THISISLAGOS MIDDAY NEWS UPDATE APRIL 15, 2018
First Lady shines at Vanguard awards (Vanguard)
The daughter of President Muhammadu Buhari, Mrs Halima Buhari Sheriff, was the cynosure of all eyes as she represented her mother, the First Lady, Hajiya Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, at the Vanguard Awards 2017, held in Lagos, last night, where she received the Personality of the Year award. At the occasion, held at Eko Hotel and Suites, Hajiya Aisha’s prepared speech focused on what “some people saw as criticism of a government I am part of. “I need to state that my position was as a result of my sense of justice and not confrontation or disrespect. I was brought up to stand by the truth and this is how I have always been”, the First Lady said. Read more
Lagosians zip up! (Vanguard)
“Leave me alone o, don’t kill me this woman! Are you not concerned about the three girls God has given us already? Are those not children? What do you want to do with more? Are you going to sell them? Can’t you feel the harshness of life in Nigeria today? It is enough please.” These were the angry words of Joseph Okagbaro as he and his wife, Jolaade, engaged in a heated argument. “What is enough? It is not enough. Am I complaining? Tomorrow, your mother will say I did not give birth to a baby boy and that your family name will be lost. I am not yet done with childbearing,” Jolaade fired back. Read more
Visionscape wins Africa’s Best-In-Class quality award (DailyTrust)
Visionscape Sanitation Solutions, a waste management company has been recognised by the World Quality Alliance panel for its dedication to quality innovation and maintaining globally accepted quality standards. The company has its West African regional office in Lagos. The award for “Best-In-Class Quality Waste Management Company of the Year” under the Africa Quality Order of Merit Awards was presented at a summit in Abuja on Thursday. The awards are meant to recognize quality circles, quality leaders and top performing businesses and offer winners opportunity to share and benchmark best practices as Africa lays a strong foundation for quality innovation. Read more
Stones versus AK47 rifles! Stones versus AK47 rifles! (Vanguard)
It was a week of blood, sorrow and tears in Benue communities when suspected herdsmen bared their fangs on villagers in Makurdi, Logo and Ukum local government areas of the state, leading to the death of over 22 persons. The deaths came days after the 45-day military spike operation to stem killings in the state came to an end. The military exercise, code named Exercise Ayem A’ Kpatuma, which commenced on February 15, ended March 30. While the Exercise lasted, killings in the state continued unabated, prompting an outcry by the people that troops were aiding killer herdsmen to take over communities in the state. Read more
4 Year on : We are free, in school; our friends are Boko Haram slaves — Ntakai, Chibok girl number 169 (Vanguard)
Martha James. Grace Paul. Rebecca Joseph. Mary Ali. Ruth Kolo. And so many others. It took Nigerian officials agonizing weeks to publish the names of all the students Boko Haram kidnapped from a boarding school in the village of Chibok four years ago, on the night of April 14. Once they did, the numbers were staggering. The list quickly circulated among the grieving parents searching for their daughters, some setting out on motorbikes to confront the Islamist militants who had stormed the school, loaded the girls into trucks and hauled them away at gunpoint. Read more
79, 800 enrolls for unity schools entrance admission (Guardian)
The Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the National Examination Council (NECO), Professor Charles Uwakwe, has said about 79,800 candidates registered for this year’s National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE) into Federal Government Unity Colleges nationwide. While monitoring conduct of the examination in some centres in Abuja, yesterday, alongside the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, he said Lagos State topped the list with 25,800 candidates. Uwakwe, who noted that the number of candidates is likely to increase, assured that adequate security measures have been put in place, especially in security challenged states. Read more
PDP: Time for defectors to return (Vanguard)
When I take a graphic look and do not see some persons that were our men and women anymore in the PDP political ship, I ask, what happened? When we hear the reasons adduced by many of them who have STEPPED ASIDE from the umbrella, I cannot but say that the human attitude leaves much to be desired. It is sad to note that many of those who have defected from the revered People’s Democratic Party have left on account of having not benefited anything from the party, but is that really true? Read more
‘Nigeria will produce best milk in the world if…’ (DailyTrust)
Reverend Livingston Emenyi, a Nigerian-American has said that he has a programme that will allow Nigeria to produce the best milk in the world if elected president. Reverend Emenyi, who was in Abuja at the weekend to declare his presidential ambition in the 2019 general elections said he would ensure a vibrant agricultural sector in the country. He stressed that he has a programme that will allow children aged 1-10 to be fed free of charge by the federal government. Food security, he said will spur a vibrant agricultural economic drive since the sector is the largest supplier of raw materials for most vibrant agro-allied industries. Read more
Urja Foundation celebrates Easter with children (Guardian)
Urja Foundation School, Ilupeju, Lagos, recently celebrated Easter in a memorable way, as it donated to students food items including rice, cash, tomatoes, and cartons of groundnut oil, among others to put smiles on the children’s faces and that of their parents. The event was also aimed at fostering togetherness among teachers and parents of the school. The children entertained guests with dancing, singing and choreography. Chairperson of Urja Foundation, Mrs. Rukhi Mitra, said the event was to mark Easter, as well as give gifts to some students that performed excellently in the last school exams. Read more
Time spent serving God not a waste! (Guardian)
‘Most People Spend Many Hours of Their Lives Working From Monday to Friday’
(Rev. Ben Eragbai, General Overseer of Divine Appointment Ministry, Lagos)
How many hours do we spend in the church? Most people work assiduously from Monday to Friday and even Saturdays. That is where they spend huge portion of their lives and not in the church. In the church, for instance, some of us don’t spend more than two hours and we’re back home. This is just an attack against the church. For somebody to say our serving God is not reflecting in our lives is baseless. For instance, I used to be a bad guy in the 80s, when I was at the University of Benin. But since I gave my life to Christ, I am now contributing positively to the growth of society. But today, most of my mates are still roaming the streets without hope because the so-called white-collar jobs are no longer available. Read more
Harvesters International holds yearly programme (Guardian)
At the Harvesters International Christian Centre’s (HICC) yearly Night of Worship and Miracle Service tagged: ‘Encounter,’ which held in its headquarters in Gbagada, Lagos, penultimate Saturday, many worshippers that attended the event went home rejoicing and thanking God for answering their prayers. One of them was a five-year-old girl, who was born prematurely and could not walk for five years. To everybody’s delight, however, she got up and walked that night. A lady in her 20s, who was deaf in her left ear received healing, while an elderly woman, who suffered rheumatoid arthritis, hereditary toothache and partial blindness for eight years, went home healed. Read more
4 Nollywood films screen in U.S (PremiumTimes)
Nollywood movie, ‘Ojukokoro’, and three other Nollywood films – Oblivious, The Encounter, and Tell Me Sweet Something, were screened on Saturday night at Metrograph Theatre, New York. ‘Ojukokoro’ (greed) is the hilarious feature film leading the line-up at the inaugural ‘Nollywood 3.0 Images and Stories From the African Diaspora Film Series’ in New York City. Combining the two unlikely genres of comedy and suspense thriller, Ojukokoro tells the story of an attempted robbery that goes very wrong from three contradictory points of view. The film’s director, 27-year-old Dare Olaitan, said he hoped Ojukokoro, as well as the Nollywood 3.0 Film Series as a whole, would help promote Nigerian cinema on an international scale. Read more
I wasn’t raped by CDQ, I’d soon reveal culprit –Ifu Ennada (Punch)
When one of the evicted housemates of the ongoing Big Brother Naija reality show, Ifu Ennada, stated that she was raped by an entertainer, a lot of people felt Nigerian rapper, CDQ, was the culprit because of the drama that had earlier unfolded between them. While she was in the house, Ennada had revealed that she was used and dumped by CDQ despite her contributions to the growth of his career when he was a nobody. In his reaction, CDQ had said they had nothing more serious than a one-night stand. He claimed that Ennada only wanted to use his name to gain popularity. Read more
Adeniyi grabs gold, as Okagbare’s relay team picks bronze (Guardian)
The 2018 Commonwealth Games will be concluded today in the Gold Coast, Australia, with Team Nigeria still pushing hard to surpass the medals haul it attained four years ago in Glasgow, Scotland. At the end of the 2014 edition of the Games, Nigeria finished eighth on the final medals table with 11 gold, 11 silver and 14 bronze as against the 11 gold, 10 silver and 14 bronze medals it won in 2010 at New Delhi, India. Team Nigeria was on the verge of making history at Glasgow 2014, but for teenage weightlifter, Chika Amalaha, who was stripped of her gold medal after failing drug test. Read more
Conte praises Moses, others for strong comeback (Vanguard)
Antonio Conte praised his Chelsea players for rediscovering the “fire in their eyes” after substitute Olivier Giroud inspired a 3-2 comeback victory at Southampton. Dusan Tadic capitalised on a limp first-half display from Chelsea to give Southampton the lead at St Mary’s and when Jan Bednarek doubled their advantage on the hour mark, Conte’s men appeared to be heading for their seventh Premier League defeat of the season. I must be honest — I was very angry for our first half, because we didn’t show great desire, great will to fight, great will to play in the right way,” Conte said. Read more
City trio, Salah, Kane nominated for Player of the Year (Guardian)
Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne, Leroy Sane and David Silva lead a six-strong cast that also includes the prolific Mohamed Salah and Harry Kane for the 2017-18 Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year award. Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea is the other nominee. Despite blowing the chance to seal the Premier League title in a thrilling 3-2 derby defeat to Manchester United last weekend, City still boast a 13-point lead at the top of the table heading into Saturday’s match against Tottenham. Read more
US pastor on trial for alleged terror ties, spying in Turkey (Abcnews)
An American pastor imprisoned in Turkey is going on trial for alleged terror ties and spying in a case that has increased tensions between Washington and Ankara. Andrew Craig Brunson, an evangelical pastor from North Carolina, is facing 35 years in prison on charges of “committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member” and “espionage.” The trial begins Monday in western Izmir province. He was arrested in December 2016 for alleged links to both an outlawed Kurdish insurgent group and the network of the U.S.-based Muslim cleric who Turkey blames for a masterminding a failed military coup that year. The cleric, Fethullah Gulen, denies the claim. Read more
Turkey to get worst EU scorecard so far, officials say (Memo)
Turkey will on Tuesday receive the European Commission’s most critical report since it launched its bid to join the European Union over a decade ago, with Brussels warning that years of progress towards membership were being lost, officials said on Saturday. With the exception of cooperation on Syrian refugees, Turkey and the European Union are drifting apart on human rights, press and judicial freedoms and the rule of law, the Commission, the EU executive, will say, according to two officials who declined to be named. The Commission on Tuesday publishes its annual report in Strasbourg to assess how far Turkey and other countries aspiring to EU membership have progressed in bringing their rules into line with EU standards and values. Read more
Leading LGBT+ rights lawyer David Buckel dies after setting himself on fire in protest in Brooklyn Park (Independent)
A leading LGBT+ lawyer and environmental activist used fossil fuels to burn himself to death in New York in a drastic protest against climate catastrophe. David Buckel’s body was found by onlookers in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Police said the 60-year-old was pronounced dead at about 6.30am yesterday in what they deemed to be a suicide. Before setting himself alight, he had stowed his identification and a suicide note close by, police sources said. The campaigner is understood to have used the note to implore others to have less selfish lives in order to protect the Earth. Read more