National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has given further update on the Lagos, Fire Inferno, as it said that one person died in the Lagos explosion. Ibrahim Farinloye, the NEMA South-West spokesperson, said that one person died from the explosion, while 40 others sustained minor injuries.
Meanwhile 10 houses mostly three-storey buildings –were severely destroyed by the explosion in the Idumota area of Lagos.
However, Philemon Lada Deputy Inspector General of police said that, fire started in a shop that is not permitted to store the explosives, said Philemon Leha, Deputy Inspector General of the Nigerian police. Meanwhile Yushau A. Shuaib, a spokesman for the Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency, said firefighters, Red Cross volunteers and citizens who volunteered to help suffered injuries.
Shuaib said it took firefighters more than two hours to contain the blaze. He said it spread quickly because of cramped spaces, poor infrastructure and sweltering heat.
Christmas festivities have turned out a huge misfortune for a young couple, Mr. and Mrs. IkechukwuUfondu, after a strange woman stole their two-month-old baby on the eve of Christmas at the Mohammadu Abubakar Rimi Market in the state capital.
The father of the baby told Daily Sun in Kano that the baby boy, who was born through an operation, was stolen from the mother, Mrs. Amarachi Ufondu while she was plaiting the hair of another woman in the evening of December 24. He gave the name of his missing son as Som Tochukwu Favour Ufondu, saying he was just two months and two days old when he was stolen. The theft of the baby, which had thrown the community into grief and confusion, had been reported to the Market Police Station in the state, but it was unclear if the police had commenced investigations as at press time.
The incident had also been reported to authorities of Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in the state. The confused father, Mr. Ufondu said: “I was in the market at about 5.35pm when my wife, who was plaiting hair at the Yankura section of the market, called me to inform me that our two-month-old baby had been stolen. “I was surprised and shocked and could not believe it.
Then, I immediately hired a Keke NAPEP (tricycle) to take me home and upon my arrival at home, what I was told turned out to be true. In fact, I initially refused her (mother of the baby) entry into the house, out of anger, insisting that she should go and get our baby, but later, I calmed down.” Explaining the circumstances that led to the disappearance of their baby, he told Daily Sun: “My wife told me that she was plaiting the hair of a customer, while her neighbour was fixing the nails of another woman nearby.
“When the baby started crying, she untied her from her back and breastfed her. After breastfeeding the baby, just as she was about to return the boy to her back, the woman whose nailed was being fixed counseled against that, on the grounds that it was wrong to immediately back a baby that had just been fed.” He added that following this suggestion, “the lady then offered to help carry the baby saying that my wife was busy with the hair she was plaiting, a suggestion my wife bought without suspicion, even though she admitted she did not know the said lady.
“When they finished fixing the lady’s nails, she paid and received her change. My wife then asked her to return the baby, but she replied that she was not done with her nails yet. A few minutes after, she played a trick on my wife by sending her on a false errand. “The lady asked my wife to take a serious look at the hairstyle that was being made for another woman just a stone throw away, promising that she would want the same hairstyle as soon as she returned from the Christmas trip.
“That was all. My wife, unsuspicious of any ill motive, fell for the dummy by stepping across to take an intent look at the hairstyle that was being done by her colleague. By the time she turned, the purported Good Samaritan had disappeared into the crowd in the market,” the father said. Mr Ufondu, who was almost in tears throughout the course of the interview appealed to the woman to please return their baby while asking the public to join them in prayers for the safety and quick return of their baby. He also appealed to the commissioner of police to help arrest the woman who stole their baby.
A content analysis of newspapers reports of Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime’s programmes and activities since he became governor on May 29, 2007, on Tuesday showed that he had attended only 17 events out of a possible 111 physically.
Our correspondent and statisticians in Enugu State, who had shown concern for the governor’s failing health, especially since he had been on a hospital bed in India for more than three months, coded the data findings.
The data showed that commissioners in the state had always represented Chime on occasions, and Chime had always come “very late” to the few events he attended.
It is on record though, that the Enugu State governor attended every of his electioneering rallies and campaigns in 2007 and 2011.
He, however, collapsed in March 2011 during a campaign rally in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State.
“Before collapsing in Nsukka in 2011, he had relapsed twice in Enugu, in 2008 and in 2009,” said a protocol officer at the Enugu State Government House.”
The protocol officer, who sought protection of his identity, said, “Most people have always blamed the governor’s absence from events on other things. The true situation is that the medical team has to be very sure that the governor is medically sound before he goes out for an event.
“The medical team had been embarassed several times when the governor kept falling at events and the protocol, security and aides had to block him so that many people would not notice.”
Meanwhile, the state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Chuks Ugwoke, despite reports in the media that the governor is recuperating in an India hospital after being transferred from a London Hospital, has continued to claim that all was well with Chime.
Ugwoke had refused to speak to The PUNCH and would not reply any text message from our correspondent.
When the story of Chime’s ill health and absence from the state first broke in the October 14, 2012 edition of the Sunday PUNCH, Ugwoke had said, “Chime was enjoying his vacation, the first he has taken since he was sworn into office five years ago.
“Chime had actually presided over the State Executive Council meeting on September 18, 2012 where he announced to all the members that he was proceeding on his annual leave and constitutionally handed over the reins of power to his deputy, Sunday Onyebuchi, who is today the Acting Governor of the state.”
The commissioner had further pointed out that, “Chime also attended a meeting of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum in Abuja on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 and travelled out the next day on his vacation,” adding that, “all these facts are verifiable.”
He had added, “Having said all these, we want to reaffirm that the Government of His Excellency, Sullivan Chime, will continue to promote freedom of expression while also maintaining its cherished reputation of civility and accommodation of all shades of opinion, including constructive criticisms from the media and other quarters.”
A woman who claimed to be a mistress of multi billionaire oil magnet Femi Otedola has opened up on her relationship with the man she claimed to have had a 26 years daughter for.
For the purpose of this interview, can I have your full names?
I’ am Olayinka Odukoya.
What kind of relationship existed between you and Mr. Femi Otedola?
We used to have a love affair.
Was the love affair one that your parents knew about? I mean your own parents and his parents?
What happened was that I just finished from secondary school at that time and I was even working when he approached me for a relationship. I accepted his advances and somewhere along the line, I realised that I’d taken in for him. And this was a time I was just offered an admission into the School of Nursing in Ikoyi; I was only waiting to go for pre-registration interview before I realised I was pregnant. And at that point in time, there was a man, Mr. Tobun father’s house at Odo-Irangusi.
It was through my friend that was dating the contractor that I met Femi. And he promised me heaven and earth. As a matter of fact, we both sworn to an oath with the Holy Bible never to leave each other. I was about 21 years at that time and it was at that point that we started sleeping together and I got pregnant for him. And he accepted it. But in the long run, I realised that he didn’t tell his parents at home that he had put a lady in the family way. It was that Mr. Tobun that later went to his dad to tell him that his son had impregnated a young lady in Ijebu. And his mum later called him to probe him over it after the dad complained to her.But he lied to his mum initially that he did not impregnate anybody. Meanwhile, I used to go to their house regularly before then to the extent that all his younger siblings were familiar with me. His mum even knew me, though she did not know that I was dating her son which was the real purpose of my frequent visit to their house. She thought I was only a friend to Femi’s sisters. So, since I took in, I would go to him to collect money for my upkeep and things like that. As a matter of fact, I contemplated aborting the pregnancy at a point because I felt it was affecting the continuation of my education but unfortunately for me then, an old man overheard me telling a friend about my planned abortion and the old man went straight to leak it to my mum. So, my mum came to take me from where I was back home so as to prevent me from aborting the pregnancy. And my dad too also prevailed on me never to try aborting the pregnancy with the counseling that it is not only people that are well educated that make it in life. So, I later went to tell Femi that my parents were well aware of the pregnancy and he also plead with me to keep the pregnancy.
What was Mr. Femi Otedola doing then? Was he working or still in school?
He was a trader at Iponri Shopping Complex selling stationery materials. And since his dad was running a printing press then, he was also supplying them materials to work with. And when we realised he was not showing up at our house like it was expected, my parents said I should tell him that they wanted to meet his parents and he said no problems. But when he refused to come with his parents like he promised, a sister to my mum who was a registrar was even nursing the doubt that I might not know the real owner of my pregnancy and she attributed her doubt to the fact that the Otedola’s were well-to-do and very responsible, so they would not tolerate their son impregnate a girl and not do the right thing. So, there was a resolve that my mum should follow me to their house and when we got there, it was Femi himself that opened the gate for us. And when we met his dad, Baba Otedola, and told him about the pregnancy, he probed Femi over it and he told his dad that he was the one responsible for it. And the dad said he would have loved his mum to be at home for the meeting because when he first heard about the issue and raised it with the mum, Femi vehemently denied knowing anything about the pregnancy to the extent that the mum was saying any girl that was claiming to have gotten pregnant for her son should go and take care of it in her parent’s house. Since her son had said he didn’t impregnate any girl. But the dad said we should not worry about it and that he would always send money for my upkeep. And shortly before I would deliver my baby, the mum came around at the prompting of Baba Otedola, I guess, she came with Baba Otedola’s elder sister. They said they were the owners of the pregnancy since it’s their son that was responsible for it. And when I delivered my baby, a naming ceremony was organised at their house for my daughter.
So, since everything was cordial to that point, how did the denial of access to your daughter come into play?
Thank you. That’s exactly what I am about to tell you. After the naming ceremony, Femi came later to tell me that his mum said he should not marry me. And I was like if she says that then, maybe you should leave me alone. But he said he could not do that. Later on, I told him I wanted to learn Hair Dressing since I could not go to the School of Nursing any more. But he advised that I should go to a Catering school instead. So, I went to Catering school and it was while I was there that I got pregnant for him again. But his mum still stood strongly against our getting married. Meanwhile, I had a forced labour when the pregnancy got into the 7th month which I had as a still birth. In fact, I almost lost my life during the delivery. It was the placenta that came out first before the dead baby came out buttocks first instead of the head. My dad later went to meet him that, Femi, so, so, thing happened to me. Though, he was fully aware that I was pregnant for him again, but he apparently did not inform his parents. So, it was when my dad went to their house that his dad too knew about it and challenged him over it. But in his usual manner, he denied having anything to do with the pregnancy and I later told him that thank God I did not die in the course of the forced labour because that is how he would have denied me in death. I reminded him of how he lied that he did not know anything about Christy’s pregnancy before he later accepted to be the one responsible. And shortly after that was when his mum became extremely hostile to me, telling his son that he saw girls from rich background, he didn’t go to them. That, why would he go for someone from a humble background like me. And it was because Femi told me that his mum might accept me if we had a second child that I accepted to get pregnant for him again. But when they said I should bring my daughter Christy to them when she was a little over 2 years, so that she could start kindergarten, I left her for them. But ever since then, the mum would not allow me to see my daughter. There was even a festive period that my younger siblings went to their house to ask them to allow my daughter to come and spend some time with us, the mum refused. And I later went myself but as soon as the mum saw me, she took my daughter inside and locked her up. And when all my efforts to see my daughter became abortive, I later told them that I would always be my daughter’s mother because they cannot buy another mother for her no matter how much they prevent me from seeing her. And again, my mum’s younger sister told me not to worry because when it gets to a point my daughter would ask for her mum. But when she (Christy) was 15 and was schooling in Akure, Ondo State, while she lived with her father’s younger brother, I still made an attempt to go and see her there, yet they prevented me. And that was the point in time I decided to leave the South-West for the Northern Part of the country to cool-off. So, I stayed and worked in the North for some time before I returned few years ago. Meanwhile, I was already aware that my daughter had been taken abroad for further studies. And I even made an attempt to be close to Otedola’s house but each time I went, Femi’s mum was always like “what do you want?” And I would tell her that I only came around to say hello and also to know if you are hearing from my daughter. But when it got to a point, I could no longer cope with not seeing my daughter, I sent a Reverend Father to the mum to beg her for me. And she was like I should never again in my life send any emissary to beg her again. And about 7 years ago, I told my younger brother that I felt I would need to take the matter to a relevant government authority to contest my right to see my daughter for me. But my brother said I should not go that far that he would go and talk to Femi man to man. Meanwhile, at that point I was always texting Femi asking about the well-being of my daughter, he would not reply any of the messages. There was even a day I went to his Zenon House in Victoria Island. He saw me face to face as he was driving in because I was standing at the gate. And when he got out of the vehicle, he looked back at me and I said “Femi, you are the one I have come to see”. But he rushed into the office and never came out till I left. I got there around 8am and left at 12 noon. I later dropped a note for him with his security guys stating that I did not come to fight him but to see him and ask after my daughter. The number that my younger brother had was no longer going through, so, he got another number of his from me which he called without any one picking it. And he decided to send him a text that why would he not allow his sister to see her daughter. And that he should redress the situation since the child belongs to him and his sister. But by the second or third day, he called his mum to go and warn Felix, that is my brother, that he was threatening his life. And the mum went straight to my dad’s house to fight him. That he should warn his son who was threatening the life of her son. My dad called my younger brother from Ijebu immediately asking why my brother would wade into the matter. And when my brother went to Ijebu sometime later, he told anyone that cared to listen to go and tell Femi’s mum that he had come to town and that she should come and arrest him, maybe the Police would be able to resolve the matter once and for all. But after spending 3 days without seeing anyone come to arrest him, he returned to Lagos.
So what happened after then?
We decided to give them some time again before raising issues over the matter. In fact, at a point, I decided to go to Human Rights Advocacy Groups and I was already in Ikeja with pictures before my brother called me and plead that I should not do anything like that. Because no two opposing parties in a court case return as friends. He said he believed dialogue could still do it. Meanwhile, I had gone to the monarch in our town, Kabiyesi Odu-Iragusi, to plead with them for me but they still turned deaf ears. I even went to one Tejuosho’s son who is Femi’s friend in Ilupeju, Lagos, to discuss the matter with him. But still nothing changed. My brother even went to the Kabiyesi over the matter for the second time, yet they did not yield to my request to see my daughter. So, about 5 years ago, Femi’s mum told me that I should not worry that as soon as my daughter was through with her Masters Degree, I would be allowed to see her. And after Christy finished her master’s, it was Femi’s mum that called to tell me about it and asked if I was coming to Ijebu for Xmas to which I said yes. And she said she would make sure that I see my daughter. But as I speak to you my brother, I have still not set my eyes on my daughter.
Interestingly enough, during the last subsidy removal crises, I was just leaving Irangusi for Omu, when one of my younger brothers called me that he just sighted my daughter in town. And I took a bike with N1,500 that day to return to Iragusi, a journey that was not supposed to be more than N300.00. But when I almost got to Otedola’s house, I caught a glimpse of my daughter being chauffeur-driven out and I was trying to wave down the vehicle but she did not see me.
How long ago is it now that you had a contact with your daughter last?
I have not had any contact with her since they took her from me when she was a little over 2 years old.
Do you have any idea of what she is doing abroad now?
I think she is now working there. Because Femi’s mum once told me something like that.
And you have not spoken with Mr. Femi Otedola too?
Yes. I have not spoken with him ever since. Even when his dad celebrated his birthday last year and I went there, he avoided me all through. Even, his older brother who I spoke with and told that they have not allowed me to see my daughter for years could not believe it because the brother just returned to Nigeria from abroad. And he promised to do something about. Yet, nothing has happened.
Are you married to someone else as we speak?
Not really. I only had an affair with a man for whom I also have a daughter, Eniola. But I could not bring myself to marry him because Femi’s experience has made me to be scared of men.
So, what exactly do you want from Mr. Femi Otedola?
All I want is access to my daughter and the full rights to be a mother to her. Because they could have told her mum is dead!
Stop Congress and all actions on Adamawa, Jonathan tells Tukur
The political quagmire between the embattled governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako and the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has taken another dimension with a looming war of supremacy between President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.
It will be recalled that Nyako has been having running battle with the PDP national leadership over the conduct of PDP primaries in Adamawa state which led to the sack of the state PDP executive committee and the suspension of the National Vice Chairman, North East, Alhaji Girigiri Lawal by the National Working Committee, NWC.
Adamawa PDP exco dissolution
The NWC also dissolved the State PDP Executive led by Alhaji Umaru Mijinyawa Kugama that was loyal to the governor and replaced with Ambassador Umar Damagun led nine-member caretaker Committee to oversee the affairs of Adamawa PDP.
In spite of the Caretaker Committee put in place by the Tukur led NWC, President Jonathan was said to have an Ad-hoc Committee on Resolution of Adamawa State with Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa as Chairman.
Other members, Vanguard gathered are Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State, two unnamed members of the National Assembly; three unnamed members of the NWC and the Special Adviser, Political Adviser to Vice President Namadi Sambo, Abba Dabo as the Secretary.
Lamido Committee
After the inauguration, the Chairman of the Committee, Sule Lamido swung into action and in a letter dated December 21, 2012 to Bamanga Tukur, urged the NWC to as a matter of urgency stop all actions on the Adamawa State PDP.
The letter read, ‘’Your Excellency is aware that an ad-hoc Committee has been created for the resolution of Adamawa crisis. ‘’The inaugural Committee meeting was held today and members resolved that further acts and/or actions by any organ of the party with respect to Adamawa PDP be suspended. This is to enable the ad-hoc committee to conclude its work without any influence whatsoever.
‘’We do hope Mr. chairman will formally direct the North East acting Zonal Chairman and the caretaker Chairman accordingly.”
Time table for congress
Also same day, the NWC replied the Jigawa State governor that time table for the state congress was already out and aspirants had also purchased the forms.
The letter dated December 21, 2012 and signed by the PDP Deputy National Secretary, Mr Onwe Onwe read, ‘I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter addressed to the National Chairman dated December 21, 2012. Whilst noting the contents of your letter and the resolution of your committee to suspend further acts and/or actions by any organ of the party with respect to Adamawa PDP, I am directed to draw your attention to the following.
‘’The national Secretariat had via a letter signed by the National Chairman and National Secretary dated December 5, 2012 written to Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC notifying them of the dates and time table of the congresses.
‘’The National Secretariat of our great party, the PDP had via a letter signed by the National Organising Secretary dated December 6, 2012 written to the Caretaker Committee approved time table of the congresses in the state starting from December 27, 2012 to January 10, 2013.
‘’The Caretaker Committee had obtained PDP nomination forms from the National Secretariat of the party and has been selling them to the aspirants from Ward level to the Local Government level.
‘’In view of the above, the Caretaker Committee may wish to note the implication of the above three points have potential political damage to the reputation and esteem of our great party and members in Adamawa State who have all prepared to participate in the congresses.”
But when contacted, a former governorship aspirant in Adamawa State, Dr. Umar Ardo noted that there may be no fair hearing against the backdrop that Lamido remained one of Nyako’s loyalists, just as he said that the fight by the PDP Adamawa Stakeholders has been between the people and the governor. He added that the only condition on which the PDP members would accept a fresh congress in Adamawa was if a panel was sent from the national Secretariat of the party to oversee the congress.
Fresh indications have emerged that major Mobile network operators in the country have concluded plans to seek compensation from the Federal Government for losses incurred as a result of terrorist attacks on their installations.
The Executive Secretary, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, Mr. Gbolahan Awonuga, confirmed this development on Tuesday even as he disclosed that MTN, Globacom, Airtel, Etisalat, and the CDMA operators had concluded plans to seek compensation from the Federal Government.
He said, “We are still getting information from the operators. We will send letters to the Ministry of Communications Technology, Nigerian Communications Commission as well as Nigerian Trade and Investment Commission. I don’t think anybody will expect operators to bear the loss alone.”
It would be recalled that on September 6, suspected Boko Haram members launched a series of co-ordinated attacks on MTN and Airtel in Borno before the latest daring twin suicide car bomb attacks, on Saturday, on the offices of Airtel and MTN in Kano.
The pope pressed his opposition to gay marriage Friday, denouncing what he described as people manipulating their God-given identities to suit their sexual choices and destroying the very “essence of the human creature” in the process.
Benedict XVI made the comments in his annual Christmas address to the Vatican bureaucracy, one of his most important speeches of the year. He dedicated it this year to promoting traditional family values in the face of vocal campaigns in France, the United States, Britain and elsewhere to legalize same-sex marriage.
In his remarks, Benedict quoted the chief rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim, in saying the campaign for granting gays the right to marry and adopt children was an “attack” on the traditional family made up of a father, mother and children.
“People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being,” he said. “They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.”
“The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man’s fundamental choice where he himself is concerned,” he said.
It was the second time in a week that Benedict has taken on the question of gay marriage, which is dividing France, and which scored big electoral wins in the United States last month. In his recently released annual peace message, Benedict said gay marriage, like abortion and euthanasia, was a threat to world peace. After the peace message was released last week, gay activists staged a small protest in St. Peter’s Square.
Church teaching holds that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered,” though it stresses that gays should be treated with compassion and dignity. As pope and as head of the Vatican’s orthodoxy watchdog before that, Benedict has been a strong enforcer of that teaching: One of the first major documents released during his pontificate said men with “deep-seated” homosexual tendencies shouldn’t be ordained priests.
For the Vatican, though, the gay marriage issue goes beyond questions of homosexuality, threatening what the church considers to be the bedrock of society: a family based on a man, woman and their children.
In his speech, the pope cited Bernheim as lamenting how a new “philosophy of sexuality” has taken hold, whereby sex and gender are “no longer a given element of nature that man has to accept and personally make sense of: it is a social role that we choose for ourselves, while in the past it was chosen for us by society.”
He said God had created man and woman as a specific “duality” “an essential aspect of what being human is all about.”
Now, though, “Man and woman as created realities, as the nature of the human being, no longer exist. Man calls his own nature into question. From now on he is merely spirit and will.”
The Vatican’s opposition to gay marriage has been falling largely on deaf ears. Under then-Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the largely Roman Catholic Spain legalized gay marriage. Three U.S. states approved same-sex marriage by popular vote in November elections. Earlier this month, the British government announced it will introduce a bill next year legalizing gay marriage, though it would ban the Church of England from conducting same-sex ceremonies.
In France, President Francois Hollande has said he would enact his “marriage for everyone” plan within a year of taking office last May. The text will go to parliament next month. But the country has been divided by vocal opposition from religious leaders, prime among them Bernheim, as well as some politicians and parts of rural France.
The Socialist government’s plan also envisions legalizing same-sex adoptions. Benedict quoted Bernheim as denouncing the plan, saying that it would mean a child would essentially be considered an object people have a right to obtain.
“When freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God,” Benedict said.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has confirmed a powerful explosion that occurred this morning in Lagos from a building suspected to be loaded with ‘knockouts’ brands of fireworks that are usually used during festive periods.
The explosion which further triggered fire outbreaks within the neighboring environments occurred from a building suspected to be a warehouse for storage of electrical items at Jankara Market by Adeniji Adele in Lagos Island Local Government Council of Lagos State.
Although the Search and Rescue Officers had hectic time to reach the densely populated area due to heavy traffic and crowds, other response agencies and volunteers mobilized were able to control the fire incidents in area with supports from residents.
While security agencies would investigate and determine the real cause of the explosion and fire outbreaks, casualty figures are yet to be determined but some residents who were injured while attempting to assist in putting off the fire have been taken to hospital for treatment.
The crash of a naval helicopter yesterday in which six persons, including the Governor of Kaduna State Patrick Yakowa and former National Security Adviser General Andrew Owoye Azazi, were killed when the helicopter they were travelling burst into flames in the forest of Okoroba, Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, shortly after take-off necessitated the sharing of this article I actually wrote a few months back after the crash of Taraba state Governor Dambaba Suntai’s Private Jet. This latest crash is surely one too many.
The recent crash of Governor Dambaba Suntai’s Private Jet and yesterday’s naval helicopter crash in which six persons, among the dead are the Governor of Kaduna State Patrick Yakowa and former National Security Adviser General Andrew Owoye Azazi, ensured that Nigeria maintained its high ranking in global air crashes in the last two decades in consonant with African Airlines Associated indices which placed Nigeria top among 10 African countries with high air accidents.
Carnage by flying coffins has claimed thousands of lives, including eminent Nigerians, promising children and officers of the Nigerian Army. Ten Generals lost their lives in a monumental crash in September 2006. Even in war front no country loses ten Generals!
Unknown to many, the litany of air mishap in the country dates back to four years before Nigeria’s independence and not 1969 as widely documented.
Today, the news of Air crash is hackneyed. Multiple crashes in a single year, now considered far from heartbreaking.
From November 1969, when a Government owned DC-10 aircraft on a flight from London crash-landed in Lagos, it’s been a flurry, particularly in the last 20years, averaging one crash every other year.
Between November 1969 and October 2006, at least 1000 persons have been killed in plane crashes involving Nigeria, Nigerians or Nigerian-operated aircrafts.
With the perpetual deplorable state of Nigerian roads, official statistics released by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) recorded more than 9, 395 deaths in about 29,000 road accidents across Nigeria between 2010 and 2011 and more than 35, 559 injured in these accidents during thesame period. To those who could afford Air travel, a safer, reliable and faster alternative it was meant to be, but the statistics below has proven otherwise…
* June 24, 1956: A British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) four-engined Canadair C-4 Argonaut airliner registered G-ALHE crashed into a tree on departure from Kano Airport in Nigeria, 3 crew and 29 passengers were killed
* November 20, 1969: A government owned DC-10 aircraft on a flight from London crash landed and killed all 87 passengers and crew on board in Lagos
* 1973, A Boeing 707 crashed in Kano. 171 Nigerian Muslims returning from Mecca and 5 crewmen died in crash.
* March 1978: A Nigeria Airways plane crashed in Kano, 16 people died.
* December 3, 1988, Nigeria Airways Forker-28 crashed in Enugu, killing 103 passengers.
* December 1988: Skypower Brandeironte aircraft overshot Ilorin Airport runway leaving all passengers dead.
* February 24, 1991: British Helicopter crashed in Eket, Akwa Ibom State, killing all nine people on board.
* May 21, 1991: A Cessna Citation 550 of Ashaka Cement, crashed, killing all on board.
* June 26, 1991: An Okada Air Bac-11 crashed in Sokoto, three people died.
* July 11, 1991: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Canadian chartered DC-8 carrying pilgrims returning to Nigeria crashed after take-off, killing 261 people.
* September 26, 1992: Nigerian Air Force A C-130 plane crashed minutes after take-off from Lagos. All 200 on board killed.
* Ibrahim Abacha, son of Sani Abacha, was killed in a plane crash on January 17, 1996. The group “United Front for Nigeria’s Liberation” (UFNL) claimed responsibility for the crash.
* November 1996, ADC Plane at Ejirin, near Epe, controlled by Captain Sama, Plunged into lagoon. The aircraft touched down about halfway down the runway and eventually skidded off the runway off to one side. The aircraft was subsequently destroyed by fire. Nine of the 129 passengers were killed.
* September 12, 1997: A NAF Dornier 228 in Bornu State ran into a ditch during takeoff, none of the 10 people died.
* October 26, 2000: Dornier aircraft plunged into a thick bush near the Niger Delta, 6 occupants injured.
* May 4, 2002: EAS Airline BAC 1-11 bound for Lagos plunged into a poor, densely populated suburb of Kano shortly after takeoff, killing 148. Dead included all 76 aboard and dozens on the ground.
* March 20, 2003: An ADC Boeing 737 from Calabar Airport skidded off the runway. 100 people on board escaped death.
* November 30, 2003: A Cargo aircraft of Hydro Cargo, Brussels, Belgium, crash landed.
* March 6, 2004: An Aenail spray aircraft with registration number 5NBEF belonging to Berfieex Nigeria Ltd, crashed at the Bauchi Airport.
* July 26, 2004: Pan African Airlines’ helicopter crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in Delta State, 4 people on board died.
* December 29, 2004: A Boeing 727 of Chanchangi Airlines belly-landed at the MMA
* December 29, 2004: A Kenya Airlines aircraft crashed – landed at the MMA due to gear fault.
* December 29, 2004: A Kenya Airlines aircraft crashed – landed at the MMA due to gear fault.
.* January 28, 2005: A Nigeria Air Force fighter plane crashed into a farmland in Yar Kanya, Kano State.
* February 25, 2005: ADC’s B73 aircraft had its tyre burnt while landing at Yola airport.
* March 27, 2005: A Boeing 737 of Bellview, one of its engines caught fire.
* June 12, 2005, Lagos: A Boeing 727-200 aircraft belonging to the domestic Chachangi Airlines overshot the runway at Murtala Muhammed Airport, while another overshot the runway at the airport in Jos in central Nigeria a day earlier (June 11, 2005).
* June 24, 2005: A Russian aircraft belonging to Harka Air crash – landed at the MMA, all the people on board died.
* July 6, 2005, Port Harcourt: An Air France A330 plane crashed into a herd of cattle at Port Harcourt airport sustaining serious damage and killing many of the cows. The airport had no perimeter fence and herdsmen usually take their cattle across the tarmac and sometimes abandon them there.
* July 13, 2005, Lagos: A Ugandan-registered cargo aircraft, belonging to Almiron Aviation, overshot the runway at Murtala Muhammed airport. There were no casualties.
* On July 23, 2005, a Lufthansa aircraft crash – landed at Lagos airport and was badly damaged, but no life was lost.
* October 22, 2005: A Bellview airline Boeing 737 carrying 117 people on board crashes soon after take-off from the Nigerian city of Lagos, killing everyone on board.
* December 10, 2005: A Sosoliso Airlines DC-9 crashes in the southern Nigerian city of Port Harcourt, killing 103 people on board including 75 school children.
* September 17, 2006: Air Force Dornier 228-212 aircraft (with 18 people on board) crashed into the hills of Ushongo village in Benue State, 18 nautical miles from its destination, Obudu in Cross River State; 18 people (including 10 army generals and 4 colonels) died.
* October 29, 2006: Ninety-six of the passengers who boarded the ADC flight from Abuja destined for the north-western city of Sokoto, died including the spiritual leader of Nigeria’s Muslim, the Sultan of Sokoto.
* November 10, 2006: OAS Service Helicopter crashed in Warri, Delta state killing 4 on board.
* August 2, 2007: Bristow-owned helicopter crashed inside ExxonMobil facility in Port Harcout.
* March 15, 2008: Beechcraft 1900D plane marked 5N-JAH, belonging to Wing Aviation crashed in the mountainous forest of Busi in Cross River State on its way to Obudu airstrip. The wreakage was not found until 6 months after the disappearance of the aircraft. All 4 man crew on board died.
* March 8, 2011: HS-125 chartered aircraft crashed in Bauchi. No casualty.
* July 29, 2011: A Kwara State-bound helicopter crashed in Osun State killing all on board.
* June 3, 2012 – A Dana Air passenger plane carrying 147 people crashed in the Agege suburb of Lagos. killing all 153 passengers and crew on board. Several others also died as the ill-fated Dana Airline Flight 992 plane destroyed some buildings in the area, killing about 12 residents and injuring many.
The Dana air mishap is still the world’s worst air crash in 2012, Nigeria’s worst air crash since the 1992 air disaster that claimed 200 lives.
And most recently…
* October 25, 2012: Taraba State Governor Dambaba Suntai’s self piloted Cessna-208 private Jet crashed few metres to the Yola International Airport in Adamawa State.
To underscore the importance of air travel, Gov Suntai of Taraba State crashed his private jet, lucky to be alive with injury, was flown in another to Germany for ‘proper’ medical attention, yet over the years our leaders have neglected this sector.
Political appointments have taken the place of technocrats made evident in the announcement by Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah of Dana Air as the best airline in 2012 after its crash of June 3 this year. Such award leaves much to be desired.
Typical of Nigerian Government tactics of circumventing a problem, they’ve found a new hobby in private jet acquisition, the latest being the $45m bombardier private jet by Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi amid the flood disaster in the state.
The Presidency is not left out as The Federal Executive Council had on August 12, 2010 approved $102m for the purchase of two Falcon 7X and $53.3m for one Gulfstream G550 aircraft to beef up the presidential fleet.
As Gov Dambaba Suntai and Yakowa’s crash has shown, private jet(s) acquisition does not guaranty air safety. Government should rather channel such funds at fighting corruption, appointing technocrats, infrastructure maintenance/upgrade and tackle other critical issues bedeviling the Aviation Ministry over the years.
Over the years, precisely, I have a personal phobia for Nigerian social clubs until I was recently invited by a staunch member of the Isoko country club, Otunba Engr Isaac Emiyede, a frontline and cutting edge South-South Action Congress of Nigeria leader in Lagos state to understudy the operation of the club and to celebrate the end of the year party with them which eventually convinced me that some Nigerian social clubs are meant to change the face of Nigeria’s leadership and nothing more.
Some Nigerian social clubs are formed as cult groups to cause havoc in the society but Isoko country club is a club of prayer warriors and a place to build future political and economic leaders in Nigeria. Having visited some of Nigerian social clubs, I discovered that some are mere gatherings to enrich themselves physically and display their ill-gotten wealth with no traceable root.
Isoko country club is highly assembled with intelligent and gifted men with promising future on how to build one Nigeria in all ramifications. Isoko country club is not meant for Isoko people only but only for those that have purposeful leadership in Nigeria. Isoko country is just a name but for high professionals that know the worth of leadership in the country .it is not a political cub but a club that looks into creative leadership of the home and Nigeria.Isoko country club is more accessible and comprehensive in terms of political and economic leadership to Isoko nation and Delta State.
Though the Isoko country club started its operation since August 25th, 1990 with just four amiable and good-natured members, but today, it has grown beyond imaginable numbers of people of sound professions but highly selective in terms of membership of club for not admitting shenanigans and tomfoolery into the club. The purpose of Isoko country club is for high intelligent networking but some social clubs have their own into cult group to cause trouble in the country. Some Nigerian social clubs are being operated by half-baked people with myopic interests. Although social clubs are personal operation which ends of year witness the celebration of low, medium and high clubs in Nigeria? Social clubs are meant to network for business connections and others.
Isoko country club discusses issues that are paramount of importance of developing quality leadership in Isokoland. The membership cut across everybody in Nigeria and for those that know the intellectual leadership and to see the great future of Nigeria as country.
In my face book page recently, somebody commented that how many bottles of drink did I take when I was invited as a guest, point of correction, Isoko country club is full of anointed and spirit-filled pastors and their wives,. Every Nigerian profession is fully represented while most of them schooled in foreign countries with intimidating credentials. We have sound doctors, engineers, lawyers, publishers, technocrats and just mention but a few. Some so-called social clubs have ruined some decent Nigerian family homes especially the women folk while some men clubs are meant to create evil things in the land. Some clubs are converted to secret society but Isoko club is a different one.
This club is meant to proffer solutions to Isoko leadership. Isoko country club comprises of first class politicians who know their academic worth in the society. Isoko country club is rated among the first class clubs in Nigeria like Isoko club 2000, Ikoyi club, Atamu club, Ngwa social club etc. Isoko country club is a registered non profit socio- cultural organization which sole aim to foster unity and promote the interest of Isoko nation and Nigeria. It is not a gathering of blocked heads but for future leaders of our time as well as to build a virile social club founded on justice, unity and professionalism of Isoko in Diaspora and Nigeria.
This move was pioneered by brave, articulated, daring and visionary leaders of the 21st century knowledge gurus like a resounding prominent Isoko sons like Engr Johny Onozefe and three others. The club is opened to everybody that has creative vision to move Isoko nation forward not on political basis but social networking on objective basis to see Isoko nation in the vanguard of leadership in Nigeria.
Since the inception of the club, there has been a tremendous achievement in consolidating the vision of the members. One of the benefits of this intellectual and cerebral club is that Isoko country club is a place of cross- fertilization of ideas among products of creative mindsets whose intimidating resume are essential factors of progress of the club, The likes of Otunba Engr Isaac Emiyede, frontline ACN south-south leader and Ikorodu Iyede branch chairman has largely contributed to the developmental growth of the club at all levels while Engr Solomon Okpithe, the Deputy governor of the club is another icon of achiever with humbly spirit of association without qualms.
Engr Johny Onozefe is the Governor of the club and one of the founding fathers with creative mindset to build leaders with characters of visionary leadership. Others are Barrister Alfred Jarikre, Engr Sunny Iteire, Dr Chief Agbajileke OBJ, Tom Ededhoma, Chief Victor Oyoku,Patrick Ukpowe, Mike Ilivieda and others. Isoko nation must recognized the presence of Isoko country club and make it a remedy for creative leadership in the region. Isoko country club has given hopes to Isoko in digent students, personal scholarships and humanitarian services to the society. It is time for credible and reliable people to join Isoko country club now.
