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It
was about 5am of a fateful day, and Etuk was
returning from the University of Uyo town campus
after an all-night reading. He sauntered home,
comfortable that no one was lurking by to snatch his
cell phone at gunpoint; not with the team of Aduma
men prowling the city. As he walked, he engaged
himself in some recollection of what he had read few
hours before.
“Oga I dey here O”, a strange voice hoarse behind
him. Almost taking to his heels, Etuk decided
otherwise. He turned to the direction of the voice
and immediately, he beheld a bevy of scantily clad
ladies. Of course, he didn't recognize any of them.
One of the ladies walked up to him, obviously the
voice owner ...detaill |
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A man, Thomas Atumar
who could not stomach the pain and shame of having
another man have sex with his wife Mary Odey Atumar
has ended it all tragically by shooting his wife and
himself dead.
Thomas, an itinerant hunter in the village of Mbube
at the outskirts of Ogoja on the 24th of July was
uncontrollable when he came back from his hunting
expedition in the middle of the night to find his
wife in a sex romp with a youth in the village whose
name was given as James.
James Weekly Insight information has it escaped
through the window when the man came back
unexpectedly and took off to yet to be identified
destination. Efforts by the angry hunter throughout
the remaining part of the night to locate and
eliminate him with his gun failed and when he
returned to his house at dawn, he simply turned
...detail |
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Militants Invade Mbo Coastal Village
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Manhandle Village Head, Others |
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A
group of armed men believed to be one of the militant groups
reportedly prowling the Niger Delta waters, have recently
invaded Utan Iyata Village in Mbo Local Government Area and
allegedly manhandled Local dwellers including the Village
Head, Chief Ita Okon Essiek.
Our reporter who visited the coastal village following the
report, gathered that the group arrived Utan Iyata on the
fateful day and suddenly began to unleash mayhem on
villagers they could lay hold of, causing others to flee for
their lives.
In an interview with Weekly Insight in Ibaka last Monday,
Chief Essiek was quick to confirm the invasion but denied
knowledge of any form of brutality by the said militants.
He explained that a man who was said to owe two other men in
Utan Iyata hired the militants' service. The man, whose name
was not disclosed, had his property confiscated by his
creditors. Chief Essiek said he had sent out a message
asking the debtor to show up for ...detail |
"Ime Albert Akpan Remains The Senator of
the people" Known to the Electorates In Uyo Senatorial
District of Akwa Ibom State"
- Hon. (Barr.) Mfon Udeme,
National Coordinator, Ibiono Ibom People's Assembly
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The National
Coordinator of Ibiono Ibom People's
Assembly, Hon. (Barr.) Mfon Udeme, has
declared that Mr. Ime Albert Akpan, whom he
referred to as “The Senator of the people”,
remains the only known elected Senator for
Uyo Senatorial District in spite of the
lingering legal battle for the seat at Abuja
and the obstruction by those he refers to as
“enemies of progress”.
Barr. Mfon Udeme, a former Chairman of
Ibiono Ibom Local Government Council, made
the declaration at a forum in Uyo organized
by the socio-political group known as Ibiono
Peoples
...detail |
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Imoke Set To Join 'Returned Govs' List? |
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From
the unfolding events ever since Senator Liyel Imoke joined
the long list of 'sacked Governors' in Nigeria on Monday,
July 14, 2008, by reason of an Appeal Court judgment
nullifying his April 14, 2007 gubernatorial election in
Cross River State and a re-run election ordered to be held
within 90 days, the pendulum of victory at the polls seems
to be swinging in favour of Imoke, though he might not have
it on a platter of gold in the August 23, 2008 fresh
governorship election.
Having successfully succeeded former Governor Donald Duke on
May 29, 2007 and governed the clean and green state of Cross
River smoothly, for 14 splendid months, little did he know
that a shocker awaited him, barely a week after his minor
cabinet reshuffle. It came as a surprise.
In deed, it was a dark Monday as the news of annulment of
..detail |
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Four
New Hospitals To Be Established In Akwa Ibom |
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Akwa Ibom state indigene have been assured of four
additional new hospitals to help the existing ones carry out
health care services nearer to the people in the rural and
urban areas of the State.
The state governor, Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio made this
known during the flag off of distribution of food
supplements to people living with HIV and AIDS in Akwa Ibom
state recently at John Eneiye Haven Housing Estate, Udo
Udoma avenue, Uyo.
Governor Akpabio who was represented at the occasion by his
Deputy Obong Engr. Patrick Ekpotu observed that good
nutrition can help maintain the nutritional status of people
living with HIV and AIDs (PLWHAs) by boosting defenses and
thereby showing the progression of HIV to AIDs, adding that
the administration of Chief Godswill Akpabio has extended
the war against this epidemic to other HIV service areas
like HIV Counseling and testing (HCT) by increasing HCT
centers from 11 to 37 and prevention of mother to child
transmission of the virus from seven to 14 centres in the
State. ...detail |
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Uyo House Leader Heads
South-South Councillors Forum |
Chief Godswill
Akpabio's prayers during his electioneering campaign and
after being sworn into office have started yielding fruits.
The promise-keeping Governor was fond of always telling his
audience “when you work you will eat. All those who work
hard will be rewarded. But I plead with you that when we
touch your life, touch the lives of others …”
Hon. Anietie Eka, the Leader of Uyo Legislative Council,
happens to be one of those in whom Governor Akpabio prayers
have been fulfilled. Hon. Eka is receiving kudos from most
members of his constituency, Ward 5 in Uyo LGA, made ...detaill |
 ...detail |
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The Guymen Of NASS |
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Pray, how many of us are not in the
know that it takes a mugu to fall for a guyman to wack, just as it
takes sheer gullible Nigerians for our lawmakers to be exactly what
they are: Dishonourables, sorry Honourables? A slip of the hand
there!
Now, I must confess that I am so pained by the grim fact that our
mugu side has continuously had the best of us, thereby letting the
guymen of the National Assembly to sustainedly have their prankish
way.
Or else, how on earth could the federal legislature, the lower House
to be specific, whose tenure has barely crossed one year mark be
embroiled in so many a shameful controversy such that it has and
still succeeds in making us swallow it whole that they are anything
close to representing our interest in the federal legislative house?
The following does not at all posit that there is any exonerating of
the upper House oh! How can that be with all the old-hand (ogbologbo)
state and national ogas that are presently taking refuge in there?
Afterall, what turned on the tap of tears that rolled down
Bello-Obasanjo's royal cheeks like Gurara Falls is still very fresh.
For now, the memory of how, approximately one month into this
legislature's inception, factual reports of gross financial
impropriety began to trail the then Madam Speaker Patricia Ette
still lingers. Her lofty position in the lower House of the National
Assembly had come on the heels of the over-flogged political agenda
of 30% women inclusion in our national politics and our subsequent
succumbing to that pressure. But I will make haste to say that even
though her misdemeanor had little or nothing to do with gender
issue, it had a whole lot to do with the beautician in the Madam
Speaker. Would you then blame her for any financial mismanagement
having known her call? No sane man would! The political king-makers
and indeed god-fathers should have known better, having had an
inkling of the unbroken record of Emelda Marcos, the one-time first
lady of the Philippines who had penchant for excess accumulation of
all sorts of adornments that are women's, enough to float a
market-size boutique. She was not a called beautician like our
Patricia Ette, yet she holds unbroken world record for highest
boutique shopper. So one wonders what would have happened to the
Philippines' coffers if she were anything beautician.
For this reason, while shopping for Madam Ette for the House of the
Reps top job, the king-makers should have known better, and so
should keep all the passed bucks, and not our dear old Madam Ette
o'jare.
But in any case, she did utterly disillusion the women folk, her
true-blue house colleagues and the nation at large in that
renovation rip-off, and the theatrics and loss of life that ensued.
We should have learnt from this but we have not, sadly. The mugu
side of us always took its toll and we have opted to push the
incident far behind us.
Again, when suddenly our eyes opened to the reality that ten long
years on and with sixteen whooping US Dollars down the drain, our
energy sector only plummeted to zero point, were we not madly
enthused and got mesmerized by those shakara treats of the guymen of
the National Assembly when the House's energy probe panel commenced
public sitting? And barely had the committee recommended the EFCC's
investigation of OBJ, Segun Agagu and Liyel Imoke, among many others
than the probers were caught in the web of allegations that they
compromised themselves by collecting a bride of N100m from the
probed during their South South tour in April to inspect the
proposed projects. And after much toing and froing on the matter,
all is now calm and quiet. See who we should trust and believe? Can
you see that once again the naked truth is that we have simply made
ourselves easy prey to be hoodwinked at will by sitting dumb as
though nothing has happened up there?
Only recently too, the much talked about Freedom of Information bill
suffered being bewitched for the seventh time in about one year now
by those House of Reps members we gullibly mistook for the people's
representatives who have our interest at heart.
The incumbent Speaker, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, methinks started it all,
when in raising the issue of the bill he described the matter as
“controversial”, even though he rested his case by urging the House
to give it consideration for “overriding public interest”. But if
you ask me, it was not enough ground for the PDP Esan Central, Esan
West and Igueben Federal Constituency representative, Patrick
Ikhariale, to jump up with a shout of “point of order” on the
Speaker; it was not enough reason either for that staunch
underpinner of Patricia Ette, Sada Jibia, to do everything within
his means to stand in the way of the passage of the bill, if they
and many of the anti-FOI bill henchmen do not have so much skeletons
and skulls to conceal in their carcass-replete closets. And of
course other like-minded guymen like Chuma Nzeribe, Aminu Tambuwal,
Mohammed Ndume and a host of others, they being of great majority,
followed suit. Soon the jeering brought the rowdiness that almost
brought down the high roof of the House. To us in the information
management and merchandizing sector, the development was anything
but funny. It was one true expression of betrayal of trust of
immense dimension.
I mean, what can be more treacherous than that of a people that much
is given to do everything in the course of their duties to protect
the interest of the common man, their constituents? Absolutely
nothing. How else do you expect a gang to tell you that there are so
many ugly realities about them that they would stop at nothing to
shield, even if they should be the last to do anything that should
fall short of honesty and transparency to their constituency? But is
must be them of all sets of people who are doing this without
mincing words.
At the end of the day, bow the people must to these smart lawmakers
who are virtuosos in the art of buying them over. And that is why
they are politicians, the re-defined ones at that.
Who does not known by now that politics has been re-defined to suit
our Nigerian, nay African terrain? As for democracy, its coffin has
long been nailed. Ask me and I will readily tell you that it is all
evident in the hideous political happenings and their consequences
around Africa. And what else do you expect that I tell you on that?
There is a way with this bunch. They don't hide it when they work
assiduously hard to ensure that their already robust allowances
bloat the more. They let it all hang out too as they are hell-bent
to spite the people's interest. But surprise, in the end they are
sure to remain the nobs to be celebrated. And the people? They must
perpetually remain the suffering-and-smiling and cheering lot. It
doesn't matter if the smile goes beyond plastic to stone, the people
smile on.
There is a way the guymen manipulate things that you can't beat.
That is why the inference that until and unless the people can think
for themselves and have full participation in governance, the mugu
of the constituencies will always fall for the guymen of the federal
legislature to wack is a far-reaching one. |
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