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Kidnapped ex-Taraba senator cries out to governor for help
Kidnapped former Senator, representing Taraba North, Zik Ambonu Sunday, has cried out from his abductors’ den, calling on Governor Darius Ishaku to pay the fifty million naira ransom being demanded so that he could regain his freedom. The ex-senator was kidnapped in his Bachama village, Karim-Lamido local government area of Taraba at about 1.30 am last Saturday, according to police spokesman, David Misal. Zik Ambonu Sunday was senator from 2003 to 2007. The abductee has also called on the federal House of Representatives member from Karim–Lamido/Ardo-Kola, Danladi Baido, to assist in making up the ransom cash. His abductors had initially demanded N100 million as ransom. But a few minutes ago -after spending a week with him, they reduced the ransom cash to N50 million, after series of negot...
England to Allow Indoor Concerts Starting Next Month
Social distancing will be required as the country enters phase 4 of a five-stage reopening plan. Audiences who adhere to social distancing can return to indoor theaters, music and performance venues beginning Aug. 1, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Friday (July 17). The policy represents the fourth phase in the country’s five-stage reopening plan for live events. In the lead up to the August start date, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will conduct pilots of performances with socially-distanced audiences — including the London Symphony Orchestra at St. Luke’s London — using the findings there to inform final guidance for venues. The announcement notes that “audiences, performers and venues will be expected to maintain social distancing at all tim...
Philippe Coutinho set to join Arsenal on loan
Philippe Coutinho is reportedly set to join Arsenal on loan. Kia Joorabchian, the player’s agent, is negotiating his move with the London club. Since his arrival from Liverpool, Coutinho has failed to prove himself at Barcelona and had to spend his last season at Bayern Münich on loan. The Catalan club has been looking to off-load the 28-year-old for a long time now, and it is known that the Brazilian favors a move to the Premier League. Currently, all signs are pointing Coutinho’s next destination to be the Gunners. Coutinho’s loan period at Bayern had expired on June 30, but the parties went for an extension of 2 months after the player insisted to stay with the German club. According to reports from SunSet, the player could join Arsenal or Newcastle as early as next week. Get more stori...
Police ask Governor Wike to handover ex-NDDC chief
Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mukan, has called on Governor Nyesom Wike to handover former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Joy Nunieh, to him. On Thursday, July 17, 2020, Governor Wike stopped police operatives from arresting Nunieh from her residence. The governor, who argued that the police had no arrest warrant, thereafter took Nunieh under protective custody in Government House, Port Harcourt. However, while addressing journalists at his office on Friday, July 18, 2020, in Port Harcourt, Mukan asked Wike to handover Nunieh to him, saying the former NDDC MD was under investigation. He said the police officers from the Inspector General of Police Monitoring Unit had been endorsed the Rivers State Police Command before going to Nunieh’s residence to arrest he...
UNICEF, Patoranking re-release Bob Marley’s ‘One Love’
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with Patoranking, a popular Nigerian musician and some other artistes, on Friday re-released the late Bob Marley’s iconic song, “One Love.” This is contained in a statement signed by UNICEF Abuja, Communication, Advocacy and Partnerships officer, Oluwatosin Akingbulu. Mr Akingbulu said that proceeds from the song and related activities would be used to support “Reimagine”, UNICEF’s new global campaign. He said the campaign was organised to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from becoming a lasting crisis for children and to ensure the post-pandemic world was fairer and more equal for every child. “The release is to support UNICEF’s work to reimagine a fairer, more just world for children whose lives had been upended by the COVID-19 pa...
Troops kill kidnap kingpin, rescue 32 hostages in Benue
Troops of Operation Whirl Stroke have killed a notorious kidnap kingpin, Zwa Ikyegh, at Tomayin village in Logo LGA of Benue State. The soldiers also rescued 32 hostages held captive for over a month. The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. John Enenche, in a statement on Friday, said that the operation was carried out on Thursday. It said that some suspected kidnappers escaped with gunshot wounds. The statement read, “Following credible intelligence on the activities of a notorious kidnap syndicate operating in the general area of Igbom village in Nenzev council ward of Logo LGA, troops of Sector 2 and 4, on July 16 carried out a raid operation on a suspected kidnappers den at Tomayin village in Logo LGA of Benue State. “The gallant troops responded with superior fire forcing...
Universal Music Group Makes Election Day 2020 a Company Holiday
The measure sprang from a recommendation by the company’s recently-announced social justice task force. Universal Music Group is making voting easier for its U.S. employees by making Election Day 2020, Nov. 3, a paid company holiday. The company announced the news to staffers in an internal memo Friday (July 17) and obtained by Billboard. “After all, the right to vote is the very foundation of democracy — perhaps of freedom itself,” reads the memo, which notes that only 56% of eligible U.S. voters cast a ballot in the 2016 presidential election. “As Americans, we have fought long and hard to win the right to vote. It took 91 years after the Constitution was enacted until people of color won the right, and even then, it was only males. It took 143 years after the...
Zamfara offers cows for guns to halt bandit attacks
Authorities in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara state have offered two cows for each gun surrendered to halt bloody attacks by criminal gangs, including cattle rustlers. Remote communities across the region have for years been hit hard by deadly raids from armed groups of motorcycle-riding cattle rustlers and kidnappers. Military operations have failed to end the killings and local officials have tried repeated negotiations to broker peace. Zamfara governor Bello Matawalle said on Thursday that under the new initiative “for every rifle submitted by a repentant bandit, there would be compensation of two cows”. Matawalle said the offer of livestock was meant to convince the gangs, known as “bandits”, to disarm without cash payments that could be used to buy more arms. There was no indication i...
Melinda Gates tasks policymakers on protection of women, girls in fight against coronavirus
In a paper titled “The Pandemic’s Toll on Women and Girls,” Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda Gates, has tasked global leaders and policymakers on the protection of women and girls in the fight against the coronavirus. Gates said that to recover fully from this pandemic, leaders must respond to the ways that it is affecting men and women differently. In the paper, she puts forward a set of specific, practical policy recommendations that governments should consider in their pandemic response—to improve health systems for women and girls, design more inclusive economic policies, gather better data, and prioritize women’s leadership. Writing in the paper, Gates described how previous disease outbreaks, including AIDS and Ebola, tend to exploit existing forces of ine...
NANNM: 200 nurses in Abuja contract coronavirus
Over 200 nurses in the various medical facilities in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have contracted COVID-19, Nigerian Association of Nurses and Midwifery has stated. Out of the affected nurses, some 12 others have recovered and have been out of isolation, Chairperson Nigerian Association of Nurses and Midwifery, Federal Capital Territory chapter, Deborah Yusufu, told the leadership of the Nigerian Union of Journalists who was at the Secretariat in Abuja to make donations of Personnel Protective Equipments (PPEs) to them. According to Yusufu, Nigerian nurses are at the frontline of battling the COVID-19 pandemic because of their duties which make them most exposed among medical personnel in the various healthcare facility across the world and in the case Nigeria. She explained that th...
Serge Aurier returns to home following brother’s tragic death
Tottenham star Serge Aurier has returned home to France to be by his mother’s side following the tragic death of his brother earlier this week. Christopher Aurier, 26, was reportedly shot in the stomach outside Kin’s nightclub in Tolouse around 5am on Monday morning. Aurier shared a heartfelt picture on Instagram on Friday of him embracing his mother, as the family continue to mourn Christopher’s death. The Ivorian international revealed he learned of the news after being sent a tweet by a friend and had to break the news to his mother. But despite the pain of the situation, Aurier insists he does not feel any ‘hatred’ towards the killer. Speaking to French publication La Depeche, Aurier said: ‘It was 7am. I was in bed at home when a friend sent me the image of a tweet. ‘I asked if he was ...
Trump’s ‘unforced error’ puts Western Senate Republicans in an election jam
“Everything they gain from being part of the Great American Outdoors Act, all of that goodwill will go out the window if they support this nominee,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told POLITICO. “In any western state that has substantial public land, this is a resonant issue that can make a difference,” he said, adding, “I think it would be very wise for any senator — from the West in particular — to really think hard about whether they can support this nominee.” Republicans currently hold sway in the Senate with 53 seats, but as Trump’s poll numbers slump because of the chaotic White House response to addressing the coronavirus pandemic, Democrats are hoping to pick up enough seats in Novembe...
