Nigeria Court Of Appeal Affirms Death Penalty For Lagos Preacher Reverend King

A Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos Friday, affirmed the conviction and death sentence of Chukwuemeka Ezeugo a.k.a REV KING on charges of attempted murder and murder.

A panel of judges at the court said the lower court acted in the interest of justice by sentencing the preacher to death.

Farouk Lawan Remanded In Prison

Today, Farouk Lawan, the lawmaker who allegedly collected a bribe of over half a million dollars from an oil mogul, Femi Otedola, has been remanded in prison by an Abuja court.

The judge directed that Mr. Lawan, a top member of the House of Representatives, be held in prison until February 8 when his bail application will be heard.

Mr. Lawan is being prosecuted alongside another member of the House, Emenalo Boniface.

N5 billion this year to rehabilitate prostitutes and destitutes who loiter the streets of Abuja.

The Federal Capital Territory has proposed to spend N5 billion this year to rehabilitate prostitutes and destitutes who loiter the streets of Abuja.

In the FCT 2013 budget, the Federal Capital Territory Administration also planned to spend N4 billion for the construction of the First Lady’s Mission Building which senators described not only as scandalous but an endorsement of illegality, while Vice President Namadi Sambo’s Guest House in Asokoro, Abuja will be renovated with N150 million by the administration of Senator Bala Mohammed.

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Also, N7.5 billion is budgeted for the construction of two city gates. Out of the N5.7 billion earmarked for procurement of equipment and other essentials, N2.9 billion will be spent to sweep and provide sanitation for the city. The FCTA as part of moves to remove prostitutes and destitute from the streets of the Federal Capital City, FCC, has set up two training centres in Bwari Area Council and Lugbe in Anuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC.

The Abuja Environmental Protection Board, AEPB, will be in charge of removing the prostitutes and destitutes from the streets while their rehabilitation will be handled by Social Development Secretariat. According to a source from the FCTA, the prostitutes when arrested, will be taken to Lugbe where they will be engaged in vocational training in hairdressing, making of yoghurt, computer training, among others for a minimum period of three months. The programme which commenced last year has already graduated over 1,000 of such persons.

 In his lead debate yesterday, Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma- Egba who presented the FCT Statutory Appropriation Bill, 2013 said the total Statutory budget stands at N253,199,752,409, with N48,034,818,410 voted for Personnel costs; N49,504,534,358 for Overhead Costs and the balance of N155,660, 399,641 is for Capital Projects for the service of the Federal Capital Territory commencing from January 1, and ending on December 31, 2013. According to Senator Ndoma-Egba, another N7.5 billion will be spent in 2013 by the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, AMMC, where the Departments of Development Control, Parks and Recreation, Facility Management and Urban Affairs belong. Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba said: “The sum of N4 billion is proposed for the construction of First Lady Mission Building. Also, the sum of N150 million is set aside for the renovation of Vice President’s Guest House in Asokoro.

 “The sum of N50.5 billion is proposed for the development of transport sector. Out of this amount, there is a Chinese loan of N44.5 billion for the construction of Abuja 60.37 standard gauge rail track with ancillary facilities. “The secretariat is saddled with the responsibility of promoting social activities like sports, arts and culture, tourism, empowerment programmes, rehabilitate prostitutes and destitute, etc in the territory. In 2013, the total sum of N5 billion is earmarked to address some of the social menace within the FCT. “The sum of N30 billion is earmarked for the provision of infrastructure and services in the education sector in year 2013. This will also cater for the expansion and rehabilitation of Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Vocational Schools, as well as to provide teaching aid materials. This will improve the quality and standard of education in FCT.

 “The sum of N24 billion is proposed for the provision of infrastructural facilities and to complete the on-going projects. N23 billion is for the completion of on-going projects while N470 million is for new projects.”

N4billion budgeted for Patience Jonathan's project is unnecessary

The N4 billion vote in the 2013 budget of the Federal Capital Territory for the First Lady Mission, which is Dame Patience Jonathan's project. The N4 billion is for building a mission office for the First Lady.

The budget was reviewed yesterday by Senators ,apparently they were against the expenditure.

This was what one of the senators said:

Senator Babajide Omoworare

 ‘The Women Development Centre is there for the use of the First Lady to do anything she wants to do and I'm not aware that there's a First Ladies Mission in the US where we copied the presidential system of government. There's no such building in South Africa or Ghana that is our neighbour

Senator Babjide Ojudu said:

I'm worried and I hope that those of us who are leaders in this country do not take the youths for granted. How can we vote N4 billion for office of the First Lady? I just pray and hope that this does not get to the public because if it does, we are in trouble. Nigerians will not forgive us for appropriating money for an office that doesn't exist in Nigeria. All of us sitting here must not allow this thing go through’

Pastor pulls out gun on church accountant in Benue

THE Benue State Police Command, yesterday, arrested the pastor of a new generation church in Katsina-Ala (names withheld) for illegal possession of fire arms and assault on the church’s accountant.

Vanguard gathered from sources that the pastor was apprehended with the firearm by men of the Benue State Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS, in Katsina-Ala where he allegedly tried to kill the accountant of the church, Mr. Philip Toryila, during a serious disagreement over money.

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According to our source,”the incident occurred on Tuesday evening when the pastor ordered the church accountant to handover church monies to him for execution of a project and he refused. “The refusal of the accountant angered the pastor who engaged him in a fracas and in the process pulled out a gun on the accountant.

 “In the process, the accountant shouted for help which attracted the attention of another church official who alerted the police and they quickly drafted some armed men of the squad to the place and arrested the pastor.” The source added that “the accountant sustained a major facial injury and other parts of his body and was quickly rushed to a private hospital in Katsina-Ala where is now receiving treatment.”

Confirming the story, Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Deputy Suprintendent of Police Daniel Ezeala, said: “The arrested pastor was brought to the state command and he will soon be charged to court for illegal possession of firearms but we are still conducting investigations into the matter.”

Can this be true? Genevieve Nnaji's Scenes Cut Out Of Half Of A Yellow Sun

There is a twist  on Genevieve Nnaji being cast in Chimamanda Adiche’s Half of A Yellow Sun which is yet-to-be-released.

A film directed by Niyi Bandele . According to E24-7magazine reports that her scenes have been cut off.

Genevieve’s scenes weren’t expressly important to the story, a reliable source that has seen the movie told E24-7MAGAZINE. “I figured that because of Ms Nnaji’s way of acting, her character dragged the storyline, so it was cut out during editing. Obviously, if she was good enough like Onyeka Onwenu, she would have been given a major role in the film.

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“Her minor role was compensation to Nollywood. So, the film producers might be apologetic for cutting out her parts, as she should not try to go to the cinemas to see the film with her family members, else she will give herself heartache.” It was a very intense exercise for the post-production team; in fact, they ended up cutting out some characters from the book to beat time in order to stay focus and professional. Test audiences, we gathered did not like those scenes.

According to the source, the director realized some footage may not be needed and unfortunately many of those scenes involved the Tango with Me star actress, such that if she appears on screen at all, it will be in a significantly reduced capacity from what her role was in the script. Yes, you may get to see her in a party scene. This development, no doubt will be shocking to her fans and observers of the industry because of her status and influence but it is a usual occurrence in other climes to cut actors out of finished films

Source-E24-7