Governor Peter Obi Wins Anambra Polls

“Peter Obi… having satisfied all requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes, is hereby declared the winner,” said chief returning officer Josiah Uwazuruonye. And so the incumbent governor of Anambra State was declared winner of the Anambra polls.

Obi who contested on the platform of APGA won by taking 13 out of the 21 LGAs in Anambra state with a total of 97,843 votes, ahead of his closest contestant Chris Ngige, from the Action Congress opposition party, who had 60,240 votes. Former Central Bank Governor Chukwuma Soludo came third with 59, 755 votes.

Mr Obi is yet to make a public speech. For more http://saharareporters.com/real-news/sr-headlines/5075--governor-peter-obi-declared-winner-of-anambra-polls.html

http://www.usafricaonline.com/anambra-gov-peter-obi-affirmed-by-inec-as-winner-of-governorship-election-amidst-tales-of-voting-logistics-problems/

My Eventful Morning with a Samanja Wanna-Be

I boarded a LAGBUS headed to CMS from Festac town this morning on my way to work. As I was minding my business (trying to catch up on some sleep), I was suddenly woken up by a sudden jerk of the bus. Then I heard driver of the bus talking in a loud voice saying, “…What is wrong with people sef. People are not just patient, see this man. So because he doesn’t want me to enter his front, e dey enter bush”. Before I could digest this, a dark middle-aged man in plain clothes brandishing a walkie-talkie came to harass the driver. Before the driver could say anything, this ‘so-called’, self-acclaimed military man got angry, raining insults on the driver, threatening to deal with him. While this was going on, all the passengers in the bus including me asked the driver to ignore the Samanja wanna-be so we could continue on our way to walk. But since the man would not stop harassing the driver, he lost his cool and started trading words with.

The driver finally heeded our advice and stopped talking. But Samanja was not yet done, he got into his Toyota 4 Runner with car registration number BW 616 KTU blocked our bus, got out, went the policemen by Orile Police Station and asked them to arrest the driver of our bus. When we saw the policemen heading for our bus, we were happy thinking we would finally get justice but to our surprise, the policemen came and instructed our driver get out of the bus. Before we could say Jack, on-lookers had gathered, watching; a soldier was by the driver’s door trying to force the door open.
At this point, the passengers lost their cool and insisted that the driver would not open the door. A few guys in the business actually volunteered to run the bus over the car. Thank God they did not succeed. When Samanja saw that the passengers were not bulging and we were not ready to listen to the policemen’s pleas to us asking the driver to come out of the bus (to be beaten by the soldiers that had started gathering); and there was no way him and his cronies would lay hands on the driver, he shamefully got into his car and drove off.

Though Samanja didn’t have the last laugh, he succeeded in reminding us-citizens- how lawless Nigeria can be because while this was going on, traffic was being held up and I can bet you that over half of the passengers got to work late this morning.

You know what was really ironical, Samanja who would not allow one bus go before him ended up allowing dozens of cars go while wasting the time he was supposed to have saved (watch video and photograph of one policemen asking the driver to get out of the bus). What foolishness!

Pastor Mrs Eky Otum - A vessel of Honour

At exactly 3pm on Friday, 29th January 2010 I received a text message from Ese Ibude. I quickly opened it to read expecting to receive the news that she had a found a child-minder for my baby. Instead I received the rudest shock in my life, I physically jumped from my seat. The message? “PASTOR EKY DIED LAST NIGHT. SO SAD”. To say I was shocked is an understatement. I thought I had gone past the stage where the news of death shocks me. But believe me, this one did.

Pastor Mrs Eky Otum used to be my former parish pastor at The Communion Church, Covenant Parish (former Upper Room Parish), she was my parish for more than 5 years and those years really made me mature as a christian. As young teenage christians, she made us so accountable to her that she was almost like God to us. In those days, you would never dare to disobey your parents or do something that would make anybody report you to her. She not only used to preach to us but made sure we were trained to do as she had said. I remember her telling us to serve God while we were young and had no cares because we would grow older and regret not having seved God in our youth; today I look back and thank God I followed her advice.

Pastor Otum had so much passion for women cannot be quantified; In her lifetime, she showed so much love to widows, single and married women, even teenage girls had a place in her heart. She even founded a ministry with the mission of making women Vessels of Honour. I remember the last time I was under her ministration; that was a few months before my wedding. She had some ministers come to talk to us about preparing ourselves to be the kind of wives God expects us to be.

There so many thing I would want to say about her but I find I’m not really do that now. Even if I’m not going to add any other thing to this piece, I have not forgotten her cooking- those days in the prayer band when we fast for days and break with a banquet.

Pastor Mrs Eky Otum is now with God! And I ask myself, if it had been me, would that have been my testimony? She was like Dorcas in the acts of the apostle, fulfilling ministry. My answer? I still have ministry to fulfil.