Southern Governors Have No Apologies On Open Grazing Ban, Restructuring – Okowa

Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa

Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, yesterday, reprimanded critics of southern governors over their decision to ban opening grazing of cattle in the south, restructuring of the country and other demands at its meeting in Asaba, Guardian reports.

Expressing surprise and disappointment that some individuals in the presidency are still canvassing retention of open grazing of cattle, the report quoted Okowa as saying “We owe no apologies, because we spoke the truth and we thought that the truth was in the best interest of the country.

“Can we truly be promoting open grazing at this moment, seeing all the atrocities being committed across the country? The president was misrepresented, because I have seen news headlines that the president has not opposed the ban on open grazing. We need to reconsider our best options. Where we were 50 years ago should not be where we should be today and tomorrow.”

Jonathan’s ex-aide, Ahmed Gulak, reportedly shot dead in Owerri

A former political adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak, has reportedly been shot dead in Owerri, Imo State, Premium Times reports.

Eyewitness told The Nation that Gulak was allegedly shot dead around 06:30am by gunmen at Amaekwemgba Junction, Umueze Ezemba Community, a few poles to the airport.

According to the report, Gulak was reportedly accosted while driving from Enyiogugu Mbaise area towards the airport before his assailants blocked him and shot him twice on the head. He was said to have died on the spot. Meanwhile, some people around the area alleged that the gunmen came in military camouflage.

But other sources said that he was ambushed while on his way to Sam Mbakwe International Cargo airport when his motorcade was attacked at a place called Obiagwa, close to the Airport.

The former aide to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan was attacked in his vehicle – Camry – marked Texas BFT 2150, The PUNCH was told.

Her High School Said She Ranked Third in Her Class. So She Went to Court

Dalee Sullivan in Alpine, Texas on Friday, May 28, 2021. (Sarah M Vasquez/The New York Times)

Dalee Sullivan looked straight ahead into her computer’s camera and started making her case to the judge. She referred to transcripts, emails and policies she had pulled from the student handbook at Alpine High School. The school, she contended, had made errors in tabulating grade-point averages: Classes and exams that should have been included were left out, and vice versa.

Sullivan had won Lincoln-Douglas debate tournaments and, in her freshman year, was a member of the mock trial team. But she is not a lawyer. She is 18, and she graduated from the lone public high school in the small West Texas town of Alpine just a week ago, which was the reason she was in court to begin with.

“This serves to prove that no matter the outcome of the GPA contest, and no matter how many times we had the school recalculate the GPA,” Sullivan told the judge during a hearing on Friday, the Alpine Independent School District “was going to make certain I could never be valedictorian, even if I earned it.”

School officials said she ranked third in her class. Sullivan disagreed.

Parents of now released Greenfield Students say they paid N180million to secure the release of their children.

Thirteen students and three staff members of the privately-owned university were released by 2pm Saturday afternoon at a location along the Kaduna- Abuja highway and media reports has it that the bandits collected millions of naira in ransom and eight new motorcycles.

Meanwhile, parents and family members of the remaining kidnapped students and workers of the Greenfield University, Kaduna State, said they were forced to sell their property to raise ransom as the remaining victims regained freedom, Punch reports.

Recall that fourteen students were abducted 20th April this year when bandits broke into the University, killing a staff and abducting twenty students and three staff members. Three of the students were subsequently, found dead 23rd April and two of them were again found dead 25th April 2021 in a village close to the school, one of the students was earlier released after ransom was paid for his release by his parents.

Prior to the release of the students, it was in the news that at a meeting held in Kaduna in April, their parents had appealed to the government and public to help with the N800 million ransom demand from the kidnappers even when the Kaduna State Government and the Federal Government have discouraged ransom payments to bandits.

MAZI SAM OHUABUNWA'S FULL SPEECH AT THE 2ND NATIONAL DIALOGUE

Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, former Chairman, Nigerian Economic Summit Group and Former Chairman, Pfizer West Africa delivered the keynote speech at the 2nd National Dialogue, an event held in Abuja Tuesday 25th May 2021. The theme of the event was "THE CHALLENGES OF INSECURITY AND ROTATION OF PRESIDENTIAL POWER FOR UNITY IN NIGERIA".

If we have not titled this post, kindly, do so for us

 

Buhari, Nnamdi Kanu, Sunday igboho, other forces that’ll determine what happens next in Nigeria — Fani-Kayode

By Femi Fani-Kayode

Somebody asked me, what I felt about what’s going on in this country and how things will unfold. And whether I’m worried or not. The answer to the question is yes, I’m worried. And let me tell you what I believe is happening.

There are 4 major forces in this country today, I’ll call them 4 holes, 2 are in the S/West, one is in the East and the 4th is Buhari and he represents the North.

And the S/West, we have two holes, very powerful, aggressive, focused and very very committed holes. In the person of Gani Adams, who’s the Aare Ona Kakanfo and the other is Sunday Igboho, who by any standard is the hero of millions.

Exceptionally tough young man. Now these two forces, represent the heart, soul, mind and spirit of the Yoruba people. They cannot be stopped, they’re not politicians, they cannot be intimidated, they cannot be threatened, they’re extremely focused and both of them, if sufficiently provoked, the kind of mass following they have, their readiness to die for their cause, they’re extremely dangerous.

Indian ladies are always falling whenever I grab the mic – Rexy

Rexy Anonimouz Ewulum, Nigerian Singer

Benjamin Njoku Ewulum Ifeanyi Anthony, popularly known as Rexy Anonimouz Ewulum, might not be popular among music lovers back home, but ask some in India, if they are familiar with his name, and the response will amaze you.

Vanguard drops this lead to establish the Anambra born rap artiste, Rexy Ewulum as he finds fame and success in his music career away from home.

According to the report, Rexy is one of the African musicians making waves in the country that is known for its romantic mausoleums. The singer relocated to India in 2010, after his graduation from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, where he studied Electronics Engineering.

Indian government reportedly sued by WhatsApp over new privacy rules

The WhatsApp logo seen displayed on a smartphone with a computer model of the COVID-19 coronavirus in the background.

WhatsApp sued the Indian government on Wednesday to stop what it said were oppressive new internet rules that would require it to make people’s messages “traceable” to outside parties for the first time, New York Times reports from San Francisco.

Tech Crunch drops the lead as ‘WhatsApp has sued the Indian government challenging the second largest internet market’s new regulations that could allow authorities to make people’s private messages “traceable,” and conduct mass surveillance.’

This story cuts across virtually all major media headlines across the globe with CNBC stating pointers as:

Joe Biden on Israel-Palestine Conflict as he Pledges Help to Rebuild Gaza

A Palestinian woman walks past a dsetroyed building in the al-Rimal commercial district in Gaza City on May 22, 2021, following a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Israeli-blockaded enclave.  (Photo by Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)

President Joe Biden on Friday pledged to help organize efforts to rebuild Gaza and said creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel is the “only answer” to the conflict.

Biden stated that he had asked the Israelis to stop “inter-communal fighting” in the flashpoint city of Jerusalem. He however stressed “there is no shift in my commitment, commitment to the security of Israel” and added that until the region “unequivocally” acknowledges Israel’s existence “there will be no peace.”

This is coming two days after Israel-Palestine declared a ceasefire following 11-days of bloodshed, US President Joe Biden on Friday extended his support to help organize efforts to rebuild Gaza even as he insisted on a two-state solution–with a sovereign Palestinian state and Jerusalem as their shared capital with Israel–as “the only answer” to the conflict.

The idea of a two-state solution — with a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel and Jerusalem as their shared capital — has been the cornerstone of decades of international diplomacy aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I had a total psychotic break and for a couple years I was not the same girl – Gaga

In this file photo taken on September 24, 2018 Singer/actress Lady Gaga attends the premiere of “A star is born” at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP)

US singer Lady Gaga said in a documentary out Friday that she was raped by a music producer and became pregnant at age 19, an ordeal that eventually caused her to have a “total psychotic break.”, Channels report.

Stefani Germanotta, more popular by her stage name “Gaga”, the story submits that the 38-year-old New York artist had previously revealed that she was raped by an industry producer when she was starting out in the business. She said this caused post-traumatic stress disorder that she still deals with, even if she says it is now under control.

“I was 19 years old and I was working in the business and a producer said to me: ‘Take your clothes off,'” she said in the documentary “The Me You Can’t See,” which was co-created by Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry for the Apple TV+ platform.

“I said no. And I left,” Gaga recounts.

US President Joe Biden takes a test drive of Ford's new electric F-150

BAN ON OPEN GRAZING: Malami and the Southern governors

From Left: Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo; Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, Akwa Ibom Deputy Governor, Moses Ekpo; Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra, Douye Diri of Bayelsa, Ebonyi’s David Umahi, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, Chairman, Southern Governors Forum and Governor of Ondo, Rotimi Akeredolu; Senator Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta, Nyesom Wike of Rivers, Babajide Sanwolu of Lagos, Enugu State’s Ifeanyi Ugwanyi, Imo Deputy Governor, Placid Njoku; Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia in a photograph after Southern Governors meeting at Government House, Asaba

The Anti-Corruption and Research Based Data Initiative (ARDI), on Saturday, said the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN)’s expression on open grazing was simply aimed at depicting freedom, rights and ownership and not indirectly targeted at any ethnic group, Nigerian Tribune reports.

Abubakar Malami (SAN), Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice

A few days ago the Vanguard reported that “the Chairman of the South West Governors Forum, Rotimi Akeredolu, has lambasted the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami on his position that the ban on open grazing by southern governors was akin to banning all spare parts trading in the North. Akeredolu in a statement personally signed by him on behalf of the southern governors in Akure, Ondo State said “lt is most unfortunate that the AGF is unable to distill issues as expected of a Senior Advocate.He declared that ‘the ban open grazing was irreversible and will be enforced’.

The report actually came with the following pointers from Ondo State Governor’s statement

… Ban irreversible and will be enforced

… lts unfortunate Malami unable to distil issues as expected of a Senior Advocate

… Comparing ban on open grazing with spare parts ban is annoying, betrays a terrible mind set