Lagos APC Gov Candidate, Akin Ambode Campaigns Inside BRT

Lagos State APC gubernatorial aspirant, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode yesterday day was in Ketu area of Lagos to intensify his campaign to become the next Governor of Lagos. He took a BRT Bus from Ketu Bus Stop to Fadeyi. He shared his plans for Lagos State with Lagosians.

Photos: Oprah, David Oyelowo & Carmen Ejogo storm Ellen DeGeneres' show #Selma

 

The 56-year-old star, Ellen DeGeneres had a friendly chat with the 60-year-old former talk show host, Oprah Winfrey as they discussed several topics and even played a game together.

Oprah and Ellen went to take a sweet selfie of their own as the wife of Portia de Rossi took to her Twitter to post the photo on Thursday night.

She shared it with her 37.4million followers with the caption: 'My neighbor, @Oprah's on the show tomorrow. Perhaps you’ve heard of her.'

The two ladies were also joined by Selma co-stars David Oyelowo and Carmen Ejogo as Oprah produced the upcoming flick.

The foursome seemingly had a blast as they played a few rounds of Ellen's mobile game Heads Up! while promoting the film.

Brian Banks free of Rape charge

The woman who falsely accused football star Brian Banks of raping her is being forced to pay big time.
A judge has ordered that the woman pay $2.6 million to Banks for ruining his life with false allegations. The lies caused him to lose numerous scholarship offers to college and also led to a prison sentence of over five years.
Wanetta Gibson told lies to authorities when she accused Banks of assaulting her when the two attended Long Beach Poly High, where Banks was both a student and football star.
After the conviction, the girl sued the school district and received $1.5 million. The conviction was overturned when Gibson was secretly recorded admitting that she made the whole thing up.
Years later, Gibson confessed and Banks was released. The woman is being forced to repay a $750,000 settlement to the school, plus attorneys fees, interest and another $1 million in punitive damages.

Why Akpabio wants Udom Emmanuel As Successor

The Akwa Ibom State Governor Chief Godswill Akpabio says his decision to support Udom Emmanuel as the next governor of the State is borne out of his desire to leave the sustenance of the legacies brought about by his government, in capable hands.

Speaking at the National Arts Theatre in Lagos on the occasion of a Town Hall meeting with the Akwa Ibom State Community (AKISCOM) Lagos, Governor Akpabio said the people of the state found competence and professionalism in Mr Udom Emmanuel, and decided that he should be the next governor of the state.
He said his meeting with the Akwa Ibom Community in Lagos was to interact with them as their Governor and to present his potential successor to them, describing Udom as the right person for the right job at the right time.
The Governor who used the occasion to present both the PDP Governorship candidates of Akwa Ibom and Lagos state, Udom Emmanuel and Jimi Agbaje said PDP is performing well in Nigeria and solicited the support of the Akwa Ibom Community in Lagos for the comprehensive victory of the party.
According to Governor Akpabio, his administration since his advent in 2007 declared war on decayed infrastructure and now has transformed Akwa Ibom into a destination of choice.
“We have built the infrastructure and now we are bringing someone who can manage the infrastructure to generate profit for the state,” Akpabio enthused.
The Governor who posited that, “an intelligent man can turn a desert into a Dubai while an non-intelligent man can turn Burkinam Palace into a desert”, maintained that it would be wrong to leave all the achievements in the hands of a politician who would rather think of the next election instead of thinking about the next generation.
Governor Akpabio who shocked the audience when he dismissed the notion that he was done with achievements, announced that the two new international hotels the Sheraton by Four Point Hotel in Ikot Ekpene and the Ibom Hilton Garden as well as the new International Specialist Hospital will be commissioned next month in the state.

Udom Emmanuel

Akpabio encouraged them to vote massively for President Goodluck Jonathan as the best President that Nigeria has ever had, in view of his reforms in roads and other infrastructure development adding that the security challenge affecting parts of the nation will soon be a thing of the past.

Udom in his speech said that his emergence was justified by the need for someone with the capacity, competence and ability to  consolidate on the gains of Governor Akpabio’s development at the right time.
He said he will anchor his administration on sustainable development that will ensure human capital development.”We will add Manpower Planning to the Bureau of Labour and Productivity. We are building at the next level, we will create leaders and we will follow our leaders to lead us right.”
According to him, “Governor Akpabio has created the desired change in our state and we need someone who will come and manage that change instead of someone who wishes to come and change the change.”
He urged the Akwa Ibom Community to ensure they have their voters’ card ahead of the next election and craved their support for President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election.

Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio (M) presenting the Governorship candidates of the PDP in Lagos and Akwa Ibom Jimi Alagbe (R) and Udom Emmanuel (L)

Also speaking the PDP governorship candidate in Lagos Mr Jimi Agbaje said he could not afford the ignore the gathering of Akwa Ibom Community in Lagos, in view of the importance of non-indigenes to the development of Lagos state and solicited their  support for his election and re-election of President Jonathan in the February general elections.

Earlier, Indigenes of Akwa Ibom State resident in Lagos and its environs had thrown their weight behind the 2015 Governorship candidature of Mr Udom Emmanuel.
Declaring the position of the body, the President, Mr Elijah Ifot said the Akwa Ibom people resident in and around Lagos having assessed the pedigree and capacity of one of their own, Mr Udom Emmanuel, they are left with no option than to support him for the governorship. Ifot noted that the future of Akwa Ibom State must be left in the hands of an experienced, humble, honest and intelligent hand that can consolidate on the uncommon transformation of Akwa Ibom State.
The event chairman on the occasion Mr Udom Inoyo an Executive Director, Exxon Mobil used the occasion to dispel the notion that Udom Emmanuel had any biological relationship with Governor Akpabio. Cultural troupes, musical performances and song rendition climaxed the colourful occasion.

Charlie Hebdo massacre: Arrests as France hunts gunmen

 

        

 
French police released photos of the Kouachi brothers - Cherif (L) and Said (R)  

Police in France have made seven arrests as they hunt for two named suspects over the deadly attack in Paris on staff at a satirical magazine.

The seven, connected to the two main suspects, were detained in the towns of Reims and Charleville-Mezieres, as well as in the Paris area, police said.

Photos were released of two brothers suspected of involvement in the attack.

France is mourning the 12 people killed when Charlie Hebdo was targeted by gunmen shouting Islamist slogans.

Reports are coming in from Paris of a shooting at a metro station in the south of Paris. At least one police officer is reported to have been injured. It is not known whether the incident is linked to the attack on Charlie Hebdo.

A minute's silence will be observed at midday across the country and the bells of Notre Dame in the capital will toll.

Arrest warrants were issued for Cherif and Said Kouachi, said to be "armed and dangerous". A third suspect has surrendered.

Cherif Kouachi was sentenced in 2008 to three years in prison for belonging to a Paris-based group sending jihadist fighters to Iraq.

A third suspect, 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad handed himself in to police in Charleville-Mezieres. He reportedly surrendered after hearing his name on the news.

The victims

 Those killed (from left) include economist Bernard Maris, prominent cartoonists Wolinski and Cabu, Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier and cartoonist Bernard Verlhac

• Charlie Hebdo editor and cartoonist Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier, 47, who had been living under police protection since receiving death threats
• Cartoonists Jean "Cabu" Cabut, 76, Bernard "Tignous" Verlhac, 57, Georges Wolinski, 80, and Philippe Honore, 73
• Economist and regular magazine columnist Bernard Maris, 68, known to readers as Uncle Bernard
• Mustapha Ourrad, proof-reader
• lsa Cayat, psychoanalyst and columnist, the only woman killed
• Michel Renaud, who was visiting from the city of Clermont-Ferrand
• Frederic Boisseau, 42, caretaker, who was in the reception area at the time of the attack
• Police officers Franck Brinsolaro, who acted as Charb's bodyguard, and Ahmed Merabet, 42, who was shot dead while on the ground

INEC to publish voters list on Tuesday

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will on Tuesday publish the voters register – one month to the election - in line with the Electoral Act.

Mr. Kayode Idowu, INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega’s spokesman, said yesterday that the register will be on display to allow for public scrutiny for claims and objections.
The publication of the register will end the anxiety over the list. Those who have not registered will no longer be able to do so before the elections.

Idowu said those who registered during the continous Voter Registration (CVR) and those whose names are on the register but yet to pick up their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), will still be free to have the cards until the end of the month.

The elections are slated for February 14 and 28.
The list will be published in line with Section 19(i) of the Electoral Act, 2010 as amended.

Section 9(5) of the Act also forbids INEC from registering any person not later than 30 days before any election. Section 19(5) directs the commission to publish names of those expected to participate in the April 14th and 15th general elections forthwith.

The section reads: “Subject to the provisions of section 9(5) of this Act, the Commission shall, by notice, appoint a period of not less than five days and not exceeding 14 days, during which a copy of the voters’ register for each local government, Area Councillor ward shall be displayed for public scrutiny and during which period any objection or complaint in relation to names omitted or included in the voters’ register or relation to any necessary correction, shall be raised or filed.”

Section 9(5) states: “The registration of voters, updating and revision of the register of voters under the section shall stop not later than 30days before any election covered by this Act”
INEC is contemplating carving out constituencies for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) among other possible options, to ensure their participation in the elections.

The committee set up to look into various possibilities has submitted a report after working for two weeks.

IDP camps have been created in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states, which have been under attack of insurgents.

Idowu said: “One option is to designate a safe haven as a constituency, because the law prescribes constituency and residency voting. You can designate a safe area as a safe haven and invite everybody to come to that constituency from wherever they dwell within or outside the country to come over and cast their votes.

“If you have possibility of IDP camps being homogenous in terms of where people migrated from, you can move the polling units and get them to vote. So there are many options that the security can work with but essential it will still need security cover to do these things.”
Jega has been invited by the House of Representatives to explain the plan for the elections.

The lawmakers are concerned about the chances of the country’s 3.3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) voting in the elections.

The meeting has been fixed for January 20.
The Chairman, House Committee on Electoral Matters, Jerry Manwe, the INEC boss and his team are expected to elaborate on INEC’s level of preparedness.

Funding, security and franchise of IDPs as well as other sundry matters will be discussed.

Bob Ekarika

SSS Nabs APC party attempt to falsify docs for elections

SSS Displays Documents Recovered From APC Office In Lagos, Alleges Plan To Clone INEC Database

Nigeria's State Security Service today displayed a series of documents recovered from the Lagos office of the principal opposition party, the All Progressives Congress. The service alleges the party was attempting to undermine the coming presidential election with fradulent documents, multiple registrations, and a plan to clone the INEC database.