Author: David Great

Indian rescuers brought in a new digging machine Saturday to open a vertical shaft to free 41 workers trapped inside a collapsed road tunnel for two weeks after efforts through another route hit snags just metres from reaching the men. In the latest setback in frantic attempts to rescue the increasingly desperate workers, engineers driving a metal pipe through 57 metres (187 feet) of rock and concrete ran into metal rods and construction vehicles buried in the earth. Just nine metres (30 feet) from breaking through, drilling with a giant earth-boring machine has stalled while using gas-cutting tools to remove…

Minneapolis ex-police officer Derek Chauvin, convicted in the death of George Floyd, has been stabbed at an Arizona prison, US media reports say. A source told AP the 47-year-old was seriously injured by another inmate. The New York Times, citing two people with knowledge of the situation, also reported that he was attacked. Chauvin is serving multiple sentences for George Floyd’s death, which triggered widespread protests against police brutality and racism. The Bureau of Prisons confirmed in a statement that an inmate at a federal prison in the city of Tucson was stabbed at 12.30 local time (19:30 GMT) on…

The troops of Sector 3, Multi-Naltional Joint Task Force(MNJTF), said it had neutralised four Boko Haram terrorists in Malam Fatori in the northern part of Borno State. Lt. Col. Abubakar Abdullahi, chief military public information officer of MNJTF, who disclosed this in a statement released in Maiduguri on Friday, said the terrorists were neutralised in Walo (Gashigar) and Kudagurgu villages. Mr Abdullahi said that during the troops’ advance to Gashigar to clear remnants of Boko Haram terrorists, two terrorists were encountered and neutralised at Walo Walada. He explained that the operation resulted in the recovery of two AK-47 rifles, three…

A joint security team involving operatives of the Nigeria Police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Osun State has arrested a farmer, Paul Amaechi, over the alleged killing of a herder, whose name could not be immediately ascertained, for grazing cattle on his farm at Telemu village in the state. Spokesperson of the Osun State Command of the Civil Defence Corps, Kehinde Adeleke, while speaking to journalists said the remains of the deceased had been evacuated from the scene of the crime. The mutilated body of the herder was said to have been found on Amaechi’s farm on…

Kano State government has revealed how the immediate past administration of Abdullahi Ganduje recruited Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) Students, into the civil service. Briefing journalists on Friday, Abdullahi Baffa Bichi, Secretary to the State Government (SSG), said a committee uncovered how Ganduje’s administration undertook mass employment without following guidelines and service regulations. Bichi added that the committee set up to oversee the recruitments made by the previous administration recommended the sack of over 3,000 workers. Ganduje, who is the national chairman of the ruling APC is yet to respond to the allegations. Addressing the matter, Bichi said “The Kano Government…

Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory has claimed that he worked for Rotimi Amaechi to emerge governor of Rivers State in 2007. Wike, a Peoples Democratic Party member, claimed on Friday when he took questions from select journalists at his office in Abuja. Asked about his faceoff with Governor Sim Fubara, Wike was asked if the fallout with his successor (Fubara) was a result of his fallout with his predecessor (Amaechi). Quizzing Wike, one of the journalists said, “Some people will say what goes around, comes around, this is exactly what you did to Rotimi Amaechi” but Wike…

The National Bureau of Statistics has disclosed that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 2.54 percent year-on-year in real terms in the third quarter of 2023. The rate according to the NBS is higher than the 2.25 percent recorded in Q2, 2022, and higher than the second quarter 2023 growth of 2.51 percent. The service industry was responsible for the growth in the quarter.  The NBS in its ‘Nigerian Gross Domestic Product Report (Q3, 2023),’ released on Thursday said, “The performance of the GDP in the third quarter of 2023 was driven mainly by the Services sector, which recorded…

Nyesom Wike, Nigeria’s Minister of the Federal Capital Territory accused Governor Sim Fubara of Rivers State of burning down the State House of Assembly. In a television interview with some journalists, Wike claimed that Fubara burnt the Rivers State House of Assembly to stall his impeachment as governor. Wike, the immediate past governor of Rivers, accused his successor of being an “ingrate”,  stressing that, he should have maintained the structure that made him governor. Asked if he was regretting the decision to handpick Fubara as his successor, he said, “Difficult question. If you ask me truly, within what was available…

Almost half a million people are fleeing fighting between government troops and rebels in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The UN Human Rights Commissioner (UNHCR) reported in Geneva on Friday that the situation was deteriorating in North Kivu Province, which borders Uganda and Rwanda and has long been in crisis. Government forces seek to assert control over the region, which is rich in resources. The UNHCR put the numbers fleeing the fighting at 450,000 and said at least 200,000 of the internally displaced people had been cut off from humanitarian aid. It said human rights violations…

Forward Operating Base (FOB) of the Nigerian Navy, Badagry, Lagos State, on Friday, handed over nine and a half sacks of seized cannabis sativa worth N15.2 million to the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Badagry. Lt. Empire Okorie, the base intelligence officer, representing FOB Commanding, Navy Capt. Aiwuyor Adams-Aliu, said operatives seized the cannabis on Thursday in the Moba community in Badagry. He said the navy acted after an intelligence tip-off about suspected smuggling activities within its area of operation. “Consequently, the Base Quick Response Team, led by Lt Cdr Kelly Umoru, the base operations officer, and myself,…