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Popular Yoruba actress, Mercy Aigbe, was on Wednesday arrested by heavily armed policemen at the Olaiya Junction area of Osogbo, the Osun State capital. A witness told our correspondent that the policemen fired three gunshots into the air before whisking the actress and her brother, who drove her in a Honda Accord car  away to an unknown place. It was not clear why the police team arrested her, but our correspondent gathered that the policemen were on a stop-and-search when they saw a police cap on the dashboard of Aigbe’s car. Another witness said the police arrested the actress’ brother because he dressed like  ‘yahoo boys.’ The actress was  reportedly blocked at the popular Olaiya Junction by a police patrol van which had been trailing her car from Okefia area. Angered by the effrontery of the police to block her, the actress was said to have flared up and insulted the policemen, who seized her mobile phone. The actress, whose husband is said to be a police officer,

A grateful  dog  owner has thanked his faithful pooch for saving his life when fire ripped through his home. John Toothill,61, praised Alfie the Alsatian for raising the alarm after the  midnight blaze  started in the loft of his bungalow in Westby with Plumptons, Lancashire. Alfie sniffed out the danger even though the smoke alarms had not been activated and gave John and partner Nicky time to escape before the whole house went up in flames. Nursery owner John and Nicky had no time to rescue any of their precious possessions from the home where they have lived in for 32 years. The father-of-two said: "Alfie is the hero. We had smoke alarms fitted but the fire was in the roof and when I woke up there was no sign of a fire, no smoke, no smell. "All I could hear was Alfie barking and a sound like heavy hail on the roof. "The heat and flames were obviously rising up from the roof so I did not know for a while that anything was wrong. "

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), supported by men of the Cross River State Task-Force on Petroleum Resources,  on Wednesday  impounded a truck loaded with 40,0000 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) which was about being smuggled to the Republic of Cameroon. However, the driver of the truck and other accomplices fled from the truck when they noticed that they were about being apprehended. After the arrest of the truck with a name tag, “Virgin Coast Limited”,  it was taken to the Akim Barrack, Calabar, headquarters of 13 Brigade  of the Nigerian Army where the Controller, Operations, DPR, for Cross River and Akwa-Ibom States, Mr. Bassey Nkanga, addressed journalists on the foiled smuggling attempt. “This truck was arrested by a team set up by the Cross River State Ministry of Petroleum Resources working in tandem with security agencies and DPR,” Nkanga said.

The people of Ukpabi Nimbo, a community in the Uzo-Uwani area of Enugu State, which was attacked by Fulani herdsmen on Monday, have blamed security agencies for failing to act on “credible” information they provided before the attack. The villagers, who said this when the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, visited the community on Tuesday, stated that they were abandoned even after they alerted security agencies to the plan to attack them. The General Officer Commanding, 82 Division, Enugu, Major General Attahiru Ibrahim, and the Commissioner of Police, Enugu State, Nwodibo Ekechukwu, were also in the village on Tuesday. Security was beefed up in the community during the visit, with heavily armed military and police personnel positioned at strategic locations. A community leader, Dr. George Ajogu, who spoke on behalf of the people of Ukpabi Nimbo at the village square, said the villagers were not taken unawares by the attack. A corpse of one of the victims of the he

A Lebanese rock band says it has been banned in Jordan because its music supports religious and sexual freedom. Mashrou' Leila was to play in the Roman amphitheatre in Amman on Friday, but the concert was cancelled on Tuesday. The band  said  the official explanation was that its music was at odds with the "authenticity" of the site, despite having performed there three times. Mashrou' Leila's lead singer is openly gay - and the band tackles taboos that few other Arab musicians have explored. The five band members, all former students at the American University of Beirut, came together in 2008 and have amassed a large following across the region.

Alicia Keys is to become the first singer to play live at the opening ceremony of the Champions League Final. The show will see the singer perform to around 80,000 people in Milan's Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on 28 May and to TV audiences in over 220 countries. Keys, who will be debuting new music in the show, said playing to such a huge audience was "pretty insane". European football's governing body Uefa said Keys' inclusion "heightens even further the appeal of the match". Keys, who recently joined Season 11 of NBC's The Voice in the US, said she was looking forward to returning to Italy, a place that feels like home to her. "My mother's family is from Italy, so whenever I go, I always feel the most loved," she said. "I feel like it's a homecoming of love in a lot of ways." Uefa said Keys' performance will usher in a new live entertainment era for the final, which intends to "merge the worlds of wo

The Inspector General of Police, IGP Solomon Arase, Wednesday, ordered the detention of a policeman, who allegedly collaborated with the Fulani herdsmen during the killing of residents of Nimbo community in Enugu State. The IGP, who visited the tension soaked community alongside the Senator representing Enugu North Senatorial zone, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, ordered that one Corporal Chukwu should be detained and investigated. The villagers had informed him that the police officer, simply identified as Corporal Chukwu, was a known collaborator with the herdsmen. Consequently, while addressing journalists, Arase said no policeman who collaborates with criminal elements to perpetrate crime would go unpunished, stressing that such person must be dismissed from the force.

World Cup-winning Golden Eaglets captain, Kelechi Nwakali, has said that despite being a Barcelona fan, he chose to sign for Arsenal. The youngster told TheCable: “Being a Barcelona fan does not mean I’ll want to play for them. I love Arsenal, I love the way they play. I just love everything about them. That’s the reason I went there. “Not that I supported Arsenal as a kid. I just love the way they play. But I was a Barcelona fan as a kid. But in the EPL, I support Arsenal.” Nwakali, who signed a five-year deal with Arsenal earlier this year, explained the advantages of a long term deal. “It is very good. At least, it will give me time to play for some time as I will be 18 in June. It will enable me to gain ground to be able to play in the first team,” he said. “Arsenal believe in hard work and in giving what you have, and if the coach thinks that you can add to the team, he will always play you. “Look at a player like (Alex) Iwobi, he is featured in every game because

Stand up comedian, Olufemi Olusesi Michael, popularly known as Aboki4Christ, says he has soft spot for Ghanaian actress, Nadia Buhari, and that he is equally in love with Nollywood diva, Genevieve Nnaji. The Ogun state born comedian told Nigeriafilms.com recently that he loves both actresses. Aboki4Christ said, “I want to go on a date with two female celebrities I love. “Nadia Buari! I met her last year in Ghana and I told her I’m crushing on her and she laughed at me. “Coming back to Nigeria, I love Genevieve Nnaji so much,” the comedian quipped. Speaking on the craziest thing he has ever done for love sake, he said, “I emptied my account to rent an apartment for a girl in Port-Harcourt. “The funniest part is that, she didn’t even love me, it was after the apartment thing that she started giving me small attention. “I don’t even have that kind of apartment I got for her, it’s crazy believe me,” he added.

Kenneth Omeruo will not feature for Nigeria at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. The Kasimpasa defender, missed the Super Eagles’ Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Egypt in Kaduna and Alexandria. He will also be unavailable for Samson Siasia this summer, as his team doctor insists he needs time to recover. “I feel sad about it as it was another good opportunity for me to represent my country,” Omeruo told BBC Sport. “The doctor insists I need rest to start next season without injury. “It is disappointing and frustrating to say the least. I’d be lying if I said I would not want to be out there playing. “But at the same time I need to be fully fit to be at my best and I have no doubt that the squad will do great in Brazil. “I would also like to thank the coach [Siasia] for even considering me in the first place.” he Dream Team VI has been drawn in Group B against Colombia, Japan and Sweden.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has recovered jewellery worth over £2 million (N600million) from former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke and the wife of Mr Jide Omokore, an ally of former President Goodluck Jonathan. A top EFCC official told Daily Trust that several other property were also recovered from the former oil minister, including a wrist watch valued at £600, 000 (N185 million). Diezani is facing various graft allegations, including the “missing” $20 billion oil money, among other deals executed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). She was interrogated at the Charing Cross Police Station in London last year when the United Kingdom National Crime Agency arrested her on allegations of bribery and money laundering. Similarly, jewellery valued at £1.4 million (N407 million) was also recovered from Omokore’s wife after operatives raided her residence in Lagos, the EFCC official said. Omokore is the chairman of A

The Federal Road Safety Corps has listed overloading, over speeding and  bad tyres  as major causative factors of road accident in the coun try. The commission warns  that with increasing hot weather conditions vehicle owners and drivers to pay keen attention to the conditions of their vehicles' tyres more than ever before. The Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Boboye Oyeyemi, who spoke in Lagos recently, said the biggest challenge of securing Nigeria's road is overloading. According to him,  overloading is more common among commercial vehicle drivers, adding that no fewer than 1,000 drivers are booked all over the country daily for contravention of the loading rules. “Even when you look at some of these vehicles that are overloaded, you will find out that it would have taken them several hours to load them. Hours they could have used in doing the right things, ” he said. The corps marshal also  urged vehicle owners and drivers to pay att

Eleven men were shot dead in Cape Verde on Tuesday, including eight soldiers, a local civilian and two Spanish citizens, the minister of Internal Administration for the archipelago off the African coast said in a statement. The men were killed at a telecommunications site at Monte Tchota, a forested area on Santiago island about 27 km (17 miles) north of the capital, Praia, Minister Paulo Rocha said. "A soldier assigned to the military team itself is missing, and there are strong indications that he was responsible in the events," said Rocha, adding that the victims were 20 to 51 years old. Rocha said it was assumed personal motivations were behind the killings, ruling out an attack against the government, and called for calm. The Spaniards were telecommunications technicians working at the site and the local civilian was a co-worker, the minister said. The minister said there were no indications of links to drug trafficking. Cape Verde's batt

Kenya’s controversial former first lady, Lucy Kibaki, has died in a London hospital of an undisclosed illness. She gained notoriety for slapping a cameraman in 2005 when she stormed the offices of a private media group in anger at the way a story about her had been reported. In a tribute to Mrs. Kibaki, President Uhuru Kenyatta praised her for her role in fighting HIV/AIDS in Kenya. Mr. Kenyatta succeeded her husband, Mwai Kibaki, who governed from 2002 to 2013. Mrs. Kibaki, who was born in 1940, had withdrawn from public life during the latter part of her husband’s rule. She was last seen at a public function in August 2010, when she seemed excited about the adoption of a new constitution, dancing to a famous gospel song, Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper said. Mr. Kenyatta said she had been unwell for the last month, receiving treatment in both Kenya and the United Kingdom. She left behind four children namely Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai and Tony Githinji. S

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh was yesterday rushed to the National Hospital, Abuja, after falling from a swivel chair during the inauguration of Borno and Kebbi states caretaker committees. Metuh was about to take his seat during the inauguration when he slipped off the chair reserved for him. It took about 10 minutes before the two policemen attached to the office of the National Chairman could assist him to his feet. Metuh, who could not walk properly after having been assisted from the floor, was virtually carried to his car through the back gate before he was immediately rushed to the hospital. The PDP spokesman was said to have complained of backache before the incident A close friend of the party spokesman, said he hit his back on the floor, which further compounded the backache. The friend, who said his name should not be mentioned, said he could not help himself and could not walk even in the hospital. He said: “As I a