Straight from the Headlines! What Everyone was Talking About This Week

It has been a great week for us here at Bellanaija.com and we hope it has been the same for you too.

Hello and welcome to your weekly round up of stories that made headlines across the country this week.

Several events have created topics for debate on issues ranging from politics to security, social media, air travel, the Nigerian Police and more.

Don’t let me keep you waiting. Please read further for more details.

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The Senate President, David Mark on Thursday called for a check on the menace of the social media on the Nigerian society, saying that people now use them to demean their leaders. Mark said the need to check the social media became necessary, as they do not have the avenue for retraction of whatever they had done. Senator Mark, who spoke in Umuahia, Abia State, while declaring open a two-day retreat for Senate Press corps, urged reporters to always cross check their facts before writing so as not to mislead the people, who depend on them to know what goes on around them.

A female pedestrian was crushed on Thursday morning at Kara Bus Stop, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway by a container after it fell from a moving trailer. The trailer was heading out of Lagos around 7am when it lost one of its tyres, making the driver to lose control of the truck momentarily. Witnesses said that as he struggled to regain control of the truck, it tipped over to its right side. As the truck fell, it landed on the woman, who was walking beside the road, in search of a commercial bus to her destination. The unidentified woman was said to have died instantly while a gridlock formed on the outbound Lagos side of the busy expressway.

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Two men were arrested with a human head this week. John Yakubu, 25, and Ishaya Dakulung, 30, were arrested along A.Y.A Junction of Asokoro District, Abuja, following a tip off. Both men confessed to the crime. Dakulung told journalists that he contacted Yakubu and offered him N250, 000 to get a fresh human head after he was approached by an unnamed person who wanted it for ritual purposes. Yakubu said he went back to his village, Angwa Galadima, in Nasarawa State, where he lured his neighbour’s child, 7-year-old Samu Danjuma, to a stream with a bread worth N20. There, he beheaded the boy and dumped his body in the stream; and returned to Abuja where he handed over the head to Dakulung.

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The new salary scale proposed for the police will take effect soon, Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG, in charge of Zone 9, Umuahia, Abia State, Mr. Solomon Olusegun, said this week in Awka, Anambra State. Olusegun, who was on a visit to Anambra State, urged officers and men of the force to exercise patience, explaining that the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, had facilitated the implementation of the new salary scale.

Two medical doctors kidnapped in Delta State, last weekend, which forced their colleagues to down tools for two days have been released. State police command’s spokesman, Mr. Charles Muka, who confirmed the release, said “the doctors escaped from the kidnappers as our crack team closed in on their hideout in a Hilux  patrol van.” The two medical doctors, who regained their freedom were Dr. Otobo Ugege, who was kidnapped in front of his house at Ekettee Waterside, Warri  and Dr. A.C. Ojumah, abducted in front of Government Hospital, Abraka.

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Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, have petitioned the Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah, over the recent 15-year age limit set for aircraft operating in the country. It also urged the minister to suspend the continued grounding of Dana Airlines, ADC, Sosoliso and Bellview Airlines to enable them resume flight operations. The group’s petition came against the backdrop of the new age limit for aircraft operating in Africa set at the just-concluded aviation conference in Abuja, which played host to aviation ministers and other stakeholders on the continent. The new age limit vacates the 22 years limit set by former Aviation Minister, Mrs. Kema Chikwe,  following the aftermath of EAS crash in Kano, which claimed about 100 lives, including those on ground.

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Two National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, members died on Tuesday while four others are in critical condition at a hospital following an accident involving a 14-seater bus, which crashed into a farmland on Makurdi-Aliade Road. The ill-fated vehicle, a Volkswagen bus belonging to the Anglican Communion, Diocese of Otukpo was conveying the corps members from the Benue State Orientation Camp in Wannune, to their places of primary assignment in Otukpo. A witness told newsmen that the driver of the bus, conveying the 14 corps members apparently fell asleep while on top speed.

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The United States Department of Justice has secured a restraining order against more than $3 million looted funds and a mansion in Houston, Texas owned by former Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori, in the U.S. Ibori is currently serving a 13-year jail term in the United Kingdom for corruption and money laundering. The department got the powers through an application filed under seal on May 16, 2012, in U.S District Court in the District of Columbia, to register and enforce two orders from United Kingdom courts against more than $3 million in corruption proceeds related to Ibori.

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How do you feel about the events that made headline across the country this week? Is there any other news story you would like to share?

Have a great weekend!