Thursday, April 30, 2015

4:55 AM

160 more rescued from Sambisa Forest


According to AFP, the Nigerian Army says it has rescued about 160 more hostages from Sambisa Forest.

"We are still trying to compute the actual number of those rescued. But tentatively there are about 60 women of various ages and around 100 children," Army spokesman Sani Usman told AFP.
He also said one woman was killed in the fighting and eight other rescued hostages were injured. A soldier was also killed and four others wounded.
4:51 AM

Pics: Teju Babyface's wife mugged on Eko Bridge, her car windows smashed



Comedian, Talk Show host and TV producer Teju Babyface's wife, Tobi Oyelakin, was on her way to the mainland at about 8pm last night when her car was attacked by hoodlums on Eko Bridge. She was in the car with her driver and 3 other girls in the back seat and were approaching the National Theater area of the Eko bridge when they encountered some traffic.


They had barely come to a stop when 4 boys leaped out of the shadows and knocked on the windows with torch lights and asked them to roll down the windows. They were still trying to come to terms with rising levels of panic when the hoodlums shattered the rear windows on both sides of the car and proceeded to rough-handle the ladies in the back seat and collect all valuables. Continue...
 
The hoodlums proceeded with impunity to open all the bags and pour the contents into nylon bags they brought along. This was in the presence of all other motorists on the bridge. The robbery went on for well over 2minutes from start to finish.
When they had finished and disappeared into the shadows and the occupants of the car were able to drive away, they saw policemen further down the bridge on patrol and reported t‎o them that they had been robbed, whereupon the policemen empathized (or sympathized) with them simply by saying 'ah, those boys have started again'. 

Luckily no one sustained grave injuries in the attack and Teju's wife is fine but very shook up. 
 
Speaking about the incident, Teju said;
"One realizes that this is becoming almost commonplace and acceptable in Lagos as reports reaching us indicate that it happens daily. That may very well be an axiom but I share this with you to bring attention to what threatens to become endemic. A great contretemps I must confess."
 

4:49 AM

South African women narrate discrimination they face for marrying Nigerian men



South African women married to Nigerian men have narrated the discrimination they face for marrying men outside their country. Seeing the disaffection their kinsmen show them after finding love in the hands of Nigerian men, the women decided to form an association, the United Nigerian Wives in South Africa (UNWISA) club about two years ago where they give support and succor to each other.



42 year old Lindwela Uche who serves as the chairwoman of the group told AFP that they saw the xenophobic attacks coming and alerted their husbands but they did not take their warning seriously "We saw this thing coming and that’s why we formed this association. If only they (the authorities) had listened to us… they would have known that there’s a fire burning slowly and they would have seen how to tackle it.”she said
One of the members of the association,“Lufunu Orji who is married to a Nigerian resource consultant, Ogbonnaya Orji, says being married to a foreigner is very challenging
"Being married to a foreigner is very challenging. You often spend your time defending yourself and then you defend your foreign husband for being himself. Just before I got wed to my husband, I lost two very best friends of mine. They thought I was out of my mind" she said
Another member of the group who gave her name as Uche, said her 13-year-old daughter returned from school a while ago, complaining that her teacher had told her “not to bring that Nigerian mentality here” after she and classmates were noisy in class.
“We need to be protected, we need our children to be protected… and our husbands to be treated with dignity,” Uche said
37 year old Thelma Okoro, says the attitude towards them “are negative everywhere we go,”. According to her, wearing traditional Nigerian dress on the street can attract bad comments. She spoke of how her eight-year-old daughter gets mocked by schoolmates over her name “Ngozi” which means “blessing” in Igbo but literally translates to “danger” in Zulu.