Ibadan
Minister: Over 60 workers contracted coronavirus during Lagos-Ibadan rail project
Over 60 workers, who were working on the Lagos-Ibadan rail, tested positive for coronavirus while trying to complete the project, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has said. Mr Ameachi disclosed this, on Monday, on a Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) programme, Good Morning Nigeria. The rail project, which was delivered recently, and had since been in use, is the second rail project completed in 2020. The Itakpe-Warri was the first and was commissioned on September 29, 2020. The minister had disclosed at the inauguration of elected members of the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria (CIoTA) that the Lagos-Ibadan rail will be commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari, in January 2021. He, however, said the commissioning will be put on hold, due to the u...
Edo APC to appeal Abuja high court judgement
The chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Col David Imuse (rtd), has said that the party would appeal Saturday’s judgement by the Federal High Court, Abuja, which dismissed the alleged certificate forgery suit filed against Governor Godwin Obaseki by the party. The presiding judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, had on Saturday dismissed the suit filed by the APC and a chieftain of the party, Williams Edobor, on the conclusion that the plaintiffs failed to prove their allegations of forgery against Governor Obaseki as it is expected in every criminal matter. “Allegation of forgery borders on crime which must be proved beyond reasonable doubt. In the instant case, no iota of evidence talk-less of a proof beyond reasonable doubt was bro...
Man docked for ‘stealing’ chicken breeders
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) on Friday brought a 48-year-old security man, Peter Sanbe, before an Iyaganku Chief Magistrates’ Court, Ibadan, for allegedly stealing chicken breeders. Newsmen report that Sanbe of an undisclosed address, was docked on a three-count charge bordering on conspiracy, stealing and unlawful neglect of duty. According to the Prosecutor, Insp. Catherine Michael, Sanbe and others still at large, did conspire to commit the offence. Michael said that Sanbe, who was employed on Dec. 9, 2020 by NASTECH Farm, allegedly stole 84 chicken breeders on Dec. 30, 2020. She alleged that the chicken breeders valued N420,000, belonged to the defendant’s employer, located at Alako area, Ido, Ibadan. “Sanbe was also charged for allegedly neglecting his duty post unlawfully when the ...
One dead, three injured as cocoa house elevator crashes in Ibadan
A middle aged man was Wednesday confirmed dead after an elevator crashed at the Cocoa House building in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. Newsmen learnt that three other people were also injured when the elevator at the high rise building in the ancient city crashed. The Cocoa House was said to have been built with proceeds from cocoa by the then government of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was the Premier of the Western Region. The building as at now is being managed by the Odua Investment Company Limited, which is owned by the six states of the South-west. It was gathered that the elevator was being repaired Wednesday before it crashed and fell on people working on it. The Head of Corporate Affairs, Odua Investment Company Limited, Mr. Victor Ayetoro, while confirming the death of one pers...
Court orders Governor Obaseki to open defence in ‘certificate forgery’ case
The All Progressives Congress, APC, on Monday, closed the forgery case it instituted against Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, after it called a total of six witnesses and tendered 17 Exhibits. Lead counsel to the APC, Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, announced decision of the party to rest its case, shortly after the court discharged the sixth witness, PW-6, Dr. Mikano Asekome, who is an Associate Professor in Banking and Finance Department at Benson Idahosa University, Benin city, Edo state. The PW-6 told the court that he was on December 23, 2020, summoned to appear as witness in the matter. The witness went ahead and tendered in evidence, the original copy of his certificate in Agricultural-Economics, which the University of Ibadan awarded to him on July 31, 1978. Under cross-examination, ...
Police move to rescue abducted Oyo farmer
The Oyo State Police Command said it is making frantic efforts to rescue Mr Oluwole Agboola, a farmer, who was abducted on Monday by six gunmen allegedly dressed in Army uniform. Agboola, who owns a piggery and fish farm at Nagbede Village in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State, was reportedly kidnapped in his farm at about 6.30 p.m. SP Olugbenga Fadeyi, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday in Ibadan. Fadeyi stated that the community had also intensified its efforts to complement the deployment of security operatives in the area to rescue the victim. He added that the Moniya Divisional Station and other security agencies in the state swung into action immediately they received information about the kidnap. “Search party...
Archbishop advises youths not to be agents of destruction
General Overseer of Holy Ghost Royal House of Restoration, the Supreme Archbishop Emmanuel Ojo, on Sunday in Ibadan urged Nigerian youths not to turn themselves into agents of destruction. He also admonished youths to be peaceful while making demands of government and to also embark on job creation rather than seeking government’s jobs. The cleric gave the advice at a press conference on the Church’s Royal Festival of Praise coming up on Jan. 23, 2021. He said Nigerian youths who are the future of the country must not destroy the country for their unborn generation. Ojo, who said he was not always happy seeing youths without future plans, added that “now that Year 2020 is over youths must change their characters and focus on right thoughts.’’ He also called on governments to continue to do...
Official: Amotekun corps never killed anybody in Ibadan
The Commandant of Oyo State Security Network, codenamed Amotekun Corps, Col Olayinka Olayanju (retd), has dismissed the media report that operatives of the agency opened gunfire on some residents of Ibadan, killed two and injured many. He confirmed that there was a crisis around Born Photo and Isale Osi area, where the men of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) faction of late Dr Frederick Fasehun, was trying to deal with some hoodlums. According to him, the operatives of Amotekun Corps were invited and its operatives went to the scene. The personnel of the agency that went to the scene, he said were returning from an operation, where a Lebanese man was rescued from his abductors on December 15. The incident reportedly occurred at Asaka area of Ibadan. But two persons and many other people, a...
Nigeria loses 250,000 babies to preventable, treatable causes annually – experts
Despite the global efforts to end preventable newborn deaths by 2030, through the Sustainable Development Goal 3.2, experts have raised the alarm that Nigeria loses over 250,000 babies yearly due to preventable and treatable causes, even as the country ranks second highest globally in infant deaths. According to a Professor of Paediatrics at the College of Medicine University of Lagos, and Clinical Lead, Newborn Essential Solution and Technologies, NEST360, Professor Chinyere Ezeaka, with current slow progress, it may take Nigerian 100 years to meet the goal. Ezeaka identified causes of newborn deaths in Nigeria to include prematurity, infections, birth asphyxia, congenital abnormalities among others, she said these would be reduced with the wide-scale adoption of comprehensive newborn car...
Air passengers decry upsurge in fares, seek urgent attention to roads, railway
Nigerians, who travel by air, have decried the “sudden” upsurge in air fares and urged the Federal Government to intervene to avoid poor patronage that could dwindle the fortunes of the aviation industry. Newsmen report that the air fares shot up by about 100 per cent in the last one week, with some airline operators even raising their fares by as much as 120 per cent or more. At Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, the fare from Abuja to Lagos, which was N35,300 (Economy Class), rose to between N70,000 and N75,000. Newsmen found that Business Class travellers were charged between N100,000 and N120,000, depending on the airline. Our correspondents, who visited other airports across the country, found that the rise in airfares was the same, a situation that forced some passengers to...
Man arrested with stolen car in Ogun
A Lagos-based car wash operator, Idris Ayotunde, who absconded with a customer’s car, has been arrested in Odeda, Ogun State. Ayotunde was arrested at Alakija village via Olodo at the weekend by Safer Highway Patrol team who were on stop-and-search duty on the Abeokuta/Ibadan expressway. The team stopped the car and demanded for its documents, and when Ayotunde could not produce them, he was taken to the Odeda Divisional Headquarters where the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Ajayi Williams, interrogated him, and discovered he stole the car. Police spokesman Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a statement yesterday, said the suspect, who claimed to be an ND holder, confessed to joining a car wash at Jimoh Bus Stop, Shasha-Akowonjo, Lagos State, recently. Abimbola noted that the car owner, Mrs. Tosin Shof...
Governor Fayemi mourns Harry Akande’s demise
Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has commiserated with the family of the late business mogul and former Presidential aspirant, Chief Harry Akande, who passed on Saturday, aged 77. In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Yinka Oyebode, the Governor described Akande’s death as an unfortunate and irreparable loss not only to members of his family and the good people of Oyo State but to the nation at large. The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum said the late Akande worked his way to the top, built a solid business empire and became influential across the globe through dint of hard work, brilliance and diligence. Fayemi said the Ibadan-born Billionaire ventured into the Nigerian politics with the intent of using politics as a tool for social and economic change, but could n...
