Keshi returns as coach of Super Eagles

Stephen Keshi been asked to return and complete the rest of the African Nations Cup qualifiers with the Super Eagles, Goal reports.



Nigeria plays Congo and South Africa next month in the last two AFCON qualifiers.

The website reports that Super Eagles’ Media Officer, Toyin Ibitoye, on Thursday morning tweeted that Keshi is set to return to his job.
Goal gathered that Keshi has been asked to return to his post as part of reconciliatory moves in the Nigeria Football Federation as ordered by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The President has also asked the Chris Giwa faction to withdraw its case from court to ensure that Nigeria is not banned by FIFA.
However, the NFF is yet to release any official statement.

Keshi was sacked on October 16, a day after the Super Eagles defeated Sudan 3-1 in Abuja, by the Amaju Pinnick-led board of the NFF who recalled former coach, Shaibu Amodu, in an interim capacity.

The African champions had won just one out of four qualifying matches and fans were forced to ask for the coach’s sack.

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Synagogue Building Collapse: Coroner threatens to arrest T.B Joshua

The coroner conducting an inquest into the cause of the building collapse at The Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, Wednesday, threatened to order the arrest of T.B Joshua, the church’s founder, if he fails to honour the invitation extended to him.



Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe said the court does not owe anyone an explanation for its decision to invite Mr. Joshua.

Mr. Joshua, whose real name is Temitope Balogun Joshua, is billed to testify at the inquest on November 5.

Over 115 people died when a six storey guest house belonging to the church collapsed on September 12.

“If he doesn’t come, he will be arrested, please advise him,” Mr. Oyetade told the church’s counsel at the inquest.

“The sheriff said he has served him (a witness summons) and I have the evidence of that. If he cannot come on that day, he should tell us why he cannot come.”

The magistrate was responding to an earlier suggestion by Lateef Fagbemi, the church’s counsel, that only people who would be of relevance to the court ought to be invited.

“I have gone through all the depositions filed, no mention has been made of Joshua,” Mr. Fagbemi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, had said.

“I will suggest that it is those who can be of assistance from the SCOAN that will be invited.”
To support his argument, Mr. Fagbemi cited Section 32 of the Coroner Law where the court was vested with the power to summon anyone that can give “material evidence” during an inquest.
“He must be someone who must be able to assist you. Has there been anything said against Joshua?” Mr. Fagbemi argued.

But the coroner stood his ground, reminding the lawyer that the court specifically invited Mr. Jonathan and not The Synagogue Church.

“The church is not our problem here. We summoned the prophet, we summoned the contractors. The prophet is different from the church,” Mr. Komolafe said.

Earlier, during a dramatic and somewhat belligerent cross-examination, John Obafunwa, a professor of Forensic Pathology, said that autopsy on the bodies began on October September 22, ten days after the building collapse.

“The forensic pathologists from South Africa only came for observation, they did not do any other thing,” Mr. Obafunwa responded to claims by the SCOAN lawyer that they were only allowed to take photographs and fingerprints.

“A lawyer will not come from another jurisdiction and appear in a court. Same thing is applicable in the Medical and Dental Council,” Mr. Obafunwa, the Chief Medical Examiner at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, said.

“For a foreign forensic pathologist to practice, the person will need at least a temporary licence from MDCN (Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria). By the way, their expertise was not in doubt.”
The coroner waded in at intervals to calm the heated exchange between Mr. Obafunwa and the SCOAN lawyer.'

“You are a professional. You don’t intimidate your witness. You don’t ask a question to harass a witness,” Mr. Komolafe told Olalekan Ojo, one of SCOAN’s lawyers.

Mr. Obafunwa said if a building collapsed due to explosion, death could arise from a variety of things.

“Some people might die as a result of crush effect, some as a result of fire, fire could result before or after the collapse, some could die as a result of severe blood loss due to shrapnel during the explosion.”'

On the claims by the SCOAN lawyer that the embalming of the bodies could have led to the washing off of the evidence that victims died from fire, Mr. Obafunwa said that it was “not possible.”
“You don’t look for smoke inhalation outside the body. Evidence of smoke inhalation is in the lungs,” he said.'

Also testifying, Oladimeji Ige, of the Nigeria Red Cross said that church members did not obstruct his men from their duties.

“I did not see NEMA and LASEMA performing search and rescue on the first day. I don’t know the people doing the search and rescue,” said Mr. Ige, Resource Development and Training Officer at the Nigeria Red Cross.

Mr. Ige said that majority of the church members who participated in search and rescue were incapable of administering basic first aid to the victims.

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Synagogue building has no approval, says commissioner

The Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Oluwatoyin Ayinde, has said that the collapsed six-storey building of the Synagogue Church of All Nations had no government approval.



Ayinde stated this on Thursday while giving testimony before the coroner probing the cause of the building collapse.

No fewer than 116 persons died while several others sustained varying degrees of injuries in the September 12, 2014 tragedy.

Ayinde, in his testimony, said investigations conducted by his ministry, following the accident, revealed that though the six-storey building had a record of survey, it however had no approval of the government.

He said the only thing found in the records was an approval for the church’s main auditorium, adding that though that auditorium has now been raised to eight floors, the approval given was only for five floors.

The commissioner who described all unapproved structures in the church’s premises as illegal, stated that there was need to investigate what he described as unusual practices going on within the church premises.

Ayinde wondered why, for instance, one of the columns supporting the additional three floors placed on the main auditorium had to take off from the top of a water tank.

He said, “The approval that we saw was in the name of the Syangogue Church of All Nations dated January 26, 2004 but that approval was just for the main auditorium and one of the things we discovered was that it was an approval for a five-floor development. But on our visit to the site, we discovered that the building had been taken to eight floors; we do not have the records of the additional floors, making those floors illegal construction.

“Did we see anything on the collapsed building? No. In our records the collapsed building has no approval.”

He added, “I’d like to say that with the additional structure we saw on site, we are inclined to express some fears. We have seen, for example, that one of the columns is not taking off from the ground floor, but it is resting on an existing water tank and I don’t know whether any engineer certified that construction. This needs to be investigated because it is an unusual practice to start a column middle way.”

While expressing doubts over the claim by the church that the collapse of the building was connected with some aircrafts that had hovered over it shortly before the accident, Ayinde stated that his investigations revealed that the distance between the said aircraft and the top of the building was one and a half the lenght of a football pitch.

He further stated that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority had written a letter to his ministry showing a request by the Nigerian Airforce that some of their aircrafts were going to be having rehearsals at that time around that place.

He said, “What we wanted to know was that which aircrafts were flying at that particular time? Two, at what altitude were they flying? And three, what was the coordinate of their flight path?”

Ayinde added, “They sent us a response first, showing that there was a request by the Nigerian Airforce that there would be some rehearsals of some aircrafts.

“From that letter, we gathered that all of the aircrafts were flying at an altitude of 1,100 feet above the sea level; if you convert that into floors, you will be given about 109 or 110 floors from the sea level. Deduct six floors of the building from 109 floors, you will still have the aircraft flying at about 103 floors from above the building. That we were able to infer.

“Secondly, by the time we plotted the graph using the Flight Path Swath, we discovered that the minimum distance that the aircraft went down close to that area was 137 metres, that is almost one and a half the length of a football pitch from one goal post to the other. That was how far the minimum aircraft was and the maximum was about 288 metres away.”

Ayinde, who insisted that the cause of the collapse was lack of planning and structural defect, said Nigerians need to learn from the sad incident.

He said, “Because the objective of this coroner is to ensure that we prevent such occurrence in the future, it would be necessary to have Nigerians, not just Lagosians, know that construction is a science. Nobody becomes a contractor because his father was a contractor and you don’t become an expert in building because you were there when they were building it. It would be necessary for Nigerians to first recognise that construction is science.”

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Rivers PDP gov aspirants gang-up against Wike

At least, 14 governorship aspirants in Rivers State vying on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday, staged a rally against the aspiration of the former Minister of Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, and called for the rotation of the governorship position in the state.

The PDP governorship aspirants, who were mainly from the riverine area of the state had converged on the Liberation Stadium in Port Harcourt, demanding that the party hierarchy in the state should change its no-zoning stance in the interest of justice.



They also called on the National Working Committee of the party to intervene in the crisis rocking the state PDP over the ‘no zoning’ stance of the state PDP.

It will be recalled that the State Chairman of the PDP had thrown the forthcoming governorship primary of the party open to all aspirants and discarding the zoning system.

But speaking at the rally organised by the Rivers State Mainstream Coalition in conjunction with the state PDP stakeholders, one of the aspirants, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, explained that the issue of zoning was non-negotiable, adding that the PDP has been practising rotation of power since its creation.

Lulu-Briggs argued that if Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State would not be able to succeed President Goodluck Jonathan as President in 2019, it would be wrong for an Ikwerre person to succeed Mr. Rotimi Amaechi as the Rivers State governor.

He decried the move by the hierarchy of the state PDP to stop the rally, maintaining that one of the reasons for organising the rally was to express their support for President Jonathan.

“Since it is not possible to say that Governor (Seriake) Dickson should succeed President Goodluck Jonathan in 2019, then rotation of power should be embraced in Rivers State the way it has been embraced in Akwa Ibom. Give us Rivers State, Give us our right,” Lulu-Briggs said.

The convoy of one of the aspirants, Mr. Sunday Nwankwo, was said to have been attacked in Etche Local Government Area.

Another governorship aspirant on the platform of the PDP, Sampson Ngerebara said it was wrong for Wike to take the credit for projecting President Jonathan in the state, adding that he was also involved in the mobilisation of support for the President through the Grassroots Initiative.

According to Ngerebara, “The question they ask us in Abuja is that where were you when Nyesom Wike was fighting for Jonathan. But I was part of the GDI and it was wrong to say Wike alone fought for Goodluck Jonathan. The cardinal point of GDI was to mobilise support for GEJ and we were all involved in this. But today, one man (Wike) wants to take all alone.

“Today, one person is talking about Ikwerre North and Ikwerre South, but we will not allow that to be part of our political lexicon. It takes a good follower to be a good leader. We understand the meaning of politics and let nobody take us for a ride.”

In his remark, the leader of Rivers Mainstream Coalition, Professor Israel Owate and a Niger Delta leader, Ann Kio-Briggs stated that the rotation of the governorship position in the state was imperative, adding that it would be impossible for an Ikwerre person to succeed another Ikwerre man.

Among other aspirant that spoke at the rally are Bekinbo Dagogo-Jack, Bernard Mikko, Denis Ojuka and Gabriel Pidomson.

Reacting, the Secretary-general of the GDI, Mr. Samuel Nwanosike, explained that Wike was not worried about the move against him, adding that the PDP will support any aspirant that emerges the governorship candidate.

“It shows clearly what we have been saying in time past that these are people sponsored by Governor Rotimi Amaechi. You can see that all their aspersions were not against Amaechi, but against the PDP.

“You can imagine about 27 persons coming to discuss one man (Wike). Nevertheless, the issue of what happened in Akwa Ibom and the situation in Rivers State are different. The PDP in Rivers State is the opposition and we must present the best candidate and the party has said that we must discard zoning to achieve this.

“Wike is not worried by the move against him. I don’t see why it is a problem to them. For us, we are saying that we want everybody to come to the field and if the delegate support you, that is okay. You can see that the stadium was an empty stadium, we don’t have anything to worry about,” Nwanosike said.

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Chinedu Ubachukwu wins Gulder Ultimate Search 11

Twenty-four-year-old Chinedu Ubachukwu has emerged winner of the 11th season of Gulder Ultimate Search (GUS), which ended last night.


Ubachukwu and 13 others were in the Aguleri jungle in Anambra State for 26 days, for the adventure reality show which aired on digital and terrestrial television channels.

A graduate of Petroleum and Gas Engineering from the University of Port Harcourt, Ubachukwu, who hails from Anambra State, edged out co-finalists, Emmanuel Afolabi and Nne Cosy Joe, to discover the mythical General’s Helmet, a symbol of this year’s search aptly tagged The Mission.
As promised by Nigerian Breweries Plc., organisers of the show, Ubachukwu, by his feat, automatically qualified for the grand prize of N10 million and a brand new Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV).

No doubt, it was a grueling 26 days for all the contestants, who will each get a prize according to how they were evicted from the show.
Perhaps the winner’s familiarity with the topography of Anambra North local government area was an added advantage for his victory. It is not clear what part of the state he hails from, but Ubachukwu had said, in a previous interview, that his place is not far from Aguleri, giving the reason he should win the contest.

“My expectation is very high. I’m from Anambra and my village is actually a few distance away from Aguleri. So, I just have to win this one or else I don’t know if I will be able to go home for Christmas, if I don’t win it,” he had said.

The finalists

When asked what his strategy would be, Ubachukwu, who appeared the ‘weakest’ of all 14 contestants, said he had no specific strategy: “No strategy yet until I get to the jungle. But having spent a little time with my fellow contestants, I can say I stand a good chance. I will just give my best in my tasks.”

Perhaps the ‘good chance’ being referred to by the young man had little to do with physical capabilities, because when the contestants commenced their journey from Boat Landing, where they had camped the previous night, Ubachukwu, it will be recalled, stated that he was not 100 percent fit. He added that if the final search for the helmet became a purely physical task, it might be to his disadvantage.

At some point in the show, Ubachukwu was the last to climb over a very high wall, and the remaining contestants, feeling pity for him, insisted that he should be the first to cross another rope ladder, which was suspended between two trees because he appeared weak.

But in the last lap of the ‘search’, Ubachukwu seemed to have regained more strength. As shown on television last night, he and the other two raced towards three canoes and paddled away in different directions. Emmanuel and Cosy Joe appeared to paddle their canoes aimlessly, while Ubachukwu paddled towards a particular direction. It turned out that he rowed his canoe towards a clay pot that was emitting fire.

At that point, Cosy Joe appeared frustrated and angrily hit the water with his bare hands. He had no paddle. As Cosy paddled his boat to shore and alighted on land, Emmanuel attempted to row his canoe in Ubachukwu’s direction, but the latter was already far ahead. Ubachukwu raced on land and retrieved the great General’s Helmet, which was surrounded by three fire pots.

Consequently, he has joined the Order of Heroes as the 11th winner of GUS, Nigeria’s longest running reality TV show.

Ubachukwu, the third child and second boy in a family of five children, revealed that he had attempted to be on the show previously to no avail. “This year is my second time; I tried last year, but could not make it. I’m so happy and feel so fortunate to have made the last 14 this year.”
He said he was motivated to apply for the show because “GUS is the first realities show I grew up watching and I have always admired the participants and always imagined myself in the jungle. So, it was natural for me to give it a try now that I’ve come of age.

Upon Ubachukwu’s discovery of the General’s helmet, Chidi Mokeme, the anchor of the show, congratulated him, saying: “After 26 murderous days in the Aguleri jungle, after days and nights of pain and sorrow, thinking about the unknown, nursing your wounds with sweats and blood, it is you Chinedu who made it here. It is you who has carved your name in history. It is you who has earned the bragging rights; it is you who has made it into the elite league of extraordinary warriors. By the powers conferred on me by the Council of Elders, I now pronounce you Last Man Standing.”
Two other contestants will also receive brand new vehicles. They are Samantha Appi, who will get a brand new Ford Eco sport for emerging the last woman standing and a Ford Focus car for whoever becomes winner of the viewers’ choice.

The contestants who were evicted earlier in the show are Otto Canon, Ikenna Emedike, Addoh Evi, Iroh Noella, Blessing Eriata, Loretta Erijakpor, Sandra Nwagbagiro, Samantha Appi, Sharon Robinson, Joshua Nwagboso and Iwuoha Ikenna.

The prize presentation ceremony will be presided over by Governor Willie Obiano at the Women Development Centre, Awka, on Saturday.

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Police withdraw Tambuwal’s security detail

The Acting Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba, has redeployed the Police personnel attached to the Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.



The Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu, in a statement on Thursday in Abuja, hinged the withdrawal of Tambuwal’s security aides on Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.

Statement reads, “In view of the recent defection by the Right Hon. Aminu Waziri Tanbuwal, CFR, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, from the People Democratic Party to the All Progressive Congress and having regard to the clear provision of section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, the Nigeria Police Force, has redeployed its personnel attached to his office.”

Ojukwu could not be reached to comment on why the same treatment was not applied to Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, who defected from the Labour Party to the Peoples Democratic Party a few weeks ago.

The FPRO did not respond to calls to his phone and he has yet to respond to a text message sent to him as of the time of filing this report.

Mr. Tambuwal, who had long identified with the APC, announced a formal defection Tuesday and promptly adjourned the House of Representatives to forestall any backlash from the ruling PDP.

The PDP called for his resignation.

On Wednesday, the speaker, a three-term member of the House, attended a mini-convention of the APC, arriving at the venue of the event in Abuja to a rapturous welcome.

He condemned his former party as being led by a cabal and vowed that his new party will “sweep” off the ruling party after 15 years in power.

A source close to the camp of the speaker said “the tumultuous welcome accorded the speaker at the convention and the overwhelming outpouring of goodwill from the general public is said to have rattled the presidency resulting in their frenzied reaction”.

“Early this morning, few minutes after midnight to be precise, top level security report informed the Speaker that orders have been given for the withdrawal of his security details,” the source, who declined to be named because he is not permitted to speak to the media, said.

The source said the speaker had been informed that the governing party, PDP, will file a legal challenge against him for retaining his seat Thursday.

“The ironic thing here is why not wait for the verdict before any action is taken?” the source said.
Mr. Tambuwal’s spokesperson, Imam Imam, could not be immediately reached for comments.

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Africa gets first white president in Zambia

Zambia’s President Michael Sata — nicknamed “King Cobra” for his sharp tongue and manner — has died, officials said Wednesday, making his vice-president Africa’s first white head of state in decades.



Sata, 77, died Tuesday while undergoing treatment in London’s private King Edward VII hospital for an unspecified illness, the Zambian government said.

Vice-President Guy Scott, 70, was named interim leader — making him the first white president of an African nation since FW de Klerk ruled apartheid South Africa more than 20 years ago.

The late Sata

Scott, whose parents were from Scotland, is not eligible to stand in the upcoming presidential election — which must be held within the next 90 days — because of a rule in Zambia’s 1996 constitution barring heads of state with foreign parents.

“Dr Scott will act as president of the Republic of Zambia until the country goes for a presidential by-election” said Defence Minister Edgar Lungu.

Scott issued a statement confirming his temporary promotion and the 90-day period for the elections.
He added that national mourning for Sata would begin Wednesday. “We will miss our beloved president and comrade,” he said,

– From train station cleaner to president –

Sata was elected in 2011 to preside over his landlocked, southern African nation of 15 million people.
It was a triumphant post for a man who rose from sweeping London railway stations, through to being a policeman and trade unionist.

Once in power, though, he proved to be an authoritarian populist who inveighed against political foes, the media and sometimes even allies, earning him his snakey sobriquet. His admirers saw him more as a no-nonsense man of action.

Rumours of him being seriously ill persisted during his final months in office. Frequent denials by the government — and legal action against activists claiming he was dying — did nothing to dispel them.
Sata had not been seen in public since returning from the UN General Assembly last month, where he failed to make a scheduled speech.

The announcement by cabinet secretary Roland Msiska on Wednesday that Sata had died created little surprise.

“It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing on of our beloved president,” Msiska said in an address to the nation.

Speculation was turning to who might become Zambia’s next president.

Even before Sata’s death, analysts had said a power struggle for Zambia’s top job was already well under way within the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) party.

When Sata flew to London just over a week ago for treatment he appointed his defence minister as acting president.

But Lungu, who also holds the justice portfolio, is seen as just one of several potential candidates within the faction-ridden party.

And outside the PF, former president Rupiah Banda, who is facing graft charges, has hinted at a possible return to active politics.

“I am legally eligible to stand,” he told AFP early this month, citing calls from his supporters to return to the political fray.'

– Tributes to Sata –

African leaders meanwhile paid tribute to Sata.

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta hailed him as an “outstanding son of Africa”.
“He was gifted with unique, admirable abilities and strong values,” Kenyatta said in a statement.
South Africa’s ruling ANC said: “Zambia has lost not only a president who prioritised the poor, but also led the Zambian government at a time when the continent is working to reclaim its place in the global governance and economy.”

Sata rode to power on the back of resentment against the Chinese resource firms that dot Zambia, describing them as “infesters”.

His government had recently cracked down on political opponents and critical journalists who reported on his long-suspected illness and frequent “working trips” abroad, apparently for medical treatment.

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