Brekete Family, June 8th, 2017.

Nigerian Air Force Appoints New Spokesperson

The Nigerian Air Force has appointed a new spokesperson to manage its public affairs activities. He is Olatokunbo Adesanya, an air commodore.
The new Director of Public Relations and Information (DOPRI) replaced the former Air Force spokesman, Ayodele Famuyiwa, a group captain.
Until his recent appointment, Mr. Adesanya was the pioneer Director of Aircraft Quality Assurance at the Headquarters Nigerian Air Force.
He is a member of Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) Regular Course 37 and was commissioned into the Nigerian Air Force as a regular combatant officer on 22 September 1990.
Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya holds a Masters Degree in Development Studies and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry both obtained from the NDA, Kaduna.
He also has a Post Graduate Certificate in Aeromechanical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Kaduna, a Diploma in Computer Engineering and a Certificate of Proficiency in Information Systems Management.
Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya is a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered) and a Fellow of the Chartered Administrators’ Institute.
Since joining the Nigerian Air Force, he has attended many military and professional courses, which include the Junior and Senior Staff Courses at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Jaji.
He did his course on defence and strategy at the Superior War College in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Furthermore, the senior officer has attended several short courses, seminars and workshops within and outside Nigeria.
The incumbent DOPRI has served in various units and commands of the Nigerian Air Force.
He was a Directing Staff at the prestigious AFCSC and the Registrar of the Air Force Institute of Technology, Kaduna. In addition, Mr. Adesanya was the Commander 571 NAF Detachment Ibadan and Deputy Director Air Engineering at Headquarters Nigerian Air Force.
The new DOPRI actively participated in Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) Operations in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea from 1997 to 1999. A widely exposed senior officer, the new DOPRI has visited over 20 countries across the 5 major continents. He speaks, reads and writes Yoruba, English, French and Portuguese languages in addition to a working knowledge of Hausa language.
He is happily married and blessed with children.http://independent.ng/nigerian-air-force-gets-new-spokesperson/

Susan Kelechi Watson On Her Biggest Challenge with ‘This is Us’ Role

*Susan Kelechi Watson, who plays the wife of adopted son Randall on the hit NBC drama “This Is Us,” says the biggest challenge with her role is “not to make Beth like me.”
“I want you to see a real person. I don’t want you to see a character,” she says. “There’s a fine line in that. Sometimes you can say, ‘I will just do it like me.’ I do things like how Sue will do it and the I deconstruct that so that it lives in me in a real way and then I say, ‘how would we do it through Beth’s eyes?’ And how can we make that flow naturally.”
As RollingOut.com notes, Watson graduated from the School of Fine Arts at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and soon thereafter began working on the theater stage. She landed a role on “This Is Us” after what she describes as a “horrible” audition for a play.
“I did not read the script right away,” Watson admits.

Susan Kelechi Watson

 “I rehearsed a couple of scenes from the script and went in for auditions. It went fine. I went with one casting director and I thought it went pretty well. They called me back for producers. It as funny because I had just gone in for another play that I just bombed. It was horrible. I was so upset and was focused on that. I don’t like to do bad. The next week I came back for the producers. They kept holding me for it.”
On her birthday, Watson received a call from her agent that the network wanted to fly her to LA to read for the part of Beth.
“I went home, read the script, fell in love with it and said ‘I will be on the plane.’”
And the rest is history.
The second half of season one of “This Is Us” returned to NBC on Jan. 10.

Donald Trump's team in ‘frequent contact’ with Russia despite denials

Washington worries as Trump paves way for stronger ties with Putin

Mr Trump has indicated he may lift sanctions imposed on Russia for cyber attacks during the US election AP
 
Donald Trump’s national security adviser has been in “very frequent” contact with Russia’s ambassador to the US, and the pair spoke on the day Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia for its part in election hacking, according to a senior US official.
Mr Trump’s team initially denied that Michael Flynn and Russia’s ambassador Sergey Kislyak spoke on December 29, but later admitted that a call had been made on that day and another call made the day before.
The cosy relationship has raised questions about whether repeated contact with the President-elect’s team has helped shape Moscow’s response to the imposition of sanctions.
Following the enforcement of the sanctions, in which Washington expelled 35 Russian diplomats, Vladimir Putin did not retaliate, and instead said he would not deport US diplomats in response.
Mr Trump described Mr Putin’s actions as “very smart”, putting himself at odds with his own country’s government, its intelligence service and with his own party.
The President-elect’s stance has prompted outrage in Washington, including among Republicans, after US security officials advised that Russia had been behind a hacking operation aimed at influencing the US election to benefit Mr Trump.
Mr Trump has already indicated he may lift the sanctions once he takes office.
“If Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions?” he asked in an interview with the Wall Street Journal

Two soldiers feared killed in fresh Boko Haram ambush

Two soldiers were feared killed in Damboa Council of Borno State after an Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) planted by retreating Boko Haram terrorists went off on Thursday.
The dead service men they were clearing remnants of fleeing insurgents in Golgore River and Talala axis of the state, when they were blown up.
Both men according to military sources in Maiduguri yesterday, were attached to 27 Task Force Brigade of Nigerian Army to
clear remnants of insurgents from Sambisa Forest.
“Our killed soldiers include an Army Captain and a Lieutenant that led the patrol team to clear remnants of terrorists from the forest,” the source said, adding that the troops were deployed in the Talala area for a counter-attack on the insurgents when the explosives accidently went off.
On troops’ ambush, he said: “The IEDs went off around 11am as the troops cleared the Boko Haram remnants in the Talala and Golgore River axis.
“The place of explosion is around the Golgore River in Damboa. We were not ambushed; it was an explosion and it killed the two and injured a few soldiers.
“Eight officers and 144 soldiers attached to the Nigerian Army, 27 Brigade Task Force, were deployed in the area to clear the Boko Haram remnants until the explosion occurred.”
In a related development, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on Thursday said one of the challenges facing troops in the northeast
operation was that the sect members deliberately used their captives, including the Chibok girls, as shields to evade air strikes.
The NAF authorities explained that such strategy was frustrating air operations, as troops had to apply more caution in launching aerial attacks on suspected Boko Haram camps.

FRSC Corps Marshal Oyeyemi approves redeployment of senior officers

Following the recent promotion of senior officers and other intermediate officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps, the Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi has approved the redeployment of some of the newly promoted senior officers in the capacity of Deputy Corps Marshal, Assistant Corps Marshals and Corps Commanders, who are all expected to report to their new Commands on January 18, 2017.
According to the Head Media Relations and Strategy of the Corps, Bisi Kazeem, the newly promoted Deputy Corps Marshal, DCM, Dauda Biu who was formerly the Assistant Corps Marshal (ACM) Finance and Accounts at the National Headquarters of the Corps, still remains the Head of the Department.
He however stated that the designations of some of the other senior officers have been changed to suit their new ranks.
He gave the list of the officers posted as: Assistant Corps Marshal Kayode Fanola formerly the Corps Secretary at the Headquarters, has now been posted to the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS); Assistant Corps Marshal Susan Ajenge who was formerly the Sector Commander Niger State, is now the new Corps Secretary at the Headquarters; Assistant Corps Marshal Efosa Osawe still remains the Head of Corps Safety Engineering Office at the Headquarters.
In the same vein, Assistant Corps Marshal Taiwo Eseyin who was former Zonal Head of Operations at the Zone RS7 Abuja Zonal Command Headquarters, moves to Corps Marshal Office, Assistant Corps Marshal Gilbert Igbokwe still remains the Corps Budget Officer while Assistant Corps Marshal Albert Moore equally remains as the Corps Transport Safety Officer.
Similarly, Assistant Corps Marshal Fidelis Osakwe, who was formerly the Head of Section Discipline under the Administration and Human Resources at the Headquarters, is now the Assistant Corps Marshal Administration under the Administration and Human Resource Department at the National Headquarters.
He added that apart from Assistant Corps Marshal Ayobami Omiyale, former Sector Commander Kogi State Sector Command, now Zonal Commanding Officer Sokoto; and Assistant Corps Marshal Peter Kibo, former Sector Commander Imo State Sector Command, now Zonal Commanding Officer Bauchi, all former Zonal Commanding Officers remain in their present areas of jurisdiction.
The Head Media relations and Strategy added that five out of 12 Corps Commanders in the capacity of Zonal Head of Operations have been redeployed to other Zonal Command Headquarters in the same capacity, as well as five out of 37 Corps Commanders in the capacity of Sector Commanders, who were posted to other Sector Commands.

In the spirit of the new designation of the Commanding Officers, the Corps Marshal has implored the officers to remain steadfast in their commitment and dedication to duties and to share in the FRSC management’s vision of making Nigerian roads safer.

Access Bank staff masterminds armed robbery of his bank – Police

The police say they have arrested a senior official of Access Bank for his alleged involvement in a foiled armed robbery operation at a branch of the bank in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Also arrested for alleged complicity in the crime is a dismissed police sergeant who was attached to the bank as security personnel.

The police, in a statement issued, Thursday, by the Force spokesperson, Don Awunah, gave the names of the banker and the dismissed policeman as Samuel Ndudiri and Promise Ukwuoma respectively.

Other suspects arrested by the police are Samuel Nwala, 28; Lucky Ukwuoma, 26; and Kaale Taagabah, 27.

The police said Messrs. Nwala, Ukwuoma, and Taagabah, armed with AK-47 rifles, stormed the branch of the bank on December 22, based on the insider information they got from the bank official, Mr. Ndudiri, 28, who the police said was the mastermind of the operation.

“The armed robbers successfully broke down the well-fortified security doors and barriers and took over the banking hall,” the police said in the statement.

“They were almost pulling down the vault and other strong rooms in the bank with use of gas cylinder, welding machine and iron cutters before the joint Police Teams of IGP’S Intelligence Response Team and policemen from Rivers State Police Command swiftly moved in and dislodged them.”

The confessional statements of the three arrested robbers led to the arrest of the bank official, Mr. Ndudiri, the police said.

From the arrested bank official, the police said they were able to trace and arrest the bank security personnel, Mr. Ukwuoma, who was said to have been actively involved in the foiled bank robbery.

Apart from two AK-47 rifles and magazines fully load with ammunition, the police said they also recovered two gas cylinders and iron cutters, a big chisel, cutting saw, hammer, and acetylene gas power from the suspects.

The police said they were intensifying their effort to arrest other suspects at large, and that the case would be charged to court at the conclusion of investigations.