Buhari consoles Ighodalo over wife's death

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Sunday, commiserated with Pastor Ituah Ighodalo of Trinity House, based in Lagos, over the death of his wife, Ibidunni.

Ibidun was said to have died in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, in the early hours of Sunday.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President said he shared the pain and sorrow of the family at the sudden death.

He prayed God’s comfort for the entire family, friends, and members of Trinity House.

Buhari described Ighodalo as one person who faithfully prays for the country and the government.

He recalled that the pastor sent him a personal letter of condolence when his former Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, died in April.

“Please accept my condolence. May God give you the fortitude to bear the loss, and strengthen you at this trying time,” Buhari told Ighodalo.

It's a shame to lie about a dead man - Maryam Abacha

Former First lady, Maryam Abacha, has described as lies reports of the Federal government discovering monies allegedly stolen by her husband while he was in office.

Mrs Abacha who granted an interview recently to commemorate his 22nd death anniversary, said it is evil to speak ill of the dead. She said,

“How come this man was not a thief until he died? What is this amount of money after 22 years you say oh we have found this amount of money and we’re bringing it back? It is a shame to tell lies on a dead man! It is a shame to tell lies on your leader. 

If he had done wrong, God knows. If other people are putting the wrong on him, it is a matter of time. They will kneel down like America is kneeling down now. Anybody that is evil will kneel down just like this corona has come to shut this world".

According to Mrs. Abacha, her husband helped a lot of people who no longer greet her again.

“He worked in Kano and he planted Kano people, but there are people he helped a lot but they are not even greeting me now for no reason. They just hate us. But why? It is Haram and Allah is watching us.” she said

Presidency reacts to shooting at the Presidential villa

The presidency has reacted to the shooting which reportedly occurred at the presidential villa in the early hours of Saturday June 13.

Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari described the incident as a "minor occurrence" which is being used by some critics to justify attacks on the government and the Nigerian leader.

He stated that the recent incident among the occupants of the State House has led to the arrest of some staff by the police.

The presidential spokesperson noted that the President has acted in compliance with the rule of law by authorizing that proper investigation be carried out into the unfortunate incident which occurred outside the main residence of the President.

Ilorin - 3 drown, 2 bodies missing under fallen bridge

Three persons of the same family lost their lives on Sunday when the car they were traveling in plunged into a river following the sudden collapse of a bridge during a downpour in Ilorin.

Reports have it that the incident occurred in the early hours of Sunday on Okoerin road, off lbrahim Taiwo road, in the llorin metropolis.

Eye witness accounts revealed that the incident occurred during a heavy rain which lasted for more than four hours.

It was gathered that there were five people in a Toyota car with registration number LRN-978FE when the accident occurred.

The bridge which had been in existence for over two decades suddenly collapsed during the rain when the car reached the place and the car plunged into the flowing river under the bridge.

Two out of the five occupants of the vehicle were said to have escaped without any injury.

The car was still trapped in the river at the time of filling this report.

The State Director of Fire Service, Mr Abdulwaheed lyanda-Yakub, who spoke at the scene of the incident, confirmed that three persons of the same family’ lost their lives in the accident.

Paul Ighodalo conducts service hours after wife's death

The Senior Pastor, Trinity House, Ituah Ighodalo, on Sunday morning conducted funeral service hours after receiving news of the death of his wife, Ibidunni Ighodalo.

The cleric, who conducted the funeral service of Deji Modupe Johnson, the grandson of industrialist, Razak Okoya, said he was shattered by the death of his wife but life must go on.

At the funeral, the cleric spoke about how transient life is and how important it is to live in accordance with the will of God.

Ituah is normally cheerful but he was sombre and quite philosophical in the video obtained. He said, 

“For the past 72 and 84 hours, everywhere tensed, confused, frightening, and disturbing but here we are today. I mean, if they had told us last week Sunday that we will be here to celebrate Ayodeji’s life, we’ll say it’s not possible.

But here we are right now and here he is. And of course, a lot of you know that I really shouldn’t be here but that’s how life is. So, this morning, I received a call that shattered my life but life must go on.”

Ituah and Ibidunni were married for 13 years before her sudden demise in Port Harcourt in the wee hours of Sunday.

Putin condemns riots at US anti-racism protests

Russian President, Vladimir Putin on Sunday criticised anti-racism protests in the United States for sparking crowd violence, in his first comments on the issue.

“If this fight for natural rights, legal rights, turns into mayhem and rioting, I see nothing good for the country,” Putin said in an interview with Rossiya-1 television to be broadcast in full Sunday evening. We have never supported this,” he said.

The Russian leader stressed he supported black Americans’ struggle for equality, calling this “a long-standing problem of the United States”.

“We always in the USSR and in modern Russia had a lot of sympathy for the struggle of Afro-Americans for their natural rights,” he insisted.

But Putin added that “when – even after crimes are committed – this takes on elements of radical nationalism and extremism, nothing good will come of this.”

Putin also described the protests as a sign of “deep-seated internal crises” in the United States, linking the unrest to the coronavirus pandemic, which he said “has shone a spotlight on general problems”.

He said he nevertheless expected that the “fundamental basis of American democracy will allow the country to escape this series of crisis events”.

Asked about reactions to the US protests including demonstrations in Europe and statues being pulled down, Putin said “this is undoubtedly a destructive phenomenon”.

He suggested protesters wanted only Afro-American doctors to treat Afro-Americans and said this would be impossible in “multi-ethnic Russia”.

The interview was billed as Putin’s first since the start of the pandemic though it is not clear when it was recorded.

The president made his first public appearance at an open-air event in Moscow on Friday after weeks of lockdown at his country residence.

Obaseki to reveal next move after meeting with Buhari

Following his disqualification from the All Progressives Congress primary election, embattled Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki says he will disclose his next move after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari.

Describing his disqualification as an act of injustice, the governor said he will also consult his supporters to determine the next step to take ahead of the gubernatorial election in his state in September.

Obaseki said this via his Twitter handle on Sunday, June 14, 2020. He tweeted, 

“I appreciate the sustained show of solidarity, support and goodwill from Edo people and Nigerians in the face of injustice by the @OfficialAPCNg screening committee,” he wrote.

Buhari orders police to investigate shooting in the Presidential villa

President Muhammad Buhari has ordered the police to investigate the recent crisis involving the First Lady, Aisha Buhari and some security aides in the Presidential Villa.

The Presidency announced this on Sunday, June 14, 2020, in a statement by Garba Shehu the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.

On Saturday, Pulse reported about how gunshots fired by Aisha’s security aide, Usman Shugaba in the Villa escalated a heated argument between the First Lady and Buhari’s Personal Assistant, Yusuf Sabiu also known as Tunde.

The First Lady, her children and her security aides had gone to Sabiu’s residence in the Villa to ask him to self-isolate after returning from a trip to Lagos.

But Tunde felt the First Lady was picking on him, saying he was not the only occupant of the Presidential Villa that travelled during the lockdown measure put in place to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The encounter degenerated into a heated argument as Aisha’s ADC reportedly fired gunshots while trying to apprehend the President’s PA.

Following the gunshots, the Inspector General of Police, Adamu Mohammed received a security report on the incident and ordered the arrest of Aisha’s ADC and all the security aides that went to Sabiu’s residence with the First Lady.

I once had a crush on Michael Essien - Chimamanda Adichie

Renowned novelist, Chimamanda Adichie, has said that she once had a mild crush on a Ghanaian footballer, Michael Essien, after the Ghanaian team defeated the United States at a World Cup tournament that Nigeria did not qualify for.

She made the revelation in the introduction she wrote for a picture book, Africa― The Future of Football, authored by a photographer, Pall Stefansson.

In a video posted on her Facebook page, Adichie, who recently lost her father, read the introduction (to the book), with the title, Football Nationalism.

The novelist, in the write-up, said because Nigeria was absent at the tournament, the Ghanaian team got her attention and she became ‘a Ghanaian’.

Making a point about how people often forget their differences in the euphoria of the football game, Adichie narrated how she watched the Ghana-US clash with her best friend, Uju, and how they excitedly referred to the Ghanaian players as ‘our boys’. She said, 

“I watched the game with my best friend, Uju, often shouting and then hugging each other when Ghana finally beat the United States.

You know some of our boys started playing this game without shoes’, Uju said. ‘Our boys’ were, of course, the Ghanaians.

“A small consequence of that game was my developing a mild crush on the Ghanaian player, Michael Essien, as much for his looks as for his dexterity.

But the larger and more important consequence was my realisation that sports allowed us, black Africans, to address historical and political grievances in the most cathartic way.”

Adichie also narrated how despite their frequent quarrels over the dirty state of the compound and the attendant mice infestation, her sister, who lived in Ilupeju, Lagos State, and her neighbour became momentary friends the moment the Super Eagles beat Argentina in the finals of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

She said, “My sister put aside her stereotypes of her Yoruba neighbour and her neighbour put aside her stereotypes of my Igbo sister. They forgot about the flat not clean, water wasted and electricity bills unpaid. They became, for that moment, Nigerians, who had somehow contributed to the vanquishing of the world.”

She said, “There is no doubt that football nationalism is not peculiar to Nigerians and to Africans. Indeed, the very idea of national games is based on the premise of national identities.”

Egypt set to reopen airports on July 1

Egypt will reopen its airports on July 1 and begin welcoming to beach resorts tourists kept away by the coronavirus pandemic, the government announced on Sunday.

Flights will resume “between Egypt and countries which have reopened their airspace”, said Aviation Minister Mohamed Manar during a news conference in Cairo.

“We hope that business will resume,” he said.

Egypt has since March halted air traffic and shuttered archaeological sites, museums and hotels to stem the spread of the new coronavirus.

But with international flights resuming, only three governorates famed for their beach resorts will be allowed to welcome tourists: the Red Sea, South Sinai and Marsa Matruh.

“We chose these three governorates because they are coastal, far from the main centres, and have reported the lowest numbers of virus infections,” said Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled al-Anani during the briefing.

The government has also decided “to waive tourist visas from July 1 until October 31,” he added.

Other tourist sites including the pyramids at Giza, the Egyptian museum in Cairo and Luxor’s Karnak temple will reopen progressively, Anani said.

“We are not in a hurry. We want to ensure everyone’s health and our reputation as a tourist destination,” he added.

Over 200 hotels have received permission to reopen to tourists after implementing strict sanitary measures, including spacing out restaurant tables and restricting elevator capacities.

Any establishment breaching health regulations will have this authorisation revoked, the minister said, adding that the government would offer “no leniency in this area”.

Egypt’s health ministry has so far registered around 43,000 COVID-19 cases in its population of over 100 million, including close to 1,500 fatalities.

In late May, Egypt’s top medical union warned of a potential “complete collapse” of the country’s health system in the face of the pandemic.