Court intervenes in Balogun Market crisis (Guardian)
A Federal High Court, Abuja, has stepped into the long-running crisis in Balogun Business Association (BBA), Alaba, Lagos.
The court granted the application of the association yesterday and its leadership, led by Chief Anselm Dunu, to quash a purported decision of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), revoking the current Certificate of Registration of the Association.
The application of the association is for orders of certiorari, prohibition and injunction arising from a letter addressed by the commission to some of the lawyers involved in the imbroglio.
The order followed an application made by six members of the market for themselves as incumbent chairman and secretary, respectively, of caretaker committee of the association representing other incumbent members of the committee upon an ex-parte motion seeking an order granting leave to them to quash the letter issued by revoking and cancelling the certificate of registration of the association. Read more
Super TV CEO: Suspect’s father arrested, lecturers, classmates shocked, UNILAG silent (Punch)
Men of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested the father of Chidinma Ojukwu, who allegedly stabbed the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, Usifo Ataga, to death.
A top police source, who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, told PUNCH Metro that the suspect and her father were arrested at their residence, No. 57 Akinwunmi Street, Alagomeji, Yaba, on Wednesday.
The source said the father was arrested for resisting Chidinma’s arrest and for becoming violent with policemen, who went to apprehend her. Read more
Lagos-Ibadan expressway auto crash claims pregnant woman, 2 others (Guardian)
Three persons, including a pregnant woman, were reportedly killed yesterday in an accident that occurred around 5:00 a.m. on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The accident happened at Danco axis of the highway, inbound Lagos, barely two days after a tanker explosion killed two persons on the Ogere stretch of the road.
It was gathered that the pregnant woman was in a bus conveying tomatoes, and the crash involved a DAF truck (flat body) with registration number XY 895 GGE and a granite-laden Iveco truck marked JBD 16 XY were involved in the accident.
The accident also involved a Mazda bus (LND 676 XX) loaded with tomatoes and another Mazda bus (BDG 755 YA) loaded with garri. Read more
UNILAG Lecturer: What I know about our student who murdered Super TV CEO (DailyTrust)
Dr Bunmi Ajibade, a Senior Lecturer at Mass Communications Department of the University of Lagos, says he has made some investigations about Chidinma Ojukwu, a murder suspect.
Ojukwu is currently being detained at the headquarters of the Lagos State Police Command in Ikeja over the murder of Usifo Ataga, the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV.
Ataga’s lifeless body was found in a flat in Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, with multiple wounds, on June 16.
A total of N5 million was said to have been withdrawn from his account after he was murdered.
The suspect was said to have fled the scene after committing the crime. Read more
Court sentences man to 16 years imprisonment for ‘attempted theft’ (Vanguard)
Justice Mobolanle Okikiolu-Ighile, of a Lagos High Court, sitting in Tafa Balewa Square (TBS), annex of Igbosere, yesterday, convicted and sentenced one Ibrahim Saleh, to 16 years imprisonment, for attempted theft.
The defendant was first arraigned on August 14, 2014 and pleaded not guilty to a count charge of attempted stealing following which he was remanded in custody.
The case went on trial and the prosecution called some witnesses. At the resumed hearing of the matter yesterday, the defendant was re-arraigned, and he changed his plea of not guilty to guilty.
Justice Okikiolu-Ighile, however, sentenced him after the Lagos State Prosecutor, Mrs A. O. Odusanya had reviewed the facts of the case. Read more
Rescue us from 16-year darkness, bad roads, Ogun community begs Abiodun (Punch)
PResidents of Orile-Oko in the Remo North Local Government Area of Ogun State have appealed to Governor Dapo Abiodun to come to their aid by putting an end to the 16-year blackout in the community.
The residents lamented that their community last enjoyed electricity supply over 16 years ago during the tenure of a former governor of the state, Chief Olusegun Osoba.
Osoba governed the state between 1999 and 2003.
Speaking on behalf of the community, the Lisa of Orile-Oko, High Chief Olakunle Olalekan, said life had become unbearable for the residents as a result of the blackout.
Olalekan said the community had been in darkness since 2003. Read more
Akinkunmi unveils world’s largest flag in Ibadan (Guardian)
The designer of Nigeria’s national flag, Pa Taiwo Akinkunmi, yesterday, unveiled the world’s largest national flag in Ibadan.
Recall that Akinkunmi designed the flag in 1959 while he was a student in London.
The flag covers 3,275.6 square metres with a length of 75.3 metres and a width of 43.5 metres.
Akinkunmi, who spoke at the event, said the journey to creating Nigeria’s national flag started about 63 years ago when he was studying Electrical Engineering at Norwood Technical College in London. Read more
New infrastructure to crash 1GB data price to N390 -Osinbajo (DailyTrust)
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said the federal government is building broadband infrastructure in order to crash the cost of internet data to N390 per one gigabyte (1GB) in the next three years.
A gigabyte of data currently costs between N1,000 and N1,200 in Nigeria’s telecom market, though the country still has cheaper data rates compared with other countries.
But speaking during the opening ceremony of 51st annual conference of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) in Abuja on Thursday vice president Osinbajo said by the time the government completed laying of broadband infrastructure across the country data prices would further crash.
Apart from crashing the data cost, the vice president who was represented by the Minister of State for Works and Housing, Engr. Abubakar Aliyu, also said the broadband infrastructure would also increase the internet speed 10megabyte download speed per second (10mps). Read more
Amotekun consults as robbers write Osun community, demand N20m (Punch)
Residents of Olofa Estate, Ofatedo, Osun State, have been seized by fear after a gang of robbers wrote to inform them of an impending attack unless a sum of N20m is contributed for them.
In the letters sighted on Thursday, the suspected robbers threatened to kill all the guards in the community, adding that no house would be spared during the attack.
A copy of the note read in part, “This is to inform you all that we thieves are coming to this community. We won’t spare any house or else you contribute a sum of N20m and keep it with the chairman. We will only visit and take the money from him. We will kill all your watchmen if they try to stop us. We are coming with full force.”
A resident of the community, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The PUNCH that he had relocated his family to Osogbo, Osun State capital, following the threat. Read more
Woman awarded £150,000 payout after surgeon ‘unnecessarily’ removed her clitoris (Metro)
A patient has been awarded £150,000 in damages after a surgeon allegedly carried out a ‘completely unnecessary’ vaginal reconstruction which removed her clitoris.
The woman, who does not wish to be named, was left unable to pass urine normally or enjoy sex which, impacted her marriage, and has needed further surgery as a result.
The Hull-based woman, who was in her 40s at the time, suffered with an inflammatory condition which was worsening around her genital area.
Solicitors said a biopsy carried out by a consultant found there was no sign of cancer and concluded that a superficial vulvectomy was not needed. Read more
Canadian report slams ‘reckless’ Iran for downing of flight PS752 (BBC)
A Canadian government report on the downing of a Ukrainian jet has found no evidence it was “premeditated”, but said Iran was “fully responsible”.
Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 was hit by two missiles after taking off from Tehran on 8 January 2020. All 176 people on board died.
Iran – which was accused of hampering independent inquiries – has said it mistook the aircraft for a US missile.
Some 138 of those on board the doomed plane had ties to Canada. Read more
New type of ancient human discovered in Israel (BBC)
Researchers working in Israel have identified a previously unknown type of ancient human that lived alongside our species more than 100,000 years ago.
They believe that the remains uncovered near the city of Ramla represent one of the “last survivors” of a very ancient human group.
The finds consist of a partial skull and jaw from an individual who lived between 140,000 and 120,000 years ago.
Details have been published in the journal Science. Read more
Samuel L Jackson to be awarded first Oscar as he’s honoured alongside Danny Glover (Metro)
Samuel L Jackson is among the stars to be honoured at the Oscars in 2022, with the actor set to get his first Academy Award.
It has been announced that the Board of Governors will present their annual Honorary Awards to the star alongside Elaine May and Liv Ullmann. The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award will be given to Danny Glover.
The statuettes will be presented at the Academy’s 12th annual Governors Awards in January.
Academy president David Rubin said of the stars: ‘Sam Jackson is a cultural icon whose dynamic work has resonated across genres and generations and audiences worldwide, while Elaine May’s bold, uncompromising approach to filmmaking, as a writer, director and actress, reverberates as loudly as ever with movie lovers. Read more
EU leaders fail to agree on a summit with Vladimir Putin (DW)
EU leaders agreed Friday to plan for sanctions against Russia, but rejected a push for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At the EU summit in Brussels, France and Germany had called for direct talks with Putin.
The proposal came after US President Joe Biden held his own meeting with Putin in Geneva, Switzerland, last week.
However, EU leaders failed to reach and agreement on such a summit. In a statement, they said that “they will explore format and conditionalities of dialogue with Russia” but did not mention a summit. Read more
Canada: 751 unmarked graves found at residential school (BBC)
An indigenous nation in Canada says it has found 751 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school in Saskatchewan.
The Cowessess First Nation said the discovery was “the most significantly substantial to date in Canada”.
It comes weeks after the remains of 215 children were found at a similar residential school in British Columbia.
“This is not a mass grave site. These are unmarked graves,” said Cowessess Chief Cadmus Delorme. Read more
Discarded David Bowie painting to set auction record (DW)
A rare painting by the legendary musician, found at a thrift store and initially bought for just a few dollars, is now selling for tens of thousands.
David Bowie was an exceptional artist. Besides influencing generations of musicians, he created his own fashion aesthetic, acted — and painted.
Between 1995 and 1997, he created a series of 47 paintings, which he called Dead Heads or DHeads. Portraying band members, friends, acquaintances and himself, each piece included a non-sequential Roman numeral. The series was most likely inspired by his Ziggy Stardust phase.
Thrift store find
And now, DHead XLVI is up for auction.
The vibrant red and blue acrylic portrait is painted in neo-expressionist style. Read more
Ebuehi to undergo Venezia medical (Punch)
Super Eagles right back Tyronne Ebuehi is poised to undergo medicals ahead of a proposed loan move to newly promoted Italian Serie A club Venezia from Benfica, The PUNCH reports.
The Nigeria international, according to Sky Italia, has arrived in Venice to complete the move, with Venezia holding an option to buy permanently.
Ebuehi spent last season on loan at FC Twente from Portuguese giants Benfica, after recovering from a cruciate knee ligament that ruled him out of action for two years.
Venezia secured promotion to the Serie A for the first time in 20 years. The Venice based club beat Cittadella 2-1 on aggregate in the playoff final. Read more
Marcus Rashford facing surgery decision as Manchester United star admits form has been an issue (Metro)
Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford has admitted his form has been hit by ongoing physical issues that could force him to undergo surgery after the Euros.
The 23-year-old has been forced to play through the pain barrier over the last 12 months with ankle and shoulder injuries taking their toll.
Rashford ended the Premier League season with just nine goals and has lost his place in the England starting XI. But he insists he has no regrets over his decision to not go under the knife during the 2020-21 campaign.
‘Obviously I am not performing at my best and what I know I can perform to,’ Rashford said. Read more
Edinson Cavani scores as Uruguay beat Bolivia in Copa America (BBC)
Edinson Cavani has now scored 52 goals in 121 international appearances
Edinson Cavani was on target as Uruguay beat Bolivia 2-0 to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Copa America.
The Manchester United striker had spurned a number of chances before he converted Facundo Torres’ cross with 11 minutes remaining. Read more
Bale and Wales swimming against the tide in Denmark clash at Euro 2020 (France24)
Gareth Bale and Wales may have been the neutrals’ favourites during their rousing run to the semi-finals of the last European Championship, but as they prepare to face Denmark in the last 16 at Euro 2020 in Amsterdam on Saturday the goodwill is likely to all be for their opponents.
The Danes managed to qualify for the knockout phase in second place in their group despite the enormous emotional impact of Christian Eriksen’s cardiac arrest during their opening game against Finland in Copenhagen.
After the trauma of seeing their star player require CPR on the pitch, Kasper Hjulmand’s team lost 1-0 to their Nordic neighbours and then went down 2-1 to Belgium, but a thrilling 4-1 win over Russia was enough for them to advance.
And so they come to the Netherlands with the aim of winning a knockout tie at the European Championship for the first time since they stunned the continent to win the trophy itself in 1992, defeating Germany in the final in Gothenburg having famously only qualified because war-torn Yugoslavia disintegrated. Read more
Nuno Espirito Santo leading contender for Tottenham manager’s job (BBC)
Former Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo is the leading contender to become the new Tottenham Hotspur manager.
Spurs sacked Jose Mourinho on 19 April but have endured a chaotic search for a replacement.
Talks with ex-Roma boss Paulo Fonseca ended last week and Gennaro Gattuso also went out of consideration amid a fans’ protest.
Nuno has been linked with the vacant managerial jobs at Everton and Crystal Palace this summer. Read more
Rising stars Thomas, Mu shine at US trials (France24)
Rising American sprint star Gabby Thomas set the fastest time in the world this year in the women’s 200m at the US trials in Oregon on Thursday as Allyson Felix squeezed into the semi-finals.
Harvard graduate Thomas, who is studying to be an epidemiologist, became the first woman to duck under the 22-second barrier this year, powering home in 21.98sec at Hayward Field.
Thomas, who had already booked her place at the Tokyo Olympics after a fifth-place finish in the 100m on Saturday, warned she still had plenty left in the tank.
“I wasn’t expecting the time but I’m happy with it,” Thomas said. “It’s surreal. I know I’ve been working really hard and have a great team around me.”I was surprised. I slowed down at the end. I think I have more left.” Read more