The General Overseer of Christ Embassy Church, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, has spoken out about the fire outbreak that gutted the church’s building in Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos.

Recall that the Loveworld Convocation Arena (LCA), formerly the headquarters of Christ Embassy Church, was gutted by fire on Sunday morning.

In a message to his congregation, Pastor Chris, President of the Loveworld Nation disclosed at the ongoing International Cell Leaders Conference (ICLC) Sunday Service at the Church Camp Grounds in Asese, along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, that the building is one of the best worship facilities.

“That’s the best worship facility, frankly, in this part of the world. It’s worth multiple millions of dollars,” he said.

Pastor Chris called on the Secretary General of Loveworld, Kay Adesina, to share his eyewitness account of the incident.

Adesina said: “It’s really, really messed up. We were not able to enter, but we could see from outside. I took some of the pictures. The whole of the interior was coated in fire. And everywhere inside actually collapsed, including the offices.”

He also noted that the fire services tried to put out the fire from outside, as they couldn’t enter the building.

“The fire services that were there, they saw that they couldn’t go in. So they tried to put out the fire from outside. But all, including the external wall, you see, all the walls are compromised.

“But the only reason why the whole structure is not compromised is because they are steel structures. Otherwise, you would think that the whole building would collapse. So it’s really in a bad state,” the Secretary said.

Pastor Chris however emphasized that the church is not defeated and will build an even more beautiful structure.

“We will build a beautiful one, let the devil licks his wounds. We must look at life from the spiritual.

“It is painful to watch such a thing happen. The place is filled with fire and smoke, they can’t even go inside.

“When a thing like that happens, you can say, oh Lord, why? You say, Lord, Thank you for your Grace from those very grounds,” he said.

The general overseer also referenced a past experience where the church faced a similar challenge, the Ikebukuro attack, and how they overcame it.

“I’ll never forget, when the supposed bombings took place at the Ikebukuro attack, they thought it was war.

“There were explosions at Ikebukuro, atomic. The sounds were so loud, the explosions were so loud. Many thought there was war. And they began to flee from all that area,” he recounted.

When asked if he was surprised by the fire outbreak, Pastor Chris said, “Not, not even the slightest surprise, not even the slightest surprise. But that’s another day’s talk.

“When something like this happens, we have to remember that we are not of this world.

“What do I mean by that? Every single day, God protects us. He protects us, He protects everything that He gives us, with His glory and His grace, every single day. He protects us.”

The cause of the fire remains unknown, but officials from the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service are currently investigating the incident. Despite the physical damage, Pastor Chris and the Christ Embassy Church are determined to rebuild and continue their mission.

Ways and means advances by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari amounted to N7.5 trillion as at December 2022, according to official documents seen by TheCable.

This is significantly lower than the N30 trillion reported by the senate joint committee on banking, finance, national planning, agriculture and appropriation which led to the setting up of a probe panel headed by Isah Jibrin (Kogi east).

Ways and means is a loan facility through which the CBN finances the federal government’s budget shortfalls.

The CBN law limits advances under ways and means to 5 percent of the previous year’s revenue, but this has been observed mostly in the breach over the years.

This way of financing government deficits usually results in macroeconomic instability, leading to inflation and high exchange rates because of the excess liquidity injected into the economy.

THE BREAKDOWN

Documents seen by TheCable show that as at December 19, 2022, the total outstanding overdraft to the federal government in its “treasury subtreasury account” at the CBN was N22,719,703,774,306.90.

This was made up of N7,531,819,048,929.66 as ways and means, N13,725,408,432,557.50 as total costs of transactions on federal government securities in the capital market, and N4,618,829,652,047.41 as interest charges on the overdraft facility.

The loans were not reflected as part of the debt stock of the federal government until December 2022 when the Buhari administration officially requested the national assembly to do so.

TheCable understands that there were only three requests for ways and means by Buhari throughout his tenure, even though the facility was disbursed more than thrice — some automated because of the sovereign risk on securities.

The biggest amount — nearly N2 trillion — was disbursed in 2020 during the COVID-19 outbreak when government revenues fell as a result of the lockdown. The federal government got loans from the CBN for intervention programmes during the pandemic.

The next biggest amount was in 2022 when N1,473,618,756,185.62 was advanced to the federal government. It was the same year Russia invaded Ukraine, leading to a spike in food prices globally.

In 2019 — the year Buhari was elected for a second term in office — N1.4 trillion was provided to the federal government via ways and means.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of the overdraft was the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET), which got N1.3 trillion under the “payment assurance facility” to keep the Nigerian electricity supply industry (NESI) “liquid”.

Two private power generation companies — Azura Power West Africa and Accugas Limited — got steady payments from the federal government under the controversial “take or pay” arrangement.

Azura gets $30 million monthly while Accugas receives $10 million, also monthly.

Nigeria’s credit rating is at risk if there is a failure to meet up with the payment obligations to Azura and Accugas in two of the most curious cases of sovereign guarantee hanging on the nation’s neck.

The Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) also got huge funds from the overdraft.

SENATE PROBE IN LIMBO

Olayemi Cardoso, who succeeded Emefiele as CBN governor, said in February 2024, that the bank would no longer grant ways and means advances to the government “until all outstanding debts are refunded”.

This was after the senate approved the securitisation of an outstanding debit balance of N7.3 trillion ways and means in the first six months of the Bola Tinubu administration.

On March 11, 2024, Senate President Godswill Akpabio inaugurated a 17-member ad hoc committee of the red chamber to probe the “N30 trillion Ways and Means” secured under Buhari and report in “six weeks”.

The deadline is now past by nine weeks and the panel is yet to submit its report.

TheCable has contacted Jibrin for an update on the probe but he is yet to respond.

At its inauguration, Akpabio charged the committee to be confidential and “keep investigations away from the prying eyes of journalists”.

A collaborative effort involving the Nigerian Embassy in Dakar and a Senegalese NGO has led to the rescue of 24 Nigerian girls from s*xual exploitation in the Tamaccounda and Kedougou regions of Senegal.

The collaborative effort successfully freed the girls from their exploitative situation.

The acting Ambassador of the Nigerian Embassy in Dakar, Salihu Abubakar, revealed the details to the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday.

According to him, the victims, mostly girls and women aged between 11 and 24, but predominantly underage girls, were trafficked to Senegal through Cotonou, Benin Republic, via the Mali-Senegal border for s*xual exploitation.

"These girls and many more are being trafficked to Senegal through Cotonou, Benin Republic via Mali to the Senegal border for prostitution," Abubakar explained.

Preliminary investigations indicate that the majority of the girls and women were school dropouts from Edo and Delta states, with a few others from Imo, Abia, and two from Plateau. Abubakar confirmed that out of the 24 girls and women, 22 had been repatriated weeks earlier, while the remaining two returned safely to Nigeria on Saturday.

The health status of the victims and details regarding the duration of their exploitation remain undisclosed. However, the diplomat emphasised that the successful repatriation highlights the strong international cooperation between the embassy and the NGO, "Free the Slaves" (La Lumiere in French), in combating human trafficking.

"Our main goal and number one priority is to discourage the trafficking of our Nigerian girls to any part of the world for prostitution under any guise," Abubakar said.

A student of the Air Force Comprehensive School, Kaduna, Blaise Felix Aliyu, has died.

The student was punished to death by two of his senior colleagues.

Aliyu, an orphan, who lost his parents in 2013, is said to be survived by his twin brother, who is also a student at the military boarding school, located in Mando, Kaduna.

Two SS3 students reportedly summoned the 15-year-old to their room under the pretext of punishing him but ended up killing him.

The deceased body has been deposited in the mortuary.

Reacting to the development, Air Vice Marshal Edward Gabkwet, spokesperson for the Nigerian Airforce (NAF), expressed the institution’s sorrow.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Gabkwet said an investigation to unravel the circumstances surrounding the incident is ongoing.

“The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, and indeed the entire NAF family are saddened by the painful and unfortunate incident of the untimely death of one of our students at Air Force Secondary School, Kaduna, on June 19, 2024.”

“To avoid all sorts of speculations, a thorough investigation is currently ongoing to unravel how, why, and what actually led to the death of the victim. Rest assured that this matter is receiving the utmost urgency it deserves, and we won’t rest until it is unravelled,” the statement said.

An inferno has engulfed the headquarters of Christ Embassy Church located in Oregun area of Ikeja, Lagos State.

An eye witness confirmed this to Channels Television. Multiple videos on X have also shown the massive edifice being destroyed by fire.

The fire which broke out early hours of Sunday caused a significant damage to the church property, sending shock waves throughout the immediate community and beyond.

Officials of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service are also said to have arrived at the scene to try and put out the fire.

The area has been cordoned-off  by the police to prevent a breakdown of law and order.

The church is headed by influential pastor, Chris Oyakhilome.

Stanley Okorie, the veteran Nollywood soundtrack composer and singer, has disclosed the reasons behind the failures of his first two marriages.

According to Okorie, his first wife divorced him because she found his songs “stupid.” He also admitted to being an “insensitive” husband.

The soundtrack composer shared his candid reflections during a chat with popular media personality Chude Jideonwo.

He said, “My first divorce was the most painful. You know, the first cut is always the deepest. I have my own share of blame. Most people, when they talk about their problems in a marriage or a relationship, are quick to highlight the other person’s faults. I’m not saying I was entirely at fault, but I was a very insensitive husband. I blame myself for that one.

“I wasn’t a caring husband. Sometimes, if my wife did her hair, I’d say, ‘I’m going to the studio, come ooo.’ No, that’s not nice. I wouldn’t remember her birthday because there was a time I was doing all the job [Nollywood soundtracks], and people would call me from London, pay for my ticket, and I would go and do the music. I thought providing for the family was enough. But sometimes, the first rule of love is presence. You can give all the money, but the first rule of love is presence.

“My first wife wasn’t after money. Sometimes, when I gave her money, I’d return to find the money on the table. I was very busy with music, going from studio to studio. So when I look back, I see that’s the cost. Everything comes at a cost. Economists call it opportunity cost. In my first marriage, I was very, very insensitive. If I had been more mature—of course, I married very young—I wondered why she wasn’t seeing all the work I was doing. I failed on that score.

“The first day she looked at me and said, ‘I can’t take this anymore,’ I knew she was telling the truth, so I didn’t want to argue. Instead of going to beg her, I was singing stupid songs to console myself.

“After that, I went through a second divorce. At some point, my wife died. My son died. Some of the songs I sing were my escape from my sad reality, and they helped me deal with it to some level. But I tell you, there’s no method of dealing with a problem better than confronting the problem. So music wasn’t fair to me on that score. I was using it as an escape instead of confronting my problems. Some things that delight you today will, at some point, hurt. So that’s how it’s been a blessing and a curse. But I’m happy now where I am. I’m happily married with kids, doing well, and still recording music.”

A Nigerian man who lost both arms in an accident while working, has tied the knot with his woman. 

Samuel Odugbesan who worked as an electrical staff member in his previous employment, lost both arms in a work accident two years ago.  

On Friday, June 21, Samuel and his woman exchanged vows at the Ikoyi registry in a ceremony that was attended by their family and friends.

Congrats to them!

Nigerian actress, Laide Bakare has lashed out at the Nigerian police for driving her car away with her minor daughter in it.

Taking to her Instagram page, her daughter, Simi revealed that they were going to a party when they were stopped by the police for no reasons and the officer drove the car away with her in it.

Joining her, Laide stated that her daughter was left terrified over the incident as she questioned which sane man would drive someone’s car with their minor kids in it.

Describing the encounter as a terrible experience, she revealed that the incident took place towards Ikorodu expressway and noted how for the first time, she experienced the brutal way Nigerians are being treated along that axis.

Laide Bakare who debunked being remarried asserted that a lot of things are happening in the country which needs to be addressed. She said:

“Yesterday, it was terrible experiencing the brutal way Nigerians are been treated towards Ikorodu expressway.

No agency will ever drive a 14-years-old girl. My daughter was confused about where she was being taken to. A lot of things are happening in this country that needs to be attended to. I can’t imagine how someone with a brain and sanity will enter someone’s car and drive it away with a minor in it”.

In another post, Laide noted how the police officials only target big cars and vulnerable people to exploit and rob. She further revealed that the police officials wanted her ATM card to rob her of N70,000. Laide Bakare wrote:

“They Targeted Big cars and any vulnerable people to exploit and rob, this is my lane all through following the flow of Traffic in the heavy rain, these set of people are Evil More to come.

She was Terrified! Just because they needed our ATM card to take out 70,000 Naira. The guy entered my car and zoomed off with this little girl . Still feels like a movie”

See Laide Bakare’s posts below:

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has established a dedicated task force to address issues of touting and extortion at the country’s airports. 

Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku, Managing Director of FAAN, announced that Mr. Henry Agbebire, the Director of Special Duties at FAAN, has been appointed as the chairman of this task force. 

In a press briefing in Lagos, Kuku expressed deep concern over the persistent harassment and extortion faced by passengers at airports. She declared her intention to personally engage with all government agencies operating at the airports to ensure compliance with anti-touting and anti-extortion measures. 

Emphasizing that the era of business as usual is over, Kuku highlighted the administration’s zero-tolerance policy towards misconduct and warned that strict disciplinary actions would be taken against anyone found engaging in illicit practices.

She also announced plans to establish magistrate courts at international airports to expedite the legal process for prosecuting offenders. The task force is mandated to enforce discipline among airport staff and maintain a culture of professionalism.

Kuku added, “Dedicated phone lines and QR codes will be set up to provide passengers with a means of giving feedback on their airport experience. All airport personnel must prominently display their on-duty cards and name tags for easy identification and accountability. FAAN is committed to delivering exceptional service and ensuring a safe and secure environment for all passengers and airport users.”

Famed Nigerian actor Kanayo O Kanayo recently made a noteworthy appearance on Nedu Wazobia’s popular podcast, “The Honest Bunch.”

In his revealing interview, the veteran actor candidly discussed the obscured aspects of Nollywood, highlighting secretive practices that have significantly impeded the industry’s advancement.

During his engaging chat with Nedu and his team, Kanayo O Kanayo also reflected on his enduring aspirations in acting and his desire for a long-lasting career.

The veteran actor bravely addressed the prevalent issue of homosexuality within the movie industry, shedding light on its prominence.

Kanayo candidly expressed concerns about the influx of inexperienced young women in Nollywood who have gained entry through dubious means. He lamented the prevalence of individuals who lack acting talent but have secured roles through questionable practices like “sex-for-role.”

The Thespian passionately emphasized that acting is a craft requiring innate talent that can be honed but not easily acquired through shortcuts or manipulation.

He also disclosed his ambition to continue acting well into his 90s or beyond.

This coming hours after Kanayo O. Kanayo publicly accused teenage actress Angel Unigwe and her mother, manager Juliet Unigwe, of violating a contractual agreement.

According to the filmmaker, Angel Unigwe prematurely left a filming contract with his production company due to her mother’s intervention.

Kanayo O Kanayo urged Nollywood producers to avoid working with the young actress and even threatened to disrupt any shoots involving her in the future.

WATCH HIM SPEAK BELOW