TheNewsGuru

Tag: Cotonou

  • After failing to appear at two concerts, Wizkid spotted chilling in Cotonou with president of Benin Republic’s son

    After failing to appear at two concerts, Wizkid spotted chilling in Cotonou with president of Benin Republic’s son

    After failing to appear at two concerts, Famous Afrobeats singer, Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, known professionally as Wizkid, has been spotted in Cotonou with the president of the Benin Republic’s son, Lionel Talon.

    It would be recalled that the singer had failed to appear for his concert in Accra which was slated for 10th December 2022.

    Reports also made the rounds that he had failed to appear for his concert in Abidjan, an incident which resulted to his staff reportedly being detained.

    In a new video that surfaced on social media, the singer was seen moving about in Cotonou with the president of Benin Republic’s son.

    Wizkid was captured rocking his recent debut cornrow hairstyle in the clip.

    The singer is regarded as one of the biggest and most influential African artists of all time. He began recording music at the age of 11 and released a collaborative album with the Glorious Five (5), a group he and a couple of his church friends formed.

    In 2009, Wizkid signed a record deal with Banky W’s Empire Mates Entertainment (E.M.E). He later rose to the limelight after releasing “Holla at Your Boy”, the lead single from his debut studio album, Superstar (2011), which also spawned the singles “Tease Me/Bad Guys” and “Don’t Dull”.

    In September 2014, he released the self-titled second studio album, Ayo. The album was supported by six singles, including the song “Jaiye Jaiye”. Wizkid left E.M.E after his contract expired. In 2016, Wizkid achieved international recognition following his collaboration with Drake on the hit single “One Dance”, which reached number-one on the US Billboard Hot 100, and topped the charts in 14 additional countries.

    The song broke multiple records, making Wizkid the first Afrobeats artist to appear in the Guinness World Records. In March 2017, he signed a multi-album deal with RCA Records; and released his third studio album Sounds from the Other Side, later that year. The album was supported by five singles, including “Come Closer” featuring Drake.

    In 2018, he was featured on the song “Checklist” by Normani and Calvin Harris, which reached number one on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart. The following year, he was featured on Beyoncé’s project The Lion King: The Gift on the single “Brown Skin Girl”, which also reached number-one on the World Digital Song Sales chart, and won him a Grammy Award for Best Music Video.

    In October 2020, he released his fourth album, Made in Lagos, which received commercial success and acclaim, reaching number one on the Billboard World Album Chart.

    The album includes the single “Essence” featuring Tems, which became the first Nigerian song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top ten following a remix released by Justin Bieber. Wizkid’s fifth album More Love, Less Ego was released on 11 November 2022.

    By February 2021, Wizkid was the most-streamed Nigerian artist of all time on Spotify, with over 3.4 billion streams across all credits.

  • Nigerian singer, Ayra Starr reveals what keeps her going

    Nigerian singer, Ayra Starr reveals what keeps her going

    Nigerian singer, Oyinkansola Aderibigbe, aka Ayra Starr, has revealed what keeps her going.

    In an interview, Ayra Starr recalled that in the early days of her career, she used to attend parties she was not invited to.

    Nigerian singer, Ayra Starr reveals what keeps her going

    In her words: “I grew up in different cities—Lagos, Abuja (Nigeria), and Cotonou (Republic of Benin) and it has helped me to infuse different energies into my sound. Cotonou is like a beach; very calm and serene. It is a place where one can get one’s mind together.

    “For creatives like me, Lagos just feels like home. Something is always going on. There is always one party somewhere. I even used to go to parties I was not invited to. There is something about the commotion and the vibe; as if everything is happening at once. It seems like everybody understands the struggle, and they are all working hard.”

    Nigerian singer, Ayra Starr reveals what keeps her going
    Ayra Starr

    The singer also maintained that she always knew music would change her life someday.
    She said, “Ever since I was a child, I knew that one day, music would change my whole life. Growing up, I knew I was going to be a musician. I did not know when or how it would happen, but I knew it would eventually happen.
    “Even when I was around six or seven years old, I used to argue with choir members in church whenever they said I could not be the lead singer. I used to tell them that when I became a super star, they would not be able to tell me that.”

    Speaking on what keeps her going, Ayra Starr, who recently clinched the ‘Viewer’s Choice Awards’ at The Headies said, “The things that have kept me going are God, my family and my friends. Also, I met some amazing people in my label (Mavin Records). It is not just about work; they are my family.”

  • AfDB secures $15.6bn investment for construction of Lagos-Abidjan highway

    AfDB secures $15.6bn investment for construction of Lagos-Abidjan highway

    The president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, says the bank has secured a 15.6 billion dollars investment for the construction of the Lagos-Abidjan highway.

    He made this known through his Twitter handle @akin_adesina which was obtained by Thenewsguru.com on Friday in Abuja.

    He said that the investment would strengthen regional trade and integration in West Africa by linking the hinterlands of different Participating Member Countries (PMCs).

    The president said that the investment would include providing seaport access to landlocked countries and some transition states of West Africa to the vibrant seaports.

    Thenewsguru.com reports that the Lagos-Abidjan highway interconnects the capital cities of five Western African States, covering approximately 1,028 km and eight border crossings.

    They are Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.

    The Abidjan-Lagos Corridor is a flagship project of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA).

    It forms part of the wider Dakar-Lagos Corridor and a major part of the Trans African Highway Network within the ECOWAS region.

    The corridor’s current alignment traverses all major economic centres of the five PMCs starting from “Bingerville”, a suburb of Abidjan and ending at Mile 2 (Eric Moore), in Lagos.

    A statement issued by AfDB recently said the Abidjan Lagos project is a key regional trade and transport corridor that interconnects some of the largest and most economically dynamic cities in Africa, Abidjan, Accra, Cotonou, Lomé and Lagos.

    It also said that the corridor links other corridors along the north-south axis and interconnects the landlocked countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad.

    “The corridor interconnects the most densely populated and economically active parts of the sub-region –it intersects with a rail network and major ports/airports.

    “The transport sector in West Africa plays a key role in the economic development of the region and generates about five to eight per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

    “This remains cognizant of the fact that an efficient regional transport network is an enabling infrastructure required to promote regional trade and socio-economic development, inter alia.

    “ECOWAS and WAEMU member states have consistently committed themselves to the financing of designated regional transport corridors.

    “The Abidjan –Lagos transport corridor currently supports approximately 75 per cent of sub-regional trade activities.

    “However, a combination of hard and soft infrastructure deficiencies negates its optimal contribution to regional economic growth,’’ the Bank said.

  • Nobel laureate, Prof Soyinka in Benin Republic to see Igboho+Photos

    Nobel laureate, Prof Soyinka in Benin Republic to see Igboho+Photos

    Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka was sighted at the Seme border around noon in Sunday crossing to Cotonou, the capital city of Benin Republic.

    He was mobbed by a crowd while waiting to complete immigration formalities and repeatedly asked where he was headed.

    His response was that he was on a visit to the Yoruba Nation activist, Sunday Igboho to “break the Moslem fast with him.”

    Reminded that neither he nor Ighoho was a muslim, he asserted that it made no difference. He said he had wished to see Igboho, so as to sympathize with his predicament.

    Ramadan is as good as any other season to express non-denominational solidarity, added the Professor.

  • Doctor gives Igboho clean bill of health in Cotonou – Lawyer

    Doctor gives Igboho clean bill of health in Cotonou – Lawyer

    Chief Sunday Adeyemo, a.k.a Igboho, who was released from prison on Monday by the Benin Republic Government to his medical practitioner, has been given clean bill of health.

    Chief Yomi Alliyu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Counsel representing Igboho, made this known on Tuesday in Ibadan.

    Alliyu, however, made clarification that it was Prof. Wale Adeniran and Prof. Banji Akintoye that facilitated Igboho’s release and not Prof. Wole Soyinka, as earlier reflected in his Monday’s statement.

    According to him, Prof. Wale Adeniran meant, NOT Prof. Wole Soyinka, who had nothing to do with the release of Chief Sunday Adeyemo, a.k.a Igboho Oosa.

    Alliyu said: “His doctors have declared him hale and healthy.

    “One of the conditions for his release is to stay in the Republic of Benin for the time being under full security. He is also hale and healthy.

    “We will ever continue the immense contributions of Prof. Wale Adeniran for the laudable role he played in negotiating the conditional release of our client.”

    Alliyu had on Monday said that Igboho’s release was under the agreement that he should not leave the medical centre or Cotonou for any reason.

    “I am to inform you that Chief Sunday Adeyemo, a.k.a Igboho, has been released from prison to his medical practitioners under the agreement that he should not leave the medical centre or Cotonou for any reason,” he said.

    The incarceration of Igboho in the Republic of Benin had earlier been extended by six months after spending the initial six months in prison.

    Recall that Igboho and his wife, Ropo, were arrested on Monday, July 19, 2021, by the International Criminal Police Organisation at the Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou, the Republic of Benin on their way to Germany.

  • Soyinka speaks on Igboho’s detention in Cotonou, NBC’s query to Channels Television

    Soyinka speaks on Igboho’s detention in Cotonou, NBC’s query to Channels Television

    Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has called on the government of the Republic of Benin to release Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, to continue his journey.

    The playwright spoke during an interactive session with journalists in Lagos on Friday.

    Speaking during the interactive session titled, “Sanctions on the loose: Chasing the gnat with a sledgehammer,” Soyinka said Igboho’s offence was resisting tyranny of herdsmen against his people in Oyo State.

    His words: “I refuse to believe that Igboho committed any offence except agitating against tyranny on his people. He peacefully demonstrated his position. I can’t consider that to be decided a criminal. Agitating for secession is not a criminal act as long as it’s done peacefully. You don’t have to criminalise that.

    “What the government and the security did by raiding Igboho’s house in the middle of the night, killing two of his own people and claiming, without a warrant or anything, that they found weapons… who’s going to believe that cock and bull story?”

    He also queried the government of Benin Republic on why they are keeping Igboho. He said: “Why are you keeping this victim? What offence did he commit against your state that you’re holding him, instead of letting him continue his journey? He has not committed any offence against any known law in this country.

    “Declaring an independent state is not out of our constitution. Since he’s doing it peacefully and collectively within the law, you do not criminalise that action.”

    On NBC’s query to Channels TV he said, “who decides media professionalism? It is one of outstanding semi-illiterate official queries that I have ever seen. And I wish to exalt the media that they have their official bodies with symbolic gestures. I think we have the responsibility to tell the government that if any media institution is sanctioned on this kind of trivial, absolute ground, we will fulfill our responsibility by mobilising the nation to boycott all government media and we shall wage the media war against the government.”

    “Decree no 4 has no place in a democracy and it is high time we manifested that, both in language and in act.

    “The president seems deaf about the agitations and plights of Nigerians. What I suggest is that youths, and citizens especially, should take the situations into their hands by using any of the civil actions to ensure the government listens to them and correct the problems in Nigeria.”

  • New twist as Benin Republic slams fresh charges on Sunday Igboho

    New twist as Benin Republic slams fresh charges on Sunday Igboho

    There appears to be a new twist in the case of embattled Yoruba agitator, Sunday Adeyemo (Igboho) standing trial in neighbouring Benin Republic.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG gathered that Igboho who was arrested on July 19 with his wife while attempting to travel to Germany has now been charged with illegal entry into Benin Republic.

    He is also explaining his mission in Cotonou, the Benin Republic capital.

    Igboho, however in is defence told the court that he fled Nigeria to avoid being killed.

    The court ruled that he should be relocated to prison from police custody.

    This was revealed by Igboho’s lawyer, David Ibrahim Salami.

    According to him, Ighoho was in court from 7:30 am till about midnight.

    Salami, a Professor of Law in a Beninoise University, said: “While defending himself on the criminal allegations put on his head by Nigeria, Igboho told the judges that he had never been tried for any crime in his life.”

    According to Salami, Igboho said he had neither been invited to any police station nor any formal charges brought against him as a result of his agitation for the separation of Yoruba nation from Nigeria.

    He explained that he was only trying to free ‘his people’ from the atrocities of killer-herdsmen, which made him incur the wrath of some powerful individuals in government.

    “When the judge asked him how and when he entered the Benin Republic, who housed him and who took him to the airport, Igboho told the court that his coming to the Benin Republic was to flee from his traducers who wanted to kill him in Nigeria.

    “He stressed that he spent less than one day in Cotonou before attempting to travel to Germany,” Salami added.

    The lawyer spoke further: “What amazed me is the fact that the judge was explicit that Igboho’s continued detention is not as a result of his issues with Nigeria, that he is being sent to prison because of infractions committed here in the Benin Republic.”

    Salami said Igboho was sent to prison to allow investigation into how he came into Cotonou and why.

    Salami said no date had been fixed for the continuation of trial because the authorities would need time to investigate how Igboho entered the country.

    He said Benin Republic law allows Igboho to be admitted to bail pending the outcome of the investigation.

    On why the trial is behind the curtain, he added that it is when investigations are concluded that the judgment can be read in the open court.

    Igboho, according to the lawyer, showed discomfort as a result of bruises he suffered when the Department of State Services (DSS) attacked his residence on July 1.

    As a result, Igboho was allowed to sit throughout Monday’s court sessions instead of standing before the judges.

    As a prison inmate, he will be entitled to medical services if there is a need, unlike when he was in police custody.

    Salami said Igboho’s trial, which began from an extradition request from the Nigerian authorities, is now centred solely on whether or not he broke the laws of the Benin Republic.

    The primary task now is to establish whether the embattled activist entered Cotonou through legal or illegal routes, and what his mission was meant to achieve, the lawyer said.

    Salami said the Nigerian authority had not filed any papers against Igboho.

    “We have also not seen any written complaints from Nigeria being placed before the court. It is a case between the Benin Republic and Sunday Igboho – nothing more,” he explained.

    Explaining why Monday’s proceeding was prolonged, Salami said it needed to be so because the trial is being handled by three judges whose functions and powers are different but complementary: prosecution judge, investigative judge, and judge of liberty or detention.

    He said the matter before the prosecution judge office did not commence until 2 pm. Reason: the enormity of tasks the prosecutor’s office needed to handle. The trial then moved to the investigative judge by 3 pm, lasting till around 6pm.

    It was the judge of liberty or detention, who took over from his investigative colleague at night that ruled that more time is needed for the court to establish the true reasons behind Igboho’s coming to the Benin Republic.

  • Uncertainty in Abuja, Cotonou as Kanu, Igboho’s trials resume today

    Uncertainty in Abuja, Cotonou as Kanu, Igboho’s trials resume today

    The trial of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, continues at the Federal High Court, Abuja, today.
    Also, Sunday Adeyemo, known as Sunday Igboho, will continue his trial at a court in Cotonou, Benin Republic.

    Igboho was arraigned in Benin Republic, at the Cardinal Bernardin International Airport, on last Monday night. He was arrested with his wife on their way to Germany. Igboho was declared wanted by the Department of State Services (DSS) earlier in July after his Ibadan house was raided by operatives of the DSS.

    Two people were killed by the DSS in the late night raid while 12 other persons were arrested and later paraded in Abuja. They have since been charged to court.
    The federal government is prosecuting the IPOB leader on 11-count charge, bordering on terrorism, treasonable felony, managing an unlawful society, publication of defamatory matter, illegal possession of firearms and improper importation of goods, among others.

    In the charge, Kanu was also accused of instigating violence, especially, in the Southeastern part of the country that resulted in the loss of lives and property of civilians, military and paramilitary.

    He was arraigned before the court, following his extradition to Nigeria by the federal government and was ordered to be remanded in the Department of State Service (DSS) facility, pending the determination of his trial.

    The trial judge, Justice Binta Murtala-Nyako, gave the order after counsel representing the attorney-general of the federation, Mr Shuaibu Labaran, told the court that the defendant (Kanu), who jumped bail, had been arrested and produced in court.

    The prosecution further asked the court for an order detaining the defendant at the DSS facility pending the hearing and determination of the matter.
    In her ruling, Justice Nyako adjourned the matter to Monday, July 26, for trial continuation.

  • Igboho handcuffed, can’t move, eat but not beaten – Cotonou based lawyer

    Igboho handcuffed, can’t move, eat but not beaten – Cotonou based lawyer

    Ibrahim Salami, one of the Cotonou-based lawyers of embattled Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho has decried the unfair treatment of his client in the custody of Brigade criminelle in Benin Republic.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports the Cotonou Court of Appeal on Thursday adjourned the hearing of the suit involving Igboho to Monday.

    Salami, while speaking to BBC Yoruba in a monitored live update monitored on Saturday said: “We are five lawyers handling his case. When we visited Sunday Adeyemo at the police station, he was not beaten but what they did that is alien to the law here is that they handcuffed him inside the police cell after locking the cell.

    “This makes eating and movement within the cell difficult for him to the extent that someone has been helping him in this regard.

    “Apart from being a lawyer, I am also a professor of law at a university here in Benin Republic.

    “Part of what we teach our students is human rights. Human rights frown at the action of the police.

    “I called the attention of the police commander and the prosecutor to this but still nothing changed.

    “At the moment, Sunday Igboho’s hands are in chains at the police station. This is not good at all.”

  • BREAKING: Yoruba Nation agitator Sunday Igboho flees Nigeria, arrested in Cotonou

    BREAKING: Yoruba Nation agitator Sunday Igboho flees Nigeria, arrested in Cotonou

    Information reaching TheNewsGuru.com, TNG has it that popular Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo also known as Sunday Igboho, has been arrested in Cotonou, Benin Republic by security operatives in the West African country.

    According to reports, Igboho was arrested Monday night after fleeing Nigeria to evade arrest by the Department of State Services (DSS).

    A source privy to his departure from Nigeria said he had perfected plans to secretly escape from Nigeria through Cotonou and was heading to Germany.

    He was, however, nabbed by security operatives in the neighboring country.

    The source who confirmed the incident to Sahara Reporters said: “Sunday Igboho has been arrested in Cotonou. He was arrested about an hour ago.

    “He was supposed to travel to Germany through Cotonou this night. He wanted to leave Africa through Cotonou. He was arrested by security operatives in Cotonou.

    “They are planning to bring him back to Nigeria.”

    TNG reports the DSS had earlier declared Igboho wanted after its operatives carried out a bloody midnight raid on his residence in the Soka area of Ibadan, Oyo State.

    DSS Public Relations Officer, Peter Afunnaya, had advised Igboho to turn himself in to the nearest security.

    “Those cheering and eulogizing him may appeal to or advice him to do the needful,” Afunnaya said. “He should surrender himself to the appropriate authorities. He or anyone can never be above the law.”

    Meanwhile, Pelumi Olajengbesi, one of the lawyers representing Igboho and others arrested in his House said he was yet to confirm the news of Igboho’s arrest in Cotonou.

    “I will contact Yomi Aliu (SAN) to verify the news,” he said.