I WISH BEING LIGHT SKIN CAN BRING ME LOTS OF ROLES...ACTRESS, ADESUA ETOMI

Nollywood actress, Adesua Etomi, has expressed her dissatisfaction on the wide perception about fair skin ladies or actresses being the ones getting roles in Nollywood.

The actress stated that though everyone is entitled to their opinion, but pointed if it actresses were getting roles base on light skin, it means she would have been getting lots of scripts on her table.

In her words, “An actor lives to play different people. And last, there is the prejudice of being light skinned. There is a school of thought that says Nollywood likes light skinned actors, so a few mischievous people will allude to that being a reason for the amount of work that has fallen on my plate. I wish this was the case and while everyone is entitled to their opinion, no Director has told me I got a role because I was light skinned,” she told Encomium magazine.

She also noted that aside acting; she has passion for music but has not been able to summon the courage to pursue it professionally.

It’s shameful to import toothpick, fish, eggs, sugar, wheat —CBN

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, yesterday said that importers of rice, cement and other products will no longer access Foreign Exchange from CBN, banks and bureaux de change for such importation.

The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, who disclosed this at a news conference in Abuja, said the measure would prevent further depletion of the country’s foreign reserve.

He said the country was spending huge amount to import things that could be produced locally, adding that the apex bank would not continue to support the importation of such items through the use of the hard earned foreign exchange.
Some of the products include margarine, palm kernel, palm oil products, meat and processed meat products, vegetables, private airplanes and jets, Indian incense, tinned fish, galvanised steel sheet, roofing sheet and furniture.

He said: “Importers who may want to continue importing these goods would have to sort their foreign exchange from their own private sources. The CBN will continue to be vigilant around this policy, keep reviewing the list of items as it becomes comfortable that these items can be produced locally if we apply ourselves sufficiently.

Emefiele said the CBN was forced to come up with the new policy to exclude importers of rice and 40 other items from the foreign exchange market in order to save the nation’s economy.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja, he said the time has come for Nigerians to decide what must be done to realise the much-desired economic development, rather than making the nation a dumping ground for other economies of the world.

Warns banks, bureaux de change

According to Emefiele, importers of the listed items would not be allowed access to foreign exchange even from the bureau de change and that any bank or bureaux de change that tried infractions would be severely punished.

His words: “We will not make foreign exchange available to such importers from any market. If you read that circular, it said ‘from Nigerian foreign exchange markets’, plural not singular.  

Foreign exchange will not be provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the banks or by bureaux de change. If we find people flouting it, luckily these people we have mentioned are under our regulation, we know how to deal with them.
“Sometimes, policy changes are forced on policymakers as a result of exogenous shocks beyond their control. While most people do not like to be forced to do something, one of the hallmarks of effective policymaking is to be nimble and responsive when such situations arise.

“In the case of yesterday’s (Tuesday) announcement, I am happy to inform and underscore that this policy change is in line with my long-held believe that Nigeria cannot attain its true potentials by simply importing everything. At some point, we have to all decide what we really want for our country, and I believe that the time is now right for that deep and honest conversation.”

He added that CBN’s analyses of the nation’s economic situation “compelled us to believe that we needed to aggressively begin the process of feeding ourselves by ourselves and producing much of what we need in this country.”

Emefiele noted that the nation was wasting huge amounts of money importing things that could be produced locally, a situation, he said, had become a drain on the nation’s Foreign Exchange Reserves.

It’s shameful that we have to import toothpick

According to him, “most of you are aware of the often-quoted number of N1.3 trillion, which is what we spend on average importing rice, fish, sugar, and wheat every year.

“I am saying it is shameful that we have to import toothpick.  I am saying that it is shameful for us to import fish in sauce canned, fish in sauce and sardine. I am saying it is shameful. Before I was born palm kernel was taken out of Nigeria and taken to another country and today we go to that country and import palm oil. It is shameful.

“It is shameful that items that we used to produce in this country we now begin to import them. It is shameful and we need to stop them. That is what we are saying.

“Only last week, I met the Governor of Kebbi State and he lamented the unfortunate situation in that state. Where people, our own farmers, have committed themselves to producing rice and have produced paddy and we have paddy glut in Kebbi State today.

“As I speak, the government has spent its money buying paddy from the rice farmers, almost close to 200,000 of paddy rice.

“Aside from that, Kebbi State farmers have unpurchased paddy rice close to 800,000 tons. And yet we patronise imported rice. For our benefits, those rice imported to the country are those that have spent at least seven years in their stores and yet we have rice that is produced today in Nigeria and we are running away from them.

“The only way we can encourage people who are producing rice to go back to the farms is to do what we have done today.

“How can we keep complaining about the depreciation of the naira when all we do as a people is to import everything from ordinary Geisha and toothpicks to even eggs? These are some of the fundamental reasons behind the bank’s recent announcement.”

He disclosed that there was already a glut in paddy rice in parts of the country, especially Kebbi State where the government had spent huge sums of money to buy off 200,000 tons from the farmers, yet they had another 800,000 tons unpurchased.

Credit: Vanguard

Hospital seizes 6 corpses of crisis victims over unpaid N13.5m mortuary bill

A private hospital in Oleh, headquarters of Isoko Local Government Area of Delta State, (identity withheld), has seized the corpses of six persons who died in Irri inter-communal crisis in 2002 over unpaid N13.5 million mortuary debt.

This development came as remains of five others who were killed in the crisis were laid to rest yesterday amid tears and lamentation.

Addressing newsmen shortly after the funeral service of those buried, chairman of Irri Development Union, Mr. Goddey Igorigo, said the deceased had been in mortuary since 2002.

Explaining that the body of one of the victims was taken to Oleh for burial, Igorigo said the corpses of six others were still in the mortuary of a private hospital which refused to release them due to N13.5 million debt.

He said:  “We are supposed to have also buried all of them today but because we do not have money, the management of the hospital took us to court to pay the sum of N13.5 million and also demanded for the payment of N1 million damages to them.

“The matter is in court as we speak now but with the judgement so far passed, the court asked the management of the hospital to reduce the bill. So we are begging the local government, state and federal governments to come to the aid of Irri to settle the bill so that we can bury the remaining bodies of the victims of the crisis.”

Blaming the crisis on power tussle and the divide and rule tactics of an oil company operating in the area, Igorigo advised the people of the community to keep away from anything that could lead to a recurrence of crisis in the community.

“We should leave peacefully and forgive one another for wrongs done to us,” he admonished the people of the area.

Meanwhile, commercial activities were brought to a halt at Irri in honour of the deceased as indigenes of the community who were clad in black attires wept uncontrollably.
In his homily at the funeral service held at the community’s town hall, Rev. Ferguson Idike stressed the need for the people to put God first in their dealings with one another.

Speaking on the theme “Vanity, Vanity, Vanity” Idike emphasized the inevitability of death and urged the people to love one another and give their lives to God.

Man to die by hanging for killing 6-year-old girl

Bauchi State High Court  yesterday sentenced to death by hanging Ibrahim Idris, 40, for killing a six-year-old girl after failing in his attempt to rape her.

Idris was dragged to the court, presided over by Justice Yelim Bogoro, by the state Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, Dawud Yakubu, who charged him with culpable homicide, an offence contrary to section 221 of the state law.

Dawud told the court that on September 14, 2012, the accused called the deceased, Asiya Mohammed, into his room with the intention to rape her.

He said when she refused, he used a knife to sever her head, put it in a polythene bag and threw it into a water channel.

He said the body of the deceased was recovered and taken to General Hospital, Darazo, for post-mortem examination before it was later handed over to her parents for burial.
He called five witnesses and presented the axe and knife the accused used to cut the head of the deceased as exhibits and the witnesses testified that he made a confessional statement.

In her judgement, Justice Bogoro said the confessional statement of the accused was direct, adding that the prosecutor proved his case beyond all reasonable doubt and sentenced the accused to death by hanging.

Justice Bogoro said:   “I, hereby, sentence you to death by hanging, but you have the right to appeal within 30 days.”

Credit: Vanguard

Buhari’s ADC orders DSS operatives out of Presidential Villa

The inter agency rivalry between the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Army came to head, yesterday, as the Aide de Camp to the President, Lt. Col Abubakar Lawal ordered personnel of the DSS out of the villa.

The incidence which happened at the residence of the President at the Presidential Villa was extended to all other points that had been manned by the personnel of the DSS.

But the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, said what happened was a realignment of security around the President which entailed that members of the armed forces would man the inner perimeter of the President security while operatives of the DSS would man the outer perimeter.

It will be recalled that since assuming office as the President, there has been an intense rivalry between DSS personnel and the army over who is to provide close body security to the president.

Some members of the armed forces were drafted from the Infantry Corps to the villa after the inauguration of President Buhari to man all the strategic points at the villa, a move that was resisted by the DSS personnel who had constitutionally provided close body protection to the President.

The issue, however, came to a head yesterday evening when the ADC to the president ordered members of the DSS at the Presidential Villa to hand over to men of the Nigerian Army.

The directive, however, almost caused an altercation between the army and men of the DSS whose chain of command is different.
It took the intervention of the Chief Security Officer who directed his men to “stand down,” a euphemism for complying with the directive of the ADC.

According to a soldier who was present at the incidence, “the ADC directed that they should hand over to us and leave the villa. We have now taken over fully as directed by the ADC and we are in charge.”

Already, military personnel have taken over all the strategic points at the villa with a firm instruction that no DSS personnel should be  allowed into the villa.

This is the first time that the DSS which has the professional capability and capacity would be striped of its constitutional responsibility of providing close bodyguard protection to the President and his immediate family.

But reacting to Vanguard enquiry, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Adesina said the action was part of  a realignment of the security apparatus around the President.

According to him, what happened is a realignment of security personnel from various services, saying: ”Rumours that personnel of the Department State Services have been expelled from the Presidential Villa are unfounded. President Muhammadu Buhari has given no such order.

Credit: Vanguard

The truth about my battles with Amaechi — Wike

The empty treasuries at the federal and in many states of the federation is no longer news. The challenge before  President Muhammadu Buhari is how to deliver the promises made to the electorate.

In this interview, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State explains how he has decided to tackle the challenge of providing infrastructure for the people of his state, as according to him, the people did not vote for him to be giving excuses. He also spoke on a wide range of issues including the rancour between his administration and the immediate past government of ex-governor Rotimi Amaechi and why he has decided to complete projects started by the last administration. Excerpts:

Q: Your predecessor has accused you of a witch-hunt as exemplified in the forceful evacuation of a vehicle belonging to his former commissioner. Why?

You can recollect that after our inauguration we went into Government House and we told the whole world, first of all, that there was no handover note. If there was a handover note that would have guided you to say look this is where we started and this is where we ended; these were the things that were given to people as a kind of parting gift or whatever. We later learnt that the Government House had been looted.  

There was just nothing.  

The last government said that I sent people to take those things away so that I would award contracts for the replacement.   I said I didn’t need to carry anything away before I award contracts. So the issue of removing those ones so that I will go and award contracts is not correct.

Q: Why we are retrieving vehicles?

Now we got information that most of the Government House vehicles are scattered here and there. First of all we got information that most of these vehicles were kept somewhere at Trans Amadi and we sent security men and we discovered vehicles were parked there. Security men helped us to recover those vehicles; it was all over the news. We also got information that a Lexus bulletproof 570 was parked at the house of a former commissioner.

We reported to police that one of the Governments House vehicles was at the house of the former commissioner and it was not the vehicle she was using in her office.
As a commissioner she can’t use a bulletproof vehicle, a Lexus for that matter which is not less that N60 – 70 million. So we sent in the security men to go and retrieve the vehicle.
Initially she said on phone that it was given to her as a parting gift and I said no problem but there should be record to show that this was given to you as a parting gift but we didn’t get such records because they didn’t handover anything to anybody.
She later said it was her husband that bought the vehicle.  

We said if it is your husband that bought it we have no problem, you can come with the particulars of the vehicle that your husband bought to prove that the vehicle was your husband’s vehicle.

When I came in here last week I went to Bank of Industry Building and the former Liaison Officer here, not knowing I was around had one of the vehicles we were looking for so we sent the ADC and he retrieved the vehicle and they brought the man and I said ‘Sir why do you have to go away with government vehicles? Is there any paper that says it was given to you’ and he said no and I told him to go and get all the papers and as I speak to you one or two weeks after the papers are yet to be brought here.

They said it was monetization

It is not correct, there is nothing like monetisation policy there. Let me explain what monetization means.   As a minister, no vehicle was bought for me in the ministry.

Whatever thing had to be given was built into your salary, even housing.   So where did they buy these cars? I worked there so how can anybody say that? The point is very clear. 

If you didn’t handover anything to me and I am getting information that this is where our vehicles and properties are am I not in the position to see how I can recover those vehicles?

On the former governor saying we were out to witch-hunt. Witch-hunt for what? Is this the first time that official Panel of Enquiry has been set in Rivers state? When he set the panel of enquiry was it also a witch-hunt? Nobody was there to explain anything to us.  

If he had worked with the transition committee, his commissioners would have been asked one or two questions but no transition committee was set up by government. Even police ceremonial vehicle the governor denied us.    

We had to go to Ondo State to borrow Ondo State ceremonial vehicle. Where in this country will you say that inauguration ceremony wasn’t funded by any state? Government is not a personal thing. As you leave today the other person will also leave tomorrow so there is nothing like witch hunting anybody.

Q: The last administration claimed to have handed over to you. It said the Permanent Secretary of the Government House gave you a handover note.

That is not correct. Let’s go to the national level; when the president was handing over did he just handover just the villa? Didn’t he handover the entire structure, the system from one ministry to the other, stating where they started from and to where they are now?
Then you can ask one or two questions. The Permanent Secretary never one day handed anything to me, that is even the Government House. I am not talking about the Government House, I am talking about the government of Rivers state. So when you say handover I am not the governor of Government House, I am the governor of Rivers State so you can’t handover to me and say Government House; no! That is not correct.

Q: What is the state of finance of Rivers state?

From what the Accountant-General gave me, first of all, we have what we call the government account and the government account was zero. The other ones are ministries’ accounts and I can tell you in ministry of works two days to our inauguration they were collecting  10 million, 200 million to go and build curves, roads. So I called the perm sec and I said perm sec you mean you people gave someone contract and you paid him cash of 200 million and he said ‘oga I refused but there was nothing I could do.   It is so funny.

Q: The last administration claimed it left N7 billion in the coffers. Did you see the N7 billion?

They say they kept N7 billion, how could you have kept N7 billion and you are owing salary for how many months, what is the N7 billion doing there?

For two months they haven’t paid salary; April and May they haven’t paid. Shark, Dolphins and Rivers Angels were owed 8 months.  

I had to give them their money last week it was just this morning the permanent secretary said he is paying all the civil servants today (Monday). So how can you say you kept N7 billion? Four months refuse contractors were not paid and the whole Port Harcourt was filled with refuse and you said you kept N7 billion.  

The N7 billion is to do what with it now? And you owe refuse contractor for four months, sharks, dolphin and Rivers angel 8 months, pensioners haven’t been paid up till now since February. If you find any money anywhere it was because we started raising alarm by 26th, 27th of May.
Some banks in order for us not be angry with them had to stop some cheques in fact there was one money of N700 million naira, two Skye Bank cheques that didn’t go through because we raised an alarm.
Even by 28th of May money was being taken out of some government accounts; how do you justify that? Frankly speaking looking at ministry of works alone of the contracts that were awarded the debt is not less than N150 billion.

Just Ministry of Works only I am not talking of Ministry of Health and the others but the one he said he owes Zenith bank is about N15 billion so we are negotiating with Zenith Bank.   Zenith bank was deducting 1.5 billion every month but we said no, that will be too much,  we are just coming. What is the allocation that they will be taking N1.5 billion every month? So we are talking with the bank on how to review it.

Q: It has been alleged that there was a deal for you to be remitting money to Mrs. Patience Jonathan monthly. Is it true?

In this country we don’t have respect for leadership.   It is very ridiculous   for anybody to say that I and the former first lady had a pact to be remitting money.   It is rather very unfortunate. What can I give to the (former) First Lady? She is from Rivers State, she wanted her husband’s party to win (gubernatorial election in) Rivers State and looked at all the people who were running for the election and said who can actually make her husband’s party to win Rivers State and said Mr. Z can do it and decided to support Mr. Z, then it becomes a bad thing?  

I can’t understand this country. You were here when they said I was giving her $2 million.  It is so ridiculous. That is why we don’t respect leadership.

Credit: Vanguard