News
Prime Suspect in Rives Explosion Found
The Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Adaeze Oreh, says the prime suspect in the explosion that rocked Port Harcourt on Tuesday has been found.
The commissioner said the suspect was found at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, formerly Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMH).
She said the doctors at the hospital alerted the government on Tuesday night that a patient with an injury believed to be caused by a blast, was presented as a victim of a road traffic accident.
She said the suspect was brought to the government facility in a semi-conscious state, but was quickly taken into the theatre for resuscitation.
Oreh said the suspect is now in a stable condition.
The hospital premises have been fully secured, as the government is working with the police to get to the bottom of the matter.
The commissioner spoke to journalists at the hospital premises in Old GRA, near the Rivers State Government House, after responding to the call by the doctors last night.
Reports said that one person was killed in the explosion.
The area is a hub for Bureau de Change operators, and some of them said they heard explosions but were not willing to speak on the incident.
However, an eyewitness who did not want to talk on camera, said the impact of the blast ripped open the victim’s chest.
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday discharged and acquitted a Nigerian publisher, Agba Jalingo, of cybercrime charges.
Jalingo was arrested on August 2022 by the Nigeria Police over a Facebook post in which he alleged that Alami Ayade, the wife to the younger brother of the former governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade, contracted someone to write examination for her at the Nigerian Law School, Abuja.
According to the Police, Jalingo also published the story in his online newspaper, CrossRiverWatch.
He was also charged with terrorism, treasonable felony and cybercrime for accusing the then Governor Ayade of diverting N500 million belonging to Cross River State.
The publisher was arraigned in 2023 before Justice Zainab Abubakar of the Federal High Court, Abuja, who remanded him at the Medium Security Custodial Center, Kuje.
The court later granted him bail.
A report by the The CrossRiverWatch newspaper stated that Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, on Monday, found Jalingo not guilty of the crimes the Police brought against him.
The Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) has voiced its opposition to idea of carving out Yoruba Nation from Nigeria.
The group, through a statement on Sunday, said it would rather commit to true federalism in Nigeria.
The statement read: “We have perused the document on the position of YSDM on the state of the Nation and their views for the Yoruba race to be separated from Nigeria. The Yoruba Council of Elders remains firm in its position that the entity called and known as Nigeria should remain as one Nigeria.
“Accordingly, the YCE has pooled-in all shades of thoughts, which show that majority of the Yoruba race feel cheated by the present lop-sided arrangement of the federating powers but they are solidly against going away from the Nigerian arrangement. They would rather go back to the agreement of our founding fathers when the Region administration was autonomous.
“YCE, therefore, stands firmly on the position of the founding fathers, who maintained togetherness but operated independently and contributed their quota to foster administration at the centre. To this extent, we would rather have a restructured Nigeria which will allow states to function independently as part of a whole.
“YCE wants Nigeria to remain one but, like the American arrangement, stay and function administratively devoid of interference by the centre. Let it be known that the strength of the unity lies in the socio-cultural inheritance of each section of the country and these can be deployed through education and efficiency of management. Our great country must rise again and we all will be in it together,” it added.
Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has advised retirees against donating their pension benefits to churches and mosques.
The governor spoke on Thursday when he presented a retirement bond certificate to a batch of 105 retirees in the State.
Sanwo-Olu, who said the payment of the pension is a testament to the unwavering commitment of the State government to its retirees, urged them to use their pensions to solve their family problems.
He said: “This is not meant to solve all family problems. It is about you, what you have earned and worked for.
“When they say they want to build a church or mosque and ask you to come out to pledge N3m, don’t do that. God will give you the wisdom to act, Sanwo-Olu has done his part.
“Today, we mark the 105th Retirement Bond Certificate presentation, a historic milestone as we transition into a new era of Pension Administration called ‘Pay-As You-Go’.
“From now on, all retirees of the state government will be paid as they retire, provided all procedures and approvals have been completed before retirement,” the governor added.
