Not less than three persons have reportedly lost their lives at the relief camp in Ivrogbo, Isoko South Local Government of Delta State following the trauma of rescuing victims from communities affected by massive flooding prompting authorities to relocate the survivors to St Michaels Primary School, Oleh, which is the headquarters of the council.
Among the communities submerged by the floods include Ovrode, Ofagbe, Okpe-Isoko, Lagos Iyede, Igeh, Ikpede, Onogboko, Itebioge, Exiro, Iyede-Ame, Azagba, Otoka-Ekegbresi, Egbeme, Warri-Irri, Iwrie-Ogbokor, Ekpe, Asafo, Ivrogbo and Ashaka comprising Isoko North and South as well as Ndokwa East Local Government Areas.
Meanwhile, motorists plying the Ughelli-Asaba express road have diverted to other routes following the overflow of flood water around Osisa, extending to Ashaka and Aboh in Ndokwa East. Transport fares by road and water have hit the rooftop, in some cases as high as 500 percent.
However, Secretary to the State Government, Comrade Ovuozourie Macaulay along with other members of the Isoko Political Class, have mobilised over 36 speed and engine boats to help in the rescue of peopled still trapped in riverine areas. Clothes, foodstuff and other medicaments were also provided by the group.
Explaining the situation to news men monitoring the effect of the floods, commissioner for Land, Surveys and Urban Development, Sir Patrick Ferife said political office holders from Isoko led by the SSG were deeply touched by damage caused by the flood and pooled resources to provide palliatives to the victims.
Former Chairman of the Delta State Post Primary Board, Chief (Mrs) Evelyn Aluta while addressing the survivors urged them to remain calm as efforts by the Isoko Political Class and the State Government would yield the desired results.

The President, Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has approved the following appointments in the Armed Forces:

1. Chief of Defence Staff – Vice Admiral O.S. Ibrahim (Kwara)

2. Chief of Naval Staff – Rear Admiral D.J. Ezeoba (Delta)

3. Chief of Air Staff – Air Vice Marshall A.S. Badeh (Adamawa)

The incumbent Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. O.A. Ihejirika (Abia) retains his position.

President Jonathan thanks the outgoing service chiefs for their meritorious and commendable service to the nation and wishes them well in their future endeavours.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian authorities used aggressive measures Wednesday in an attempt to halt the nosedive of the country’s currency, making arrests, vowing to stamp out sidewalk money changers and warning merchants against fueling the mounting public anger over the economy.

There were unconfirmed reports of sporadic violence. Associated Press photos showed riot police blocking a street with the charred hulks of a garbage can and a motorcycle that had been set on fire. Smoke was rising from the area in central Tehran near the main bazaar.

Ah, now we’re getting somewhere. Mitt Romney told Denver’s Fox affiliate that “one option” he was considering to pay for his tax plan was to give everyone up to $17,000 in deductions, but no more than that.

The six largest U.S. lenders reported a combined $63 billion in profit over the four quarters through June.

The sweeping responses to the freefall of the rial — which has lost more than a third of its value in a week — underscored the worries for Iranian leaders after months of dismissing the West’s economic squeeze seeking to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program. A declining currency causes shifts in an economy such as making imported goods more expensive.

Although the currency crisis is blamed on a combination of factors — including internal government policies — the rush to dump rials appears to reflect an underlying perception that international sanctions have deepened problems such as runaway inflation and soaring prices for imports and that the only safe hedge is to grab dollars or euros.

If the economic turmoil intensifies, it could boost pressure on the ruling system before elections next June to pick President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s successor. That has the potential to hinder nuclear talks with the West until after the elections.

One of Ahmadinejad’s main critics, parliament speaker Ali Larijani, has led the calls to blame the currency crisis mostly on allegedly misguided government monetary policies.

In reply, Ahmadinejad warned that he could consider resigning if his government is put under too much pressure.

“Now is not the time for anybody to settle accounts,” Ahmadinejad said Tuesday as the rial hit a record low. “If my presence is a burden on you, (the solution is for me to) write one line to say goodbye.”

Tuesday’s rate of 35,500 rials against the U.S. dollar compared with 24,000 a week ago on the unofficial street trading rate, which is widely followed in Iran. It was close to 10,000 rials for $1 as recently as early 2011.

Exchange houses were closed Wednesday, and currency websites were blocked from providing updates on the latest rates.

Public grumbling has grown steadily louder over a punishing combination of a falling currency and rising prices, which have put some staples such as chicken and lamb out of reach of many low-income Iranians. Earlier this week, a petition signed by about 10,000 workers was sent to the labor minister to complain that even paying rents has become a struggle.

The owner of a furniture showroom said he hasn’t made a sale in 10 days while his workshop rent has been increased by 30 percent. He said one of his workers bought a can of tuna for lunch Saturday for 35,000 rials, or about 98 cents at the current exchange rate. The next day it was 45,000 rials, or $1.26, said Hamid, who gave only his first name because of warnings by Iranian officials not to discuss the economic situation with the media.

The dreaded Islamic terrorist group, the Boko Haram may have refueled their propensity to unleash terrorist activities following the clampdown  by the Nigerian security operatives. A gradual rise in silent killings by the Islam group of security officer has been observed by security agents.

Information available to 247ureports.com through a source within the police ranks in Zaria, Kaduna State states that suspected members of Boko Haram shot and killed a mobile police [MOPOL] officer on the morning of October 3,  2012 [between 8am and 9am]. The identity of the officer is not known. It is suspected he may have been attached to the Joint Task Force in Kaduna.

According to the information received, the MOPOL was shot as he rode on a motobike as a passanger. The shot came as the motobike rode by the military depot in Zaria across from the PZ office. The bike is believed to be an Okada commercial bike. The shooter, according to an eyewitness, was on foot. The MOPOL officer was dressed in his full regalia and died instantly.

The area where the incident occurred is said to be populated by commercial activities – including Banks and other retail outfits. A popular Mosque is also located nearby.

One of the security officers who spoke to our correspondent indicated that the shooting of the MOPOL officer may have been in retaliation of the shooting of an Okada operator, Umar Danmichika, a few days ago by a MOPOL officer – on September 26, 2012 at the Kaduna Stadium round about.

Efforts to reach the police public relations officer and the spokesperson for the Joint Task Force [JTF] proved abortive. The Chief Press Secretary to the State Governor, Reuben Buhari did not respond to our calls and text messages.

Since 28 August 2012 when it was reported that Patience, the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan was flown to Germany for the treatment of an undisclosed ailment, the presidency has refused to give the nation a clear picture of what she is suffering from.
However, P.M.NEWS authoritatively gathered today that Patience is being treated for cancer of the uterus at Horst Schmidt Klinik in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Aso Rock’s denial of information has only helped to fuel an industry of speculations about the president’s wife, especially when she failed to show up with husband when he attended the 67th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, United States.
The online has been abuzz with all sorts of reports.
A recent one even claimed that Mrs. Jonathan was being treated for Parkinson disease.
Earlier reports had it that Patience was operated upon for ruptured appendicitis at the German hospital.
Yet, there was another report that the surgical procedure on Mrs. Jonathan was to remove a potentially cancerous uterine fibroid.
There were also speculations that she had travelled to Dubai to have a procedure performed and returned to Nigeria where she developed complications which led to her sudden evacuation to Germany.
The cancer of the uterus ailment was shrouded in secrecy all this while by Aso Rock, thus engendering all sorts of speculations about what Patience is really suffering from.
The Presidency did not help matters as it refused to come clean on the actual ailment of Patience. All the stories Nigerians are getting from Aso Rock have been a web of lies about the fate of Patience. And this deepened speculations over the nature of sickness the wife of the President is suffering from.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe told State House Correspondents Tuesday when he was asked about the health of Patience that “ordinarily, I do not want to comment on this matter. Nigerians have gone through a lot of trauma in terms of leadership and death and ill luck and all that (in the past).
“Gen. Sani Abacha died in the Villa, Obasanjo’s wife (Stella) died in the Villa, (President Umaru) Yar’Adua lost his life in the Villa.
“I think even if it is a suggestion that the wife of the President is sick, what I will expect Nigerians to feel is empathy, not probing, not questioning (about her health).
“Have we become so disenchanted with leadership as to believe that the leadership is inhuman? I believe that the First Lady is hale and hearty. I want to leave it like that.”
P.M.NEWS learnt that the absence of the First Lady during various activities held to celebrate Nigeria’s 52nd independence anniversary sparked fresh anxiety over her fate among her friends, family members and beneficiaries of her various activities.
Many of them who thought Mrs. Jonathan will be home for the independence celebrations were disappointed.
President Jonathan was reported to have visited the German hospital where his wife is on admission, on his way to New York for the United Nations General Assembly last week. But P.M.NEWS gathered that lack of information on the likely date of return of Mrs. Jonathan back to the country and speculations over the nature of illness afflicting her is a source of worry in the Presidency.
Anxiety over her absence since August heightened with Jonathan’s sudden return from Malawi and Botswana about three weeks ago, just two days into a trip that was billed to last for three days.
There were speculations that the President cut short his trip as a result of information he got on the sudden turn in the health of his wife.
The Presidency, however, denied this on grounds that the president had finished all aspects of the agenda of the visits to the two countries. Contrarily however was the report that the Presidency actually demanded from his hosts in Botswana to cancel his other engagements, suddenly after getting a phone call from Nigeria.
The initial response of the Presidency was to debunk claims that the First Lady is ill and receiving medical attention.
Ayo Osinlu, the Chief Press Secretary to Mrs. Jonathan told journalists last month that his boss had gone to Germany to rest after the hectic schedule of presiding over the African First Ladies Mission held several weeks before then.
This was in response to initial speculations that Mrs. Jonathan was flown to the hospital after an initial treatment at State House Clinic, Abuja for alleged food poisoning.
The story of the First Lady’s admission at the German hospital came to light four days after she left the country on 28 August.

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has warned the Kaduna State Government that the much-anticipated December Local Government elections in the state may not hold if the government continues to sideline the duly-constituted state executive of the party in favour of the rogue state-sponsored ‘faction’.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, ACN said that as a law-abiding party, it has resolved to ask the courts to stop the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission from conducting the polls on grounds of exclusion.

The party said despite the fact that the Kaduna State Government was officially notified, in a letter jointly signed by its National Chairman and National Secretary, of the removal of Barrister Soba as its state chairman, the Kaduna State Government, especially the State Independent Electoral Commission, has continued to deal only with a rogue ‘faction’ of the party in the state in a blatant disregard for the relevant laws.

It said this act of illegality on the part of the Kaduna State Government reached its most absurd and provocative level last week, when the State Independent Electoral Commission handed over materials and documents for the December council polls to the same Barrister Soba and, by so doing, chose to unnecessarily overheat an already heated polity.

”It is trite law that whenever there are two or more contending factions of a political party in any state, it is only the National Secretariat of the party in question that can conclusively pronounce on the legitimate one. If the Kaduna State Government is not the unseen hand behind the factionalisation and destabilization of the party in Kaduna state, why has the government – in spite of the letter from the National Secretariat
(of the ACN) clarifying the situation – continued to deal with Barrister Soba, who has been removed as chairman the party in the state?

”While appealing to our supporters in Kaduna State to remain calm and law abiding in the face of this provocative illegality, we also call on the Kaduna State Government to immediately retrace its steps by dealing only with the recognized executive of the ACN in the state, otherwise its planned December council polls will never take place,” ACN warned.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday October 3, 2012, arraigned Mr. Felix Walbe before Justice Nimpar Yar’gata of the Federal High Court, sitting in Jos, on a two count charge bordering on fraudulent conversion of N450, 000 and giving false information to the Commission. The offence is punishable under Section 315 of the Penal Code and Section 39 sub section two of the EFCC Establishment Act 2004.
Section 39 of the EFCC Act provides “that any person who makes or causes any other person to make to an officer of the Commission or to any other Public Officer, in the course of the exercise by such Public Officer of the duties of his office, any statement which to the knowledge of the person making the statement, or causing the statement to be made is false, or intended to mislead or is untrue in any material particular ,… shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand naira or to an imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both”.
Walbe allegedly made false statement to the officers of the EFCC when he claimed that one Athanasius Danbaba, an employee of Lower Benue River Basin Development Authority is also employed by, and receiving salary in Natco Nigeria Limited and had corruptly enriched himself and bought several properties in Jos. The statement was investigated and found to be misleading and false.

One of the charges against the accused person reads: “that you Felix Walbe, being a former employee of Natco Nigeria Limited between June 2011 and June, 2012, in the Jos Judicial Division of the High Court of Plateau State, and in such capacity entrusted with certain property, to wit: N450,000 (four hundred and fifty thousand naira) committed criminal breach of trust by dishonestly converting the said sum to your own use, and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 315 of the Penal Code, CAP 89, Laws of Northern Nigeria,1963”.
When the two count charge was read to the accused, he pleaded not guilty. The Prosecution Counsel, Ibrahim Audu, thereafter prayed the court for a short adjournment for hearing and pleaded that the accused be remanded in prison custody.
Justice Nimpar Yar’gata, in his ruling remanded the accused person in Federal Prison, Jos and fixed 25th October, 2012 for definite hearing.

More than 2000 transformers hoarded by electricity officials were discovered by the Minister of State for Power, Darius Ishaku during a visit to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Central Stores at Shogunle, Lagos. The minister said that he was shocked that items needed for effective transmission and distribution of power were lying idle while consumers were complaining of damaged transformers, and ordered that all 33/11kv transformers, transformers panels, oils and other power equipment should be allocated to every part of the country that needed them within the next two weeks.

He also assured consumers that the transformers would be distributed

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Source: Business Day