Gunmen invade church, kill three, injure others (Guardian)
Two persons have been reportedly killed, while three others sustained injuries when unknown gunmen attacked a Celestial Church located in Felele, Lokoja, Kogi State.
The Guardian gathered that the incident happened late Sunday evening, behind NNPC Mega station in Felele.
An eyewitness said the gunmen who were fully armed stormed the church and started shooting sporadically.
It was further learnt that two people died instantly, while others scampered for safety.
The injured victims were said to be receiving treatment at the Federal Medical Center (FMC), Lokoja. Read more
Police arrest Lagos bizman over wife’s death (Punch)
The Lagos State Police Command has confirmed the arrest of a 37-year-old Lagos car dealer, Ikechukwu Ogbonna, aka IVD, over the death of his wife, Abimbola, in the Lekki area of the state.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, disclosed this to our correspondent on Monday.
He said, “He was arrested on Saturday, he’s with us.”
Ikechukwu and Abimbola had been married for 16 years, with the union blessed with five children. Read more
Man found dead in hotel room he lodged with prostitute (DailyTrust)
A yet-to-be-identified middle-aged man has been found dead in a hotel room where he lodged with a commercial sex worker in Lagos.
The deceased was said to have gone to a hotel on Lagos Island with the woman on Friday evening, but was found dead hours later.
The woman was said to have bolted away on noticing that the man had died.
The Lagos State Police spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin, who confirmed the incident, said it occurred at Omidunu Street.
He said some people reported at Adeniji Adele police station that the deceased came to the hotel with a woman and that they went to knock on the door when their time had elapsed. Read more
Lagos: Estate residents, business owners lament locking of street gates (Guardian)
Crisis is brewing among residents, business owners and management of Bosun Adekoya Estate in Victoria Island over locking of the estate’s main gate for five months.
The Guardian learnt that the action was against government directive on locking of street gates and interests of business owners and residents.
The residents claimed that the chairman of the estate, Nnamdi Nwizu, acted without the consent of all the landlords in the Estate.
Before now, many street gates in the state were deliberately locked just to prevent others from using the roads, thereby worsening traffic situations, especially in areas where such roads are meant to serve as alternative link routes. Read more
Floods: Panic as corpses float in Bayelsa, Delta cemeteries (Vanguard)
As floods continue to ravage most parts of the country, residents of Aeroplane Road in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State and Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta have raised the alarm over floating corpses from submerged cemeteries in their areas.
This came as several communities in Bomadi, Patani and Burutu local government areas of Delta State were yesterday sacked by the ravaging flood, with indigenes sleeping on top of Bomadi Bridge.
Vanguard reported yesterday that this year’s flood is perhaps the worst in Nigeria’s history, with over 603 dead, two million displaced and hundreds of hectares of farmlands destroyed.
Corpses litter Bayelsa, Delta communities
Raising alarm yesterday over the health implication of floating corpses in their community, residents of Yenagoa in Bayelsa called on the state government for immediate action to avoid a public health crisis.
Confirming the incident, a resident, Mr Emmanuel Oden, lamented that the floating corpses had become a recurring development during floods, adding that relocation of the cemetery is long overdue. Read more
Thugs attack PDP rallies, Atiku, Saraki fume (Punch)
There was pandemonium on Monday when hoodlums invaded the Peoples Democratic Party presidential campaign mega rally in Kaduna and launched an attack on the crowd.
The hoodlums came into the Ranchers Bees Stadium venue with sticks and machetes and started attacking the crowd, leaving many injured.
The hoodlums invaded the venue three times before they were finally repelled by security operatives and members of the opposition party.
Reacting to the development, the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, condemned the attacks on supporters of his party in Zamfara and Kaduna states. Read more
$5.8b Mambilla power project: Sunrise floors FG at ICC (Guardian)
The International Court of Arbitration administered by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Paris, France, has affirmed the legal and beneficial ownership of Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited (SPTCL) in the $5.8 billion Mambilla hydro-electric power project.
Sunrise and its Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Leno Adesanya had been involved in a running legal battle with the Federal Government over the unlawful termination of the contract, which was signed on May 22, 2003, but re-awarded to a Chinese firm, Messrs China Gezhouba Group Corporation/China Geo-Engineering Corporation (CGGC/CGC).
Specifically, Sunrise launched series of judicial counters to the termination of the contract on May 28, 2007, culminating in a 14-year delay, with the new awardee effectively barred from commencing the execution of the contract.
According to the background of the matter, after Sunrise’s withdrawal from its $500 million Settlement Agreement arbitration at the International Court of Arbitration in Paris in September 2021, the Federal Government’s legal team led by Supo Shasore (SAN) and the foreign firm of White and Case decided to invite Sunrise back to the ICC by claiming $1.6 million in legal fees because Sunrise withdrew the $500 million suit. Read more
Buhari gives self pass mark (Sun)
President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, said he had met the yearnings and expectations of Nigerians with high impact projects.
He stated this amid opposition parties accusing his administration of poor handling of security challenegs and economy . They claimed these have left dire impacts on quality of life, the purchasing power of the naira and cost of staple foods like rice, beans, garri, wheat, maize, among others.
However, the president at the final Ministerial Performance Review Retreat to assess the degree of progress made in the implementation of his administration’s nine priority agenda, gave himself a pass mark.
He said his over seven-year reign had not been without tremendous successes in areas of agriculture, economics, infrastructure, security, health, and anti-corruption with over 3,800 kilometres of new roads built throughout the nation. Read more
Union Bank, MobiHealth Int’l announce partnership on telemedicine (DailyTrust)
Union Bank of Nigeria has announced the first banking partnership with globally recognised telehealth services company, Mobihealth International during a signing ceremony held at the United States Embassy in Abuja yesterday.
The company has also raised significant funding including a $1 million (USD) grant from the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) which was also announced in Abuja.
Speaking on the exclusive banking partnership with Mobihealth, Chief Executive Officer of Union Bank, Mr. Mudassir Amray said: “Mobihealth’s slate of round-the-clock digital medical solutions including telehealth and other healthcare-related services provides a unique opportunity for Union Bank to deliver on our vision to be a trusted partner for our customers as we look beyond traditional banking services to deliver more value, leveraging technology and digital platforms.
“We are excited that the exclusive partnership with Mobihealth will bring this innovation to our customers while also addressing a fundamental and critical need with access to improved and affordable healthcare.” Read more
Wike faults Atiku, rejects BoT’s resolution on Ayu (Punch)
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has expressed mixed feelings over comments credited to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, advising Northerners that they should vote for him in the 2023 election because he hails from the northern region.
Wike said if true, such a statement was a threat to the unity of the country at a time when concerted efforts should be made in giving every citizen a sense of belonging.
The governor spoke on Monday at the international wing of the Port Harcourt International Airport, shortly after arriving from Spain.
Wike was accompanied by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu and Samuel Ortom of Abia and Benue States. Read more
Liz Truss apologises for ‘mistakes’ and pledges to lead Tories into next election (Metro)
Prime Minister Liz Truss said ‘sorry’ for her ‘mistakes’ and has pledged to lead the Tories into the next general election.
The PM has been under increasing pressure after a disastrous first six weeks in Number 10.
She admitted to MPs she had made a series of mistakes – after a day in which her economic plans were almost totally dismantled and authority left in pieces.
Speaking in a BBC interview she said she has ‘adjusted what we’re doing’ after the Government’s fiscal policies spooked the markets, putting in place a new Chancellor with a fresh strategy to ‘restore economic stability.’ Read more
Booker Prize 2022: Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka wins with supernatural satire (BBC)
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, a supernatural satire set amid a murderous Sri Lankan civil war, has won the Booker Prize.
The Sri Lankan writer’s novel is about a photographer who wakes up dead, with a week to ask his friends to find his photos and expose the brutality of war.
Camilla, the Queen Consort, presented the prize, and the author said it had been “an honour and a privilege” to be on the shortlist.
Pop singer Dua Lipa was the star guest.
The prestigious £50,000 prize, for a single work of fiction published in the UK in English, also gives the other five writers on the shortlist £2,500 each. Read more
How the filmmakers behind ‘‘Till’’ depicted Black trauma without showing violence (CNN)
Chinonye Chukwu didn’t want to make a movie about Black trauma.
The director of the newly released film “Till,” which centers on Mamie Till-Mobley as she fights for justice after the killing of her son, said she wasn’t interested in depicting the moment that Emmett Till was brutally beaten to death in 1955 Mississippi.
“The story is about Mamie and her journey, and so it wasn’t narratively necessary to show the physical violence inflicted upon Emmett,” Chukwu told CNN. “As a Black person, I didn’t want to see it. I didn’t want to recreate it.”
In bringing the story of Till-Mobley to the big screen, Chukwu was intentional about what she chose to show and what she chose to omit. The film doesn’t dramatize the vicious and violent manner in which Emmett was killed, but it does depict his horrifically mangled body – an image that Till-Mobley famously shared with the world and that catalyzed the civil rights movement. Read more
Louis Tomlinson thought One Direction hiatus would only last ‘for a year or two’ (Metro)
Louis Tomlinson has revealed that he only expected One Direction to be on a break ‘for a year or two’ before getting back together.
The boyband, who scored four UK number one singles between 2011 and 2015, announced a hiatus in 2016 so that the boys could pursue other projects.
Since then, each of the members, also including Liam Payne, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik – who left in 2015 – have gone on to have solo success, with Harry Styles arguably the most successful of the group so far.
Louis, whose new album Faith in the Future releases next month, joined One Direction during their appearance on talent show The X Factor. Read more
‘‘Halloween Ends’’ leads box office with $41m, extending horror’s red-hot run (Variety)
“Halloween Ends” slayed the box office competition, collecting $41.25 million from 3,901 North American theaters in its opening weekend.
The movie had a softer start than expected (projections were closer to $50 million to $55 million) but it’s still impressive considering its simultaneous release on Peacock likely cut into ticket sales. Jamie Lee Curtis returns as a grandmother with deep rooted trauma in “Halloween Ends,” which is the supposed cap to Universal and Blumhouse’s long-running slasher series. But the franchise continues to make money, after all, so it’s doubtful that audiences have seen the last of the masked killer Michael Myers.
“Halloween Ends” also faced unexpectedly steep competition from Paramount’s creepy thriller “Smile,” which continued its killer run with $12.4 million (a minimal 33% decline) in its third weekend of release. The R-rated “Smile” has grossed $71.1 million in North America to date, a scary-good result since it cost $17 million to produce. At a time when movie theaters have been struggling to bounce back from COVID, the horror genre has been a consistent winner.
“Horror films have been performing extremely well at the box office,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “Young audiences like seeing these movies at a theater.” Read more
Brendan Fraser reveals why he thinks Tom Cruise’s “The Mummy” flopped (DigitalSpy)
The Whale’s Brendan Fraser has pinpointed the most important element missing from The Mummy reboot, which wasn’t reviewed too highly five years ago.
Famed for his portrayal of Rick O’Connell in the swashbuckling original Mummy trilogy, Fraser spoke to Variety about Tom Cruise’s version of the movie, while also confirming he’d “be open” to returning to the franchise.
“I don’t know how it would work. But I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit,” he said.
He went on: “It is hard to make that movie. The ingredient that we had going for our Mummy, which I didn’t see in that film, was fun. That was what was lacking in that incarnation. Read more
China’s Xi defends zero-Covid policy and warns Taiwan at opening of Communist Party Congress (NBC)
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for accelerating the building of a world-class military as he kicked off a Communist Party Congress by touting the country’s “zero-Covid” strategy and reiterating policy priorities.
Xi, 69, is widely expected to win a third leadership term at the conclusion of the week-long congress that began on Sunday morning, cementing his place as China’s most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong.
Roughly 2,300 delegates from around the country gathered in the vast Great Hall of the People on the west side of Tiananmen Square amid tight security and under blue skies after several smoggy days in the Chinese capital.
Xi described the five years since the last party congress as “extremely uncommon and abnormal”, during a speech that lasted less than two hours — far shorter than his nearly three-and-a-half-hour address at the 2017 congress. Read more
Benzema wins Ballon d’Or as Putellas retains women’s prize (Guardian)
Karim Benzema was rewarded for his remarkable success with Real Madrid by winning the Ballon d’Or at a star-studded ceremony in Paris on Monday, while Spain’s Alexia Putellas retained the women’s prize.
Benzema, who is the first French winner of the most prestigious individual award in football since Zinedine Zidane in 1998, scored 44 goals in 46 games for his club last season as Real won the Champions League and La Liga.
Fifteen of his goals came in the Champions League, including hat-tricks in knockout wins against Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea and three more across both legs of a stunning semi-final defeat of Manchester City.
The 34-year-old, who also won the UEFA Nations League with France, succeeds Lionel Messi with the Argentine not nominated this year after claiming the prize for the seventh time in 2021.
“The Ballon d’Or might be individual but it’s still a collective award. This is the Ballon d’Or of the people,” Benzema declared. Read more
Leeds vs Arsenal suspended minutes after kick-off as fans left baffled by hold-up (Express)
Leeds vs Arsenal was suspended after just two minutes due to technical issues at Elland Road. Fans at the stadium were left bemused as to the reason for the match being halted.
In just the second minute, referee Chris Kavanagh went over to the touchline with an apparent issue with his microphone. It has since emerged that there had been a power cut at the stadium, though supporters were left in the dark for a period of time.
Kavanagh had lost all contact with VAR and the goal line technology system, and TV feeds were also affected. Kavanagh spoke with both sides’ managers as the players attempted to keep themselves warm by passing the ball around on the pitch.
But after several minutes, the issue had still been resolved. Both sets of players made their way back to their respective dressing rooms. Read more
Lazio scare as Immobile limps off injured (FootballItalia)
There was very worrying news for Lazio, as Ciro Immobile limped off following an apparent thigh strain and looked distraught.
The striker had already been in doubt for this game due to a knock to his ankle, but started against Udinese at the Stadio Olimpico.
It seemed to be a muscular issue, as Immobile pulled up by himself 29 minutes into the Serie A match and immediately limped away to the touchline without waiting for treatment or an evaluation from the medical staff.
The Italy international appeared to be very upset, which suggests the injury is a serious one. Read more
Liverpool could have signed Luis Figo but snubbed him for two other transfers (Mirror)
Luis Figo has admitted that he “talked a lot” to Liverpool and was keen to join the club in 2005, only for the club to miss out to Inter Milan.
Figo carved out a storied career for Sporting Lisbon and Barcelona before becoming Real Madrid ’s first Galactico signing in 2000. After getting over the controversy of his €60million move from Barca, Figo established himself as one of Europe’s star players with the Spanish giants.
But by the time he was 32 years old he had slipped down the pecking order with Los Blancos and was ready to leave. Speaking in an interview to promote a new Netflix documentary entitled ‘The Figo Affair: The Transfer that Changed Football’, Figo has revealed how close he came to joining Liverpool.
“I would have liked to go,” he told the Guardian. “We talked a lot. One week they say, ‘No, wait, we can’t do it just now’ and then they sign a player. Then, ‘Wait a few more days, we need to sort this first’ and they sign another. I think: ‘Bloody hell, are you messing with me, or what?’ Read more
Deontay Wilder bursts into tears claiming Robert Helenius ‘may never be the same again’ (DailyMail)
Deontay Wilder broke down in tears during his post-match press conference, claiming Robert Helenius may never be the same again after Saturday night’s KO.
The Bronze Bomber claimed his 42nd KO against the heavyweight contender by landing a devastating right hand on his chin in the first round.
Wilder, who was returning to the ring for the first time after his trilogy defeat to Tyson Fury, discussed the dangers of boxing and referenced Prichard Colon after the fight.
Wilder broke down in tears at his post-match press conference claiming Helenius may never be the same again after being knocked out in the first round of their fight. Read more
Keegan Bradley ends winless drought with victory at Zozo Championship (USAToday)
It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t without its shaky moments, but Keegan Bradley did just enough to take the lead and held on to notch his fifth career PGA Tour title at the Zozo Championship.
The 36-year-old former PGA Championship winner shot 2-under 68 on Sunday at Narashino Country Club in Chiba, Japan, to edge Rickie Fowler and Andrew Putnam by one stroke.
Bradley, who began the day a stroke behind Fowler, moved to top of the leaderboard by canning a downhill 40-foot birdie putt at the par-3 fifth and marking another circle on the card at the par-5 sixth.
He stretched the lead to two two when he drained a 25-foot birdie putt at 11 and pumped his right fist. He looked in control until he made a sloppy bogey at the par-5 14 th. Though he saved par at 15 with a 10-foot putt and clenched his fist, Bradley clearly was leaking oil and one hole later he coughed up the solo lead with his second bogey in his last three holes. Putnam (68) was tied for the lead at 14 under until he made bogey at 17 and Bradley made birdie to regain a two-stroke lead heading to the last. Read more
Rublev sweeps past Korda for 4th title of season in Gijon Open (France24)
Andrey Rublev beat Sebastian Korda 6-2, 6-3 to win the inaugural Gijon Open on Sunday, earning his fourth title of the year.
The 24-year-old Russian is aiming to qualify for next month’s ATP Finals in Turin and this victory in Spain’s north-west will increase his chances.
Rublev, the top seed, saw off Ilya Ivashka, Tommy Paul and US Open 2020 winner Dominic Thiem on his way to the final and the 12th title of his career.
The world number nine was in good form and made light work of his 22-year-old American opponent in one hour and 17 minutes, adding to his triumphs in Marseille, Dubai and Belgrade this year. Read more