Hungry Family Steals Man’s Pot Of Soup In Abuja

In what could evoke pity and underscores the hardships currently experienced by ordinary Nigerians, a man and his two children have allegedly stolen a pot of soup from the stove of a resident in Mpape, a slum in Abuja.

The incident happened along Mashafa road in the area earlier this week, Daily Trust reports.



The owner, identified only as Femi, said he was shocked when he emerged from inside his room, where he had just gone to get salt to add to the soup he was cooking, to find the man and his family already helping themselves to his pot of ogbono soup.

He said due to his astonishment, he could not do anything but watch as the family ravished his pot of soup with akpu (pounded cassava tubers), which he said they must have brought along with them.

“I was cooking in the compound and went into the room to get salt, that was when they took the pot of soup and before I could ask, they were already eating the soup with their akpu”, he said.

Femi explained that the man later apologised, blaming their predicament on hunger and lack of food to eat.

“I had no choice than to leave them with it, but they should not have taken everything”, Femi lamented.

He continued in Pidgin English, “The thing pained me. I am also managing and had to look for the money for that soup and they just took everything”.

He said he only asked them to return the pot after they had helped themselves with its content.

Ngige stirs up the Hornet nest against 2017 in Anambra

Several efforts had been made in the past to drive All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) out of Anambra government House. When he was Governor, Mr. Peter Obi literally walked the tight rope. Once, he was illegally impeached and he had to massage members of the House of Assembly who, in his first tenure were all members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In his second tenure, Obi struck a masterpiece of relationship with President Goodluck Jonathan to the extent that the President regarded him more valuable than some top members of his party. Such was the game Obi played to survive.

He did not just play politics alone. By the second half of his second tenure, the crafty Obi was perhaps, the best performing Governor in Nigeria. The only Governor he contended with in that position, people believed, was Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state.

Obi had read the psychology of Anambra people very well, providing virtually every community with a tarred road even if they do not endure for long; handed over schools to their original owners thereby boosting school attendance after rebuilding those schools and assisting communities with money to do some palliative works on internal roads. Latching on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Obi was able to get a lot of financial support from foreign donor and development agencies. Anambra people believe that his programme fulfilled their yearnings and they followed him believing that he has provided what they needed to make progress. So, when the state ranks very low in poverty index, it is not surprising.

Such was the situation of things when Obi’s tenure drew to an end. To wrap it up, Obi dreamt of,and did what not many politicians had thought about and dared to do: hand over power to a person of Anambra North Senatorial district extraction that has never produced a governor and may not be able to produce one unaided.

In that context, the spirit was high among Anambrarians to go APGA with Peter Obi. So, when he brought in Chief Willie Obiano as his successor, his works spoke for him. Obiano seemed to have carried on well; pursuing his own programmes hinged on four pillars of development namely: aggressive mechanized agriculture, trade and Commerce, industrialization and Oil and Gas. The enablers are made up of fundamentals like Security, Education, Healthcare, Power Generation, the Environment, Finance, Social & Civil Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development, Hospitality and Tourism, Transportation, Water and Sanitation and Youth and Sports. However, things were no longer as they were when he took over from Governor Obi. It will be recalled that barely one year after he assumed office, Obi left APGA for PDP. This was followed by bitter wrangling among the three pillars of Obi, Chief Victor Umeh and now Obiano.

Many opponents of the party saw this as a loophole in APGA’s stranglehold of Anambra state with even Obi vowing to dethrone Obiano after his first tenure. So, when the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige spoke last week to the effect that his party, All Progressives Congress (APC) will be in serious contention for Awka Government House come next year’s Governorship election, it was seen as part of the political struggle for the soul of Anambra state.

In an interview with journalists at his Alor country home, Ngige had said: “APC will be in serious contention for the office of governor next year because we are determined to take over the Government House. However, it is too early to begin to talk about whether one will contest or not since, by the Constitution of Nigeria and the Electoral Act, the governorship election will take place perhaps, in December next year.
Before then, the marshal plan APC has for Nigeria would have been on ground properly as we believe that will help us during the campaigns. For now, anybody saying he is campaigning for the governorship is only wasting his time as there is still enough time for that”.

Ngige as usual insisted that he ran the best government in Anambra state boasting that both Obi and Obiano administration combined has not equaled his 34 months in office. Hear him:“Even when they tried to do multiplicity of roads, their roads have collapsed, while the ones I did are still in perfect conditions”.

“Even the handover of schools they are priding themselves about was started by me because I was the person that signed the Memorandum of Understanding with religious leaders in the state and handed over37 schools on paper before we left office. If they had followed my agricultural road map, Anambra State would have been feeding the whole south east with rice by now.

“If I were to be governor today, I won’t be going to Abuja for money because our state would have been self-sufficient. I will get the required licence and begin mining of some minerals in the state.” But he did not hint whether he would the governorship election again.
Prior to this time, he contested against Governor Obi in 2010 and against the incumbent governor, Chief Willie Obiano in 2014 and lost in both elections. He also lost his bid to return as Senator in 2015, coming a distant third in the election before he was appointed a minister by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nevertheless, whether he will run or not ANgige’s statement could be read as a notice to Governor Obiano that his re-election will not be too easy as PDP had issued similar threats several times when Obiano’s predecessor was in office without realizing such ambition. And realizing such ambition now seems even more difficult with politicians of different parties have intermingled and shared their cheating tactics

Secondary students in a robbery ?

The Cross River State Police Command has arrested a Senior Secondary School, SS 2 student, Christian Donatus, aka Inyang, believed to be the leader of a robbery gang.
Donatus, a student of Eastern Secondary School, Ediba, Calabar, the state capital, had allegedly led his syndicate to raid a shop, Value Mart, owned by the former First Lady of the state, Obioma Imoke, two weeks ago.

The suspect was paraded alongside one of his accomplices, Ubong Bassey Essien, on Wednesday before newsmen at the Command’s headquarters.

Parading the 19-year-old man, the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Ms. Irene Ugbo, said the suspect who hails from Akokwa, Imo State, had been terrorizing various parts of the city, raiding homes, shops and commuters and dispossessing them of their valuables.

She said, “The gang shot a medical doctor at Akim Qua three weeks ago and also carted away safes at a shop along Marian Road, containing large sums of money.

“The suspect and one of his members were arrested on July 16 by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS.

“Efforts have been intensified to track down four other members of the gang who are on the run and we hope that very soon they will be arrested and brought to book.

Nigeria's relay team in a total mess

In sad news, Nigeria’s 4X400m women’s  Olympics team has been disqualified from the 2016 Rio Olympics. Nigeria’s disqualification is a direct result of athlete, Tosin Adeloye (who ran the third leg at the IAAF Championship) testing positive for a banned substance test at the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Super Grand Prix/Warri Relays in Warri, Delta State on July 24, 2015.



She was part of the relay team that set a Nigerian second best record of  3:23.27 seconds which ensured the team’s qualification for the Olympics.

Her test result now means that her time set during the race will not count and the team will be disqualified as a result. Regina Goerge who was able to raise $4,000 through crowdfunding will be disappointed at the development.

According to Complete Sports, “Nigeria’s two other fast times of 3:29.94 achieved in Durban last month and the 3:31.27A achieved in Nairobi in April 2015 will not place among the best 16 nations eligible to compete in Rio.”