Monday, March 24, 2014

Police investigate house of horror in Ibadan

Nigerian police have opened a murder investigation after human skeletons and body parts were discovered in an abandoned building in the south-west.

Officers also rescued several people nearby who had been chained together and appeared severely malnourished.

The alarm had been raised by motorcycle taxi riders in the city of Ibadan after some of their colleagues went missing.

Several people have been arrested in the city - Nigeria's third largest - a police spokeswoman said.

Living skeletons

When police searched the abandoned building - dubbed the "house of horror" by the media - they found skeletons, decomposing bodies, skulls and bones on bloodstained floors.

A number of people were found shackled in leg-irons inside the building.

"Some seven malnourished human beings looking like living skeletons were also rescued in the bushes surrounding the building," police spokeswoman Olabisi Ilobanafor told AFP.

She said the motorbike riders had stumbled on the bodies after complaining to police about the disappearance of colleagues in suspicious circumstances.

"It is not a common occurrence in Ibadan or in the (Oyo) state. The police will investigate this crime in all its ramifications," she said.

Observers say some victims of kidnapping are often tortured or used as sacrifices in black magic rituals.

BBC

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Nigerian filmmaker Kunle Afolayan talks with SaharaTV about his career and the industry


Award winning Nigerian film maker, Kunle Afolayan has produced movies that won for him international accolades. The veteran actor shares with SaharaTV his definition of "Nollywood", what it takes to make quality movies in Nigeria and his passion for making film with special cut on African culture.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Video - KICKTV profiles Nigeria's Super Eagles ahead of 2014 World Cup



The World Cup is less than 100 days away, and to kick things off, KICKTV in partnership with Howler Magazine is rolling out its World Cup Crash Course. Next up, Nigeria. The Super Eagles are bringing a strong mix of veterans and youngsters. But will it be enough to get out of their group?

Oil reserves in Nigeria drop to 35 billion barrels

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) said on Tuesday that Nigeria oil reserves had dropped from 40 billion to 35 billion barrels.

A Director in the department, Mr George Osahon, made this known in an interview with newsmen at the ongoing Oil and Gas Seminar in Abuja.

Osahon attributed the development to reduction in oil production in the country.
He said that some oil wells in the Niger Delta had stopped production because they had attained “maturity.”

He also said that vandalism and other unwholesome acts in the oil distribution process in the region accounted for the drop in production of crude oil.

Osahon said that the situation called for worry, adding that there was urgent need to boost oil exploration in order to shore up the dwindling reserves.

“Oil reserves are dropping and our output is dropping too. What we are supposed to do to correct this is to continue to explore and explore and explore for more oil.

“We started with ‘2D seismic’; now we are at the ‘3D seismic’. Already, 1,300 exploration wells have been drilled so far.

“We need to do more in this regard so as to have more reserves. We have reached the plateau of production in the Niger Delta and we are already going down”, he said.

The director said a lot of money had been spent in the effort to increase reserves from the old fields.
On exploration at the Chad basin, he said that oil had not been found there but stressed “that we have not found anything at the Chad basin as at today does not mean that oil is not in the basin.

“We are optimistic about this. We have come up with strategies to boost our reserves and in due course, we would make this known.’’

He said that other things to do to shore up the nation’s reserves were seismic data coverage and drilling of exploration wells, enhanced recovery methods, utilisation of non-saddled reservoirs and bitumen exploration.


Vanguard

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Video - President Goodluck Jonathan urges ethnic unity


Nearly 500 delegates attended a national conference in Abuja to decide on Nigeria's future, representing the country's many ethnic, linguistic and religious groups. In the most populous country in Africa, Nigeria is also the continent's top oil producer. Many of them are now demanding a bigger slice of the country's resources.