HABA NIGERIAN JUDICIARY: DEMEJI BANKOLE MOCKED NIGERIAN WITH THE CRYING OF JOY

An Abuja Federal High Court on Friday, 14 February, discharged and acquitted Dimeji Bankole, after finding that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was not able to prove a 16-count criminal charge, bordering on a N9billion contract scam, filed against him.

Justice Evoh Chukwu, ruled no-case-submission and held that there was no evidence linking the former Speaker to the alleged offenses.

As judgement was passed a visibly stunned Bankole, seated in the witness box cried the cry of ‘JOY’ as he was set free by the corrupt judiciary system to go in peace and enjoy his loot.  

SEGUN ODEGBAMI CHEATED DEATH AS HE ESCAPED GUN SHOTS FROM CLOSE RANGE

Tunde Fagbenle wrote about his friend and one of the Nigerian loved football icon, Mathematical Segun Odegbami, as he escaped the barrage of shots from close range on February 9,it read thus: ‘ one of our country’s sports icons, ex-international football star, my friend ‘the Mathematical’ Segun Odegbami, was shot at by suspected armed robbers on the Abeokuta-Lagos dual carriageway. That he escaped the barrage of shots from close range is a ‘miracle’.

It was a deadly experience in all its horrifying bloodcurdling detail. ‘Big Seg’, as he is fondly called, was heading out from Abeokuta to his International (Sports) Academy in Wasimi village en-route for Lagos. Time was about 3pm on the Sunday afternoon, with traffic yet relatively light. He was alone, driving at leisurely speed in his big SUV, with thoughts of the start of a new week – the challenges and plans – on his mind. He was some 8 kilometres to Wasimi, 70 to Lagos.

Then, suddenly, a car with four or five occupants came beside his jeep and slowly overtook him. The next thing Odegbami knew, one of the men in the car now ahead stuck his head out of the rear window threateningly brandishing a gun. At that moment, reality dawned on Segun that he was facing death. On the spur of the moment he accelerated his SUV to manoeuvre between the concrete median and their vehicle and race past them. In the process, one of his front wheels hit the concrete so hard it burst loudly, his SUV hitting the bandits’ car as it careened past.

Thereupon the bandits opened fire as they chased after him. Bullets flew everywhere hitting his car many times and shattering the window glasses, side and back.

 Odegbami kept on knowing he was perhaps on his last minutes on earth and mindless of the wobbling of his car from the damaged wheel but praying for a gap in the stretch. One soon appeared, and in a split-second he swung his car in a U-turn, “mathematically” gauging, but barely being missed by, oncoming vehicles from the opposite direction. It caught the bandits too unexpectedly as they sped past.

It was a shivering wreck Odegbami who thence carried on until he found a side-road he could pull in to; he knew his bullet-riddled car had obliged so far and no more. He staggered back to the highway to wave down anyone for a rescue lift to the nearest police station. Soon enough, God sent someone, some “Good Samaritan”.

“These are bullet holes from an AK-47,” said the police when they saw Segun’s SUV. “Go get yourself drunk, or bury yourself in a church,” they told him. “It’s a miracle you are alive.” An anti-robbery squad officer said that corridor of the road – about Obasanjo Farm, Akinale, Osuposi villages – was becoming notorious for car snatching by cross-boarder highway robbers.

What thoughts have occupied Chief SegunOdegbami’s mind since the near-death encounter is anyone’s guess. He could be dead now and that would have been it: his life; his school; his sundry philanthropic gestures to needy people; his unflinching faith in and contribution to Nigeria; his friends of whom I number one; his family, including his aged mother; et cetera, et cetera.

That would have been it; a country that kills his young and brightest would have killed Chief Segun Odegbami. The crying state of insecurity in the land would have claimed “the Mathematical.” We are grateful he his alive to tell the story and carry on with his good works in what is left of his borrowed time. What a country!’

Culled from Punch ng.

FRAUD: STUDENT VISA SYSTEM EXPOSED IN BRITAIN IS NOT BY NIGERIAN THIS TIME AROUND.

The Home Office has suspended English language tests run by a major firm after BBC Panorama uncovered systematic fraud in the student visa system.

Secret filming of government-approved exams neededfor a visa shows candidates having tests faked for them.

ETS, which sets the exams but does not appoint the invigilators, told Panorama it "does everything it can to detect and prevent" cheating.

Home Secretary Theresa May said the BBC's evidence was "very shocking".

Panorama saw candidates for tests set by ETS, one of the largest language testing firms in the world, being replaced by "fake sitters" and having answers read out to them.

'Poor English'

For the last year, the programme has been filming undercover, following a network of agents helping people obtain student visa extensions through fraud.

Each year, around 100,000 non-EU students get their visas to stay in the UK extended.

The programme sent non-EU students - who were already in the UK legally - undercover.

They posed as bogus students with poor English, who wanted to remain in the UK to work illegally.

One went undercover at an immigration consultancy called Studentway Education in Southall, west London.

The BBC was told Studentway could get around compulsory English tests, even if applicants spoke no English.

Director Varinder Bajarh said: "Someone else will sit the exam for you. But you will have to have your photo taken there to prove you were present."

Home Secretary Theresa May

The researcher was told a "guaranteed pass" would cost £500 - about three times the proper fee for the exam.

After paying, she was sent to sit the exam at Eden College International in east London, a government-approved exam centre.

She was set up on a computer to sit the visa applicationtest, called TOEIC, but never actually took the exam.

Instead, each of the 14 candidates had a "fake sitter" who took the spoken and written tests for them.

All the real candidates had to do was wait to have their photograph taken - as proof they were there.

Answers read out

A week later, the undercover applicant returned to the college to sit another, multiple-choice, exam.

This time she had to take it herself, but the invigilator simply read out all the correct answers.

It took the two dozen or so candidates just seven minutes to complete the two-hour exam.

A few days later, the researcher returned to Studentway and was given a TOEIC certificate, showing she had passed.

She had scored highly in all three tests - getting 100% in her spoken English.

The answers to multiple-choice exams were read out to candidates

Eden College International strongly denies any prior knowledge of, or complicity in, the frauds.

But it said that early last year it investigated allegations against three freelance TOEIC exam invigilators and did not renew their contracts. It said it took swift action to improve invigilation and monitoring.

The TOEIC exam is set and marked by ETS, one of the biggest English language testing companies in the world.

While it does not appoint the invigilators, before its suspension ETS told Panorama it "does everything it can to detect and prevent rare instances of dishonest test administrators or test takers".

A notice on its website in the UK said that the Home Office has requested ETS to suspend various tests temporarily in the UK related to immigration purposes.

It also said candidates who had appointments to take a test for immigration purposes would be contacted to process a refund.

The government said it had suspended two colleges identified by Panorama and all further English language tests done through ETS in the UK.

Bank statements

Panorama researchers were also sold fake bank detailsto show they had enough funds to stay in the UK.

Immigration rules mean non-EU students face restrictions on the amount of paid work they can do and need a bank statement to show they can cover their fees and living costs.

One of the agents at Studentway, Vinod Kumar, told a Panorama researcher the agency had a solution.

He said it would use its contacts in India to find "someone else with the same name, whose account and money will be used for you. So when there is need for verification it's verified for you till you get your visa."

Mr Kumar was proposing to steal the bank details of someone with the same name as the researcher and pass it off as hers.

Two weeks later she received a bank statement from Studentway that made it appear she had tens of thousands of pounds.

Mr Bajarh denied that Studentway was involved in any fraud. He also said that Mr Kumar had never worked at the agency, but may have used the office without his knowledge.

However, Mr Bajarh is clearly present with Mr Kumar in some of the BBC's footage inside Studentway's premises.

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4's Today programme Home Secretary Theresa May said: "I'm grateful to Panorama for the work they have done in showing this abuse."

She said the government was taking action to change an immigration system "which was out of control when we inherited it", and 700 colleges had already been stopped from bringing students in from outside the EU.

Mrs May said she was looking at introducing more face-to-face interviews and called on the educational sector to do more to tackle fraud.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: "This investigation shows Theresa May is presiding over a failing immigration system which too often focuses on the wrong thing and where illegal immigration is a growing problem."

 culled.

OBAFEMI MARTINS MAAM ABIGAIL BARUWA SHARES HER SEX BODY PICTURES FREE OF CHARGE

See other pic HERE

VALENTINE BEATING BLUES

Mr Eric (33), who lives at Jejelaiye Street in Olodi Apapa, Lagos state, woke to the bright Friday, Valentine day morning, strong and smarting to see Bolanle his heartthrob for a pre-planned early day Valentine date.

Unknown to him, Bolanle was double dating. Eric , it was gathered went to pick Bolanle around 10am for a breakfast in a nearby’ Buka’ (Restaurant) and later they proceed to their love nest. On their way, Bolanle's second and richer boyfriend emerges with 3 other guys and accosted them.

They interrogated Eric and he innocently confessed  that Bolanle is his lover, which enraged Bolanle's second boyfriend. He ordered his 'guy' to teach Eric a lesson of his life. 

The picture is what remains of the lover boy, Eric, when he woke up in a Hospital near Tin can, Apapa, after he was thoroughly panel-beaten.

As at the time of this post, Bolanle is still at Eric's bed side, while the visibly shaken Eric have not said a word to her!

 We wish Eric speedy recovery.

GOLDIE ONE YEAR AFTER............

Yesterday makes it exactly one year when the Nigerian music industry lost one of its most talented female singer, Goldie Harvey to the cold hands of death.

Goldie died shortly after she returned from the United States on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2013, where she had attended the music industry’s Grammy Awards in company of  Kenny Ogungbe, the CEO of her music label, Kennis Music.

Goldie, as it was informed, had complained of a severe headache shortly after returning to Nigeria from the US. The songstress was rushed to a hospital in Lagos, where she was pronounced dead.

The news of her death was received with shock and disbelief as everyone, especially her fans wondered how she could have passed away within such little time.

However, the details surrounding the cause of her death are still shrouded in mystery, after one year of her demise. 

Denrele Edun, her close friend described the late songstress as his soul mate. “Everything about Goldie was unique. Everything about Goldie was complex. She wasn’t only beautiful, she was so captivatingly beautiful in and out that no eye could avoid her, and once she had hooked you with her charming innocence, you were blown away by a beauty that was at once shy and confident, sultry and innocent, inviting and biting and as such, I always described her as a Siren of Sorts!”

Continue to rest in peace.

BEAUTIFUL LIZ BENSON RETURNS TO HER FIRST LOVE

Beautiful and talented Nollywood actress, Liz Benson has came back to her first love..’Acting’. Liz who ruled the silver screen in the early 90s ,dumped acting  In 2009, after  she married Bishop Great Emeya at the Rainbow Christian Assembly, Warri, Delta State, which was her second marriage, having lost her first husband, Samuel Gabriel Etim to death.

The talented screen diva recently featured in   Stephanie Okereke-Linus’ new flick, ‘Dry’.

The flick centres on Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF), a disease in women that is common in the northern part of the country. Her return to her first love-acting has been greeted with a lot of excitement, especially among her teeming fans who have missed on screen for a very long time.

Liz Benson started acting as a kid. She rose to fame when she acted in the popular television series, ‘Fortunes’ in 1993, where she played the role of Mrs. Agnes Johnson.

Her role in ‘Glamour Girls’ also stood her out.

We say welcome to a pretty diva.