Pep Opara's Blog

The Lagos State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday disowned Mr Adejumo Agbaje, who filed a suit challenging the eligibility of President Goodluck Jonathan for the 2015 polls. In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Taofik Gani, the PDP said Agbaje was not a consequential member or leader of the party in the state. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Agbaje along with some persons parading themselves as PDP members had filed a suit no. FHC/ABJ/CS/662/2014 challenging the eligibility of Jonathan in seeking re-election in 2015. “Agbaje can thus be representing his own interest. He is definitely on a frolic of his own probably to gain media attention or for pecuniary interest,” the statement said.   It warned Agbaje to desist from embarrassing the party forthwith. The party said while it appreciated the right of any Nigerian to aspire to any office in the land, it restated the party’s unequivocal decision on President Jonathan’s candidature and righ...

  P.O:  If You are in Ekiti State, do be careful and be more aware of your environment. I need you all safe and don't be caught in the on-going political tussle. There was tension in Ekiti State on Sunday as the news of a reprisal attack by suspected members of the Road Transport Employees Association of Nigeria spread in the state capital, Ado-Ekiti. This is coming on the heels of fresh allegation by the Peoples Democratic Party that the All Progressives Congress had concluded plans to import thugs from Lagos. But the APC said allegation was a figment of imagination of the PDP, urging the police to arrest and prosecute anyone caught fomenting trouble in the state. The residence and five vehicles belonging to a former state chairman of RTEAN, Mr. Rotimi Olabiwonu, were on Friday burnt by people yet to be identified. The arson took place during the protest that followed the Thursday’s murder of a former state chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, ...

Millions of devotees remain banned from receiving communion – but meeting of bishops raises hopes of ban being loosened Elio Cirimbelli, a 66-year-old family counsellor from Bolzano in north-eastern Italy , goes to church most Sundays. He is a devout Roman Catholic but when he attends mass he cannot receive holy communion and must stay in the pew while the rest of the congregation goes up to receive the sacramental bread and wine. “It’s very hard, let’s put it that way,” Cirimbelli says. “We have a church that can be a mother, but sometimes it is a mother which not does embrace but which punishes.”   Millions of Catholics around the world are similarly affected by the church’s ban on communion for those who have divorced – as Cirimbelli did in 1987 – and then remarried.   In a global community divided by headline-grabbing issues such as abortion, contraception and gay sex, divorce is far from the most inflammatory topic of conversation. But for a huge number o...

  He says..... 'My Killing Days Are Over' Not much interview was done on General-Benjamin-Adekunle, popularly known as Black Scorpion who died a couple of weeks ago, labelled and known as a legalised murderer. You want to know a bit about him? I believe excerpts of this interview done in August 1977, will better capture the essence of him. Enjoy!   The Black Scorpion doesn’t sting anymore. His venom was neutralised some three years ago when the Gowon regime retired him from the Army. ‘’My killing days are over”,Brigadier Adekunle affirmed last week at his Surulere residence. ‘’Hitherto I had been labelled as a legalised murderer by the society called Nigerians.   General-Benjamin Adekunle Right now, I will do any job that will lead to the saving of souls of fellow Nigerians. Not that I regret my period as a soldier, or my killing days as some people would like to refer to it. But there are certain times when you need to do some reassessments. To...

  Put differently, the many reasons advanced for quitting the All Progressives Congress, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Gen. Sani Abacha regime, Chief Tom Ikimi, obviously has an axe to grind with a former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu. Ojo M. Maduekwe writes   Since August 27, when former Minister of Foreign Affairs in Gen. Sani Abacha’s government, Chief Tom Ikimi, withdrew his membership from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and gave his reasons in an advertorial on the same day, the battle line had been drawn between Ikimi and supporters of one of the co-founders of APC, Senator Bola Tinubu.   In Ikimi’s reflection, he narrates how the ‘propaganda’ of him being a sell-out is being sold by Tinubu through the aid of his supporters and goes on to allege that Tinubu instead is the one selling out the opposition dream.   “Who then is really selling and who is indeed buying? Who sold Mallam Nuhu Ribadu’s ACN presidential candidature...

Gloria Allred gives a press conference with Floyd Mayweather's ex-fiancée Shantel Jackson to announce a law suit.    Mayweather on front p[age again and this time it isn't about him and T.I's wife or a club brawl but for alleged assault and battery on his ex-fiancée. We should expect a frenzy court room drama in some weeks come except they settle out of court.    

The imminent breakup of their marriage may be the least of the problems popular mega-church pastor, Chris Oyakhilome, and his wife, Anita, are facing  at the moment as the United Kingdom agency is investigating the UK branch of their church, Christ Embassy, over controversial payments. The United Kingdom Charity Commission has launched a probe into the transfer of at least N941 million (£3.6 million) by the church to overseas entities between 2008 and 2012.   According to a culled report from Premium Times : In a statement on Wednesday, the Charity Commission said it has opened a statutory inquiry to investigate Christ Embassy over “a number of serious concerns relating to the use of charitable funds, in particular large connected party payments and the potential misapplication of grant funding.”   According to the Charity Commission, which is the regulator of charities in England and Wales, statutory inquiries are only opened to investigate “the most se...

  Olamiju Alao Akala, son of  Former Governor of Oyo State was on the streets of Oyo State campaigning for the re-election of his dad, once the State Governor. His father, Adebayo Alao Akala, will be contesting in 2015 under the umbrella of PDP and a lot of big wings are actually supporting him this time. Olamiju is married to Hadiza Okoya and they recently had a talk of the town wedding in Lagos.

      Joan Rivers was pronounced dead at 1:17 p.m. Thursday at a NY hospital. Her daughter, Melissa Rivers, made the announcement just moments ago. Rivers, 81, stopped breathing while undergoing a routine outpatient endoscopy procedure at a NY clinic on August 28. The clinic is now under investigation by NY state health officials. Rivers reportedly experienced laryngospasm (tightening of the larynx) which cut off oxygen to her brain during the outpatient procedure. Doctors don’t know how long her brain was deprived of oxygen. From NY Daily News : She was surrounded by close family and friends, Melissa Rivers said in a statement. The “Fashion Police” host, who was staying in a private room at the Mount Sinai Hospital, was dependent on machines to stay alive eight days after going into cardiac and respiratory arrest, sources said. The 81-year-old star’s room was filled with flowers, and her hair and makeup were done as Melissa Rivers pondered her life-and-de...

A source tells gossip blog TMZ that singer Ciara and her baby daddy, Future Hendrix , are living together again and back. CiCi reportedly dumped her former fiancé after she learned he cheated on her with his full-time wardrobe stylist, Tyrina Lee . Sources close to Future tell TMZ … he and Ciara are living together again — and trying to make things work between them — so Future can help take care of their 4-month-old son, FUTURE ZAHIR. Ciara must be willing to overlook the past … since she was the one who claimed FUTURE CHEATED ON HER[2] while he was on tour — and then broke off their engagement last month. We’re told Ciara wasn’t interested in a shared parenting situation, saying she believes Future’s a good father and that it’s best for their son if his dad’s there. Pretty selfless of her, if she really believes he cheated. There is no doubt that Future will cheat on Ciara again,  but at least he is putting the needs of his child first. All children need t...

The first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan was photographed on her arrival at Sopoto, Northern Poland to commission a training ship built for the Nigerian Oceanographic Institute for Marine and Research purposes, greeting officials and aides in the new vogue of Ebola greeting. She was received on arrival today at the Gdansk Walesa International Airport by Ambassador Ibrahim Jimba, the Nigerian Envoy to Poland, some ministers and other Nigerian dignitaries and she greeted them at respectable distance with “palm-rubbing” acknowledgement.

I have reiterated many times that Borno State Government and some current and past top government officials can tell exactly who the Boko-Haram sponsors are. Yes! even our Number one top man said Boko Haram had infiltrated his government, and same Nasir El-rufai ranting about could be one!. They know and would always be skirmish and defensive...   People let me refresh your memory, which state government lodge house in Abuja was a top Boko-Haram leader arrested during the Late Yar Adua/Jonathan regime? It was Borno State Government Lodge House and who was the then governor? Modu Sheriff  was. Get your brains at work and do a deep think.    Murderers are moving about as free men and joining "so called" winning party for protection while daily perpetrating heinous crimes through their agents of destruction.  

  The dissolution of the marriage between Christ Embassy Church founder, Pastor Christian Oyakhilome, and his wife, Rev. Anita Odegwa Oyakhilome, has entered the final phase.    According to TheCable report, the wife is seeking divorce on the grounds of “unreasonable behaviour” and “adultery”. She outlined several allegations against the pastor which TheCable cannot publish for legal reasons.   The divorce case, with Suit No FD14D01650, was filed on April 9, 2014 at Divorce Section A, Central Family Court, First Avenue House, High Holborn, London, UK, on Anita’s behalf by Attwaters Jameson Hill Solicitors, a full-service law firm with expertise in commercial law and a strong consumer focus in family, wills and estate, personal injury law and medical negligence. Efforts to reconcile the popular couple, whose church is one of the biggest denominations in Nigeria and has branches all over world, have failed. They have two...

  Kim K is obviously tired of Fat Rob and the drama surrounding his growing weight and new found love for drugs. She opened up to Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live last night about how Rob  unceremoniously let her know that he wouldn’t be attending the KimYe wedding the morning of, via e-mail, and how unbothered by whatever he’s going through as she was running at of patience with him, and her preferable choice of girlfriend for Rob.   Via DailyMail : He famously fled Europe just a day before his big sister’s big day.  Now, Kim Kardashian, 33 has finally addressed the rumours surrounding brother Rob, 27, missing out on her wedding to Kanye West in Italy in May this year.  Speaking on Tuesday evening to Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live, Kim confirmed that he did not break the news to her face to face.  ‘My brother and I are so close, he is one of my best friends,’ she began, trying to downplay the rift. ...

Patrick Sawyer’s Wife The wife of the Liberian man late Patrick Sawyer, who brought Ebola into Nigeria, has defended her husband’s decision to travel to Africa’s most populous country, saying he did so in desperate search for a country with better healthcare system than his own country. In an article published earlier today, TMZ Liberia Magazine quoted Decontee Sawyer, who is a radio host in New York, as explaining that Mr. Sawyer had no trust in the healthcare system in Liberia and had possibly headed to Nigeria with the hope of receiving better treatment for his ailment.  Mrs. Sawyer shared her thoughts on her Facebook profile from which TMZ Liberia sourced it for publication.   “I’ve read other reports in other papers (not the New York Times) about Patrick’s “recklessness.” I get where they’re coming from, and they certainly have the right to feel the way they do. However, as Patrick’s widow, I would like to shed some light on this from another perspective....

  Liberia’s efforts to control deadly epidemic being hampered by local mistrust as two infected US health workers return home The withdrawal of some international medics from  Liberia  following the infection of two US health workers with the  Ebola  virus has exacerbated the healthcare crisis caused by the epidemic.   The overcrowded and understaffed Elwa hospital in the capital, Monrovia, where Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol worked, has been forced to turn away some Ebola cases. The virus, which is highly contagious and fatal in more than half of the cases in the current outbreak, has killed more than 700 people in west  Africa .   On Sunday, US health authorities said Brantly’s condition was improving after his return to the US, where he is being treated by infectious disease specialists at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.   “It’s encouraging that he seems to be improving – that’s really important – and we’re hop...

  A Chinese medical expert, Dr Zhou Zhengyou has claimed to cure up to 70 per cent of his gay patients, although he says it is a long and difficult process.   But Gay rights activists in China are preparing for what they say could be a legal milestone in their fight to stop homosexuality being treated as an illness.   Later this month, a Chinese court will hear the first case of its kind brought against a clinic that offers so-called “gay conversion therapy.   A long campaign in Europe and America has been successful in shifting the medical consensus against such treatment, and now campaigners want Chinese doctors to follow suit.“China declassified homosexuality as a mental illness well over a decade ago, but clinics like Zhengyou’s are still easy to find,” a protesting activist said.   He said “Dr Zhengyou shows me some of the books he’s written on the subject over the course of his career. “One of them is a guide for parents who suspect ...

Days after the masked one, Lagbaja rejected the offer to perform at the grand finale of the Osun PDP Governorship election campaign which held at Osogbo and which was also used to host the President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the musician has cried out that his musical shrine, “The Wonderland” has received too many august visitors in the last one week from the Department of State Security Service (SSS) and Armed Mobile Policemen on the instructions from order from above.  A report by Champion Newspaper says; they have continuously lay siege for Lagbaja and after a futile attempt to get him, has resorted to harassment and molestation of staff members of his company.   Lagbaja, who spoke from the UK, said he has been away from Nigeria in the last 41days owing to performance he had in London and Canada. He also claimed to have received threats to his life to either debunk the story published by some major newspapers in the country or face the music.   After c...

  French troops moving to the frontline of the war fight   French President Francois Hollande and his German counterpart, Joachim Gauck, on Sunday marked the centennial of the start of World War I with a joint ceremony at the observation post on Hartmannswillerkopf, a mountain that was the scene of intense fighting during the war.   According to a report by Fox News Latino , the observation post in the Vosges mountains of Alsace, a region in north eastern France, changed hands eight times between December 1914 and 1915.   Some 30,000 soldiers from both countries died in the fighting around the rocky spur in the months after Germany declared war on France on Aug. 3, 1914.   Hollande and Gauck shook hands, embraced and participated in a military ceremony before placing the cornerstone of what will be the first Franco-German museum to tell the story of "The Great War." The museum is scheduled to open in 2017.   Hollande and Gauck ...

  A woman has been quarantined at a hospital in Hong Kong after falling ill with Ebola-like symptoms when she returned from a trip to Africa.The patient, who is said to be exhibiting symptoms similar to the deadly virus, is undergoing tests to verify the cause of her illness, local media reported.   It comes as Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond today declared the disease a ‘very serious threat’ to Britain as he prepares to chair an emergency meeting on how to bolster the country’s defences against the vicious virus.   British airlines are on alert for cases of the deadly virus, after tests revealed a man died in Nigeria from the disease, having been allowed to board an international flight from Liberia. “Deadly: The man was tested for the Ebola virus at a hospital in Birmingham after developing ‘feverish’ symptoms. He was given the all-clear by doctors but there are fears the killer disease could spread to the UK”   What is Ebola virus disease? Eb...

  Hmmmn! If WHO Chiefs says this, then it's real mess for the globe..   An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa is out of control but can be stopped with more resources and tougher measures, World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan said yesterday.   The outbreak is the worst since the disease was discovered in the mid-1970s, with 729 deaths in four countries.   “This outbreak is moving faster than our efforts to control it,” Chan told the presidents of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone at an emergency meeting in Guinea’s capital Conakry.   “If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost of lives but also severe socio-economic disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries,” she said, according to a WHO transcript.   But the outbreak could be stopped and the public was not at high risk of infection, she said. Governments might need to restrict population movem...

  He noted that PDP did not stop at that. “Just recently, we have the same case, after we joined the APC, they came with one ‘hawk’. I think he is from Kebbi, he was calling them to his house you know Kano is a great state, we want people to come and settle in Kano, but many of them are trying to become enemies but we don’t mind because Kano is so attractive.   Read via Sahara Reporters : Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso of Kano state has said he is too big for the impeachment tricks and antics of President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He said ruling party tried to induce the legislature to impeach but their cynical plan was dashed by the people of Kano. “They have been trying and that you are aware of. They came here and collected all the principal officers and other members of the state House of Assembly; not because they stole anything, but because they didn’t want us to pass the budget. The EFCC came dead in the night and started c...