Robbers exhume, behead, steal head of film director

Grave robbers have stolen from a crypt the head of German expressionist cinema great Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, director of the silent-film vampire classic “Nosferatu”, reports said Wednesday.

Police did not rule out an occultist motive after finding candle wax in the family crypt in Stahnsdorf southwest of Berlin and were investigating the case on charges of theft and disturbing the peace of the dead.

One or more grave robbers opened the metal coffin before decapitating the director’s embalmed body but did not disturb the remains of his two brothers, reported Bild daily and national news agency DPA.

Born in 1888, Murnau is best known for his 1922 silent
movie classic “Nosferatu — A Symphony of Horror”, which Hollywood magazine Variety wrote is “recognised as one of the scariest horror movies of all time”.

Murnau later moved to Hollywood where he directed
“Sunrise”, which won several Academy Awards. He died in a 1931 car crash near Santa Barbara, California, and his body was repatriated to his native Germany.

Having more than 20 partners reduces prostate cancer risk

Men with numerous lovers have a lower risk of developing prostate cancer-because they have more sex, scientists say.

Lotharios who have had more than 20 partners have a 28 per cent reduced risk compared with men who have had only one sexual partner in their lifetime, they claim.
But it is the amount of sex they have rather than the number of partners that cuts the cancer risk.

Lead researcher Prof. Marie-Elise Parent, from the University of Montreal, said: ‘It is possible that having many female sexual partners results in a higher frequency of ejaculations, whose protective effect against prostate cancer has been previously observed in cohort studies.’

Men who are virgins are almost twice as likely to be
diagnosed with prostate cancer as those who are sexually experienced, it was claimed.

One theory is that large numbers of ejaculation may reduce the concentration of cancer-causing substances in prostatic fluid, a constituent of semen.

But the same is not true for gay men-Where having more than 20 male partners doubles the risk of prostate cancer.

The danger of a less aggressive cancer type also rises five- fold, possibly to do with greater exposure to sexually transmitted infections or the forum of gay sex.

More than 3,200 men aged between 40 and 79 answered questions about their lifestyle and sex lives in the prostate cancer and environment study.

Breaking: Buhari, Osinbajo declare assets

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari and his Vice, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, have declared their asset.

A statement by the Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu said “the documents submitted to the CCB, which officials say are still being vetted and will soon be made public, show that prior to being sworn in on May 29, President Buhari had less than N30 million to his name. He also had only one bank account, with the Union Bank. President Buhari had no foreign account, no factory and no enterprises. He also had no registered company and no oil wells”, the statement said.

The statement further added that “the Vice President,
Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), who had been a successful lawyer before his foray into politics declared a bank balance of about N94 million and 900,000 United States Dollars in his bank accounts”.

It added that President Buhari “had shares in Berger Paints, Union Bank and Skye Bank”.

The documents also revealed that “President Buhari had a total of five homes, and two mud houses in Daura. He had two homes in Kaduna, one each in Kano, Daura and in Abuja.

One of the mud houses in Daura was inherited from his late older sister, another from his late father. He borrowed money from the old Barclays Bank to build two of his homes.

“President Buhari also has two undeveloped plots of land, one in Kano and the other in Port Harcourt. He is still trying to trace the location of the Port Harcourt land.

“In addition to the homes in Daura, he has farms, an orchard and a ranch. The total number of his holdings in the farm include 270 heads of cattle, 25 sheep, five horses, a variety of birds and a number of economic trees”.

The documents also showed that the retired General “uses a number of cars, two of which he bought from his savings and the others supplied to him by the federal government in his capacity as former Head of State. The rest were donated to him by well-wishers after his jeep was damaged in a Boko Haram bomb attack on his convoy in July 2014.

The same forms, according to Mr Shehu, notes that ” Vice- President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo’s asset declaration include his 4-bedroom residence at Victoria Garden City, Lagos and a 3-bedroom flat at 2 Mosley Road, Ikoyi. The Vice President also has a 2-bedroom flat at the popular Redemption Camp along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and a 2- bedroom mortgaged property in Bedford, England. Aside from these, the Vice President has no other landed properties on the form.

“Apart from his law firm, known as SimmonsCooper, the Vice-President also declared shareholding in six private companies based in Lagos, including Octogenerium Ltd., Windsor Grant Ltd., Tarapolsa, Vistorion Ltd., Aviva Ltd. and MTN Nigeria.

“His personal vehicles are one Infinity 4-Wheel Drive SUV, one Mercedes Benz and a Prado Jeep.

“As soon as the CCB is through with the process, the
documents will be released to the Nigerian public and people can see for themselves,” Mr Shehu said.

NOUN graduates to join NYSC, Law School programme soon – Director

Ilorin – Graduates of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) would soon be allowed to participate in the National Youth Service Corps Scheme (NYSC) and the Nigerian Law School Programme.

The Director, Ilorin Study Centre of NOUN, Mr Michael
Abikoye, made this known on Thursday in an interview in Ilorin.

Abikoye, who was NOUN first Acting Registrar, attributed exclusion of NOUN graduates from the scheme and law school to public misunderstanding of the difference between Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and part time studies.

He expressed optimism that with the ongoing talk between the management of the Open University and the relevant stakeholders, NOUN students would be absorbed into the scheme.

“The denial of our graduates in participating in the NYSC scheme is based essentially on the general misunderstanding of difference in concept between open and distance learning system, which Nigerians have equated with part time studies.

“But open and distance learning is not exactly the same thing as part time study.

“Open and Distance Learning is a standard form of education and it is the vogue in many advanced countries today.

“Incidentally, most of NOUN programmes are accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC) that accredits programmes of conventional Nigerian Universities.

“Our course materials are prepared by seasoned academics in the conventional university system and they go through rigorous and thorough process of editing and printing before they are released to the students.

“It may not surprise you to know that even in the
conventional universities; our course materials are being used by some lecturers to produce their own handouts for students.

“That shows you the quality of our materials and by
extension, the quality of our products,” Abikoye added.

Abikoye said that NOUN has standard and functioning
laboratory at its headquarters and in some selected study centres across the country.

He said what NOUN has done in some centres where it has no laboratory of its own was to go into Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the neighbouring conventional universities.

“At the Ilorin Study Centre here for instance, we have gone into collaboration with the University of Ilorin, so that NOUN students can avail themselves with laboratory facilities there.

“This was particularly meant for the students of our School of Health Science and ICT,” he said.

Abikoye disclosed that NOUN has set up two skills
acquisition vocational centres at graduate, post graduate diploma and certificate levels to fill the gap left behind by conventional universities.

NYSC secures N200m bank facility for disbursement to corps members as loans

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) on Friday said it had secured over N200 million bank facility for disbursement to corps members as loans to enbale them start their businesses.

Brig.-Gen. Johnson Olawumi, the Director-General of the corps, said this when the Commander, Guards Brigade, Nigerian Army, Brig.-Gen. Musa Yusuf, paid a familiarisation visit to the NYSC Headquarters in Abuja.

“That has been a challenge; we train these corps members in the camp after the camp we have partners all over the country where corps members also receive training throughout the service year.

“Now, the issue is that when they get this training they don’t have start-up capital but we have been doing a lot to see there is opportunity for them to get startup capital. We have the NYSC foundation as we speak, the NYSC foundation has just approved loan worth N10 million for corps members.

“ Corps members based on the business plan they submit could get as much as N250, 000 and N400, 000. We have also signed an MoU with Bank of Industry though it is yet to take off but we are working on it.

“ A couple of months ago, I also approached Heritage Bank and Heritage Bank is setting aside the sum of N200 million under a package where corps members will get a soft loan and the only collateral they will have to drop will be their discharge certificate.

“ We are also talking with Central Bank Governor to see that a micro credit loan could be arranged specially to address corps members in this category.” He debunked allegations that the corps has yet to provide skill acquisition and entrepreneurship development to corps members, adding that the exercise had been ongoing since 2012.

According to Olawumi, the NYSC has so far trained over 400,000 corps members since the commencement of its skills acquisition programme in over 12 different skills.

He said that the NYSC, under the sponsorship of the World Bank, was currently partnering with an international organisation to train corps members interested in going into the building and property development sector.

Olawumi also called on the Guards Brigade to continue to assist the NYSC in ensuring the safety of corps members serving in the Federal Capital Territory as well as those serving in other states.

The director- general also directed the Director,Skills
Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) of the corps, Mrs Mary Dan-Abia, to commence partnership with the brigade’s skills acquisition centre in Keffi, Nassarawa State.

Earlier, Brig.-Gen. Yusuf assured the NYSC that the brigade had made adequate security arrangements to ensure the safety of corps members serving in FCT. Yusuf said that part of the security arrangements put in place included regular patrolling of the FCT, adding the safety of corps members was one of the priorities of the Guards Brigade.

He also assured the NYSC boss that the brigade would
continue to support and partner with the corps in the area of training of corps members and other related needs. “I am here on behalf of the Guards Brigade, officers and their families to commend you on the collaboration and support we have received from the NYSC so far.

“ I want to promise that this collaboration, support and
understanding will be maintained. “ If there is anything we need to improve on in terms of our relationship or training to new corps members or any other area the Guards Brigade is here to support and assist.”

Nigerian, David Oyelowo is new James Bond

Actor David Oyelowo has been asked by the Ian Fleming estate to record the audio book for Trigger Mortis, a new officially commissioned Bond book written by Anthony Horowitz.

Oyelowo’s previous roles include Henry VI for the Royal
Shakespeare Company – which made him the first black actor to play an English king in a major Shakespeare production.

He also played the MI5 officer Danny Hunter in the BBC TV drama Spooks and was acclaimed for his performance as Martin Luther King in Selma.

Oyelowo will play Bond, and other characters, in the
audiobook version of Trigger Mortis, written by Anthony Horowitz and commissioned by the Ian Fleming estate.

Describing himself as “very honoured”, Oyelowo said: “I am officially the only person on planet Earth who can
legitimately say: ‘I am the new James Bond’ – even saying that name is the cinematic equivalent of doing the ‘to be or not to be’ speech.”

He added: “I was asked specifically by the Fleming estate, which is really special.”

Born in Oxford to Nigerian parents, his performance as Henry VI drew critical acclaim, but also “very real resistance”, particularly from one academic. Oyelowo said: “He said that we open ourselves to ridicule if we allow black people to play English kings when English kings have never been black. But I’ve never seen an Egyptian play Cleopatra … so it’s a nonsensical statement.”

President as Minister of Petroleum?

THE news has been making the rounds in both the
conventional and internet media that President Muhammadu Buhari is to assume the position of Minister of Petroleum when he appoints ministers next month.

According to the information reportedly leaked after a
meeting of the president with chieftains of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja over the impending ministerial appointments, Buhari said he would take the action as part of his move to sanitise the oil sector and rid it of corruption.

Ordinarily, this should be a welcome development for several reasons. Number one is that the president’s reputation as “Mr Clean” remains intact, even among his political adversaries. Number two is that the fight against corruption, especially in the cash-cow oil sector, has been a major concern of Nigerians which Buhari promised to address during his campaigns. Number three and most importantly, is that President Buhari is a veteran in the management of the
sector. He spearheaded the establishment of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) when he was oil minister in the late 1970’s. He has the cognate experience to do a thorough job and creating the right template before ceding the position to a cabinet minister.

However, we are concerned about issues of transparency and accountability if the president chooses to take up the post in addition to his onerous and overloaded duties as the nation’s Chief Executive and Security Officer. The nation is still at sea over the way in which former President Olusegun Obasanjo
handled the same job for six years from 1999 when he
assumed power. A number of turnaround maintenance
projects were undertaken and billions of naira sunk and yet the refineries remained comatose until after Buhari took over, and they started bouncing back, as if by magic. We do not want a repeat of the nation being put in the dark about proceedings in the industry.

One big disadvantage of having the president of the country as Minister of Petroleum Resources is that it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for him to be summoned by the National Assembly to be grilled over any misgivings that might arise, and to supply information that will help to set the minds of Nigerians at rest when the “clean-up” of the industry begins. The story will be different if a minister is on the job.

We suggest that the president appoints a person of proven competence and integrity to carry out his mandate in the industry and be available and accountable to Nigerians through the federal legislature, the media and civil society.

Once bitten, they say, twice shy. A minister should be put on the job for greater transparency, accessibility and accountability.