China executes mining tycoon Liu Han

Hong Kong (CNN)China has executed a mining tycoon found guilty of murder and running a "mafia-style" organization, state media reported Monday.

Liu Han, 48, the f

ormer chairman of Hanlong Group, was executed along with his brother, Liu Wei, and three associates, official news agency Xinhua reported.

The men met with their families before they were executed, Xinhua said.

Liu has been linked by state media to former security czar Zhou Yongkang -- the most senior official snared in China's anti-corruption campaign.

Hanlong's interests included mining, real estate, electricity, energy and finance and the company remains a shareholder in two Australian companies - Moly Group and Sundance Resources.

Liu was detained in 2013 along with his younger brother. They were sentenced to death in May 2014.

The Liu brothers started out running gambling dens in their base in Guanghan, in China's southwestern Sichuan province, in the early 1990s, gathering around them "a gang of local thugs and vagrants," state media reported around the time of their trial.

The brothers' empire grew, before finally attracting the attention of central authorities with an alleged public shooting at a Guanghan teahouse one afternoon in January, 2009, supposedly ordered by Liu Wei and directed at an underworld rival.

Liu Han also developed a reputation as a philanthropist, building a rural school campus following a 2008 earthquake that devastated Sichuan. His brother also had a reputation for charity, and had been a torch-bearer in the build-up to the Beijing Olympics, also in 2008.

CNN's Tim Hume contributed to this report

BUHARI BEATING JONATHAN IN AIT ONLINE POLL DESPITE ONGOING PROPAGANDA DOCUMENTARY AGAINST HIM

Screenshot of the AIT online poll

An online poll set up by African Independent Television (AIT), a television station which belongs to one of President Goodluck Jonathan’s closest friends, has further underlined his unpopularity as the opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, is currently defeating him by at least 75 per cent.

To add insult to injury, AIT has since last Saturday been running a documentary aimed at hurting the public perception of Buhari. The hour-long documentary, “The Real Buhari”, reportedly costs the Jonathan campaign N5 million each time it is aired.

The campaign also made a copy of the documentary available online but rather than do damage to Buhari’s support, it seems to have further emboldened his supporters to troop online to vote massively for him.

In similar online polls conducted by Saharareporters, Buhari also defeated Jonathan by a wide margin.

SOME PEOPLE CAN READ THE MIND OF JONATHAN AND PEPE

Late Actor Muna Obiekwe

The passing of a Nollywood actor Muna Obiekwe came as great shock both for Nigerians and the actor’s colleagues.

It would be recalled that the sad news broke out yesterday. It was however surrounded by controversy as some insisted that the information was fake.

The misunderstanding was connected with the tweet allegedly posted by the actor himself on a Twitter handle, @MunaObiekwe, that he was still hail and hearty. Soon the indications emerged that the mentioned Twitter account was fake.

The president of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Ibinabo Fiberesima, confirmed the news in a phone interview with Y!Naija saying:

“Yes, he is truly dead, i have spoken to his wife… He was a private person, he didn’t tell us he had problems so there was no way we could have helped….please i can’t disclose much information for now.”

“He could not go for his regular dialysis for the past two weeks because he was broke but rejected seeking public assistance due to shame.”

Famous Yoruba movie producer and actress, Dayo Amusa, criticized her colleagues over not helping Muna when he really needed it.

PETROL NOW #87 PER LITER

The Nigerian government has announced a reduction in the fuel price of petrol from N97 per litre to N87 per litre.

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, said at a press conference at the presidential villa, Abuja, on Sunday that the new price regime would take effect at midnight today.

Mrs. Alison-Madueke said the N10 reduction in fuel price was necessitated by the reduction in crude oil prices in the international market.

The Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency [PPPRA] and the Department of Petroleum Resources [DPR] have been asked to enforce strict compliance with the new pricing regime as soon as it becomes effective, the minister said.

The new measure is a reversal of government’s policy on the matter.

The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had insisted on December 17 that Nigeria would  not reduce the pump price of fuel despite falling oil prices at the international market, until the revenue crisis occasioned by the dwindling oil rates is over.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said at the time that the decision to review fuel price either upwards or downwards would only be taken after the current crisis in global oil prices had been settled.

But five days ago, on December 13, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Muhammadu Buhari, called on the government to implement immediate price reduction on fuel products to reflect the downscaling in global oil prices.

Speaking through his campaign organization, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Mr. Buhari asked the government to “stop stealing from Nigerians and allow them enjoy the relief that has come to consumers of petroleum products globally”.

The APC candidate had said, “The price of diesel which has been deregulated since 2009 still sells at the pump price of N150 and N170 per litre, the same pump price when the international benchmark per barrel of crude was over $100. Now that the international benchmark has dropped to $47.5 (USD) per barrel as at Monday, we ask: where is the deregulation and the relief which it ought to bring to local consumers of diesel?

“For the Nigerian consumers, unfortunately the collapse of crude oil price since October 2014 has not translated into any change in diesel, kerosene and PMS prices across the country.

“We challenge the federal government to reconcile the information on the website of the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency, indicating the maximum open market price of diesel per litre in December 2014 as being at N111.6 and the fact that the price has come down to less than $50 (USD) as at Monday.

“We want to posit that that the maximum indicative benchmark open consumers of diesel should pay is at a margin below N100 per litre. Therefore, Nigerians are being short-changed by about N50 to N70 on every litre of diesel sold by government.”

The Trade Union Congress [TUC] had earlier on January 5 asked the government  to take advantage of the falling oil prices to reduce retail prices of petroleum products.

The TUC had argued that the best time to review the retail pump price of petrol was now, in line with the argument put forward by government in 2012 when the price was adjusted from N70 per litre to N97.

FUNNY see wetin Drink do Father xmas

Instead of doing what Santa is known for, dishing out gifts to kids, this one was busy consuming all kinds of alcohol that came his way until, sadly, Naija Santa Claus passed out. - 

2015: Osinbajo takes campaign to BRT buses

By Abiodun Alade, @biodunpen

The Vice-Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo rode on the Lagos State Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on Christmas day to campaign and woo Nigerians to vote for the presidential candidate of the party, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in the forthcoming presidential election.

Osinbajo via his twitter page, shared the image of his conversation with passengers on the bus, stressing that it was an opportunity for him to articulate the programmes of the APC to Nigerians.

He said, “Rode on the bus earlier today and spoke to my fellow citizens, it was better than a thousand seminars !”.

Within six hours of sharing the image, it generated over 650 retweets and 100 favourites. Some of his followers applauded the move while others criticized him, arguing that his move was for political gain.

He added in a follow-up tweet that the most important issues are jobs, power, security and the economy.

Osinbajo has become active on the social media since he was nominated by Buhari as running mate.

13-year-old girl: My father gave me to Boko Haram forced to become a suicide bomber

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — A 13-year-old says her father gave her to Boko Haram extremists and that she was arrested after refusing to explode a suicide bomb in Kano, Nigeria's second largest city in the north.
Nigeria has suffered numerous suicide bombings in recent months carried out by girls and young women. That has raised fears that the insurgents are using kidnapped girls.

Nigeria has suffered numerous suicide bombings in recent months carried out by girls and young women. That has raised fears that the insurgents are using kidnapped girls.

The girl told a news conference Wednesday night that she saw many people being buried alive at the Boko Haram camp where her father took her in Bauchi state, east of Kano.

She said her captors asked if she wanted to go to paradise and, when she said yes, explained she would have to be a suicide bomber.

"When I was told I would have to die to enter paradise, that I would have to explode a bomb and die, I said I cannot do it," she said.

When they threatened to kill her, she allowed them to strap her into a vest primed with explosives, saying "I was afraid to be buried alive."

Two other girls detonated their bombs at Kano's textile market on Dec. 10. Police said the attack killed four people and wounded seven, including the girl.

The West African nation's home-grown Boko Haram group attracted international condemnation when its fighters kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from a boarding school in northeast Chibok town in April. Dozens escaped but 219 remain missing.

Thousands of people have been killed and 1.6 million driven from their homes in the 5-year-old uprising to create an Islamic state in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation of 160 million people divided between mainly Muslims in the north and Christians in the south.

Police Superintendent Adenrele Shinaba said the girl was arrested in the hospital with a leg wound. A taxi driver took her to the hospital, and she said she left her suicide vest on the seat. The driver alerted police.

Shinaba said she will remain in custody while investigations continue. He said they had been unable to find her father, who the girl said belongs to Boko Haram.

GAY IMAM IN AMERICA SPEAKS OPENLY

The land of freedom, America, now boast of an openly gay Imam. And the Muslim community is not happy about it. Imam Daayiee Abdulah, the only openly gay Imam in America & possibly the world, was born and raised a Baptist Christian faithful in Detroit but converted to Islam while studying in China. Upon his conversion, he noticed the spiritual gap lesbians, gays & transsexuals in the Islamic faith had and decided to become an Imam so as to provide an ideal Islamic support for them, he says.

“Being an openly gay imam and having been identified as such, I do get a lot of feedback and also kickback, but that’s OK,” he said. “I think that when people are unfamiliar with things, they tend to have an emotional knee-jerk reaction to it. Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention. And because of the necessity in our community, that’s why I came into this particular role.”

Abdulah, who says he told his parents he was gay at age 15, converted to Islam at the age of 33 and went on to study the religion in Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Asked what was his first spiritual act as an Imam, Abdulahi says it was the funeral for a gay Muslim who had died of AIDS. Continue…

“They had contacted a number of imams, and no one would go and provide him his janazah services. This pained me. I believe every person, no matter if I disagree with you or not, you have the right as a Muslim to have the proper spiritual rites and rituals provided for you. And whoever judges you, that will be Allah’s decision, not me. The beautiful thing about God is that when you change your attitude, and say, ‘God, I need some help,’ and mean it sincerely, God is always there for you,”

Abdullah serves as the imam and educational director of the Light of Reform Mosque in Washington, D.C, a place he calls a a rare safe space for Muslim LGBT. In his Mosque, which he founded in 2011, women and men kneel side-by-side and women are allowed to lead prayers, an action that has sparked controversy in the Muslim world.

Catholic Priests Fight with weapons over the Control of Parish in Mbaise, Imo State

The last may not have been heard about the crisis rocking the Catholic Diocese of Ahiara Mbaise in Imo State as pro-Bishop Okpalaeke and anti-Okpalaeke priests fought to the finish at St. Brigit’s Catholic Parish, Nnarambia, soaking themselves in their own blood and vandalizing several properties of the parish.

According to an eye witness account, the fight broke out Sunday evening when Rev. Fr. Januarius Chima Ahaneku, posted to the parish, came to take over, but the out-going priest, Rev. Fr. Marcelinus Nweke and his assistant, Rev. Fr. Chamberline Irozuru resisted him.
Fr. Ahaneku and Fr. Nweke and his assistant are pro and anti Bishop Okalaeke priests respectively.
The eyewitness told our reporter that Fr. Aheneku arrived the parish with some youths from his former parish while Fr. Nweke invited some thugs to confront them, and terming them hoodlums and criminals.
In the ensuing melee, the source said, the two groups descended on each other and suddenly, arms and amunitions flew from nowhere and the visitors were severely brutalized.

Fr. Nweke, 247ureports.com learnt, quickly alerted the officers from the Ahiazu police division who came and arrested the visitors, describing them as armed thugs.
All efforts made to reach the priests involved for comments could not yield any results. But according to police reports obtained by our source, Fr. Nweke and Fr. Chamberline Irozuru, stated that Fr. Ahaneku invaded his parish with some thugs who were with weapons loaded guns,strong iron bars and shockers in their two cars.
Fr. Nweke alleged that Fr. Ahaneku and his thugs had him beaten up and breaking his arm for resisting them entrance into the parish house.

However, a parishioner told our reporter that Fr. Ahaneku was only coming to take over officially after notifying Fr. Nweke of his posting to the parish, but Fr. Nweke in collaboration with other anti- Bishop Okpalaeke priests decided to frame them up as people causing problem.
The reason for this, he said, is because the anti-Okpalaeke priests who are in majority are feeling sidelined from the scheme of things in the diocese as they are grumbling that the few pro-Okpalaeke groups are enjoying the support of the church hierarchy.
It will be recalled that more than 200 priests from the diocese trooped out to protest the appointment of one of their own and pro-Okpalaeke priest, Rev. Fr. Clement Ebii as the Vicar General of the Diocese by the Apostolic Administrator, John Cardinal Onaiyekan.

The priests, it was learnt, also sponsored the Catholic Women Organisation to embark on another round of demonstration to force Cardinal Onaiyekan to withdraw that appointment, saying the appointment of Fr. Ebii was part of the “desperate attempts of Cardinal Onaiyekan to further cause the internal crisis in the diocese”.
The appointment of Fr. Ebii followed the resignation of Rev. Fr. Professor Louis Asiegbu last April, whose advice that the pro-Bishop Okpalaeke priests should not be given viable parishes(as part of their punishment), was ignored by Cardinal Onaiyekan, who instead, posted one of the priests, Fr. Chima Ahaneku to St. Patrick’s Parish Umuokrika Ekwereazu.
While some of the protesting priests, who demonstrated at the Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral, Ahiara Mbaise, accused Onaiyekan of trying to use the appointment of Fr. Ebii to bring back the “rejected” Bishop Okpalaeke, others accused Fr. Ebii of scheming to become the new bishop of the diocese.