First solar-powered plane begins flight

 

The plane in the air

A Swiss solar-powered plane has taken off from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates marking the start of the first attempt to fly around the world without a drop of fuel, Al Jazeera reports.

The Solar Impulse 2, piloted by Andre Borschberg of Switzerland, took off at 7.12am local time (0412 GMT) on Monday from the UAE’s Al-Bateen airport and headed to Muscat, the capital of Oman, where it is expected to land later after the first leg of the journey.

The developers said the aim was to create awareness about replacing “old polluting technologies with clean and efficient technologies”.

Ambode, Agbaje battle for non-indigenes’ votes

Agbaje and Ambode

We looks at the moves by the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party to woo non-indigene voters of Lagos

Some facts seem to be sacred in this election season. Both the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party concede that the APC presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) will garner most of the votes in the North-West where the Katsina-born candidate hails from.

Similarly, it is believed that most of the voters in the South-East will vote for President Goodluck Jonathan.

However, one question in the minds of politicians is how will the people of Nigeria’s most populous state, Lagos, vote?

I hate violence – Patience Jonathan

Mrs. Patience Jonathan
| credits: news.naij.com

The wife of the President, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, on Monday told the presidential campaign organisation of the All Progressives Congress that “she is a woman of peace that can never be identified with electoral violence.”

She said there was no way somebody like her who occupies the exalted office of the President of the African First Ladies Mission would be promoting violence under any guise.

Mrs. Jonathan who spoke with Us. her media aide, Ayo Adewuyi, was reacting to the decision of the APC to report her to the International Criminal Court for allegedly asking supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party to stone anyone canvassing for change, the APC slogan, during a campaign rally in Calabar, Cross River State.

Sexual harassment made me abandon acting for a while — Sotayo Sobola

At first glance, Sotayo Sobola looks like one of those girls who have eight packs of cigarettes in their purse, ready to smoke and party from dusk till dawn, getting into all sorts of trouble. On getting closer to her, you realise that she’s just the regular girl NEXT door. Sotayo is beautiful, eloquent and ready to take Nollywood by storm, starring in both Yoruba and English movies. Her movie Corper Jide is getting a lot of positive response and she is set to release her latest movie titled Bella very soon. In this exclusive interview with Potpourri she talks about her life, career and more.

How many movies have you done so far?

I can’t trace them because when I STARTED initially, it was just minor roles I was doing. If you’re talking about self produced movies, I would say, three.  My first movie production was Arewa Onijogbon, produced in 2010 or thereabout, then I did Corper Jide and now I have Bella that is yet to be released

Resignation: Presidency lambasts Tinubu

ABUJA —THE presidency, yesterday, took a swipe at former Governor of Lagos State and leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, for seeking the resignation of President Goodluck Jonathan.

President Goodluck Jonathan

A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, said it was clear that Tinubu and other leaders in the APC who made the statement were merely seeking to enthrone anarchy in the country.

Senate backs Tambuwal, vows to protect legislature

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal

The Senate abruptly adjourned sitting on Wednesday without taking decision on any issue, including the bills before it.

Before the adjournment which was protested by the All Progressives Congress Senators, its President, David Mark, lamented the withdrawal of the security aides of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and vowed to protect the Legislature.

He said, “We are not to interfere in the internal affairs of each house. However, as the Chairman of the National Assembly, I cannot fold my arms or pretend that all is well about the current crisis.

“I am therefore going to do all I can to resolve the current impasse. Furthermore, the matter is already in a court of law, we cannot therefore discuss the issues here. I want to assure all of you that I will do the needful to protect and defend the legislature at all costs.”

Signs that the Senate might not have a smooth sitting however started when Mark   read the prayers and an announcement by the Senate leader, Sena

N2,000 palaver: Policeman crushes wife, kills baby

Lucky, Dupe and their baby

Like a scene from a horror movie, a police corporal, Lucky Ikharia, on October 30, allegedly used a bus to crush the legs of his wife, Dupe. Having left her for dead, Lucky went home where he allegedly stabbed his baby, David, to death, ripping out the toddler’s intestines.

Still in a rage, the policeman turned the knife on himself in an attempt to take his own life.

however, learnt that Lucky and his wife survived but both were in critical conditions.

We learnt that the incident occurred at the family’s rented apartment in Kale Close, Mafoluku, Oshodi last week.

Our correspondent gathered that four days prior to the incident, 34-year-old Lucky, who hails from Sabon Gida Ora, Edo State, had a quarrel with his wife, Dupe over N2,000, after which he reportedly sent her packing.

The policeman, who is attached to the Makinde Police Division, Oshodi, Lagos had also ‘seized’ their only child from Dupe as a means of ‘punishing’ her.

We learnt that around 8pm on the day of the attack, Dupe, a 30-year-old indigene of Abeokuta, Ogun State

Marrying more than one wife is no big deal — KWAM 1

Veteran Fuji musician, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, popularly known as KWAM 1, has shown times without number that he is a dynamic force to reckon with. Just when people are set to put lid on Fuji music as a dead genre, the king is ever in the horizon to fuse some sort of concoction with his Fuji music to produce something new, yet appealing to both the old and the new generation.

The NEXT big thing on the table of the maestro is the K 1 Live Music concert featuring 2Face, Ali Baba, Olamide and others. In this short chat with Potpourri, KWAM 1 talks about the concert, politics, matrimony, Fuji music and his Collabo with Olamide:

You are always on the road for ONE show or the other; can we say this has been the reason for your inability to produce an album until recently when you came up with ‘State of the Nation’?

The opportunity to travel with my band to many countries has given me the chance to interact with international musicians and also to tap from their experiences. Music is a global phenomenon just like football that brings everyone together. I have performed and attended many world class musical concerts and seminars in NIGERIA and even outside the shores of Africa in a spectacular way but this has not affected me from producing good albums. It has only opened my understanding and I also have to stress that I do not need to produce albums at this level of my music career every year to remain relevant in the NIGERIA and global music industry. I am a brand to reckon with.

Your latest single ‘State of the Nation’ celebrated the Awujale of Ijebu’s 80th birthday; was this because you are from Ijebu Ode in Ogun state or does it have a political undertone?

UPDATE: Tambuwal’s security details withdrawn

 

The Acting Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba, has redeployed the Police personnel attached to the Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu, in a statement on Thursday in Abuja, hinged the withdrawal of Tambuwal’s security aides on Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of NIGERIA as amended.

Statement reads, “In view of the recent defection by the Right Hon.  Aminu Waziri Tanbuwal, CFR, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of NIGERIA, from the People Democratic Party to the All Progressive Congress and having regard to the clear provision of section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, the Nigeria Police Force, has redeployed its personnel attached to his office.”

Ojukwu could not be reached to comment on why the same treatment was not APPLIED to Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, who defected from the Labour Party to the Peoples Democratic Party a few weeks ago.

Lizzy Gold Onuwaje goes hairless, tattooed for movie role

There are many parts to the budding actress, Lizzy Gold Onuwaje, former Delta State beauty queen.

Just when you thought you have got an angle on her, there is always another part of her creeping up. She once declared to Potpourri that she would never marry a poor man or a struggling man. She also declared in the same interview that bank alerts turn her own. What a mean streak, you would want to say, but Lizzy has a heart of gold. Out of her earnings she sponsors some indigent students in the university. Now, how many Nigerians could do that fairly and squarely?

Unlike many of her peers, she doesn’t even have a tattoo. Even one that is being printed on her recently is mainly to pull off an act in her upcoming movie. “ Yeah I got this tattoo for a movie. It would be on my body for three months. It is a semi permanent tattoo” she said.

“It is my first tattoo. I have it to play a role in a movie. The movie is Golden House and I am playing the lead role. I also shaved my hair for the movie

Day everybody wanted to hug Cossy Orjiakor

If not many people would agree that Nollywood diva, Cossy Orjiakor is on top of her game, as an actress and a singer, not many also would disagree that she does cause commotion everywhere she goes.

She is a specimen many wives would not want within a glancing distance of their husbands

My boobs brought me to limelight—— Ronke Ojo

Ronke Ojo Anthony, whom everybody calls Oshodi Oke, due to her natural frontal endowment, is quite heavy. She is big in every ramification .If you want to be witty, naughty, smart or intelligent, Ronke is equal to the task and she is a good actress. The star actress, in this interview reveals intimate secrets about her life, career, marriage and future ambitions.

How did you come about acting?

The readers offer to pay abandoned children’s fees

The children.

Readers of Nigeria’s most widely read newspaper, on Thursday, offered to pay the school fees of the three children that were abandoned by their father, Mr. Segun Adepegba, at Solid Rock Model College in Abule-Iroko of Ogun State for eight years.

This is just as the Ogun State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development also indicated interest in the issue.

Since We exclusively reported the story of the three children, Seun, 14, Titilola 13, and Seyi, 10, several interested persons have indicated interest in helping the children.

On Our website, many readers expressed their sympathy for the children, promising to donate money to pay the accumulated debt of their school fees.

The father of the children, after reading the report, after being incommunicado for about eight

Why I abandoned my kids for eight years – Father

Adepegba, the children

Mr Segun Adepegba, the father of the three children abandoned in a boarding school for eight years in Abule-Iroko in Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, on Wednesday, reached out to US.

Adepegba said hardship pushed him to the wall and that was why he could not take care of his children. He, however, promised to visit them before the end of the week.

The father of three, in a telephone interview with US, recounted his ordeal, saying, “life has been very tough for me.” He said he left the children because he was jobless and had no house to accommodate them.

WE had on Tuesday REPORTED that Adepegba’s children – Seun, 14, Titilola 13, and Seyi, 10, had been abandoned since 2007 at Solid Rock Model College in Abule-Iroko. The children, who had been eager to meet their parents, said the absence of their parents was affecting their studies.

Constitution review: Reps remove immunity for president, govs

Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal

members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday endorsed new amendments to the 1999 Constitution.

A major highlight of the endorsement was the removal of the immunity clause for the President, the Vice President, the governors and their deputies. By implication, occupiers of the offices can be tried for criminal offences while still in office.

A total of 252 lawmakers voted in Abuja to adopt 70 new clauses added to the constitution.

The clauses were compressed into a constitution amendment bill already harmonised by a conference committee of the Senate and the House.

The motion for the adoption of the conference report was moved by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr. Emeka Ihedioha.

Ihedioha doubles as the Chairman of the House Committee on Constitution Review.

Speaker Aminu Tambuwal presided over Wednesday’s session. A total of 261 members were present in the chambers when voting started.