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Ondo State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, (SAN), on Saturday described Nigeria’s dependence on other countries for infrastructure development and basic means of sustenance as embarrassing. Akeredolu made this known shortly after he was conferred with an honorary doctorate degree by the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State. Other awardees present were the Chief Executive Officer of the Ibru Organisation, Olorogun Oskar Ibru; and son of a former Deputy Senate President, Alhaji Umar Mantu. The governor explained that with Nigeria’s investment in human capital development, it ought to depend mainly on the expertise of “those whose trainings have gobbled huge investments from the commonwealth, to abridge the wide gap in infrastructure deficit”.  “At this stage, considering where we were, especially in this part of the country during the first republic, we should be far less dependent on other nations of the world for basic means of sustenance. It ...

After the star-studded #BAAD2017 traditional wedding which went down on Sunday, followed by the court wedding during the week, the last leg of the wedding party going down in South Africa on Saturday. It is also full of celebrities like the traditional wedding. Here are some of the photos from the event.

A late night inferno early on Tuesday morning gutted five of eight shops attached to a Union Bank building on 411 Road Junction, Gowon Estate, Federal Housing Authority, Egbeda. The fire began at the makeshift shops at about 11.20 pm shortly after electricity supply was taken by the providers, Ikeja Electric. However, many of the shop owners had closed and gone home. The youth in the area had contained the fire before the arrival of the men of the Lagos State Fire Service about an hour after the inferno started. The residents and sympathisers, who urged the state government to install water hydrants and fire notices all over the estate, lamented that some of the areas marked for the development of infrastructure for sports, fire service stations and recreation had been sold to individuals by the FHA. “The areas meant for these purposes have been built up. The last is the Kuwait Field which used to house sports facilities, including football, basketball, tennis and others ha...

A Chinese general has killed himself in his Beijing home after becoming the latest top official ensnared by President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign, state media said Tuesday. Zhang Yang, a member of the state’s Central Military Commission, was being investigated over connections to two graft-tainted former senior military officers when he hanged himself on November 23, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Xi promised during last month’s Communist Party congress to intensify graft crackdowns which have already brought down 1.5 million party officials of various levels — including top military brass — since 2012. Zhang, 66, was previously head of the state military commission’s political work department. Before the congress, he was also part of the Communist Party’s Central Military Commission. Members of the two bodies overlap. According to Xinhua, which cited a commission statement, Zhang “gravely violated d...

The former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, has spoken out on the allegations of corruption levelled against him. He also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to allow him prove his innocence in the cases he is currently enmeshed in. Maina made the call in an exclusive interview with Channels Television broadcast on Monday during its  News At 10 programme. He said, “Thank God our President stands for the truth, the unfortunate thing is that some people around him whom he has given trust are lying to him; this one I can attest to and I can give you instances, I can give you documentary evidence,” Maina said. “I’m appealing to you Mr President, there are so many things people are not telling you; when I get to that public hearing I will tell you some things that nobody ever told you Mr President because I never had the opportunity to sit down with you.” Trouble started for Maina in 2015 when he w...

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Tuesday that any African can get a visa on arrival in Kenya, and will be free to settle in the country if they marry a Kenyan, removing restrictions on some nations. “If you wish and find a willing partner, you can marry and settle in Kenya,” he said during his inauguration address, saying the move was designed to cement African ties. “This commitment we make again with no requirement for reciprocity.”

Around 600 African migrants were rescued off the coast of Spain in 24 hours, a sea rescue patrol said Saturday. The Guardia Civil and Salvamento Maritimo rescue service added that operations to recover further migrants were still underway. Spain is the third busiest gateway for migrants arriving in Europe, but far behind Italy and Greece. However, the number of people arriving by sea in Spain has nearly tripled over the last year to 17,687. Many Africans undertaking the long route to Europe are choosing to avoid crossing danger-ridden Libya to get to Italy along the so-called central Mediterranean route and choosing instead to get there via Morocco and Spain. On Saturday, most of the migrants arrived in the south-eastern region of Murcia, where 431 people aboard 41 makeshift boats were discovered. Patrols found more than 110 people in the Alboran Sea, between Morocco and Spain’s Andalusian coast. Operations were also conducted in the Strait of Gibraltar, recovering 48 peop...

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday set aside its June 30, 2017, interim order of forfeiture of the sums of N500m and $500,000 allegedly looted from the Zamfara State’s share of the Paris Club refunds made by the Federal Government. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had alleged that the Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, diverted the money from the state government’s account to two firms; First Generation Mortgage Bank Ltd and Gosh Projects Limited, from which the funds were allegedly recovered. Justice Nnamdi Dimgba on Friday dismissed EFCC’s application for an order of final forfeiture of the money to the Federal Government. The judge ruled that it would be “an unjust, inequitable and irresponsible exercise” of his judicial powers under section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act to gloss over the claims and go ahead to make the final forfeiture order. “I do not believe that this provision should be available where the abs...

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party will meet on Sunday to discuss removing him as president, a government MP and a party official told AFP. “There’s a central committee meeting (on Sunday) to endorse the resolutions reached by the provinces,” said the MP. The parliamentarian, who declined to be named, referred to the decision by eight of the party’s ten regional committees on Friday to call for Mugabe to resign as president and party leader. “Yes we are meeting (Sunday) to endorse the decisions of the nine provinces,” said the party official who confirmed that a further region had called on Mugabe to go since Friday night’s announcement. “We are also recalling him as the president and first secretary of the party,” said the source who also declined to be named. The meeting comes after tens of thousands of overjoyed protesters flooded Zimbabwe’s streets on Saturday, celebrating the crumbling o...

Embattled President Robert Mugabe will meet on Sunday with the army chiefs who took over Zimbabwe in a bid to end the crisis that has gripped the nation, state TV said. “President Robert Mugabe will meet the commander-elect of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (on Sunday),” said the ZBC broadcaster, citing father Fidelis Mukonori, the catholic priest who is chairing the talks between Mugabe and the military. The announcement of the crunch talks comes after tens of thousands of overjoyed protesters flooded Zimbabwe’s streets on Saturday, celebrating the crumbling of Mugabe’s ruthless regime which had controlled the country for nearly 40 years. The mass turnout came after an unprecedented week in which the military seized power and put Mugabe under house arrest in response to his sacking of vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Pius Anyim, for allegedly collecting N520m from the embattled former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), on the eve of the 2015 presidential election. The EFCC also accused the former SGF of giving N13bn contracts to companies linked to him. The money was said to be part of the N58bn Ecological Fund he handled while he was the SGF between 2011 and 2015. Anyim, who also served as the Senate President from 2000 to 2003, is the most senior former government official ever to be arrested by the EFCC. A source at the EFCC said Anyim was previously invited by the anti-graft agency but he refused to show up. The commission was said to have obtained a search warrant and stormed his house on Thursday evening and searched the entire house and arrested him. The source said, “Anyim was arrested on Thursday, November 16, by operatives of the anti-graft agenc...

Thousands of Zimbabweans flooded the streets of Harare on Saturday, waving national flags and singing and dancing in an outpouring of elation at the expected fall of President Robert Mugabe. “These are tears of joy,” Frank Mutsindikwa, 34, told Reuters, holding aloft the Zimbabwean flag. “I’ve been waiting all my life for this day. Free at last. We are free at last.” NAN reports that on Friday, President Ian Khama of Botswana urged Mugabe to end his attempts to remain in office after the military seized power, as he has no regional diplomatic support to stay in power. The military intervention, which political sources say could pave the way to a national unity government after 37 years of Mugabe rule, also presented “an opportunity to put Zimbabwe on a path to peace and prosperity”, Khama told Reuters. “I don’t think anyone should be President for that amount of time. We are Presidents, we are not monarchs. It’s just com...

AS the people of Anambra State decide who occupies the position of the state governor today (Saturday), there is palpable fear that the election could be marred by violence. This is happening amid fears of bomb blast in Onitsha. Some residents of the state were seen gathered in different groups to discuss, in trepidation, what the outcome of the election might be. It was also observed that security had been beefed up at public places with units of armed policemen stationed at strategic locations. Some other Anambra residents, who spoke with  Saturday PUNCH,  expressed their readiness to vote while many others pointed out that they had their reasons to be afraid that the exercise could be marred by violence. A resident of the state, Ifeanyi Ogockukwu, from Ihiala Local Government Area and a computer operator, said, “I will remain indoors tomorrow (today) until I notice that everywhere is calm because I do not know what it will look like. “But I will come out ...

A teenager has died after she was apparently electrocuted in her sleep by her iPhone cable. Le Thi Xoan, 14, is believed to have touched the charging cable which was broken and is not believed to have been a charger issued with the phone. Police in Hanoi, Vietnam, said they discovered the burned white cable on her bed and say that a tear in the rubber casing exposed the live wires. The broken end of the cable appears to have been taped up in a bid to prevent further damage. She was discovered unconscious by her parents and taken to hospital where efforts were made to save her life but she was later declared dead. Doctors confirmed that she had died as a result of electrocution. Investigators said she regularly slept with her iPhone on her bed while it was plugged in to charge overnight. They said the tragedy likely struck as she slept and rolled onto the iPhone’s charging cable, which had tears in it and which electrocuted her with the current. The charging cable is bein...

The Anti-Kidnapping unit of the Imo State Police Command has arrested a couple, Ifeanyi Anyanwu and Amarachi Ugorji, for allegedly stealing and selling a two-year-old boy, Ikechukwu Nwachukwu, for N500,000. The couple allegedly stole the child on August 28 from his parents in Umuozu-Uguiri in the Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of the state. PUNCH Metro , however, learnt that prior to the incident, Anyanwu and Ugorji had sold their first child on credit to a man in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Andrew Enwerem, during a parade on Wednesday, said in the latest incident, the couple kidnapped and sold Nwachukwu for N500,000 to one Ifeanyinwa Duru. Duru was said to have resold the  boy to one Mrs. Chidinma Emmanuel, for N700,000. The police spokesperson, who described the development as worrisome, said the couple, Duru and Emmanuel were nabbed in Aba, Abia State, adding that the child was rescued unhurt. Enwerem said, “On Augu...

Tragedy struck in Umueze community, in the Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State on Wednesday, after the traditional ruler of the community, Eze Opara, allegedly killed a 25-year-old graduate, Uchenna Opara, aka Junior. Our correspondent, who visited the community in the early hours of Thursday, was informed by residents that the incident occurred on around 6.15pm at the community’s primary school playground. When our correspondent visited the palace of the traditional ruler, scores of youths were seen setting the palace ablaze, including destroying the suspect’s Nissan car. An oil mill belonging to the monarch, which was a stone’s throw from the palace, was not spared, as the enraged youths set it ablaze as well. The youth leader of the community, Bethel Iwuoha, told  PUNCH Metro  that while one of the security guards of the monarch, Atuonye Opara, allegedly cocked the pump-action rifle, Eze allegedly pulled the trigger. Iwuoha said immediately ...

A Cameraman with the Anambra Broadcasting Service, Mr Ikechukwu Onubogu, has been found dead four days after he was declared missing by members of his family. Although the cause of his death remained sketchy, the  News Agency of Nigeria  gathered that the late Onubogu, who was at home with his wife, was said to have received a phone call in the afternoon on Nov. 12. Sources said the deceased, thereafter, took his camera and left his home, located near the popular Aroma Junction in Awka but never returned. His remains, now deposited at the Amaku Teaching Hospital, Awka, were reportedly discovered on Thursday by men of the Nigerian Police Force at Obosi, near Onitsha. The Managing Director of ABS, Mr Uche Nworah, in a statement on Friday, described late Onubogu as a “peace loving man that you would never expect that anybody would want to harm him’’. “The horrific death of our beloved and hardworking staff, Onubogu, has thrown the entire ABS family ...

A national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Thursday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to do more to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians. He said although the administration had achieved a lot in the two years of its existence, too many Nigerians were still too poor to be ignored. Tinubu made the call in his keynote address at the public presentation of a book, “Making Steady, Sustainable Progress for Nigeria’s Peace and Prosperity” at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The 360-page book is a mid-term scorecard of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration authored by the Presidential Media Team. The former Lagos State governor said though the present administration worked hard to fix the country, it must recognised the situation of millions of people who had been denied for a long time and were still suffering. He said, “True, much good has been done by this government to ignore. However, too many of...

Wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, on Thursday asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to set aside the order made on May 30,2017 freezing her 16 separate bank accounts with the cumulative sums of $5.8m  and N3.5 bn. As her grounds of the application, she contended that court’s orders of interim forfeiture including a subsequent one issued on October 10, 2017 had expired. She contended that the order could not be extended on the  grounds that it was originally obtained by an improper use of court process by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. She claimed in an affidavit filed in support of the application that the sums of money belonged to herself, her Ariwabai Aruera Reachout Foundation, and nine other companies. According to her, the Federal High Court in Abuja had on May 30 , 2017 granted an ex parte order in favour of the Federal Government against all the accounts owned and operated by them. The affidavit stated in par...

The Zimbabwean’s President, Robert Mugabe, has refused to resign after a military coup, insisting that he remains the only legitimate ruler of the country. But pressure is mounting on the 93-year-old former guerrilla to accept offers of a graceful exit, sources said on Thursday. A political source, who spoke to senior allies holed up with Mugabe and his wife, Grace, in his lavish “Blue Roof” Harare compound, said Mugabe had no plans to resign voluntarily ahead of elections scheduled for next year. “It is a sort of stand-off, a stalemate. They are insisting the President must finish his term,” Reuters  quoted the source as saying. The army’s takeover signalled the collapse in less than 36 hours of the security, intelligence and patronage networks that sustained Mugabe through 37 years in power and built him into the “Grand Old Man” of African politics. A priest mediating between Mugabe and the generals, who seized power on Wedne...

The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Sen. Ita Enang, says Nigeria Peace Corps Bill is yet to be presented to the President for assent. He said at the  News Agency of Nigeria  Forum in Abuja that the bill was yet to complete its legislative process at the National Assembly. Enang said that he was unaware of any bill that had been passed by the legislature that was pending before Buhari for his endorsement. “I have heard some members of the public saying that the Petroleum Industry Bill has been passed and has not been assented to. “Some said that the Peace Corp Bill has been passed and sent to the president and has not been signed or that it is already a law and people have started buying forms. “Some said that they have started sowing uniform and that some states have started operations, as if Peace Corp, as if it were, is a law. “I want to use this opportunity to say the Peace Corp le...

The U.S. is seeking “a new era” for Zimbabwe, the State Department’s top official for Africa said, implicitly calling on long-time President Robert Mugabe to step aside as a political crisis mounts. In an interview with Reuters, acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Donald Yamamoto appeared to dismiss the idea of Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years, remaining in a transitional or ceremonial role. “It’s a transition to a new era for Zimbabwe, that’s really what we’re hoping for,” Yamamoto said. Zimbabwe’s army seized power on Wednesday, in an apparent effort to prevent Mugabe, 93, from handing power to his wife. He has not resigned or been formally deposed, however, and he was pictured on Thursday shaking hands with the military chief, Constantino Chiwenga. Yamamoto, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with African Union officials at the State Department in Washington, described the situation in Zim...

Qatar has set a temporary minimum wage for migrant workers worth around $200 a month, its labour minister said Thursday, a benchmark reform following widespread criticism of Doha’s preparations for the 2022 World Cup. Issa al-Nuaimi told AFP that the “temporary minimum wage of 750 riyals ($195, 166 euro) per month will immediately come into effect”, while officials work on setting a permanent rate. In addition to the new salary, labourers will receive free accommodation, food and healthcare plans, covered by employers, he said. Introducing a minimum wage was among a package of major labour changes announced last month by Qatar, which has come under continued global scrutiny and criticism for its treatment of some two million migrant workers. Qatar has never before had a minimum wage policy, and officials said the 750 riyals figure could increase after a review. “We will not approve any employment contract if the salary is below 750 Qatari ri...

President Robert Mugabe attended a university graduation ceremony on Friday, making his first public appearance since military generals took control of Zimbabwe earlier this week. In a display of defiance, Mugabe, 93, arrived at the ceremony in the capital Harare, dressed in a blue academic gown and tasselled hat, an AFP correspondent reported. The generals took over late on Tuesday after vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa was sacked and Mugabe’s wife Grace emerged in prime position to succeed her increasingly frail husband. Zimbabwe was left stunned by the military intervention sparked by the bitter succession battle between Grace and Mnangagwa, 75. Analysts say the military leadership was strongly opposed to Grace’s rise, while Mnangagwa has close ties to the defence establishment. Mugabe and the army chiefs held talks on Friday as the takeover appeared to signal his imminent exit from office after 37 years in power since Zimbabwe won independence from Britain in 198...