Director General, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Chief Olusegun Runsewe, on Saturday again bombed Nigerian cross-dresser, Bobrisky, saying his impact on society is worse than Ebola -- the deadly virus that killed thousands in West Africa a few years ago.
Runsewe, said Bobrisky, arguably the only well known closet queen in Nigeria, poses serious hazards to Nigerian youths.
Runsewe said if Bobrisky’s activities were not promptly curtailed, the resultant effect would be worse than Ebola outbreak.
He urged the youths to stop imitating Bobrisky, by remaining responsible and good ambassadors of the nation.
”Bobrisky is a national disaster, an embarrassment to the country, engaging in cultural corruption as a cross-dresser and we have to start to curtail his activities before it gets out of hand
”We will not allow Bobrisky to destroy the future of our youths and the unborn Nigerians,” he said.
Runsewe said that when the cross-dresser’s birthday was halted in Lekki, Lagos by the police recently, it was revealed that he had been training some Nigerian youths to toe the same line with him.
He said immediately the cross dresser’s party was halted a good number of the boys he was training left him. “So that was an achievement”, he said.
According to him, Bobrisky’s activities negate the culture and tradition of the nation and he could be excused to go to other climes where such culture of being a cross-gender would be tolerated.
Runsewe urged parents to guide their wards not to emulate Bobrisky but take after responsible celebrities in the society.
Beauty Ogere Siasia, the 80 year-old mother of former Super Eagles skipper and coach, Samson Siasia, has been released by her abductors, after 10 weeks.
She was kidnapped on July 15 by heavily armed gunmen who invaded her Odoni country home in Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
It was the second time in four years Madam Siasia would be taken away.
Over 200 people were arrested for violating the sanitation law in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital.
The offenders were convicted by a mobile court and made to pay between 500 and 1000 naira as fine, while the underage and students carry out the sanitation before they are allowed to go after the exercise.
Addressing newsmen after the three hours sanitation exercise, the permanent Secretary, Kwara state ministry of environment and forestry, Malam Amosa Isiaka Al-Amin urged the residents of the state to ensure they keep their environment clean to prevent diseases.
He commended the sanitation official for ensuring total compliance for the period the exercise lasted.
It has been confirmed that the death toll of the Yellow Fever outbreak in Bauchi State has risen to 16 out of the 20 confirmed cases following the alleged rejection of vaccination by some citizens in the affected communities in the state.
The confirmation was given by the Executive Chairman of Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency (BSPHCDA), Dr Rilwanu Mohammed while giving an update on the situation during an interaction with newsmen in his office in Bauchi on Friday night.
Rilwanu Mohammed disclosed that since the outbreak of yellow fever about a month ago, no fewer than 119 suspected cases were recorded out of which 20 cases were confirmed and 16 of the victims died.
He said: “We realised that all the people that rejected vaccination are the ones dying. The last three victims four days ago refused the vaccine and all three were infected. They took them to a traditional healer who did his own work but the two were still unconscious. They were later taken to Bauchi but all of them died.”
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has advised Nigerians evacuated from South Africa following the xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals to prepare to return to South Africa. He made this known after meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The ex-Head of State has met with Ramaphosa in South Africa, where he said the issue of Xenophobia was discussed. Obasanjo made this known on Saturday at his Abeokuta residence when reporters asked him what he discussed with President Ramaphosa.
Obasanjo said, “I took the opportunity of being in South Africa to actually pay a courtesy call on President Cyril Ramaphosa and he quickly granted me the opportunity. One of the major things we discussed was this issue of xenophobia or Afrophobia.
“The President told me that there was so much at stake and whatever mistake we had made, we had to correct it. And I think that was a very good statement and I know that he meant it, because he immediately said ‘what can we do or should we do?’”
He advised South Africans to tread softly on the issue of foreigners seeking opportunities in their country.
He said, “The idea of thinking or saying that foreigners are taking your jobs should be killed, because most of these foreigners paid something into the country.
“I met more than two Nigerians who are doing legitimate businesses and the turnover runs into millions of dollars and they employed 50 to 60 South Africans.
“All these must be expressed and must be shown that Nigerians in South Africa are not drug peddlers and criminals; there are many of them that are genuine businessmen and professionals and who are making meaningful contributions to the economy and the social life of that country.
“I think that is all we must be doing and be saying and my joy is that President Cyril Ramaphosa is ready to do what needs to be done to stop these incidents and to put the relationship between Nigeria and South Africa on the right track.
“One of the things they are going to do between South Africa and Nigeria is that they are going to have what we established during my tenure – that we called bilateral commission.”
On the Nigerians evacuated from South Africa, Obasanjo said, “I hope they will go back to South Africa from what I heard from President Ramaphosa. Like I said, the meeting that President Buhari and President Ramaphosa will have during the first week of October should smooth the ground. And the right statements and the right action coming from both sides should encourage our people to go back.
“But, as I have always said that Nigerians living outside Nigeria must try to be good citizens of wherever they live.”
The Federal Government will, on Monday, arraign Sahara Reporters publisher and convener of #RevolutionNow protests, Omoyele Sowore, before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
He is to be arraigned on seven counts of treasonable felony, money laundering and cybercrimes which was instituted against him by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.
The Department of State Service, which has been detaining the former presidential candidate since August 3, continues to hold him in custody in violation of the court order granting him bail six days ago.
Justice Taiwo Taiwo, who earlier on August 8, granted the DSS permission to hold the activist for 45, had on September 24, granted him bail. Despite meeting the bail condition on September 25, Sowore has not been released by the DSS.
The actress and mom of two who has worked over the years on her body showed off her hot bod in a red number. she simply captioned the photos '' s.e.x.y''. Lol, when you know you are hot!
President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the detention and dehumanisation of about 300 boys and men found in a building at Rigasa, Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
The police had raided the building, rescued about 300 victims and arrested seven teachers of the Islamic centre, including its proprietor, Mallam Ismaila Abubakar, who insisted he did nothing wrong than teach the detainees Islam.
But some of the victims as young as five years old said they had been held captive for years. They said they were tortured, s3xually abused and starved. Many of them, with visible injuries, had metal chains around their ankles.
The Presidency while reacting to the incident in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu said;
“We are glad that the Muslim authorities have dismissed the notion of the embarrassing and horrifying spectacle as an Islamic school.
“The place has indeed been described as a house of torture and a place of human slavery.
“The President holds the view that children will be safeguarded from roaming the streets and protected from all evil influences that assail idle hands and minds when they are sent to school.
“When he inaugurated the National Economic Council for the year 2019/2023 at the Presidential Villa, in Abuja, President Buhari warned that keeping children away from school was a criminal offence.
“He also stressed the need to take seriously and enforce the statutory provisions on free and compulsory basic education, citing Section 18(3) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, which he said placed on all of us (public leaders and political office holders) an obligation to eradicate illiteracy and provide free and compulsory education.
“He added that Section 2 of the Compulsory Free Universal Basic Education Act provides that every government in Nigeria shall provide free, compulsory and universal basic education for every child of primary and junior secondary school age.
“It is indeed a crime, he stressed, for any parent to keep their pupil child out of school for this period.
“While the government at the centre has introduced a number of programmes, including the school feeding programme, which is now in 32 states in the country, with 9.8 million children beneficiaries to encourage school enrolment and enhance the health and learning capabilities of pupils, state and local governments are obliged under the law to ensure that every child of school age goes to school throughout the crucial nine years of basic education.
“To stop unwanted cultural practices that amount to the abuse of children, our religious and traditional authorities must work with the federal, state and local governments to expose and stop all types of abuse that are widely known but ignored for many years by our communities.”
A seven-year-old boy from the Madubi Local Government Area of Kano State has lost his life after spending about three years in chains and starvation.
Sunday Punch learnt that the deceased’s father, Muhammad Ujujud, had chained him and his sister, Binta, for the period before the boy, whose name had yet to be ascertained, died on Monday.
It was gathered that Binta, 12, who had become emaciated, was rescued on Wednesday by officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons who were alerted by residents of the area.
The neighbours had complained that Ujujud rarely provided for the children.
Punch correspondent learnt that Ujujud, who was reportedly battling heart-related disease, slumped while in NAPTIP custody and was rushed to a hospital where he also gave up the ghost.
NAPTIP Zonal Commander in Kano, Mr Sheu Umar, who confirmed the incident, said the agency had yet to find out why Ujujud dehumanised the children.
He added that Ujujud’s wife and stepmother of the victim had yet to open up on the reason for the torture.
A 25-year-old woman, Blessing Stephen, has confessed to trading all her three kids for N500,000.
Stephen was a member of a child trafficking syndicate recently smashed by operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team. Other arrested members of the syndicate are a self-acclaimed doctor, Una Godwin 58; Blessing John 27; Israel Ariyo 33; Itoro Anthony; 40 and Mforbong Ntoro, 48.
The operatives had launched a manhunt for one of the suspects, John, who abandoned a four-year-old boy in a church in the Ketu area of the state.
John was said to have abducted the boy, Ojo, at Ikota Housing Estate in Ajah sometime July 2019 and sold him in Akwa Ibom State to Ntoro for N350,000.
City Round learnt that Ntoro’s neighbours were alarmed by Ojo’s incessant cries and became suspicious, which forced the woman to return the child to John, asking her to get a baby as replacement.
John reportedly brought Ojo back to Lagos and abandoned him inside the church located along the road on the pretext that she wanted to pick some loads on the other side of the road.
Punch correspondent learnt that the church reported the incident at the Ketu Police Station and the boy was later reunited with his parents.
Consequently, a petition was addressed to the IRT to fish out the suspect.
The team tracked down John a few weeks ago in Ibadan, Oyo State, and she led them to arrest her accomplices, Stephen and Ntoro.
She told the police that it was hardship that made her to engage in child trafficking, adding that she needed money to treat an ailment she was battling with.
Former Big Brother Nigeria contestant, Kemen Ekerete, has the unenviable record of being the first housemate to be disqualified from the show.
He turned 30 some days ago and shared a post on social media, writing on losing his job in a multinational company at 26, battling depression and ill health, and how fitness helped him to be the man he is today.
In a chat with Sunday Scoop, the fitness enthusiast also stated that he was ashamed to be called a former BBNaija contestant.
Speaking shortly before Tacha was eventually disqualified from the current edition of the show, Kemen said, “Many people till today still don’t know the basis for which I was disqualified. Did Big Brother officially put out a publication on why I was disqualified? It was only assumed Big Brother disqualified me because they thought I molested Tboss.
There was a video which many thought showed that such action happened and Tboss and I saw the video. We analysed the video together and I know I didn’t do it.
Tboss also knew she didn’t feel anything. We are in a country where people don’t want to know the truth and everyone has their opinion. I think the game is lawless and watered-down now. I know I didn’t do what I was accused of and I’ve genuinely forgiven anyone who tried to drag my name through the mud.
I’m still good friends with people they thought I’d be sworn enemies with and I’m living a good life. Now, I’m ashamed if anyone calls me an ex-big brother housemate because the show doesn’t represent the show I went for. All my housemates are wonderful people and but for the show, I wouldn’t have met them. My rage is not because I think a particular housemate should leave. My rage is that a lot of lawlessness is being condoned in the house. Standing on the reason for my disqualification, many people in this house shouldn’t still be in.”
However, Kemen also maintained that he had no regrets. He said, “Everything that has happened (to me) had to be that way for me to learn a lesson, get more serious and become a better person. I don’t have any regrets. Maybe if I had discovered certain things a bit earlier, I could be in a better place than I am now. But even that isn’t certain because sometimes, things don’t work out the way one plans.”
Mexican crooner José José, the elegant dresser who moved audiences to tears with melancholic love ballads and was known as the “Prince of Song,” has died at the age of 71.
Mexican artists’ association ANDI confirmed the death in a Twitter post Saturday. Multiple media outlets said the singer had died of pancreatic cancer at a hospital in South Florida.
José José, whose real name is José Rómulo Sosa Ortiz, climbed to the top of the Latin charts in the 1970s with slow songs such as “El Triste” or “The Sad Man,” and “Amar y querer” or “Love and want.” The power of his voice and ability to sing technically difficult tunes in a wide register made him a treasured cultural icon in Latin America.
José José’s music also became popular in countries including Japan and Russia.Mexican crooner José José, the elegant dresser who moved audiences to tears with melancholic love ballads and was known as the “Prince of Song,” has died at the age of 71.
Mexican artists’ association ANDI confirmed the death in a Twitter post Saturday. Multiple media outlets said the singer had died of pancreatic cancer at a hospital in South Florida.
José José, whose real name is José Rómulo Sosa Ortiz, climbed to the top of the Latin charts in the 1970s with slow songs such as “El Triste” or “The Sad Man,” and “Amar y querer” or “Love and want.” The power of his voice and ability to sing technically difficult tunes in a wide register made him a treasured cultural icon in Latin America.
José José’s music also became popular in countries including Japan and Russia.
They may no longer be a couple, but when it comes to daughter True, Khloe Kardashian and her basketball player ex are clearly on the same page.
On Saturday, Tristan Thompson shared footage from a trip to Universal Studios in Los Angeles with the couple's toddler.
And the delightful one-year-old could be seen Facetiming her mother during the outing, in the Instagram video.
The NBA player, 28, set up his phone so little True could check in with her mom.
And the tot sweetly kissed the screen when she saw Khloe.
'This made my heart smile,' he wrote on Instagram. 'I choose to not share too much about my kids on social but this video I couldn’t resist,' he added.
'One of my most cherished and prized roles is being a Dad. Daddy loves you!'
She's has had a busy few weeks after attending the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month, before making appearances at the international Fashion Weeks.
And despite jetting around the world, Priyanka Chopra looked sensational as she stepped out with her mother Madhu to attend the second edition of Indian Sports Honours annual ceremony in Mumbai, on Friday night.
The Bollywood actress, 37, donned a traditional sari in a Champagne hue, which boasted intricate gold embellishments throughout.
Priyanka dazzled in her jaw-dropping gown, with the strappy side of her elegant ensemble adorned with large jewels.
Miss World 2000 winner Priyanka styled her glossy locks into tumbling curls, and her flawless visage was highlighted with dewy foundation and a slick of red lipstick.
Her mother opted for a more casual ensemble, stepping out in a floral shift dress, which she teamed with black leggings and a pair of dolly shoes.
Saudi Arabia has snubbed Nigerian citizens and other Africans in terms of eligibility for its new tourist visas.
The conservative Islamic Kingdom that is trying to boost tourism income said citizens from up to 49 countries can apply through Saudi embassies and consulates across the world. There is no single African country on the list, not even Egypt that is its ally in the blockade of Qatar.
The countries eligible are USA, Canada, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Brunei, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, Spain, Belgium, Malaysia, Austria, Cyprus, UK, Croatia, Estonia, Andorra, Denmark, Germany, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Czech Republic, Holland, Italy, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Greece and Liechtenstein.
Others are Monaco, Iceland, Malta, Poland, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovenia,
Montenegro, Slovakia, Switzerland, Portugal, Sweden, Australia, San Marino, Ukraine, China, including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Citizens from the 49 countries will be eligible to apply for e-visas and visas on arrival.
A n.a.k.e.d man and woman have plunged to their deaths from a third-floor balcony after rolling over the edge during s.e.x.
The bodies of the unnamed 28-year-old mother and her 35-year-old lover were found sprawled on the adjacent terrace.
The fall happened after a graduation party thrown by the woman at her home in the Carapungo district of Quito, Ecuador.
A heartbroken relative of the dead woman has revealed she leaves behind an eight-year-old girl.
A naked man and woman have plunged to their deaths from a third-floor balcony after rolling over the edge during s.e.x.
The bodies of the unnamed 28-year-old mother and her 35-year-old lover were found sprawled on the adjacent terrace.
The fall happened after a graduation party thrown by the woman at her home in the Carapungo district of Quito, Ecuador.
A heartbroken relative of the dead woman has revealed she leaves behind an eight-year-old girl.
Nollywood actress, Nkechi Blessing Sunday's mum is a year older today. And the actress surprised her with a car to celebrate her special day. Sharing the news on her ig page, Nkechi wrote;
''I wish I had more,it would have been more than this Dear Mama❤️ Happy Birthday again IYA NKECHI❤️❤️ @bornjarr Thank You for the Prompt Delivery @thesurprisefactoryy thank you for always#birthdaygirl#sweetmother''.
