A 40 year old United States of America hip-hop star, Beanie Sigel who was a former protégé of Jay Z, was shot in the stomach at his home in New Jersey and is in a critical condition.
The rapper, whose real name is Dwight Grant, was shot during an argument in Pleasantville, New Jersey, that also left another person injured.
Grant received surgery for potentially life-threatening injuries and was then put under sedation, The motive for the shooting remains unclear.
Grant has been involved in fights and brushes with the law in the past. In 2004, he was sentenced to one year in prison on weapons charges.
More recently, Grant served a two-year prison sentence for tax evasion and was released in August.
Sigel had been close with Jay-Z, who promoted him when Jazy-Z ran Roc-A-Fella Records, but the pair fell out when Grant accused Jay-Z of not visiting him in prison and not promoting his work.
The relationship deteriorated to the point that Grant in 2009 released a song criticising Jay-Z called What You Talking Bout? (I Ain’t Ya Avergae Cat). [myad]
Nigeria security operatives have intercepted a Russian plane, heading to the neighbouring Chad Republic, carrying arms and ammunition at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano.
The crew members are said to have been taken into custody immediately after the plane was intercepted today.
According to a security operative who seeks anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said that the aircraft was headed for N’djamena, the capital of Chad. It landed in Kano at about 2a.m. Nigerian time.
Senator representing Kebbi Central, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, on the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party has defected to All Progressives Congress where he hopes to contest the state’s governorship position in 2015.
Bagudu, who presented his nomination form at the APC secretariat in the state today, said he defected following the advice from his associates and supporters.
“I am acting in tandem with advice from supporters, followers and political stakeholders in my constituency.”
The senator said he was optimistic of clinching the APC governorship ticket in the state but would abide by any decision of the party.
Bagudu, who was accompanied by his supporters to the APC secretariat, appealed to members of the party to give him the opportunity to serve the people.
Bagudu was said to have defected to the APC together with eight PDP members of the state House of Assembly.
The state Chairman of the APC, Alhaji Attahiru Machido, urged them to be loyal, promising that the party would ensure equity and fairness in its primaries. [myad]
Former Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has emerged the winner of the gubernatorial primary election of the All Progressive Congress (APC) for Kaduna State ahead of the 2015 gubernatorial polls.
El-Rufai defeated other four aspirants in a primary election that started yesterday, December 4, 2014 and lasted through the early hours of today. The result was announced by 8:30am, today.
The Zaria born El Rufai pulled 1,965 votes, Isah Ashiru pulled 1,379 votes, Haruna Sa’eed pulled 127 votes, Shamshudeen Abdullahi Ango pulled 25 votes while Salihu Mohammed Lukman pulled 22 votes.
Announcing the result at the Kaduna International Trade Fair Complex, venue of the primary, returning officer Prince Ekenyem Orizu said accredited delegates were 3557, total vote cast 3546, valid vote cast 3518 and invalid votes were 28.
Prince Orizu who declared Mallam El-rufai as commended the manner in which the delegates comported themselves during the election, while calling on the unsuccessful aspirants to rally round the winner to ensure that the party emerge victorious at the 2015 general elections.
In his acceptance speech shortly after he was declared winner, Mallam El-rufai thanked all who supported him and particularly those who contested with him and have accepted defeat in the spirit of sportsmanship.
“I commend the transparent, free and fair manner the election was conducted and I’m calling on other aspirants to join me in the struggle to make Kaduna State great again as a big family. I will visit other aspirants so that we can unite to vote out PDP in 2015.
“My priority among others will be to fix the education sector by providing free education from primary school to junior secondary school level, just as the APC government will bring to an end the insecurity not only in Kaduna State but in the country at large,” he said
Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose has called on the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to immediately suspend the former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for alleged anti -party activities, even as he said that Obasanjo hates President Goodluck Jonathan for no just cause.
He also called on the party to set a panel to probe Obasanjo’s anti-party activities.
Fayose who spoke with the newsmen in Ado Ekiti today, was apparently reacting to the visit of the five PDP governors to the former president at his Abeokuta country home yesterday, said that Chief Obasanjo was working against the interest of PDP and by extension, the president Jonathan, as he was secretly working for the success of APC at the poll.
Fayose described the visit of the PDP governors to Obasanjo as unwarranted, unnecessary and uncalled for, as he, Obasanjo has already made up his mind to work against the president Jonathan.
The governor said that PDP as a party must stop condoning indiscipline, saying; “nobody should be treated as being bigger than the party.”
He added that Obasanjo who does not appreciate others deserve no respect, adding that “no amount of mudslinging from him will stop President Goodluck Jonathan’s reelection.”
The governor said that visiting Obasanjo to plead with him to rescind his decision not to participate in the party’s activities was capable of encouraging other members of the party to openly disrespect the office of President and Commander-in-chief of the Armed forces of Nigeria as being done by Obasanjo.
“A man who has refused to respect the office of the President of Nigeria that he once occupied does not also deserve respect from anyone.”
The governor, who described Obasanjo as one of the major problems of Nigeria, added that the former president’s open castigation of President Goodluck Jonathan was unbecoming of someone who led the country for 11 years and wasted billions of naira in his attempt to perpetuate himself in office beyond the constitutionally recognised two-term.
“Have you ever heard a former president of the United States of America (USA) openly abusing a sitting president of the country?
“Does it mean that former USA president, Bill Clinton agreed with all the policies of George W. Bush and the incumbent president, Barack Obama?
“Obasanjo is behaving unpresidentially and he must be told to respect himself.”
Fayose said that Obasanjo was already a member of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) and that he was pushing for one of his loyalists to be the party’s Vice presidential candidate.
“Obasanjo is a man who can never be pleased. His principle of life is; if it is not his way, it must not be another person’s way.
“Even if President Jonathan gives Obasanjo his blood today, he (Obasanjo) cannot change because he is already neckdeep in the APC agenda, with his eyes on the vice presidential ticket of the party.
“Therefore, no amount of visits by PDP governors can make him change his mind about President Jonathan, whom he hates not because he has not performed, but because he (Jonathan) did not hand over his presidency to him.” [myad]
File Photo: Shia Muslims march through the streets of the northern Nigerian city of Kano
Members of an Islamic sect, the Shiite, have concluded plan to embark on a seven-day trek from Kano to Zaria in commemoration of Imam Hussain, a freedom fighter who, along with scores of Muslims, was murdered hundreds of years ago at Karbala, the present day Iraq. This is even as about 5,000 Muslims have today, embarked on the same trekking from Katsina to Zaria.
According to the sect’s leader in Kano, Sheikh Muhammad Mahmoud Turi, thousands of the members would begin the mass trekking ritual in the morning of Sunday, even as he accused the federal government of killing the son of their leader, Sheikh El-Zakzaky. The Shiite leader made it clear that the soldiers who killed the three sons of their national leader in broad day light in Zaria were Boko Haram members. “The soldiers killed our people. Those children were university students and Boko Haram means education is sin. Then the soldiers killed them for nothing sake! The soldiers are the Boko Haram.” Sheikh Mahmoud, who spoke to newsmen in Kano yesterday insisted that the consistent operation of the sect in the Northeast and other parts of the North indicated that government and its agencies have a hand in its activities. “It is an open secret that the present government cannot exonerate itself from all these mayhem that is happening in the country. It is so obvious that whatever may be the reason, nobody in the country can tell us that the government is not aware or has no hand in what is happening. The government is fully responsible and there is no doubt about it.”
The leader of the sect in Katsina, Mallam Yakubu Yahaya, told newsmen that the journey to Zaria was being carried out by members of the sect comprising men and women, young and old, including children, adding that the trek symbolises the forceful trekking of some Muslim faithful after the murder of Imam Hussain.
“We will all converge in Zaria by Tuesday where we shall collectively commemorate the untimely murder of Imam Hussain and other Muslims. We will also commemorate their suffering.”
Another 50,000 Shiite Muslims also staged a peaceful march across Kaduna metropolis and the city of Zaria in remembrance of the late Imam Hussain and his household.
The members of the Shiite in Zaria, who wore black dresses, sang dirges expressing sadness over the martyrdom of Hussain.
South Africans, today, paid tribute to Nelson Mandela on the first anniversary of his death, with his widow imploring citizens to carry on his legacy of love and forgiveness.
Mandela, 95, died on December 5, 2013after battling a recurring lung infection.
Officials scheduled a series of events today to mark the anniversary of his death, including a wreath-laying ceremony, a cricket match and blaring of vuvuzela followed by moments of silence.
His wife, Grace Machel was among attendees at one of the first events of the day: a wreath-laying ceremony at his statue in Pretoria.
During the ceremony, she spoke of her husband’s legacy and the need to carry it forward.
“Madiba’s legacy covers everyone in the country, in Africa and in the world,” she said.
She called on everyone to tap into his legacy of forgiveness, and ensure everything he stood for lives on long after he is gone.
Machel also mentioned her sorrow at her husband’s death, and the feeling of emptiness that washed over her.
“When he left he said, ‘I leave you in peace and I want you to live in peace,'” she said. “On the day of his passing I was not able to think, I was numb.”
However, she said, she got solace from knowing her husband is at peace and is with friends who died before him. She mentioned some of his closest friends, including Oliver Tambo, with whom Mandela operated the nation’s first black law firm.
“Looking back, I imagine him tall and proud, walking, and all of them rising to welcome him,” Machel said.
The revered statesman emerged from prison in 1990 after 27 years in detention to lead South Africa out of decades of apartheid. Mandela’s defiance of white minority rule and incarceration for fighting against segregation focused the world’s attention on apartheid, the legalized racial segregation enforced by the South African government.
In the years leading up to his death, he battled various ailments, forcing him to retreat to a quiet life and fade away from the limelight.
Despite rare public appearances, he held a special place in the nation.
In his lifetime, he went from a militant freedom fighter, to a prisoner, to a president, to an elder statesman.
Mandela became the nation’s first black president in 1994. He retired from the presidency five years later, and for many South Africans, he was simply Madiba, his traditional clan name. Others affectionately called him Tata, the Xhosa word for father.
Other events marking his memorial include a cricket match between the Proteas and the Springboks, and an interfaith prayer.
His foundation will also have a three-minute, seven-second blaring of vuvuzelas and traditional horns, followed by three minutes of silence.
The six minutes and seven seconds are a symbol of the 67 years he spent in public service.
There is a saying that for every action, there must be reaction, which the Nigeria Police, through the new Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, seem to or pretend to be oblivious of. No one would argue that the Nigeria police has, in one way or the other, not taken sides in matters pertaining to partisan politics since the beginning of this Republic. But, the rate at which the new Inspector General of Police (IGP) is leading his men and officers into glaring politicking, as the nation approaches 2015 elections, considered as having the potentials of dismembering the country, is uncomfortable to the right thinking people. The posture which the police is showing, of dancing to the tune of he who provides the piper, is not good both for the image and character of the Force. From the day Suleiman was appointed, this posture began to take root, though it has for long, as earlier acknowledged, been showing. Indeed, the right thinking Nigerians who have their heads correctly placed on top of their shoulders have been expecting that with elections at hand, Suleiman would re-direct the system to a more honourable way: of fairness and indeed, professionalism. Such people are being proved wrong. As a matter of fact, when President Goodluck Jonathan jumped other senior Police officers (Deputy Inspectors of Police) to appoint Suleiman, an Assistant Inspector of Police (AIG) as IGP, people thought that he was the messiah the Force needed to firm up and come back to the path of honour. But the looks on the face of Suleiman, as he was being appointed then was that of “gratitude” to the person of the President, with the body language that clearly said: “I’m here to serve you, your Excellency.” From that point, it was clear Of course that every appointment the President made in recent times, and most of his actions, have been tailored strictly to make his election in 2015 for his supposed second term in office very easy. Though, there are no concrete evidences to show that President Jonathan has been personally dictating to the IGP, but the body language of the Presidency (the Presidential aides all over the place) has been loud enough for anybody to understand that IGP Suleiman is not here to observe the constitutional roles of the Police. In other words, the gradual abandonment of constitutional roles by the police in order for them to serve the narrow interests of a few people around the corridors of power, has also been gradually eroding the trust, by majority of Nigerians outside the power blocs, in the police. It was as if the IGP Suleiman had not yet come to terms with the consequences of reducing Police into the guards for a few powerful individuals in power when he wailed over the physical attack on his men who went to block the entry of the speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, into the National Assembly’s premises a couple of weeks ago. The reality on the ground is that the police men and women are being dragged into the murky waters of politics, taking sides with a few people and abandoning their constitutional roles, and what they are doing is dragging themselves into constant face-off with the rest of the members of the society. Some top ranking officers would need to start cautioning themselves against the culture of boot leaking those who appoint or cause them to be appointed or promoted to high ranks, only to use such positions to humiliate the rest of the people or the political opponents. That is the only way the Police would earn the respect, the cooperation and some measures of “fear” from Nigerians across the political divides. Turn the other way round, the police should expect fight-back, disrespect, frustration and molestation from the people they are supposed to protect.
Presidential aspirant of All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar has promised to provide all the necessary supports for the winner of the party’s primary election, Senator Muhammed Jubrilla Bindow. In a congratulatory message to the party’s candidates in all the states of the federation, who took part in the party’s governorship primaries nationwide, particularly Adamawa State, the former Vice President commended them for their hard work and determination. Atiku particularly asked the Adamawa state flag bearer not to relent in his efforts but to mobilize and rally round other aspirants who are members of the party to ensure that come 2015, the APC in Adamawa State will win the state governorship election. He also commended the state branch of the party for organizing rancour-free and transparent primaries and congratulated all the aspirants for their good conduct before and after the primaries. Atiku advised all the aspirants to see the outcome of the election as a victory for the party and not a particular individual, as the party and its interest is bigger than any person or group of persons. The APC Presidential hopeful repeated his determination to give total support to the party to ensure that it produces the Governor of the state at the general elections come 2015. He advised the party leadership in the state and all the party members to maintain unity and peace to ensure that the party remains strong and attractive to win the support of the people of the state.
The Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has withdrawn from the senatorial race. Uduaghan had wanted to represent Delta South Senatorial District on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP. Sources close to the governor disclosed that Uduaghan agreed to withdraw from the race at a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan; the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu; and the senator representing Delta South Senatorial District, James Manager. Uduaghan, it was learnt, agreed to withdraw from the race to allow peace to reign in the state PDP. Manager had insisted that he would like to return to the Senate as he could not secure the ticket to governor of the state because of the zoning arrangement. The face-off over the senatorial seat had generated tension within the PDP in Delta State. The meeting that resolved the face-off today was held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The primaries for the senatorial and House of Representatives race will take place tomorrow, Saturday.
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