NAMIBIA 2014: Falcons off to flying start

Nigeria Super Falcons got off on soaring wings in their African Women Champi­onship (AWC) campaign, thumping hard talking Les El­ephantes of Cote d’Ivoire 4-2 in the second match of the opening day at the Sam Nujoma Stadium in Wind­hoek, Namibia Saturday evening.
In a weekend that saw Super Eagles’ fall flat in their AFCON 2015 qualifiers in far away Khartoum, Sudan , Falcons gave the nation something to cheer about registering their presence in Namibia with Desire Oparanozie scoring a brace for the six times champions.
Super Falcons began the match with the duo of Asisat Oshoala and Desire Oparanzie bombarding the fellow West Africans and wanted to make lasting impressions.

AFCON 2015 qualifiers :Bafana stuns Congo in Point-Noire

Goals from Bongani Ndu­lula and Tokelo Rantie secured a 2-0 win for South Africa over Congo in a 2015 African Cup of Nations Qualifier at Stade Municipal in Pointe-Noire yesterday.
The victory moves Bafana Bafana top of Group A after three rounds of qualifiers.
Shakes Mashaba made three chang­es to the side that held defending AF­CON champion, Nigeria, to a goalless draw last time out with Oupa Manyisa and Sibusiso Vilakazi dropping to the bench.
Bournemouth striker, Tokelo Ran­tie, returned to the starting XI along with the recalled Thulani Serero while there was also a start for 17-year-old Rivaldo Coetzee who subsequently became the youngest ever Bafana in­ternational.

Cookie crumbles for 50 ex-Niger Delta militants

By NGOZI UWUJARE

…As police rescue 3 kidnap victims
The cookies have crum­bled for a 50-man gang of ex-militants in Rivers State, who re-grouped under the sponsorship of a cer­tain lady named Mrs. Okagwu, with intent to serve as political thugs during the forthcoming 2015 elections.
The bubble burst for the group, known as Niger Delta Youth Movement, when one of the members, 22-year-old King Asuo was arrested by police as he was returning from repair­ing his AK-47 rifle which had a technical fault.
As Sunday Sun gathered from the Rivers State Commis­sioner of Police, Mr Dan Bature, the ex-militant turned political thug was arrested on a motor­cycle by men of Abua Police Station, before the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) headed by Supol Tunji Disu, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) waded into the matter, confiscated the gun and took over investigation of the case.
Asuo, in an interview with Sunday Sun at the headquar­ters of SARS revealed how he acquired the rifle which is used mainly by the police, but is widely available in the underground criminal networks across the country.

Ekweremadu: A champion of rural transformation

By MAZI BISMARCK OJI

My heart lights up each time I recall the events of that bright Tuesday, November 26, 2012, afternoon at Ugwu Tank, Okpome, Agbada and Nenwe in Enugu State. It was the day Ekwerema­du flagged-off the construction of the N12 Billion Nenwe-Odume-Uburu federal road project. The ecstasy of the jubilant mammoth crowd demonstrated that something out of the ordinary; something they had given up hope on, was happening in their lives.
Oduma in Enugu and Uburu in Ebonyi State are two great agrarian communities, which seemed to have been cut off from civilization owing to the menace of impassable roads. Before the advent of colonialism, these towns were renowned as home to men of valour and long distance traders. In fact, historical trade routes passed through these towns to Bende and Arochukwu in Abia State, Itu in present day Akwa Ibom State, and thence to Calabar, Cross River State.
The Oduma and Uburu towns have since had the misfortune of isolation from the centres of development. As such, successive govern­ments, both federal and state had hitherto over­looked the construction of this vital road that would traverse Nenwe in order to link the two towns up with the Enugu-Port Harcourt Ex­pressway and thence to the outside world.

Nigeria’s cash-for-arms nightmares

Twice, in less than a month, Nigeria has been at the centre of embarrassing cash-for-arms deals in South Africa, raising tough questions and intense controversies that have strained relations between the two leading African nations. On September 5, the Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority in South Africa seized $9.3 million cash flown into the country from Nigeria in a private jet.
The cash that was reportedly meant for arms purchase was allegedly transported into South Africa by two Nigerian officials and an Israeli national. But, while the dust raised by the transaction was yet to settle, news broke of yet another seizure of $5.7m (about N952m) belonging to Nigeria, by South African authorities. The government of South Africa has said that the two transactions are illegal, and the relevant authorities in the country have since obtained a court order to seize the monies involved in the two unrelated incidents. South Africa has also initiated criminal investigations into the two transactions.

My father’s political associates drafted me into politics –Adefulire, Lagos Deputy governor

Lagos state Deputy governor, Princess, (Mrs.) Adejoke Orelope, Adefulire speaks on her entry into politics, the advice and support of her father, the dream that catapulted her to the exalted position she now occupies, as well as the value and importance of godfathers in the political process.
She also x-rays the Lagos of our dreams, female presidency and the inexorable march of her political party, the all Progressives Con­gress, APC to power in 2015, amongst other issues, in this commemorative 55th birthday interview.

In Ekiti community, mum’s refusal to have her 5-year-old daughter circumcised tears families apart

■ I don’t want my daughter to suffer the consequences of circumcision like I did –Mum
■ Her circumcision is a must as tradition demands –Dad’s family
Against the back­ground of a child Rights Law that guides against harmful cultural practices on children in Ekiti State, two families: the royal family of Olaoye in Ushi-Ekiti and the Oyenekan family are at loggerheads over the circum­cision of a 5-year-old girl. The once rosy relationship between both families has now turned sour following a disagreement over the circumcision of their 5-year-old daughter, (name of baby withheld).
Miss Olufunke Oyenekan, mother of the 5-year old girl and fiancee to Mr. Emmanuel Olaoye, son of the Olaoyes, a royal family in Ushi-Ekiti, Ekiti State, had disagreed with the Olaoyes over their decision to perform the traditional circumcision rites on her daughter. The woman, sensing that her husband’s family wanted to perform the rites by all means, fled with her child from the Olaoye’s family house in Ushi Ekiti in 2012 and her whereabouts has since remain unknown.
Recently, the Olaoye family again raised the alarm through a representative, identified as Chief Olu Olaoye over the sudden disappear­ance of Olufunke and her daughter. The family said that their son’s fiancee did not mean well for the family by preventing them from per­forming the circumcision rites on the child. Their explana­tion is that it is a mandatory cultural practice to have all their children circumcised, moreso that theirs is a royal family whose duty it is to preserve the cultural heritage of the people of Ushi Ekiti in order to set an example for the people.