Ondo impeachment saga: our signatures were forged— lawmakers (Vanguard) * Troops arrest female suicide bomber in Borno (Punch)

Ondo impeachment saga: our signatures were forged — lawmakers (Vanguard)

Two of the 18 members of the Ondo State House of Assembly, who signed the impeachment notice served on the embattled Speaker, Bamidele Oleyelogun and his Deputy Ogundeji Iroju, yesterday, alleged that their signatures were forged.  Addressing newsmen in Akure, the lawmakers, Messrs Sunday Olajide, representing Akure South Constituency 2 and Olusola Oluyede, representing Ose constituency said they were not in the state when the said impeachment was effected. Read more

 

Troops arrest female suicide bomber in Borno (Punch)

A 19-year-old girl, Shaidatu Adamu, has been arrested by troops of 251 Task Force Battalion, Maiduguri, Borno State while trying to detonate her suicide vest in the Gonikalachari area. Adamu, who said she is from Gwoza, told the army upon interrogation that she had been in the Sambisa Forest with the Boko Haram terrorists for three years. She said she was sent out on Tuesday on a lonely mission. The army gave out Adamu’s confessions on its Twitter page. Read more

 

 

Ondo government denies expelling journalists (Guardian)

Ondo state government on Tuesday denied expelling some journalist from covering its activities as earlier reported in different news platforms. Online news platforms on Monday had reported that the state government expelled journalists of African Independent Television (AIT), Channels Television, Raypower and Cable Television. The government has, however, insisted they were screened out impostors rather than expel journalists. “For the record, we have not expelled any journalist from the Governor’s office. What we did was to rid the place of impostors and parasites parading themselves as professional journalists,” Ondo Commissioner for Information and Orientation Yemi Olowolabi said in a statement. Read more

 

 

AD in position to claim Lagos, says Salis (Vanguard)

Lagos State governorship candidate for Alliance for Democracy, AD, Chief Owolabi Salis, has said victory is certain for his party, ruling out the chances of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the candidate of All Progressive Congress, APC, who he described as “a product of imposition.” Chief Salis made this statement at the International Wing of the Muritala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, in reaction to the just-released list of 41 successful candidates for the 2019 governorship election in the state. Read more

 

Campaign funds: PDP, Atiku in dilemma, says APC (Leadership)

Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Yekini Nabena has alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party and its the presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar are facing serious difficulties raising funds for the 2019 election campaigns. Nabena said that due to the stringent measures put in n place by present administration, the opposition party is in a dilemma on how to source funds to run the Atiku Presidential Campaign. Read more

 

 

Israel-Gaza: Deadly fire traded across border (BBC)

Seven people have been killed in a flare-up of violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza. More than 400 rockets have been fired into Israel by militants since Monday night, while Israeli aircraft have hit 150 militant targets in response. Six Palestinians, four of them militants, died in the strikes on Gaza, while a Palestinian civilian was killed in a rocket attack in southern Israel.The United Nations has called on all sides to show restraint. Read more

 

Trump ramps up Macron spat by mocking France in world wars (Guardian)

Donald Trump ramped up his spat with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Tuesday, issuing a denigrating tweet in which he said Parisians had started to learn German during the Second World War before the US saved them from occupation. The US president’s Tuesday morning tweet further exacerbates his standoff with Macron following the US president’s visit to Paris over the weekend that was marred by Trump’s controversial behavior. In the tweet he repeated his accusation that the French leader had called for a European army as protection against the US – an apparent misreading of Macron’s earlier comments. Read more

 

CNN sues President Trump and top White House aides for barring Jim Acosta (CNN)

CNN has filed a lawsuit against President Trump and several of his aides, seeking the immediate restoration of chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s access to the White House. The lawsuit is a response to the White House’s suspension of Acosta’s press pass, known as a Secret Service “hard pass,” last week. The suit alleges that Acosta and CNN’s First and Fifth Amendment rights are being violated by the ban. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday morning. Read more

 

Mo Abudu bags honorary doctorate degree from University of Westminster

The University of Westminster, Monday, awarded Mo Abudu, founder and Chief Executive of EbonyLife Media, an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts, in recognition of her outstanding services to broadcasting and enterprise in Nigeria. The presentation was made during the university’s annual graduation ceremony at the prestigious Royal Festival Hall in London. The broadcaster and filmmaker attended Westminster in 1993, when she completed a master’s degree in Manpower Studies. After successful careers as a corporate executive and human resources entrepreneur, Ms Abudu entered the world of media as the host and producer of Moments with Mo, the first pan-African talk show. In 2012, she went on to found EbonyLife TV, which has grown into a media group, encompassing movie production and global video-on-demand (VoD). Read more

 

Stan Lee’s death means the end of a cameo-filled era (Vanity Fair)

Stan Lee, the comic-book creator and 95-year-old godfather of the Marvel empire, died Monday—but this certainly won’t be the last his fans see of him. In addition to the enduring legacy of Lee’s work—which has dominated Hollywood for the last decade—he has a variety of cameos already filmed, ready to be deployed in upcoming Marvel features. According to director Joe Russo, at least one of those will be an appearance in Avengers 4—the closing chapter of Marvel Studios’ first phase, coming next May. It would be fitting if that were his last-ever cameo—but then again, the Lee cameo legacy stretches back years, long before the Avengers were a sparkle in studio chief Kevin Feige’s eye. Read more

 

HBO officially announced the eighth and final season of “Game Of Thrones” will premiere in April (BuzzFeed)

Previously, the network only gave vague details about when the final season would be airing. Casey Bloys, HBO programming president, said in July that the popular series would be returning in the first half of 2019. Though the clip doesn’t reveal any new scenes, it does a good job of getting fans amped for the show’s final six episodes, which are expected to be feature length. Read more

 

 

Dancer, Kaffy hits 1m followers on Instagram, reflects on career (Leadership)

Nigerian dance queen, Kafayat Shafau-Ameh aka Kaffy has hit one million followers on her Instagram platform. Kaffy who is the first Nigerian dancer to achieve this feat also took time to reflect on her career journey. The mother of two, is also the first Nigerian dancer to bag an international endorsement and also break the Guinness world record for longest dance party. In 2006, Kaffy led her dance group to break the Guinness Book of Record for “Longest Dance Party” after they danced for 55hours and 40minutes. Read more

 

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Stan Lee tribute was shoe-horned into Instagram ad and has not gone down well (Metro)

Gwyneth Paltrow has come under fire for her tribute to Stan Lee – which was tacked onto the end of a dress advertisement. Stan Lee, the co-creator of Marvel Comics and the man behind some of the greatest comic book characters in history, passed away yesterday at the age of 95. Stars from across the MCU, including Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo, took to social media to honour the comic book legend, and as part of the MCU, Gwyneth also had her say. But it wasn’t what we expected. Read more

 

‘Ugly’ mistake sends Google data to China (BBC)

Google data for search and cloud services went astray for more than an hour on Monday thanks to an “ugly” mistake by an African ISP. The data was sent the wrong way when MainOne Cable, in Nigeria, updated address books for key network hardware. The update saw it claim to be the best way to reach millions of Google net addresses. The mistake spread to other networks and led to Google traffic travelling via China and Russia. Read more

 

Daniel Sturridge: Liverpool striker charged with breaching betting rules (BBC)

Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge has been charged by the Football Association with misconduct for alleged breaches of its betting rules in January this year. It is alleged he breached one rule relating to betting on football, and one which covers providing information relating to football which has been “obtained by virtue of his position” and “is not publicly available”. A Liverpool spokesman said Sturridge, 29, had co-operated fully “throughout this process” and “stated categorically that he has never gambled on football”. Read more

 

Ex-England and Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole retires (Vanguard)

Former England midfielder Joe Cole announced his retirement on Tuesday after making more than 700 appearances for seven clubs including West Ham and Chelsea. Cole, who turned 37 last week, said his career had been “a dream come true” and he now hopes to move into coaching. His final club was Tampa Bay Rowdies in the United Soccer League, the second tier in the US. Cole made 716 professional appearances, scoring 104 goals for seven clubs and his 56 England caps spanned across three World Cup tournaments. Read more

 

AFCON: Super Eagles to depart for South Africa Thursday (Guardian)

The Nigeria national football team, the Super Eagles, will travel to Johannesburg on Thursday for Saturday’s 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying fixture against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa. The team will be leaving the country from the Benin City airport aboard a Max Air chartered flight. Although Nigeria had a slow start to the campaign after losing 2-0 to Bafana Bafana, Super Eagles sits atop the Group E with 9 points. South Africa is placed second on the Group, trailing the Super Eagles by a single point after four games. Read more

 

Shocker as two children, dog found dead in father’s freezer in Lagos (Vanguard)

Residents of Ikorodu in Lagos were on Sunday thrown into mourning when the corpse of two children and a dog were found in a freezer. The incident was said to have occurred at 2, Christian Onoja Street, Igbogbo in Igbogbo-Baiyeku Local Government Development Area at 4.30pm. A neighbour who preferred anonymity told NAN that the children, Emmanuel Edeh, seven years and Darasimi Edeh, female, four years and their father, Mr Michael Edeh, were at home on the day of the incident. Read more

 

For allegedly stealing wig worth N125k, gateman lands in court (Punch)

A 23-year-old gate man, Akpan Ekemini, who police accused of allegedly stealing his boss’ wig, valued at N125, 000, and other belongings, on Tuesday, appeared before an Ogudu Magistrates’ Court, Lagos. Police charge Ekemini, who resides at Kujore Street, Ojota, with stealing. The prosecutor, Insp. Lucky Ihiehie, told the court that Ekemini committed the offence on November 9 at Ogudu GRA, Lagos. Read more