The federal government has confirmed the arrival of 27 stranded Nigerian girls who were recently evacuated from Lebanon. 

 

Ferdinand Nwonye, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who received the girls on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama, said they arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on Sunday September 6. 

 

He said the girls tested negative for COVID-19 before embarking on the journey and were evacuated in line with the FG’s guidelines on COVID-19 evacuations. They will also be allowed to go home after 14 days of self-isolation.

 

Nwonye said; 

 

 “I am here on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs who facilitated this return, together with the Ministry of Aviation, Embassy of Nigeria in Beirut, the Lebanese Embassy in Nigeria and the Lebanese community in Nigeria.

“These are the individuals and institutions that made it possible for you to be here today.

“It is unfortunate the situation you passed through; which is why the ministries concerned made sure you are here today and we are telling you that you are now home today and nothing will happen to you.

“Make sure you follow the protocols they advised you on; you know what to do to recover your passports again.

“You are welcome back home and I wish you journey mercies to your various destinations.”

Hotel Rwanda film hero, Paul Rusesabagina was not kidnapped from Dubai but lured back to Rwanda, President Paul Kagame says

 

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has denied that the man who inspired a Hollywood film about the country's 1994 genocide was kidnapped in Dubai and brought back to the country before being arrested for murder and terrorism.

 

This comes after Paul Rusesabagina's family alleged that he was abducted while in Dubai and taken to Rwanda against his will last week.

 

“He would never go to Rwanda of his own will because of the way the Rwandan government has been attacking him,” Anaïse Kanimba, one of his daughters, told the Financial Times last week

 

"Paul did not voluntarily come to Rwanda and no extradition process was followed," said a spokesperson for the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation. 

 

Reacting to the claims, President Paul Kagame on Sunday  September 6, said Paul Rusesabagina had “brought himself” in. 

 

 "Let me eliminate the one [theory] of him being kidnapped. That was not the case. And Rusesabagina can attest that himself. There was no kidnap, there was not any wrongdoing in the process of his getting here. He got here on the basis of what he believed and wanted to do,” Mr Kagame told journalists. The process was “flawless”, he added.

 

Paul Rusesabagina, who became well known after Hotel Rwanda,  was arrested last week on charges that include terrorism, kidnap, and murder. 

 

The 66-year-old who has not lived in Rwanda since 1996 when he survived an assassination attempt, is said to be the founder of the National Liberation Forces (FLN), ''an armed terrorist organisation'' under his Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD).

 

The country's bureau of Investigation said Rusesabagina was arrested "through international cooperation" after an international warrant was issued. 

 

Rwandan authorities believe the role of Mr. Rusesabagina in the country's genocide was exaggerated. 

 

The 2004 film Hotel Rwanda told the story of how Mr. Rusesabagina, a middle-class Hutu native used his influence and bribes to convince military officials to secure a safe escape for an estimated 1,200 people who sought shelter at the Mille Collines Hotel in Kigali during the genocide, in which about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

 

Paul Rusesabagina is a recipient of several human rights awards for his efforts during the genocide, including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.

 

Paul Rusesabagina with former US President, George Bush.

New report reveals Kanye West has spent $6.8 million on his Presidential campaign so far

 

It has been revealed that Kanye West has spent $6.8 million on his Presidential campaign so far, despite failing to file paperwork in time to get his name on the ballots in several states.

 

The Billionaire rapper, 43, whose political party is called The Birthday Party, has only made the ballot in 10 states, including Colorado, Iowa, and Minnesota, according to CNN.

 

West’s campaign finance report, filed to the Federal Election Commission on Friday, reported bringing in a total of $6.8 million between July 15 and Aug. 31.

 

The campaign raised $11,472 in contributions from eight donors that gave between $200 and $1,000 and smaller donors who gave under $200 during that time, the report shows.

 

The report also shows that the campaign spent a total of $5.9 million during that time period. $2.7 million was paid to Millennial Strategies, based in Long Island, N.Y., and Atlas Strategy Group for “ballot access services, polling, campaign management consulting, legal services, and election law research, according to the filing. ”  

 

The campaign also spent $1.5 million on Fortified Consulting, based in Tempe, Ariz. Politico reported that Fortified Consulting shares an address with Lincoln Strategy Group, which did work in 2016 for President Trump’s campaign as well as the campaign of Carly Fiorina.

 

Another large sum of West campaign's money went to a Tempe, Arizona-based firm named Fortified Consulting, which was paid roughly $1.5 million for similar services, the filing shows. The firm is owed an additional $1.2 million from the campaign, which isn't included in the total spending.

 

The campaign spent a total of about $404,000 on legal fees, paying a wide range of firms, and spent $95,000 on private jet services.

International flights resume in Nigeria as Middle East Airlines plane lands at Lagos airport (photos)

International flights in Nigeria resumed operations yesterday September 5 after many months of closure.

 

The airspace was closed in March 2020, as part of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.

 

A Middle East Airlines plane from Beirut was the first international flight that landed at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos with 222 passengers and 17 crew members this afternoon.

 

See more photos below

 

"Trump would start a war if it means winning the 2020 election" - Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen claims

                         

Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has claimed that the US president could "start a war" to win the 2020 election because he'd do "anything and everything" to stay in power.

 

Cohen who was Trump's lawyer from 2006 to 2018, is currently under house arrest in New York. He was disbarred and got three years in prison for campaign-finance crimes related to his work for Trump.

 

Cohen, who is promoting his new book "Disloyal," which is out on September 8, spoke to NBC, and detailed what he thinks Trump could do.

 

 

"Donald Trump will do anything and everything within which to win," said Cohen.

"I believe that includes manipulating the ballots, I believe that he would even go so far as to start a war in order to prevent himself from being removed from office," he said during the NBC interview.

"My biggest fear is that there will not be a peaceful transition of power in 2020."

 

Cohen once vowed that he would "take a bullet" for his boss but in the Forward of his book, he revealed Trump's "mob boss" mentality.

"Apart from his wife and children, I knew Trump better than anyone else did," Cohen wrote, taking credit for his decision to run in 2015.

"In some ways, I knew him better than even his family did because I bore witness to the real man, in strip clubs, shady business meetings, and in the unguarded moments when he revealed who he really was: a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man."

"Not the billionaire celebrity savior of the country or lying lunatic, not the tabloid tycoon or self-anointed Chosen One, not the avatar @realdonaldtrump of Twitter fame, but the real real Donald Trump—the man very, very, very few people know," Cohen said.

"He has no one he trusts to keep his secrets," Cohen's book reads.
"For ten years, he certainly had me, and I was always there for him, and look what happened to me."

 

Trump recently stated that he might not accept the election results, telling Fox News: "No, I'm not going to just say yes. I'm not going to say no, and I didn't last time either."

 

Hillary Clinton, Trump's 2016 rival, recently urged Biden not to concede to the Republican candidate even if he loses.

 

50-year-old security man suffocates after reportedly sleeping with his face mask on

A security guard identified as Solomon Ede has died after he allegedly slept wearing his face mask in his place of work in Alako area of Abeokuta, Ogun state on Friday, August 28.

 

The Nation reports that Solomon was well known in the area for never failing to wear his face mask as part of measures to protect himself from contracting the dreaded Coronavirus. However, on Friday, the 50-year-old had a few glasses of local gin popularly known as Ogogoro before going to bed. He went to bed with his face mask on.

 

 

His lifeless body was discovered face down, suggesting that he died of suffocation from the face mask. Neighbors who came to fetch water at the compound of the house where the deceased worked, banged on the gate of the building endlessly but late Ede did not come out to grant them access to the tap.

 

It was said that the noise at the gate of the building alerted late Ede’s boss who opened the gate for the visitors and decided to check on Ede in his room. He noticed that the door was locked so he forced it open only to find Ede lying face down on the bed lifeless and with his face mask in place. The boss was said to have raised the alarm which attracted other residents to the building, with many blaming the deceased’s tragic death on his obsession with alcohol.

 

A source said 

“But for the noise from those who came to fetch water in the early hours of the day, no one would have known that a tragedy had occurred.

It was when the deceased failed to come out of his apartment to attend to those fetching water in the premises of the house that his boss came out and discovered his body.”

Shocked by the discovery, the deceased's employer reported the matter to a police division at Kemta, Idi Aba.

 

Residents of the area claim the deceased took to alcohol after suffering depression. He was said to have been warned by his employer and others to desist from his habitual abuse of alcohol.

 

“He usually removed his face mask before going to bed. But he took some ogogoro late in the evening and was downcast. Those who saw him at the entrance of his apartment asked him to remove the mask on his face and go to bed, but he refused.

”However, he went to bed forgetting to remove his face mask and slept face down. He was probably choked to death by the face mask,” one of the residents who spoke on condition of anonymity said

Fuel price increase is beyond Buhari’s control - Minister of state for petroleum resources, Timipre Sylva

 

The minister of state for petroleum resources, Timipre Sylva has disclosed that fuel price increase is beyond the control of President Buhari who is also the minister of petroleum resources.

 

The Minister who spoke to newsmen in Abuja on Thursday September 3, said it is unfortunate that citizens are blaming the federal government which is not in charge of fixing the prices of petroleum products, for the increased price. 

 

Sylva stated the focus of the authorities is to protect the interest of citizens. He said; 

 

“Government is no longer in the business of fixing prices for petroleum products, we have stepped back.

“Our focus now is on protecting the interest of the consumers and making sure that marketers are not profiteering.

“Left for him, he will never allow the increase in pump price; for this to happen, it means that it is an inevitable decision. COVID-19 took the price of crude oil to zero zone.”

 

Lamenting on the deceased crude production from two million barrels to 1.412 million barrels per day, Sylva alleged that the deregulation of the sector was politicised.

 

He said; 

 

“Deregulation will definitely come with few pains, but survival of the country is paramount."