The Nation Newspaper

Tag: contestants

  • Gulder Ultimate Search increases contestants

    Gulder Ultimate Search increases contestants

    Two more entries have been added to this year’s contestants of the popular adventure reality show called Gulder Ultimate Search (GUS). This came as a surprise to two of the hopefuls, who had earlier been eliminated at the selection party at the weekend.

    The 18 contestants, who were lined up at the Ocean View ground, venue of the selection party, looked forward to 12 of them being selected, as it was the case last year. But there was excitement as two more aspirants were added to the selection, making 14 the number of the jungle-bound candidates.

    One of the additions, Samantha Appi, who was in tears, recounted how joyous she became, when the Managing Director, Nigerian Breweries, Nicholaas Vervelde, delivered the final message from the council of elders, saying: “Let all 14 go to the jungle.”

    “I was so sad initially. I thought it was over. I almost didn’t hear my name because my heart was pounding. I know that every year, it has always been 12 people, so when I didn’t hear my name, I thought it was over for me,” she said.

    The show begins in a couple of weeks at the Aguleri forest, in Anambra State, where in the end the last man or woman standing will get a cash prize of N10million and a brand new Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV).

    A spectacular aspect of Saturday’s night event was the presence of the10 past winners of the show: Ezugo Egwuagwu, Lucan Chambliss, Hector Jobarteh, Dominic Mudabai, Michael Nwachukwu, Uche Nwaezeapu, Oyekunle Oluwaremi, Christopher Okagbue, Paschal Eronmose and Dennis Okike, who ushered in the symbol of the 11th edition of the show, called The Cube.

    The final selection party was followed by the popular mobile club initiative called Gulder Club Ultimate (GCU), at the same venue.

    Adding glamour to the show was host Darey Art-Alade, comedian Gordons and music artiste Burna Boy.

    Tagged The Mission, organisers revealed that the second, third and fourth runners-up get N3 million, N2.5 million and N1.5 million respectively. Also, when evicted, each of the contestants will receive monies ranging from N1million to N1.5 million.

  • Edo, Delta contestants win bank’s raffle

    Unity Bank customers in Edo and Delta states have won all the prizes provided in the Southsouth and Southeast zonal raffle draw, christened Save and Win promo.

    Three categories of N10,000; N100,000 and N250,000 were mapped out. A customer ought to have saved one of these amounts for up to 45 days with the bank to qualify for the raffle draw.

    At the zonal draw which took place in Port Harcourt, Ijohwodjere Avwundje from Effurun branch, Delta State was the third runner-up, winning a a Tiger brand generator for the category of N10,000.

    The second runner-up was Onime Okhawere from Igarra branch, Edo State who won a bedside Thermocool refrigerator.

    Amusa Lucky Akeem from Ughelli branch, Delta State was the first runner-up. He won a BlackBerry phone while the star prize of 32″ LED Samsung plasma television was won by Ajawobu Philip Ethemena from Ozoro branch, Delta State.

    For the category N100,000, the third runner up was Mrs Beatrice Okun from Ring Road Branch, Benin, Edo state who won a Thermocool Refrigerator.

    The second runner-up was Sebastine Udeme Christiana from Abraka branch and she won a gas cooker while three children from Obodo family account won a deep freezer.

    The star prize of a sound-proof generator went to Agoho Gabriel from Ring Road branch, Benin, Edo State.

    Incidentally none of these winners was present at the raffle draw ceremony but they were contacted through the telephone of the anchor person of the event, Ehi Danah of Wazobia Cool FM, Port Harcourt.

    However, the Zonal Head of Unity Bank, Mr Dac Chukwurah who announced the results, said that he was surprised that all the winners came from Edo and Delta states but hoped that the grand finale for category N250,000 which would take place later this year in a state yet to be announced would be won  by customers from outside these two states.

    In his speech, the Divisional Head, Retail Banking, Abuja, Mr Usman Abaji explained that the essence of the promo was “to encourage customers to develop the culture of saving to achieve their goals and to drive retail banking to the grassroots.

    Abaji also noted that the process of picking winners was very transparent because the Consumer Protection Commission and PKS Auditors handled the whole exercise.

  • TUC president: Two contestants step down

    There is a new twist in the race to the office of the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) soon to be vacated by Mr Peter Esele as some of the major contestants have stepped down.

    Three senior staff union presidents were initially billed to slug it out at the polls.

    The aspirants, President of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions, (ASSBIFI), Comrade Sunday Olusoji Salako and Comrade Babatunde Abdulrahman, President of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (FOBTOB) offered to step down for Babatunde Ogun, President of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).

    According to sources, the three union presidents met in Lagos and harmonised the various contestable positions ahead of this week’s Ninth Triennial Delegates’Conference/election of the group which holds this Thursday.

    Under the umbrella of the Harmony Group, Salako is seeking to become first Deputy President-General, while Abdulrahman is contesting to become the TUC Treasurer.

    With this development, the race for the presidency of TUC has been narrowed down to Ogun and Kaigama Boboi, President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN).

    At a ceremony to present the 13 candidates under the Harmony Group, Ogun said if elected, the priority of the group would be to deliver TUC secretariat structure with facilities and responsive personnel to move the union to the next level.

    He promised to make TUC focused with data, research and analysis in line with the dynamics of global economic realities, adding that he would make TUC a centre that trains, develops and impacts on legislation, policy review and drive, among others.

     

  • Eviction scare unsettles contestants

    Eviction scare unsettles contestants

    BARELY 24 hours into this year’s edition of the popular Big Brother Africa reality, sign of the dreaded whip started to show, as housemates were asked to nominate themselves for possible eviction.

    The show, tagged ‘Chase’ kicked off last Sunday with two Housemates from each of the ?? countries making it into the BBA ‘confinement’ in Johannesburg, South Africa. The following day, five contestants including: Selly (Ghana) and Natasha (Malawi) of the Ruby House and Denzel (Uganda), Betty (Ethiopia) and Huddah (Kenya) belonging to Diamonds House were already put up for possible eviction, this weekend.

    After a testing day which saw the housemates having to make nomination decisions on the fly, the lounges in both houses were in sombre mood as Big Brother delivered the nomination verdict.

    Early on Day 1, the housemates in both houses got the chance to claim the honour of the fiercely contested Head of House role. Instead of battling it out in a task, Big Brother made the selection random, making the Housemates select a ball from a box in the garden without peeking, the one who chose the winning ball would be Head of House for week 1. Feza picked the right ball in the Diamond house, while Beverly was victorious in the Ruby house.

    The Diamonds’ nominations saw Huddah, Denzel and Elikem lead the pack with seven, six and four nominations, respectively. Betty, Annabel, Fatima, Bolt and Neyll picked up two nominations apiece, with Dellish picking up one. Diamond Head of House Feza stuck to her original nomination decision and saved Elikem, replacing him with Betty, who she had nominated during the day.

    Once the Rubies had spoken, Selly and Bassey had six nominations each, with Natasha and Hakeem picking up three each. Cleo and Biguesas were each nominated twice, while Sulu, Maria, Beverley, ONeal, Koketso and Pokello were each nominated once. Beverley, in her role as Ruby Head of House, chose to save Bassey and put Natasha up for eviction in his place.

    The fate of those on the eviction list rests with the viewers who are to decide on who stays or leaves.

  • BOT chair: PDP moves to prune number of contestants

    BOT chair: PDP moves to prune number of contestants

    •Non-BOT members to be barred from contesting

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) plans to prune down the number of contestants for the chairmanship of its Board of Trustees (BoT), according to sources.

    The move is to avoid what party sources call a rowdy contest.

    The BoT position became vacant last April following the resignation of former President Olusegun Obasanjo from the office.

    Twenty persons signified their intention to occupy the seat at the close of nomination on December 7, 2012.

    Sunday Nation learnt that party stakeholders and the National Executive Committee (NEC) are of the view that the large number of contestants is not in the best interest of the party and have decided to prevail on some of the contestants to forgo their ambition.

    The stakeholders want the party to approach the 2015 elections as a united group.

    One source said: “The concern was that the party may once again return to its factionalised past if all the aspirants are allowed to go to town and seek support in their bid to win the BOT chairmanship.

    “ It was feared by a good number of party elders that the aftermath of a rowdy BOT election with as many as 20 eminent and respected party leaders seeking just one position will negatively affect the fortune of the party.”

    A crucial meeting where the stakeholders took the position was at the instance of current BOT members of the party .The meeting held in Abuja decided to exclude non-members of the Board from the chairmanship race as part of efforts to reduce the large number of aspirants in the contest. The source added:”Stakeholders also observed that some people who are not members of the BOT have written to signify their intention to vie for the position of Board chairman. The decision is that such people will be screened out of the race because the party’s constitution forbids them from participating in the election.

    “The party’s constitution stipulates that its chairman and secretary are to be elected from among its members.

    “Consequently, non-members should not even be in the race. For those who applied, the resolve is that they should be screened out. Don’t also forget that those who were not members of the Board might not be allowed to be part of the meeting where the voting exercise will be carried out. So how then will they stand for election at such a gathering.”

    According to the party’s constitution, the 98 members of the Board will decide who becomes the next BoT chairman.

    The assignment of convincing some identified BOT members to shelve their ambition, sources said, has been given to a committee put together at the Abuja meeting.

    “Aside from the decision to stop non-BOT members from the race, a committee was also set up to talk to some other identified aspirants to shelve their ambition. There was also a suggestion that the party should avoid an election and use the consensus option in choosing its BOT chairman.

    “The suggestion was strongly considered by the leaders as a way of avoiding a crack within the party ahead of the 2015 general election.”

    Though the party is yet to make public the list of candidates, Sunday Nation learnt that among those who have shown interest are former Minister of Works, Chief Tony Anenih; a former National Chairman of the party, Senator Ahmadu Ali; and Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu. Also in the race also are former President of the Senate, Ken Nnamani, a former National Deputy Chairman of the party (South), Chief Shuaib Oyedokun, Second Republic Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, and former BoT chairman of All Nigeria Party, Chief Harry Akande.

    The board is scheduled to meet on January 8, to decide who becomes its next chairman.