Fire Guts Down the House of the SSA to Delta State Governor

A "Facebooker" going by the name Osaremen Okonoboh posted a disturbing video of a very beautiful house burning.

It is alleged that the house belongs to Hon. Chief Victor Okemena Egbo, SSA to Delta State Governor and that robbers set the house ablaze after carting away its entire contents when the owners of the house were out of town.

See the video below:

Below also is a screenshot of some comments from the post





Source:  Facebook - #Osaremen  #OsaremenGist

9 Most Tragic Beauty Queen Deaths

Death is the cessation of all biological functions that sustain living organisms.  As humans, it is only natural to expect to live to a ripe old age before dying.  However not all are lucky enough to attain old age before death comes. calling.

It might interest you to want to know how life ended for some key title holders in the beauty pageant field.

1.  Miss Poland 1991/Miss International 1991 Agnieszka Kotlarska (1972 - 1996)

19-year-old Agnieszka Kotlarska, a model from Poland, born August 15, 1972, was crowned Miss International 1991 on October 13, 1991 in Tokyo, Japan. Her death in the year 1996 shocked many; she was given a second chance at life after she backed out from boarding a plane that crashed and killed all its passengers. Unfortunately, two months later, she was stabbed to death by her stalker on August 27, 1996. The attack also injured her husband and her two-year-old daughter was a witness to the attack.  She was first polish winner of the Miss International Beauty pageant in 1991.  

2. Miss Hungary 1985 - Csilla Molnar (1969 - 1986) 

Csilla Molnar - Photo Credit: Alchetron.com

Crowned Miss Hungary in 1985, the 17-year-old, born on January 20, 1969, committed suicide on July 10, 1986 after complaining of harassment over winning the crown.  Earlier in a radio interview, she said, "I don't know whether I can bear this, everybody is harassing me.  They (people) ask: Where and from whom did you get those beautiful clothes?  Who helped you: Do you or your father have special connections with the jury? And so on". 

Molnar was found unconscious in her parents' home in the town of Fonyod on Lake Balaton and taken to Siofok Hospital but could not be revived.  She died of an overdose of Lidocaine, a drug used as an anesthetic and to control irregular heartbeats.

3.  Miss Sinaloa 2012 Maria Susana Flores Gamez (1992 - 2012)

Beauty queen Maria Susana Flores Gamez was crowned Miss Sinaloa, a state in Mexico in 2012.  She was killed in northern Mexico during a running gun battle between soldiers and the gang of drug traffickers she was travelling with.  It was reported that her body was found lying near an assault rifle on a rural road in a mountainous area in the state of Sinaloa.

4.  Fourth Runner-up Miss World Brazil 2006 Mariana Bridi Costa (1988 - 2009)

She was born on June 18, 1988 and began her career at the age of 14.  She secured the fourth place in the Miss World Brazil beauty pageant and participated in the Miss Bikini International contest in the following year.  In December 2008, Bridi was (initially) misdiagnosed with kidney infection and by early January 2009, medical reports confirmed a urinary tract infection that worsened to become septic.  Sadly, the sepsis caused tissue necrosis in her feet and hands which were later amputated in an attempt to save her life.  During her final surgery, a part of her stomach was also removed.  She died on the morning of January 24, 2009.

5. Zambia's Rep to the 2006 Miss Universe Pageant Mofya Chisenga (1983 - 2011)

Mofya Chisenga represented Zambia at the 2006 Miss Universe Pageant, the Miss Tourism Queen International Pageant 2005 in China during which she came out the 4th Runner-up and also the Miss Leisure World 2008 Pageant in China.  According to reports, she was admitted with malaria in pregnancy and later discharged.  However, she was again brought in a critical condition on October 14, 2011.  The model had been sick during her pregnancy according to reports; doctors said she had fluid in her lungs. She died on same night after delivering the baby, aged 28.

6.  Miss India Universe 1997 Nafisa Joseph (1978 - 2004)

Nafisa Joseph, born on 28 March 1978, was an Indian model and MTV video jockey. She was crowned Miss India Universe 1997 at the age of 19 and was finalist in the Miss Universe 1997 pageant in Miami Beach.  Nafisa Joseph hanged herself at her flat in Versova, Mumbai on July 29, 2004.  Her parents told reporters the model ended her life after her wedding with businessman Gautam Khanduja was called off.  Joseph discovered that Khanduja was still married although having told her that he was divorced.  When confronted, Khanduja refused to answer questions about his marital life or produce divorce papers he claimed to have filed.  Instead, reports have it that he then threatened her with blackmail, probably after she threatened to confront his wife.

7.  Miss Mauritius 1994 Viveka Babajee (1973 - 2010)

Mauritian model and actress Viveka Babajee, born on 27 May 1973, was Miss Mauritius World 1993 and Miss Mauritius Universe 1994.  The beauty queen was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her apartment at her Bandra residence in Mumbai. Police reports stated that acute depression led Viveka to kill herself.  Months before committing suicide, she had reportedly told her mother over the phone, "I am going far away".  However, the last entry in her diary which was found next to her body said, "You killed me, Gautam Vohra."  Unconfirmed reports stated that she became depressed after separating from her boyfriend, Gautam Vora.  However, in 2012, the case was re-opened after Gautam Vohra was arrested in connection with a murder case.

8.  Miss Universe Venezuela 2005 Monica Spear (1984 -2014)

On January 6, 2014, Spear was in her native Venezuela on vacation with her ex-husband and their 5-year-old daughter.  On a highway, in central Carabobo, when the three were inside their car waiting for assistance after the car had broken down, Spear and her ex-husband were killed during an attempted robbery and their daughter shot and wounded in the leg.

9.  Miss World Honduras 2014 Maria Jose Alvarado (1995 - 2014)

Maria Jose Alvarado born on July 19, 1995 in Santa Barbara, Honduras, had been scheduled to compete at the Miss World 2014 contest in London in December 2014 but was murdered prior to the event.  On the night of November 13, 2014, 19-year-old Maria Jose Alvarado and her elder sister, Sofia Trinidad Alvarado Munoz, 23, disappeared after leaving a party in Santa Barbara, Honduras.  According to witnesses, she stepped into a car without license plates.

On November 19, the same day Maria Jose had been expected to travel to London, the sisters' bodies were found. They had both been shot and buried in a field near Cablotales.  Plutarco Ruiz, Sofia Trinidad's boyfriend, as well as another man, Aris Maidonado, were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and murder of the two.  Ruiz confessed to the murders, stating he had shot Sofia Trinidad after an argument on the night of the party, then shot Maria Jose twice in the back as she tried to flee.

May their souls rest in peace.

Balaraba Muhammad - the Little Known Girl Who Bravely Resisted Boko Haram

Many women have bravely resisted extremists' plans in quiet and unheralded ways.  One of such women is Balaraba Muhammad, who reportedly arrived at the Boko Haram camp in 2012.  The terror group had murdered her husband in front of her after he criticized the group.  Days later, they came back for her, throwing her baby to the ground and abducting her.

Dozens of abducted women have said that Boko Haram gave them a terrible choice:  Marry the group's fighters or be deployed as bombers.  Captives have said some women chose to blow up only themselves instead.

A very few survived this ordeal and want to tell their stories.  Balaraba Muhammad is one.

At the camp, Muhammad said she listened as two women began discussing ways to kill themselves in order to end their suffering there.  A militant overheard them and became exasperated.  "What is so difficult about killing yourselves?" he asked.  He shot them both to death. Muhammad was very scared.  At some point, she considered suicide, but the thought of her ailing grandmother who needed her as caretaker kept her from killing herself.

Muhammad was one of six women dispatched to blow up a mosque and everyone in it.  The women wanted to get rid of their bombs without killing anyone, including themselves. 19-year-old Muhammad who was kidnapped a few months earlier came up with a plan: they made a long rope out of their hijabs to which they attached the bombs and gingerly lowered them into a well, praying it was filled with water.

After letting go of the rope, the ran for their lives, she said.

Muhammad said to wriggle out of being married off to a fighter, she feigned sickness and to get out of weapons training she feigned mental illness.  When fighters gave her a bomb, she said she knew she would have to go or be shot too.

Which was how she found herself with five others at the edge of that well.

The bombs did not detonate and the young women scared and unsure what to do ran back to the camp.  They swore on a Qur'an to their captors they had accomplished their mission and that they ran so fast to escape and lost their hijabs on the way.  Cheers went up in the camp and the fighters convened a feast to celebrate the women they thought has become killers.

But the women's relief was short-lived as the fighters soon decided they were ruthless enough to be ready for weapons training.  The women were handed guns and captives were lined up for live targets.  One of the girls who was part of the six at the well was so distraught that she ran into hail of bullets fired by the firing squad, killing herself, Muhammad said.

After the trick at the well, fighters sent Muhammad and the other women on a second suicide mission, replacing the girl who died with a new captive.  Their target was to be a market in Banki, a once-bustling town in Maiduguri.  One of the fighters planned to escort the women but the new captive assured the militants she was from Banki and knew her way through the countryside.

The women collected their bombs and again used their hijabs to lower them into the well.  They sprinted back to the fighters' camp expecting the same joyous reception. Instead, the fighters were shocked to see them arrive so soon.  Just then the radio crackled with news; a bombing had been reported in Banki - not in the market,  but in a small village outside the main town. The fighters turned on the new captive, thinking she had led the women to the wrong place.  They shot and killed her.

Days went by and fighters came and went, engaging in fierce battles that claimed some of their lives.  They wanted revenge.  They prepared Muhammad and other women for a major operation: to blow up the Monday market, the biggest in northeast Nigeria.

They loaded some 20 cars, mototbikes and stolen military trucks with bombers and fighters and drove to the market.  Muhammad says she was sick and too weak to even get out of the car.  She sat inside as bombs exploded, and the vehicle sped away.

Muhammad was driven back to the camp and remained ill for several days, locked in a tin shack with other captives as they listened to fighters preparing for vigilante forces to invade the camp.

"I was saying in my heart that 'Oh God, even if I would die, let my relatives find my corpse'," she says.

She heard gunshots and a loud noise.  She lost consciousness.

Hadiza Musa, who had joined the local vigilante force to avenge the Boko Haram capture of her sister, arrived to find a horrific scene:  The entire camp was on fire, and there was carnage everywhere.  Musa said, in an attempt to distract the vigilantes, it appeared that Boko Haram had blown up their own camp and their captives and fled.

Musa said she sifted through the dead and came across Muhammad, who was unconscious with burns covering her body and blood pouring from what looked like a bullet wound to her leg.  Musa cried as she helped ferry Muhammad to a hospital.  She stayed by Muhammad, caring for her until she was conscious.  She also tracked down Muhammad's grandmother and told her the first good news she had heard in months:  her baby Hairat, whom the terrorists threw to the floor as she was being abducted, was alive.

Boko Haram is still plaguing Maiduguri where their movement began. On February 9, 2020, militants attacked vehicles lined up at a checkpoint at Auno, a town about 24 kilometres west of Maiduguri. At least 30 people lost their lives in the attack; some reportedly burnt to death while sleeping in their cars.

When President Muhammadu Buhar arrived in Maiduguri to console mourners, he was jeered.  The Nigerian military has long been struggling to gain upper hand against the fighters who are now better armed than the military.

Suicide bombings have declined as Boko Haram and its factions have focused on targeting military forces.  Yet the incidents persist; in January in nearby Chad, a woman bomber killed nine people and in Maiduguri two female bombers blew up a market killing two people.

Musa and Muhammad now consider themselves sisters.  Muhammad still bears scars from burns to her face, arms and legs.  In Maiduguri where she lives with Hairat who is now in school, some neighbors who know she was abducted are suspicious and think she might be loyal to Boko Haram.

"The best thing is for you to be killed," a neighbor once told Muhammad.

She tries to ignore those kinds of comments bearing in mind none of the ordeal was her fault.  She pays for Hairat's schooling by knitting caps and selling soft drinks from a rented mini refrigerator and makes regular trips to the morgue in search of her brother's body;  he disappeared after he dropped out of college to join the vigilantes to avenge Muhammad's capture.

Muhammad has commenced training to become a nurse.  She wants to give back.  But she couldn't afford fees for recent exams after an uncle kicked her out of his house, still suspicious of her time with the militants.

Until she can save up money to the exam, she keeps a first aid kit with her, in case she comes across anyone needing help.

A shout out to Muhammad and the women at the well and to the other women like them who have bravely resisted, foiling the extremists' plans in quiet and unheralded ways.  Most of them who broke away from Boko Haram keep their abductions secret for fear of stigmatization as terrorist sympathizers even though they were held against their wills.  We hail them for standing up to Boko Haram and all those who lost their lives for doing so.

Adapted from:  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/women/boko-haram-women-suicide-bombing-nigeria-a9421166.html

© The New York Times

Nollywood's Halima Abubakar Welcomes Baby

Halima Abubakar - Photo Credit: www.tori.ng

Nollywood Actress Halima Abubakar has just welcomed a baby boy thereby becoming the newest celebrity mother in town.

The beautiful actress announced the arrival of her bundle of joy via her IG account.  In her words:  "A gift from God And I will cherish you for life 😩❤️❤️❤️Biggest miracle ❤️ A Boy 🙏🏻 3/4/20".

Halima is an influential Nollywood actress.  She started her acting career in Nollywood in 2001 who has won numerous awards among which are:

-  Afro Hollywood Best Actress Award

-  Actors Guild Icons Award

- Global Leadership Award

- Best Actress Awards

- Kogi State Youth Ambassador

Some of the most prominent movies under her belt include:

- Slip of Fate

- Tears of a Child

- Secret Shadows

- Gangster Paradise

- Area Mama

- Men in Love

- Okafor's Law

- Return of White Hunters, etc...

Halima, a Kogi State indegene, was born on June 12,1985 in Kano State, Northern Nigeria and holds a Bachelors Degree in Sociology.  She is also a model, TV Presenter, a Philanthropist and CEO of Modehouse Entertainment, a music label and entertainment management company. 

Congratulations to her on the birth of her baby.

ALSO READ: Fire Guts Down the Home of SSA to Delta State Governor

The One Proof that Love will Always find a Way to Come Shining Through

In this period of COVID-19 pandemic, when the entire world is faced with a bleak future darkened by uncertainty the depth of which seems beyond human comprehension, light, love and hope through fate will always find a way to come shining through as it did for Jeremy Cohen who found love in a way quite surprising and gave dating a new face.

Jeremy 'Jerm' Cohen, born in 1991, lives and works in Brooklyn as a freelance photographer.  Owing to social distancing brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, millions all over the world have been quarantined at their homes in an attempt to curb the spread of the disease.  Jeremy was cooped up in his apartment alone when he looked out of his window and noticed a girl dancing on the roof of a building next to his own house.  He waved at the girl who waved back and Jeremy, who hasn't been on a date in at least a year, took his drone and attached a piece of paper to it with his phone number and "Text Me" written on it.

The rest is now history as they say.  The video below explains what happened next.

Adapted from:
www.facebook.com
www.boredpanda.com
www.jermcohen.com

Nigeria Reduces Fuel Price to N123.50 per Litre

The Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, has reduced the pump price of petrol to N123.50/Litre from the current price of N125.00/Litre.  This new price is to take effect today according to the Executive Secretary of PPPRA, Abdulkadir Saidu, who announced the new pump price.

This comes precisely two weeks after the agency reduced the pump price from N145.00/Litre to N125.00/Litre.

This reduction is based on the reduced landing costs of petrol into Nigeria which is caused by the global decline of crude oil prices.