We don’t know how much is made per month at Lekki tollgate – LCC MD (Punch)
The Managing Director of the Lekki Concession Company, Yomi Omomuwasan, says he does not know how much is made at the Lekki Toll Gate monthly.
The LCC is the operators of the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge and the Admiralty Circle Plaza along the Lekki-Epe Expressway.
Speaking on Nigeria Info 99.3 on Thursday, Omomuwasan said it will take up to four months to finish repair works at the Lekki toll gate which was burnt last October in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests against police brutality.
Eyewitnesses had claimed protesters died while some were injured when soldiers allegedly opened fire on youths on October 20, 2020 at the Lekki toll gate which was a major demonstration ground during the protest. Read more
Teenager in court for allegedly damaging Lagos government bus (Vanguard)
A teenager, name withheld, on Friday appeared in an Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court for allegedly damaging a bus belonging to the Lagos State Government.
The teenager whose residential address was not given, is charged with willful damage.
The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The Prosecution Counsel, ASP Benson Emuerhi, told the court that the defendant willfully damaged the driver side safety glass of the bus with registration number EKY280XY, property of Lagos State Government. Read more
#EndSARS: Lagos panel awards N20m to two victims of police brutality (Punch)
Two petitioners have been awarded N10 million each as compensation by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Restitution and Inquiry set up to investigate cases of police brutality especially involving officers of the now-defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
The two petitioners, Kudirat Abayomi and Hannah Olugbodi, were awarded the compensation on Friday.
The panel also recommended the prosecution of the erring police officers in the case involving Abayomi.
Apart from the N10 million compensation to the family of Abayomi, who was killed by a police stray bullet in April 2017, scholarships were also awarded for the children of the deceased. Read more
Sanwo-Olu seeks private sector aid for greater Lagos (DailyTrust)
The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has called on the private sector to be aggressive in seeking out opportunities to partner with and support the state government.
He made the call at the end of the Ehingbeti Lagos Summit yesterday which had six plenary sessions, 20 deep discussion sessions with 146 speakers and panellists, and over 10,000 participants (5,500 people daily) in attendance.
Sanwo-Olu said: “We must now begin to plan for the next summit, even as we also take action on the resolutions of this one. I call on the private sector to be aggressive in seeking out opportunities to partner with and support the Lagos State government. Government alone cannot make it happen, we cannot singlehandedly finance or execute all the ambitions that lie ahead.”
In a special message to the young people of Lagos, Sanwo-Olu said: “We recognize and take cognizance of the role the youth have to play in this Greater Lagos dream, and we want you to know that we will create the right and enabling environment for you to establish, grow and thrive.” Read more
Lagos govt must prove Tinubu’s son doesn’t control tollgates – Bode George (Punch)
A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Bode George, has called on the Lagos State Government to prove that the son of an All Progressives Congress leader, Seyi Tinubu, does not own or control the Lekki tollgate.
George called on the Lagos State Government to do this by honouring Freedom of Information requests and revealing the terms of agreement between the Lekki Concession Company and the state government.
The PDP chieftain said this in a statement on Friday titled, “We Must Withdraw from the Brink”.
He said the state government must address allegations that Tinubu’s son and his former Chief of Staff, Sunday Dare, who is now the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, control the tollgate. Read more
Man stabs neighbour to death in Ondo for abusing his wife (Vanguard)
Detectives in Ondo state police command have arrested a man identified as Naso for reportedly stabbing his neighbour to death in his sleep for abusing his wife.
Sources said that the suspect entered the room of the deceased identified as Seyi and stabbed him to death with a knife, while he was asleep.
Vanguard gathered that the incident occurred at Messiah High School street in Akure, the state capital.
The suspect who is being quizzed by the homicide detectives hails from the southeast while the deceased was a native of Iju-Itaogbolu in Akure North council area of the state. Read more
Court dismisses suit seeking to declare Ohanaeze Ndigbo an illegal Association (Sun)
The Abuja division of the Federal High Court on Friday sitting in Abuja, dismissed a suit seeking the declaration of the apex Igbo social-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo as an illegal association.
Justice Inyang Ekwo specifically dismissed an application brought by the Incorporated Trustees of Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly seeking an order to compel the Inspector General Of Police, Mohammed Adamu and the Attorney-General of the Federation to commence criminal prosecution of Ohanaeze Ndigbo President-General, Prof. George Obiozor, and others, for allegedly operating an unregistered association.
The applicant of the suit had claimed that the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, was an illegal association.
Ruling in the suit filed by Amobi Nzelu on behalf of the applicant for a judicial review, Justice Ekwo held that the applicant has failed to furnish the court with facts that would warrant the granting of it’s relief. Read more
Fire destroys female hostel in Offa Grammar School (Guardian)
The Kwara Fire Service says fire has destroyed a female hostel in Offa Grammar School, Offa Local Government of the state.
Hakeem Adekunle, the Head of Media and Publicity of the Service, in a statement on Friday in Ilorin, said the inferno affected a 20-room female hostel.
He said six rooms were completely burnt out of the 20 rooms in the affected building.
”At about 4:25 p.m on Thursday, the State Fire Service was informed of a fire incident at Offa Grammar School, in Offa, Kwara State, by one Mr Taiye through a telephone call. Read more
Gunmen abduct Kaduna Imam on his way to wedding (DailyTrust)
Gunmen have abducted the Chief Imam of Rigachikun Mosque, Mohammed Saminu Adam, on his way to attend a wedding ceremony in Niger State, Daily Trust gathered.
Details of the location where the scholar and other travellers were abducted remained sketchy but there are reports that the incident happened on Thursday evening along Kaduna-Birnin Gwari Highway.
It was gathered that the Imam was travelling in a commercial vehicle with other travellers when their vehicles came under attack.
Confirming the incident, the secretary to the Council of Imams and Ulamas, Kaduna State branch, Ustaz Yusuf Al’rigassiyu, said the council was informed about the abduction. Read more
Somalia: Heavy gunfire erupts at opposition march in Mogadishu (AlJazeera)
Gunfire and blasts have erupted in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu, according to witnesses, Somali government and opposition leaders, as security forces clashed with protesters angered by delayed elections.
It was unclear who opened fire first, but one witness Yusuf Mohamed reported a “heavy exchange of gunfire” between security forces and armed guards protecting opposition supporters who began their march along the main airport road.
“There can be casualties but we are taking cover now I don’t know exactly what happened,” he told the AFP news agency.
A protest leader told AP news agency that “some have died”. Read more
Harry and Meghan will not return to royal duties, Buckingham Palace says (CBC)
Buckingham Palace confirmed Friday that Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, will not be returning to royal duties, and Harry will give up his honorary military titles.
When Harry and Meghan stepped away from full-time royal life in early 2020, it was agreed the situation would be reviewed after a year.
The palace said in a statement “that they will not be returning as working members of The Royal Family.” Read more
UK top court gives Uber drivers benefits in landmark ruling (USAToday)
Uber drivers in Britain should be classed as “workers” and not self-employed, the UK Supreme Court ruled Friday, in a decision that threatens its business model and holds broader implications for the so-called gig economy.
The ruling entitles Uber drivers to benefits such as paid holidays and the minimum wage, handing defeat to the ride-hailing giant in the culmination of a long-running legal battle.
The Supreme Court’s seven judges unanimously rejected Uber’s appeal against a lower court ruling, which had found that two Uber drivers were “workers” under British law.
“The employment tribunal was right to find that Uber drivers are workers who therefore qualify for the rights conferred on workers by employment legislation,” said judge George Leggatt, as he read out a summary of the ruling on a court livestream. Read more
Insect-based dog food aims to cut your pet’s carbon pawprint (CBC)
Social Meat has a big carbon footprint, with livestock responsible for about 15 per cent of worldwide emissions, as we’ve previously discussed in this newsletter. That’s prompted experts to recommend eating less meat for sustainability (and health) reasons.
But what about your pet? One study found that the methane and nitrous oxide emissions generated by dog and cat food in the U.S. alone were equivalent to about 64 million tonnes of CO2, or roughly the amount produced by 13.6 million cars. And it may be getting worse, with a trend toward feeding pets “human-grade” meat.
That’s prompted some pet food makers to look to lower-carbon protein sources — including insects.
Studies show that producing insect-based food requires far less feed, land and water and generates far fewer greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram than meats such as beef, pork or chicken. Read more
Facebook faces a global backlash over its bid to ‘bully’ Australia (CNN)
Facebook’s decision to block people from sharing news in Australia has been rebuked by lawmakers around the world, raising the specter of a much wider showdown between the world’s biggest social media platform and the governments and news organizations fighting to check its power.
Elected officials and media publishers in the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and the United States slammed Facebook’s actions on Thursday, suggesting they were anti-competitive and underscored the need for a regulatory crackdown.
“It is one of the most idiotic but also deeply disturbing corporate moves of our lifetimes,” Julian Knight, the lawmaker who chairs the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee in Britain’s parliament, told broadcaster Sky News. Read more
In the UK, lower vaccine uptake among minorities causes concern (AlJazeera)
COVID-19 vaccine uptake among ethnic minority Britons is lower than among white people, according to recent data, a development that is fuelling concerns that the coronavirus could continue to disproportionally affect some communities and prompting calls for government action.
As of February 11, 86 per cent of white people aged between 70 and 79 had been vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the study from OpenSafely, run by the University of Oxford and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Among Black, mixed heritage and South Asian people of the same age, the figures stood at 55 percent, 68 percent and 73 percent respectively, according to the study, which was published on Tuesday.
The OpenSafely report, based on data gathered from 40 percent of doctors’ surgeries in England, also showed a high-rate of discrepancy in vaccination rates between ethnic minorities and white people aged 80 and above. Read more
Gorilla Glue sales skyrocket after Tessica Brown hair saga (NYPost)
Tessica Brown’s sticky saga has been a branding bonanza for Gorilla Glue — whose sales have reportedly skyrocketed.
The industrial-strength adhesive’s Amazon search volume jumped by a whopping 4,378 percent and its best seller rank spiked by 129 percent, Ad Age reported, citing the e-commerce analytics site Profitero.
Google searches for the glue company also jumped 50-fold in February from a month earlier, according to the magazine, which noted that the data translate to a significant boost in sales.
Amid all the free publicity, Gorilla Glue — which has expressed its empathy for Brown, who got the powerful gunk removed pro bono by a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon — has spent almost nothing on ads, Ad Age reported. Read more
Juventus goalkeeper Buffon fined for blasphemy (Vanguard)
Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was on Thursday fined 5,000 euros ($6,000) by the Italian Football Federation for blasphemy.
The 43-year-old Italian World Cup winner, who escaped a ban for the offence, was overheard using a “blasphemous expression” towards teammate Manolo Portanova during Juve’s 4-0 league win over Parma on December 19.
Buffon, who holds the record for Serie A matches played with 653 to date, was not caught on camera but there was an audio recording of the incident.
Since 2010, the Italian FA have taken disciplinary action against several players and coaches heard disrespecting God or the sacred. Read more
LeBron James, Kevin Durant voted as NBA all-star captains (CBC)
The voters have spoken: They wanted LeBron James of the reigning champion Los Angeles Lakers to be an all-star captain, again.
So, he is. And Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant will be his opposition.
James and Durant were revealed Thursday as the leading fan votegetters in the Western and Eastern Conferences for the All-Star Game, meaning they’ll be captains for the matchup in Atlanta on March 7. James will start for the 17th time, extending his record, and Durant is an all-star for the 11th time.
Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (19) and Kobe Bryant (18) have more total all-star selections than James. Read more
Super Falcons record first victory under Coach Waldrum (DailyTrust)
The Super Falcons on Thursday recorded a slim 1-0 win over CSKA Moscow Ladies at the ongoing Turkish Women’s Tournament in the city of Antalya.
It was also the first victory for new Head Coach, Randy Waldrum who signed his working agreement with the Nigeria Football Federation 24 hours before the encounter.
The lone goal scored by Chinwendu Ihezuo at the Emir Sports Complex earned the nine-time African champions their first win since October 2019 when they lost the Olympics ticket to Cote d’Ivoire at the Agege Stadium in Lagos.
Nigeria capped Germany –based midfielder Patricia George and Spain-based Antoniette Payne, also a midfielder, in a match that Waldrum expressed his pleasure with the overall performance of his charges. Read more
Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim goes to Princeton (CNN)
The first day in a new school or job is never easy, especially trying to navigate those awkward meet and greets as you get to know potential new friends.
It’s even trickier when you’re an Olympic gold medal medalist. For snowboarder Chloe Kim, it made starting life at Princeton a very different challenge from the frontside 1080 she pulled on the halfpipe at the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang.
“Everyone was kind of staring at me, taking pictures,” Kim recently told CNN’s Don Riddell. “It was kind of a struggle for me. I just felt like I was never going to be able to adapt and stay because I just felt like everyone was watching me and knew who I was, when I didn’t know anyone.” Read more
Vincent Jackson’s brain will be donated for CTE research (USAToday)
Vincent Jackson’s family has decided to donate his brain to researchers at Boston University in an attempt to learn if the late wide receiver suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, family spokesperson Allison Gorrell confirmed in an email to USA TODAY Sports on Thursday night.
Gorrell had previously told The New York Times that Jackson, who was found dead in a Florida hotel room on Monday morning, “would have wanted to help as many people as possible.” Donating his brain for research is “something his family wanted to do to get answers to some of their questions,” she added to the newspaper.
Boston University’s CTE Center, led by neuropathologist and neurologist Ann McKee, is the country’s preeminent research institution for CTE, a degenerative disease that has been found in the brains of former athletes and military members, among other populations. The disease can only be diagnosed posthumously.
Authorities have said that Jackson, a three-time Pro Bowler with the San Diego Chargers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, checked into a Homewood Suites on the eastern outskirts of Tampa, Florida more than a month before his death. Read more
Nets pick up statement win over defending champ Lakers (NYPost)
If Thursday really was a potential NBA Finals preview, the Nets sure hope the real thing goes the same exact way.
Brooklyn cruised to a 109-98 win over LeBron James and the defending champion Lakers in a nationally televised marquee matchup at Staples Center.
The Nets didn’t have Kevin Durant, while the Lakers were without Anthony Davis. But there was plenty of star power and more than enough highlight-reel plays — a few more on the Nets’ ledger, with Brooklyn leading by as many as 25 at one point.James Harden was sublime with 23 points, a game-high 11 assists and six rebounds, while Kyrie Irving had 16 points and seven boards. Joe Harris scored 21, going 6-of-7 from 3, and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot added 15, making a season-high five (of eight attempts) from deep. Read more