Oyo, Osun pay N500m to end LAUTECH crisis

The Oyo and Osun state governments have paid N250 million each to the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) to end the crisis rocking the institution.

The Nation confirmed the development from a very top source in the university yesterday.

The source said: “Yes, both states have paid the amount as promised and the sum is now in the kitty of the university.”

LAUTECH students have been at home for eight months due to the industrial action by all categories of workers in the institution.

The crisis peaked last week when LAUTECH students protested to the Office of the Governor of Oyo State  in Ibadan, the state capital.

While addressing them, the governor promised that owner states would contribute a sum of N250 million each to get back workers to their duty posts and build on it afterwards.

Governor Abiola Ajimobi said the sum would enable the institution pay some salaries and reopen for academic activities before end of this month.

Reacting, the President of the Students’ Union Government of the institution, Olatunde Bakare, commended the two governors, saying it was a way forward.

According to him, the sum, though not up to exactly what is needed to clear salary arrears for two months, would help kick-start the process of implementing the short  term solution to the crisis.

Bakare said once the short term solution is implemented, it would pave the way for the

medium and long term solution the financial problem plaguing LAUTECH. He promised to confirm the payment.

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Obasanjo tells Jonathan, he got wiser after leaving the presidential seat

Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo (right) with a former Minister of National Planing, Prof. Suleiman Abubakar (stooping second right); ex-president Goodluck Jonathan; ex-Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola (behind Jonathan) and a guest during the Ayo Game which was part of the visit to Obasanjo’s ancestral village, Ibogun in Ogun State...yesterday.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday  sneaked into Ibogun ,Ogun State, the ancestral village of  one of his  predecessors in office,and an architect of his defeat  in the 2015 election, ex – President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The rare meeting between the duo who were bitterly divided in the run-up to the election saw Obasanjo tell his host how wise he (Jonathan) had become since leaving office.

“When leaders come, they have little or no experience. When they have to go is when they have really amassed a lot of experience, where they have wisdom, their  experience is  in high demand.

“Those like you and me who have the grace of God to bow out gracefully, if there is now what I call constitutional office, we have residual responsibilities for Nigeria,”Obasanjo said.

With Jonathan on the trip, which observers branded as fence mending  yesterday ,were former Minister of Special Duties, Tanimu Kabir Turaki; a former Minister of National Planning, Prof. Suleiman Abubakar; King A.J.Turner ;and a former Chairman of the Federal Roads Maintenance 

Agency( FERMA), Engr. Jide Adeniji.

They flew into the village in a chartered helicopter at about  11.30am.

The visit lasted about four hours of which Obasanjo and Jonathan alone spoke behind closed doors  for  40 minutes.

No member of Jonathan’s  entourage or Obasanjo’s associates was allowed into the inner room where the  secret talks took place.

One source said yesterday that the   visit was part of Jonathan’s new rapprochement with some of the  key figures that had a hand  in his defeat in the April 2015 polls.

Obasanjo received his visitor in company with former Governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who was ousted as National Secretary of the then ruling PDP by Jonathan and his loyalists.

Obasanjo took  Jonathan round the village for a door-to-door greeting of the elders and the residents.

The people sang and danced in appreciation of Jonathan’s visit.

 

 

Obasanjo, welcoming Jonthan, said: “The first point I want to make is to thank you very sincerely and most sincerely for taking it upon yourself to pay us a visit at this point in time and at this location.  Secondly, since you left office, you hardly have time to sit down and relax like you have been able to do today and I hope, I sincerely hope and pray for more such relaxed situation where we can reminisce on situations of the past that we have been through in this country and we can also look at what the future portends.

“I believe that not only Nigeria, West Africa and Africa and indeed the world will continue to tap our experiences,   our wisdom and I hope and pray that when the call is made to you, you will be more than ready to put your experience, the lessons you have learnt into the service of this country, for African and indeed for humanity in general.

“ I have said to you before and I will say again that there are plenty of opportunities out there, within the country, within West Africa, within Africa and indeed in the larger world where people will want you to make contributions.

“I believe that you are resting now and when you have fully rested and you will be hearing from me because I have this opportunity to be around the world and if I mention your name in dispatch, I thank you sincerely that you have received us as we are in this village to prove to you that we are in a typical village, I was telling you that your village is better than mine.

“I want to say that we have it. Nigeria is a good country and we must never be tired of lifting the country up to the height that God has created it to be and God did not make a mistake when he put all of us together and if He doesn’t want us to be together no power in the world will have made us come together.

“My regards to everybody at home, especially your wife. Please, tell her that my wife sends her regards and I hope sooner or later we will be on your part of the world to enjoy the atmosphere together.  I want to thank you on behalf of everyone here in this village.”

Explaining his mission,Jonathan said he had planned to visit Obasanjo during the yuletide in  company with former military ruler, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB), but the plan fell through owing to unforeseen circumstances.

He said the idea came about when he visited Babangida in Minna when the two of them agreed to come to Ibogun.

Jonathan thanked Obasanjo for the warm reception accorded him and entourage.

Thereafter,  Obasanjo and Jonathan retired to one of the sittings rooms for  “strictly personal talks for 40 minutes.”

Talks over, Obasanjo and one of his friends launched into the popular Yoruba game of ayo.

Jonathan watched as the game went.

A source at the meeting said he was “full of admiration” for it.

It was not immediately clear if the trip was part of the ongoing political realignment for 2019 general elections.

But a top source simply said: “It is a reunion of Papa and his son. Do not read any meaning into it.

“The ex-President decided to make it a private visit in order to be able to have frank talks with Obasanjo.

“During the visit, Obasanjo and Jonathan locked themselves up for 40 minutes. No member of Jonathan’s entourage nor Obasanjo’s associates in Ibogun was allowed to be part of the private session.

“All I can tell you is that the two leaders were able to iron out a few things and Jonathan has since returned to Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.”

“At the end of the visit, ex-Minister Turaki, who is the Chairman of ex-Ministers Forum, gave the vote of thanks.”

Jonathan  started out as Obasanjo’s political godson having been plucked out of  office as Bayelsa State governor to become  presidential running mate in the 2007 election.

He went on to become president, following the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua and won the 2011 election.

The parting of ways came in 2015, following  persistent disagreements between them with Obasanjo launching vitriolic attacks  on Jonathan culminating in the     tearing of his membership card of the PDP and openly campaigning against Jonathan’s re-election.

They had not seen eye to eye since then until yesterday.

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Frustrated MMM participants resort to curses, threats

•MMM founder, Mavrodi

Nigerian participants in the ponzi scheme, MMM, are losing patience with it, a week after resumption of service and promise to begin payment.

Although there was evidence yesterday that some participants had been paid ,thousands of others whose applications were yet to be attended have been  venting their anger on the brains behind the scheme for the frustration in accessing their funds.

They rage,curse and threaten unrestrained  on the MMM Help platform after unsuccessful attempts to get response to their many inquiries on the status of their investment.

Typical of the threat message is this seen yesterday on the MMM website: “Hello Mavrodi. You can’t eat my money and go like that.See, let me tell you Mavrodi:my father is a native doctor.I give you two weeks to pay my money or my father will kill you in that Russia.I’m ready to kill anybody including my guider and referral.Make una  no play with me ooo…If you like joke with me.”

One Hayat Mohammed  said: “I really need help. I provided help of 50,000, now I made a request to get help. The request was processed, but I’ve not being matched with another participant who will pay me. They won’t even pick my calls. So my money is lost, isn’t it? Last time I checked, this was supposed to be a platform where we would be able to tender our problems for solutions. I guess they don’t care anymore since participants have grown in population.”

 Harrison Ita Etim posted: “I am still in the same shit too till today!”

Owhotemu Maryjane said: “What is really going on with MMM? If it’s gone you should let us the participants know. And why is that when someone wants to GH it will show or create error? You guys had a month to sort this out during the so-called break! So what then is this so called withdrawal limit that you are now talking about?”

From Santos Maemi came this: “To all Nigerians, please wake up. This is totally a scam. Don’t be blind!!!” while Christopher Chinedu said: “If I knew that this would  happen, I shouldn’t have become a participant. Let’s admit we have lost our money. That is business I guess, lose or gain. Somebody has been matched with different people, four, to be precise and they have not paid him now, many days and months after. Hmmm so who is going to pay who? I think I have cried enough, it’s time for me to clean my eyes now and forget my N700,000. This is not my end.”

A cross section of participants interviewed in Ado Ekiti fear that their money is gone.

Tope Aladeniyi, who said he was to be paid a day before the scheme was shut down in December, said  he learnt some people received little payments, but he was yet to be matched for payment.

“At the moment, I have not been matched, and last year we were told that once  the scheme resumed on January 14, they would  be the ones to release those who were ready to be matched, even if you were due for payment,” Aladeniyi said.

Another participant, Sola Abidakun, who provided help in November and asked for help on January 13, said he was matched with four persons but only two paid.

“I was only paid N4000 and N10,000, leaving two failed transactions waiting to be rematched,” he said.

A top guider of the scheme, Bode Wilson, while explaining the reason for delayed payment, said that the number of people requesting for payment was higher than the number providing help.

“They have started matching people, but there will be delay in payment, especially for those that pledged huge amount of money. There should be enough money in the system before everybody can get paid. However, I’m sure we will all get paid”, Wilson said.

A lawyer, Femi Oyeniyi, warned that participants in the scheme may not be able to recover any money lost in the scheme because of the anonymity the business is shrouded with.

Oyeniyi said: “I doubt who do you sue, you don’t see the person you are doing business with, you can only sue the person you see and it is only the person you see physically that you can do business with.”

A broadcaster,Carol Oladeinde, said: “I have a relation who did the MMM thing and was benefitting from it before they went off. I do not think that we should condemn the financial scheme (MMM) because a lot of people have benefited from it. I am into another networking stuff. I am a member of another one and it is working.

“Yes, I will continue with mine because I know what I am benefiting from it. I can’t go anywhere to borrow money so if I am involved in a financial scheme where I see someone give me indirect loan and even increase my opportunity to get more, why won’t I continue?

 Martins Okafor, a participant  investor in Awka still believes in the scheme.

He told The Nation that those who have not received any payment were those who have not been matched  for payments, especially those invested shortly before the break.

Another investor, Miss Blessing Nwankwo, was also optimistic that her investment would not be lost

She said she was willing to forfeit  N10,000 of  the N20,000 she invested, adding that she had no regrets whatsoever.

 Mrs. Chiamaka Udu, a participant in Port Harcourt, said: “ We thank God that we are able to be alive to see today.

“The  last time when you came to my house to talk to me, I told you I was going to die, but I think there is hope. What is happening now is that those of us with big funds are not being paid now. They told us that we should wait; that after providing help for those with small amount they will consider us.”

 Mr. Geoffrey Nnamdi said: “My brother, I ‘m yet to understand these people. Though they are paying some, when I clicked help they rejected my request, saying I should wait but I need this money.

 Another customer, Mr. Davies Onyema reacted this way, “Please, I don’t want to say anything, I almost committed suicide last time. I was very happy when I heard the news of their coming back. I have entered forty days of praying and fasting over my condition with MMM. How can they return and tell me that they are not going to provide help to me, so when are they going to provide help?”

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The organizers of the Miss Anambra Beauty Pageant, Anambra Broadcasting Service, ABS, have returned the prize vehicle to the former beauty queen, Miss Chidinma Okeke, despite her involvement in a lesbian sex tape scandal.
Recall that the embattled ex-beauty queen was last year entangled in a lesbian sex tape scandal in which she was seen having a ‘cozy time’ with her female sex partner, who unconfirmed sources simply identified as Ada.

Ms. Okeke, in an interview had alleged that the organizers were behind the blackmail video although the organizers denied her claim, insisting she lied. 
As the dust raised by the sex tape scandal is yet to settle, the ex-beauty queen seems to have her defenses falling into place.
This is playing out after Ms Okeke, Monday appeared in a Lagos court.
She reportedly dragged one of her alleged blackmailers to court, following the scandal, with the Department of State Service, DSS, as the agency in charge of the case.

The ABS on Thursday, did not only return her prize vehicle, they made her sign an undertaking that she would not grant press interviews or reveal the circumstances under which the prize car was returned to her.
As shared on Facebook, one Barrister Chukwuemeka Ugwuonye, a conveyer of Due Process Advocates, DPA, and of Chidinma’s lawyers revealed: “They threatened to have her detained if she breached that undertaking.
“From one of the ABS insiders, the Management of ABS took this measure in order to stop Chidinma from continuing as Government witness in the criminal case going on in Lagos.
“The ABS wants to suppress the ongoing case because they were involved in the making and leak of the sex video. If the case were to go on, the accused person will reveal the truth. They met with Ms. Okeke without her lawyer. They told her that nobody was allowed to come for the meeting except her parents.

“It is clear that Anambara State Government is behind this whole show of shame. They are doing everything to kill the case.
“Indeed, the DSS refused to make available to Chidinma and her lawyer the outcome of their investigation of the case explicitly because of the involvement of some Government officials in the scandal, particularly the Director of the ABS.
“More updates will be coming your way. But as we warned months, those who think that the Chidinma Okeke’s case would die quietly are joking.
“In fact, even Chidinma Okeke cannot stop this story. We have sufficient insider sources in Anambra State.
“NOTE: The prize car was one of the prize awards given to Chidima Okeke for winning the Beauty Pageantry for the year. The picture of the car and a ceremony is shown here.
“It is not yet clear what Chidinma plans to do about this development. But the pressure for her to keep quiet is high and Nigerians must not allow that to happen.”

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