GEJ FOOD POISONING; Gambian Court Begins Trial of The Chef Who Served The Food

The trial has begun in the case of a Gambian chef which allegedly caused President Goodluck Jonathan to go through a bout of food poisoning after serving him contaminated food.

President Jonathan stayed at Coco Ocean, a five star hotel, during a 2-day state visit last month and was said to have been served with the food which was stale.

The case is being heard by a Gambian Magistrate Court at the Kanifing Municipal Council before which the chef of the hotel, Ayoub Aliris, is being charged with negligence.

According to Leadership reports; Jonathan was said to have been served with food that had been preserved for a long period, causing him food poisoning during his two-day state visit in Gambia in November 2013.

The Gambian police is said to have charged the chef of Coco Ocean Hotel, Ayoub Aliris, with negligence and food poisoning on Jonathan and his delegation.But Aliris denied the charge when he appeared before the Principal Magistrate, Sheriff Tabally.

 

According to the police charge sheet, Aliris was said to have unlawfully or negligently cooked prawns served to Jonathan and his entourage as a starter during a special lunch hosted in honour of the visiting Nigerian president.

 

Lawyer to the plaintiff, Edward Singhateh, was also informed at the court premises that his client, Aliris, was arrested again for the second time after his release from the police custody.

The plaintiff was said to be under the custody of the National Intelligence Agency, but was later transferred to the State Central Prison Mile Two.

Jonathan was caught in a glare of media publicity over a “stomach upset” he suffered and was forced to enter a hospital in London to seek medical attention.

A prosecution witness, Babucarr Gomez, also a cook at Coco Ocean, explained that a day after the lunch, he received a call from his boss informing him that there was an infection in the food served to the Nigerians.

Gomez, who said he was ordered by Aliris to prepare the food, said he also ate it and was “vomiting, experienced stomach ache and frequented the toilet.

Read More

Moment Of Truths; GEJ Drags OBJ To Human Rights Commission

Certainly the last is yet to be heard in this season season of letters.President Goodluck Jonathan has submitted himself to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) yesterday for probe over criminal allegations against him by former president, Olusegun Obasanjo.

Obasanjo had written, an 18-page letter to Jonathan in which he accused the incumbent of incompetence, engaging in anti-party activities, ethnicism and training about 1,000 snipers ahead of the 2015 polls.

In his response, Jonathan denied these allegations and is now specifically inviting the rights commission to unravel the truth in the allegation that his government had begun training over 1,000 snipers to terminate his political opponents.

According to Vanguard reports; In a letter to the commission, President Jonathan is seeking for a thorough investigation of the allegations against him, touching on alleged human rights abuses.

The letter, signed by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, SAN, on the directive of Jonathan, had already been submitted to NHRC.

The letter dated December 23, 2013 was submitted yesterday. Sources close to the Presidency told National Mirror that similar letters had been written to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The two anti-graft agencies are to probe allegations of economic crimes and official corruption against the Jonathan’s administration as contained in Obasanjo’s letter.

Although, National Mirror could not get copies of the letters, a copy of Jonathan’s letter to NHRC confirmed yesterday that both the ICPC and the EFCC had also been directed to handle allegations touching on economic crimes.

In the memo signed by Adoke (SAN) and addressed to the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Prof. Bem Angwe, the AGF requested the commission to investigate the allegations on the human rights violations contained on pages 9-10 of the letter dated December 2 written by former President Obasanjo to President Jonathan.

The memo with number HAGF/NHRC2013/Vol2/5 reads in part: “Re: Before it is too late: “May I draw your attention to the above and the attached State House memorandum dated December 23, 2013 in respect of the above subject matter.

“I am to request you to investigate the allegations bothering on the human rights violations contained on pages 9-10 of the latter dated 2nd December 2013, written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, to President Goodluck Jonathan, attached to the memorandum under reference.

“In order to properly delineate the issues within your sphere of competence particularly as other issues raised in the letter are being investigated by appropriate agencies of government, I have decided to reproduce the relevant paragraphs below.

According to Adoke the paragraphs to be investigated by the commission are: “Allegations of keeping over 1,000 people on political watch list rather than criminal or security watch list and training snippets and other armed personnel secretly and clandestinely acquiring weapons to match for purposes like Abacha and training them where Abacha trained his own killers, if it is true, it cannot augur well for the initiator, the government and people of Nigeria. “Here again, there is lesson of his to learn from anybody who cares to learn from history.

Mr. President would always remember that he was elected to maintain security for all Nigerians for personal or political ambition or interest of anyone.

“The Yoruba race adage says ‘the man with whose head coconut is broken may not live to savour the taste of the succulent fruit’. Those who advise you to go hard on those who oppose you are your worst enemies.

“Democratic politics admits and is permissible of supporters and opponents. When the consequences come, those who have wrongly advised you will not be there to help carry the can. Egypt must teach some lessons. “Presidential assistance for a murderer to evade justice and presidential delegation to welcome him home can only be in bad taste generally but particularly to the family of the victim.

“Assisting criminals to evade justice cannot be part of the job of the presidency. Or, as it is viewed in some quarters, is he being recruited to do for you what he had done for Abacha in the past? Hopefully, he should have learnt his lesson.

Let us continue to watch,” the memo added. The Presidency had attached two exhibits to the letter including the original letter written by Obasanjo and the reply by President Jonathan.

Both letters were replete with accusations and counter- accusations, some of which were criminal. National Mirror gathered yesterday that the NHRC would invite the two dramatis personae in the crisis: former President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Jonathan to expatiate on the allegations contained in the two letters.

 

A source at the commission, who did not want his name mentioned, also said that those connected in the allegations would be invited to assist the rights commission by providing particulars to the allegations. The particulars, National Mirror learnt, would guide the commission to arrive at a just conclusion on the sensitive issue. Although the commission had acknowledged the letter, no formal step has so far been taken on it

Read More

How 4 men kidnapped me at gun-point and left me in the bush yesterday – Ex-CAN president

Premium Times today spoke exclusively to former president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and former primate of the Anglican Church, Peter Akinola who was kidnapped yesterday at gun point and freed same day following a search party led by the Ogun governor, Ibikunle Amosun.

He revealed that the men took hostage of him and his driver as he was leaving his office along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

He said the four-men gang blocked his car, and pulled him and his driver out at gun point. One of the bandits then took over the steering wheel while another member pinned down the cleric and his driver at the back.
Two other gang members followed behind in a Toyota Primera car they brought for the operation.
“We could not even identify the road the bandits were taking us through as we were ordered to lie face down or else they would blow us up,” the former CAN leader said.
As Mr. Akinola and his driver were held to the ground, the car continued to navigate territories unknown to the clergyman and his driver.
Mr. Akinola believes the gunmen could have driven him and his driver around for about 100 kilometres before their eventual release.
As they drove along, the abductors began making demands for ransom, to be paid in dollars, Mr. Akinola said.
“As the unpleasant journey was on, the bandits requested ransom in dollars, threatening that failure to offer the foreign currency would attract death,” the retired prelate recalled. “But I told them am a retired pastor living in the village and that I don’t have money, that I live on pension, that I’ am building the centre with the help of friends around the world and that I don’t have money.”
Mr. Akinola said the gang then ransacked the vehicle and when they didn’t find any money, they, in disappointment, decided to release their captives.
“After about a 100-kilometer journey, they stopped and asked us to come down, in an area we don’t even know the terrain,” he said.
“The gang then asked us to go into different directions into the bush.
“I took to the right hand side,while my driver took to the left hand side, and we had to use our hands to clear the bush, while the gang later left with the car. I just kept praying for safety,” the cleric said.
He said some minutes later, he found himself on the main road and that as he was wondering about the “angel” that would take him home, a detachment of police officers arrived, firing gunshots.
“I  saw a police vehicle coming and there were gunshots, and the police team later came to rescue me from the spot,” Mr. Akinola said.
Mr. Akinola commended the police and the Ogun state governor for promptly swinging into action to rescue him and his driver.
“The police honestly impressed me, they did wonderfully well,” he said. “I have to praise them, and I appreciate the governor who left his work to the bush looking for us. It’s unprecedented for a governor to personally lead a team into the bush. He risked his life and yet he didn’t mind that. I’ am deeply touched and impressed.”
Mr. Akinola beamed with smiles for most of the time this interview lasted and his narrations were intermittently punctuated with praises to God.
The driver, Jonah Amodu, in his own narration, recalled that he was about to take off with his boss, when he noticed a strange car a distance away, with four men inside.
He said the driver of the car suddenly stopped with two gun-wielding men jumping  out.
He said he was ordered out of the driver’s seat while one of the men took over the steering of the primate’s Land Cruiser Jeep.
“They ordered me and my oga to lie face down at the back and immediately drove off,” Mr. Amodu said. “We didn’t even know where we were heading to. I was even hit with gun on my back as they asked us to cooperate with them.”
Mr. Amodu recalled that after the long unpleasant journey, the bandits at a point dropped them and asked him and his boss to take different directions into the bush, stating that, it was a place he could not even identify if taken to the area any other time.
“I trekked inside the bush, before luckily I got to a road, and then later located an Anglican Church in the area, where I narrated our plights to the church officials who immediately rose up to the challenges,contacting relevant personalities before our final rescue,” he said.

It’s a true Christmas miracle

Read More

If younger generation nudists think they can overthrow Afrocandy, they should think again. That's according to her though. They've got nothing on her and to prove it she shared sexy  Christmas photos and a nude photo.

Read More

Gay Man Burnt Alive By Anti-homosexual mob in Uganda (Viewer Discretion)

inShare

Uganda Anti Homosexuality bill. Death opposed but life imprisonment just fine.

It seems the ongoing struggle to bring awareness to the plight of same sex persons in the African region is increasingly being fraught with increased disarray.

Point in case the latest photo to make social media rounds, this time first appearing on imgur of that of what the posting individual has termed gay person burned alive by anti gay mob in Uganda.

The harrowing image involves that of an individual, one assumes a gay person who has literally been burned alive. How or why the circumstances have come to be are not known. As the deceased lies forlorn near railway tracks, onlookers, including children look on, one imagines resigned, elated that yet another individual has been ‘appropriately punished’ for having gone against the grain of society. 

The image comes off the back of a purported video that made the rounds last week including that of two gay men beaten to death by an angry mob with planks of wood. In that video image, police are seen abiding by the crowd as they continually to mercilessly beat the two men to death. In the background an ambulance is sent back on its way.

Told recently, Akinyi Ocholla, a self confessed lesbian from Nairobi who works for Minority Women in Action and is a member of the International Gay and Lesbian Association: ”Being gay in this country isn’t exactly easy. It’s not as bad as in Uganda, but it’s still not easy. But you can actually pass. If you don’t make too much noise or stand out too much, then you can live comfortably — that is, until the neighborhood finds out. Then you can’t really know what’s going to happen.”

Over the weekend Uganga lawmakers passed new laws in relation to those persons engaging in same sex. Tells the BBC:  Uganda’s parliament has passed a bill to toughen the punishment for homosexual acts to include life imprisonment in some cases.

The anti-homosexuality bill also makes it a crime punishable by a prison sentence not to report gay people.

The prime minister opposed the vote, saying not enough MPs were present.

May we ask when will these atrocities stop once and for all and why do they continue to happen and why to date has the United Nations allowed such action to persist? Surely it must be time to put a stop to such inappropriate treatment of other human beings, even if their lifestyles are not condoned by various cultural or religious imperatives in the region. Which begs the question why they are so violently condemned in the first place

Read More

Nigeria's former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has described the late Nelson Mandela as a man who raised the beacon of human struggle to lofty heights of nobility.
Obasanjo, who addressed journalists in his home in Abeokuta on Friday, said Mandela's life was an example of what people should all aspire for.
Continue..............

"In all situations, he lived nobly and died in nobility. Let us bear in mind that we all have the opportunity to act nobly in whatever position we find ourselves," he added.
He described Mandela's death as a monumental loss to all human races and called on all to emulate the life and times of the great leader.

"His demise is a loss to his family who will miss a caring patriarch; the people of South Africa who will miss a guide, Africa who will miss a role model and the world who will miss a leader.
"When we teach our children lessons for tomorrow, let us remember lessons Mandela gave the world in forgiveness and forbearance,'' Obasanjo said.

Obasanjo, who eulogising Mandela, recalled the times when he was voted to become South-Africa's post-apartheid president.
"During the first non-racial democratic elections in 1994, I was on election observation assignment in South Africa and was there for his campaign and when he cast his vote.

"He was devoid of bitterness or anger against anybody except the hated apartheid system.
"He went on to win the election and more importantly led South Africa to the extent that the country was able to cast aside its apartheid legacy and take its place in comity of nations.
"Certain that his task was completed, Mandela modestly refused to seek re-election after his first term in office as his presidency elapsed.

"I still recall his pragmatic words when he said to me 'Olu, show me a place in the world where a man of 80 years is running the affairs of his country.
"This, to me, reflects an unequalled sense of modesty for a man who spent 27 of the prime years of his life in prison for a just cause.

"Yet he still kept a calm and peaceful disposition to those who took away his freedom for all those years of his life,'' he explained.

Read More