Author: David Great

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, says the Abuja Light Rail is ready for commercial operations. Wike stated this after he inspected the project in Abuja on Monday. He noted that $15 million, translating to more than N10 billion, was spent on the rehabilitation project. He assured FCT residents that the light rail, also known as the Abuja Metro Line, would be inaugurated by President Bola Tinubu for commercial operations on May 27. The minister said President Tinubu had promised to deliver the metro line to Nigerians within one year in office and that, as a…

The Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas has expressed sadness over the helicopter crash that killed the Iranian president and his foreign minister and others. The movement said in a statement on Monday that “we express our shared feelings of sadness and pain with the brotherly Iranian people, and our complete solidarity with the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Hamas praised what it described as “honourable positions in support of our Palestinian cause, and the support of the legitimate struggle of our people against the Zionist entity.” It commended Iran’s political and diplomatic efforts “to stop the Zionist aggression against our Palestinian people…

Manager Roberto De Zerbi hopes to find work in England’s top flight again following his departure from Brighton, the Italian coach said after Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to Manchester United. De Zerbi joined Brighton in September 2022, replacing Graham Potter. The 44-year-old made an instant impact when he secured the club’s highest Premier League finish (sixth) and helped it qualify for European competition for the first time. “It was a tough day but a special day. In terms of relationship, it has been one of the most important experiences of my life,” De Zerbi said after Brighton’s last league game of…

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister have been declared dead after a helicopter crash in hilly terrain and freezing weather, an Iranian official said on Monday, after search teams discovered the wreckage. “President Raisi’s helicopter was completely burned in the crash … unfortunately, all passengers are feared dead,” the official told Reuters. Rescue teams fought blizzards and difficult terrain through the night to reach the wreckage in East Azerbaijan province in the early hours of Monday. “We can see the wreckage and the situation does not look good,” the head of Iran’s Red Crescent, Pirhossein Kolivand, told state…

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested four suspects in connection with the seizure of 2,025 pieces of improvised explosive device (IED) materials. A statement by the NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday in Abuja, stated that the IEDs were intercepted in a Toyota Hummer bus marked AGL 905 XX by NDLEA officers along Agaie-Lapai Road, Niger. Babafemi said that the duo of Abdulrauf Adeyemi, 46, and Asmiyu Rahim, 45, conveying the IED materials, were arrested on the spot. He said that follow-up operations led to the arrest of Husaini Abdullahi, 25, at Sokoto main market, Sokoto and…

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Makurdi Zonal Command have arrested three brothers for suspected internet fraud. In a statement by EFCC’s Head of Media and publicity, Dele Oyewale the suspects were arrested Friday, May 17, 2024 along New Garage, Wadata in Makurdi, Adamawa State capital. “The suspects, Abubakar Sadiq Adejoh, Mohammed Habib Adejoh and Solomon Adejoh allegedly specialise in diverting customers’ funds from their accounts to a Point of Sale, POS, terminal for withdrawal. “Items recovered from them include a car, six mobile phones, one laptop and cash totaling N3,562,750.00 ( Three Million Five Hundred and…

Troops of Joint Task Force Operation UDO KA said it foiled an attempted kidnap of another south-easterner at Umuaka community in the Njaba Local Government Area of Imo State. The Spokesman for the Joint Task Force Operation UDO KA, Lt.-Col. Jonah Unuakhalu, said in a statement on Saturday in men of the taskforce that the kidnap was foiled by troops on routine patrol on May 17, 2024. According to Mr Unuakhalu, the taskforce while on routine patrol at Umuaka, along Orlu-Owerri road, were alerted to the kidnap incident and the escape route of the kidnappers. He said, “The troops swiftly…

“Wait, why is it that we need a crimes against humanity treaty if we already have the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute?,” asked several activists during a group discussion I attended this week in Cote d’Ivoire’s capital Abidjan. With only six months until the UN’s Sixth Committee takes a decision whether to advance the Draft Articles on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity to treaty negotiations, the need for greater awareness on the Draft Articles is high, especially on the African continent. Africa has the largest number of states that have yet to expressly weigh in on whether the…

The Benue command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has arrested 11 suspected NNPC pipeline vandals at the Apir Depot in Makurdi. Yakubu Ibrahim, NSCDC commandant in Benue, stated this on Friday, when he conducted journalists round the depot to see the level of destruction to the pipeline (Yola line) by vandals. The commandant said that the arrest of the suspects followed credible intelligence and the dispatch of a team from anti-vandal and rapid response squad units on May 14. “On reaching the scene that day, the vandals, who probably got wind of our men’s coming, went…

A Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, convicted and sentenced one Aluko Tunmise, a self-acclaimed social media influencer and model, to one year imprisonment for celebrity scam. He was arraigned by the Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a one-count charge bordering on cybercrimes. One of the counts reads: “That you, ALUKO TUNMISE JUWONLO (A.K.A. KEANU REEVES), sometime between January and March, 2024 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, directly made a false statement, wherein you held yourself out as a white man by name…