7 traffic robbers arrested in Lagos (Punch)
The Lagos State Police Command said on Friday that its men from the Ketu Division arrested seven traffic robbers who attacked a motorist.
City Round learnt that the suspects attacked the unidentified motorist at Kosofe bus stop along Ikorodu road, and were eventually arrested during a patrol by some of the police officers.
Police nab five traffic robbers in Lagos
Details of the arrest and identities of the suspects were unavailable as of the time this report was filed. But the spokesperson for the state police command, Benjamin Hundeyin, said that the arrest of the five suspects led to the nabbing of two others.
Hundeyin said, “Yesterday, at about 1100hrs, five traffic robbers swooped on a motorist at Kosofe bus stop along Ikorodu Road. Ketu Division’s patrol team arrested them all, leading to the arrest of two others. Suspects range between 18 and 28 years. Investigation is ongoing.” Read more
Floods: Food scarcity looms, experts warn (Independent)
Experts following the flooding trend in Nigeria have raised an alarm of a possible food crisis in the coming weeks as a result of excessive rains and floods that has affected a good number of states.
Although the trend has been linked to climate change and anthropogenic human factors, including the Lagdo dam in the neighbouring Republic of Cameroon which was said to have been partially released, no fewer than 300 lives have been lost and 500 persons reported to have sustained injury as a result of the flooding, this year 2022. It’s been reported to be the worst in a decade too.
Beyond the death toll, the flooding is believed to have affected about half a million people, displaced 100, 000 others and destroyed thousands of hectares of farmlands across 27 states of Nigeria including the (FCT). Read more
Arise Walk for Life 2022 kicks off October 15 (Guardian)
To promote a preventive health approach, the convener of Arise Walk for Life, Dr. Siju Iloyomade, has said that the primary goal of organising the annual event was for the health benefits of all participants.
Iluyomade said this during a briefing in Lagos recently, while noting that this year’s Arise Walk For Life which would take place on Saturday, October 15, 2022, with the theme #AppointedToLive would be happening in clusters just like last year’s across different countries of the world, including Nigeria (Lagos), Canada, USA, United Kingdom, Singapore, etcetera.
“The walk will begin simultaneously by 7am local time in all participating countries. Participants are to register their clusters on the Arise Walk website,” Iluyomade said.
The global advocate for women and girls however emphasised the critical need to keep fit and encourage preventive illness instead of a curative approach especially as some countries continue to battle COVID-19. Read more
Lagos driver on trial for stealing N2.3m drinks (Punch)
A 45-year-old driver, Joseph Effiong, is on trial before Chief Magistrate L.O. Owolabi of the Samuel Ilori Court, Ogbà, Lagos State, for allegedly stealing drinks worth N2.3m belonging to his employer.
Effiong was employed by a company, GPC Energy and Logistics Ltd, in 2019 to drive trucks to deliver drinks to customers.
The company said the total value of drinks stolen by Effiong and his accomplices now at large was N2,314,580.
The defendant, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, is facing two counts of conspiracy and stealing. Read more
God should’ve taken one of our bad leaders not Rico Swavey- Ifu Ennada (Vanguard)
Reality TV star, Iheme Uloma, popularly known as Ifu Ennada on Thursday questioned the existence of God and wondered why he (God) didn’t take one of the bad leaders in Nigeria as she mourned former BBNaija colleague, Rico Swavey.
Ifu joined other celebrities and well-wishers to mourn the deceased BBNaija Season 3 housemate who was involved in an auto crash leading to his going into a coma before his eventual death on October 13th.
In an emotional post, Ennada wrote, “Rico was the best of us and his heart was so pure. I don’t know why God did this. It doesn’t make sense. Read more
Commercial bus plunges into river in Delta (Punch)
A commercial bus plying the Ughelli/Port Harcourt section of the East-West Road has plunged into a river at Umeh Junction in Delta State.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the incident occurred on Thursday evening.
Witnesses said that the bus was returning from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, when the ravaging flood forced the driver to lose control.
Although no life was lost in the incident, some of the passengers reportedly sustained varied degrees of injuries.
Our correspondent gathered that the flood which has taken over both sections of the Ughelli/Port Harcourt road was yet to recede, thus hampering smooth vehicular movement along the ever-busy highway. Read more
Abia Indigenes in Lagos honour state deputy speaker Uchendu (Independent)
The Abia State indigenes in Lagos under the aegis of Abia State Town Unions Association (ASTUA), Lagos, has honoured Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Uchendu, the deputy speaker of Abia State House of Assembly.
Uchendu, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Arochukwu/Ohafia Federal Constituency in the 2023 general election, was presented with an Award of ‘Rising Star Legislator’ by ASTUA recently.
The lawmaker was presented with the Award at his Government House Lodge in Umuahia by the President General of the Association, Prince Ejituru Ikenga.
According to Prince Ikenga, the award was in appreciation of the lawmaker’s immense contribution towards the growth and development of Abia State. Read more
Our issues not fully addressed, says ASUU (Punch)
The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Friday called off its eight-month-old strike.
However, the union in a press statement made available to The PUNCH noted that the issues in its disputes with the Federal Government were not well addressed.
The press release, which was signed by the National President of the union, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, however, hailed the intervention of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.
The statement partly read, “ The National Executive Council of ASUU held an emergency meeting at the Comrade Festus Iyayi National Secretariat, University of Abuja, Abuja, on Thursday, October 13, 2022”. The union in its statement further noted that the Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Chris Ngige, took the striking lecturers to court. Read more
Tory MPs turn on Liz Truss after turbulent day (BBC)
Liz Truss is facing a backlash from Conservative MPs after firing her chancellor and announcing a second U-turn on a major economic policy.
One former minister told the BBC, “we cannot go on like this indefinitely”.
Another Tory MP said the party was in a “state of despair” after the PM’s Downing Street news conference.
Truss supporter Christopher Chope said “time will tell” if she had done enough to secure her position, calling those plotting to remove her “hyenas”.
Sir Christopher said: “We can’t possibly force another prime minister out of office, we’ve just got to calm down and try to give the prime minister our support.” Read more
Nicki Minaj blasts Grammys for moving Super Freaky Girl from rap to pop categories (MusicNews)
Nicki Minaj has expressed her disappointment in the Grammys switching her single Super Freaky Girl from the rap categories to pop.
The Starships hitmaker and her team submitted the track to the Recording Academy to be considered for nominations in the rap categories. However, The Hollywood Reporter revealed earlier this week that the organisation’s rap committee overturned the submission and moved it to pop.
Nicki addressed the decision on Instagram Live on Thursday night and suggested it was unfair her song had been classified as pop when Latto’s Big Energy had not.
“So, Big Energy is rap but Super Freaky Girl is pop. If you say both of them are pop, I’d say OK, fine, because I’m all about being fair,” she stated. “If Super Freaky Girl is pop, then so is Big Energy. If you move Super Freaky Girl out of rap and put it in pop, do the same thing with Big Energy. Right? Same producers on both songs, by the way, if you want to talk about it. So let’s keep s**t fair.” Read more
Coolio’s oldest son speaks out about his dad’s death and spirituality (Fox)
Coolio’s oldest son, Artis Ivey III, spoke publicly this week for the first about the rapper since his death at age 59 last month, revealing the health struggles the artist was going through and how important his spirituality was to him.
Ivey said his father, who was found in his friend’s Los Angeles apartment on Sept. 28, died of a heart attack. Ivey, who is named after his dad, shared his 33rd birthday on the same day.
He called his father’s death a “complete shock” but said he knew the “Gangsta’s Paradise” rapper didn’t regret anything.
“I know he had no regrets,” he told the U.S. Sun. “He’s one of those people that got to really fulfill his life’s destiny.” Read more
Colin Farrell felt embarrassed during standing ovation at Venice premiere of The Banshees of Inisherin (FilmNews)
Colin Farrell felt a little embarrassed when his new film The Banshees of Inisherin received a 15-minute standing ovation after its premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
The Irish actor and his co-star Brendan Gleeson reunited with their In Bruges director Martin McDonagh for the new black comedy, about a friendship break-up between two men.
The film received the longest standing ovation of the film festival in early September, and Colin admitted on The Graham Norton Show that being applauded for such a long time made him feel awkward.
“It was a long time and I’ve never experienced anything like it in 20 years of doing this racket. You stand there like a pillock as it was a bit embarrassing, but it was amazing,” he said. Read more
Iranian Director Mani Haghighi stopped from leaving Iran to attend London Film Festival (THR)
The ongoing clampdown on filmmakers in Iran is continuing at a worrying pace.
Mani Haghighi is the latest to be impacted, the actor and director having been prevented from leaving Iran to attend the BFI London Film Festival, where his film Subtraction was due to premiere on Oct. 15. The Hollywood Reporter understands that Haghighi, who first debuted the film in Toronto, where he was able to attend, was stopped at the airport in Iran and had his passport confiscated. He has since returned to his home in Tehran.
“We understand that no reason has been given to Mani Haghighi for the confiscation. The BFI London Film Festival supports Haghighi and all filmmakers in their freedom to make their films and present them around the world,” said a film festival spokesperson.
The spokesperson added, “Earlier this week, in solidarity with imprisoned Iranian filmmakers and the brave women of Iran who are challenging for their freedom, BFI London Film Festival filmmakers and delegates joined Festival Director, Tricia Tuttle, in a moment of solidarity and reflection.” Read more
Halloween Ends sees $5.4m in Thursday previews, +11% from Halloween Kills (Deadline)
Universal’s release of Blumhouse, Miramax and Trancas’ Halloween Ends saw a Thursday night of $5.4m from 3,200 theaters. Showtimes began at 5PM. That figure is +11% from last year’s Halloween Kills‘ previews which were $4.85M.
The third Halloween movie from David Gordon Green in a subset trilogy within the franchise is set to make around $55M this weekend at 3,901 theaters. The pic was exclusive to theaters for one night before also hitting streaming service Peacock today on the paid subscriber tier. Again, it’s not that Universal doesn’t have any faith in theatrical, Peacock at 15M paid subscribers needs more subscribers. Similar to Halloween Kills, which Uni also pulled this theatrical day-and-date on, the studio has bought out the creative players’ backends, making them whole as though the movie was a tentpole hit given the pivot to Peacock.
Green’s first Halloween movie back in 2018 which brought back an older and wiser Laurie Strode played by Jamie Lee Curtis is the best grossing of the trio with $7.7M in Thursday night previews, a $33M opening Friday and $76.2M first weekend, which was exclusively theatrical. That movie was also the fourth best opening of the month of October, and more amazingly electrified what was typically a dead zone for films in the latter part of the month. Read more
Musk says SpaceX cannot fund Ukraine’s Starlink ‘indefinitely’ (AlJazeera)
Billionaire Elon Musk has said his space exploration company SpaceX cannot “indefinitely” fund the Starlink internet service in war-hit Ukraine, days after a proposal to end the conflict that included the country ceding some territory to Russia called his support into question.
“SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely *and* send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households. This is unreasonable,” Musk said on Twitter.
Musk activated Starlink, a satellite internet service operated by SpaceX, in late February after Ukraine’s internet services were disrupted due to Russia’s invasion. Its internet terminals have been crucial in keeping the Ukrainian military online.
Musk said Starlink was spending nearly $20m a month – which he called a “burn” – for maintaining satellite services in Ukraine. He recently said SpaceX had spent about $80m to enable and support Starlink in Ukraine. Read more
Flamingos hand new NFF Board first World Cup victory (Guardian)
After failing to beat Germany in their first group match at the ongoing FIFA U-17 women’s World Cup in India, Nigeria’s Flamingos got their campaign back on track yesterday with a comfortable 4-0 victory against New Zealand in their second Group B game.
On Tuesday, the Flamingos went down 1-2 to Germany in their group opener, but the girls vented their anger on Chile yesterday and secured victory through the efforts of Amina Bello, Miracle Usani in the first half, while Taiwo Afolabi and Etim Edidiong added two goals in the second half.
The Flamingos, cheered by the new NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, took the lead in the 16 minutes through Bello, who headed in a cross from Tumininu Adeshina.
And in the 34th minute, Usani made it 2-0 before Afolabi added the third goal with 15 minutes left. In the 90th minute, Edidiong registered the fourth goal to give the Gusau-led NFF board its first international victory since the September elective congress in Benin City, Edo State. Read more
Liverpool v Manchester City: Pep Guardiola says Reds are City’s biggest title challengers (BBC)
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola believes Liverpool are still the biggest challengers to his side’s Premier League title defence.
Tenth-placed Liverpool host second-placed City at Anfield on Sunday and are 13 points behind Guardiola’s side.
Arsenal are top of the table and Antonio Conte’s Tottenham are three points behind City in third.
However, Guardiola said Liverpool “always have been” City’s main rivals for the title when asked on Friday. Read more
Chelsea boss Graham Potter confirms Reece James and N’Golo Kante ‘will see specialists’ (DailyMail)
Chelsea boss Graham Potter has delivered worrying news over three of their injured stars, who look set for longer spells on the sideline.
The Blues have suffered injuries to Reece James, Wesley Fofana and N’Golo Kante this season – which has contributed to their inconsistent start in the Premier League.
Potter is yet to have a full Chelsea squad at his disposal since taking charge last month and it seems that wait has been extended until beyond the Qatar World Cup.
In his press conference on Friday, Potter said: ‘He’s [James] is due to see a specialist over the weekend. Until we get that, there’s not too much I can add. Read more
Juventus offer training ground to Brazil ahead of World Cup (FootballItalia)
Tite’s Brazil will make a stop in Turin ahead of the World Cup in Qatar after reaching an agreement with Juventus.
Tuttosport details how the Brazilian Football Federation and the Bianconeri signed an agreement some time ago that’ll see the Seleção train at the club’s training ground in Continassa from November 14 to 19, before they head off to Qatar for the World Cup.
This was a decision that was also made 32 years ago, when Brazil stayed in Turin for the 1990 World Cup.
It’ll be a comfortable move for Juventus trio Danilo, Alex Sandro and Gleison Bremer, who are all expected to join the squad for the tournament. Read more
Deontay Wilder considering ‘intriguing fight’ with UFC champion after Fury talks dropped (Express)
Deontay Wilder says that he is “most definitely” interested in a fight with UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. The Predator was set to face Tyson Fury in the boxing ring, but those talks have since fizzled out.
Now, he could be in for a big-money cross-over contest with Wilder as the Bronze Bomber revealed behind-closed-doors discussions with his promoter Al Haymon regarding the fight.
Speaking to the Insider, he said: “I think that would be an intriguing fight, and it would be a fight that would bring a lot of interest. It was mentioned to me before, and Al agreed. There’s the old saying, ‘If it makes dollars, it makes sense.’ And he agreed as well.”
When asked if those talks could lead to a fight, Wilder said: “Who knows? We may see that fight in the future. And if we do? Oh, boy. What a fight to see. The future is bright!” Read more
Russian flags not allowed on Transylvania Open’s scoring board (Tennisworld)
The WTA 250 tournament Transylvania Open, held in Romania, took the decision to not display the Russian flags on the scoring board. The decision was evident in the clash between German Jule Niemeier and Russian Kamila Rakhimova.
The favourite of the Romanian tournament is Ukrainian player Anhelina Kalinina, who knocked out Eugenie Bouchard in the first round following Bouchard’s retirement due to a medical injury.
Dayana Yastremska, a Ukrainian tennis player that made it to the second-round of the Transylvania Open, admitted that she was so distracted by the Russian missile attack on Ukraine on Monday that she didn’t notice her first-round opponent Tamara Korpatsch had two match points, which Yastremska saved to advance to the next round of the Transylvania Open after a strong comeback.
Dayana Yastremska, a 22-year-old Ukrainian, upset German Tamara Korpatsch in a thrilling struggle on Central Court, surviving two match points and overcoming a 2-5 deficit in the third set. „I think that‘s my first win since the last eight tournaments, and of course, I’m very excited about it. Read more
CJ Ujah: UK Athletics technical director Stephen Maguire open to sprinter’s return after drugs ban (Sky)
New UK Athletics technical director Stephen Maguire says CJ Ujah will be considered for selection once he has served his drugs ban.
The 28-year-old sprinter is now suspended following his positive test after helping Team GB to 4x100m silver at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.
Ujah was handed a backdated 22-month suspension this week but was cleared of intentionally taking a prohibited substance by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The AIU stated the ban was effective from August 6, 2021 and will be in force until June 5, 2023. Read more