Mega Mode Media

The EducationUSA Advising Center of the U.S. Consulate General Lagos will hold its 16th Annual College and Career Fair in Lagos on Monday, October 5, at Dansol High School, Agidingbi, Ikeja, and on Tuesday, October 6, 2015 at the MUSON Center. The event with the theme Exploring Opportunities in Higher Education is open to all interested persons. Students with WAEC results and a minimum of five credits are particularly encouraged to attend. The EducationUSA Center at the U.S. Consulate General Lagos provides information to residents of Nigeria interested in tertiary study in the United States, and works closely with students who have the requisite academic qualifications. EducationUSA offers a fee-based membership program that counsels members on appropriate schools for their course of study, and provides tutorial materials for standardized tests, visa orientations, and pre-departure sessions. EducationUSA Advisors help undergraduate and graduate students improve their chances of...

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria on Tuesday said 10 more corpses of deceased Nigerian pilgrims had been identified, bringing the number of pilgrims who died at Mina stampede, to 64. Giving newsmen an update on the incident in Mecca, Alhaji Uba Mana, the Director, Public Affairs of the commission, said 244 pilgrims had been declared missing. Mana said 71 pilgrims were injured as against the 61 pilgrims earlier announced by the commission. He said of the 64 deceased pilgrims, 46 were transported to Saudi Arabia by state pilgrims’ welfare agencies and 18 by private tour operators. Mana also said that 12 of the 71 injured pilgrims were transported to Saudi Arabia by tour operators and 59 by state pilgrims’ welfare agencies. He said the deceased were from Adamawa,Bauchi, Borno, Ekiti, Jigawa, FCT, Cross Rivers, Gombe, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kaduna, Kwara, Nassarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Plateau, Rivers Sokoto, Yobe, Taraba, and Zamfara states. NAN recalls that more than 749 pilgr...

Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu The measures introduced by the Federal Government to monitor crude transit and check oil theft are said to be threatening income lifeline, compounding the damage the crude price fall has done to Nigeria’s finances, access to dollars and imports. Oil traders and shipping brokers said a newly implemented “letter of comfort” requirement under which vessel owners must sign a guarantee that their ships would not be used for theft had made it more difficult and expensive to load Nigerian crude, putting some buyers off. A copy of the letter draft seen by Reuters requested vessel owners to “guarantee to indemnify” the government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation against any illicit use of their vessels, which led some owners to reject pending bookings. Traders say others are refusing future requests for now. “Nobody is coming forward for offering the vessel and whoever is willing to go to Nigeria is asking exorbitant rates,...

 As the nation awaits President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial list, the President on Tuesday said he would head the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. Buhari dropped the hint in one of the interviews he granted one of the foreign media in his hotel shortly before departing New York. The President was in New York to participate in the 70th United Nations General Assembly. “I will serve as the Minister of Petroleum Resources myself,” Buhari told his interviewer. The nation’s petroleum sector has been said to be enmeshed in corruption with millions of dollars said to be missing in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Shortly after assuming office, Buhari sacked and replaced the management of the company. The new management had started a general reorganisation of the firm. Buhari had on Monday said the trial of those who looted the NNPC would commence soon. Meanwhile, ministerial list that President Muhammadu Buhari will submit to the Senate on Wednesday (today)will not...

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday ordered the National Hajj Commission and the Nigerian Embassy in Saudi Arabia to urgently account for all Nigerian pilgrims in the holy land. The order, which was contained in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, was as a result of last Thursday’s stampede at Mina which claimed over 700 lives. Shehu explained that the Presidential order was necessitated by the conflicting reports on the number of Nigerians who died or suffered injuries in the disaster. He said the President was concerned that days after the incident, some Nigerian families were still grappling with the painful uncertainty over the fate of their relatives who travelled to Saudi Arabia for this year’s Hajj. The statement read in part, “The President expects the National Hajj Commission to work with the various state pilgrim boards, Islamic organisations and private travel agencies involved in Hajj operations to speedily provide a confirm...

The list of ministers to be appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari is ready. The Senate may get a letter from the President requesting the confirmation of the nominees on Tuesday or Wednesday. It will be recalled that Buhari who was inaugurated as President on May 29 had promised to name members of his cabinet in September. He had at different times said he was in search of Nigerians with integrity to be part of his team that would reposition the country. There has been anxiety that the President may not be able to meet the September deadline as he was quoted recently as saying that the month was running to an end too fast for his liking. Indications have however emerged that Buhari, who is currently attending the 70th United Nations General Assembly in New York, had concluded work on the list. The list may be presented to the Senate before October 1. While reacting to an online report that Buhari had sent one of his National Assembly Liaison Officers, Senator Ita Enang, back t...

Hundreds of protesters on Tuesday barricaded the entrance of the National Assembly in Abuja singing solidarity songs in support of the embattled Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki. They also warned anti-graft agencies to desist from being used against perceived “political enemies.” They carried placards with different inscriptions such as, “Enough is enough, we support Saraki and Ekweremadu.” Saraki is facing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal over alleged falsification of documents in his assets declaration form when he was governor in Kwara State

An Afghan police official says Taliban fighters have captured more than half of a major northern city after launching coordinated attacks. Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, spokesman for the provincial police chief of Kunduz, told The Associated Press on Monday that gun battles are still underway between Taliban militants and Afghan government force He says Taliban gunmen have occupied a number of government buildings in the city, including a hospital and a courthouse. Kunduz city, capital of the province of the same name, has twice come under attack by the Taliban this year. The strategically situated city was once one of Afghanistan's wealthiest.  Associated Press

A 52-year-old psychiatric patient, Tope Ogunmodede, has reportedly hanged himself in his house in the Lafe area of Akure, Ondo State. According to a source, the deceased, a cobbler, took his life on Friday out of frustration following his health challenge, which he and his family had reportedly been battling with for the past 32 years. The source said sequel to the health challenge of the deceased, a lot of money had been spent by the family for the treatment of his ailment, but no fruitful result had been achieved. As a result of the health challenge, the deceased, who stayed in the same house with his mother, Mrs. Comfort Ogunmodede, used to go for routine medical check-up at a hospital, and the check-up was due last Thursday, but had been shifted to Monday (today) because of the public holiday. Tope was reportedly left at home alone on Friday and when his mother returned home from an occasion, she was said to have found the lifeless body of her son dangling in one of the rooms i...

The Trade Union Congress has faulted the position of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, on the state of the nation’s economy. Emefiele had warned that the economy was at risk of sliding into recession in 2016, adding that the implementation of the Treasury Single Account might affect the country’s economic growth. However, the Rivers State Chairman of the TUC, Mr. Chika Onuegbu, on Saturday dismissed the CBN governor’s claim and declared that the nation’s economy had since gone into recession. Speaking with our correspondent in a telephone interview, Onuegbu explained that with the decline in oil price and the inability of state governments to pay workers’ salaries, it was obvious that the nation’s economy had already gone into recession. The TUC chairman also identified the continued job losses in the private sector as one of the signs that the economy was already down. Onuegbu added, “When I say the economy of the country has already gone into rece...

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) has called on Nigerians to stop playing politics with religion, saying doing so portends grave danger for the country. He said this on Sunday in Abuja during the 55th Independence Anniversary Interdenominational Church Service held at the National Christian Centre. At the event, radical Catholic Bishop of Kafanchan Diocese, Joseph Bagobiri, warned President Muhammadu Buhari against using the institutions of government for vengeance. Osinbajo said, “Our nation is sharply divided for long along religious and tribal lines. The moment we are divided against ourselves we can’t stand. We must also speak on the unity of the country. It will make a difference in the future of this country. Our country’s major problem is that we play politics with everything. We play politics with religion, we play politics with tribe. “When a bomb goes off in Potiskum or Maiduguri, it doesn’t ask questions, whether you are a Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa. The issues that we see g...

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria has confirmed the death of 54 Nigerians in the deadly stampede in Mina, Saudi Arabia, during this year’s Hajj. The Chairman of NAHCO, Alhaji Abdullahi Muktar Mohammed, made the confirmation on Monday morning (12:16 am) in Makkah. According to him, 42 out of the 54 that died were from states pilgrims welfare board including two NAHCON officials, while others were among those on the pilgrimage by private tour operators. He also listed 15 states of Bauchi, Borno, Zamfara, Cross River, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Sokoto, Taraba and Yobe as those that lost pilgrims to the stampede. The Punch

THE Peoples Democratic Party has said that the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, is fit for the office he is occupying; hence it is not considering any candidate to replace him. The PDP denied reports that it was already looking for a senator from the opposition party to replace Saraki, who is currently under pressure to resign from office following his trial for false asset declaration by the Code of Conduct Tribunal. Nigeria’s two main labour unions–Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress – on Saturday demanded Saraki’s resignation on moral grounds consequent upon his trial at the CCT. The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, who spoke to our correspondent on Sunday, said the party still believed that the trial of Saraki was political and that the PDP would not think of abandoning the Senate president until it sees the merit of the case. Metuh said, “We have no candidate for the office of the Senate President, because we have a fit person occupying ...

The Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has said the state government will immortalise the matriarch of the Awolowo dynasty, the late Chief Hannah Dideolu Awolowo, for her good deeds. He said this on Sunday while speaking with journalists at the Ikenne country home of the Awolowos, during his condolence visit to the family. The governor, who just returned from the Holy pilgrimage to Mecca, said HID Awolowo deserved the honour, adding that honouring her would enable generations yet unborn to know about her. He said, “We will name a lot of things after her, because she deserves it; so that generations yet unborn will come and ask why we named the things after her. And we will tell them that they were the foundations and the pillars that some of us rested on.” Amosun, who earlier rendered a praise song “What shall we say unto the Lord, all we have to say is thank you Lord,” maintained that Mama had so many children and that she lived an eventful life. He said, “Mama was the...

The Sokoto State Pilgrims Welfare Agency has confirmed the killing of the immediate Caretaker Chairman of Illela Local Government Area of the state, Alhaji Bello Gidan-Hamma, his mother, stepmother and two wives in the stampede in Mina, Saudi Arabia. The agency also confirmed that the Chief Imam of the Sultan Abubakar III Jumaa’at Mosque, Sokoto, Sheikh Liman Dan-Ata, was among those killed in the stampede. The Media Assistant to the agency, Alhaji Farouk Umar, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday. NAN recalls that the state government had in a statement issued on Saturday by Governor Aminu Tambuwal’s spokesperson, Imam Imam, confirmed the killing of nine other pilgrims from the state in the Mina stampede. At of the time of writing this report, several pilgrims from the state had been declared missing. Meanwhile, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar lll-led Jama’atu Nasril Islam on Sunday urged the Saudi Arabian authorities to probe the ...

There are indications that Senators that are opposed to Dr. Bukola Saraki’s leadership of the Senate are poised to ask for his resignation when the upper federal legislative chamber re-opens on Tuesday (tomorrow). The anti-Saraki Senators are citing the trial of the Senate president by the Code of Conduct Tribunal for alleged false asset declaration as a reason for Saraki to go while his supporters are saying the man should not be proclaimed guilty before he goes through the judicial process. The Senate will resume plenary on Tuesday. The lawmakers have been on break since August 13. Investigations by our correspondents in Abuja on Sunday indicated that both anti-Saraki Senators and those supporting the Senate president are poised for a showdown when they return to the chambers. While the anti-Saraki Senators are said to be resolute in their plot to end his leadership of the Senate, the pro-Saraki members are said to have vowed to ensure that the man is not forced out of office. C...

The White House said on Thursday that it would send up to $45 million in defense services, including military training, to support African countries in their efforts to defeat the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.  Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria will receive support that builds on the training and military equipment the United States has already supplied in the fight against the group, White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. Reuters

Surprise! Usher is a married man. The “U Got It Bad" crooner and girlfriend Grace Miguel secretly wed prior to jetting off to Cuba for their honeymoon over Labor Day weekend, Us Weekly can confirm. PHOTOS: Secret celebrity weddings According to one source, the duo planned on marrying before 100 guests in Atlanta but decided to elope instead. Following their secret nuptials, the newlyweds celebrated their honeymoon in Havana, Cuba. In one Instagram photo posted by Miguel, Usher’s new gold wedding band is on clear display. Usher and Miguel, who is also the R&B star’s manager, have been together since 2009 and got engaged in January 2014. "I have an incredible partner and manager," he gushed to Billboard in October 2014. "She has helped me through some of the hardest times in my life and my career. She’s someone who’s been able to support and understand all of who I am. Not just as a dancer or as a performer or as a singer, but as a humanitarian and a busine...

MINA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — At least 310 people were killed and hundreds were injured in a stampede Thursday at the annual hajj pilgrimage, Saudi authorities said. The crush happened in Mina, a large valley about five kilometers (three miles) from the holy city of Mecca that has been the site of hajj stampedes in years past. Mina is where pilgrims carry out a symbolic stoning of the devil by throwing pebbles against three stone walls. It also houses more than 160,000 tents where pilgrims spend the night during the pilgrimage. The Saudi civil defense directorate earlier said at least 450 other pilgrims were injured in the stampede on Street 204 in Mina. It was not immediately clear if some of those previously listed as injured were included in rising death tolls. Amateur video shared on social media showed a horrific scene, with scores of bodies — the men dressed in the simple terry cloth garments worn during hajj — lying amid crushed wheelchairs and water bottles along a sunbaked str...

The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has barred the lawmaker representing Ondo-Central senatorial district, Senator Tayo Alasoadura, from attending South-West caucus meetings, our correspondent has learnt. It was learnt that the senator was ostracised for allegedly working against the interest of the party’s South-West leadership and for taking sides with Senate President Bukola Saraki. Alasoadura was also among the senators that followed Saraki to the Code of Conduct Tribunal in solidarity on Tuesday. A reliable source within the party told our correspondent that Alasoadura had been sidelined from all APC South-West meetings for his disloyalty to Tinubu. The source said, “Alasoadura was a Commissioner for Finance under the late Dr. Olusegun Agagu for over five years. He later defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the Action Congress of Nigeria. Tinubu accepted him and appointed him the Director-General of the Rotimi Akeredolu governors...

A market in Monguno, Borno, has been bombed by suspected Boko Haram militants. Nearly 18 people are feared dead already. Updates to follow.

Ryan Reynolds, new dad spokesperson, has been very open about how fatherhood has changed him.  " I have this stupid grin on my face all the time," he told  GQ   in its October issue . "And that's not because I have a nanny or something like that. It's just us [Ryan and wife Blake Lively] right now, and I love it." He's become more inventive: Though James' first word was mama, Reynolds explained to Jimmy Fallon, it's actually not Blake's victory. "You know what my wife doesn't realize? She calls  me  mama, too. I have to sit down and tell [James] penises don't work that way."  But there's a dark side to celebrity parenthood, too. A friend of 25 years used his access to baby James to backstab Reynolds. "A guy that I'd known for my whole life, one of my closest friends growing up, he had been shopping pictures of my baby around," the actor said in  GQ . "I kind of got in front of it, which is good....

The Lagos State Government has marked the International Day of Peace with calls for global peace and cessation of hostilities among warring groups, urging them to down their weapons and embrace the principles of peaceful coexistence. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, who was represented at this year's celebrations of the United Nations International Day of Peace by the Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Funlola Odunlami disclosed that the State had established the Citizens Mediation Centre (CMC) to initiate peace through mediation and provide access to justice to the indigents of the state. Ambode maintained that the non-adversarial resolution of disputes by CMC has assisted in maintaining relationships among disputing parties and prevents the citizenry from resorting to jungle justice or other forms of impunities, stressing that residents must further embrace the process of mediation as it has become globally acceptable.' In delivering t...

The family of a 14-year-old Muslim student who got in trouble over a homemade clock mistaken for a possible bomb withdrew the boy Monday from his suburban Dallas high school. Ahmed Mohamed's father, Mohamed El-Hassan Mohamed, said he has pulled all of his children from their Irving Independent School District schools. Mohamed said the family is still deciding where to send the children to school. Ahmed has said he brought the clock he made to MacArthur High School in Irving last week to show a teacher. Officials say he was arrested after another teacher saw it and became concerned. Ahmed wasn't charged, but he was suspended from school for three days. "Ahmed said, 'I don't want to go to MacArthur,'" Ahmed's father told The Dallas Morning News (http://bit.ly/1QuOnJQ). "These kids aren't going to be happy there." News of the arrest sparked an outpouring of support for Ahmed, including from President Barack Obama. The turmoil surr...

The Disciplinary Committee of Nigeria Football Federation has released decisions made at its meeting of Wednesday, 16 th  September 2015 in Abuja, at which 21 cases were entertained: Kogi United Vs Adamawa United . Three points and three goals were awarded to Adamawa United, as Kogi United was found culpable of infringing on Article 4.3(1) of the NNL Rules and Regulations. Kogi United ordered to replace camera of Adamawa United, and the sum of N20,000 awarded as cost of lost items, to be paid by Kogi United to assaulted match officials through the NNL. Prime FC Vs Remo Stars . Remo Stars’ protest dismissed for want of evidence. Remo Stars to forfeit match to Prime FC, three points and three goals. Remo Stars reprimanded to desist from any act that will put the game of football to disrepute. Ekiti United Vs Abia Comet .  Abia Comet’s protest dismissed for lack of merit. Match ordered to be continued where it stopped on 5 th  September 2015 – 58 th  m...

The Disciplinary Committee of Nigeria Football Federation has released decisions made at its meeting of Wednesday, 16 th  September 2015 in Abuja, at which 21 cases were entertained: Kogi United Vs Adamawa United . Three points and three goals were awarded to Adamawa United, as Kogi United was found culpable of infringing on Article 4.3(1) of the NNL Rules and Regulations. Kogi United ordered to replace camera of Adamawa United, and the sum of N20,000 awarded as cost of lost items, to be paid by Kogi United to assaulted match officials through the NNL. Prime FC Vs Remo Stars . Remo Stars’ protest dismissed for want of evidence. Remo Stars to forfeit match to Prime FC, three points and three goals. Remo Stars reprimanded to desist from any act that will put the game of football to disrepute. Ekiti United Vs Abia Comet .  Abia Comet’s protest dismissed for lack of merit. Match ordered to be continued where it stopped on 5 th  September 2015 – 58 th  m...

German police officers walk outside the association linked to mosque Ibrahim Alkhalil in Berlin's central Tempelhof-Schoeneberg district, where police conducts a raid targeting individuals suspected of inciting people to go and fight for the Islamic State group in Syria, on Tuesday. (AFP/Odd Andersen) German intelligence warned Tuesday that the number of Islamic extremists in the country had increased sharply in recent months and expressed serious concern that they were recruiting among refugees. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany's domestic security watchdog, said the number of radical Salafists had surged to 7,900 in September from 7,500 in June, and that many were trying to lure asylum-seekers into their ranks. "We are very concerned that Islamists in Germany are trying, under the cover of humanitarian assistance, to exploit the situation of the refugees for their own ends and to proselytize and recruit among asylum-seekers,...

Saraki docked The trial of the Senate President, Dr. Olubukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, sitting in Abuja, has been adjouned to October 21.  Earlier, the trial of Dr. Olubukola Saraki took a dramatic turn when he refused to mount the dock. The trial tribunal, headed by Justice Danladi Umar, called up Saraki’s case at exactly 10:32am. Where is the prosecution, is the accused person here?”, Justice Umar who was looking directly at Saraki from his vantage post, queried. “Mr lord I cannot see him. I think the first thing is for him to enter the dock first, then we will announce our appearances. After which the charge will be read to him”, the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs submitted. “With profound respect to the chairman and member of this tribunal, I agree with my learned brother that we should enter appearances first. The order of this tribunal was that the accused should be produced today. It was not for his to enter his plea. T...