INEC Declares David Mark Winner

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared David Mark winner of the Benue South Senatorial re-run election held on Saturday.

Senator Mark polled a total of 84,192 votes, to beat Daniel Onjeh of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with 71,621 votes, Channel News reported.

The returning Officer of the electoral body, Mr Ishaq Eneji, while declaring the result, said that Senator Mark met all the requirements during the conduct of the poll, having majority of the total vote cast.

However, the APC agent contested the validity of the result declared.

Responding to the victory and call for supplementary election in the cancelled polling units, Senator Mark said that his election reflected the will of the people.

The declaration of the re-run election in favour of Senator Mark brings to a close the intense political fireworks prior to the election with both parties trading accusations on plot to manipulate the polls one way or the other, in the report.

The re-run election followed a Court of Appeal’s judgment which nullified the election of Senator Mark as the Senator representing the zone in an earlier election held on March 28, 2015.

Senator Mark was the Senate President during the last administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan who was defeated in a comeback bid in the 2015 presidential election by President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress.

Trump Wins South Carolina, As Clinton Takes Nevada

Donald Trump has won the South Carolina primary in the republican race for the US President.

In the democratic contest, Hillary Clinton also defeated Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders, in a tight race in Nevada, Channel News reported.

Both results would be key ahead of the “Super Tuesday” round on March 1, when a dozen more states would make their choice.

Trump’s victory claimed a major scalp when former Florida Governor, Jeb Bush, dropped out of the race.

He finished a distant fourth, days after former President, George Bush, made a rare political appearance to boost his brother’s campaign, in the report.

Republican Senators, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, were locked in a battle for second place in the state.

For Republicans, Trump is the one boasting a winning streak. He had a second-place finish in Iowa and double-digit victories in New Hampshire and now in South Carolina.

The 10 Worst Stereotypes About Successful And Powerful Women

“I’ve been in this field for more than 30 years,” said co-anchor of Today Ann Curry. “I’ve heard a lot of stereotypes.”

Women continue climbing the rungs of power—building their ranks as heads of state, corporate leaders and media influencers—but their minority status means they still face harsh, limiting assessments based on their gender. “Women are being judged more, even by other women,” said Valerie Young, Ed.D., author of The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women. While male leaders are allowed to have complex personalities, powerful women are often summed up by hackneyed stereotypes that undermine them and their power.

Forbes Woman tracked down many of the world’s most powerful women, from IMF chief Christine Lagarde to Jill Abramson of the New York Times, to ask: What is your least favorite stereotype about powerful women? Gender and career experts also weighed in on the dangerous notions about female success and how they seep into the collective subconscious. The following represent the 10 most hated and pervasive stereotypes.

Ice Queen

Halley Bock, CEO of leadership and development training company Fierce, notes that the ruthless “ice queen” stereotype is rampant. Cultural depictions, like frigid magazine editor Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada (and her real-world counterpart Anna Wintour of Vogue) and back-stabbing boss Patty Hewes on Damages, paint successful women as unsympathetic power-mongers. It is, of course, a Catch-22. “A woman who shows emotion in the workplace is often cast as too fragile or unstable to lead,” Bock said. “A woman who shows no emotion and keeps it hyper-professional is icy and unfeminine. For many women, it can be a no-win situation.”

Single and Lonely

Harvard lecturer Olivia Fox Cabane notes that the strong perception that powerful women are intimidating to men and will need to sacrifice their personal lives may stop women from going after power. Even those women who aren’t interested in marrying, face harsh judgments. Men get to be “bachelors” while women are reduced to “spinsters” and “old-maids.” In fact, when Janet Napolitano was nominated Secretary of Homeland Security, critics said her being single would allow her to “spend more time on the job.”

Tough

The first female Executive Editor of The New York Times, Jill Abramson is anything but stereotypical. She had a hard-charging career as an investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal and edited her way to the top of the Times masthead. She’s also a true-blood New Yorker and is writing a book about puppies. Despite her complexities, she must contend with being called “tough” and “brusque,” making the “she’s-tough stereotype” her least favorite. Said Abramson: “As an investigative reporter, I had tough standards and a formidable way of framing and reporting stories, but I don’t think of myself as a tough person.”

Weak

Costa Rica President Laura Chinchilla, the country’s first female leader, told me that successful women face typecasting largely because society is still adjusting to women’s recent decision-making power. Chinchilla believes the most pervasive stereotype is that women are “weak,” a perception that may stem from women’s greater desire to build a consensus. “We understand success not as the result of just one person but as the result of a team,” she said. “[It’s a] different way of dealing with power [that] is misunderstood as a kind of weakness.”

Masculine

The notion that powerful women must be, lead and look like a man really aggravatesChristine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. In a video interview with FORBES she said–pumping her fist–she hates the idea that “you have to look like a businessman.” She admitted she sometimes feels the pressure to look the “right” way, but tries to resist not being “overly businesslike.”

Conniving

When NBC’s Curry first started her career, she was told she couldn’t be a news reporter because women had “no news judgment.” Now, she’s at the top of her game and says the stereotype that most offends her is “the idea that a woman can only be successful because she somehow connived or engineered her rise–that she could not rise simply because she was too good to be denied.” She has experienced it herself, saying that she gets asked if she “forced” NBC to give her the anchor job or if there was a “backroom deal.” Curry told me, “I find it really annoying.”

Emotional

Ellen Lubin-Sherman, executive coach and author of business guide The Essentials of Fabulous, believes one the most dangerous stereotypes female leaders will face is that they are prone to emotional outbursts. Despite Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s consistent cool-headed demeanor, when she teared up on the campaign trail, the media pounced. Similarly, former Yahoo Chief Carol Bartz is frequently cited for her “salty language,” which has been used as evidence that she is “emotional” and a “loose cannon.”

Angry

“Anger is a sign of status in men, but when women show anger they are viewed as less competent,” said Young. First Lady Michelle Obama was condemned as an “angry black woman” when she was campaigning for her husband in the 2008 presidential election. The Harvard-trained lawyer conscientiously softened her image and speeches in order to be more “likable,” becoming better known for her fashion and her unending support of her husband than for her stance on political issues.

A Token

Women hold just 16% of corporate board seats. But instead of focusing on balancing things out, they are often devalued as being a “token” of diversity rather than having earned the post. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was often the only woman in the room, but her gender didn’t get her there. “While companies take their diversity goals seriously, they are not going to settle for less than the best person for the job,” said  Lynne Sarikas, director of the MBA career center at Northeastern University. “Women are hired because of their education and experience and what they can do for the company.”

A Cheerleader

Billie Blair, president and CEO of Change Strategists, notes that prominent women who are considered feminine and warm may be dismissed as “cheerleaders” rather than the strong leaders that they are. When former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was running for VP, Blair was amazed to hear a male client describe her as “a cheerleader, not a coach nor a quarterback.”

With Forbes

Amber Rose fires back at Tyrese, Rev. Run: ‘When I say no, it means no’

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"I'm not DTF," Amber Rose told Tyrese Gibson and Rev. Run.

Model Amber Rose had a thorny retort to the suggestion that her image is why she’s “sexually assaulted constantly.”

The former stripper, who often shares racy snaps on social media, fired back at “It’s Not You, It’s Men” hosts Tyrese Gibson and Rev. Run after they implied her “energy” was to blame for unwanted groping.

“If I’m laying down with a man butt-naked, and then his condom is on, and I say, ‘You know what? No. I don’t want to do this, I changed my mind,’ that means no. That means f--king no,” Rose schooled the pair on an episode airing Saturday.

“It doesn't matter how far I take it or what I have on. When I say no, it means no.”

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Gibson (l.) tried to compare playing basketball with a hoops star to groping a scantily clad woman.

The “Furious 7” star and former Run D.M.C. member had clumsily tried to forge a connection between Rose’s risque image and the unwanted touching she claimed she gets from men and women alike.

“Like, if you see a basketball player, and he’s known as a basketball player, when you see him you’re gonna be like, ‘Yo, let’s go play ball!’ ” Gibson said.

“The comfortability that some people find in wanting to touch or grope you ... It’s an energy that’s being sent out there that creates that type of response.”

Run chimed in to recite the saying, “Dress how you want to be addressed.”

The polarizing model quickly dismissed them.

“Oh, boo. No. That’s not realistic,” she said. “Stop it.”

“If I want to wear a short skirt or a tank top and I’m at the club and I’m having fun with my friends and I feel sexy, I’m not DTF. I’m not even looking at you,” she added. “I didn’t come here to have sex.”

She clarified that she wasn't angry at Gibson and Run, because "that's how society raised all of us."

"I'm a former slut-shamer. I've called women hoes a million times," she admitted. "And now I'm not."

Rose previously rallied for the right to remain scantily clad in October, when she led a hundreds-strong SlutWalk march in Los Angeles protesting the mistreatment of women.

She also starred in a Funny or Die video titled “Walk of No Shame” in September, and teamed up with bestie Blac Chyna one month earlier to wear body suits bearing words like “slut,” “whore” and “b---h” to the MTV VMAs

CBN orders banks to refund N6.2bn excess charges

The Central Bank of Nigeria said it compelled Deposit Money Banks to refund N6.2bn to customers they overcharged as cost of transactions in 2015 alone.

This is contained in a statement made available by the Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr. Ibrahim Mu’azu, in Abuja on Saturday, Channel News reported.

The central bank said in the statement that it was prepared to checkmate banks and protect customers from illegal, excessive charges.

The statement said, “The Revised Guide to Bank Charges clearly specifies allowable charges for all banking services; the CBN does not in any way condone the fleecing of banking customers under any guise.

“It was in the quest to provide a strong voice to banks’ customers and moderate the arbitrary charges that the CBN in 2012 established a Consumer Protection Department, in the report.

“The CBN has investigated over 6,000 complaints relating to unauthorised bank charges brought to its notice, following which banks have been compelled to refund N6.2bn to affected customers in 2015 alone.

“The CBN wishes to reiterate its resolve to continuously enforce the provision of the Revised Guide to Bank Charges and urges members of the public to report cases of infringement to enable it investigate and apply sanctions on any erring DMB.”

The statement urged bank customers to forward complaints of excessive bank charges to the Director, Consumer Protection Department, of the CBN.