Teen bags six years for stealing female underwear, phone (Punch)
An Osogbo Chief Magistrates’ Court in Osun State on Monday sentenced one Olasunkanmi, 19, to six years in prison for stealing three female underwear and one Techno mobile phone valued at N6,000. Magistrate Rofiat Olayemi sentenced the convict without any option to pay fine. The Prosecutor, Insp. Jafani Musilimi, had told the court that the convict committed the offence on January 28, at about 10 a.m., at No. 12, Ibokun Road, Oja-Oba area, Osogbo. Musilimi said the convict broke into the apartment of one Folashade Ganiyu and stole three underpants belonging to her inside her bathroom. Read more
Lagos Police Command gets new spokesman (Guardian)
Lagos police commissioner Zubairu Muazu on Monday appointed DSP Bala Elkana as the new Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Lagos. Elkana, the new spokesman takes over from Chike Oti, who held the position from November 2017 till Monday, March 11 2019. Prior to his latest appointment, he was the police public relations officer in Niger and Akwa Ibom states. He was admitted into the Nigeria Police in 2003. He holds a Bachelors degree in Law (LLB), Master’s Degree in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA). Read more
APC’s Muktar Idris wins Zamfara Gov polls (Punch)
Muktar Idris of All Progressives Congress has emerged winner of Zamfara governorship election held on Saturday. Muktar secured 534,541 votes out of the 810,782 votes cast across the 14 local government areas of the state. Announcing the result, the Returning Officer, Prof. Kabir Bala, said, “Muktar Idris of APC, having met all the requirements of the law and scored the highest votes, is hereby declared as the winner and returned elected as the governor of Zamfara State.” He said that Bello Matawalle of Peoples Democratic Party scored 189,452 to emerge second; while Senator Saidu Dansadau of National Rescue Movement scored 15,177 votes; and Sani Abdullahi of All Progressives Grand Alliance had 3,865 votes. Read more
APC brooms has swept Kwara clean of hegemony politics – Lai Mohammed (Guardian)
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed says with the absolute victory of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Feb. 23 and March 9 general elections in Kwara, the party’s brooms have swept the state clean of “hegemony politics”. The Minister who stated this at a post election news briefing on Monday in Ilorin added that the long battle for the emancipation of Kwara had been attained with the outcome of the polls. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the Kwara APC had a clean sweep of the Presidential poll, as well as elections into the three senatorial and six House of Representative seats held on Feb. 23. Read more
Gov poll: Okowa wins in Delta (Punch)
The Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday declared Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of the Peoples Democratic Party winner of the 2019 governorship election in Delta State. The State Returning Officer of INEC, Prof. Seth Accra-Jaja, Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa, declared Okowa winner of the contest on Monday in Asaba. Jaja said, “I hereby certify that I was the State Returning Officer for March Governorship election. Read more
PDP wins 19 of 24 Imo State House of Assembly seats (Guardian)
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has won 19 out of 24 seats of Imo State House of Assembly according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) won three seats, while the All Progressives Congress (APC) won two seats in the House of Assembly election held on Saturday, March 9. The election result showed that 11 of the 24 winners were re-elected comprising, including one APGA candidate Abraham Obah and ten PDP candidates led by the speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly Chikwendu Kalu. Read more
Declare Sokoto results or I’ll sue, PDP’s Tambuwal tells INEC (Punch)
Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State has threatened to approach the court and challenge the inconclusiveness of the state governorship election held last Saturday. Reacting to INEC’s declaration of the election as inconclusive where he was leading at a press conference, Tambuwal alleged that the Commission had yet to give reasons as to why an election re-run should be held. Tambuwal, who was leading with a slim margin of 3,413 votes, also explained that, “Going by Section 179(2) of the Constitution as amended, there was no clause that gave room for inconclusiveness. Read more
Nsukka residents hail Ugwuanyi’s re-election (Punch)
Residents of Nsukka town are happy with the re-election of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for a second term in Enugu State and pledged their continued support for his administration. The residents in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria in Nsukka on Monday, described Ugwuanyi’s victory as “well deserved,’’ given his good performance in the past three years as the governor of the state. Ugwuanyi, a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party polled 449,935 votes to defeat his closest rival Senator Ayogu Eze, the candidate of All Progressives Congress, who scored 10, 423 votes. Read more
CCT adjourns ruling on Onnoghen’s objection indefinitely, orders day-to-day trial (Punch)
The Code of Conduct Tribunal on Monday adjourned indefinitely it’s ruling on two separate motions filed by the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, to challenge the tribunal’s jurisdiction to entertain the charges of non-declaration of assets preferred against him by the Federal Government. Delivering a ruling, the chairman of the CCT, Danladi Umar, said the ruling on the motions would be delivered along with the final judgment on the case at the end of the trial. Read more
Ethiopian Airline crash: No plan to cancel order for 10 B737 MAX 800 —Air Peace (Punch)
Nigerian domestic carrier, Air Peace, says it has no plan to cancel its order for 10 Boeing 737-MAX 800 airplanes following worldwide concerns about the aircraft safety. The airline spokesman said any decision about cancelling the order was premature. Corporate Communications Manager, Air Peace, Mr. Chris Iwarah, spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday in Lagos. He said the airline will continue to act in the interest of the safety of the flying public. Read more
Pope appoints Archbishop Kaigama as Bishop of Abuja (Punch)
His Holiness, Pope Francis, has appointed His Grace, Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama as the Catholic Bishop of Abuja. Pope Francis, represented by Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria, His Grace, Archbishop Antonio Guido Filipazzi, made the announcement on Monday in Abuja, during the opening ceremony of the first plenary meeting of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria. Kaigama will take over from His Eminence, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, who reached the retirement age of 75 years on Jan. 29. Read more
Ethiopian Airlines ‘black boxes’ found (BBC)
Investigators have found the flight data recorders from an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed on Sunday. The devices recovered at the crash site were the Boeing 737 Max 8’s cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data recorder. The plane was en route from Addis Ababa to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, when it crashed six minutes after take-off, killing all 157 people on board. Several airlines have grounded the Boeing model following the disaster. Read more
UN family in Ethiopia pay last respects to personnel killed in airline crash (Punch)
United Nations staff in Ethiopia gathered today at the UN Conference Centre for a minute of silence and a flag lowering ceremony in memory of the 19 United Nations personnel killed in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 Sunday. The solemn gathering was led by the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. Aeneas Chuma. The UN stated this in a statement issued on Monday by the Communications Section, Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Read more
Trump says ‘Tim Apple’ gaffe was on purpose (Guardian)
Widely mocked for calling Apple CEO Tim Cook “Tim Apple” to his face, President Donald Trump came up with an explanation Monday: it wasn’t a gaffe, he was just being succinct. Trump said his apparent slip-up at a White House roundtable with business leaders last Wednesday had been on purpose. “I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words,” Trump explained on his Twitter feed. Read more
Arsenal say Lingard antics fuelled revenge mission against Man Utd (Punch)
Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno has revealed Jesse Lingard’s extravagant goal celebrations at the Gunners’ expense inspired their revenge victory over Manchester United. Lingard infuriated Arsenal’s players when he launched into a ‘moon-walk’ in front of the home supporters to mark his goal in United’s 3-1 FA Cup fourth-round win at the Emirates Stadium in January. The United winger’s flamboyant celebration was perceived as taunting and Arsenal were determined to get their own back when Ole Gunner Solskjaer’s side returned to north London on Sunday. Read more
Raheem Sterling hailed as one of world’s best by Kompany (Guardian)
Vincent Kompany has hailed Manchester City teammate Raheem Sterling as one of the best players in the world after his 13-minute hat-trick in the 3-1 win against Watford. The victory at the Etihad on Saturday took the defending champions four points clear of Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table but Jurgen Klopp’s men closed the gap to a single point on Sunday. There was an offside debate over Sterling’s first goal and his second was a tap-in but his third highlighted his skill as he weaved into the area, cut back and fired past Ben Foster. Read more
Arsenal loanee Reiss Nelson dropped by Hoffenheim for disciplinary reasons (Metro)
Hoffenheim manager Julian Nagelsmann said he left Arsenal loanee Reiss Nelson out of his squad at the weekend as an ‘educational measure’ for the 19-year-old. The forward made a bright start to his loan spell in Germany, but has since fallen out of favour with the management at the PreZero Arena. While Nagelsmann may have been a little cryptic about Nelson’s absence, German publication Sport1 were less so, stating there were ‘obviously disciplinary reasons’ involved. Without the Englishman, Hoffenheim beat Nurnberg 2-1 to record their first Bundesliga victory in three games. Read more
Ramos takes responsibility for Real Madrid woes (Guardian)
Sergio Ramos says he takes the blame for Real Madrid’s “deeply disappointing” season but insists the players will have no say on the future of Santiago Solari. Ramos posted a series of questions to himself on social media on Monday in the hope that his answers would be “the most honest way” to tackle speculation surrounding the club. Madrid beat Real Valladolid 4-1 in La Liga on Sunday but Solari’s future as coach remains in serious doubt after the consecutive league and cup losses to Barcelona which were followed by Ajax knocking them out of the Champions League, defeats that all-but ended the Club World Cup winners’ hopes of winning another trophy this term. Read more