TheNewsGuru

Tag: Abuja

  • Wizkid thrills Abuja revellers in sold-out concert

    Wizkid thrills Abuja revellers in sold-out concert

    Afropop sensation, Ayodeji Balogun aka Wizkid pulled a show stopping sold-out show in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that thousands of Abuja residents thronged out in their numbers to see the show tagged ‘Wizkid Live In Concert’ held on Sunday night.

    The event, held at Transcorp Hilton and organised by Play Network, caused a traffic gridlock at the Wuse area as revellers turned out in thousands to watch the ‘Ojuelegba’ crooner perform.

    In his electrifying performance, Wizkid took the crowd on a memory ride, singing his hit songs from the early ‘Tease Me’ and ‘Ojuelegba’ to newest ‘Soco’.

    NAN reports that the mostly-reserved Abuja crowd was obviously loosened up at the concert as they sang along at the top of their voices and danced while he performed.

    Reacting to the concert, guests took to social media to appreciate Wizkid for the performance.

    @Dres_knowsbest tweeted, “I’ve waited 5 years to see @wizkidayo live and it was amazing!! Thank u wizzes for grabbing my phone!”

    @PaulGaje said, “@wizkidayo made my night. Please come again.”

    @ZhinnEmmanuel tweeted, “Thank you so much @wizkidayo That was amazing.”
    NAN reports that the concert comes after Wizkid’s performance in Port Harcourt on Friday.

    He is set to perform at ‘Wizkid Experience’ on Dec. 19 and ‘Made in Lagos’ concert on Dec. 23.

     

  • Breaking: Okowa bags special honours award

    Breaking: Okowa bags special honours award

    Governor Ifeanyi Okowa on Sunday received a special honours award at the closing ceremony of the 19th National Sports Festival holding in Abuja.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports the special honours award was presented to the Governor for promoting track and field athletics in the African continent.

    Governor Okowa, who arrived at the National Stadium Abuja for the closing ceremony of the 19th National Sports Festival, joined Team Delta as they received the Victory Cup.

    Team Delta as defending champions, continued to show dominance in the 19th National Sports Festival (NSF) hauling 256 medals.

    According to the medal table released on Saturday in Abuja, Delta topped with 132 gold, 57 silver and 67 bronze.

    Rivers placed second with 149 medals, which consist of 54 gold, 46 silver and 49 bronze, while Edo came third with 97 medals, comprising 30 gold, 29 silver and 38 bronze.

    Akwa Ibom moved to the fourth position from fifth with 23 gold, 19 silver and 25 bronze while Lagos came fifth with 20 gold, 26 silver and 54 bronze.

    Bayelsa is sixth with 19 gold, 45 silver and 34 bronze, and Kano seventh with 18 gold, 22 silver and 20 bronze,.while the host, FCT, is on rhe eight position with 14 gold, six silver and 16 bronze.

    Oyo followed with 12 gold, 27 silver and 31 bronze, and Abia trailing with nine gold, six silver and 24 bronze.

    However, Team Delta extended their lead on medals table as the sports festival entered the last day on Sunday.

    19th National Sports Festival medals table

     

  • Magu denies owning two houses in Abuja, demands apology from Sun Newspaper

    The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu on Thursday told an Ikeja high court that he does not own two houses.

    Magu told the court that he has only one house which he said is situated in Karo, Abuja.

    He stated this while being led in evidence by his counsel, Wahab Shittu before Justice Doris Okuwobi in a libel suit instituted against The Sun Newspaper.

    The acting Chairman of the EFCC had sued the publishers of the newspaper before the court, for series of libelous publication against his person.

    He is claiming N5 billion as damages in a letter written to the publishers of the newspaper.

    He had also demanded a public apology and retraction of the said libelous publication dated March 25, 2017 in The Sun Newspaper.

    The publication titled: “Magu Under Fresh Probe” had alleged that two houses located in a high brow area in Maitama, Abuja were traced to his wife by the Department of State Security (DSS).

    He said The Sun publications damaged his person and character nationally and internationally.

    Magu contended that there was no iota of truth in the publication by The Sun newspaper.

    “The publication is totally false. Even if I have the money, I wouldn’t buy houses in Maitama, ” Magu maintained.

    “They said the houses are located in the Darrubbe and Missouri, Maitama and that they belong to my wife.

    “My wife Fatima Yakaka Magu is a civil servant and cannot afford to buy houses in Maitama.

    “I am international man and the publication has damaged my reputation. The name Magu does not only end with me. The publication caused a whole lot of trauma for my lineage, ” Magu said.

    However, while under cross examination by defence counsel, Charles Enwelunta, Magu said his wife is not a party in the suit he filed against the defendant.

    “Are you sure you read the story very well?” Enwelunta asked Magu.

    “Yes I read it over and over again and they did not say DSS was investigating my wife,” Magu said.

    Magu told the court that his appointment was to be confirmed by the Senate but that he does not know why the upper chamber declined to do so twice, when asked by the defence to name the arm of the government that was to confirm his appointment.

    He however said that he was not worried about the refusal of the Senate to confirm his appointment.

    When Enwelunta took him up on his activities in the EFCC, Magu maintained that he secure 200 convictions in court in respect of cases bordering on corruption.

    He said the Senate was in a better position to say why they rejected him adding, “ I have been there for three years and Nigerians are watching”.

    Magu admitted knowing Inda Sule Moses, Lawal Mammah, Najeeb Iman and Adebayo Adeleke Rafiu with whom he faced the Senate during the screening exercise.

    He said it was of no importance to him if there are forces trying to get him out of office. .

    Justice Okuwobi has adjourned the matter till February 28, 2019 for further hearing.

  • Yuletide: Criminals lay ambush on motorists in Abuja

    From Jonas Ike, Abuja

    Barely two weeks to the celebration of Christmas by christian believers all over the world, criminals and other bad elements in the nation’s capital territory Abuja are now having a field day. They are out to make the nations major roads unsafe.

    The major roads and even the highways are now hot spots for criminals and they are not idling, rather they ambush motorist and motorcyclists and cart away their properties and other personal effects around the major roads in Abuja

    Only last week a case of vandalisation of a Toyota car by these hoodlums was reported to have happened at the Central Mosque area in the nation’s capital. It was said that the bandits normally hang around the flyover between 7.00pm -10pm on daily basis waiting for their target. Other cases have also been reported in these areas.

    Motorists are currently avoiding like these areas like leprosy as they prefer do a u-turn by other routes that links the area including the Wuse Market and the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN junction that link them to the Central Business District in which the Federal Secretariat is situated.

    Most of these road users are therefore worried that they would be having a break Christmas and New Year celebrations owing to the wave of criminal activities this festive period.

    Efforts to get reactions from the Force Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Police Age.DCP Jimoh Moshood to get his reactions on this development was unsuccessful as his phone rang repeatedly without response.

  • EFCC allegedly raids Atiku’s sons’ apartment in Abuja

    Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the weekend raided a building housing an apartment occupied by two sons of presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar.

    Accpording to a report by Premium Times, the raided building also houses an apartment occupied by Chiemeka Orji, son of ex-Abia State Governor, Theodore Orji. That apartment was also reportedly searched by anti-graft operatives.

    The raid on Aliyu and Mustapha Atiku-Abubakar’s residence in the posh Maitama neighbourhood on Saturday comes a day after claims emerged that Atiku’s running mate, Peter Obi, had his bank accounts frozen by federal authorities. Two anti-graft agencies, EFCC and ICPC have however denied freezing Obi’s accounts.

    Atiku’s spokesman, Paul Ibe confirmed the search on Sunday, saying the officers who conducted the “grievous act of intimidation” were “unable to find anything implicating.”

    Sources informed confirmed the raid on the home of the presidential candidate’s sons said those who executed the search were from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Neither Aliyu nor Mustapha was in town when the anti-graft agents arrived — as both are said to be studying for master’s degrees at foreign universities — but those with whom they share the building were reportedly taken to the EFCC office and some of their properties confiscated, sources said.

    Amongst those arrested was Chiemeka whose father is now a serving senator and a subject of an ongoing EFCC corruption investigation.

    Chiemeka was said to have been taken to the EFCC office in Abuja alongside his brother, and two vehicles confiscated from them.

    “When the EFCC officers arrived on Saturday, they met Theodore Orji’s sons at home, because they both live in the same building,” a source said. “They asked to see the apartment of Aliyu and Mustapha Atiku-Abubakar but Theodore Orji’s sons refused to show them, saying their friends are out of the country, anyway.”

    “The EFCC operatives then said they have intelligence that a large cache of dollars had been kept in the apartment which they had come to recover,” the source said. “They forcibly searched the apartment, but there was no hard currency or anything that could be construed as fraudulently damning.”

    Sources said Chiemeka and his brother were released soon after they were questioned at the EFCC office, but two cars belonging to them were still in possession of the anti-graft agency as of Monday morning.

    However, spokesperson for the EFCC, Tony Orilade said he has no immediate knowledge of the operation, but expressed strong doubts that Atiku’s son’s home could be raided.

    Orilade said the EFCC has been investigating Orji, and it was possible the former governor’s children were the target of further investigation into how state funds were used during his tenure from 2007 to 2015.

  • A searchlight on the obnoxious taxi ticket in Abuja municipality

    Abuja is the city of the moment. The melting pot of all impossibilities and cynosure of all eyes. The moment anybody steps into Abuja, you ‘ve that deep sense of equanimity across all spectrum.
    But Abuja is not all rosy. It is also hard and biting. Indeed an average Abuja inhabitant is caught in between the affluence of the rich and aristocratic city dwellers and the wretch of the poorest of the poor in the city. To find a middle point in between the two extremes is like climbing the Kilimanjaro. That is the Abuja i know.
    Abuja is the Federal Capital Territory FCT of Nigeria. Indeed the nation’s seat of power where who gets what,when and how finds ultimate expression. And so Abuja is highly stratified by all standards politically, economically and indeed in all endeavours.
    The prevalence of taxis of all sizes, shapes and colours also gives credence to the social stratification and disequilibrium prevalent in the nation’s capital territory. From Mararaba in nearby Nassarawa State to Nyanya in the city centre it is the same story. Moving up to Gwagwalda council area and down to Abaji an outskirt of the city taxi the scene is the same and drivers are everywhere.
    One thing that now seems like a challenge in Abuja is that taxi cab operation has become the major occupation in the city. It has also become very nauseating, the payment of daily ticketing fee for taxi driving in the city which the Abuja Municipal Area Council AMAC has forced down the throat of each cab operator in the city centre.
    On daily basis taxi owners and drivers who use taxi cab for business for daily income are forced to pay an obnoxious ticket fee of two hundred Naira (N200.00) to AMAC. Investigation by this newspaper has also revealed that the payment had commenced as early as May 2015.
    Upon interrogation, one of these drivers a serving Police corporal Emmanuel Bamaiyi who said he used taxi to support his income also hinted that there are other ticket fees that each of the taxi drivers on Abuja road is compelled to pay to the local government authorities which add up to as much as four hundred Naira (N400.00) on daily basis
    To enforce this inhuman law, any taxi operator who is caught for defaulting in payment of this fee before 12.00 noon each day is penalized with a penalty of thirty-five thousand Naira (N35,000.00) to serve as a deterrence to others.
    How did we get in here i keep on asking? Has taxi ownership become a status symbol? Who and who introduced this wicked law into Abuja the nation’s capital and for what purpose?. Who are they accountable to? How have they used the funds generated in the past three and half years to better the lot of Abuja inhabitants? These questions keep coming up with no responses.
    No wonder an erudite professor late Claude Ake once wrote and i quote: “from the moment a Nigerian get up from bed, he is threatened by every conceivable danger, bottomless potholes, mad drivers driving in rickety vehicles, shortage of food, shortage of shelter, shortage of water, shortage of clothing, shortage of fuel, shortage of kerosene and indeed shortage of everything except trials and tribulations”.
    That is a perfect dirge for the taxi ticket fee in Abuja metropolis. As always, it tilts towards kind; a highly organized fraud, yet to no one dare raise voice. A city without adequate social safety nets for all classes of citizens with different economic means of survival is akin to a time bomb waiting to explode with unimaginable fatalities. The AMAC authorities must rise up to the challenge posed by this obnoxious ticket fee imposed on taxi drivers in Abuja metropolis.
    Only in doing this can Abuja be said to be the nation’s capital territory in the strict sense of this appellation. If right to freedom of movement is a fundamental right of every citizen in his or her country is enshrined in the constitution the supreme law, then such rights must be protected and not unnecessarily encumbered in any way by anyone or group of persons.

  • Officials escape death as fire guts EFCC office

    At least two persons escaped death while equipment worth millions of naira was damaged after a fire incident at the old head office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in the Wuse 2 area of Abuja on Monday.

    It was learnt that the fire started from the ICT department which formerly served as the newsroom.

    The EFCC said in a statement by its acting spokesman, Mr. Tony Orilade, that the damage would have been worse if not for the timely arrival of men of the Federal Fire Service.

    The firefighters led by the Sector Commander, Melone Onyekachi, arrived at the scene when the service was alerted to the fire by the Incident Duty Officer of the commission, Kayode Oyetunde, at 7pm .

    The statement read in part, “The fire started at the former newsroom, which now serves as storage for ICT equipment that were retrieved from the commission’s former offices scattered across Abuja.

    “The former newsroom is in the Costa Hall, which was inaugurated by Dr. Antonio Costa in 2007. The building currently houses the Data Centre and the Combined Inter Agency Task Force.”

    When asked what could have caused the fire, Onyekachi said, “Our duty is to put out fire; that we have successfully done. There is another department that will come and ascertain the cause of the fire.”

    According to the statement, two officers attached to the Combined Inter-Agency Task Force who were trapped on the second floor of the building were rescued before the fire was eventually subdued. The extent of the damage would be ascertained after stock-taking.

    The Commission’s Chief Security Officer, Nasir Abdullahi, immediately after the fire was stopped, went to the Maitama Police Station to report.

  • Abuja is not Nigeria – Mideno Bayagbon

    By Mideno Bayagbon
    The old man, who shared a ride with me from the airport into the city of Abuja, could not hide his confusion; infact, incredulity. He had never been to Abuja in all his 73 years as a native Nigerian. He has, however, seen a bit of the world, and worked in some of the cities in the south. He is educated.
    At least he went to Ahmadu Bello University at a time there was nothing called Abuja in the national lexicon. “Is this Abuja?” he kept asking. And for the umpteenth time, i quietly tell him it is. Each time, he keeps repeating to himself: “Abuja is not Nigeria.”
    At first i was confused. He was almost convinced, that by some unexplained chance he has landed in Dubai or Cape town in South Africa, the finest city he has ever been to, all his life. Abuja, however, holds him spell bound.
    There is something delightfully enthralling about Abuja, a charm uncharacteristically Nigerian. It bewitches with its allure. it envelops one in a love grip. Abuja appears, on face value, to encapsulate the failed dreams of Nigeria’s many cities.
    Before now, it was Lagos that entraps and refuses to vomit, to ever let you go. it kolobis you! You live in Lagos for a few years, settle in, and nowhere else seems to compare. You get sucked in by the hurly burly, the peculiar madness unique to Lagos, the city of dreams. From its slums, bank executives, governors, great athletes and musicians spring up and blossom.
    Lagos was Nigeria’s God’s own state! The place where dreams are transformed to reality. The place where all who desired a good, fulfilling life found abode. It was and still is the economic capital of Nigeria. The main city, if you are not a politician, to make it big, if you have your head correctly screwed to your neck and shoulders and are not afraid to work hard and smart. Lagos is it; or, gradually becoming, was it.
    Lagos is not it anymore, it seems. Lagos is becoming a dream killer; a frustrating city to live and work in. Lagos is stewing in refuse and in a hellish canister of traffic jams, in untold federal and state neglect. It is evolving into an Orwellian Animal Farm.
    Slums are springing all over, sharing fences with once opulent mansions and estates; choking the comfort out of dreams. The soon to be third economy in Africa hides a deep seated, brutish, short and nasty existence. Yet it didn’t just happen over night. It had it coming.
    Abuja is a breath of fresh air. A seeming oasis from the federated underdevelopment, nationwide. It is planned, ringed round with a cobweb of well paved roads. Abuja is green with a soothing touch of gardens. But nothing compares with the scenic mountains, or rocks if you like, which ring it round, undulating, inviting and captivating.
    You come face to face with opulence that stuns in Abuja. The mansions are truly big and legion. The estates are tastefully expensive and mouth watering. There appears to be a conscious effort to distant Abuja from the Nigeria we all know and live in.
    But beautiful Abuja is a lady whose luscious looks are fed with booties from our collective shrine. For Abuja hides its own contradictions, truth be told. Abuja is a civil service town. it is also the political headquarters of our thieftricians who wallow in unearned affluence and influence.
    That perhaps explains why ninety percent of the opulent homes and estates belong to thieftricians of the political and civil service hue. In Abuja, corruption sits in eye popping mansions and estates.
    So sad President Muhammadu Buhari, has become the ostrich, in his claimed fight against corruption. For in Abuja alone, he has his work cut out for him.
    BUHARI DOES NOT NEED WAEC TO BE PRESIDENT
    President Muhammadu Buhari and his handlers self inflicted a gory injury on the president recently when they caused an unnecessary attestation to be the most detested news of the week. And the national uproar, instigated by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the legion of dissatisfied Nigerians who cannot wait to see the back of the most nepotistic, divisive and incompetent president, was expected.
    By that singular action of getting the head of the WAEC office in Nigeria to go to the villa to present the attestation, the president and his handlers, seem to be telling Nigerians that there is something still left unsaid, a truth yet untold.
    People are beginning to say, that in good conscience the president cannot claim to have written the 1961 school certificate leaving examinations. If he did, they say, there sure must be record in the military to show that the president got a leave of absence to go write the examinations. if attestations from his then principal and others are still kept intact in the records of the military, why not record of the leave of absence?
    But like most interested people know, legally, the WAEC certificate brouhaha, is an unnecessary distraction, a pull him down tactics learnt from the then hard fighting All Progressives Congress, APC, when the game was to do all and everything to demonise President Jonathan and make him unelectable. The tables have turned and the heat is on the major beneficiary of that strategy.
    Nevertheless, constitutionally, given his well recorded military service record, and the various trainings he went through to qualify to be a major general in the Nigerian Army, it is a no issue, whether he presents a WAEC certificate or not. What should qualify him now is his record of service as president of Nigeria since 2015.
    How has he impacted the lives of the average Nigerian? Are they better off now than they were four years ago? It is his ability or inability to meet up to expectations of Nigerians that should determine whether he should be voted in again or not. As for me and my household, our red card is ready.

  • Four die, 13 injured as four vehicles crash in Abuja

    Four persons have lost their lives in an early morning crash involving four vehicles at Ushafa-Bwari road on Monday.

    It was gathered that three males and one female died, while 13 others were injured in the accident which involved a commercial bus, a 2001 Mazda 232 car, 2004 Toyota Corolla and another Toyota Corolla.

    The Federal Road Safety Corps Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, attributed the crash to dangerous driving, adding that the injured had been taken to the Bwari General Hospital for treatment, while the dead were deposited at the morgue.

    He explained that the FRSC personnel in Bwari and the Police got to the scene shortly after the crash and cleared the obstruction to enable free passage of vehicles.

    “The injured and the dead victims have been taken to Bwari General Hospital, the obstruction was cleared and traffic control handed over to Inspector Linus of Motor Traffic Division, Bwari Police outpost,” Kazeem explained.

  • Buhari departs Abuja for Paris to attend peace forum

    Buhari departs Abuja for Paris to attend peace forum

    The Presidency says President Muhammadu Buhari departs Abuja on Friday for Paris, France.

    According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the President is scheduled to participate in the first edition of the Paris Peace Forum slated for November 11 to 13.

    Adesina said the forum, organised by the French Government and a number of Non-Governmental Organisations, was based on the “simple idea that international cooperation is key to tackling global challenges and ensuring durable peace.”

    The presidential spokesman said the Nigerian President would join the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, and other world leaders in discussing contributions towards global peace while underscoring the imperative of collective action.

    The statement added, “While in Paris, President Buhari will also join other world leaders to commemorate the centenary anniversary of the Armistice signed on November 11, 1918 between the Allied Forces and Germany in the forest of Compiegne in France to end the First World War.

    “During his visit to Paris, President Buhari will attend a luncheon hosted by President Emmanuel Macron of France in honour of visiting heads of delegations.

    “Before returning to Abuja, the President and his delegation will have an interactive session with the Nigerian community in France.”

    Buhari, according to the statement, will be accompanied on the trip by three state governors and other top government officials.

    They include Aminu Masari (Katsina); Willie Obiano (Anambra) and Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti).

    Others include the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami; the National Security Adviser, Maj-Gen. Babagana Monguno (retd.; and the Director-General, National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Abubakar.