Snopp Dogg turns “Born Again” ,changes name to Snopp Lion

After many years of smoking ganja, spreading dissing music and gun  culture, renowned rapper Snopp Dogg has revealed that he is now a born again.

According to Snoop Dogg he was “born again” during a visit to Jamaica in January, and now changing his name to Snoop Lion and is ready to make music that his “kids and grandparents can listen to.”

The 40-year-old, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, Jr., believes that he is Bob Marley reincarnated and is embracing reggae instead of the culture of guns he once rapped about.

He said that in Jamaica, he connected with Bob Marley’s spirit and is now ‘Bob Marley reincarnated.’ “I feel like I’ve always been Rastafarian,” Snoop said of the spiritual Jamaican movement.

He further stated that he visited a temple where he was was renamed Snoop Lion and was also given the Ethiopian name Berhane, meaning ‘light of the world.’

Snoop didn’t explain why he was switching from Dogg to Lion, but it’s likely a reference to the Lion of Judah, a religious symbol popular in Rastafarian and Ethiopian culture.

The former gangster rapper, known for his lewd lyrics is releasing a reggae album called “Reincarnated” later in the year.

On the album is a track titled “No Guns Allowed” which features his daughter.

The album will be followed with a documentary of the same title, debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

Davido ” Omo Baba Olowo” Beats Taxi Driver Silly

Rave of the moment, David Adeleke a.k.a Davido (Omo Baba Olowo) is being fingered as the mastermind of an alleged assault against a taxi driver, Femi Ajibola.

The incident which is already casting doubt on the character and the gentle mien  of the young music act occurred on July 1,2012 at about 5:30pm according to the Saturday Punch.

Mr Ajibola, the cabbie in the course of making ends meet, received a phone call from a lady who contracted him to take her places in his car on an agreed sum.
Ajibola narrates …
At the onset,  Cabbie thinking of Mega Bucks
“The lady introduced herself as Susie. She called me to come and pick her and her friend. They told me to come pick them up at Mobolaji Estate near Lekki Second Roundabout. Later, I took them to a hotel at Lekki Phase I to meet one of their friends.

“From there we left for Beni Apartment in Victoria Island. They said that I should wait for them and promised to be back soon. Not long afterwards, one of the girls began to scream as she was coming towards my car. Behind her, I saw David Adeleke (Davido) and four of his bouncers.

“The girl was running towards me. I think the men had assaulted her. She said I should open the door for her so that she would enter. I opened the door for her; as she was about to enter the car, Davido caught up with her and slapped her face,” Ajibola said.

The bubble bursts, Cabbie gets the beating of his life
“He left the girl and faced me. He said I was the one that brought the girls, that I am their boyfriend. He knocked my face against the steering wheel of the cab. This made blood begin to come out from my ear drums. He seized my car keys and in the process, injured me.

“Before I knew what was going on, his four bouncers began to beat me up. They beat me severely and took my car keys from me and chased me away. This happened around 11 pm. I went to report the matter at the Bar Beach Police Station, which was the nearest one. I was asked to come back the next morning to report the case.

More Tales of Woe, Cabbie’s Money  Goes Missing
“I had taken delivery of the vehicle about two weeks before the incident. I had paid my dealer N50,000 and the other N100,000 was in the car because I could not pay it in the bank. The money was in the car and since they had sent me away from the car, I could not retrieve it.

“The following day, I did not find the money in the cab. They did not even let me wind the car windows up before they chased me out. I noticed that the car was ransacked. I managed to obtain Davido’s phone number and called him. But he did not pick his call. So I sent him a text message. Thirty minutes after I sent him the message, someone picked up the call and promised to pass the message to him. I did not get my car key throughout that day. I went to the police station to file a report,” Ajibola said.

Davido as needle in the haystack, Police and Cabbie’s Endless Search 
“When all efforts to contact Davido proved futile, the police had to go to Susie. Unfortunately, she was of no help.”

“On the fourth day, I went to Susie’s house with the police. The ladies said they were not the ones that beat me. They said the only help they could render was to give me Davido’s address and that they had since settled their differences. The whole point of the police visit was to use the girls to get to Davido, but the girls made a phone call to an aunt of theirs and the policemen left them, saying that they were not the ones that assaulted me,” the cab driver said.

Cabbie Learns the truth, the rich cannot be touched, so poor rat suffer in silence

I learnt that Davido was dating one of the girls I picked up. They went to his hotel room and caught him with another girl who was their friend. This is what I learnt caused the fight. The police collected Davido’s phone number and called him, but he kept asking them if they knew whose son he was.

“He warned the policemen not to threaten or intimidate him. They in turn told him that they were just inviting him for questioning and not to arrest him. Since then, the effort to get him has not been forthcoming.  I had to go to the hospital because I was really injured. Davido gave me a blow to the ear which made it to bleed.

“One day, the DPO of the station assured me that they would make sure they get him. He was irritated by Davido’s boasting that he was immune to arrest. On July 13, one Sharon Adeleke asked me to come and collect the key of my car at 1004. I told her to come and meet me at the police station. She did not turn up till the DPO intervened.

Cabbie Misery Worsens,  Learns that  the Police Is Your Friend Slogan is Not For The Poor
“The DPO invited the Sharon Adeleke, she eventually came to drop the key of the car. I told them that I could not just collect the key of the car without documentation that they gave me the key of the car without a penny, though I lost money and my car got damaged. When I said this, the DPO told me that I did not look like someone that was worth N100,000.

“He said I have no proof that there was money in the car and that all he was after was to retrieve my car keys for me. He said that if I wanted to do anything I should go to court and he ordered me out of his office. Till this moment I have not received my car keys or an apology from the singer,” Ajibola said.

Million Dollar Question: Is Shan George Dating Mikel Obi?

The two stars in different spheres of endeavor were spotted recently at the VIP lounge of a nightclub alone.

While it would be unfair to preempt  that anything sinister is going on between actress Shan George and Chelsea’s Mikel Obi, the antecedent from one of the personae in picture is enough to ruffle feathers and raise eyebrow.

Shan George in her forties has dated younger men, many say she is a cougar. A cougar is a new term for an older woman who likes to go out with younger men.

None of the two have reacted to the story that they are an item and certainly this picture which is going viral online.

Wizkid and Naeto C unveiled as ambassadors of Eko Football

Two renowned music acts, Whizkid and Naeto C have been unveiled  as the ambassadors of Eko football.

Eko football a brainchild of the Lagos State Football Association(LSFA) is expected to run concurrently with an entertainment seminar, hence its being tagged Soccerrex Seminar.

The seminar and competition which will hold from 27-30 September is a fusion of entertainment and football, the organiser hopes to use the event to promote football tourism.

Sucide Bomber kills 6 in Damaturu, in attack on JTF convoy

A suicide bomber today detonated a bomb killing  members of  the Joint Joint Task Force (JTF) on patrol in Damaturu, the capital of Yobe State tried to attack him.

After the attack six soldiers who are members of the JTF and two civilians including the suicide bomber lost their lives.

Although details are still sketchy , Patrick Egbmuniwe ,the Police Commissioner for Yobe State who confirmed the attack said, “The lone suicide bomber detonated the bomb before the car he was in could be stopped, killing the six soldiers and one civilian.”

According to a source, the bomber, who was in a sport-utility vehicle parked along the roadside, rammed into the multiple-vehicle military convoy when it passed, affecting two of the vehicles.

“A civilian died of his wounds in hospital shortly after” he added.

Segun Adepoju, Maker of Made In Nigeria, Low Cost Tablet Computer

Nigeria’s Saheed Adepoju is a young man with big dreams. He is the inventor of the Inye, a tablet computer designed for the African market.

According to the 29-year-old entrepreneur, his machine’s key selling point is its price – $350 (£225) opposed to around $700 for an iPad.

He believes that, because of this, there is a big market for it in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa, particularly amongst students.

He is also hoping to sell his tablet – which runs on the Google Android operating system – to the Nigerian government and plans to have at least one computer in each local government area.

“The Inye is a mobile internet device. It gives you access to the internet; it allows you to play media files and watch movies. What we have is an 8-inch device, a device that is half-way between a laptop and a mobile phone,” he told the BBC’s series African Dream.

“You have the standard software applications that come pre-installed and then you have the ones that we are working with various local developers to bundle on,” he added.

Among those local apps there is one designed to raise awareness about HIV and others related to water and sanitation.

“We work with local developers that have expertise in particular areas so that we don’t end up doing so much work and we just have a collaborative way of doing things together,” he said.

‘Word of mouth’

Mr Adepoju has a background in software development and is a Sun-certified Java programmer.

After doing a first degree in maths and computer science in Nigeria, he completed another one in advanced computing by research at Bournemouth University, in the United Kingdom.

Upon graduation in 2009, he returned to his home country and started working for a consulting firm.

“Within eight months I got fired, primarily because of differences in approach to doing business. In the middle of all this, the Apple iPad launched, back in January of 2010, which inspired us to actually look to build such [a] product within the African marketplace,” the entrepreneur told the BBC Africa’s Chris Ewokor.

He said that, with that goal in mind, he borrowed money from friends and family, raising a total of about $60,000.

According to him, all of that went on the devices and the logistics – there was no budget for marketing, so early advertising was “word of mouth” on social media.

The first 100 units of the Inye, which means One in Nigeria’s Igala language, were built in China and, after receiving feedback from its users, a second version was launched in May 2011.

Encipher Group, the company he cofounded with web developer Anibe Agamah, also offers customised IT services and products, including cloud computing, which are mostly based on open technology to keep costs down.

Raising capital

According to Mr Adepoju, the company and the apps it develops are focused on preserving local culture through technology and making products which are specific to the local market.

Another product that the firm has been working on is Encipher TV, a box where people can watch African television, plays and films.

However, he says that it has not been easy to raise capital in order to develop the business faster.

“Here venture capital (VC) is still in its infancy and most VC firms wound want to invest in tried and trusted companies that have gained some form of traction,” he said.

“We face the challenge of getting people to listen to the various propositions. We’ve been to a number of private investors and also to the government,” he explained.

Not surprisingly, his immediate plan is to “try and raise capital from whatever sources we can get – locally, internationally or privately – and to try and still to push the brand forward as much as we can”.

PHCN Power Cable Electrocuted Father of Four-Residentssidents

The electrocution of a father of four, Simon Nwafor, by a high tension wire of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria in Aguda, Surulere area of Lagos is stirring controversy.

PUNCH Metro learnt that Simon, a driver, was electrocuted on July 3 at about 6:20am while he was on his way to his boss’ residence on Somosu Street.

It was learnt that Simon, 47, who had taken cover from the rain in front of some shops close to the power line was electrocuted few minutes after he helped some schoolchildren to cross the road and board their school bus.

A resident of the area, Theophilus Eze, said his corpse was found inside the gutter around 6:30 am.

He said, “I just came down in the morning and saw a dead body in the gutter while the PHCN high tension wire was also dangling.”

A trader in the area, Joseph Okeke, said there had been several reports to PHCN on the precarious state of the wire.

He said, “This is the third time the wire will suddenly cut. It happened towards the end of 2011, in February, and this third one which unfortunately took Simon’s life.

“The sad part of it is that we have been lodging complaints with the PHCN authorities on the precarious state of the wires for long.

“To be candid, the death of Simon is entirely their fault because we informed them about it. When I expressed concern about the state of the wire with the technician in February, he simply accused me of embarrassing him.”

Another trader in the area, Gloria Agwuncha, while corroborating Okeke’s claims said the poor maintenance culture of the PHCN was responsible for the sad event.

She said, “The high tension wire snaps whenever rain falls. I’m surprised that they are not taking responsibility for Simon’s death.

“Whenever the wire snaps, all they do is to manage it by joining both parts together until it becomes very fragile and weak. This last one snapped at the point where it was previously joined.”

Simon’s wife, Esther, said she was surprised that the PHCN authorities did not accept that their negligence caused her husband’s death.

She said, “The negligence of PHCN authorities has made me a widow overnight. I am a housewife and Simon was the breadwinner of the family. I and the four children he left behind are now living from hand to mouth.

“Up till this time that I speak to you, none of the PHCN officials had visited me on the death of my husband. It saddens me whenever they say that they are not to blame for cause of his death.

“All they keep saying is that the fault was not theirs. If the power line had been properly fixed, would it have fallen on my husband?

“Apart from finding it difficult to feed the children it has also been difficult to keep them in school. Our rent would soon lapse and we might likely be sent packing as there is no means of getting money.”

Simon’s daughter, Ugochi, a Junior Secondary School three pupil, who spoke to our correspondent in a pensive mood, said she had yet to recover from the shock of her father’s death.

She said, “I mourn the death of my dad everyday and the thought that the carelessness of the PHCN caused his death adds to my sorrow. He was a loving and caring dad and he shouldn’t have died like that.”

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, confirmed the incident to our correspondent on the telephone.

She said, “The case of electrocution of Simon who was said to be passing by before a wire fell on him was reported at the Aguda Police Station.

“Policemen from the division went to the scene to recover his corpse. The corpse had since been handed over to the family of the deceased.

“No foul play was suspected. In fact, an autopsy was carried out on him, which confirmed that he died of electrocution.”