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Nollywood actor, Yul Edochie, says he has been called to become a minister of God.

The 40-year-old made this known in a video shared via his YouTube channel, Yul Edochie TV. In the post, the actor claimed he had received the instruction long ago, without taking steps to actualize it.

He noted that the time had come for him to take steps as the calling had become “very strong” on him.

“I have a calling to be a preacher of God, to be one of God’s ministers (sic), to preach the word of God through words and actions.

“I’ve had this calling a long time ago – actually, many years ago. But, I’ve always felt maybe the time hadn’t come, the time wasn’t right. But now, it’s very strong. I feel the time has come,” he said in the video.

Yul also added that God had given him fame so that he could eventually use it for the ministry.

“God has blessed me in this life. By God’s grace, I’ve become one of the biggest, of most celebrated actors in the continent of Africa. God has taken me to a very high point in my career.
“I’m starting to realize God lifted me as an actor to where I am so that I can become one of his ministers,” he stated.

Billionaire mogul, Femi Otedola is 60th year-old today Friday, 4 November and he is celebrating his diamond jubilee on the French Riviera aboard the 99.13-meter-long Christina O Yacht, once owned by the late Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.

Otedola’s daughter, Ifeoluwa, who goes by the moniker “DJ Cuppy” posted videos on her Instagram page on Wednesday showing the energy tycoon, his wife, and children celebrating at a private, intimate soiree off the Italy coast on the yacht, which has a rich history and has hosted some of the world’s most historic figures.

Otedola is paying a pretty penny for chartering the yacht —an estimated $3 million.

According to private sources, Otedola is renting the vessel for three and a half weeks at a cost of €750,000 ($745,000) per week plus extra taxes and handling fees, bringing the total expenses to €3 million ($2.97 million).
He also bought out an earlier charterer for the right to use the yacht during his birthday week.

Plying the seas first as a World War II Canadian frigate and then as a private luxury vessel starting in 1954, the Christina O is a piece of floating history. Aristotle Onassis purchased the vessel in 1954 and named it after his daughter Christina.
When Onassis married Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, widow of the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1968, the couple held their reception on the Christina O.

The yacht would go on to host such famous guests as former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, Jr.

With a line of chaise loungers, an alfresco dining and bar setup, a spacious promenade deck with an aft spa pool, and an impressive main deck, where the Onassis’ swimming pool sits with its renowned Minoan bull and vaulter mosaic alongside a dance floor, Christina O offers a plethora of options for lounging and socializing.

For Otedola, chartering the Christina O to commemorate his diamond jubilee is symbolic. In a past interview with Forbes magazine, Otedola revealed that the late Greek shipping tycoon had been his role model since he was 13.
Otedola is also known to possess a large collection of Aristotle Onassis memorabilia such as books, movies, and documentaries at his homes in Nigeria, London, Dubai, Monte Carlo, and London.

In modeling parts of his life after Onassis, in 2001 – at the age of 39, Otedola founded Seaforce Shipping Company Limited and built it into Nigeria’s largest indigenous shipping company.
Between 2001 and 2007, Otedola was the largest private shipowner in Nigeria, owning a tanker fleet that included Mt. Sir Michael (named after his father), Mt. Lady Doja (named after his mother), Mt. Nana (named after his wife) and Mt. Zenon Conquest.

He also served as the President of the Nigeria Chambers of Shipping.

Otedola has since divested from his interests in the shipping business and is now channeling his energies toward fixing Nigeria’s electricity deficit. Today, he is the chairman of Geregu Power PLC, a power-generating company that made history in the month of October by being the first electricity-generating company to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Geregu Power has three STG5-2000E gas turbine generator units with a 435 MW installed capacity, and the company has been shortlisted by the Nigerian government to acquire a second plant currently owned by the government with a generating capacity of 729 MW.

Otedola owns a 95-percent stake in the $650-million (market cap) company. He also owns an estimated six-percent stake in FBN Holdings, one of Nigeria’s largest financial services groups.

Aristotle Onassis also largely shaped Otedola’s outlook on philanthropy. The Greek businessman, who left instructions in his handwritten will for the establishment of a charitable foundation in memory of his son – the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation – also inspired Otedola in his charitable giving.

Otedola, one of Nigeria’s most generous philanthropists, has given away more money to philanthropic causes than any other Nigerian billionaire, except Aliko Dangote, over the last twenty years.

In November 2019, during an event in Abuja that was graced by Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Femi Otedola donated a record NGN 5 billion – roughly $14 million at the time – to Save the Children, a UK non-governmental organization.

The funds have gone a long way towards improving the lives of destitute children who have been victims of a lingering humanitarian crisis in Nigeria’s northeast region.

In November last year, he was invited by Save the Children to join the prestigious group as the organization’s vice president, in recognition of his philanthropic efforts to better the lives of children in Nigeria.

In 2020, he also donated $2.27 million toward COVID-19 relief efforts, and last year he built and donated a $4.7 million complex to the Engineering department of Lagos-based Augustine University.

He is also the Chancellor of Augustine University and has sponsored scholarships for Nigerian students for two decades.

In 2019 when local media inquired about his motivation for donating the N5 billion to Save the Children U.K, Otedola said: “In my life, in my journey, I have taken the risk, I have done the chase, I have enjoyed the thrill, I have achieved success and recognition. What next? You give it back. A lot of people think when they die they’ll take their money with them. We’ll see.”
Otedola has also gained acclaim for funding the exorbitant medical bills of some of Nigeria’s most prominent personalities. In 2019 he paid over $50,000 for the treatment of former Super Eagles captain and coach Christian Chukwu in London.

Otedola also paid over €130,000 to save star actor Victor Olaotan at a hospital in Turkey and footed the bills of Reggae superstar Majek Fashek when he was battling neck and throat cancer at a London hospital.

Other people who have benefited from Otedola’s generosity in a similar regard include Super Eagles former goalkeeper Peter Fregene, award-winning actor Sadiq Daba, Professor Ini Ebong, and celebrated romance writer Kayode Ajala among many others.

On various occasions, some of the recipients of Otedola’s generosity were unable to reach him to thank him for his generosity and thereby opted to make videos that they put up in the public domain with the hopes that he would see them.

Born on November 4, 1962, to the family of Sir Michael Otedola, one-time governor of Lagos State, Femi Otedola worked for his father’s Impact Printing Press in the early nineties and then went on to establish Centerforce Limited, a finance and investment company.

In 1999, he founded Zenon Petroleum & Gas Limited, an indigenous company that engaged in the procurement, storage, marketing, and distribution of petroleum products. At some point, Zenon Petroleum controlled more than 90% of the diesel supply business in Nigeria for nine years.

In 2007, he acquired a controlling stake in the government-owned African Petroleum Plc which operated gas stations across the country. He grew the company into one of the largest publicly-traded downstream oil companies in Sub-Saharan Africa at the time.

At some point, he was also one of the largest private owners of real estate in the swanky Victoria Island and Ikoyi neighborhoods in Lagos and owned some of the most prestigious commercial landmark properties in Abuja.

In 2008, his stake in African Petroleum was worth over $1.2 billion, and that same year, he became the second Nigerian, after Aliko Dangote, to be included in Forbes magazine’s annual ranking of the world’s billionaires.

At 46, he was the youngest African billionaire on the Forbes list at the time. Otedola subsequently renamed his company Forte Oil (FO) to match his name, and in 2013, he led the company to acquire a 414-gigawatt power-generating plant from the Nigerian government during a government-led privatization round.

In 2018, he unbundled the power assets of Forte Oil and created a separate company, Geregu Power, which he controls today. That same year, he sold off Forte Oil’s downstream businesses for hundreds of millions of dollars to a leading oil distribution firm in Nigeria.

At 60, Femi Otedola is one of Nigeria’s most influential power players. In 2010, he played a crucial role in encouraging the then Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to assume the presidency when President Umaru Yar’Adua became incapacitated. He still remains one of the more colorful personalities in Nigerian business and social circles. And that popularity spills into social media.

In 2020, he ‘broke the internet in Nigerian media when his daughter, DJ Cuppy, announced that he had purchased a Ferrari Portofino for each of his three daughters.

With 1.4 million followers on Instagram, Otedola is social media royalty in Nigeria, and he gives quite a show: From a video where he is dancing with his daughters to another where he is dancing with his wife during her birthday celebrations in London, to a picture where he is hosting his daughter and her fiance at his Dubai villa – and yet another where he is just chilling in Monte Carlo, where he also has a home – every single post he makes on Instagram goes viral and generates buzz in Nigerian media circles, and gets Nigerians young and old, longing for the good life.

Dubai-based Emirates Airlines has disclosed plans to suspend operations in Nigeria indefinitely.

According to a statement by the airline on Thursday, the airline said it had no option but to suspend flights to and from Nigeria to mitigate against further losses moving forward.

The statement read in part, “Emirates has continued to actively seek a solution for the repatriation of the remainder of its blocked funds in Nigeria. We were encouraged by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s efforts in reviewing our request and considered that this critical issue would be swiftly resolved with the subsequent clearance of our remaining funds.

“However, Emirates has yet to receive an allocation of our blocked funds to be repatriated. Without the timely repatriation of the funds and a mechanism in place to ensure that future repatriation of Emirates’ funds does not accumulate in any way, the backlog will continue to grow, and we simply cannot meet our operational costs nor maintain the commercial viability of our operations in Nigeria.”

Emirates stated that this new decision became necessary as it has attended multiple hearings with the Nigerian government and officially communicated its position.

The airline also made it known that it has made its proposed approach clear to alleviate the untenable situation, including a plan for the progressive release of funds which included the repatriation and receipt of at least 80 percent of its remaining blocked funds by the end of October 2022, in addition to providing a guaranteed mechanism to avoid future repatriation accumulation challenges and delays.

“We hope to reach a mutual resolution with the Nigerian government around the repatriation of blocked funds to enable the resumption of operations and connectivity for travelers and businesses,” the airline said.

As of the time of filling this report, attempts to book a flight from Abuja and Lagos on the Emirates portal proved abortive and yielded an automatic non-availability message.

The two suspects detained in connection with the death of three-year-old Ifeanyi Adeleke, son of music artiste, Davido, and his fiancée, Chioma Rowland, may remain with the police until after the report of an autopsy done on the child.

A credible source, who disclosed this on Wednesday, said the nanny and the cook were directly in charge of Ifeanyi’s welfare, adding that they might also be liable for negligence.

The source said, “The cook and the nanny were the ones directly with the child, so, they are guilty of negligence until the autopsy is conducted.

“So far, the family has not objected to the autopsy, but how fast it will be done depends on the hospital. But the next move is to review the CCTV at the house.”

It had been reported that after Ifeanyi’s corpse was recovered from the swimming pool at his father’s residence in the Banana Island area of Lagos State, it was deposited in a mortuary for autopsy.

The police subsequently invited eight domestic workers and after interrogation, six of them were released. However, the nanny and the cook were detained.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, who confirmed the detention of the suspects, declined to give further details to avoid pre-empting investigation into the case.

He said, “If we need to detain them for longer than necessary, we will obtain a court order so as to avoid illegal detention.
“I can’t give many details about an ongoing investigation, but those two people detained are assisting us in our investigation.

Those that were released have little or no bearing on the case but the two people detained are assisting us.

“Eight people were brought in for questioning, six people were allowed to go, the remaining two were the ones that have been placed under arrest and that makes them suspect.”

Meanwhile, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on Wednesday, commiserated with the bereaved parents.
Osinabjo, in a post on his Twitter handle, said, “Dolly & I are greatly saddened by the tragic loss of Ifeanyi, the dear son of Davido & Chioma. We pray our Lord Jesus Christ will comfort & uphold both of them through this traumatic experience. Amen. We also commiserate with our brother, Dr. Deji Adeleke, and the entire Adeleke family. You are constantly in our thoughts and prayers.”

The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, urged residents in the state to abide by the universal rule that guides the usage of swimming pools.

He said, “I am not sure you need a permit to build a swimming pool in your house, but I know that before you build a house, you bring the drawing for the government to approve.
“But if somebody has any emergency, whether it is in a swimming pool or clubhouse, the state has a piece of solid emergency machinery that swings into action within seconds. But people need to call those emergency numbers to make a report.

“The particular case you are talking about is a family tragedy and the Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, personally commiserated with Davido on this irreparable loss.
“For us in Lagos, it is not a time to begin to look into what the government is doing about people building swimming pools in their homes.

“There are universal rules about how to use a swimming pool; if you are a minor, you can’t go in there alone; if you want to swim, you must ensure that there are lifeguards around, and should anything happen, there must be people to raise the alarm; the swimming pool must be clearly marked to prevent a novice from going beyond certain meters, among others.”

Instagram has deactivated the verified account of the suspected internet fraudster, Abbas Ramoni, popularly known as Hushpuppi who is currently been tried in the United States for fraud-related activities.

It had been reported that Hushpuppi was arrested in Dubai by a joint team of Dubai Police and the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation in June 2020 for alleged fraud on different victims, including American citizens.

Hushpuppi was then extradited and charged with multiple counts of hacking, impersonation, scamming banking fraud, and identity theft.

Meanwhile, the suspected internet fraudster’s account with @hushpuppi as his username has about 2.8 million followers, 827 followers, and 540 posts showcasing his extravagant lifestyle.

Despite being arrested and tried, Instagram permitted Hushpuppi to share videos and photos on the platform once he does not represent dangerous organizations or individuals.
However, the social media platform seems to have reviewed the decision to allow Hushpuppi’s account to remain active.

A recent check to confirm Hushpuppi’s account activeness on Sunday, October 30, 2022, revealed that his account has been deactivated.

The ordeal of the former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu may not be over soon as he may remain in prison till May 2023 as the United Kingdom court has adjourned his case till next year.

Senator Ekweremadu and his wife Beatrice were arrested in the United Kingdom for alleged organ harvesting.

The couple was arrested at Heathrow Airport on June 21 after arriving on a flight from Turkey.

Severe Tropical Storm, Nalgae whipped the Philippines on Saturday after unleashing flash floods and landslides that officials said left at least 45 people dead.

Nalgae pounded the archipelago nation’s main island of Luzon with maximum winds of 95 kilometers (59 miles) an hour after making landfall on the sparsely populated Catanduanes island before dawn.

The destruction began well before, with heavy rain inundating mostly rural areas on the southern island of Mindanao on Thursday, followed by deadly landslides and flooding on Friday.

A sharply revised official toll on Saturday put the number of deaths in Mindanao at 40, with five others killed elsewhere in the country.

At the vanished southern village of Kusiong, home to between 80 and 100 people, bulldozers and backhoes churned up a thick layer of grey limestone rock and brown mud the size of 10 football fields as anxious relatives waited for news.

Parts of a denuded mountain nearby had collapsed on the hamlet early Friday and the bodies of 14 members of the Teduray tribe have been pulled out since — with many still missing.

In recent years, flash floods with mud and debris from largely deforested mountainsides have been among the deadliest hazards posed by typhoons in the Philippines.

“It could be more than a hundred,” Lester Sinsuat, the mayor of Datu Odin Sinsuat town, told AFP when asked how many are feared dead.

Rescuers abruptly ran away from the site during a brief and sudden downpour, fearing another landslide. They later returned to their grim task.

“Today we resumed our work, but this is already a retrieval operation because the village has been buried under rock and mud for more than a day,” regional civil defense chief Naguib Sinarimbo told AFP, declining to say how many were feared dead.

An AFP team saw three other bodies pulled out from the rubble on Saturday.

 ‘Why did we fail to evacuate them?’ President Ferdinand Marcos Jr rebuked civil defense and local officials at a televised meeting Saturday over the high number of casualties in Mindanao.

“It will be important for us to look back and see why this happened. Why did we fail to evacuate them? Why do we have such a high casualty (figure)?” the president asked.

Mindanao is rarely hit by the 20 or so typhoons that strike the Philippines each year, but those that do tend to be deadlier than those that hit Luzon or the smaller central islands.

The storm also caused flooding elsewhere in the country.
Photos released by the coastguard showed rescuers using an old refrigerator as an improvised boat to pull children from a flooded community on the central island of Leyte.

The state weather service said the eye of Nalgae passed just off Luzon’s south coast at 2:00 pm (0600 GMT), with the capital Manila, a sprawling metropolis of more than 13 million people, likely to be hit next.

The storm struck at the beginning of a long weekend in the Philippines, when millions return to their hometowns to visit the graves of their dead relatives.

“If it’s not necessary or important, we should avoid going out today because it is dangerous and could bring you harm,” national civil defense director Rafaelito Alejandro said, adding that 5,000 rescue teams were on standby.

More than 7,000 people were evacuated ahead of the storm’s landfall, the civil defense office said.

The coast guard has also suspended ferry services through most of the country due to rough seas, stranding hundreds of vessels and thousands of passengers at ports.

The civil aviation office, meanwhile, said it has shelved more than 100 flights.

Storms kill hundreds of people in the Philippines and keep vast regions in perpetual poverty, where residents also have to reckon with frequent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and in some areas armed insurgencies.

Scientists have warned that such storms, which also kill livestock and destroy infrastructure, are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer because of climate change.

Sean Combs, popularly known as Diddy, has officially become Hip-Hop’s new billionaire, as he replaces Kanye West who reportedly lost $2billion in a day and dropped to an estimated net worth of $500million.

A new report by former Forbes entertainment editor, Zack O’Malley Greenburg, on Friday reveals that Diddy becomes the third hip-hop artiste to ever attain billionaire status, after Jay-Z and West, with a total net worth of $1billion.

Asides from his ‘Bad Boy Records label, Diddy also has his other businesses like Ciroc and Revolt to thank for his new billionaire status.

West, who now goes simply by “Ye,” lost his billionaire status following his recent outburst of anti-Semitic remarks that prompted Adidas to pull the plug on the wildly lucrative footwear deal that made him a billionaire two years ago.

Jay-Z reclaimed the top spot on the list from West as hip-hop’s richest artist with a net worth of $1.5billon, since he became the genre’s first billionaire in 2019.

Afrobeat singer, Made Kuti, has engaged his girlfriend, Inedoye.
He made this known via his Instagram account late Tuesday.

The singer said he could not wait to build a future with Inedoye, adding that even though there was pain in the world, life was still worth living with her.

Excited that she accepted his proposal, Made said, “She said YES! @__inedoye Newest Fiancé and Fiancée in town 🙏🏿❤️ There’s a lot of pain in the world everyday. But sharing that pain and fighting for a better world with you makes it all worth living for. I can’t wait to see the future we build together. I love you ❤️.”

Quite a number of celebrities, including his father, Femi Kuti, congratulated the both of them.

“Congratulations to you both,” singer Korede Bello also wrote in Made’s comment section.

Made, legendary Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s grandson is also a songwriter and instrumentalist. He released his debut album titled; “Forward” in 2021.

A 28-year-old man has been arrested for stabbing his Nigerian mother to death in east London. 

Detectives on Tuesday, November 1, 2022, charged Nicholas Aina, of Auriel Avenue, Dagenham, with the murder of his mother, 64-year-old Caroline Adeyelu. 

He was also charged with the attempted murder of another woman in her 30s.

Police were called to the scene of the stabbing on Auriel Avenue at 9.35pm on Sunday, October 30, 2022, where Ms Adeleyu was pronounced dead at the scene.

The other woman also suffered stab injuries and was taken to hospital for treatment. Her condition is not life threatening.
 Aina appeared at Barkingside Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday November 1, and was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on Thursday, said police.

Samantha Southey, 27, who lives in the adjacent road from the incident, said: “I just heard a bit of commotion last night. The police knocked on the door and said they caught the person. It’s a little bit frightening. It’s getting a little too close to home.”

Detective Superintendent Richard Vandenbergh said: “It appears this was an isolated incident confined to a single address.”

He also added that the Dagenham stabbing ‘is a truly shocking incident.’