Two Germans killed in Nigeria

Two German Nationals have been shot dead in Nigeria. According to German newspaper, Ostsee Zeitung, the two nationals, both male aged 34 and 20 were working as engineers at Julius Berger and were shot dead last Saturday December 27th while riding on a motorbike in Abuja.

Confirming the incident to AFP, a foreign affairs official said “Unfortunately we can confirm that two German nationals were killed in Nigeria last weekend

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Breaking News: Timetable and Schedule of activities for 2015 general election

Above is INEC Timetable for the 2015 General Elections. Found it on Premium Times. See the rest of it after the cut...

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Coup attempt foiled in The Gambia

There was a failed coup attempt by presidential guards in The Gambia today Dec. 30th. According to reports, some presidential guards stormed the presidential palace in Banjul, the country's capital and shot sporadically in the air. The whereabouts of Gambia's president, Yahya Jammeh is said to be unknown but many believe he is in Paris or Dubai. An army source who spoke to AFP said the attackers had been completely warded off and the situation has been brought under control

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Pics: Startling confessions of a female witchdoctor

Article written by Freelance journalist and writer for Synagogue Church. Read below...

A lady at the centre of a sex scandal involving a prominent South African Pastor has given a shocking confession at a church in Lagos, Nigeria following her ‘deliverance’.

Olipha Dube, a 34 year old of Zulu origin, revealed that she had practised as a ‘sangoma’ or witchdoctor for many years, exposing some eerie secrets behind the mysterious ‘profession’.

 “This is the time to expose the kingdom of darkness and what the devil is doing in so many people’s lives by deceiving them to believe that witchcraft, witchdoctors, herbalists and traditional healers have a solution,” Dube emphatically began after a clip showing her ‘deliverance’ was shown to church congregants.

The clip showed the pastor praying for Dube, upon which she violently reacted and an uncanny voice spoke out through her, identifying itself as ‘the great lion’. “I have given her too many powers,” the ‘spirit’ confessed. “I make her do anything I send her. I have given her wisdom to do what I want her to do, to break people’s marriages, to break homes. She is a witchdoctor.”

  

Olipha explained that her professional nursing career inexplicably nosedived, prompting a friend to advise her to seek ‘alternative’ help. Following consultation at a herbalists home, the response she received from her creepy counsellor was an unexpected one. “He told me I had a gift from the ancestors and I was supposed to be a sangoma myself,” she recalled. “I agreed. At that time, I thought it was a solution.”

After going to an ‘initiation school’, incisions were strategically placed throughout her body with several darkish substances known as ‘muti’ rubbed in so as to infuse with her blood. “Those charms are to give you powers to see what other people don’t see, powers to be able to communicate with the spiritual world,” she explained.  

After starting her practice as a traditional healer, the thirst for deeper knowledge and more advanced powers spurred Olipha to pass through another ‘initiation’. “I paid a lot of money and he taught me how to use plants, herbs and trees – to mix them with animal parts – to produce whatever charms you wanted to,” she divulged.

Olipha built an altar in her bedroom, as well as erecting a house in her garden dedicated to paying homage to her ‘ancestors’. “You would use that to store your charms and for consultation,” she explained. At this stage, her daily life literally revolved around witchcraft. “Before I could speak to anyone in the morning, I had to speak to the ancestors at my altar... They would tell me how my day was going to be like - the challenges I was going to meet, the people that would come and see me, the charms to use to be able to succeed through the day.”

Dube said she had to maintain constant connection with these ‘ancestors’. “I had powers in my eyes, tongue and all over my body,” she told the shocked congregation. “If you take a look at my body now, I have incisions everywhere, even in my private parts.”

She described the services of a witchdoctor as a ‘one-stop-shop’ where you are “expected to provide solutions for a variety of problems”.  However, everything came with strings attached. “There is no consultation for free. We would first throw the bones on the floor and get information we want about the past, present and future. If the person really wants the problem solved, we would move to the next level where they would have to pay. The deeper the problem, the more the money.”

Citing an example of a ‘love-charm’ , the former sangoma explained how she would use plants to create attention and an animal to produce affection. “In this case, I would choose a female dog,” she revealed. “We would wait for the time of mating to capture the dog. At that time, the dog is enraged and uncontrollable. You would remove the parts you require from that dog, dry them in the sun and mash them.”

According to Dube, if people consulting witchdoctors knew the contents of the charms given them, most would run for their dear lives. “When people come, they just see powder – they don’t know that this is actually an animal. We would make an incision, put that animal together with other charms in the person’s body, in their blood. That is going to produce the effect from the behavior of the dog in that person’s life. When the man she wants to marry sees her, something will just happen to him and he will lust after her.”

However, there were serious side-effects! In this particular instance, Dube explained, after a short-lived romance, hatred would set in leaving the relationship in tatters. “At that stage, that is when people start moving from one witchdoctor to another because they think maybe your charms are not powerful enough. The more they go to witchdoctors, they more they use these charms, the more they go deeper and deeper into their problems,” she revealed.

Explaining the rationale behind this, Olipha explained, “The aim was to get people hooked. Once a person gets hooked, it’s impossible to get them out… The more you hunt for greater power, the more you expose yourself into deeper problems. You would even get to a level where you would go to those traditional healers who use human body parts to create charms.”

Revealing more about an increasingly

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PICs: Gen. Buhari's running mate storms Palms Lekki, takes selfies with shopper

APC VP candidate, Professor Yemi Osinbajo turned up at the Lekki Palms on Christmas Eve in the company of carolers and choreographers. He made a short speech, wished everyone a Merry Christmas and went around the mall, shaking hands with people, signing autographs and taking selfies. He also gave out his contact details as well. See more photos after the cut...

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Xmas: Okorocha provides free buses for Imo indigenes

Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha has made available buses that will convey Imo indigenes, who wish to travel home for the Christmas celebration, from Lagos to Owerri, the capital of the state on Wednesday, December 24.

Imo State Liaison Officer in Lagos State, Mr. Alfred Ononugbo, who disclosed this in a statement, urged Imo indigenes residing in Lagos who intend travelling home for Christmas celebration to assemble at the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos on Wednesday, December 24 by 8am.

Ononugbo said the state government also made buses available for Imo indigenes residing in Ibadan, who are to assemble at Saint Gabriel Catholic Church, Mokola, Ibadan

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The reasons behind Prof. Osinbajo as running mate – Buhari

The APC Presidential flag-bearer, Gen Muhammadu Buhari yesterday stated reasons why he chose Prof Yemi Osibajo as his running mate for next year's general election. Below is what he said;

"To assist me in this great task of securing Nigeria’s future, I have chosen a man of unimpeachable integrity, an excellent professional, a man of faith, a devoted family man and a role model to our fellow countrymen and women. He is a professor of law and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. An alumnus of the University of Lagos and the London School of Economics, he is a prodigious author who has to his credit several books on civil procedure in Nigerian superior courts.

The Vice-Presidential candidate is a friend of the less privileged, compassionate and zealous in service. A man of uncommon humility, a loyal, dependable and selfless patriot. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who by the grace of God and the vote of Nigerians will be the next Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Buhari said.

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Buhari, Atiku in secret meeting

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress [APC] on Sunday visited ex-Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, days after defeating the later and three others to clinch the presidential ticket of the party.
It is not clear what both politicians discussed at the closed-door meeting held at  Atiku’s  Abuja residence.
Mr. Buhari visited alone with just his orderly and driver while all Atiku’s aides were asked to stay away as the two leaders conversed behind closed-doors.
A source in the former vice-president’s camp however said “the APC presidential candidate came to seek the support and collaboration of Atiku in line with the former VP’s pledge to work for the success of the APC in the general elections”.
“It is also possible that they may have discussed the choice of Buhari’s VP consideration ahead of the meeting by the party tomorrow on the subject in Abuja,” the source said.
Before Mr. Buhari’s visit, PREMIUM TIMES learnt that a chieftain of the party and former Chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party [ANPP], Ogbonnaya Onu, and Lawal Shuaibu, APC’s Deputy National Chairman (North), had visited Atiku.
Their mission to the former vice-pres

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