Freedom For Henry Okah(News Release By MEND)

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) is grateful to God that the trumped-up charges against Henry Okah have finally been dropped.

Now he will be able to deal with his health, spend time with his family and revive his business.

We hope that the hundreds of other men and women languishing in detention over the Niger Delta issue will also be set free.

For those killed extra judicially by the army and police, we pray for their souls.

MEND considers this release as a step towards genuine peace and prosperity if Nigeria is open to frank talks and deal sincerely with the root issues once and for all.

Some newspapers have been giving speculative figures on the number of attackers and boats used for the Atlas Cove attack on Sunday, July 12.

The fact is that only two gunboats were used with a total of eighteen (18) well armed and experienced commandos.

The naval resistance was weaker than anticipated because after the first shots were fired by them, we responded with heavy caliber machine guns which made them to flee.

We regret any civilian loss of life that may have occured from the attack.

Jomo Gbomo

Obama Have Interpreted Nigeria, Let's Change It!(News Release)

From President Barack Obama in Ghana came a strong damnation of the irresponsible governance that has for decades been the unfortunate lot of Nigeria but which has assumed an embarrassing status with the current congenital incompetence mismanaging the country.

In a well-delivered speech, the 44th President of the United States of America, who could not be accused of racism, spoke eloquently about the success of Ghana (Nigeria’s failures) with a biting indictment of the shame of most of the rest of the continent of which Nigeria is a giant among the continental embarrassments.

Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) congratulates Ghanaians who have risen from the valley of adversity to the mountain of prosperity and good conduct to be the first port of call in sub-Saharan Africa on an elaborate and historical visit; and as Obama attested, “The 21st century will be shaped by what happens not just in Rome or Moscow or Washington but by what happens in Accra as well.” Ghana has shown that some thing good can come out of Africa after all.

As we congratulate Ghana - its people and leadership – we turn our attention to the irresponsible leadership of Nigeria, which believes that a Madam Rebrander spraying cologne on a stinking corpse is what would make Nigeria attractive to the world.

But like we told them that, you can’t change the opinions of decent nations with deceptions, Obama has painted a graphic picture of the ugliness of the Nigerian ostrich.

While the ruling party behaved like a band of pirates in Ekiti and thought the world was not watching, Obama was taking notes “Each nation gives life to democracy in its own way, and in line with its own traditions. But history offers a clear verdict: governments that respect the will of their own people are more prosperous, more stable and more successful than governments that do not. This is about more than holding elections – it’s also about what happens between them.”

While the present administration makes mockery of the rule of law as core of its Seven -Point deception and hounding Nuhu Ribadu for standing against corruption whch it pretends to fight, Obama came out clear: “No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves or police can be bought off by drug traffickers. No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top or head of the port authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny and now is the time to end it.”

Whereas former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his successor are apostles of “do-or-die” politics, Obama says the Ghana model is it: “Time and again, Ghanaians have chosen constitutional rule over autocracy, and shown a democratic spirit that allows the energy of your people to break through. We see that in leaders who accept defeat graciously and victors who resist calls to wield power against the opposition.”

Obama was not all about denunciations but also about practical measures to end the season of anomies in Nigeria. He advocated a bottom-up change with a solemn promise that America will support change seekers who are ready to sort their country. And, for the young people who are giving up and using social vices as escape values from the miseries in Nigeria, Obama had appropriate counsel: “In places like Ghana (Nigeria), you make up over half of the population. Here is what you must know: the world will be what you make of it. You have the power to hold your leader accountable and to build institutions that serve the people.”

This is the critical challenge today for us as a people. The time has come for both the young and the old. The young must take the challenge of fixing Nigeria. The re-branders have exhausted all their possibilities and we are left as an object of derision by their misrule. Now is the time for the re-builders to step out as Obama, who did it in his own country within two years, has cut out the job ahead of 2011.

It is absurd that, as bad as things are for Nigeria, President Yar’Adua is turning the rumour of his Second Term bid to a reality. It is only the wicked souls in the Party Destroying People (PDP) who can give thought to the tragic idea that any nation deserves eight years of the nonsense currently going on in Nigeria.

The moment must begin to find its wo(men). All change agents must step out now from the deserts of the Northwest and the hills of the Northeast; from the valleys of the North-central, to the plains of the Southeast; and from the creeks of the South-South, to the Savannah of the Southwest.

It is time to take back our country from the demons and let righteousness reign. If we are set to do it, YES, WE CAN! If we don’t, YES, WE CAN’T. The banner of our movement must be CHANGE.


‘Yinka Odumakin
National Publicity Secretary
Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG)

Wole Soyinka: Faces Of A Dogged Crusader.

Profesor Wole Soyinka, Poet, Playwright, Novelist and retired University teacher is the first African Nobel Prize winner in Literature(1986). He is generally regarded as the most dogged human rights, anti-corruption and civil liberties crusader from Nigeria.

Soyinka was born on July 13th, 1934 in Ake Abeokuta in the present day Ogun State, South-western Nigeria. The Literary community in Nigeria, chidi opara reports learnt have lined up activities to mark the Icon's seventy-fifth birthday anniversary.

Michael Jackson's Sister Says Brother Was Murdered.

The sister of Michael Jackson has accused members of his entourage of effectively “murdering” the singer for his money.

La Toya Jackson said a shadowy group of hangers-on within his retinue had regarded him as a “cash cow”, supplied him with drugs, conspired to cut him off from family and friends and forced him to commit to play 50 concerts at the O2 arena in London.

After his death, cash and jewels appeared to have gone missing from his home, she said, in interviews with two Sunday newspapers.

She told the News of the World: “We don’t think just one person was involved in the murder. It was a conspiracy to get Michael’s money.”

Ms Jackson described her brother as “the loneliest man in the world” with no real friends, who died cut-off from his family.

She told the Mail on Sunday: “I believe Michael was murdered, I felt that from the start. Not just one person was involved, rather it was a conspiracy of people.”

Ms Jackson said that her brother was “surrounded by a bad circle". She added: "He was a very meek, quiet, loving person. People took advantage of that. People fought to be close to him, people who weren’t always on his side. Michael was worth more than a billion dollars. When anyone is worth that much money, there are always greedy people around them."

Ms Jackson said he had an intravenous drip stand and oxygen canisters in his room.

“Michael knew he was never going to be a grey-haired old man,” she said. “He didn’t want to grow old.”

He was found not in his own room but in the bedroom of his physician Dr Conrad Murray, she said. She was at her home not far from Jackson’s in Beverly Hills when she was told by her father that her brother had been taken to hospital.

On her way to the hospital her mother had called and screamed down the phone: “He’s dead!”

“I nearly crashed my car,” La Toya said. “My legs went weak. I couldn’t press down on the gas pedal. I got to the wrong entrance at the hospital and was begging the security guys to help me and take my car because I was so weak and faint. They took me up to the area where Michael had been taken. Mother was crying and Michael’s kids were crying.

“I screamed, ’Is it true?’ and she said, ’Yes, he gone’.

“I couldn’t stop crying.”

She felt her brother had only wanted to do 10 shows in London but that the people around him forced him to agree to do 50 shows.

Her brother regularly kept £1 million in cash at his home, she said. But no money was found there in the wake of his death. “Michael didn’t keep a close eye on his finances,” she said. “A lot of people made a lot of money out of Michael.”

La Toya said that his death would be investigated. “I am going to get down to the bottom of this,” she said. “I am not going to stop until I find out who is responsible. Why did they keep the family away?”

The said the family would file a civil lawsuit against anyone they believed to be responsible for his death and push for police to bring criminal charges.

“I want justice for Michael,” she said. “I won’t rest until I find out what - and who - killed my brother.”

(From TIMESONLINE Via Bing News)