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No fewer than 94 shops were destroyed on Sunday after a shopping complex in the Yaba area of Lagos was gutted by fire. This is just as two residents of Abeokuta Street, Ebute-Meta, sustained burns in the fire that broke out from the first floor of a two-storeyed building on the street. PUNCH Metro  learnt that the Yaba incident happened around 12.30am with goods worth millions of naira destroyed in the inferno. It was gathered that the fire started from a shop at the back of the Yaba Shopping Complex, before it escalated. However, officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency and firefighters from the state fire service were able to salvage about 117 shops in the complex. An eyewitness, Saka Omoyeni, said inflammable materials in some of the shops fueled the fire. He said, “Materials such as clothes, as well as air conditioners and generators with fuel, made the fire to rage and destroy a lot of shops. The loss was too much.” In the Ebute-Meta incide...

Ifo area. Photo: There was chaos at Iya Abiodun bus stop, Ifo, Ogun State, after a security guard, Abdullahi Muhammed, caught a 60-year-old trailer driver, Lawal Bankole, allegedly having sex with his wife, Tope, on their matrimonial bed. PUNCH Metro  gathered that the two men could have killed each other but for the intervention of residents who separated them. The suspect was said to have fled the scene, but was later arrested after Abdullahi reported the case at the Ifo Police Division. Abdullahi, 45, an indigene of Kano State, told our correspondent that Bankole took advantage of his wife’s mental “condition to rape her.” He said his wife’s mental problem started before he met her. He said, “My wife has mental problem, which started during her first marriage. She had a surgery that time, but there was a complication which led to the problem. Her ex-husband rejected her, saying he could not live with a mentally-ill person. “Her family ...

Transport Minister, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi A consortium of foreign and Nigerian lawyers, representing 26 families, who lost their loved ones in the 2012 Dana Airlines crash in Lagos, has written to the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, demanding the release of the final Nigerian Accident Investigation Bureau report, stating the exact cause of the crash. More than 150 passengers were killed in the crash along with six crew members and 10 members of the public on the ground. Twenty-six families, in a letter by a United Kingdom law firm, Irwin Mitchell, said the failure of the AIB to release the final report on the crash had prevented them from achieving closure four years after the tragedy. The lawyers said the lack of any concrete information on the exact cause of the air crash remained a source of distress for their clients. They said the failure of the AIB to release its final report had constituted a stumbling block to the suits filed by their clients as it had made ...

Tayo Adeyemi The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a 24-year-old suspect, Tayo Adeyemi, who confessed to have been hired to kill a female hotel lodger in the Alakija, Satellite Town area of the state. Adeyemi, who hails from Kwara State, told our correspondent that he was arrested by the police after he sneaked into the hotel, White House, and demanded that his target, simply known as Rosemary, had sex with him so he would spare her life. PUNCH Metro  gathered that Adeyemi, who dropped out of senior secondary school, was arrested by the Satellite Town Police Division last Thursday. It was learnt that penultimate Wednesday, Adeyemi was brought by two gang members on a motorcycle to the hotel to kill Rosemary. However, once Adeyemi laid his eyes on his supposed target, he reportedly fell in love with her and eventually attempted to rape her after she rebuffed his pleas to have sex with him. Rosemary, however, raised the alarm. The hotel management subsequently called t...

Ludovine de La Rochere, president of the anti-gay marriage movement La Manif Pour Tous (Protest for Everyone) gestures as she attends a demonstration organised by the movement 'La Manif pour tous' against what are seen as 'new offensives against the family and education' in Paris on October 16, 2016. Photo: Eric FEFERBERG / AFP Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Paris on Sunday to demonstrate against gay marriage, calling for candidates in France’s presidential election to support “traditional family values”. The march was briefly interrupted by six topless feminist protesters from the Femen group who were quickly surrounded by demonstrators before police intervened. The “Manif Pour Tous” (Protest for Everyone) campaign has been re-activated two years after its last sizeable demonstration. Protesters held signs with slogans such “United for the family” as they made their way towards the Eiffel Tower, many of them waving ...

President Muhammadu Buhari and his wife, Aisha Despite the criticisms that have trailed his comment that his wife, Aisha, belongs to the kitchen and “the other room,” President Muhammadu Buhari says he stands by his earlier comment. He insisted that his wife’s duty was to take care of him, hence, she should stay away from politics. Buhari said this in an interview he granted Deutsche-Welle’s Phil Gayle shortly before he left Berlin, Germany on Saturday. The reporter had asked the President to clarify what he meant by his earlier comment while reacting to an interview his wife granted the Hausa Service of the BBC in which she alleged that her husband’s government had been hijacked. The following discussion ensued between the President and the reporter: Recently your wife criticised your choices for top jobs, and you responded by saying “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room.” Wh...

Bello Abubakar Masaba THE Bida man with over 90 wives, Bello Abubakar Masaba, on Sunday condemned reports making the rounds in some media that he is dead, saying “it is the work of my detractors.” The media had rumoured that Masaba, who had worked as a teacher and Imam, died after a brief sickness in Bida, Niger State. The octogenarian, who spoke on the telephone with our correspondent, said the rumour was baseless, adding that “I’m neither sick nor dead.” He added, “My dear, I am very much alive, hale and hearty. The rumour is baseless. It is the work of my detractors because they are envious of what God is using me to do in the lives of the people. I am talking with you live and direct from my house in Bida. “What I am doing is divine. It is an assignment and I will keep doing it till the end of time. I just want to advise those fighting against me to stop because such people are waging war against God, their Creator.” Masaba had ...

File Photo: MASSOB Members The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, on Sunday, threatened to organise an ‘internal revolution’ against political, traditional, religious and opinion leaders in Igboland. MASSOB, which issued the threat in a statement signed by its leader, Comrade Uchenna Madu, said Igbo leaders were ‘insensitive’ to the plight of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, and other detained pro-Biafra activists. Madu said, “The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra blasts Igbo religious, traditional, political and opinion leaders for their nonchalant and insensitive attitude towards the plight of detained Biafra agitators in Nigerian prisons. “MASSOB charge Igbo leaders to rise up now in defence of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu, David Nwawuisi, Innocent Orji, Sabastine Amadi, Benjamin Onwuka and other detained Biafra agitators across ...

Authorities of the University of Lagos have expelled 125 students and rusticated 198 others for various offences, including examination malpractices during the last academic session. The lists of the affected students were published on the university’s website on Sunday. The institution’s Deputy Registrar (Information), Mr. Toyin Adebule, confirmed the expulsion and rustication to the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Sunday, Adebule told NAN that the university “will soon publish and display the names and photographs of the students in the media.’’ He said that the action was in line with the university’s zero tolerance for malpractices and other vices on campus. “Yes, we have published some names on our website and these students will be punished in various degrees, depending on the severity. “Last session, a number of students were caught in various forms of malpractices during their examinations. “Some were found cheati...

Dangote The management of Dangote Industries Limited on Sunday announced that it had completed the acquisition of Twister BV, a company in the Netherlands, as part of its strategy to meet Nigeria’s gas needs. According to a statement by Dangote, Twister BV provides robust solutions in natural gas processing and separation to the upstream and midstream oil and gas sectors. It said Twister’s separation capabilities were designed to augment production and streamline processes to capitalise on high-yield gas processing for maximising revenues. Twister BV used to be owned by Shell Technology Ventures Fund 1 before its recent acquisition by DIL and its partner, First E&P, the statement said. The President, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, was quoted as saying, “This was an important acquisition for us. Twister’s cutting-edge gas processing technology is fundamental to delivering our strategy to u nlock about three billion cubic feet per day of gas i...

Clinton and Trump Donald Trump fired off an erratic new broadside at Hillary Clinton Sunday, doubling down on the explosive claim that American media are colluding with his Democratic rival to rig the presidential election against him. Amid the latest blast from Trump, his Republican running mate Mike Pence sought to bring tensions down a notch by insisting his camp would accept defeat if that’s what voters decide three weeks from now, on November 8. Two polls out on Sunday — and carried out in time to gauge voter reaction to the slew of sexual misconduct allegations against Trump that emerged last week — put Clinton ahead. But they did so by vastly different numbers: an ABC News/Washington Post survey had Clinton four points ahead while an NBS News/Wall Street Journal poll put her margin at 11 points. Trump, in a burst of tweets overnight and early Sunday, said repeatedly that US media are rigging the election by hammering away at what he calls fabricated a...

Justices Adeniyi Ademola and Nnamdi Dimgba A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Olukoya Ogungbeje, has filed a N50bn suit against President Muhammadu Buhari, the Department of State Services and its Director-General, Lawal Daura, along with others for allegedly violating the rights of judges whose houses were raided by DSS operatives between October 8 and 9. Others joined as defendants in the suit with number, FHC/ABJ/CS/809/16, are the Attorney- General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and the National Judicial Council. Ogungbeje filed the suit before the Federal High Court in Abuja on October 14. He alleged that the arrest of the judges without recourse to the NJC was unlawful and amounted to humiliating them. He said the DSS operations violated the rights of judges under sections 33, 34, 35, 36, and 41 of the Constitution. The plaintiff sought 10 prayers, among which is an order awarding N50bn against the defen...

Freed Chibok girls The President of Christ Apostolic Church, Worldwide, Pastor Abraham Akinosun, on Friday commended President Muhammadu Buhari over the release of 21 out of the over 200 girls abducted in their school in Chibok, Borno State in 2014. He said whatever method used to ensure the release of the girls was immaterial as the end justified the means. The clergyman, who had earlier paid a courtesy visit on Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, spoke at the Pastors’ Conference of the church. The pastor said, “We are very happy at the release of the girls. “Some were saying Boko Haram prisoners were exchanged for the girls, some said they were freely released, whatever the method used, the end seems to justify the means. “All we are after is for the rest of the girls to be released to join their families. That is what will give us lasting happiness.” He urged the President to expedite action on the release of the remain...

  Hillary Clinton Three of Hillary Clinton’s paid speeches to Goldman Sachs were released Saturday by WikiLeaks, casting an awkward spotlight on the Democrat’s ties to the biggest players on Wall Street in the final stretch of the White House race. Clinton’s campaign did not contest the authenticity of the remarks, which were part of a huge trove of documents hacked from the emails of campaign chairman John Podesta by WikiLeaks. The campaign has blamed the Russian government for the hacks, a view shared by the US government, and accused the anti-secrecy website of seeking to help Clinton’s Republican rival for the presidency Donald Trump. Among other issues, Clinton is shown in the speeches offering opinions on financial regulations, relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the negative effects of previous WikiLeaks releases on US foreign policy. Clinton’s remarks are not dramatically out of step with her public remarks on the same iss...

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton / AFP PHOTO / DESK Donald Trump has challenged his rival Hillary Clinton to a drug test before their next debate, suggesting the Democrat was “pumped up” on performance-enhancing drugs in a stunning new twist to the brutal White House race. The unsubstantiated attack from the Republican nominee came as a new poll out Sunday shows Clinton with a four-point lead over her Republican rival, suggesting that Trump still holds a solid core of voters despite a week of snowballing claims of sexual misconduct that have thrown his presidential campaign into chaos. Trump has trampled all conventions in his treatment of his opponent, vowing if elected to jail her over her email practices as secretary of state — and making “Lock Her Up” a rallying cry for his fired-up supporters. His campaign has actively fueled right-wing conspiracy theories about Clinton’s health...