Babalakin resigns as UNILAG Pro-Chancellor (Nation)
The Pro-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Dr Wale Babalakin (SAN), has resigned following alleged disagreement with the Federal Government on the Visitation Panel sent to the university.
He said there were too many vested interests in UNILAG matter, who were not approaching the issues objectively.
But he said it has come to a stage he must stand by his principles since the Federal Government believed the actions he took may not be right.
He said the visitation panel was raised to exonerate the Vice-Chancellor and implicate the Pro-Chancellor.
He said although he appeared in protest before the panel, he made it clear that the panel could not determine the issues before it. Read more
Lagos disowns adverts for sale of wastebaskets (Guardian)
The Lagos State Government, on Thursday, disowned the viral video, where some uniformed impostors were promoting the sale of branded wastebaskets purportedly on behalf of the state.
A statement signed by the State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Tunji Bello, noted that the persons in the viral video were fraudsters who do not represent the government or any of its agencies.
Bello affirmed that there is no unit or agency under the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources – Lagos State Vehicle Waste Basket (LAVWAB) Enforcement/Compliance as portrayed in the branded vehicle which the fraudsters claim to be representing. Read more
Lagos moves to bridge metering gap (Nation)
Lagos State government on Wednesday said it would bridge the electricity meter gaps in the state through the promotion of indigenous manufacturing of the device.
Over 60 per cent of Lagosians are estimated to be unmetered due to unavailability and the high cost of meter acquisition. The state government is, therefore, leveraging bright local talents to design and produce affordable smart electricity meters.
To realise this, it launched the Lagos Smart Meter Hackathon 2020 through the state Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources and curated by Eko Innovation Centre.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the initiative marked a significant milestone in the implementation of the state’s plan towards improving access to electricity as it aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal 7 of the United Nations targeted at achieving universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030. Read more
UNILAG leadership crisis: Justice will be served – FG (Tribune)
The federal government has received the report of the Special Presidential Visitation panel set up to probe the leadership crisis rocking the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
Chairman of the Visitation Panel, Professor Tukur Sa’ad, presented the report to the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, on Thursday in Abuja.
Adamu while receiving the report on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari who is the Visitor to the UNILAG, assured members of the panel that justice would be served accordingly and that the report would be thoroughly scrutinised.
The panel which was inaugurated on 26th of August, 2020 had two weeks to submit its report as well as come up with recommendations towards repositioning the institution to its pride of place in the Nigerian university system. Read more
Police arrest six Ogun herdsmen for abducting policewoman, NSCDC official (Punch)
The Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 2 Command, Ahmed Iliyasu, on Wednesday, paraded six suspected herdsmen allegedly responsible for multiple kidnapping and killing of a yet-to-be-identified driver during an attempt to abduct a police inspector on the Ayetoro-Abeokuta Expressway in the Yewa area of Ogun State.
Iliyasu said during a press briefing at the command headquarters, Onikan, Lagos, that the driver was conveying a woman when he suddenly realised that an ambush had been laid by the herdsmen, but while attempting to escape, one of the suspects shot him dead.
He said, “These criminals mounted a roadblock on the Ayetoro-Abeokuta Road in Yewa, during which a police inspector ran into them. While they were manhandling her, the driver of a car coming behind attempted to escape their onslaught, but they opened fire on him and he died. Read more
El-Rufai signs new law with stiff penalty for rapists (Guardian)
Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State on Wednesday signed the State Penal Code (Amendment) Law 2020, which provides stiff penalty for rapists.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the law provides surgical castration and removal of Fallopian tubes for male and female convicts respectively upon conviction of raping a child.
The principal law, the Penal Code Law No. 5 of Kaduna State 2017, was amended by substituting Section 258, to now provide that, “whoever commits rape of a child below the age of fourteen (14) years shall on conviction, be punished with Surgical Castration and death. Read more
Edo 2020: INEC commences distribution of sensitive materials to LGs (Thisday)
Ahead of the Edo State governorship election scheduled for Saturday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Thursday, began the distribution of sensitive materials to the 18 local government areas of the state.
Addressing journalists at the premises of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Benin, venue of the distribution exercise, the Head of Voter Education and Publicity of INEC in the state, Timidi Wariowei, said that the distribution commenced with the farthest local government areas.
He said: “So far, we have loaded about vehicles for 11 local government starting from Akoko-Edo, Etsako Central, Owan East and Owan West, among others.
“Some have gone and others are completely loaded and are sorting out their security escort and very soon, materials will move to all the local government. Read more
Landlord’s outstanding bills cannot be enforced on new tenant – NERC (Punch)
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has clarified that the outstanding electricity bills of landlords are not to be enforced on new tenants.
The NERC Commissioner, Finance and Management Services, Nathan Shatti, made this known during a live programme on “meters and metering” on Tuesday.
During the programme, which was streamed live by on NERC social media platforms, Shatti explained that there is an existing court judgment barring the imposition of landlords’ outstanding bills on new tenants.
The PUNCH gathered that many new tenants were asked to pay the outstanding bills of their landlords in the country, with Distribution Companies disconnecting customers who failed to comply. Read more
Veteran actor, Jimoh Aliu, is dead (Thisday)
The former President of the Association of Nigerian Theatre Practitioners (ANTP) and popular Nollywood veteran actor, Jimoh Aliu, is dead.
The Popular actor died on Thursday at the age of 86 after a brief illness.
Aliu, according to a family source, died at the Ekiti State Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State capital
According to a close associate, the body of the deceased would be moved to his residence at Adebayo area in Ado-Ekiti before being taken to his hometown, Okemesi Ekiti in Ekiti West Local Government Area of the state, where he would be buried on Thursday. Read more
Xinjiang: China defends ‘re-education’ camps (BBC)
China has defended its controversial policies in the Xinjiang region, just days after the US government announced import restrictions on products coming out of the area.
Beijing has come under fire for a network of detention centres which mostly house Muslim minorities.
But a new document says millions of workers have benefited from “re-education” and training.
The US has likened the centres to concentration camps. Read more
South Sudan’s Kiir sacks finance minister amid deepening economic woes (Guardian)
South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir, has fired the finance minister, the head of the tax authority as well as the director of state-owned petrol company, state radio announced Thursday.
No reason was given for the move, but it came after plummeting oil revenues saw the country run out of foreign exchange reserves last month, leading to rapid depreciation of the South Sudanese pound.
The South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation read out an executive order which announced Kiir had decided to “relieve” Salvatore Garang Mabiordit of his role “as the minister of finance and planning in the revitalized transitional government of national unity.” Read more
Manhunt for ‘naked’ prisoners in Ugandan hills (BBC)
Seven out of 219 prisoners who escaped from a jail in north-eastern Uganda have been recaptured, officials say.
Some of the fugitives reportedly took off their distinctive yellow prison uniforms and fled naked into the hills to avoid detection.
The escapees are thought to be trying to use mountain routes to cross the border into Kenya.
The inmates killed a soldier after they broke out of the facility in Moroto on Wednesday. Read more
“The Batman” resumes filming after being shut down when Robert Pattinson tested positive for coronavirus (Metro)
Filming has resumed on The Batman after the production was suddenly halted when lead actor Robert Pattinson tested positive for coronavirus. Warner Bros confirmed to Deadline that filming was back up and running after the two week delay, but there was no word on whether Robert, 34, had been back on set since having Covid-19. A studio rep confirmed in a statement: ‘Following a hiatus for Covid-19 quarantine precautions, filming has now resumed on The Batman in the UK.’ Read more
Kanye posts photos of his record deal amid dispute (BBC)
Kanye West, who is demanding to be released from his recording and publishing deals, has uploaded photos of his contracts to Twitter.
“I need every lawyer in the world to look at these,” he told his followers, while referring to the music industry as “modern-day slavery”.
Taking aim at the wider music industry, he later posted a video of someone urinating on a Grammy award.
West says he won’t release new music until he is released from his deals. Read more
Gabrielle Union confirms “Bring It On” sequel is ‘absolutely going to happen’ (Metro)
Bring It On fans might need to dust off their pom-poms because it looks like a sequel is coming our way.
Yep, Gabrielle Union has confirmed that a follow-up focused on the original cast is in the works and we cannot contain our excitement. Chatting to James Corden recently on The Late Late Show, the 47-year-old explained that Netflix’s Cheer was a slight catalyst for the reunion.
She stated: ‘It’s absolutely going to happen, I think because we all got obsessed with Cheer on Netflix.
‘And it kind of brought back the whole love of cheerleading. And we kind of want to see where these people would be 20 years later.’ Read more
Premier League agrees new broadcast deal in China with Tencent (Guardian)
The Premier League announced on Thursday that it had agreed a new broadcast deal in China for the rest of the season with Tencent Sports following the termination of its previous agreement.
Viewers will have access to all the remaining 372 matches of England’s top-flight football league via Tencent’s digital platforms from Saturday.
More than half of all matches will be available for free to fans in China, with the remaining fixtures available on Tencent Sports’ membership service.
The Premier League, which restarted last weekend after a seven-week break, terminated its contract with Chinese broadcaster PPTV earlier this month after a dispute over a missed payment.
PPTV had agreed a reported $700 million deal for the right to broadcast all 380 Premier League matches per season from 2019 to 2022. Read more
Lionel Messi wins nine-year fight to trademark his surname (BBC)
Footballer Lionel Messi can register his name as a trademark after a nine-year legal battle, the EU’s top court has ruled.
The European Court of Justice dismissed an appeal from Spanish cycling company Massi and the EU’s intellectual property office, EUIPO.
The Barcelona footballer first applied to trademark his surname as a sportswear brand in 2011.
But Massi argued the similarity between their logos would cause confusion. Read more
Sex toys company logo a no-go for Dutch club (Vanguard)
Dutch top flight club FC Emmen will not be allowed to enter into a shirt sponsorship deal with a company that makes sex toys, the Dutch football association (KNVB) has said.
Emmen played their opening game of the new season without a logo on their shirt on Sunday as they were still looking for a sponsor.
After agreeing a deal with Easy-toys, they sought permission from the KNVB but it was swiftly denied.
“It is not appropriate to display sponsorship from the sex industry on match kit,” said a statement from the association, noting it was in violation of their regulations. Read more
Barbara Gonzalez: The CEO changing perceptions in Tanzanian football (BBC)
Barbara Gonzalez is the female CEO of a football club in Tanzania
Facing prejudice because of her age and gender is something Barbara Gonzalez has grown accustomed to since being appointed a board member of one of Africa’s most followed football teams.
Last week, two years after taking her place on the board of Tanzanian champions Simba, the 30-year-old was made the first female CEO of any football club in the country.
Ultimately, the club’s estimated 20 million supporters will be hoping she gets it right but in the shorter term she has been having to prove herself to a far smaller crowd.
“I have gone to two or three league meetings where they look at me thinking ‘What does this woman know about anything? What does this young person know?’,” Gonzalez tells BBC Sport Africa. Read more
Bayern Munich to start league season behind closed doors (Punch)
Bayern Munich must kick off the new Bundesliga season behind closed doors because of a rising coronavirus infection rate in the Bavarian capital, city officials said on Thursday.
The decision puts an end to the European champions’ plans to allow 7,500 fans into the Allianz Arena to watch Friday’s opening game at home to Schalke.
“It would be the wrong signal to let spectators into sports stadiums against the background of the current figures,” said Munich mayor Dieter Reiter. Read more
Gareth Bale set for Tottenham loan move: Real Madrid forward to fly in on Friday (BBC)
Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale is set to fly to England on Friday to complete his return to Tottenham Hotspur.
A deal for Wales international Bale, 31, to rejoin Spurs on loan from Real Madrid is still being negotiated.
Talks between the clubs are progressing positively and as long as they are concluded in the same manner, Bale will travel to London. Read more