The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • Grandmother killed at a gender reveal party

    Agency Reporter

    Pamela Kreimeyer, 56, was reportedly killed at the weekend by a gender reveal party gone wrong.

    The Iowa grandmother was attending the gender reveal party for her grandchild in Knoxville, Iowa.

    The gender reveal involved a pipe bomb and colored smoke, and Kreimeyer was hit by a piece of metal when the bomb exploded.

    “This family got together for what they thought was going to be a happy event with no intent for anyone to get hurt,” said Marion County Sheriff Jason Sandholdt in a statement provided. “What ended up happening was that Pamela Kreimeyer, a wife, mother, and grandmother was killed by a piece of metal where a metal stand, gunpowder, and colored powder were involved.”

    Gender reveal parties are events organized for expectant parents. The parents will ask a doctor or a technician who performs an ultrasound to not tell them the fetus’s genital alignment and instead write it on a piece of paper that gets put in an envelope.

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    The envelope is then given to someone who creates a device that dramatically reveals the fetus’s genitals to the people attending. For example, they can cut a cake to see if the inside is pink or blue.

    The parties are problematic for LGBTQ people, and not just because some expectant parents use them as a way to get more presents from their friends (by having a baby shower and a gender reveal party). The parties usually rely on gender stereotypes (a football if it’s a boy, dance slippers if it’s a girl). They build up expectations around the child’s gender and emphasize it, when the child may not even identify as the gender that gets revealed.

    The woman who popularized gender reveals parties in 2008, Jenna Karvunidis, expressed regret about them earlier this year.

    “It just exploded into crazy after that,” she said.

    “Literally – guns firing, forest fires, more emphasis on gender than has ever been necessary for a baby…. Who cares what gender the baby is?”

    The Sheriff’s Office said that gunpowder was placed in a stand with a metal base plate, which had a hole for a fuse. A piece of wood was put on top of the gunpowder and colored powder was on top of the wood.

    “Tape was then wrapped over the top of the metal tubing, inadvertently creating a pipe bomb,” said the Sheriff’s Office statement. “Instead of the gunpowder shooting the powder out the top of the stand, the stand exploded sending metal pieces flying.”

    Even though the victim was standing 45 feet away from the apparatus, she was hit in the head. Other shards were found up to 144 yards away.

    The Sheriff’s Office said the incident remains under investigation, but they have not made any arrests.

    (www.newsnow.co.uk)

  • Russian ‘cannibal’ held as human bones found in bag

    Agency Reporter

    A man arrested in northern Russia has been charged with cannibalism, after three partially eaten murder victims were identified along with remains of cats, dogs and smaller animals.

    The 51-year-old is suspected of having eaten the animals as well as the three men, whom he had befriended and plied with alcohol.

    When the victims dozed off he allegedly stabbed them and chopped them up.

    Bones were found in bags left in a lake and river near the city of Arkhangelsk.

    Russia’s Investigative Committee (SK) issued a statement about the suspect (in Russian) and released a video clip of him under arrest. It appears to show one of the rural crime scenes.

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    He is reported to be mentally sound. He already had a criminal record, but the SK – Russia’s version of the FBI – has not named him.
    The murders allegedly took place in 2016-2017, but the SK says it took a long time to identify the victims. Two had no traceable relatives, while the third was long believed to have moved to another town in search of work. The body parts found were not identifiable without forensic tests.

    The SK statement says that “besides cannibalism, the accused regularly killed and ate cats, dogs and other small animals and birds, whose bones were found in the bags mixed up with human bones”.

    The suspect reportedly moved into the flat of the victim who he claimed had gone looking for work in another town. He told the man’s parents that before going away the man had agreed to let him look after the flat.

    (www.newsnow.co.uk)

  • NASS summons 17 oil companies over N72b, $273m debts to NDDC

    By Sanni Onogu, Abuja

    The National Assembly Joint Committee on Niger Delta Affairs has summoned 17 oil companies to appear over a N72billion and $273million indebtedness to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)

    The Chairman of the Joint Committee, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, representing Delta North, gave the directive during an interactive session with the management of the NDDC, Central Banks and Union Bank in Abuja.

    The oil companies include Shebah Express Petroleum, Atlas Petroleum, Allied Energy, Frontier Oil, Seven Energy Limited, Belma Oil Producing Limited, AITECO Exploration and Production, Dubri Oil, Conoil Producing, Continental Oil and Gas.

    Also invited are Enageed Resources Limited, New Cross Exploration and Production, Pan Ocean Oil Corporation Nigeria Limited, Nigeria Petroleum Development Resources, Munipulo Petroleum Development Company, Prime Exploration and Production Company and Nigeria LNG Limited.

    Senator Nwaoboshi said the summon became necessary to know why the companies have allegedly decided to break the law.

    “We have invited all oil companies indebted to NDDC to come and tell lawmakers why they will not obey the law of the country. Some of them have confirmed that they are indebted to NDDC,” he said.

    He disclosed that while the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) is indebted to the tune of N54billion as at when the last calculation was done, Allied and Pan Ocean owe $43million and $46million respectively.

    He also disclosed that the Federal Government owed NDDC over N1trillion.

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    Nwaoboshi, who expressed dissatisfaction with the failure of oil companies to settle their indebtedness to NDDC, said that the 8th Senate made efforts to ensure the prompt payment of money meant for NDDC.

    He accused the oil companies of not disclosing their real budget, saying most of them tampered with their annual budget.

    Speaking on the directives from President Muhammadu Buhari to conduct a forensic audit of the NDDC, Nwaoboshi said the Committee has also resolved to carry out a comprehensive probe of the intervention agency.

    Nwaoboshi said: “We welcome a forensic audit of the NDDC. The Eight Senate did technical audit and our findings are very appalling.

    “We are going to do our own full investigation. We have resolved to do full audit of the NDDC.”

    He also said that the Committee discovered funds meant for the NDDC were wrongly credited to the account of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

    He said the Committee has directed the CBN to retrieve the money and credit it to the NDDC’s account.

  • Emeka Ike welcomes baby girl

    By: Akpan Sunday

    Veteran Nollywood actor, Emeka Ike, has welcomed a baby girl with his second wife, Yolanda Pfeiffer.

    The excited actor took to his Instagram page on Tuesday to share the good news.

    The proud father shared the photo of the bouncing baby while appreciating his wife.

    The newly born, who he named Oluchi, was delivered in Nuremberg, Germany.

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    He described the baby as his “bundle of joy”.

    “GUESS WHO IS IN TOWN?… Oluchi…in Nuremberg Germany … Thank u for the bundle of Joy… ” he tweeted.

  • Zlatan sets to release debut album

    By: Akpan Sunday

    Indigenous singer and entertainer, Temidayo Omoniyi, popularly known as ‘Zlatan Ibile’ is set to release his debut album titled ‘Zanku’ on Friday, November 1.

    The ‘Zanku Dance’ crooner took to his Instagram handle to make the announcement.

    According to the singer, the album which features Davido, Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage, Patoranking, Barry Jhay and others, has about 17 tracks including ‘Gbeku’.

    Production is handled by Speroach, Rexxie, Spellz, Kiddominant, LamBeatz and Miragulousbeatz with Mixing by Spiritmyx and Ifex, he informed.

    He wrote: “My people!!! How una dey? It is with great joy and deep gratitude to God that I present you all the track list of our soon-to-drop album titled ZANKU.

    “My journey has been a mixture of pain, laughter, disappointments, gains, sadness, peace and more.

    “I have had low and high moments. In all of these though, God has been faithful.

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    “Without God, there would have been no Zlatan Ibile. It is my pleasure to share my life experience with y’all through our album.

    “ZLATANOVAZ, I can’t thank you enough for your support. No ZLATANOVAZ, no Zlatan Ibile.

    “I put in a lot to deliver the best album but couldn’t have done it alone.

    “To my industry friends I featured on some tracks, thanks for honouring me with your talents.

    “My parents and siblings, thanks for allowing me express myself. I pray that God rewards y’all exceedingly.

    “ZLATANOVAZ , I hope that you love every single track. Show me more love my pre-ordering our album via the link in my bio. I love you all.”

  • New vaccine against tuberculosis coming

    By Olayinka Oyegbile, Hyderabad, India

    Researchers are at the verge of getting a vaccine that might help in the fight against tuberculosis worldwide.

    This was disclosed at the ongoing 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health holding in Hyderabad, India.

    Speaking to journalists at a press conference to herald the beginning of the conference, Dr. Paula Fujiwara, Scientific Director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), the host of the conference, said, “We are one more cautious, but exciting, step closer to a vaccine for tuberculosis (TB).

    ‘’A vaccine is the ultimate prevention tool and the announcement today (Tuesday) is welcome news, but as researchers discuss how to move the trial into its final phase, we simultaneously need to be doing all we can to prevent tuberculosis with medications that we already have at our disposal.”

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) says TB is the most challenging infectious disease that humankind faces.

    It is estimated that in the last 200 years it has killed one billion people. Nigeria is one of the eight countries where it is still prevalent.

    Fujiwara added: “TB is a disease that is preventable, treatable and curable, yet last year it killed 1.5 million people, more than HIV/AIDS.

    ‘’We cannot end the TB emergency unless we dramatically scale up prevention in those parts of the world where we are treating it. The cost of inaction is more unnecessary suffering and death.”

    India has the highest TB burden in the world with just over one in four of all estimated global cases reported.

    The Indian government has made the fight against TB a central priority and boldly pledged to end TB by 2025, five years before the globally agreed target.

    In demonstration of government’s commitment to this target, the Vice-President Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, will on Wednesday be the Chief Guest of the 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health.

    He will officially inaugurate the conference at its opening ceremony.

    The Executive Director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), José Luis Castro said: “We are delighted that the Vice-President of India has accepted our invitation to attend and formally open the conference.

    “We are at a critical juncture in the fight against TB epidemic in India and we are grateful for this incredible support from the Government of India, which is at the forefront of the global effort to end the emergency.”

    Up to 4,000 delegates including senior figures from government, health officials, doctors, researchers, nurses, TB survivors and civil society organisations from around the world, are expected to attend the Union World Conference.

    Among these is film and television actress Claire Forlani who has accepted a role as ambassador for The Union and will also speak at the opening ceremony.

    The team of researchers has already concluded a critical phase of clinical trials and tested on more than 3,500 adults in TB endemic regions of South Africa, Kenya and Zambia.

    However, David Lewinsohn, a TB expert observed that the vaccine would need to be tested on a bigger level before being licensed. The target dated is 2028.

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    The WHO plans to reduce the number of new TB cases by 90% and the number of TB deaths by 95% between 2015 and 2035.

    Eight countries account for two thirds of global TB cases: India tops with (27%), while Nigeria and Bangladesh have (4%), China (9%), Indonesia (8%), the Philippines (6%), Pakistan (6%), and South Africa (3%).

    India records nearly three million new tuberculosis cases annually. Of this more than 100,000 are multi-drug resistant, according to the WHO.

    Jamhoih Tonsing, director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease’s office in Delhi, said: “We cannot eliminate TB globally unless we end it in India.

    “The number of people with TB in India is falling and that is good news. But let´s be honest – TB is still not falling nearly fast enough progress is still too slow to meet the targets. We need to step up the pace of treatment and prevention,” she said.

  • Education Ministry, NGO partner on literacy

    By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

    To enhance reading culture among secondary school pupils, the Office of Education Quality Assurance, Lagos State Ministry of Education partnered with Readland, a non-profit organisation, on a programme to celebrate the World Literacy Day.

    Held at Agidingbi Grammar School, Ikeja, the programme featured, among others, a drama presentation by pupils of Agidingbi Junior and Senior Grammar Schools based on Tribes Apart, a book by child author, Mojoyin Adeshina.

    Acting out the book not only exposed the pupils to reading but taught them lessons about its theme which centers on unity in diversity and Nigeria’s rich culture and languages.

    Eleven-year old Mojoyin, whose parents run Readland, was on hand to read portions from the book at the event, which was attended by government functionaries.

    Tutor General/Permanent Secretary Education District VI, Olusanya Ebenezer Abayomi praised the pupils’ performance of the book. He said it was

    “We are celebrating literacy day and we are happy to be here with them. The performance I have seen is a wonderful thing.

    “They will now know that literacy day is an important day for them to showcase their languages. We told them they should love to embrace each other’s language,” he said.

    Representative of the Office of Education Quality Assurance, Mrs Folake Oyewole said in line with the theme, Literacy and Multilingualism, the pupils were encouraged to embrace learning their mother tongue along with the English language.

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    “We are trying to promote the local dialect to impact learning on learners. We have several types of learners – extroverts, introvert and others.

    “But we want to all learners to learn. We have to promote this learning and that is why we have this,” she said.

    Mojoyin’s father, Mr Francis Adeshina, said Readland partnered with the Office of Education Quality Assurance to get more pupils to enjoy reading. He said the organisation hopes to give out many books by the author free to young people.

    “Our joy is to bring fun to reading. Tribes Apart is first of the Nigeria of my dream series, which focus on providing solution-based books for young people to address national issues. The intention is to give out the books.

    “Last year, we gave out 5,000 copies of “Bantu, the big fat bully”, free. We were also given a mandate to train teachers,” he said.

  • Wife seeks dissolution of marriage over husband’s alleged desertion

    Agency Reporter

    Kemi Williams (32), a housewife, who alleged that her husband, Femi Williams, deserted her for three years on Tuesday asked an Ado-Ekiti Customary Court to dissolve their 7-year-old marriage.

    The plaintiff also is seeking the dissolution on grounds of alleged constant beating, chasing her out of the house at any slightest misunderstanding and lack of care for their only child by Femi.

    Kemi, who resides at No 21, Oke-Ila Str., Ado-Ekiti, told the court that she had been estranged from her husband since 2017.

    She also told the court that her estranged husband told her that her mother in-law wanted them to be separated for not being able to give birth to another child.

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    The plaintiff explained that she had to leave her husband’s house since his mother in-law had previously come to remove her husband’s belongings while she was still living with him.

    Kemi said since her husband had maltreated her severally and told her that he was no longer interested in marrying her, the court should grant her request for dissolution of the marriage.

    The petitioner, however, urged the court to grant custody of their four-year old child to her in order for her husband to take up the child’s responsibility as regards his welfare.

    The President of the Court, Mrs Olayinka Akomolede, who said the court’s records showed that Femi had not been appearing in court, adjourned the case until Jan. 9, 2020 for to enable him defend the allegations.(NAN

  • Auditors remuneration very discouraging, says AuGF

    Moses Emorinken, Abuja

    The Office of the Auditor General of the federation (OAuGF) has described the state of remunerations and incentives for auditors in Nigeria as poor, abysmal and very discouraging compared to their counterparts in other anti-corruption agencies in the country.

    The Auditor General of the federation, Mr. Anthony Ayine, who made this known Tuesday during the bi-annual conference of the body of federal and state auditors-general in Abuja, stressed that poor remuneration has the potential to cripple the holistic fight against corruption as some auditors might be tempted to compromise on objectivity and transparency, which are critical to their work and ethics.

    According to him, “Remuneration for auditors is poor. Let me remind you that these auditors go out and examine the records of other audited entities. For these auditors, there is a risk of being tempted. It becomes very important that these auditors should be properly remunerated so that they can resist such temptations when they are tempted.

    “Thank God for Mr. President who is so resolute about fighting corruption. I think our audit institutions in Nigeria must support this administration in fighting this corruption. It is also important that we address the issue of poor remuneration for the auditors which is a serious challenge.

    “For example, you send auditors to Lagos and you are not able to pay them their duty tour allowance that should enable them stay in good hotels and do their work; you run the risk of these people tempted by the audited entities. To prevent and avoid that, there is need for these auditors to be given their duty tour allowances, and it is also important their remuneration is good in terms of allowances.

    “For now, the audit institution in Nigeria is still tied to the civil service. In many climes, it is not like that; audit institutions are isolated from the civil service. If you compare the pay of civil audit institutions in Nigeria to other anti-corruption agencies, you will discover that it is something very discouraging. Something needs to be done in order to properly position and encourage these auditors to do their work”.

    The boss of the Supreme Audit Institution in Nigeria also identified poor accounting environment as a major challenge that auditing in Nigeria is faced with. According to him, “We have a poor consciousness of having a good accounting system in place, which involves proper preparation of accounting records that are capable of drawing financial statements, which could be monthly, quarterly, or yearly.

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    “Today, Nigeria has adopted the International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS), which has made our ministries, departments and agencies to prepare a standalone financial statement. The question we need to examine is – do we have the capacity in terms of people who are prepared to handle the stand alone financial statements? Because expectedly, it is required that you have separate audit opinion on the stand alone financial statement before the stand alone financial statements are even consolidated by the Accountant General of the federation, and a consolidated financial statement prepared which the AuGF will examine and report upon. So, the issue of capacity building is very important.”

    With regards to poor funding of the office of Auditors-general, Mr. Ayine urged state auditors-general to explore alternative sources of funding asides budgetary allocations. He encouraged them to engage developmental partners at the local and international levels to be able to attract the much needed donor funds for their offices.

    Among other things he said is the need for conducive relationship and engagements between the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Supreme Audit Institutions in Nigeria in order to achieve effective public accountability.

    According to the Chairman of the body of federal and state auditors-general, Alh. Abdu Aliyu, “the challenge of the institution remains the issue of autonomy which is a cankerworm in the growth of audit institution and by extension in accountability and good government”.

    He however, expressed hope that the National Assembly will pass Audit Bill to become an Act so that states can domesticate it.

  • Bayelsa Poll: APC campaign draws members from PDP

    Agency Reporter

    Some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) indicated interests in the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday when David Lyon, the APC governorship candidate in Bayelsa, took campaign to Sagbama Local Government Area of the state.

    The campaign is preparatory to the state governorship election on Nov. 16.

    Lyon said that APC had convinced the politicians that decamped that the people were tired of PDP style of administration of the state and needed a positive change.

    The APC governorship candidate noted that the people lacked good road network, health facilities, schools and proper drainage systems in the entire state.

    He said that when voted into power, the APC administration would bring development, security and investors to the state.

    “Apart from these, youth empowerment schemes would be introduced while older people and the vulnerable would also be carried along,” he promised.

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    The APC Campaign Coordinator for Sagbama, Mr Micheal Kurlorkor, said that the crowd were the indigenes of the area.

    In a welcome address, Bayelsa APC Chairman Jothan Amos promised the people that decamped of all inclusiveness during and after the election.

    The former Acting-Governor and former Speaker of the Bayelsa Assembly, Mr Nestor Binabo, said that Sagbama people were ready to support the APC candidate.

    He described the APC candidate as the chosen one to take Bayelsa to the next level.(NAN)