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Peter Osaze - Life is good at West Brom

Eagles' striker Peter Osaze Odemwingie said that he is enjoying a new lease of football life with English premier league side West Brom.

The Edo-born workaholic striker, disclosed that waking up every morning and going to training at West Brom is something that he looks forward to, because it was such a thrilling experience.

"I look forward to training, the players the manager everything is okay and we are doing well getting good results. This makes me happy here," said Osaze.

Osaze made a last minute move from Lokomotiv Moscow in the summer transfer window. He was an instant hit with West Brom scoring six goals from eight games so far. He netted a brace last weekend after a three weeks injury lay off.

"I'm glad West Brom is doing well in the league. We are getting good results against the top teams and we hope to finish well at the end of the season," added the striker.

His good runs at West Brom no doubt have attracted interest from bigger clubs. And this is why coach Roberto Di Matteo vowed to do everything to keep Osaze and other players who have propelled West Brom from a struggling side to contenders for a middle of the table finish.

Vanguard

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Kidnappers abduct 65-year-old grandmother

A 65-year-old grand mother and wife of a Saudi Arabia-based gynaecologist, Mrs. Idowu Ogunleye has been kidnapped from her residence in Akure, the Ondo State capital by three armed bandits.

This was coming as the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, in the State gave the Ondo State Government 48 hours within which to secure the release of the woman.

The association in a 'Save-Our-Soul' letter addressed to Governor Olusegun Mimiko and signed by Dr Adetan Oluwatoyin and Dr I. J Adebose, chairman and secretary respectively, lamented that the latest case was the second involving wives of senior medical practitioners in the state with an intention of extorting money.

The grandmother was playing with her grand children at her No 2 Ogunleye Street, Ijoka, Akure, when she was abducted at about 7pm.

However, the acting Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Wole Ojogo said the kidnappers would soon be brought to book, adding that the family should not negotiate with the kidnappers.

Eyewitness account said the three armed men came to the house on the pretext that they had a message for the victim.

According to the source, she was the only one taken out of the six people in the house at the time of the sad occurrence. Her husband, Dr Idowu Ogunleye is currently working outside the country.

Kidnappers demand for N100m

Vanguard learnt that the kidnappers have been in contact with the victim's family through phone calls and have initially demanded for N100 million naira which was later reduced to N50 million.

The family has, however, told the kidnappers that they could not afford such huge amount.

A family member said yesterday that since the woman who was neither a political office holder nor any of her siblings had been taken away since November 25. She has not been allowed to communicate with members of the family.

The family said they suspected an insider's job as the woman was a full time housewife while the husband was a private practitioner.

Meanwhile, the NMA stated that the kidnap of doctors and their relatives was a strange things in the state.

"Your Excellency, we need to emphasize that as the Chief Security Officer of this state, our lives and property are in your hand.

"When it concerned the politicians, the government was there, for journalists, the whole nation was involved and now that it involves doctors' relatives, we do not expect anything less", the NMA said.

The NMA therefore called on the government and security agencies to act fast in order to secure the release of the abducted Mrs Ogunleye, whose abductors initially requested for N100 million ransom but later reduced it to N50 million.

"We need a safe, peaceful and conducive environment for us and our family member to be able to guarantee our continual, undisturbed contribution of our quota to humanity and the healthy living standard of the people of this state.

"We need to state that we desire the resolution of this crisis within the next 48 hours in order to guarantee that all doctors in this state will be in the best psychological frame of mind to go about our normal duty of saving lives", NMA added.

The NMA emphasized that the approaching Yuletide particularly, requires that security should be beefed up in this state.

Vanguard

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Nigeria to charge Dick Cheney in $180 million bribery case, issue Interpol arrest warrant

The energy services company Dick Cheney ran prior to becoming Vice President of the United States was atop the tongue of liberals each time it was awarded a contract in Iraq.

Now the company's name, Halliburton, is being spoken somewhere else: Nigeria.

According to a story filed late Wednesday, Cheney will be indicted in a Nigerian bribery case as part of an investigation into an alleged $180 million bribery scandal.

"Last week, Nigeria arrested at least 23 officials from companies including Halliburton, Saipem, Technip and a former subsidiary of Panalpina Welttransport Holding AG in connection with alleged illegal payments to Nigerian officials. Those detained were all freed on bail on Nov. 29," Bloomberg News' Elisha Bala-Gbogbo wrote.

"Authorities in the West African nation are probing Halliburton, Saipem and Technip for the alleged payment of $180 million in bribes to win a $6 billion liquefied natural-gas contract," Bala-Gbogbo added. "Panalpina is being investigated for illegal payments it allegedly made to Nigerian customs officials on behalf of Royal Dutch Shell Plc."

The prosecuting counsel for the country's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said that indictments will be handed down in the next three days and that an arrest warrant for Cheney "will be issued and transmitted through Interpol."

Adds Bloomberg, "Obla said charges will be filed against current and former chief executive officers of Halliburton, including Cheney, who was CEO from 1995 to 2000, and its former unit KBR Inc., based in Houston, Texas; Technip SA, Europe’s second-largest oilfield- services provider; Eni SpA, Italy’s biggest oil company; and Saipem Construction Co., a unit of Eni. Obla didn’t identify the former officials whom he said held office when the alleged bribes were paid."

A spokesman for Cheney declined to comment.

The US Securities and Exchange Committee probe focused on the deal as early as 2004.Wrote The Washington Post at the time:

"The Nigerian project, started in the early 1990s, was worth almost $5 billion to TSKJ, a partnership that included a KBR predecessor, as well as companies from France, Japan and the Netherlands.

At issue are payments made to Tristar, a Gibraltar company that had a consulting arrangement with a corporation formed by TSKJ to "administer the contracts and execute the work" in Nigeria, a Halliburton spokeswoman said in response to questions.

KBR, the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton, was formed when Halliburton acquired Dresser Industries Inc. in 1998. It was a combination of Halliburton's Brown & Root and Dresser's M.W. Kellogg Co. Officials from the SEC and Cheney's office declined to comment.

Early on Thursday, Halliburton said they hadn't seen the new charges, but still denied their involvement.

"Halliburton's oil-field services operations in Nigeria have never in any way been part of the LNG project and none of the Halliburton employees have ever had any connection to or participation in that project," Tara Mullee Agard, a spokeswoman for the Houston-based company, said in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg.

Added Bloomberg: "Halliburton Co., the world's second- largest oilfield-services provider, said it hasn't seen any amended charges by Nigerian authorities who plan to indict current and former employees in a bribery scandal."

The Raw Story

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Nigeria on cyber crime top ten list

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday said Nigeria is now ranked third among the top ten sources of cyber crime in the world just as it said over $557million were lost globally to cyber criminals in 2009.

Speaking yesterday at the first West African Cybercrime Summit in Abuja, EFCC chairman Farida Waziri said after the United States with 65 per cent of cyber criminal activities and the United Kingdom with 9.9 per cent, Nigeria is the next hub of cyber criminals in the world with 8 per cent.

According to Farida, 22 per cent increase in cyber crime was recorded globally between 2008 and 2009.

She said the statistics is frightening as only 20 per cent of the West African population has access to internet connectivity adding that it may well mean that the crimes may increase as internet access is increased.

Meanwhile, Vice President Namadi Sambo has said it was wrong to blame only Nigeria of being source of fraudulent emails in the world.

Sambo, who spoke at the summit, said Nigeria does not have the bandwidth and regularity of power to realistically generate such volumes of cyber-malfeasance for it to earn such high ranking of being the third internet crime perpetrator.

The vice president, who was represented by Minister of Police Affairs Adamu Maina Waziri, said many Nigerians are victims of cybercrimes perpetrated by non-Nigerians.

Daily Trust

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