking- let them go ahead.”

Also, ASUU branch at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, said government’s directive was an attempt to waste students’ time.

The UNIUYO ASUU Chairman, Dr. Nwachukwu Anyim, said in Uyo on Friday that Nigeria was no longer in a military era and so lecturers could not be coerced by anybody to work against their wish. He said, We will see how they will come to our homes and force us to resume work.

“Only the Federal Government can tell the world what it has in mind. We have a shortfall of 60,000 lecturers in the university system. If they are advertising this one, it means they must have an idea of where they are going to put them, and they must be people who are going to work without equipment.”

However, the University of Nigeria chapter of ASUU on Friday said its members would not resume work until their demands are met.

The UNN-ASUU also described the Minister of Education, Wike, as a “tout”.

The union, however, told Saturday PUNCH that it won’t react officially to Wike’s order until President Goodluck Jonathan speaks.

“We have not heard from the President, so we cannot speak officially on the matter. It would be senseless to begin to react to a statement from Wike since he is a tout,” said Dr. Ifeanyi Abada, Chairman of UNN-ASUU.

Abada said that Wike’s order cannot hold and vowed that ASUU would unleash terror if the minister attempts to carry out the order.

“We stopped the late General Sani Abacha, so stopping Wike and these bloody civilians won’t be any problem to us,” Abada vowed.

Also, the Nigeria Labour Congress on Friday described the action of Wike as hasty.

The Acting General Secretary of the NLC, Mr. Chris Uyot, said in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents that Wike ought to have considered the circumstances that delayed the leadership of ASUU from getting their resolutions to the government.

Uyot said that ASUU was not able to get the resolutions of the NEC meeting to the Federal Government because of the death of Iyayi.

Reacting to the latest development, Mr Femi Falana [SAN], said President Goodluck Jonathan should call Wike to order in the interest of the education system..

.He said If Wike had familiarised himself with FG/ASUU face-off in the past two decades, even under the defunct military junta, he would have discovered that ASUU members had never been cowed to submission.

He said, “In 1992, the Ibrahim Babangida junta fired all lecturers and threatened to eject them from their official quarters. When the lecturers defied the junta a decree was promulgated which made strike by teachers a treasonable felony. ASUU also ignored the obnoxious decree and called off the bluff of the military dictators. But at the end of the day it became clear to the regime that universities could not be run like military barracks. Hence the junta swallowed its pride, withdrew its empty threats and decided to honour the Agreement which it had rejected.’’

Low turnout threatens Anambra election

Despite assurances by the Independent National Electoral Commission that today’s supplementary election in Anambra State will be hitch-free, voters’ apathy may mar the election billed to hold in 210 polling units in 15 local government areas of the state.

The apathy, Saturday PUNCH learnt, stemmed from the disappointment of voters in the last governorship election held penultimate week and the uncertainty surrounding today’s election.

The uncertainty, Saturday PUNCH gathered, had also been compounded by calls for the boycott of the supplementary election by major parties and candidates that contested the main election on November 16.

Many of the voters in the areas where the election is scheduled to take place today told Saturday PUNCH that they were not interested in voting and were also confused because of the popular calls for the boycott of the election.

Some of them said it appeared to them that the winner of the election had already been predetermined by INEC and their collaborators, therefore their going to vote would be meaningless.

Three of the major contestants in the election called for the boycott of the election after INEC failed to cancel the entire election, following complaints that the conduct of the election failed to conform substantially with the requirements of the Electoral Act.

The three candidates are Senator Chris Ngige of the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Tony Nwoye of the Peoples Democratic Party and Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah of the Labour Party.

But INEC said it was fully prepared to conduct the election in all the polling units affected in the supplementary election. As at Thursday evening electoral materials had been moved from the INEC headquarters in Awka to the affected local government areas.

The Public Relations Officer of INEC in Awka, Mr. Frank Egbo, said the sensitive materials would be moved to the Super Registration Areas by Friday night, so that early on Saturday, they would be moved to the polling units in readiness for the election.

But Mr. Frank Obi, a community leader from Umuoji in Idemili North Local Government Area, told Saturday PUNCH that he doubted if the people would turn out to vote on Saturday.

Obi, who said people in his locality did not vote on November 16, said his people would not turn out to vote because they do not believe that the supplementary election would change anything.

“If there is no cancellation, nothing will change. If INEC has accepted that it made errors in the initial election and has apologised, what remains is for them to throw aside the outcome of that flawed election and conduct a fresh one.

“I am not saying that a certain candidate must win or lose. Anybody who is losing should lose gallantly. We do not accept a situation where it has appeared to us that the vote has been manipulated to favour one candidate from outset and they are only trying to use us to validate and legitimise it,” he said.

Meanwhile, heavy security has been mounted in areas where the governorship supplementary election will take place on Saturday in Anambra State.

A visit to the affected wards in Idemili North and Onitsha South Local Government Areas of the state on Friday showed a heavy presence of policemen, who mounted checkpoints. Trucks and Armoured Personnel Carriers and police officials around the locality.

The security beef up came on the heels of the protest by more than one thousand women, who massed around the road to the INEC headquarters, Awka, on Friday, to protest against the holding of the supplementary election.

The women were, however, stopped from proceeding to the gate of INEC by heavily armed policemen who came in six trucks. But they stayed over at Arroma Junction where they sang and called for the removal of INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, and the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukaogu.

This came on the heels of an 18-hour restriction placed by the police on vehicular movements in two local government councils.

In separate statements issued on Friday, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, and the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Emeka Chukwuemeka, named the local governments as Idemili North and Onitsha South.

They said the restriction would begin at midnight on Friday and end at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

The police and INEC said the restriction of movement was to ensure a successful and peaceful conduct of the supplementary election. The supplementary election will hold in 160 polling units in Idemili-North while it will take place in 17 polling units in Onitsha-South.

The police and INEC officers warned travellers passing through the state to find alternative routes during the period.

But they, however, said the restriction would not affect movement along federal highways, particularly the Bridge Head end of the Onitsha – Enugu expressway through Onitsha to other parts of the country.

The police statement also warned politicians and other individuals against moving about with security details during the voting exercise, saying that anybody who flouts this order will be arrested and prosecuted.

It said, “These measures are geared toward a hitch-free conduct of election in the state on the aforementioned dates.”

Meanwhile, INEC PRO, has said that election materials are expected to be moved from the Super Registration Areas to the polling units between 5.30 am and 7am on Saturday.

He said INEC has put everything in place to ensure that the election was conducted smoothly.

Election in 210 polling units, where 113,113 voters could not vote on November 16 were cancelled. The Chief Returning Officer, Prof. James Epoke, consequently declared supplementary election in those polling units, which cut across 15 local government areas.

Epoke said the Electoral Act required that for a winner to be declared in an election, the difference in the total voting population of the areas where election was cancelled should be less than the difference between the votes scored by the candidate with the highest votes and the votes of the candidate with the second highest votes.

In the Anambra case, the returning officer said the total voting population of the areas in which election was cancelled is 113,113, which is higher than the 79,754 difference between the leading candidate’s votes and the second highest candidate’s votes, the commission had no choice but to declare the election inconclusive.

“The rule guiding this election is that for a winner to emerge, he must have majority of votes cast and the required spread of 25 percent of votes in two thirds of the local government areas.

“We observed that due to many reasons there were a lot of canceled votes that make it difficult for a winner to emerge,” Epoke said.

He said the winner of the election will only be declared after the election has been conducted in areas where the election was cancelled.

Epoke explained that election was cancelled in the respective polling units where they were cancelled for a number of reasons ranging from snatching of ballot materials; delivering of coded ballot materials to wrong collation centres and the non-arrival of election materials at polling units.