U.S. Mission Country Consular  Advisor , Susan Tuller on Friday revealed that the Embassy in Abuja and Consulate General in Lagos will make every effort to assist student visa applicants in a timely fashion while keeping personnel and customers safe.  “As we continue to prioritize the health and safety of our staff and customers, processing student visas remains a high priority for the U.S. Mission in Nigeria. “We will increase the number of student visa appointments in May and June to ensure that we can offer appointments to as many students as possible. If your U.S. studies are scheduled to begin this Fall, we encourage you to schedule your appointment as quickly as possible.” The consular coordinator explained that all student visa appointments must be booked through the  specified US travel website . She also cautioned applicants against the use of third-party services, including touts, and fixers who broker visa appointments. “Both Nigeria and the United ...

    India has now recorded 18.38million infections, over  360,000  cases in 24 hours,  about 201,180 people have now died, this week there have  been 3,293 fatalities according to health ministry data. Hospitals are running out of oxygen and beds, and many  patients  are being turned away. In the capital of New Delhi, carparks have been converted to crematoriums  to combust the dead  bodies .  Details coming soon.

Three police officers working in Ogun state police command were unceremoniously kicked out of the service after they were caught extorting Onehundred and fifty-three thousand Naira from one Sheriff Adedigba.   A statement from the police command's spokesperson, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, says the three policemen namely Inspector Sunday John, Sgt Jimoh Asimiya, and Sgt Solomon Adedapo, were alleged to have forcefully extorted the said amount from the victim while he was traveling from Abeokuta to Lagos.    Oyeyemi said having heard about the incident on social media, the state's commissioner of police, Edward Awolowo Ajogun, ordered the immediate arrest and detention of the officers involved in the dastardly act. The three policemen were quickly identified and apprehended.  He said the money was recovered from them and returned to the victim.  “The money was recovered from them and returned to the victim. They were subsequently arraigned for depart...

  Mohammed Yerima, army spokesman, in a declaration on Tuesday, said such distribution of soldiers’ photos on social media is unkind and  disrespectful. T he  army   b lustered  to take legal action to protect troops who   have died in the  line of  duty. “The Nigerian Army condemns in the strongest term possible, the indiscriminate sharing on social media of graphic pictures of personnel who paid the supreme price in the cause of defending and protecting the country from its adversaries,” Yerima said. “This act is not only unpatriotic but very insensitive and utterly reprehensible. Officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army deployed to various theatres of internal security operations are on legitimate duties and are in the harm’s way to defend and protect the country from those who are intent on destroying it. “In the course of carrying out this constitutional mandate, troops put their lives on the line to ensure that innocent citizens and i...

The Nigerian Air Force on Monday said it was investigating report that it killed 20 Army personnel by explosive in an air strike at Mainok, Borno State. It was reported  that an Air Force fighter jet on a mission against Boko Haram  fundamentalists   accidentally attacked  men of the Nigerian Army, killing over 20 officers. The troops were said to have been reinforced from Ngandu village to Mainok, which was under attack by militants from the Islamic State-backed faction of Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Reacting, NAF in a tweet on Monday said the general public will be duly updated after it concludes its investigation on the incident. It, however, urged Nigerians to forward their enquirers to info@airforce.mil.ng. “The attention of the @NigAirForce has been drawn to reports alleging “How NAF Killed over 20 Nigerian Army Personnel by Accident in Air Strike,” at Mainok which is about 55klm to Maiduguri. ”The NAF wishes to state that visual...

#EndSARS The Lagos State Judicial Panel on Restitution of Victims for  The Special Anti-Robbery Squad ( SARS )   and other related matters continued  its session on Saturday. During the sitting, a trader, Mrs Gift Effiong, told the panel that she has been looking for her husband since he left home during the #EndSARS protests in 2020. The witness narrated how she went from one police station to another searching for her husband, she also went  to prisons, hospitals and  mortuaries,  but all  efforts  proved abortive The mother of six pleaded with the panel to help her find her husband. Also family members and relatives of late Paul Lucky are still looking for the missing body, a former driver and security officer at Jakande Estate, in the Ilasan/Ajah area. On October 20, Mr Lucky reportedly had an altercation with a police officer, Sgt John Dagbo of the Ilasan police station, who allegedly shot him and took his body away. A witness, Mr Olanre...

Popular Nollywood  actor, Olarenwaju James Omiyinka, aka Baba Ijesha, has been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command.   The 48-year-old actor was detained for allegedly molesting a 14-year-old girl over the course of 7 years.   The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, disclosed this in a statement titled, "Lagos police arrest, investigate popular Nollywood actor for defilement". The statement reads: "The Lagos State Police Command has arrested one Olarenwaju James ‘male’ 48, aka Baba Ijesha, popular Nollywood actor for defiling a minor.   "The case of defilement was reported on 19th April, 2021 by one Princess Adekola Adekanya ‘female’ at Sabo Police Station and transferred to the Gender Unit of the State CID, Panti, Yaba Lagos for proper investigation.   "Based on preliminary findings, the suspect started sexually assaulting the victim, 14 years, since she was seven years old.   "The suspect confessed to the crime and was a...

  Two men were killed after a Tesla car crashed into a tree and caught fire in Spring  Texas, and police claims there was nobody present in the driver's seat at the time of the accident. Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman said “no one was driving” the electric vehicle when it crashed. One man was in the front passenger seat and the other man was seated in a back seat,  KPRC reported .  Officials said they had to use 32,000 gallons of water to put out the fire because the car’s batteries kept reigniting, KPRC reported. At one point deputies had to call Tesla to find out how to put out the flames. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating 23 crashes involving the technology. It is unclear whether Tesla's Autopilot feature was in use.

  Barely two weeks after a Madrid, Spain-bound trafficker, Okonkwo Chimezie Henry, excreted 113 wraps of Cocaine after his arrest at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, two others nabbed by the operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, at the Lagos airport have excreted a total of 191 pellets of heroin and cocaine while under observation. On 10th April 2021, during the outward screening of passengers on Ethiopian airline to Italy, NDLEA operatives at MMIA intercepted and referred one Chukwudi Destiny for scanning and the scan result proved positive to drug ingestion. Consequently, he was placed under excretion observation and in the process; he excreted 92 pellets of Heroin with a total weight of 1.300Kg. Also on 12th April 2021, during the inbound examination of consignments on Ethiopian airline cargo flight from South Africa, operatives at SAHCO import shed made a seizure of 11.550kg of Heroin cleverly packed and concealed in corn flakes cartons...

                      Image Courtesy  -Sokoto Tracker, August 10 2016. Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor  Yemi Osinbajo   has denied having a Christianisation agenda and only appointing Christians into sensitive positions. A widely circulated article written by “Dr Musbau Akinbode” titled “Osinbajo’s Stealth Christianization Agenda” had accused Osinbajo of advancing a dangerous religious agenda by  appointing mostly Christians into government. Osinbajo denied the allegations through his Senior special assistant to the president on legal, research and compliance matters, Balkisu Saidu. Balkisu Saidu describes the article by Dr. Akinbode as “mischievous”, according to reports. She listed the Muslims who are working closely with the vice-president and also disclosed that he supports them in their right to religious freedom without hindrance. FULL TEXT OF BALKISU SAIDU’S REJOINDER Before the permeation of soci...

                                     Ekwegbalu James Nzube                                              Unachukwu Chiluba Paulinus The People’s Court of the southwestern province of Tay Ninh, Vietnam, has sentenced a 25-year-old Nigerian Unachukwu Chiluba Paulinus to death for illegally transporting narcotic substances into the country from Cambodia. The judgment delivered on Tuesday, April 13, was based on Article 250 of the 2015 Penal Code of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Paulinus was arrested on February 19, 2020, in the Ta Pheng area of Thuan Tay hamlet in Loi Thuan commune, Ben Cau district, while transporting nearly three kilogrammes of methamphetamine. He confessed that he arrived in Cambodia in 2019, where he met an African man called Oscar who hired him to trans...

  The former Brooklyn Center police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in  Minnesota  has been arrested but  was released on $100,000  bail. She is due to make her first court appearance on Thursday. Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center Police Department, was taken into custody about 11:30 a.m. at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in St. Paul, officials said on Wednesday, April 14. She was charged with second-degree manslaughter in connection with Wright's death and is being held without bail, Washington County Attorney Pete Orput announced. Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, died of a gunshot wound to the chest, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office, which classified the manner of death as a homicide. He was shot and killed during a traffic stop just before 2 p.m. on  Sunday in Brooklyn Center, after officer Potter said she mistook her taser for a gun and fired at him. He died about 10 miles fr...

  The Personal Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, has dismissed reports that the United States government and the FBI has placed Nigeria’s Minister of Com­munications, Isa Pantami, on its terror watch-list. The news on social media was circulated on Sunday that Pantami had been placed on the list over presumed connection with a former Boko Haram Leader. The report claimed that the minister was said to be a close confidant of the late Mohammed Yusuf, the late leader of Boko Haram. It also claimed that Pantami had ties with Abu Quata­da al Falasimi and other Al-Qaeda leaders whom he revered and spoke highly of. Meanwhile, in a tweet on Monday, Bashir described the report as ‘fake news.’ He stated that the Minister has never been on any US watchlist. He wrote, ”You have just endorsed a fake report without verifying. For your information @DrIsaPantamihas never been on any US watchlist.” 

  Petition 4 is OYJPBB/083. The petition is between the Family of Late Kabiru Arekemase and SARS, Dugbe. Mother of Kabiru Arekemase, a 24yrs old man who was evidently slayed by operatives of Special Anti Roberry Squad (SARS) at Dugbe in Ibadan, Oyo State has narrated how she became totally blind after her son, who was the breadwinner of the family was  extrajudicially  killed by SARS. According to mother of the deceased, her late son was a multilingual person who spoke and understand many languages and who standing as a bridge between customers and foreign organization. She said he’s whom that made him rich and a breadwinner of the family. Mrs Arekemase recounted that before her son's death, SARS operatives at Dugbe  came to their residence at Idi Aro on several occasions to demand money from her son which her son used to declined and he used to tell them that he was not into illegal business, saying there was no need for any settlement. She said, “My son was arreste...

  P rince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband to  Queen Elizabeth II  and her constant companion for more than seven decades, has died at age 99. An announcement was made on the Royal Family's social media accounts, as well as   the family's official website . “It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen has announced the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement Friday just after noon in Britain. “His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle.” “He was the longest-serving consort in history, one of the last surviving people in this country to have served in the Second World War,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in an address outside 10 Downing St., citing in particular the prince’s actions during “the invasion of Sicily, where he saved his ship by his quick thinking.” “From that conflict he took an ethic of service that he applied throughout the unpr...

  Nigeria on Wednesday recorded 110 new cases of  coronavirus but no new deaths for the sixth consecutive day, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control  statistics. The last time the health agency recorded a death was on April 1 when the toll increased by one to 2,058. Wednesday’s new cases were reported from 11 states, including Lagos (24), Yobe (24), FCT (16), Bayelsa (10), Rivers (10), Kaduna (10),Nasarawa (5), Akwa Ibom (4), Bauchi (3), Edo (3), and Plateau(1). To date, the country has recorded 163,440 cases of the virus out of which 153,788 have recovered. On Tuesday, the Federal Government took delivery of 100,000 more doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the Indian government as vaccination efforts continue across the country. Nigeria already launched the vaccination of its citizens with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine it received almost four million doses of through the COVAX facility, a UN backed arrangement.

  Unknown Gunmen have vandalized the Ehime Mbano Local Government Area Divisional Police Headquarters in Imo State. This new attack came shortly after the top government functionaries had visited the state. On Monday, gunmen attacked the Police Command Headquarters in the state where they burnt most of the vehicles parked in the station, the invaders used  explosives and rockets to get  into Owerri prison facility, more than 1,800 inmates escaped from the guardhouse.

  The Nigeria Police Force has confirmed that its Imo headquarters in Owerri, the state capital, was attacked by armed men. Police speechmaker  Frank Mba said in a statement Monday afternoon. The attack on the police headquarters was carried out by the same armed group who also attacked a correctional facility in Owerri and freed over 1,800 inmates. Authorities  said the prison break was carried out by members of the  Indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB) and its security network, ESN. IMO ATTACK – IGP DEPLOYS SECURITY REINFORCEMENT SQUADS, SETS UP SPECIAL INVESTIGATION TEAM (SIT) • Directs CP Imo and the Special Investigation Team to Fish-Out and Bring Perpetrators to Book The Inspector-General of Police, IGP M.A Adamu, NPM, mni has ordered the immediate deployment of additional units of Police Mobile Force (PMF) and other Police Tactical Squads to Imo State to strengthen security in the State and prevent further attacks on security formations or any other cr...