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160 Almajirai rescued in Kaduna State
No fewer than 160 children have been rescued by Kaduna State Government COVID-19 Task Force officials from locations that are neither authorised and licensed as schools nor as children’s homes in the state. According to a statement issued by Muyiwa Adekeye, the Special Adviser to the State Governor on Media and Communication, on Friday, some of the rescued children are toddlers who aren’t yet able to properly identify themselves. He noted that the rescued children are from thirteen states in the northern and southern parts of the country. Adekeye added that some of the kids are from Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, and Niger Republic. The statement read in part, “The locations in which the children were found were operating in violation of regulations that had ordered the closure of all schoo...
AIG Yunana Babas dies two weeks to retirement
The Assistant Inspector-General (AIG) of police in charge of Zone 8, Lokoja, Mr Yunana Babas, has died. The Acting Public Relations officer for the zone, Inspector Ruth Awi, confirmed his death to newsmen in Lokoja. She said that Babas, who was due for retirement in two weeks time died suddenly at the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, at about 10:30 am on Jan. 14. She said that the late AIG was in the office on Wednesday, Jan. 13, to attend to his official duty up till afternoon and later left for his house without any sign of illness. Awi said that Babas later sent for the zones photographer to come to his house to come and take some photographs. Awi explained that the photographer came back to the office later to inform them that he could not take any photograph because the AIG took ill su...
Willie Nelson Shares Cover of Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life”: Stream
Willie Nelson has had a great week. On Wednesday, the 87-year-old received his first round of the COVID-19 vaccine, and today he’s sharing the title-track from his upcoming Frank Sinatra tribute album, That’s Life. The song was originally recorded by by Marion Montgomery in 1963, but it became a standard in Sinatra’s catalog after he performed it in 1966. For Nelson’s rendition, the country icon adds wailing harmonica and sleek slide guitar over the sparse lounge arrangement, creating this unique meld between Rat Pack pop classicism and twangy Americana. The accompanying lyric video sees the lines of the song appear over footage of illustrator Paul Mann painting the album’s cover art, which depicts Nelson standing in the glow of a streetlight with his signature guitar, Trigger. Check out t...
Coronavirus takes toll on federal roads’ construction in Lagos
The ravaging effect of Coronavirus (COVID-19) was, perhaps, the biggest challenge faced by stakeholders in the road sub sector of the construction industry in 2020. As the virus gained ground, several contractors soon abandoned work and shut their operations, consequently, many hitherto gainfully employed Nigerians were thrown into the labour market. Even when the government later introduced partial lockdown measures, the number of workers on site was scaled down by many contractors in line with COVID-19 protocols, which slowed down progress of work. Virtually all road projects in Lagos State suffered the effect of the pandemic, with every project having its own peculiar challenge. The reconstruction of 46km Agbara-Seme section of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway project awarded to CGC Nigeria...
Morocco to host 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations
Morocco will be the host country for the 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations, the Confederation of African Football has announced. Congo had been due to welcome to the competition in 2020 until they pulled out in July 2019, leaving the event without a host before the event was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic a year later. Before the cancellation, Caf had made a positive step with the expansion of the African Women’s Cup of Nations from eight to 12 teams, which was the first change to the format after 11 editions. Besides that, a record total of 36 national teams have entered the qualifying tournament for the 2020 Awcon finals, with 11 countries expected to make it out of the qualification series. “Morocco has been designated host of the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations,” interim...
Nigerian government seizes bank’s assets over Shell’s N183 billion debt
File Photo Nigerian government have moved to sequester the assets of the country’s premier lender First Bank of Nigeria Limited in an effort to recover the damages oil major Royal Dutch Shell owed the Ejama Ebubu community of Rivers State in a legal contest spanning many decades, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Police operatives and court officials arrived the bank’s main branch in Port Harcourt on Tuesday to execute an order to seize the lender’s asset, FirstBank said in a statement. The bank said the incident leading to the confiscation of its properties was “unjustified, illegal and a reckless misuse of the machinery of justice.” Lagos-headquartered FirstBank resolved to guarantee the damages awarded against Shell by a Rivers State high court judge a decade ago. According to the estimation...
Presidency: Boko Haram weaker now than in 2015
As the country marks the 2021 Armed Forces Remembrance Day, Friday, the Presidency has declared that the activities of Boko Haram insurgents have been weakened compared to what obtained in 2015. This is even as it said that more than 2,403 criminals, including terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and criminals of other sorts, were reportedly eliminated by the Nigerian Armed Forces, in coordinated operations across the country between March 18 and December 30, 2020. The event is billed to hold in the early hours of the day at the National Arcade, opposite Eagles Square, Three Arms Zone, Abuja. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in a statement titled “Security checklist, as Nigeria marks Armed Forces Remembrance Day, by Presidency” flaunted the Buhari admin...
Bishop Kukah: Nigeria has not recovered from civil war
Catholic News Agency Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rev Matthew Kukah, has said Nigeria has not recovered from wounds of the civil war, 51 years after the unfortunate event. He also lamented the leaders have not learnt instructive lessons from the 30-month war. The activist-cleric, who spoke at the second edition of the ‘Never Again Conference” said the country has failed to adopt resolutions meant to heal the wounds of the war. The theme of the virtual conference was:’51 years after the Nigerian-Biafran civil war.’ It was chaired by Afenifere chieftain Chief Ayo Adebanjo. The ‘Never Again Conference’ is the brainchild of Nzuko Umunna, a pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, which organised the first edition in Lagos last year. Kukah said some of the neglected resolutions were re-echoe...
Benue governor: Quit notice to Bishop Kukah a recipe for disintegration
Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has warned that the quit notice by a muslim group demanding the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Mathew Kukah to tender an unreserved apology over his Christmas Day message or leave Sokoto State, is capable of causing the disintegration of the country. The Governor however enjoined all Nigerians, irrespective of religious and political inclinations, to uphold unity, peace and dialogue as panacea for the myriad of problems confronting the country. Reacting to the statement, the Governor who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary Terver Akase said the group’s statement was a contradiction of provisions of the Constitution which gives Nigerians the right to live freely in any part of the country. Ortom added that the statement of the group directing...
PDP raps President Buhari over performance claims
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday berated President Muhammadu Buhari over his stewardship in the past five years, saying he has failed to justify the confidence reposed in him by Nigerians. This is even as the party noted Mr. President’s “illusory self-assessment” has validated its position that “he has since abandoned governance for the luxury and pleasures of Aso Presidential villa, having lost sync with the reality of the devastation his incompetent administration has brought to our nation in the last five years.” In a statement signed by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP insisted “that every fair criticism of Buhari’s administration only reveals a litany of failures and a reversal of fortune for our country in the last five years,” adding that, “it is unfortunate tha...
Kelly Clarkson Is a Lot Country on Fiery Kellyoke Cover of The Chicks’ ‘Sin Wagon’
Kelly Clarkson performed a spirited run through The Chicks‘ “Sin Wagon” on Thursday’s (Jan. 14) edition of Kellyoke. The Texas-born singer, who has always had a healthy dose of giddyup in her voice, leaned hard into the song from the Chicks’ — then known as the Dixie Chicks — 1999 smash album Fly, complete with furious fiddle, galloping stand-up bass and a raucous cowgirl yelp at the end. The song, whose title was inspired by a scene in the movie Grease, hit No. 52 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart in the fall of 1999 and features some of the Chicks’ signature provocative lyrics. It opens with Clarkson breathlessly singing, “He pushed me ’round/ Now I’m drawin’ the line/ He lived his life/ Now I...
Bishop Kukah: Wounds of the civil war have not been healed
Catholic News Agency The Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, Thursday, said that the wounds of the civil war have not been healed. Kukah disclosed this at a zoom meeting organized by Dele Momodu of the Ovation Magazine and Mazi Ezeoke. Speaking on the theme: The Second never again conference: 51 years after Nigerian-Biafran Civil war, the outspoken Bishop, advised Nigerians to compile a history of the country, noting that knowing the history will calm/qualm the taste for violence. Kukah who has been on the media for criticizing the current administration and proffering solutions to the problems of the country noted that Nigerians and of course their leaders are not happy with the current situation of the country. He highlighted, poor economic policies, insecurity and poor educa...
