Razz Mattaz – Phenomenal

Police arrest Catholic priest said to be MASSOB member

Phenomenal — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 21:48:02 +0000

The Police in Anambra have arrested and detained a catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Samuel Aniebonem, and five other persons for allegedly belonging to the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports from Awka on Friday that the information is contained in a press release to journalists by Mazi Chris Mocha, Director of Information, MASSOB.

The statement indicated that Aniebonem and five others were arrested on Wednesday, September 27, by the anti-kidnapping unit of the Nigeria police at Awkuzu, Oyi Local Government Area (LGA), Anambra.

Mocha said that three persons had earlier been arrested when the police raided the group’s office along Awkuzu/Otuocha road, Ifitedunu, Dunukofia Local Government Area of the state, on Monday, 25 September.

The statement noted that Aniebonem, who works at St Patrick’s Cathedral Church, Awka, hails from Ifitedunu town, and got involved when he visited the State Criminal Investigation Department, Awkuzu, on account of his in-law.

Mocha said that the priest had gone for Chief Sylvester Dinyelu, his 87-year-old in-law who was arrested by the police to seek the reason behind his arrest and possibly secure his release considering his age.

He said instead of briefing the priest on reasons for Dinyelu’s arrest, the police arrested the Reverend Father on the suspicion that he too might be a member of movement.

Mr. Udebunu Anachuna, driver of the priest who drove him to the station, was equally arrested alongside Mr. Christian Ifeji, Johnson Anagor and Mr. Kanayo Madu on the same allegation.

Mocha said that a similar development occurred in Onitsha when one Mr. Mathew Ani was also arrested on Tuesday, September 26, on allegation of belonging to the Indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB).

He said that the random arrests by police need to be checked as their actions are against the principles of the right of free association and movement of the citizens as contained in the Nigerian constitutions as amended.

“We have just engaged the services of our lawyer to ensure the early release of the men, including the 87-year-old man,” Mocha said.

The Police command Public Relations Officer, PPRO, in Anambra, Mr. Tochukwu Ikenga (DSP), confirmed the arrest and detention when contacted.

“Our operatives working on reliable information, raided their office along Oyeagu Ifitedunu road on Monday September 25.

He said that a lot of incriminating items and unpatriotic materials showing the movement’s disloyalty to the Federal government were found there.

“Temporarily, the case is still under investigation as I talk to you,” he further disclosed.

Halaan: ‘A familiar face returns to training’

Phenomenal — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 14:45:12 +0000

Manchester City star striker Erling Haaland returned to team training from a groin problem on Tuesday, a week before their first UEFA Champions League quarter-final date with Bayern Munich.

“A familiar face returns to training,” Manchester City tweeted. “Erling Haaland is back.”

Haaland missed two Euro 2024 qualifiers with Norway and Manchester City’s 4-1 league win against Liverpool over the injury.

He has scored a staggering 42 goals in all competitions for Manchester City since joining them in summer from Borussia Dortmund.

Haaland could play in the weekend English Premier League (EPL) match against bottom club Southampton before the first match against Bayern Munich, with the return leg a week later.

Manchester City is also hosting league leaders Arsenal in April.

Three Abba Kyari’s aides test positive for coronavirus

Phenomenal — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 18:14:39 +0000

As Nigerians still await official statements on the status of President Muhammadu Bihari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari’s status, three of his (Kyari’s) aides have reportedly tested positive to coronavirus.
News that Kyari has caught the pandemic broke earlier on Tuesday.

The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, who members visited Also Rock in the afternoon, is expected to react soon.

Nigerians kick as Finance Minister says FG will pull 10 immilion people out of poverty in 2020

Phenomenal — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 10:50:48 +0000

Many Nigerians are not finding inspiring a declaration by the Minister of finance, Zainab Ahmed, that the Buhari government will take 10 million folks out of poverty this year.
in an interview with ‘NTA’ on Monday, Ahmed said President Muhammad Buhari was keen on achieving this.
Nigerians reacting to the claim are, however, worried that the government had not been able to do so since five years ago it got to office.

Ahmed said, “President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that we must pull 100 million Nigerians out of poverty and that is our major focus. Based on the president’s directives, we want to move fast to make the kind of change the president wanted in the country.

“In 2020, we want to move very fast because we realized that going at the steady rate we are doing is not going to make the kind of change that the president has directed must happen.

“So, we have to make sure that we are creating more jobs and reducing unemployment, and pulling as many Nigerians as possible out of poverty. And that is the reason why when we did the finance bill, you will find that the bill was largely targeted at making businesses easy for the small and very small businesses. This is because we believe that is where the economy needs to really grow and stabilize from.”
Comments on the claim, as seen online, are not favorable to it at all.

Second term rewards incompetence – Atiku

Phenomenal — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 20:21:44 +0000

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has expressed displeasure with the speed with which the six-year single term proposal for president and governors was rejected by the House of Representatives.
Abubakar expressed the displeasure in a statement issued by his Media Adviser, Mr Paul Ibe, on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to the rejection of the bill by the House on Monday.
He said that he was disappointed by the fact that the lawmakers had thrown away the baby with the bath water at the expense of the larger interest of the country.
Abubakar said that in view of the challenges facing Nigeria current democratic order, especially the culture of rigging that subverts the will of the people, six-year single term would have ended such untoward practices in its electoral process.
“The desperation for second term by the incumbents is the main reason why they go for broke and set the rule book on fire, thereby making free and fair elections impossible by legitimising rigging at the expense of their challengers that have no access to public funds.
“A situation where the incumbents deploy more public resources to their second term projects than using the funds for people’s welfare encourages massive rigging that undermines electoral integrity.
“Six-year single term would remove such desperation and enable the incumbents to concentrate on the job for which they were elected in the first place.”
Abubakar regretted that eight-year term of office rewards incompetence because even incumbents that have failed would use their access to public funds to return to power by fair or foul means.
“I don’t agree with the logic that eight years would give elected leaders better opportunity to fulfill their campaign promises.
“An inherently incompetent incumbent will perform below average even if you give him/her 20 years in office or give him or her $20 billion dollars,” Abubakar stressed.
According to him, it is not how long a man spends in office, but how well he is adequately prepared for the job.
He argued that the desperation for second term was not necessarily driven by patriotism or the passion for service, but by the obsession with the greed for power for its own sake.
“Second term obsession rewards incompetence by allowing failed incumbents to be reelected regardless of their performance record.
“It also denies political parties the opportunity to replace failed incumbents with better candidates within the parties in the name of right of first refusal.”
The former vice president said that the rejection of the six-year single term was a mistake because little attention was paid to its merits.
Abubakar said that eight years tenure of four years each sacrificed merit because the incumbents were automatically entitled to re-election regardless of their performance records.
He was, however, of the view that current holders of the offices under the proposed constitutional review should not be entitled to a six-year term at the expiration of their second term.

Shettima speaks on Government House steward who committed suicide

Phenomenal — Wed, 29 May 2019 01:17:50 +0000

The victim

Immediate past Borno, Kashim Shettima, has reacted to death of a government house steward, Mr John Achagwa, who committed suicide on Tuesday.
Shettima expressed shock even as he revealed some things about the deceased.
Achagwa, a steward at the Presidential lodge of the Government House, Maiduguri, took his life by hanging himself on a tree.
A statement issued by Mr Isa Gusau, Special Adviser on Communications and Strategy, said Shettima was shocked by the unfortunate incident.
“Shettima is deeply shock by the unfortunate incident, given the fact that the deceased known to be one of the Governor’s favourites as he served important guests at the Presidential lodge for more than 30 years.
“When he retired from civil service; Shettima had requested him to be retained as casual staff because of his good service and the confidence repose in him.
” The outgoing governor supported the deceased with personal funds which he used in completing his house at Polo in Maiduguri.
“John also had a car to himself and he lived very comfortably. He was known to be friendly,” the statement said.
According to him, the outgoing governor has directed the Commissioner of Police to ensure thorough investigation including a post mortem and inquiries to establish the reason for the suicide

PHOTO: What are these governors telling Buhari?

Phenomenal — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 05:09:19 +0000

L-R: Governors Abiola Ajimobi, Kayode Fayemi and Ibikunle Amosun of Oyo, Ekiti and Ogun respectively, with President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State during Buhari’s visit to Lagos on Wednesday

What are these governors telling Buhari in this photo?
Or the question should be: who is cracking the joke here? Some associates have said that, although he could look too serious, President Muhammadu Buhari has his moments of stand-up or sit-down comics. But Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State is also known to have some of these Ibadan-styled cracs that can make a stone to laugh.
Yet, the question remains: Who is cracking the joke here?

Nigeria ranks 85 on Global Happiness Index

Phenomenal — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 17:40:24 +0000

As the world marks the International Day of Happiness, Nigeria is ranked 85 out of 156 countries and second in sub-Saharan Africa.

This is according to the annual Global Happiness Policy Report produced by the Global Happiness Council, which was released on Wednesday.
It was edited by John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs, et al.

Nigeria’s ranking is an improvement from its 91 position ranking in 2018.

Finland came first as the happiest country in the world for the second year in a row, followed by Denmark, Norway, Iceland and the Netherlands.

The world’s least happy country is South Sudan followed by Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Tanzania, Rwanda, Yemen, Malawi, Syria, Botswana and Haiti.

The report ranks countries on six key variables that support wellbeing: income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support and generosity.

This is the seventh World Happiness Report; the first was released in April 2012 in support of a UN High level meeting on “Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm”.

The report presented the available global data on national happiness and reviewed related evidence from the emerging science of happiness.

It showed that the quality of people’s lives can be coherently, reliably, and validly assessed by a variety of subjective wellbeing measures, collectively referred to then and in subsequent reports as “happiness.”

This year, the focus was on happiness and community: how happiness has been changing over the past dozen years, and how information technology, governance and social norms influence communities.

The report showed that the annual data for Finland have continued their modest, but steady upward trend since 2014.

So that dropping 2015 and adding 2018 boosts the average score, thereby putting Finland significantly ahead of other countries in the top 10.

Denmark and Norway have also increased their average scores.

The United States came in the 19th place, dropping one spot since last year and a total of five spots since 2017.

On the whole, Helliwell said: “What stands out about the happiest and most well connected societies is their resilience and ability to deal with bad things.

“After the 2011 earthquake and now the terrorist attack in Christchurch, with high social capital, where people are connected, people rally and help each other and (in after the earthquake) rebuild immediately,’’ he said.

Trump celebrates haters

Phenomenal — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 22:39:12 +0000

US President, Donald Trump, has rumbled in irony as he acknowledges his enemies in his New Year message.

He specifically mentioned haters and fakers.

Trump has been battling some sections of the press since he assumed office to the extent of exchanging hot words with them.

Olamide’s ‘big man’s’ performance at One Lagos Fiesta

Phenomenal — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:59:57 +0000

Celebrated rapper, Olamide, again joined other stars to welcome Lagosians into the New Year on Tuesday dawn as he mounted the stage at the Atlantic City/Victoria Island venue.

His presence was a big plus as his fans were eager to see him.

Interestingly, some observers had feared he might not be part of the feast this year based on the recent political happenings in Lagos.

Olamide was known to be dear to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s heart and he practically became the governor’s number one artiste in his first three years in office. But when politics changed colour and adversity came the way of the governor, Olmide surfaced on ‘the other side’.

During the primary contest between Ambode and the eventual winner, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the artiste was visibly on the other side, to the extent that he performed during Sanwo-Olu’s unveiling. Tongues had thus wagged right and left, making some think that Olamide might not be part of the OLF. But there he was on Victoria Island rocking life with Lagosians, including Ambode, who attended the finale with several dignitaries. Interestingly, the All Progressives Congress has overcome the division, with Ambode again selling the Sanwo-Olu candidacy at the event.

And Olamide’s performance? Modest. Unlike a Seun Kuti who really rocked the stage and ‘shook tables’, all he did was mime to some of his songs. He cruised in, cheered up the crowd who chanted his lines with him and soon left the stage as solo as he came. His outing was indeed a big man’s performance – far from an artiste still hustling for fame.