Thursday
Fake lawyer bags three-years in imprisonment
File Photo An Abeokuta Magistrates’ Court in Isabo, Ogun, on Thursday sentenced a 47-year-old man, Omotola Ayokanmi, to three years imprisonment for impersonation. The Magistrate, Mrs Folake Ogundele, sentenced Ayokanmi after he pleaded guilty to a charge of impersonation. Ogundele sentenced the convict without an option of fine. Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp Fortune Akhenegor, had told the court that the defendant committed the offence on July 16 at Federal High Court, Abeokuta. Akhenegor said that the defendant unlawfully presented himself as legal practitioner. He said that the convict went ahead to move an application for bail for a matter he appeared in as a counsel at the Federal High Court in Abeokuta. “The judge found fault in his address to the court which made the judge interroga...
Stakeholders advocate efficient fiscal policy for oil, gas sector
Stakeholders in the oil and gas sector have called for proactive fiscal policy in the petroleum industry to fast track investment and infrastructure development in the country. The stakeholders disclosed this at the Virtual workshop on Leveraging Fiscal Regulations to Attract Investments in the Petroleum sector, on Thursday. Mr Osten Olorunsola, Chairman, Energy Institute Nigeria, said that the oil and gas sector in Nigeria needed a lot of investment to meet with the current global challenges. He stated that globally, the industry had witnessed decline in product demand and low price regime, adding that only low cost molecules would be able to make it in the market. Olorunsola said that the sector in Nigeria needed to transform to meet with current trend as the sector was not buoyant as pe...
DPR seals off 15 illegal gas outlets in Kogi
The Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, on Thursday moved heavily against persons dealing illegally in the sales of domestic gas in Kogi State, sealing off 15 retail gas outlets in the process. The operators of the outlets were subsequently arrested and handed over to men of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence, NSCDC who were part of the special committee set up to go round the Lokoja metropolis. Speaking during the raid, the Chief operating officer, Idris Mohammed said that the raid became necessary in view of the proliferation of retail outlets sited in a residential areas, which run contrary to the safety rules laid down by the DPR. He said that the affected outlets have refused to heed to the repeated calls on them to approach DPR to obtain necessary guidelines for operating re...
China discovers 16 new coronavirus cases in Xinjiang
A China’s western Xinjiang region saw a spike in coronavirus cases in the last one week, with 16 new cases reported by midnight Friday, according to China’s National Health Commission. Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang and home to 3.5 million people, has been on lockdown since Thursday after one patient tested positive midweek and four were found to be asymptomatic, according to Chinese news outlet ‘The Paper’. Since then, a handful of cases have emerged. Transportation, including flights and trains in Urumqi, has also been suspended, the Paper said. China has largely brought the coronavirus pandemic under control, but a small number of infections continue, according to official government figures. There are currently 252 active cases nationwide, according to the NHC. The new cases in Xinjia...
Grand jury indicts Woodberry for ‘wire fraud’
Olalekan Ponle, a Nigerian held in the United States for alleged multi-million-dollar fraud, has been indicted by the grand jury, a group of lawyers empowered to conduct legal proceedings and investigate potential criminal conduct. Ponle, popularly known as Woodberry, alongside Ramoni Abbas, also known as Hushpuppi, was arrested in the United Arab Emirate on June 10 for multiple fraud charges after a raid by operatives of the Dubai crime unit. According to the complaint, an unnamed Chicago company was defrauded into sending wire transfers totalling $15.2 million. Companies based in Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New York and California also were victims of the fraud, prosecutors say. Newsmen reported how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) nabbed Ponle through details accessed from his What...
South Africa Super Rugby teams back in training on Monday
South Africa’s Super Rugby franchises will be allowed to start training next week, officials confirmed on Friday, a step closer to a return to the playing field after a frustrating four months. The game has been suspended in the country since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with South African Rugby having to sit idle as domestic competitions took flight in New Zealand and Australia. “This is an important first step back to playing, and we have taken it carefully to ensure full compliance and having thoroughly interrogated the regulations with government,” SA Rugby chief executive Jurie Roux said in a statement. “Contact training will not be permitted for the moment but the players will be allowed back onto the field with a rugby ball and back into the gym – while observing strict proto...
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...
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...
Police arrest 28 for crimes, kill two robbery suspects in Edo
The Edo state Police Command said it arrested 28 suspects for various crimes within the last few weeks. Mr Johnson Kokumo, Commissioner of Police in Edo disclosed this on Thursday, in Benin while briefing the media on the Command’s “modest” achievements. According to Kokumo, 15 suspects were arrested for alleged armed robbery, while six were arrested for alleged cultism. He also said that four suspects were arrested for alleged murder and three suspects for kidnapping. He also said that two suspected armed robbers were shot dead by the command. The Commissioner disclosed that two cut to size guns were recovered were recovered within the period as well as 25 live ammunition and three cartridges. He said that other exhibit recovered within the period were one vehicle and the sum of N385,000....
South-South Governors support audit of NDDC
The South-South Governors Forum on Thursday declared wholehearted support for a forensic audit of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari. It deplored, with great concern, the crisis rocking the commission and said that it was convinced and expecting that the audit would serve to put the NDDC on a sound corporate governance footing and reposition it to better deliver on its mandate. In a statement by Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Delta, Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa, the governors also gave full backing to the ongoing investigation of the commission by the Senate. According to it, we believe the Senate is operating within its oversight functions through the ad hoc committee set up for that purpose. “It behoves us to respect the Senate oversight ...
Twitter says passwords spared in yesterday’s attack
Twitter says it has “no evidence” user passwords were accessed as part of yesterday’s massive attack targeting the company’s internal tools, but it is still working to restore access to locked accounts. The updates were shared as part of a series of tweets posted Thursday afternoon. Yesterday, attackers hijacked the accounts of some of the most-followed people on Twitter, including President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Kanye West, to post bitcoin scams. The company made the decision to lock many accounts last night as a precaution to reduce further damage from the attacks, and it provided more detail about why accounts were locked in this afternoon’s tweets. “Out of an abundance of caution, and as part of our incident response yesterday to protect peo...
Real Madrid clinch LaLiga title with tenth win in a row
Real Madrid continued their stunning run on Thursday to beat Villarreal and clinch the LaLiga title. Two goals from Karim Benzema helped Madrid secure a tenth win in a row, securing their 34th LaLiga crown. It is the 11th trophy in total the club have won with Zinedine Zidane in charge. Sergio Ramos and Benzema in particular have been crucial during the run-in, scoring five goals apiece in the nine fixtures since Spanish football returned last month. 🏆 ¡CAMPEONES!🏁 FP: @RealMadrid 2-1 @VillarrealCF⚽ @Benzema 29′, 77′ (p); Iborra 83′#Emirates | #34Ligas pic.twitter.com/uoBXQkQyBS — Real Madrid C.F.⚽ (@realmadrid) July 16, 2020 The title is just the second for Los Merengues in the last eight LaLiga seasons. Attention will now turn to the return...
