– Yomi Fabiyi stops by Lola Alao’s house in Canada and ceased the opportunity to see late Aisha Abimbola’s children, Lase and Keji – Aisha popularly known as Omoge Campus died of a cancer related ailment in Canada on May 15, 2018 – The custody of her two became a legal battle between her friend Lola Alao and the father of her children Nollywood actor Yomi Fabiyi is out of the country.
The outspoken actor who is away in Canada decided to have a stop over at his colleague Lola Alao’s place to see children left behind by another colleague late Aisha Abimbola who passed away in the country and was buried there. Sharing video and photo taken with Aisha Abimbola popularly known as Omoge Campus’s children, Yomi wrote a caption of his relationship with their late mum before her untimely death. He also remembered Aisha’s friend who died earlier also in Canada, Moji Olaiya. Yomi did not leave out Lola Alao in his caption as he told of how well she is taken care of the children of the late actress. Recall that Lola Alao and the father of the children where embroiled in custody battle. While Lola insisted that the mother of the children before her death granted her the custody of her two children, Lase and Keji. Alao maintained the fact that her deceased bosom friend named her as the next of kin when she was on her sick bed. Alao was reportedly the only one taking care of the ailing actress which made the deceased ask her friend to look after her children if she eventually died.
Nigerian singer-songwriter Tiwa Savage says there’s a “revolution going on” in African music and she is “very humbled and excited” to take her music to a worldwide audience.
“It’s a beautiful journey, it’s history in the making,” Savage said Thursday of her newly announced recording deal.
Savage is one of the world’s leading Afrobeats artists and the first African artist to sign a global deal with Universal Music Group. It seems, however, she forgot to tell the most important person in her life.
“My mom was, ‘Tiwa! Why didn’t you tell me all along?’ I’m like, ‘Mom, I know you can’t keep a secret.’ But she’s excited. We have a family group chat and she was just like, ‘Tiwa has crashed the internet again today!’ And she put a smiley face. So she’s super, super proud of me.”
The Afrobeats scene is vibrant, she told The Associated Press. Even though international audiences may not understand some of the language “they can feel the soul in the music” and the themes of her songs are universal. “I think a lot of people know me for love, for love stories. Good or bad.”
In November, the 39-year-old became the first woman to win the MTV Europe Music Award for Best African act, which she said was “incredible” and “wasn’t just a win for me . it was a win for the African woman.”
Tiwa, or Tiwatope, was born in Lagos but spent part of her childhood in London with her mother, where she experienced many her early musical influences.
“I started listening to a lot of gospel music . and then I really got into jazz like Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, and then I got into soul R & B and I really, really got into Brandi’s voice,” she said. “She’s like my all-time favorite vocalist. Yeah. That was really, really what got me into singing.”
She now takes daily inspiration from her peers both at home and overseas. “Obviously I’m inspired by the Rihanna and Beyonce brand but more so like Wizkid, Davido and Don Jazzy, D’banj, 2face, even from South Africa like Cassper and AKA.”
In December, Savage was chosen by Coldplay’s Chris Martin to perform at Global Citizen Festival in Johannesburg. There she met Jay-Z, who she said was “incredible.”
“You know he’s the type of person that walks into a room and everyone’s like, ‘Oh my God. It’s Jay-Z.’ And he has a lot of knowledge and he’s not afraid to pass that on, you know, to every artist that he comes across.”
Despite breaking boundaries, Savage acknowledged that it’s been tough working in a male-dominated industry, “especially as a mom,” but that has also made her work harder.
“I do believe as women we are a lot stronger than what we give ourselves credit for,” she said. “So there’s not anything I can’t handle.”
The All Progressives Youth Forum (APYF), a political pressure group, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to consider the South-East for key political appointments in his second term.
The group made the call in a communiqué issued to newsmen at the end of its South-East leadership post-election meeting held on Friday in Enugu, NAN reports.
It stated that “Considering the South-East for major political appointments is the only way to ensure a smooth sail for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023.”
The statement further stated that the party had made serious in-roads in the South-East.
“We express our satisfaction that APC remarkably garnered more votes in 2019 than 2015 in the South-East.
“This is because of the numerous projects the Buhari-led administration has embarked on in the zone.
“We, therefore, use this opportunity to plead with our father, President Muhammadu Buhari, and the leadership of APC to give more political appointments to the South-East to prepare the zone for electoral success in 2023.”
The statement congratulated the president and other APC candidates for their victory at the polls.
The communiqué was jointly signed by the South-East Zonal Coordinator of the group and Enugu State Coordinator, Mr Titus Nnamani as well as the Zonal Secretary and Imo Coordinator, Mr Ubah Onyewuchi.
Others are Mr Azuka Nwobu, Anambra State Coordinator; Mr Agu Chibisi, Abia State Coordinator and Mr Edwin Okoro, Ebonyi State Coordinator.
Yinka Odumakin, a spokesperson of Afenifere has revealed today that aid Buhari’s next ministers should be picked on the basis of what they can deliver.
He stated that Buhari’s next set of ministers should be those who understand the situation of Nigeria.
According to Odumakin: “Really, I can’t tell the type of men or women Buhari should pick on his next cabinet but those to be picked should be about what contributions and agenda they want to implement as ministers.
“If we are still down with this Miyetti Allah and cattle route thing and you pick the best of Havard and Oxford, we are going nowhere.
“Unless we are ready to start afresh to put Nigeria on the path of development and productivity and if the country is still about Miyetti Allah and cattle routes, no matter who you pick, the country will go under.”
Odumakin also pointed out how to resolve the issue of insecurity across the country.
He said: “We can’t dissolve this issue of insecurity by this fire fighting brigade approach we are doing now. Where the president is in London on a private visit the IGP is running up and down, in Birnin Kebbi today and before he gets to Kaduna he has forgotten what happened in Birnin Kebbi. With all these, we are going nowhere.
“There is no way you can police Nigeria from Abuja and still get results. First of all, you must delegate power, allow every part of the country to police their land, crime is cultural.
“You can’t pick a policeman in Oyo State now to go and fight bandits in Zamfara even if he sits among bandits he may not understand what they are saying, he does not know the route around in the area as such effect police should be at the state units.
“Secondly, we must go back to productivity, who ever knew there was a large deposit of gold in Zamfara State that they are fighting over now. We must make every part of Nigeria a reproductive centre, move away from oil and gas. When this is done millions of young people will go back to work.
“The more youths are engaged legally, the lesser the number of those taking up banditry. So, as we are dealing with law and order we are also dealing with economic activities. Those engaged in crime are those who are unemployed. Unless we fix this country, it’s going under.”
Veteran Nollywood actor, Larry Koldsweat, on Friday led other Nigerian celebrities in a solidarity walk to call for an end to banditry and kidnappings in north western part of the country.
The celebrities under the auspices of Human Rights Monitoring Group, called on the world to take notice that high ranking politicians are behind the resurgence of killings in the north-west.
Addressing the well-attended rally, which held from the Unity Fountain to the presidential villa, Abuja, Koldsweat urged Nigerians to rise up against politicians that are sponsoring these killings all over Zamfara State with a firm demand that they stop it now.
“We are gathered here today as patriotic Nigerians who do not want to be complicit in an injustice being perpetrated against other Nigerian. Our march is about not being complicit by remaining silent in the face of grievous harm being done to our compatriots in several states of the country. What the perpetrators of this crime are banking on is that they have gotten away with their evil in some places and they can therefore spread their deadly merchandise to other parts of the country.
We speak to the killings in Zamafara and its environs. Those facilitating these killings began by making us initially think it was a case of petty crime gone wrong. It later became cattle rustlers killing victims to steal cow. Then we began hearing of armed bandits. Even their armed bandits have later been discovered to be militias that were unleashing violence as a smokescreen while the mineral resources, gold, in Zamfara state was being mined by the tonnes while the environment is degraded beyond comprehension and the citizens deprived of their livelihood.
Our shock as a nation upon finding out about this pillaging of Zamfara and neighboring communities should have been a red card for the people benefiting from this evil to call it quits and scamper away like the criminals that they are. But this is not the case. These people have resolved to dare our collective will as a people and to test the capacity of Nigeria to respond to their felonious activities with the powers of a sovereign state,” he said.
A Nigerian student whose arrest for drug trafficking in Saudi Arabia sparked protests has been freed and the charges against her dropped.
Zainab Aliyu could have faced the death penalty if convicted. Her sister, Hajara Habibu Aliyu, told the BBC that the bag containing the drugs was tagged in Zainab’s name without her knowledge at the airport in Kano before departing for Saudi Arabia.
The Department of State Services ( DSS) has called for inter-agency collaboration to tackle contemporary security threats confronting the country.
The director general of DSS, Yusuf Bichi, made the call at a meeting of Forum of Spokesmen of Security and Response Agencies ( FOSSRA) on Thursday, April 25,in Abuja.
“As part of global best practice and effective approach to security management, partnership and collaboration among stakeholders is imperative,” he said.
He said that the current security challenges confronting the nation required joint efforts to combat them.
“Inter-agency synergy has, no doubt, become the new paradigm of law enforcement and security management in today’s world.
“Today, our country is bedeviled with varied security challenges. We must therefore be resolute and remain strong in the face of these challenges,” he said.
He urged security agencies to bring their wealth of experience and comparative advantage to compliment each other.
“With unity of purpose, we can surmount the challenges and keep Nigeria one and free from violence and crime,” he said.
He urged them to bring up ideas that would build trust and promote public confidence in security agencies.
“Remain steadfast, committed and loyal to the cause, I therefore charge you to rededicate yourselves to the service of your father land,” he said.
The father of Somtochukwu Ibeanusi, the 11-year-old boy who was allegedly shot dead by security agents during the demolition of Owerri Main Market on August 27, 2017, has demanded a N20million compensation from the state government.
Isaiah Ibeanusi, the bereaved father, who testified at a public hearing on police brutality, corruption and abuse in southern Nigeria, lamented the nonchalant attitude that the Police have displayed in the handling of his son’s murder.
At the event, organised in Owerri by a civil rights group, Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN), Ibeanusi said it was unfortunate that two years after his only son was killed through a stray bullet, no efforts had been made to properly investigate the incident and prosecute the killers.
He accused the Police and the government of paying lip service to the killing of his only son.
Somtochukwu’s father, who asked for N20 million as compensation, said the money would cover all the expenses he incurred, including the burial expenses and N500,000 he reportedly paid for the autopsy.
“The compensation would at least cushion the pains of the loss,” he said. “I want a thorough investigation into the circumstance that led to the killing of my only son. I want justice. I want his killers to be brought to justice.”
In his presentation during the public hearing, Okechukwu Nwanguma, National Coordinator of (NOPRIN), stated that the foundation was committed to ensuring that police brutality and corrupt tendencies are brought to an end.
Nwaguma disclosed that the aim of the public hearing was to make sure that victims of police brutalities get justice.
“We want contributions to the ongoing advocacy and efforts to reform and transform the Nigeria Police from a brutal regime force to a democratic, professional, citizen-friendly, effective and accountable police force that serves and protects the rights and interest of the people,” he said.
“It is worrisome that despite the huge investment of resources, time and energy by civil societies, government and international development partners and foreign governments, police reform efforts have yielded no significant improvement.
“On the part of government, there seems to be more rhetoric than concrete actions. Even though when the government sets up police reform committees, their recommendations are never wholeheartedly implemented.”
Ibeanusi previously spoke of how, a few days after the incident, two State Security Service (SSS) officials believed to be acting on Governor Rochas Okorocha’s orders arrived at his home with an unbelievable message.
“They said I should not tell anyone that my son was killed in Imo, that I should instead tell anyone who asked me that the incident occurred in Rivers State,” he had said.
“They promised to do heaven and earth for me if I complied, but I shouted at them ‘over my dead body’. I told them I wouldn’t do it even if they offered me N10 million. The two of them came again the next day, around 4pm. I walked them out and told them I never wanted to set my eyes on them again!”
He had also said that when Somto’s body was taken to his native Anambra State for burial, Okorocha’s men were in attendance, too, to offer him a compensation of N2million cash. But he rejected it.
“I sent the money back and in addition I sent them two cartons of malt!” he said.
Still desperate to placate Ibeanusi, the state government renamed a part of the under-reconstruction market in honour of his slain son. But it made no meaning to him, still.
“I saw it last week; they put it there: Somto Shopping Mall,” he said in April 2018. “I found it disturbing; I just left the place. You know, it’s just as if this tragedy happened two days ago; I remember it but I don’t like to.”
– Yomi Fabiyi stops by Lola Alao’s house in Canada and ceased the opportunity to see late Aisha Abimbola’s children, Lase and Keji – Aisha popularly known as Omoge Campus died of a cancer related ailment in Canada on May 15, 2018 – The custody of her two became a legal battle between her friend Lola Alao and the father of her children Nollywood actor Yomi Fabiyi is out of the country.
