X- Corper in Tears After Saying Farewell To Holy Cross Sec. School, Aba

          Eleven months ago we were posted to Abia state (God’s Own State), at a start we thought all hope has lost, we asked ourselves how can we stay survive with Igbo people knowing that they said some part of Abia state eat human flesh, it was a huge challenge for us, but by God grace with self-courage we were able to overcome the fear, from Bende camp I was posted to Holy cross secondary school Umuocham, Aba to serve as a teacher, at the beginning of my teaching I understood individual difference between many students, I tried my best to encourage them, quickly some adjusted but the naysayers still find it difficult to adjust. Life became normal for me in Aba even when I can’t speak their language very well, there I began to feel the happiness in teaching students seeing you have changed the behavior  and attitude of some people added values  to I and my brother Philip life. During our x-mass break I thought we still have time to spend in Aba, but after much calculation we realized we have few weeks left in Aba, I was happy at same time I was sad, I was sad because of the people I could not have time to change little things about them, I was sad because I’m was about to leave the little family I managed to build in Aba, there was never a friend from outside holy cross been lady or guy but the laughter, smile and joy I derived from my little students was enough for me to called a family, most especially my brother from another mother corper Philip, he was a real brother to me but knowing that even when we traveled back to same state but may end up getting jobs in different parts of the nation made me cry inside, I ask myself, who will I go to CDS with every Wednesday, who will I go to free zone market with every two days, and who will I eat with in the same plate, the bound of brotherhood we shared was stronger compared to some real biological brothers.

Soon the long awaiting day of Passing-Out Parade (POP) arrived February 13, 2014, even as we were going to Umuahia for our POP and collection of NYSC discharge certificate I thought we were just going for normal corpers activities, but soon I realized that NYSC was over when I was given the discharge certificate which mark the end of every service year. The following day was our sent-forth day to say farewell to students, staffs and management of Holy Cross Secondary School, I managed to hide my feelings and tears for the whole day, but the next day I woke up very early to get ready for school activities as usual then I realized it was the day to travel back home without my little family of Sir. Philip and my little students, the my little family I had all the happiness, joy, laughter and smile I ever imagined in any family, I took my bath with tears mixed with water, I lost appetite to eat breakfast because it was my last in Aba as a corper, but I later managed to take few spoons of the rice we prepared for breakfast, yet the tears in my eyes and inside me was enough for me as water after the meal, I now know the reason for my tears “ I managed to build a family I always hoped to have, but time and distance forced me to leave them, and for how long I don’t know, but I definitely know I will come with member of my family to see my other family agin, I promised to see my little family completed again no matter what it takes me.

My goodbye is not a final goodbye, there will be another hello again, farewell moments are always difficult moment in life, but I have to say goodbye anyway, I will see you again. I love you all.

God bless Holy Cross Secondary School

God bless Aba city

God bless Abia State

God bless Federal Rep. of Nigeria.

Sir Lukman Bryan Adam (X-Computer Teacher).

He is risen: Body of late Pope John Paul II exhumed ahead of his beatification in the Vatican

Pope John Paul II's coffin was exhumed today ahead of his beatification as tens of thousands of people began arriving in Rome for one of the biggest events in the Catholic church since his funeral in 2005.
The coffin was removed from the crypts below St Peter's Basilica while top Vatican officials and some of the late pope's closest aides looked on and prayed.
Those present at the ceremony included Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, his personal secretary and right-hand man for decades, and the Polish nuns who ran the papal household for 27 years.
The wooden coffin will be placed in front of the main altar of St Peter's Basilica. After Sunday's beatification mass it will remain in that spot and the basilica will remain open until all the expected one million visitors who want to view it have done so.
Scroll down to watch video

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The body of the late Pope John Paul II is exhumed from the crypt of St Peter's Basilica ahead of the deceased pontiff's beatification

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Top Vatican officials and some of the late pope's closest aides look on and pray over his coffin

It will then be moved to a new crypt under an altar in a side chapel near Michelangelo's statue of the Pieta. The marble slab that covered his first burial place will be sent to Poland.

Huge posters of John Paul, who died in 2005, hang across Rome ahead of the ceremony - expected to be attended by a million pilgrims - which will put him on the path to sainthood.
As the Vatican prepares to move the late pontiff one step closer to sainthood this Sunday, Rome has been caught up with beatification fever.

 

• The saint and the sinner: Tyrant Robert Mugabe invited to beatification ceremony for Pope John Paul II

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Workers carry the coffin of the late Pope John Paul II from the crypt of St Peter's basilica at The Vatican during a ceremony today

The city is festooned with posters of the pope on buses and hanging from lampposts as the city where he was bishop for 27 years awaits one of the largest crowds since his funeral in 2005, when millions came to pay tribute.
Large television towers are being erected along Via Della Conciliazione, the boulevard leading from the Tiber to the Vatican.
In his home country of Poland, thousands of pilgrims are boarding buses and trains for the roughly 30-hour journey to Rome for the ceremony, while many more are expected to fill squares in Warsaw, Krakow and his hometown of Wadowice to follow it on large video screens.

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Pilgrims stand in front of a giant image of Pope John Paul II hanging in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican today

The atmosphere of celebration contrasts sharply with the deep sense of mourning after John Paul died in 2005.
At the time, black ribbons and packed churches were expressions of the widespread grief felt at the country's loss of its most respected moral authority and a figure credited with helping end communism.
Now many repeat a common refrain: that the beatification is largely a formality because they already consider their native son the holiest of men.
Beatification is the last formal step before possible sainthood, and many in Poland hope that the fast beatification will be followed by a speedy canonisation as well.

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Five years must pass after a person dies before the procedure for sainthood can even begin, but Pope Benedict (right) put John Paul on the fast track to sainthood in May 2005, just two months after his predecessor died

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Pope John Paul II waves to huge crowds in his hometown of Wadowice in 1979. Thousands are expected to fill squares in the Polish town to follow Sunday's beatification on large video screens

'For us, in fact, the Holy Father was already a saint during his lifetime, and after his death even more,' said Ewa Filipiak, the mayor of Wadowice, the small town in southern Poland where Karol Wojtyla, the future pope, was born.

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Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe is among VIPs who will be attending the ceremony

Warsaw Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz this week called the beatification a historic moment and predicted that the late pontiff will go down in history as 'Pope John Paul II the Great'.
Many Poles credit John Paul for his role in inspiring Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement, a catalyst in the toppling of communism in Poland.
His life, which was shaped by the suffering of World War II and the communist decades, also make him a 'person with whom Poles identify without hesitation,' said Marek Lasota, director of the Institute of National Remembrance, a state historical institute.
Yet in a sign of Poland's increasing secularisation, the numbers making the trip to Rome are expected to be in the tens of thousands - far less than the hundreds of thousands at his funeral.
News of the beatification has also been overshadowed in recent days by the Royal Wedding in this country.
The ceremony has been marred by news that Robert Mugabe is among VIPs who will be attending.
The Zimbabwean dictator, who has been slammed by the international community for driving his country to poverty, is a Catholic and attended the funeral mass for John Paul in 2005. 
Stanislaw Obirek, a former Jesuit priest and a critic of what he considers an 'authoritarian and oppressive' church, says there is a cult of John Paul II 'which is the result of the country's communist heritage because it is based on a cult of personality'.
Obirek, an anthropologist and expert on religion with Lodz University, predicts that in time Poland will resemble Spain or Ireland, traditional Catholic nations with strong anti-clerical movements.
Yet for now, he says, most critics of John Paul are still rarely willing to express their views publicly for fear of being marginalised socially.

THE NECESSARY STEPS TO BECOME A SAINT

The Vatican is preparing to elevate the late Pope John Paul II one step closer to sainthood with his beatification on Sunday. Here are some key facts about the canonisation process by which the Roman Catholic Church makes a saint:
THE PROCESS

• Under normal Church rules, five years must pass after a person dies before the procedure for sainthood can even begin. Despite a person's reputation of holiness during his or her life, the process cannot begin until after death.
• The reigning pope has the authority to waive the five-year waiting period. Pope Benedict put John Paul on the fast track in May 2005, just two months after his predecessor died.
• When the local bishop begins the 'cause', the candidate for sainthood receives the title 'Servant of God'. A 'postulator' is then appointed to help gather information about the candidate. The postulator also reviews nearly every word known to have been written or spoken by the candidate.
• One miracle is required after a candidate's death for the cause to move on to beatification. The miracle must be the result of a person praying to the candidate for intercession with God. Miracles are usually the healing of medical conditions that doctors are at a loss to explain.
• The candidate can then be beatified and declared a 'blessed' of the church. Another distinct miracle is needed between beatification and canonisation, or the conferring of sainthood.
• Parts of the Church's saint-making process go back several centuries. The procedure is detailed and often long. In the early Church, a simple acclamation sufficed.

THE FIRST MIRACLE

• Last January, Benedict approved a decree attributing a miracle to John Paul's intercession with God and announced that he would be beatified on May 1.
• The miracle concerned Sister Marie Simon-Pierre Normand, a French nun diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, from which the pope himself had suffered. She said in June 2005 her illness inexplicably disappeared two months after his death when she and her fellow nuns prayed to him.

Man gets married to his dog in California

In San Francisco, CA, history was made at the Chapel of Our Lady at the Presidio in San Francisco as the first-ever state recognized human-animal marriage took place.
Local resident 35-year-old Paul Horner was the groom during the ceremony. Joining him was his faithful dog Mac who is 36-years-old in dog years. Mac also decided to be the groom but ended up wearing a white veil at the last moment. Father McHale who officiated the outdoor wedding told reporters he was extremely happy to be a part of this joyous moment of life. “This is the definition of true love my friends. There is nothing more sacred than the bond between a man and his faithful dog,” McHale said. “Now, since it is recognized as a legally binding marriage in the state of California, Mr. Horner and Mac will have all the same tax benefits and everything else coming to them that a regular married couple would receive. It’s a fantastic day to be alive!” So how could this have happened?
In the book of California’s State Laws and Regulations there is a little known law that was passed as the state was first forming in 1850. According to article 155, paragraph 10, it clearly states:
If a man and a man can get married and a woman and a woman can get married, if ever comes that day, then a human and animal will have the exact same rights to marriage in every eye of the law. God help us if this ever is to happen!
In attendance was Horner’s entire family who flew in from Hawaii to witness the event. Mac had her puppies on hand and making a special celebrity appearance was Alex from Stroh’s and Spuds Mckenzie.
“I just love my Mac so much, I can’t wait till we can finally get back to the honeymoon sweet in Montana where bestiality is legal. Gosh, get with the times California! We can marry here just fine, but love making is a big no-no,” said Horner. “People keep asking me why I wanted to marry a dog. I told them I just want the same god given rights that every person in California is allowed to have. Don’t tell me I can’t marry my dog. I don’t tell you that you can’t marry a 500 lb woman with gas issues. That’s your decision. Don’t tread on me. I love my dog and I know he loves me a hundred times more than any gay wedding out there.”
With this wedding between a man and a male dog now on the books, one can only ask what is in store next?

In a similar development in Brazil a man was set to wed his pet goat, Carmelita but has promised not to consummate the marriage. Former stone-cutter Aparecido Castaldo, 74, had decided to end his days as a single man to marry his beloved Carmelita.Aparecido in October 2013 as he had been in love with the pet for two years and says a goat has advantages over a human companion. Here his reasons:‘She doesn’t speak and doesn’t want money,’ says the father of eight children – four women and four men from four different marriages.
Carmelita ate her first wedding dress but has been found another, said Aparecido.
‘Whenever someone says I am doing something wrong I reply the goat does not speak, ask for money to go shopping and doesn’t get pregnant – and she can’t talk.’
Again, it made interesting headlines when a man decided to marry a tree in Argentina. Richard Torres, who was described in one report as a Johnny Depp doppelganger, married the tree in the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aries. Dressed in a white suit and blue hat, the Peruvian actor invited guests to perform readings at the ceremony in one of the city’s main parks.
In the same twist,Lee Jin-gyu fell for his ‘dakimakura’ – a kind of large, huggable pillow from Japan, often with a picture of a popular anime character printed on the side.
In Lee’s case, his beloved pillow has an image of Fate Testarossa, from the ‘magical girl’ anime seriesMahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha.Now the 28-year-old otaku (a Japanese term that roughly translates to somewhere between ‘obsessive’ and ‘nerd’) wedded the pillow in a special ceremony, after fitting it out with a wedding dress for the service in front of a local priest. Their nuptials were eagerly chronicled by the local media. ’He is completely obsessed with this pillow and takes it everywhere,’ said one friend. ’They go out to the park or the funfair where it will go on all the rides with him. Then when he goes out to eat he takes it with him and it gets its own seat and its own meal,’ they added.
The pillow marriage is not the first similarly-themed unusual marriage in recent times – it comes after a Japanese otaku married his virtual girlfriend Nene Anegasaki, a character who only exists in the Nintendo DS game Love Plus, last November.

A man marrying a toaster? A toaster marrying a dog? A toaster marrying a toaster? What exactly is the world turning to?
What are your thoughts on this trend?

APGA in confusion, 2 factions hold meetings in Awka

FOLLOWING the recent court judgment which upheld the election of Maxi Okwu as the National Chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Umeh faction dismissing the court verdict, there is confusion by members over which chairman between Umeh and Okwu they should submit themselves to.

 On Thursday, Honourable Shedrack Anekwe, State Chairman of the Maxi Okwu faction presided over a meeting said to be organised by APGA stalwarts at King David’s Hotel in Awka and on the same day, Chief Mike Kwentor, State Chairman, Umeh faction of the party, held a similar meeting at the party secretariat, opposite Government House, Awka.

 Members of the two factions of the party in the 21 Local Government Areas of Anambra State attended each of the two meetings, even as the Okwu camp indicted all those members seen or found at Umeh’s camp.

 Rising from its meeting, the 21 members of APGA loyal to Maxi Okwu faction issued a communiqué passing a vote of confidence on Chief Maxi Okwu as its national chairman and Mr Peter Obi as its national leader and expressed happiness that the party had finally returned to peace after being maltreated by its former NEC and state executive.

 In their own reaction, Umeh’s faction headed by Chief Mike Kwentor described Okwu’s camp as the product of political and judicial rascality and added that they had appealed the judgment.

Lagos ex-dep gov, Ojikutu, arrested for N130m fraud

The Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police has arrested a former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu, who was declared wanted by the unit on June 19, 2013 in connection with the case of obtaining the sum of N130m from one Cajethan Okekearu.
The SFU said in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Isintume-Agu, on Tuesday that the ex-deputy governor was arrested at her Lagos Island residence.
The police alleged that the 67-year-old suspect connived with her son, Samson Ojikutu Jnr, who is currently in United States, to commit the fraud.
The statement read in part, “The suspect and her son were parties to the sale of the land and both signed the agreement given to the Complainant and obtained the sum of N130 million from him.
“She admitted the crime but claimed that it was a genuine mistake of plot identification. She refunded the sum of N50m to the complainant and promised to refund the balance as soon as she disposed her two properties she put up for sale. She also confessed that she had injected the Complainant’s money in her business.
“She equally made an undertaking and payment plan, which was drawn from September 2012 and was to terminate by November 2012, but she defaulted due to lack of fund.”

“Governor Oshiomhole Pay me my pension” – Man vows to commit suicide on Valentines’ Day

A certain 57-year old man, Denis Amayo, has vowed to commit suicide on Valentine’s Day (14 February) should Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State fails to pay his eight-month pension arrears.

Addressing journalists in Benin on Tuesday morning,  the Igbanke-born father of four, Amayo disclosed how he served the state meritoriously for 35 years in the Ministry of Agriculture and retired in August last year.

He however lamented that he’s yet to receive his pension.

In his hand-written petition to Governor Oshiomhole, Ayo said the state was owing him “eight months pension arrears,” adding “please Sir, pay me before February 14, 2014. I lost my father, otherwise, I will commit suicide.”
He warned that he will sacrifice his life to raise awareness for other pensioners owed several months of unpaid pensions if he is not paid before Valentine’s day.

DELTA STATE LOSES AS FG WON THE OWNERSHIP AND CUSTODY OF THE $15 MILLION BRIBE ALLEGEDLY GIVEN BY FORMER GOVERNOR OF DELTA STATE, CHIEF JAMES ONANEFE IBORI, TO FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIMES COMMISSION (EFCC), NUHU RIBADU.

The Federal Government has won the ownership and  custody of the $15  million bribe  allegedly given by former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, to former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes  Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu.

In his judgment at the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, Justice Gabriel Kolawole declared that the money should  be forfeited to the Federal Government since the Delta State

Government could not prove that Ibori stole the money from its coffers.

“The claimant has not sufficiently proved that the money belongs to them; they failed to establish that they are entitled to the money. In the light of Ibori’s denial that he gave $15 million to anyone, the money becomes an unclaimed property. Kolawole ruled.  “It has become an illegal proceed and is hereby forfeited to the federal government. The respondent should ensure that  the money is paid into the account of the federal  government for official use.”

Delta, through its Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Charles Ajuyah (SAN), had approached the  court asking that the $15 million (over N2billion) allegedly  received as bribe by Ribadu from Ibori be paid to it.

The court had earlier ordered that the money be temporarily  forfeited to the Federal Government, and to be finally forfeited if no one came forward to claim ownership of it  within 14 days of the publication of an advertorial pertaining to the interim order.  However, Ajuyah filed an affidavit  claiming that the money, which  has been in CBN custody since April 2007, belongs to Delta  and its people. He prayed the court to hold that any application or order granting the money to any other entity than Delta State would be improper, among others.

But according to Kolawole “no one is ready to lay claim t the money for obvious reasons. “The claimant needs to do more to prove that the money belongs to them. The claim must be proved beyond Ibori’s  denial that he ever gave any money as bribe to anyone.

“The Delta State Government has to show that an audit of the state account was carried (out) after Ibori’s tenure from  1999 to 2007 and found that the money was missing from the state’s account. It did not do any investigation by way of audit and come to a conclusion that the money was missing.”

He further ruled: “It will amount to fallacy to assume that Chief James Ibori cannot have that kind of money. The claimant should have produced the asset declaration form  of Ibori from 1999 to 2007 when he functioned as governor  of the state. It is not enough to claim that no one is more connected to the money than Delta State.

“The court will not hesitate to hand over the money to Delta State if it is proved that it belongs to them. The pendency of the case does not prevent the state from asking for an order that the money be lodged in an interest-yielding account to enable them conduct an audit of the state

account.” said the Judge.