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Some traders  and apprentices at the International Electrical Market, Obosi/Onitsha, Anambra State, on Saturday, reportedly protested against a trader for allegedly settling his apprentice with N100,000, nine years after servicing him.  It was learnt that the protest took place in front of the man’s shop, as the group sang solidarity songs and chanted, ‘Enough is enough; the revolution has started.’ They were said to have demanded that the master treat his apprentice fairly by increasing the payment, adding that the apprentice did not deserve a meagre N100,000 for nine years of service. In his reaction, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Anambra Broadcasting Service, Chief Uche Nworah, said the organisation had noted the abuse in the apprenticeship system and was partnering the Awka Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture to convene a summit on Igbo apprenticeship. Nworah noted that the summit, themed, ‘Repositioning Igbo Apprenticeship Scheme (Igb...

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has alerted Nigerians on a new high-risk Short Messaging Service-based malware, TangleBot, infecting Android mobile devices. TangleBot employs more or less similar tactics as the recently announced notorious FlutBot SMS Android malware that targets mobile devices. TangleBot equally gains control of the device but in a far more invasive manner than FlutBot. The disclosure was made in a recent security advisory made available to NCC's New Media and Information Security Department by the Nigerian Computer Emergency Response Team (ngCERT). TangleBot is installed when an unsuspecting user clicks on a malicious link disguised as COVID-19 vaccination appointment-related information in an SMS message or information about fake local power outages that are due to occur. NCC explained that the aim behind both or either of the messages (on COVID-19 or impending power outages) is to encourage potential victims to follow a link that supposedly offers deta...

Suspended former Head of the Intelligence Response Team, DCP Abba Kyari, on Saturday, attended the wedding of Maina, son of the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba. Also at the wedding which was held in Maiduguri, Borno State, included traditional rulers, governors, business mogul, Aliko Dangote; Senate President Ahmad Lawan; Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika; popular socialite, Obinna Iyiegbu, aka Obi Cubana, amongst others. After the well-attended event on Saturday, Kyari, who is also from Borno State and had been off social media for months, took to his verified Facebook page with over 450,000 followers to splash over 400 photos he took at the wedding. The Federal Bureau of Investigation Special agent, Andrew Innocenti, had alleged that Ramon Abbas aka Hushpuppi contracted the services of Kyari after a “co-conspirator,” Chibuzo Vincent allegedly threatened to expose the alleged $1.1m fraud committed against a Qatari businessman. Innocenti, who said he ransacked the voice calls and ...

Super Eagles   striker, Odion Ighalo, has joined Saudi Arabian side, Al-Hilal on a one-and-a-half-year deal from rivals Al Shabab on Saturday. Al-Hilal who are currently fourth in the Saudi League announced the signing of the Nigeria international on their social media handles on Saturday until June 2023. The striker is a direct replacement for Bafétimbi Gomis. The Frenchman’s contract was terminated on January 24. The former Manchester United striker is currently the top scorer in the Saudi Arabian league with 13 league goals from 19 appearances but his transfer will come as a shock to Al Shabab fans. Al Hilal are fourth on the table, 10 points behind log leaders Al-Ittihad. Ighalo’s transfer may be connected to the debacle he had with the Al Shabab after their refusal to release him for the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, a situation which left the West African nation without experience in attack in the competition.

A real estate agent, 50-year-old Diran Elijah, has lost his life after having sex with his former wife identified simply as Idowu, at a hotel in the Agbado area of Ogun State. Idowu, who has remarried with two children for her new husband, reportedly separated from Elijah about four years ago. It was learnt that the ex-couple reignited their love affair lately when Elijah contacted her on the phone and they agreed to meet at the hotel around 10pm last Sunday. Elijah was reportedly taking some rest after a pleasant time in bed with Idowu when he suddenly became unconscious and gasped for breath. The woman was said to have raised the alarm but it was too late as he reportedly gave up the ghost at the hotel. A resident of the area, identified only as Afolabi, told some reporters that the incident caused anxiety in the neighbourhood, adding that police from the Agbado division visited the scene. He said, “The owner of the hotel initially wanted to lie that the man slumped outside and died....

  Popular kayanmata (aphrodisiac) seller, Hauwa Muhammed, aka Jaruma, has been admitted to bail after spending four days in a correctional centre. Jaruma was arraigned before an Upper Area Court in the Zuba area of Abuja on Monday, January 24, 2022, for alleged defamation of character, false news publication and intimidation of politician and lawyer, Ned Nwoko, on social media. Nwoko had accused Jaruma of publishing falsehoods on her Instagram page against him and his wife, Regina Daniels. The judge, Ismailia Abdullahi, on Monday ruled that she should be remanded in the Suleja Correctional Centre pending the hearing of her bail application on Friday. At the hearing, Juruma arrived the court premises in a black hijab around 11: 20am. Ruling on her bail application, Abdullahi said her remand should not be seen as a punishment to the defendant. He, however, warned all parties involved in the matter to refrain from actions that could be considered prejudicial to the case. He said, “The...

A Los Angeles sculptor on Wednesday marked the second anniversary of Kobe and Gianna Bryant's death with a statue on the site of the helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. Dan Medina built the 160-pound statue of the NBA star and his 13-year-old daughter and erected it over the site of the crash that killed them and seven other people the morning of January 26, 2020. The statue depicts Bryant, in his Los Angeles Lakers uniform, placing his hand on his daughter's shoulder and Gianna holding a basketball. Medina inscribed on the statue's base the names of all nine people who died. He also inscribed the phrase “Heroes come and go, but legends are forever.” Medina told TMZ Sports that the statue was just a temporary tribute and said he planned to take it down by sundown. He did say, however, that he hopes the city will eventually allow him to put up a more permanent version of his art. Kobe and Gianna were killed when their private helicopter crashed while they were traveli...

French bailiffs have seized 230,000 euros ($260,000) from Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema over his conviction last year for complicity in a bid to blackmail former France team-mate, Mathieu Valbuena, with a sex tape, a source familiar with the case said Thursday. A court-ordered Benzema in November to pay a fine, damages and legal costs for pressuring Valbuena to pay off his blackmailers, as well as handing him a one-year suspended jail sentence. Benzema “implicated himself personally, through subterfuge and lies, to convince his team-mate to submit to the blackmail”, the court in Paris suburb Versailles said at the time. Benzema has appealed the ruling, which came in the same year he made a stunning return to France's national squad after being dropped in 2015 over the blackmail allegations. The 34-year-old has scored nine times for France since being recalled by manager Didier Deschamps for the Euro 2020 finals — delayed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic — making him th...

Losing weight takes some consistency.  However, for some people, the results might take longer than expected, and contrary to popular beliefs, it might not be that you’re not exercising enough. The truth is that exercising alone might not deliver the full results you want without changing your diet and lifestyle.  How do you fix this? The first step is to start by identifying the difficult factors that might be hindering your weight loss journey before you can begin resolving them.  Here are 5 reasons you’re probably not losing weight fast enough: High Levels of Stress Stress acts as a fitness restraint in many cases, but seeing as it is a biological thing, it’s one you can easily control. Start by identifying what is causing you stress.  Once you’re done with that, you can now move on to introducing calm practices like mindfulness, meditation, yoga and deep breathing exercises into your routine. These practices reduce the body’s production of the cortisol hormone (r...

Chairman of the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Technical Committee, Raymond Dokpesi, yesterday, said the South-East should wait for another five years till 2027 to produce the president of Nigeria. He argued that waiting till 2027 would afford the North the opportunity to complete former President Umaru Musa Y'Ardua's tenure, who died in office and was succeeded by former President Goodluck Jonathan. Dokpesi stated this in Umuahia at the Abia State Secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), when he and members of the committee met party members to solicit support for Atiku's 2023 presidential bid. He said Atiku would serve only one term of four years from 2023, during which he would right the many wrongs in the country. Dokpesi, who described President Muhammadu Buhari administration as a complete failure, said: “Nigeria is bleeding and on the brink of collapse. Although the South East is entitled to produce the president, they should wait for another four years from 2023....

  The Ondo  State Police Command on Tuesday said it would prosecute a man, Olasunkami Oluwole, who allegedly killed his lover at Oke Igbo community, in the Ile Oluji/Oke Igbo Local Government Area of Ondo State. The deceased, Biola Soyinka, was said to have visited Oluwole from Lagos, before the latter allegedly killed her. The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs Funmilayo Odunlami, who confirmed the incident, said the matter was under investigation at the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department. She added that the suspect would be charged to court at the completion of investigation. In a report, the deceased’s elder brother, Akeem Jinadu, said, “On January 16, we received a call from Oluwole that my sister, Biola, had passed on. When we asked what happened to her, he said she became unconscious after she slumped around 4am. “Oluwole said by the time he rushed her to a hospital, doctors declared her dead. When we asked him to bring her corpse back to La...

Super Eagles goalkeeper, Maduka Okoye and midfielder, Alex Iwobi, were subjected to cyberbullying by fans, including death threats, after Nigeria’s exit from the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon on Sunday following a 1-0 defeat to Tunisia. Youssef Msakni scored the only goal of the encounter with a strike from 25 yards out to fire Tunisia to the last eight and break Nigerian hearts. Some fans felt Okoye should have saved Msakni’s effort, while Iwobi was sent off for a foul after just six minutes on the pitch for what was deemed to be a dangerous tackle. Iwobi had been sent into the game in the 59th minute for Kelechi Iheanacho to help change the complexity of the game, but his sending off further piled pressure on the midfield and the defence. An Instagram user @Clifford_Marius under a picture posted by Okoye wrote, “It will not be well with you. I pray you don’t see next month, you will die in a plane crash.” @la_isle on Instagram wrote, “Maduka, you will not live long. You s...

Six persons  have been reported dead after a crush at Olembe Stadium that hosted Cameroon and Comoros in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde during an Africa Cup of Nations match on Monday. In a video that surfaced online, football fans were seen struggling to get access to the stadium. A Cameroon-based television, CRTV, reported that “half a dozen deaths and dozens have been injured”. Confederation of African Football confirmed the incident in a statement, saying that investigation is ongoing. The statement read, “CAF is aware of the incident that took place at Olembe Stadium during the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations fixture between hosts Cameroon and Comoros tonight, 24 January 2022. “CAF is currently investigating the situation and trying to get more details on what transpired. We are in constant communication with Cameroon government and the Local Organizing Committee. “Tonight, the CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe sent the General Secretary, Veron Mosengo-Omba to visit the su...

  The Global Health Advocacy Incubator's (GHAI) Healthy Food Policy Advocacy Fund has said the newly implemented excise duty of N10 per litre on non-alcoholic and sweetened beverages will save over 12 million Nigerians from obesity and related sicknesses. Advocacy and External Engagement Specialist at Gatefield Impact, Shirley Ewang, who spoke at the weekend in Abuja, applauded President Muhammadu Buhari, the Ministries of Finance and Health for recognising the importance of healthy food policies and tax on Nigeria's wellbeing. According to her, the tax will encourage decreased consumption, raise government revenue and prove to be a critical tool in the fight of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) epidemic in the country. She noted that the implementation of healthy food policies, including SSB taxes, helps to curb the globally growing rates of obesity, diabetes and other diet-related non-communicable diseases. Ewang said: “A study published in the Lancet Planetary Health in 2020 ...

A  businessman, identified simply as Uchechukwu, aka Alloy Omo Jesu, is on the run after allegedly torturing his 11-year-old apprentice to death in the Ogba area of Lagos State. It was gathered that the apprentice, Sunday, was accused of stealing N1,000 when Uchechukwu, who was bent on making him confess to the allegation, descended on him. The victim was said to have died in the process as the suspect fled the community. It was also learnt that the manager of Uchechukwu’s gas business, Blessing, while closing on Saturday, January 8, 2022, discovered that N1,000 was missing from the total sales  for the day. To detect how the money went missing, Blessing demanded an explanation from Sunday, who handled sales that day. Another apprentice, Godwin, told our correspondent who visited the shop on Inuobimi Street, Ogba, last Thursday, that Sunday gave an unsatisfactory response, prompting everyone, including Uchechukwu, to suspect him. He said, “When Blessing asked him how N1,000 we...

  The abductors  of the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Industry, Trade and Investment, Federal Otokito, have contacted the paramount ruler of his community, Otuokpoti, in the Ogbia Local Government Area of the state. Otokito’s assailants, believed to be operators of illegal crude oil refinery, also known as ‘kpofire’, had stormed his residence in the community on Thursday night and grabbed him from his bedroom at gunpoint into a waiting speedboat at the waterside and sped away. They were said to have kidnapped Otokito for opposing their plan to set up an illegal crude oil refinery in the community’s forest.   It was learnt that the kidnappers’ leader called the community chief on the phone and informed him that the commissioner was in their custody. But they were yet to contact the victim’s family more than 48 hours after they took him away to an unknown place. A family source, who spoke in confidence on Saturday, said the kidnappers’ leader called the traditional ruler a...