BREAKING NEWS: Explosion rips through ‘busy area’ in Potiskum

                      
A yet-to-be-identified number of residents might have died in an explosion in a “busy area” of Potiskum, Yobe State, on Tuesday night.
Details of the bombing is still sketchy but our correspondent said many people might have been killed as the area where the explosion went off plays host to a lot of people every day.
Earlier on Monday, suspected Boko Haram members had sacked a military base in the Birni Yadi area before killing no fewer than eight people.
The terrorists reportedly blew off a bridge linking Damaturu, the state capital, through Birni Yadi with Borno and Adamawa states.

Details later…

Doctor Who Treated More Than 100 Ebola Patients In Sierra Leone Dies From The Virus

                   
The late 39-year old doctor Khan had expressed fears for his life despite wearing protective gear when treating patients.
Sheik Umar Khan, the Sierra Leonean doctor hailed as a “national hero” for treating more than one hundred Ebola patients, died today of the same disease.

According to Sierra Leone’s Chief Medical Officer Brima Kargbo, Sierra Leone has lost its only viral haemorrhagic specialist in the face of this epidemic. The doctor was diagnosed with the virus last week.

In a Reuters interview, the late 39-year old Khan had expressed fears for his life before being diagnosed. This was despite his wearing protective gear when treating patients. His fears corroborate a statement made in a CNN interview by Dr. Peter Piot, the first scientist to discover the virus in the 1970s. The doctor says, “this is an epidemic of dysfunctional health systems.” He then goes on to explain how basic sanitary measures can control the spread of the disease.

According to Dr. Piot, Ebola is not particularly easy to catch. In his interview, he says, one needs “really close contact” in order to get infected. “Just being on a bus with someone with Ebola, that’s not a problem,” he says. The WHO states that the virus spreads from direct contact, "(through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids."

The virus first appeared in Guinea in March and has since spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. The WHO reports that as of July 23rd, there has been a total of 1,201 cases and 672 deaths between the three West African countries.

Other West African countries are now taking steps to prevent the spread of the disease to their countries. In light of recent events where a Liberian man boarded a flight to Nigeria and died of the Ebola virus in a Lagos hospital, two airlines, Arik Air and Asky, have suspended flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone. Nigerian authorities have also stepped up screening at its airports, and claim to be tracking those who came into contact with the Liberian passenger.

The fatality rate is currently 60% though the disease can kill up to 90% of those infected.

VIDEO: Olamide – Story For The gods

                                  
THE most consistent artiste from Nigeria ‘ever’ has just released the Visuals for the recently released single ‘Story For The Gods. Watch below!

YBNL Nation boss Olamide a.k.a “Baddo” has been churning out hits after hits lately starting with “Dansaki“, “Jogodo“, “Koduro Be“, “Awon Goons Mi” and now here comes the video for the smash hit single which hit the airwaves a few weeks ago “Story for the gods“.

Olamide in this crystal video switched things a bit from the regular kind of visuals to a more sexy side of the Baddo with lots of beautiful girls shaking their bums from the party scenes to the Jacuzzi. This is a video to watch, shot and directed by Unlimited L.A.

BREAKING NEWS: Bomb blast rocks Sabon-Gari, Kano

                      
Vanguard reports – A high calibre improvised explosive device went off inside the crowded New Road motor park located at Sabon Gari, a predominantly Christian quarter of Kano metropolis leaving scores dead.
More details later.

See Nicki Minaj’s Racy Cover Art for “Anaconda”

Nicki almost give it all out to promote her new single – Anaconda dropping on the 28th of July, the rap star presents the cover art.
Set against a white backdrop, Nicki proves she is bootylicious, rocking a pink halter neck crop top and a pink thong which put her butt on full display.

Missing Air Algérie flight from Burkina Faso has reportedly Crashed | 116 on Board

                                
An Air Algerie flight en route to Algiers from Burkina Faso has disappeared from the radar today.
The plane is said to have 116 people on board, The Guardian reports.
Air navigation services reportedly lost track of the aircraft approximately 50 minutes after take-off at 1.55am GMT.
According to reports, the plane had been missing for hours before the public heard about it.

Update:
New reports allege that the plane has been found. An Algerian Aviation official reportedly revealed that the plane crashed.

Additional details are yet to be revealed.

VIDEO: General Muhammadu Buhari After His Convoy Was Bombed In Kaduna

This video clip shows former head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) after his convoy was bombed in Kaduna as he made his way to Daura, his hometown earlier today.

Frank Donga “Pure Mas” on Ndani TV

Frank Donga‘s job hustle continues.
After getting a job as a Mathematics lesson teacher, Frank and the kid he’s teaching don’t see eye-to-eye in solving equations.

SSS Parades 4 Kidnappers, Killers of School Proprietress

                              
The aphorism that says that every day is for the thief and one day is for the owner played out yesterday at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as the Department of State Security (DSS) nabbed four members of a gang that abducted and murdered the proprietress of Chelson Group of Schools, Dr. Edith Aliyu, in Gwagwalada, Abuja.  Her abductors killed her after she recognised one of them.

The suspects included Maxwell Ajukwu, Solomon Amodu, Sunday Jacob and Aliyu's driver, Isah Angba, who initiated the abduction and was paid N200,000 from the N2 million ransom that was paid by the victim's relations.
Aliyu, who was also the Chief Executive Officer, Grants Micro Finance Bank, was kidnapped at her residence at Gwagwalada on June 29, 2014 and was buried in a bush at Yangoji village along Kwali-Lokoja Expressway a few hours after she was strangled by a fleeing gang member, identified as Douglas.

The Director of Operations, DSS, FCT Command, Ibrahim Haliru, who paraded the suspects in Abuja yesterday, explained that the gang demanded N5 million ransom, but was paid N2 million, which was converted to $11,550 and was dropped for the kidnappers around Obajana Road, Lokoja, Kogi State by Aliyu's relations.
Haliru said: “Consequently, the department initiated measures, which led to the arrest of four of the kidnappers. During investigation, the arrested kidnappers admitted to committing the crime and eventually took the DSS operatives to the location where the body of Dr. Aliyu was buried in the bush at Yangoji.”
Ajukwu, 41, in an interview, explained that he had visited Aliyu's residence on surveillance where he posed as a generating set mechanic, adding that they decided to kill the victim because she recognised him, after they removed the mask with which her face was covered when she was abducted from her home.

According to him, the school proprietress on recognising him as the person that came to her home to repair her generating set slumped and a decision was taken to kill her.

Ajukwu, who claimed to have studied economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, narrated how the victim's driver, Angba, was giving the gang members updates on investigation into the kidnap by the SSS.
The suspect, who admitted that he and Jacob got N500,000 each from the ransom, said: “The woman slumped when she recognised me as the person that came to repair her generator and Douglas (who is at large), strangled  her to death.
Another suspect, Jacob, 39, who funded the kidnap operation, said he could not remember the exact amount he expended on the venture, but indicted the driver as the person that suggested that his boss should be kidnapped for ransom.

Angba, 27, in his defence, said he did not mean to have his boss killed, adding that the woman had assisted him with his tuition fees.
He said: “Sunday came to our house and was discussing how they kidnapped one man and he said they could kidnap my madam for ransom, but I said they should not because she is often surrounded with people. They wanted to kidnap her during the graduation ceremony of her school, but I scared them by saying she had soldiers with her.”

The driver did not however deny receiving N200,000 from the ransom, which was collected after the gang had murdered their victim and buried her in a shallow grave.
“After the woman slumped when she saw Ajukwu's face in the car, I was asked to go and park the car along the main road. Douglas asked me to tie her hands and he strangulated her,” Amodu, 32, who claimed to be a 400 level Geography student of the University of Abuja, explained

President Goodluck Jonathan Finally Meets Lamido Sanusi- The Emir of Kano

                    
President Goodluck Jonathan and a former Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi, on Wednesday met for the first time since he (Sanusi) became the Emir of Kano.
The former CBN boss was one of the northern traditional rulers who joined Jonathan in the Presidential Villa, Abuja for the breaking of Ramadan fast.

The traditional rulers were led by the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III.
Sanusi led others in a special prayer for peace during the short event held inside the President’s residence.
Jonathan later took turn to shake hands with all the traditional rulers in attendance, including Sanusi to the admiration of his aides.

Abubakar, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, condemned the twin blasts recorded in Kaduna earlier in the day as well as other acts of violence across the country.
While describing the perpetrators as enemies of humanity, he insisted that they and their sponsors had no Islamic agenda.

He requested that the President should grant the traditional rulers an audience in the nearest future in order to discuss issues of national importance.
The President granted the request immediately.

In his short remarks, Jonathan urged the traditional rulers to join hands with his administration to end insurgency.
“It could have been worse than this if not for prayers. We will surely get over it. We are doing our best to ensure we end this situation and with the support of Nigerians, we shall surely overcome,” he said.

Buhari in narrow escape as Kaduna blasts kill 70

                            
According to reports, two explosions ripped through parts of Kaduna in Kaduna State on Wednesday, killing at least 70 people.
The first explosion targeted a popular Islamic cleric, Dahiru Bauchi, while the second targeted a former Head of State, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
Both men escaped unhurt in the blasts that forced the state government to impose a 24-hour curfew on the city.
Scores of people were injured and over 50 cars damaged in the incidents. The state police command put the death toll at 40 while the Federal Government, through the National Information Centre, said 14 people were injured.

Two of Buhari’s bodyguards and an aide were among the wounded. His Toyota Prado jeep was also hit by a suspected bomber near the 1 Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army in the Kawo area of Kaduna.
There were two accounts of how the bomber attacked the motorcade of Buhari, who is also one of the national leaders of the All Progressives Congress.

While one had it that the bomber, on sighting Buhari’s convoy hauled explosives at it, the second claimed that the bomber rammed his Toyota Sienna into the motorcade.
An eyewitness, who gave his name simply as Idris said, “The suicide bomber hauled explosives at the convoy of the former Head of State but one of the cars in the convoy and a Toyota Prado conveying Buhari were hit.

“He was shielded into a Toyota Sienna that took him away from the scene.”
Another witness, who did not want his name in print, said the bomber rammed his vehicle into the convoy of the general, hitting his jeep and others cars.
“In fact, a car in the convoy was badly damaged. Buhari escaped narrowly. We doubt if his security operatives escaped unhurt”.
On the busy Alkali Road in the city centre where the first bomb targeting Bauchi exploded, one of our correspondents saw body parts and damaged cars littering the area.

Bauchi had delivered a Ramadan lecture (Tafsir) at the Murtala Square and was driving through the area in an open-roofed vehicle, greeting well-wishers when his attacker struck.

Eyewitness said the lone bomber,who   rode on a motorbike followed the convoy of the cleric after the lecture. He was said to have been blocked by security operatives who suspected him but he forced his way through the crowd and detonated his   explosive.

Security operatives were seen conveying the wounded to a nearby hospital and the Nigerian Army Reference Hospital for treatment.

Efforts by one of our correspondents to contact Bauchi failed as he was said to have been moved to an unknown location.

Followers of the renowned cleric reacted angrily, throwing stones at security operatives and accusing them of failing to protect Nigerians.

The security forces retaliated by firing tear gas canisters.

However, state Police Commissioner, Shehu Umar,   put the death toll in the first blast at 25 and 14 in the second.

Umar said,   “For now, we have recorded 25 dead bodies. People had just closed from the Ramadan Tsafir led Sheik Bauchi, and we provided enough security at the Murtala Square, the venue of the Tafsir, but the bomb was planted far away from the venue, to target him through the route he was taking home.

“We are doing our best to safeguard the country, so we are appealing to the perpetrators to lay down the arms.”

VIDEO: Don Jazzy & The Mavins – Dorobucci

                          
“Directed by Nick Roux of Molotov Cocktail Productions, the visuals to the smashing hit single produced by Don Jazzy is finally here. The Hip video is set in South Africa and stars the hit making Mavin crew; Don Jazzy, Tiwa Savage, Dr Sid, D Prince, Korede Bello, DiJa and Reekado Banks. #CHOMAVINSUPERFAN winner Natalie Pitswe also appears in the video.”

Fans Insult Tonto Dikeh Over A Post

Tonto sparked the anger of her fans when she posted a photo of her cook rocking a Gucci Sandal.Fans were angry at the Nollywood actress for calling the cook her MAID!
                     

I am not a university graduate yet—Davido

             
Music sensation and BET awards winner, Davido (David Adedeji Adeleke), has cleared the air on the rumour that he was one of the new graduates from Babcock University, stressing that he only attended the ceremony to celebrate with a friend.
The artiste was forced to make the clarification following accusation that he graduated without writing any examination in the school.
Davido took to twitter to explain his side of the story. Read his tweets below:
                           

Jonathan, Mark meet Chibok girls’ parents behind closed-doors

                           
President Goodluck Jonathan is currently meeting with parents of the schoolgirls abducted from Chibok, Borno State on April 14 behind closed-doors.
Those who are attending the meeting holding inside the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja include 51 escaped girls, parents of escaped girls, parents of girls still in captivity as well as opinion and community leaders from Chibok.
Jonathan is attending the meeting alongside the President of the Senate, David Mark; Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State; Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State; members of the Federal Executive Council as well as service chiefs among others.
Journalists were asked to the leave the venue at about 11:20am when the meeting started.

Truck crushes four to death, injures six

                     
No fewer than four persons were said to have lost their lives on Monday after the driver of a truck loaded with bags of sachet water crashed into a market along LASU-Isheri Road, Odo Eran, Lagos State.

About six others, including two children, were reportedly injured in the incident that was said to have occurred at about 9.30am.

Our correspondent learnt that the driver, identified as Fredrick Stanley, had tried to avoid hitting a woman who was alighting from a tricycle before the truck crashed into the market due to a break failure.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the driver’s effort was not successful as he eventually rammed into the woman, crushing her and three others in the market to death.

The remains of the dead were said to have been deposited at a morgue in the Yaba area of the state, while the injured persons were taken to a hospital.

It was also said that some of the butchers operating in an abattoir inside the market attacked the driver with cutlasses when he attempted to flee the scene.

When our correspondent visited the place around 11.30am, the front part of the market, where pepper and other soup ingredients were being sold, was in shambles.

Items such as pepper, salt, pieces of meat, and sachets of pure water were entrapped in the rubble. Law enforcement agents were also on ground to help in the evacuation of the truck.

An eyewitness, who declined to give her name, told our correspondent that she identified four corpses and six injured persons, adding that their remains were mangled on the floor.

She said, “As far as I could see, four women died ─ the woman that the driver was trying to avoid, a woman who wanted to buy pepper, the pepper seller and one woman who was selling onion.”

A trader in the market said it was very unfortunate that the onion seller who they used to call “Mama” died at a time she was the sole bread winner of her family since her husband died sometime last year. She said Mama was eating when the disaster befell her.

The Divisional Police Officer, Ikotun Division, Mr. Haruna Alaba, who was also at the scene of the incident, declined to give the number of the victims to our correspondent.

However, an unnamed official of the Federal Road Safety Corps and the Chairman of the butchers in the market, Alhaji Kazeem Bamidele, said the accident claimed two lives while some persons were injured. They, however, did not disclose the number of the injured.

Bamidele also refuted the claim that his men attacked the driver.

The butchers’ boss said, “It is very shocking. I was not around when it happened. They called me on the phone and on getting here I felt very sad with the situation of things. I was told that two women died while others sustained minor injuries.

“This has never happened before since this market opened 20 years ago. I pray that God give the families of the deceased the fortitude to bear the loss of their loved ones.”

Bamidele explained further that the recklessness of commercial riders in the area was to a large extent responsible for the incident.

Olamide – Awon Goons Mi

                                   
Here’s a fresh freestyle from the most consistent musician in Nigeria at the moment, YBNL’s very own Olamide. He calls it “Awon Goons Mi“.
LISTEN

Nigerian Air Force Helicopter Crashes In Borno State

                     
A helicopter belonging to the Nigerian Air Force crashed today South of Bama, Nigeria’s Defence authorities have said.
A statement by the Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, said the Mi-35 helicopter was on a training mission, and crashed South of Bama, in Borno State, “due to technical fault.”
He did not say if there were any casualties or survivors, but stressed that it has been established that the crash was not attributable to enemy action.