A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu, has criticized the notion that the naira will stabilize at N400 to the dollar.

The political economist deems the notion as unrealistic.

Naija News reports that Moghalu expressed his viewpoint through a series of posts on his X account on Sunday.

He wrote: “Those who want the Naira to be N400 to the $ are living in a dream world. Even discounting for the negative impact of speculative attacks on the value of the Naira, the exchange rate will (and should) reflect its market value in reality, not the artificiality that the Emefiele era central bank sought to maintain to please economic illiterates in political power at the time.

“That artificiality created room for massive arbitrage by speculators which bled the economy. Nigeria does not (yet) have a productive export economy. That’s the heart of the matter.

“And we do not have $100 billion in foreign reserves. So on what basis would the Naira forex rate return to some fantasy land soon? It will also take time to regain or achieve full investor confidence such as we had when we were there (and the rate was N150-165 to the $).

“The sooner we focus on a painstaking creation of value-added manufacturing export economy that earns forex beyond oil in real and significant terms, the better.

“Key to this is the electricity conundrum in which we are at less than 4,000MW of generation for a population of 200 million for decades now. Take power to even 20K megawatts (let’s not talk of 50K for South Africa’s 60 million population or Brazil’s 181K megawatts for a population only slightly larger than Nigeria) and you will see what the Nigerian entrepreneurial spirit is capable of.”

Sampson Sekidika, the father of 24-year-old Rebekah Sekidika, a first-class graduate of Benson Idahosa University, Benin City, Edo State, has talked abiut her tragic death.

He shares with DENNIS NAKU the story of how his daughter passed away during a medical procedure at a hospital in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and his relentless quest for justice for the deceased.

How old was your daughter when she passed away and what school did she attend?

My name is Sampson Sekidika. I hail from Okrika in the Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State. I work with Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas as a lead process engineer in the expansion coordination department at the head office here in Port Harcourt. I am the father of the late Rebekah Tamunotorukubu Sekidika. She was 24 years old and graduated from Benson Idahosa University, Benin City in Edo State, where she studied Microbiology and made first-class.

What led to her death?

Before February 2, 2024, my daughter had a series of clinical visits to Paragon Clinics and Imaging Diagnosis located at No. 96 Stadium Road. Paragon Clinics and Imaging Diagnosis is a retainer-ship hospital used by the NLNG. So the NLNG recommended that we use that clinic because they have been qualified to attend to their staff and families. That is why we used that place. It is part of their HMO. So what was my daughter’s complaint? She had some clinical visits and tests she did with them and since November last year (2023) she had not seen her period for nearly three months so she needed to know why. So they carried out a series of tests, including pregnancy and everything came out negative. But they decided that she should see a specialist, more like closing that part of the whole investigation.

She got the call on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, to see a specialist which she did a day before. So they said they were going to do a hysteroscopy on her, which is supposedly a simple procedure that involves using a probe with a light bulb at the end to be inserted through her private parts to see what was causing the obstruction or whatever it was, and they would be seeing it on a monitor at the same time. So that was why they did that. I didn’t know before then that she was going to be given any form of anaesthesia, spinal anaesthesia for that matter for a simple procedure. They said they just wanted her not to feel any pain.

On February 2, 2024, the doctor said she should come between 12 noon and 1pm. So I drove her and her mom to the clinic and around 12.30pm I left to attend to some other things. From what we know about hysteroscopy, the procedure takes between 15 and 30 minutes depending on the doctor handling it. So by 3.10pm I called my wife and asked why they hadn’t called me. She said the doctor had not come out. I now said if by 4pm nothing happened I would come and pick them. My daughter was having an online class at the university by 4.30pm. She had the last online classes and closed her laptop.

What happened next?

By 4.30pm, my daughter walked into the theatre; she was not sick; she was hale and hearty. She had no issues at all; she was very strong. By 5pm it was expected my daughter would have been out of the theatre but was not out. Around 5.10pm, I had already arrived at the clinic. So I went upstairs to stay with my wife. I asked her what was going on. She said they were still in the theatre. I now went to the reception area to sit. Around 5.30pm, my wife came rushing to me saying that something was not right; she heard them in the theatre shouting ‘Rebekah wake up, wake up, wake up’. Then we saw nurses running up and down.

Then it was nearly 6.20pm we saw them rolling up oxygen bottles from downstairs through the elevator. I was wondering what was going on and each time we saw the matron, we asked what was going on with our daughter, she would say our daughter would be fine. That was what she said until around 7pm when two doctors came to the reception area where I was seated. They said they did everything they could but lost our daughter. I don’t know the unusual calmness that came over me. It was just like a dream and I needed someone to wake me up from that bad dream. When I got into the theatre, what I saw was terrifying. I saw my daughter in a pool of blood. My wife rushed into the theatre and shouted, ‘God! God! You people have killed my daughter’. She was shouting and crying all over the place. The doctors and nurses all disappeared from the third floor. We didn’t see anyone.

My wife then called our sons to inform them of what had happened. They were crying. While our last born was crying, his flatmate heard it and called his father here in Port Harcourt who happens to be my colleague, Isaac Chu, who immediately drove down with his wife to the hospital to see us. We went to the reception and luckily we saw a nurse, who took us to see the doctors, who were in a room downstairs. By then, Rebekah’s younger sister, and two of my wife’s sisters with their husbands had arrived. This was around 10pm. So you can imagine that from 7pm to 10pm none of them came to even console us.

When we entered the room where they were, the doctor and the anaesthesia specialist were seated. Isaac Chu now asked the doctor to tell us what happened. He now started the story by saying they had prepared her for the procedure and he pointed at the specialist who gave her the spinal anaesthesia. I asked him why the heavy spinal anaesthesia. He now said that 30 minutes into the procedure they lost her, adding that about 10 minutes into the procedure, my daughter said she couldn’t breathe. Shortly after, she said she wanted to throw up and they brought something for her to throw up into, and what they saw was blood. At that time blood had already filled her lungs.

So apparently something happened when he was doing the procedure. It was later discovered that the anaesthesia specialist ruptured a vessel inside of her when he inserted the probe. The anaesthesia was on one hand killing her and the blood vessel they ruptured caused her to bleed inside and it went into her lungs. The doctor now said when Rebekah vomited blood the second time, he was confused about what to do because he had never seen such a thing before. That was when they stopped the procedure and tried to take over her respiratory system by which time she was already lifeless. At that point, Isaac Chu took me outside and asked me to call my sister, who is a consultant physician, and her husband is a consultant surgeon.

What happened after you called your sister?

My sister and her husband came past midnight, went upstairs, and saw my daughter. Immediately she broke down and her husband took her away. They came downstairs, saw the doctor, and started asking him questions. One of the things she asked was, ‘If you’re carrying out a procedure like this and you notice a vessel rupture or vascular rupture, what are you supposed to do to salvage the situation?’ He (doctor) said he didn’t know, and he was confused when she started vomiting blood. So she was just killed by negligence and incompetence. Then my sister asked the anaesthesiologist what his qualifications were. He said a diploma. So, he too wasn’t a consultant. My sister and her husband now asked for the death certificate. They said she died of pulmonary embolism/vascular rupture. Pulmonary embolism is when you see blood clotting in the lungs. Vascular rupture! Who ruptured the vessel? It was their procedure. So it was purely an act of negligence and incompetence that killed my daughter.

Did the hospital make any attempt to pacify your family?

Early on Saturday, we took her corpse and deposited it in the Military Hospital mortuary. Throughout Sunday and Monday, I didn’t get a call from anybody, if not for anything but to say we are sorry for what happened and this and that. So they completely ignored me and my family. At that point we were confused. What emboldens them or gives them this impunity I don’t know. It is very bad behaviour. So I got a call from my boss to go to the police since it is a state matter.

So, I reported the case to the state homicide department on Monday and raised a petition, got it approved, and raised a letter, which was addressed to Paragon Clinics and the NLNG. The one to Paragon and Imaging they gave them till February 8. They asked the administrator to come with the two doctors involved in the procedure so that they could take their statements. Paragon did not honour the invitation. That Thursday, February 8, 2024, my daughter was supposed to travel to the United Kingdom. On February 12, the police wrote a reminder to Paragon Clinic to produce the people by Wednesday, February 14, but they did not show up.

They (police) went and obtained a warrant of arrest, did all the paperwork, and stormed the hospital on Thursday. They picked the administrator, and the radiologist and the head of the cleaners accompanied their madam to the Deputy Commissioner of Police office at the state CID. I was called to listen to what the hospital administrator had to say. They asked her why she shunned the repeated invitations.

What was her response?

She said when they received the first letter on February 6, the tone of the letter was that somebody was killed in their clinic and that they should produce the two doctors, that she was afraid. So she took the letter and gave it to the legal people, who instead of producing the people involved took the letter to Human Rights International in Abuja. I don’t know what they presented before the human rights body. They obtained a court injunction there for the police not to investigate, arrest, or prosecute them on this matter. So the Deputy Commissioner of Police was confused and asked, ‘Was the injunction to protect the parents of the deceased or to protect yourself?’ The DCP was very furious. He now asked one more question: did you serve the police this injunction? She said she gave it to one of their administrative staff members who said he did not serve the police.

The DCP told the Investigating Police Officer to keep her in custody until the doctors involved in the procedure were produced. The following day, the hospital came with more than eight lawyers; the husband of the administrator flew into Port Harcourt: the Nigerian Medical Association got involved and produced the doctors, the nurse, the matron, and the administrator. So they knew what they were doing. Why did they kill my daughter? Why did they experiment with my daughter? What have they done with her? Up till today, I don’t know.

What happened after that interrogation, which you witnessed?

I heard all of them speak but I didn’t say anything. In the end, the DCP said they should take their statements and we should all go. So we put our heads together and talked about the autopsy. Finally, Paragon Clinics produced their pathologist, and I produced my own. My pathologist stood for my family and the police. Then the NMA produced its pathologist, and my company, the NLNG, produced its pathologist. My sister, who is a medical doctor, was an observer. So there were five people for the autopsy. My sister witnessed everything and signed off on behalf of the family.

When did they say the autopsy result will be out?

About three to four weeks. They performed the autopsy on February 22. The following day I applied to the police to release her corpse for burial. So they granted my application a week after we had about eight days or so to prepare for the burial.

Has she been buried and where?

Yes, she was buried on March 2 at a private section of the Port Harcourt Cemetery.

Are you satisfied with the police investigation of the incident so far?

Yes, I’m satisfied with what they are doing so far, you know, getting all the proper documentation from them, investigating and calling all the parties, and meeting with them. There is no foul play so far to be honest with you. I’m okay with the way it is going. If I were not impressed with the way it is going, I would have raised the alarm and even informed you to see what is happening.

It was reported by a blog that your daughter went to the hospital for liposuction and died in the process. How would you react to that?

Oh my God, it is unfortunate! A lot of people called me and reported what they read. I said well it’s an Instagram report. There will be lots of wrong narratives out there because these people probably are spreading propaganda through their machinery. So when you see something like that you report that page, you tell them, say what you know that that wasn’t what she went for. So I don’t know how we can get to the root of that issue or the people behind it and know who they are. But I learned that if one reports to Instagram there is a way Instagram will either close them or investigate or that if you inform the police, the police can find out who they are and pick them up and ask why they didn’t investigate before spreading false information and false narrative and diverting people’s attention. That is very unfortunate but that is the country we find ourselves in. There will be lots of false narratives that will be put out there just to divert peoples’ attention.

What is liposuction? How can she go for that kind of thing? The doctors are not there? Haven’t they given their statements? Their statements are with the police. Did they not say it before the police that she went there for a diagnosis hysteroscopy? So what are they talking about? Do they even do liposuction in that clinic? They don’t. So that is unfortunate and I don’t blame them because you know people should close their eyes and swap positions for a moment.

Has the hospital or the doctors reached you yet after the burial?

They have not. It is like I’m their enemy. They were looking at me with scorn that day, very arrogant people, after killing my daughter they are acting as if I can’t do anything to them. Anyway, we will see how it goes by the grace of God.

Hospital, NMA’s reactions

When our correspondent visited the Paragon Clinic and Imaging located on Ken Saro-Wiwa Road, Port Harcourt, a front desk officer, who simply gave his name as Chima, said he was aware of the incident, but that the manager was not in the office.

Asked if there was any other official who could speak on the matter, Chima asked our correspondent to channel any inquiry to the state chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association.

“Okay as regards the issue of Rebekah, currently our manager is not around. But you can channel all your inquiries to the NMA chairman, Rivers State chapter. That is it for now,” he said.

The state NMA Chairman, Dr Ebi Robinson, said the matter was under police investigation.

He stated that a coroner’s inquest was ongoing on the case and that the NMA would take the matter up from there when the result was out.

Robinson said, “The matter is under police investigation and a coroner inquest is already in progress.

“So, we are awaiting the conclusion of the coroner’s inquest and then we will take it up from there. The death of that young lady is quite regrettable.

“Our sincere condolences to the family. The NMA’s position is to make sure that the matter comes to a closure conclusively in a manner that will be acceptable to all involved and all concerned.”

A 300-level student of Federal University Gashua (FUGA) in Yobe has died after a hostel fire outbreak.

Mohammed Goje, executive secretary of the Yobe State Emergency Management Agency, confirmed the incident on Saturday.

Channels reports that the fire, which started around 1 pm, ripped through 29 rooms housing 301 students.

A 300-level student has been confirmed dead while several others who fled the hostel sustained injuries.

Students who required medical attention have been treated at the Gashua Specialist Hospital.

A video from the scene showed Maimuna Wazir, the university’s vice-chancellor, consoling students who escaped the fire.

Campus sources have attributed the incident to a cooking gas explosion.

But Abubakar Mamudo, the university registrar, said the cause of the fire is still being investigated.

In a statement, Mamudo said Maimuna Wazir, the university’s vice-chancellor, has temporarily suspended academic activities.

“A female hostel of the Federal University Gashua, Yobe State was gutted by fire on Saturday, 23rd March 2024 destroying a complete block of 29 rooms accommodating about 301 students,” the register was quoted as saying.

“A 300-hundred-level student of the Geography Department by the name of Shamsiya Murtala was confirmed dead in the inferno.

“Three other students who sustained injuries were treated and discharged from the general hospital, Gashua.

“The vice-chancellor and chairman of the senate has directed for the immediate closure of the university due to escalating students’ unrest on campus”.

This FUGA tragedy comes one month after a fire similarly ravaged a female hostel at Yobe State University in Damaturu.

Abia, Anambra, Bayelsa, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Zamfara default payment of N30,000

Many of the 36 states are in a quandary on how to cope with payment of the new minimum wage according to reports from some of the states.

Negotiation is already intensifying between the federal government and labour over the new minimum wage with investigation showing that six states

Abia, Anambra, Bayelsa, Kebbi, Nasarawa and Zamfara- are yet to implement the current minimum wage of N30,000,almost six years after its introduction.

Four other states –Ebonyi, Benue, Kogi and Osun – are only paying the minimum wage to workers on levels one to six and in the case of Osun, beneficiaries are those from level 7 and below.

Many of the states have also not done well in the payment of wage award to workers to cushion the effect of the current rise in the cost of living, according to a report prepared for the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

In the NLC report sighted by The Nation states confirmed as paying the current minimum wage are: Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Borno, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba and Yobe.

The excuse often given by the states that have not been paying the minimum wage is paucity of funds.

Although the monthly allocations to the three tiers of government have increased substantially in the aftermath of the fuel subsidy withdrawal, the defaulting states are still foot dragging on effecting payment of the minimum wage.

The situation appears even worse in respect of payment of wage award by the states.

Only Ondo and Lagos states are recorded as having paid anything close to the N30,000 per month for a half year as initiated by the federal government.

Ondo paid N35,000 and Lagos N31,000.

Some other states pay amounts ranging between N10,000 and N25,000 while some have not even paid anything yet.

States yet to pay the wage award are: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Edo, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kogi, Nasarawa, Rivers, Taraba and Zamfara.

Akwa Ibom is said to have paid palliative allowance for Christmas only while Anambra paid only N12,000 and Niger State N20,000 also in December.

Delta paid N10,000 for September, October and November.

Reports from the states said the governors were not amused by the high figures demanded by labour activists during the recent zonal public hearing on the minimum wage organized by the 37-member committee set up on the issue by the federal government.

The figures range between N447,000 and N850,000 per month.

The committee which is headed by a former Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Bukar Aji, has six governors among its members: Mohammed Bago (Niger State, representing the North Central); Bala Mohammed (Bauchi State, representing the North-East); Dikko Radda ( Katsina State, representing the North-West);Charles Soludo (Anambra State, representing the South-East); Ademola Adeleke (Osun State, representing the South-West); and Otu Bassey (Cross River State, representing the South-South).

Also on the panel are Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha; Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; Minister of Budget Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, and the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Esan.

The governors, who said unrealistic demands from Labour would not do anyone any good, urged the Minimum Wage Committee to consider the capacity of the states to pay the new minimum wage.

The committee is scheduled to meet again later this week.

Experts: How governors can cope with new minimum wage

A former Director-General at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr. Muda Yusuf, believes that the states can pay a reasonable minimum wage if they have the right policies in place.

“Well, the point is that the states are getting more revenue now and so, their capacity to pay has increased,” he told The Nation by phone yesterday.

He added: “There is no doubt about that. But the major thing I think they can do to meet up with the minimum wage obligation is to take a cue from what the federal government is doing.

“Many of them (states) have over-bloated workforce, whether at the state or local government levels. Some of them do not need more than half or two thirds of the current workforce that they are carrying.

“There are so many idle hands in the state bureaucracies. There are too many political appointments and too many people on their payrolls. So, they have to also prune down that.

“Because if you must engage people, you must give them a wage that makes sense. You don’t just engage people for the sake of engaging them. What is worth doing at all is worth doing well. “So, let them just retain the size of the workforce that they can give a wage that is a bit reasonable, especially given the realities of inflation that all of us are facing now. I think those are the things I think they should do first and foremost.

“Then of course, they should also be more creative in getting more revenue internally. Many of them are too dependent on the federal allocation. So, they need to be a lot more creative.”

On whether the state governments need to consider raising taxes in order to jack up their revenue base, Yusuf spurned the idea, but would rather they get more ingenious with the tax administration.

“Asking the states to boost their revenue profile is not about raising taxes at all. It’s about efficiency in tax administration. In many of the states, their tax administration system is so very loose. People are doing business in those places and it is their responsibility to pay tax. We are not talking about increasing the taxes regime. We are talking about efficiency, we are talking about using technology to ensure that the citizens’ taxes, especially the corporate citizens also live up to their statutory obligations to the government.“

According to him, “Some people are doing businesses across the states and some of those businesses are doing well and some of them are not paying any taxes at all. If you go to some of those states, you have some big properties that people have built there; it’s not poor people that built them there. In many of those places, many of them are not paying any form of taxes. So, the point to make is about efficiency in tax administration.”

Pascal Efe, a public affairs analyst, shares the same sentiments with Yusuf. “I agree that a new minimum wage is indeed inevitable given the current state of affairs. What the state governors can do is to ensure proper management of their resources by cutting down on many wasteful expenditures. That way they can pay the minimum wage and still be able to carry our critical infrastructure in their respective states.”

There was rumpus in Osun State weekend after Olawale Rasheed, the spokesperson of the Osun State governor, Ademola Adeleke was invited for probe by the Department of State Service (DSS), for allegedly sponsoring fake news against Femi, son of Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola.

The Nation recalled that an Abuja-based blogger published a news report, claiming that Femi was extorting directors of the Ministry of Marine. Subsequently, the blogger was arrested by operatives of DSS and she reportedly confessed that Rasheed sponsored the report.

Rasheed in a statement earlier the week denied the claim of giving any report to an online publisher on Oyetola’s son, noting that he would meet the investigators this weekend.

Meanwhile, in a recent development, the governor’s spokesman, Rasheed filed an originating summon for the enforcement of his rights before a Federal High Court, Osogbo against DSS and Femi Oyetola.

Adeleke’s spokesman in suit number FHC/OS/C5/89/2024 sought three reliefs which include: a restraining order on DSS from inviting, arresting, including or detaining him.

igeria-born activist Richard Taylor, who lost his son Damilola to murder in UK at only 10 years, is dead.

He died yesterday following a protracted illness, his family announced.

He was aged 75. Following the circumstances of Damilola’s death in November 2000, the father set up the Damilola Taylor Trust to campaign against knife crime and dedicated years to improving the lives of disadvantaged children.

He said he wanted his son to be remembered as a boy of hope and for his legacy to be a better life and opportunities for underprivileged young people.

Damilola was left bleeding to death in a stairwell in Peckham, South-east London, after he was attacked and slashed with a broken bottle on his way home from a library.

After three crown court trials, his two killers, brothers Ricky and Danny Preddie, were finally put behind bars.

Abia declines hosting party’s national convention

The Julius Abure led National Executive Committee has shifted the March 27,2024 national convention of the party from Abia State to Anambra State after an alleged cold shoulder from the party’s only state governor,Alex Otti.

Abure had earlier moved the convention from Edo to Abia.

Abure and his team are currently embroiled in a crisis of legitimacy with some stakeholders in the party.

The Lagos State chapter of the party joined the fray yesterday, asking Abure to quit.

Chairman of the party in the state, Rasheed Bamishe asked the embattled National Chairman to quit now.

Abure,he said should prioritise the party’s interest by giving way for a Caretaker National Chairman to organise state congresses ahead of the National Convention.

Speaking at the party secretariat in Lagos, Bamishe said all stakeholders owe it a duty to stop Abure from proceeding with the March 27 convention.

“The Labour Party which was formed by the founding fathers to be a beacon of hope for millions of Nigerians is gradually being destroyed by Barrister Abure and this should not be allowed to continue,” he said.

Bamishe added that Abure was free to create his political party and manage its business, but the Labour Party as a democratic organisation cannot function as a one-man show.

Read Also; NLC, LP battle for supremacy
He claimed that allegations of dishonesty, forgery, and fabrication of signatures have brought public shame and embarrassment to the Labour Party’s National Chairman.

“In a civilized clime, Barrister Abure should have exited office since the flurry of fraud cases against him became public knowledge but because of the culture of impunity in Nigeria, he is still clinging to power.

“Barrister Abure should tell the world where the National Convention of Labour Party in which he emerged as National Chairman was held.

“Barrister Abure is plotting to install himself again as the National Chairman of Labour Party through another illegal Convention and this should not be allowed to happen.”

National convention moved to Anambra

In a letter to the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the change in the venue of the convention, Abure and the LP National Secretary Labour Party, Umar Ibrahim said: “We write to kindly refer you to our letter on the above subject matter in which our National Convention rescheduled for 27th of March 2024 at the International Conference Center Umuahia, Abia State..

“We are however constrained to change the venue as a result of non-availability of the proposed venue on the scheduled date.

“We hereby inform you of the new venue for the convention as follows;

“Venue: GRAND SEASONS HOTEL NNEWI, ANAMBRA STATE.

Date: 27th of March 2024,

Time: 10 am prompt.

“We kindly request you to be present and monitor the Convention.

“Kindly accept the assurances of our esteem high regards as always.”

The Deputy National Chairman of the party, Ayo Olorunfemi, who confirmed the letter, said the change in venue was one of the issues discussed at the recent National Executive Committee meeting in Asaba, Delta State where the party ratified the programme for the convention.

He said both the NEC and state chairmen of the party endorsed the programme for the convention.

Olorunfemi said with that, the party was going ahead with the convention despite oppositions from the Nigeria Labour Congress, the House of Representatives caucus of the party and some supporters of the former Presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi.

He said: “We have changed the venue because of security reasons. We need a place that is accessible and secure. Nnewi is a stone thrown from Onitsha and it is secure. We don’t want people who will be travelling from all over the country to pass through those dangerous zones.

“We have decided on this convention and we are going ahead with it. All the state chairmen and secretaries have taken a position.”

Sources however said Abia State Governor Otti’s refusal to host the convention necessitated the shift of venue.

A ward-winning actor Lateef Adedimeji has showered his wife, Mo Bimpe with economiums on her birthday.

He said she made him the man he is today.

Lateef, in a lengthy post on his Instagram page appreciated her, noting how not everyone is fortunate to have someone like her in this chaotic world.

He noted how he was confident, and goal-driven before his wife, but she gave him an extra touch.

Questioning which of the blessings of Allah would he deny, he further appreciated her for making his life so easy and for being his number critic.

He wrote: “Rahmah, Not many individuals are as fortunate as I am to have found someone like you in this chaotic world. Thanks to you, I am the person I am today.

“I am confident, and goal-driven, I have so much confidence in myself but you have forced me to examine myself closely and develop an affection for the image of myself that I see in the mirror.

” I am goal-driven, but you gave me more purpose and determination to reach those goals; you are my God-sent. I am a lucky child and God brought me YOU RAHMAH ADEBIMPE another lucky charm. Which of the blessings of Allah will I deny?

“Thank you for making life so easy, my number one critic, my check and Balance, my joy, and my all. Happy birthday my love, long life and prosperity in good health. I love you so much, too much baby.

“Thank you for helping me grow, thank you for making me believe in the beautiful things of life, and thank you for being who you are. Happy birthday my love. Here’s to many more years of happiness together. To forever with you my Queen”.

In a harrowing act of violence, Crocus City Hall, a renowned concert venue on the outskirts of Moscow, became the scene of a brutal terrorist attack.

The incident occurred just as the popular rock band “Picnic” was preparing to perform to a sold-out crowd.

According to Russia’s prosecutor general, at least four individuals clad in camouflage stormed the venue, unleashing chaos and fear.

The aftermath is grim. More than 60 lives have been claimed, with over 100 individuals sustaining injuries.

The terror group ISIS has purportedly taken responsibility for the attack through its affiliated news agency Amaq on Telegram, yet no evidence has been provided to substantiate this claim.

As flames engulfed the concert hall, emergency responders sprang into action, evacuating approximately 100 people from the basement and initiating rescue operations for those trapped on the roof.

The Russian Investigative Committee is treating the incident as a terrorist act and has confirmed that the death toll has risen to at least 133, with the possibility of further casualties as the search through the rubble continues.

In response to this atrocity, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the nation, condemning the attack as a “barbaric act of terrorism” and expressing his determination to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Amidst the turmoil, President Putin has also levelled accusations against Ukraine, suggesting the neighbouring country had plans to aid the suspects’ escape, a claim that Kyiv has vehemently denied.

The swift action of Russian authorities led to the arrest of 11 individuals, including the four gunmen believed to be responsible for the attack.

The head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) reported these developments directly to President Putin.

This tragedy has not only shaken Russia but has also caught the attention of the international community.

U.S. officials, having previously gathered intelligence on potential ISIS activities in Russia, had issued warnings against attending large gatherings.

Nollywood actress Uche Ogbodo has shed light on what she described as harsh realities lurking within the Nigerian entertainment sphere.

Speaking out against the prevalent toxicity, Ogbodo described the industry as a breeding ground for envy, wickedness, and deceit.

Sharing her thoughts on her Instagram page, Ogbodo lamented the lack of genuine love and camaraderie among industry insiders, asserting that instead of celebrating each other’s successes, individuals are consumed by jealousy and a relentless pursuit of personal gain.

Ogbodo’s assertions underscored a longstanding issue within the industry.

According to her, indeed, the entertainment realm has perpetually been a crucible of contention, with celebrities rarely displaying genuine love or support for one another.

“The Nigerian entertainment industry is so dark,” Ogbodo emphasized, “People there are wicked, vile, and envious. They won’t rejoice with those who are rejoicing because they want to be in that person’s place.”

She urged stakeholders to address the underlying issues plaguing the Nigerian entertainment landscape and foster a culture of support and solidarity.