Category: Happenings

Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force have arrested four suspected killers of an Abuja-based retired Brigadier General Uwem Udukwere.

Udukwere was reportedly killed by armed robbers on Saturday, June 22, at his Sunshine Estate home in Abuja.

The 4 suspects have been identified as Ibrahim Rabiu, 33, Nafiu Jamil, 33, Aliyu Abdullahi, 47 & 28-year-old Mohammed Nuhu.

The suspects, who confessed to the crime, stabbed the General when he tried to resist them with his pistols. The knife used in committing the crime was recovered & the deceased stolen phone was equally recovered,” the commissioner said.

Rabiu Ibrahim on how the general was killed said: “We stabbed the general with a knife. We went to rob him & we collected laptops & phones from him.

I was the one that killed him with a knife. I had two knives. I stabbed him in the stomach while another of my friends stabbed him in his shoulder. The general was with his gun and he was struggling with us that was why we killed him.”

Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State has  emerged the Chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum while Governor Soludo of Anambra State emerges Vice Chairman

Watch video below

A Federal High Court in Lagos has discharged and acquitted former Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji of a 54-count money laundering charge.
Ikuforiji was acquitted alongside his former personal assistant, Oyebode Atoyebi.

The charges date back to March 1, 2012, when the defendants were initially arraigned before Justice Okechukwu Okeke.

They faced a 20-count indictment related to the alleged misappropriation and laundering of ₦338.8 million.

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 76-year-old man for having cannabis.

According to a statement by the spokesperson of the agency, Femi Babafemi, “On Tuesday, June 18, in Abuja, operatives at the agency intercepted a white Nissan Frontier pickup vehicle with amber lights and fake registration number of a security agency at Kiyi village in Kuje area of the FCT.

“The vehicle was loaded with 454 compressed blocks of cannabis sativa, weighing 340.8kg procured at Uzeba, Edo state. A 76-year-old grandfather, Mr. Francis Omofa, linked to the consignment was arrested. He claimed to have been in the illicit drug business for 10 years.”

Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation says Nigeria has the best civil service in the world.

Yemi-Esan stated this on Saturday in Abuja during a sporting event organised for workers as part of activities to mark the 2024 Civil Service Week.

According to her, Nigerian civil servants are hard working, intelligent, adding that, “they can look after their own health for greater productivity in the course of discharging their duties. You know I am always proud of civil and public servants because Nigeria has the best civil service in the world and I can say that confidently anywhere”.

She expressed satisfaction with high turnout of the civil servants from various Ministries, Departments and Agencies at the events. “I recall three or four years ago, we only used to have a handful of civil servants and today, the numbers that are here have increased tremendously.

The federal workers made this declaration during an online meeting held on Saturday.

Our correspondent gathered that the federal government introduced a wage award for workers after the subsidy was removed from Premium Motor Spirit (PMS). The federal workers have appealed to the government to pay the wage awards for March, April, and May.


In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting and made available on Sunday, the federal workers emphasized that they are not slaves.

The communiqué, made available through the National Coordinator, Comrade Andrew Emelieze, stated: “It has been nearly four months since the federal government stopped the payment of wage awards to federal workers. Despite repeated pleas to the federal government (FG) to resume the payments, all efforts have fallen on deaf ears.

“The federal government workers met online to critically review our last request to the FG to pay the outstanding March, April, and May wage awards, among other things. It was generally agreed that the FG is pretending not to know that we, the federal workers, are experiencing unimaginable hardship since the removal of the fuel subsidy.


“We, therefore, resolve as follows: To embark on continuous peaceful protests and demonstrations in all federal government secretariats nationwide. These protests will become a ritual until the welfare needs of the federal workers and pensioners are addressed.

“The protests will commence on June 24th and continue until the issues of the wage award and the new national minimum wage are resolved. Every federal worker must take this protest as a duty, and anyone who opposes this continuous protest is an enemy of the workers.

“We urge federal workers to be armed with the fact that protest is a fundamental human right, and any federal worker who decides to dodge this collective agreement is a traitor. We are citizens, not slaves. Enough of this exploitation of the vulnerable. The government has cheated us enough. Pay us what you owe us. We have worked for it; we are not beggars.”

A raging fire early Sunday morning gutted the Christ Embassy Church headquarters along Kudirat Abiola Way, Ikeja, Lagos, destroying property worth several millions of naira.

According to eyewitnesses, the fire started around 8 am and was curtailed following the prompt intervention of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service and the Lagos State Emergency Management Authority (LASEMA).

Fortunately, no lives were lost in the incident. Meanwhile, worshippers who had gathered for the usual Sunday service ran for safety.

Margaret Adeseye, Director of the Lagos Fire and Rescue Service, confirmed the incident and urged worshippers and concerned residents to remain calm, as the fire had been doused by 10 am.

Adeseye stated, “This is to inform Lagosians to be calm. The fire at Christ Embassy Church headquarters in Alausa, Ikeja, is under control right now.

“As of the time of this report, no loss of life has been recorded. We are on the ground ensuring the safety of lives and property.

“The fire is still on but under control. Let us remain calm as the rescue operation continues.”

The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

Isaiah Olugbemi, a Nigerian-born boxer, has been confirmed dead after he was shot multiple times in Odenton, Maryland, US.

According to local police, Olugbemi was found on the ground with g¥nshot wounds along Meadowmist Way in the city on June 17

The 27-year-old was rushed to the Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead

The commencement of the hearing in the case of Nicholas Francis Xavier Giroux, 36, who shot d£ad the Nigerian boxer, is set for July 17. He is charged with first-&-2nd-degree m¥rder in Olugbemi’s d£ath

Before his death, Isaiah was a neighbor to the accused & was an up-and-coming boxer. Nicolas who is said to have k+lled Isaiah will be held without bond, an Anne Arundel County judge decided on Thursday

Detectives obtained video surveillance footage showing Giroux, walking directly to Olugbemi with a handgun before shøoting him multiple times & fleeing the scene on foot, according to court documents

According to the Police, Giroux confessed to the shooting on June 18

The Lagos state government says patients who contracted cholera in Eti-Osa LGA had an unregistered tiger nut drink. Eti-Osa is the epicenter of the latest cholera outbreak in Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous city and commercial capital.

As of June 21, Lagos had recorded 24 d£aths and 35 confirmed cholera cases. Speaking in an interview with Punch Newspaper on Saturday, Kemi Ogunyemi, special adviser to the Lagos state governor on health, said when the government noticed a spike in suspected cholera cases in Eti-Osa LGA, it visited the neighborhood for a firsthand assessment.

Ogunyemi said a survey showed that people who visited hospitals all said they had consumed a particular tiger nut drink. She said officials were then dispatched to find the drink in other to test samples for cholera.

“We found empty bottles with a name on them, but we discovered that it wasn’t even registered with NAFDAC, the regulatory body that ensures the safety of consumables,” she said.

Gabriel Yomere, the resident electoral commissioner in Cross River, says Nigerians reserve the right to vote out underperforming political leaders.

Mr Yomere stated this at Friday’s second quarter consultative meeting of the INEC & leaders of civil society organisations in Calabar. He said that Nigerians should refuse to accept the notion that every politician must serve 2 terms irrespective of their performance.

The INEC official said it was unproductive & irresponsible to stay indoors during elections after criticising an under-performing politician.

“After assuming duty as the REC in Cross River in 2022, I went through the records & saw that the 2019 election turnout was extremely poor. I became very worried & decided to do something about it. But after the 2023 election, the outcome remained poor,” he said.

The FG has put three ageing presidential jets on sale in a move officials say will cut excessive spending on fleet maintenance.

This is coming as the house of representatives committee on national security and intelligence recommended that two aircraft should be purchased for use by the president and the vice-president

Selling off the three aircraft would cut by half the number of jets in the presidential air fleet.

The fleet currently consists of six airplanes and four helicopters. The current fleet, maintained by the presidential air fleet (PAF), an arm of the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), include Boeing 737 Boeing Business Jet (BBJ), a Gulfstream G550, a Gulfstream GV, two Falcon 7x and one Challenger CL605.

Insiders, however, said at least half of the entire fleet is made up of unserviceable or failing aircraft, necessitating the need to dispose those considered to be of greater burden to the fleet.

No fewer than 350 persons have been rescued from the Sambisa forest while 120,000 Boko Haram fighters and their families in the North-East have surrendered to the Nigerian Army, the military authorities said.

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt Gen Taoreed Lagbaja on Thursday in Kano, said this while delivering a keynote address during the second quarter edition of the Nigerian Army Civil-Military Cooperation Media Chat 2024.

Lagbaja, who was represented by Major General Mayirensa Lander David Saraso, said he was pleased to state that the Nigerian Army in collaboration with sister-services and other security agencies have continued to record remarkable successes in the North West, North Central, South East, South West and South South regions of the country.

He explained that troops in the North East have neutralized hundreds of terrorists including scores of their top commanders thereby liberating several of their enclaves in the Sambisa forest, Tumbuktu triangle and the Mandara mountains.

A former spokesman for the defunct Atiku-Okowa Presidential Campaign Council, Daniel Bwala said the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi is having a nightmare over the former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s meeting with the First Lady Remi Tinubu.

Bwala posted this in his X handle.

According to him, the photograph of Tinubu’s wife with Obasanjo would give Obi a sleepless night.

Recall that Obasanjo visited Remi Tinubu on Monday to pay Sallah homage.

This comes days after the former President was seen wearing a cap with Tinubu’s insignia engraved on it.

Reacting to the meeting between Obasanjo and Remi Tinubu, Bwala said some pentecostal bishops have also backed away from Obi.

Bwala stated, “This picture would give sleepless night to Mr P alias “Greengory.’ @PeterObi.

“I personally know of three prominent Pentecostal Bishops that have also abandoned him and his ‘take back your country ‘hate speech.

“My big uncle Pat Utomi would soon abandon him too. Mark my words,” he added.

Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has claimed that his administration was one of the best the country has had so far, especially in putting the economy of the country in good shape before leaving office in 2007.

Obasanjo, while speaking in Abeokuta, yesterday, at the Safe Online Youth Fellowship Bootcamp organised by NerdzFactory Company, supported by Meta at the Youth Development Centre, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library recalled landmark achievements his administration recorded between 1999 & 2007.

He stressed that he was responsible for setting Nigeria free from the bondage of immense debt, adding that he takes pride in the celebration of the 25 years an uninterrupted democracy, which started during his reign in 1999.

He said: “When I came in as elected President, I wanted to get debt relief because we were spending $3.5 billion every year servicing debt and the quantum of the debt was not going down. Today, I can say that I made Nigeria better than I found it from an economic perspective.

The Federal government of Nigeria has announced a landmark initiative to send its first citizen into space.

This pioneering effort was disclosed by Dr Mathew Adepoju, Director General of the National Space Research & Development Agency (NASRDA) during a press conference held in Abuja. Dr Adepoju revealed that Nigeria has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Space Exploration & Research Agency (SERA) to facilitate this ambitious project.

He emphasized that this collaboration signifies a major milestone in Nigeria’s 25th anniversary of space exploration, positioning the nation among countries actively engaged in human spaceflight. “This initiative opens up new avenues for scientific research & technological advancement,” Dr. Adepoju remarked.

He highlighted the potential of this endeavor to foster technological progress & ignite interest in STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) among Nigerian youth.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio has said the old national anthem, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee,” would have tackled banditry and insecurity if it was retained.

The Senate President said the reintroduction of the old national anthem would ensure unity and love among Nigerians. Akpabio said this during a visit to the Nigeria Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies in Abuja.

He berated those labeling the re-introduced anthem as an element of colonialism. “The other impactful bill signed by the National Assembly is the reverting to our old national anthem. A lot of people are not aware that there was a panel set up and made up of Nigerians to receive input from all over the world in 1959.

So when people are saying we’re bringing in a colonial anthem, they need to look into the history of “Nigeria, we hail thee”. If we had kept to that anthem, we probably would not have banditry today in Nigeria because if you take your neighbor as your brother, you will not want to kill him,” he said.

A slay queen identified as Nancy has been arrested alongside her besties and her boyfriend, Wisdom, for assaulting a lady identified as Favour in Benin, Edo State.

It was gathered that Favour had visited her friend’s boyfriend, Wisdom, at Rich Lounge Hotel in Benin for a horizontal tango in Room 307 on Friday, June 14. Nancy got hold of the information as the romp session was recorded and sent to her. She tricked Favour into the same hotel where she and her friends were lodged.

Nancy and her friends were seen in a video beating, harassing, and meting out punishment to the victim. They ordered Favour to chant “I f**ked my bestie boyfriend” while carrying the items she got from her bestie’s man.

The suspects went further to upload the horrific video to social media which sparked an uproar and the police were invited to arrest them.

The Anambra State government, through the Ministry of Women and Social Welfare, has handed a couple and an accomplice to the police for alleged human trafficking in Ifitedunu, Dunukofia Local Government Area of the state.

The couple, identified as Temple and Ndubuisi Nwankwo, were arrested by the police alongside one  Ebere while attempting to sell their baby girl for a million.

It was gathered that the couple was suspected to have sold their other two children, whom they claimed had died.

In a statement released on Tuesday by the media aide to the Women Affairs Commissioner, Chidinma Ikeanyionwu, the government said the arrests followed a detailed investigation by the community chairman, Mr. Arinzechukwu Azodo, who notified the Women Affairs Commissioner, Ify Obinabo.

According to activist Oluyemi Fasipe, she was found dead on Monday morning in Akungba. Modupe who attends a white-garment church is reported to have been on her way back from a vigil when she met her demise.

“This 500L student of AAUA was found d£ad this morning in Akungba; she was said to have left a vigil around 4 am. The circumstances surrounding her death look very suspicious; video and eyewitness accounts show that she did not commit suicide as presumed. I am calling on the OndopoliceNG to critically investigate this matter, as this looks more like a case of murder.

Ayandare Modupe, popularly known as Com. Modesty, from the Faculty of Agriculture, Agronomy department, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko,” activist Oluyemi Fasipe wrote in a tweet.

A 400-level criminology student of Federal University Oye Ekiti simply identified as Asiwaju has been arrested after being caught sexually assaulting a male student

It was gathered that the incident happened on Monday, June 17, 2024. According to a source, “This happened in my school. Asiwaju was caught raping a man in his lodge.

We discovered his s+m+n in the victim’s private part. He would have been lynched but for the timely intervention of the police officers who whisked him away.”

Jordan’s foreign ministry said “14 Jordanian pilgrims died and 17 others were missing” during the performance of hajj rituals. It said its nationals had died “after suffering sunstroke due to the extreme heatwave” and that it had coordinated with Saudi authorities to bury the d£ad in Saudi Arabia or transfer them to Jordan.

The Iranian Red Crescent chief, Pir Hossein Kolivand, said “Five Iranian pilgrims have lost their lives so far in Mecca and Medina during the hajj this year”, but did not say how they died. Mohammed Al-Abdulaali, a spokesperson for the Saudi health ministry, told reporters that more than 2,760 pilgrims suffered from sunstroke and heat stress on Sunday alone.

Saudi Arabia has not provided any information on fatalities. The heat reached 47C (116.6F) in Mecca on Sunday, a temperature that was forecast to continue on Monday.