Jerry Douglas' Blog

Identical twin sisters got married to identical twin brothers and the two couples are still very much in love. Darlene and Diane Nettemeier went to a twins’ festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, where they met another set of twins but first, they met one, Mark Sanders who caught their eye. Sanders called his identical brother, Craig, down from their hotel room to meet the ‘neat’ blondes and that is how the whole love story unfolds. Craig and Diane got married and Mark and Darlene too got married. Today, they live in houses next door to each other in Texas, and have five children between them. Craig, 44, said that he felt an ‘instant attraction’ to just one of the blonde twins, Darlene, despite them looking the same. “When I went downstairs I was instantly attracted to the one on the right. Diane was standing on the right and Darlene was standing on the left and I was instantly attracted to Diane,’ he said while appearing on the Jeff Probst show. After meeting in 1998, the boys went to...

Plateau State Governor, Jonah David Jang on Tuesday, January 15 paid a solidarity visit to recuperating Taraba State Governor, Danbaba Suntai in Hannover, Germany. Suntai was flown for treatment in Germany following an helicopter crash in which he sustained serious injuries. Picture below shows Jang and Suntai during the visit.

Twenty five ships are waiting to discharge petroleum products at the various oil terminals within the Lagos ports, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has said. NPA, in its daily `Shipping Position’, made available to newsmen on Wednesday in Lagos, said that 14 of the ships would discharge petrol, while three ships would discharge diesel. It said that three ships would discharge kerosene, three others would discharge diesel, while ethanol and base oil would be discharged by a ship each. NPA reports that nine ships would discharge rice, fresh fish, containers, bulk sugar, and fertilizer. It added that 68 ships carrying different cargoes were expected to sail into the ports between Jan. 16 and Jan. 31. According to the shipping position, seven of the expected ships would arrive with petroleum products while 11 would sail in with new vehicles. (NAN)

Queens Park Rangers have signed striker Loic Remy from Marseille for a club record £8m fee. Remy, 26, has agreed a four-and-a-half-year deal with the Premier League's bottom club. The former Lyon forward has won 17 caps for France and scored four goals. Harry Redknapp told  the club website:    "I'm delighted to bring him in - he's a great buy for us. He's got the potential to be a really outstanding striker." He was also a target for  Newcastle, who had expected him for talks on Sunday  only to discover he had travelled to Loftus Road instead. Redknapp added: "I didn't think we'd get him to be honest but Tony Fernandes worked ever so hard on this. Loic Remy in numbers Age  26 France Caps  17 Games for Marseille  99 Goals for Marseille  36 French league titles  1 Goals this season  3 Total transfer fees  £27.5m "He wouldn't give up on it and it's great that we now have him here with us. "...

An Osogbo Senior Magistrates' Court on Wednesday sentenced a 30-year-old house wife, Yidiat Bakare, to five years imprisonment for throwing her baby into a dam. The convict, who pleaded guilty to the offence, committed the crime on Jan. 10 at about 4 pm at Ifon-Osun in Orolu Local Government Area in Osun State. According to the Prosecutor Joshua Oladoye, the convict has a misunderstanding with her husband Amodu Bakare over feeding allowance. "The quarrel made the woman to take the three-months-old baby to a dam in the area where she threw the baby," Oladoye said.

Bayern Munich have confirmed Pep Guardiola will become the club's new manager in the summer. Guardiola, 41, has been without a club since leaving Barcelona at the end of the 2011-12 season as he sought time away from football. During his sabbatical in America, the Spanish coach has been linked with several clubs, including Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and AC Milan. However, Bayern have moved to secure his services for the 2013-14 campaign after they announced on Wednesday he has agreed a three-year deal at the Allianz Arena. Guardiola, who won three Liga titles and two Champions League trophies during his time at Barca, will succeed Jupp Heynckes as Bayern boss. Bayern confirmed the news on their official Twitter account: "Jupp #Heynckes will finish his successful career by the end of this season. Pep #Guardiola will take over as FC Bayern head coach in July."

An Ibadan Chief Magistrates’ Court has ordered the flogging of a serial pick-pocket, Taiwo Ajiwe, after he was caught in the act of stealing N200. The prosecutor, Sgt. Olalekan Obayanju told the court that Ajiwe, 35, stole the sum from one Abigael Okekunle on Saturday at Academy area of Ibadan. He said the defendant confessed to frequently stealing money from unsuspecting passers-by and commuters. Obayanju said that the action of Ajiwe contravened Section 390(9)(4) of the Criminal Code Cap 38 Vol. II Laws of Oyo State, 2000. The defendant pleaded guilty to the one-count charge of pick-pocketing when his plea was taken. Some counsel present in court, however, pleaded with the judge to be lenient with the defendant in order not to worsen his poor condition. Chief Magistrate Adams Adeshina ordered Ajiwe to be given six strokes of the cane publicly.

You will be termed a ‘hater’ and perhaps booed by fans for daring to doubt Mercy Johnson’s excellent role interpreting abilities but the same may not be the case when you put it to them (fans) that she’s about to sing! No?… Yes! And it’s a pretty picture. Rap star, Ice Prince on social networking site twitter announced that the sultry actress will be part of a star studded list of artists to remix his currently raving hit song ‘Aboki’ He tweeted You will recall that in October last year, another nollywood actress, Tonto Dike dropped her singles ‘Hi’ and ‘Itz Ova’ to wide condemnation that degenerated to a virtual war on twitter; Tonto and her fans hurled insults at each other. It is hoped this never happens in this case. Already we hear that recording is well underway and the remix should be hitting fans of both Ice Prince and Mercy soon. Mercy Johnson gave birth to a baby girl in faraway United States, late December last year. Her new role as ‘singer’ now  comes fourt...

Two persons and 11 cows died in the wee hours of yesterday, when a truck plunged into a river at Abaji town, along Abuja-Lokoja road. A witness said the incident happened at about 3:15 am. He said a Marcopolo luxury brand bus with registration number XB 125 KPU overtook a vehicle on the bridge top and collided with an oncoming truck that was loaded with cows. "The truck’s head pulled off and entered into the river with the driver and a passenger trapped to death," he said. According to the reports, there was a traffic gridlock at about 6:12 am on the road, while Road Safety officials, soldiers and Civil Defence officials were trying to remove the corpses and clear the road. When contacted, Abaji unit commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Moses Audu, confirmed the death and said 14 others sustained injuries. He said the corpses were at University of Abuja Teaching Hospital Gwagwalada, while the injured passengers were taken to Abaji General Hosp...

A major communal conflict was Wednesday averted in Makurdi the Benue state capital, after a sugarcane seller  [names withheld]  allegedly stabbed 19-year-old Umaru Abdulrahaman, his customer, to death following an argument. It was gathered from an eyewitness that the incident took place Wednesday morning at about 10 am in the Wadata area of Makurdi of town. According to the witness who craved anonymity, the deceased and the sugarcane seller had engaged in an argument after purchasing a stick of sugarcane. "They were actually arguing over the balance  [change]  that was supposed to be given the the murdered young man. All we heard was a sudden loud scream, and the young man fell to the ground. "When we rushed to the scene, we saw blood gushing from chest of the deceased where he was stabbed. We discovered that the young man was dead cold while his attacker immediately fled the scene of the incident leaving his victim in his own pool of blood," according...

Even though prostitution, the oldest profession in the world is an open sore in the urban areas, especially in the commercial city of Lagos state where the business booms, there are yet many shocking happenings in the name of sex-for-money. It was all glitz, fun and razzmatazz over the weekend at Ejigbo, a densely populated area of Lagos as commercial sex workers, otherwise known as prostitutes gathered to celebrate one of the top members of the bed-to-wealth business who turned 70. The well-attended event reunited both retired and active members of the Association of Nigerian Prostitutes (ANP) who came to shower praises on the septuagenarian who they described as their ‘Matron’ Over 60 prostitutes converged at a popular brothel in Ejigbo, a shanty house built with wooden shacks, which accommodates over 15 stakeholders in the ‘dirty’ business. Madam Juliet (surname withheld) who turned 70 got a surprise birthday bash from members of ANP for her distinguish role. She described...

The new engine, dubbed Graph Search, was announced at a media event at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Tuesday, ending weeks of speculation that the social networking giant may be prepping its own branded smartphone or a new mobile app. The Graph Search tool was touted by Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg as being an intuitive search engine that lets users perform searches with "natural" language rather than keywords. Unlike most search engines, Graph Search was built to respond to longer queries like "People who like tennis and live nearby" or "Sushi restaurants in Palo Alto my friends have liked" rather than the shorter keyword searches performed by sites like Google Graph Search can also handle queries related to photos, allowing users to search for "Photos of my family" or "Photos of my friends taken in Italy," for example. Facebook further distinguished Graph Search from generic Web search engine...

Dana Air inaugural flight left the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on 5th January 2013 at 10am and landed in Abuja at 11.05 packed with celebrities, journalists and some passengers.   Comedians, Basketmouth, Buchi and musicians Harrisong, and Dipp were among the celebrities that joined the flight.

Forty families of  dead victims in the Dana plane that  crashed on June 3rd, 2012 have called for a boycott of the airline by air travellers, following irregularities recorded in the compensation of the victims’ families. Speaking through M.O. Awoyemi & Co. the law firm representing their  interests, the  families said, “If you love your life, boycott Dana Airline. You owe it to yourself and your family. We want to call on all well meaning Nigerians to condemn the resumption of Dana Airlines and we  call on the House of Representatives to summon the Aviation Minister, Mrs. stella Oduah on this issue and ensure that Dana Airline operating license is withdrawn in line with the resolution of the House of Representatives.” Mr. Bunmi Awoyemi, Managing Partner of the law firm  fingered Prestige Assurance Plc and its re-insurer of 70 per cent of the risk, Pritchard Insurance Limited/Lloyd’s of London in the irregularities associated with the compensation...

SAT 19 JAN 2013 -  South Africa v Cape Verde Islands 16:00 Angola v Morocco 19:00 SUN 20 JAN 2013 - AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS Ghana v Congo DR 15:00 Mali v Niger 18:00 MON 21 JAN 2013 - AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS Zambia v Ethiopia 15:00 Nigeria v Burkina Faso 18:00 TUE 22 JAN 2013 - AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS Ivory Coast v Togo 15:00 Tunisia v Algeria 18:00 WED 23 JAN 2013 - AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS South Africa v Angola 15:00 Morocco v Cape Verde Islands 18:00 THU 24 JAN 2013 - AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS Ghana v Mali 15:00 Niger v Congo DR 18:00 View all fixtures All times UK

Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola; and his Bayelsa State counterpart, Seriake Dickson, have called for support for the families of war veterans and servicemen who died fighting for Nigeria. On his part, Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan called on Nigerians to take the welfare of ex-servicemen “as a national challenge with everyone contributing to it”. In their addresses at the wreath-laying ceremony of this year’s Armed Forces Remembrance Day, the trio regretted the neglect of “our fallen heroes”. Aregbesola, who was represented by his deputy, Mrs. Titilayo Laoye-Tomori, at the event in Osogbo, lamented that some of the widows were homeless, calling on the concerned authorities to ensure that the families of the fallen heroes get their entitlements. He said, “They fought gallantly and some of them died in the service of their fatherland. “So, we must keep alive the memories of our men in the military and this day should be a sober reflection to remember our brave and...

The Federal Government has approved the immediate deployment of 900 troops as part of the ECOWAS Force to push for the emancipation of Northern Mali from the grip of Islamists. The Director of Defence Information, Col. Mohammed Yerima, said during a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday that the President ordered the deployment of the troops for the crucial military mission. Related News:  Nigeria To Deploy Troop To Mali He said that the first batch comprising 190 troops would leave the country for Mali on Wednesday (today) while “the remainder would be deployed later.” Yerima said, “As you are aware, the degenerating crisis in the Republic of Mali compelled the decision of ECOWAS Heads of Government to intervene with a deployment of their military forces. “Following this decision, and in line with Nigeria’s acclaimed peacekeeping roles and in the spirit of African brotherhood, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has ordered th...

It said that it had achieved the sales of an incredible 100 million units of the smartphone Galaxy ‘S’ series. This will be a breakthrough in the Mobile technology for the company, considering the fact that the Smartphones have taken the shine off the basic normal phones in the market, wooing the young and trendy population across the globe. The Firm described the Galaxy S series as the innovation that has positioned it for the fist time, as the leading player in Gadget and Smartphone Industry ahead of Apple, which has caused analysts to wonder what will be the next stepfor the Americans. From a New research carried out, the younger generation categorized as the ‘Generation Y’ have recently considered the Samsung products as ‘Cool’ compared to Apple . The Galaxy S2 plus recently launched with the jelly bean Android Operating system could also close the Smartphones market for other competitors. Samsung said Galaxy S 3 series have been selling at a faster rate than estimated...

Acting Director-General, BPE, Mr. Benjamin Dikki The Bureau of Public Enterprises on Tuesday opened negotiations with the preferred bidders for the power generation and distribution companies carved out of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria. The final negotiations are expected to pave the way for the signing of the Sale and Purchase Agreement and the Shareholders’ Agreement with the preferred bidders. Speaking during a meeting in Abuja, the Acting Director-General, BPE, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, said the preferred bidders would be required to make 25 per cent payment of the bid sums within 15 working days from the signing of the agreements. Following the approval of the National Council on Privatisation chaired by Vice-President Namadi Sambo, the preferred bidders had paid a total of $335,854,986.15, which the transaction process required them to pay as bid guarantees. For the Abuja Distribution Company, Kann Consortium had paid $24.6m; for the Benin Disco, Vigeo Pow...

With a view to accommodating more of its growing subscriber base in the country, one of Nigeria’s GSM service provider, Globacom has launched a new 0811 series of numbers, to spread its reach and capacity in a very enterprising and lucrative way. This is coming at the time, the Company is planning to celebrate a decade of existence in the Telecommunication sector, which was launched since the year 2001. Glo is said to have lived up to the billing of analysts as it continues to compete with other foreign players in the Industry. Speaking on the Launch of the new digits and new strategy, the Company’s Acting Head of Marketing Mr Niyi Olukoya, said “we are pleased to inform our teeming, existing and prospective subscribers of the new number series which has been rolled into the market. We have endeared our self to the people and we are glad to be the network of choice among telephone users”.   He also explained that the number series was necessary, because the network had e...