Michael Ojuroye Initiative (Ngo)

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE  20th Sept. 2013 Jose Mourinho has insisted he will not abandon his plans to transform Chelsea’s playing style in a bid to produce an immediate end to their alarming early season dip. The Chelsea manager accepts he must face criticism after four games without a win, including successive defeats by Everton and Basel in the London club’s last two outings. Portuguese boss Mourinho reacted to those losses by highlighting the inexperience of some members of his squad. Mourinho Mourinho But, speaking Friday ahead of the visit of Fulham to Stamford Bridge for Saturday’s west London derby, he maintained he’d been charged by club owner Roman Abramovich with changing the team’s approach. And Mourinho was adamant he would not alter that agenda in an effort to provide an immediate upturn in results. “When you want to build something different than the players are adapted to and comfortable with, it’s more difficult,” he told reporters at Chelsea’s training ground. “Th...

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE  20th Sept. 2013 A late night shooting on a basketball court has left several people wounded in Chicago, President Barack Obama’s adopted home town that has been struggling to stem gang violence, police said. The Chicago Tribune newspaper reported that 12 people were shot in all, including a three-year old who one witness said was hit in the face, in the shooting on a basketball court at a South Side Chicago park. A police dispatcher told AFP that “there were several people shot” in the incident at around 10:15 pm (0315 GMT Friday). “Basically, there have been no fatalities reported and there is no one in custody at this time, the dispatcher said. The Tribune said the wounded were being treated at area hospitals. Three of the gunshot victims, including the child, were in serious-to-critical condition, the Chicago Fire Department told the Tribune. The shooting comes as Chicago struggles to stem an epidemic of gang violence that helped push the c...

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE  20th Sept. 2013 Death toll in last Tuesday’s Boko Haram attack on Beneshiek has risen to 87. Following the gruesome attack by the terrorists, who disguised in military uniforms, 23 persons were reported killed while several others were declared missing. An official of Borno State Environment Protection Agency, Mallam Saidu Yakubu, however, confirmed yesterday that “87 bodies were recovered in the bush and our people are still searching for more.” Saidu disclosed this to newsmen when he accompanied Governor Kashim Shettima to the scene of the massacre. Meanwhile, Islamist insurgents have rampaged through a town in Yobe State with heavy weapons, setting public buildings on fire and killing a soldier and the wife of a senior policeman, authorities said yesterday. The Wednesday attack was the latest carnage to hit the region, which has seen an upsurge in violence in recent days. Armed with Kalashnikovs, rocket launchers and home-made bombs, the terrorists storm...

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE  20th Sept. 2013 THE actualisation of the long-speculated reshuffle of President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet is still raising some dust. In the midst of the political cyclone that recently hit the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, it was understandable that decision would assume stronger political meanings than in ordinary times. Proponents of political motive held that the president decided to send home ministers nominated by some of the so-called rebel PDP governors: Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano, Babangida Aliyu of Niger, Magatakarda Wamakko of Sokoto, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, Sule Lamido of Jigawa and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers. It also came when a faction of the ruling party which styles itself as the “new” PDP broke away, and the aggrieved governors and former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, were at the centre of it. It needs to be understood that the appointment, reposting and sack of ministers of the cabinet is a consti...

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE  20th Sept. 2013 Founding chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu, today told the Southwark Crown Court that former Governor James Onanefe Ibori of Delta State stole approximately half of the revenue allocation that accrued to his state during his two terms in office. Mr. Ribadu made the astonishing disclosure when he testified about his involvement in the investigation of Mr. Ibori who is serving a 13-year jail sentence in the UK. In an emotional testimony, the former EFCC boss detailed how the grasping ex-governor offered him a $19 million bribe to persuade him to drop the prosecution of Mr. Ibori who massively looted the funds of his state. Mr. Ibori had brought the bribe money in large sacks of cash to the Abuja home of Andy Uba, a domestic assistant to former President Olusegun Obasanjo.  Mr. Ribadu told the UK court that he took possession of the cash produced by Mr. Ibori, and then deposited it at the Central Bank of...

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE   19th Sept. 2013 The Bauchi State Chapter of the Academic Union of Universities has said that the union will not shift grounds on their demand for the hundred percent implementation of the 2009 agreement, saying that the federal government is not transparent and sincere in addressing the rot in the education sector. The State Chairman of the union, Dr. Lawan Abubakar who stated this Thursday in an interview at the  ASUU secretariat in Bauchi lamented that the federal government and the National Assembly have been gambling and playing politics with the future of students in the varsities by refusing to implement an agreement it consciously entered into with the union four years ago. According to him, “I can recall vividly in 2011 December, ASUU went on strike over this same non-implementation of the 2009 agreement. In January 2012,we sat down again with the government and drafted a memorandum of understanding,(MOU) on how the 2009 agreement will be im...

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE   19th Sept. 2013 The leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, on Thursday stated that his controversial views on the nation’s contemporary politics were not an indication of his hatred for the North. The ex-militant leader, who said he had begun a nationwide peace move, however, noted that he was an “Ijaw tribalist.” This peace move started after a meeting he said he held last week with Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, Mohammed Abacha, Alhaji Shettima Yerima, Dr. Fredrick Fasehun and Chief Ralph Uwazuruike in Owerri, the Imo State capital. Speaking with journalists in his residence in Abuja, the former President of the Ijaw Youth Council said having spent a greater part of his life to defend the oppressed, it would be wrong for people to consider him as one who hates the North or any other part of the country. He said, “I am a tribalist, and I have no apology for that.” The CEO of NDPVF believed it was time for Nigerians fight f...