Oldest king in Oyo State passes on at 141

The oldest king in Oyo State, Oba Afolabi, the Onilua of Ilua, is dead.

According to reports, the monarch passed on in the early hours of Saturday after a brief illness.

Born in 1879, he became king 38 years ago, at the age of 102.

📸: Legit.ng

See why actor, Ali Nuhu stopped being intimate in movies

Nollywood actor, Ali Nuhu has revealed why he stopped kissing and hugging in Nigerian movies.

In an interview with BBC, the movie star said he stopped kissing and hugging in Nigerian movies because of his religion and culture. Ali Nuhu said;

“I come from the North, and I’m a Muslim. My culture and religion does not allow for that, so I stopped acting in scenes like that. People talk about it all over but I personally think it out as an ambassador of my culture and religion and stopped."

Hope Uzodimma laments about the state of IMSUTH

Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, on Friday lamented the state of the Imo State University Teaching Hospital, Orlu. Receiving the report of the Visitation Panel to the hospital from the committee’s chairman, Prof. Frank Akpuaka, on Thursday at the Sam Mbakwe Executive Council Chambers, Uzodimma said the recommendations would help in improving the health sector. The governor said,

“If IMSUTH is sick, then the entire health system of Imo State is sick.”

He said IMSUTH was positioned to be self-sustaining and provide effective health care services if properly managed. Uzodinma promised to block all financial leakages in the hospital. However, he regretted the non-accreditation of IMSUTH’s College of Medicine since its inception.

Akpuaka listed poor roads, poor funding, infrastructural decay, inability to retain workers and non-accreditation by the National Universities Commission as the major problems of the hospital.

The Kogi state governorship election tribunal sitting in Abuja has affirmed the election of Yahaya Bello as Kogi state governor. Bello was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC ) in the November 16, 2019 poll in Kogi State. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Musa Wada, had petitioned the state election tribunal, challenging Yahaya's election. They alleged that the election was characterized by irregularities, violence, ballot snatching and stuffing, and non-compliance with the electoral act, constitution and INEC’s guideline for governorship elections. The tribunal in its ruling delivered on May 23, struck out the petition for lack of substantial evidence by the opposition.

Bashir Ahmad promises to influence Yunusa Dahiru’s court conviction, Nigerians react

Bashir Ahmad, Personal Assistant on New Media to President Muhammadu Buhari has been severely criticised for promising one of his followers on Twitter that he'll use his influence to upturn Yunusa Dahiru’s court conviction.

On Thursday, May 21, 2020, the Federal High Court sitting in Bayelsa state sentenced Dahiru to 26 years imprisonment for child trafficking and sexual exploitation of a teenager, Ese Oruru.

Dahiru also known as Yellow was reported to have abducted Ese from Bayelsa to Kano, where he allegedly married and impregnated the teenager.

Almost five years after, the court sentenced him to 26 years imprisonment after finding him guilty of child trafficking, illicit sex, sexual exploitation and unlawful carnal knowledge of Ese, who was 13 at the time.

But some people believe the case was manipulated. One of such people reached out to Bashir Ahmad on Twitter asking him ‘do something about it’ adding that Yunusa was wrongly accused. Replying to the request in the Hausa Language, Bashir said,

“My brother, I do not have the power to do anything against the judgment of the court, but I will try to contact those whom I think are capable.”

The presidential aide has, however, come under fire on Twitter for considering a plan to influence the court’s judgement.

Shortly after his controversial reply became a topic on social media, he tweeted again, saying he didn’t understand the details of the case before he commented on it. He said,

“I commented on the Yunusa Yellow saga earlier, without knowing and understanding the details of the case. Eloping or rather, kidnapping a minor and forcing her to marry you shouldn’t be taken lightly. A condemnable act!”

Ogun State extends lockdown by one week again

Ogun Government has yet again extended the existing lockdown by another week.

Gov Dapo Abiodun made this known while briefing journalists on Friday in Abeokuta. He maintained that the state was constrained to extend the lockdown for another week as it continued to record more cases of the Coronavirus.

According to the governor, it is a painful but necessary decision that has to be taken to maintain the balance between lives and livelihood.

“We cannot ignore the fact that we are having a sudden rise in the number of new cases. We all decried an increase of 30 per cent last week when I was giving the weekly update.

This week’s increase of over 37 per cent is even more worrisome, particularly as we are still under an eased lockdown, and considering the demography and location of the confirmed cases, we can confirm that community transmission is on the increase in our state.

I have to state that after all considerations, we are constrained to take the painful, but necessary decision to continue the eased lockdown of Ogun State for another one week till Sunday, May 31.

As we have always maintained the delicate balance between lives and livelihood, we will continue to have our window of relaxation, from 7 am to 5 pm on Monday, 25th May; Wednesday, 27th May, and Friday, 29th May.

We must also bear in mind that the daily curfew from 8 pm to 6 am and the ban on non-essential inter-state travel as directed by Mr President still stand,” he said.

Gov. Abiodun, however, said that the second phase, to begin from June 1, would be accompanied by a further ease of the lockdown and expansion of the windows of relaxation.

"Doctors embarking on strike should kiss their jobs goodbye" – El Rufai

Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai has warned doctors threatening to embark on a strike action that they may just be bidding their jobs farewell.

The doctors are asking the Kaduna state government to honour an agreement on salary adjustments, among other matters.

“The government rejects the strike threat and will regard persons who fail to show up at their assigned places of work as having forfeited their employment,” El-Rufai said in a statement signed by his spokesperson, Muyiwa Adekeye.

Every health worker that is willing to work is required to sign the register at the Ministry of Health and the health institutions to which they are deployed.

The ministry of health has the mandate of the government to ensure that residents of Kaduna state are not deprived of public health services.

Every effort will be made to ensure that health facilities keep functioning, staffed by willing workers who will be guaranteed free and safe access to health facilities.”

The governor also warned that attempts to prevent other healthcare professionals from doing their jobs will be deemed criminal.

“Those who are not willing to work are strongly warned against criminal actions such as attempts to impede access to workplaces, harass willing workers or to sabotage facilities and equipment.

The consequences of concessions made along such lines by previous governments have created a sense that some public servants are more precious than others,” he said.

"It's never too late to achieve your dreams" – Florence Nwando

Meet Florence Nwando Onwusi Digidu, the 73-year-old who has not allowed her age stop her from achieving a life long goal. She is now a graduating member of Howard University’s Class of 2020 earning a doctorate in Communication, Culture and Media Studies.

She defended her dissertation titled “Igbo Collective Memory of the Nigeria – Biafra War (1967-1970): Reclaiming Forgotten Women’s Voices and Building Peace through a Gendered Lens,” on April 26, which is based upon her personal experiences as a survivor of the Nigerian Civil War, as stated in an official university statement.

Being the oldest of five sisters, completing her fourth degree as a prestigious Sasakawa and Annenberg Fellow, Didigu says she is thankful to have made it across many hurdles.

“In my second year at Howard, and very close to my screening test, I lost my mother and my father within months. I had to return to Nigeria each time to perform the demanding burial ceremonies for each. I was completely deflated, both physically and emotionally, but I persevered because my father always wanted me to be a ‘Doctor.’”

Apart from surviving the Biafra war, she also won a battle with shingles which caused paralysis on the right side of her face and robbed her of her voice. She told Howard that the obstacle (shingles) was actually “symbolic because it’s her life’s work is to elevate more Igbo women’s voices too”.

According to her, the Nigerian-Biafra War which happened over 50 years ago, is one challenge she will never forget.

Activist condemns the movement of Almajiris into the south

Chief Adesunbo Onitiri, political activist and social critic, has queried the rationale behind some northerners exporting their almajirai to the southern states, despite the Federal Government’s ban on interstate travel to check the spread of coronavirus in the country.

According to a statement made available to journalists in Lagos, he expressed worry over the current incident. He advised that as Nigerians, what the Federal Government should do is to gather all the almajirai in the north and rehabilitate them by providing them with vocational education.

“By this arrangement, give them soft loans to start business. They will be useful to themselves and their society,” he said.

The social critic described the danger of the coronavirus lockdown as another disaster bedevilling the nation with the attendant economic lockdown.

“We implore the southern states to lift the ban on the economic lockdown in the south.

We can only enforce physical distancing and wearing of face masks. Nobody in the south hates the northerners.

We demand a total overhaul of the security architectural structure of Nigeria. The present structure has failed woefully to stem insecurity in Nigeria,” the statement said.

Imo scraps payment of pension to ex-governors

Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State has assented to a bill repealing the law that created pension allowances and gratuities for former governors, deputy governors, assembly speakers, and deputy speakers.

Signing the bill into law in Owerri on Friday, the governor noted that the erstwhile law runs contrary to the 1999 constitution as amended, which stipulates that a pensioner must have worked for at least 10 years and must be up to 45 years of age.

He regretted a situation where some of the beneficiaries of such payments also get a huge amount of money as salaries and allowances in other positions they occupied such as serving as senators or members of the House of Representatives.

“Apart from the inconsistency of such a law to the provisions of the ground norm, which is the Constitution of 1999 (as amended), this has led for a very long time a precedence that does not encourage diligence and prudence in service delivery,” the governor said.

He, however thanked the State House of Assembly for rising to the occasion and embracing totally the desire of the government to strengthen the Internally Generated Revenue base of the state.

On his part, Speaker of the Imo House of Assembly, Chiji Collins, said the house of assembly presented two bills for the governor’s assent: the Bill on Imo State University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and Bill on the Repeal of Pensions and Gratuity.

He said that the Bill on Pensions and Gratuity had long been repealed in many states of the federation when it was discovered to run contrary to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

Present at the signing of the bill into law were the Deputy Governor Prof. Placid Njoku; the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Amara Iwuanyanwu; the Majority Leader, Uche Ogbuagu and other members of the House, as well as some members of the State’s Expanded Executive Council.