Saturday, 06 July 2024
Michael Abiodun

Michael Abiodun

 

ACP Razlam then said that a check of the condominium found the first suspect who opened the door dead at the building’s ground floor.


 
 
A Nigerian man, Dan has died in Malaysia.
 
He died after he jumped out of the window and fell from 16th floor to his death during a drug raid at his home in Malaysia.
 
The incident happened during a raid conducted after police received a tip-off from the public about suspected dr¥g trafficking activities at the condominium.
 
During the raid,the suspect was surprised when he realised it was the police who knocked on the door of the condominium unit.
 
ACP Razlam said the Nigerian suspect then re-entered the unit and locked the grilles and added that when the door was broken, another two Nigerian nationals were found inside.
 
He added one of the suspects tried to flee, but police detained him on the 8th floor of the condominium.
 
ACP Razlam then said that a check of the condominium found the first suspect who opened the door dead at the building’s ground floor.
 
He added that various drugs such as ecstacy and others were found in the course of the raid, and said that the unit had been rented by the foreign nationals.

 
 

 

By

 Prnigeria
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This "cover page" claimed FG trained 177 youths in smartphone repairs with N5.9bn

Fact-checkDid FG train 177 youths in smartphone repairs with N5.9 billion?

Claim: A “front page” of the Punch newspaper recently circulating on WhatsApp claim that the Federal Government trained 177 youths in smartphone repairs with N5.9 billion naira.

Full Text: The “front page” which was boldly captioned, “The Federal Government of Nigeria trains 177 youths in smartphone repairs with N5.9 billion,” attracted alot of comments and criticism from Nigerians. 

Reacting, an instagram user said, “Please can somebody give me a cup of water, Nigeria it haf faint me! Upon all the loans, when it is not animals, rodents or insects it is … biko is billion still nine zeros? We need to #takebacknaija #cleanupnaija #rebuildnaija.” 

Another tweeter user reacted, “Abeg, are there mathematicians here? Please do the maths, I want to see how much was supposedly spent by APC on these 177 imaginary youths.

“Dear Youths, before your support the madness that is APC, remember this headline. If this money was used wisely, we’d have productive youths.”

Verification: PRNigeria observed that the image was watermarked “- 6mdh – photogrid” which made it appear like a reproduced PUNCH graphic from random social media users, so we conducted a google reverse image search and results revealed that the tabloid magazine like frontpage cover did not appear anywhere on PUNCH Newspaper official social media accounts but only shared by random users on Twitter and Instagram

PRNigeria then contacted the media unit of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs for clarification on the matter but an official who begged not to be named described it as “Fake news.”

However, PRNigeria conducted a keyword search and results from here, here, and here among other sources revealed that while the graphic might be fake, the news itself is not fake but a four months old report. 

It is true that the Federal Government has in April 2022 revealed it earnmarked N5.9 billion on training, tooling, and monthly stipends for Batch C N-Power Program recipients in Kano State  and not 177 youths. It emphasised that about 16,629 youngsters were now benefiting from the program (under Batch C) in the state, noting that approximately 18,042 had already benefited in the Batch A and B of the programme. 

The disclosure was made by Sadiya Umar Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development while being represented by Dr Nasir Mahmoud, Special Assistant to the President on N-Skills during the concluding ceremony of the N-Skills programme, a component of the N-Power initiative in Kano, which trained 177 youngsters in Smart Phone Repairs and Services.

It was this context that was casted by the PUNCH in a misleadling news headline/frame which it has since updated.

Conclusion: Based on evidence gathered by PRNigeria, the claim that the FG spent N5.9 billion to train 177 youths on smartphone repair is not true. The report first appeared in a PUNCH report (not front page) which has since been updated as the 177 were only part beneficiaries of a total of 16,629 youths in Batch C of the Npower Program in Kano that stands to benefit from the N5.9billion earmarked by the FG. Similarly, the graphic in circulation is not officially from PUNCH and is therefore MISLEADING.  

Image

John Pilger, a giant of journalism born in Australia in 1939, has died at the age of 84, according to a statement released online by his family.

His numerous books and especially his documentaries opened the world’s eyes to the failings, and worse, of governments in many countries – including his birthplace.

 

He inspired many journalists, and journalism students, with his willingness to critique the damaging effects on ordinary people’s lives of capitalism and Western countries’ foreign policies, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom.

But his campaigning approach to journalism also regularly provoked controversy. That was partly because of his trenchant dissent from official stances, and partly because in aiming to reach the broadest possible audience, he tended to oversimplify issues and overstate his views.

‘I am, by inclination, anti-authoritarian’

The English journalist, Auberon Waugh, who clashed with Pilger on more than one occasion, invented the verb “to pilger” which he defined as “to treat a subject emotionally with generous disregard for inconvenient detail, always in the left-wing cause and always with great indignation”.

Whatever the merits of Waugh’s criticism, they are, in my view, outweighed by the breadth and depth of Pilger’s disclosures in the public interest.

Pilger never hid behind the safety of the “he said, she said” approach to journalism, which New York University professor Jay Rosen has famously called the “view from nowhere”.

Pilger, however, rejected the label of crusader, telling Anthony Hayward for his book, In the Name of Justice: The Television Reporting of John Pilger:

I am, by inclination, anti-authoritarian and forever sceptical of anything the agents of power want to tell us. It is my duty, surely, to tell people when they’re being conned or told lies.

 

Telling the stories of ordinary people

Pilger was born in Bondi, Sydney. Like many of his generation, he moved to the UK in the early 1960s and worked for The Daily Mirror, Reuters and ITV’s investigative program World in Action.

He reported on conflicts in Bangladesh, Biafra, Cambodia and Vietnam and was named newspaper journalist of the year in Britain in 1967 and 1979.

He made more than 50 documentaries. His best known is Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia, which in 1979 revealed that as many as two million of the seven million population of the country had died as a result of genocide or starvation under Pol Pot’s brutal regime.

His documentaries garnered numerous prizes, including the prestigious Richard Dimbleby award for factual reporting, a Peabody award for Cambodia: Year Ten and a Best Documentary Emmy award for Cambodia: The Betrayal.

He also made several documentaries about Australia, including one in 1985, The Secret Country, about historic and continuing mistreatment of First Nations people that thoroughly irritated the then Labor prime minister, Bob Hawke.

When the US government of George W. Bush reacted to al-Qaeda’s murderous 9/11 terrorist attacks by invading first Afghanistan, in late 2001, then Iraq in March 2003, Pilger made Truth and Lies: Breaking the Silence on the War on Terror.

It sharply criticised not only Bush’s actions but those of the most ardent members of the “coalition of the willing”: UK Labour prime minister, Tony Blair, and Australian coalition prime minister, John Howard.

No doubt, if Pilger was still alive he would condemn the absence of the National Security Committee’s papers from the 2003 cabinet papers released today by the National Archives of Australia.

They show Howard’s cabinet signed off on the controversial – in hindsight disastrous – decision to endorse the Bush administration’s plan to invade Iraq based on “oral reports” from the prime minister, rather than full cabinet submissions.

Pilger wrote or edited 11 books, including Tell Me No Lies, an anthology of outstanding investigative journalism, and perhaps his best regarded book, Heroes, which hewed to what one of his favourite journalists, Martha Gellhorn, called “the view from the ground”.

He did this by telling the stories of ordinary people he had encountered, whether miners in Durham, England, refugees from Vietnam, or American soldiers returning from the Vietnam War – not to parades, but to lives dislocated by the silence and shame surrounding the war’s end.

 

The world has lost a resolutely dissenting voice

Phillip Knightley, a contemporary of Pilger who was also born in Australia and went to Fleet Street to become a celebrated investigative journalist and author himself, summed up his compatriot’s work in 2000:

He was certainly among the first to draw international attention to the shameful way in which Australia has treated the Aborigines [sic] […] John has a slightly less optimistic view than I have.

In Welcome to Australia [Pilger’s 1999 film], he concentrated on the bad things that were happening but not the good. He would say that’s not part of his brief and it’s covered elsewhere. He’s a polemicist and, if you want to arouse people’s passions and anger, the stronger the polemic, the better.

Pilger made fewer films in the 2000s, focusing much of his energy on supporting Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks. Assange continues to suffer in Belmarsh prison in England while appeals against his extradition to the US to answer charges under the 1917 Espionage Act grind interminably on.

Whatever flaws there are in Pilger’s journalism, it feels dispiriting that on the first day of a new year clouded by wars, inaction on climate change and a presidential election in the US where democracy itself is on the ballot, the world has lost another resolutely dissenting voice in the media.The Conversation

Matthew Ricketson, Professor of Communication, Deakin University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Rotimi Akeredolu
 
He also claimed to be the last person who convinced Akeredolu to contest for governor in 2011 despite his friends’ defiance because he was an irascible person.

Doyin Odebowale, the former Senior Special Assistant on Special Duties and Strategy to the late Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, asserted that the former governor exhibited weakness in handling matters involving his wife, Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu.

Odebowale, who claimed to have been a friend with the former governor for over 30 years and was responsible for writing his campaign materials the first time he contested and lost the governorship election in 2012, made this known on Saturday during an interview with media personnel, Segun Olawoye.

He also claimed to be the last person who convinced Akeredolu to contest for governor in 2011 despite his friends’ defiance because he was an irascible person.

According to the late governor’s aide, he confronted Anyanwu-Akeredolu while minding their cultural differences when she issued a threat to deal with Olubunmi Ademosu, who was a special adviser to the late governor.

He stressed that he was not pleased with how she was captured on tape accusing her husband’s special adviser on public and inter-governmental relations of giving him concoctions to manage his poor health.

Recall that the First Lady had accused Ms Ademosu of an ambition to become deputy governor should the governor become incapable of completing his tenure.

Odebowale further said, “You may blame this woman for indiscretion. Marriage is a scam. I hate co-habitation. I respect my wife, but she cannot tell me not to relate with people.

“On his wife’s management, Aketi was a weakling.

“She was acting like she had more stake in Aketi’s family than anybody. What point was she proving? I knew Aketi was not sleeping with anybody.”

“No office as the office of the First Lady. Aketi shouldn’t have allowed it.”

Dispelling the rumour that the announcement of Aketi’s death was delayed, the former aide said he was only aware of Akeredolu’s death when his phone was spammed with calls for confirmation, adding, “I had to ring his immediate younger brother, Prof Wole Akeredolu who lectures in LASU. I asked if he had heard of Emperor (that is what we call him in a close circle). He said he still spoke with him on Christmas Day, making him the last person who spoke with him before his death.

He maintained his four children were not even aware of his death until the news broke.

While also clarifying the rumour on having anything to hide after Akeredolu’s death, prompting his early resignation, Odebowale refuted squandering the state’s fund and intimated that his action was borne out of his love and loyalty for his late boss and that there was nothing needed of him to continue in the new dispensation of the present governor — Lucky Ayedatiwa.

“I have nothing against whosoever is in office now. I have nothing left to do in the office when the person who brought me there is no longer there. I can’t remain in that space and pretend.

“I can’t be as committed as I was with Akeredolu because I got all his support. It was not politicking. He gave me the wings to fly. He was my brother like a family,” he added.

Odebowale, along with the Commissioner for Infrastructure, Lands and Housing, Aminu Raimi, and the Special Assistant on Photography to the former governor, Olawale Abolade, resigned following the death of Akeredolu in Germany on Wednesday.

 
 
“Police released my son’s body to his father, but he’s refusing to bury him” – Mohbad’s mother calls for help

The mother of Nigerian musician Mohbad, also known as Ilerioluwa Oladimeji Aloba, has spoken up about the problems and events that caused her and her former husband to split up.

 

In an initial interview, Mrs. Aloba disclosed that she and Joseph were in love, and she defied her parents’ desires by getting married to him.

 

Despite their extreme poverty and her claim to be the breadwinner, her husband treated her badly.

Speaking about the beginning of the problems, Mohbad’s mother revealed that she had previously given Joseph her daily wages, but that day she refused, he began accusing her of various offenses, most notably infidelity.

Mohbad’s mother refuted accusations of infidelity by saying that he tossed out her bags one night because of his speculations. 
In her words:

“Joseph Aloba and I loved each other so much when we started.

Even though my parents warned me not to marry him but I didn’t listen. All the money I was making from menial jobs, I gave him everything. I used my money and sweat to send him for a one year Pastoral training under Prophet Abiara. In the marriage, he was a stubborn and wicked husband. He was always fighting me that I fell into depression. It was in abject poverty that I had the three children for him. I decided to be grinding pepper for a living so I got a shop and I started the work. The money I was making from this, I gave him daily.

One day I decided to use the money I made that day for myself (N3,500). I didn’t give him. That was the genesis of our problem. He frustrated me. The reports going around that he sent me out because I committed adultery, are false. There was a lady and her hubby who were staying next to us at that time. I was much older than her but we became friends. Her hubby was from my town. They used to come and eat at our place.

One day the wife traveled and I went to give the hubby food out of goodwill, then MOH’s dad saw me and started shouting that I was having an affair with the man. I refused to beg him because my conscience was clear. He told me to leave his house. Three pastors came to beg him but he refused. He threw my luggage out very late at night. I had to go sleep in my shop. In the morning I went to the house to check on my kids, immediately he saw me, he picked a knife and chased me. I ran for my life…”

Mohbad’s mother also stated that Joseph called one of their children, Adura, a bastard, so she didn’t find it shocking when he called his grandson, Liam, a bastard as well.

She continued by saying that although Joseph and Wumi, Mohbad’s wife, had been close in the past, they had become estranged after she refused to give him Liam’s placenta.

The mother of Mohbad went on:

“After I ran for my life, I went to my parent’s house but my dad did not let me in because he said he had warned me before. MOH’s dad did not let me have access to my children.

After a while, he allowed me to take Adura because he was a baby. Adura was always falling sick when he was with me. I reached out to the dad for hospital bills but he refused. He said Adura was a bastrd and that if he was not his blood, he would d!e before he clocked one. I am not surprised that he is now calling Liam a bastrd. He did it to his own son too. He knows Liam is MOH’s son, he just wanted to frustrate Wunmi. He was the one that prepared the praver water that Wunmi drank before she became pregnant.

When Liam was born, he warned them not to let me carry or give him a bath. He told them I was a witch. I couldn’t carry him for a very long time. He was the one that organized the pastor that named the boy. He and Wunmi used to be very close but what really caused their problem was placenta and naming ceremony money. After Liam was named, he said Moh should give him 250k so he could go back to Ikorodu and cook for people that would be visiting him but Moh refused. It became a big issue. I had to intervene and beg Moh before he sent the money to his dad.

I see all the curses Nigerians are placing on me and the innocent baby. They will go back to the sender. Moh never doubted Liam’s paternity. God will iudge Baba Mohbad because after Moh rented an apartment for me, he settled our differences and his dad was always coming to sleep over. Now he is treating me as if we are strangers. Ifayakanya will judge between us.”

 
He noted that this was exactly how Nigerians were told to be patient for eight years while the Buhari administration was busy doing very little or nothing at all.
 
Daniel Bwala, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has insisted that no matter the number of years President Bola Tinubu is given to govern Nigeria, nothing will change.
 
He made the claim during a recent interview.
 
He noted that this was exactly how Nigerians were told to be patient for eight years while the Buhari administration was busy doing very little or nothing at all.
 
Bwala said that Tinubu has already spent 31.8 percent of his first term in office and has only succeeded in raising the sufferings of Nigerians during this period.
 
“When people talk about being patient and waiting, you have to look at the time frame the public officer is expected to execute the work,” Bwala, who was the spokesperson of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council for the 2023 elections, said on Channels TV on Monday.
 
“The President has just been voted into a term of four years. He is eight months into the term which constitutes 31.8 percent of the total time that he has.
 
“He has less than 70 percent time in government, when is that going to happen? When President Buhari took over in 2015 it was the same language and we patiently followed and he finished the first term and finished the second term.
 
“When there is a fundamental problem with policy, time is irrelevant, 30 years it will not work. Most of the economists I’ve listened to have faulted the President’s budget with which he was supposed to deliver the agenda flat-out…
 
“We want to see deliverables. Nigerians are tired of English, Mathematics, Economics, Science, and Technology. We want to see practical things,” he said.
 
 

A Nigerian customs official was captured on camera requesting N5,000 from a passenger as a condition for releasing his luggage.

In a video that was shared by an X user on Monday and is currently trending, the customs officer insisted that the passenger must pay N5,000 before being allowed to proceed with his belongings.

 

Despite the passenger’s willingness to offer only N1,000, he argued that the customs officer had not provided any service to merit the requested amount. The customs official, whose face is visible in the video, persisted, initially demanding N5,000. When the passenger explained that he didn’t have that much money, she reduced the demand to N3,000.

The passenger, however, maintained that he couldn’t afford the sum and offered N1,000 instead, which the customs officer rejected. The passenger clarified that he was transporting foodstuffs and not commercial goods, insisting that he wouldn’t give money.

The officer who didn’t hide her face was heard in the videos saying: “Give me N5,000,” but the passenger replied, “I no get.”

“Okay, bring N3,000,” the customs officer said but the passenger again said he didn’t have the money.

Then she asked: “How much do you have?”

The passenger then gave her N1000 which she rejected.

The passenger is heard saying, “I no carry market, na foodstuffs I carry. I no dey give you money.”

The passenger then turned to another passenger and said in broken English, “I give am N1,000 but she said she would not collect.”

The customs officer is then seen moving the passenger’s luggage to a corner, suggesting she was going to delay him if he refused to offer the amount demanded.

The passenger is overheard shouting, “Mama, where you dey carry the bag go now? Leave am here. Mama, stop I don’t want to be rude here.”

She replied, “Rude ke, rude na, rude. Why are you giving me N1000? You give me N1000, for what?”

 

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Customs Service says it has commenced an investigation into the viral video of one of its officers demanding N5000 bribe from a passenger.

In the statement released, the NCS says preliminary investigation revealed that the incident transpired at New Terminal, within the departure hall of Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos, and was captured on video by the involved passenger.

‘’The recording reveals an inappropriate request for ₦5000 in exchange for expeditious processing of customs procedures. We wish to confirm that the Officer implicated is indeed a member of the Nigeria Customs Service, properly assigned to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Area Command.

The NCS strongly condemns this unprofessional conduct and is dedicated to upholding the highest standards of professionalism. A comprehensive investigation is underway to scrutinize the incident thoroughly, and appropriate actions will be taken. Such behavior is entirely inconsistent with the core values of our service, and we are resolute in maintaining a transparent and accountable customs operation.” the statement in part reads

 

The body added that it encourages passengers and the public to report any instances of misconduct or corruption promptly. It says that these reports are crucial in upholding the integrity of its service and ensuring that officers adhere to the highest ethical standards. The NCS is unwavering in its commitment to fostering a culture of transparency and accountability. The outcome of the investigation will be communicated to the public at the earliest opportunity.

 

CREDIT LINk:https://thenigerialawyer.com/video-customs-officeri-demands-n5000-from-passenger-in-viral-video/

 
Items found in their possessions include fresh human head, hands, and one HP Laptop.
 
Hassan Kolawole has been paraded by the Police in Oyo State, on Friday.
 
The 45-year-old suspected ritualist was paraded after he was arrested with a fresh human head in Ibadan, the state capital.
 
Kolawole was paraded at the Command Headquarters at Eleyele in Ibadan North-West Local Government Area of the state, alongside nine others who were arrested for various crimes at different locations within the state.
 
They were paraded by the state Commissioner of Police, Adebola Hamzat, through the Police Public Relations Officer, Adewale Osifeso.
 
Items found in their possessions include fresh human head, hands, and one HP Laptop.
 
Details later…
 
Some police officers and soldiers have engaged in a free-for-all fight over traffic violation in Ekiti state.
 
The incident happened after a female police officer stopped the soldiers who drove a motorcycle against traffic.
 
However, the army personnel reportedly insisted on being allowed to pass despite taking their wrong-way driving, leading to an argument between the policewoman and the soldiers.
 
The verbal confrontation, however, degenerated into a fight, and the female officer called for backup.
 
In the viral video online, some civilians were seen attempting to separate the soldiers and police officers.
 
Reacting, the Ekiti State Police Spokesman, Sunday Abutu, confirmed the incident was a case of violation of traffic order and assault on a policewoman.
 
He added that the two soldiers involved had been arrested and were undergoing investigation.
 
He said, “Meanwhile, it’s a case of violation of traffic order and serious assault on a policewoman who was performing her lawful duty at the traffic by the two soldiers.
 
“The two military private officers who were on motorcycle were cautioned by the policewoman after they reluctantly passed through one-way traffic. The caution provoked them and they decided to pounce on the policewoman and assaulted her, got her injured and tore her uniform.
 
“It took the effort of some civilians around to stop the soldiers from escaping before the police reinforcement arrived.”
 
Watch video below:
 

Descushiel

 

A video of her rendition had Hope Uzodinma, governor of Imo state, and other guests in the hall looking on in bewilderment.

 

Nigerian singer and actress, Mercy Isoyip who is also known as aka Descushiel, has tendered an apology to the public.

She apologized to the public and the police institution for bungling the lyrics of the anthem on national television. 

At a conference and retreat for senior police officers in Owerri, the Imo state capital on Monday, Descushiel who had been garbed in a police uniform just for the event, mangled stanzas of the national anthem to viral proportions.

A video of her rendition had Hope Uzodinma, governor of Imo state, and other guests in the hall looking on in bewilderment.

The clip has been making the rounds on social media platforms.

“I’m an actress and an artiste. I want to sincerely apologise to the Nigerian police force and citizens of this great nation and also dignitaries that were present at the conference and retreat for senior police officers held on the 30th of October in Imo state,” the singer said in a video posted on X.

“I also want to apologise to my fans.”

Descushiel said she understands the importance of the national anthem and that there was no rationale for her below par performance.

She also promised to make amends in the future.

“I want to say I acknowledge and I understand the importance of the national anthem and I’m deeply sorry and I regret that I fell short in upholding the respect and reverence that it deserves,” she said.

“The Nigerian police gave me the opportunity and platform to lead the national anthem as a way of showcasing my craft in the entertainment industry and also to project the collaboration and friendly synergy between the police and the citizenry.

“I want to say I deeply respect the Nigerian police force and its unwavering commitment to serving our dear nation and to also add that I understand the importance of the values and traditions that the Nigerian police uphold.

“Please accept my apology and my assurance that I’ll be more careful to prevent any future occurrence of this sort.

“I want to apologise for any disruption that this unfortunate incident may have caused.

“I’m ready to make amends.”

Descushiel is a graduate of accounting from the University of Calabar. She also possesses a second degree in acting from the US.

She has four mix tapes and two singles titled: ‘Thirsty and Descushiel’ to her name.

She shot her first movie in Calabar, the Cross River state capital, and began acting professionally in 2016 after graduating from the New York Film Academy.

Some of the movies she has starred in include ‘Paige’, ‘Washerman’, ‘The Graduate’, ‘Neighbours’, ‘Once upon a Couple’, among others.

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