Current Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode has expressed gratitute to God and his wife, the First lady of Lagos State, Mrs. Bolanle Patience Ambode for the indispensable role she has played in his life.

Speaking to City People, the governor said:

“God gave me the grace. God gave me the blessing, endowed me with a prayer warrior in the person of my wife.”

“My wife has just been a complimentary blessing. People know me. I am too carefree but I have a companion that is strong. Like they say that couples complement each other, that is one thing I cherish, all and my life.”

“Sometimes, you meet people along the way and they become energy for you. They give you the right aura, and mine has not been different. I thank God. That is what has made me who I am.”

The couple who met about 26 years ago got married in 1991.

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State today, overwhelmed audience at the flag off of the Local Government Election campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu North L.G.A with tears of joy, when he spotted from the podium, a physically challenged woman who was struggling to have a glimpse of him and invited her to the stage.

The governor asked the mother of one, Grace Okoye, from Abia State resident in Enugu, what she wanted him to do for her.

Responding, she first appreciated Gov. Ugwuanyi for taking notice of her presence in the midst of the mammoth crowd at the event, narrating with emotions how she has been struggling to survive and take care of her baby girl through the sale of sachet water, and pleaded with him to assist her start a new life.

At the peak of her narration, tears, uncontrollable tears, started pouring out from the eyes of many, as Gov. Ugwuanyi announced a personal donation of N1million and also promised to open a business for her, saying: “This is not politics. If you are educated we will give you employment but if you are not, an appropriate business will be opened for you”.

The Chancellor of Landmark University and Covenant Universities, Dr David Oyedepo has revealed how his adopted son, children of governors and a relation to a Nigerian President were rusticated from the school at different periods for failing to keep to the laid down standards.

The Chancellor, who doubles as the founder and general overseer of the Living Faith Church, said that the core values of the school were drawn from the background of the need to raise changed people who will change their world.

According to him, there was zero attention to character when the school first started and needed to create a platform that helps enhance the character aspect of learning and it is showing today.

“I must say this; Governors have come to pick their children from our campus. The daughter of our first Vice-Chancellor was rusticated from the University for one year, my adopted son was thrown out for one year at Covenant, so there is no white cow in the system and that makes everybody shake and fear.

“If I must mention it, one of our former Presidents had a relation that had a son rusticated and called me, I said I am sorry, I do not get involved, please talk to the Vice-Chancellor.

“He said can I have his number, I said no and we are still friends. Because the moment you make rules and you abide by the rules yourself, everybody is forced to follow, and that is what we are trying to do.

“We are in dire need of leaders in our country and we will be wishing till death until we start raising the kind of leaders we want by taking them through the principle of this kind of training so that they can be there to effect changes.”

His Full Note Below;

The Core Values were drawn from the background of the need to raise changed people who will change their world. We are poised to bring back to the fore the character di- mension of learning at the Univer- sity level, like we usually say they are found worthy in character and learning. There has been zero at- tention to character when we came onboard, so we needed to create a platform that helps enhance the character aspect of learning and it is showing today.

For instance, the Nigerian graduate report publica- tion ranked Covenant University Number One in the list of Nigerian Universities with the most employ- able graduates having 90% employ- ability rate. That is the effect of the Core Values, it helps to equip our students on the pathways of life so that they can be relevant to the so- ciety and I think we are achieving that.

There is a university in America where they have 16 of our gradu- ates undertaking postgraduate stud- ies and when Professor Okebukola went there on official functions, they said we have 16 Nigerians here and they are unique, their packaging, commitment and intel- ligence is unique, they said they are from one Covenant University, he said oh I am not surprised I am part of that University too. He was very proud of those children.

He gath- ered them together and had a chat with them because of the quality of training. The whole essence of what we are doing is to raise world changers who will first need to ex- perience the changes themselves. Leave God behind, you are empty, throw integrity to the trashcan, you are finished, lack sacrifice, you can- not be a successful leader; a sacri- fice gives his best and beyond his best to lead a cause in which he believes.

All those things are there to help equip the student to be relevant because relevance is key. You cannot be relevant and not be significant. What we are trying to do is to ensure that platform is cre- ated overtime and the same thing is taking place in here, Landmark University. Most institutions to- day now have Core Values.

They did not have any before, you just live anyhow and finish anyhow, if you finish, that is what we do with the Core Values. Examina- tion malpractice culminates in summary dismissal from our sys- tem, we cannot be raising people who will deal with corruption and are corrupt themselves.

Examina- tion malpractice at 500 level, no mercy! We are convinced that he has been doing it since 100 lev- el otherwise there would not be need to do it at 500 level, and we have a psychological basis for that.

There is no way you will go for ex- amination malpractice at 500 level in Engineering, if you have been passing your exams since 100 level. So we are also out to sanitize the intellectual platform of our na- tion.

I must say this; Governors have come to pick their children from our campus. The daughter of our first Vice-Chancellor was rus- ticated from the University for one year, my adopted son was thrown out for one year at Covenant, so there is no white cow in the system and that makes everybody shake and fear.

If I must mention it, one of our for- mer Presidents had a relation that had a son rusticated and called me, I said I am sorry, I do not get involved, please talk to the Vice- Chancellor. He said can I have his number, I said no and we are still friends. Because the moment you make rules and you abide by the rules yourself, everybody is forced to follow, and that is what we are trying to do.

We are in dire need of leaders in our country and we will be wishing till death until we start raising the kind of leaders we want by taking them through the princi- ple of this kind of training so that they can be there to effect changes.

An Econonic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) witness, Michael Adariku on Thursday told an Abuja High Court how N1.4 billion security vote from the office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) was diverted.

Adariku, an officer of EFCC, made this known when he testified in the trial of Sambo Dasuki, a former National Security Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Dasuki is standing trial on a 19-count charge bordering on alleged diversion of N13.6 billion since 2015.

On trial along with Dasuki were Shuaibu Salisu, a former Director of Finance, Office of the National Security Adviser, and Aminu Baba-Kusa, a former NNPC Executive Director, and two others.

Adariku, the first prosecution witness said that the diversion was made through a company owned by a former Director, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Aminu Baba-Kusa.

The company, Acacia Holdings LTD., was credited with the sum from the accounts of ONSA purportedly for a national prayer to be organised for Nigeria.

The witness, led in evidence by EFCC’s counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), narrated how N650 million was transferred from ONSA’s Zenith Bank account to Acacia Holdings account with Ecobank for the purpose of the said prayer.

He, however, said that from the response of Ecobank, N650 million was transferred to various individuals and companies contrary to the purpose it was disbursed for.

Adariku further revealed that on April 20, 2015, N150 million was transferred to the account of Baba-Kusa, and that on April 22, another N70 million was transferred to one Jubril Abdullahi for purposes not stated.

He said that on April 22, an account to account transfer of N50 million was forwarded to the account of Baba-Kusa between May 4 and May 6, 2015.

The witness said that another transfer of N150 million was made to a company, Medical Plastics Ltd. found to be owned by Baba-Kusa and his wife, Hauwa, who own 1.8 million shares in the company.

The witness further revealed how N200 million was transferred from ONSA’s account with Zenith bank to Acacia Holdings Ltd. account with the United Bank for Africa on Oct. 9, 2014.

He added that another N600 million was transferred from ONSA’s account to Acacia on April 17, 2015.

While in the process of giving vivid account of how the sums were transferred to various individuals and companies, counsel to Acacia Holdings, Dr Biodun Layonu (SAN) raised an objection.

Layonu objected to the witness’ testimony on the ground that the documents relating to the transactions were not clear in the copies that the prosecution served them.

He said that most of the figures being quoted by the witness had been blanked out in the document in his possession.

The judge, Justice Husseini Baba-Yusuf, acknowledged the observation by the defence counsel for Acacia and directed that the prosecution should make clearer copies available to the defendants before the next adjourned date.

He then adjourned the trial until Dec. 13 and Dec. 14 for continuation of trial.

(NAN)

A Ghanaian man, Kofi Shanti Boafo has taken his life, 3 days after he wrote a letter to his family and babymama on Facebook.

Read his letter below;

Dear All, You have to know that you will not be seeing me any more, and perhaps the knowledge is better than the months of uncertainty which I have been through.

There are one or two things which I should like you to know, and which I have been too shy to let you know in person.

Firstly, let me say how splendid you both have been during this terrible “war”. Neither of you have shown how hard things must have been, and when peace comes this will serve to knit the family together as it should always have been knit.

As a family, we are terribly afraid of showing our feelings, but my life has uncovered unsuspected layers of affection beneath the crust of gentlemanly reserve.

Secondly, I would like to thank you all for what you have done for me personally. Nothing has been too much trouble, and I have appreciated this to the full, even if I have been unable to show it.

Finally, a word of comfort. You both know how I have gone through this life, but it has, however, done this for me.

It has shown me new realms where man is free from earthly restrictions and conventions; where he can be himself playing hide and seek with the clouds, or watching a strangely silent world beneath, rolling quietly on, touched only by vague unsubstantial shadows moving placidly but unrelenting across its surface.

So please don’t pity me for the price I have had to pay for this experience. This price is incalculable, but it may just as well be incalculably small as incalculably large, so why worry?

And to Dad and Mum

If you get this message or reading this, then you should know I won’t be coming home. I am up in the stars now looking down on you making sure that you are happy as you wanted.

I am sorry for all the times I have been a pain but I know the good times outweighed the bad tenfold. Thank you for being the best parents anyone could ever have wished for. You gave me everything I could ever have wanted and more but not the marriage that I wanted.

You have both gotten long lives ahead of you yet, so make sure you make use of every second you have, because sitting here writing this now I know just how precious time is.

Tell the rest of the family I was thinking of them and make sure they take care.

Forgiveness is something everybody deserves because one day, it may be too late.

Remember that every time you are thinking of me, I am thinking of you, too. Look after yourselves and not to think of my children forget about them.

And to the love of my life Deevi

I cannot seem to say these words out loud. To me, saying goodbye has always seemed so final. Life is crazy like that. People come in and out of your life; neither one is ever expected. I have found, however, that some people will always come back to you.

The ones meant to be in your life will return somewhere down the road. Unfortunately, I do not believe you will ever return. That is why I have to say goodbye.

Our relationship, like so many others, had its extreme ups and downs. I tried to focus on the ups, while relentlessly making excuses for you for the downs. “He’s just busy” and “He treats everyone like that” became the norm. I put you before almost anything and anyone else in my life.

You knew I loved you, yet you did nothing about it. All I had was hope. You were so important to me. It is extremely difficult writing these words in the past tense. I once thought you would be in my life forever.

I can’t let you hurt me any longer. Life is too short to repeatedly get your heart broken by the same person without doing anything to fix it. Everyone deserves more than that. I need to do what is best for me. The only way to fix it is by saying goodbye.

I know this is going to be a long and difficult journey, but it is something I must do. My heart is so full of you. Waking up every morning without you in my life will get a little easier every day until you are nothing but a memory to me. I’m glad we have few same friends so your name won’t get brought up in conversation. It is time to move on. I can erase you from my life, but the memories will remain forever.

I may have lost someone that didn’t love me, but you lost someone that truly loved you.

This is my goodbye

There is only one thing to add. Good luck to you all

Shanti writes to you all.

Am much grateful and appreciate your time and effort to me.