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Tag: Nigerian news

  • Police arraign carpenter for alleged attempt to defile neighbour’s daughter

    Police arraign carpenter for alleged attempt to defile neighbour’s daughter

    The Police in Lagos have arraigned a carpenter, Jimoh Oribamise, 24, before an Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court for alleged attempt to defile his neighbour’s 8-year-old daughter .

    The accused, who resides at 9, Owonikoko St., Ayobo, a suburb of Lagos is also accused of causing breach of the peace.

    The prosecutor, Insp. Clifford Ogu told the court that the offences were committed on Sept. 16, at the residence of the defendant.

    Ogu said that the accused called the victim into his room on the pretext of sending her on an errand.

    “The accused gave the girl N30 and was about defiling the girl when one of the neighbours who heard the girl cry peeped through the window.

    “The accused ran away from the house immediately and the case was reported at the police station,” he said.

    Ogu added that the accused was later sighted at a different location and was arrested.

    The offences contravene sections 168(d) and 406(1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

    The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

    The Chief Magistrate, Mrs Taiwo Akanni, granted the defendant bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum.

    Akanni adjourned the case till Nov. 13, for mention.

    NAN

  • West Ham’s Bilic says pressure spurs him on to improve

    West Ham’s Bilic says pressure spurs him on to improve

    West Ham United manager, Slaven Bilic admits he is one of many Premier League managers facing speculation over their futures, but the Croat said the pressure makes him more determined to improve results.

    Everton’s Ronald Koeman became the third managerial casualty of the Premier League season on Monday.

    And Bilic is at risk of suffering the same fate if he does not turn things around after last Friday’s 3-0 home loss to Brighton and Hove Albion.

    West Ham are 16th in the table with eight points from nine games, but Bilic said he would not walk away from the challenge.

    “You ask me about Koeman, there are always three, four, five managers in those positions and I‘m definitely one of them,” Bilic said ahead of the League Cup fourth round clash at Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday.

    “Does it make me lose my focus? No, it gives you even more. I never gave up in my career, no matter in which way of life, as a parent, as a friend, as a manager.

    “I am never, never, never walking away… It is my job and a job I like to do especially in a place that I feel, after my hometown, is like few other places, you are treated special.”

    British media reports said West Ham’s owners have given Bilic the next two games to turn things around and save his job, but the 49-year-old is not worried.

    “That’s my biggest strength, to be strong in hard times. Now I‘m having a hard time, yes I am. That doesn’t scare me.”

    After the clash against Tottenham at Wembley, West Ham travel to basement side Crystal Palace in the league.

    Palace have just one win in nine games so far.

    NAN

  • Court remands man for allegedly stoning woman to death

    Court remands man for allegedly stoning woman to death

    An Ota Magistrate’s Court in Ogun, on Wednesday, remanded a 51-year-old man, Preston Ogilo, in prison for allegedly stoning one Lynda to death.

    Ogilo of no fixed address is facing a charge of murder.

    The Senior Magistrate, Mrs A. F. Ojelade, ordered that the accused be remanded in prison, pending legal advice from the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

    Ojelade adjourned the case until Dec.1 for mention.

    Earlier, the Prosecutor, Sgt. Rosemary Samson, told the court that the accused committed the offence on Sept. 11 at about 2.30 p.m., in front of Winners Chapel Church, along Idiroko Road, Ota.

    Samson said that the accused unlawfully killed one Lynda by stoning her to death.

    According to the prosecutor, the offence contravened Section 319 (1) of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ogun, 2006.

    NAN

  • French spokesman gets Macron ’s backing to lead party

    French spokesman gets Macron ’s backing to lead party

    French government spokesman, Christophe Castaner, said on Wednesday that President Emmanuel Macron was backing him to lead the year-old Republic on the Move (LREM) party that brought the president to victory earlier this year.

    If Castaner wins a Nov. 18 election for the party’s leadership, it could trigger a minor government reshuffle as he is a cabinet member in charge of relations with parliament.

    LREM won a large majority in parliamentary elections in June, consolidating Macron’s presidential win in May.
    Like Macron, most LREM lawmakers had never previously held elected office.

    “If he chose me and supported my candidacy in the collective talks we’re having, it’s because I’ve got the support of the party’s rank and file,” Castaner said on RTL radio.

    Previously a Socialist lawmaker from southwestern France, Castaner joined Macron’s campaign early as his spokesman.

    Since Macron’s victory, Castaner has become a familiar face on national television defending the president’s reform agenda.

    Thanks to Castaner’s Socialist roots, Macron’s backing for him could help counter recent criticism of Macron as a president of the rich for partially scrapping the wealth tax, a symbol of France’s income redistribution system cherished on the Left.

    The french goverment spokesman said that for the moment, no one else had put forward their candidacy to lead the party.

    NAN

  • NGO provides shelter to 99 indigent children in Plateau

    NGO provides shelter to 99 indigent children in Plateau

    An NGO, Societal Socialize Children Villages International, established to meet the children’s needs and protect their rights, has given shelter to 99 indigent children in Plateau since 2010.

    The Programme Director of the organisation, Mr Stephen Davou, made this known in an interview on Wednesday in Jos.

    Davou said that the beneficiaries had either lost a parent or about to lose, and thus, had no economic and emotional stability to secure their future.

    He said that the children were selected from social development welfare offices across the 17 LGAs of Plateau with guardianship from the court of law.

    “The 99 children are in 12 family houses, with 33 in secondary school and 66 in the primary school.
    “We offer them parental care using family-based care model because the family is the best place for the child to grow.
    “We have a mother figure to care for them throughout their period with us. It is a long-term programme in which their education, health, morals are catered for.

    “They can stay with us till university level and leave the shelter when they are self-sustaining; then, we re-integrate them into the society,” he said.

    The official said that the organisation had also trained youths on entrepreneurial skills and secured their internship in various organisations.

    According to Davou, some of the youths eventually get employed in their places on internship.

    He urged the Plateau Government to gazette the Child Rights Law passed in the state since 2005, noting that child abusers were perpetrating the act because the law had yet to be operational.

    “We are pleading for functional family courts according to the provisions of the Child Rights Law because prosecution on issues affecting children’s welfare will be better handled there than in the conventional courts,’’ he said.

    He said that crisis in Plateau had rendered many children homeless.

    According to him, parents should be close to their children, know their friends, monitor where they go and sensitise them to the need to identify and report any form of abuse from anybody for appropriate actions.

    The organization, which has headquarters in Austria, has offices in seven states in Nigeria.

    NAN

  • Airlines get ready for new U.S. security rules on Thursday

    Airlines get ready for new U.S. security rules on Thursday

    New security measures including stricter passenger screening take effect on Thursday on all U.S.-bound flights to comply with government requirements designed to avoid an in-cabin ban on laptop computers, airlines said.

    Airlines said the new measures, which could include short security interviews with passengers, would be in place by Thursday.

    They will affect 325,000 airline passengers on about 2,000 commercial flights arriving daily in the U.S., on 180 airlines from 280 airports in 105 countries.

    The U.S. announced the new rules in June to end its restrictions on carry-on electronic devices on planes coming from 10 airports in eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa in response to unspecified security threats.

    Those restrictions were lifted in July, but the Trump administration said it could re-impose measures on a case-by-case basis if airlines and airports did not boost security.

    European and U.S. officials said that airlines had 120 days to comply with the measures, including increased passenger screening. The 120-day deadline is Thursday.

    Airlines had until late July to expand explosive trace detection testing.

    Lufthansa Group said on Tuesday the measures would be in place by Thursday and travelers could face short interviews at check-in or at the gate.

    Economy passengers on Lufthansa’s Swiss airline have been asked to check in at least 90 minutes before departure.

    Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. said it would suspend in-town check-in and self bag-drop services for passengers booked on direct flights to the U.S.

    The airline said passengers would also have short security interviews and it has advised travelers to arrive three hours before departure.

    Airlines for America, a U.S. trade group, said the changes “are complex security measures” but praised U.S. officials for giving airlines flexibility in meeting the new rules.

    Association of Asia Pacific Airlines Director-General, Andrew Herdman, said having a globally coordinated security approach made more sense than having destination-specific requirements.

    “This is not a positive,” he said of the U.S. measures at an industry conference in Taipei. “It adds complexity.”

    U.S. authorities in June also increased security around aircraft and in passenger areas, and other places where travelers can be cleared by U.S. officials before they depart.

    A Transportation Security Administration ( TSA ) spokeswoman declined to discuss the specific changes but said “the U.S. continues to work with our partners to raise the baseline of global aviation security and keep the entire traveling public safe.”

    The TSA said in July it was imposing new security rules requiring U.S. domestic airline travelers to remove all electronic items larger than mobile phones such as tablets, e-readers and video game consoles from carry-on baggage for screening.

    NAN

  • EU top court rules against Austria in asylum case

    EU top court rules against Austria in asylum case

    The European( EU ) Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday that Austria was obliged to examine the asylum application of an Iranian national even though he had previously sought international protection in Bulgaria.

    Majid Shiri, the asylum seeker, applied for international protection first in Bulgaria, and then in Austria.

    Under current EU law – also known as the Dublin regulation – the member state which was the first point of entry into the EU – in this case Bulgaria – is obliged to handle asylum applications.

    Read: Nigeria records 1,300 registered victims in EU countries

    But the ECJ found that because Shiri was not transferred back from Austria to Bulgaria within a six-month time limit, the “responsibility is transferred automatically” to Austria.

    The ruling is likely to have repercussions for a number of asylum cases lodged in 2015 and 2016 when a large number of people seeking international protection entered Europe.

    Read Also: EU agrees on new labour rules to prevent social dumping

  • Plague kills 124 in Madagascar

    Plague kills 124 in Madagascar

    A plague epidemic in Madagascar has killed 124 people since August in an outbreak that hit the island’s two main cities the hardest, authorities said on Wednesday.

    Plague is endemic in Madagascar, but the outbreak that has caused 1,192 suspected cases since August is especially worrying because it started earlier in the season than usual and hit urban rather than rural areas.

    In addition, two thirds of the cases are of the pneumonic plague, the deadliest form of the disease.

    “The total number of cases (1,192) is already three times higher than the average annual total,” the National Office for Risk and Disaster Management said in a report on Wednesday.

    Last week a World Health Organisation ( WHO ) report said the death toll stood at 94.

    The capital Antananarivo and Toamasina, the two largest cities in Madagascar, an island in the Indian Ocean, were the most affected, with 55 per cent of cases recorded there.

    To date 54 medical staff have been infected, it said.

    The report said that of an estimated 9.5 million dollars in aid needed to counter the epidemic, only 3 million dollars has been raised.

    Read Also: Outbreak of Cough, Measles kills 17 children in Kano

  • Real Madrid to abandon team bus for safety reasons

    Real Madrid to abandon team bus for safety reasons

    Real Madrid will not use their branded team bus to transport players for the trip to Catalonia to play Girona on Sunday for security reasons, Spanish media reported on Tuesday.

    The club do not want the vehicle to become a target due to political unrest in the region over Catalonia’s bid for independence.

    Madrid do not usually bring the team coach to matches which are considered high risk, like the “El Classico” in Barcelona or away at Athletic Bilbao.

    The team are planning to arrive in Girona by plane on Saturday evening before the match on Sunday, which they will travel to in an unmarked coach, Marca said.

    However, the plans are subject to change based on the political situation.

    Read Also:

    La Liga: Ronaldo Returns, Saves Madrid against Getafe

  • PDP NEC approves Dec. 9 for national convention

    PDP NEC approves Dec. 9 for national convention

    The People Democratic Party ( PDP ) National Executive Committee has approved Dec. 9 for the party’s national elective convention.

    The PDP National Caretaker Committee Publicity Secretary, Mr Dayo Adeyeye, disclosed this on Tuesday at the end of the party’s 76th NEC meeting in Abuja.

    He said that the proposed budget for the convention that would hold at the Eagles Square was also submitted for NEC consideration.

    Adeyeye added that the NEC also granted waivers to new members in Anambra and Oyo States who recently decamped from other political parties to the PDP.

    “As you know in Oyo state, so many people are joining PDP from other parties and we want to give them a level playing ground just like other members who have been in the party.

    “The effectiveness of that is that as we are conducting congresses of the party from wards to local government level, new members can participate.”

    Asked if the PDP candidates for Anambra governorship election, Mr Obaze Oseloka, was among those granted waiver by the NEC, Adeyeye said that Oseloka had been granted waiver before the party’s primary election.

    “What we did today was for the NEC to ratify the decisions of the national caretaker committee.”

    He added that the NEC also approved party election guidelines for 2017 Congresses and national convention.

    Adeyeye said that the proposed amendment to the party’s constitution was presented for consideration to avoid a repeat of what happened in 2013.

    “Some of these proposed amendments were accepted, some rejected while others are still been considered.”

    He added that the final decision on the party’s constitutional amendment would be taken at the forthcoming national convention.

    NAN