ENUGU- A 67 years old woman, Mrs. Regina Mba has been allegedly raped and killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen at an Enugu suburb, Nchatacha-Nike in Enugu East local government area of Enugu state.

The incident brought about large protest by members of the community who brought the corps of the woman along Enugu-Abakaliki, blocked the highway, burning tyres and prevented vehicular movement.

The protest attracted a large number of security personnel, including the army, police, Air force, who immediately embarked on air surveillance until the crowd was dispersed and movement resumed.

President General of Nchatancha-Nike community, Mr. Kingsley Anike who spoke exclusively with Vanguard said “She (the deceased) went to farm yesterday (Wednesday) within the hours of 2pm and 6 in the evening, she was attacked. Later in the evening when we expected her home, she didn’t come back. We started searching for her throughout the night and this morning (Thursday), there was an expanded search team.

“It wasn’t really a distant farm, it is a nearby farm because people are not leaving far from the location, so we saw her corps lying dead and on getting there we saw her undies were torn apart, lying by the side, she sustained stabbing on her hands and at the back of her neck and she is dead already.

“We called the police who have visited the scene and took photo shots of the whole situation. The body has been deposited in the mortuary.”

Asked who they suspect as culprits, Anike said “Isn’t that obvious? The Fulani; There was this Fulani group with their cattle within that area that we know and when this thing happened, they moved out, they relocated. It couldn’t have been any other person; indigenes couldn’t just have attacked follow indigenes and an old woman for that matter in her late 60s.

“She is an old woman and it couldn’t have been any other person that can perpetuate that type of act from the same community. So we are sure it’s the Fulani and that’s the obvious fact there. If the police want, let them do their investigation and state the fact. We know what the country is and we pray that justice will take its course.”

Anike denied an allegation that the community had previous misunderstanding with the herdsmen.

Enugu state police command, through its spokesman, Ebere Amaraizu said the police received report of the incident and that the commissioner of police, Suleiman Balarabe has directed for a full scale investigations with a view to establishing what actually happened and persons involved  and motives.

He however said the command advises members of the public to continue to be law abiding and avoid any thing that will truncate the existing peace and security in the state as security operatives will leave no stone unturned towards unmasking those behind the dastardly act. Taraba killings: Joint security panel worried over Wadume video (Opens in a new browser tab)

Amaraizu also confirmed the corpse of the deceased woman has been deposited at the hospital mortuary of the annunciation hospital for autopsy.

Sources told Vanguard that the Hausa/Fulani community in the state is afraid of reprisal against them since the issue of alleged killing by herdsmen has in the recent time become common place in the state.

Chairman of Miyetti-Allah Cattle Breeders Association, MACBAN, in Enugu state, Alhaji Haruna Salleh however denied that the killing was perpetuated by herdsmen.

Salleh said “We have been searching since we got the news and there are ho headsmen men around there. It was not herdsmen that killed the woman.”

KATSINA – The Katsina State Coordinator, National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Alhaji Ahidjo Yahaya said corps members involved in last Sunday’s ghastly motor accident that claimed lives of three and several others injured, travelled without obtaining permission.

This was as he warned corps members fond of traveling without permission to steer clear noting that unnecessary traveling without permission attracts punishment.

The coordinator gave the warning during the swearing in ceremony of the orientation course for the 2019 Batch B Stream II corps members numbering about 1,502 (621 males and 881 females) deployed to the state.

Yahaya said the punishment could be in form of extension of service year or remobilization (repeat of the service year).

He said on it part in the state is to write the report and send to the headquarters where they would decide the punishment.

According to him, “Most of the journies by the corps members, 60% or 70% are done without permission. And we have been warning them and we would continue to warn them.

“Traveling without obtaining permission is there in the Act establishing the NYSC since 1973, it was amended and it is still there. There are various punishment for various offences. It is there in the Bylaw. It depends on days you spent. It can lead to extension of service year, remobilization (repeat the service year), it depends on the gravity of the offence that you commit. There are various offences viz a vis there punishment. They are there in the bylaw.

“The last Sunday’s ghastly motor accident involving our corps members traveling to Funtua was not with permission. They went to Funtua without permission,” the state coordinator said.

It would be recalled that a ghastly motor accident involving 12 corps members in a vehicle carrying the inscription “National Association of Catholic Corps members” and on their way to attend a mass wedding in Funtua area of the state left three dead on the spot while nine sustaining degrees of injuries.

The state coordinator said less than five of the corps members were still receiving treatment at the hospital while arrangements are on top gear for the burial rites of the three who lost their lives in the accident.

“We have bought three caskets and they are there in the General hospital. We would be conveying them to their various homes by Saturday for their burial. We are footing the expenses of the burial arrangements. We are sending a powerful delegations which includes Senior officials of the NYSC and Senior officials from the Catholic from Bishop Kuka to accompany the corpses to the various destinations as we have also made arrangements with our other colleagues in those places to join them and receive the corpses while we stay back to take care of those in the hospital.

“All corps members were insured by insurance company. So any corps members who died during service year, the family or next of kin will be given N1million,” Yahaya said.

The State Coordinator however said the deceased corps members were from Ebonyi, Imo and Delta states respectively.

Meanwhile, declaring the orientation course open, the Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Youth and Social Development, Hussaini Dangani called on the corps members to shun corruption, other social vices to embrace integrity and be change agents.

Former big brother Naija house mate, Cynthia Nwadiora popularly known as Ceece has dropped beautiful photos of herself posing with her Benz.

The Benz was given to her by royal hair when she sealed a deal as their brand ambassador in June 2019.

She was named the most successful housemate in the 2018 #BB Naija show.

This was a measure of her awards, endorsements, appearances in movies, etc after the show.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has cancelled the unified tertiary matriculation examination (UTME) result of Kingsley Unekwe for altering his score.

The board said 18- year old Unekwe was caught inflating his original UTME score from 201 to 269.

He becomes the fifth person whose UTME result has been withdrawn and cancelled by the board.

JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, disclosed this to reporters when Unekwe and his mother appeared before some officials of the board in Abuja on Friday.

The registrar said Unekwe had edited the original score allocated to him by the board and presented it to his parents as the original result.

He said the boy’s parent had called the board, alleging irregularities in their son’s result, leading to their invitation to Abuja from Awka, Anambra state.

Unekwe, in the presence of his mother and officials of JAMB, confessed to have tampered with the original UTME result allocated to him by the board.

He said his original score of 201 didn’t meet the requirement to read medicine which his parents wanted him to study at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

He explained that to make his parents happy, and proud, he had to edit the original UTME result to meet their expectation of him becoming a doctor.

Unekwe appealed to the board for clemency, feigning ignorance of his crime.

But JAMB registrar said the boy would be handed over to security agencies for prosecution.

Prof. Oloyede said: “Anybody who does post-result infraction, will have their results withdrawn by the board.

“You are the fifth person. Two of them are already being prosecuted because we showed them clearly that they forged their results to deceive their parents who are desperate, like your parents are to study medicine.

The Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, in Bayelsa has sealed nine petrol stations and one illegal transfilling Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, plant for various offences, including expired licences and the lack of basic operational equipment.

Long Queque at NNPC Fuel Station at Eleme along Aba Road in Port Harcourt weekend. Photo: Nwankpa Chijioke

The Head of Operations, Mr Ibinabo Jack, who led the team of other DPR officials on an unscheduled visit to various filling stations and gas refilling plants within the state capital, said the sealed stations had violated the operational regulations and standards of DPR.

According to him, “the DPR is a regulatory body and there are regulations binding the operations of retail outlets and this regulation, needs to be maintained by the operators some we are saying that retail outlets operators, should abide with the regulations for their retail outlets.”

He added: “The stations that were placed under seal, must have committed so many irregularities that are punishable. Some were under dispensing some were not having fire extinguishers.

“The penalty varies according to their offences as we go on when they report, we seal for them to report at the office and the appropriate penalties will be meted out to any one of them.

“We saw a retail outlet in which they were selling cooking gas they were trans filling, by that I mean transferring from one cylinder to another cylinder with a tube and valve which is not allowable. That is purely out of practice it’s not accepted that is why we close down that particular station for them to move out that activity in that filling station.

“This reseller is a business they do, they are resellers they are been licensed to some have no licences accordingly been taken care of putting impunity measures but most of them that you may see must have not had their license.”

The leadership of the Senate, led by the President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan has arrived Katsina to pay Sallah homage on President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura.

In the entourage of the President of the Senate are Senate Leader Abdullahi Yahaya; the Deputy Senate Leader, Ajayi Borrofice; the Deputy Whip Sabi Abdullahi; the Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe; the Minority whip Sen. Philip Aduda; the Deputy Minority Whip, Sahabi Ya’u; and the three senators representing Katsina state, inluding Sen. Babba A Kaita, Sen. Abdullahi K Barkiya, and Sen. Bello Mandiya.

Liverpool goalkeeper Adrian is doubtful for Saturday’s Premier League trip to Southampton after sustaining a freak injury while celebrating their UEFA Super Cup victory over Chelsea, manager Juergen Klopp said on Friday.

Adrian, signed on a free transfer earlier this month, only came into the side to fill in for first-choice keeper Alisson who suffered a calf injury in the opening Premier League victory over Norwich City last week.

The Spaniard became a club hero only days after joining by blocking Tammy Abraham’s penalty to hand Klopp’s side a 5-4 shootout victory on Wednesday.

However, he was left with a swollen ankle after a supporter who invaded the pitch to join in their celebrations slipped and kicked his foot.

“When we were all together (celebrating after the match), a supporter jumped over something, was chased by some security guys, slipped and kicked his (Adrian’s) ankle,” Klopp told a news conference.

“So yesterday it was swollen — today it is better, but we have to see… it would help him a lot if it was 100% clear he can play tomorrow… it’s not funny.

“He will not go for a scan. We wait for the swelling to go down. It went down already.

“You can imagine, you have that and then you fly four hours back and that doesn’t help swelling.”
The setback leaves Liverpool short of their two main keepers, but Klopp said back-ups Andrew Lonergan and Caoimhin Kelleher were ready if needed.
“We need to think about Saturday to find a way to win the game. Andy Lonergan is in training with Kelleher and we have them if we have to make a decision,” Klopp said.
“Adrian was a week before, Lonergan has trained with us. Kelleher has potential but is not 100 per cent yet. We’ll see.”
Midfielder Naby Keita was also ruled out after picking up a muscle strain ahead of the clash with Chelsea.(NAN)

In a new development to combat Ebola Virus Disease, scientists and doctors in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been running a clinical trial of new drugs to try to combat a year-long Ebola outbreak.

Two new drugs have shown remarkable promise at treating Ebola in a clinical trial, increasing survival rates for people who recently contracted the disease.

The therapies saved roughly 90 percent of the patients who were newly infected, a turning point in the fight against the virus. A randomized trial comparing four different treatments in four towns began in November.

This trial was part of the international emergency response to the epidemic in Congo.

The trial enrolled roughly 700 patients to try four experimental drugs.

However, of the four, two treatments known as REGN-EB3 and mAb114 were considered effective

The two drugs work by intravenously infusing a combination of monoclonal antibodies into the patient’s blood.

While the other two drugs, Remdesivir and ZMapp, will no longer be administered because they resulted in death rates up to 3 times as high as the other two drugs in patients with low viral loads.

“From now on we will no longer say that Ebola is not curable. This advance will in the future help save thousands of lives that would have had a fatal outcome in the past.” Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director general of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Institut National de Recherche Biomedicale, announced during a press briefing.

Ebola first emerged more than 40 years ago, and it sparked global fear after massive outbreaks in West Africa between 2014 and 2016 killed more than 11,300 people.

Smaller outbreaks have continued, including an ongoing crisis in Congo where nearly 2,800 people have been diagnosed and more than 1,800 people have died.

The World Health Organization declared Ebola a public health emergency “of international concern” this July.

Dr. Muyembe said, news of a cure could change the course of the outbreak.

Dr. Muyembe, 77, who is referred to as a “true hero” has been fighting Ebola since it first appeared in what was then Zaire in 1976.

The virologist spent 43 years of his life finding a cure for the virus which has affected his country since 1976.

Decades ago, he pioneered the use of survivors’ blood serum — which contains antibodies — in order to save patients. The two experiment treatments that proved successful last week descend in part from his original research

Manchester City will seek revenge against Tottenham on Saturday for their dramatic Champions League exit last season as Liverpool and Manchester United also look to build on impressive Premier League starts this weekend.

Man City completed the first-ever domestic treble of trophies in England last season but fell short once more in the Champions League as Tottenham progressed from their quarter-final tie on away goals.

VAR disallowed Raheem Sterling’s strike deep into stoppage time of a thrilling second leg 4-3 win for the English champions in April, robbing Sterling of his hat-trick on the night and City a place in the last four.

Yet, Sterling has started the new campaign as he finished the last, scoring a hat-trick on the opening weekend as City thrashed West Ham 5-0 to already move to the top of the table.

Tottenham was also victorious against Aston Villa but needed to come from behind and two goals in the final five minutes from Harry Kane to secure a 3-1 win over promoted Aston Villa.

Kane has warned that Spurs cannot fall behind so early in the campaign if they want to maintain a title challenge.

“We have to make sure we get off to a good start,” said the England captain.

“It’s important that we stay in touch for as long as we can.

“We have full belief that we can go all the way but there’s a long road ahead.”

Liverpool will hope to have forged ahead by the time City and Spurs kick-off at the Etihad when they travel to a Southampton side reeling from a disappointing 3-0 defeat at Burnley to start the season.

Lampard comes home
Chelsea was the only member of the ‘big six’ to get off to a losing start as the Blues were humbled 4-0 by Manchester United in Frank Lampard’s first game in charge.

The former England midfielder fairly argued that the scoreline was very harsh on his side after they enjoyed the better of the opening hour.

And there was further encouragement for Lampard in his side’s performance despite losing the UEFA Super Cup to Liverpool on penalties after a 2-2 draw in Istanbul on Wednesday.

“To lose the game was disappointing but if it means Chelsea’s season can be something like how we played today, we’ll be OK,” he said.

After a summer in which Lampard could not sign new players and Chelsea lost Eden Hazard to Real Madrid, facing a refreshed United and relentless Liverpool was a baptism of fire for Lampard.

Chelsea’s all-time top goalscorer is still assured of a hero’s welcome for his first home game as manager against Leicester at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

But he badly needs a win to quieten the doubters over Chelsea’s decision to hand a club legend with just one year’s managerial experience such a high-profile job.

The true test for new United
After the negativity that greeted Manchester United securing just three new signings in the transfer window, the comprehensive margin of victory over Chelsea was the perfect tonic for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Daniel James all made a big impact as United registered just their second clean sheet at home in the Premier League under the Norwegian, while James came off the bench to score the final goal.

However, a Monday night trip to Wolves will be another tough test of United’s ambitions this season.

Solskjaer’s men lost on both visits to Molineux last season.

“When you start the season like this, the club, the supporters, everyone goes home bouncing and happy. Now it’s about levelling out,” said Solskjaer.

“We know the last two games went against them when I was there. We just have to make sure we do everything we can and there’s no repeat of that scoreline.”

OSUN POLY: SOME parents of Osun State Polytechnic, Iree students, yesterday, commended the management of the institution for charging the undergraduates the sum of 10 thousand naira (N10,000) as damages fees.

The students had on June 1, 2019 burnt the school health centre and a vehicle while protesting the death of one of their colleagues, Aminu Shehu, an HND I student, who died during the suspended second semester examination.

The deceased was said to have fallen ill while writing examination on Friday, May 31, 2019 and was not attended to at the school clinic, leading the irate students to vandalise and burn school properties.

A statement issued by the school’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Tope Abiola, disclosed that the parents under the auspices of Vanguard for Good parenting, VGP, led by Chief Michael Ogundaisi, who visited the Acting Rector, Dr. Olawoye Olaniran in his office, said that the decision of the authorities of the institution to charge such a meagre amount is highly commendable and compassionate, considering the extent of damage done to the institution on June 1, 2019.

“The VGP during a courtesy visit to the institution thanked the acting rector and other members of Management for their kind gesture, saying initially we were expecting a charge of about thirty-five thousand naira (N35,000.00) considering the huge damage done by the students and economic reality of the country.”