JONATHAN GIVES ALMOST N1BILLION TO TURAI, OTHERS AS 'SEVERANCE'?

The presidency has paid nearly N1billion to the family of late President Umaru Yar'Adua, according to an official memo obtained in Abuja. The slush funds were routed through the Katsina State government, the home state of the former president.

The payment includes about N150 million to Mrs. Turai Yar'adua, as well as others to the late president's aged mother, his married daughters, and sons.

LAGOS SOCIALITE PRINCEWILL OJUKWU CLAIMS DON JAZZY TOLD THUGS TO BRUTALIZE HIM

 Popular Lagos socialite and former manager of Auto Lounge Nite Club, Princewill Ojukwu, is accusing ace music producer Don Jazzy of sending thugs to beat him up, this is according to an exclusive report by Stella Dimoko Korkus.

Princewill is alleging in a petition to the IG of Police, that on Friday December 21st, Don Jazzy asked his thugs to 'take his life' after he and the music producer exchanged words at Jazzy's night club, Pop, situated in Victoria Island.

Princewill claimed he was brutally beaten and stripped naked under the supervision of Don Jazzy and he suffered blunt force trauma to the eye, face and body. Sounds insane!

Princewill is also claiming that Don Jazzy sent a text to him some days back apologizing for the beating and asking for an account to send money for hospital bill but he says he's not interested.

'Its not about the money' Ojukwu told Dimoko 'this could happen to anyone, it is abuse of power and needs to be checked before someone is killed all in the name of the other being a celebrity. Don Jazzy stood there pinging on his blackberry as his thugs beat me up, that is the last thing I remember before I fainted....''

Weeks after the beating, Princewill says he cannot wear shoes, still walks around in pain and has constant migraine. He said he reported the case at the Bar Beach police station but no arrest was ever made. See his petition after the cut.....

DELE GIWA’S MOTHER DIES AT 87

The mother of late Dele Giwa, Madam Elekiya Ayisat Giwa is dead.

Madam Giwa, who had lived with her last daughter, Mrs. Abibbat Ronke Aboaba in Ikorodu, Lagos, passed on at about 5.00am on Tuesday morning at Aruna Ogun Hospital, Ikorodu, Lagos.

She was aged 87.

SAUDI GIRL, 15, BARRICADES HERSELF IN BEDROOM AFTER BEING MARRIED TO GROOM, 90, FOR HUGE DOWRY

 A 90-year-old Saudi Arabian man is suing the family of his 15-year-old child-bride after she shut herself in her bedroom on their wedding night.

The terrified teen locked the door from the inside so that her new husband could not enter on their first night as a married couple, and two days later she fled back to her parents’ home.

Now her elderly husband wants his money back as he claims he paid the parents £10,767 ($17,500) for the teenager so they could wed.

The 15-year-old Saudi girl locked herself in her bedroom on the night of her wedding to a 90-year-old man

60 SUSPECTED PIPELINE VANDALS ARRESTED IN LAGOS

About 60 suspected pipeline vandals have been arrested by operatives of the National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Ikorodu area of Lagos State, while tampering with fuel pipelines that ran through Majidun.

The suspects were arrested few weeks after operatives of the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit raided Ikorodu suburbs in a manhunt for pipeline vandals.

NORTH INSISTS ON YAR’ADUA’S VERSION OF PIB

•To lobby S’West, S’East lawmakers

More facts yesterday emerged over the North’s opposition to the new Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) re-introduced by President Goodluck Jonathan. The President forwarded the new PIB to the National Assembly in July 2012. Lawmakers were, however, unable to commence work on the bill as it coincided with their summer recess. But the North resisted attempts by Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba to lead the debate which would start the crucial second reading of the bill.

FROM RUSSIA WITH GUNS

•Navy hands over illegal arms ship crew to police

No fewer than 15 Russian crew of MV Myre SeaDiver, a vessel alleged to have sailed into Nigeria carrying arms have been handed over to the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigeria Police. Handing over the men to Mr. Zuberu Muazu, a Deputy Commissioner of Police from the SFU, the Commander of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Beecroft, Commodore Martin Njoku said the process was to enable the police carry out further investigation.

BAYELSA GOVT SHOCKER: SYLVA LEFT ONLY N4,451 IN STATE PURSE

BAYELSA State Governor, Seriake Dickson, yesterday, said he inherited  N4,451 from his predecessor, Timipre Sylva, in February 2012 and gave a graphic account of how his administration grew the paltry sum to over N16 billion.

The Governor, who spoke before proceeding on a two-week break, said the N50 billion Bond his embattled predecessor secured was also posing a challenge to his administration, lamenting that the figure would hit N104 billion in 2017.

ZAMFARA HISBAH ARRESTS RANDY COMMISSIONER

Zamfara Governor, Abulaziz Yari

Men of the Zamfara State Hisbah Commission have arrested a member of the state executive council (names withheld) for allegedly harbouring free women in his residence.

Following a tip-off, the commission arrested the commissioner at his residence at old Airport Quarters, after discovering that there were free woman  in the house.

A source, who confided in Blueprint, said the commissioner had rented the house and used it as his guest house, where he was alleged to have been keeping his girlfriends.

The randy commissioner, who was detained for some hours at the Hisbah office in Gusau, the state capital, was later granted bail.

AL-MUSTAPHA RENOVATES MOSQUE IN KIRIKIRI PRISONS

Though he has spent one year on the death row and is awaiting his appeal to be heard, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha is still grabbing the headlines, this time for the right reasons.

The former Chief Security Officer to the late head of state Gen. Sani Abacha, who was last year sentenced to death for his role in the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, has mobilised funds from friends and associates for the reconstruction of a mosque in the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons in Lagos.

His lawyer, Barrister Olalekan Ojo, who revealed this to Blueprint in an exclusive interview yesterday, said the almighty God was still using his client to add value to Islam.

According to Ojo, “Even in the prison, the almighty Allah is using Mustapha. The almighty Allah has used him to reconstruct the mosque inside the Kirikiri Maximum Prison.

I LEARNT COOKING FROM THE INTERNET - BANKY W

Bankole Wellington, better known as Banky W, is  one of the leading musicians in Nigeria.The musician, who relocated to Nigeria from the United States of America, has  consistently proved his mettle in the industry and has even started to mould new talents under his label known as EME. He recently speaks with Tunde Ayanda about his  dream and other interests. Excerpts:

I’M AFRAID OF GOING BACK TO SCHOOL — WHIZKID

The name Whizkid is right now about the hottest in the entertainment industry in Nigeria. He is immensely talented and full of potential. The young man, whose real name is Ayo Balogun, tells TUNDE AYANDA his story, how he met Banky W, his plans, the deal with Akon and his speculated rivalry with Davido.

2 PASTORS JAILED OVER N1 BILLION DEPOSIT SCAM

A Nigerian High Court has sentenced two ‘men of God’, Pastor Glory Abrefera and Reverend Vincent Okpogo to 10 years imprisonment each over a N1 billion deposit scam.

Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Asaba, capital of Delta state, found the duo and their company, Mustard Seed Micro Investment Limited guilty on a four count charge of carrying out banking practice without licence.

The accused persons were said to have collected over N1 billion from different individuals and organizations as deposits in an illegal banking practice.

They have also failed to account for all the deposits they collected.

KATSINA FIRST LADY DENIES ORDERING COUNCILLOR’S SACK

The wife of the Katsina State governor, Hajiya Fatima Shema, has denied media report that she ordered the sack of a supervisory councillor for water and sanitation in Matazu Local Government Area (LGA), Hajiya Hadiza Ibrahim.

Hajia Shema made this denial in a statement signed by Chief Press Secretary, CPS, to the governor, Mallam Lawal Ahmed Matazu, where she pointed out that she did not meddle with local or state government administration and so could not have ordered the councillor’s sack.

PLANS TO FLY GOV CHIME HOME FAILS AS HIS HEALTH DETERIORATES

Attempts to fly ailing Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State back to the country in December from India to celebrate Christmas and New Year with his family proved abortive following the deterioration of his health during the trip, a competent source told LEADERSHIP yesterday.

The entire Government House, Enugu, and Chime’s personal residence in Udi, his country home, were lavishly decorated with Christmas trees and lightings a week before Christmas as part of preparations to receive the governor, who ostensibly left the country in September 2012 to spend his accumulated leave abroad.

2015: SOUTH SOUTH GOVS, IJAW LEADERS’ SILENCE RATTLES JONATHAN

There are strong indications from the Aso Rock Villa that the ‘complacence’ of Governors of the South-South zone over the 2015 Presidential election is creating anxiety and concern in the Presidency.

Not only that, the silence of the leadership of the Ijaw ethnic nationality over recent disparaging comments against President Goodluck Jonathan by one of his kinsmen and erstwhile supporter, Mujaheed Dokubo Asari, is giving the powers-that-be sleepless hights.

Asari, a former creek warlord, who a few months back vowed that Jonathan would occupy the seat of power for eight years, penultimate week, started throwing punches at the administration of his kinsman, describing it as a disappointment as far as the Niger Delta region was concerned.

FG FUEL SUBSIDY ACCOUNT EMPTY

Three weeks after the National Assembly approved a N161.6bn supplementary budget for  payment of fuel subsidy for 2012, the subsidy account with the Central Bank of Nigeria has yet to be backed by cash by the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The PUNCH’s investigations showed that oil marketers, who went to the CBN on Monday, were turned back on the grounds that the subsidy account with the bank had not been credited.

Our correspondent learnt that the oil marketers had been issued Sovereign Debt Notes from the Debt Management Office following the passage of the N161.6bn supplementary bill by the National Assembly.

OSHIOMHOLE RETIRES PERM SEC OVER N300,000 CONTRACT

Gov. Adams Oshiomhole of Edo said on Monday that he retired a permanent secretary over what he described as alleged “irresponsible act”. 

Oshiomhole justified the compulsory retirement of Mr Alhassan Ikloha, as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment , in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Peter Okhiria, in Benin. 

The governor spoke at a meeting held with permanent secretaries in the state civil service at the Government House. He explained the retired officer contracted out the Museum Ground at Kings Square at a paltry sum. 

POLICE OFFICER DIES AFTER REFUSING BLOOD TRANSFUSION

 A police corporal, assigned to the Wuse Zone 3 Police Division, Abuja, died on Monday at the National Hospital after rejecting blood transfusion.

The husband of the deceased, Emmanuel Timothy, alleged in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), that the wife, Grace, who was a member of the Jehovah witness, died because her family refused to consent to her having a blood transfusion. 

``She lost her pregnancy at seven months, which resulted in a surgery to get the baby out. After the surgery she had complications.