Folarin Kehinde

Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi has appointed a former Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Akin Osuntokun, as the new Director General of his campaign council.

Osuntokun’s appointment was announced by the party’s national chairman, Julius Abore, at a press briefing on Tuesday, December 27.

He said that the new DG was chosen at a strategic meeting of the party, which had Obi, members of the National Working Committee and the party’s candidates for other elective positions in attendance.

According to Abure, Osuntokun is a “worthy and trustworthy” replacement for Doyin Okupe, the former DG of the campaign council.

Osuntokun served as Political Adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and as Director of the Presidential campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2011.

He is a political scientist, strategist, researcher, administrator, journalist and writer with experience in media advocacy, policy research and implementation and political analysis.

Until his appointment, he was the Zonal Coordinator of the LP Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) in the South-West

It would be recalled that Okupe resigned from his position earlier this month following his conviction by an Abuja Federal High Court for money laundering.

Okupe was found guilty for receiving over N200 million cash from former National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki, in violation of the Money Laundering Act.

The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, has revealed that 20 people were killed on Boxing Day in road crashes recorded in Oyo and Niger States.

The Acting Corps Marshal of the Corps, Dauda Ali Biu, revealed this after a preliminary investigation conducted into fatal crashes at Ibadan, Oyo State, Mokwa in Niger State, and Otukpo in Benue State, on Tuesday.

The agency attributed the deaths to overspeeding, reckless driving and dangerous behaviours exhibited by drivers.

The FRSC boss decried incessant violation of speed limits and noticeable traces of dangerous driving behaviours exhibited by drivers during the Christmas celebrations and warned perpetrators of such bad road use culture to desist henceforth as the Corps will not spare them when apprehended.

He also pointed to the hazards of night journeys as two of the three crashes occurred during the early hours of the day.

The FRSC report said on Tuesday, there were crashes along the Ibadan-Lagos route, “a few minutes drive before Gurumaraji area, Oyo State at 6:30 am while the Mokwa fatal crash occurred at 3:30 am and the Otukpo lone crash took place at exactly 11:35am.”

It added, “the Ibadan avoidable menace is a lone crash that involved a Toyota Bus bearing the following registration details TRK135ZY.

“The Mokwa crash involved a trailer transiting from Lagos which had a head-on collision with a Bus and the Otukpo lone crash involving a bus registered as NAK77XA which occurred as a result of a fallen tree that blocked the highway,” according to a statement issued by Bisi Kazeem, Corps Public Education Officer, who communicated the delivery of the report by Biu.

The statement noted that “18 people ( all Male Adults) were involved in the Ibadan crash, out of which 10 were killed, 6 injured and the rest rescued without any injuries.

“In the same vein, as at the time of filing this report, 10 victims were killed in the Mokwa crash, 9 of which were confirmed dead on the spot and the remaining 1 victim died in the hospital.”l

”While zero fatality was recorded in the Otukpo lone crash, the injured victims have been taken to St. Daniels Hospital Otukpo for urgent treatment,” the report said.

The statement further said the 6 victims who were rescued with different degrees of injuries in the Ibadan crash were given adequate first aid by the Corps’ medical rescue team before moving them to the Ibadan Central Hospital for proper medical attention.

The remains of those killed were deposited in Adeoyo General Hospital Morgue in Ibadan, Oyo State.

The Acting Corps Marshal who frowned at the incident assured the motoring public, particularly law-abiding ones, that the Corps has enhanced its visibility and intensified patrol operations that will engender sanity on the highways.

He directed the immediate deployment of a special squad to the affected part of the Otukpo-Makurdi highway to ensure the speedy removal of the fallen tree as well as a traffic control team to ensure free flow of traffic.

He admonished the public to always patronize the FRSC toll-free line 122 and the National Traffic Radio 107.1 FM which are always available for all road users to report emergencies at any given time.

Women in the Niger Delta Region have intensified campaigns against climate change and the harmful effects on women in the area and the environment.

The Executive Director, Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, Obonganwan Emem Okon made their position known recently, during the 7th edition of  Niger Delta Women Day of Action for Environmental  Justice 2022, held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

Okon said the NGO and her allied community women organizations marked the Niger Delta Women’s Day of Action for Enironmental Justice.

The day, according to her is usually held every December 17 as a way to also contribute to the building of a grassroot eco – feminist movement in the oil rich region.

She maintained that the campaigns so far has contributed to strengthening solidarity building among groups across the communities, amplifying women’s voices on the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), oil revenue benefits of the 13 percent derivation fund among other laudable impacts made by the women of the region.

Okon noted that despite the disproportionate impacts of pollution and environmental degradation, women are not included in the processes of benefit sharing in the oil and gas sector, but yet women were impacted more from the effects of climate change and called on relevant government agencies to right the wrongs.

In his paper presentation at the event on climate reality: impact of the 2022 flood on women and sustainable solutions, Bayelsa based environmentalist, Mr Godson Dorgu, argued that majority of the people have come to the realization that climate change is real.

He said after the 2012 flood, most persons postulated it would take a very long time for such flood to reoccur, adding that women were the most vulnerable in any disastrous situation.

The environment expert noted that flooding incidents are often accompanied by a number of socio – economic problems that affect the women more, thus, the family depends on the women during flood and also stated that the impact of any emergency is worst on women.

The event which was celebrated on the theme, Flooding in the Niger Delta: Causes, Effects and Solutions also featured songs by Akwa Ibom and Ogoni women, solidarity messages from Professor Robito Ekanem of the University of Calabar, the representative of Oxfam, Mr Henry  Usher and the state coordinator of WANEP, Mr Peace Edem.

Highlights of the event include demonstrations by some women groups in the Niger Delta, a panel discussion on women’s livelihood in the Niger Delta, women organizing stories, drama by the Theater Arts Department at the University of Port Harcourt, among others.

The Director-General of the Labour Party Campaign Council, Doyin Okupe has resigned his position.

The development was contained in a letter he addressed to the LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi on Tuesday.

Sharing the letter on his official Twitter handle, Okupe wrote, “It’s time to step aside. But I am with PO and the Obidients and the Presidential Campaigns till God gives us victory in Jesus Name”.

Okupe’s resignation followed his conviction for breaching the Money Laundering Act by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Monday.

The Labour Party chieftain, who was formerly a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was subsequently sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

However, the presiding judge, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, gave Okupe an option of N500,000 fine on each of the 26 count charges, totalling N13m for which he was found guilty.

Canadian rapper, Drake, has lost his $1 million dollar bet on Argentina to win the 2022 World Cup against France within 90 minutes of regulation time.

Drake who is rooting for the South American team, had staked the whooping amount on a straight-win ticket for Argentina – implying that they have to defeat France within regulation time.

However, two goals from Kylian Mbappe helped France repel Argentina’s first-half lead dragging the match into extra time.

The Argentines had gotten a comfortable 2-goal lead in the first half after Lionel Messi’s 23rd-minute penalty and Angel DiMaria’s beautiful sitter 13 minutes later.

With the result, the ‘Drake curse’ phenomenon appears to be far from over as the rapper’s history of wrongfully predicting sports outcomes remains unchanged.

The four-time Grammy award winner has often been accused of cursing athletes and sports teams he’s supported in recent years.

Under this phenomenon, any team or individual that receives support from Drake ends up suffering some kind of misfortune, meaning they either lose the game or end up playing decisively bad.

Earlier this year, the rapper had placed a $649,000 bet on Barcelona to win the El Clasico against arch-rivals Real Madrid, however, the Madrid side won the game by a comfortable 2-goal margin.

British-Nigerian boxer, who was backed by Drake ahead of his unified heavyweight title defence, had vowed to break the curse in 2019, however he fell to Andy Ruiz Jr.

Drake had on a number of occasions denounced his favourite sports team, in a bid to not infect them with the curse.

In the 2019 NBA playoff, Drake supported the Philadephia 76ers as against his boyhood club, Toronto Raptors. The 76ers lost the game.

The same year, Italian football club, AS Roma announced on Twitter that they had banned all their players from taking pictures with the Canadian rapper.