Ivory Coast’s Vice President Daniel Kablan Duncan has resigned, President Alassane Ouattara’s office said on Monday.
Patrick Achi, the secretary-general of the presidency, told newsmen that Kablan Duncan, who previously served as Ouattara’s prime minister, was leaving for personal reasons.
His resignation came days after the sudden death last week of Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who was also the ruling party’s candidate for October’s presidential election.
A 34-year old man Ifeanyi Apusiobi on Sunday supposedly killed two of his children in Ogbunike in Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State.
The suspect reportedly attacked his victims, Chinecherem and Obinna, with a pestle while they were sleeping.
The suspect also injured his 72-year old father, Dominic, in the head with the same object.
Police spokesman Haruna Mohammed confirmed the incident, saying the suspect has been arrested.
He said the situations surrounding the incident were yet to be ascertained.
Detectives who visited the scene reportedly rushed the three victims to hospital where the two children were confirmed dead, while the 72-year-old was responding to treatment.
The Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC South Africa chapter, Dr Taiye Abe, is dead.
He was aged 65.
President, Muhammadu Buhari in a statement on Wednesday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said he received the news of Abe’s death with sadness.
Buhari sympathised with the family, friends, and colleagues of the deceased, and urged them to take heart, praying that God will comfort them at this time of sorrow.
He recalled many meetings with the deceased on visits to South Africa and remarked that he was a man with an unmistakable love for Nigeria, and a deep commitment to the ideals of the APC.
“Dr Abe looked forward to a Nigeria that would take its rightful place among the comity of nations, and passionately believed in a resurgent country we could all be proud of.
“We will not relent in working towards that goal,” the President said.
He urged members of the APC in South Africa to continue the good work pioneered by Abe, particularly in being worthy ambassadors of the party and their fatherland.
A viral video of the Late Lagos East Senator Bayo Osinowo prophesying his death during the one year anniversary of the ninth senate has surfaced online.
Recall that the late senator died on Monday of COVID-19 complications
In the video, the late senator admonished colleague to always give thanks as God does not require permission to take any man’s life.
Watch video below:
Sharon Stone, an American actress and movie producer noted that she was once struck by lightning in what appeared to be a frightening home accident.
The’Basic Instinct’ star brought this disclosure to light while featuring on ‘Films to Be Buried With‘, a podcast by Brett Goldstein, British actor cum comedian.
The 68-year-old film star narrated how she survived the dreadful incident.
She said the lightning hit her as she was filling up her iron and she was “thrown across the kitchen” and knocked out.
“I was at home. We had our own well. I was filling the iron with water I had one hand on the faucet, one hand on the iron and the well got hit with lightning and the lightning came up through the water,” she said.
“I got picked up and thrown across the kitchen, and I hit the refrigerator. I was like, “Whoa!.””
She also recalled how Dorothy, her mother, came to her rescue before she was rushed to the hospital.
“My mother was standing there, and my mother just belted me across the face and brought me to. I was in such an altered state, like just so, I don’t know how to describe it — so bright, like wow,” she said.
Stone said her mother “threw me in the car and drove me to the hospital”.
“And the electrocardiogram was showing such electricity in my body,” she added, explaining that she underwent EKG tests for a further 10 days.
The development further stretches the number of occasions the Oscar nominated performer has had a near-death experience.
“I’ve had a lot of things,” she said, while admitting to have survived numerous life-threatening scenes.
Sharon also recalled nearly severing her jugular vein as a teenager during one of such terrifying moments.
“I got caught in a clothesline and had my neck cut to a sixteenth of an inch from my jugular vein,” she said.
The mother of three had also suffered a major stroke in 2001, resulting to nine days of brain haemorrhaging.
Veteran Nollywood actor, Hanks Anuku, has debunked death rumours about him.
Hanks Anuku, in a live video on Facebook, insisted that he is alive and well.
His disclaimer became necessary as multiple reports stated the actor died on Thursday due to short illness.
Anuku, however, told the general public to disregard the fake news.
He stated he is alive and healthy with his family.
He added that God is in charge of his life, not rumour mongers.
An Ikeja Special Offences Court on Monday sentenced a technician, Rasak Abiona, to death for beating his 62-year-old father to death with an iron rod during a dispute over a property in Lagos.
According to reports Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo delivered the judgment in a virtual hearing.
Justice Taiwo held that though the prosecution had presented circumstantial evidence against the middle-aged defendant during the trial, the state proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
She noted that the technician’s confessional statements to the police implicated him and that during the trial, the defendant did not present witnesses in court to back his claim that his father died after a fall.
Justice Taiwo sentenced Rasak after finding him guilty of a charge of murder contrary to Section 221 of the Criminal Law of Lagos 2011.
She held: “This is a very unfortunate and sad case where a son kills his father.
“There is no doubt that by hitting the deceased with an iron rod on the head, the defendant intended to cause grievous bodily harm.
“The defendant could have easily overpowered his father, a 62-year-old man, without hitting him on the head with an iron rod.
“This case is a clear indication of what anger and impatience can do in a man’s life.
“The court does not have a discretion to give a lesser punishment in a case of murder in view of Section 223 of the Criminal Law 2011.
“I hereby sentence the defendant to death for killing his father, Sunday Abiona.
“This is the sentence of the court.”
Earlier, before the sentence was delivered, the defence counsel, Obinna Mbagho, in his plea for mercy, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy, noting that Rasak was a first-time offender who had shown remorse.
“He has been in prison since 2013 and ever since his incarceration, his children have been scattered,” Mbagho said.
Opposing the plea for mercy, the prosecutor for the state, Olakunle Ligali, requested for the maximum penalty for the crime.
Ligali said: “Under the Criminal Law of Lagos, when the crime has the ultimate penalty of death, the court has no discretion to mitigate the sentence.
President Muhammadu Buhari is devastated over the death of his nephew, Ibrahim Dauda
This is coming 23 days after TheNewsGuru(TNG) reported the death of Mutari Dauda, another nephew of the President, who passed away on May 8, 2020.
Garba Shehu, presidential spokesperson, in a statement on Saturday, said Dauda died in Daura, Katsina State, after a prolonged illness.
In a condolence message, President Buhari said the death had robbed the family and the Daura community of one of its finest gentlemen.
He said, “I am deeply touched and devastated by the passing of yet another family member, a man who had demonstrated amazing kindness and honesty in all his dealings.”
The deceased is survived by a number of children including Ibrahim, a chief administrative officer in State House, Abuja.
President Muhammadu Buhari's nephew Alhaji Ibrahim Dauda is dead.
Ibrahim Dauda died in Daura, Katsina State, following a prolonged illness.
In a condolence message, the President said the death has robbed the family and the Daura community of one of its finest gentlemen.
— Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) May 30, 2020
Timeline: Death of PMB’s first nephew on May 8, 2020.
Below, is the statement released by the presidency on the 8th of May, when the first nephew died.
President Buhari has lost one of his nephews, Alhaji Mutari Dauda, to death.
Dauda was younger brother to Mallam Mamman Daura, who has been described as one of the strongest influences on Buhari and the administration.
PMB has sent condolence messages to his extended family and the entire Daura community in Katsina State over the death of Alhaji Dauda.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, Buhari charged the family of the deceased as well as the entire extended family, to pray for the repose of the departed.
He said: “Let me on behalf of myself and my family convey to you my deepest sympathy for the loss of Mutari Dauda. Death is inevitable and every soul must taste death one day.
“What we owe the dead are not tears, because our tears can’t bring them back, but what they deserve are our prayers. In this regard, my heart and prayers go out to all the family members and the Daura community as a whole over this irreparable loss.”
“May Allah forgive his gentle soul and reward his goods deeds with aljanna. Amin.”
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Saturday confirmed the death of its former Group Managing Director (GMD), Dr. Maikanti Kacalla Baru who passed on Friday night.
Dr. Baru, a consummate Mechanical Engineer, died after a brief illness, NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs, Dr. Kennie Obateru stated this in a release today.
The release said NNPC Group Managing Director, Mallam Mele Kyari expressed shock over the sudden death of Dr. Baru who was the 18th Group Managing Director of the Corporation.
Mallam Kyari described him as a man ‘of exemplary character and disposition.’
Dr. Baru, 60, who was at the helm of the Corporation from July 4th 2016 to July 7th 2019 died after a brief illness in an Abuja hospital.
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) on Friday cleared the air on the death of its Acting Executive Director, Finance And Administration, Chief Ibanga Bassey Etang.
According to a press statement signed and released Friday evening by Charles Obi Odili, the Commission’s director of Corporate Affairs, Etang died in the early hours of Thursday in Port Harcourt.
Odili further stated that as at Friday when the press statement was released, the cause of Enang’s death was still unknown. He explained that the shut down order of activities was a precautionary move and not a confirmation that Enang died of the novel Coronavirus [COVID-19] disease.
Read full statement below:
The Management of the Niger Development Commission, NDDC, wishes to announce the death of its Acting Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Chief Ibanga Bassey Etang. He died in the early hours of Thursday in Port Harcourt.
This announcement is coming at this time because of the need to inform family members. The Commission is not aware of the cause of his death as at the time of this release (6.45pm on Friday, 29, 2020).
In line with fears of the current time, the Commission took the precautionary measure of temporarily shutting down its headquarters for two weeks. Staff were also asked to self-isolate. This action does not presuppose the cause of death.
An autopsy report is being expected and when this is ready, it would be released with the consent of the family.
The NDDC is, therefore, miffed by spurious and uncharitable coloration being championed by mischief makers on the occasion of the demise of Chief Ibanga Bassey Etang, whose untimely death occurred at the early hours of Thursday the 28th of May 2020.
The Commission is on course to issuing a comprehensive fact-based statement in consonance with the bereaved family, but for the unwarranted and unsubstantiated reportage which is flying in devilish propensities.
Until the autopsy report is release from the Commission’s stables, every story on this matter, flies in the face of truth.
The Commission also wishes to state that the rumours over the internal memo for staff of the Commission to stay away, so that sanitary and hygienic cleaning of the Commission can take place, is most unfortunate. The idea behind it is purely precautionary.
The commission wishes, therefore, to appeal to those mean spirited, whose ambition is to always turn truth on its head, to seek a path of repentance.
The NDDC is determined to deliver on its core mandate to the good people of the Niger Delta region. Neither slander nor provocative insinuations will deter us.
Charles Obi Odili
Director, Corporate Affairs