Abuja rail to be operational December 2017 – FCT Minister

In a bid to compliment the present mode of public transportation, as well as reducing traffic gridlock often experienced at peak periods in the Federal Capital Territory, the FCT Administration said it was working extremely hard to make the Abuja rail system operational in the last quarter of 2017.

The FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, made the disclosure while receiving the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachichwu who paid him a working visit in his Abuja office.

Bello disclosed that the last quarter of 2017 was the new target date envisaged by the FCTA.

The minister noted that when the Abuja rail comes on stream, it would revolutionise the transportation system, as the use of personal vehicles would become unattractive.

Bello addedd that the rail transportation would also go a long way to create employment for some residents of the FCT.

He however called on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to build Mega filling stations in the six area councils of the FCT, instead of only one earmarked for each senatorial districts in the 36 states of the federation.



[ThisDay]

Big Sean Is more than Just a Rapper

Big Sean isn't just spending his time in the studio these days.

In fact, he's spending a great deal of time is spent giving back to his hometown of Detroit, Mich. Sean tells E! News exclusively that starting the Sean Anderson Foundation (the rapper's real name) was very important to him and his mother, Myra.

"I started it with my mom a few years ago, she has dedicated her whole life to it," he explains. "We wanted to see how we could help out the city of Detroit."

"My roots are tied to the city of Detroit," Sean adds. "It's a city that needs a lot. Detroit public schools are full of kids who can't afford clothes or books. I really felt the need to give back. The first thing we did was donate backpacks with tons of school supplies and paid for school uniforms for kids who couldn't afford them. At the beginning the foundation didn't have much money and initially the money spent was out of my own pocket.

And that "was some of the best money I ever spent."


"The word started to spread throughout the city, people started donating more and more. Now we're able to have after-school programs, we built a recording studio in my old high school," he continued, recalling how he used to get in trouble for selling his CDs in the school's hallway, "and now we have the Sean Anderson Studio."

"Whenever I am back in Detroit, which is pretty often, just going through the neighborhoods people come up to me and say they appreciate the work I'm doing. Seeing the impact we're having changed my whole attitude and my priorities have changed."

In addition to his education foundation and work with kids in his hometown, Big Sean has also turned his attention to Flint, Mich., where the water supply was found last year to be tainted with lead.


"We launched Heal Flint Kids not too long ago to try and raise money for the kids of Flint," Sean told us. "The toxicity in the water is a very big deal causing irreversible harm. People don't understand what it's like to have that many people affected. So far we've raised close to $60,000 for the community."

"It really brings down my spirits when I see the constant suffering—I talk with my mom about what we can do and how can people help."

Sounds like Mom raised a heck of a kid.

Nigeria University Awards 2016

CRITICISM

Voters are open to criticize any nominee they feel isn’t worthy of the category or falsely present any information, and they could do so via a mail to complain@nuawards.com, or fill a complaint form on the site stating:

*The name and category of the nominee they are complaining about
*Reasons for the complain.
*Contact of the complainant.
*Criticism from voters is highly confidential so will be known only to the Verification and clarification team, unless deemed necessarily otherwise by the award board and approved by the complainant.

Nominees could be contacted at any point during the award period for certain clarification or verification.

complain@nuawards.com





AWARD CONDITIONS

Nigeria University awards and beauty pageant brand is built on transparency and of high pedigree, so we urge participants in this fun filled and mind blowing activities be as plain and honest as they could, nothing that any reason to doubt any participant honesty could be subject to actions including:

vote forfeiture.
Disqualification or even potential legal action
A selected team of verification and clarification is set up, and will be working tirelessly to scrutinize nominees as well as attend to complaints or criticism as they come

info@nuawards.com

TO CONTEST VISIT
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FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Don’t take World Bank loan – Falana tells FG

A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has warned the Federal Government against obtaining loan from the World Bank to finance the 2016 budget.

The Federal Government had disclosed plan to borrow $2.5bn from the World Bank and another $1bn from the African Development Bank.

But Falana, who wrote to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, on Friday, argued that there was no need to obtain $3.5bn loan to finance the budget when the Federal Government could recover about $66.5bn it was being owed.

The lawyer urged the Federal Government to drop its proposition to obtain World Bank loan, noting that it required the endorsement of the International Monetary Fund, which he said, usually imposed stringent conditions on borrowing countries.

He lamented that the debt profile of the country had now grown to $64bn after it took much effort in 2005 for the country to exit the London/Paris Club after struggling to repay a loan of $12.4bn.

Falana urged the Federal Government to make effort to recover the over $66.5bn accruable to it, rather than obtain loan to finance the budget.

According to him, part of the said $66.5bn was the sum of $20.2bn in form of underpayment/underassessment of taxes, royalties, levies and rents, which a former Executive Secretary of the National Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, called on the Federal Government to recover.

Falana also recalled that there was about $11bn which the Central Bank of Nigeria injected into the banking industry between 2006 and 2008 as bailout to commercial banks, which had yet to be recovered.

Besides these, Falana also recalled that the Federal Government had on September 6, 2015 announced that the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was in the process of recovering the sum of $9.6bn in “over deducted tax benefits from joint venture partners on major capital projects and the legacy OPA/SWAP oil contracts.”

He also made reference to the $750m of the late Gen. Sani Abacha’s loot, which the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), said arrangements had been concluded on it to recover.

Finally, he also recalled that the a recent probe by the Senate revealed that the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria had accumulated about $25bn which, according to AMCON’s Managing Director, Ahmed Kuru, was owed by “big men who fly in private jets, live in big mansions and they have taken money and they are not paying back.”

Falana said, “From the foregoing, you will agree with us that the hapless Nigerian people should not be made to pay for the gross mismanagement of the national economy by the Federal Government and the profligacy of the pampered members of the ruling class.

“Instead of taking a loan of $2.5bn with dangerous conditionalities from the World Bank, the Federal Government should recover the aforesaid loans and revenues of not less than $66.5bn with the assistance of the anti-graft agencies.

“While acknowledging the concerted efforts to recover the looted wealth of the nation through the anti-graft agencies and the Arms Procurement Panel, the Buhari Administration should embark on the immediate recovery of the aforesaid loans and accrued revenues with a view to financing the 2016 budget and the infrastructural development of the nation.”
[Punch]

Paul Okoye Turns Newscaster! (OMG)

Paul Okoye definitely knows how to joke around. The singer was at Silverbird studios recently and took a photo of himself posed like he was reading the news.

The singer shared the photo and he used the opportunity to promote his artist as he captioned the photo with:



"Breaking news @munosings has come to stay musically vocally habatically”

VIDEO :Patoranking – Another Level

The Nigerian reggae sensation Patoranking officially unveils his newest tune titled ”Another Level”. Download, Listen & Kindly let us know what you think about the song.



DOWNLOAD VIDEO HERE


DOWNLOAD AUDIO HERE

#TecnoOwnTheStage Shaapera Wins $25,000!!!

After 13 weeks of fierce music battle, the winner of the Tecno own the stage first iof its kind karaoke show finally emerged. As you might have guessed it, it was none other than Shaapera Makepeace. The super amazing, multi talented, beautiful Nigerian contestant, yes the very one!!

Laying her hands on the prize was no walk down the park for Shaapera, she had to battle competition from the trio of Pascal, Sikin from Kenya and Tanzania’s Sikin.

Sikin came in fourth, Nandy was the second runner up and Pascal first runner up.
Shaapera left Tecno own the stage 25,000 US dollars richer. She would also get to record a song with one of the judges in the show as well as a music video. And more importantly she gets a Tecno smart phone to share her experiences.
The runner ups did not go home empty handed, Nandy gets $15, 000, a three month internship at Chocolate city and a Tecno phone.
Pascal gets $10, 000 in addition to a Tecno smart phone.
Congratulations to Shapeera on her well deserved win!!!

M.I Set To Drop “Illegal Music 3” This February

Chocolate City’s President, M.I Abaga is set to release the 3rd sequel to his “Illegal Music Mixtape”. The rapper made this known yesterday via social media and to tease fans a little bit, the first record off the compilation drops tomorrow.

See tweet from the Young Denzel below

Photos: Nigeria Labor Congress stage protest in Abuja over plans to increase electricity tarriff

The leadership and members of the Nigerian Labor Congress, the Trade Union Congress and other Civil Society groups, are currently staging a protest in Abuja over the 45 percent increase in electricity tariff. While addressing his members, President of NLC, Aliyu Wabba, said the increase was unacceptable;


“From 14 Naira per unit to 28 or 26 Naira. This increase is outrageous. When it subsists this time around, be sure that it will continue and the exploiters will continue to exploit us. This is the message that we are taking to all these agencies. We are also going to the National Assembly because they are the true representatives of the people. They feel our pulse and they represent our various constituencies and therefore they must stop all these by making laws that will actually protect the people. Law should be made to protect the people and not encourage exploitation. The increase is going to affect manufacturers, medium and small scale enterprises and even consumers. Every consumer must be provided with meter because people should be able to pay for what they consume and not to pay for darkness"he said.

See what happened to a Nigerian man who attempted to withdraw money from another man's bank account in Dubai

The unemployed Nigerian man who tried to withdraw more than Dh500,000 from the bank account of a man who had lost his Emirates ID was sentenced to six months in prison today, February 8. He will be deported after serving his sentence. (Read previous post here )
The 26-year-old was found guilty at Dubai Criminal Court of using an original official document belonging to others and of forging an official document - the withdrawal slip - by signing it and adding his personal details, as well as using the forged slip, and attempting to fraudulently obtain Dh580,000.


He visited a bank on Khalid bin Al Waleed Road in Dubai and pretended to be Kenyan D M, 23, by signing an order to withdraw Dh580,000 from the latter’s account and using the card as ID.


On May 12 last year, the Nigerian was contacted by his friend, whose name and nationality were not given, after the friend had found the ID card. He asked the Nigerian to pose as the card holder to withdraw the money and he would get a share of Dh50,000.


It was not clear how his friend came to know that the Kenyan had that amount of money with this particular bank. The next morning, the Nigerian visited the bank but was thwarted when an employee spotted the difference between him and the photo on the ID. He managed to escape but was arrested in October in Al Baraha and referred to prosecutors.


"I lost my wallet two months before I was contacted by police to inform me that my card was used by someone to withdraw cash from the bank,” testified the Kenyan.



Source: The National UAE

Juliana Richards, CEO Slim Girl, officially announces new Lingerie products

What a remarkable and exciting way to start the year as popular shape wear company owned and managed by Juliana Richards expands and will now provide customers with alluring lingerie pieces specially made to suit particular occasions or as everyday wear.



You can now shop on their website www.slimgirl.ng for all kinds of trendy and beautiful bra and pant sets available at the company’s Lagos, Nigeria stores located at Ikeja and Lekki.



Pieces like lace bra and pant sets, silicone bras, backless bras, butt pads and more are now on the newly added ‘‘Lingerie’’ page of the online store just to give you the chance to select unique pieces made to satisfy your desire in shape wear products.
We guarantee that you will fall in love with each of the lingerie items included on the site ranging from everyday wear to sexy little seductive numbers. We got you covered, we got a lot of feminine pieces and now we got your Valentine covered too.




Slim Girl opened two Nigeria stores within the last six months and for a more convenient means of service, Slim Girl also provides customers with a mobile app named –“Slim Girl”- available on the App store and Google Play and you can also Click on http://slimgirl.mobapp.at to download.




For further inquiry, we have a dedicated customer service number available to take calls during working hours (9am – 7pm) at +234 14407339.








Visit www.SLIMGIRL.NG to view the entire Slim Girl lingerie collection.


Slim Girl is currently at two locations Nigeria: 52, Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos and T.F. Kuboye Road, Alternate Route, Oniru New Market, Lekki, Lagos.


Follow Us On:

Facebook.com/slimgirlshapewear

Facebook.com/1800cinchers

Instagram: @slimgirlshapewear @1800cinchers

twitter: @1800cinchers

Website: www.Slimgirl.ng

Customer Service: +234 14407339
Lekki: 080 9066 3293
Ikeja: 080 9066 3294

Photos: Afe Babalola University students go on rampage

Students of Afe Babalola University (ABUAD) in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, went on a violent protest yesterday night into this morning, destroying cars and other school properties. The cause of the protest is not yet known, but some students alleged that men who covered their faces with bandannas, stormed a female hostel while some students claimed a policeman mistakenly shot and injured a student, leading to the protest. The school is yet to publicly comment on the matter.