Lagos to prosecute defiant developers – Commissioner (Vanguard)
The Lagos State Government has threatened to charge developers who break its seal on construction sites to court.
This is to forestall the incidence of building without the necessary approval.
Dr Idris Salako, Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development gave the warning during an interactive session with property correspondents on Wednesday in Lagos.
Salako said that the government had made the process of obtaining planning permits easy.
He said that his ministry and its agencies were meticulous in monitoring construction through various stages in line with its mission. Read more
Water transport, solution to gridlock, says Lagferry boss (Punch)
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State Ferry Services, Abdulbaqi Balogun, has said waterway transportation is the only solution to the problem of gridlock in Lagos.
He said with more people being ferried across water to their destinations at a shorter time, it would help to decongest roads.
A statement on Wednesday said Balogun spoke at Ikeja, Lagos, while being made a Fellow of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria.
He said Lagos, as the state of aquatic splendour, is surrounded by about 13 lagoons and major rivers, adding that among them are Lagos, Lekki, Yewa, Badagry, Ologe, Iyagbe, Kuramo, Apese, Epe and Mahin lagoons, all being fed by several rivers. Read more
Oke-Odo Senior High School wins Lagos Debate Competition (Vanguard)
Oke-Odo Senior High School, Alimosho has emerged the best school and champions in the grand finale of Year 2020 Lagos State Schools Debate (Season X) with 75 points beating Lagos State Senior Model College, Kankon, Badagry with 73 points and Babs-Fafunwa Millennium Secondary School, Ojodu with 71 points for the second and third positions respectively.
In the Junior category, Alimosho Junior Grammar School, Alimosho; Lagos State Model Junior College, Kankon and Lagos State Junior Model College, Igbokuta came first, second and third respectively.
The Star Prize of the Primary Schools category went to Olisa Primary School, Mushin while the second and third prizes were won by African Church Primary School, Alimosho and Saint Agnes Primary School, Kosofe respectively. Read more
Lagos-Ibadan rail line ready before Christmas – NRC boss (Punch)
Lagos Railway District Manager of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, Jerry Oche, has said the Lagos-Ibadan railway line will be operational before the Yuletide.
Oche who spoke to our correspondent noted that the track was ready but for some of the station buildings being worked on by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation.
The NRC boss noted that things were being fashioned to make sure that the track was ready before the year ran out.
He said, “They contractors have not handed over the line. The track is almost ready but the station buildings and communication is not yet ready. Read more
Lagos decries gap between youths, govt (Punch)
The Lagos State Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Mrs Yetunde Arobieke, has decried what she described as the communication gap between the youth and the government.
Arobieke expressed surprise that many young people were not aware of the various opportunities they could access in the state.
She urged the youth to be abreast of happenings in government by obtaining information from the state website and social media platforms.
The commissioner spoke during a sensitisation workshop for batches A and B of the exited Lagos State N-Power beneficiaries. Read more
Shaibu’s brother regains freedom (Nation)
Frederick Shaibu, younger brother of Edo State Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu, has regained his freedom after a huge ransom was paid.
Sources said Frederick, who was released on Wednesday, is in good health but traumatised.
One of the sources said: “The family is happy to have Frederick back. He is also excited to rejoin his family after his ordeal.”
Media aide to the deputy governor Benjamin Atu, and police spokesman Chidi Nwabuzor refused to confirm how much was paid as ransom. Nwabuzor insisted that investigation into the incident was on. Read more
Lawyer who sued 50 #EndSARS campaigners dragged before disciplinary panel (Punch)
One of the prominent faces of the #EndSARS movement, Deji Adeyanju, has filed a complaint against a lawyer, Kenechukwu Okeke, before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee for “acts unbecoming of a legal practitioner.”
The petition dated November 11, 2020, was also supported by an affidavit filed at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, sitting in Abuja.
The action against Okeke was sequel to the criminal complaint he filed against 50 #EndSARS campaigners before a Chief Magistrates Court in Abuja, for their alleged roles in the protests, which he said resulted in the looting and destruction of property. Read more
Osubi airport to commence operations this month, says Keyamo (Thisday)
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has disclosed that the Osubi Airport would come alive in two weeks’ time.
The Minister, who dropped the news, said President Buhari has already directed the NNPC to take over the airport which is located in Uvwie Local Government area of Delta State.
Keyamo’s disclosure was in response to demands of Ovwie Kingdom, HRM. Emmanuel Sideso, Abe 1 during a visit to his palace as part of the tour of his constituency to solicit for support for the present government aftermath the #ENDSars crisis. Read more
New York imposes measures in ‘last chance’ against new coronavirus wave (BBC)
New York has introduced new restrictions aimed at curbing coronavirus, with Mayor Bill de Blasio warning it was the city’s “last chance” to stop a second wave.
Bars, restaurants and gyms must close by 22:00 and people can only meet in groups of 10 or less.
The US is seeing a surge in coronavirus – a record 61,964 Americans were in hospital on Tuesday.
An average of over 900 people a day are now dying with the disease.
More than a million new cases in November pushed the total confirmed cases to over 10 million nationally with 239,732 deaths so far.
The US has been seeing more than 100,000 new cases per day over the last 10 days in what experts say may be a worse outbreak than those seen in the spring and summer. Read more
COVID-19 face masks with valves don’t work – study (Metro)
Wearing a face mask helps stop the spread of coronavirus and keep others safe, unless it has a valve on it.
New research has revealed how ineffective these types of masks are. High speed cameras have been used to capture the air flow from an uncovered mouth alongside two different kinds of face mask.
As the video above shows, the type of mask with a valve on it still allows a jet of virus-containing air to escape. Meanwhile, the footage shows that a mask without a valve successfully filters out most of the droplets from exhaled breath. Read more
Scientists discover ‘gene within gene’ hiding among coronavirus nucleotides (RT)
In potentially worrying news, scientists have discovered another ‘hidden gene’ within the genetic code of SARS-CoV-2, which may explain why the virus has been so difficult to defeat.
The so-called overlapping gene is named ORF3d and has been tucked away within the structure of nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA and RNA, in the coronavirus for months, undetected until now.
“In terms of genome size, SARS-CoV-2 and its relatives are among the longest RNA viruses that exist,” explained the lead author of the research article, Chase Nelson from the American Museum of Natural History. Read more
EU buys 300m doses of BioNTech-Pfizer coronavirus vaccine (BBC)
The European Union has agreed to buy up to 300 million doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, after it showed strong results in trials.
Deliveries are expected to start by the end of this year, the companies said.
But the EU refused to provide details on how the vaccine would be rolled out, insisting that “a number of steps” needed to be followed beforehand.
Early data suggests the vaccine protects more than 90% of people from developing Covid-19 symptoms.
On Monday, its developers, Pfizer and BioNTech, said it had been tested on 43,500 people with no safety concerns raised. Read more
Sinead O’Connor announces she’s entering ‘one-year trauma and addiction’ programme (Metro)
Irish singer Sinead O’Connor has cancelled all upcoming tour dates so she can enter a one-year programme for trauma and addiction.
The 53-year-old has postponed all tour dates and performances until 2022 in order to focus on her recovery after a ‘traumatic six years’ which have had a major impact on her mental health.
Last month, Sinead – who alternatively goes by the name Shuhada Sadaqat after becoming Muslim in 2018 – asked for help from fans when her agoraphobia left her out of food and unable to leave the house. Read more
Jason Momoa says he was ‘completely in debt’ after “Game of Thrones” (PageSix)
Jason Momoa says he went broke and couldn’t find another acting gig for years after playing Khal Drogo on HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”
“I mean, we were starving after ‘Game of Thrones,’” Momoa, 41, said in a new InStyle interview. “I couldn’t get work. It’s very challenging when you have babies and you’re completely in debt.”
The actor, who shares two children with wife Lisa Bonet, said he struggled to pay the bills at his Topanga Canyon house until he landed a role on “Justice League” in 2016. Read more
“Hustlers” producers beat lawsuit from real-life stripper behind Jennifer Lopez’s character (Metro)
The producers of Hustlers have won a lawsuit against the real-life stripper that Jennifer Lopez’s character is thought to have been based on. The actress starred as Ramona in the film – a stripper who runs a side hustle scamming and drugging wealthy Wall Street bankers. It’s widely believed her character was based on Samantha Barbash, who plead guilty to conspiracy, assault and grand larceny in 2017 in exchange for five years’ probation. Read more
Super Eagles players, officials undergo COVID-19 Test (Thisfay)
Ahead of the AFCON 2022 qualifier against Sierra Leone on Friday in Benin City, all Super Eagles’ players and officials in camp were made to undertake mandatory COVID-19 tests yesterday.
The results of the test expected to be released today will determine those who are free to play the visitors from Freetown.
Chidera Ejuke, Samuel Chukwueze and Paul Onuachu were the last set of foreign-based stars to join Eagles’ Eterna Hotel and Suite camp as all invited 23 players featured in training yesterday. Read more
Brentford’s Marcus Forss scores against world champions France (BBC)
Brentford striker Marcus Forss scored as Finland claimed a famous win over world champions France in Paris.
Forss and fellow debutant Onni Valakari struck twice in the space of three first-half minutes to stun the hosts.
France included Manchester United’s Paul Pogba, Everton’s Lucas Digne and Olivier Giroud of Chelsea.
But Finland, 55th in Fifa’s world rankings, secured a first victory over Les Bleus, and have now won their past three matches.
Forss, who spent part of last season on loan at League One AFC Wimbledon, opened the scoring in the Stade de France after a mistake by Tottenham’s Moussa Sissoko. Read more
Sadio Mane inspires Senegal to unassailable lead in Dakar (Thisday)
Liverpool’s Sadio Mane was the highlight of the opening day of Match-day three of the 2022 AFCON qualifiers on Wednesday evening. Mane created one and scored one in Senegal’s 2-0 defeat of Guinea-Bissau.
He took advantage of some pretty poor Guinea-Bissau defending and sets up Opa Nguette with a crisp pass for the second goal.
With Mane netting a penalty in the first half, that goal put this game beyond the reach of Senegal’s next door neighbour
That victory puts the AFCON 2019 runners up comfortable at the top of Group I on maximum nine points. Read more
Ronaldo scores in Portugal’s 7- 0 rout of Andorra (BBC)
Cristiano Ronaldo moved one goal closer to the all-time international goalscoring record in men’s football as Portugal thrashed Andorra.
Ronaldo, 35, scored his 102nd goal for his country with a powerful header and is now seven behind the record of Iran’s Ali Daei.
Wolves forward Pedro Neto also scored on his debut – one of five Wanderers players in the Portugal squad.
Michy Batshuayi scored twice for Belgium as they beat Switzerland 2-1.
And Leicester winger Cengiz Under scored as Turkey and Croatia drew 3-3. Read more
Man City’s Ake injured in Dutch friendly (BBC)
Manchester City defender Nathan Ake was injured only five minutes into the Netherlands’ 1-1 friendly draw with Spain in Amsterdam.
Ake, 25, has made six Premier League appearances for City since a £40m move from Bournemouth, but went off with a hamstring problem.
Sergio Canales put Spain ahead but Manchester United midfielder Donny van de Beek volleyed in an equaliser.
Both countries play two more Nations League games this week. Read more
Liverpool’s Joe Gomez has suffered potentially serious knee injury, confirms Gareth Southgate (Metro)
England manager Gareth Southgate has confirmed that Liverpool defender Joe Gomez is set for a spell on the sidelines after suffering a knee injury in training with the international side. ‘I can’t tell you how serious it is because he’s yet to have scans,’ said the England manager.
‘What was upsetting was to see he was in a fair bit of pain and the fact was there was nobody around him when the injury happened. I didn’t like that element of it. Read more