Category: Featured

A 30-year-old lawyer, Bayo Adedokun, on Wednesday appeared in an Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, Lagos, for allegedly threatening to kill Sen. Buruji Kashamu and Alhaji Muniru Ogunleyetwo over land disagreement.

Adedokun, whose address was not given, is charged with four counts of conspiracy, attempted murder and conduct likely to cause breach of the peace.

He, however, pleaded not guilty.

The Prosecution Counsel, Insp. Steven Molo, told the court that the defendant committed the offence in August at Ogombo village in Eti-Osa area of Lagos.

Molo alleged that the defendant hired 10 thugs to kill the complainants claiming that a portion of land they were occupying belonged to his family.

He said the defendant conducted himself in a manner likely to cause breach of the peace.

The offence, he said, contravenes the provisions of sections 56(a), 168(d), 230(1) and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

Magistrate O.O. Oshin admitted the defendant to bail on self recogintion and ordered him to deposit his certificate of Call to Bar to the court.

Oshin adjourned the case until Nov. 14 for mention. (NAN)

Our Reporter

Manchester United’s current malaise was laid bare as they struggled past third-tier Rochdale 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the League Cup third round at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side, showing nine changes from the one that lost at West Ham United in the Premier League on Sunday, laboured against their League One opponents before taking the lead through Mason Greenwood in the 68th minute.

However, 16-year-old Luke Matheson equalised eight minutes later, to send the tie into a shootout.

United prevailed, although, with keeper Sergio Romero making one save to spare their blushes as the hosts successfully converted all their spot-kicks and Daniel James slotted home the winner.

Although United struggled, they at least avoided the complete humiliation suffered by West Ham United who were thrashed 4-0 at League One Oxford United.

Top flight Bournemouth were also humbled by third-tier opposition, losing 2-0 at Burton Albion.

Sheffield United joined the Premier League clubs to depart the competition as they lost 1-0 at home to Sunderland.

There were no alarms for Premier League leaders Liverpool or Chelsea.

Liverpool won 2-0 at MK Dons to set up a clash with Arsenal while Chelsea crushed Grimsby Town 7-1 to give manager Frank Lampard a first home win since taking over in the summer.

Chelsea will face Manchester United in round four.

Aston Villa won an all Premier League match against Brighton and Hove Albion, prevailing 3-1 to set up a fourth-round meeting with Wolverhampton Wanderers who also needed penalties to get past Championship side Reading. (Reuters/NAN)

Our Reporter

Edo State Government has commenced the removal of sand and debris from drains, manholes and reinjection ponds located within Benin city.

Addressing newsmen at the flood reinjection pond at Ihama axis of the Government Residential Area of Benin on Wednesday, Dame Omua Oni-Okpaku, the Commissioner for Environment and Sustainability , said the desilting was to allow free flow of rain water across the city.

Oni-Okpaku said the cleaning of the drains was also to curb the flooding challenges being experienced within the city centre.

She said the flooding problem in Benin city was man made and caused by silted drains and dumping of refuse in drains and water retention ponds.

Oni-Okpaku called for a change of attitude as regards dumping of refuse in drains, noting that government could not continue to spend money it would have used to build more canals on desilting of drains.

“We have started desilting of drains and water reinjection ponds at flood flash points to curtail the flooding challenge within the city area.

“We have seven reinjection ponds within the city centre and we will desilt them.

“But we cannot continue to desilt gutters, the residents need to understand that they need to clean their gutters and stop dumping refuse in drains,” she explained.

The commissioner said the removal of debris from the reinjection ponds was done once in two years to ensure the ponds were empty to hold rain water.

Meanwhile, Chief Victor Amedu, the contractor from V. Amcon Nig. Ltd, handling the reactivation of the reinjection pond at Ihama, said the pond built about 11 years ago needed to be maintained on a regular basis.

Amedu said the reactivation of the pond would help curb flooding challenges in the area as it could hold 120,000 litres of water per day. (NAN)

Our Reporter

An NGO, Development Communications Network (Devcoms), says majority of young people in Nigeria are not empowered with quality information to make informed decisions about their reproductive health.

Mr Akin Jimoh, DevComs Programme Director, made the assertion on Wednesday in Lagos.

Jimoh spoke as the World mark the 2019 edition of the World Contraception Day slated for Thursday with the theme: “ It’s Your Life, It’s Your Responsibility”.

Development Communications Network is a media support organisation with resources to help journalists in reporting science, public health and social sector issues.

“There is an urgent need to improve awareness of the importance of abstinence as well as contraception to enable young people to make informed choices on their sexual and reproductive health.

“To boost contraceptive prevalence rate and to also serve as a method to curb population explosion, abstinence is a priority recommended means for young people.

“But, in reality for a number of this group, the increase in the use of contraception will help curb teenage pregnancies.

“It will eliminate a scenario whereby a baby who is supposed to still be under the tutelage of her mother is expecting another baby in her womb,”Jimoh said.

According to him, lack of education about responsible sexuality poses a threat to the lives of the girl-child in Nigeria.

He said: “Should Nigeria refuse to take action on unwanted and underage pregnancies, the country will continue to have high rate of unsafe abortion as reported in several studies.

“The 2018 Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 (PMA2020) Abortion Survey Results states that about four to six per cent of women of reproductive age had a likely abortion in the 12 months prior to the study.

“It indicates that 1.8 to 2.7 million abortions occur annually in Nigeria.

“Family planning allows the woman to rest between pregnancies in order to regain her health and strength and enable her to have a healthy child and thereby reducing the incidence of maternal mortality in Nigeria.”

Also, Dr Adeola Duduyemi, Programme Officer Service Delivery, Nigeria Urban Reproductive Initiative (NURHI 2), Lagos, explains: “Family Planning promotes the health and welfare of the entire family and in turn the whole community and nation.

“Family planning is also key to unlocking sustainable development goals.

“It has a long term benefit of breaking the cycle of poverty among families which transcends generations with a ripple effect across the new global development agenda.

“Family Planning will allow us to take bold leaps, better life and secured future for all”.

Duduyemi said that NURHI 2, as a project, support the Lagos State Ministry of Health, Health Service Commission and the Primary Healthcare Board to implement programmes and activities in different thematic areas.

“They include demand generation, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation, life planning for adolescents and youths and service delivery all geared toward increasing demand for family planning.

“It is to create a society where ‘supply and demand’ barriers to family planning are totally eliminated, and family planning becomes a social norm.

“Together let’s help young people, especially make informed choices about their lives and sexual rights,” NURHI 2 programme officer said.

Commenting, Bless-me Ajani, the Youth Programme Officer, NURHI 2, Lagos asserts that “one thing that still echoes very loudly are the numerous barriers and challenges young people face in accessing contraception information and services.

Ajani said: “As a country, this is a time to prioritize the issues around Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health (AYSRH).

“These issues, which are always being discussed year-in-year out without adequate solutions to address them, range from ignorance on the part of the young persons, policy barriers, non-supportive societal environment to judgmental service providers”.

“Devcoms Network believes that the use of family planning should be culturally accepted in all parts of the country and taken as a household name within the married and the unmarried.

“This is to help regulate the population of the country in a way that the resources available to government will be sufficient to provide services to the population at large.

“Interestingly, there has been some improvement in the uptake of contraceptives in some parts of the country through the interventions of several agencies.

“They include the Nigeria Urban Reproductive Initiative,(NURHI 2) project, Pathfinder International, and several other partners who effortlessly advocate for the use of family planning methods to curb unplanned pregnancy, spacing of children, and prevention of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) among other benefits.” (NAN)

Our Reporter

Mohamed Salah appears to have again fallen out with Egypt’s football federation.

This was after the country’s votes for FIFA’s player of the year awards were deemed invalid and therefore did not count towards the striker’s overall tally.

FC Barcelona forward Lionel Messi beat Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk and five-times winner Cristiano Ronaldo to win the award for a record sixth time on Monday.

Salah finished fourth — 20 points behind Messi.

Salah, a national icon in the football-mad African country, removed any reference to Egypt from his official Twitter profile in the wake of Monday’s awards ceremony and his Twitter bio now reads “Footballer for Liverpool FC”.

“Whatever they do to try to change my love for Egypt, they will not succeed,” Salah, who has previously clashed with the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) over image rights, said on Twitter.

The captain and coach of every national football federation affiliated to FIFA get to vote on the player of the year, along with one media representative from each country.

The EFA said captain Ahmed Elmohamady and then-coach Shawky Gharib both picked Salah as their first choice, but their votes were missing from a list released by FIFA.

The omission prompted EFA to write to the global governing body to seek clarification.

The EFA said it sent forms with Elmohamady and Gharib’s votes for Salah well before the deadline.

But FIFA said the forms were invalid because the signatures were in capital letters and they were not signed by the EFA general secretary, which was mandatory.

“The Egyptian FA have received two reminders to submit the properly signed voting forms on Aug. 19, 2019,” a FIFA spokesperson told Reuters in an email.

The Egyptian FA has not submitted a response within the (limited) timeframe until Aug. 21. Therefore, the votes from the Egyptian FA could not be counted.”

FIFA did not clarify if the final standings would have been any different if the votes had been valid.

Although Egypt’s votes from their captain and coach did not count, their media representative Hany Danial’s choices (Sadio Mane, Cristiano Ronaldo and Salah) were listed on FIFA’s website.(NAN)