Simon Akpaasou's Blog

The organisers of the planned academic conference on witchcraft planned for Nsukka next week are looking for another venue after the University of Nigeria withdrew the approval for the use of its Energy Centre. The director of the centre wrote conference organisers withdrawing the approval, amidst the opposition by Christian students and the Christian Association of Nigeria against the conference. The conference, initially scheduled for 28-31 October is the brainchild of the B.I.C Ijomah Centre for Policy and Research and is expected to hold between November 26 and November 27. It is a pure academic exercise, not a real meeting of witches and wizards, the centre said, shocked by the uninformed reaction of Christian students and CAN. Posters pasted by Christian students on the campus decried the conference. The posters bear the messages: “Say No to the meeting of witches and wizards!!! We are (a) Christian community. Don’t pollute our environment please!” “University of Nigeria belongs...

ITALIAN goalkeeper Matteo Voltolini has been suspended by his club after being filmed apparently having sex in a nightclub toilet. The 23-year-old plays for Serie C side Reggio Audace. He was an unused sub in their 2-1 win over Vis Pesaro on Sunday. Voltolini later visited a local nightspot, where he apparently got on famously with a young woman. And an unknown fellow clubber secretly filmed the couple romping in a toilet cubicle, report Corriere Dello Sport. A 15-second clip swiftly went viral after being posted on social media including WhatsApp. Reggio Audace said in a statement: “We announce the preventive suspension from sporting activities of our player Matteo Voltolini for one week. “This is while we wait to learn in full about the post-match events on Sunday November 17.” Voltolini is reportedly now considering legal action, claiming a breach of privacy.

The United States authorities have frozen about $14.2 million in bank accounts linked to companies registered by Allen Onyema, the chairman of Air Peace Limited. Mr Onyema and Ejiroghene Eghagha, Air Peace’s head of finance and administration, were recently indicted for alleged money laundering and bank fraud in the United States. Both suspects strongly deny the allegations and said they looked forward to proving their innocence in court. The charges were first made public by the United States Department of Justice on Friday night. Shortly after the announcement, PREMIUM TIMES exclusively obtained the full detail of Mr Onyema’s indictment, which was not made public by the U.S. Department of Justice. The charges said Mr Onyema used several companies he set up in the U.S. to launder funds and commit bank fraud through issuance of counterfeit letters of credit. Some of the companies’ bank accounts in the U.S. and Canada had been frozen with their substantial balances as part of the inves...

Cristiano Ronaldo took selfies with three pitch invaders after his 55th career Hat-trick in Portugal's 6-0 win against Lithuania, MySportDab reports. Ronaldo, whose hat-trick was the 55th of his career and ninth for Portugal, has 98 goals and could become only the second player to score a century for his country after Iran's Ali Daei. Pizzi, Goncalo Paciencia and Bernardo Silva shared the other goals in the one-sided Group B match. The European champions, however, were left waiting to secure a place at the finals after Serbia beat Luxembourg 3-2. There was more than one pitch invader who ran onto the turf to meet Ronaldo and he responded graciously, sharing a picture with one and lifting up a child. Ronaldo showed no sign of the knee problem which led to him being substituted in his last two games for Juventus - prompting an angry reaction on the second occasion - and could easily have reached a century of goals on Thursday.

A British firm , Savannah Petroleum Plc, has announced the completion of the acquisition of Seven Energy International Limited, a Nigerian oil and gas exploration , development , production , and distribution group. Seven Energy , which described itself as the leading integrated gas company in southeast Nigeria, had announced in November 2017 that it had entered into a transaction for “ a comprehensive capital restructuring ” that would lead to the sale of most of its assets to Savannah Petroleum . The firm ’ s announcement came after several defaults on its debt -servicing obligations, as it took a beating from a severe liquidity challenge. Exactly two years after the commencement of the deal , Savannah Petroleum said in a statement on Friday that the transaction with Seven Energy had been completed . It said , “ At a court hearing on 13 November , administrators were appointed to Seven Energy International Limited and yesterday ( Thursday ) effected the transfer of the Seven Assets ...

An angry Pastor, Prophet Kofi Oduro has cursed young ladies who think they can make it in life with their private part. Kofi Oduro, the pastor of Alabaster International Ministry laid curses on females that use their pussies for business purposes. He was seen in a video cursing ladies involved in this kind of trade, saying: “You and your pussy shall perish in hell..."

Two men decided to flex their muscles over who first will use an Atm machine. The two men who argued over who first to use the ATM started fighting when the argument got out of hand. People tried to separate them, but they were just getting started. The guy who came with his girlfriend seem to have won the battle.

Mark Zuckerberg is currently trending again after pictures from his wife baby shower in September leaked online and people are calling it cheap and low budget. Mark Zuckerberg is the CEO and founder of Facebook / Instagram, the young man is also one of the richest people in the world. But his wife’s baby shower pictures which have been circulating online have got people talking on how frugal the multi billionaire is. The baby shower was held inside Zuckerberg’s home, which is surprisingly humble for a man worth more than $50 billion. And the decorations for the event which had a very “Dollar Store” look was even more surprising. The couple taped paper cut-out letters on the wall and served food using paper plates and napkins.

Girl seen beating her boyfriend on Legon campus after he allegedly cheated on her Ghanian student beats her boyfriend with slippers for cheating on her https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Edv-hRfZ8U

China has released the first picture of a spacecraft that has been developed to reach Mars. Beijing aims to land the explorer on the Red Planet in less than two years to celebrate the centenary of the ruling Communist Party. A picture of the explorer, called 'Mars 1', was published today by the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), Beijing's main space manufacturer. The craft is seen partially covered by golden sheets while a banner at the front suggests the craft was undergoing its last tests. Four workers are seen working around the explorer. All teams are now ready for the launch of the probe, which is scheduled to take place next year, the scientist revealed. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7563127/Chinas-mission-Mars-Beijing-unveils-explorer-world.html

Nana Aba Anamoah Television personality has in the wake of BBC’s documentary “Sex for Grades” revealed that, some big men also sometimes request to sleep with female journalists before granting interviews. According to Nana Aba Anamoah who was sharing her view on the sex for grade documentary released yesterday, it’s difficult for one to be a woman because whenever you need something from the opposite sex they would demand something from you in return. She made mention that people request sex for jobs, grades and other things including asking for sex before granting interviews to journalists. The issue of sex is everywhere, not only in institutions.

Abdullahi Babalele, son-in-law of Atiku Abubakar was docked today on a new charge of laundering $140,000. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission who brought him before Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, did not state the recipient of the money, but it fits the N50million gift sent by Atiku to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, days before the election. Babalele faces a two-count charge bordering on money laundering to the tune of $140,000.00. He allegedly persuaded one Bashir Mohammed, a Bureau De Change( BDC) operator, to make a cash payment of the sum of $140,000 without going through any financial institution, an offence contrary to Section 18(c) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 as amended and punishable under Section 16(2)(b) of the same Act. One of the counts reads: “That you, Abdullahi Babalele, on or about the 20th day of February, 2019 in Nigeria, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, procured Basir...

A shocking video has emerged on YouTube showing a young Nige Irian vomiting three ‘demonic cowries’ during a church service presided over by prominent cleric TB Joshua. The man, who identified himself as Desmond from Kogi State, Nigeria, subsequently admitted his involvement in a ‘secret cult’ and gave a sordid confession of his numerous activities. The clip shows the cultist drinking ‘Living Water’ prayed over by Joshua and subsequently clutching his stomach and vomiting uncontrollably. Amidst the sputum lies three ‘cowries’ – small white sea-shells – which are known to be major components of ‘witchcraft charms’ and used for divination by traditional ‘witchdoctors’ in West Africa. “These are the powers I was given – to kill and destroy,”Desmond admits, soaked in sweat and clearly overwhelmed at what had just transpired. The clip then skips forward to the Kogi-indigene’s subsequent testimony in The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) where he exposes chilling details of his past ...

The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has donated his chamber for free legal services to the Brekete Family Brekete Family is a radio program on Human Rights Radio, 101.1 fm Abuja that offers FREE advocacy and humanitarian services to Ordinary and poor Nigerians The announcement was made by the Founder of the Brekete Family and CEO of Human Rights Radio, Ordinary Dr Isah Ahmed on Friday, September 27, 2019, during a live broadcast of the Radio program The Vice President was guest on the Brekete Family program sometimes in October 2018 where he interacted with Nigerians and took complaints directly from Nigerians who called in during the Program The Brekete family has a Liaison officer from the office of the VP who is a regular guest in the program.

A businesswoman, Nkeiruka Cynthia Kamalu, has told a Federal High Court in Lagos that she was raped by a federal lawmaker, Uju Kingsley Chima, on August 9, 2015. Mrs Kamalu told Justice Nicholas Oweibo that following an incestuous relationship with Chima, the lawmaker offered to pay her N20 million if she was divorced by her husband, Mr Gabriel Igbibi. Chima is the Member, Federal House of Representatives for Ohaji/Egbema, Oguta and Oru West Federal Constituency of Imo State. She is seeking protection from Chima, who she alleged caused her to be arrested on 27th day of May, 2019 tortured, humiliated, detained for seven days by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and arraigned on a fictitious N40million theft charge. Kamalu made the allegations in a fundamental rights suit marked FHC/L/CS/1458/19 which came up on September 11, 2019. Her counsel, Chijioke Jiakponna, told the judge that Chima had been evading service. He alleged that when the bailiff called Chima on phone to inform him...

President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to the failed coup attempt on the Government of Ghana, early Wednesday morning. Igbere TV had reported the interception of an attempted plot against the authorities in Ghana, particularly the president. President Buhari’s reactions were contained in a statement by his Senior Spokesman, Garba Shehu, in a tweet sighted by Igbere TV. Read below.... Following the announcement of the interception of an attempted plot against the authorities in Ghana, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, has issued the following statement: “Nigeria and Ghana are leading partners in ECOWAS, and Transparency International, and Afrobarometer’s Africa Index 2019 attested that both countries have recorded exceptional advances in fighting corruption. When you take on powerful and corrupt vested interests successfully, sometimes they seek to push back. As the saying goes, ‘if you fight corruption, corruption will fight back’. “The only accepta...

If you think democracy is expensive, try dictatorship’ — senate spokesman defends ‘N5.5bn SUVs’ Adedayo Adeyeye, spokesman of the senate, has defended the decision of the national assembly to purchase sport utility vehicles (SUVs) reportedly worth N5.5 billion for its members. Justifying the decision, Adeyeye said if Nigerians think democracy is expensive because of the legislature they could experiment with dictatorship and do a cost analysis. Adeyeye said this when journalists asked him about the huge sum earmarked for the purchase of cars by the legislature on Tuesday. He wondered why the case of the legislature would be different when officials in the executive and in the judiciary have vehicles. “In this country, legislators, ministers and civil servants were provided houses and then the policy was stopped,” he said. ”As of today, most government officials have official vehicles the same way judicial officials have. I have asked the question several times why that of the legisl...

The White House on Wednesday released a transcript of President Trump’s phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, where the two discuss corruption in the country and how Joe Biden “stopped” an investigation into his son, Hunter. In the conversation, Trump mentions that a Ukrainian prosecutor “who was very good and he was shut down and that’s really unfair.” He then suggested that President Volodymyr Zelensky get in contact with Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, and Attorney General William Barr. “The other thing,” Trump said, according to the transcript. “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son. That Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. “Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you ·can look into it … It sounds horrible to me,” he said. Zelensky assured Trump that he will look into the situation. “The next prosecutor general will be 100% my person, my ca...

We can defend our expenditure – APC Battle for democracy doesn’t come cheap – Atiku  President Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as well as other agencies involved in the 2019 presidential election case spent billions of naira pursuing and defending the case at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT), checks by Daily Trust revealed. The tribunal had on Wednesday last week dismissed the petition filed by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku, challenging the election of President Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 23 presidential election. The judgement came after 177 days of legal battle in which Atiku, PDP, Buhari, APC and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deployed dozens of lawyers. A lawyer who participated in the tribunal’s proceedings said he was aware the legal fees for all the parties could be up to N5bn. Findings by the Daily Trust revealed that PDP had 20 SANs an...

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on September 19, 2019 secured the conviction of commercial director of Process and Industrial Developments Limited, (P&ID), Mohammed Kuchazi and the company’s director of process, Adamu Usman before Justice I. E. Ekwo of Federal High Court, sitting in Maitama, Abuja. The judge sentenced the company, incorporated in British Virgin Island to wind up in Nigeria and its properties, forfeited to the federal government. The duo were arraigned on 11-count charges, bordering on obtaining by false pretence; dealing in petroleum products without appropriate license; money laundering and failure to register P&ID with the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML) as required by law, amounting to economic sabotage against the Nigerian state. One of the charges reads: “That you, Process and Industrial Development Limited, being a company, incorporated in the British Virgin Island, Michael Quinn (deceased), Brendan Cahill (at l...