TOKE MAKINWA’S HUBBY MAKES FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE AFTER MARRIAGE CRISIS

Since reports went viral some days ago about a rumoured crisis in the marriage of Toke Makinwa and her husband, Maje Ayida, the man in the eye of the storm has not been spotted at a social or public function.

But Maje, who rarely attends public event, seems to have made his first since the news of his alleged troubled marriage broke.

He was seen at an event held on Saturday, July 4, 2015 in Victoria Island, Lagos. Maje was spotted alone without Toke.

The fitness coach was at an event tagged ‘Project Smile 3.0’, an award and fund-raising ceremony designed to host selected influential individuals to support the dental makeover treatment of candidates who made it through the final of the clinical screening and evaluation exercise from among the hundreds of entries recorded in the Project Smile 3.0 Smile Makeover Contest.

The event was hosted by IK Osakioduwa and had in attendance wife of Nigeria’s Vice President, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo, who was the keynote speaker

Buhari approves N400bn for workers’ salaries

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a comprehensive relief package valued at over N400bn to put an end to the lingering crisis of unpaid workers’ salaries in the country.

Vanguard gathered that a three-pronged relief package that will end the workers plight include:

*The sharing of about $2.1b (N413.7bn) in fresh allocation between the states and the federal government. The money is sourced from recent LNG proceeds to the federation account, and its release okayed by the president;

*A Central Bank-packaged special intervention fund that will offer financing to the states, ranging from between N250bn to N300bn. This would be a soft loan available to states to access for the purposes of paying backlog of salaries;

* And a debt relief program proposed by the Debt Management Office, DMO, which will help states restructure their commercial loans currently put at over N660bn, and extend the life span of such loans while reducing their debt-servicing expenditures.

Vanguard

Lagos dep gov hosts Ruth Uche, urges runaway husband to return

Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr Idiat Oluranti Adebule, Monday, played host to Mrs. Ruth Uche and her set of twins, who were abandoned by her husband, Mr. Benjamin Uche.

Dr Adebule, at the meeting advised the run-away husband to come forward and take up the responsibility of caring for his family, admonishing him to be appreciative of the divine blessings that have come his way through the children.

Mrs. Uche’s visit to the deputy governor’s office is a follow-up to the directive of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode who directed that the woman and her children be rehabilitated and assisted by all relevant government agencies to ensure they are in good condition.
Speaking while hosting the woman the deputy governor sympathized with her over the traumatic experience of trying to raise the six children following the disappearance of her husband, assuring that the government will ensure the well-being of her children.

“As a woman and a mother, I can only imagine what you have gone through managing six children, it must have been energy sapping and depressing, but I salute your courage and I want to assure you that this government will not abandon you, we will stand by you and ensure that you are assisted to get back to a normal life,” Adebule.

Vanguard

Meditating Portuguese actor mistaken for terrorist on Paris plane

A Portuguese actor humming a prayer as he meditated to a sacred Tibetan text on board a plane awaiting takeoff from Paris, was mistaken for a terrorist by alarmed passengers and taken off the flight by police.

Heitor Lourenco said on Monday in Lisbon that police said had been denounced as a terrorism suspect aboard the plane because he was reciting the Koran aloud.

Lourenco, 47, said his text, which he was reading on a tablet device, contained Tibetan characters.

The suspect said the device also had the timer on, to tell him how long he had meditated, which probably caused associations with a bomb.

He said he was released after six hours of questioning, during which police watched videos of him on the Internet showing that he was a theater and television actor.

Lourenco said they also checked his profile on Wikipedia, which states that he was a Buddhist.

Credit: NAN

OPD to defend suspected killer of Lagos lawyer

A Lagos State High Court in Ikeja has urged Seun Oladapo, the suspected killer of the slain human rights lawyer, Kunle Fadipe, to approach the Lagos Office of Public Defender for legal representation.

The trial judge, Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye, gave the directive on Monday when the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions brought the suspect before her for arraignment.

But Ipaye, noting that Oladapo had no legal representation, said the suspect could not be arraigned in the absence of his lawyer because of the weight of the charges against him.

The judge, therefore advised the suspect to approach the OPD if he could not afford the services of a lawyer, emphasising that the court would not wait till eternity.

Oladapo was apprehended by men of the Oodua Peoples Congress at Harmony Estate, Ifako Ijaye, Lagos on the night of July 3, 2014 after he allegedly stabbed Fadipe to death.

On Monday, when the case was called in court, the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions, Mrs. Idowu Alakija, informed the judge of the charges filed by the state against Oladapo and sought the permission of the court to take the plea of the suspect.

But Ipaye, who noted that Oladapo had no lawyer, asked him for the whereabouts of his counsel.

The suspect however replied, “I will call my family; I don’t know that they will bring me to court today.”

Consequent upon this development, the judge indicated that the case would have to be adjourned but charged the suspect to, as a matter of urgency, secure the services of a lawyer, saying the court could not wait for him till eternity.

“Because of the nature of the charge against you, the court cannot wait till eternity.

“You should make arrangement for a lawyer, but if you cannot afford, you can get one from the Office of the Public Defender.

“In order to give him sufficient time to get a lawyer, take the covering letter to the Office of Public Defender,” Ipaye said.

She subsequently adjourned till July 22, 2015 to take the suspect’s plea.

Meanwhile, lawyers, community members, leaders, friends and family of the slain Fadipe gathered last week Saturday to relive his memories one year after he passed on.

In attendance at the occasion, where a non-governmental organisation, Kunle Fadipe Initiative, was inaugurated, was a mixed crowd ranging from a sitting judge of the Lagos State High Court, Justice Ganiu Safari, to members of the commercial motorcycle riders’ association in the area.

Justice Safari, in his tribute to the deceased, described him as “frank and friendly.”

Safari added, “When I learnt of his death and the circumstances surrounding his death, I could not believe it until I saw his obituary on the premises of the Lagos State High Court; I still somehow doubted it until I came for the wake keep and saw his body in the coffin.

“One thing I told the people who were speculating was that Alex Fadipe could not have got himself involved in anything that would warrant anybody sending an assassin after him.”

Credit: The Punch

JULIUS AGWU NARRATES NEAR-DEATH ORDEAL

Not many knew that popular comedian, Julius Agwu, had a close shave with death few months ago. For a while, his sudden weight loss had become an issue of concern as some unpleasant stories circulated as to the cause of the illness.

In a recent interview with YES Magazine, the father of two narrated how he almost lost his life to brain lumps.

On the genesis of his ill health, he said he can’t specifically state when and how it all started. But all he could recollect was that at some point, he started losing weight drastically, which got many people wondering.

He said some concerned ones started proffering solutions, both medically and spiritually, while others resorted to murmuring and gossiping.

"It went on and on until sometimes in May when I had a seizure at home while with my wife, Ibiere. She battled to halt that, after I ran out of breath. With the likely consequences starring her in the face, Ibiere got the maid and the security man to assist her in getting me into one of the cars.

“And from there, they practically sprinted to the hospital in Lekki. Thank God the doctor was on call. He battled for hours with his team to bring me back to life," Julius narrated.

After they succeeded in stabilising him, Julius and his wife immediately left for the United States of America, Houston to be precise, where arrangement had been made at the Park Plaza Hospital.

"After a series of tests, two lumps were discovered in my brain! The lumps had been messing up my health and causing the incessant weight loss.

“Immediately, the Caucasian surgeons went to work, operating on me for about 4 hours on Tuesday, May 12, 2015, at the Park Plaza Hospital in Houston Texas, United States of America," he recalled.

It was indeed a huge success and upon being discharged, Julius rested in the US for sometimes before returning home recently.

He is currently putting things together for the 10th anniversary of his annual Crack Ya Ribs in London.

UNITY BANK SUSPENDS MD, HENRY SEMENITARI FOR ALLEGED N100M FRAUD AND UNETHICAL PRACTICES

While the wife of Unity Bank Managing Director’s wife, Ibim Semenitari, the former Rivers State Commissioner for Information, is having a running battle with the new governor, Nyesom Wike, his banker’s husband, Henry J. Semenitari, is definitely not having a good time as his bank, Unity Bank, has ignominiously suspended him as its Managing Director.

According to News of the People, the technical suspension was subtly described as compulsory leave, which is obviously the beginning of the exit of the banker from Unity Bank. The board of directors has resolved that he should proceed on compulsory leave after members of staff of the bank revolted with damaging allegations and evidences.

The entire scenario according to an insider is centered around alleged fraud and unethical practices. The managing director’s dilemma was said to have began few months back when some staff sent a strong petition to an influential major shareholder in the bank who is also a former Nigeria leader who instructed the Chairman of the bank, Thomas Etuh, to appoint a forensic auditor to investigate the allegations.

It was also alleged that all the allegations were later found to be true, according to the report of the auditors. At the beginning of the forensic investigations, Henry was advised to proceed on leave but he refused until when the investigation was concluded when he then volunteered to go on leave. At this stage the chairman was said to have told him it was too late, that the board directed he proceeds on suspension described in his letter as compulsory leave.

It was gathered that one of the major allegations was squandering of almost N100 million on bulletproof vehicles for his use. Another reckless spending cited in the petition is payment of productivity bonus allowances to some selected few and indiscriminate sack of staffers without recourse to the board of directors.

Sensing a looming crisis, a source informed that it was the recklessness of the banker that made the former chairman of the bank to resign with a decoy that he was pursuing a political career which he lost in his homestead of Katsina. Semenitari has been the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director at Unity Bank Plc since January 2014.