Former US President Donald Trump has said he has no plans to form a new political party, promising instead to unite a Republican Party that has splintered after his supporters overran the United States Capitol in a deadly riot.
In his first major speech since he left the White House last month, Trump said the GOP is “going to unite and be stronger than ever before”.
“I am not starting a new party. That was fake news,” he told the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Sunday afternoon.
“We will be united and strong like never before. We will save and strengthen America and we will fight the onslaught of radicalism, socialism and indeed, it all leads to communism,” said Trump, who spent much of his speech hitting out at US President Joe Biden.
Trump repeated his false claims the November presidential election was stolen from him and also hinted at another possible presidential run.
“They just lost the White House,” Trump said. “But who knows, who knows, I may even decide to beat them for a third time.”
Reality TV star, Laycon, has finally reacted to mockers over his oversized shoe he wore to the recently held Headies Awards.
Laycon born Olamilekan Agbeleshe performed at the 14th Headies Awards and he was dragged for wearing shoes bigger than the size of his feet which made him look weird on stage.
However, in an interesting revelation made by Laycon while addressing a gathering said that the it was a decision he took deliberately to wear a big shoe so he could take giant steps for others behind him to follow.
In his words,
“every step I take is a big step, and I needed a big shoe for that so that it would create a footstep for others to follow and be successful.”
Davido appears to have turned fiancee Chioma into another Baby Mama, after being spotted since December with American model, Mya Yafai.
Davido and Chioma, after a family introduction in September 2019, were expected to get married last year, but the plan was upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The singer in an interview said the wedding would happen this year.
But various reports said the ceremony may not happen again, as Davido’s heart appeared glued with Yafai.
The model was in Nigeria late last year to spend Christmas and New Year with Davido.
Both lovebirds even journeyed to Accra Ghana, as part of their unforgettable rendezvous.
Yafai testified that she enjoyed herself as she wrote on Instagram: “I Love you Africa”.
A video on her Instagram page froze some of her experiences, including a boat cruise on the Lagoon.
Reports said Chioma had stopped wearing her engagement ring since December, having gotten wind of Davido’s new romance.
On Saturday night, Davido and Chioma were trending on Twitter Nigeria.
And what spurred the buzz was news that Davido and Yafai have escaped to Sint Maarten, a small island in the Caribbean, that is part of the Kingdom of Netherlands for vacation.
Davido posted a photo on 26 February in a private jet indicating he was on his way to the idyllic island, known for lagoons, beaches and salt pans.
A video also trended showing Davido holding Yafai.
Twitter commenters were stunned that Davido could abandon Chioma, after all those talks and songs of ‘assurance’, ‘Chioma my lover’.
The students abducted from Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, in Talata Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State, are still with their captors, the state government has said.
Yusuf Idris, media aide to Governor Bello Matawalle, told Premium Times that efforts were still ongoing to secure their release.
He made the clarification following media reports that the girls had regained freedom.
Mr Idris said the governor had just concluded a meeting with traditional rulers in the state at Government House, Gusau, towards ensuring safe return of the students.
The commissioner of police in the state, Abutu Yaro, also said the girls were yet to be released.
“I want to call the attention of the good people of Zamfara State, they should disregard any fake news regarding the release of the abducted students of GGSS Jangebe by one national daily. It’s not true. But, Alhamdulillah, the state government and securities are their trying their best,” he said in a short to PT.
Dele Momodu says the former President -- Olusegun Obasanjo encouraged Yahaya Bello, the Kogi State Governor to intensify his fight against insecurity.
''Former PRESIDENT OLUSEGUN OKIKIOLAKAN AREMU OBASANJO has encouraged GOVERNOR YAHYA BELLO of Kogi State to intensify his fight against insecurity during a meeting in Abuja today...'', Dele Momodu wrote on twitter.
In recent times, diehard fans have been showing their allegiance to their favourite celebrities by drawing tattoos of their names and/or faces on their bodies. This has expectedly generated diverse reactions with people condemning and commending the acts in equal measures.
Baring her mind on the new development, comedienne, Anita Asuoha, better known as Real Warri Pikin, stated that she would neither condemn nor encourage anyone to draw a tattoo of her on their body. She told Sunday Scoop, “I feel people have different ways of expressing and showing love. Personally, I do not like tattoos but I don’t know if that may change in the future. If it was temporary, it would clear off over time. However, if drawing tattoos makes anyone feel satisfied, they should go ahead and do it. One cannot tell people how to live their lives after all. Tattoo serves different purposes for people and their role models.
“For example, people have different reasons for following me online. I once asked a lady why she used my image as her profile picture on Instagram for years and she said I had motivated her in ways I was not even aware of. People love differently and have weird ways of showing it. I have seen fans that idolise me and practically imitate everything about me. Meanwhile, some followers could be unhealthy and toxic. However, I would neither condemn any fan for showing me love by tattooing my image on their body, nor encourage them. That is the level of their understanding at that time so one should not publicly condemn them for it. I also think celebrities should not encourage their fans to do that because tattoos are permanent. I am a ‘suicide candidate’ too, so I know what some young people can do. Little things could set some people off. I feel the way Bobrisky reached out to people who tattooed his name and face is a better approach. He appreciated the love shown towards him. I have once gone through rejection from the people I needed help from too.”
Two suspected armed robbers were on Saturday arrested by men of the Ogun State police command after a gun duel.
Police said the suspects, one 30-year-old Solomon Aghofure from Delta State and 37-year-old Emmanuel Mathew from Abia, were nabbed “while operating at Sagamu interchange area of Lagos-Ibadan expressway” around 1:30am.
A statement from the Ogun State police spokesperson, Abimbola Oyeyemi, the suspects and their gang had already positioned themselves at the interchange, ready to attack commuters plying the road.
According to Oyeyemi, the gang had opened fire on the passing patrol team led by the area DPO, CSP Okiki Agunbiade.
The team was said to have engaged the robbery gang in a shoot-out, “at the end of which one of them sustained gunshot injuries and was subsequently apprehended.”
Other members of the gang had escaped into the bush, leaving behind their operational vehicle.
“The bush was thoroughly combed from where the other suspect was also arrested.
“A police corporal attached to the team also sustained gunshot injuries on his leg and was rushed to the hospital for treatment.
“On interrogation, the suspects informed the police that they were five in number in their gang, they gave the names of others as Uche (aka 2 million), Arinze and Uzor.
It was revealed that the three escaped suspects are ex-convicts and had served jail terms in Okitipupa and Sagamu.
“It was after their prison term that they formed the gang and recruited them,” Oyeyemi said.
More than two months after his capture by Boko Haram insurgents, Pastor Yakuru of EYN Church of the Brethren in Borno State is still being held captive, the Christian Association of Nigeria said on Saturday.
CAN also advised that all public secondary schools, boarding or otherwise, in the northern part of the country should be shut down henceforth until the security situation is improved.
The President of CAN, Dr Samson Ayokunle, said these in a statement titled ‘President Buhari should rescue Pastor Yakuru from his captors and save the nation from collapsing.’
According to Ayokunle, if former United States President Donald Trump could order the military to rescue one American once abducted by the insurgents in Nigeria, nothing should stop the President, from doing the same.
Ayokunle said, “Pastor Yakuru of EYN Church of the Brethren was reportedly abducted on December 24, 2020, when the terrorists attacked Pemi Village in Borno State and killed no fewer than seven people.
“The pastor, who has been in the custody of the Abubakar Shekau-led faction of Boko Haram since December last year was on Wednesday, February 24, reportedly given a one-week ultimatum for their demands to be met by the government or Pastor Yakuru would be killed.
“Although we are not aware of the demand, our appeal is to the President, the military and the Borno State government to ensure that Pastor Yakuru is not murdered like the District Chairman of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria and CAN Chairman of Michika Local Government Area in Adamawa State, Rev Lawan Andimi.’’
A renowned constitutional lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, has called on Yoruba rights activist, Sunday Adeyemo, better known as Sunday Igboho, to approach the court and seek protection from being arrested, waylaid or detained by the police or any other security agency in the country.
Ozekhome, who made this call in a statement on Saturday, condemned the attempt to arrest Igboho, who he described as the new face of the Yoruba struggle for self-determination.
Ozekhome said, ‘‘Sunday Igboho can approach a court of law under the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules and seek protection from being arrested, being waylaid, being detained and having his humanity degraded.
“He can go to court to seek his fundamental rights that he is entitled to freedom of movement, freedom of association and the right to move across Nigeria and any part that he wishes without let or hindrance.
“A court of law will grant him that because it has not been shown that he has committed any offence and none has been alleged against him. If any has been alleged against him, then they could invite him.’’
US Yoruba group warns against Igboho’s arrest
Meanwhile, the Egbe Omo Oduduwa in Minnesota, United States of America has warned against the arrest of Igboho, in connection with his campaign against killer herdsmen in the South-West.
The President of Egbe Omo Oduduwa in Minnesota, US, Pastor Goke Odujole, said. “The government will be making the greatest mistake if they arrest Sunday Igboho. Sunday Igboho is not an individual, but a freedom fighter representing majority of the Yoruba people and a symbol to the hopelessness in the South-West.
“Majority of the Yoruba people are not happy with the current state of things in Nigeria, especially the insecurity, kidnappings, raping of our women, making farmers to abandon their farms.
“If they arrest him, it will be like pouring petrol into fire because there are many more Sunday Igbohos who will rise up. The Nigerian government should look inwards and address the reason why Sunday Igboho is standing up.”
Decrying the level of insecurity in the country, Odujole said things had got a point where individuals had to arrange for their own security rather than count on government, hence the emergence of Sunday Igboho.
“Everyone has a right to protect themselves. If they arrest Igboho, the repercussions will be unbearable. They should arrest the killers of Olufon of Ifon, Dr Fatai Aborode and many others,” he added.
After weeks of expectation, about four million vaccines from the COVAX facility for the Covid-19 vaccines is expected to arrive in Nigeria on March 1, 2021 (tomorrow), the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19, Boss Mustapha, said in an interview with journalists.
He noted that the vaccines would be in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, on March 2, according to the information provided by the United Nations Children’s Fund.
He said, “Well, I can assure you that the vaccines are coming and they are coming very quickly. Barring any change in the delivery plan, as has been revealed to us by UNICEF, because the logistic are in the hands of UNICEF, we believe that our vaccines will be back in here on March 1, 2021 by 10:30pm and arrive in Abuja on March 2, 2021 at about 11:10am.
“We are making preparations about it. But the truth about it is that as we receive the vaccines, this one is coming from the COVAX facility, about four million doses of vaccines, we are supposed to have about 16 million in the first quarter from the COVAX facility, expecting that by the time they supply all the range, we are expecting that they will supply 84 million doses from the COVAX facility which is free of charge and will cover about 20 per cent of the Nigerian population.
“We also have another source of vaccines coming in from the AVAD facility, which is the African Vaccine Action Team. We are expecting about 41 million of that, a combination of AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson.
“Everything we are expecting from the COVAX facility is going to be the AstraZeneca which has a good ravage in terms of storage for us because it uses +2 – +8 per cent of refrigeration. It doesn’t come with any complication; we already have that core chain available in all the local governments, constituencies and wards in this country.
“I believe we are well prepared to receive our vaccines and I hope that they keep to this time frame that they have given us. We are eagerly expecting the vaccines, but I must caution Nigerians that it is going to be a combination of vaccines with non-pharmaceutical measures.
“Non-pharmaceutical measures will remain in place, wearing masks, keeping of social distancing, the need for personal hygiene and taking responsibility to ensure that we do not congregate in large gatherings; avoid travels that are not necessary.
“I wish us well. By the time we get our people vaccinated between 2021 40 per cent and 2021 30 per cent, a combination of a cumulative number of 70 per cent, we will be arriving at the point of herd immunity.”
Meanwhile, one year into the pandemic, Nigeria has been able to test only 1, 489, 103 samples which is less than one per cent of the country’s population.
Katsina State on Sunday directed the reopening of boarding schools in the state from Tuesday, March 2, 2021.
The state Commissioner for Education, Badamosi Charanchi, gave the directive shortly after he met top officials in his ministry, including the Permanent Secretaries and the 12 zonal inspectors of education, among others.
The commissioner clarified that boarding students in the four command schools in the state are to resume fully on Tuesday.
According to him, the schools were Government Secondary Command school, Faskari; Government Secondary Command school, Musawa; Government Girls Command school, Barkiya, and Police secondary school, Mani.
He added that male students in the remaining boarding schools should report at any nearest secondary school to their places of abode to continue their studies while their female counterparts should await further instruction from the government.
“All girls boarding secondary schools should hold on a little until the security situation improves,” he added.
Lawal said, “We want to see that schools reopen and the students back in classes to recover the lost grounds in the school curriculum. At the same time, we are not toying with their safety and we have the assurances of the support and cooperation of security operatives in this regard.
“We also seek for the prayers of our emirs, religious leaders, and other stakeholders to make Katsina safe.”
Popular Yoruba rights activist, Sunday Adeyemo, better known as Sunday Igboho, says the recent assault on his person by the operatives of the Department of State Services was an attempt to murder him.
The activist also said he pulled off his shirt because one of the DSS operatives roughhandled him and violently held onto his shirt around his neck area.
Igboho stated this on Saturday while featuring on a radio programme, ‘City Talks with Reuben Abati’.
Pandemonium broke out on Friday along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway when Igboho and his supporters were on their way to meet with 93-year-old Afenifere chieftain, Ayo Adebanjo.
In a viral video, a shirtless Igboho was seen with his men daring the security operatives and throwing expletives. Many have since wondered why the activist whom many believed to have metaphysical powers and known to wear traditional bulletproof vest was topless during the face-off.
But speaking during the radio programme monitored by The Punch, Igboho said, “Why I pull off my cloth was that one of the DSS operatives violently held onto my shirt. So, I decided to pull off the cloth and give it to him for us to drag the matter.
“They started shooting when we began to drag the matter. The whole episode was an embarrassment for me. I am a responsible man, I am a Yoruba citizen, I am fighting for the rights of the Yoruba people. They don’t have to embarrass me.”
Continuing, the rights activist said, “I’m a businessman. I pay my tax to the Federal Government every month and I have evidence of tax payment. Should I be going on the road and some people attempt to kill me? For what? Why do that want to kill me because their plan on Friday was to assassinate me. Why?
“There is insecurity in the country. Fulani people are raping our people and killing our people in the forests but the security operatives are not going there to confront them. Instead, they are offered ransom. It is just sad that the government is threatening the common man living peacefully in the country. It should not be so.”
Igboho also said a joint team of DSS operatives, soldiers, and civil defence were on the Friday mission to arrest him, noting that there was no policeman on the team.
Though the DSS denied the attempted arrest but Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere; Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), amongst others have since condemned the DSS attempt.
Igboho rose to prominence last month when he issued an eviction notice to herdsmen accused of sundry crimes in the Ibarapa area of Oyo State and enforced same.
Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, had said the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, ordered the arrest of the rights activist but many Nigerians had condemned such move, insisting that the security agencies should instead summon popular Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, who has been seen hobnobbing with bandits in the forests of Zamfara and Niger States of late.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and heads of various tertiary institutions in the country have agreed to conclude all 2020/2021 admissions by June 15.
The board made the disclosure in a statement signed on Sunday by its Head of Media and Publicity, Dr Fabian Benjamin, in Abuja.
It said that public universities would conclude admissions a month before private universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
According to the JAMB, heads of institutions and itself reached the agreement at a virtual meeting on Wednesday (Feb. 24) during which issues concerning admissions process were discussed.
” All admissions in the nation’s tertiary institutions for the 2020/2021 Academic Session would end by June 15.
” The decision was collectively taken at a virtual meeting with heads of tertiary institutions in the country on 24th February, 2021,” it said.
The board said that the meeting was aimed at knowing the level the institutions had reached on the 2020/21 Admissions scale.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will be completed in the first quarter of 2022.
He said this during an interview on Bond FM on Sunday.
According to him, the delay in the completion of the project was caused by the government’s inability to shut it down totally.
He noted that the 80 kilometres of the 127-kilometre road had been completed, urging road users to be patient with the government.
The minister said, “As we speak, 80km has been completed. Some of the parts of the road used today have been completed.
“We cannot shut the road totally. The number of vehicles passing the road is not less than 40,000. We can’t shut Lagos-Ibadan road like that. The road should be completed in 2022. The construction will end in 2022.
The Peoples Democratic Party has called for the immediate and unconditional release of a former aide to the Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, Salihu Yakasai, from security custody.
The PDP described as unacceptable, the arrest and detention of Salihu, the son of elder statesman, Tanko Yakasai, by security operatives over his criticism of the regime of President Buhari as regards insecurity in the country.
The PDP in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said Salihu’s ordeal was a sad reminder of the sudden disappearance of another known critic of the Buhari regime, Abubakar Idris, popularly known as Abu Hanifa Dadiyata, since August, 2019.
“The PDP reminds agents of the APC-led administration that Nigeria is a democratic nation and that the rights of citizens, including their freedom of expression, within the ambit of the law, are firmly guaranteed in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and as such, must be respected. Our party, therefore, rejects the arrest of Salihu Yakasai for joining other patriotic Nigerians in demanding a presidential commitment of a decisive action to rescue the abducted Zamfara schoolgirls as well as to end all acts of terrorism in our country.”
Also, a former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, on Saturday joined the call for the immediate release of Salihu.
Fayose described Salihu’s sack by Ganduje and his arrest by security agents as “another sad commentary on how low this All Progressives Congress government of President Muhammadu Buhari has gone.”
The former governor, in a tweet, also praised the former aide for his courage to speak truth to power.
He wrote, “That he was arrested like a common criminal by the DSS just because he spoke his mind against a President that is more like the servant of the people, is another sad commentary on how low this APC government of Buhari has gone.
“Nothing can be more honourable than what he has done by standing tall amidst darkness and selfishness of leadership.”
A second ex-employee of powerful New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has accused him of s.e.xual harassment, charges the governor denied on Saturday.
This time the allegations came from 25-year-old former health adviser Charlotte Bennett, who told The New York Times that the governor s.e.xually harassed her in the spring of 2020.
According to Bennett, the 63-year-old politician said in June that he was open to dating women in their 20s, and asked her if she thought age made a difference in romantic relationships, the Times reported.
While Cuomo never tried to touch her, “I understood that the governor wanted to sleep with me, and felt horribly uncomfortable and scared,” Bennett told the paper.
She added that she spoke to Cuomo’s chief of staff and legal counsel, who transferred her to another post in another building. Bennett was happy with the new job and decided not to insist on an investigation.
Cuomo became a national star last spring with his straight-talking yet empathetic coronavirus briefings that contrasted sharply with then-president Donald Trump’s dismissive approach to the pandemic.
But the harassment allegations come as he faces a growing storm over his handling of the coronavirus in nursing homes in his state.
In a statement Saturday, Cuomo said he “never made advances toward Ms Bennett nor did I ever intend to act in any way that was inappropriate.”
He said he wanted instead to support Bennett, who had told him that she was a s.e.xual assault survivor.
The governor, whose third term expires at the end of 2022, called for “a full and thorough outside review” of these charges, led by a former federal judge.
“I ask all New Yorkers to await the findings of the review so that they know the facts before making any judgments,” he added.
This is the second time in a week that the Democratic governor, who has led New York state for 10 years, has been accused of s.e.xual harassment.
On Wednesday, another ex-adviser, Lindsey Boylan, said in a blog that he had harassed her when she was working for his administration, from 2015 to 2018.
BBNaija Dorathy Bachor has stepped up the ladder as an entrepreneur as she launches a lingerie line named MFC Lingerie.
MFC Lingeria, according to the reality TV star, was born out of the need to cater for the full chested beautiful women.
In collaboration with a team that is passionate about disrupting and redefining the lingerie market with its affordable price and wide-ranging lingerie categories, MFC Lingerie is a brand that focuses on designing lingerie fit to flatter the curvy woman leaving her confident, comfortable and chic.
“My priority is making full chested women look and feel good. I want to provide the one-stop marketplace for full chested women to find all their lingerie needs,” she said.
“This first collection is an everyday basic, my girls need bras to move around. We will come to you with other categories and provocative designs shortly, she added.
The kidnapped schoolgirls of Government Secondary School in Jangebe, Zamfara State have been released and are currently in the palace of the Emir of Anka waiting for transportation to Gusau, the state capital.
Ogun State Police Command yesterday declared that the embattled Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Oludare Kadiri, is being detained at its Criminal Investigation Department (CID) following reports that he coordinated people who carried out series of attack on the homes of some politicians in Ijebu North Local Government Area.
The Command said the arrest and detention has no political undertone as Kadiri is labouring to make the world see it from that prism, stressing also that the Secretary to the State Government, Tokunbo Talabi, has no hand in Kadiri’s arrest.
Speaking through its Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, it says the Deputy Speaker was arrested and detained for alleged criminal invasion of, and attacks on, some politicians homes in Ijebu, including that of the SSG’s father.
Abimbola, a Deputy Superintendent of Police(DSP), who chronicled how what looked like coordinated attacks were perpetrated as narrated by victims or witnesses, stated in a release that the law is not a respecter of anybody, asserting that the Command remains committed to securing life and property of all, regardless of status.
He states: “On the 20th of February 2021, the command received a complaint from one Mrs. Olabode Adegbesan of No. 6 Ayegbami street Awa ijebu who reported at Awa ijebu police station that, while she was at home at about 12noon, some people led by the Deputy speaker invaded their home, throwing stone into the house and calling out her husband Hon. Kunle Adegbesan to come out to be dealt with.
“In the process, the hoodlums vandalized the window glasses of the house before they left with threat to come back with more violence. Not quite an hour after the first report, one comrade Akeem Temitope Akilo also came to report that, he was at the house of the SSG’s father when the deputy speaker led some people to the house at about 12:55 pm, vandalized the window glasses and removed the APC flag hoisted therein and took it away.
“Also, at about 1:30pm of the same day, one Otunba Adetohun Oduwole reported that the same deputy speaker Kadiri led some thugs to her house and destroyed the front door of the house as well as window glasses before they left.
“While investigation into all the reports was going on, one Hon. Yinusa Adekunle reported that the register been used for the APC registration exercise has been forcefully seized by one Hon. Abagun Yinusa. This prompted the DPO Awa ijebu to visit the house of the said Hon.Abagun for the purpose of recovering the seized register. On getting there, the deputy speaker arrived the scene with about twenty men in two buses and descended heavily on the complainant, Hon Yinusa Adekunle, beat him mercilessly and almost killed him.
