Great-grandma collapses, dies while climbing Lagos bridge (Punch)
There was confusion on Monday at the Berger area of Lagos State after a yet-to-be-identified great-grandmother slumped while climbing a pedestrian bridge.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the woman, believed to be in her late 70s, wanted to connect to the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in company of her daughter when the incident happened.
When our correspondent arrived at the spot, the woman was motionless with her tongue sticking out.
Her daughter was seen struggling to revive her as she beckoned on other pedestrians to support her. Read more
Blackout in Lagos as electricity workers begin strike (Guardian)
There was a blackout across Lagos State on Wednesday following the nationwide strike by electricity workers under the aegis of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE).
Ikeja Electric Plc and Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) confirmed the development in separate public notices to their customers.
The DisCos said the picketing of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) by the union members had plunged customers under their networks into darkness.
“Due to the ongoing nationwide picketing of Transmission Stations by the NUEE, we are currently experiencing disruption of power supply as most stations within our network have been shut down.
“Kindly bear with us as we await amicable resolution by the relevant stakeholders.
“Thank you for your usual understanding and cooperation,” Ikeja Electric said. Read more
Troops dislodge Kaduna bandits’ camp, rescue 6 ladies, 1 infant (Vanguard)
Six kidnapped ladies and an infant have been rescued by troops, who dealt a heavy blow to bandits hibernating in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna state.
Samuel Aruwan, the state’s Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs, told journalists, yesterday, that following the weekend breakthrough, security forces have continued with clearance operations in identified bandits and terrorists enclaves around the state.
He said from recent operational feedback to the Kaduna State Government, troops of ‘Operation Forest Sanity’, in the early hours of Tuesday, carried out a raid and rescue operations in Kuriga and Manini communities of Chikun Local government area.
According to the report, the troops made contact and engaged the bandits at the suspected enclave. Read more
Tinubu in closed door meeting with Obasanjo (DailyTrust)
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, has arrived in the residence of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Tinubu, in company with his team, is meeting Obasanjo as part of his ongoing consultation and fence-mending process to actualise his presidential bid.
His chopper landed at 1pm within the premises of Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Oke Mosan, Abeokuta.
Tinubu was received by Governor Dapo Abiodun, his Deputy, Noimot Salako-Oyedele and former governors Olusegun Osoba, Gbenga Daniel and other APC bigwigs, who were already on the ground.
The former Lagos State governor immediately went straight into a closed door meeting with Obasanjo at the penthouse residence within the OOPL. Read more
Insecurity: Northern youths protest at National Assembly, demand NSA’s sack (DailyTrust)
Northern youths under the aegis of Arewa Youth Assembly (AYA), on Wednesday protested at the main gate of the National Assembly, demanding the sack of the National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (Rtd.), over raging insecurity in the country.
The youths argued that the inability of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to stem the tide of security challenges is not unconnected to the bad advisers he has on security, adding that under the watch of Monguno, terrorists had been emboldened.
Addressing journalists during the protest, AYA Publicity Secretary, Aliyu Muhammed, maintained that Monguno had failed to foster needed synergy among security forces fighting various criminalities, hence the reasons the security agents have face-off.
Recall that Monguno was appointed alongside former service chiefs: the Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonishakin; Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar in 2015. Read more
Lagos blue rail line nears completion, as engineers launch final track beam (Sun)
The race to the completion of the 27-kilometer Lagos Blue Line Rail Mass Transit has begun with the launch of the last track beam (T-beam) of the rail track, yesterday.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu personally flagged off the engineering procedure at the site of the Marina station of the project.
With the laying of the final T-Beam, all difficult civil works standing in the way of the Lagos Blue Rail Line, which started in 2012, have been overcome.
The contractor – China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) – will now go ahead to set the rail tracks along the alignment and move the project to completion.
Sanwo-Olu, again, committed the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) and the contractor to the December deadline for the Blue Line project’s completion. Read more
Singer, Harrysong reveals why he thinks God does not live in heaven (Vanguard)
Nigerian Singer, Harrysong has given the reasons he thinks God does not reside in heaven.
In a post shared on his Instastories on August 17th, 2022, Harrysong disagreed with the Christian belief that God is in heaven and asked people not to just read but “study, think and research”. He shared the bible verse that stated that God created heaven and earth.
The ‘Reggae Blues’ crooner stated that God can be in a location and still create that heaven.
He said, “Genesis 1-1, In the beginning, God created heaven and the earth. How possible is it for you to be in a location and later create that location???
GOD IS NOT IN HEAVEN
Police to sanction BNXN for assaulting officer (Punch)
Lagos State Police Command spokesperson, Ben Hundeyin, has stated that singer Daniel Benson, professionally known as BNXN, will face sanctions for assaulting a police officer.
A video making rounds on Twitter on Wednesday, featured the singer in an altercation with members of the Nigerian Police Force.
In now-deleted tweets, BNXN, formerly known as Buju, revealed that he had indeed been in a squabble with the police, which led to him spitting on an officer.
“Spat in a police officer’s face and it felt so good. I let you in my car and you dragged and tore my shirt, and started slapping me? (Sic) Nah, everybody must stop!” he wrote in the deleted post. Read more
Fireboy releases ‘Bandana’ music video (Guardian)
Fireboy DML has dropped the music video for his newly released single “Bandana.”
“Bandana” featuring Asake is off his recently released third studio album “Playboy.”
The TG Omori directed single paid homage to the scarf for which the single is named after. Both artistes wear. the scarves, Fireboy DML pairs his with a black leather jacket while Asake is dressed in a designer suit and covered in jewelry.
Fireboy DML released “Playboy” on August 5th 2022. The 14-track album includes his viral hit singles “Peru” and “Peru remix” featuring Ed Sheeran. Read more
R. Kelly has dark and hidden side – prosecutor (BBC)
R. Kelly has a “dark” and “hidden” side that the public rarely saw during his career, prosecutors said at the opening of his second federal trial.
The R&B singer was found guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering in a New York court last year. He was later sentenced to 30 years in jail.
But on Wednesday, a separate trial on child pornography and obstruction charges began in Chicago.
His lawyer urged the jury not to accept the portrayal of Kelly as “a monster”.
Kelly, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, faces 13 charges, including creating and receiving child pornography, obstruction of justice and enticing minors into sexual activity. Read more
Cat saved owner’s life by pounding on her chest during heart attack (Metro)
Billy meowed at Sam Felstead to get her to wake up (Picture: SWNS)
The owner of a hero cat believes his extraordinary middle-of-the-night intervention saved her life.
Sam Felstead, 42, was asleep at 4.30am when seven-year-old cat Billy pounding his paws on her chest and meowing to wake her up.
The wildly out-of-character behaviour came as Sam was having a heart attack – but she did not immediately know it.
The Nottinghamshire receptionist did realise that she was unable to move her body and had a shooting pain down her right side, so she called out to her mum Karen for help. Read more
Better Call Saul: Critics hail ‘masterful’ finale (BBC)
The finale of Better Call Saul has been praised as “masterful” by critics, as Netflix’s Breaking Bad spin-off drew to a close after six seasons.
The prequel, which focuses on Bob Odenkirk’s character Jimmy McGill, launched in 2015.
It shows him developing into the vain criminal defence lawyer Saul Goodman.
Variety’s Daniel D’Addario described it as a “striking and elegant finale to one of TV’s most consistently strong dramas of the past decade”.
“This finale felt meticulous, from the way it pulled in on Saul’s moral crisis to the deployment of key supporting characters to make its points,” wrote D’Addario. Read more
Award-winning Israeli movie sold to HBO for streaming in Europe (JerusalemPost)
Israeli director Idan Haguel sold his new movie, Concerned Citizen, to HBO for streaming in countries across Europe, it was announced earlier this month.
The movie, which debuted worldwide at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, is set to be made available to watch through HBO in countries including Spain, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania, Norway, Finland and Croatia.
The film is about Ben, a Tel Aviv resident who triggers a tragic sequence of events in an attempt to improve his neighbourhood.
In addition, following its successful debut at the Berlinale, Concerned Citizen was sold for distribution in film theatres across the US, Canada, Germany, Canada, England, Ireland and more. Read more
A$AP Rocky pleads not guilty to assault with a firearm after 2021 shooting (Metro)
A$AP Rocky has pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault with a firearm.
The rapper, who welcomed a baby with his girlfriend Rihanna earlier this year, appeared in person in an LA court on Wednesday to enter the pleas.
A$AP – real name Rakim Mayers – is alleged to have pointed a semi-automatic handgun at the victim, identified as fellow rapper ASAP Relli (real name Terell Ephron) before allegedly firing it in his direction in a subsequent confrontation in November last year.
Mayers was seen arriving at the courthouse dressed in a black suit and dark glasses and was escorted into a car after entering his pleas. Read more
Kabul mosque attack: ‘Many casualties feared’ (AlJazeera)
A huge explosion has ripped through a mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul, police say.
The blast is thought to have occurred during evening prayers, killing at least three people and injuring dozens more, according to the NGO Emergency.
Khalid Zadran, the Taliban’s Kabul police spokesman, was quoted by local media as saying there had been an explosion in the city’s north-west.
Reports say the Siddiqi mosque’s imam was among the dead.
It is unclear who was behind the attack, which comes the week after a prominent pro-Taliban cleric was killed in a suicide bomb blast, also in Kabul. The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the earlier attack. Read more
Princess Diana predicted car crash 2 years before death in mysterious note (NYPost)
Was there anything Princess Di couldn’t do?
According to “The Diana Investigations,” a new docu series streaming on Discovery+, even clairvoyance was within her realm, the Daily Beast reported on Wednesday.
The new investigation revealed that Princess Diana told her lawyer, Victor Mischon, in 1995 that efforts to “get rid” of her would be attempted in the following year — citing a car accident as one of the possible means.
While Diana claimed “reliable sources” granted her the information, she was tight-lipped about their true identity, as documented in a letter penned by Mischon.
Dubbed the “Mischon Note,” the conversation provided eerie insight into what could have led to that fateful night, Aug. 31, 1997, when her driver Henri Paul crashed inside Paris’ Pont de l’Alma tunnel, killing the 36-year-old royal. Read more
Western and Southern Open: Emma Raducanu thrashes Victoria Azarenka in Cincinnati (BBC)
Emma Raducanu has won back-to-back matches against former world number ones Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka in Cincinnati
British number one Emma Raducanu produced another eye-catching display as she thrashed former world number one Victoria Azarenka less than 24 hours after beating Serena Williams.
Raducanu continued her preparations for the forthcoming defence of her US Open title with a 6-0 6-2 win in Cincinnati.
The 19-year-old played Belarusian veteran Azarenka just 18 hours after beating Williams, who will retire after the US Open, 6-4 6-0 on Tuesday.
Raducanu faces Jessica Pegula next.
The Briton, ranked 13th in the world, will meet the American seventh seed in the last 16 of the Western and Southern Open on Thursday.
“I was playing a great match for sure and to play Vika I had to stay focused throughout,” said Raducanu, who beat 22nd-ranked Azarenka to earn her first top-30 win since last year’s US Open. Read more
Not yet the day of long knives as NFF’s AGA holds in Lagos today (ThisDay)
The 77th Annual General Assembly (AGA) of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) expected to consider a roadmap towards an Elective Congress to usher in a new administration for the federation is to hold in Lagos today.
It was earlier scheduled to holdDecember17 last year but for the unfortunate ex parte injunction issued by a Federal High Court in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State following the filing of a suit by some football stakeholders.
Top on the agenda of the AGA is the matter of an elective congress that will lead to electing of new officers for the Executive Committee of the NFF at the expiration of the second term of the Amaju Pinnick second term on September 20.
However, before the matter of the election will come up, stakeholders in the country’s football are also seeking to expand the Congress beyond the 44-member that have monopolized the audacity of electing a new board of the NFF. Read more
Paris 2024 Olympics: NOC secures ANOCA Athlete Support Scholarship for 4 athletes (Vanguard)
After excelling at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham where Team Nigeria topped the African medals table, the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) has changed gear towards ensuring another podium finish by securing scholarships for its athletes for Paris 2024 Olympics.
The NOC have named four latest recipients of ANOCA Athlete Support Programme for PARIS 2024, with the athletes all regarded as prospects for the Paris Olympic Games.
President of Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC, Engr Habu Gumel who is also ANOCA Treasurer- General, announced Enekwechi Chukwuebuka (Athletics), Kolawole Esther Omolayo (Wrestling), Ogbonne Eze Joy(Weightlifting) and Olarinoye Adijat Adenike(Weightlifting) as the recipients.
Gumel said that the funds would support their goal of competing in the Olympic Games.
The four Nigerian athletes are among the 50 athletes chosen by ANOCA as the Commission predicated the allocation process on performance criteria and sports and Olympic ethics. Read more
PFAN threatens court action as NFF holds AGA (Punch)
A new battle in Nigerian football may be in the offing, as the Nigeria Football Federation’s Annual General Assembly holds on Thursday (today) in Lagos.
Five statutory bodies make up the NFF – the players union, coaches union, referees, the clubs and the state FAs – but our correspondent learnt that the players union, which has been factionalised following a leadership rift, would be represented by the All Nigerian Players Union at the AGA, which hasn’t gone down well with the other group Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria, led by ex-international Tijani Babangida.
PFAN president Babangida warned that any decision taken at the AGA without his group would be inconsequential.
He said, “PFAN is the statutory member (of the NFF) and nothing has changed because if you want to change you have to take it to the congress and allow it. Read more
Djokovic: Sticking to Principle at Cost of Immortality (ThisDay)
In two weeks’ time, the U.S. Open will begin in New York City. Novak Djokovic would be the presumed favorite, because as of now he won’t be there. His unvaccinated status bars him from entering the United States.
This is not a column capping for Djokovic to be allowed to play, nor is it a condemnation of him for remaining unvaxxed. We’re all in our corners on this one; nothing said here is going to change anyone’s mind. That conversation is mostly pointless.
But whether you agree or disagree with Djokovic’s stance, there is this: he’s remained firm in his conviction no matter the cost, and that cost is potentially monumental — maybe even literally.
Djokovic currently sits at 21 major championship victories, one behind Rafael Nadal for most all time amongst men. Because of his vax status, Djokovic already missed the Australian Open earlier this year. He would have been the heavy favorite to win there, but without him, Nadal claimed the title and the lead in the race for most majors won. Read more
Andy Murray beats Stan Wawrinka in Cincinnati (DailyTrust)
Andy Murray set up a meeting with fellow Briton Cameron Norrie with a gutsy win over fellow veteran Stan Wawrinka in the Cincinnati Open.
Former world number one Murray, 35, won 7-6 (7-3) 5-7 7-5 in the first-round match against his 37-year-old rival.
2,044 stranded Nigerians repatriated from Libya in 8 months
Murray is now 13-9 against fellow three-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka.
The victory keeps alive world number 47 Murray’s hopes of being seeded at the US Open, which starts on 29 August.
Now the Scot will play Norrie after the British number one won 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-4 against Denmark’s Holger Rune. Read more
At SRAP basketball clinic, American coach, Baker, points at ways to excellence (Guardian)
American Basketball coach, Ganon Baker, believes building an academy in Nigeria will greatly enhance the game’s development. He has promised to put in his best in teaching the kids how to win in life and win in basketball which may change their lives in a good way.
Baker, who, in conjunction with SRAP, is organising a clinic for over 250 coaches and players at the Indoor Hall, Package B, Moshood Abiola National Stadium, said, yesterday, that the academy, if actualised, would serve as a training centre for Nigeria and African youngsters.
The 50-year-old American was enthusiastic about the eagerness of the players he took on the first training session yesterday morning, and said: “Nigeria has a 100 percent chance of measuring at par with the United States of America. Look at the number of NBA players in the last 10 years, some of them are Nigerians and Nigeria stands a good chance of leveling up with the US.
“Being a good player depends on the coach, parents and players. If you have good coaches, you will have good players; if you don’t have good players, perhaps, the coaches are not giving out the right information. My experience so far in Europe and around the world has been that if you give them (players) the right information, they’ll excel.” Read more