EFCC investigating SCOAN petition, says spokesperson (Punch)
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has said the agency was investigating a petition from the Synagogue Church of all Nations against some members of the church.
The church had claimed that it discovered a huge financial misappropriation involving some church workers and disciples, but debunked reports that they were detained by the new SCOAN Board of Trustees Chairperson and leader, Evelyn Joshua.
The statement read in part, “In view of the discovery of huge cases of financial misappropriation perpetrated in the past few months, reckless individualism and unimaginable acts grossly antipodal to the sanctuary with the passing of the founder, the church leadership took steps to secure certain critical assets of the church with an authorisation for a comprehensive audit of the activities of the church.
“This exercise involved some category of church workers, including disciples and it is being carried out objectively under a regular and absolutely normal environment without any harassment whatsoever to any person or group of persons.” Read more
Sanwo-Olu appoints new LASTMA GM (Guardian)
Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu has approved the appointment of Mr. Bolaji Oreagba as new General Manager of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA).
A statement by the Lagos State Head of Service, Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola, noted that the appointment of Mr. Bolaji Oreagba is geared towards the continued efficient and effective traffic management on Lagos roads and takes immediate effect.
Oreagba, a Deputy Controller (Traffic), joined the State Public Service on the December 8, 1993 and rose through the ranks over the years to the post of the Director of Operations, LASTMA, before his present appointment as General Manager. Read more
Sanwo-Olu is doing well, I’m not planning to unseat him, says Gbajabiamila (Tribune)
Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, has endorsed Lagos State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for a second term in office, come 2023, pointing out that the governor’s performance in the last two years had surpassed expectations.
This was just as the Speaker representing Surulere 1 Federal Constituency in the green chamber of the National Assembly dismissed his rumoured ambition to contest for the Lagos’ governorship seat in 2023, saying he had “no immediate plan” to contest the seat as the task before him as Number 4 citizen in the country was enormous and tough enough for him to be distracted by the rumour.
Gbajabiamila threw this support on Tuesday in an interview aired on Channels TV, saying Sanwo-Olu had been doing a good job in governing Lagos, notwithstanding the difficult time he had faced in the last two years, stressing that he must not be distracted on the assignment. Read more
UAE tags six Nigerians, others as Boko Haram, terrorism financiers (Guardian)
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have named six Nigerians with ties to Boko Haram as terrorist financiers.
The UAE cabinet, on Monday, issued Resolution No 83 of 2021, designating 38 individuals and 15 entities as backers of the sect and other terrorist cause.
Nigerians on the UAE’s terrorism list include Abdurrahaman Ado Musa, Salihu Yusuf Adamu, Bashir Ali Yusuf, Muhammed Ibrahim Isa, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan and Surajo Abubakar Muhammad. The six persons have been previously tried and sentenced in the Western Asia country.
Meanwhile, management of 9mobile has clarified that its Executive Director, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs, Abdulrahman Ado, is not the same as ‘Abdulrrahman’ Ado ‘Musa’ purportedly designated along with others by UAE as terror financiers. Read more
Kogi jailbreak: 114 escaped inmates recaptured – Official (Vanguard)
The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) says it has recaptured 114 escapees of its Kabba custodial centre who were among the 240 inmates set free on Sept. 12.
The NCoS spokesperson, Mr Francis Enobore, confirmed this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Kabba, Kogi, was attacked by gunmen. Read more
VAT battle shifts to Supreme Court as Rivers challenges order (Punch)
The Rivers State Government has approached the Supreme Court, challenging the order by the Court of Appeal that parties should maintain status quo in the Value Added Tax dispute.
In the notice of appeal, the Rivers State Government is arguing, among others, that the “Justices of the Court of Appeal erred in law when they relied on the provisions of Section 6(6) of the Constitution and the inherent jurisdiction of the court to found their decision to make an order to maintain status quo which they identified as restoring the parties to the position they were before the judgment of the Federal High Court in FHC/PH/CS/149/2020 was delivered on 9th August 2021.”
Rivers State is also arguing that “the learned Justices of the Court of Appeal erred in law when they wrongly assumed jurisdiction to entertain the oral application for maintenance of status quo made by the counsel for the Federal Inland Revenue Service (the 1st Respondent herein) in spite of the fact that a condition precedent to the invocation of the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal was not fulfilled by the first respondent.” Read more
Vicious ISWAP leader, Al-Barnawi, killed (DailyTrust)
Leader of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), Abu Musab Al-Barnawi has been killed in Borno State, Daily Trust learnt from many sources.
He was reportedly killed in the last week of August, this year.
Al-Barnawi was the son of Boko Haram founder, Mohammed Yusuf who was also killed by security forces in 2009 when he launched a war against the Nigerian state.
More than one thousand people died during the uprising. Read more
Extend military onslaught on bandits to North Central, Ortom tells FG (Guardian)
Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has urged the Federal Government to extend its onslaught against bandits in the North West to the North Central geopolitical region.
Ortom made the call yesterday at the Benue Peoples House, Makurdi, when members of the Niger Delta Bishop’s Voice and Minister’s Forum (NDBVAMF) visited him.
He stated that the raiding of bandits’ hideouts in Zamfara, one of the North West states, by security agents should be extended to the North Central to flush out the bandits for peace to return to the region. Read more
Benue IDP overcrowded as more people get displaced over armed herdsmen attacks (Sun)
Chairman of Tse Yandev IDP camp, Yev Gabriel, has said more persons were fleeing from their homes in Benue communities into the camp as a result of incessant attacks on them by armed herdsmen.
He listed the affected communities to include Yelwata, a border town between Benue and Nasarawa states and Yogbo saying the development had caused an increase in the number of inmates at the camp. He said the shanty camp which had an initial number of 10,102 inmates now has a total number of 10,407, adding that the number of households have also increased from 5,249 to 5,384. Yev gave the total male population as 3,457, with females at 6,645, maintaining that in the last one month, they have had 305 additional inmates.
“Our survival here has been very terrible. We survive by assistance from churches, smaller non governmental organisation and well meaning Nigerians. The State Emergency Management Agency staff are not on ground here. There is no health facility, no food provision,” he said. Read more
Inspiration4: Amateur astronauts set for orbital spaceflight (BBC)
Four “amateur astronauts” are about to launch into orbit in another landmark mission for space tourism.
It’s the latest flight to help open up access to space for paying customers, following on from launches by Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos.
The trip has been paid for by US billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman, who will travel with three crewmates.
A healthcare worker, a science educator and a data analyst will circle the Earth with Mr Isaacman for three days. Read more
Christopher Nolan leaves Warner Bros. after nearly 2 decades (IndieWire)
Christopher Nolan is officially leaving Warner Bros. after 19 years. Deadline confirms the director’s next movie, a biographical drama about J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atom bomb, has landed at Universal Pictures. Since 2002’s “Insomnia” and through 2020’s “Tenet,” Nolan made all of his movies for Warner Bros. Nolan’s biggest films at Warner Bros. were his Batman films, with “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises” both grossing over $1 billion worldwide for the studio.
According to Deadline: “Sources said that the film is now greenlit to begin production in the first quarter of 2022. When Deadline broke the story a few days ago about this film being shopped, I’d heard Nolan’s longtime collaborator Cillian Murphy was in the mix for a key role. That might happen still, but I’m persuaded there are no definitive casting attachments at this point.”
Many in the industry expected Nolan to leave Warner Bros. after he publicly condemned his longtime studio for pushing their entire 2021 film slate to a hybrid release model in which titles debut in theaters on the same day they become available to stream on HBO Max for 31 days. Read more
California Governor Newsom fights off recall challenge by two-to-one margin (NYPost)
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom was projected to cruise to victory and defeat a recall effort Tuesday night.
Los Angeles Times / Polaris
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom easily survived a recall effort Tuesday night – avoiding the threat of becoming the second chief executive of the Golden State to be removed from office by voters before the completion of his term in under 20 years.
With 61 percent of the expected vote in, the “no” response to the ballot question of whether Newsom should be recalled had 66.8 percent of the vote while the “yes” response had 33.2 percent.
The final margin was expected to be closer as more votes were counted, but not be nearly close enough to trouble the incumbent.
In brief remarks Tuesday night, Newsom said Californians — in voting “no” on the recall — had “said yes to science”. Read more
Everything Apple announced at iPhone 13 event (Mashable)
The highly anticipated Apple iPhone event took place on Tuesday, and we gots lots of news.
Coming into the big day, people in-the-know expected a few things to drop, chiefly the new iPhone, the Apple Watch Series 7, and perhaps new AirPods. But the event also kicked off with surprise news about its iPads, including the new iPad Mini.
Here’s what’s happened thus far, which will be continuously updated.
iPhone 13, the news you’ve all been waiting for
It’s the big news of the day that everyone expected. Apple announced the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 mini. The new iPhone comes in fresh colours, promises a better camera, a better display, a notch, and Apple’s A15 Bionic chip, which the company claims outperforms its competitors. Read more
Gunmen kidnap foreign guests from Mexico hotel (BBC)
Gunmen have abducted about 20 suspected migrants from a hotel in central Mexico, authorities say.
Armed men stormed the Sol y Luna hotel in the city of Matehuala in the early hours of Tuesday.
The kidnapped men and women are thought to be mostly from Haiti and Venezuela.
Police are hunting for the victims. But the abductors also took the hotel’s logbook of guests, complicating the search. Read more
James Bond casting director recalls blowback after hiring Daniel Craig (IndieWire)
Debbie McWilliams might not be a household name, but her work as a casting director has shaped the legendary James Bond franchise for three decades now. McWilliams is the casting director responsible for hiring Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig. With Craig exiting the 007 franchise after the upcoming “No Time to Die,” McWilliams joined Entertainment Weekly to reflect on the actor’s casting ahead of his Bond debut, “Casino Royale.” The casting director said she “felt sorry” for Craig after his casting led to extreme blowback from press who thought Craig didn’t fit the part of Bond.
“It was unbelievably negative, I have to say,” McWilliams said about the reaction to Craig’s casting. “The press response was awful and I felt so sorry for him, but in a funny kind of a way I think it almost spurred him on to do his damndest to prove everybody wrong. The whole way through the film, stuff would come out about [how] he couldn’t walk and talk, he couldn’t run, he couldn’t drive a car properly, so much stuff which was completely and utterly untrue. And he just kept his head down, got on with the job and then the film came out and everybody went, ‘Oh wow, I think we quite like him after all.’” Read more
Okagbare loses appeal, begins four-year ban over banned drugs (Guardian)
Nigerian sprinter, Blessing Okagbare, may have lost her battle to upturn the suspension placed on her by World Athletics (WA) after failing an out-of-competition test.
The US-based sprinter was thrown out of the Tokyo Olympics Games on the eve of the semifinals of the women’s 100m after testing positive for human growth hormone. The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) revealed then that Okagbare failed an out-of-competition test taken on July 19. She appealed against the suspension immediately, insisting on seeing the result of her B Sample.
The Guardian learnt yesterday that Okagbare, a medallist at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, was allegedly handed four-year ban after the result of her B Sample came out with the same result.
“Okagbare started her four-year ban long ago,” a source close to World Athletics (WA) said in a chat with The Guardian. “It is just unfortunate Blessing Okagbare found herself in this mess. When the result of her A Sample came out, Okagbare had the option of accepting it, which could have seen her ban reduced to two or three years, but she insisted on her B Sample. I pity her though, but WA wants all athletes to compete and win clean. Okagbare’s ban may elapse before the Paris 2024 Olympics,” the official stated. Read more
Enyeama backs Musa to earn 140 Eagles cap (Punch)
Ex-international Vincent Enyeama has backed Super Eagles captain Ahmed Musa to make 140 appearances for the national team.
Musa, currently with 98 caps would have completed his 100th games for the country in the World Cup qualifiers against Liberia and Cape Verde last week but had two of the games he featured in not recognised by world body FIFA.
However, Enyeama, in an interview with ESPN, said he was confident that Musa woukd reach the landmark soon and go on to make 130 caps for Nigeria.
He said, “If he (Musa) is in good health, I think Musa can get up to 130 caps. He is doing well; he is the captain of the team. With the time he has, he can still get up to 40 more games for the country, comfortably. Read more
Francine Niyonsaba: Burundi runner sets new 2,000m world record in Zagreb (BBC)
Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba set a new 2,000m world record at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Zagreb.
Her time of five minutes 21.56 seconds was two seconds faster than the record set by Genzebe Dibaba indoors in 2017.
Niyonsaba, a world and Olympic silver medal winner over 800m, is among several athletes banned from competing between 400m and 1500m because of naturally high levels of testosterone.
The 28-year-old says she has kept competing to “inspire others”. Read more
US Soccer says it offered men’s, women’s programs identical contracts (CBC)
The US Soccer Federation said it had offered identical contract proposals Tuesday to the players’ associations for the men’s and women’s national teams, and the governing body said it would refuse to agree to a deal in which World Cup prize money is not equalized.
The unions for the men and women are separate. Under federal labour law, they have no obligation to bargain jointly or to agree to similar terms.
The men’s contract expired in December 2018. The women’s agreement runs through this December. Read more
Cristiano Ronaldo reacts to Manchester United’s Champions League defeat to Young Boys (Metro)
Cristiano Ronaldo has urged his Manchester United teammates to ‘recover well and focus on the next game’ after they suffered a dramatic defeat to Young Boys in the Champions League.
Jesse Lingard’s misplaced pass gifted Switzerland outfit Young Boys a stoppage-time winner on Tuesday night, after Ronaldo had scored on his Champions League return for the Red Devils.
Ronaldo marked his record-equalling 177th Champions League appearance with his third goal in two games for United, finding space in the box and turning home Bruno Fernandes’ brilliant pass to give the visitors the lead. Read more
Tokyo Olympics: Algerian judoka Fethi Nourine and coach suspended for 10 years (BBC)
Algeria’s Fethi Nourine and his coach Amar Benikhlef have been suspended for 10 years by the International Judo Federation (IJF) after withdrawing from the Tokyo Olympics to avoid facing an Israeli opponent.
Nourine, 30, who was in the men’s -73kg class, said at the time that his political support for the Palestinian cause made it impossible to compete.
The IJF said the pair “with malicious intent” used the Games as a “platform for protest and promotion of political and religious propaganda”.
The governing body’s disciplinary commission said it was a “clear and serious breach” of its statutes, code of ethics and the Olympic charter. Read more
