Author: Opalim Lifted

Christ Apostolic Church Oke Isegun in Eruku returned to worship on Sunday with a quiet service marked by grief and determination. Only a fraction of the usual congregation gathered inside the blood-stained hall, five days after armed men stormed the church, killed three people, and took thirty-eight others away. The service ran for about an hour, centred on prayers for the safe return of the abducted members and for the repose of the dead. Pastor Bamidele Lawrence urged the congregation to hold firm. He said he believed the captives would be rescued and compared their ordeal to the ancient trials…

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has secured a landmark judgment from the Federal High Court in Abuja directing President Bola Tinubu to release the long-awaited forensic audit report on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and publish the names of those implicated in the alleged diversion of more than six trillion naira between 2000 and 2019. Justice Gladys Olotu delivered the ruling on 10 November in response to an FOI suit filed by SERAP in 2021. The certified true copy of the judgment was obtained last week. The court held that the audit report and the list of…

Fatima Bosch of Mexico has been crowned Miss Universe 2025 in a grand finale held in Bangkok, Thailand. The event ended on November 21 with Bosch receiving the crown from the 2024 winner, Victoria Kjaer Theilvig of Denmark. In a closely contested final round, Miss Mexico prevailed over Praveneer Singh of Thailand, who finished as first runner-up. The top twelve also featured contestants from Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Guadeloupe, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, China, the Philippines, Malta, and Côte d’Ivoire. Nigeria’s representative, Onyinyechi Basil, did not advance to the initial top thirty. Bosch’s route to the title faced difficulties. Days before the…

Riley Moore, a member of the United States House of Representatives, has asked the Nigerian government to pardon Sunday Jackson, a man sentenced to death for killing an attacker in self-defence. Jackson was working on his farm when a suspected herder armed with a knife attempted to attack him. He overpowered the assailant during the struggle, and the herder died from the injuries. In 2021, an Adamawa High Court sentenced Jackson to death, ruling that he could have escaped instead of stabbing his attacker. On March 7, the Supreme Court upheld the judgement. Speaking during a congressional hearing on allegations…

Cloudflare has said the sweeping internet breakdown seen on Tuesday came from a fault inside its own system rather than an external attack. The issue pushed major platforms offline for a time, with X, OpenAI, Canva and Spotify among the companies hit. Several leading Nigerian newsrooms, including TheCable, Premium Times, Nairametrics, Punch and The Nation, were also affected. Dane Knecht, the firm’s chief technology officer, offered an apology and accepted responsibility. He said a hidden flaw in a core service linked to Cloudflare’s bot-mitigation tools collapsed after a routine configuration change. The failure weakened traffic across the company’s network and…

The leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele, has blasted President Bola Tinubu over the killings and kidnappings experienced lately in Nigeria. Primate Ayodele, in a statement signed by his media aide, Osho Oluwatosin, described the situation as a shame, especially for the fact that some officials of the government went to the US for a meeting regarding insecurity and the threats issued by Donald Trump. Ayodele stated that the president’s responsibility is to ensure every Nigerian is secured, and that if the president can’t make that happen, he should resign from his position and let someone else…

Liverpool’s season of abject misery worsened as they were beaten with embarrassing ease by a hugely impressive Nottingham Forest at Anfield. Arne Slot’s Premier League champions were looking to bounce back from a heavy defeat at Manchester City, but instead ran into a Forest side revitalised under new manager Sean Dyche and looking back to their best. Liverpool head coach Slot gave £125m British record signing Alexander Isak a start, but he was totally anonymous once more and only lasted 67 minutes. Nottingham went ahead after 33 minutes when defender Murillo shot powerfully past fit-again Liverpool keeper Alisson to subdue…

A British court has ordered Joseph James O’Connor to hand over $5.4m million in Bitcoin linked to the notorious 2020 Twitter breach that exposed the accounts of several global figures. The scam struck at the height of the US election season and saw the profiles of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk and others used to push fraudulent cryptocurrency requests. O’Connor, now 26, admitted charges of computer intrusion, wire fraud and extortion in the United States and received a five-year sentence in 2023. He was arrested in Spain two years earlier before being extradited when the country’s High Court agreed…

Orji Uzor Kalu says President Bola Tinubu was set to travel to Kebbi soon after the abduction of 25 students from Government Girls Comprehensive Senior Secondary School, Maga, but security agencies advised him to stay back in Abuja. The senator explained in a video posted on his Facebook page that the president had intended to visit the state in person. According to him, officials urged caution, and the vice president travelled in his place. Kashim Shettima has since returned to brief the president on the situation. Kalu added that Tinubu had cancelled planned engagements in South Africa, Angola and other…

Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez delivered a comfortable 2-0 win at Burnley to lift Chelsea to second in the Premier League. The opener came when Neto met Jamie Gittens’ cross at the far post, while Fernandez sealed victory with a late run into the box after a counter-attack involving Neto and substitute Marc Guiu. The Blues rarely moved out of second gear during the 90 minutes and were able to rest unused substitute Moises Caicedo, with matches against Barcelona and Arsenal to come. However, resting players looked a gamble early on as Burnley started brightly, with Jaidon Anthony having two…