The Nation Newspaper

Tag: hunt

  • 1,200 attend Talent Hunt

    NO fewer than   1,200 participants attended the third inter-school Young Business Talent Hunt (YBTH), which held at Skyline University College (SUC) United Arab Emirate (UAE) campus last week.

    They were drawn from three categories – advertisement design, new business plan, and new mobile application.

    TYV Founder/Editor Dr. Namrata K. Pathania said the contest attracted responses from about 291 teams.

    He said: “The competition aims to challenge high schoolers to gain real-world opportunities and skills. Every year, TYV and SUC provide a platform for students to demonstrate their business ideas and strategies. This event helps them explore their hidden talents and encourages them to network with business experts and peer groups which help them add value to the business plan.”

    Aside providing quality education, the young business talent aims at harnessing students’ knowledge while at the same time inculcating in them virtues such as hardwork in academics and extra-curricular activities.

    Pathania thanked the judges, as well as staff of SUC and TYV, for their efforts.

    This year’s edition is a joint partnership between Skyline University College and The Young Vision Magazine.

  • Talent hunt brings out the best in teens

    Talent hunt brings out the best in teens

    It was an evening when individual’s talents were showcased as the Voice of Ministries International (VOM) organised a ‘Talent Hunt’ show for its teenagers.

    The teenagers exhibited various talents including singing, dancing, choreography, speech and poetry reading, drawings, drumming, playing of saxophone amongst others.

    The Judges who were drawn from various fields scrutinized the youngsters as they were shown their strong and weak points and how their talents could be improved upon.

    Charging the youths before the commencement of the show, Pastor Flora Peters said the talent hunt was organized to enable the teenagers showcase God’s deposit in their lives adding that talents have to do with the natural abilities God have deposited in everyone.

    According to her, a lot of people lose their talents because nobody could guide or direct them urging the youths to allow the Spirit of God to guide them to enable them do exceedingly well with their talent.

    “Nobody is empty, there is a deposit of God into the lives of everyone. We do not want the talent in these youths to die in them. This talent show is not for competition or pride but for the name of God to be glorified.

    “You cannot enter into your glory when you have nothing to present. As you keep on doing what have been deposited in you, you will be recommended”, she told the teenagers.

    At the end of the talent hunt which trilled everyone present, the General Overseer of Voice of Mercy Ministry International, Pastor Ojo Peters commended the youngsters for having the courage to showcase their various talents adding that greatness does not start in one day but starts in a step.

    He said that they all have a chance of improving their performance by training harder and getting more training.

    Peters urged them not to neglect their books as education is also important in getting their talents just as he admonished them to avoid sin which have the capacity of terminating their destiny.

    He also promised the teenagers to get them musical instruments to aid in their practices.

    Some of the youths who were interviewed after the talent show expressed their happiness in being able to showcase their various talents. They appreciated the leadership of the church for giving them the opportunity.

    The teenagers said they now know where their strength lies as most of them promised to get more training in order to improve on their talents.

  • Sport Festival for talent hunt

    It was all fun at the grand finale of Alimosho schools sport festival for the pupils of the Local Government Area of Lagos State.

    The annual sports festival for the pupils of public schools and selected private schools, organised by the Education Secretary of Alimosho, Hon. Airat Alamu, was witnessed by a large crowd of pupils and spectators from 75 schools, teachers, parents and political leaders in the community.

    The event, according to Alamu, was to discover the pupils talents from the grassroots. “The motive behind this competition is to develop a spirit of sportsmanship, co-operation among the pupils and to catch them young by way of discovering talents amongst them and to prepare the kids for future challenges. So that, they can become great men and women in future like Austin Okocha, Modupe Oshinkoya, Serena Williams, Kanu Nwankwo, Mikel Obi to mention but a few.”

    “Before I came on board as the Education Secretary of Alimosho Local Government Education Authority, activities that can create friendship and love among our staff, pupils and the society were not encouraged for a long time in our public schools but what you are witnessing today is the genuine effort to revive the spirit and re-invigorate the mental attitude of the kids towards seriousness in their studies,.” she concluded.

    In a related development, Hon. Bisi Yisuf representing Alimosho Constituency1 expressed his happiness and readiness to support the board in organising subsequent ones in the future.

  • WARRI’US TALENT HUNT STORMS WARRI OCTOBER 1

    WARRI’US TALENT HUNT STORMS WARRI OCTOBER 1

    WITH the intent of discovering young talents who have been deprived of the opportunity to shine, Warri’us talent hunt show, come Thursday October 1, will berth in the oil rich city of Warri, Delta State. Meant to give youths an exposure to the big stages throughout the world, the first edition of the show will first focus on music competition with the winner going home with a whopping N1 million cash.

    At a press briefing held on Tuesday in Lagos, the organiser of the show and founder of Autoserve Entertainment Center in Warri, Mr. Mitaire ‘Mimi’ Okumagba, said Warri’us is conceived as a platform to showcase the untapped entertainment resources in the oil-rich city.

    “It is not in doubt that Warri has produced some of the leading entertainers in the country over the years. But I tell you, what you see, is less than five percent of the talent that abound in this city. Warri is a city that has all the tribes present and aspiring to live in harmony. Inside this city, raw entertainment talents abound. The five percent we have seen are Ali Baba, I Go Die, Dede Mabiaku, Omawunmi, Gandoki and Harry Song among others, yet there is a crucial 95 percent who are talented but unable to get to the world stage. They rather turn to crime. It is this largely volatile raw materials that we are poised to harness and present to the world,” Mimi said.

    He revealed that the show is also meant to offer employment to the teeming youths in the area who are unemployed.

    “What we are also offering is not just the show alone, we are providing opportunities for the finalists to be signed onto record labels of movies roles as the case may be. We need the corporate organisations to come and see what we are doing here. The government too needs to be here to see our unique way of preaching peace, harmony and organizational productivity among the youths,” he added.

    All finalists will also go home with consolation prizes.

     

  • Siasia to hunt for players

    Siasia to hunt for players

    The Chief Coach of Dream Team VI, Samson Siasia has promised to boost the team with better players if found to solidify the team ahead of tougher tasks before the team.

    Siasia disclosed this to SportingLife yesterday in Abuja while x-raying the matches played so far by his team to get to the final qualifying tournament for the 2016 Olympics Football Tournament.

    “The team is a work in progress so we can bring in players if they are better than what we have now. We are not doing friendship in this job. We want the best leg to come and play for Nigeria and at the end of the day to graduate to Super Eagles players. It is not a friendship team. If we find better players that are good enough of course we want to include them to make our team a stronger team”, Siasia explained.

    The former Super Eagles’ Chief Coach also vowed to do everything possible to win this year’s All Africa Games despite campaigning in Group B comprising strong African teams like Ghana, Egypt and Ghana. He wants to win it to prepare the team for the 2016 Olympics qualifying tournament tagged Africa U- 23 Championship.

    “It is a challenge and a target for us because why are we going if we don’t want to win it? We want to go there and do our best to make sure we win the Championship. That will help the team and solidify it for the other challenges ahead. We have qualified and we must try and see how we can win it.

    “There won’t be better preparations than that because it would be very tough out there. I think it is a good one for us preparing for the Olympics’ proper qualification. I think it is going to help our team more because if you play more games it would improve the team. The more games you play among yourselves I think that will help the team to become a better team.

  • Teenager wins talent hunt competition

    Teenager wins talent hunt competition

    It was a night of glitz and glam. The venue was grand finale of the star rising competition which took place at the Civic Centre in Lagos. Here, ten finalists consisting of solo performers and groups of dancers and instrumentalists contested keenly for the star prize.

    After a very keen competition, Precious Udo, a solo performer, emerged as the new star winning the first position. Two other solo performers, Timothy Attah and Alex Louis, got the second and third prizes respectively. For Precious, it was the moment she had been waiting for after putting in a lot of effort before and after the auditions. She joined the school choir at the age of ten and that was where she discovered her talent in singing. At the moment, she is an evolving song writer, singer, guitarist and she recently launched her own album titled AMEN.

    Like Udo, Alex and Timothy also contested as solo performers. Other contestants included the Lillies Stars instrumentalists, Four and half men (Grace High School) instrumentalist, Baja girls cultural dance and Oyinkansola Ebony and Nonso Ifionu dance.

    In an excited mood, the initiator of the talent hunt, Kay Ovia, admonished the children to be hardworking, dedicated and strive for excellence in whatever they do. “It is a great privilege to seek and get this opportunity to mould their skills. At the end of the day, the children would be motivated and talented in their different areas.”

    She added that “At this time, we are motivated by the talents we have seen so far. We are motivated by children that have already on their own motivated themselves to the highest level of excellence. Apart from entertainment, these children are also active in other fields and subjects like English, the sciences and current affairs”.

    The amazon went on to talk about future plans for the children and the project. “Our intention is to establish the centre across Nigeria. This centre will act as a catalyst to protect our children into the open stage of the whole world. And by the time they are there, who knows, the sky may not even be their limit.”

    While wishing all the participants success and a brighter future ahead, Ovia stressed the need to be dedicated and have a focus. “The team would be there to guide, inspire and teach the young ones how to go about achieving their dreams as well as carving niche for themselves in life,” she disclosed.

  • Investors hunt for penny stocks in tight market

    With relatively low dividend yield on highly capitalised stocks, investors appeared to be turning to low-priced stocks as the stock market dithered between profit-taking and bargain-hunting.

    Several low-priced stocks, otherwise known as penny stocks, traded at significant premium above market average last week, underlining the increased investors’ appetite for several low-priced stocks with potential for dividend-payment.

    Average gain by investors at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) stood at 0.58 per cent last week. Investors in low-priced stocks however recorded better bargains with many low-priced stocks closing with double-digit gains.

    Penny stocks dominated the top gainers’ list. Honeywell Flour Mills led the bullish stocks with a gain of 11.30 per cent to close at N3.94 per share. AG Leventis Nigeria followed with a gain of 10.49 per cent to close at N1.58. CourteVille Business Solutions rose by 9.84 per cent to close at 67 kobo. University Press returned 9.46 per cent to close at N4.05. RT Briscoe added 9.09 per cent to close at N1.20. Ikeja Hotel chalked up 7.02 per cent to close at 61 kobo while Vitafoam Nigeria’s share price rose by 5.0 per cent to N4.20. Meanwhile, three large-cap stocks made the top 10 gainers’ list, including Forte Oil, which rose by 10.14 per cent to close at N148.99; Access Bank that increased by 6.17 per cent to close at N8.26 and CAP, which added 5.96 per cent to close at N40 per share.

    The benchmark index at the NSE, the All Share Index (ASI), recorded a modest return of 0.58 per cent at 39,311.60 points as against its week’s opening index of 39,083.66 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities rose by N374 billion from N12.554 trillion to N12.928 trillion. The significant increase was partly due to the listing of SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company during the week. Seplat had on Monday listed about 543.28 million ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N567 per share.

    While there were 42 decliners to 31 gainers, gains in the highly capitalised sectors boosted the overall market position. Sectoral indices for the dominant banking, oil and gas and industrial goods sectors closed on the upside. The NSE 30 Index, which tracks the 30 most capitalised stocks, recorded a week-on-week return of 0.34 per cent. The NSE Banking Index gained 1.14 per cent while the NSE Oil and Gas Index recorded the highest weekly return of 2.75 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index recorded a weekly return of 1.46 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index indicated average return of 0.47 per cent. However, the NSE Consumer Goods Index depreciated by 0.76 per cent.

    Turnover during the four-day trading week stood at 1.53 billion shares worth N14.31 billion in 17,704 deals as against a total of 1.64 billion shares valued at N23.16 billion that were traded in 21,620 deals in the previous week. The market closed on Thursday. The government had declared Friday as public holiday in commemoration of Good Friday.

    Analysis of the transactions showed that the financial services sector remained the main driver of market activities. Financial services stocks accounted for 1.33 billion shares valued at N10.39 billion in 10,582 deals; representing 86.7 per cent of aggregate turnover volume.

    The conglomerates sector occupied a distant second on the activity chart with a turnover of 102.92 million shares worth N578.97 million in 1,198 deals. Consumer goods sector placed third with 28.98 million shares worth N1.73 billion in 2,218 deals.

    On stock by stock basis, the trio of United Bank for Africa Plc, UBA Capital Plc and Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc were the most active stocks. The three stocks accounted for 800.38 million shares worth N4.77 billion in 2,373 deals, contributing 52.3 per cent of total turnover volume.

  • Police hunt for MMIA robbers

    Police hunt for MMIA robbers

    The Airport Police Command has declared a manhunt for the suspected armed robbers that killed three of its men and a civilian on Wednesday night at the Muritala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

    The Nation learnt that a Toyota Sienna space bus and an AK47 riffle allegedly belonging to the fleeing robbers were recovered in the Ikorodu area of the state, yesterday.

    A source told The Nation that members of the gang were allegedly dressed in military uniforms when they raided the bureau de change.

    Two of the slain policemen were Emmanuel Akujiobi and Lius Atiri, both Inspectors attached to Apapa Police Station.

    The deceased policemen, were on duty at a company in Apapa and had gone to drop some expatriates who were travelling out of the country when they were killed.

    It was gathered that the policemen had gone to park the vehicle with which they brought the expatriates to the airport when the gunmen struck.

    The source said that on sighting the policemen with their riffles, the gunmen opened fire, killing Akujiobi on the spot, while Atiri shot and killed one of the robbers before he was eventually killed.

    The Nation gathered that the robbers escaped in the Seinna space bus, abandoing the two Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV) in which they drove.

  • Deeper Life killings: Soldiers hunt for ex-council chief

    Members of the Special Task Force (STF) on Kogi State security are searching for a former Chairman of Okene Local Government Area, Alhaji Yahaya Karaku, for his alleged complicity in the bombing of Deeper Life Bible Church, Okenne, it has been learnt.

    Twenty worshippers died in the attack and two soldiers on duty at another location were killed during the incident.

    The police arrested Karaku over the incident but he was released after he was absolved of complicity.

    His freedom from the police has not deterred the soldiers from going after him.

    It was learnt that STF members invaded a popular hotel in Lokoja last week when they were searching for the former council chief.

    The Commander of the STF, Lt.-Col. Gabriel Olorunyomi, confirmed the search in a telephone interview with The Nation.

    He said Karaku has a case to answer with the Army.

    Olorunyomi said: “What we need is for him to come and defend himself over some issues. He can’t just be walking freely on the street when some issues are not cleared. We are not out to hurt him but to take him to the Department of Military Intelligence (DMI) for questioning. If he is found innocent, we will let him go.”

    On the insinuation that the soldier might kill Karaku if they arrest him, Olorunyomi said: “Nigeria has not degenerated to that level of lawlessness. This is a civil case. How on earth do you think we will just kill a person like that?”

    But a senior police officer, who spoke in confidence, told The Nation that there is no constitutional provision that the police should report or hand over a suspect to the Army.

    The police officer said the normal practice is that soldiers hand over a suspect to the police for investigation.

    Efforts to contact Karaku were unsuccessful.

    It was learnt that he was not in Kogi State.