![[Photo] Just in: 4-storey building collapses on occupant in Abuja](https://thenewsguru.ng/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/F0ISueXWYAE-mY.jpg)
More than 20 persons have reportedly been trapped in a collapsed 4-storey building of a hotel owned by Summit Villa hotel services, located in Dape Life camp Abuja.
Eyewitness accounts say the hotel with an underground has trapped more than 20 persons.
See Photos below:
By Debo Oladimeji
The Project Lead of Schoolrun Academy ably led by Dr. Bisi Esuruoso for Safe Schools Lagos (SSLAG) has said that the only way to ensure security in our schools and prevent a recurrent of the unfortunate incident that led to the death of Desola Whitney Adeniran a 12 –year-old girl of the Chrisland Schools at Agege Stadium on February 9 during inter-house sports bis for every staff of schools in Lagos State to be safety conscious and put safety measures in place.
Speaking in Lagos during a Capacity Building Conference (CBC) on Safety for school teams (Heads and Managers) organised by SSLAG for schools she said risk cannot be eradicated but we can mitigate it. She said that it is important for schools to have defibrillators to prevent such a tragedy from happening in future.
“And you must have staffers that are trained to handle it. You must have a register for it so that other people can use it as well.”
She recalled that an emergency rescue plan which Chrisland would have had would have saved the situation. “If it had taken up the SSLAG compliance plan, the trips would have been covered and they would have had an ambulance from emergency rescue Africa. When that incident happened they would have had prompt attention because there would have been paramedics on ground that would have responded immediately.”
“How do we mitigate risks? It comes from awareness, knowledge and structure. I tell my staff that safety starts for organization, structure. When you are under pressure it is your structure that will make you stand or cope. That is why CBC that you are attending today is for everybody.”
She explained that members of the school community need to understand that Safety is very important in schools.
“Audit has started in some schools this week. We will ensure that the school are compliance to all the 20 Lagos State Safety 1Commission standard. We have 12 of the safety standard for day schools, 8 for the boarding schools. Don’t tell me that the fact that you are a day school, you don’t know need to know about the boarding requirements.”
She explained that when they are on any trip that may take two to three days out of the school is similar to boarding. “That is boarding. What happened in Christland would not have happened if they understood the boarding requirements. In England when students are on any 2trip you cannot board them in an hotel. Hotels are for adult from 18-2 years and above.”
She regretted that most schools in Nigeria have free period in their time table and they allow children to learn on their own. “It shows they are negligence. Because children misbehave when they are alone.”
She said that when they go to schools for audit they are not looking for physical things they are looking for hidden curriculum. “There is the seen curriculum and the hidden curriculum. The hidden curriculum are the things that people don’t see that is the norm. And you will know. It will not take me five minutes to know whatever is going on in any school.”
“Excursion is part of their learning. We appreciate that. But things must be done properly. An incident happened in stadium we need to beam the search light on the stadium. Not just the school alone. Up till now nobody has gone after the tour operator. Somebody arranged that trip for Chrisland. That person is somewhere and Chrisland is taking all the blames.”
Dr Kayode Solomon said that abroad defibrillators are very common. “If you walk into any airport you will notice that they have provisions for it. It is a reflective something. We encourage schools to have them but let me advice don’t just buy it from anywhere because most times people will sell to you what might just become useless to you very soon. Can you replace the parts? The parts have expiring dates, can it be managed here and all of that. How to use a defibrillator is part of what we do in our training.
He said that if there is an emergency in your school what do you do? ”Let me tell you what most people do. They pour water. Somebody would have said pour water during the Agege incident. If the girl could talk they would have told her to drink water. It is not just Nigeria thing but it is a general thing. We say water has no enemy.
“One thing we need to do for schools is to create awareness. Let there be awareness of what to do in an emergency. You must be able to identify those who have training in your environment and let those people take the lead of what to do. Not just anybody. Sometimes you make assumptions. What people do in an emergency is what is at the back of their minds. What their grandmother told them or what they watch in home videos. A child just has a seizure, many times how you handle the situation will determine life or death. When you have a simple seizure and your nanny now pour water and in the process the person drown in his own vomit. Life is so delicate there is a period in time when intervention will work. For few minutes or seconds after which no matter what you do nothing will do except a miracle. All these things don’t have scientific backing those are the things you should not do.
“What most times killed seizure patients is what is called post seizure sleep. If they are not placed in a proper position that can lead to death. While you are doing superman, causing injuries the real job you should do you now leave them causing the person to die. Knowledge is power and we need to have requisite knowledge. Let us expose our minds to some of these information that are available online. We need to reorient ourselves. Many of the things they do in those home videos are just wrong.”
A staff of Lagos State Safety Commission, Mrs Osokoya Ajoke said that one of the things she will like the participants to take home is the fact that they need to be safety conscious in whatever they do in their schools.
“They have to ensure that safety should come first in their list. They need to ensure that those children under their cares are well taken care of not just the curriculum aspect alone but the safety aspect is very paramount. Then they need to ensure that they don’t because some other agencies are coming to their schools reject our audit team. What people are coming to do in their school is different from what Lagos State Safety Commission is coming to do. We have our mandate they also have their mandate. They should allow us to come for their school for safety audit.”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned Gov. Ben Ayade’s decision to continue with the activities lined up for the annual Calabar Carnival after the death of eight persons on Tuesday.
Mr Venatius Ikem, the State Chairman of the party, made the condemnation in a press statement made available to newsmen in Calabar on Wednesday.
The eight deaths were recorded when a Camry Car lost control and rammed into a crowd of onlookers on day five activity of the carnival.
Apart from the deaths, 29 others sustained various degrees of injuries and were rushed to Naval hospital and the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital for medical attention.
However, the Governor continued with the carnival on Tuesday night when he attended Miss Africa, a Beauty Pageant segment of the carnival.
The PDP chairman described Ayade’s decision as a “singular action tantamount to rubbing salt on injuries.”
He said that the governor’s action showed insensitivity to the mood and plight of the people.
Ikem said, ”Indeed, we have been vindicated in our rating of Ayade’s government as inhuman, uncouth and unperturbed by the sufferings of the masses.
”It is unthinkable that a leader can proceed to a jamboree where he was seen beaming with smiles and cheering Miss Africa Beauty Pageant contestants after the bloody incident which claimed lives just a couple of hours apart.
Ikem also stated that the disaster could have been avoided if standard best practices were applicable during the event, especially with regard to crowd and vehicular traffic control as well as the physiological state of the participants.
Meanwhile, the PDP governorship candidate, Sen. Sandy Onor, has condoled with the families of those who lost their loved ones in the Calabar Carnival accident.
He prayed for the repose of the souls of the departed and fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
No fewer than 12 persons have been burnt to death in an auto crash that occurred at Tsamawa Town, Garun Malam Local Government Area (LGA) of Kano State.
This is contained in a press statement issued by the Public Relations Officer of the State Fire Service, Alhaji Saminu Abdullahi, on Tuesday in Kano.
“We received a distress call from one Isah Mai-Fetur at about 3:00p.m that a commercial Hiace bus and another J5-bus had collided and instantly burst into flames.
“Upon receiving the information, we quickly sent our rescue team to the scene at about 3:12 p.m. to rescue the victims,’’ the statement said.
He said that the 11 persons in the Hiace bus were coming from Zaria road to Kano, while one person in the J5-bus was also going to Kano from Zaria.
Abdullahi said that all the 12 persons were burnt beyond recognition, just as he attributed the accident to over speeding.
He also advised motorists to always drive carefully to avoid unforeseen circumstances.
By Owei Lakemfa
I was close to the environmentalist and writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa. We often dicussed the Niger Delta and environmental pollution. At a point, he was made the Spokesperson of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP.
In this position, he campaigned vigorously against the destructive activities of transnational oil corporations in Ogoniland. At a point, whenever he issued press statements, he sent them to me for dissemination in media houses, and publication in the VANGUARD Newspapers where I worked and he was a columnist.
Then disagreements arose within the Ogoni elites which also affected MOSOP. For instance, while Ogoni elites led by Chief Edward Nna Kobani, who was Campaign Director General of Chief Moshood Abiola in the June 12, 1993 presidential election, campaigned that Ogonis vote for him, the MOSOP under Saro-Wiwa and its youth wing, the National Youth Council of Ogoni People, NYCOP, decided that the Ogonis should boycott the election.
There were also differences in opinion on how to handle the oil companies operating in Ogoniland. When the internal disagreements continued, the founding MOSOP president, Dr. Garrick Barilee Leton, a former Minister of Education, and his executive resigned and Saro-Wiwa took over.
When in 1994, the Abacha military regime decided to hold a Constitutional Conference which many thought was a disingenuous way of the dictator trying to hold on to power by transforming into a civilian president, Saro-Wiwa disagreed and decided to attend.
I met him a few days before he left Lagos for Ogoniland to campaign to be elected a delegate to the Abacha conference. Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, then President of the anti-military coalition, Campaign for Democracy, CD, and I tried to dissuade Saro-Wiwa from attending the Abacha conference.
MOSOP was one of the affiliates of the CD and since the organisation and other pro-democracy organisations had decided to boycott the conference, we thought it inadvisable for MOSOP to break ranks. But Saro-Wiwa stuck to his guns and went for his campaign rally in Ogoniland which held on May 21, 1994. However, the regime appeared not to want him at its conference either; the junta’s security men escorted him out of Ogoniland.
While the campaign rally was on, Ogoni elites who were not on Saro-Wiwa’s side, were holding a meeting in the Gokana part of Ogoni. This meeting was attacked by some youths and four of the attendees were hacked to death. These were Chief Edward Kobani, former MOSOP Vice President; Albert Tombari Badey, a former Secretary to the Government and Head of Service to the Rivers State government from 1987-1993; Samuel Orage and Theophilus Orage, brothers-in-law of Saro-Wiwa. He and 15 others were accused of masterminding the murders and tried by a tribunal. Six, including then MOSOP Deputy President, Ledum Mitee, were freed, while Saro-Wiwa and eight others were on November10, 1995, hanged for the murders.
The deaths were an unmitigated tragedy from which Ogoniland has not recovered and the country may never be able to wash itself clean.
Today, 26 years later, another intra-communal crises is on, this time in Idumuje-Ugboko in Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State. As in the Ogoni case, the elites in the town have disagreements that have split them into two antagonistic camps. Like MOSOP, the Idumuje Ugboko Development Union is split into two, and clashes have already occurred, including a serious one in May 2017 in which two persons reportedly died. This is disputed by the other faction.
This year has also witnessed skirmishes.
Chief Chris Ogwu, the Iyase (Prime Minister) of the town was my senior in the then University of Ife (Now, Obafemi Awolowo University). In my first year, which was his final year, I stayed four rooms away, while one of my best friends, John Onwah, stayed in the same room with him.
He was a noted footballer. When I went for the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, programme in Kano, Chris was working there as a journalist and he welcomed me with a memorable outing. We later worked together in the GUARDIAN Newspapers where he rose to be Sports Editor. When my maternal grandmother died in 2000 and was buried in Oleh, Delta State, Chris drove all the way from Lagos to attend.
You can imagine how shocked I was when he told me that during the May 2017 disturbances in the town, he was brutalised, his legs dislocated, his cars and house vandalised. On the opposite side of the conflict is Azuka Jebose Molokwu, one of the most conscientious journalists I have ever come across.
He was a very resourceful journalist who carries out campaigns for peoples’ rights, including the right of journalists to receive just wages. Even from his new base in the United States, he waged a war against a powerful media organisation, forcing it to pay staff entitlements, including to those who had disengaged.
I also know a few other persons on both sides of the divide in this potentially debilitating but avoidable war in which princes are digging trenches on opposite sides and the rich and powerful in the town are standing eyeball to eyeball. In the meantime, the contentious issues, like the COVID-19 virus, are mutating. Initially the primary issue appeared to be over land, now the central issue is more of a tussle over succession: which faction wins the traditional crown in succession to the late King Albert Nwoko.
Inter-communal conflicts, like those in a family, are unending. They can go on for generations and would potentially cripple development and needed unity. With such conflicts, the community becomes quite vulnerable. It becomes like a body with weak immune system which is susceptible to opportunistic diseases. Africans say it is only when the wall opens itself the lizard can have the opportunity of penetrating it.
The issue is not what the truth in the conflict is: each side would always have its truths, otherwise they would not have the followers they parade. Also, the important thing is not which side is correct; even if the courts so rule, it may not change the reality on ground which basically is that the people of Idumuje-Ugboko are divided. There can be no ready winners in a fratricidal war; as the reality in Ogoniland shows, there can only be losers and this can go on for generations.
The rest of us do not need to wait for a bloodbath in the town before trying to make peace. The Delta State Government has the duty to bring all sides together, more so when rampaging bandits in the country can build a base there. The National Orientation Agency can also move in; so should organisations interested in peace and conflict resolution. On this score, if anybody is game, so am I.
Benue State Police Command has confirmed that three policemen and two civilian were murdered at the residence of Chairman of Katsina Ala Local Government Council, Alfred Atera, in Katsina Ala town, Benue State Thursday morning by unknown gunmen.
The policemen were said to be guarding the residence of the council chairman located after Katsina Ala Central Primary School, in Katsina Ala town.
Katsina Ala town is the headquarters of Sankera geo-political bloc, comprising Ukum, Logo and Katsina Ala, in Benue North West Senatorial zone.
The local government had been under the leadership of local militias until Governor Samuel Ortom granted amnesty to the restive youths.
The gunmen stormed the house of the council chairman in the early hours of Thursday and opened fire at the policemen who were on guard killing them at the spot.
They also slayed two other security men on duty bringing the total number of people murdered at the house to five.
Six other people were injured, according to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).
The FRSC Niger Sector Commander Joel Dagwa told the newsmen, in Minna that the accident, which occurred at about 23.40 hours at Kwanan Bakwai village of Gurara Local Government Area, involved a Mazda car and an articulated vehicle.
“Ten people were involved in the mishap; four were killed, 6 sustained various degrees of injuries and were taken to Federal Medical Centre, Gawun Babangida, for treatment, while the four corpses were deposited at Sabon Wuse Mortuary.
He said that the truck was carrying cosmetics from Lagos to Kano, While the Mazda car overloaded with 8 passengers took off from Lambata to Minna the state capital.
The sector commander advised motorists to exercise caution and adhere strictly to speed limits to avoid crashes.
He blamed the accident on speed violation and loss of control.
The sector commander said that the Corps would continue to monitor road users to guard against dangerous driving.
” We will continue to sustain our aggressive patrols across all major highways to ensure that road users adhere strictly to traffic rules and regulations to avoid road accidents during and after the ongoing Sallah celebration across the state,” he said.
A fourteen-year-old girl Anita Haledu Ibrahim of Angwan Dorowa Gbuja, in Akwanga LGA of Nasarawa state, has taken her own life over an unwanted pregnancy.
Investigation revealed the deceased, a student of Government Science school Andaha, near Akwanga, took herbicide to kill herself.
Anita was pregnant for her boyfriend whom she met in Andaha during the COVID-19 lockdown, who was introduced to her closest friend in the school.
It was learnt the lady decided to commit suicide after her father, Haledu Ibrahim, discovered the pregnancy and beat her.
According to report, Anita took the herbicide last Saturday but was rushed to the hospital in Akwanga.
She died at the early hours of Tuesday.
When contacted the Police Public Relations Officer, Nansel Ramhan, said he was yet to receive official report from Akwanga division.
![Tragedy! Man stabs cousin to death over Mango [WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT]](https://thenewsguru.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/IMG-20200514-WA0009.jpg)
Tragedy struck in Mgboko Mgboko Umuoria in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State on Thursday following the stabbing to death of a member of the community, Solomon Monday Orji by his cousin, Chinedu Omeonu.
The incident which happened around 1:30pm threw the community into shock and mourning.
It was gathered that one of Orji’s sons had gone to the compound of his uncle identifi Omeonu to pick some fallen mango fruits.
But Omeonu got angry and beat up Orji’s son and flogged the little boy mercilessly to the extent he fainted.
Orji was said to have rushed to his cousin’s house to inquire why he should flog his son to a state of unconsciousness.
Omeonu was said to have been very harsh on his cousin and engaged him in an altercation after which Orji carried his son home.
As Orji was going home, the assailant reported went inside his house, picked a cutlass and went after the deceased and stabbed him at the base of the neck and he died instantly.
According to a source, “Orji’s son went to his father’s cousin’s compound to pluck some mango fruits, but the owner, Omeonu beat him up. I think there were some problems between both families that could necessitate such action.
“When Solomon got information about the beating of his son, he went to Mr. Chinedu Omeonu’s house to inquire. After the exchange of words, Solomon took his son home. On his way home, Omeonu went after him with a cutlass and inflicted several cuts on his neck”.
Angered by the incident, youths of the community arrested Omeonu and handed him over to the Police.
Spokesman of the Police. Geoffrey Ogbonna confirmed the incident.
He said the suspect is in Police custody and will be prosecuted at the end of investigations.
See photos below: Suspect and the victim
Azu Ishiekwene
In a world where laughter is already in short supply, the outbreak and rapid spread of Coronavirus has only left us all the more depleted. The world, as we know it, has been turned on its head. Yet, in this once-in-a-lifetime experience we have examples of fate using tragedy to write the book of humour.
Who could have believed that Mexico would be contemplating border restrictions with the US or that vacationing Italians will choose to be refugees in Ethiopia or Tunisia instead of returning to their country which, until recently, turned away hundreds of migrants from Africa and the Middle East?
But this unusual turn of news is spreading just as rapidly as Covid-19, the strain of the Coronavirus that has gripped the world.
Last week, Al-Jazeera reported that the Mexican authorities were considering restrictions along the border with the US after the virus spread like wild fire across the US, impacting 50 states and forcing President Donald Trump to announce extraordinary measures to contain the spread.
In California, a US state which shares a border with Mexico, eight million residents were forced into shelters this week. Only a few years ago, Trump’s greatest desire was to build a 2,000-mile long wall, cutting off Mexico from the US. He said at the time that Mexicans, those good-for-nothing drug dealers, coyotes and rapists, would also pay for the wall.
But all the talk about building a wall has now gone quiet and Trump was at his meekest last week after a close shave with Covid-19. In a tragic turn of humour, while US citizens and businessmen are complaining that any border restrictions at this time might adversely affect the supply chain in US factories, Mexicans are asking themselves why they didn’t take up Trump’s earlier offer to build the wall.
Even if they had to pay for it, it certainly would not have been with their lives as they may be obliged to do if persons fleeing from the US spread the virus from across the San Ysidro border.
A similar spectacle of irony is also playing out in Ethiopia where 35 Italian tourists had gone on holiday. The tourists, whose visas had expired, refused to return home, preferring to stay on in Ethiopia as refugees, rather than return to Italy, which is currently in lockdown.
Who would have thought that a day like this would ever come? At the height of the migrant crisis in Europe three years ago, a story leaked that would have brought tears to the eyes of even those who may have eaten the proverbial head of the tortoise. It was a video of dozens of refugees from Africa and Syria, drowning in the Mediterranean Sea in 2013.
Their boat was only a few miles from the Italian port of Lampedusa and the distressed migrants could see the shore. Then, suddenly, their boat started taking in water and began to sink. They cried out to the Italian Coast Guards who were nearby for help. Mohammed Jammo, who identified himself as a Syrian doctor aboard the sinking boat, could be heard in the video crying to the guards: “Please hurry, the boat is going down!”
One of the guards replied: “Because you are near Malta, call Malta directly very quickly, they are close. Ok?”
Jammo then called again, “We are dying, please.” And the Italian guard replied: “You have to call Malta, sir.”
That was the last call. The boat capsized, and all the passengers died.
To be sure, Italy recorded a number of heroic interventions during the migrant crisis, but incidents like Jummo’s will forever taint Italy’s humanitarian record. Addis Ababa does not need to repay the 35 Italian tourists in the coin of the coast guard. That is the only way to tell the “call Malta” guard and millions of people like him around the world that we’re all in the same boat. Who knows where the wind will blow next?
The Covid-19 irony does not end there. Also, this week, a British cruise ship which had been marooned at sea since February ending was finally called to shore in the most unlikely of places: Cuba. The ship, owned by a British cruise ship company had been denied berthing throughout the Caribbean – and that includes Barbados, a country with strong British heritage and ties.
Even though there were 667 Brits out of the 682 passengers on board, Barbados took a deep, long breath and asked the cruise ship, which had only five confirmed victims onboard, to look elsewhere for help.
Help came, not from longstanding British allies in the Caribbean (not even Barbados fondly called ‘Little England’) or North America, but from Cuba, the Communist cauldron which British intellectuals love to hate.
While Cuba was opening the door to the British cruise ship, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s best friend, Trump, was extending travel ban to UK citizens, in spite of US-UK mutual claim to a special relationship.
Yet, this gift of irony is not only in the relations among countries. Even within national boundaries and from the heart of a number of the most impacted communities come remarkable stories of the triumph of the human spirit. Citizens trying to help have formed clusters of compassion around the world, such as, Covid-19 Mutual Aid Facebook and Kindness Pandemic Facebook, sharing online help forms, tips and messages to millions desperately in need of help.
In Turin, Italy, every night since the countrywide lockdown started two weeks ago, people come to the balcony or stay at their windows to play a guitar or sing the national anthem or a folk song. Despite their isolation, they still find a way to stay connected.
And did you notice that the same Chinese who were left by the rest of the world to stew in the virus when it first broke out were among the first group of foreigners to arrive in Italy to help stem the tide when Italy’s neighbours were closing their own borders?
In the UK, a charity, Mutual Aid, is plowing the streets with messages of help for the elderly or those in self-isolation. And in one particularly telling story in the US, an elderly couple stranded in their car for hours, frightened and unable to stand in the long lines just to buy groceries and loo rolls, finally got help from folks who offered to shop for them while they waited inside their car.
And then, of course, there’s the indescribably odd bit. Whereas gun sales in the US tend to rise after an election or a mass shooting, there was a report during the week of long lines of customers at a gun shop in Los Angeles.
One of the customers said he decided to arm himself, just in case things get “a bit crazy” in low income neighbourhoods: that is, he thought he needed to arm himself in case rioting broke out in poor neighbourhoods where, at the current rate, staples could run out of supply.
But think of it: who is more likely to clean out the shelves, buying what they don’t need and sowing the seed of trouble? The man who can afford a gun or the man who can barely buy bread? Someone should have told the man that long before staples run out, love runs out first.
These are not your regular stories. Or regular times. But even in Wuhan this minute, tragedy is writing the book of humour; the story of the ultimate triumph of the human spirit.
Ishiekwene is the MD/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview