NEPC flays Apapa Customs over export drive

The Nigerian Customs may have continued to be in the web as regards the allegations of frustrating the National Single Window agenda of the Federal Government.

Just few weeks after the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, accused the Customs of the allegation, the Nigerian Export Promotion Council NEPC has also accused the Apapa Command of NCS of frustrating the efforts to boost the nation’s export drive.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting held at the Apapa Comand, Lagos, the Assistant Director of Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement, Ifeora Celibe, alleged that the Command is more interested in importation while discouraging people that are interested in exports.

According to her, this move is contradicting the Federal Government’s economic diversification and conservation of foreign reserve.


Celibe also appealed to the federal government to reinstate the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) that was suspended by the previous administration.

She however promised to assist the Customs in areas where assistance are needed to ensure that export trade are priortised.

The Customs Area Comptroller of Apapa (Area One) Command, Willy Egbudin said that the Customs is commited to facilitating export trade.

He said as part its commitment, a Deputy Comptroller assigned to be in charge of the export seat in Apapa.

Wike must explain the kidnap of over 1,200 in Rivers – Dakuku tells Wike

 

Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA and former gubernatorial candidate in Rivers State, Dakuku Peterside, has asked the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, to explain why over 1200 persons were kidnapped in the state in the last one year under his watch.

He also charged the governor to explain why over 1000 Rivers people have been killed by cultists in the past one year.

Dakuku, who was governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress APC in Rivers State posed those questions to Wike in a statement in line with his party’s mega rally in Rivers East at Okehi, Etche, on Saturday.

According to Peterside, the posers tagged, “Ten important questions Wike must provide the answers to Rivers people” are:

“Which government has officially promoted and supported kidnapping and under its watch over 1200 persons have been kidnapped in one year?

“Which government has superintended over the killing of over 1000 rivers people by cultists in just one year?

“Which government has borrowed more money under one year than all our previous governments from 1967 borrowed put together?

“Which government withdrew nearly 400 under-graduates sent on scholarship abroad by Gov. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to different countries?

“Which government deceitfully wants to take credit for projects conceived and delivered by the Amaechi government?

“Under the watch of which government has more policemen and security personnel been killed by criminals armed by same government agents than have been killed ever in our history from the creation of Rivers State?

“Under whose government is multiple taxation legalized? Touting legalized? Extortion made legal?

“Under which government has our schools and primary health centres closed down and our people are dying in their numbers?

“Which government has deceived itself by embarking on endless circle of BIOMETRICS as excuse to owe workers and pensioners six months salaries?”

“In which government is a governor both contractor, supervisor and awarding authority?”

The NIMASA boss equally adds that time has come when the people of River State come out of the shadow adding that he bring the people out what he called deceives, lies and propaganda no matter how well-crafted.

Thierry Henry planing to ‘make history’ with Belgium national team

The former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry believes Belgium can “make history” if they fulfil their potential and is eager to work on their mentality after being announced as Roberto Martinez’s assistant.

Henry will be working with the likes of Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku when he meets up with the Red Devils ahead of the friendly against Spain and the World Cup qualifier away to Cyprus.


Belgium will take on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Estonia, Estonia and Cyprus in qualification for the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia, and Henry is under no illusions about the size of the task ahead.

According to him, everyone thinksthe first game in Cyprus away from home will be an easy game, but it is an extremely difficult place to start comparing it with what Iceland did at the Euros, so starting away from home against Cyprus will be very difficult.

As a player Henry won Ligue 1, the Premier League, La Liga, the Champions League, the World Cup and the European Championship and he hopes he harness those experiences to teach a talented generation of Belgian footballers to believe in themselves and learn to win.

Lassa Fever: Ondo State Begin Sensitisation Programme …

 

The state’s Ministry of Health started the awareness programme on Friday, as part of efforts to prevent the spread of the viral disease in the state.

In a chat with reporters, the State Commissioner for Health, Dayo Adeyanju, disclosed that the essence of the programme was to be battle ready for any single case of Lassa Fever in the state.

He indicated that the sensitisation would start ‎with health workers, as most of the recent cases of the fever had health workers involved.

The Commissioner equally informed reporters that all necessary drugs and consumables had been dispatched to all the local government areas of the state.

Ondo APC gov aspirants woo delegates with N.5m each

In a bid to win the forthcoming primary of the All Progressives Congress in Ondo State, investigation conducted by our correspondent revealed that some aspirants were wooing the 3,000 delegates that would vote in the APC primary with between N300,000 and N500, 000 each.

The primary was earlier scheduled to hold on Saturday  (tomorrow) but it has been postponed till August 31, 2016.

The delegates would come from 203 wards across the 18 local government areas of the state.

No fewer than 25 aspirants will be contesting for the ticket of the party at the primary.

Ondo Police Rescue 4 Year Old Girl Caged By Parents For ‘Witchcraft’

The Police Command in Ondo State says it has rescued a four-year-old girl who was caged like a “mad dog” in a kiosk at a local community in Akure, the Ondo State capital.


The girl, identified by the police, was rescued by the personnel attached to the Juvenile Welfare Centre JVC of the command.

South African prosecutors seek longer jail term for Pistorius

 

South African prosecutors were in court on Friday pushing for a longer sentence for Oscar Pistorius for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, saying his six-year term was “disturbingly inappropriate”.

“The sentence of six years is shockingly lenient and disturbingly inappropriate,” prosecutor Gerrie Nel argued in court, as the state sought permission to appeal the sentence handed to the athlete last month.

Pistorius shot Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013, saying he mistook her for a burglar when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

At his sentencing in July, High Court judge Thokozile Masipa listed mitigating factors for giving him less than half the minimum 15-year term for murder, including the athlete’s claim he believed he was shooting an intruder.

Swiftching from Analogue to Digital Broadcasting is on course - Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has restated that the process of switching over from analogue to digital broadcasting “is very much on course’’.

The minister stated this at a dinner organised by Radio, Television and Theatre Workers Union of Nigeria (RATTAWU) in honour of the newly appointed Chief Executive Officers of Federal Government-owned media houses.

The Federal Government owned media houses are News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Voice of Nigeria (VON) and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC)

The minister, who was represented by a director in the ministry, Emmanuel Agbegir, assured that Nigeria would meet the July 2017 deadline for the West African countries on Digital Switch Over (DSO).

Kaduna to targets N3.5bn monthly IGR – Commissioner

The state Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Muhammad Abdullahi says the Kaduna State Government is targeting N3.5 billion monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

Abdullahi newsmen that the state generated N1.6 billion in July, which doubled the N700 million and N800 million generated in November and December in 2015.

The commissioner said that plans had been concluded to build a strong revenue service with brilliant team to actualise the N3.5 billion IGR target.

He said that a world-class consultant had been hired to achieve this, adding that the effort was already yielding positive result.

He explained that the state was able to double its IGR in the past few months by not imposing a single tax.

In fact the new tax law that we have passed reduces some tax rates; we only improved efficiency in tax collection.

Abdullahi said that the Kaduna State Government was advertising contracts while other states were struggling to pay basic salaries because the state had cut the cost of governance.

Kill drug lords, Philippines’ top cop tells addicts

The Philippines’ police chief has called on drug users to kill traffickers and burn their homes, escalating President Rodrigo Duterte’s deeply controversial crime war that has claimed 2,000 lives.

Dela Rosa was speaking to several hundred drug users who had surrendered in the central Philippines.

Dela Rosa’s comments followed Duterte’s own controversial directives that have sparked criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups.

Duterte, 71, won May elections in a landslide on a vow to kill tens of thousands of suspected criminals in an unprecedented blitz that would eliminate illegal drugs in six months.

He promised on the campaign trial that 100,000 people would be killed and so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that fish would grow fat from feeding on them.

Days after his election win, Duterte also offered security officials bounties for the bodies of drug dealers.

The UN special rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes Callamard, said such directives “amount to incitement to violence and killing, a crime under international law”.

However Dela Rosa and Duterte have insisted they are working within the law and their aides have dismissed some of their comments as merely “hyperbole” meant to scare drug traffickers.

Eight police killed in southeast Turkey PKK bomb attack

 

Eight Turkish police officers were killed and 45 more people injured on Friday when a car bomb blamed on Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants exploded outside a police building in the southeast of the country.

The bomb attack caused immense damage to the headquarters of the special anti-riot police force in Cizre, with television pictures showing a thick plume of black smoke heading into the sky.

Eight police officers were killed and 45 more people wounded, two of them seriously, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported, quoting the local governorate.

Television quoted the health ministry as saying 12 ambulances and two helicopters had been sent to the scene.

Early pictures showed that the police building had been completely gutted by the power of the blast, reduced to a shell surrounded by a pile of rubble.

Adjacent buildings sustained severe damage and some were still on fire, television pictures showed.

Anadolu said the bomb had gone off 50 metres (yards) away from the building at a control post. It said the blast had been carried out by the PKK.

Security forces closed the main road to Cizre from the provincial capital of Sirnak to the north after the attack, Anadolu added.

I handed over a Nigeria the largest economy – Jonathan replies Buhari

Former President, Goodluck Jonathan, has insisted that he handed over a Nigeria that was economically viable to his successor, President Muhammadu Buhari.

Jonathan’s remark follows accusation that he left a bad economy for his successor to inherit.

The Buhari-led Federal Government since assumption of power last year, has continued to accuse it’s predecessor of being responsible for the country’s current economic challenges.

But the former President, in his response to these criticisms, maintained that he handed over the best Nigerian government with the largest economy in Africa to Buhari.

In a statement he personally signed, Jonathan said, “I took over a Nigeria that was the second largest economy in Africa with a GDP of $270.5 billion in 2009, I handed over a Nigeria that had grown to become the largest economy in Africa and the 24th largest economy in the World, with a GDP of $574 billion.

Obaseki promises to build new cities

Barely two weeks to the polls, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Godwin Obaseki, has promised to build new towns to decongest the cities.

Obaseki made the promise at the palace of the Okaevbo of Urhonigbe, Igie Amokhuo. He told the people that he would reopen the moribund Urhonigbe Rubber Plantation and acquire more land to expand the project.

The candidate said the rubber plantation would offer employment to the people, disclosing that the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) has been signed by the governor.

Obaseki said the proposed new towns would be complemented with infrastructure and industries to give every community a sense of belonging. 

The Options Before Ondo APC ahead of the November 26 election

The political climate of Ondo State is unnecessarily charging already at least, for two clear reasons. First, the two leading political parties – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) – are in the thick of their primaries, which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has scheduled for August 22 and 27 respectively.

PDP, however, has held its own on the scheduled date with a former Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General of the state, Eyotayo Jegede, emerging its candidate.

The other factor is that the APC has been the focus of the contest, which some of the party faithful strongly believe, would terminate the reign of the PDP in the state, depending on how its standard bearer eventually emerges.

Aside that the state’s main opposition party is stronger and more cohesive than it was in the pre-2012 era, the rift in the PDP, occasioned by the assumption that a choice candidate had already been picked for the election, among others, appear to give the APC some advantage, however, if only it also manages its primary very well.

All is set for tomorrow’s primary election and no fewer than 50 aspirants have indicated interests in the APC nomination. However, only 25 of them eventually collected expression and nomination forms, which showed the level of interest the contest had generated in the rank of the party. Of the 25 people, who obtained nomination forms, 24 of them appeared before the screening committee at the APC National Secretariat, Abuja last week.

Despite the interest the contest has generated in the state, the APC has started facing tension-generated crisis. Two recent developments indeed cast pall on the chances of the party in the election. The first has to do with how the APC standard bearer will finally emerge. In 2012, the defunct ACN, one of the political parties that formed APC, produced its standard bearer, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu through consensus, which stoked disaffection or undue division among other aspirants on the platform.

Apparently, the use of consensus by the defunct ACN to produce its standard bearer then had calamitous effect on the party’s performance. It was evident in the outcome of the election in which the ACN came third, polling 143,512 votes. Also, the PDP, which nominated its former National Adviser, Olusola Oke polled 155,961 votes, while the Labour Party, which re-presented Governor Olusegun Mimiko, scored 260,197.

DG: Lawyers caught writing exams for law school students

 

The Director-General of the Nigerian Law School, Prof. Olanrewaju Onadeko, says some lawyers have been caught writing examination for students in the school.

Onadeko, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, disclosed this when he presented the school’s report to the Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Bar Association in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Onadeko, who did not state the number of affected lawyers, said the matter had been reported to the NBA.
He urged the association to take action against such lawyers to save legal education in the country.

Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) charged the NBA to address the issue raised by the director-general of the Law School.

Jacobs said those found guilty should be disciplined after due process had been followed to determine their cases.

Jacobs said the issue was serious because of its implications on the future of legal education in the country.

The outgoing President of the NBA, Augustine Alegeh, said the association had not received report of such incident in the past two years.

Alegeh, however, said the NBA had a committee to handle the matter on receipt of the report.

Federal Government releases over 50% vote for capital projects

The Federal Government says for the nation to achieve the needed structural development and sustainable development, it has released over 50 percent capital vote to ministries, departments and agencies MDAs to bust efforts towards national structural planning.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who stated this at the 15th meeting of the Joint Planning Board and National Council on Development in Kano, says the Buhari led administration placed high priority on infrastructural development.

Osinbajo maintained that strategic planning for Sustainable Development Goals SDGs requires effective and efficient partnership as provided in goal 17, which emphasised the need for partnering with states to get the needed economic development stressing that strategic planning generally provides direction, coherence and coordination and is a veritable framework for guiding the activities of all stakeholders towards achieving a common goal.

The Vice President adds that the short-term strategic implementation plan, is done to guide the implementation of the 2016 budget noting that government accorded priority to agriculture for self-sufficiency and food security.

Meanwhile, due to fresh outbreak of poliomyelitis in the country, the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, says, Nigeria is seeking a $125million loan from the World Bank for provision of enough vaccines against the epidemic and other communicable diseases.

Confirming that government has released the N9.8 billion vote for that purpose in the 2016 budget.

The minister disclosed this before the Senate Committee on Primary Health Care and Communicable diseases, stressing that the loan facility became essential because of the high cost of polio vaccines.

He explained that $60million out of the $125million loan facility would be used for vaccination against polio alone in six rounds while the remaining $65million would be used for preventive vaccination against outbreak of any other communicable diseases.

He explained that comprehensive curtailment plan against polio had been put in place by the Ministry out of which 800, 000, children under the age of five in five local government of Borno State, have been immunized against the virus.

The committee chairman, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa PDP Abia North, assured the minister and other health agencies of the Senate’s support in the discharge of their duties.

Kachikwu: $40b down the drain in Niger Delta

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu yesterday told Niger Delta Coastal State monarchs and stakeholders that there was no infrastructure in the creek to show for the $40 billion released to the Niger Delta in the last 10 years.

He told the monarchs who visited him in Abuja that he (the minister) went round the creeks and found no infrastructure that reflects the money disbursed to the region through the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) or the 13 per cent derivation from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).

The traditional rulers had in their joint presentation read by Bolowei of Gbaramatu Kingdom, Chief Wellington O. Okrika,  demanded a Federal Government dialogue team. This, they said, will give them confidence in the peace moves in the Niger Delta.

The group demanded the release of the 10 “innocent” school children arrested by the army on May 28 in Oporoza and others on “trumped up charges”.

Suspended banks meet CBN, seek truce

Nine banks banned this week from foreign exchange trading for failing to remit some oil money into a government account are holding talks with the Central Bank to seek a truce, operators said Thursday.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday suspended nine banks for withholding 2.12 billion dollars belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG) contrary to a government regulation.


The administration of President Mohammadu Buhari, who took office in May last year, ordered all government revenues to be paid into Treasury Single Account (TSA) in the CBN to prevent fraud, and in his fight against corruption.

The United Bank for Africa (UBA), one of the suspended banks, said its ban had been lifted after it remitted $530 million.

Financial experts want the regulators to be lenient with the banks.

Currency traders said the naira depreciated further on the black market following the suspension, crossing the 400 mark to trade at 402 on Wednesday from 396 Tuesday.

The official rate is 305 to the dollar on the official inter-bank market.

The CBN floated the naira in June by scrapping the officially pegged rate of 197/199 which had caused forex shortages and currency woes in one of Africa’s largest crude producers.

Edo guber: Ize-Iyamu challenges Oshiomhole to publish cost of his contracts

 

Edo PDP guber eandidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has described the degree of official corruption in the outgoing APC administration as unbelievable, alleging that the cost of contracts executed by the regime is incredibly high.

Speaking with journalists at Ogbona in Etsako Central local government of the state, yesterday, Ize-Iyamu challenged Governor Adams Oshiomhole to publish the cost of projects executed since he assumed office on November 12, 2008.

Ize-Iyamu also lamented the refusal of the state government to disclose the cost of reconstructing the Airport Road in the state capital, which was not a new road at the time of its reconstruction.

He insisted that the APC is all about promises and deceit, adding that as a pastor, he will keep his covenant with Edo people as contained in his Simple Agenda if he was elected governor.

Tribunal upholds Rivers PDP lawmakers’ elections

 

The Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja, has upheld the elections of a House of Representatives member from Rivers State, Blessing Nsiegbe and two members of the state of Assembly, Edison Ehie and Martins Mannah, all elected on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Edison Ehie represents Ahoada East 1 state constituency, Martins Mannah represents Ahoada East II, state constituency and Mrs. Blessing Nsiegbe represents Port Harcourt federal constituency II.

Meanwhile, Chairman, Rivers State chapter of PDP, Felix Obuah, while reacting to the judgment, noted that more candidates of the party in the March 19, 2016 legislative re-run elections in the state have been confirmed by the tribunal.

He congratulated the lawmakers on their resounding victory at the elections tribunal, describing the judgments as further confirmation of Rivers people’s mandate and acceptance of the PDP as a household party in the state.

The PDP Chairman, expressing satisfaction with the judgments, also commended the tribunal judges for standing firm in their unanimous decision on the matters, despite pressures on them by the opposition and petitioners to subvert justice and declare otherwise.

Obuah reiterates that the PDP, as a law-abiding party, has over the years, subjected itself and its activities under the rule of law and has maintained its preference for free, fair and peaceful elections at all levels, explaining that the various judgments of the courts in favour of the PDP were in the right direction and therefore, commendable.

While regretting the slight deliberate distraction by the petitioners from the All Progressives Congress, APC, the PDP Chairman called on the victorious candidates of the party to settle down and give the people of the state meaningful representations in line with the New Rivers vision of Governor Nyesom Wike.

THE PRIVILEGE OF MANAGING GREAT TALENTS

One of the key attributes a Coach or anyone who aspires for any kind of leadership role must possess is the ability to inspire men to work for the collective goal of the team. A coach must be a good manager of men and resources. He/she must first learn to effectively manage men, starting from himself.

This is because, if you have not been able to manage yourself, you are not qualified to manage anything, let alone fellow men and scarce resource. In order to properly manage men, the Leader must have a good knowledge and understanding of the unique attributes of each and every one of his Players.

Without this knowledge the coach is bound to misapply his players, which would inevitably lead to poor results. For instance, a Coach should be abreast with the stamina of his players to know when to play them. Lest he/she features a Player that has a 30 minutes playtime work rate for 90 minutes thereby have a short-one for complete 60 minutes of a standard 90 minutes match.

It is more miserable to have good players and then lack the ability to get the best out of them. Motivation is key to leadership. Some Coaches go about with the poor thinking that they could achieve success by being unnecessarily petty and high handed when all that is needed is to motivate their players to deliver the goods. So the more they pursue their myopic policy, the worse the results they get.

One of the most important part of man management is the management of Great talents. I am talking about Creative Geniuses. These are a special breed that must be treated specially by any Coach or leader who wants results. The rules for the mediocre and average players should not be applied to these ones. Nature has not made them equal with the others, so it is counterproductive and I dare say stupid for any Coach to treat them as equals with the general population.  It is injustice to treat unequal people as equals.

Any Coach who cannot see this is a fool and of all men most miserable. This is the reason why José Mourinho has been able to get the best out of great Talents like Didier Drogba and turn rejects like Diego Milito and Snieder to super Players when he handled them. José would never treat a Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Cristiano Ronaldo the same way he treats other players.

Some stupid coaches fail to understand that irrespective of the climate there are people out there coveting their Great Players. So when some small minded Coaches become envious of their own Geniuses and start complaining about things that are not related to the quality of their game in other to bring them down, they forget that they just don’t have what the Players have and the Players could move on and still do great,  while the Team[and more especially the owner of the Club] suffers for their loss. What is even worse is when they allow jealous mediocres teleguide them into undermining the geniuses in order to create a pseudo equality that does not exist.

A coach might think he could easily replace a great player until the player leaves and he gets to find, the world is only fortunate once in a while to be blessed by the presense of certain individuals. Ask Manchester United how their experiment with Nani,  who was sold as the New Ronaldo went. Ask Chelsea about the New Drogba,  Lukaku. It is a privilege to manage men. It is even a greater privilege to manage great talents.  Thus a Coach and/or any leader of any sort must not lose sight of that fact. Being placed at the helm of affairs does not make you more than who you truly are.

Finally, one attribute that must not be found in a coach or leader that aspires for greatness is pettiness. Pettiness blunts rationality and denies the leader the ability to assess issues on their merit.

Fortune Alfred is the Publisher of SAYELBATIMES.COM

Life inside the Philippines' most overcrowded jail

In an unassuming Quezon City neighborhood, across from a municipal library and around the corner from a police station stands the local jail.

A short ride from Manila depending on traffic the jail isn't an imposing building, or even a particularly large one. Its total floor area is a shade over 30,000 square feet.

 More than 4,000 inmates and counting live cheek by jowl in what has to be one of the most densely populated corners of the Philippines.

Critics say this overcrowding is a predictable effect of President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs a crackdown the pugnacious new leader promised in the campaign that propelled him into office.

 

Conditions inside are astounding. Every available space is crammed with yellow T-shirted humanity. The men here and almost 60% are in for drug offenses spend the days sitting, squatting and standing in the unrelenting, suffocating Manila heat.

Their numbers are climbing relentlessly at the beginning of the year; a little fewer than 3,600 were incarcerated.

In the seven weeks since Duterte took office and charged his No. 1 cop, Ronald Dela Rosa, with cleaning up the country, that number has risen to 4,053.

The Quezon City Jail was built in 1953; originally to house 800 people, according to the country's Bureau of Jail Management and Penology standards, the United Nations says it should house no more than 278.

Dela Rosa earlier told CNN that the criminals in the jails and prisons would just have to squeeze in, gesturing by pulling in his shoulders and arms.

Inmates are woken at 5 a.m. before undergoing a head count -- no easy task when you have 4,000-plus men crammed into crumbling, ramshackle cells.

Doctors remove 40 knives from man's stomach in India

A man in India spent two months swallowing knives and had 40 of them surgically removed from his stomach, according to the doctor who led the operation Dr. Jatinder Malhotra.

Malhotra said they found foldable knives, which when fully extended were about seven inches long.

Malhotra adds that the patient says he swallowed some knives folded, and some unfolded and when the operation ended, some were found folded, some were open, and some had even started rusting and were broken.

The patient, a 42-year-old father of two, told pressmen that he's feeling much better.

"I'm sorry I let my family down. I'll be forever thankful to doctors and hospital staff for saving my life," he said.

Malhotra says the patient is now "out of danger" and is set to be discharged in a couple of days.

Two doctors at the hospital told pressmen that the patient won't be discharged until he's cleared by psychiatrists, which is set to happen in a couple of days.

Don’t fight corruption with corruption, NBA tells Buhar

THE Nigerian Bar Association says the Federal Government’s fight against corruption should be in line with the rule of law.

The NBA President, Augustine Alegeh, who made this remark Sunday night, explained that any attempt by government to fight corruption with backhand tactics would mean using graft to fight graft.

Alegeh, who spoke at the opening of the 56th annual conference of the association with the theme, ‘Democracy and Economic Development, pointed out that the NBA was standing with the Federal Government in its fight against corruption.

He, however, added that the association would not support any act of taking what belonged to a man and give it to another man.

Boko Haram kills six, abducts 13 in Borno

Boko Haram insurgents yesterday attacked a village, Boko Haram insurgents yesterday attacked a village, Kuburubu, in Damboa local government area of Borno State, killing six persons a abducting about 13 others.

A member of the youth vigilance group, Civilian JTF, who spoke on condition of anonymity says the attackers rode on four motorcycles to the village at about 5 am when the villages were still asleep.

He notes that they entered some homes killing six people, kidnapped 13 others, and left many injured.  in Damboa local government area of Borno State, killing six persons aabducting about 13 others.

A member of the youth vigilance group, Civilian JTF, who spoke on condition of anonymity says the attackers rode on four motorcycles to the village at about 5 am when the villages were still asleep.

He notes that they entered some homes killing six people, kidnapped 13 others, and left many injured.

According to him, those abducted included seven women, five teenage boys and a teenage girl.

He said after the looting spree they set the village ablaze.

Kuburubu is a boundary village between Chibok and Damboa local government of Borno state, Northeast Nigeria; about 80 kilometres away from Maiduguri.

Japanese Millionaire Fulfills His Promise To Dream Team, Gives Them $390k

World renowned Japanese plastic surgeon, Multi-Millionaire, Katsuya Takasu has finally fulfilled his promise to U-23 Dream Team.

Recall, the millionaire earlier promised Coach Samson Siasia and his boys a huge amount of money if they win either Gold, Silver or Bronze in the Men Football Event at Rio.

Apparently, he has finally fulfilled his promise.

He presented a $190k cheque to Mikel Obi and $200k cheque to Samson Siasia, a total of $390k.

Jonathan has again Deny Links with N’Delta Avengers

Former President Goodluck Jonathan again denied reports that linked him to the renewed militancy and bombings of oil infrastructure in the Niger Delta.

Two national newspapers had yesterday reported that the former president was allegedly involved in the formation and activities of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA).

But in a statement by his media aide, Ikechukwu Eze, Jonathan denied the report, saying there were similarities in the two stories published by the national dailies.

It expressed shock that a newspaper would publish such a report, which was said to be “a confirmation of a similar claim by the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND)”, without subjecting such frivolity to any ethical interrogation.

It pointed out that no responsible government agency would rush, as claimed in the reports, to adopt the accusations of a questionable rebellious organisation as its own findings, without applying the professional processes of rigor and due diligence.