NDLEA intercepts 1.5million Tramadol tablets going to Kebbi, Kano; other drugs at Lagos airport, seaport (Sun)
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has intercepted about one million, five hundred thousand tablets and capsules of pharmaceutical opioids such as Tramadol, Exol-5 and Diazepam in Edo state.
The banned substances were loaded in Onitsha, Anambra state and heading to Yauri, Kebbi state.
This is even as a total of 425, 000 Diazepam tablets were recovered at Segemu, Kano.
In addition, a total of N1, 413,344 was seized along with arms and ammunition from a suspected bandit and a drug kingpin in Plateau state while over 137.754 kilograms of assorted illicit drugs were recovered during interdiction operations across seven states in the past week.
A statement by the Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi said operatives of the agency in Edo state, acting on credible intelligence, intercepted a trailer coming from Onitsha and going to Yauri in Kebbi state on January 14 2022. Read more
Lagos to partially close Marine Bridge for emergency repairs (Nation)
The Lagos State Government has announced that Marine Bridge will partially close from Monday, January 17 to Saturday, April 2, 2022, for emergency repair works.
The Commissioner for Transportation, Dr Frederic Oladeinde, who stated this in a statement, explained that the partial closure was to allow the Federal Government to carry out routine maintenance works on the bridge.
He further disclosed that the temporary closure of the bridge is in two sections.
The Apapa outbound will be repaired between 17th January 17 and March 9 2022 while the Apapa inbound section of the bridge is scheduled for March 10 and April 2, 2022. Read more
Lagos to divert traffic on Dopemu Road, Agege (Independent)
In line with the on-going infrastructure development, the Lagos State Government will divert traffic on Dopemu Road in Agege area of the state by 10:00pm on Friday 21st January, 2022 for the rehabilitation and upgrade of Babajide Sanwo-Olu Road for a duration of 3 months.
Dr. Frederic Oladeinde, Commissioner for Transportation, explained that the repair works will be executed in 3 phases adding that the first phase of the project will focus on Ipaja road to Adealu street junction which will last for 3 months.
Oladeinde assured that alternative routes have been mapped by the State’s Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA to enable effective control of vehicular movement along the axis during the duration of the construction.
The Transport Commissioner advised motorists inbound Dopemu Bridge from Iyana Ipaja/Alagba axis to go through Ipaja road to connect Oyewole street into Seriki street which will link them to Kolawole and Adebambo street to access Adealu road for their desired destination. Read more
Wizkid’s Made In Lagos album gets Silver Brit certification (Nation)
Wizkid’s fourth studio album Made In Lagos, has been certified Silver in the United Kingdom by the BPI, the UK record labels association.
‘Made In Lagos’ was certified Silver after the album sold a little over 60,000 units in the United Kingdom and environs.
The certification was announced on the official Twitter handle of the Brit Awards.
The Tweets reads: ‘Made In Lagos’, the album by Wizkid, is now #BRITcertified Silver.”
Currently, singles are awarded Platinum status when, based on Official Charts Company data, they achieve 600,000 units, Gold for 400,000 units and Silver for 200,000 units. Read more
LAGESC Marshal laments miscreant’s attack on agency’s special squad (Independent)
The Corps Marshal of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps, LAGESC, CP Gbemisola Akinpelu (rtd) has decried the continuous attacks on operational trucks and officials of the Agency’s Special Squad by miscreants while on lawful duties to dislodge illegal traders, hawkers and cart pushers across the State.
Speaking on a recent attack on some operatives of the Agency at Aminu Street in Alapere-Ketu, CP Akinpelu said the Agency’s officers were attacked and their operational vehicles destroyed during an attempt to dislodge recalcitrant traders, hawkers and cart pushers.
She revealed that an officer of the Agency was stabbed in the neck during the melee by one of the suspected attackers, saying that timely medical intervention saved the life of the official.
CP Akinpelu noted, however, that the operatives were able to effectively curtail the attacks and arrested one of the miscreants while others fled the scene to evade arrest. Read more
Govs meet Wednesday on pressing national issues (Nation)
The Governors of the 36 States have scheduled a meeting for Wednesday in Abuja to discuss “pressing national concerns.”
The spokesman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, who disclosed this in a statement on Saturday, was however silent on what constitutes “pressing national concerns.”
Bello-Barkindo also described the meeting, scheduled to hold at the NGF secretariat, as a “very crucial meeting.”
The meeting, planned to commence by 8pm, is the NGF’s first this year and members are expected to attend in person. Read more
Olubadan-In-Council reunites, meets with Oyo governor (VON)
The controversy surrounding the succession to the throne of the Olubadan of Ibadan, seems to have been laid to rest as the Olubadan-in-Council has held a private meeting with Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.
The Council also gave the assurance that the legal tussle hindering the pronouncement of the next Olubadan would also be sorted out by next week.
This was confirmed, on Saturday, by Senator Rashidi Ladoja, the Osi Olubadan and former Governor of the state, while briefing journalists after a meeting, held behind closed doors, between the Council and Governor Seyi Makinde.
The meeting, which held at the Government House, Agodi, Ibadan, was attended by High Chiefs Lekan Balogun, Eddy Oyewole, Abiodun Kola Daisi and Amidu Ajibade. Read more
Manufacturers lament as cost of shipping jumps to 33.5% (Punch)
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has raised concerns as the cost of shipping rose further to 33.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.
The association, in its MAN CEOs Confidence Index report for Q4 2021, said production and distribution costs increased by 0.4 per cent in the period from 20 per cent in the third quarter.
“However, the marginal increase in the period suggests that production and distribution cost are beginning to stabilise following the easing up of COVID-19 pandemic,” it said.
It said capacity utilisation fell further by two per cent in the quarter under review, compared to three per cent in Q3, while volume of production declined further by 1.7 percent as against four per cent in the preceding quarter. Read more
Students graduate from Yobe Orphanage (DailyTrust)
The Ya Zarah Orphan Care Foundation has graduated 16 orphans, who have also been admitted into El-Kanemi College Of Islamic Theology, Maiduguri, Borno State, where they will continue their basic and secondary education, with their school and feeding fees fully paid.
The orphanage based in Potiskum Yobe state was established by the former deputy governor of Yobe state and now Nigeria’s minister of Power Engr. Abubakar D. Aliyu.
Named after the minister’s mother Ya Zarah, the orphanage provides children with shelter, food, medical and social care under the supervision of experienced educationists and childhood specialists.
In the last five years, the Ya Zarah Orphans Foundation carters for children orphaned as a result of the insurgency in the northeast and other reasons. Read more
NeyoOsha ushers Nigeria into new musical era with “Shine Shine Bobo” (Vanguard)
US-based Nigerian hip hop, Afrobeats artiste, song-writer, entertainer, industrialist and Founder/CEO Movement Entertainment and Royal Link Limited, known as NeyoOsha, has disrupted the global music scene with his latest single “Shine Shine Bobo” which is currently topping billboard charts and rocking airwaves across the globe.
The sensational singer who already has several singles under his strap, with hit songs like Eminado, Burst My Brain, SOPE, Tesojue, Acquire, Owo, Commando, Number One amongst others, stands out as a musician with boundless creativity and imagination which continues to mesmerize music lovers all over the world.
“My aim is to move Nigeria as a country into a new era and I’m not in competition with anyone in the music industry,” he says about the success of the single.
“I strongly believe, as a musician, my duty is to use my music to preach love, peace, mend broken hearts, and encourage both old and young ones, to make the world a beautiful place to live, a world where the perception of race, tribe, gender and class are not measures to outline humankind. Every song of more is a story of hope in the face of impossibility, gears towards attracting investors into the country. As a musician with African roots, my mission is to ingrain the pursuit of humanity in the hearts of man. Read more
Christians express outrage at Adele’s ‘satanic’ music video (UNILAD)
A TikToker has gone viral after claiming Adele’s new music video is ‘demonic’ and ‘satanic’.
Victoria B has won support and a fair bit of criticism after accusing the singer of ‘mocking Christianity’ and ‘romanticising sin’ in the video for her latest single Oh My God.
The video was released earlier this week by Adele as the second single from her fourth album, 30, and while the striking visuals have won plaudits from her fans, clearly not everyone is impressed.
Victoria said that she’s ordinarily a huge fan of Adele, having ‘grown up singing her songs’, but expressed disappointment with the themes of the video, saying ‘people look possessed in it… there’s a lot of inappropriate things happening’. Read more
Final instalment of award-winning Newcastle based crime series set for release (ChronicleLive)
The final instalment of an award-winning crime trilogy featuring a homeless Newcastle Falklands War veteran turned amateur sleuth comes out next week.
It will be marked by a book launch at the city’s Lit & Phil, a sold out affair in keeping with the success author Trevor Wood has enjoyed since the arrival of his fictional hero Jimmy Mullen in The Man On The Street in book stores in 2020.
For a debut writer, his timing couldn’t have been worse. The book was published in March 2020 just as the country was going into lockdown because of Covid with restrictions seeing shops up and down the country closed.
So, the usual method of getting a sales bandwagon rolling – book signings in shops, readings and literary events – was not open to him.
Trevor said: “I didn’t get a big book deal and there wasn’t a huge marketing budget either, so I just had to rely on word of mouth.” Read more
The Mandalorian star returning to Justified for series revival (DigitalSpy)
Justified star Timothy Olyphant will reprise his role as US Marshal Raylan Givens.
Nearly seven years after Justified ended its six-season run, the FX crime drama is returning to the network with a new limited series titled Justified: City Primeval.
Olyphant, recently seen in The Mandalorian as Cobb Vanth, will reprise his Emmy-nominated role based on the adaptation of the late Elmore Leonard’s novel City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit.
The official synopsis for the new miniseries, as shared by The Hollywood Reporter, reads: “Having left the hollers of Kentucky eight years ago, Raylan Givens now lives in Miami, a walking anachronism balancing his life as a US Marshal and part-time father of a 14-year-old girl. His hair is grayer, his hat is dirtier, and the road in front of him is suddenly a lot shorter than the road behind. Read more
Ralph Emery, Radio host and ‘Johnny Carson of Country Music,’ dies at 88 (Variety)
Ralph Emery, a radio and TV host who became as famous in the country world as most of the stars he interviewed over the decades, died Saturday at Tristar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville. He was 88. No immediate cause of death was given.
Emery’s renown as, alternately, “the Dick Clark of country music” or “the Johnny Carson of country” was significant enough to earn him a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007, in addition to the more expected plaudits befitting a top broadcaster in the industry, like his membership in the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame, an honor that came in 1989.
“Ralph Emery’s impact in expanding country music’s audience is incalculable,” said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.”On radio and on television, he allowed fans to get to know the people behind the songs. Ralph was more a grand conversationalist than a calculated interviewer, and it was his conversations that revealed the humor and humanity of Tom T. Hall, Barbara Mandrell, Tex Ritter, Marty Robbins and many more. Above all, he believed in music and in the people who make it.”
As a television host, Emery was best known for the series “Nashville Now,” a country music talk show that ran as the flagship of the genre’s premier cable TV platform, the Nashville Network, from 1983 to 1993, broadcasting 90 minutes each weeknight in the early years of the show. Read more
Nino Cerruti, Italian designer who revolutionised menswear, dies at 91 (Globe&Mail)
Nino Cerruti, the Italian fashion designer credited with revolutionizing menswear in the 1960s and who gave Giorgio Armani his first fashion break, has died, Italian media reported Saturday. He was 91.
Cerruti died in northwestern Italy, where his family has operated a textile company since 1881, the Italian news agency LaPresse reported. The Italian daily Corriere said he had been hospitalized for hip surgery.
Cerutti inherited the family business, based in the city of Biella in the Piedmont region, at age 20 upon his father’s death in 1950. He launched his first menswear company, Hitman, in 1957 near Milan, dedicated to creating sartorial elegance on an industrial scale and becoming part of the nascent men’s ready-to-wear sector.
Armani was hired as a young talent at the Hitman factory in the mid-1960s. Read more
New Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin bans critical race theory, school mask rules (NYPost)
Republican Glenn Youngkin was sworn in as Virginia’s 74th governor Saturday — and took immediate action on the hot-button issues that secured his upset victory over former Gov. Terry McAuliffe in November.
Youngkin, nattily dressed in a morning coat and gray gloves, promised to “restore trust in government and to restore power to the people” in an optimistic inaugural speech that strove for bipartisanship after a bruising election battle.
“No matter who you voted for, I pledge to be your advocate, your voice, your governor,” he said outside the state capitol in Richmond.
Two hours later, he began signing off on nine executive orders and two executive directives that banned the use of critical race theory and other “divisive concepts” in public schools, rescinded his predecessor’s vaccine mandate for all state employees, and proclaimed that parents must decide whether their kids mask up in school.
Rupert Grint likens JK Rowling to ‘an auntie’ amid controversy over her transgender comments (Metro)
Harry Potter star Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley in all eight films of the franchise, has compared author JK Rowling to ‘an auntie’ over controversial views that saw her branded a TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist).
The author has been vilified and branded transphobic for her staunch belief in biological sex, and Rupert compared his relationship with the writer to that of an aunt who he still has a bond with, even though he doesn’t share her opinions.
He told The Times magazine: ‘I liken JK Rowling to an auntie. I don’t necessarily agree with everything my auntie says, but she’s still my auntie. It’s a tricky one.’
Last year, the 56-year-old came under fire for a series of tweets that were deemed to be ‘anti-trans’, with a number of stars, including Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson and Rupert himself standing with the trans community. Read more
AFCON 2021: MTN hails Super Eagles progression to 2nd Round (Leadership)
MTN Nigeria, the official communications partner of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), has congratulated the Super Eagles of Nigeria for their progression to the knockout stage of the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2021 tournament in Cameroon.
The CEO of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, in a statement, said Nigerians were beginning to believe that Coach Austin Eguavoen-led squad can make the country proud and pledge his company’s total support for the national team.
“We are backing the boys to make us proud in Cameroon. This team can go all the way and win the trophy. They have a proud nation brimming with passion behind them, and we are also behind them all the way.
“At the last tournament, we finished third, and we should be pushing on from there. The team is filled with talented boys with an opportunity to make history, and we want them to grab it,” Toriola stated. Read more
Ex-Scotland international compares Taribo to Coutinho, reveals his hilarious acts at Derby County (Soccernet)
Ex-Scotland international Craig Burley has compared Philippe Coutinho’s instant impact at Aston Villa to Taribo West’s influence at Derby County when the former Nigeria international joined the Rams in November 2000.
On his return to the Premier League, Coutinho helped Aston Villa come back from a two-goal deficit against Manchester United on Saturday.
The former Liverpool midfielder scored the equaliser and had a hand in the first goal, despite being introduced as a 68th-minute substitute.
After the game, Burley mentioned Taribo as the only player he could remember that made such an impact at any of the clubs he played in during his 15-year career. Read more
Everton first words after Rafa Benitez sacking as statement released (LiverpoolEcho)
Everton have confirmed the sacking of Rafa Benitez following the 2-1 defeat to Norwich City.
The result, against a team who went into the fixture bottom of the Premier League after six straight defeats and without a goal in the competition since November left the Blues with just one win from their last 13 Premier League matches and a six point gap between themselves and the relegation zone.
Club chiefs met to discuss Benitez’s future on Saturday night and the Spaniard’s exit was confirmed just before 3pm on Sunday.
A short club statement read: “Everton Football Club can confirm the departure of Rafael Benitez as first team manager. Read more
Super Eagles interim coach gives reasons for repeating the same starting lineup vs Sudan (ANS)
With qualification to the knockout stage of the AFCON wrapped up with a game to spare, manager Augustine Eguavoen has hinted at giving fringe players in his squad a chance to show the stuff they are made of in the team’s last group match against Guinea-Bissau on Wednesday, January 19.
The likes of Peter Olayinka and John Noble have not been included in the first two matchday 23s announced by Eguavoen and Henry Onyekuru who has impressed in training sessions was an unused substitute in both games.
Eguavoen has explained that he had little choice but to field the same set of players because he wanted to avoid taking risks especially as some players were new to the squad.
Sadiq Umar, Kelechi Nwakali and Olisa Ndah were yet to make their senior debuts before the start of the Africa Cup of Nations, and Peter Olayinka is still without a competitive cap for the national team. Read more
Russell encouraged by Mercedes’ loyalty to Bottas (RN365)
George Russell is encouraged by the loyalty displayed by Mercedes and Toto Wolff to their previous driver Valtteri Bottas, and hopes that he can be rewarded with the same.
At certain stages in the 2021 season, speculation arose that the Silver Arrows could replace Bottas with Russell before the end of the year.
This did not happen, but Russell was announced as a Mercedes driver for 2022 in September, whilst Bottas will move to Alfa Romeo.
Bottas had been with the team for five years, and Russell has a lot of respect for the loyal approach taken by Wolff towards the Finn and other members of staff. Read more
Francis Ngannou admits Tyson Fury crossover fight won’t happen this year (Mirror)
Francis Ngannou has admitted any potential crossover battle with boxing star Tyson Fury is unlikely to take place until 2023.
The UFC heavyweight champion is currently preparing to defend his title against Cyril Gane in the octagon later this month in which will be the final fight on his current deal.
He has been called out by the WBC champion Fury for a crossover bout on social media where the ‘Gypsy King’ proposed boxing rules with MMA gloves.
However the Cameroon star is confident that he would be successful in the iron square but admits the decision is not currently in his power.
Novak Djokovic’s US Open hopes in doubt as star could be banned from entering USA (Express)
Sports broadcaster Shane McInnes told BBC Breakfast that disgraced Novak Djokovic could face an immigration nightmare at the upcoming US Open at Indian Wells in March if the US authorities deem him unfit to touch down stateside and play tennis without a vaccine.
It comes as the tennis ace is hours away from being deported from Australia following a monumental row over his vaccine status which saw him stripped of his visa.
Mr Djokovic now faces a possible three-year ban from Australia because of his actions following a failed appeal to get his visa given back.
But broadcaster Shane McInnes suggested the saga Down Under could be just the start of Mr Djokovic’s problems as he speculated how the US could respond to his anti-vaccine stance. Read more