Lagos task force impounds 322 motorcycles in Apapa, Ajah, others (Guardian)
Lagos State Task Force has carried out a week-long raid in parts of the state to rid the state of illegal commercial motorcycle activities on major highways across the state.
The exercise spearheaded by the chairman of the Agency, Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Shola Jejeloye, took place in Agege/Fagba, Apapa and Ajah, where pockets of activities by Okada operators had been seen and reported to the Agency.
Speaking of the incidents, Jejeloye vowed that all impounded motorcycles will be crushed, while those who failed to adhere to the ban will be arrested.
He said: “We have carried out marathon raids across the state because sightings have been made of pockets of Okada operations in some of the areas visited, mostly in the evenings and during the day to ensure that the ban on their activities is completely achieved. Read more
Lagos policemen, sheriffs invade house, destroy N500m property (Punch)
A Lagos-based lawyer, Amanda Asagba, has decried the invasion of her home on Nduka Osadebey Street, Ajao Estate, Lagos State, by armed security agents, including sheriffs and policemen.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the men claimed to be acting on an order of the High Court of Lagos, Ikeja.
Asagba, who spoke to our correspondent on Thursday, said the officials forcefully ejected her family and destroyed assets worth over N500m.
The lawyer, who is the Principal Partner of Amanda and D. Asagba Chambers, claimed to have been living in the house for the past 25 years, adding that all her property titles were uncontested. Read more
Lagos set to launch 30yr devt plan (Vanguard)
Lagos State is set to launch its 30 years (2022-2052) development plan even as it assured that the commencement of the fourth mainland bridge project is near. The plan will be formally unveiled at the 2022 Ehingbeti, the State’s flagship economic summit scheduled for October.
Speaking at the pre-summit stakeholders’ engagement on Thursday, the state commissioner of Planning and Budget, Mr Sam Egube, stated: “We are indeed happy that this year’s Ehingbeti would be an Ehingbeti that is laced with a lot of celebration as we shall be launching the Lagos State Development Plan 2022-2052.
“Now Lagos is a city of plans and this particular plan is a roll on plan from the 15 year plan that was supposed to close out in 2025 but because of the major changes that have happened in the global stage, which has also happened to Nigeria, we felt it was important to renew and refresh this plan and to think in a longer term horizon to deliver for Lagos a long term plan that is practical, that is current and that will deliver the vision of Lagos to be a global financial hub that is safe, that is secure and that is productive.
“So this meeting is to announce that Ehingbeti is coming again, October 11 to 12, 2022 to celebrate that plan and to give account again to Ehingbeti as a summit to what Lagos has done with all the resolutions that we have had.” Read more
Former IGP Tafa Balogun is dead (Guardian)
Former Inspector General of Police, Mustafa Adebayo Balogun, also known as Tafa Balogun is dead.
The former police boss died at Reddington Hospital in Lagos Island.
Balogun was the Inspector General of Police during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He had issues with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission while Nuhu Ribadu was in charge.
The manner of his arrest drew comments from the public as he was handcuffed and embarrassed by the EFCC operatives as a sitting IGP. Read more
NPA gets FEC approval for Badagry Deep Seaport (Sun)
The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) through the Federal Ministry of Transportation has secured the nod of the Federal Executive Council for the construction of Badagry Deep Seaport Project.
This is coming on the heels of the receipt earlier this year of the Full Business Case Compliance Certificate on the Badagry Deep Seaport and the Modular Floating Dockyard from the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC).
The project which is to be developed in four (4) phases through Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) Public Private Partnership (PPP) model is a full scale Greenfield Commercial Deep Seaport conceived to augment Nigeria’s existing port capacity and open new vistas for trade facilitation.
In addition to augmenting the existing port capacity and alleviating traffic congestion in the Lagos ports, the Badagry Deep Seaport project is expected to improve availability of modern port facilities and quality services, provide value for money to government by easing the pressure on national budget by transferring huge investment required for port infrastructural development and operations to the private sector while boosting revenue, accelerate Nigerian economic prosperity and propel economic empowerment of Nigerians through reduced transportation cost and seamless logistics for the attainment of hub status. Read more
UK court adjourns Ekweremadu’s trial till Oct 31 over alleged organ harvesting (Tribune)
The Central Criminal Court in the United Kingdom (UK) has adjourned the trial of a former deputy president of the senate, Ike Ekweremadu over an alleged organ harvesting till October 31.
The former deputy senate president and his wife, Beatrice, are facing charges bordering on conspiracy to arrange/facilitate the travel of another person with a view to harvesting his organ.
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The couple were arrested by London Metropolitan Police in June and appeared before a magistrate court in July, this year and while Ekweremadu’s wife was granted bail on July 22, the deputy Senate president was denied bail
During his trial on Thursday, the senator representing Enugu west asked that a new lawyer represent him in the matter.
The Police had alleged that David Ukpo, the reported victim at the centre of the organ harvesting allegation is a 15-year-old but the court ruled that he is 21 years old.
The former senator wrote to the UK high commission in December 2021 to support a visa application for Ukpo, whom he said was undergoing medical investigations for a kidney donation to Sonia Ekweremadu, his daughter, who is in need of a kidney transplant. Read more
Atiku names Dino Melaye campaign spokesman (DailyTrust)
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, has appointed Senator Dino Melaye as the spokesperson for his presidential campaign.
According to a press release signed by Atiku’s Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, Melaye was named alongside Dr. Daniel Bwala.
“The two appointments take immediate effect,” Ibe said in a statement.
Melaye was a member of the 8th Senate, who represented Kogi West Senatorial District. He hails from Ayetoro Gbede in the Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State. Read more
Be steps ahead of terrorists, Osinbajo tells Military (Guardian)
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has declared that the current security challenges and emerging threats require the country’s military and other stakeholders to be several steps ahead of perpetrators while also stepping up local production of armaments.
Prof Osinbajo spoke in Abuja after he received a presentation on “Defence Transformation and National Security: Strategic Options for Nigeria of the Future”, by the National Defence College Course 30 participants, late Wednesday during a virtual interaction.
According to the Vice President, “if you look at the challenges that we are facing and the nature of those challenges, it is evident that we need to be many steps ahead of non-state actors in particular who are perpetrators of this asymmetric warfare that we are experiencing.”
Continuing, Prof Osinbajo noted “it is clear that given current realities in our security situation, there is absolutely every need for us to fast-forward all our plans for the future so that we can be much more effective in dealing with the current threats and the threats that we will experience as we go into the future. Read more
Police kill wanted criminal suspect, arrest 2 others in Delta (ThisDay)
Operatives of the Delta State Police Command have neutralised a suspected armed robbery identified as Japheth, and arrested two others.
Edafe said two other criminal suspects, Precious Azuka and Isaac Dantala, were arrested in the early hours of last Tuesday at different spots.
He said: “While Azuka was arrested in a robbery at Dominion Hotel and Suite in Umunede, Dantala was arrested for snatching a motorcycle on St Desmond Road, Okpanam with a dagger.
“A locally made cut-to-size gun from Azuka and the snatched motorcycle with registration number: UDD 332 DH and a dagger from Dantala were also recovered.” Read more
Legend and West friendship ended because of Trump (DailyMail)
John Legend says his friendship with Kanye West is not what it used to be because of the rapper’s support for former President Donald Trump.
Legend spoke out about the pair’s now-tarnished friendship on an episode of CNN’s The Axe Files and revealed that they publicly disagreed on Kanye’s running for office, supporting Trump and that it became ‘too much for us to sustain our friendship, honestly.
West was an outspoken supporter of Trump when the former president was in office, while Legend has been a longtime Trump critic.
In the podcast episode released on Thursday, Legend revealed that their falling out was also a result of West getting upset because he did not support Trump’s run for the presidency. Read more
Tim Westwood sex crime claims going back 40 years being investigated by police (Mirror)
Tim Westwood is being investigated for sex crime allegations that go back 40 years, police confirmed.
The radio DJ and TV presenter, now aged 64, was first accused of sexual assaults in April by seven women took part in a BBC documentary Tim Westwood: Abuse of Power.
Westwood strongly denied any wrongdoing in a statement.
Later, allegations from another 10 women were reported. Police began assessing more reports of alleged sexual assaults in London, Essex and Hertfordshire. Read more.
Ma$e announces he’s joining Death Row Records (HipHopDX)
Ma$e is looking to be the first artist to rep both Bad Boy and Death Row, the powerhouse Hip Hop labels who were entangled in a bitter — and ultimately fatal — feud in the ’90s.
In an Instagram video posted on Wednesday (August 3), the Harlem rapper claimed he’s in the process of signing a deal with Death Row Records, which was acquired by Snoop Dogg for an undisclosed sum earlier this year.
“I’m on Crenshaw — just passed Pico, just passed Slauson — and I’m out here to meet with Snoop so I can do another joint venture with Death Row Records,” he said while taking a car ride through Los Angeles.
“I’ll be officially the first one signed to Bad Boy and Death Row. And we gon’ get the 2Pac thing rekindled. Let’s see where we go with that.” Read more
Killer Mike and 2 Chainz call for preservation of Black-owned Atlanta businesses (NME)
Killer Mike and 2 Chainz have criticised a recently introduced nuisance ordinance in Atlanta that they claim is penalising small and Black-owned businesses in the city.
The rappers, both Atlanta natives, attended a city council meeting on Monday (August 1) to call for the preservation of small businesses. The father of rapper Young Thug, Jeffrey Williams Sr., was also there and argued that the ordinance’s “catch-all approach” of trying to reduce violence in proximity to clubs and establishments “penalises uninvolved parties”.
In April, Mayor Andre Dickens introduced the nuisance order which aims to allow the city to close any establishment considered a “nuisance” after two reports of “violent crime or conduct” within a two-year span. It would also address businesses that previously managed to avoid closures by allegedly exploiting loopholes, such as changing property ownership.
Killer Mike explained that he’d last attended a meeting in May to address “the importance of small and local businesses” but said he doesn’t feel like much has changed in the time since. Instead, he highlighted that Atlanta’s continued development – prioritising large corporations over smaller, community-based ventures – has taken hold (via Rolling Stone). Read more
Toronto Film Festival: Daniel Radcliffe’s ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story’ to open Midnight Madness (THR)
The Toronto Film Festival’s Midnight Madness sidebar will open with Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, with Daniel Radcliffe playing the prolific musician behind humourous songs like “Eat It” and “Amish Paradise.”
Eric Appel directs the biopic for The Roku Channel that also stars Evan Rachel Wood and will have a world premiere on Sept. 8 at TIFF at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.
“I couldn’t have hoped for a more appropriate opening night film than Weird: The Al Yankovic Story — a beautifully deranged biopic made in the great Midnight movie tradition of challenging conventions and forging one’s own path, no matter how weird,” Midnight Madness curator Peter Kuplowsky said in a statement on Thursday.
The latest additions to the Toronto Film Festival also includes the lineups for the Discovery and Wavelengths programs unveiled on Thursday. Read more
‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ Trailer: ‘In Bruges’ director reunites Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson (Variety)
Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson play lifelong friends, Pádraic and Colm, whose relationship reaches an abrupt impasse in the trailer for director Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin.”
Set during the Irish Civil War in 1923 on the fictional island of Inisherin, the events of the film begin when Gleeson’s Colm seemingly cuts off Farrell’s Pádraic with minimal explanation, setting off an interpersonal dance between the two former friends.
The upcoming film will mark the reunion of the three Irish creatives, who first worked together on the 2008 black comedy “In Bruges.” That film chronicled Farrell and Gleeson as two hitmen forced to go into hiding in Bruges, Belgium, away from their enraged boss, played by English actor Ralph Fiennes. Outside of 2017’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,”. McDonagh’s film efforts have included either Gleeson or Farrell, but “The Banshees of Inisherin” is the trio’s second collective collaboration. Read more
Erdogan and Putin to meet in Sochi for 2nd time in a month (VOA)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. A just-concluded deal on freeing up Ukrainian grain, along with Russian backing for a new Turkish offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces will be on the agenda.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Friday meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in the Black Sea resort of Sochi will be the second time the two leaders have met in a month.
The meeting comes just after the first ship carrying Ukrainian grain left the Black Sea under a Turkey-U.N.-brokered deal between Kyiv and Moscow.
Analyst Ilhan Uzgel of the Duvar news portal said Erdogan’s success in brokering the U.N. deal and the Sochi meeting sends a powerful message to Turkey’s western allies about the Turkish leader. Read more
Crystal Palace, Arsenal clash as English Premier League begins today (Guardian)
Crystal Palace midfielders, Michael Olise and James McArthur are out with respective foot and groin injuries as they host Arsenal today in the Premier League opener.
Defender James Tomkins has a muscle issue, while goalkeepers Jack Butland and Sam Johnstone are also sidelined.
Arsenal is likely to be without midfielder Emile Smith Rowe, who is struggling with a groin issue.
Kieran Tierney, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Fabio Vieira are all recovering from injuries, with Mikel Arteta admitting that ‘most of them’ will be available.
French defender, William Saliba, is in line for a first start in an Arsenal shirt, while former Manchester City players, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, should also make their debuts. Read more
5 Nigerians qualify for para table tennis semifinals (Nation)
Five Nigerian athletes, Ifechukwude Ikpeoyi, Faith Obazuaye, Nasiru Sule and Isau Ogunkunle have qualified for the semifinals of the para table tennis event of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Ikpeoyi, a debutant first secured her place in the women’s singles classes 3-5 after finishing second in her group.
But another Nigerian Chinenye Obiora was unlucky as she failed to book her place in the last four.
Obazuaye, a silver medalist at the 2018 edition, has also secured her spot in the semifinal of the women’s singles classes 8-10 after placing second in her group. Read more
Nigeria to face Portugal in international friendly (Punch)
Nigeria will face 2016 European champions, Portugal, in an international friendly scheduled to hold in September, The PUNCH reports.
This was revealed by Nigeria Football Federation Secretary General, Muhammad Sanusi.
The three-time African champions were initially scheduled to play Guinea Bissau in a double-header Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in the FIFA international break.
But with the qualifiers postponed until March 2023 by the Confederation of African Football last month, the NFF are busy arranging a grade A friendly for the Eagles. Read more
Club to re-name stand that accidentally features serial killer’s name (ESPN)
A football club in England have said they will change the name of their “Gilbert and Rose West Stand” after going viral on social media for its association with one of Britain’s most notorious serial killers.
Southend United, a Non League club who play in England’s fifth tier, secured a sponsorship agreement with Gilbert and Rose estate agents. As part of the sponsorship, the club’s west stand at Roots Hall was named the Gilbert and Rose West stand.
Rose West, along with husband Fred, murdered an unknown number of people at their house in Gloucester over a 20-year period in the 1960s. Rose is an inmate at a prison in West Yorkshire, after being convicted in 1995 of 10 murders. Fred died by suicide in prison that same year while awaiting trial. Read more
Ivan Perisic and Yves Bissouma’s Tottenham debuts in doubt, says Conte (Standard)
Tottenham head coach Antonio Conte will assess summer signings Ivan Perisic and Yves Bissouma before deciding if they are ready to start Saturday’s Premier League opener against Southampton.
Perisic suffered a calf injury playing for Inter Milan on the final day of last season but featured for over 70 minutes in Spurs’ friendly defeat to Roma in Israel last weekend.
Bissouma, who missed the majority of the club’s pre-season tour of South Korea with Covid, tweaked his hamstring in Haifa and is also a doubt to start, while record-signing Richarlison is suspended and Oliver Skipp is out with a gashed leg.
On Perisic, Conte said: “It’s normal after a serious injury to be struggling a bit to come back in the best physical condition. Honestly, I’m surprised because he reduced his time to recover. We are really happy. Read more
Ivan Lendl hopes Novak Djokovic-Rafael Nadal GOAT debate ends in ‘fair way’ (TennisWorld)
Coach Ivan Lendl says it is a bit disappointing to see the greatest of all time debate being affected by politics as he wants Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic to have a “fair battle” for the GOAT title. Nadal, 36, owns a record 22 Grand Slams, while Djokovic is second with 21 Grand Slams.
Roger Federer, 40, is a 20-time Grand Slam champion and Lendl suggests it’s unrealistic to expect the Swiss to win a Grand Slam again. Djokovic missed out on the Australian Open earlier this year and now he is likely to miss out on the US Open as well.
Djokovic hasn’t been vaccinated against COVID-19 and he can’t enter the United States as an unvaccinated foreigner.
“That story is not over yet,” Lendl told Nova TV, per Eurosport. Read more
Jessica Korda played in borrowed clothes at Women’s Open (Eurosport)
Jessica Korda has revealed she has been wearing other players’ clothes after hers went missing on their way to the Women’s Open.
Korda arrived in Edinburgh without her clubs or clothes after they went missing. Her clubs have since arrived, but she is still without her suitcase – and has been borrowing off colleagues at Muirfield.
Asked for an update on her clothes, Korda said: “If anyone knows anyone at Zurich airport that would like to put my suitcase on the one flight a day that they have coming into Edinburgh, I’d deeply appreciate it.
“I know where it is. I have an air tag on it. I can’t get anyone to actually go get it.” Read more