Lagos consumes 20 million eggs daily (Nation)
Lagos Commissioner for Agriculture, Honourable Oluwatoyin Suarau said the state consumes 20 million eggs daily, one of the largest in the country. He made the disclosure during a one day sensitisation workshop in Lagos on Thursday on Agro-Processing, Agricultural Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS) Project, a Federal Government/World Bank agricultural initiative aimed at improving agricultural productivity of small and medium scale (SMEs) commercial farmers. Lagos, Kano, Cross River, Kogi and Enugu states have benefitted from the $200 million appeals project of the World Bank Agro intervention. Read more
Insecurity in Rivers hampering Ogoni clean up, says Senator Abe (Punch)
The senator representing Rivers South East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Magnus Abe, said on Thursday that no meaningful clean up exercise would take place in Ogoni land at the moment due to serious security challenges in the oil-rich area. Abe, who is also the Chairman, Senate Committee on the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, stated this while addressing journalists shortly after his bill on the establishment of the University of Environment, Science and Agriculture, scaled second reading in the Senate. He said despite the award of contracts to the contractors that would carry out the clean-up, the exercise would be stalled due to the unabated security challenges in the area. Read more
Sign minimum wage bill into law before Workers Day, NLC tells Buhari (Nation)
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Thursday appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the new National Minimum Wage bill for the Nigerian workers recently passed into law by both chambers of the National Assembly before the 2019 workers day celebration. Speaking in an interview with The Nation in Abuja, General Secretary of Congress, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson said with the passage of the bill into law, the President should immediately sign it into law in other to give effect to his promise to ensure the welfare of the Nigerian workers. It was recently rumoured that the President has signed the bill into law giving workers hope that they may start enjoying the new minimum wage before the May day celebration, but it turned out to be a false alarm. Read more
Buhari meets service chiefs, orders routing of bandits, kidnappers (Punch)
A meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and service chiefs has just ended at Presidential Villa, Abuja. The President, at the meeting, directed the service chiefs and heads of other security agencies to deal mercilessly with the bandits killing residents in Zamfara State. He also ordered the security chiefs to urgently address kidnapping and other violent crimes in all parts of the country. Read more
UTME candidates, centres laud JAMB, allege minor technical hitch (Punch)
Candidates sitting for the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination on Thursday narrated their experiences on the conduct of the examination by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board. The candidates spoke in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday. Over 1.8 million candidates who registered for the UTME were expected to sit for the examination from April 11 to April 15 in the 698 Computer Based Test centres across the country. Read more
Court suspends judgment on suit seeking to sack Saraki, other lawmakers (Nation)
The Federal High Court, Abuja has suspended delivery of judgment in a suit filed by an advocacy group, Legal Defence and Assistance Project, (LEDAP) seeking the sack of Senate President, Bukola Saraki and 55 other lawmakers. LEDAP dragged Saraki and the 55 other lawmakers to court seeking a declaration that they were no longer members of the National Assembly having defected to other political parties before the expiration of their tenure. The group, in their suit filed on Sept. 14, 2018, prayed the court for an interpretation of Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution. Read more
Delta Command arrests policeman who beat up student for using iPhone (Punch)
The Police have revealed that one of its men, a sergeant, who was seen harassing a student over his ownership of an iPhone in a viral video has been arrested and undergoing an orderly room trial. According to a statement issued via the verified Twitter handle of the police, the Delta State Command confirmed the arrest of the sergeant. The statement read, “The commissioner of Police Delta State Command has confirmed that the police SGT reported to have harrassed and embarrassed an innocent student is now in police custody. Read more
Woman found dead inside room with two fetish pots (Nation)
A middle aged woman, fondly called Toyin, was on Thursday found dead in her room in Akure, the Ondo state capital. According to sources, Toyin, said to be a food seller at the popular Tipper garage area, Isinkan quarters, Akure had already finished cooking for the day as usual but could not come out as at 6am for business. The development forced her neigbbours to force her door opened and found her lifeless body inside the room with two calabash containing concoction. It was learnt that, her phone was checked and discovered that she made calls to a person registered with ‘Alpha’ on the phone at exactly 1am and 3am consecutively. Read more
Man sets neighbour’s house on fire for rejecting his sexual advances (Punch)
A 23-year-old man, Eleward Sariwa, has been dragged to a Zimbabwean court for setting ablaze his neighbour’s house,who had rejected his sexual advances. Sariwa reportedly broke into Precious Jamu’s home, and laid down on her bed, naked, waiting for her. iHarare revealed that Sariwa’s actions had been without the consent of Jamu. She was therefore shocked to find Sariwa not only in her house but on her bed. Read more
Quito withdraws Assange’s Ecuador citizenship (Guardian)
President Lenin Moreno’s government withdrew the Ecuadoran citizenship granted Julian Assange, acting before the WikiLeaks founder’s arrest in London Thursday, Foreign Minister Jose Valencia said. Assange was evicted from Ecuador’s embassy in London and arrested by British police, ending a nearly seven year standoff after Quito ended asylum for the Australian-born fugitive. Moreno tweeted that Ecuador acted within its “sovereign rights” when it withdrew Assange’s asylum “for repeatedly violating international conventions and the protocol of co-habitation.” Read more
Moon, Trump meet in wake of North Korea summit failure (Guardian)
South Korean President Moon Jae-in meets with Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday to try and find a path forward from the debris of a failed nuclear summit between the US president and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Both Trump and Moon are heavily invested in bringing North Korea out of the cold but the unsuccessful summit in Vietnam at the end of February was a setback for the two allies that has yet to be resolved. Trump will give Moon and his wife Kim Jung-sook the red carpet treatment at the White House before talks in the Oval Office. Read more
India election 2019: Voting kicks off in world’s largest election (BBC)
Tens of millions of Indians have voted on the first day of a general election that is being seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Indians in 20 states and union territories cast their ballots in 91 constituencies. The seven-phase vote to elect a new lower house of parliament will continue until 19 May. Counting day is 23 May. With 900 million eligible voters across the country, this is the largest election ever seen. Some observers have billed the vote as the most important in decades and the tone of the campaign has been acrimonious. Read more
Ex-pope Benedict blames Church sex abuse crisis on ’68 (Guardian)
Pope emeritus Benedict XVI on Thursday blamed the Catholic clerical sex abuse scandals on the 1960s sexual revolution and a collapse in faith in the West. The ex-pope, who retired in 2013, said responsibility for the crises rocking the Roman Catholic Church globally from Australia to Europe lay with the fight for an “all-out sexual freedom, one which no longer admitted any norms”. “Part of the physiognomy of the Revolution of ’68 was that paedophilia was then also diagnosed as allowed and appropriate,” he wrote in a 6,000-word essay for Klerusblatt, a German monthly magazine for clergy. Read more
Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft to attempt Moon landing (BBC)
The first privately funded mission to the Moon will attempt to land on the lunar surface today. The Israeli spacecraft – called Beresheet – will try for a soft touch down, before taking pictures and conducting experiments. Until now, only government space agencies from the former Soviet Union, the US and China have achieved this. The mission has cost about $100m, paving the way for future low-cost lunar exploration. Beresheet, which is Hebrew for “in the beginning”, is a joint project between SpaceIL, a privately funded Israeli non-profit organisation, and Israel Aerospace Industries. Read more
Woman left ‘disfigured’ with mismatched breasts after two botched boob jobs (Metro)
A woman has been left ‘disfigured’ with two different sized breasts following a series of botched boob jobs in Turkey. Holly McCulloch, 28, booked in with the overseas clinic after seeing an advert on Instagram in July 2018 and paid £2,700 for G-cup implants. But she instantly realised something had gone wrong after waking up in ‘absolute agony’ to find she had thrown up and wet herself. Read more
Michael Jackson’s goddaughter believes he’s innocent and accuses sex abuse victims of ‘monetary gain’ (Metro)
Michael Jackson’s goddaughter has broken her silence to defend the late popstar over the sex abuse allegations, stating she believes he is innocent. The late Thriller singer is accused of sexually abusing Wade Robson and James Safechuck when they were young boys, with the pair detailing the alleged incidents in the documentary Leaving Neverland. However, Lucy Lester is standing by Jackson, who died in 2009, and doesn’t believe he was capable of committing the acts. Read more
Coming To America actor John Amos want to make a comeback in the sequel (Metro)
Coming 2 America, the long-awaited sequel to Eddie Murphy’s much loved comedy, is rightly bringing back a host of actors from the original film to strengthen its cast. As well as Murphy, the likes of James Earl Jones, Shari Headley and Arsenio Hall are all set to reprise their roles from the 1988 movie. But, with pre-production on Coming 2 America now picking up the pace, one star from the original is still reportedly waiting to hear from either Murphy or the team making the sequel. Read more
Pogba says Man Utd can hurt Barcelona in the Camp Nou (Guardian)
Paul Pogba says Manchester United can hurt Barcelona at the Camp Nou as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side plot another unlikely Champions League comeback following their 1-0 home defeat. Luke Shaw’s own goal from a Luis Suarez header was the difference in Wednesday’s first leg of the quarter-final at Old Trafford, where United failed to muster a single shot on target but largely shackled Barca’s glut of attackers. Solskjaer’s men face an uphill battle but they will travel with memories still fresh of their remarkable recovery last month to beat Paris Saint-Germain on away goals after losing the home leg 2-0. Read more
Paul Ince slams Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for wasting Romelu Lukaku against Barcelona (Metro)
Paul Ince has accused Ole Gunnar Solskjaer of wasting Romelu Lukaku during last night’s Champions League defeat against Barcelona. Luke Shaw’s own goal is all that separates the two teams ahead of next week’s second leg at Camp Nou, with United requiring another unlikely comeback following their win over PSG in the last round if they are to reach the semi finals. Although United restricted Barcelona to only a handful of opportunities, Solskjaer’s side failed to register a shot on target in the competition for the first time since 2005. Read more
Diego Costa handed eight-match ban, misses rest of season (Guardian)
Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa will miss the rest of the season after being handed an eight-match suspension by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) on Thursday. Costa was sent off in the first half of Atletico’s 2-0 defeat to Barcelona on Saturday for directing a crude insult towards referee Gil Manzano. Manzano also reported that Costa had “grabbed” him by the arms during the incident. The lengthy ban means Costa will not play again this season as Atletico have seven games left in La Liga, having been knocked out of the Champions League and Copa del Rey. Read more
West Ham inconsistency down to injury woes, says Pellegrini (Punch)
West Ham United boss Manuel Pellegrini has blamed injuries for his team’s inconsistent Premier League performances this season but backed them to push for Europa League qualification. Injuries to the likes of Andriy Yarmolenko, Manuel Lanzini, and Jack Wilshere have robbed Pellegrini of options in the course of their campaign. As a result, the Hammers are 11th in the table with 42 points from 33 games with the former Manchester City boss reflecting on a mixed first season back in the English top flight. Read more
Pele to have urinary tract surgery in Brazil hospital (Guardian)
Pele will have an operation to remove a ‘ureteral stone,’ his doctors said Wednesday, a day after the football great returned to Brazil following treatment in a Paris hospital for an infection. The 78-year-old was admitted to the Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo for more tests after arriving in Brazil early Tuesday. “The tests show the presence of stones in the left ureter and their removal is scheduled during the current hospital stay, but still without a defined date,” the hospital said in a statement. Read more