I slept with 10 men during initiation into Marine Girls cult, says 19-yr-old

A 19-year-old female cultist, Blessing David, on Thursday in Benin City, confessed that she slept with 10 men during her initiation into a female cult group called Marine Girls.

The girl, who was paraded by Edo State Commissioner of Police, Johnson Kokumo, alongside another a teenager, Ada Emeka, who also passed through the same process for her initiation, said she was initiated into the cult group last year.

She told newsmen, “my name is Blessing David. I was initiated into the cult group last year and I slept with 10 men as part of the initiation process.”

Also yesterday morning, two suspected armed robbers were killed by operatives of the Edo State Police Command.

The eighth-man armed robbery gang that operated at Amabga area of Benin City, the state capital, reportedly robbed 13 houses, where they injured victims with matchets and other weapons.

One of the victims, who gave his name as Eghosa, said: “It was at about midnight (yesterday); I was already sleeping with my wife that just put to bed, when they flashed torchlight into the house.

“They quietly removed the window and used blocks to hit the protector. Before I knew it, they had entered the house and started beating everybody.

“They even injured my mother and my newborn baby, and smashed my wife’s smartphone against the wall when they could not use it.

“When they left my place, they robbed about 13 other houses before people called vigilante group and the police.

“When the police came, the robbers started exchanging gunfire with them. Two of them were killed and one arrested.

“This one was the one that smashed my wife’s phone,” he said, pointing at the arrested suspect.

Vanguard

Lagos Govt rescues trafficked children, seals 4 estates, 22 buildings

General Manager Lagos State Materials Testing Laboratory, Dr Afolabi Abiodun

Three trafficked children serving as workers in a construction site in Lagos have been rescued by the Lagos State Materials Testing Laboratory, LSMTL during enforcement visit to construction sites in Lekki axis.

The victims who are minors were from Benin Republic serving as labourers at the construction sites visited by LSMTL.

Dr Afolabi Abiodun, the General Manager of LSMTL who also ordered the sealing of 22 high-rise buildings and four estates for non-compliance to quality assurance in the area, during the enforcement warned developers against child labour.

The agency also collected water samples from the sealed construction sites for analysis.

Abiodun stressed the need for safe water during construction.

The general manager reacting to the rescued children serving as labourers said, “It is child abuse, developers should not use children for construction.

“Look at the children, if we estimate, they are less than 10 years old. What will a 10-year- old be doing on a construction site,” the LMSTI boss said.

He said that the enforcement was necessary to assess the structural integrity of buildings, to stem the tide of building collapses, in line with Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s zero tolerance for building collapse in the state.

He called on owners of completed high-rise buildings to carry out non-destructive tests every five years, to ensure the structural stability of their buildings.

Abiodun advised construction companies, developers, estate agents, builders and other stakeholders in the built environment to comply with the directive for testing their construction materials.

He said that such tests should be for ongoing and completed buildings to avert the danger of building collapse in the state.

The general manager said that some estates had in the past refused officials of the LSMTL to carry out tests on their building materials and also ignored notices served on them to submit samples for testing.

He told the workers on a site near the popular 1,004 Estate, along the Ozumba Mbadiwe Way, that it was on record that the place had been served notices.

“What we have done here is partial sealing because we understand that you must go in and out.

“Tell your engineer to bring evidence of all tests conducted to the Lagos State Materials Testing Laboratory”, he said.

Abiodun also said that his team discovered that on some of the sealed sites, the engineers used 10mm iron rods for columns of buildings where the least thickness required was 16mm.

He decried the wrong foundations being laid for buildings on the axis which are mostly wetlands, adding that, the LSMTL was going to carry out urgent tests on some of the foundations to avert risks of collapse.

Property owners who did not ascertain the structural stability of their buildings risk sanctions,” the general manager said.

He noted that using the right materials and carrying out the required soil tests would prevent construction failure.

Abiodun urged the public to patronise the LSTML to ensure that they test their construction materials for quality to guarantee structural integrity to avert building collapse.

However, some of the trafficked children working as construction workers told journalists they were working as brick layers and painters on site.

They said their daily wages of N400.00 per child were usually paid to their masters while they remained on site to work.

Lagos doctors suspend strike

Medical doctors in Lagos State have agreed to suspend a three-day warning strike which they began on Monday.

The doctors also agreed to resume work at their respective duty posts in various hospitals in the state with effective Thursday.

This was contained in a statement signed on Wednesday by the Chairman, Medical Guild Representative Council, Dr. Oluwajimi Sodipo.

Sodipo said the doctors agreed to call off the strike after it held a virtual meeting with stakeholders including the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Oba of Lagos, HRM Oba Rilwan Akinolu, amongst others.

He said the doctors observed “positive change in attitude” amongst relevant government agencies.

The doctors’ resolutions read, “The 3 days warning strike should be suspended and work resume by 8am on Thursday 16th July, 2020.

“The officers committee should continue to engage relevant government agencies on all the issues that precipitated the strike action.

“The officers committee should call for congress to update on the progress of negotiations.

“The government should demonstrate sincerity and commitment during the negotiation in order to avert unnecessary and preventable crisis in the health sector of Lagos State.”

Only 3 states have group life insurance for workers-PenCom

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has said that only three states in the country aside the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have a valid group life. The Commission which disclosed this in a recent publication, listed the states as; Lagos, Kaduna and Edo, even as it advised defaulting states to obtain adequate life insurance cover for their workers.

Earlier in the year, to ensure workers have life insurance, PenCom directed employees to report any employer that fails to procure the minimum required life insurance policy on their behalf not less than three times their annual total emolument.

• PenCom in a notice: ‘Re Compliance with guidelines for life insurance policy for employees and submission of insurance certificate for 2020’ stated that it is the right of all employees in the public service of the federation, FCT and states that have implemented the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) as well as private sector, under Section 4(5) of the PRA 2014 to have life insurance policy taken on their behalf by their employers for an insured amount of not less than three times their annual total emolument.
  

The commission further implored employees to bring to its notice, where the employer fails to: “submit the evidence of compliance with life insurance policy and place the certificate in a conspicuous place within the organisation.”

• PenCom noted that in accordance with the provisions of Section 4(5) of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014 and Section 5.5 of the guidelines for life insurance policy for employees, employers of labour covered by the PRA 2014 are required to submit copies of the insurance certificates with the schedule of benefits to the National Pension Commission.

  Available data revealed that about 2.5 million civil servants in the country are missing out of the benefits of Group Life insurance cover, following the inability of 33 states to sign on to the policy, against the mandate of Pension Reforms Act (PRA) 2014.

MultiChoice Nigeria has revealed that the winner of this year’s Big Brother Naija reality TV show will smile home with a whopping N85 million grand prize

The grand prize, which includes N30 million cash, makes this season’s winnings the biggest since the show debuted in 2006, and the highest for reality TV show on the continent.

Chief Executive Officer, MultiChoice Nigeria, John Ugbe said: “The fifth season of BBNaija marks a major milestone in the reality TV series. We are making this season significant by not only increasing the winnings but by also implementing other creative and innovative ways to ensure the show lives up to the premium entertainment especially during the current pandemic.”

 The breakdown of the grand prize for BBNaija season five includes N30 million cash, a two-bedroom apartment courtesy Revolution Plus, top of the range SUV from Nigerian automaker, Innoson Motors; trip to Dublin courtesy Guinness; home appliances courtesy Scanfrost, trip to Dubai packaged by Travelbeta; a year’s supply of Indomie noodles, Munch itandColgate toothpaste; a year’s supply of Pepsi branded chiller and trip to watch the UEFA Champions League finale; and brand new Oppo mobile smartphone

Meanwhile, MultiChoice has promised to reveal other surprises for viewers and fans of the show in the coming days.

I spoke with my daughter hours before her sudden death, says Arotile’s father

Mr Akintunde Arotile, father of the late Nigeria’ s first female combatant helicopter pilot, Tolulope Arotile, said he spoke with her few hours before her sudden death on Tuesday.

Arotile’s father told the Newmen in Lokoja on Wednesday that he was shocked to receive the news of her death few hours later.

“Just yesterday (July 14) at about 1 p.m., I called her because she just came back from an operation against the bandits in Katsina.

“They gave them one week to rest and so she was sleeping and told me she was in bed resting, she said she will later go out to make some photocopies.

“I told her not to be long and to return home on time because she was staying with my first daughter in Kaduna.

“Around 5.30 p.m, somebody called me and asked if I had called her today and I said yes, then the person told me to call her which I did, but no response.

“So, I called her colleagues, and they were all crying on phone, I asked what happened, they were just crying, so I called one of her bosses who told me that she is in the mortuary.

” I said ha!, Somebody I spoke with 4 hours ago and by 5 p.m. she was in the mortuary,” he explained.

According to him, he had to drive from Abuja to Lokoja to break the sad news to her mother.

” This is to enable me inform her mother physically because I could not brake such news on phone, but when I came she had gone to the prayer mountain.

” She came back around 8.30 p.m, I told her this is what I heard but that I had not confirmed,” he said.

Arotile, who retired from the Transmission Company of Nigeria in 2019, described his daughter as a brilliant and wonderful person right from when she was young.

” Right from day one, she had been very very intelligent, sometimes, I wonder what type of IQ she had.

” She also combined intelligence with hard-work. She has not just been brilliant but wonderful,” he said.

According to him, Tolulope did all her schooling in Kaduna from kindergarten to nursery at the Airforce Base and Nigeria Defence Academy, Kaduna.

” One day when she was very small, she pointed to one small aircraft parked on the field and said, Dad, one day I am going to fly that aircraft and I said Amen.

” So from that day, she started working towards that, she got admission to the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, she had a Bachelor degree in Mathematics, she became an Airforce Cadet, from there, she was sent on several courses abroad and became a pilot.

” I just thank God that she was able to achieve her life dream as a baby before her death,’ he added.

The late Flight Officer, who died as a result of a motor accident at the age of 25, hailed from Ijumu Local Government, Kogi State.

She was standing by the roadside at Kawo area of Kaduna when a former secondary school classmate sighted her and applied the brake.

The female old school mate was reversing her vehicle to enable her properly greet her when she mistakenly knocked her down.

The late Arotile died from the head injury she sustained from the accident.

The father said he was impressed by the outpouring of sympathy messages and support from the Nigeria Airforce and other Nigerians since the incident happened.

” There have been several visits from her bosses from all over the country, including here in Lokoja, Abuja, Kaduna, Enugu and everywhere.

“The support have been overwhelming, they even gave a token and other promises.

“They have even promised to give a choice of where to bury her, but her commandant suggested that she should be buried at the National Cemetery, Abuja, due to the feat she achieved as the first female combatant helicopter pilot in Nigeria,” he said.

NAN

Vanguard News Nigeria

Hackers target Twitter accounts of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, others in crypto ‘giveaways’

Hackers took over the accounts of prominent individuals and organisations on Twitter promising a cryptocurrency giveaway of 5000 BTC ($45,889,950) “to the community”.

The affected individuals include  Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Binance, KuCoin, Coinbase, Ripple, Tron’s Justin Sun, Bitcoin, Cash App, Coindesk, and Litecoin’s Charlie Lee.

The hackers’ messages sent within minutes of each other asked readers to claim their rewards from an inserted link associated with “Crypto For Health”.

In one of the tweets sent from the account of Elon Musk, the hackers asked for Bitcoin and promised to “double all payments” sent to an address.

A tweet sent from Elon Musk’s account on Wednesday asked for Bitcoin and promised to “double all payments” sent to an address.

“Everyone is asking me to give back, and now is the time,” the tweet said. “You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000.”

The Musk’s account sent three Bitcoin tweets from a Twitter web account and a reply to Bill Gates which were promptly deleted.

The bitcoin address linked in the tweets posted to Gates’s and Musk’s accounts was quickly inundated with more than 255 transactions, totaling more than $100,000. Twitter has admitted that it is aware of ‘security incidents’ impacting accounts and is ‘taking steps to fix it’.