Panic in Lagos community as notorious cultists escape from custody (Nation)
Apprehension has gripped residents of Ajegunle community in Olodi Apapa LCDA following the escape from custody of notorious cultists handed over to the police by the people.
It was gathered the suspects, including leader of Aiye cult in Ajegunle, Daisy Aiyenero, and his armourer, Taiwo Hassan, escaped from the custody of the Lagos Police Command’s Anti-Cultism base, Surulere, on May 31, few days after the community’s Crime Prevention Project (CPP) with the help of Police operatives from Layeni Division and Area B Command, arrested the suspects and handed them over to the unit. Read more
Dust over disappearance of Nigeria Air after ‘launch’ (DailyTrust)
The immediate past Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, unveiled an aircraft supposedly belonging to Nigeria Air amidst pomp last Friday, but a week after, the national carrier is yet to fly. Daily Trust on Sunday reports that tongues are wagging over what has become of the aircraft on display.
Where is Nigeria Air? This is a question on the lips of many Nigerians. Some have asked for the website of the new airline for flight bookings which is presently non-existent. But a check on the Ethiopian Airlines’ aircraft ET-APL which was unveiled on Friday last week showed the aircraft has returned to Ethiopian Airlines’ service.
On Thursday June 1st 2023 when our correspondent checked, the aircraft operated Addis-Ababa-Mogadishu and Mogadishu-Addis-Ababa flight. As the flight radar showed, the aircraft – a Boeing 737-860 – actually returned to ET service on May 31st 2023; four days after the aircraft returned from Abuja. The aircraft must have been on ground for four days to undergo the necessary repainting and checks prior to returning it to service after the Friday’s reception which was also welcome with a ceremonial water salute by officials of the Aerodrome Rescue and Fire-fighting Service unit of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). Read more
Burna Boy makes history after selling out 80k-capacity London stadium (Vanguard)
Nigerian singer, Burna Boy has made history as the first African artiste to sell out the 80, 000-capacity London Stadium.
Burna Boy’s concert, which was held on Saturday in the United Kingdom, sparked delight among his fans by virtue of his performance.
Confirming the record via its official Twitter handle on Saturday before the show, the London Stadium congratulated the singer for the achievement. Read more
LASTMA and burden of efficient service delivery (Guardian)
For failing to address the daunting challenge of vehicular traffic, which is one of the challenges that it was set up to effectively address 23 years ago, stakeholders, as well as motorists, have stressed the urgent need to rejig and rebrand the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) to make it fit for purpose.
According to them, over two decades after the agency was established, the chaotic traffic situation in the state has remained unchanged, thereby constituting a menace for many residents, commuters, and motorists.
The stakeholders lamented that the ever-present traffic gridlock across the state, and the manifest poor traffic management as reflected by the uncoordinated flow of traffic in many parts of the state were indicative of the fact that LASTMA officials have failed to rein in erring motorists, especially commercial bus drivers allegedly due to pecuniary gains. Read more
Terrorists kill scores in Zamfara, abduct over 30 girls (Vanguard)
Terrorists at the weekend, attacked communities in Maradun Local Government Area of Zamfara State where they killed many locals and abducted no fewer than 30 girls.
A survivor told the BBC Hausa Service in an interview monitored on Sunday, that one of the abducted girls who managed to escape from captivity, returned with only her head scarf.
The terrorists attacked Sakkida and Jambako communities on Saturday afternoon, killed over 20 villagers at Sakkida and injured others. Read more
Kogi Guber: NUT chairman unveiled as new running mate to APC candidate (Sun)
Ahead of the Nov 11 governorship election, the Kogi State Chairman of the Nigeria Union Of Teachers, Joel Salifu Oyibo, was on Saturday unveiled as Alhaji Usman Ododo’s APC candidate running mate for the 2023 November governorship election.
This development may not be unconnected with serious criticism that greeted the earlier choice which some people termed as ‘Muslim- Muslim ticket.
Joel Oyibo is an Igala man, a Christian from Ofu local government area in the eastern senatorial district of the state. Read more
Subsidy: Call off planned strike, Ndume begs NLC (DailyTrust)
Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC, Borno) has appealed to the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to call off the planned strike, billed to begin on Wednesday.
Ndume, in a statement on Sunday, urged NLC to return to the negotiation table and sort out areas of disagreements with the Federal Government.
The senator, who is the Director-General of Akpabio Senate presidency Campaign Organisation, also called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to personally meet with labour leaders and assure them of the benefits of removing the subsidy. Read more
18 dead in Kano auto crash (Channels)
An auto crash in Zakirai town on the Kano-Ringim Road in Gabasawa Local Government Area of Kano State has claimed the lives of 18 passengers.
The incident, caused by overspeeding, dangerous driving, and overloading, involved two commercial vehicles and resulted in a head-on collision and the subsequent bursting into flames of one of the buses.
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Sector Commander in Kano State, Ibrahim Abdullahi, confirmed the tragic accident. Read more
Paris Hilton teams up with Kim Petras to revamp “Stars Are Blind’ (NME)
Paris Hilton has recruited Kim Petras for a new revamped version of her 2006 hit ‘Stars Are Blind’ – check it out below.
It has been 17 years since Paris Hilton released the lead track from her debut album, ‘Paris’, when ‘Stars Are Blind’ originally debuted at Number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Now, the socialite, media personality and DJ has released the official remix for the single with Kim Petras, who offers the line: “Why shouldn’t we be with the ones we really love? Now tell me who else you’ve been dreaming of.” Read more
Margot Robbie used to struggle with imposter syndrome(FilmNews)
Margot Robbie struggled with imposter syndrome for the first few years of her career.
During an interview for Vogue’s Life in Looks series, The Wolf of Wall Street actress recalled how she used to find it difficult to believe that she had made it in the film business and was even concerned that she would eventually be “kicked out of Hollywood”.
“For the first couple of years, I had major imposter syndrome,” she stated. “Every time I’d go (to a red carpet event), I was like, ‘I can’t believe they let me in. Someone’s going to notice that I don’t belong here, they’re going to kick me out of Hollywood.'” Read more
More than 50 Ugandan peacekeepers killed in Al-Shabaab attack in Somalia (France24)
Some 54 Ugandan peacekeepers died when militants besieged an African Union base in Somalia last week, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni said, in one of the worst recent attacks by Al-Shabaab jihadists in the war-torn country.
“We discovered the lifeless bodies of 54 fallen soldiers, including a commander,” Museveni said in a Twitter post late Saturday.
The veteran leader was speaking during a meeting with members of his governing National Resistance Movement party, the presidency told AFP on Sunday. Read more
How Drake encouraged Nelly Furtado’s musical comeback (GlamSham)
Rapper Drake encouraged Nelly Furtado’s musical comeback. Nelly, 44, revealed that fellow Canadian Drake, 36, – who invited her to be a surprise guest for his All-Canadian North Stars event in Toronto last summer – reminded her about her legacy and value to the music industry and urged her to get back in the studio to work on new music.
She told Variety: “I have more gratitude nowadays, so I know how blessed I am to be a performer and creator. I’m really leaning into my profession. I met Drake a year ago and we had some deep conversations about life and art and he blew up my head reminding me what a valuable artist I am and told me to ‘boss up’ and make new music, and I listened. So, I couldn’t say no when he invited me on stage, I had to be brave and boss up and start the next chapter.”
As per Female First UK, Nelly has been working on her new album – her first since 2017’s ‘The Ride’ – since last year and she has enjoyed the collaborative, creative process. Read more
British Soap Awards: EastEnders wins as Jane McDonald hosts (BBC)
EastEnders has won the top prize at the British Soap Awards, while Coronation Street took home the most trophies.
Jane McDonald hosted the awards in Salford on Saturday night.
She replaced former This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield after he quit ITV last week.
Accepting the best British soap award alongside the EastEnders cast, Perry Fenwick, who plays Billy Mitchell, said: “From the bottom of our hearts, honestly, we are thrilled to bits.” Read more
Box Office: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse slingshots to huge $120.5m debut (Variety)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse webbed up a stellar $120.5 million in its domestic box office debut. In beating expectations, it landed the second-biggest opening weekend of the year, behind only The Super Mario Bros. Movie with $146 million, as well as the third-biggest opening weekend for any Spider-Man film.
Sony’s animated sequel is benefitting from great reviews and positive word-of-mouth, as well as goodwill from its predecessor, 2018’s Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Initial ticket sales were significantly higher than the first film, which introduced audiences to Miles Morales and the idea that “anyone can wear the mask” and opened to just $35.5 million. But it stuck around in theaters for a while, ending its big-screen run with $190 million in North America and $384 million globally.
“This is an exceptionally good opening for an animation follow-up sequel,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “Spider-Verse took a well-liked superhero, gave the storytelling an original visual style and voice, and created a unique experience.” Read more
Bruce Willis enjoys Disneyland’s Splash Mountain Ride before its remodeling with his family (People)
Bruce Willis and his family know how to have a zip-a-dee-doo-dah day!
Earlier this week, the actor’s wife, Emma Heming Willis, shared a video on Instagram from a recent trip to Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
Seen riding the theme park’s Splash Mountain attraction with one of their two daughters, Bruce, 68, was captured putting one arm around the little girl sitting beside him, while using his other to shield her face. “You better watch out,” he said while on the ride in the short clip. “I think we’re going to go again.” Read more
Female Super 6 kicks off in Asaba (Guardian)
Delta State government has assured that this year’s Female Super Six contest in Asaba will be the best ever.
The Super Six competition earlier fixed to hold from June 9 to 18, will now hold between June 6 and 11 at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba, as teams are expected to arrive in Asaba tomorrow.
The Nigeria Women Female League (NWFL) stated that the change in date was to enable Nigeria meet the exigencies of the June 12 deadline set by the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) for the submission of names of champions in each country for the WAFU Zone B playoffs ahead of the continental Champions League. Read more
History beckons on Ladan Bosso and Flying Eagles (DailyTrust)
Since the Flying Eagles made their debut at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 1983 in Mexico, they have gone beyond the quarter-finals only three times. At Moscow 1985, they finished in third place. The Flying Eagles then finished as runners-up twice in 1989 in Saudi Arabia and 2005 in Holland. Sadly, after the bronze and silver medal successes, the Flying Eagles haven’t gone beyond the quarter-finals again.
It is on record that after 2005, the Flying Eagles made their first quarter-final appearance on home soil in 1999. They again reached the quarter-finals at Canada 2007 under the present coach of the team. The Flying Eagles other quarter-final appearance was in Colombia in 2011 when Ahmed Musa, Olarenwaju Kayode, Abduljeleel Ajagun, Uche Nwafor, Edafe Egbedi and Peter Suswam were in the squad. And their last quarter-final achievement came in 2019 in Poland.
So, after 2005, there have been lethargic performances from the Flying Eagles who promised so much but delivered so little. In fact, when Egypt hosted the tournament in 2009, the Flying Eagles failed to progress from their group. It was another disappointment but the consolation was that Ghana ensured Africa didn’t host the world in vain. Nigeria’s neighbours won the Cup for the first and last time for the continent. Read more
Official: Real Madrid confirm Karim Benzema is leaving (Sun)
Real Madrid have confirmed Karim Benzema will leave the club after an incredible 14-year spell that saw him win numerous trophies with Los Blancos.
Real have now confirmed that Benzema will be leaving the club at the end of the season, when his contract expires. He has been the subject of a huge offer from Saudi Arabia, and may well head to the country to join the same league Cristiano Ronaldo is currently playing in.
It was reported earlier this week that Benzema plans to move to Al-Ittihad after they offered him €400m (£346m/$439m) over two years, although he had been tipped to delay the switch and remain at the Bernabeu. Nevertheless, the hints were there, with Benzema planning a press conference to say goodbye to the club’s fans. Read more
Mouktar, Kolo, Gabaya, 9 others cleared for FCT FA election (Leadership)
The electoral committee for the 2023 Federal Capital Territory Football Association has cleared the incumbent chairman Mohammed Mouktar Adam to seek re-election for a second term in the June 17, 2023 elections slated for Bwari, Abuja.
Mouktar was cleared for reelection alongside his vice-chairman Hon.Salihu Kolo and Dr.John S. Gabay, second vice chairman. The trio stand unopose to retain their positions respectively.
The electoral committee also cleared nine other contestants for the six available positions. Read more
U20: World Cup: Keep football agents away from Flying Eagles, Peterside tells Bosso (Leadership)
Following the qualification of the Flying Eagles of Nigeria for the quarter-finals of the ongoing Under 20 World Cup, former Super Eagles goalkeeper, Idah Peterside, has advised the team handlers to keep football agents far from the team to avoid distractions.
He called on the players to concentrate and play as a team to excel in the tournament and afterwards, the legacies of their performances will ensure that they progress in their individual careers.
“I will tell them to play because at this age they want to play, they want to be seen. Already we are hearing information that our central defender wants to be signed by Bayern Munich, and our midfielder wants to be signed by Anderlecht; we don’t need that kind of distraction. Read more
Man Utd fan charged over Hillsborough shirt at FA Cup final (France24)
James White, 33, was charged on Sunday with displaying threatening or abusive writing likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, police said after he wore a United shirt with the words “Not Enough” and the number 97 on the back.
United were beaten 2-1 by local rivals Manchester City in Saturday’s final at Wembley.
The Metropolitan Police said White was arrested “after being seen wearing a shirt which appeared to refer in offensive terms to those who died in the Hillsborough tragedy”. Read more