Stray bullet kills policeman during protest inside police station (Sun)
A policeman was reportedly shot dead when some protesters were being chased out from the premises of Ado central Police Divisional headquarters in the Ekiti State capital.
An eyewitness told journalists in Ado-Ekiti, on Saturday, that some youths numbering about 20 had besieged the police Area Command Office chanting war songs over the killing of a motorcyclist by a driver.
The policeman was reportedly shot in the course of the melee that erupted while trying to scare away the violent protesters.
The youth were said to be expressing anger over the killing of one them by the driver and alleged police seizure of the corpse and a sum of N470,000 paid to the family of the deceased by the car owner. Read more
#EndSARS: Army deployed at least 7 vehicles to Lekki Tollgate, CCTV reveals (Vanguard)
The Nigerian Army deployed no fewer than seven military trucks to the Lekki Tollgate on the evening of Oct. 20, the day unarmed #EndSARS protesters were allegedly shot by the military.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that this was revealed by CCTV footage of the incident which was played by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry for Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and Other Matters.
The footage was played on Saturday prior to the cross-examination of Brig.-Gen. Ahmed Taiwo, Commander of the 81 Division, Military Intelligence Brigade, Victoria Island.
The footage was played before a packed audience at the panel, and the timestamp in the video showed people running from the vicinity of Oriental Hotel towards the direction of the tollgate in the Lekki area at 6.43pm. Read more
Rail project: Lagos government closes Abule level crossing on Saturday (Guardian)
Lagos State Government has announced the closure of Abule railway level crossing along Apapa.
The Lagos State Government has announced the closure of Abule railway level crossing along Apapa end between Saturday and Sunday for the ongoing Lagos-Ibadan Standard Guage rail project.
Mrs Bolanle Ogunlola, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Transportation, said in a statement on Friday in Lagos that the step was for the Nigerian Railway Modernisation Project (Lagos-Ibadan section) with extension to Lagos Port, Apapa.
She said that the construction company handling the project, China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) Nigeria Limited, would commence the track construction at 5 a.m. on Saturday and finish by 8 p.m. on Sunday. Read more
Truck crushes four to death in Ogun Published (Punch)
Four persons have been crushed to death while two others were injured in an accident involving a Daf truck and a commercial bus around Capital Hotel area on the Ijebu Ode-Oru Road in Ogun State.
The spokesperson, Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps, Babatunde Akinbiyi who confirmed the incident, said it happened on Saturday.
Akinbiyi explained that the accident occurred around 1:15pm and was caused by over-speeding and loss of control on the part of the Daf truck driver.
According to him, six persons were involved in the accident which comprised three male adults and three female adults. Four persons died while two injured. Read more
FG exempts ASUU from IPPIS, raises allowances, revitalisation fund to N65bn (Nation)
The federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) appeared on Friday to be moving closer to an agreement after government decided to exempt the union from the controversial Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
The university lecturers are expected to develop their own payment platform, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), which will replace IPPIS.
Government also agreed to ASUU’s demand to pay their members’ salary arrears from February to June through the old salary payment platform – the Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System. Read more
NECA kicks against control of unpaid dividends by FG (Punch)
Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association says the federal government has no prerogative to manage unclaimed dividends as they were properties of investors, individuals and corporate organisations.
The association said Sections 39 of the draft Finance Bill, which sought to establish an Unclaimed Dividends Trust Fund as a sub-fund of the COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund, should be expunged.
NECA, in a statement by its Director-General, Dr Timothy Olawale, on Friday said the idea of converting such private properties to federation wealth negated the provisions of the rights to own property as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution.
He said companies should be allowed to manage the unclaimed dividends for and on behalf of their shareholders; and in the best interest of both the companies and its shareholders. Read more
Nigeria slips into another recession under Buhari (Guardian)
The Nigerian economy has recorded a second recession in the current political dispensation, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS),the country’s official data agency.
NBS said the economy slipped into recession at the end of the third quarter (Q3) which ended in September.
Nigeria’s economy went into a recession in 2016 following a lull in economic activities as a result of the delay in the appointment of ministers and other key appointees upon take over of the reins of government in 2015 President Buhari.
According to the NBS, this recession is the worst since 1987 as the Gross Domestic Product in real terms declined by -3.62% (year-on-year) in the third quarter of 2020 and is driven by the long closure of the Nigerian borders which restricted economic movements across the borders. Read more
Nigeria among 12 most dangerous countries for Children to live – Report (Nation)
Nigeria is among the 12 most dangerous countries for children in conflict, a new report by Save the Children International has said.
The report listed other countries to include: Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen, DRC, Mali, CAR, Iraq, South Sudan, and Sudan.
The report, which was released on Friday showed that a total of 93,236 children have been killed or maimed in conflicts in the last 10 years, with more than three million children living in an area where violence had been raging for 18 years or more.
It revealed that over 4,400 times humanitarian organisations were denied access to children – six times as often as in 2018. Read more
Pompeii: Dig uncovers remains of rich man and slave killed by Vesuvius (BBC)
Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of two men who died in the volcanic eruption that destroyed the ancient Roman city of Pompeii nearly 2,000 years ago.
One was probably a man of high status, and the other his slave, officials at the Pompeii archaeological park said.
They “were perhaps seeking refuge” from the eruption “when they were swept away”, director Massimo Osanna added.
Pompeii was engulfed by a volcanic eruption from Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.
The eruption buried Pompeii in ash, freezing the city and its residents in time, and making it a rich source for archaeologists. Read more
Exiled Tibetan leader Lobsang Sangay visits White House, irking China (NYPost)
A White House visit by the head of the exiled-Tibetan government could anger China.
The Washington meeting between Lobsang Sangay, president of the Central Tibetan Administration, and the recently appointed US Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, Robert Destro, was the first of its kind in six decades, Reuters reported.
In prior years, Sangay was denied entry to the US because it doesn’t recognise his government.
“Today’s visit amounts to an acknowledgment of both the democratic system of the CTA and its political head,” said the CTA, which is based in India. Read more
How civil rights leader James Clyburn helped Joe Biden win the White House (USAToday)
James Clyburn sat at a table in a slowly emptying ballroom on Election night, his chin resting on his right fist as he mixed Jack Daniel’s from one glass and Diet Coke from another.
He watched the huge screen in the center of the room where MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid announced state election results. South Carolina, as expected, was called for President Donald Trump. The crowd, wearing masks and spread out across the ballroom, groaned.
In the days leading up to Election Day, the House majority whip had campaigned across his home state pleading with South Carolinians to follow his lead, to vote for Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris. He called on them to support a younger generation in Congress who could take the lead. Read more
Canada, U.K. strike new post-Brexit trade deal (CBC)
Negotiations between Canada and the United Kingdom to hammer out the terms of their post-Brexit trade have concluded, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a video Saturday morning as this weekend’s virtual G20 summit begins.
“Now we get to continue to work on a bespoke agreement, a comprehensive agreement, over the coming years that will really maximize our trade opportunities and boost things for everyone,” Trudeau said.
“Free trade is an important part of the way that we’re going to bounce back from COVID, but I also think that Canada and the U.K. share a perspective about building back greener,” said Johnson…Read more
Bitcoin climbs to three-year peak, nears all-time high (NYPost)
Bitcoin rose to a nearly three-year high Friday, as investors continued to scoop the virtual currency on expectations it could well exceed its all-time peak of just under $20,000.
Bitcoin surged to $18,766.79, the highest since December 2017, and was last up 4.9 percent at $18,696. It has gained 17 percent so far this week, the largest weekly gain since June 2019, climbing more than 160 percent so far this year.
“Today bitcoin has gotten to a place where institutional investors, banks, and family offices are legitimately pondering involvement as a defense against currency devaluation,” said Alex Mashinsky, chief executive officer at Celsius Network, a crypto lending platform. Read more
Show goes on at Madrid’s opera house despite pandemic (USAToday)
No one performing onstage in Spain’s Teatro Real opera house is masked, and that alone looks odd these days amid a pandemic.
And that’s even before the second act scene in Antonín Dvořák’s “Rusalka” — about a water nymph who falls in love with a mortal — in which cast members kiss and grope in a feigned, non-socially distanced orgy.
While many of the world’s major venues are shut down, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Covent Garden in London and La Scala in Milan, watching a performance at the Teatro Real in Madrid can almost make you forget about the coronavirus. Read more
Playgirl relaunched and its first edition sold out (NYPost)
Playgirl returned to newsstands this month and like the original that debuted in 1973, it quickly sold out.
Like the first edition — founded by LA nightclub owner Douglas Lambert with Marin Scott Milan helming editorial — the current incarnation is also a man/woman tag-team. It’s now owned by Jack Lindley Kuhns, who two years ago tapped Skye Parrott, former co-founder of the art and fashion magazine Dossier, to be editor-in-chief of the relaunch.
Yes, nudie man pics are still involved. But Parrott says she’s attempting to capture the enlightened feminist appeal of the mags early years, which boasted writers like Maya Angelou, Gloria Steinem and Joyce Carol Oates, and not the porn mag for gay men it became when it folded in 2015. Read more
Former Super Eagles star calls for restructuring of NFF (Vanguard)
Former Nigeria international and 1980 AFCON winner, Dr Felix Owolabi, in a chat with Sports Vanguard called for restructuring of the Nigerian Football Federation.
Fondly referred to as Owoblow, he said: “I believe the entire Nigeria Football Federation structure needs to be reviewed,” he said unequivocally, adding, “as a coach, apart from knowing the makeup of my team, I make effort to study my opponents. If they knew Sierra Leone was one of the hottest countries in West Africa, they would not have fixed the match for 5 pm. They thought they were helping our team, instead, they were helping the visitors as the weather suited them more than our own players.”
He continued, “you could see that after the first half, our players became weather-beaten and tired while the visitors became unstoppable. It was only the referee’s final whistle that stopped them from beating us. Read more
Plateau’s Dalyon wins 2020 Lagos Women Run (Punch)
Plateau State athlete, Patience Dalyon, has emerged the winner of the fifth Lagos Women Run 2020, tagged ‘Run Anywhere, Everywhere.’
Dalyon breasted the tape at 33mins 43.73secs to win the Elite Open category, ahead of second-place Awawu Haruna (34mins 02. 24secs) and Abiye David (34mins 16.39secs), who finished third.
Dalyon got a record cash prize of N1m for the virtual edition of the event, while Haruna received N500,000. David went home with N300,000.
Winners in the Elite Open category were presented their cash prizes by the Lagos State Commissioner for Sports, Segun Dawodu. Read more
Chelsea go top after strolling to win against listless Newcastle (BBC)
Chelsea moved to the top of the Premier League table, if only for a few hours, after a solid win at Newcastle United, their fifth straight victory in all competitions.
Federico Fernandez’s own goal set the Blues on their way, the Argentine defender poking the ball over his own line while under pressure from Ben Chilwell.
Chelsea oozed quality, Newcastle keeper Karl Darlow producing excellent saves to deny the excellent Timo Werner as well as a close-range header by Tammy Abraham.
But Abraham made sure of the points with a smart finish following Werner’s pass after Newcastle had threatened through Isaac Hayden and Joelinton. Sean Longstaff hit the bar for the home side towards the end. Read more
Kenyans win Kaduna Marathon, as govt hails runners, sponsors, citizens on successful race (Vanguard)
The maiden 21 km Kaduna Half marathon ended successfully on Saturday with Kenyan athletes, John Muirurri Mburu and Caren Jebet Maiyo winning.
John who told journalists that it was a good race, said the weather in Kaduna was good and had made the race easier.
Meanwhile,the Kaduna State Government has expressed its gratitude to the runners, sponsors, citizens, media and government agencies that helped to successfully stage the first edition of the Kaduna Marathon.
A statement from Muyiwa Adekeye, Special Adviser to the Governor (Media & Communication),stated that the first edition of the Kaduna Marathon has advanced the stated goals of promoting sports, encouragingsocial interaction and showing the best of Kaduna. Read more
How Mikel made Stoke City stronger – O’Neill (Nation)
The Potters boss has praised the former Nigeria international for his invaluable contribution to his side since his arrival.
Stoke City manager Michael O’Neill has revealed John Obi Mikel has made the club stronger with his role.
The 33-year-old teamed up with the Potters in the summer after leaving Turkish Super Lig side Trabzonspor by mutual agreement.
The midfielder has continued to make his experience count for the Bet365 Stadium outfit in the 11 games he has played for the club so far.
Mikel has helped the club keep five clean sheets since his arrival at the club to their current eighth spot on the Championship table. Read more
Rohr depends solely on Eagles’ talent with no technical input, Adelabu declares (Guardian)
As Nigerians continue to lament the abysmal performance of the Super Eagles in the two fixtures of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers against the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone, former international, Adegoke Adelabu, has put the blame at the doorstep of Coach Gernot Rohr.
Against all expectations, the Eagles squandered a 4-0 lead to draw 4-4 in Benin City, last Friday, while the return leg ended 0-0 in Freetown.
Although Nigeria still top the group with eight points, one ahead of Benin Republic, Adelabu stated that Rohr’s tactics in the two matches were faulty. Read more
Joaquin Buckley: UFC’s viral knockout that inspired Kanye West (BBC)
Joaquin Buckley admits he was “unknown” when he travelled to Abu Dhabi for his second UFC fight in October.
Things have changed a bit as he prepares for his third, against Jordan Wright at UFC 255 on Saturday.
Back in October, Buckley’s middleweight bout against fellow American Impa Kasanganay had been fairly when the unbeaten Kasanganay caught a kick from his opponent midway through the second round.
Then came the moment that changed Buckley’s life.
With his left ankle still being held, the 26-year-old defied gravity by producing a spinning back kick which toppled Kasanganay. Read more