IMO BREAKING NEWS BLOG

Governor Samuel Ortom has written President Muhammadu Buhari for firearm licensing for the newly established Benue State Community Volunteer Guards inaugurated last week to provide surveillance and intelligence gathering in the wake of persistent herdsmen attacks.

Ortom who disclosed this on Monday while playing host to a delegation from the Northern Christian Women Coalition at the Government House in Makurdi, says the move became necessary following the legitimated process of establishing the Guards to help restore peace in the troubled parts of the state.

He said the President he knows would approve his request to also empower his people against their transducers or at best, leave room for a fair level of response on the defences of his people.

During the launch last week, the guards, the Governor said, are designed to address community security and safety. According to him, the volunteer guards were not established for political purposes ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Frank Lampard must find striker or Everton's season could make dangerous false start

The last thing Everton needed after scraping over the line to survive at the end of one season, was to leave themselves hostages to fortune at the start of the next. Everton did plenty right despite starting the season with a 1-0 defeat at home by Chelsea, but an avoidable flaw was brutally exposed at Goodison Park and must be addressed instantly.

The sale of Richarlison to Tottenham for £60m was an inevitable consequence of last season's struggles, the talisman who did so much to keep Everton in the Premier League understandably seeking a higher stage on the Champions League. Everton's backroom team, and a board who claim they have learned the lessons from their own ruinous mistakes and transfer policies, would have been well advised to have lined up the Brazilian's replacement in swift order, shortly after his departure for north London at the very latest.

The need is now even more urgent as Salomon Rondon looks a spent force, while Dominic Calvert-Lewin's increasingly concerning injury record should have had alarm bells ringing after starting only 15 games in all competitions last season. Everton's failure to act was punished when Calvert-Lewin suffered a knee injury in training days before the start of the season that rules him out for six weeks.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) on Sunday said it has filed a lawsuit against President Muhammadu Buhari for imposing fines on media houses for allegedly glorifying terrorism.

SERAP also wants the court to “declare arbitrary and illegal the N5 million imposed on Trust TV, Multichoice Nigeria Limited, NTA-Startimes Limited and TelcCom Satellite Limited, over their documentaries on terrorism in the country.” The suit which was co-filed by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) has the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) joined as defendants.

NBC imposed the fines on the media house on the grounds that their documentaries glorified the activities of bandits and undermined national security, an act that contravenes the provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code. But the groups in suit number FHC/L/CS/1486/2022 filed last Friday at the Federal High Court, Lagos, SERAP and CJID are seeking: “an order setting aside the arbitrary and illegal fines of N5 million and any other penal sanction unilaterally imposed by the NBC on these media houses simply for carrying out their constitutional duties.”

“The NBC and Mr Lai Mohammed have not shown that the documentaries by the media houses would impose a specific risk of harm to a legitimate State interest that outweighs the public interest in the information provided by the documentaries,” a statement issued by SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, partly read.

Nigerian athlete, Tobi Amusan has set a new record by winning the 100 meters hurdles gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the United Kingdom. The 25-year-old clocked 12.30 seconds to set a new games record.

This is coming two weeks after she became the first Nigerian athlete to win a World Athletics Championship gold as she stormed to victory in the women’s 100m hurdles in Oregon. Amusan, who had obliterated the world record in an astonishing semi-final where she clocked 12.12sec, powered over the line at Hayward Field in 12.06sec.

Her winning time will not be recognised as a world record, however, due to a strong following win of 2.5 meters per second. Jamaica’s Britany Anderson took silver in 12.23sec, while Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico claimed bronze in 12.23.

Amusan had produced a jaw-dropping world record in the semi-finals, smashing the previous best mark of 12.20secs held by Keni Harrison of the United States in 2016.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar has named Senator Dino Melaye and Dr. Daniel Bwala as spokespersons for the upcoming presidential campaign.

Their appointment was contained in a short statement by Atiku’s Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, who said their development is with immediate effect.

“Melaye is a politician and a member of the 8th Senate who represented Kogi West Senatorial district. He hails from Ayetoro Gbede in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State,” Ibe said.

“Bwala, on the other hand, is a legal practitioner, politician, and public affairs analyst. He hails from Adamawa State.”

Justice Bassey Nkanang of the Akwa Ibom State High Court on Thursday sentenced Uduak Akpan to death by hanging for the murder of Iniubong Umoren. Umoren, a graduate of Philosophy, University of Uyo, was killed on April 2021. She was job hunting while awaiting mobilisation for the compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.

Uduak’s father, Frank Akpan, and his sister, Anwan Bassey (2nd and 3rd accused) were discharged and acquitted. Finding Akpan guilty of rape in the over two-hour judgement, the judge said the prosecution has proved beyond doubt the case of rape and murder against Mr Akpan. After the judge read out the judgment, the convicted rapist attempted to escape from the courtroom but was overpowered by security officials.

When the convict first appeared in court on July 26, 2021, he pleaded guilty to murder, but not guilty to rape. Having admitted to murdering the victim, the court, however, entered a not-guilty plea for the murder of Ms Umoren.

“For a capital offence, an accused person pleading guilty is neither here nor there. As far as the law is concerned, he is not guilty until we (prosecution) prove our case,” the Attorney-General of Akwa Ibom State, Uko Udom, who led the prosecution team told reporters then.