Nigeria Nollywood actress and Special Adviser to the Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State who was kidnapped in Owerri the Imo State Capital was released Thursday night; even as the Imo State Police Command has said that a ransom of N8 Million was paid by her family to secure her release.
According to Commissioner of Police Imo State Police Command, Adisa Bolanta, said that the amount was paid by her family even after they have been repeatedly warned by the police against such an action.

In his words the Police Commissioner said; “They defied our warnings and continued negotiations with the kidnappers. They went behind us and paid N8 million to them. We have made some arrests in connection with the case and very soon they will all be apprehended.”

However, the Police commissioner said that police have recovered and returned N7m paid by the family.

“Let me assure the good people of Imo that we will not rest until all forms of criminality has been eradicated from this state,” he concluded.

Meanwhile 247ureports gathered from close source, that the reason for the abduction of the actress may not be due to her alleged secret affair with the Imo State Governor.
According to the source, “the actress and the governor has been having affair even before he became a governor.”

The source further said that she was abducted as her captors wanted to use it to get money from the Imo State Governor.

As a proud African that loves tradition and the cultural values that make us unique in the global village, one aspect of our life that I have come to admire so much is the sacredness that we attach to life. The coming of a new born in Africa and especially in my community is seen as the most significant symbolism that signposts the arrival of life. A new born gives us the assurance of hope that humanity is not about to be wiped out and that the best way to sustain the human society is to teach the younger generations the beauty of respecting and according life that sacred position that would make it absolutely unacceptable for human beings to take away life.

It was therefore natural for me to comprehensively understand and accept the scholarly and scientifically based presentation that was beautiful made recently by the Think Tank Committee of Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria in Abuja in which the Catholic Church in Nigeria through a formidable team of theologians made up of Bishops Dunia of Auchi Diocese and Ansalem Umoren of the Archdiocese of Abuja reemphasizes her strident opposition to the clamour for the legalization of abortion through the unprecedented campaign for what some theorists call reproductive and/or sexuality right.

Supporters of this strange teaching of legalization of abortion right have gone to the extent of driving their ideology of campaigning for the National Assembly of Nigeria to pass a health bill that have obnoxious provisions that make it possible for a prospective mother to exercise the ‘right’ to determine whether her unborn child should be aborted or not as if the unborn child has only become a mere object that can be discarded at the whims and caprices of the would-be mother. Where has our humanity gone to? How come that we have gone this far in our quest to promote the selfish ideology of reproductive and/or sexuality right as if the human right of the unborn child to be born is not much more imperative and inalienable.

If we were aborted before birth would we be around nowto rule the World?
I have therefore decided to relay the message of the Catholic Church in which they rightly oppose any move to legislate in support of abortion right that would consign the human right of the unborn child to the whims and caprices of some mean health practitioners who take delight in terminating the precious lives of these beautiful gifts of God who can not speak for themselves.
According to the Catholic Church, Nigerians love children as precious gifts from God. Similarly, being a mother is a blessing. But Nigerian women – our mothers, wives and sisters should not continue to die in the noble and joyful duty of bringing forth new lives – the younger members of our families and communities.

Because pregnancy is not a disease, and children are not articles to be discarded or burdens to be off loaded along the bush paths. In the 21st century, pregnancy and child birth should not result to loss of lives – not of the mother, not of the baby.

Based on the premise of the foregoing, and the unalienable dignity of every human person (babies in the womb, the sick, the aged, everyone) and the respect due to them, the Catholic Church has customarily provided health care services wherever it carries out her missionary work. In Nigeria, health education and clinical services form integral components of the Church’s services which are made accessible to everyone in need.

In recent times, however, the Church is aware of the increased flurry of activities in different spheres and by many agencies of government and foreign organizations to achieve various objectives under the pretext of providing health care or reproductive health services to our citizens. Regrettably, Nigerians have been forced by poverty, illiteracy and corruption to grope for the basic necessities of life, leaving no opportunity to scrutinize the specious interests underpinning the health and population control interventions going on across the country.

The Catholic Church delved into scientific research when it noted that the death of a woman in the process of bearing children (pregnancy and child delivery) is a human tragedy, any day. But research and practical evidence show over and again that 91% (9 out of every 10) death of women during pregnancy and child birth are due to causes which are preventable (bleeding – 35%, high blood pressure – 18%, difficult labour – 18%, malaria – 11%, infections – 8%). Thus women die not because of pregnancy, but as a result of the absence of the right personnel, right equipment, right infrastructure, right community preparedness and right support to assure the best outcomes.

On the other hand, abortion which is the intentional killing (termination) of the life of an unborn baby in its mother’s womb accounts for about 9% (1 out of 10) of maternal deaths.

Therefore, given the relative burden of the causes of maternal deaths, the question is loudly being asked; why are the so-called development partners forcing Nigeria to focus on abortion as the panacea for curtailing the scourge of maternal mortality in our communities? The focus for me should be on how to provide sound health services to the Nigerian family rather than Government of Nigeria shying away from carrying out her constitutional duty of building functional health infrastructure to provide quality and sound healthcare services for all citizens. The people of Nigeria are the rightful owners of the nation’s sovereignty and it is from the people that the officials of government derive their legitimacy and authority. Why then is the government failing to deliver quality healthcare services to the citizenry but would be quick to accept the offer from foreign jurisdictions of certain medical services that would only encourage the spread of abortion and the termination of the lives of our unborn children?

Medical experts and public health practitioners rightly insist that 91% of cases of women dying during pregnancy and child birth can be prevented through the provision of easily-accessible blood transfusion services, skilled midwives during child delivery, malaria treatment, control of high blood pressure and infections. Other sectors such as transportation, clean water and electricity are also critical for reducing the scourge.

A well functional primary health care system with referral pathways is the basic ingredient towards this goal. In practice, the government can leverage on the backbone of the extensive presence of Catholic health service networks across the country to ensure that no woman suffers death or disability because of pregnancy-related conditions.

As stated by the Catholic Church in Nigeria I think young people need adequate information and guidance on how best to live out their sexuality in a healthy, Godly manner through character education, self-mastery and pre-marital sexual abstinence. But what they receive from the media, government agencies and many NGOs is categorical encouragement to engage in illicit sexual escapades through the promotion and use of condoms and other contraceptives.

The sad results are obvious everywhere: abysmal level of social morality, promiscuity, diseases, unfulfilled life ambitions, family dislocations and premature deaths of many young Nigerians. Religious and community leaders should play the good roles of preaching the preservation of lives as the way forward to preserve our cheerished African traditional value system that sees life as sacred and sacrosanct.

U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated Democratic Senator John Kerry as his next secretary of state on Friday, making the first move in a sweeping overhaul of his national security team heading into a second term.

Kerry will take the helm at the State Department from outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has long stated her intentions to leave early next year. Kerry, a longtime Massachusetts senator, is expected to be easily approved for the cabinet post by his Capitol Hill colleagues.

The moves opens up the Senate seat Kerry has held for nearly three decades. Recently defeated Republican Senator Scott Brown is eying it, though Massachusetts Democrats insist the party can keep the seat out of Republican hands.

Word about Washington’s latest worst-kept secret came at a sombre and somewhat unusual time, with both the president and Kerry attending a memorial service for Democratic Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii. At the same time, leaders of the nation’s divided government were in limbo about how to head off the fiscal cliff’s looming Jan. 1, 2013, deadline.

Kerry 1st piece of cabinet shuffle

Kerry was the Democratic nominee for president in 2004, losing a close election to incumbent George W. Bush. He’s a decorated Vietnam veteran who was critical of the war effort when he returned to the U.S., even testifying in front of the Senate committee he eventually chaired.

Kerry’s only other rival for the job, UN ambassador Susan Rice, faced harsh criticism from congressional Republicans for her initial accounting of the deadly September attack on Americans in Benghazi, Libya. Obama vigorously defended Rice, a close friend and longtime adviser, but Republican senators dug in, threatening to hold up her nomination if the president tapped her for the post.

Rice withdrew her name from consideration last week, making Kerry all but certain to become the nominee. People familiar with the White House’s decision-making said support within the administration was moving toward Kerry even before Rice pulled out.

The cabinet nomination of Kerry, 69, is the first Obama has made since winning a second term, and the first piece in an extensive shuffle of his national security team. The president is also expected soon to nominate a new defence secretary to take over for retiring Leon Panetta and a new director of the Central Intelligence Agency to replace former spy chief David Petraeus, who resigned last month after admitting to an affair with his biographer.

Once again, President Jonathan did not disappoint as he amazed Nigerians with his relentless comic fight against corruption, leaving no modicum of doubt that he is nowhere close to tackling the ‘cancer’. His bizarre decisions and actions accentuating his lacklustre combat against graft to new horizons.
This time around, it was the appointment of Chief Tony Anenih, chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), as the new chairman of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), one of the most lucrative agency outside the oil and gas industry and one that has served as an agency of choice for PDP leaders since 1999.

The ineptitude and cluelessness of the PDP and Jonathan led administration came to the fore as the septuagenarian returned to the honey pot he occupied for few years without any impact. In awe Nigerians were made to wonder if there is anything he left behind at the nation’s doorway of commerce and industry that he intends to pick up. Or How else can we describe this open show of PDPs shamelessness considering that a former NPA chairman and PDP deputy national leader, Chief Olabode George, not long ago completed his jail term in connection with funds he stole while at the helm of the NPA board. This was the height of comic mesmerism capable of making even lucifer laugh himself to a jerk. Of recent Nigerian memory is the fact that Chief Tony Anenih once served as the Minister of Works of which he misappropriated funds to the tune of N300 billion meant for road construction and reconstruction.

Mr Jonathan has raised the ante to appoint him as the new NPA Boss as part of his Machiavellian tactics towards self succession in 2015. Obliviously, Jonathan failed to realise that Anenih has since lost the sobriquet of ‘Mr fix it’, his political prowess is dwindling and deeming as we can recall that not too long ago Pa Anenih, as the ageing politician should now be addressed, served as the godfather of the trounced PDP candidates in the Anambra and Edo States gubernatorial polls, Prof Chukwuma Charles Soludo and Maj. General Charles Airhiavbere (rtd) .

From the inception of the fourth republic in 1999, PDP has been known for its penchant for celebrating failures, hence, the emergence of Tony Anenih as Nigeria’s minister of works during Obasanjo’s tenure came as no surprise. Till today, the Nation’s highways, like the Lagos-Ibadan , East-West and Benin-Ore roads remain death traps. He left the roads worse than he met them. To him, pillaging state funds meant for road construction became his full time calling. So much was his fleece that till today a good number of the roads have remained in deplorable condition.

In the PDP, their cunning ability to recycle mediocrity has seen Pa Anenih metamorphose from Board of Trustees chairman to minister of the federal republic, then NPA chairman in 2009 and now chairman of the NPA again in 2012. His 2009 role as the Chairman of the NPA was an indirect appointment as Late President Yar’Adua’s second term ‘campaign manager’.

The same strategy is the record Jonathan seem to be playing. Anenih’s indictment during his time at the Ministry of Works without prosecution and conviction reinforces the public belief that some individuals are above the law. To succinctly put, “the anti-corruption law and war in Nigeria is like a cobweb. It is strong to catch the weak but very weak to catch the strong”. This action validates the school of thought that the prosecution of Bode George was a smokescreen, he was only a victim of high level political scheming.

The man that has been deployed to the prime government agency to superintend the activities of the NPA, should remember that it is the same post that landed Chief Bode George in Kirikiri Maximum Security
Prison.

Edo State Governor Comrade Adams Oshiomhole buttressed this point during his heated face-off with Anenih prior to the July gubernatorial election in Edo state, stating that it was ominous that the last bus stop on the highway to Kirikiri Prison is the NPA chairmanship!

Severally, Mr Jonathan, has demonstrated his willingness to condescend to this base level to ridicule his administration already bedeviled with sleaze, profligacy, impunity and other concomitant effects of corruption.

A leeway to self-succession in 2015 must have necessitated the NPA appointment. The PDP must also be playing out a script to wriggle itself out of the Board of Trustees (BoT) chairmanship tussle. Pa Anenih’s juicy post as NPA Boss, will help to divest his interest in the BoT race, giving room for the emergence of former President Obasanjo’s anointed candidate. This arrangement is the grand political game plan of the Jonathan administration towards the 2015 elections. Anenih as the Boss of the NPA would ensure he embezzles enough cash and be in high spirit of ‘fixation’ when the 2015 elections comes around.

The recycling of the old brigade of PDP politicians that have milked the country dry over the years, by the Jonathan government and the PDP at such a time in Nigeria’s history, is another indication that Mr Jonathan lacks the will power to bring Nigeria out of the wood. Mr Jonathan should be aware that
Nigerians have given up on any hope of restoration let alone transformation from his administration.

He has shown to Nigerians in different shades that is it business as usual with his PDP cahoots. For a man who ran a campaign with a subterfuge that he walked without shoes as a boy, promising zero tolerance for corruption, ‘fresh air’ and El dorado to turn his back on Nigerians barely two years into his tenure is not fit to be considered for a second term.

Jonathan’s tenure will readily go into Nigeria’s history books at the end of his four years as one of Nigeria’s most corrupt administration if the plethora of reports, investigation and other indices available is a yardstick. Well meaning Nigerians would rather wish 2015 can fast-forward to save us from this leadership plunge.

President Jonathan has shown from this despicable appointment of Tony Anenih as NPA Chairman that his is in Aso Rock to perpetuate sleaze, entrench impunity and sustain the legacy of waste bequeathed to him by his predecessors. It is a cinch that corruption has come to stay in his administration.

As 2015 beckons, Nigerians must be vigilant and vote wisely.

General Andrew Azazi, Nigeria’s former NSA and Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State died in a plane crash a week ago raising concerns over the safety of President Goodluck Jonathan. Those who removed Gen Azazi from the way can remove any other person including the sitting president. Therefore, it is time for the feasters and revellers in Aso Rock to jettison all corrupt tendencies and face squarely the business of providing good governance, backed by equity and justice so that when the enemies of democracy tries the Azazi experiment on them, the hand of God will provide the missing safety link. This article earlier published in February this year under the title ‘Boko Haram: How Safe is President Goodluck’ is still relevant today in the face of the suspicious elimination of Azazi .

The embattled and fleeing former Governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva,once described Nigeria’s President Goodluck as a lameduck and even threathened to snuff life out of his Ijaw kinsman. Many Nigerians though not particularly fans of Sylva’s governorship style, will not fault his remarks. The Boko Haram creating problems in Nigeria is the same group which late president Yar’adua hunted, killed and fragmented when they reared their head in Borno State. Though weak and infirm, late Yar’adua couldn’t tolerate this now all powerful monster. The Boko Haram foot soldiers dared not ply their trades in other states of the federation while he was alive. They restricted their murmurings to Borno axis. Now Boko Haram is even making attempts to strike at Nsukka and environs.

How did we come to this stage? Presidential lameduckism or appropriately put, presidential timidity is the major problem. The PDP branch of Boko Haram which I prefer to call the PDP Boko Haram are growing restless each day especially with the arrest of most of their contacts and leaders. Their fear is that the more the foot soldiers are arrested the more likely their secret will be exposed. Their second problem is that the lame duck president can react if pushed to the wall. The Sylva experiment is a serious case study. Their third headache is that the president once desperate for dialogue is now slowly approaching the matter. Their calculation is that they will use the option of negotiating with Boko Haram members on the behalf of the north to equally clear their tracks. The cautious approach to the dialogue issue by the presidency is causing psychological irritations to some members of the PDP Boko Haram.

President Goodluck should be careful of his personal safety. This growing irritation and desperation could result in extremist attacks on the life of the nation’s number one citizen. These desperate ones finished off MKO Abiola with the most perfect alibi, in front of international visitors. They equally finished off Tunde Idiagbon, Nigeria’s former Chief of General Staff. They equally planned to arrange accidents for Obasanjo if he attempts tenure elongation. If they could finish these people without effort then they could do anything.

These PDP Boko Haram members can buy up anybody they want to buy including President Goodluck’s cook, advisers, and inner confidants. They bought Henry Okah , President Goodluck’s brother to throw Bomb at the Eagle Square during Nigeria’s Golden Jubilee celebrations. If they could buy Henry Okah , the chief spokesman of the Niger Delta struggle, then they can buy up any other militant or military officer who has ambiguous tendencies. They have stolen enough billions of dollars to buy up anybody. They can buy and are still buying security information from and around the State House.

General Aguiyi Ironsi did not know when his security system was jeopardized until he was dragged and murdered by forces led by Danjuma in 1966. Surrounding himself with competent persons is very necessary as well as proper counter intelligence. President Goodluck needs to bring in anybody from any part of the country whose loyalty and professionalism is proven. In the dying days or Yar’adua regime, General Aliyu Gusau was brought back to help the presidency regain control of the security apparatus when it was obvious that Major General Sarki Muktar then National Security Adviser was playing sentiments with the nation’s security and has contempt for Goodluck, then the Acting President. The presence of General Gusau helped to open up the security space and equally in concert with other checks and balances averted what would have been a coup de tat the day Yar’adua was flown in from Saudi.

Nigerians are frustrated that the president seems to be carrying on the art of governance with the same business as usual indifference of past regime while their living conditions continue to deteriorate. The profligacy of government functionaries is equally disheartening. This does not however suggest that Nigerians want the PDP branch of Boko Haram to serve President Gooddluck the same dish they served Aguiyi Ironsi.