CBN restores old 500, 1000 naira notes as legal tender (Guardian)
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has restored the old 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes to remain as legal tender until December 31, 2023.
CBN spokesperson Isa Abdulmumin made the disclosure in a statement on Monday.
“In compliance with the established tradition of obedience to court orders and sustenance of the Rule of Law Principle that characterised the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, and by extension, the operations of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as a regulator, Deposit Money Banks operating in Nigeria have been directed to comply with the Supreme Court ruling of March 3, 2023,” Abdulmunin said. Read more
Vehicle kills politician’s 2 children, injures another in Lagos (Vanguard)
Tragedy struck on Sunday night when a Lexus SUV rammed into a building on 2, Iyewa Street in the Isolo area of Lagos, killing two siblings, while doctors are battling to save the life of another child at the hospital.
The deceased siblings, Abibu Bello, aged 17 and Bolaji Bello,14 years, were children of a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Mr Toyin Bayero.
Eyewitnesses said the children were playing at 7.40 p.m., on Sunday when tragedy struck. Read more
Varsity don found dead with multiple stabs in C/River (DailyTrust)
The Police Command in Cross River has confirmed the recovery of the body of a Professor of Political Science with the University of Calabar (UNICAL), Prof. Felix Akpan.
The Command’s Spokesperson, SP Irene Ugbo, who confirmed the incident, said the body was discovered on Sunday with multiple stabs in his apartment at Plot 181, Duke Town Close, State Housing in Calabar.
Ugbo said that arrests have been made while the matter is still under investigation.
“We have a suspect in custody who claims to be a friend of the deceased (Prof. Akpan). He said he does not know what happened to him or who stabbed him to death. Read more
7 governorship candidates, 9 parties endorse Sanwo-Olu (Punch)
Seven governorship candidates and nine political parties have endorsed Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for a second term.
The endorsement came from the Alliance of Registered Political Parties and was announced at a press conference in Lagos on Monday.
The nine parties are the Action People’s Party; Action Democratic Party; Allied Peoples Movement; National Rescue Movement; Young Progressives Party; New Nigeria Peoples Party; Zenith Labour Party; Social Democratic Party and People’s Redemption Party. Read more
Police arraigns Lagos businessman for N950m fraud (ThisDay)
The Nigeria Police has arraigned a businessman, Olusegun Ogunbanjo, who allegedly defrauded two men to the tune of N950 million, before a Sabo-Yaba Chief Magistrates’ Court in Lagos.
The Defendant was arraigned on a three-count charge, which borders on false pretences, forgery and stealing.
The Prosecutor, Rita Momah, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, told the court that the Defendant committed the offences between January 2017 and December 2022, in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State. Momah submitted that the Defendant obtained N450 million from one Mr Olusola lkuyajesin, and N500 million from one Mr Durodola Balogun, under false pretences of using the money to buy stationery. She added that the Defendant forged an organisation’s Local Purchase Orders to carry out the acts, in contravention of Sections 287, 314 and 365 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State. Read more
Why I did not collect certificate of return – Gbajabiamila (Leadership)
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, has dismissed insinuations he is being considered as chief of staff to the president-elect Bola Tinubu.
He disclosed this to State House correspondents yesterday after a meeting of the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with the party’s lawmakers-elect.
According to him, the reason why he didn’t collect his certificate of return was because he was campaigning for APC in Lagos for the gubernatorial election. Read more
Fire razes shops at Port Harcourt oil mill market (Guardian)
A fire incident, yesterday, destroyed goods and property worth millions of naira at the popular oil mill market, along Aba Road in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Although the cause of the fire has not been ascertained, it was learnt that it started early Saturday when traders were still in their houses. The popular mid-week market is located in Rumuokwurusi Community in Obio/Akpor Local Council of the state.
An eyewitness said the fire, which started at about 6:45 a.m. raged for many hours before fire-fighters arrived at the scene. Read more
2023 Presidential Election marred by manipulation of results – Falana (DailyTrust)
A human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has said that the 2023 presidential election was marred by result manipulations.
Falana stated this during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today.
Other factors, according to the lawyer, that marred the elections included insecurity, late arrival of materials, violence and thuggery. Read more
Drake announces ‘It’s All a Blur’ 2023 tour dates (Variety)
Drake has announced dates for his 2023 “It’s All a Blur” tour presented by Cash App, Visa and Sprite. Produced by Live Nation, Drake and 21 Savage will be going on a 29-date arena run with stops including Chicago, Boston, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and more before wrapping up in Glendale, AZ at Desert Diamond Arena on Tuesday, September 5.
“It’s All a Blur” marks Drake’s return to touring since headlining Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour in 2018. In the last five years, Drake has released four albums, including his most recent studio album, “Her Loss,” in collaboration with 21 Savage. According to the announcement, the tour’s title is “a celebration of the last decade,” signifying its retrospective nature.
Tickets will be available starting with Cash App Card and Sprite presales (details below) beginning Wednesday, March 15. Additional presales will run throughout the week ahead of the general onsale beginning Friday, March 17 starting at 12pm local time. Read more
Gary Glitter: Paedophile former pop star recalled to prison (BBC)
Disgraced former pop star Gary Glitter has been recalled to prison after breaching his licence conditions, the Probation Service has said.
The singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was freed in February after serving half his 16-year jail term for sexually abusing three schoolgirls.
His recall comes just over a month after being freed.
Upon release, he was subject to licence conditions including having a GPS tag. Read more
John Wick: Chapter 4 wakes up SXSW in surprise premiere (Deadline)
It’s been an uneven SXSW: While the film side fired off with the opening night of Paramount/eOne’s Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, there weren’t any big studio marquee pics Saturday and Sunday; the scheduling conflict of Oscars providing a monkey wrench to the fest’s momentum which is typically a one-two-three punch throughout the weekend.
However, the last-minute surprise screening of Lionsgate’s John Wick: Chapter 4 got the festival’s fanboy and fangirl electricity back on track with the rolling laughs and rolling cheers that are the standards of a classic SXSW premiere, complete with star Keanu Reeves and filmmaker Chad Stahelski onstage at the Paramount. The movie even got a short standing ovation during the credits.
Stahelski referenced what a big deal this was: the first John Wick debuted in Austin, TX nine years ago (but at Fantastic Fest). It was only proper to bring Chapter 4 back. Read more
Zelensky adviser hits out at Oscars over Ukraine omission (Newsweek)
Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mikhailo Podolyak has criticized Academy Awards organizers for not allowing Volodymyr Zelensky to address the ceremony in which a film featuring Russia’s most prominent critic was honored.
The film Navalny, which explores the plot to kill Russian anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny, took the prize for best documentary feature during Sunday’s ceremony.
An outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine, Navalny is serving a nine-year term at a maximum-security prison east of Moscow in what his supporters say are jumped-up charges. Read more
Kenzaburo Oe, lyrical novelist and Nobel laureate, dies at 88 (WashingtonPost)
Kenzaburo Oe, a Nobel Prize-winning author whose emotionally searing novels and essays bridged the personal and political, grappling with the legacy of World War II in Japan and with his own experience raising a son with disabilities, died March 3. He was 88.
His publisher, Kodansha, announced the death but did not say where or how he died.
Mr. Oe (pronounced OH-eh) lost his father and grandmother during World War II, came of age during the U.S. occupation of Japan and rose to become one of his country’s most acclaimed authors, writing novels that channeled Japan’s postwar malaise and disillusionment in prose that was lyrical and often thorny, with long, complex sentences that unspooled across the page. Read more
Iran announces pardoning of more than 22,000 arrested during protests (PBS)
Iran announced Monday that the country’s supreme leader has pardoned more than 22,000 people arrested in the recent anti-government protests that swept the Islamic Republic. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the mass release.
The statement by Iran’s judiciary head Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi offered for the first time a glimpse of the full scope of the government’s crackdown that followed the demonstrations over the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by the country’s morality police.
It also suggests that Iran’s theocracy now feels secure enough to admit the scale of the unrest, which represented one of the most-serious challenges to the establishment since the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Tens of thousands also were detained in the purges that followed the revolution. Read more
2 pedestrians dead and 9 injured in Canada truck collision (Guardian)
Two men have died and nine other pedestrians were injured in Canada, after they were hit by a truck on Monday, police said.
Quebec police spokesperson Helene St Pierre said a 38-year-old man had been arrested and investigators were looking into whether the incident in the town of Amqui north of Quebec City was deliberate.
“Everything indicates that this is an isolated event,” she said. “There is no more danger in the area and only one suspect.”
The two deceased are in their 60s and 70s, respectively. Three children are also among the injured, police said. Read more
3 Flying Eagles goals make U20 AFCON top 10 goals (ThisDay)
Three of the goals scored by the Flying Eagles have been picked by CAF among the Top 10 Goals of the just-concluded U20 AFCON in Egypt.
The goals were those of Jude Sunday against Tunisia in the third-place match; Ibrahim Mohammed’s blaster against Mozambique as well as a powerful header by defender Solomon Agbalaka that fell to hosts Egypt.
Jude Sunday mesmerised the entire Tunisian defence to score the Flying Eagles third goal against the North Africans. He was named the Man of the Match in that game. Read more
Kwara Falcons seek redemption against Mali’s Stade Malien (Guardian)
Nigerian champions, Kwara Falcons, who lost their first game of the 2023 Basketball Africa League (BAL) to Rwanda Energy Group at the Dakar Arena, at the weekend, will, today, try to put their title ambitions back on track, when they meet Mali’s Stade Malien in their second game of the competition.
Playing in the BAL Southern Conference, Kwara Falcons lost 48 to 64 to the Rwanda champions.
The Nigerian champions won two of the four quarters, but lost the third quarter 8-24, a deficit they could not claw back in the fourth, which they won 11-9. With Jawad Adekoya, who made a three-point shot and led the attack against the Rwandan team, Kwara Falcons could yet reclaim their mojo in today’s game, especially if Anthony Wilson Jr., who made seven points, on Sunday, gets his acts right. Read more
Pep Guardiola urges Kevin De Bruyne to get back to basics in hunt for form (IrishIndependent)
Pep Guardiola has challenged Kevin De Bruyne to raise his game by going back to basics as Manchester City’s season prepares to enter a defining period.
City face RB Leipzig in the second leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie at the Etihad Stadium tonight and then play Vincent Kompany’s Championship leaders Burnley in the FA Cup quarter-finals four days later.
Whereas De Bruyne has long been indispensable to Guardiola, there have been signs over the past two months of that beginning to change. The Belgium midfielder has failed to start in six of
the past 14 matches for which he has been available and his form has fluctuated, sometimes quite sharply. Read more
A new US Soccer report details the tensions between coach Berhalter and the Reynas (NPR)
A new report from the U.S. Soccer has cleared coach Gregg Berhalter, who led the U.S. men’s national soccer team during last year’s FIFA World Cup, to remain a candidate in the ongoing search for the squad’s next head coach after the revelation of a decades-old domestic violence allegation earlier this year.
And it highlighted the problematic behavior of Claudio and Danielle Reyna, the parents of one of the national team’s most promising young stars, who had known of the incident for years but only brought it to light after their son saw limited playing time during the World Cup.
“U.S. Soccer takes both allegations of violence and allegations of inappropriate behavior toward our officials and staff,” the federation said in a statement. “Given the investigators’ conclusion that there is no legal impediment to employing him, Gregg Berhalter remains a candidate to serve as head coach of the Men’s National Team.” Read more
Tiger Woods says Erica Herman is just ‘jilted ex-girlfriend’ — not an abuse victim: court docs (NYPost)
Tiger Woods says former gal pal Erica Herman isn’t a victim of sexual abuse — she’s just a “jilted ex-girlfriend,” according to court documents filed Monday.
The golf legend, 47, made the claim against Herman, 38, after she asserted in court filings last week that the pair’s non-disclosure agreement she signed in 2017 should be tossed because her accusations involve “allegations of sexual abuse.”
In his response filed Monday, Woods accused his ex-girlfriend of trying to thwart the judicial system because she hasn’t previously alleged abuse – or offered up any proof of such claims — during their months-long legal saga. Read more
Dick Fosbury: The athlete who developed the ‘‘Fosbury Flop’’’ dies aged 76 (BBC)
Dick Fosbury – the man who revolutionised the high jump in athletics – has died at the age of 76.
The American leapt backwards over the bar to win gold at the 1968 Mexico Olympics in a technique which became known as the ‘Fosbury Flop’ and is used by high jumpers today.
At the Games Fosbury set a then record of 2.24 metres using his method.
Writing on Instagram, Fosbury’s agent Ray Schulte said his client had died on Sunday. Read more