News & Announcements

Hemasiri Fernando, Sri Lanka’s defence secretary, has resigned following the security forces’ failure to stop the deadly church and hotel attacks on Easter Sunday.

He said that while there had been no failure on his own part, he was taking responsibility for failures of some institutions he headed as the secretary of defence.

“I decided to resign on my own volition,” he told Sri Lankan channel News First. “Until a suitable person is found, I will continue to help. I don’t think there were failures at the defense ministry. But some agencies under the ministry’s purview appear to have failed in coordination.”

The office of Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena confirmed Fernando would serve in the post until a replacement is appointed.

After over three decades, son of notorious armed robber Anini Lawrence has come out to speak about his father.

The man named Osayi Lawrence Lawson has boldly addressed certain perceptions about his daddy whose notoriety in robbery led him to be captured in the 1980s and executed by means of a firing squad. Osayi Lawrence spoke of how proud he was of his father on Facebook.

He particularly said that he did not like the way Nigerians addressed him in public as if they expected him to be shy of his roots. According to him, he had no intention to hide his face from Nigerians because of the atrocities his father committed in Benin City and its environs.

As a matter of fact, Osayi went ahead to correct the way Nigerians pronounced the surname of his father. He hammered on the right pronunciation just as he also corrected Nigerians to stop thinking that Anini was his father’s nickname. According to him, Anini was his grandfather’s name and this was directly transferred to his own daddy.

The distraught Osayi spoke of the rest of his family including his brother Osaro, Anini’s mother and other living relatives. Even more, the man was particular about debunking the depiction of his father by Nollywood.

According to him, the film that had been made about his father by Nollywood acts was full of lies and misconceptions.

In a later post, Osayi particularly made sure to emphasize that although he was proud of his father, he is not like him. He professed to be cool and calm unlike his daddy. 

While core Buharists will fall over themselves to defend the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari as making life easier for Nigerians, some popular personalities are seeing the country otherwise.

Just on Monday, popular entertainer and veteran actress, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, bombarded the current administration, saying that Buhari has made the country hell for Nigerians. Taking to her twitter handle, the actress said that the lack of money and the sustained killings that go unabated have made the country hell for the citizens.

She said that the continued killings by the uniform men will make the country explode, saying that there is fear and desperation everywhere.

A popular figure in the Nigerian entertainment industry has come out to speak up against the recent killings in the country and charged the president and his vice to do better.

“The country under your watch is hellish! @ProfOsinbajo @MBuhari @NGRPresident. The lack of money in circulation, now coupled with the continuous assault and killings by uniformed men make this country implode!!! it’s unbearable! Do something! Insecurity! Fear and desperation everywhere.” she said.

It will be recalled that in less than one month, men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) have accounted for the death of innocent Nigerians, with the late Kolade Johnson murdered by SARS at the Cement area of Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway being the most prominent.

Oby Ezekwesili, the former minister of Education and a presidential candidate in the just concluded general election in Nigeria, is making Nigeria proud around the world as the global rating firm, Forbes, named the former World Bank personnel as Woman Africa Social Influencer.

According to Naija News,  Ezekwesili received the award at the Forbes Woman Africa Awards inaugural gala dinner which held in Durban, South Africa recently.

Ezekwesili’s efforts in launching the viral #BringBackOurGirls campaign on social media earned her the award.

The dinner followed a full day of panel discussions and talks by New Wealth Creators from across Africa at the fourth annual Forbes Woman Africa Leading Women Summit.

The ceremony was the perfect conclusion to a highly constructive day of networking and concept sharing by Africa’s most dynamic women,” said Methil Renuka, managing editor of Forbes Africa and Forbes Woman Africa in a statement on Tuesday.

“I would like to congratulate every award recipient – the work they are doing is impacting the lives of millions of young women worldwide, creating a space for them to, in turn, make their mark in a meaningful way.”

Several women were recognised in business, sports, science, entertainment and leadership, including Divine Simbi-Ndhlukula (Forbes Woman Africa Businesswoman of the Year Award); Rachel Sibande (Forbes Woman Africa Gen Y Award) and Caster Semenya (Forbes Woman Africa Sports Award).

Others are Sho Madjozi (Forbes Woman Africa Entertainer Award), Uche Pedro (Forbes Woman Africa New Media Award), among others.

The convener of ‘OurMumuDonDo’ movement, Charley Boy, actually took money to discredit Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the just concluded general election.

This piece of information was revealed to our correspondent by a very close friend of the popular singer, who gave his name as Okey, saying that the intention of Charley Boy was to collect the money and move ahead with his anti-government and people-oriented activism.

Recall that the Imo State-born entertainer had denied receiving money from the presidency, claiming that he admitted getting fund from the spokesperson of the APC Presidential Campaign Council to test how his co-convener of the OurMumuDonDo, Deji Adeyanju, who, on release from the DSS, resigned his membership of the group, citing Charley Boy’s derailment from their core aim of staying on the side of the masses as his reason.

But speaking on the matter, Okey said Charley Boy received money from the presidency with the sole aim of running down Atiku, defending the latter that he never planned to do that.

“He got money from Festus Keyamo and it was because of the song he intended to release, which the APC believe would whittle down the growing influence of the PDP presidential candidate. But to be truthful, he could not have done it because he has not lost focus on remaining the voice of the masses,” said the tall and lanky man.  

In what is obviously a sad narrative, barely a week after a building accommodating a Nursery and Primary school collapsed in the Itafaji area in Lagos Island, killing more than 20 persons. Another building in the area collapsed on Monday afternoon.

According to reports, many residents of No 57, Egerton Square Alakoro area of Lagos Island, are currently trapped as their building collapsed this afternoon. The building has already been marked for demolition.

As at the time of filing this report, a rescue operation was ongoing, even as men of the Lagos State Fire Service were said to have arrived the scene to ascertain the level of damage.

Accounts emerged on Sunday of heroic attempts to tackle a gunman who slaughtered 50 people at two mosques in New Zealand, as authorities prepared to begin releasing the bodies of victims to their families for burial. The death toll, meanwhile, has risen to 53.

Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a suspected white supremacist, was charged with murder on Saturday. Tarrant was remanded without a plea and is due back in court on April 5 where police said he was likely to face more charges.

Friday’s attack in the city of Christchurch, which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern labeled terrorism, was the worst ever peacetime mass killing in New Zealand.

Ardern also said she wanted to talk to Facebook, as footage of the attack on one of the mosques was broadcast live on Facebook, and a “manifesto” denouncing immigrants as “invaders” was posted online via links to related social media accounts minutes before the violence began.

Amid the shock, outrage and recriminations that have consumed New Zealand over the past two days, tales of heroism and self-sacrifice emerged.

Abdul Aziz, 48, was hailed for confronting the shooter at the second mosque and preventing more deaths.

Aziz, originally from Afghanistan, ran outside after the shooting started and picked up a shotgun that the gunman had dropped. The gun had no shells in it, he said.

“I chased him,” Aziz said. “He sat in his car and with the shotgun in my hands, I threw it through his window like an arrow. He just swore at me and took off.”

Another man, Naeem Rashid from Pakistan, was seen on the gunman’s video confronting the shooter before he was killed, the BBC reported. Rashid’s 21-year-old son, Talha, was also killed.

Meanwhile, after the Federal Government had continuously commiserated with New Zealand over the death of over fifty persons, Nigerians have continually mocked the national government for showing more concern on the deaths in New Zealand over the continued killings in Southern Kaduna.

The Federal Government, through information from presidential aides, commiserated with the government and people of New Zealand over the deaths and prayed God to grant the families of the victims the fortitude to bear the loss.

Many Nigerians, meanwhile, took to twitter to handle to ask Federal Government to remove the log in its eyes before looking at a speck in the eyes of its neighbor.

@Mr_Oscar tweeted: “they have come again; Nigeria is boiling in southern kaduna and we are here mourning with others. We should remove the huge log in our eyes before we see properly to remove the speck in New Zealand.”

Also tweeting, @Musa Idris wrote: “Big fool; Nigerias are dying in their numbers particularly in Kaduna and we are here commiserating with New Zealand. Are we not big fool?

While so many women can give anything to have their V region licked, it turned a harrowed experience for a woman in United Kingdom when her partner was performing oral sex on her and she suddenly suffered stroke and passing out on her point of orgasm.

Medics at West Middlesex University Hospital in Isleworth in West London said the patient was unconscious for three minutes after first suffering a headache during oral sex.

Her partner, whose gender was not revealed, said they noticed during sex that “her body was stiff”.

Doctors this week wrote in a British Medical Journal case report: “On closer history taking, the patient reported nearing orgasm while receiving oral sex from her partner before losing consciousness.

“Her partner estimated she was unconscious for two to three minutes, with no convulsive activity reported. She had otherwise been well preceding the event.”

Doctors initially thought she had suffered a seizure. They sent the woman for a CT scan and it revealed a “trace of acute subarachnoid blood” — a type of stroke that causes bleeding in the space around the brain. The patient’s bleed was caused by a small aneurysm, a bulge on a blood vessel like a balloon or bubble that bursts.

In the report, the doctors acknowledged that sexual activity has been “well-described” as a cause of blood vessels bursting because it increases blood pressure. But they said past studies have only seen this effect during full-blown sex, rather than during oral sex.

They wrote: “Older studies with [artery] monitoring during coitus demonstrate that during sexual activity blood pressure, as well as heart rate, is very [liable to change], with particular rises during orgasm.”

The woman was revealed to be a regular smoker, occasional drinker, asthmatic and had suffered malaria in her brain in her 20s, but these were not directly linked to her stroke in the report.

The woman spent two weeks in hospital in October 2018 before being discharged. Four months after her ordeal, the woman was reported to be well and still having check ups at the hospital.

It is hue and cry in Lagos on Wednesday as a three-storey building caved in in Lagos, killing about over ten school children while leaving more than fifty others, as well other occupants of the building trapped in the debris.

The building located at the Itafaji area of Lagos Island was reported to be a residential building with several apartments.

The building collapse was also confirmed by Kehinde Adebayo, the spokesperson for the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, saying that emergency officials were already on the ground.

Meanwhile, the cause of the collapse was yet to be ascertained, even as several persons were inside the building when it collapsed on the occupants

A distressed lady who took her aunt’s children to school was weeping bitterly. She said the children initially did not want to go to school, but were urged to do so.

“The children said they didn’t want to go to school today but were forced to go, the lady said while weeping at the evacuation site and calling everybody to help her. A teacher was said to have called from under the debris stating that about 20 children were trapped with her.

After stories went viral early in the week that Aliyu Mohammed Sani, the man who swam and drank gutter water to celebrate election victory of President Muhammadu Buhari, had died of stomach issues, the presidency has come out to debunk the death rumour.

President Buhari’s personal assistant on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, denied media reports that Sani, the man who jumped inside a gutter to celebrate President Buhari’s victory in the just concluded presidential polls, died.

Shortly after the presidential election results were released and President Buhari declared winner of the election, Aliyu, a staunch supporter of President Buhari, jumped into a gutter to celebrate his victory in Bauchi State and allegedly drank the dirty water.

Rumor was rife on Social media last week Tuesday that Aliyu had died from complications that arose from him drinking the dirty water in the gutter. He was said to have died after battling with gastrointestinal bleeding in the hospital for days after his public stunt.

Well, he had an interview with a newsmedia where it was affirmed he is still alive. Sani, a painter dismissed the rumour that he was taken to hospital over any form of complication

 “As I am talking to you now, I am on my way back to Bauchi after we finished a painting work somewhere outside Bauchi,” he said.

According to him, his decision to drink water from the gutter if President Muhammadu Buhari wins re-election was a promise, he took in the presence of people which he fulfilled.

 “It is true, I made the promise before the elections and I fulfilled it and I have no regrets,” he added.

To further dispel the rumors, Bashir took to his twitter handle to disclose that he had spoken to Aliyu as well

” I have spoken to him earlier, Alhamdulillah for his life, his life will in sha Allah be moved to the #NextLevel, same with millions of Nigerians. Aliyu did that for pure love, and he will see purest love in return” he tweeted