Truck drivers excited over seamless movement of vehicles to Tin-Can port (Dailytrust)
Truck drivers have expressed their excitement at the seamless movement of vehicles along the Oshodi – Apapa expressway leading to the nation’s second busiest seaport, the Tin-Can Island Port.
The road which has been reconstructed had previously been taken over by shanties and extortion points mounted by urchins.
Just yesterday, the Lagos State Taskforce on environmental Sanitation arrested about 51 members of the gang who mounted different check points to harass and extort truck drivers. Read more
Economic challenges faced by Nigerians getting worse – Kano Speaker (Vanguard)
The Speaker, Kano State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Jibrin Ismail Falgore has said the economic challenges faced by Nigerians are getting worse on daily basis.
The Speaker’s lamentation over the situation was coming barely days after the State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf offered to personally meet with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intimate him about economic hardship and hunger in the state.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker, Kamaluddeen Sani Shawai, quoted him saying Nigerians are seriously facing hardship as government policies lead to a high cost of living, especially commodities. Read more
Protests: Tackle hunger in the land, PRP warns APC (Tribune)
The People’s Redemption Party (PRP) has called on the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to redirect its energy and tackle the hunger in the land instead of resorting to blame games or accusing the opposition parties of sponsoring citizens against the government through protests.
The PRP’s acting national publicity secretary, Comrade Muhammed Ishaq, in a statement titled “Stop The Blame Game: APC As Anger Against Imposed Hunger Needs No Instigation” and made available to Tribune Online, accused the ruling party of being clever by half, not delivering on its electoral promises, but rather pointing fingers and trying to create mountains out of molehills.
The statement added that citizens have the right to protest peacefully and demand accountability from their elected leaders. Read more
Lagos Taskforce apprehends notorious highway gang targeting truck drivers (Independent)
The Lagos State Taskforce in a significant operation on Tuesday led by the Chairman of the Agency, CSP Shola Jejeloye, successfully apprehended 51 notorious members of a highway gang known for harassing truck drivers along the Apapa/ Oshodi and Lagos/Badagry Expressway.
This set of individuals have been identified for their brazen tactics, coercing truck drivers to part with money under the pretext of working for the defunct Lagos State Parks and Garages Agency.
Operating with impunity, the gang has subjected many drivers to physical harm and acts of bestiality when they resist extortion attempts. Read more
Lagos to convert Ijora under-bridge into recreational space (Punch)
The Lagos State Government has announced its plan to convert the recently cleared Ijora under-bridge to a creational space.
PUNCH Online reported on Saturday that after a five-day quit notice, the government destroyed illegal shanties occupied by squatters under the bridge.
The state Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, had lamented that block moulders, fuel sellers, and miscreants occupying the space under the bridge pose a security risk, stressing that the government would not allow it to continue. Read more
Insecurity: Absence of Ribadu, CDS Musa stall Senate’s interface with Security Chiefs (Vanguard)
The absence of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu and the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa on Wednesday stalled the planned interface with the Security Chiefs.
Consequently, the Senate has summoned the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and Minister of Defence, Abubakar Badaru, to appear before it on Tuesday next week over rising insecurity in the country.
The Senate also invited the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufai Abubakar and the Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo. Read more
EFCC raises special task force against dollarisation of economy, mutilation of currency (Channels)
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has raised a special task force in all its zones against the dollarisation of the economy as well as the mutilation of the currency in the country.
The anti-graft agency in a statement by its Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, disclosed that the task force was raised to protect the economy from abuses, leakages as well as distortions and exposure to instability and disruptions.
The commission said it has already arrested some perpetrators of the acts in both Lagos and
Port Harcourt. Read more
FG, US to work out modalities on mining partnership (Nation)
The Federal Government and the government of the United States (US) have formed a working group to work out modalities for mining development partnership between both countries.
This is a follow-up to last week’s Abuja meeting with the United States Deputy Chief of Mission David Greene, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake.
Alake on Tuesday led a Nigerian government delegation that met a delegation of the US government led by Senior Advisor to the US President on Energy and Infrastructure, Amos Hochstein on the sidelines of the ongoing Investing in Africa Indaba, Cape Town, South Africa. Read more
Kanye West claims he’s being blacklisted by venues: ‘You know why that is’ (HipHopDx)
Kanye West has claimed that he is being blacklisted by concert venues despite him being one of the biggest musicians in the world.
The controversial rapper made the allegations in a social media clip which surfaced on Tuesday (February 6), which he then followed with a series of posts on Instagram.
“We just sold out the United Center in seven minutes and I just wanted to express to everybody out there to see if anybody can help with this,” West says in the video. “It’s the only arena I had access to in the past year. And when I call, people say there’s no availables for me and you know why that is. If there’s anybody out there that can help with this, please do.” Read more
Cillian Murphy: Barbenheimer was a ‘‘wonderful moment for cinema’’ (BBC)
Actor Cillian Murphy has said last summer’s Barbenheimer phenomenon was “a wonderful moment for cinema”.
The viral trend saw thousands of fans book tickets to see both Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same day.
It came about after a string of memes which made light of the fact that two films which were so tonally different shared the same release date.
Murphy praised the organic nature of the trend, adding it “wasn’t any amazingly designed marketing strategy”. Read more
Woman found melted onto sofa ‘was loved to death’ by her parents (Metro)
The parents of a woman who was found fused to a couch and caked in her own faeces claim they ‘loved her to death’.
Sheila and Clay Fletcher pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of manslaughter in the death of their daughter Lacey Fletcher, 36, who was discovered dead on their sofa in January 2022.
The couple’s lawyer in a Louisiana courthouse said they did not intend to hurt their daughter. Read more
Kevin Spacey to pay $1m in House of Cards settlement (Variety)
Kevin Spacey will pay $1 million to MRC, the production company behind House of Cards, to settle claims that he sexually harassed young male staffers on the show.
Spacey was dropped from the final season of the show in 2017. He was facing a $31 million judgment in the case, after an arbitrator found that the allegations were credible and that MRC deserved to recoup its costs for scrapping the final season and starting over without him.
Spacey has agreed to pay the $1 million over multiple years in installments equal to 10% of his after-tax income. MRC has also secured Spacey’s cooperation in trying to recoup the balance of its costs from someone better able to pay: its insurance company. Read more
Paul McCartney says an early Beatles car accident led to mantra that helped their careers (People)
It’s hard to imagine a time when the Beatles weren’t the most famous band in the world — but in the early 1960s, the four lads from Liverpool were still trying to catch their big break.
So sets the scene for an anecdote from Paul McCartney’s podcast McCartney: A Life in Lyrics, the second season of which begins on Wednesday. In the first episode, the rocker, 81, offers a deep dive on the Beatles’ debut single “Love Me Do,” and recalls the group’s feelings toward stardom in the early days.
“There were all sorts of things, as I say, that you instinctively knew. Don’t try too hard. Don’t work too hard at reaching for it. ‘Cause the more you reach, the more it’ll recede,” he says on the podcast. “Just kid on that you don’t even want it. Something will happen.” Read more
BBC announces new digital radio stations to reach underserved audiences (BelfastTelegraph)
The BBC has announced it is launching four new genre-focused digital music stations to give “more choice to those currently underserved” by the corporation.
The stations, which will launch on DAB+ digital radio, will be extensions of Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 3 and will use archive material, some new commissions and a small amount of new live content.
The new stations will also be available on BBC Sounds.
There are two proposals for extensions on Radio 1, with one of them focusing on a wide range of music from the 2000s and 2010s and the other forming an expanded version of the existing BBC Sounds Radio 1 Dance stream. Read more
Dozens killed in Pakistan bomb blasts on final day of election campaigning (UPI)
At least 22 people were killed Wednesday in two separate bomb attacks in southwestern Pakistan, hours before polling stations open for voting in provincial and national elections Thursday.
The first blast in Pishin district, 35 miles north of the Balochistan provincial capital, Quetta, killed at least 12 people and injured 25 after an improvised explosive device aboard a motorcycle was detonated near the office of an independent election candidate, said Balochistan caretaker information minister Jan Achakzai.
A few hours later, a second blast in front of the office of a candidate of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, one of the main religious parties, Thursday’s elections killed at least 10 people 90 miles to the west in Qila Saifullah, Achakzai said. Read more
Kanu says Super Eagles will win AFCON trophy (Punch)
Nigerian football legend, Nwankwo Kanu, has stated that the Super Eagles will win the 2023 CAF African Cup of Nations.
Kanu, a two-time African Footballer of the Year in 1996 and 1999, said in a video posted on his X account on Wednesday.
In the video, he insisted that the Nigerian football team, which is slated for a semi-final showpiece against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa on Wednesday (today), will advance to the final and win the tourney. Read more
AFCON 2023: Sports minister secures N200m support for Super Eagles (Nation)
The Minister of Sports Development, Sen. John Owan Enoh has secured the sum of N200m for the Super Eagles of Nigeria ahead of their semi-final clash at the on-going 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Côte d’Ivoire.
The Special Adviser Media to the Minister, Diana-Mary Nsan in a statement on Wednesday, said the donation is from the leadership of the Progressive Governors’ Forum.
The minister commended Gov. Hope Uzodimma of Imo and Chairman of the Forum, including all members for the swift response, after he raised the need to motivate the team ahead of their semifinal clash. Read more
Messi wows Tokyo fans days after Hong Kong no-show (France24)
Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi played 30 minutes of a friendly match in Japan on Wednesday, days after his no-show in a similar match sparked fury in Hong Kong.
The Argentine superstar came in for the tail end of a goalless draw with Vissel Kobe in Tokyo, which his team lost 4-3 on penalties.
He started on the bench for the pre-season game against J-League side Kobe, worrying 28,614 spectators at the National Stadium, who chanted “Messi, Messi” in sporadic attempts to coax out the 36-year-old. Read more
Kylian Mbappe wants £43m-a-year salary at Real Madrid (SportsMole)
Kylian Mbappe has reportedly told Real Madrid that he wants wages of €50m (£43m) a year in order to join the club from Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer this summer.
Speculation surrounding the France international’s future in Paris has gathered pace over the last week, with the attacker believed to have decided to make the move to Real Madrid.
Mbappe can end his contract at PSG this summer, and the 25-year-old has allegedly chosen the Spanish giants despite some suggestions that he could arrive in the Premier League. Read more
Holger Rune lifts the lid on his shock split with Boris Becker (Tennis365)
Holger Rune has broken the silence on his splits with coaches Boris Becker and Severin Luthi and declared he needs people he “can trust” to achieve his “big goals.”
The world No 7 recognised it has been difficult to find “the perfect match” to replace long-time coach Lars Christensen and explained he needs people around him “who have the same vision.”
Tennis legend Becker announced on Wednesday he had brought an end to his brief spell as Rune’s coach due to his inability to spend enough time working with the 20-year-old. Read more
Carl Frampton urges young people to talk about mental health (BBC)
Carl Frampton has urged young people to open up and talk about their mental health struggles.
The former boxer was speaking at the launch of a children’s mental health and suicide awareness video created by pupils from four County Antrim schools.
Frampton said the video was a “powerful tool” for parents and children.
Pupils from St Patrick’s Academy, Malone Integrated College, Lisnagarvey High School and St Colm’s High School took part in the video. Read more