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February 11, 2019 At least 99 people have died and scores have been hospitalised in northern India after drinking toxic alcohol, triggering a crackdown against bootleggers, officials said Monday. News of the deaths in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand has trickled in over the past three days, with police suspecting the moonshine had been cut with methanol. Authorities said many victims had complained of dizziness and were taken to hospital writhing in pain after consuming the illicit alcohol. Cheap, locally-made liquor is common in parts of rural India and bootleggers often add methanol — a highly toxic form of alcohol sometimes used as an anti-freeze — to their product to increase its strength. If ingested in large quantities, methanol can cause blindness, liver damage and death. In one district of Uttar Pradesh, 59 people had died after consuming toxic alcohol, police spokesman Shailendra Kumar Sharma told  AFP . In a neighbouring district, a senior police officer said ...

February 11, 2019 The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai has vowed that the military will break the unholy alliance between the Boko Haram terrorists and Islamic State West Africa. The  News Agency of Nigeria reports that Buratai made the assertion on Monday in Abuja, when he declared open a two-day maiden “Career planning and management’’ seminar for senior officers. He maintained that the army was making gains in the counter-insurgency operations in the North East. Buratai said, “I am glad to note that we are making strides against the Islamic State West Africa or ISWA in our bid to unhinge the unholy union between them and remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists. “It is, therefore, imperative that we maintain the momentum while motivating our officers and men through an efficient and responsive career planning process.’’ Represented by Maj.-Gen. Aliyu Nani, the Chief of Policy and Plans, Buratai, however, noted that the army was being “stretched’’ by its involvement in ma...

February 11, 2019 Chief Ademola Odunade, President of a Mapo Customary Court in Ibadan, on Monday dissolved a 31-year marriage between one Azeez Muritala and Ramota over religious differences. Odunade held that he dissolved the relationship because the duo had refused to be pacified. The Arbitrator, Odunade however, awarded custody of the four children produced by the union whose ages ranged between 11 and 30 to Azeez because they were grownups. In his petition to the court, Azeez, a truck driver said that he wanted the court to put an end to the union with his wife on ground that she was not ready to practice Islamic religion with him. “My lord, I have decided to call it quit with Ramota because I have exhausted my patience with her for too long. “I got married to Ramota in 1988 so that she could practice the same faith with me. “Right now, I no longer know anything about her movement as she now became stonehearted. “Without my knowledge or approval, Ramota started going to church and...

February 11, 2019 The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, said the power ministry has no record of corrupt contractors who ran away with government money without executing awarded contracts. Fashola said he had searched the record of the power ministry and he could not find any such contractor. The minister stated this in a January 27 letter which he wrote to anti-corruption group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project. SERAP had upper week sued Fashola at the Federal High Court in Lagos, seeking an order to compel him to publish the names of alleged defaulting contractors engaged by the Ministry of Power. The group had said it resorted to suing Fashola after the minister allegedly shunned its request under the Freedom of Information Act for the names of the defaulting contractors. In a statement on Sunday by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP, however, received Fashola’s letter dated January 27 only on February 7, after it had gone to cou...

February 11, 2019 The family of Leah Sharibu who is being held hostage by the Boko Haram sect for refusing to renounce her Christian faith, has appealed to the Federal Government and the international community to rescue their daughter. The mother of the 15-year-old girl, Rebecca, pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari, the United States and the United Kingdom to do everything in their powers to rescue Leah who was taken hostage alongside some Dapchi schoolgirls in February 2018. Addressing journalists in Abuja on Sunday, Rebecca who spoke through an interpreter, called on the Federal Government to keep the promises made by President Buhari and the ministerial delegation that visited her family in October last year. The grieving mother, who broke down in tears during her speech said, “The government should keep the promises made by the President and the ministers who visited us in Dapchi in October. They should rescue my daughter. “There is a Hausa proverb which says, ‘Whenever you ma...

February 11, 2019 Thousands of students from the Niger Delta region, on Saturday, marched through major roads in Port Harcourt to sensitise youths to the evil of cultism, electoral violence, vandalism and other social vices in the area and the country at large. The students, who gathered under the aegis of the Niger Delta Students Union Government, explained the peace walk ahead of the February 16 and March 2 general elections. The walk began around 7.30am from the Isaac Boro Park through Ikwerre Road and ended at the headquarters of the Niger Delta Development Commission in Port Harcourt. Some of the students displayed placards with inscriptions like, ‘Vote, not fight’, ‘Election is not do or die’, and ‘Say no to violence, it has no benefits’. Speaking with journalists shortly after the rally, the National President, NIDSUG, Ifon Daniel, said the body was concerned about the peace and unity of the region and the entire country. Daniel frowned on the activities of some unscrupulous per...

February 11, 2019 Former secretary, Nigeria Football Federation, Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi is dead. The football administrator passed on after failing to recover from an undisclosed illness. Tunde Samusudeen, public relations officer of Osun United Football Club, announced the death via a message sent to our correspondent in Osogbo on Monday. Until his death, Ogunjobi was the chairman of Osun State Football Association. Details later.