Michael Ojuroye Initiative (Ngo)

Ray Whelan Ray Whelan, head of Fifa partner Match Hospitality, has fled to escape arrest in Rio over alleged illegal World Cup ticket sales, Brazilian police say. Police chief Fabio Barucke said Mr Whelan was officially considered a fugitive from justice. Earlier on Thursday, a judge accepted an indictment for Mr Whelan – who is British – and 11 others. An international gang is said to have earned some $90m (£52m) per tournament and may have acted at four World Cups. The gang is believed to have been making money by acquiring and illegally selling on VIP tickets and hospitality passes. Mr Whelan, 64, was first detained on Monday at the exclusive Copacabana Palace hotel in Rio de Janeiro and released after questioning. The other 11 suspects were arrested last week. In a statement after his arrest, Match Hospitality denied any wrongdoing by Mr Whelan, and said he would co-operate with any investigation. However, police in Rio said they went to Mr Whelan’s room in the Copacaban...

Prof. Wole Soyinka Language, the source of Wole Soyinka’s fame; the reason also for his alienation by the average reader. The Nobel Laureate is a man of complex locution. Besides his political forays, the density and immensity of his literature is perhaps the major thing that trademarks him. The fact is, there can be no indolent or perfunctory reading of Wole Soyinka; his literary rampart is impregnable. You peruse him; then the fortress can give way. However, the language employed by the playwright in his prison memoir is in a class of its own. Set in the Civil War Nigeria, The Man Died is a riveting account of the atrocities perpetrated by the military regime against the civil populace, in which the author was also a major victim - of solitary confinement without trial for fifteen gruelling months. The abuses fill you with horrors: the flogging syndrome, detention and imprisonment without trial, killing, torture as pastime; sadism and crushing of the civic will; the climate of...

Measures aimed at reviving India’s slowing economy are set to be announced by the country’s new government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in its federal budget on Thursday. India’s economy has slowed markedly, growing by 4.7 per cent in the 2013-14 financial year which marked the second year of sub-5 per cent growth. Modi’s government has promised reforms aimed at creating jobs. The budget is also expected to contain measures designed to slow inflation. The government has also spoken about its plans to introduce a general sales tax, simplify taxation, encourage foreign investment and speed up approvals for major business projects. A government survey, published on Wednesday, said the country’s fiscal situation was worse than it appeared. The annual government Economic Survey on India’s economy heightened speculation that Thursday’s budget will give a higher, more realistic fiscal deficit target for the current financial year than the 4.1 per cent of gross domestic product ...

A Yaba Magistrates’ Court in Lagos on Wednesday slammed a N2m bail on a landlord charged with defiling his tenant’s seven-year-old daughter. The accused, John Ogunsola, 40, who resides at 61, Olatunde St., Oke Ira, Ogba, Lagos, is standing trial on a count. He, however, pleaded not guilty. The Chief Magistrate, Mrs Yewande Aje-Afunwa, who noted that the offence could attract life imprisonment, ordered that Ogunsola should also provide two sureties in like sum. “The sureties must own residential property in Lagos State, be recognised community or religious leaders. They must show evidence of tax payment and gainful employment,” she directed. The chief magistrate added that one of the sureties must be a blood relation of the accused. She adjourned the case to July 7 for hearing. Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp Peter Nwangwu, told the court that the accused committed the offence on May 27 at his residence. He said the accused took advantage of the minor and sexually assaulted her. “Ogunso...

Canadian pop star Justin Bieber has pleaded no contest to misdemeanour vandalism in connection with the egging of his neighbors home and has been sentenced to two years’ probation. California’s court also ordered him to pay $80,900 (£47,160) in damages, serve five days of community service and complete an anger management programme. Bieber, 20, was not present in court for the arraignment. The singer faces two other criminal cases in Florida and Toronto. “Justin is glad to get this matter resolved and behind him,” Bieber’s representatives said in a statement after the verdict by Los Angeles Superior Court in Van Nuys. “He will continue to move forward focusing on his career and his music.” Investigators searched Bieber’s Calabasas home in California in January for evidence after the egging apparently caused serious damage. One of the singer’s friends was arrested on drug possession charges after that search. The LA County Sheriff’s Office say they were looking for surveillance v...

The Peoples Democratic Party, Ekiti State, has threatened to sue the Ekiti State House of Assembly for contempt if it took further steps on the bill seeking creation of the new 18 Local Council Development Authorities. The party gave the warning in a July 8 letter by its Legal Adviser, Mr. Kolapo Kolade, to the Speaker, Adewale Omirin, in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday. He recalled that the party had gone to court to challenge the bid to create the LCDAs by the Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi. Kolade warned that it will be contemptuous for the Assembly to pass the bill when there was a pending suit in Court. Citing Cap 8, Section 54(5) of the standing order of the Assembly, the party quoted that “No matter, pending in Court of Law shall be entertained  by the House in order not to prejudice the decision of the court in respect of the matter.” “Similarly, it is in law that when an application for injunction is pending in Court, none of the parties should take step regarding the is...

STOMACH Infrastructure, this is the new maxim, the new political ideology given to us by Ayodele Fayose, the governor elect of Ekiti State. By the time Fayose would write his memoir, he would give further clarifications to the peculiar background that inspired this concept which is now receiving wide acclaim nationwide. But, before then, one point must be noted: that the victory of Fayose over the incumbent Governor Kayode Fayemi in the June 21 election was driven under the plank and framework of Stomach Infrastructure. What then is stomach infrastructure as against material infrastructure? We can only understand stomach infrastructure by making a graphic comparison between the two concepts, because they are all goals of democracy. The contrary is that one cannot be emphasized over the other. One cannot be given more attention than the other.   Material infrastructure is the vision that Fayemi religiously pursued in Ekiti. It is an elitist dream of building projects – big class...