News & Announcements

Will Smith, an American actor, has admitted that his decision to slap comedian Chris Rock on stage during the Oscars was the result of “bottled” rage from his childhood.

As you may recall, Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife Jada’s shaved head before Smith stormed the stage at the Hollywood awards ceremony.Jada had a hair loss condition known as alopecia.

Smith was publicly questioned about the attack for the first time during his Monday interview with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show.

The actor claimed that he called the evening “a horrific night.”

 “I was going through something that night, you know? Not that that justifies my behaviour at all.” Will said.

“I just – I lost it.

“I understand how shocking that was for people.

“I was gone. That was a rage that had been bottled for a really long time.”

Smith continued that it had numerous nuances and complexities.

He disclosed that he was raised in a violent home while talking about the circumstances of his Oscars assault.

He said “It was a lot of things. It was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother, you know? All of that just bubbled up in that moment. That’s not who I want to be.

“I guess what I would say is that you just never know what somebody’s going through,”.

“In the audience right now, you’re sitting next to strangers, and somebody’s mother died last week. You know? Somebody’s child is sick. Somebody just lost their job. Somebody just found out their spouse cheated.

“There’s all these things, and you just don’t know what’s going on with people. And I was going through something that night.

“I had to forgive myself for being human.

“Trust me, there’s nobody that hates the fact that I’m human more than me… I’ve always wanted to be Superman. I’ve always wanted to swoop in and save the damsel in distress.

“And I had to humble down and realise that I’m a flawed human, and I still have an opportunity to go out in the world and contribute in a way that fills my heart and hopefully helps other people.” He added.

A 40-foot container was being transported by an articulated truck when it tragically collided with a BRT barrier at the Oke-Riya inward Agric Bus stop in Ikorodu, Lagos, killing the driver instantly.

Dr. Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, the permanent secretary of LASEMA, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, confirmed the incident.

It was determined after the accident that the driver’s death was caused by brake failure, which caused him to lose control.

“Upon arrival of the Agency’s LRTs to the scene of incident, an articulated truck conveying a 40ft container was discovered involved in a solitary accident at the above mentioned location.

“The trapped truck driver in the cabin who lost his life in the incident has been extricated with light duty rescue equipment in the ongoing operation and duly handed over to officials from the State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit (SEHMU).

“The agency’s sophisticated heavy-duty equipment are in the process of recovering the crashed articulated vehicle, while an agency’s flat body truck has equally been deployed for recovery of the 40 feet container.” According to Oke- Osanyitolu.

Drivers using the axis and those intending to go through the area were detoured to alternate routes as a result of the incident, as instructed by emergency personnel throughout the recovery phase.

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)-affiliated lecturers in Nigeria have received their full salaries.

It was claimed that the Federal Government has continued to withhold the eight month arrears even though the academics had received their full pay for the month of November 2022.

This information was provided, in Abuja on Wednesday during a conversation with a top member of the union at Bayero University Kano.

“Some of our members have started receiving salaries and I can confirm to you that we received our full salaries for the month of November. However, the arrears are still withheld.” he said.

Farideh Moradkhani, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s niece who has spoken out against her uncle’s administration over a number of instances of human rights abuse, has been detained by Iranian authorities.

While executing a court order on Wednesday, Ms. Moradkhani was detained by the regime’s security personnel.

Later, a video of her calling with other countries to boycott Iran for its brutal response to the protest that broke out when Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, died in the country’s morality police detention in September was made public by her brother, who lives in France.

Iranians were enraged with countries that supported the Khamenei-led administration, and Ms. Moradkhani was shown urging other countries to fully cut ties with Iran in the film that was broadcast online two days after her imprisonment.

“I ask the conscientious people of the world to stand by us and ask their governments not to react with empty words and slogans but with real action and stop any dealings with this regime,” Ms Moradkhani said in the video.

“Oh, free people, be with us and tell your governments to stop supporting this murderous and child-killing regime. This regime is not loyal to any of its religious principles and does not know any laws or rules except force and maintaining its power in any possible way.” she added.

As Iranian authorities forcibly put an end to rallies around the nation, Ms. Moradkhani claimed that “the people of Iran are carrying the burden of this great responsibility alone by paying with their lives.”

At least 300 people, including security personnel, have been killed in the continuing protests, according to an admission made on Monday by Iranian general Amir Ali Hajizadeh.

The actual number of protest-related deaths, according to Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), was 451, not the amount Mr. Hajizadeh provided.

Sadiya Umar Farouq, the minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management, has been asked to resign because she ignored the House of Representatives’ repeated invitations to appear.

During the committee’s investigation into a charge of budget padding against her ministry, Aliyu Betara, the chairman of the Reps Committee on Appropriations, demanded the resignation of the minister.

During the committee’s investigation into a charge of budget padding against her ministry, Aliyu Betara, the chairman of the Reps Committee on Appropriations, demanded the resignation of the minister.

According to reports, the legislature should no longer allow Farouq’s continual avoidance of questioning by several committees of the lower legislative chamber since it was improper.

The minister was supposed to appear before the Reps committee to address concerns over the alleged padding of her ministry’s 2023 budget by N206 billion, but she did not.

The committee’s chairman was irritated by Farouq’s behavior and requested her to leave “If she is not ready for the job,” saying that “most times the committee calls the minister,” but that she consistently declines their invitation.

According to reports, the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry put N206,242,395,000 billion into its budget to buy mosquito nets for its National Social Safety Nets Project, which is already receiving funding from the World Bank.

Farouq originally claimed that the money was accidentally added to the budget in an effort to defend herself.

“The project was correctly described in the submission in the 2023 budget, but unfortunately the Budget Office used wrong code,” she claimed.

HURIWA, a group of Nigerian human rights writers, has praised the court’s decision to detain Usman Alkali Baba, the inspector general of police, for three months.

The group applauded the legal system for its brave action and said it demonstrated that no one is above the law.

HURIWA remarked that the judicial power granted to it by Section (6) subsection (1) of the 1999 constitution had been legitimately utilized by the judiciary.

Following his refusal to follow a court order issued by the Federal High Court, the Inspector General of Police was given a three-month prison term for contempt of court.

According to HURIWA, the IGP must immediately turn himself in with his jail bag to the Kuje penitentiary facility in accordance with the Federal High Court’s order. He should not disregard or act in violation of this court order.

“We urge President Muhammadu Buhari to personally supervise the surrender of the IGP to the Federal Correctional Center, Kuje, without wasting time. Anything outside of strict compliance with this court order will mean that Nigeria has become a banana republic.” HURIWA stated.

The rights organization claimed that the IGP could not be justified on the hazy pretext that he did not initiate the violation of the court’s order, even if he was in office at the time the issue first arose because the IGP’s office is continuously filled.

HURIWA advised the IGP to comply with the ruling or swiftly obtain an injunction for a stay of execution before objecting.

The central Passport Production Center in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, has been put into operation by the federal government, along with the new improved passport.

Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior, said Nigerians residing in Canada will now have access to the highly sought-after 64-page passport with a 10-year validity when speaking at the passport’s launch.

He claims that Nigeria is the first country in Africa and one of the first five nations in the world to obtain this upgraded passport.

“The enhanced version we are presenting is the latest technology in identity documentation. It comes with additional security and in various categories, including the 64-page-10-year validity Passport which is quite convenient for frequent travellers.

“It is a product of the latest technology in passport administration and issuance. Only very few countries in the world can boast of it as of today. Indeed, Nigeria is among the first five countries in the world and the first in Africa to have this enhanced e-passport. The document is of higher grade with additional 25 security features than the one currently in use. It is polycarbonate in design and therefore water-resistant. It cannot be compromised by counterfeiters and identity thieves,” the Minister as stated by Sola Fasure, his Special Advisor on Media.

Aregbesola praised the Nigerian High Commissioner to Canada for his dedication to securing Canada’s own passport production facility, noting that with the new enhanced passport, Nigerians will now be able to apply, pay, and schedule appointments online straight from the Nigeria Immigration Service Portal.

“It is important that all applicants go through the Nigeria Immigration Service portal and follow the protocol laid down, pay the right fee and go for biometric data capture on the stipulated date. The waiting period after data capture for fresh application is six weeks and three weeks for renewal. This timeline is to enable NIS verify and validate the claims of applicants and confer integrity on the passport issued. It is a reasonable provision in passport administration by global standard.

“It is important also that your details with NIN sync with the data on your application. Any discrepancy will stall your application until it is corrected. The order of the appearance of the applicant’s name especially has been an albatross for many. We have introduced tracking mechanism in the application process, to enable applicants monitor the progress of their application. We shall continue to introduce necessary and available innovations to passport administration in order to best serve applicants in our quest for establishing citizenship integrity”, the Minister stated.

In his remarks, Mr. Adeyinka Asekun, the Nigerian High Commissioner to Canada, praised Aregbesola and Acting Comptroller General of Immigration, Isah Idris Jere, for their dedication to the introduction of the enhanced passport in Canada.

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the party’s nominee for president in 2023, is currently in Abuja, not America as had been rumored, according to the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC).

In response to the rumors, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, Director of Media and Publicity for the APC PCC, stated this in an interview with News reporters on Wednesday in Abuja.

He called the image circulating that Tinubu was in the United States with President Joe Biden false and advised disregarding it.

“A viral photograph showing Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and U.S President, Joe Biden in talks at the White House is the latest in the series of misinformation being dished out by the political opposition.

“We cannot just fathom the purpose of the mischief and the falsehood which emanated  from the rabid followers of Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate.

“The apparently photo-shopped image surfaced Tuesday night, on the heels of news that Asiwaju will embark on a foreign trip this weekend,” he said.

Although America was mentioned as one of Tinubu’s destinations in a widely circulated unofficial report, Onanuga claimed he could confirm that the APC presidential candidate spent the entirety of Tuesday in Abuja.

He stated that Tinubu didn’t need to flee Nigeria secretively as some other presidential contenders did because he was in Abuja on Monday as well.

According to the party’s campaign schedule, he said the APC presidential candidate would travel to Bayelsa for a rally on Thursday.

“He is not scheduled to travel outside the country until the weekend for speaking engagements.

“His first port of call will be Chatham House in London, where he will speak on his Action Plan for Nigeria,” the APC PCC Director of Media and Publicity disclosed 

A small museum in south-east London has begun the official process of returning looted Benin bronzes to Nigeria.

The Horniman Museum, which houses a collection of 72 treasured items that were taken by force from Benin City in 1897, officially handed over ownership of the artifacts to the Nigerian government on Monday.

The Horniman described returning the looted objects as a “moral and appropriate” response after a request from Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM).

There are still questions about whether thousands of items that were held at large institutions globally, including the British Museum, will ever be sent back.

However, the first six objects which were returned included two Benin Bronze plaques from the royal palace which were handed over to Nigerian officials at a ceremony marking the transfer of ownership of 72 looted items.

The items were taken from Benin City by British troops in February 1897.

Nick Merriman, chief executive of the Horniman Museum and Gardens, and prof. Abba Tijani, the NCMM’s director general, was asked by journalists ahead of the official handover if they were frustrated at the British Museum’s apparent reluctance to hand over the 900 objects it had held for more than a century.

Merriman, who said the Horniman had been an “excellent example” of leadership, stated, “Journalists who ask me about the Benin return always want to ask me about the British Museum.”

“I would rather talk about what an excellent example the Horniman is rather than answer questions about the British Museum.”

The six objects selected in consultation with the NCMM as being representative of the collection of 72 items from the first wave of physical repatriation of Benin objects from the Horniman.

A new agreement between the NCMM and the Horniman will allow the remainder to stay in Britain on loan for now, with the second phase of physical repatriations to follow in due course.

Professor Tijani later explained that about 5,000 Benin bronzes were currently “scattered” around the world.
He said that he is hoping that talks with various institutions may result in deals that could herald the items being returned from places including Germany and the U.S.

China’s protests against Covid restrictions which erupted over the weekend appear to have died down, as authorities begin clamping down.

A heavy police presence has been reported in several cities, and some gatherings were quelled or failed to materialize, reports the BBC.

Reports have emerged of people being questioned and their phones searched. But overseas Chinese have continued protesting, in at least a dozen cities across the world.

Last weekend’s demonstrations had grown after a fire in a high-rise block in Urumqi, western China, killed 10 people on Thursday.

It is widely believed residents could not escape the blaze because of Covid restrictions, but local authorities have disputed this.

As a result, thousands took to the streets for days, demanding an end to Covid lockdowns – with some even making rare calls for President Xi Jinping to stand down.

Phones and TabletsBut on Monday, planned protests in Beijing did not happen after officers surrounded the assembly point. In Shanghai, large barriers were erected along the main protest route and police made several arrests.

On Tuesday morning, police could be seen in both cities patrolling areas where some groups on the Telegram social media app had suggested people should gather again.

A small protest in the southern city of Hangzhou on Monday night was also quickly stopped with people swiftly arrested, according to social media footage verified by the BBC.

But in Hong Kong, dozens of protesters gathered in the centre of the city and at the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in a show of solidarity with demonstrators in mainland China.

Many also gathered outside Chinese embassies in major cities around the world like London, Paris and Tokyo, and universities in the US and Europe.

One expert suggested that local protests were not likely to die down any time soon, saying they were likely to “ebb and flow” because people were “not being called out to the streets in a controlled fashion… they move between social media and the street”.

But Drew Thompson, a visiting senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore, added that it was also important to note that Chinese police had “tremendous capacity…[and] the ability of China to control these protests going forward… is quite high”.

Reports also claim that police were stopping people and searching their phones to check if they had virtual private networks (VPN) set up, as well as apps like Telegram and Twitter which are banned in China.

One woman told the news agency AFP that she and five of her friends who attended a protest in Beijing had received phone calls from police, demanding information about their whereabouts.

In one case, a police officer visited her friend’s home after they failed to answer their phone, and asked whether they had visited the protest site, stressing that it was an “illegal assembly”.

It is unclear how police might have discovered the identities of those in attendance.

Police have also detained journalists covering the protests in recent days. News agency Reuters said one of its journalists was briefly detained on Sunday before being released.

BBC journalist Ed Lawrence was also held for several hours while covering a protest in Shanghai on the same night. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said his detention was “shocking and unacceptable”, adding that Britain would raise concerns with China about its response to the protests.

Censorship has gone into overdrive on Chinese social media platforms since the weekend’s protests, to stop people from seeing and discussing them.

Tens of millions of posts have been filtered from search results, while media are muting their coverage of Covid in favour of upbeat stories about the World Cup and China’s space achievements.

The Chinese government has not acknowledged the protests or responded in any formal way.