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Osun mechanic to die by hanging for armed robbery
An Osun State High Court sitting in Ilesa, on Thursday, sentenced a 29-year-old mechanic, Sola Emorua, to death by hanging for armed robbery. The defendant was first arraigned before Justice Isiaka Adeleke on January 29, 2018, on two counts of conspiracy and armed robbery. Justice Adeleke, in his judgment after a trial that lasted almost three years, said the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and subsequently sentenced Emorua to death. The lead prosecution counsel from the Ministry of Justice, Motolani Sokefun, had told the court that the convict and others at large, on May 7, 2015 around 5.30pm in Osu, on the Ilesa-Akure Expressway, while armed with weapons, robbed a tanker loaded with 33,000 litres of kerosene belonging to one Ismaila Azeez. The counsel further expl...
Police ordered to arraign suspect detained for one year
The Independent Investigative Panel probing police brutality in Abuja, on Thursday, gave the police a six-day ultimatum to arraign a suspect, Raphael Toona, who has been in detention for about one year. The Chairman of the panel, Justice Suleiman Galadima (retd.), ordered that Toona should be arraigned on or before December 23. Justice Galadima gave the order following an application by Toona’s lawyer, N. T. Utasha, urging the panel to order the police to either release the suspect or arraign him in court. “The first complaint (Toona) should be taken to Benue State to be arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction on or before December 23, 2020 where his bail should be considered, considering the fact that he has been in detention for more than a year,” Justice Galadima ordered. Too...
Biden to tap North Carolina environmental regulator Regan to head EPA
For weeks, California regulator Mary Nichols was seen as the top contender for the job, but environmental justice groups argued that she had not worked aggressively enough to address systemic pollution problems in communities of color and low-income areas. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), a key Biden ally, and Congressional Black Caucus members backed Regan, urging Biden to choose a southerner to lead EPA for the first time. Regan, who started his career as a staffer in EPA’s air office before leading climate and clean energy work at the Environmental Defense Fund, has received accolades from environmental groups for his work atop North Carolina’s environmental agency. His department crafted a clean energy plan aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the state&...
How to Take Diva Collaborations to ‘Another Level of Badass’
Long-standing assumptions about female artists competing with one another have also dissolved, says Wassim “Sal” Slaiby, CEO/owner of management firm SALXCO, whose roster includes Doja Cat and Bebe Rexha. The idea that there’s room for only one chart-topping female at a time is “very unrealistic,” he says. “When artists come together and have healthy competition, everyone wins.” But executives aren’t suddenly having epiphanies dispelling sexist myths, notes Calhoun — audiences are voicing demand for female collaborations through their listening habits. “The fans are hungry for it and the fans are playing it, so there’s a business there,” she says. “Male artists have held the throne for a minute now, and I think women want to hear women artists.” Perhaps no fan spends more time thinking abo...
What Does ‘Alternative’ Mean in 2020?
Laura Ohls, senior editor, folk and AAA, Spotify: I’ve always thought of “alternative” as referring to any artist creating music that challenges what’s being popularized in the mainstream, across all genres. In the ’90s, rock music was still very much at the core of popular music culture, and as a result, “alternative” [was more] guitar-driven in sound. Fast forward to 2020, where hip-hop, pop and Latin are the titans of genre, and you’ll find that the class of artists defying what’s expected are doing so within these genre spaces. As a result, there is an amalgamation of genres that make up modern “alternative” sounds. We launched our Alternative Hub earlier this year in order to unite all of our alternative programming into one dedicated space. The idea was to have a destination that enc...
IFDC, EBID sign pact to boost agriculture in West Africa
The International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) for the improvement of soil health and plant nutrition in West Africa. The agreement will engender multifaceted programmes aimed at promoting growth and development of the agricultural sector in the West Africa sub region. Though West Africa accounts for two per cent of global fertilizer consumption, fertilizer application rates in the region are still low due to logistical challenges, including reliance on imports that may or may not be appropriate for the various soils in the region. IFDC is an independent non-profit organization, operating in 17 countries in Asia and Africa, which combines science-backed innovations, an enabling...
2023: There was no pre-merger agreement in APC on zoning – Senator Yerima
A former Governor of Zamfara State, Senator Sani Yerima, has denied that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had any premerger agreement to rotate the presidency between the north and the south. Yerima disclosed this yesterday during a media interaction with reporters covering the activities of the APC. His claim was contrary to the views of the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, who recently said that the party had a gentleman agreement on zoning. Yerima said: “I don’t think there is anything like agreement. You can ask Mr. President, he led the group, Asiwaju was there, I was part of it, there was no meeting I didn’t attend or any meeting that I attended that there is such agreement. Agreement can’t be verbal. It has to be written. In any case, any agreement that is co...
U.S. records 247,403 new coronavirus infections, 3,656 deaths
The daily number of new coronavirus (COVID-19) infections and deaths has hit new highs in the U.S. On Wednesday, December 16, there were 247,403 new infections and 3,656 deaths with confirmed COVID-19 infection registered within the past 24 hours, a data released on Thursday, December 17 by the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore said. The highest values before those 233,133 new cases and 3,306 deaths were recorded on December 11, 2020. In total, around 16.9 million people have been proven to be infected with the COVID-19 in the country with around 330 million inhabitants. Since the beginning of the pandemic, no fewer than 307,500 people have died from the COVID-19 pandemic. In absolute terms, that is more than in any other country in the world. The Johns Hopkins University website...
Vietnam begins human trial of home-grown coronavirus vaccine
Human trials began on Thursday for Nanocovax, Vietnam’s first home-grown COVID-19 vaccine, a Director of a National Medical Research Centre said. “In the first phase, we will choose a group of 60 volunteers. This morning, we have finished vaccinating three people. “They will be monitored for three days, and if they remain in good condition, we will continue to vaccinate the rest.’’ Ho Anh Son, Deputy Director of the Military Medical Research Institute, told dpa. The trial is the first of three phases of testing for the vaccine. The second phase will involve testing on between 400 and 600 volunteers, according to the Health Ministry’s reports. Researchers told local media that an independent monitoring organisation will be hired to ensure the safety of volunteer participants and guarantee t...
UATH honours 80 coronavirus frontline healthcare workers
The University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Gwagwalada, FCT, on Wednesday honoured 80 COVID-19 frontline healthcare workers for their dedication and selfless service in the hospital. Presenting the awards to the recipients, Prof. Bissallah Ekele, Chief Medical Director (CMD), UATH, said that the gesture was to encourage and prepare them for greater tasks in the future. Ekele said that when FCT recorded its first case of COVID-19, the institution was the first to receive patients because of its capacity to manage the pandemic through the help of its frontline healthcare workers. “About this time in 2019, we gathered to honour and celebrate the 2019 UATH Staff Award winners. We are here today to do the same and we thank God for keeping us alive to witness another celebration. “Permit m...
FRSC: No NIN, no driver’s licence
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has given notice that it will start enforcing the National Identification Number (NIN) directive on driver’s licence processing nationwide, with effect from Dec. 21. Mr Bisi Kazeem, Assistant Corps Marshal (ACM), Corps Public Education Officer, announced this in a statement on Wednesday, in Abuja. Kazeem said that the enforcement became necessary following the Federal Government’s directives on harmonisation of citizens’ data by relevant agencies. In compliance with the directive, Kazeem said the FRSC had earlier put members of the public on notice, urging them, particularly those going for their driver’s license processing, to adhere to the directives. “As a follow up to that, FRSC management has resolved that effective Dec. 21, 2020, all applicants fo...
U.S. warns Pacific islands about Chinese bid for undersea cable project
The United States has warned Pacific island nations about security threats posed by a Chinese company’s cut-price bid to build an undersea internet cable, two sources told Reuters, part of an international development project in the region. Huawei Marine, which was recently divested from Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and is now majority-owned by another Chinese firm, submitted bids along with French-headquartered Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), part of Finland’s Nokia, and Japan’s NEC, for the $72.6 million project backed by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), the sources with direct knowledge of the project details said. The project is designed to improve communications to the island nations of Nauru, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and Kiribati. Washington sent a diploma...