Lagos State Government Seals Off Tony Rapu’s Church

The Lagos State Government has allegedly approved the sealing of a Lekki-based Church, christened ‘The Dome’ in Lekki Phase 1, for violating building regulations.

The church which is headed by popular pastor, Dr. Tony Rapu. According to a statement by the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Anifowoshe Abiola, the owners of the church contravened the Lagos State Regional and Urban Planning Law 2010 by building without title documents and necessary building permits.

The commissioner stated that the church had no Planning permit to construct the building adding that the fence of the church fence was in the right of way of Freedom Road (which is currently under construction) and also directly under the high-tension wires.

The statement reads in part:

“While government appreciates citizens’ rights to freedom of worship, the law stipulates a minimum of 15meter setback from the high tension wire to the property line. This church neglected and has refused to comply with the Statutory Notice served, as such the State Government must protect its citizens in order to mitigate against avoidable disasters.”

The statement further said that the government has given a 30-day ultimatum to owners/developers of buildings without planning permit to comply with the state planning laws to avoid sanction.

It emphasized the government’s position against illegal development of buildings and warned owners against building without planning approval.

Nigerian Man Says Those That Got Electrocuted In Calabar Deserved It Because They Didn’t Do This For Nigeria

A Nigeria Facebook user, Mike Anders, has come underfire after saying some unpleasant things to the victims of the mass electrocution incident in Calabar.

According to him, the victims of the tragedy deserved it for being unpatriotic, as they decided to skip Nigerian National matches for Foreign matches.

He said;

“You skipped our National football to watch foreign football and electric pole fall on your head, that’s the price for being unpatriotic”

“You have one choice, either you are a patriotic Nigerian ready to uphold her honor and glory or a sabotour committing felony”

I Will Never Buy A Selfish Player For Chelsea – Conte Says

Chelsea manager, Antonio Conte, has vowed never to bring a selfish player to the club.

Conte was reacting to suggestions that Eden Hazard could reach Lionel Messi’s level, if he becomes more selfish on the pitch. But the Italian insists he would rather lose a game than have such player in his squad.

Speaking in a news conference at Cobham on Monday, Conte also dismissed the idea that Messi plays selfishly.

“No, no, no, absolutely not,” Conte said when asked if Hazard should be more selfish.

“I don’t think that a player like Messi is a selfish player. The first target for every great champion is to play for the team and to put your talent into the team. If you do this, the team [increases] your talent.

“The best players in the world don’t exist without a team. For me, it’s sad to listen to this, that a player must ‘be more selfish’ to reach the top level. That’s very sad. It’s not my idea of football and I will never understand this. Never, never. In my team, I don’t want selfish players.

“I prefer to lose a game than to have a selfish player. For me, I don’t want this and I can’t accept this. I don’t want my club to buy me a selfish player one day. Never. No.”

Nigerians Can Now Get UK Visa On Same Day Of Application – UK Embassy

The British government has announced a special service for Nigerians which enables them get their UK visa on the same day of application.

British High Commissioner, Mr. Paul Arkwright disclosed this on Monday at the 40th anniversary of the Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce, NBCC, in Lagos.

Mr Arkwright while speaking at the event said that the British embassy has made provision for visa applicants in Nigeria to get their visa on the same day or within five days of application.

He noted that the embassy as part of its special services has reduced the maximum turnaround time for all classes of visa application to 15 days.

“We have introduced a same day visa service – at a cost – for visas in Nigeria.

“We have also introduced a service that means you get a visa within five days, at a lower cost than the same day process.

“Our turnaround time for all other visas is 15 days.

“The key thing, however, is that all visitors to the UK, whether they are from Nigeria or anywhere else, must respect the law and the length of time their visa says they can stay in the UK.

“In 2016, around 140,000 Nigerians applied for visas to the UK. Of those that applied for student visas, 90 percent were successful.

“For those that applied for other visas, around 70 percent were successful.

“There are as many as 250,000 Nigerian nationals or dual Nigerian-British nationals living in the UK at the moment.

“Some claim the total Nigerian diaspora in the UK is well over a million. We want Nigerians to come to the UK. They come to do business, to study, to see family and to invest in our economy.”

2017 UTME – How To Confirm Your JAMB UTME 2017 Registration

Here is a post which is going to give you an easy step by step guide on how to confirm your 2017 JAMB registration. This post is to help those who want to be sure they have completed the registration process.

As we all know, the JAMB 2017 registration process is set to come to an end on the 5th of May, 2017. It is very important for candidates to be sure that they have been fully registered before this date, and also confirm there is no problem with their registration details.

The best way to confirm if you have fully registered for the 2017 JAMB UTME examinations is via an Email from the JAMB portal. Though, for so many reason you might not want to depend on this mail, and in truth not everyone gets this confirmation mail, as sometimes emails fail to be delivered.

When is the JAMB UTME 2017 re-printing of slips going to begin

Many candidates have been in search of this information, and it is no surprise. The re-printing was originally scheduled to begin on the 25th of April 2017, but that date is not realistic any longer. Since registration is set to continue till the 5th of May, 2017, one should expect the re-printing process to begin after. This is most likely to be on the 8th of May, 2017.

Though this is only an assumption and not the official date, we are going to be updating once the information is officially released.

Step by step guide to Confirm your JAMB 2017 Registration

Follow the procedures below….

1. Visit the official JAMB UTME portal at

www.jamb.org.ng .

2. Login with your email address and password.

3. Click on “My Usage”

4. Check the column that says “RESOURCE” to see if a role for “2017 Registration” or something close to that is written there.

5. You can also check to see if a JAMB Registration number has been assigned to you.

Thats all.

Delta poly students groan over incessant robbery attacks

OZORO—STUDENTS of Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro have raised alarm over the alleged worsening security situation in the institution’s host community, citing the rising cases of armed robbery attack on private hostels.Delta-Poly, Ozoro

They appealed to the police, men of the various vigilante groups and other security agencies to intensify security surveillance in the community to ensure security of lives andproperties.
Some of the students, who spoke with Niger Delta Voice lamented that they could no longer sleep with their eyes closed in their hostels for the fear of hoodlums, who they claimed, invade their hostels between the hours of 8p.m. and 11p.m. daily.

Narrating his ordeal in the hands of the hoodlums, a male student (names withheld), resident on Campus 2 Road, lamented that he was brutally attacked by some armed men, who accosted him at about 8.30p.m. when he was about entering his room.

His words: “As I was trying to argue with them, they inflicted machete cut on my back and carted away my laptop, a television set and mobile phone. They had earlier attacked the hostel close to mine.“We have been experiencing attacks, but the situation has worsened lately. We are begging the security agencies to come to our aid because it is no longer safe to live in some of these hostels.”A female victim, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said robbers had been terrorizing their hostels and that some of them were raped in the process.“It was a painful experience; they asked me to give them money, my phone and my laptop. When I told them I didn’t have any of these things, one of them, took me to my toilet and the three of them raped me,” she said as tears dropped from her eyes.

Some students, who were robbed in one of the hostels at Erovie quarter of the community said the unknown gunmen numbering five, arrived the hostel in a car, carrying guns, daggers, battle axe and four school bags.“They came and raped two girls in this hostel and took away all our phones, laptops where we were charging them. They also carted away three television sets. This is the first time such a thing will happen in this vicinity. Throughout last year, we did not hear of anything like this in this area,” one of the girls said.
Contacted, Chairman of Isoko North Local Government Council, Hon. Emmanuel Egbabor, expressed concern over the recent trend of kidnapping and other criminal activities in the area and assured that plans are under way to address the situation.Egbabor disclosed that he recently held a meeting with all the security heads, Presidents General and Chairmen of communities in the council area on the need to reorganize and strengthen the various vigilante outfits to enhance security of lives and properties in the area.“I have ordered them to inject new blood into the vigilante groups and take away those, who they think are into cultism and other criminal activities,” he said, warning all criminally minded persons to stay away from the area.“The government will not take it lightly with anyone caught. We have been enjoying relative peace in this area and we will not sit down and fold our hands and watch some miscreants make our communities uninhabitable for us. We will fight with all our arsenals,” he said.Commenting on the development, the Public Relations Officer of the polytechnic, Mr. Boniface Ogeleya, said the institution had tried “to encourage students to take advantage of the hostel accommodation provided by the institution but the students prefer to stay in the town.”According to him: “We always try to monitor the security apparatus installed by the owners of the private hostels in the community and if the security measures are found to be insufficient, we proscribe such places.”On his part, the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the Ozoro division, Mr. Paul Ibegbu, said his men are working round the clock tobring the nefarious activities of the hoodlums to the barest minimum

Curious facts of the Ibori London case

By Tony Eluemunor
Suddenly, things seem to be turning around for Chief James Onanefe
Ibori. There is a frenzy of writings in FACEBOOK about his release
date; some of the postings actually say he has already been released
and will be in Nigeria as soon as he could possibly get a seat on a
flight. To those who post such, I have little to say. So, this article is
not addressed to them, but to those who are doing their malicious
best to destroy whatever ray of positive light, from the Ibori point of
view, that has been trained recently on this case.
One such person approached me a few weeks ago to ask where Ibori
got the money with which he bought a private jet. When I told him
that Ibori never bought a private jet, he began to stutter. From there
he asked if it was not true that Ibori got some oil majors to launder
money for him. When I reminded him that Ibori never faced such a
charge, and that such nonsense only appeared in an unconscionable
newspaper allegation that Mr. Nuhu Ribadu made, and that such a
question has given his revisionist source away, he left after promising
to call me for further questioning. This man who came all the way
from the US and who claimed he was researching a book has yet to
call me again.
Yet, why such revisionist efforts? Suddenly, the hunters are becoming
the hunted as the British Police investigators and the Prosecution
officials that were arrayed against Ibori have been so deeply indicted
that they have all been dropped from the case. And the recent court
sessions on the case came at Chief Ibori’s behest. Now, Ibori’s legal
team may actually ask that Ibori’s conviction be quashed – as a
lawyer, Mr. Stephen Kimlish advised openly on London-based Ben TV
interview as was rebroadcast by AIT. He said: “Well, the fact is that
most times, people plead guilty for the wrong reasons. It does happen.
In my career I have seen people plead guilty because of wrong advice
or when the evidence seem too strong or when they have lost hope
and sometimes they don’t have the will-power to stand long trial or
their Barrister might say you will get a much lower sentence if you
plead guilty, so I can’t say in particular why James Ibori pleaded guilty
and whether he is guilty or not guilty but what I can say is that when
there is corruption on this scale and in the background of the case, I’m
involved in this case, the British law says that even if you pleaded
guilty or not, your guilty plea can be quashed because the British
public can’t discountenance such major corruption in a common
investigation, therefore, whether you plead guilty or you plead not
guilty, your conviction can be quashed. So in this case that is what we
are currently aiming for. As for Bhadresh Gohil, I am going for
quashing”!
One of the devilish media bashings Ibori suffered from is this example
from Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, implying in a newspaper article of
September 20, 2012 that Ibori had no other source of income while he
was Delta State Governor.
Relying on the 44-page paper filed by the London Metropolitan Police,
against Ibori in court, I’ll prove that Adeniyi and others erred terribly. It
bore a simple title: “R versus James Ibori. Opening Note For
Sentence”. It proclaimed in line one that the Defendant, James Ibori,
was the Governor of Delta State, one of the richest oil producing states
in Nigeria….Second item; “He deliberately and systematically defrauded
the people whose interests he had been elected to represent”.
Third item: “The total sum that Mr. Ibori has stolen remains
unquantified. However, the sums that formed the subject of the two
indictments to which Ibori has pleaded guilty amount to approximately
Fifty Million Pounds”.
Yet, most news organizations said Ibori had pleaded guilty to stealing
350 million Pounds. The Guardian of London, which reported the 50
Pounds sum, added that Ibori “amassed a portfolio of six properties
outside Nigeria worth £6.9m at a time he was being paid £4,000 a
year as state governor of the Delta region.
“The properties in London included a flat in St John’s Wood, a house
in Hampstead, and one in Regent’s Park. He also had a £3m mansion
in South Africa and properties in Texas and in Dorset, near to where
his children attended private school.
“Ibori also bought a fleet of luxury cars, and in three years ran up
£920,000 on his American Express Centurion card – a card only
available to the super-rich, Was told the court. In 2005, Ibori
instructed a London solicitor to buy a private jet costing $20m”.
Now, on whether Ibori had other sources of income, may we jump to
page 14 of that same document, item 81, and dealing with MER
Engineering? “MER was a company that was incorporated in Nigeria in
1990. It built houseboats, which were rented out to oil workers in the
Delta. It was Ibori who was able to influence the contracts with
Chevron and Shell and the NNPC”
Item 83: “It was MER money that paid for the Ibori property in
Hampstead, Westover Hill: Count 5. Item 84, “It was MER money that
paid for the house Ibori bought in Houston Texas. Item 85, “it was
MER money that paid for the deposit for the $20 million Challenger Jet
airplane that Mr. Ibori was in the process of buying when his monies
were restrained by the UK courts”.
Weeks before Ibori was sentenced, EFCC arrested and questioned one
Dr. Babalakin on the charge that he helped Ibori launder money, using
the account of Babalakin’s company. EFCC said Ibori never tried to
buy a Challenger jet but was only helped to launder money by
pretending he was buying a jet. I replied that the EFCC was lying
because it had known for years that Ibori actually invested some
money in a registered air-charter company for a jet that would be used
commercially, but the world has been deceived that Ibori had bought,
or was in the process of buying, a private jet.
The aircraft investment made with MER Engineering funds appeared in
the Guardian of London and other papers, thus: “in 2005, Ibori
instructed a London solicitor to buy a private jet costing $20m”. Now,
which private jet was London MET Police talking about? Or did the
EFCC not arrest Babalakin on the allegation that he helped Ibori
launder money in the guise of buying a private jet? And didn’t the
same London Met Police state in court that Ibori had invested only
$4million on that aircraft – money from MER Engineering?
Adding the $4 million for the jet to the $6 million for the properties,
sums that came from MER Engineering, brings the entire sum to $10
million. If you make allowance for police exaggeration of property
costs, you would have a sum that is below $8 million. It is a huge
amount but it is nowhere near 50 or 250 million Pounds. And the
monies came from MER Engineering accounts.
Also, I don’t want to go into the amount of the travel and overnight
allowances that Ibori was paid during his eight-year tenure as
Governor. In fact I once reminded Olusegun Adeniyi, that he collected
allowances for trips with the late President Yar’Adua and especially for
that 2010 South African World Cup jamboree which he, among a “lean”
retinue of 500 officials costing Nigeria N314, 473,438. 22, attended.
Was the allowance for that trip part of his annual salary?
Sometimes I am tempted to disbelieve my eyes. On item 175 of the
same court document: “By the time he was into his second term of
office as Governor of Delta State, James Ibori had defrauded Delta
State of such large sums of money that he was planning to buy
himself a private jet aeroplane costing $20 million.” Is this not the
same plane for which Mr. Babalakin was arrested, and EFCC said he
was laundering money for Ibori in the guise of buying a plane? Item
183: “MER had an account at Barclays bank in Knightsbridge. The
Money went from the oil companies straight out of Nigeria and into
MER account in Barclays”. And that too is a crime?
Item 29: “Mr. Ibori used money defrauded from the people of Nigeria to
buy a property in Houston in Texas … “only to see in Item 84, “It was
MER money that paid for the house Ibori bought in Houston Texas’.
Ibori’s many sins for which he was convicted included this terribly
grave crime: Item 34: “In addition to his millionaire life style, Ibori
called himself “HIS EXCELLENCY”, a title not recognized by the
constitution”.
Also, Nuhu Ribadu accused the oil majors of helping Ibori launder
money over the same MER Engineering contracts, claiming that MER
Engineering had no contracts at all with those oil companies. And
such nonsense even found its way into the Financial Times of London
in September 2007 and the Saharareporters even published a story;
“How Ibori Bought A Private Jet”. Really, truth has been terribly
eclipsed in the Ibori media-lynching bid.
Tony Eluemunor is Chief James Ibori’s Media Assistant.