Thursday showers Ministration @ The Fountain of life church

Photos: Suspected killers of soldiers in Nembe arrested

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

The suspected killers of three soldiers during a raid on a military post in Nembe, Bayelsa state on August 8th have been arrested by the special security outfit "Bayelsa Waterways Security Taskforce" led by ex-militant leader, Africanus Ukparasia. The killers dressed in white and pretending to be mourners, attacked the military post, carted away military arms, ammunition and a war boat...


The two suspected killers were arrested at Olugbobiri community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State following a tipoff. They pleaded guilty to the offence and have narrated how they carried out the attack. Two members of their gang were killed during the shoot out leading to their arrest. The other two have been handed over to the "Operation Delta Safe Command " of the Nigerian military.

More photos...

'Muslim bully, 35, violently attacks 16-year-old boy for cuddling his girlfriend in London street'

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

A 35 year old Muslim 'bully' Michael Coe attacked a 16-year-old schoolboy and branded his girlfriend a whore after spotting them cuddling in the street in East London, Southwark crown court sitting on Monday heard.

According to the prosecuting counsel, Coe allegedly grabbed the teenager round the neck and threw him to the ground in the unprovoked attack.

Coe apparently objected to the boy hugging his girlfriend, and then assaulted a passing teacher who witnessed the attack and tried to photograph Coe's car number plate.

Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay told the court on Monday;

"They were standing on the pavement doing what some 16-year-olds do some of the time, cuddling each other in the street", said Mr Polnay. They had the misfortune that of all the people to drive by was this defendant."

Believing the boy was older than 16, Coe stopped his car and said: "Let that schoolgirl go."

Mr Polnay said the boy objected, telling him they were both 16, and Coe told him:

"How would you like it if your sister was cuddling?"

Coe then asked if the couple were Muslims - which they are - but they denied it because they were "worried what this defendant would do if they said yes".

At which point the defendant said:

'Why am I wasting my time with you if you are not Muslim?

There followed an exchange of words, during which this defendant said something insulting about his girlfriend, calling her a whore."

The boy replied: "don't call my girlfriend a whore", said Mr Polnay, at which time Coe allegedly "moved from unpleasant bullying to someone in the street to something that is quite simply an assault."

Coe then grabbed the boy on the neck and threw him on the ground, and the boy lost consciousness.

"The next thing he woke up on the floor and he was bleeding", added the prosecutor. We would say it is really completely unpleasant and utterly unwarranted. This is a grown man on a child, a 16-year-old."

sMr Polnay also alleges that Mr Coe then asked to a teacher who was taping the assault to hand over his phone to him. The teacher, Mr Siwela refused to give him the phone so the Mr Coe grabbed him too and threw him to the floor.

Mr Coe claims he was acting in self-defence, the trial continues.

Source: Evening Standard UK

Photos: Aviation workers protest over Federal Govt's planned concession of airports

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

The National Union of Air Transport Employees, today, expressed their displeasure with the Federal Government's planned concession of four major airport in the country to private investors. According to reports, morning operations at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja were grounded as airport workers, bearing placards with various inscriptions, staged a massive protest from the tollgate to other parts of the airport.

Access Bank Increases Salaries……Herbert Wigwe Surprises Staff

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

It was indeed a Merry Monday at Access Bank Plc yesterday as members of staff were pleasantly surprised by a salary increase in spite of the prevailing economic realities in Nigeria.

The Bank’s leadership, headed by Herbert Wigwe, approved this increase to cushion the effect of rising costs in the country. This information was obtained from members of staff who were delighted by this gesture from the Bank.


An employee who confirmed this in confidence said: “I am speechless. I don’t think anyone saw this coming, this is happening at a time when my friends in other banks are losing their jobs. It feels great to be supported in such trying times. Thank you Uncle Herbie”

Wigwe was unavailable for comments as at press time.

Escaped Chibok girl: I miss my Boko Haram husband

Story highlights

• Amina Ali Nkeki, her husband and their daughter escaped from a Boko Haram camp in May.
• "I'm not comfortable with the way I'm being kept from him," she told CNN

Abuja, Nigeria (CNN)Escaped Chibok girl Amina Ali Nkeki says she misses her Boko Haram fighter husband and is still thinking about him three months after escaping the militants' camp.

Amina Ali, who was held hostage by the terrorist group for more than two years, says she was married off a year into her ordeal and later had a baby girl, Safiya.

The couple and their daughter were found on the outskirts of Nigeria's Sambisa Forest in May. She says they fled the camp by themselves and were not rescued by the Nigerian military, contrary to reports.

Her husband, identified as Mohammed Hayatu at the time of their escape, told a witness that he too had been kidnapped by Boko Haram.

He was placed in military detention for interrogation by Nigeria's joint intelligence center.

Amina Ali was found with a suspected Boko Haram terrorist named Mohammed Hayatu.

Amina Ali says she has no idea where he is now and is keen to be reunited with him.

"I'm not comfortable with the way I'm being kept from him," the painfully shy 21-year-old told CNN in her first worldwide interview, at an undisclosed location in Abuja Tuesday.

Addressing the father of her child directly, she says: "I want you to know that I'm still thinking about you, and just because we are separated doesn't mean I have forgotten about you."

READ: Chibok girl's parents get first glimpse of daughter

Courage to flee

Her statements came two days after the terrorist group released a grisly video showing the dead bodies of young women, taken in the aftermath of what Boko Haram says was a Nigerian airstrike.

Amina Ali says a dozen captives died in a bombing more than a year ago, which suggests that the footage is not new, according to a spokesman for Nigeria's National Security Advisor.

A glimpse of hope with release of new Boko Haram video 02:23

The video also shows a Chibok girl reciting a scripted plea for the release of Boko Haram fighters in exchange for the kidnapped girls.

Amina Ali was one of 276 schoolgirls abducted at gunpoint from their boarding school in Chibok in April 2014, by Boko Haram fighters. As many as 57 girls were able to escape almost immediately, but more than 200 remain missing.

The kidnapping sparked global outrage and prompted global figures, including activist Malala Yousafzai and first lady Michelle Obama, to support the campaign to #BringBackOurGirls.

Amina Ali refuses to talk about the attack, saying only she cannot remember what happened that fateful day.

For a year after they were taken, the abducted girls were kept together, she says. Then some of the teenagers -- including her -- were "given" to the terrorists as wives.

Chibok girl Amina Ali Nkeki (in red), who was kidnapped by Boko Haram, with her baby daughter.

She says she was desperate to see her mother again and that the thought gave her the courage and strength to flee the camp.

Asked how she felt about becoming a mother herself while in captivity, her face clouds over and, speaking through an interpreter, she insists: "I don't want to answer."

Read: First missing Chibok girl found, 2 years on

Family reunion

Her mother has spent the past two months staying with her in the capital. But Amina Ali has still not been back to Chibok and says she wants to go home and return to school.

"I'm not scared of Boko Haram. They are not my God," she said.

Kidnapped Chibok girl meets the President of Nigeria 01:22

The whereabouts of the rest of the girls remain a mystery, though they are believed to be somewhere in the Sambisa Forest, a Boko Haram stronghold in the country's northeast.

The current Nigerian government has said via Facebook that it is in touch with Boko Haram and working to secure the girls' release.

Over the past two years, successive Nigerian governments have been criticized for failing to recover the young hostages.

This is a government which is not only in denial mentally, but in denial about certain obvious steps to take

Wole Soyinka

"This is a government which is not only in denial mentally, but in denial about certain obvious steps to take," Nigerian author Wole Soyinka, a Nobel laureate who is often referred to as the conscience of his nation, told CNN's Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour in May 2014.

"It's one of those rather child-like situations that if you shut your eyes, if you don't exhibit the tactile evidence of the missing humanity here, that somehow the problem will go away," he said.

Amina Ali remains the only long-held hostage who has escaped.

But she has a defiant message for her "sisters" still being held: Don't lose hope. She managed to get away, she says, and one day they will be able to return to their families too.

"Be patient and prayerful," she said. "The way God rescued me from Sambisa Forest, he will rescue you too."

Olympics: Brazil beats Germany on penalties to win football gold

Neymar reacts after opening the scoring in the men's Olympic football final.

Story highlights

• Brazil beats Germany on penalties
• Men's final finished 1-1 after extra time
• Neymar scored decisive spot kick

Rio de Janeiro (CNN)In the center circle, his teammates knelt in prayer, pleading for divine intervention.

All around him, 70,000 Brazilians inside the vast Maracana Stadium chanted his name, expecting -- no, demanding -- their nation's biggest soccer star deliver a historic success at Rio 2016.

Neymar paused, gathering his thoughts as he stuttered towards the ball, almost grinding to a halt before stroking his penalty kick high to the left of Germany's goalkeeper Timo Horn.

As the net rippled, Brazil celebrated. It had won Olympic soccer gold for the first time in its history.

A night of deafening noise and frantic play inside Rio's iconic arena ended in triumph for the host nation, as a penalty shootout separated the sides after Saturday's final finished 1-1 following extra time.

For Brazil, this was a cathartic success. This was a landmark victory over a country that had inflicted an humiliating 7-1 defeat on it two years ago, in the semifinal of its own World Cup.

Not this time.

If Brazilians were anxious ahead of this match, those anxieties were expressed with raucous support.

Before the national anthems had been sung, the stadium reverberated to the sound of one man's name. "Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole, Ola, Neymar, Neymar" greeted the players as they took to the pitch.

Brazilians can even be forgiven for singing through the German anthem -- an expression of excessive exuberance rather than hostility, perhaps.

And they didn't have to wait long for Neymar to deliver his first telling contribution.

In the 26th minute, the captain and No. 10 sent a wonderful, looping free-kick beyond the despairing Horn to ignite a crowd who had arrived ready to combust.

Brazil was buoyant, but its newfound confidence was fragile. Germany hit the crossbar three times in the first half, with Sven Bender seeing his header come agonizingly close after 35 minutes.

The previous night, in the same venue, Germany's women's team had won gold for the first time, beating Sweden in the final.

The German men grew into their contest and grabbed a deserved equalizer just before the hour mark, as captain Max Meyer finished off a flowing move with a low shot from just inside the box.

Both teams pressed and probed as the contested drifted into extra time, but the exertions of that energy-sapping opening hour had taken their toll after another sticky night in Rio.

After eight flawless kicks, Nils Petersen had the misfortune of seeing his shot saved by Weverton.

Up stepped Neymar, and the rest is now Brazilian soccer history.

For the 24-year-old it served as an answer to critics who lamented his and Brazil's form in the opening matches of this competition, when it draw against both South Africa and Iraq.

"This is one of the best things that have happened in my life," the Barcelona forward said. "That's it."

Brazil goalkeeper Weverton celebrates with Neymar at the Maracana Stadium.

Weverton was cast alongside Neymar in the role of hero with his penalty save, but the goalkeeper was quick to praise the contribution of a higher power.

"God has blessed me," he said. "The gold is ours, but it belongs to God.

"I told Neymar that God had given him a second chance. God loves Neymar like he loves all this team."