Actress Mercy Aigbe weds husband at Ikoyi Registry

Mercy Aigbe married Lanre Gentry in a traditional wedding a few years ago and they have a 3 year old son. But they decided to make it legal by having a court wedding. It held today at the Ikoyi Registry in Lagos

NIGERIANS WISH KAREN IGHO DEAD!!!

Vanguard Editor Speaks On Iyabo Obasanjo’s Letter! Says We Spoke To Her Severally Today And There Will be An Update Tomorrow

Vanguard Newspaper Editor, Mideno Bayagbon has spoken about the widely circulated Iyabo Obasanjo’s letter to her father, which they exclusively broke this morning. He says, they have spoken to Iyabo Obasanjo severally today and they also have her on record. Here is what he told News Express when he was called on the phone few minutes ago to react to her denial;

“We have contrary information. We have spoken with her several times today and she’s standing by her letter. We have her on record, so it’s not a problem.”

About Iyabo Obasanjo’s denial on a radio programme earlier today, he said;

 “I did not watch or listen to it, so I do not know who appeared on the programme.” He also disclosed that Vanguard has more on the issue, saying: “We are doing an update tomorrow.”

Cossy Orjiakor Set To Open Play Girl Boutique! Says She’s Got Leather G-String For Men Too

LETTER TO HER EX AFTER THE CUT

Nigerian doctors begin 5-day warning strike

Nigerian doctors today began a 5-day warning strike following a 21-day ultimatum issued weeks ago to the federal government, demanding pay rise, improved welfare, infrastructure and other benefits which was promised to them.

The President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr Osahon Enabulele said this is the first phase of the strike, that the second phase would be effective after the yuletide if there are no favorable developments.

All doctors in public hospitals this morning retrieved their services.

37 PDP Lawmakers defect to APC

According to a breaking news report by Channels TV, 37 PDP House of Reps members today Dec 18th defected to All Progressive Congress, APC. The lawmakers say there defection is as a result of the factionalisation and division currently rocking the PDP. There defection they say is in line with Section 68 subsection 1G of the Nigerian Constitution.

Skuki Peeshaun Falls In Love With A South African Dancer Popularly Called Miss Bum Bum

The Skuki brothers were in South Africa to shoot their new musical video where one of them met his new love.  He was caught kissing the girl a lot of people call miss bum bum behind the set of their musical video. They spent about 2 weeks there before returning home and the girl is also planning to come to Nigeria to spend time with Peeshaun. See more pics of her after the cut.

TeeBillz Flaunts Picture Of Hot Sexy Wife, Tiwa On Instagram! Calls It Drunk In Love

Jim Iyke Fights Dirty In Accra Over $10,000

According to The Ghanaian Times Newspaper, Jim Iyke had a brawl yesterday, at the Crave Café at Adjiringanor, East legon in Accra. Jim walked into a café around 5pm and had an open confrontation with another guy who arrived 20mins before Jim in a black Range Rover with a Nigerian plate number. Eyewitnesses couldn’t ascertain, the depth of their fight, but could only hear them, arguing about money and shouting $10,000 repeatedly. When the argument almost got out of hand, some staff at the café got involved and didn’t allow the two adults get physical. But when the matter was still not resolved, Jim went to his car and tried to bring out an object suspected to be a gun, but the guys separating them did not allow him use it.  The other guy zoomed off and came back with two Police men who took Jim away, but few minutes late, Jim resurfaced back to the place, and it’s believed the matter was settled by the policemen that came.

IYABO OBASANJO DENIES WRITING OPEN LETTER TO HER FATHER

We saw this coming, Nigeria is really an interesting country! before we get frenzied up, Iyabo Obasanjo has denied involvement with the letter originally believed to be written by her. Isn’t that something?! According to what she told Rainbow FM; “I have never seen or heard this sort of fabrication in my entire life! I, IYABO OBASANJO never contemplate writing a letter to my Loving Father. I speak with him almost on a daily basis.
“Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo is the best father in the world. He gave birth to me, he raised me up and gave me the best of Education. I wouldn’t have achievde whatever I did without my father. IN FACT, WHO AM I WITHOUT MY FATHER? “As a father he never disappoints his children in any way, he is a father anybody wouldd wish to have,

If President Jonathan wants to reply the letter my father wrote him, he should be man enough to reply directly. Why are they trying to make me a scape goat? 

I know my father very well and I don’t question his judgement, I believe my father wrote his letter in the best interest of the nation. If Mr. President disagrees with some of the allegations in the letter, let him be man enough to talk directly to my father, he should stop involving me in an issue I know nothing about

“How can you write a letter to insult my father and claim I, the daughter is the source. If that is how Ijaw people insult their father, I am a Yoruba Woman, we respect our parents in all circumstances. “I IYABO OBASANJO did not write any letter. Nigerians should please take note.

The purported letter is a malicious lies intended to rubbish the good name of my family, when I get to the source of the letter, I will waste no time to take the necessary legal actions. “I love my father and I never disrespect him.

Iyabo Obasanjo writes father, says: ‘Dear Daddy, you don’t own Nigeria … Calls him liar, manipulator, hypocrite … VanguardNews

LAGOS — In what is turning out to be a season of open letters, daughter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Iyabo, has ruled out further communication with her father till death, describing him as a liar, manipulator, two-faced hypocrite determined to foist on President Goodluck Jonathan what no one would contemplate with him as president.
Senator Iyabo Obasanjo in a letter to her father accused him of having an egoistic craving for power and living a life where only men of low esteem and intellect thrive.

Olusegun Obasanjo and Iyabo Obasanjo
In the 11-page letter dated December 16, 2013 exclusively obtained by Vanguard, Iyabo accused her father of orchestrating a third term for himself as president, cruelty to family members, abandonment of children and grandchildren, and also, a legendary reputation of maltreatment of women.
Iyabo who forswore further political engagements in Nigeria denied any political motive for her missive, and described Nigeria as a country where her father and his ilk have helped to create a situation where smart, capable people bend down to imbeciles to survive. She particularly noted her experience as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health when she led the committee on a retreat appropriated for in the budget only for her to be prosecuted for it.
Iyabo, first child of the former president, started the letter titled, Open Letter to my Father with a 4th century Chinese proverb by Mencius which states: “The great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart.”
Her letter:
“It brings me no joy to have to write this but since you started this trend of open letters I thought I would follow suit since you don’t listen to anyone anyway. The only way to reach you may be to make the public aware of some things. As a child well brought up by my long-suffering mother in Yoruba tradition, I have been reluctant to tell the truth about you but as it seems you still continue to delude yourself about the kind of person you are and I think for posterity’s sake it is time to set the records straight.
“I will return to the issue of my long-suffering mother later in this letter.
“Like most Nigerians, I believe there are very enormous issues currently plaguing the country but I was surely surprised that you will be the one to publish such a treatise. I remember clearly as if it was yesterday the day I came over to Abuja from Abeokuta when I was Commissioner of Health in OgunState, specifically to ask you not to continue to pursue the third term issue.
“I had tried to bring it up when your sycophantic aides were present and they brushed my comments aside and as usual you listened to their self-serving counsel. For you to accuse someone else of what you so obviously practiced yourself tells of your narcissistic megalomaniac personality.  Everyone around for even a few minutes knows that the only thing you respond to is praise and worship of you. People have learnt how to manipulate you by giving you what you crave. The only ones that can’t and will not stroke your ego are family members who you universally treat like shit (sic) apart from the few who have learned to manipulate you like others.
“Before I continue, Nigerians are people who see conspiracy and self-service in everything because I think they believe everyone is like them. This letter is not in support of President Jonathan or APC or any other group or person, but an outpouring from my soul to God. I don’t blame you for the many atrocities you have been able to get away with, Nigerians were your enablers every step of the way. People ultimately get leaders that reflect them.
“Getting back to the story, I made sure your aides were not around and brought up the issue, trying to deliver the presentation of the issue as I had practiced it in my head. I started with the fact that we copied the US constitution which has term limits of two terms for a President. As is your usual manner, you didn’t allow me to finish my thought process and listen to my point of view. Once I broached the subject you sat up and said that the US had no term limits in the past but that it had been introduced in the 1940s after the death of President Roosevelt, which is true.
I wanted to say to you: when you copy something you also copy the modifications based on the learning from the original; only a fool starts from scratch and does not base his decisions on the learning of others. In science, we use the modifications found by others long ago to the most recent, as the basis of new findings; not going back to discover and learn what others have learnt. Human knowledge and development and civilization will not have progressed if each new generation and society did not build on the knowledge of others before them.
The American constitution itself is based on several theories and philosophies of governance available in the 18th century. Democracy itself is a governance method started by the ancient Greeks. America’s founding fathers used it with modifications based on what hadn’t worked well for the ancient Greeks and on new theories since then.
“As usual in our conversations, I kept quiet because I know you well.  You weren’t going to change your mind based on my intervention as you had already made up your mind on the persuasion of the minions working for you who were ripping the country blind. When I spoke to you, your outward attitude to the people of the country was that you were not interested in the third term and that it was others pushing it. Your statement to me that day proved to me that you were the brain behind the third term debacle. It is therefore outrageous that you accuse the current President of a similar two-facedness that you yourself used against the people of the country.
“I was on a plane trip between Abuja and Lagos around the time of the third term issue and I sat next to one of your sycophants on the plane.  He told me: “Only Obasanjo can rule Nigeria”.  I replied: “God has not created a country where only one person can rule. If only one person can rule Nigeria then the whole Nigeria project is not a viable one, as it will be a non-sustainable project”
“I don’t know how you came about Yar’Adua as the candidate for your party as it was not my priority or job. Unlike you, I focus on the issues I have been given responsibility over and not on the jobs of others. It was the day of the PDP Presidential Campaign in Abeokuta during the state-by-state tour of 2007 that Yar’Adua got sick and had to be flown abroad. The MKO Abiola Stadium was already filled with people by 9am when I drove by (and) we had told people based on the campaign schedule that the rally would start at noon.
At 11 am I headed for the stadium on foot; it was a short walk as there were so many cars already parked in and out. As I walked on with two other people, we saw crowds of people leaving the stadium. I recognized some of them as politicians and I asked them why people were leaving. They said  the Presidential candidate had died. I was alarmed and shocked. I walked back home and received a call from a friend in Lagos who said the same and added that he had died in the plane carrying him abroad for treatment and that the plane was on its way to Katsina to bury him.
I called you, and told you the information and that the stadium was already half-empty. You told me to go to the stadium and tell the people on the podium to announce that the Presidential candidate had taken ill that morning but the rest of the team, including you and the Vice-Presidential candidate would arrive shortly.  I did as I was told, but even the people on the podium at first didn’t make the announcement because they thought it was true that Yar’Adua had died. I had to take the microphone and make the announcement myself. It did little good. People kept trooping out of the stadium. Your team didn’t arrive until 4pm and by this time we had just a sprinkling of people left.
That evening after the disaster of a rally, you said you had insisted that the Presidential candidate fly to Germany for a check-up although you said he only had a cold. I asked why would anyone fly to Germany to treat a cold?  And you said “I would rather die than have the man die at this time.”  I thought of this profound statement as things later unfolded against me.  Then I thought it a stupid statement but as usual I kept quiet, little did I know how your machinations for a person would be used against me.  When Yar’Adua eventually died, you stayed alive, I would have expected you to jump into his grave.
I left Nigeria in 1989 right after youth service to study in the US and I visited in 1994 for a week and didn’t visit again until your inauguration in 1999. In between, you had been arrested by Abacha and jailed. We, your children, had no one who stood with us. Stella famously went around collecting money on your behalf but we had no one.  We survived. I was the only one of the children working then as a post-doctoral fellow when I got the call from a friend informing me of your arrest.
A week before your arrest, you had called me from Denmark and I had told you that you should be careful that the government was very offended by some of your statements and actions and may be planning to arrest or kill you as was occurring to many at the time.  The source of my information was my mother who, agitated, had called me, saying I should warn you as this was the rumour in the country. As usual you brushed aside my comments, shouting on the phone that they cannot try anything and you will do and say as you please.  The consequence of your bravado is history.
We, your family, have borne the brunt of your direct cruelty and also suffered the consequences of your stupidity but got none of the benefits of your successes. Of course, anyone around you knows how little respect you have for your children.
You think our existence on earth is about you. By the way, how many are we? 19, 20, 21? Do you even know?  In the last five years, how many of these children have you spoken to? How many grandchildren do you have and when did you last see each of them? As President you would listen to advice of people that never finished high school who would say anything to keep having access to you so as to make money over your children who loved you and genuinely wished you well.
“At your first inauguration in 1999, I and my brothers and sisters told you we were coming from the US. As is usual with you, you made no arrangements for our trip, instead our mom organized to meet each of us and provided accommodation. At the actual swearing-in at Eagle Square, the others decided to watch it on TV. Instead I went to the square and I was pushed and tossed by the crowd.
I managed to get in front of the crowd where I waved and shouted at you as you and General Abdulsalam Abubakar  walked past to go back to the VIP seating area. I saw you mouth ‘my daughter’ to General Abdullahi who was the one who pulled me out of the crowd and gave me a seat. As I looked around I saw Stella and Stella’s family prominently seated but none of your children.  I am sure General Abdullahi would remember this incident and I am eternally grateful to him.
Getting back to my mother, I still remember your beating her up continually when we were kids. What kids can forget that kind of violence against their mother?  Your maltreatment of women is legendary.  Many of your women have come out to denounce you in public but since your madness is also part of the madness of the society, it is the women that are usually ignored and mistreated. Of course, you are the great pretender, making people believe you have a good family life and a good relationship with your children but once in a while your pretence gets cracked.
When Gbenga gave a ride to help someone he didn’t know but saw was in need and the person betrayed his trust by tapping his candid response on the issues going on between you and your then vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, you had your aides go on air and denounce the boy before you even spoke to him to find out what happened.  What kind of father does that? Your atrocities to some of my other siblings I will let them tell in their own due time or never if they choose.

Iyabo Obasanjo and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
Some of the details of our life are public but the people choose to ignore it and pretended we enjoyed some largesse when you were President.
This punishing the innocent is part of Nigeria’s continuing sins against God. While you were military head of state and lived in Dodan Barracks, we stayed either with our mum in the two-bedroom apartment provided for her by General Murtala Mohammed or with your relatives, Bose, Yemisi and your sisters’ kids in the Boys Quarters of Dodan Barracks. At QueensCollege, I remember being too ashamed to tell my wealthy classmates from Queen’s College, Lagos we lived in the two room Boys Quarters or in the two room flat on Lawrence Street.
No, we did not have privileged upbringing but our mother emphasized education and that has been our salvation.  Of my mother’s 6 children 4 have PhDs.  Of the two without PhD, one has a Master’s and the other is an engineer.  They are no slouches.  Education provided a way to make our way in the world.
You are one of those petty people who think the progress and success of another takes from you.  You try to overshadow everyone around you, before you and after you.  You are the prototypical “Mr. Know it all”.  You’ve never said “I don’t know” on any topic, ever.  Of course this means you surround yourself with idiots who will agree with you on anything and need you for financial gain and you need them for your insatiable ego.  This your attitude is a reflection of the country. It is not certain which came first, your attitude seeping into the country’s psyche or the country accepting your irresponsible behavior for so long.
Like you and your minions, it’s a symbiotic relationship. Nigeria has descended into a hellish reality where smart, capable people to “survive” and have their daily bread prostrate to imbeciles.  Everybody trying to pull everybody else down with greed and selfishness — the only traits that gets you anywhere. Money must be had and money and power is king. Even the supposed down-trodden agree with this.
Nigeria accused me of fraud with the Ministry of Health.  As you yourself know, both in Abeokuta and Abuja I lived in your houses as a Senator. In Lagos, I stayed in my mum’s bungalow which she succeeded in getting from you when you abandoned her with six children to live in Abeokuta with Stella.
I borrowed against my four-year Senate salary to build the only house I have anywhere in the world in Lagos. I rent out the house for income.  I don’t have much in terms of money but I am extremely happy. I tried to contribute my part to the development of my country but the country decided it didn’t need me.  Like many educated Nigerians my age, there are countries that actually value people doing their best to contribute to society and as many of them have scattered all over the world so have many of your children.
I can speak for myself and many of them; what they are running away from is that they can’t even contribute effectively at the same time as they have to deal with constant threats to their lives by miscreants the society failed to educate; deal with lack of electricity and air pollution resulting from each household generating its own electricity, and the lack of quality healthcare or education and a total lack of sense of responsibility of almost every person you meet.  Your contribution to this scenario cannot be overestimated.
You and your cronies mentioned in your letter have left the country worse than you met it at your births in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Nigeria is not the creation of any of you, and although you feel you own it and are “Mr Nigeria” deciding whether the country stays together or not, and who rules it; you don’t.  Nigeria is solely the creation of the British. My dear gone Grandmother whose burial you told people not to attend, was not born a Nigerian but a proud Ijebu-Yoruba woman. Togetherness is a choice and it must serve a purpose.
As for Nigerians thinking I have their money, when it was obvious I was part of the Yar’Adua (government’s) anti-Obasanjo phenomenon that was going on at the time. The Ministry of Health and international NGOs paid for a retreat for the Senate Committee on Health.  The House Committee on Health was treated exactly the same way. The monies were given to members as estacode and the rest used for accommodation, flights and feeding.  While the Senate was on the retreat in Ghana, the EFCC asked the House Committee to return the monies they received for their retreat and asked us in the Senate to return ours on our return which I refused, as it was already used for the purpose it was earmarked for in the budget that year which was to work on the National Health Bill.
The House Committee had not gone on their retreat. I did nothing wrong and my colleagues and I on the retreat did our work conscientiously. I asked the EFCC not to drag my colleagues into it and I am proud I suffered alone. As is usual in a society where people who are not progressive but take pleasure in the pain of others, most Nigerians were happy, not looking at the facts of the matter, just the suffering of an Obasanjo.
As the people that stole their millions are hailed by them the innocent is punished. When the court case was thrown out because it lacked merit even against the Minister, no newspaper carried the news. The wrongful malicious prosecution of an Obasanjo was not something they wanted to report; just her downfall.  But it really wasn’t about me, it was about right and wrong in society and every society gets the fruit of the seeds it sows.
How do you think God will provide good leaders to such a people? God helps those who help themselves. I have realized that as an Obasanjo I am not entitled to work in Nigeria in any capacity.  I am not entitled to work in health which is my training, or in any field or anywhere in the country or participate in any business. I have learnt this lesson well and there are societies that actually think capable, well-educated people are important to their society’s progress. Apparently, unless I am eating from the dustbin, Nigerians and possibly you will not be satisfied.  I thank God it has not come to that based on God-given brains and brawn.
When I left Nigeria in 1989 for graduate studies in America, you promised to pay my school fees and no living expenses. This you did and I am grateful for because, working in the kitchen and then the library at University of California, Davis and later, working on the IT desk and later as a Teaching Assistant at Cornell gave me valuable work ethics for life. I wouldn’t have it any other way.  As a black woman in the early 21st century, I have achieved much and done more than most. My wish is that black girls all over the world will have the capacity to create their lives, make mistakes, learn from it and move ahead.
Moving back to Nigeria, thinking I wanted to serve was obviously a grave mistake but one brought about by the tragic incident of April 20, 2003. This was the day five people were shot dead in my car.  The mother of the children was an acquaintance I had met only one day before the incident.
We had attended the same high school and university but she was there ten years earlier than I. She had also studied public health in the UK as I had in the US. It was these coincidences that made us connect on our first meeting and then she decided to visit on the Saturday of the election of 2003 when the incident occurred. I am scarred for life by that incident and I know the mother was too as we both looked back to see two men on each side of my car shooting.
I understand her trauma and her behaviour since then can be judged from that. Nigeria is a nasty place that pushes people to lose their compass. I participated in the campaigns leading to the elections that day, more because this was my first experience of electoral process in Nigeria. Growing up there were no elections and I was too young in the 1979 and 1983 elections. It was interesting to see democracy at work.  When Gbenga Daniel who I campaigned for offered me a job, I probably would have declined it, if not for the memory of the dead.
I felt I had to engage in making the country progress and to avoid such incidences in the future.  I don’t need to tell you or anyone what kind of governor and person Gbenga Daniel is. As usual when I found out, you would not listen to my opinion but found out for yourself. I also campaigned for Amosun for the Senate in 2003. I have had some wonderful Nigerians do good to me, I will never forget the then Minister of Women Affairs, who saw me talking in the crowd at a campaign event and was alarmed and said “bad things can happen to you out there, I will give you one of the orderlies assigned to my office to follow you”.  This was the police man that died in my car that day.  I never really thought bad things would happen to me, I moved around freely in society until that shooting scarred me and I accepted a police detail.  I was constantly scared for my life after that.
You called me after your vengeful letter as usual, looking out for yourself and thinking you will bribe me by saying the APC will use me for the Senate. Do you really know me and what I want out of life?
Anyone that knows me knows I am done with anything political or otherwise in Nigeria.  I have so much to do and think to make this world a better place than to waste it on fighting with idiots over a political post that does no good to society.  That letter you wrote to the President, would you have tolerated such a letter as a sitting President?  Don’t do to others what you will not allow to be done to you. The only thing I was using that was yours was the house in Abuja where I left my things when I left the country. I eventually rented it out so that the place would not fall apart but as usual you want to take that as well. You can’t have it without explaining to Nigerians how you came about the house?
As I said earlier, this is not about politics but my frustration with you as a father and a human being.  I am not involved with what is currently going on in Nigeria, I don’t talk to any Nigerian other than friends on social basis.  I am not involved with any political groups or affiliation.  You mentioned Governor Osoba when you spoke to me, yes I was walking down the street of Cambridge, Massachussets a few months ago, when I looked up and saw him reading a map trying to cross the street.
I greeted him warmly and offered to give him a ride to where he was going.  This I did not do because I wanted anything from him politically but because that is how I was raised by my mother to treat an adult who I really had no ill-will towards. Some said he was part of the people that manipulated the elections for me to lose in 2011. I don’t have any ill-will to him for that because I think they did me a favour and someone has to win and lose.
I had told you I wasn’t going to run in 2011 but you manipulated me to run; that was my mistake.  Losing was a blessing.  As usual you wanted me to run for your self-serving purpose to perpetuate your name in the political realm and as the liar that you are, you later denied that it was you who wanted me to run in 2011.
In 2003 I ran because I wanted to and I thought getting to the central government I will be able to contribute more to improving lives and working on legislation that impacts the country. I found that nothing gets done; every public official in Nigeria is working for himself and no one really is serving the public or the country.
The whole system, including the public themselves want oppressors, not people working for their collective progress. When no one is planning the future of a country, such a country can have no future.   I won’t be your legacy, let your legacy be Nigeria in the fractured state you created because, it was always your way or the highway.
This is the end of my communication with you for life. I pray Nigeria survives your continual intervention in its affairs.
Sincerely,
Iyabo Obasanjo, DVM, PhD
Massachusetts,
USA.

R. Kelly responds to Village Voice story about past sexual assault allegations

R.Kelly has responded to the Village Voice shocking article about his history of alleged sexual abuse of teenage girls which centered around an interview with Chicago Sun-Times music journalist, Jim DeRogatis, who broke the story 15 years ago.

During an interview with Atlanta’s V-103, R.Kelly said this about the integrity of the article;

“Well I feel like I got the football man, and I’m running towards the touchdown and if I stop and look back or mess around, I’ll get tackled. When you get on top of anything, it’s very windy, It’s about holding your balance once you get up there…Spiritually, I’m a climber.”

Beyonce breaks iTune record, releases two new music videos

Beyonce broke iTunes record for most albums sold in the first week of release after selling 828,773 copies of her self titled 5th studio album 'Beyonce' in just three days.

She celebrated the milestone by releasing two full videos, XO and Drunk in Love.

BBA Angelo and girlfriend Candy Arends still going strong...

Angelo and his South African model girlfriend Candy Arends have been sending love messages and sharing pics of their outings together on Twitter...

Dilly Motors CEO, Prince Okwudili Acquires 1953 Mercedes Benz Automobile

The Ceo of Dilly Motors, Prince Okwudili really loves to be different. The handsome dude recently acquired a 1953 Mercedes Benz automobile. He was spotted with the car when he stepped out for a function with historic as its plate number. He is also believed to have the most expensive mansion in Nigeria.

Mide Martins Denies Marriage Breakup Tales…Says I’m Still With My Husband

A lot of people have reported that Mide Martins and her husband, Afeez are no longer together, but shockingly, in this new interview with Encomium magazine, Mide says it is not true, and she does not know how the rumour started. In fact she said, she will soon be having a press conference so she could address the rumour properly. Her words below;

My marriage is not troubled at all. I am living perfectly with my husband and kids. I don’t know what this craziness is all about. I don’t know who initiated the story. I have received thousands of calls and messages asking me what is wrong with your marriage, what is going on between you and your husband? We heard this, we heard that. At first I did not take it serious but now I am addressing the issue seriously. I am going to grant a press interview because this is a very critical issue. We are not separated at all. They just mere lies and fabrications, nobody called us to confirm all these rumours before publishing it in their papers. That is highly unfair, it is image tarnishing, it is bad. At least we are all one because we are in the same entertainment world. It shouldn’t be like that. We still work and do everything together.

The Amazing Transformation Of Nasara Kittoe

Nasara Kittoe contested in the Most Beautiful Girl in Ghana 2009 and became very famous afterwards. She has been accused of bleaching lately and was recently on tv where she boasted and openly said, she bleaches, so what? Nasara is married with two kids. Check out more amazing transformation pics below.

Kollington Ayinla Talks About His unending spiritual sickness+ why he put part of his house on sale

The Fuji Icon in this new interview with Encomium weekly, narrated how he fell sick many times, and how he is trying to survive after his illness. He also explains why part of his Alagbado mansion has been put on sale.

A couple of months back, it was reported that you’re seriously ill. They even said it was a strange ailment and that you’re hospitalized in a private hospital and all that. What’s the truth about the whole thing?

What happened was that most of your people don’t do their investigations very well before writing their stories. I felt hospital a long time before they reported that I was sick. They even said a governor’s wife visited me at the hospital and when she was leaving her car killed somebody along Lagos Abeokuta Expressway and many other things that are not true.
I had left the hospital for about two months back. Even the day the story was not, I was in Osogbo, Osun State performing at an event alongside Musiliu Haruna Ishola. The effect of this, is that if anybody wanted to invite such an artiste for a show, they would consider meticulously because they may also believe the person was truly sick. That’s unfair.

But were you not truly sick then?

Nobody is above sickness. And the body also needs rest. Anybody can fall sick at anytime, including the doctors taking care of the sick. So, what are we saying? I was sick but I was already out of the hospital, going about my normal duties as a musician before they reported that I was not feeling fine. Do I look sick? Definitely, no.

What was the nature of the sickness?

I had ulcer and typhoid.

How many days did you spend in the hospital?
I spent up to two weeks

Which hospital was that?
That’s Hamkad Hospital, Abule Egba, Lagos.
 
Who were the people that came to your aid?

A lot of people. I am using this medium to say a big thank you to them all. But I must specially thank Governor  Babatunde Raji Fashola for his support. He was the first person Wasiu Ayinde (K1 de Ultimate) rushed to and informed him of my health situation. And immediately, the governor responded very well. K1 also called on Governor Rauf Aregbesola in Osun State. Immediately the governor was told about my condition, he quickly sent money to me. I really appreciate what Governor Fashola and his counterpart in Osun, Aregbesola did for me. May God continue to be with them. And equally, K1 de Ultimate really tried for me. If not for his effort, these two governors wouldn’t have known anything. He called and told them I must not die. They should do everything within their means to rescue me, and they surprised me. I pray God will be with Wasiu Ayinde as well in all his endeavour.

But we learnt it was a strange ailment and not all that medical…

(Cuts in )Yes, it’s a strange ailment. It’s spiritual. That’s the best way of describing it. But I thank God I am still alive. My health condition then was worsened by the poor economic situation of Nigeria, nothing is working. Everything is paralysed.  I kept thinking to the extent that I wanted to sell my property. If the government had not turned everything upside down, people like myself are not supposed to be suffering like this. And the irony is that most of these people in government were not that bad before coming to power. It’s only after getting there that they turned otherwise. We pray that they change and remember the day of accountability. At times, I wonder if this wasn’t  the same Nigeria. Even when Babangida was there, things were very much better. I released a lot of albums to inform Nigerians about the happenings in the country and even beyond. In an ideal society, the government owes people like us a great responsibility.

It was reported days back that you have put this mansion for sale, how true is it?

It’s true. When you don’t have money, you use whatever you have to get what you want. I don’t have money, and I need money. I can’t just be looking at the building, I can’t eat it. I need to convert it to money. But not the whole property that I want to sell. It’s just this uncompleted structure directly opposite us (show reporter the building). I need to make that clarification so that people out there won’t be misinformed. I am only selling part and not all the property here. This is where I live.


How long have you been working on the house before you decided to sell it?

I have been building if for about 14years. Had it been I am financially okay, I should have finished it. I am tired of falling sick all the time. Let me sell my property and have money to do other things. I also want government to assist me, I don’t want to be suffering in silence.

So, you’re still interested in selling it?

It’s worth N80 million now
 
What do you intend to do with the money?

I will use part of the money to build another small bungalow within this compound. I will demarcate the place. Also, I will invest the rest of the money in a business that will be generating more money for me. If you can recall, in 1984, I established Kollington Fish Depot, at Adura Bus Stop, Lagos Abeokuta Expressway, Lagos. Everything was okay then but later I took ill. It was so bad that I had to sell the depot to take care of health then. May God save us from domestic antagonism.

Let’s agree that your sickness has been spiritual all this while, what have you been doing to address it?

I put everything in the Hands of God. Also, I don’t relent because if you’re being chased by a masquerade, you keep running. That’s why I am crying out loud and clear so that whoever God has sent to me can help me. I can’t continue to be hiding my broken hand.

 Did you inform your children of the decision to sell the property?


Yes, they are aware of my decision but there is nothing they can do about it. Most of them are in United States of America. They are all in school. It’s after their education that they can start working. They all supported that I should sell it and spend money on whatever I like. There is problem all over. It’s because I voiced out, that’s why you have the privilege of knowing all these. A lot of people face tougher times than I do but they don’t want their situation known to the public. As for me, I can’t be suffering and smiling at the same time. Whatever people like, let them say.

D’banj delves Into farming + set to celebrate 10years in the entertainment industry come 2014

 Dapo Oyebanjo popularly known as D’banj is gearing to celebrate his 10th year in the Nigerian Entertainment Industry in year 2014. The world has watched D’banj grow in his career and it is no doubt that in 2014, the biggest celebrations and the biggest projects will stem out of DMK Media.

In the past years, the musician, songwriter, actor and businessman has received many accolades and has accomplished a lot to shake the entire entertainment industry, open doors and give our industry a face. Continue to read the press statement below.

Here are some to name a few:

Dbanj is known to have found and signed everybody that belonged to the one time popular record label ‘Mo Hits Records’ consisting of major artists such as Wande Coal, Dr. Sid, Prince, K-Switch etc.

In 2004, he won the KORA Awards “Most Promising Act”, his first major award since the start of his career.

In 2007 Dbanj was appointed as the United Nations Youth Ambassador for Peace. He led a strong rally in Portharcourt to promote peace at a time in which there was unrest in Rivers State. After the Rally and meeting with then Governor of Rivers State, the curfew, which had been in place, was removed.

 In this same year (2007), Dbanj won ‘Africa Artist of the Year’ MTV Europe Music Awards. He also won this same award in 2011 and in-between that won Best Male Artist in 2008 and 2009 at the MTV Africa Awards.
In 2008 D'banj became the first Music Ambassador to be signed to GLOBACOM; making GLOBACOM the first Telco to endorse Nigerian Artists.

He went on to become the first Nigerian Artists to do an International collaboration that was officially released, giving the Nigerian Entertainment Industry major recognition with international talent and brand (“Mr. Endowed,” featuring Snoop).

In 2011, he went on to win the Best International Act BET Awards, a major accomplishment for D’banj.

In 2012 Dbanj hit yet another milestone with the hit song “Oliver Twist” recorded and released in Nigeria with over 23 million views on VEVO. Oliver Twist topped the African Charts and was a top 10 hit in the UK singles chart in 2012 reaching #2 on the UK R&B chart.

The year 2013 has been a strong year for the Superstar. In May, he was appointed as a Creative ambassador for the Bank of Industry. He performed at the Mandela Charity Event in South Africa, Hit track “Top Of The World” became the theme song for the Africa Cup of Nation, which was eventually won by the Nigerian Super Eagles.  Dbanj also performed at the Africa Cup of National Finale in front of 92,000 people and 6 Billion Viewers World Wide.

Clearly, this is a man on the rise!

Bowing out of 2013 gracefully, Dbanj has released a track with Burna Boy and recorded the official Soundtrack of award winning novel “Half of a Yellow Sun”, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie due to be released before the end of the year.

With a lot to expect from Dbanj in 2014, Dbanj continues to remain a strong force in his industry, continually motivating and contributing to our ever-growing Music Industry.

In January 2014, Dbanj will attend the African Union Summit in Ethiopia where he will be signing a treaty that will encourage small-scale farmers.  Dbanj will also unveil his project and partnership with the African Union and Musician and Activist ‘BONO’ through One Organization, to champion the Agriculture Industry in Africa for 2014.

Stay tuned for Events, Performances, Technology, Agricultural Projects and more Music from Dbanj

...

2face Idibia wades into BON/IBAN artist ban

Radio stations are still not playing songs of all the COSON registered artists banned by BON and IBAN. See more tweets after the cut...

Photo of the day: Reuban Abati back in the days

LEARN FROM THIS:Do not despise the days of humble beginnings.He went on to become the chairman of the editorial board of the Guardian newspaper from 2001 to 2011, then currently the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Jonathan

Maheeda releases more raunchy Christmas photos. 18+

Read the 'stomach churning' sex crime accusations against R. Kelly in full

Former Chicago Sun Times music reporter Jim DeRogatis, who broke the story of R-Kelly's sexual predation on teenage girls 15 years ago, has gone into great detail about some of the allegations, which the R&B legend never went to prison for. What you're about to read will shock you. R.Kelly didn't only marry a teenager, Aaliyah, he dated and impregnated many of them...

Jim DeRogatis tells The Village Voice
The accusations were stomach churning. The one young woman, who had been 14 or 15 when R. Kelly began a relationship with her, detailed in great length, in her affidavits, a sexual relationship that began at Kenwood Academy: He would go back in the early years of his success and go to Lina McLin's gospel choir class. She's a legend in Chicago, gospel royalty. He would go to her sophomore class and hook up with girls afterward and have sex with them. Sometimes buy them a pair of sneakers. Sometimes just letting them hang out in his presence in the recording studio. She detailed the sexual relationship that she was scarred by. It lasted about one and a half to two years, and then he dumped her and she slit her wrists, tried to kill herself. Other girls were involved. She recruited other girls. He picked up other girls and made them all have sex together. A level of specificity that was pretty disgusting.

Refresh our memories. How did this start for you?
Being a beat reporter, music critic at a Chicago daily, the Sun-Times, R. Kelly was a huge story for me, this guy who rose from not graduating from Kenwood Academy, singing at backyard barbecues and on the El, to suddenly selling millions of records. I interviewed him a number of times. Then TP2.com came out. I'd written a review that said the jarring thing about Kelly is that one moment he wants to be riding you and then next minute he's on his knees, crying and praying to his dead mother in Heaven for forgiveness for his unnamed sins. It's a little weird at times. It's just an observation.

The next day at the Sun-Times, we got this anonymous fax -- we didn't know where it came from. It said: R. Kelly's been under investigation for two years by the sex-crimes unit of the Chicago police. And I threw it on the corner of my desk. I thought, "player-hater." Now, from the beginning, there were rumors that Kelly likes them young. And there'd been this Aaliyah thing -- Vibe printed, without much commentary and no reporting, the marriage certificate. Kelly or someone had falsified her age as 18. There was that. So all this is floating in the air. This fax arrives and I think, "Oh, this is somebody playing with this." But there was something that nagged at me as a reporter. There were specific names, specific dates, and those great, long Polish cop names. And you're not going to make that crap up. So I went to the city desk and I asked, "What do we do with this?" They said, Abdon Pallasch is the courts reporter, why don't you two look into it and see if there's anything there? And it turns out there had been lawsuits that had been filed that had never been reported.

When you cover the courts in Chicago or any city, you go twice a day and you go through the bin of cases that have been filed and every once in a while Michael Jordan's been sued or someone went bankrupt and it's this sexy story and you pull it out. These suits had been filed at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Ain't no reporter working at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and they flew under the radar. So we had these lawsuits that were explosive and we didn't understand why nobody had reported them.


So her affidavit, this testimony -- it's all public record?
To this day, any reporter who so cares can go to Cook County and pull these records, so it drives me crazy, even with some of the eloquent reconsiderations we've seen of Kelly in recent days, that they keep saying "rumors" and "allegations". Well, "allegations" is fair, OK. You're protected as a reporter, any lawsuit that has been filed as fact. The contents of the lawsuit are protected. So these were not rumors. These were allegations made in court.


I had purposely not listened to his music since the initial charges came out and I saw these ninth- and 10th-grade girls interviewed on TV, talking about how he was in the parking lot of their school every day and everyone knew how come. That is what it took for me.

Part of our reporting was sitting with those girls, sitting with their families, seeing their scars on their wrists, hearing the emotion
Some of our young critical peers, they're 24 and all they know of Kelly's past is some vague sense of scandal, because they were introduced to him as kids via Space Jam. A lot of your reporting on this is not online, it is not Google-able. Collective memory is that he "just" peed in a girl's mouth.

To be fair, I teach 20-year-olds at Columbia. Ignorance is nothing to be ashamed of. Nobody knows everything. A lot of art, great art, is made by despicable people. James Brown beat his wife. People are always, "Why aren't you upset about Led Zeppelin?" I got the Bonham three rings [tattooed] on my foot. Led Zeppelin did disgusting things. I read Hammer of the Gods, I'm disgusted by the group sex with the shark. [Note: it was actually a red snapper! Still gross.] I have a couple of responses to that: I didn't cover Led Zeppelin. If I was on the plane, like Cameron Crowe was, I would have written about those things if I saw them.

The art very rarely talks about these things. There are not pro-rape Led Zeppelin songs. There are not pro-wife-beating James Brown songs. I think in the history of rock 'n' roll, rock music, or pop culture people misbehaving and behaving badly sexually with young women, rare is the amount of evidence compiled against anyone apart from R. Kelly. Dozens of girls -- not one, not two, dozens -- with harrowing lawsuits. The videotapes -- and not just one videotape, numerous videotapes. And not Tommy Lee/Pam Anderson, Kardashian fun video. You watch the video for which he was indicted and there is the disembodied look of the rape victim. He orders her to call him Daddy. He urinates in her mouth and instructs her at great length on how to position herself to receive his "gift." It's a rape that you're watching. So we're not talking about rock-star misbehavior, which men or women can do. We're talking about predatory behavior. Their lives were ruined. Read the lawsuits!

And there was a young woman who was pressured into an abortion?

That he paid for. There was a young woman that he picked up on the evening of her prom. The relationship lasted a year and a half or two years. Impregnated her, paid for her abortion, had his goons drive her. None of which she wanted. She sued him. The saddest fact I've learned is: Nobody matters less to our society than young black women. Nobody. They have any complaint about the way they are treated: they are "bitches, hos, and gold diggers," plain and simple. Kelly never misbehaved with a single white girl who sued him or that we know of. Mark Anthony Neal, the African-American scholar, makes this point : one white girl in Winnetka and the story would have been different.

No, it was young black girls and all of them settled. They settled because they felt they could get no justice whatsoever. They didn't have a chance.

And they learned that after putting these suits forth and having them get nowhere? Do you think they didn't get traction because of the representation they had, or Kelly's power? Were certain elements in concert with that?

I think it was a lot of things, including the fact that Kelly was fully capable of intimidating people. These girls feared for their lives. They feared for the safety of their family. And these people talked to me not because I'm super reporter -- we rang a lot of doorbells on the south and west sides, and people were eager to talk about this guy, because they wanted him to stop!

Going back a little bit to our original question. So, you get this tape dropped in the mail...

Well, the tape came a year after we ran the first story. We ran this story and the world shrugged. Associated Press picks it up: "Chicago Sun-Times has reported a pattern of sexual predation of young women by Robert Kelly," and everybody says, "Ah, well, OK." Then one day I get this call that says: Go to your mailbox. There's this manila envelope with a videotape in it.

We had gotten one videotape already after the first story, and we gave it to the police. When I say "we," I mean a roomful of editors sitting around asking: What is the right thing to do here? This would seem to be evidence of a felony, we should give it to police. There was one tape, but the police could not determine the girl's age. The forensic experts they had looking at it said judging by the soles of her feet, they could tell she was 13 or 14 at the time this tape was made, but we can't identify who the woman is. Videotape number one.

There were tapes on the street. And I had heard of another video tape with a girl who was part of an ongoing relationship. This is the girl who was in the tape that was in the lawsuit.

And some 40-odd people testified that it was her?

 Yeah. Coaches, best friend's parents, pastor, half the family, grandmother, aunt -- but the mother and father never testified, the girl never testified. When we wrote our story about the tape, the girl and mother and father took a six-month vacation to the south of France. We'd been to the house several times. We'd rung the doorbell. This was an aluminum-siding, lower-middle-class house on the South Side, with a station wagon which is 13 years old -- you know what I mean? And now they're in the south of France. And one time the dad got a credit as a bass player on an R. Kelly album. He didn't play bass.

The situations are incredibly complicated, and sometimes there is an element of: We're gonna exploit this situation for our favor. That doesn't mean that it's legal or it's right or that girl wasn't harmed. It tore that family apart.

How many people do you think you've interviewed? How many people came forward?

I think in the end there were two dozen women with various level of details. Obviously the women who were part of the hundreds of pages of lawsuits -- hell of a lot of details. There were girls who just told one simple story, and there were a lot of girls who told stories that lasted hours which still make me sick to my stomach. It never was one girl on one tape. Or one girl and Aaliyah.

The other thing, the thing that people seem to not know: She was fresh out of eighth grade in this tape.

Fourteen or fifteen. That puts a perspective on it. She's not sophisticated enough to know what her kinks are.

Let's talk about what it is, aside from not just having reportorial chops, that might hold somebody back. I feel that a lot of younger journalists came up through blogs, not journalism school. They are fearful to write about it because they don't know what they can say, what language they can use, if they can be sued for even acknowledging charges. 

You may not know how to report, but you should know how to read. The Sun-Times was never sued for the hundreds of thousands of words that it wrote about R. Kelly. You cannot be sued for repeating anything that is in a lawsuit. You cannot be sued for repeating anything that was said during the six- or seven-week trial. It's in his record, and then there's Kelly's own words. Then read [Kelly's biography] Soulacoaster. It was not a pleasant experience for me to read Soulacoaster! But read it, and read what he says in his own book! Do your goddamn homework!

What are the other factors?

Here's the most sinister. This deeply troubles me: There's a very -- I don't know what the percentage is -- some percentage of fans are liking Kelly's music because they know. And that's really troublesome to me. There is some sort of -- and this is tied up to complicated questions of racism and sexism -- there is some sort of vicarious thrill to seeing this guy play this character in these songs and knowing that it's not just a character!

Songs like "Sexasaurus" kind of makes it novel. The ironic, jokey Trapped in the Closet series airs on the Independent Film Channel and features Will Oldham -- that has these other hallmarks of "art" that read to a white, hipster, indie-rock audience, then, because we are not taking certain things seriously, we can choose not to take the lives of these young black women seriously. 

It puts it in the realm of camp or kitsch. If you have an emotional reaction to a work of art and you use all your skills as a critic to back it up with evidence and context. That's all we can ask of anybody. We're all viewing art differently. The joy is in the conversation. Pitchfork is the premier critical organ in the United States for smart discussion of music, books, and artists, but it doesn't have this discussion. Reviews his records but doesn't have the conversation about, "What does it say for us to like his music?"

I think, again, everybody has to individually answer. I can still listen to Led Zeppelin and take joy in Led Zeppelin or James Brown. I condemn the things they did. I'm not reminded constantly in the art, because the art is not about it. But if you're listening to "I want to marry you, pussy," and not realizing that he said that to Aaliyah, who was 14, and making an album he named Age Ain't Nothing but a Number -- I had Aaliyah's mother cry on my shoulder and say her daughter's life was ruined, Aaliyah's life was never the same after that. That's not an experience you've had. I'm not expecting you to feel the same way I do. But you can look at this body of evidence. You, meaning everybody who cares!

You told me about the night after your critical review of R. Kelly's performance at Pitchfork ran, one of these women called you at 2 a.m.

This happens a lot. If you are a good reporter, you are accessible to people and you cannot turn a story off. And that sucks! The number of times since I began this R. Kelly story that I was called in the middle of the night, was talking to someone on Christmas Eve or on New Year's Day or Thanksgiving.... Yeah, I got a call from one of the women after the Pitchfork festival review. "I know we haven't spoken in a long time...," and said thank you for still caring and thank you for writing this story, because nobody gives a shit.

It was a horrible day and a horrible couple of weeks when he was acquitted. The women I heard from who I'd interviewed, women I'd never interviewed who said, "I didn't come forward, I never spoke to you before, I wish I had now that son of a bitch got off." Jesus Christ. Rape-victim advocates -- I don't believe in God -- they do God's work. These young women who volunteer to be in the emergency room and sit with a woman throughout the horrible process, I don't do that. I'm not saying I'm even in the same universe. But somebody calls you up and says, I want to talk about this or thank you about writing this, or, "I can't sleep because I'm haunted, can you hear what I want to tell you?" We do that as a human being. I would like to forget about this story. I'm not saying I'm Super Reporter. I'm saying this was a huge story. Where was everybody else?

There is a disregard for your ongoing concern about this. "Let this go, Jim. Get over it, Jim. He was acquitted." You have never dropped this, and your peers are pissed because it puts the rest of us over a barrel. I can speak to this, too. It's often uncool to be the person who gives a shit.

"You're jealous of R. Kelly, you're trying to make your name off his career."

Because you would love nothing more than to have to report and carry these stories of rape.

Rapes, plural. It is on record. Rapes in the dozen. So stop hedging your words and when you tell me what a brilliant ode to pussy Black Panties is, then realize that the next sentence should say: "This, from a man who has committed numerous rapes." The guy was a monster! Just say it! We do have a justice system and he was acquitted. OK, fine. And these other women took the civil-lawsuit route. He was tried on very narrow grounds. He was tried on a 29-minute, 36-second videotape. He was tried on trading child pornography. He was not tried for rape. He was acquitted of making child pornography. He's never been tried in court for rape, but look at the statistics. The numbers of rapes that happened, the numbers of rapes that were reported, the numbers of rapes that make it to court and then the conviction rate. I mean, it comes down to something minuscule. He's never had his day in court as a rapist. It's 15 years in the past now, but this record exists. You have to make a choice, as a listener, if music matters to you as more than mere entertainment. And you and I have spent our entire lives with that conviction. This is not just entertainment, this is our lifeblood. This matters.

Fake South African sign language interpreter helped burn men to death in 2003

Details have emerged about the violent crime charges that Thamsanqa Jantjie, the fake sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela's funeral sevice faced a decade ago.

From NYPost.com
The bogus sign language interpreter at last week’s Nelson Mandela memorial service was among a group of people who accosted two men found with a stolen television and burned them to death by setting fire to tires placed around their necks, one of the interpreter’s cousins and three of his friends told The Associated Press Monday.
But Thamsanqa Jantjie never went to trial for the 2003 killings when other suspects did in 2006 because authorities determined he was not mentally fit to stand trial, said the four. They insisted on speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the fake signing fiasco, which has deeply embarrassed South Africa’s government and prompted a high-level investigation into how it happened.
Their account of the killings matched a description of the crime and the outcome for Jantjie that he himself described in an interview published on Sunday by the Sunday Times newspaper of Johannesburg.

“It was a community thing, what you call mob justice, and I was also there,” Jantjie told the newspaper.
Jantjie was not at his house Monday, and the cousin told AP Jantjie had been picked up by someone in a car Sunday and had not returned. His cellphone rang through to an automatic message saying Jantjie was not reachable.

Instead of standing trial, Jantjie was institutionalized for a period of longer than a year, the four said, and then returned to live in his poor township neighborhood on the outskirts of Soweto. At some point after that, they said, he started getting jobs doing sign language interpretation at events for the governing African National Congress Party.

Jantjie told the AP last week he has schizophrenia and hallucinated, seeing angels while gesturing incoherently just 3 feet away from President Barack Obama and other world leaders during the Tuesday ceremony at a Soweto stadium. Signing experts said his arm and hand movements were mere gibberish.

In the interview last Thursday, Jantjie said he had been violent in the past “a lot” but declined to provide more details and blamed his violence on his schizophrenia, for which he said he was institutionalized for 19 months in a period that included time during 2006. The cousin and the three friends said the “necklacing” killing of the suspected thieves occurred within a few hundred meters (yards) from Jantjie’s tidy concrete home near ramshackle dwellings.

The four spoke to the AP on Monday in Jantjie’s neighborhood, and one of the friends described himself as Jantjie’s best friend.

Necklacing was a method of killing that was fairly common during the struggle against apartheid by blacks on blacks suspected of aiding the white government or belonging to opposing factions. The method was also used in tribal disputes in the 1980s and 1990s. While people who encounter suspect thieves in South Africa have been known to beat or kill them to mete out punishment, necklacing them has been rare.

An investigation is under way by South African officials to determine who hired Jantjie as the onstage interpreter at the Mandela memorial service and if and how he received security clearance. The officials have not said how long their investigation will take place, and reaching them for updates was difficult Monday, a public holiday in South Africa.

Four government departments involved in organizing the historic memorial service have distanced themselves from the hiring of Jantjie, telling the AP they had no contact with him. A fifth government agency, the Department of Public Works, declined to comment and referred all inquiries about Jantjie to the office of South Africa’s top government spokeswoman, who has only said a “comprehensive report” will eventually be released.

Jantjie told the AP he was hired for the event by an interpretation company that has used him on a freelance basis for years, but government officials have said the owners of the company have disappeared. The address that Jantjie provided for the company was occupied by a different company that is not involved in interpreting for the deaf.

The AP was unable to verify the existence of the school where Jantjie said he studied signing for a year. An online search for the school, which Jantjie said was called Komani and located in Eastern Cape Province, turned up nothing. Advocates for the deaf said they have never heard of the school and said there are no known sign language institutes in the province.

The Star newspaper of Johannesburg reported Friday that Jantjie said he studied sign language interpretation in Britain at the “University of Tecturers.” A British charity that awards qualifications for deaf and deaf-blind communications techniques said it had never heard of the university

Veteran Nollywood actor Olumide Bakare down with heart disease

Sad news. Veteran Nollywood actor Olumide Bakare is down with a heart disease. The 60 year old actor has been absent from the movie scene for quite a while now because his condition has become critical according to family sources. He even had to relocate to his home town of Ibadan in Oyo State a few weeks ago to continue his treatment.

Some of his colleagues are not even aware of his current health situation.

Maheeda releases Christmas photos

Dino Melaye is happy to be rid of his wife of 10 years & mother of his 3 children

The wife of the former Kogi State House of Reps member, Tokunbo Melaye filed for divorce a few weeks back citing emotional/physical abuse, and cheating. There are also reports that he threatened his wife with a gun.

He took to Twitter yesterday to express his 'profound happiness' over the end of his 10 year marriage.

You will recall that actress Bisi Ibidapo-Obe said the daughter she had last year is a product of a short lived affair with Dino Melaye who was married at the time...

Seun Kuti shares a photo of himself with new-born daughter

"I don't ask ladies out, they ask me out" - Omobaba Comedian