Scavengers of the Dead Ransack Bellview Air crash Site in Nigeria

Scavengers of the Dead Ransack Bellview Air crash Site in Nigeria

The news that looters were the first to get to the rural jungle of Lissa where the ill-fated Bellview Airlines plane had crashed did not surprise me. Because, I knew that the human scavengers would have invaded the site of the crash before the law enforcement authorities would have gotten there. That is the common practice in Nigeria whenever there is an accident. The desperate hoodlums and antisocial urchins would have rushed to rob the wounded or the dead before even alerting for help.

They rob helpless victims wounded or dead in emergencies and even mutilate the bodies of the dead if nobody stops them. The human body parts are sold to cultists and ritualists who use them for their fetish voodoo or mumbo-jumbo juju.

These heartless devils would have robbed the victims of their personal effects before the law enforcement agencies got to the site of the air crash on that fateful day.

Who do we blame?
The inefficiency of the Nigerian government that has failed to provide the necessary administrative infrastructure and logistics for the establishment of an efficient Police Force that will be able to guarantee the security of everybody in every community in Nigeria.

Because, many of the Nigerian police officers either by commission or omission connive and conspire with these notorious criminals to commit all these atrocities in Nigeria.

You see a corrupt traffic warden at the bus stop colluding with the touts to extort illegal levies from public transporters and later they share the collections with the police and traffic wardens and this goes on as if it is a normal practice. I mean I am no longer confused. In fact, I am now amused by the whole corrupt methods of their illegitimate procedures of making ends meet.

As The Punch newspaper reported that the looters believed that those who could afford to travel by air must be rich enough to carry extra cash on them and they were not wrong. Because, reliable sources confirmed that the looters found dollars and pounds among the human remains and fuselage in the wreckage. They also stole the expensive wristwatches, jewels and other valuable personal accessories.
"Some people even stripped some of the body parts. That was callous," the newspaper quoted Ogun State police chief Tunji Alapinni as saying

Why?
Well the scapegoat of humanity, poverty is always the culprit. The extreme poverty plaguing majority of Nigerians as usual was quoted by Reuters:

The majority of Nigeria's 140 million people live in extreme poverty and a lack of job prospects and resources has fostered a high crime rate. Armed robbery, racketeering and money-making scams are common.

The Guardian newspapers of Nigeria have published the best reports on the Bellview Airlines plane crash. They published some critical reports yesterday. And I hope the government will read the reports and follow the cues in the investigations to find out the real cause of the air disaster. Bellview Airlines should be prosecuted for the violations of air safety regulations.

On Western Super Stars Helping the Poor in Africa

JAPANESE FANS AT THE LIVE AID CONCERT IN TOKYO.

Do stars really aid the cause?
You bought the wristband, went to the concert, joined the march and rejoiced when a deal was struck to save Africa. But don't be fooled - nothing has changed
By Stuart Hodkinson reports
Published: 26 October 2005

I read the report just published on THE INDEPENDENT On Line Edition of 29 October 2005 10:42. And it is the subject of discussion on Black Looks. I have already posted my rejoinder and here is the full text of it.

Most NGOs are always in dire need of funds for their various humanitarian engagements. And all these efforts are commendable. And they need the endorsements of rich celebrities and most of the rich celebrities are not in Africa. They are in America and Europe. Sir Bob Geldof can donate $1 million with or without Band Aid. Bono can do the same.Recently Jon Bon Jovi donated $1 million to Oprah Winfrey's charity fund without any charity concert. But most of the so called African celebrities either don't have such financial wealth or they don't even have the hearts to give to Aid Agencies.

They have not even done anything for the less privileged in the ghettos where they came from. In Nigeria, when I was with the Unicef, we mobilized our own local stars (names witheld)and we hosted them at the Lagos Sheraton and they ate and drank. But, they hardly donated any money from their pockets. They just wanted to be recognised and to be posing and posturing about.
BONO OF U2.

Must we always wait for Sir Bob Geldof, Bono, Angelina Jolie and other Western super stars before we realize that we should help ouselves in Africa? And when they don't include us in their Band Aid 1985 or Live Aid 2005,we pine and wine of discrimination or being left out?
Who is fooling whom?

Look at our rich stars like KSA and others who have made so much money from public patronage. What have they given back to their fans in return? KSA lived for decades in Bariga, a ghetto in Lagos, and he never even donated any funds to sink an ordinary borehole.
SIR BOB GELDOF.

Charity begins at home.

Let us sacrifice to help and save those who are suffering and dying in Africa instead of waiting for Western Aid Agencies to come and spoonfeed us in Africa.

Personally, I have spent thousands of Naira to promote an active reading culture among children in Nigeria and the fellow artistes I invited to join me, collected their artistes' fees, without any compassion. One of them even dealt me some blows and snarled, "Na Charity we go chop!" And they just went about their selfish pursuits.

We have Shade Adu, Seal, Keziah Jones and other celebrated international super stars with Nigerian origins, but none of them has ever thought of doing what Sir Bob Geldof, Bono,Angelina Jolie and other American and European super stars are doing for the benefit of Africa.

Infact, I think most of our so called African super stars are intellectual morons and retarded. Clueless.

My conclusion is, we don't have to wait for any wake-up call by Sir.Bob Geldof or Bono before we know that we need to rally for the support of those who can help us in Africa. All our so called millionaires and billionaires in Africa can sponsor African artistes to organize Charity concerts to raise more funds and raise public awareness on being our brothers keepers. Africans have more than enough resources to help fellow Africans without Western Aid in cash or kind.

Sir Bob Geldof, Bono and other Western super stars mean well. But, these Western political power brokers and capitalist multinationals hijack their philanthropic initiatives in the guise of sponsorships and use them for their public relations, image laundering and social marketing of their numerous products and services in Africa their dumping ground for expired or second hand goods and the largest market for their mass produced consumer products.

Olamide Adeyooye: Dental records confirm body is ISU student

Last week I reported the news of Olamide Elizabeth Adeyooye the missing Nigerian student in America who was also a popular blogger on My Space. And we all prayed that she would be found alive and well. But, unfortunately the latest news on her case is negative. Olamide was found dead in Mississippi. And her body was even burnt. Here is the full report below.
Olamide Adeyooye: Dental records confirm body is ISU student
October 26th, 2005 @ 4:41 PM by News Director
Dental records confirm the body found in Mississippi is that of Olamide Adeyooye. She had been missing since Oct. 13th. The location of her car is unknown. It is also not known at this time who murdered her. Rt.55 in Mississippi goes through Normal, Ill. as well.

JAN DENNIS
Associated Press
NORMAL, Ill. - A body found in a burned-out chicken house in Mississippi is that of missing Illinois State University senior Olamide Adeyooye, who was last seen two weeks ago at a video store, authorities said Wednesday.
Dental records were used to identify the 21-year-old's badly burned body. Authorities did not release a cause of death.

"As far as the cause of death, we believe she was already deceased when the body was dropped off in Newton County (Mississippi)," Newton County Sheriff Jackie Knight said. "We have investigators from Illinois here with us but we believe the actual death took place in Illinois."

Knight said he was not aware of any signs of sexual abuse.
Normal Police Lt. Mark Kotte said authorities were still investigating how Adeyooye, who was last seen Oct. 13 in the central Illinois city where she went to school, ended up in Mississippi. Her car, a green 1996 Toyota Corolla, still was missing Wednesday.

"Bloomington-Normal is a very safe community and this is an incident that is extremely rare," Kotte said. "It is not an incident of somebody going around preying on college students."
Kotte said some people questioned by investigators will be questioned again, although police said none are suspects.
"We still have a list of persons of interest and that hasn't really changed. We still have quite a few people that we need to talk to, and also people now that we will be re-interviewing," Kotte said.

Adeyooye's father, Adiodun Adeyooye, said he wants to see justice.
"I believe Olamide's spirit will find the culprit. Whoever might have killed her, Olamide's spirit will find him out in Jesus' name," he said.

A native of Nigeria who moved to suburban Chicago when she was 8, Adeyooye was last seen at a video store near her off-campus apartment in Normal.
Her body was found Friday in central Mississippi by the owner of the chicken house who was cleaning up after a blaze there four days earlier.

Illinois investigators suspected the body could be that of Adeyooye because physical descriptions matched and the fire occurred just four days after she disappeared. They also said the burned building is about 60 miles from Interstate 55, which also passes through Normal.

Adeyooye was reported missing when she didn't show up for classes and her weekend job as a waitress. Police launched a criminal investigation into her disappearance last week after evidence and interviews led them to suspect foul play.
Adeyooye, who studied laboratory sciences and biology at ISU, was due to graduate from the 20,000-student college in December and planned to return to Chicago to complete her clinical training at a hospital. She grew up in the Chicago suburb of Berkeley.

"As we mourn her passing and try to make sense of what is sometimes unexplainable, I ask everyone in the university community to keep Olamide's family and friends in their thoughts and prayers," ISU president Al Bowman said. "This terrible tragedy will bring with it many emotions: grief, anger, perhaps a sense of helplessness."
Nearly 40 investigators, including the FBI and Illinois State Police, assisted in the search for her. Her family and friends also searched, posting fliers and sending out messages through Web sites and blogs.

After learning of her death, friend Rick Pateraoa, 23, of Schaumburg, said: "You always hear about stuff like that on the news but it never hits close to home. ... It always happens to great people."

Associated Press Writer Holbrook Mohr in Jackson, Miss., contributed to this report.
This bad news has only worsened the sadness in my heart and soul over the tragedies going on in Nigeria right now. We have been mourning the tragic deaths of the beloved wife of our President, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo who died after surgery in Spain and the 117 people who were killed in the catastrophic Bellview Airlines air disaster last Saturday.

I never thought Olamide would be found dead.

What is America turning into?
An unsafe place for harmless young ladies. Since the beginning of this year, I have read of over four similar cases.

May the soul of our sister Olamide Elizabeth Adeyooye Rest In Peace.

Yet, I wish she could still be found alive and well.

Oh, God! Help us at such a time like this period of our trials for Nigerians at home and abroad.

BELLVIEW AIRLINES HAS FAULTY PLANES

The Guardian Newspapers of Nigeria quoted the words of a very reliable Nigerian personality, the Chief Executive Officer of the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA),Mrs.Peace Anyam-Fiberisma when she said that Captain Imasuen Lambert was suspended some time ago for refusing to fly a faulty Bellview aircraft.She added,"He was recently suspended for two weeks for failing to fly an alleged faulty Bellview aircraft." (THE GUARDIAN,Tuesday October 25, 2005,Page13.)So, this reliable source has it that Captain Imasuen Lambert of the ill-fated Nigerian Bellview Airlines Plane of flight 210 that crashed was actually suspended two weeks ago for refusing to fly a faulty Bellview Airlines aircraft. Because, he always insisted on high standards of air safety. So, if he was suspended just two weeks ago for refusing to fly a faulty aircraft, then what made him to fly the Bellview plane that crashed. Again, if Bellview Airlines has been flying faulty aircrafts, why has the company passed through the screening of the Aviation authorities?


Bellview Airlines has already resumed flight to Abuja without the approval of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nigeria. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)and the US should investigate these allegations. That Bellview Airlines has never recorded any accident for the past ten years is not enough excuse for the civil aviation authorities of Nigeria to overlook these allegations.

Please, investigate these reports.

After the Weeping and Wailing Over the Bellview Plane Crash

LISSA: THE SITE OF THE PLANE CRASH.

The coverage of the catastrophic Bellview Plane Crash has been too poor in Nigerian newspapers on line. The African Independent Televison (AIT)website does not know what a TV news website should be doing at such a time as this tragic period in Nigeria. The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) website which is like a poor copy of the AIT website is pathetic. Yahoo, BBC and one Japanese website have better coverage of the air disaster. Yahoo News has the best coverage so far with over 50 photographs on the plane crash. Of course Associated Press and Reuters provided most of the news feeds for the Yahoo news. And they are available on line. But, you cannot find the facts on all the Nigerian media on line. This is an international disgrace for the Nigerian media that should be the flagship of the media in Africa as the largest media in Africa. Imagine the NTA that is always boasting that it is the largest TV Network in Africa cannot boast of any modern website for on line news? This only shows the lack of competence and the apparent administrative mismanagement at the NTA.

Now the tragedy has made the President to wake up to the stark reality of the short-sightedness of his government in the management of Aviation. Because, the local airlines are managed like the backward public transport services in Nigeria. The lack of air safety in Nigeria is now making headlines all over the world as the bad news of the Bellview plane crash is circulating.
A BEREAVED WOMAN IN AGONY.


Now, the government is talking of air safety and that is not news to me.
Because, this is not the first catastrophic air disaster we have experienced in Nigeria. Then, after the tears and shaking of heads, we are back to business as usual again. And our airports will still be looking like crowdy and rowdy public motor parks. And the required modern air safety equipment would be missing or outdated.

Nigeria will not improve, except we remove all the square pegs in the round holes of the government and also prosecute all the cases of the corrupt practices in both the public and private sectors of our economy. The problem of Nigeria is still the abuse and misuse of the public sector by the private sector. How? The oligarchs form the ruling class that exploits the public sector and perpetuates the corruption and misadministration of public office in Nigeria. The more damages they cause, the more bogus contracts they conceive or forge to repair the damages to continue to enrich themselves. So, the vicious circle continues in the stagnation of corruption in Nigeria.