Baloogg's Blog : 2014-12-14

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Experts Demand Criminal Justice System Reform

Some Nigerian legal experts have called for a reform of the nation’s criminal justice system to enable judges serve justice speedily to both the rich and the poor in the society.

According to the experts who spoke at a forum in Abuja during the week, the current criminal justice system favours the rich who commit huge financial crimes as against the poor.

It was a gathering of legal experts to identify with their colleague, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), who had written a book, “Oiling The Wheels of Justice In Nigeria”.

All seems not to be well with the Peoples Democratic Party in Kwara state as they are yet to officially announce the party’s governorship candidate for the state.

The primary was conducted twice, in which Senator Simeon Ajibola was declared the winner by the National Electoral Committee of the party led by the Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswan.

However, the State Chairman of the party, Iyiola Oyedepo, has said that until the National Working Committee of the party officially announces the result, the state does not have a candidate.

Rights groups Saturday condemned Pakistan's decision to hang two convicted militants in its first executions for six years, as leaders vowed decisive action in the wake of a Taliban school massacre that left 149 people dead.

The bloody rampage in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday sparked international outrage and Pakistan described it as its own "mini 9/11" and a game changer in its fight against terror.

U.S. troops have repatriated four Afghanistan nationals in the Obama administration's surging bid to empty the detention center, the Pentagon said Saturday. They spent about half their decade at Guantanamo approved for release.

The transfer reduced the detainee population to 132 - more than two dozen fewer than a year ago. And more transfers are expected before Congress is entirely controlled by the Republicans, some of whom oppose the prison's closure and opposed this transfer in particular.

Ban Ki-Moon

During a trip to Sierra Leone and Liberia the United Nation’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has praised healthcare workers fighting the Ebola virus.

Over 7,000 people have died since the beginning of the outbreak in West Africa.

Ban visited an Ebola treatment centre in the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown. The country’s government has been battling to contain Ebola. Sierra Leone accounts for more than half of the total number of people who have contracted the virus.

Luis Suares

Luis Suarez scored his first Liga goal as Barcelona closed to within a point of leaders Real Madrid with a resounding 5-0 win over Cordoba.

Pedro broke the deadlock with just three minutes on the clock and the winger then turned provided for Suarez, who opened his Primera Division account with a cool finish shortly after half-time.

Okonjo-Iweala

The Coordinating Minister of the Nigerian Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has carpeted the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria as peddlers of falsehood for alleging that government owed civil servants salaries.

This is as the Presidential Amnesty Office has assured ex-militants from the Niger Delta region that their November 2014 stipends would be paid early next week, admonishing them to eschew acts capable of portraying them as unruly and unappreciative of the federal government’s efforts to better their lot.

Borussia Dortmond

Davie Silke was the star of the show as Werder Bremen lifted themselves off the foot of the Bundesliga with a 2-1 win over relegation rivals Borussia Dortmund.

The 19-year-old opened the scoring with a stunning strike after just three minutes of play at Westerstadion before setting strike partner Fin Bartels up for a second goal on the hour mark.

Edgar Lungu

Zambia's Defence Minister Edgar Lungu on Saturday filed nomination papers for presidential elections in January after the ruling party's two feuding factions buried the hatchet and agreed to field a sole candidate.

The copper-rich southern African nation goes to the polls on January 20 to elect a successor to Michael Sata who died in October from an undisclosed ailment.

President Barack Obama ended his final press conference of the year by giving reporters something to talk about. He answered eight questions, from eight female reporters.

Though the president did not announce that he’d be calling solely on women, the move seemed deliberate as he passed over the typically attention-grabbing front row of mostly network TV correspondents to hear from Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown, Cheryl Bolen of Bloomberg, Julie Pace with the Associated Press, Lesley Clark from McClatchy, Reuters Roberta Rampton, the Wall Street Journal’s Colleen McCain Nelson and Juliet Eilperin with the Washington Post.

Naaah, this is funny but sad.... This man by the name Charles Ozigbo, was assaulted by Nigerian football fans during a match between Rangers Bee of Kaduna and Kwara United of Ilorin in Abuja yesterday.
According to an eyewitness Toyin Ibitoye,the fans descended on him after he gave a penalty to one of the clubs,living the man almost dead before he was rescued by the security men.see more photo below;

Nigerian transgender, Ms Sahhara appear flawless on the cover of the December issue of a world transgender magazine, Transliving.
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Dozens of protesters were arrested on Friday in Milwaukee when they blocked rush-hour traffic on a major highway to protest the killing of an unarmed black man who was fatally shot by a white police officer this year.

The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department took at least 73 adults and one minor into custody during the protest that blocked Interstate 43, which runs through the city, according to the department's Twitter feed.

Here are 100 books every individual should take a look at, at least once in a lifetime..

Haruko Obokata

A disgraced Japanese researcher has failed to replicate results hailed as a potential breakthrough in stem-cell treatment and efforts to do so will be abandoned, officials at her research institute said on Friday.

The scandal involving the research, which detailed simple ways to reprogram mature cells back to an embryonic-like state, eventually led to the retraction of papers published in the influential journal Nature and tarnished the reputation of Japanese scientific research.

A family of seven were burnt to death in a mysterious inferno that engulfed their home at Ayankor, Gboko East, in Gboko local government area of Benue state at the early hours of Friday.

An eyewitness told Saturday Vanguard that the inferno which started at about 1am, engulfed the block of three flats, killing a man and his wife, Mr. And Mrs. Lawani Oye and their five children.Lawani Oye was said to be a popular automobile panel beater in Gboko while his wife was also a known business woman in the neighborhood.
The eyewitness who preferred anonymity explained how the tragic incident happened :

So many people too stiff this year so in 2015 I will send bleaching cream 2 dem so they can lighten up
— Innocent Idibia (@2faceidibia)December 20, 2014

Mostly sleep is a totally unremarkable event. But a lot of us have at least once experienced some bizarre behaviors at night.

Our editorial team decided to decode some of the weirdest things that start happening when we close our eyes.

lol.. what could have happened here! The hustle is so real, see bride picking up money herself on her wedding day, guess she does not trust her bridesmaids with money.

The victims of bomb explosions in Nigeria are not giving up seeking redress.

They have taken their campaign to the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, who in turn has challenged them to come together as a group to demand their rights from the Federal Government.

Pointing out that many victims of bomb blasts in Nigeria were suffering without care, Prof. Odinkalu explained that there is an established protocol for managing cases of bomb blast victims.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Friday began its defence against the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate before the election petition tribunal hearing matters arising from the August 9 governorship election in Osun State.

Counsel to the second respondent, the APC, who is also the vice presidential candidate of the APC, Prof Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), at the opening of the defence, led four witnesses who were APC party agents during the election in evidence before the Justice Elizabeth Ikpejime led Panel.

Timaya, Baby Mama and Daughter

Timaya may be 37-year-old with a babymama and a daughter, yet, he believes he is still too young to get married .He told Saturday Beats

Justice Kudirat Jose of a Lagos High Court, has convicted and sentenced Promise Ntuen Ekemini to one year imprisonment for fraud.

Ekemini was convicted for hijacking the e-mail of a lawful owner of a property, located in Western Australia, valued at $800,000 (Eight Hundred Thousand United States Dollars), and attempted to sell the property.

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Kenneth Minimah has said that terrorism, a global security threat, is not meant to start and end in Nigeria alone, as many other countries of the world have had to contend with the same challenge in recent times.

The Nigerian Army Chief stated this at the graduation ceremony of 151 officers of junior Course 78 at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Jaji, Kaduna State.

Everyone Though she's not of legal age yet, Kylie and Tyga seem to be damning the consequences and getting more open about their relationship.While his ex,Blac Chyna has been twerking all over instagram,the two were spotted on a romantic date and Tyga was such a gentleman, opening doors for his blushing 17 year old date...

Alisher Usmanov

Russia's richest man Alisher Usmanov has transferred his holdings in mobile operator Megafon and iron ore producer Metalloinvest to Russian entities after President Vladimir Putin urged businessmen to bring their assets home.

Putin redoubled his efforts to encourage businessmen to "de-offshore" their assets on Thursday in his annual end-of-year news conference, as the country's economy heads for recession, dragged down by a slump in oil prices and Western sanctions.

The United States imposed sanctions Friday on Russian-controlled Crimea as Ukraine announced the loss of five soldiers ahead of peace talks meant to end a war against Russian-backed insurgents.

President Barack Obama prohibited American exports of goods or services to Crimea, a strategic peninsula and vacation destination that Russian seized from Ukraine last March.

China has offered more than $3 billion in loans and aid to neighbors Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos to improve infrastructure and production, and to fight poverty, state media reported on Saturday.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the offer included $1 billion for infrastructure, $490 million for poverty alleviation and $1.6 billion in special loans for China's production capacity export, Xinhua news agency said.

Godwin Emefiele

In an effort to save the naira from further decline, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Friday announced new measures to curb currency speculation.

The move comes after currency devaluation and a cut in the 2015 growth forecast and less than two months before general elections, with President Goodluck Jonathan trying to assure voters that Nigeria’s financial future remains healthy.

Wenger and Rogers

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger knows all about the ups and downs of football management and expressed sympathy for his beleaguered Liverpool counterpart Brendan Rodgers ahead of their clash at Anfield on Sunday.

Rodgers is facing a stern examination of his managerial credentials this season, with last year's Premier League runners-up 11th in the table.

Justin Bieber has received the social media equivalent of a lump of coal in his stocking.

The Biebs, his ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, and other big names lost thousands — and in some cases more than a million — Instagram followers in one fell swoop Thursday, as the company deleted inactive, fake, and spam accounts. Instagram announced last week that it would be making the move after reaching 300 million total users.

Mohammed Bako stared out at the teeming Jimeta market in Nigeria's Yola city, looking for anything suspicious amongst the hawkers selling cheap phones and cars attempting near impossible turns down narrow alleys.

Bako runs a box-size phone shop in the market, but 18 months ago took on a new job as head of the local vigilante force working with the military against Boko Haram.

Liberia Senate elections that were repeatedly delayed because of the Ebola epidemic and legal challenges, and further complicated by a presidential ban on large political gatherings in the capital, will finally be held in Liberia on Saturday. Whether they will be fair, peaceful and safe is unclear.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has said the elections, first scheduled more than two months ago but postponed twice, must be held, otherwise the nine-year terms of half the members in the 30-seat Senate will expire with no successors, provoking a constitutional crisis. Critics have said mass gatherings at the polls raise the risk of more contagion that would aggravate the Ebola crisis, which had shown signs of easing in this country of four million.

UNN Plans To Establish Sports Academy For South-East

The University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) has planned to construct a sports academy to carter for the sporting needs of the South-East geo-political zone of the country.

The Chairman of UNN Sports Council, Rev. Canon Jacob Onyechi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday that N20 million would be needed for the project.

FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on Friday assured indigenes of Abuja that the Land Swap policy introduced by the administration would address issues of their resettlement.

Mallam Yahaya Yusuf, the Director of Development Control, FCTA, said this in an interview in Abuja.

Yusuf said the policy would also encourage private funding of infrastructure in the territory.

flowers

The mother of most of the eight children reportedly found stabbed to death in a house in the Australian city of Cairns has been arrested for murder, police said Saturday.

"The 37-year-old mother of several of the children involved in this incident has been arrested for murder overnight and is currently under police guard at the Cairns Base Hospital," detective inspector Bruno Asnicar told reporters. The woman has not been charged.

Insurgency: UN Scribe Expresses Solidarity With Nigeria, 2 Other Countries

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Friday expressed solidarity with the governments and people of Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen in their fight against terrorism.

Ban, in a message in New York, also expressed his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims who lost their lives in the terror attacks in the countries.

Record-Breaking 1.1 Billion People Travelled The World In 2014 - UN

It appears the world was on the move like never before in 2014, as the latest figures out of the UN’s World Tourism Organization show international travel is set to hit a new record by the end of the year with more than 1.1 billion people crossing oceans and borders.

During the first 10 months of 2014, the number of international tourists reached 978 million - 45 million or 5 percent more than the same period of 2013.

APC Logo

The Sokoto State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Friday distributed 124 vehicles to the officials of the party in the 23 local government areas the state.

Gov. Aliyu Wamakko assisted by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, distributed the vehicles to the officials.

The vehicles, which included Peugeot and KIA, were handed over to the chairmen, Secretaries, women and youths leaders of the party in the 23 local governments of the state.

Nigerian Stock Exchange Logo

Equity transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday ended on positive note for the second consecutive day.

The All-Share Index appreciated further by 995.26 basis points or 3.39 per cent to close at 30,306.51 as against the 29,311.25 achieved on Thursday.

President Goodluck Jonathan with members of the Presidential Committee of Experts on Inter-Professional Relationship in the Public Health Sector

President Goodluck Jonathan pledged Friday in Abuja that the Federal Government will act expeditiously on the report of the Presidential Committee of Experts on Inter-Professional Relationship in the Public Health Sector to end “unhealthy rivalries” among healthcare professionals.

kenya flag

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta signed a controversial security law on Friday, over the objections of human rights groups that called the law, meant to fight armed groups operating in the country, an assault on basic freedoms.

The new measures will allow police to hold "terror suspects" for up to 360 days without trial, from the current 90 days. They will also increase sentences for acts of terror and broaden the government’s power to tap phones.

A senior magistrate of a court sitting in Ijaiye-Ojokoro, Lagos State, Mrs. O.A Olayinka, on Thursday berated some officers of the Nigerian Prisons Service attached to the Kirikiri Medium Security Prison for the death of a defendant, Okenife Okeke.

The magistrate blamed the prison officers for their failure to produce the defendant in the court after his first appearance on April 3, 2014.

Find attached a pic of recently acquired T72 tanks by GEJ administration to tackle BH. The soldiers moral are so high now because these T72 tanks purchased from Ukraine are Anti-IED, Anti Missile and are indestructible unless shot by another tank.

They were purchased as part of the utilization of the 1Billion dollar loan and 77 were bought and are being distributed in the trouble area. Now boko haram are fleeing and they are now setting IED's everywhere but apparently they cant destroy the Tank.

23 year old rapper Young Thug has been plagued with gay rumours after he said in an interview that all he did when he was in prison was - "I didn’t do shit there but gamble, smoke and f**k.”.
Then he shared a pic of himself and his record label boss, Birdman and referred to him as 'My Love'. Plus whenever he posts pics of his male friends, he referred to them as "bae', 'hubby', or 'lover'.
A few days ago, the rapper responded to the gay/bisexual rumours, by admitting that he likes men but really isn't gay. Urm..how does that work? He deleted the tweets but not before some folks grabbed it.

See the tweets below>>>>

Can you all see Iyabo Obasanjo? She's sitting to Obasanjo's right. His first wife Remi Obasanjo is sitting to his left.

blackberry

BlackBerry Ltd on Friday reported a bigger-than-expected drop in third-quarter revenue, sending shares of the struggling smartphone maker lower, even as it eked out a small adjusted profit and began generating cash flow again.

Revenue fell to $793 million from $1.19 billion a year earlier, falling short of analysts' expectations of $931.5 million.

"It's a number that obviously, to us, is not satisfying,"

Joe Hart Signing A New Long Term Deal With Manchester City

Joe Hart has committed his long-term future to the Club, agreeing terms on a new contract at the Etihad Stadium which will run until the end of the 2018/19 season.

The England international, 27, joins fellow two-time Barclays Premier League champions Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko, Aleksandar Kolarov, Samir Nasri and David Silva in signing a new deal in 2014.

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