Author: David Great

Nigerian-born Italian, Sonia Aimy, will launch her forthcoming album at the El Mocambo on June 14, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura said on Tuesday. The album is a fusion of storytelling inspired by Sonia’s birthplace, Nigeria, and her global experiences and perspectives on life, events, and aspirations. Sonia, a singer, songwriter, actor, and activist born in Nigeria and raised in Italy, is the definitive expression of current African world music. Her music combines Afro-jazz, Afrobeat, highlife, and spiritual elements in a fluid yet dexterous performance style. Her seductive rhythms and melody, as well as her infectious joie de vivre, bring…

English Premier League giant Chelsea are set to make a £77m bid to secure the transfer of Napoli striker Victor Osimhen in the summer. According to Italian newspaper Il Mattino, Chelsea are set to launch a bid of £77m to acquire the services of the Nigerian striker at the end of the 2023/24 football season. The report also suggests that Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis may consider accepting an offer below Osimhen’s €130m release clause, given Osimhen’s desire to leave the club. The Nigeria international recently signed a contract extension until June 2026 and the new deal includes a release…

A Russian court on Tuesday remanded an eighth suspect in custody over the attack on a Moscow concert hall that killed at least 139 people, officials said. Moscow earlier announced it had detained 11 people in connection with the attack, which saw camouflaged gunmen storm into Crocus City Hall, open fire on concert-goers and set the building ablaze. The court’s press service said the latest suspect to be remanded was a man originally from the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan. Officials said he was ordered to be held in detention until at least May 22, without detailing the exact accusations…

The escape of Nadeem Anjanwalla, one of the two detained executives of Binance Holdings Ltd, from the DSS custody in Abuja is the most embarrassing security breach of the Tinubu administration and it’s a clear pointer to the porosity of our fight against terrorism and financial crimes. Elsewhere, such lapses would automatically lead to the sack of the security chief, arrest of the guards and their supervisors and the resignation of the supervising minister. But in Nigeria, the government will move on as if nothing happened. So far, the government has remained tightlipped. Anjarwalla and his colleague, Tigran Gamabaryan, together…

Brazil winger Vinicius Junior said his desire to play football was reducing as incidents of racial abuse aimed at him piled up in Spain, during a tearful media appearance Monday. The Real Madrid forward has suffered abuse from opposition fans on many occasions in recent years, with one incident in Valencia in May provoking worldwide outrage. Spain will face Vinicius’ Brazil at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday under the slogan “One Skin” to help combat racism. “I’ve been seeing this (racism) for a long time and every time I feel sadder, and every time I have less desire to play,”…

An Anambra State Children, Sexual and Gender-based Violence Court sitting in Awka, the state capital has sentenced a middle-aged man, Kenneth Nwangu, to 10 years imprisonment on Monday, for defiling his nine-year-old daughter and only child. The court pronounced the judgment after the prosecution proved with compelling evidence that the defendant was guilty of the three-count charge levelled against him. He was consequently sentenced to seven years imprisonment on count one of the charges – having sexual intercourse with a nine-year-old, an offence punishable under Section 34 of the Child Rights Law of Anambra State of Nigeria 2004. The court…

The Lagos State Taskforce, under the leadership of chairman CSP Shola Jejeloye, has intensified its efforts to enforce the ban on motorcycle operations, popularly known as Okada, in restricted areas across the state. In a week-long operation, a total of 470 motorcycles were seized, marking a significant stride in the ongoing endeavor to safeguard motorists and maintain sanity on Lagos highways. The Taskforce operation, spanning various strategic locations including Berger, Fagba, Dopemu, Iyana Ipaja, 2nd Rainbow, Festac, First Gate, Alakija, Mile 2, Ilasan, Maroko, Lekki, Ikota, and Chevron, resulted in the confiscation of 150, 120, and 250 motorcycles, respectively, from…

Former Brazil international footballer Dani Alves, convicted of rape in Spain, has paid his bail of one million euros and can leave jail pending his appeal, a Barcelona court said Monday. One of the world’s most decorated footballers, Alves, 40, was last month sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for raping a young woman in the VIP bathroom of a Barcelona nightclub in the early hours of December 31, 2022. The court in a surprise move last Wednesday agreed to Dani Alves’ request for provisional release while his appeal is heard on condition that he posted bail of a million…

The Federal Government has finalized plans to train some newly recruited personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory as the School Safety Protection Squad to halt cases of abduction of schoolchildren from their schools. The Commander of the National Safe Schools Response Coordination Centre of the NSCDC, Hammed Abodunrin, disclosed this in an interview with The PUNCH Newspapers on Sunday just as the Defence Headquarters said troops rescued 137 abducted pupils of the LEA Primary School and the Government Secondary School Kuriga in the Chikun Local Government Area, Kaduna, within…

Russia lowered flags to half-mast for a day of mourning and charged four men it accused of gunning down scores of people at a concert outside Moscow on Friday night in the deadliest attack inside Russia for two decades. President Vladimir Putin declared Sunday a national day of mourning after pledging to punish all those behind the attack, in which 137 people were killed, including three children, and 182 were injured. Over 100 people remained in hospital, some of them in a serious condition. Video footage showed a sombre-looking Putin lighting a candle at a church at his residence outside…