7 injured as commercial bus somersaults in Lagos (Punch)
Seven persons were injured after a commercial bus somersaulted in Lagos on Monday as the driver tried to dodge an oncoming vehicle.
The spokesperson for the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, Adebayo Taofiq, who confirmed the accident to our correspondent, said the crash occurred at Super, inward Ile-Epo, in the Abule Egba area of Lagos State.
“It involved a blue Mazda Bus with registration number AGF 991 YC.
“The driver was over-speeding and in an attempt to dodge the Lagos Bus Rapid Transit that was coming, the bus hit the wall on the BRT lane, and the vehicle somersaulted. Read more
Bolanle Raheem: Court dismisses no case submission asks Vandi to open defence (Channels)
The Lagos High Court Sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square on Lagos Island has dismissed a “no case submission” filed by the suspended Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Drambi Vandi, who allegedly killed a Lagos-based lawyer, Omobolanle Raheem, on December 25, 2022.
Justice Ibironke Harrison ordered the defendant to open his defence as a ‘prima facie case” has been made against him.
The court also held that the prosecution led by the Attorney-General of Lagos, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Moyosore Onigbanjo had established sufficient oral and documentary evidence linking the defendant to the crime, which required explanations from him. Read more
Orji Uzor Kalu loses wife Ifeoma (Guardian)
Former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, has announced the death of his first wife, Mrs. Ifeoma Kalu.
The Senator representing Abia North Senatorial District confirmed the sad news on Monday in a statement on his Facebook page.
“With a heavy heart and pain, we announce the passing on to eternal glory of Mrs Ifeoma Ada Kalu, aged 61 years. Read more
Delta APC expels Omo-Agege from party (Punch)
The All Progressives Congress in Delta State has expelled the Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege, from being a member of the APC for alleged for anti-party activities and other unnamed offences.
The Delta APC announced Omo-Agage’s expulsion in a letter dated March 31, 2023, obtained by The PUNCH on Monday.
Recall The PUNCH reported how Omo-Agege, the governorship candidate of the APC in the Delta State lost to the Governor-elect a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Sheriff Oborevwori.
Omo-Agege who scored 240,229 votes was 120,005 votes behind his contender and the returned Governor-elect of the PDP, Oborevwori who scored 360,234 votes. Read more
Court remands singer Portable after N800k bail (Nation)
Popular singer Portable has been granted bail by a Magistrate sitting in Ifo town, Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State.
He was however remanded at the facility of Ilaro Correctional Center pending the perfection of his bail requirements.
The Ogun Police Command arraigned the ‘Zazzu Zeh’ crooner on a five -count charge bordering on assault, unruly behaviour and theft of musical equipment in a case marked 1192/C/2023. Read more
Rivers PDP attacked, denied us access to INEC office, Cole laments (Independent)
Tonye Cole, All Progressives Congress (APC), Rivers State gubernatorial candidate in the just concluded general elections has said that members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) attacked,petted him with stones and other weapons as he tried to access the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Monday to collect Certified True Copies (CTC) of election results.
Speaking about what transpired in the INEC office, he said, “We didn’t want to go to the INEC office with a crowd, so the party chairman, the youth leader, the woman leader, and me went to the INEC office. When we got there the PDP thugs had already barricaded the roundabout, so we couldn’t access the office.
“They (thugs) told me that they were going to embarrass me and wouldn’t allow me access to the office. The next thing I heard, somebody slapped me at the back of my head, and another person was holding my shirt. They threw stones at us, destroyed our vehicles, and a missile hit me on my shoulder. Read more
NSCDC apprehends fake soldier over alleged fraud in Ilorin (Vanguard)
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Kwara Command, has apprehended a 42-year-old man, Abdulsalam Ajibola, for allegedly impersonating a soldier to defraud some members of the public of sums of money.
This is contained in a statement by the command’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr Olasunkanmi Ayeni, made available to newsmen in Ilorin, on Monday.
Ayeni stated that the Tracking Unit of the command acting on information traced the suspect to Oke-Onigbin, Isin Local Government Area of Kwara, where he was arrested on March 24. Read more
Nigeria attained highest rating in fight against terrorism in 2022 – COAS (Guardian)
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt.-Gen. Faruk Yahaya, says it is on record that Nigeria recorded its highest rating in the fight against terrorism in 2022 since 2011 till date.
Yahaya said this at the opening of the Chief of Army Staff First Quarter Conference 2023 on Monday in Abuja.
He said the efforts in Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK) in synergy with the sister services and other security agencies had significantly curtailed terrorism and insurgency that hitherto bedeviled the North East part of the country. Read more
NASA names astronauts for Artemis Moon mission (BBC)
The US space agency NASA has named the four astronauts who will take humanity back to the Moon, after a 50 year gap.
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will fly a capsule around the lunar body late next year or early in 2025.
The astronauts won’t land on the Moon, but their mission will pave the way for a touchdown by a subsequent crew.
The three US citizens and one Canadian were presented to the public in a ceremony in Houston, Texas. Read more
Sir Elton John praises ‘home crowd’ fans as he kicks off final London shows on farewell tour (Metro)
Sir Elton John had a lot of love for his ‘home crowd’ as he kicked off a series of shows in London.
The singer-songwriter – who recently turned 76 – is performing 10 shows at London’s O2 arena as part of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour.
A few hours before the show, Sir Elton took to Instagram to praise his fans.
‘Liverpool, Birmingham, Dublin, Belfast… you were spectacular!’, he wrote.
‘Can not wait to kick the London shows off tonight, nothing beats a home crowd!!’ Read more
Japan breaks with western allies, buys Russian oil (DailyMail)
Japan is now buying Russian crude oil above the $60-a-barrel cap after OPEC+ slashed production, forcing prices even higher.
The country is now the only G7 nation that is buying Russian crude above the cap which was agreed upon by the allies after the invasion of Ukraine.
The island nation has almost no fossil fuel of its own and relies upon importing gas, coal and oil to sustain its energy levels.
The move is a break from US-led efforts to impose the $60-a-barrel cap, but according to The Wall Street Journal, Japan got the US to agree to the exception. Read more
Seymour Stein, Sire Records co-founder who signed Madonna, The Ramones and more, dies at 80 (Billboard)
Seymour Stein, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member who was the co-founder of Sire Records, the former vice president at Warner Bros. Records and who, many years ago, began his storied career in the industry at Billboard, has died, a source confirms.
His daughter, filmmaker Mandy Stein, told The Hollywood Reporter her father died Sunday morning (April 2) in Los Angeles from cancer.
In a statement, his daughter said, “I grew up surrounded by music. I didn’t have the most conventional upbringing, but I wouldn’t change my life and my relationship with my dad for anything, and he was a loving and caring grandfather who took pleasure in every moment with his three granddaughters…” Read more
Blue Beetle trailer release announcement teases new DC hero (DigitalSpy)
DC is preparing to launch the introduction of another superhero with Blue Beetle’s trailer coming out very soon — tomorrow in fact.
The Warner Bros. UK Twitter account posted a short trailer announcement video that promised fans the trailer would drop on Monday, April 3.
“Jaime Reyes is a superhero whether he likes it or not,” the video stated. “See the trailer tomorrow.” The text was accompanied by a graphic of Blue Beetle’s emblem. Read more
Sanna Marin suffers defeat in Finland election as SDP beaten into 3rd place (Guardian)
Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, has lost her battle to stay in power after her centre-left Social Democratic party (SDP) was narrowly beaten into third place in a cliffhanger election by its conservative and far-right rivals.
With all of the votes counted on Sunday, the right-wing National Coalition party (NCP) won 20.8% of the vote, with the populist, nation-first Finns party scoring 20.1%. Marin’s SDP took 19.9% of the vote. Voter turnout was 71.9%.
Marin congratulated the election winners during her concession speech, but hailed an improvement in both her party’s vote share and its projected number of MPs. “It’s a really good achievement, even though I didn’t finish first today,” she told supporters in Helsinki. Read more
Prominent Russian military blogger killed in St. Petersburg cafe blast (CNN)
A well-known Russian military blogger was killed in an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg on Sunday, officials said, in what appeared to be an audacious attack on a high-profile pro-Kremlin figure.
Vladlen Tatarsky died when a blast tore through the cafe where he was appearing as a guest of a pro-war group called Cyber Front Z. Authorities said they were treating the case as suspected murder.
Twenty-five other people were injured in the blast, 19 of whom were hospitalized, the city’s governor said. The Russian Ministry of Health said six people were in critical condition. Investigators were questioning everyone who was inside the cafe, state media reported. Photos of the scene showed extensive damage to the building in which the cafe was located. Read more
Rangers force Lobi Stars to a 1-1 draw in Awka (DailyTrust)
Lobi Stars have continued to be a hard nut to crack for Enugu Rangers following a 1-1 draw in the Match Day 12 of the 2022/23 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) yesterday at the adopted home ground, Awka City Stadium in Anambra.
Prior to this game, the Pride of Benue had dominated with seven wins compared to three for Rangers with Lobi Stars now unbeaten in the last three matches against Rangers.
It was a cagey but entertaining affair as the Group B leaders, Lobi Stars opened the scoring in the second half in the 60th minute through Elijah Ani who was scoring his first goal of the season. Read more
Doma defied fasting to beat Tornadoes – Onigbinde (Punch)
Coach of Doma United, Akinade Onigbinde, has hailed his players after the hard-fought 2-1 win over Niger Tornadoes at the Pantami Stadium, Gombe, despite some of them observing the Ramadan fasting.
Musa Usman opened the score for the hosts in the 29th minute from the spot, but Mark Daniel restored parity for the visiting Tornadoes two minutes after the break.
However, Charles Chibuike’s 76th minute winner sent home fans into wild jubilations on match-day 12. Read more
Footballer dropped for refusing to break Ramadan fast as Nantes manager defends policy (Metro)
Algerian footballer Jaouen Hadjam was dropped from Nantes’ squad for their Ligue 1 clash against Reims after refusing to break his Ramadan fast.
Hadjam, 20, signed a three-and-a-half-year contract at Nantes after joining from Paris FC in January.
The Algeria international has made nine league appearances for Nantes but was not included in the squad for Sunday’s fixture against Reims.
Speaking after the match, Nantes manager Antoine Kombouare confirmed that Hadjam was dropped after insisting on not breaking his Ramadan fast. Read more
Mohamed Salah issues promise amid current slump which sums up Liverpool star (Mirror)
Mohamed Salah has promised Liverpool will bounce back next season following a disappointing campaign that hit a fresh low point on Saturday.
The Reds were thumped by Premier League title challengers Manchester City, despite having gone a goal ahead. But strikes from Julian Alvarez, Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Jack Grealish ultimately secured a dominant win for the hosts.#
It was another disastrous result for Jurgen Klopp’s side, with the heavy defeat a costly blow to their hopes of finishing in the top four. The Reds have now slipped to eighth in the table, eight points behind Manchester United, who sit fourth. Read more
Verstappen wins Australian Grand Prix after red flag chaos (RNZ)
Max Verstappen was crowned Australian Grand Prix winner after two late red flags and a slew of crashes threw the race into chaos before the Red Bull driver was allowed a processional victory lap around Albert Park.
Verstappen was leading Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton with a few laps left when Kevin Magnussen crashed his Haas into a wall, leaving debris on the track and halting the race.
The cars returned to the grid with fresh tyres for a two-lap sprint to decide the race but in a chaotic restart, Williams driver Logan Sargeant rode into the back of AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries to knock both of them into gravel at turn one. Read more
Knicks clinch playoff berth but plan to keep ‘‘checking boxes’’ (ESPN)
For just the second time in a decade, the New York Knicks will be in the NBA playoffs.
But after beating the Washington Wizards on Sunday evening to officially secure a top-six spot in the Eastern Conference, the Knicks made it clear just getting to the playoffs won’t be enough to make this season a success.
“It’s a great accomplishment, because it’s one of the goals,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said after New York’s 118-109 win at Madison Square Garden. “One of several. It’s the next step along the way. So keep going. That’s where the focus is. We know how important the next game is. So get ready for Indiana, and just keep checking boxes as we go.” Read more