Gunmen invade MKO Abiola’s house in Lagos (Punch)
Gunmen on Wednesday invaded the house of the late Chief Moshood Abiola in Ikeja, Lagos State and stole property worth millions of naira.
A source confirmed the development to The PUNCH.
“Armed robbers invaded the house of the late MKO Abiola in the Opebi area of Ikeja. They carted away a lot of valuable items,” the source said.
When our correspondent visited Abiola’s house on Wednesday, a police patrol vehicle was stationed at the front of the building.
A security guard on the premises, however, declined to speak with our correspondent who inquired about the incident. Read more
COVID-19 sample tests exceed 100,000 in Lagos (Vanguard)
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Wednesday said Lagos State had tested 100,607 samples.
for COVID-19 infections since inception of the pandemic.
The NCDC announced the figures in its COVID-19 Situation Report for Sept.1.
It said that out of the 411, 077 COVID-19 sample tests conducted in the country, Lagos had conducted the highest number of sample tests.
On the chart list for the tests, Lagos was followed by Abuja with 49,022 tests, while Kano, Plateau and Oyo States, conducted 43,441; 24,469 and 19,807 tests.
The agency said that Lagos State recorded 19 new COVID-19 infections from the 239 confirmed infections reported in the last 24 hours from 15 states. Read more
Court remands man for butchering three family members in Osun (Guardian)
A 24-year-old technician, Opeyemi Lukman, has been remanded in Ilesha Correctional Centre for allegedly butchering three family members in Osun State.
Lukman, an electrician, was arraigned before an Osun State magistrates’ court sitting in Okuku yesterday on a seven-count charge bordering on murder, attempted escape and others.
The prosecutor, Mr Tajudeen Mustapha, said on July 24, 2020, at about 11:00p.m. at Sekinat area, Inisha, Lukman butchered his customer’s family: Sarah, 57 (wife), Favour Onifade, six, and Toyin, aged 15, and as well stabbed Sarah’s husband, Solomon Tunde Oyeniran, in seven places. Read more
Gbajabiamila hopeful of mutually acceptable resolutions to Ghanaian Diplomatic Face-off (Vanguard)
The Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila says he is hopeful that Nigeria and Ghana will arrive at mutually acceptable resolutions to the trade disputes that erupted some weeks back.
The Speaker, who led a delegation of lawmakers from the House of Representatives, said this when they were received by the Speaker of the Ghanaian parliament, Rt. Hon. Prof. Mike Oquaye, as they arrived Accra, the capital of Ghana, on a legislative diplomatic mission.
Gbajabiamila said the two-day visit to Ghana was meant to explore legislative diplomacy towards resolving the issues affecting both countries. Read more
Canoe mishap claims 8 lives in Kebbi (Guardian)
Another tragedy occurred in Kebbi State on Wednesday as eight people comprising women and children were drowned into a river after a canoe capsized at Tungar-Gegero in Jega Local Government Area of Kebbi State.
Confirming the incident to journalists in Birnin Kebbi, chairman of the Kebbi State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) Sani Dododo, said that the incident occurred at about 10:30 am at Tungar-Gegero in Jega Local Government Area, where eight people lost their lives to a canoe mishap.
“Women and children about ten of them were on board with only one operator, a middle-aged man and he was trying to transport the people to a naming ceremony. Read more
NNPC raises petrol depot price to N151.56/litre (Punch)
The Petroleum Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, has increased the ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol, to N151.56 per litre from N138.62 per litre.
This was disclosed in an internal memo from Ibadan depot to all stakeholders with reference number PPMC/IB/LS/020 dated September 2, 2020 and signed by D.O Abalaka.
The ex-depot price is the price at which the product is sold to marketers at the depots.
The memo, a copy of which was seen by our correspondent, said, “Please be informed that a new product price adjustment has been effected on our payment platform. Read more
Sirika restructures NCAA, sacks directors (Vanguard)
A major restructuring of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, was done Wednesday by the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika.
Some directorates of the agency have been merged, while some directors were relieved of their jobs. However, Vanguard gathered that last week, the Director, Consumer Protection Directorate, Alhaji Adamu Abdullahi handed in his resignation letter and this has been accepted by the agency.
Although no official announcement has been made as at press time, Vanguard reliably gathered that ” the Consumer Protection Directorate( CPD) has been merged with the Directorate of Air Traffic Regulation ( DATR) which is now headed by Oyo-Ita as Director”. Read more
Police rescue 12 children from 55 year-old trafficker in Anambra (Guardian)
The Nigerian Police Force have rescued twelve Children from one suspected 55-year-old child trafficker Nkechi Odinye in Anambra State.
“It would be recalled that on the 22/10/2019 following intelligence report, Police detectives attached to Anambra State Command arrested three female suspects at Nkpor market/Tarzan junction in Idemili North LGA of Anambra State,” the state police spokesman Haruna Mohammed said in a statement
“Investigation revealed that the children were stolen from Gombe State by one Hauwa Musa ‘f” on the 20/10/2019 and brought to her accomplices in Anambra State. Read more
8 charged with sexually assaulting unconscious teen after video surfaces (NYPost)
Eight men are facing charges in Rhode Island for allegedly sexually assaulting a 16-year-old unconscious girl at a party — after the girl’s mother found footage of the attack on Facebook and shared it with detectives, according to a report.
The teen told detectives in Providence she awoke in an apartment on Dec. 20 with vaginal pain and cuts on her thighs, police and court records obtained by the Boston Globe show.
She told police she could remember being naked in a bathroom shower, with roughly 15 men laughing at her while possibly taking photos before she recalled being taken into a bedroom. However, she was unconscious during the alleged assault. Read more
China rejects Pentagon claims Beijing planning to double nuclear warhead stockpile (RT)
The report by the US Defense Department, which claims that Beijing plans to double the number of its nuclear warheads, is biased, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
The statement by ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, followed the release of the Pentagon’s annual report to Congress on China’s military operations on Tuesday.
Among other things, the paper claimed that Beijing’s nuclear warhead stockpile, which is currently estimated in the low 200s, “is projected to at least double in size” over the next decade. Read more
Pregnant woman allegedly lured, killed for her unborn baby (NYPost)
Brazilian woman Flávia Godinho Mafra was 36 weeks pregnant when her body was found by her husband, Valdeli Mafra.
Brazilian woman Flávia Godinho Mafra was 36 weeks pregnant when her body was found by her husband, Valdeli Mafra.Facebook
A pregnant Brazilian woman was killed when her old school friend — who suffered a miscarriage last year — lured her to a fake baby shower, attacked her with a brick and cut out her unborn baby, according to reports.
Flávia Godinho Mafra, a 24-year-old substitute teacher, was 36 weeks pregnant when her body was found by her husband, Valdeli Mafra, on Friday, news.com.au reported.
Their baby girl — named Cecilia — survived the horrible ordeal and was later found by police after being taken to a hospital by the 26-year-old suspect and her husband, who were arrested at the scene.
At the hospital, the baby had cuts on her back, rousing suspicions because the woman had no physical signs of having given birth. Read more
Thailand’s king reinstates his consort after her fall from grace (BBC)
Thailand’s king has reinstated his royal consort to the position, nearly a year after she was stripped of her titles in a dramatic fall from grace.
King Vajiralongkorn returned Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi’s rank and titles on Wednesday, the Royal Gazette announced.
Sineenat was stripped of her rank in October 2019, only months after being named as the king’s companion.
The palace had said that she was being punished for trying to elevate herself to “the same state as the queen”. Read more
Japan’s ruling party sets schedule to elect PM Abe’s successor – media (RT)
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is to elect a new leader – who will serve as the country’s next PM – in less than two weeks, it emerged. Shinzo Abe, the outgoing premier, resigned recently citing declining health.
Japan’s Liberal Democrats will officially launch the race for the top job on September 8, with ONLY 394 lawmakers and 141 delegates from local chapters voting for the next party leader on September 14, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported Wednesday.
It is a slim down from more than 1.09 million rank-and-file LDP members. The results of the vote will likely be announced two days after, possibly during an extraordinary session of parliament. Read more
Black holes: Cosmic signal rattles Earth after 7 billion years (BBC)
Imagine the energy of eight Suns released in an instant.
This is the gravitational “shockwave” that spread out from the biggest merger yet observed between two black holes.
The signal from this event travelled for some seven billion years to reach Earth but was still sufficiently strong to rattle laser detectors in the US and Italy in May last year.
Researchers say the colliding black holes produced a single entity with a mass 142 times that of our Sun. Read more
Planetary defenses spot ‘UFO’ on collision course with Earth, turns out to be a NASA relic (RT)
An unidentified object was spotted on a collision course with Earth, triggering the alarm among planetary defense specialists. Thankfully, the object was identified before any drastic emergency measures were taken.
Given the slew of space rocks which shoot through our cosmic backyard each week, it’s unsurprising that an unidentified object spotted headed right at the Earth would raise the alarm. The University of Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey, funded by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), spotted the UFO late on August 25.
The sighting was corroborated by the University of Hawaii’s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System.
After crunching some numbers, and consulting ancient tomes from the 1960s, the specialists had cracked the case. The UFO was, in fact, NASA’s Orbiting Geophysics Observatory 1 (OGO-1), headed home after 56 years in space. Read more
Precious Orji on turning talent into Paralympic gold for Nigeria (BBC)
It was love at first lift for Josephine Precious Orji, the Nigerian para powerlifting star who is now an Olympic champion and world record holder.
Orji’s life changed dramatically for a second time in 2001 when she visited a gym in her hometown, Owerri, in Imo State, to try out powerlifting for the first time in her life.
Just two hours later she surprised herself by declaring: “I want to reach the peak of this sport.”
It as a defining moment for the 41-year-old, who has lost the use of her legs following a bout of polio as a child.
Determination, natural talent, a lot of hard work and some support from state and national governments has saw her reach that peak at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio. Read more
Georginio Wijnaldum agrees to join Barcelona from Liverpool (Punch)
Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum has agreed to join Barcelona this summer, according to reports in Spain.
The Netherlands international has less than a year remaining on his contract with Jurgen Klopp’s side and could leave on a free transfer next summer. According to Sport, Barcelona are now in advanced talks with Wijnaldum’s representatives and the 29-year-old has given his approval to sign a three-year contract with the Spanish club. Read more
Paris St-Germain: Three players test positive for coronavirus (BBC)
Three Paris St-Germain players have tested positive for coronavirus, the Ligue 1 club said on Wednesday.
The French champions, who lost in the Champions League final last month, have not revealed the players involved.
“All of the players and coaching staff will continue to undergo tests in the coming days,” a club statement said.
The French league is already under way but PSG are due to start their title defence at Racing Lens on 10 September after being given an extended break.
The opening game of the Ligue 1 season between Marseille and Saint-Etienne had to be postponed last month after four home players tested positive for Covid-19. Read more
Nike unveils maternity line after criticism for a lack of pregnancy apparel (RT)
Sportswear giant Nike has responded to criticism it faced over its maternity policy by releasing a new clothes line designed for pregnant women and nursing moms.
The newly-launched line which will be available in September includes a nursing bra and leggings designed to support “women’s relationship with sport during such a transformative time in their lives.”
The first ever maternity collection was hailed by the majority of customers, however, not everyone was impressed with Nike’s move, outlining that it took the company quite a long time to realise it needed changes. Read more
Venus out of US Open in first round for first time (Punch)
Venus Williams bowed out of the US Open in the first round for the first time in her professional career on Tuesday, losing in straight sets to Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic.
The 40-year-old Williams, making her 22nd appearance at Flushing Meadows in a career that has spanned four decades, was beaten 6-3, 7-5.
It marked Williams’ second consecutive first round defeat at a Grand Slam event after exiting the Australian Open at the same stage in January.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion has not been past the third round at a Slam event since 2017. Read more
Qatar: FIFA’s Infantino hails law changes that improve workers’ rights (Vanguard)
FIFA president Gianni Infantino expressed joy at the announcement of ground-breaking law changes that should improve the rights of workers in Qatar, host nation of the next World Cup.
It was confirmed on Sunday that the Emir of Qatar had abolished certain restrictions in place for migrant workers in the country, with two new laws passed by authorities.
The changes mean workers are no longer unable to change jobs without their employer’s permission, while a monthly minimum wage of 1,000 Qatari riyal – plus basic living allowances for some workers – has been introduced.
Human rights organisation Amnesty International hopes these steps will “strike at the heart of the abusive kafala system”, a practice that requires so-called unskilled labourers to have a sponsor – predominantly their employer – in the country. Read more