The United Arab Emirates Government has announced a 40-day state mourning over the death of the country’s President, Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on Friday.
The official news agency of the United Arab Emirates tweeted on Friday that he passed on at the age of 73.
“The Ministry of Presidential Affairs mourn the people of the UAE, the Arab and Islamic nations, and the whole world. The leader of the nation and the patron of its march, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State, passed away to the Lord’s side today, Friday, May 13.
“The Ministry of Presidential Affairs also announced that the UAE will observe a forty-day state mourning with the flag flown at half-mast starting today, and suspend work at all ministries, departments, and federal, local and private entities for three days,” the agency tweeted.
Prior to his death, Al Nahyan served as the Emir of Abu Dhabi and led the territory’s modernization.
Elon Musk has announced that he will be putting his $44 billion dollar Twitter acquisition deal on hold.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Musk said he took the decision pending when he’s able to confirm Twitter’s claim that spam and fake accounts indeed represent less than 5% of total users of the microblogging platform.
“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” he tweeted.
Following the pause, Twitter shares fell by 17.7% to $37.10 in premarket trading, reports Reuters.
This is the lowest price the shares have fallen to since Musk announced that he had purchased a large stake in the company back in April.
This means that the likelihood that the deal will close at the agreed price of $54.20 per share may fall below 50%.
It was reported that Twitter had earlier estimated that fake or spam accounts on the platform represented less than 5% of its monetizable daily active users during the first quarter of 2022, when it recorded 229 million users.
The Tesla CEO has earlier pledged to remove “spam bots” and authenticate all humans on Twitter.
Earlier this week, Musk had revealed that when the deal closes, he would reverse Donald Trump’s Twitter ban, calling the decision to ban him in the first place “a morally bad decision”.
“I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump. I think that was a mistake. It alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.
“It was a morally bad decision, to be clear, and foolish in the extreme”, he said.
Trump’s account was ‘permanently suspended’ from the microblogging app since January 2021, after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the United States’ Capitol building on January 6th, due to the ‘risk of inciting further violence’.
THE WHISTLER reported that Twitter agreed to Musk’s offer to acquire the company for $44 billion last month. Musk was excited about the development, saying that he wanted to make Twitter better than ever before by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spambots, and authenticating all humans.
The recent and unending crisis that has rocked the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF, has prompted the President of Nigeria to approve the withdrawal of the country’s basketball team in all international competitions for two years.
Mr Sunday Dare, the Minister of youth and sports, disclosed Buhari’s decision.
This withdrawal gives the Government a big opportunity to address the internal crisis and power tussle within the federation and to revive the domestic league which has been put on hold.
The government will also use this time to set up an Interim Management Committee who will supervise and manage the domestic league and address other internal issues involving the Basketball Federation.
The Presidency has said ministers and political appointees who are seeking elective office but refused to resign would be sacked.
Naija News reports that Presidential Spokesman, Garba Shehu, made this known in an interview on Channels Television on Thursday.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed members of his cabinet and other government appointees nursing political ambitions to resign before May 16.
According to Shehu, any political appointee who has political ambition but continues to stay in office “would have someone decide for him or her”.
The presidential spokesman noted that the presidential directive is clear and straightforward, stressing that the appointees have to obey the order.
He added that the circular of the government to the effect was issued by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and duly approved by the President.
“We are dealing with a government policy, a government directive, a circular of the government issued by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation duly approved by the President [which] clearly states who is to go.
“So, I think that in a few occupied offices like that, you make the decision by yourself otherwise, someone would decide for you. So, that’s the point,” he said.
Speaking further, Shehu said the furore about the cost of the presidential nomination and expression of interest forms for the All Progressives Congress (APC) was unnecessary.
The presidential aide stated that aspirants can source money by various means such as donations from their supporters, associates and well wishers.
Shehu, however, said it is not the place of the presidency to direct the various anti-corruption agencies in the country to investigate the sources of funding of the aspirants.
He also suggested that the APC should not refund monies used in the purchase of the forms even if an aspirant makes a U-turn in their pursuit.
A yet-to-be-identified female student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto was on Thursday beaten and burnt to death for alleged blasphemy.
The school has announced its shutdown over the crisis.
The treatment of those deemed to have insulted the prophet of Islam (Muhammad), or the religion itself in Nigeria’s northern region is a source of concern.
In 2020, a Shariah court in that axis condemned Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a 22-year-old Muslim gospel musician, to death for committing blasphemy in a series of private WhatsApp messages. The same court found a 16-year-old boy, Umar Farouk, guilty of blasphemy for reportedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad while arguing with a friend and sentenced him to 10 years in prison with manual labour.
Farouk’s sentence has been overturned, and Sharif-Aminu’s case has been sent for retrial. But these sentences critics consider harsh, are only examples of the problematic application of Shariah law in some states in northern Nigeria.
More worrisome is the latest mob action against the tertiary institution student.
A gateman with Mabila Hotel in Ikorodu, Lagos State, was killed in the early hours on Wednesday by some unknown gunmen and robbed some officials of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) that lodged there.
The Police spokesman for Lagos Command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He said that the JAMB officials had been relocated to a safe place.
The PPRO said, “One Prof. Odunsi, an official of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) who lodged at the hotel was robbed of his two phones, one HP Laptop and N20,000 cash.
“Similarly, two female officials of JAMB, who lodged at the hotel, were robbed of their phones and jewellery,” he said.
The spokesman said that the hoodlums shot the hotel’s gateman, simply identified as Peter, 40, who attempted to prevent them from escaping.
He explained that the gateman was rushed to an undisclosed hospital where he later died, adding that the corpse had been deposited at the Ikorodu General Hospital mortuary.
Hundeyin said that the police got a distress call at about 2.40 a.m. on Wednesday that some hoodlums had invaded the hotel located at No. 60, Omodisu St., Asolo-Owutu, Agric area in Ikorodu.
He said that based on the call, the police from Owutu Division went to the place immediately, adding that when the hoodlums sighted the police van coming, they all fled in a Lexus SUV.
“The Commissioner of Police for Lagos State, CP Abiodun Alabi, has assured that no stone will be left unturned. He has ordered a serious manhunt for the suspects,” he said.
An Al Jazeera journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, was killed at her point of duty covering Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank.
The news network confirmed the incidence to AFP, describing the shooting of the Palestinian-American journalist as a deliberate act by Israeli forces.
A colleague of the deceased, Ali Samoudi, who also spoke to the French news agency said “We were going to film the Israeli army operation and suddenly they shot us without asking us to leave or stop filming.
“The first bullet hit me and the second bullet hit Shireen… there was no Palestinian military resistance at all at the scene,” Samoudi said.
The news network has called on the international community to “condemn and hold the Israeli occupation forces accountable for deliberately targeting and killing our colleague,” suggesting they may “try to cover up their crime.”
The fatal shooting comes nearly a year after an Israeli air strike destroyed a Gaza building that housed the offices of Al Jazeera and news agency AP.
Responding to the murder allegations, Israeli authorities claimed Palestinian gunmen had opened fire at the time Akleh was struck, adding that it is investigating the possibility that she was shot by Palestine gunmen.
At least seven personnel of the Nigerian Army reportedly died in the late-night bomb explosion that rocked Jalingo, Taraba State capital on Tuesday, May 11.
Naija News had reported earlier that citizens of Taraba State were thrown into fear on Tuesday night after a loud sound suspected to be a bomb explosion was heard in Jalingo.
The explosion is said to have occurred a few metres away from the military base located in the Jalingo metropolis.
A source had told Daily Post that the explosive was thrown into the military base by a passerby.
An updated report on Saharareporters, however, revealed that seven soldiers died in the attack.
The report had it that gunmen suspected to be terrorists launched an ambush on the convoy of the commanding officer of the 93 Army Battalion in Takum.
The media organisation quoted military sources as saying that the Brigadier General was on his way to Jalingo on Tuesday when the incident happened.
One of the sources said the “whereabouts of the senior military officer and his orderly are unknown hours after the attack”.
“Brigadier General was in the convoy”, said another source who was unsure of the situation.
He, however, confirmed that his official vehicle was among those attacked.
The latest attack on the Nigerian Army men came barely two weeks after some fighters of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram in Borno State were neutralized by troops of the Nigerian Army (Operation Desert Sanity).
The Nigerian Army had disclosed that it killed the Amir (commander) and spiritual head of Galta, close to Mandara Mountain in the South of Borno.
The spiritual head of the terrorist group was killed during an operation around Manjo Ali Qere in the state.
The army in a post on its Twitter account in April noted that arms and ammunition were recovered during the operation.
A prominent spiritual leader, Guru Maharaj Ji, has alleged that the late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, who recently joined his ancestors, was poisoned.
Guru Maharaj Ji in an interview with BBC News Yoruba, published on Tuesday, however did not mention those behind the alleged poisoning.
The spiritual leader said that he is deeply pained by the monarch’s demise adding that Oba Lamidi must be resurrected.
Recall Alaafin died at the age of 83 on the 22nd of April 2022 at the Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti in Ekiti State. His reign of 51 years is the longest reign of any Alaafin of Oyo in modern recorded history.
Lamidi Adeyemi succeeded Alaafin Gbadegesin Ladigbolu II in 1970, during the governorship of Colonel Robert Adeyinka Adebayo, after the end of the Nigerian Civil War.
The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has again fixed 12,13 October for arraignment and trial of former Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah and eighth others following its dissatisfaction with a second letter from the chambers of the Attorney General of the Federation.
Oduah, Gloria Odita, Nwobu Emmanuel Nnamdi, Chukuma Irene Chinyere, Global Offshore and Marine Limited; Crystal Television Limited, Sobora International Limited and China Civil Engineering Construction Company Limited (CCECC) were on 16 December, 2020, sued by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on a 25 count charge bordering on fraud and financial misappropriation to the tune of N5b.
On November 22, 2021, when the defendants were to be arraigned, one of their lawyers, James Onoja, had raised an objection in open court contending that the EFCC refused to return the case file to the AGF (for review of the case) as requested.
Trial judge Inyang Ekwo had declined taking their plea then because of the AGF’s letter.
At the resumed sitting on Tuesday , EFCC’s counsel, Hassan Liman informed the court that the AGF had acknowledged receiving the case file and in a letter dated May 6 ,2022 , directed that the case continues.
“My lord, the charge in this matter was filed on the 16 December 2020, since, then the plea of the defendant has not been taken.
“On the last adjourned date, on February 2021, this court, upon my undertaking, I confirm that I will bring a response from AGF.
All the defense counsels said they didn’t have the letter from the AGF.
Meanwhile, Justice Inyang Ekwo read from the letter where the AGF stated that he was considering the appeal made to him, but that ” trial can proceed. “
Ekwo said he was not satisfied with the AGF’s response and that he should either write that parties should stop or proceed with the case.
However, Liman insisted that the EFCC does not need an approval from the AGF to go ahead with prosecuting a matter.
He said that plea should be taken first before any objection
“I submit with the greatest respect, with or without the letter of the AGF, the charge was filed by the EFCC,” he said.
But Justice Ekwo adjourned and directed the EFCC to get a definite response from the AGF.
“I am going to give you a date for trial, in which there is definite response from the chambers of the AGF.
“I am not satisfied with the second paragraph.
“I am adjourning this matter to October 12,13 for plea and trial,” the judge said.
Oduah, a Senator representing Anambra North Senatorial District had on August 26, 2021 defected from the People’s Democratic party to the All Progressive Congress.
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