Mr. Maguire refutes MEND advocate claim as stated by Militants

Militant group MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) finally released oil worker Mathew Maguire of from the UK who’s been held hostage by the militants since September.

Upon his release, he shared some of his experience of the ordeal with the BBC and this is what he had to say:

"It was... very hard and I had bad moments when I didn't think I'd get out."

"It was ups and downs," Mr Maguire said. "Sometimes they wanted to be friendly and then not so friendly.

"One minute we were going to be released and the next minute we weren't. It was hard, very hard and I had bad moments when I didn't think I'd get out."

"The villagers themselves aren't bad people - they are good people and I'd like to thank them."

Here’s what he had to say about the MEND letter stating that Mr. Maguire had declined to leave because he wanted to stay and help their cause.

"I've always wanted to go home. I was missing my wife and kids, so that's not true."

BBC

Related story: UK hostage now MEND advocate   Nigerian Military launches biggest offensive

Bayelsa United captain shot dead

Just hours after Abiel Tabor helped his team to win the Nigerian Premier League. Abiel Tabor was driving home after celebrating the victory when his car was approached by armed robbers near the town of Oleh, in southern Nigeria's Delta state. He was shot dead as  he tried to drive away from the gunmen.

Tabor had 3 other passengers in the car with him. They were on their way to visit Tabor's family after winning the title.

This tragedy comes a few weeks after two other Bayelsa players were killed. Bayelsa is one of the states in the oil-producing region of Niger Delta where this sort of violence has unfortunately become common place.

Nation in Darkness

Deji Badmus reports on how Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua's objective to have 6000 Megawatts of electricity generated in Nigeria by December,2009 has gone so far and what the people of Nigeria think about the electricity crisis in the country.

Deji Badmus is The 2008 winner of the CNN Mulitchoice Africa Journalist Award and the Nigeria Media Merit Award for TV reporter of the year.

Related story: Video report on Nigeria's fire service in Lagos

CNN reports on Nigeria's electricity crisis

Nigeria's movie box-office receipts for May29-31, 2009

Alright ladies and gentlemen! The box office receipts of Hollywood movies screening in Nigerian theatres has been tallied and the winner of box office supremacy in the month of May is Angels and Demons.

In its third week of screening in a whopping 6 theatres, Tom Hanks and co-star Ewan McGregor have Mesmerized Nigerian audiences in their virtuoso performance in the Ron Howard epic Angels and Demons. The movie has retained its number 1 spot and has so far grossed a staggering $123,985 in its combined 3 week screening in 6 theatres in the entire nation of Nigeria.

Race to Witch Mountain starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has rebounded to take the number 2 spot with a respectable total gross of $20,436 in its 7^th week of screening. X-Men Origins maintains its number 3 position with a total gross of $34,041 in its 5^th week. Night at the Museum falls from its 2^nd position to the 4^th highest grossing movie in the last weekend of May with a total gross of $9,786 in its 2 week showing, and the return of  Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in Fast and Furious complete the top 5 list with a solid $19,167 gross in 7 weeks. Sci-Fi Epic STAR TREK drops from 4^th to 6^th in the list with a total gross of $8,441 in 3 weeks. Be like most Nigerians don’t care much for the Sci-Fi!

My apologies if this report comes off a bit too sarcastic. With those numbers it makes you wonder why distributors even bother...I’m glad they do though :)

Box Office Mojo

Deji Badmus reports on electricity crisis in Nigeria

 

VS

After watching the CNBC special coverage on investing in Nigeria. It's rather interesting to juxtapose Deji's recent report on the electricity crisis in Nigeria and CNBC's Erin Burnett special on investing in Nigeria. How does not being able to provide basic infrastructure needs like 24/7 electricity and MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) misbehaving anyhow weigh against potential lucrative investments in Nigeria...lets watch shall we.

 

Deji Badmus is The 2008 winner of the CNN Mulitchoice Africa Journalist Award and the Nigeria Media Merit Award for TV reporter of the year.

Erin Isabelle Burnett is a business news anchor, reporter and interviewer for CNBC television.

Related stories: MEND set Chevron station ablaze    

Global recession bringing Nigerians back home