UNILAG gynaecologist wins $2.5m Gates research grant (Punch)
A professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Lagos, Bosede Afolabi, has emerged as a recipient of a $2.5m research grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
According to a March 31 article on the university’s website, Afolabi’s project is titled ‘Intravenous Versus Oral Iron for Iron Deficiency Anaemia in Pregnant Nigerian Women (IVON).’
The report read, “As principal investigator, Professor Afolabi will lead a multicentre study which will run for three years (November 1, 2020 – October 31, 2023).
“The study will be conducted in 10 hospitals within Lagos and Kano states and it will recruit a total of 1,056 women at 20-32 weeks gestational age, who are diagnosed as having anaemia at the antenatal clinics of the hospitals. Read more
Flurry of tributes as Odumakin passes on (Guardian)
Many socio-cultural and human rights organisations across the country were left in deep mourning yesterday over the sudden passage of Mr. Yinka Odumakin, who until his death was the National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere and one of the spokesmen of Southern and Middle Belt Leadership Forum (SMBLF).
According to a statement from the wife, Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin, the pioneer Publicity Secretary of Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) died of COVID-19 complications at the Intensive Care Unit, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) yesterday.
She said: “The sad event happened this morning (Saturday, 3/4/2021) at the intensive care unit of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) where he was being managed for respiratory issues due to complications from COVID-19 which he had recovered from about a week ago. I appreciate the outpouring of grief and sympathy from home and abroad as I mourn my irreplaceable soulmate. Read more
Engineers commend Lagos on road rehabilitation (Nation)
Lagos State Government has been commended for the rehabilitation work currently embarked on at Akoka/Gbagada areas of the state.
This commendation was made by the Chairman, Lagos Chapter of Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers, Engr. Emeka Ibeh, when he led members of the institution to an industrial visit to the rehabilitation work on St Finbarr’s/Sholuyi in Kosofe Local Government Areas of the state.
The project is being anchored by the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, Lagos State. “We are very impressed with the level of work done so far, even though, this visit is at the early stage of the project, the contractors are still acquiring right of way and embarked on necessary demolition of those buildings that encroached into the right of way, it is not an easy task but the benefit is worth the effort expended”, he (Engr Ibeh) said. Read more
How Lagos is tackling unemployment – Wahab (Guardian)
Lagos State Government has revealed that its job initiatives designed for final year students and those in penultimate classes, as well as its Eko Digital Skills, were aimed at equipping students with essential skills that will make them relevant and make their services essential in the labour market.
Special Adviser to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Education, Tokunbo Wahab noted those innovations were part of the state’s efforts at reducing the unemployment rate.
According to him, the job initiative programmes are aimed at preparing final year and penultimate students of tertiary institutions for immediate entry into the workforce as employees and employers of labour, by equipping them with market aligned knowledge, soft skills, business tools and the mindset reorientation in the world of work. Read more
Omu Resort takes delivery of first zebra in Lagos State (Independent)
Omu Resort has scored another first in wildlife conservation and captive breeding.
The resort located at Bogije, Ibeju Lekki, Lagos State recorded the landmark achievement with the recent delivery of two zebras to the resort.
With the arrival of the zebras, Omu Resort officially becomes one of only a small number of zoos in Africa to have the zebras grace its facility. Read more
USSD War: MTN snubs banks, links 77m subscribers to fintech platforms (Punch)
MTN customers in Nigeria now have alternative electronic payment platforms to recharge their phones as the mobile network operator on Saturday announced that customers can recharge airtime through payment solutions platforms such as Flutterwave, Jumia Pay, OPay, Kuda, Carbon and BillsnPay.
MTN in a statement on Saturday by its Senior Manager, External Relations, Funso Aina, also said customers could recharge airtime by dialing *904# and *606#.
This is coming barely 24 hours after commercial banks on Friday disconnected MTN customers from banking channels including the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data and banking apps, leaving millions of MTN subscribers frustrated as they were unable to recharge airtime via USSD amid the Easter celebrations. Read more
Clerics, political leaders deplore worsening insecurity, preach peace (Guardian)
As Christians join their counterparts across the globe to mark the Easter celebration, some clerics, yesterday, came down hard on the country’s political leaders.
Not only did they accuse them of gross incompetence in handling the nation’s affairs, but they also frowned at the crass assumption that the sustained bloodletting occasioned by unabating kidnappings, armed banditry, farmer/herder clashes, and sundry criminal activities could be wished away by rhetoric, as against commensurate, decisive actions.
The clerics also berated the Federal Government for what they termed lack of capacity to contain the worsening insecurity or nipping in the bud, the activities of outlaws by deploying superior intelligence and military might. Read more
Ebonyi communal clash: 55 suspected warlords escape from custody (Nation)
Fifty-five of the 66 suspected warlords arrested on Saturday in Effium community, Ohaukwu Local Government Area, Ebonyi State over the communal crisis in the area have escaped from detention.
They were arrested by a combined team of police and army at Okpuduma village in the town with arms and charms during a raid led by the General Officer Commanding, 82 Division of the Nigeria Army, Maj. Gen. Taoreen Lagbaja.
Lagbaja was on an operational visit to the community following persistent killings, shootings and burning of houses in the troubled community. Read more
#EndSARS: Panel fines police N16m for killing teenager in Bayelsa (Punch)
The Bayelsa State Panel of Inquiry on Police Brutality and Other Related Matters has in a ruling on a petition awarded N16m against the police for extrajudicial killing of a teenager, late Innocent Kokorifa, in Yenagoa.
Innocent, who was 17 when he was shot dead by a trigger-happy officer in August 2016, was the son of Mr Daniel Kokorifa, a Federal Road Safety Corps official attached to the Rivers State Command.
Kokorifa, who is a native of Okpotuwari in the Southern Ijaw, Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa, had in his petition numbered BYS/JPI/012/2020 prayed the panel to also consider the sum of N6m incurred since the brutal murder of his son. Read more
Bridgerton fans mourn as Regé-Jean Page’s exit confirmed for second season (BBC)
He is one of the standout stars of the most popular show ever on Netflix.
So news that Regé-Jean Page will not return for season two of hit TV period drama Bridgerton has left fans aghast.
“I WILL NOT have it”, wrote singer Dionne Warwick as she joined the reaction on social media.
Bridgerton was watched by 82 million households in its first month on Netflix, making it the streaming platform’s biggest original series. Read more
Worshippers threatened with fines as police break up Good Friday church service (Metro)
A Good Friday church service was shut down by police, who threatened worshippers with £200 fines for allegedly breaching Covid rules. Officers were called to Christ the King church in Balham, south London on Friday evening to reports of people queuing outside. A policeman who was filmed addressing the congregation from the podium said the gathering was ‘unfortunately unlawful under the coronavirus regulations’. He added: ‘You are not allowed to meet inside with this many people under law. Read more
Amazon apologises for wrongly denying drivers need to urinate in bottles (BBC)
Amazon has apologised to a US politician for falsely denying that drivers are, at times, forced to urinate in plastic bottles.
Mark Pocan, a Democrat from Wisconsin, referenced Amazon making “workers urinate in water bottles” in a tweet.
The official Amazon Twitter account then replied: “If that were true, nobody would work for us.”
The company has now apologised after evidence emerged of drivers having to urinate in bottles. Read more
Rapper DMX remains on life support following heart attack, lawyer clarifies (Page Six)
DMX remained on life support Saturday afternoon at a Westchester hospital after suffering a heart attack, his lawyer told Page Six.
The 50-year-old “X Gon Give It to Ya” rapper was taken to White Plains Hospital around 11 p.m. Friday from his nearby home, and soon placed on a ventilator, attorney Murray Richman said.
“It does not look good,” the worried-sounding lawyer told Page Six Saturday night.
Earlier Saturday night, Richman had told The Post that the rapper had been taken off life support, but that was a “misstatement,” he told Page Six. Read more
Ava DuVernay shares upset as Warner Bros shelves New Gods film (Metro)
Ava DuVernay has expressed her sadness after Warner Bros shelved her film based on the DC Comics series New Gods. The director, 48, had been working with comic book writer Tom King on the project since 2018, but Warner Bros has since announced it will not be going forward with the movie. A planned spin-off for Aquaman, The Trench, has also been cancelled. In a statement, the film studio and DC Films said: ‘As part of our DC slate, some legacy development titles including New Gods and The Trench will not be moving forward. Read more
Jordan’s Prince Hamzah bin Hussein ‘under house arrest’ (BBC)
The former crown prince of Jordan says he has been placed under house arrest as part of a crackdown on critics.
In a video passed to the BBC by his lawyer, Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, the half-brother of King Abdullah, accuses the country’s leaders of corruption, incompetence and harassment.
It comes after a number of high-level arrests said to be linked to an alleged coup plot.
The military earlier denied Prince Hamzah was under house arrest. Read more
NASA plans head-on collision between spaceship and asteroid (NYPost)
NASA is organizing a boxing match set among the stars.
In case an asteroid one day threatens Earth’s existence, NASA has developed a contingency plan: Punch that asteroid with a spaceship. The plan is already well into its demo phase.
“Up until now, we haven’t had too many options for what we might do if we found something that was incoming,” Johns Hopkins planetary astronomer Andy Rivkin told Vice News of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. “DART is the first test of how we might be able to deflect something without having to resort to a nuclear package, or sitting in our basements, waiting it out and crossing our fingers.” Read more
Enyimba plot ES Setif’s fall in CAF Confederation Cup (Guardian)
Nigeria’s only surviving club in CAF competitions this year, Enyimba FC of Aba, will face ES Setif of Algeria in matchday three of the CAF Confederation Cup this afternoon. This tie is the 37th time in the history of CAF Club Competitions between Enyimba and the North African side.
The fixture billed for today at the Enyimba Stadium will see the Elephants try to seek redemption after a late capitulation in Soweto on matchday two.
Enyimba has experienced good fortunes whenever they have faced Algeria’s sides on the continent, stretching back to the fairytale maiden Champions League triumph in 2003. Read more
Jalen Suggs’ buzzer-beater in OT sends Gonzaga into national title game (NYPost)
Gonzaga-Baylor will have a lot to live up to.
Before the national championship game everyone has wanted to see, Gonzaga and UCLA went toe to tie for 45 minutes in what wasn’t just the game of the tournament — it was one of the all-time contests March Madness has ever seen.
Freshman Jalen Suggs’ buzzer-beating 30 footer off the glass sent the top-seeded Zags to Monday night’s national championship game with a thrilling, edge-of-your-seat 93-90 overtime victory Saturday night in Indianapolis, sending Cinderella No. 11 UCLA home in abject disappointment.
Gonzaga and fellow No. 1 seed Baylor will meet Monday night — four months to the day a non-conference showdown between the two powers was cancelled due to COVID-19 protocols. Read more
Man City close to taking Liverpool’s crown, says Guardiola after win at Leicester (BBC)
Pep Guardiola says he will “never forget this season” as runaway leaders Manchester City closed in on the Premier League title with victory at third-placed Leicester.
Second-half goals by Benjamin Mendy and Gabriel Jesus left City requiring 11 points from seven matches to seal a third league crown in four seasons.
“I love the Premier League more than any other competition. We are close, very close,” added Guardiola after his team moved 17 points clear at the top.
“The champions are Liverpool, they have the crown – but we are close to taking it.” Read more
West Brom contact police as Callum Robinson is subjected to vile racist abuse after win over Chelsea (Metro)
West Brom have contacted West Midlands Police to make them aware of a string of sickening racist messages aimed at Callum Robinson following the side’s 5-2 win over Chelsea. Robinson came off the substitutes’ bench to score twice in the Baggies’ victory, with Matheus Pereira also completing a brace and Mbaye Diagne scoring the visitors’ other goal at Stamford Bridge. A number of high-profile players past and present – including Wilfried Zaha, Reece James, Fred, Ryan Sessegnon and Ian Wright – have shared vile racism they have been subjected to on their social media pages in recent months. Read more
Sociedad beat Bilbao to win first Copa del Rey in 34 years (BBC)
Real Sociedad ended a 34-year wait for the Copa del Rey by beating Athletic Bilbao in a tight final in Seville.
After a five-minute VAR review of the decision to award a penalty, Mikel Oyarzabal sent the keeper the wrong way to win the 2019-20 trophy for Sociedad.
Inigo Martinez was initially sent off for fouling Portu in the box but the decision was downgraded to a yellow.
Bilbao face Barcelona in this season’s final on 17 April, looking to end their own 37-year wait in the competition. Read more
Mikel Arteta slams ‘unacceptable’ Arsenal performance against Liverpool (Metro)Mikel Arteta branded Arsenal’s performance in defeat against Liverpool on Saturday as ‘unacceptable’ and claimed he was ‘shocked’ by the nature of a damaging 3-0 loss. The Gunners were without the likes of Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, David Luiz and Granit Xhaka, but Arteta refused to use the absence of four key players as an excuse for such a dismal display. Arsenal suffered a further setback when Kieran Tierney was forced off on the stroke of half-time with a knee injury, but in truth the Gunners were fortunate to go in level at the break. Read more