Tunde Ednut has revealed what led to the death of Davido’s official photographer, Fortunate Umunname Peter aka Fortune.

Ednut shared alleged details of how Fortune died while working on a photoshoot session on an Island.

“I’m sure you have all heard of fortune’s death by now. He died while at a shoot on Orange Island near Freedom way."

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“He fell into the water while scouting for a good shot apparently. It’s absurd and everyone knows fortune doesn’t know how to swim, so it makes no sense that he would risk it around deep waters like that."

“We did our investigations and found out he was only with his blood brother, so it’s tough to build any case of the sort. Left helpless and confused. His dad has taken control."

“We are yet to find and identify anybody. Please, everyone, be careful, that’s all I can say. May his soul rest in peace, Rest On Fortune”.

The late Bariga-born photographer has been working with Davido since 2019.

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How Davido’s official photographer died, by Tunde Ednut

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has slammed those criticizing him for the decision of the state government to challenge the legality of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to collect Value Added Tax (VAT).

He believes Nigeria must encourage federating states to harness their resources and generate revenues, including VAT to advance their development.

Governor Wike stated this on Monday when the Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of the SUN (Newspaper) Publishing Limited, Mr Onuoha Ukeh, led a delegation to present a letter of nomination to him as the SUN Man of the Year 2020 Award at Government House in Port Harcourt.

“Some people say, be your brother’s keeper; I have no problem in being my brother’s keeper but why not come out and say, let us tell ourselves the simple truth?” he queried. “As it is being provided in the law, who is the person responsible to collect the VAT?

“When you agree to that, that it is the state, then we can sit down to look at the different problems of states. And not to say be your brother’s keeper while you’re doing an illegal thing, in disobeying what the law says you should not do.”

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The governor faulted one of his colleagues who reportedly threatened that the judgement of the court that allowed states to collect VAT within their jurisdiction would not stand.

He said rather, such a governor should commend Rivers State government for seeking to entrench fiscal federalism and constitutionalism.

Governor Wike raised an alarm over attempts to frustrate Rivers and other states to actualize the constitutional provisions that empowered them to harness their resources and revenues, particularly VAT.

He also described as an act of discrimination, the alleged refusal of the Federal Government to include Rivers as one of the states that would benefit from projects, for which it was seeking fresh foreign loans to execute.

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“Look at the money that Federal Government has gone to borrow from the World Bank, of all the projects in all the states, the Federal Government did not include Rivers State,” the governor said.

He explained that beyond the provision of infrastructure, his administration was seeking a law that would provide comfortable accommodation for judicial officers on retirement.

The reason, he said, was to ensure that while in service, the judicial officers can concentrate on their jobs without cutting corners and avoid corrupt practices.

Governor of Rivers state on VAT collection

Wike Slams Critics Over VAT Collection Dispute

The Taliban said on Tuesday Afghan girls will be allowed to return to school “as soon as possible”, after their movement faced international fury over their effective exclusion of women and girls from education and work. 

The hardliners’ spokesman meanwhile announced the remaining members of Afghanistan’s all-male government, weeks after the militants seized Kabul in an offensive that shocked the world.

The Taliban were notorious for their brutal, oppressive rule from 1996 to 2001 when women were largely barred from work and school, including being banned from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative.

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One month after seizing power and pledging a softer version of their previous regime, the Islamists have incrementally stripped away at Afghans’ freedoms.

“The work is continuing over the issues of education and work of women and girls,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at a press conference, saying schools will reopen “as soon as possible”, without providing a timeframe.

“More time is needed… instructions on how to deal with their work, their services, and their education are needed because the system has changed and an Islamic system is in place.”

At the weekend, girls and female teachers were excluded from returning to secondary school, while boys and male teachers were ordered back to the classroom.

The Taliban have also slashed women’s access to work, with officials previously telling them to stay at home for their own security until segregation under the group’s restrictive interpretation of sharia law can be implemented.

The group imposed a harsh interpretation of sharia law during their last rule and this time round have said progress in women’s rights will be respected “within the framework of Islamic law”.

Many women however are deeply suspicious about the Taliban’s pledges.

“This happened last time. They kept saying they would allow us to return to work, but it never happened,” a woman teacher told AFP on Monday.

New additions to the Taliban’s government were also announced on Tuesday, with businessmen and engineers added to the line-up, as well as a doctor appointed as health minister.

The Taliban had promised an inclusive administration, but no women were added on Tuesday, and it remains largely drawn from loyalist ranks.

A member of the Hazara community, which is majority Shiite and has long been persecuted by the Sunni Taliban — joined the health ministry as a deputy minister.

Although still marginalised, Afghan women have fought for and gained basic rights in the past 20 years, becoming lawmakers, judges, pilots, and police officers, though mostly limited to large cities.

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There was no mention in the press conference of the recently shut down women’s affairs ministry, with its offices replaced with a department notorious for enforcing strict religious doctrine during the Taliban’s last rule.

Women have been at the forefront of several small, scattered protests across the country — a show of resistance unthinkable under the last regime — demanding to be included in public life.

The Taliban have attempted to shut them down, slapping rules on any form of assembly.

The Taliban now face the colossal task of transitioning from insurgent force to ruling Afghanistan, an aid-dependent country whose economic troubles have only deepened since the Islamists seized power and outside funding was frozen.

Many government employees have not been paid for months, with food prices soaring.

“We are working on a mechanism for the payment of salaries. Salaries will be paid to all the employees in coming days,” Mujahid said.

While many Afghans are relieved that the Taliban victory has brought an end to the ongoing fighting, airstrikes, and bomb attacks, the Islamic State group branch of Afghanistan remains a security risk.

It has claimed a handful of bomb attacks in their former stronghold of Nangarhar province, as well as a devastating suicide blast that killed scores of people outside Kabul airport during the chaotic US-led evacuation.

Taliban Say Girls To Return To School ‘Soon As Possible’

Naomi Osaka slipped out of the top five in the WTA rankings on Monday while Simona Halep, another former world number one, continued her slide by also dropping three places.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka fell from fifth to eighth as Halep, who married boyfriend Toni Iuruc last week in a civil ceremony in her hometown of Constanta, tumbled down to 14th.

Ashleigh Barty remains top and French Open winner Barbora Krejcikova climbed to a career-high of fifth.

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Danish teenager Clara Tauson rose 18 places to 52nd after capturing her second title of the year in Luxembourg.

Italy’s Jasmine Paolini jumped from 87th to 64th following her first WTA title at Portoroz, Slovenia.

13. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) 3285 (+1)

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Osaka Drops Out Of Top Five In WTA Rankings

A gunman opened fire on a Russian university campus on Monday killing at least eight people, investigators said, in the country’s second mass shooting this year to target students.

Videos circulating on social media showed people throwing belongings from windows of university buildings in the central city of Perm before jumping to flee the shooter.

The Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said several people were injured in the attack at Perm State National Research University and that the suspect, a student at the university, had been wounded while being detained.

State media broadcast amateur footage reportedly taken during the attack showing an individual dressed in black tactical clothing, including a helmet, carrying a weapon, and walking through the campus.

In a statement carried by Russian news agencies, the health ministry said 24 people were receiving treatment, including 19 who had received gunshot wounds. The health ministry declined to comment when reached by AFP.

“On September 20, a student, who was on the territory of one of the buildings of Perm State National Research University, opened fire on those around him,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

Investigators had initially said five people were killed and another six wounded.

School shootings are relatively unusual in Russia due to tight security at education facilities and because it is difficult to buy firearms legally, although it is possible to register hunting rifles.

President Vladimir Putin had been notified of the shooting, the Kremlin said, adding that the health and science ministers had been ordered to travel to Perm to coordinate assistance for the victims.

“The president expresses sincere condolences to those who have lost family and loved ones as a result of this incident,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Regional authorities said that classes at local schools, colleges and universities were cancelled on Monday.

Russia’s last deadly attack at an educational facility took place in May 2021, when a 19-year-old opened fire in his old school in the central city of Kazan, killing nine people.

Investigators said that the gunman suffered from a brain disorder. But he was deemed fit to receive a license for the semi-automatic shotgun he used in the attack.

On the day of that attack — one of the worst in recent Russian history — Putin called for a review of gun control laws.

In November 2019, a 19-year-old student in the far eastern town of Blagoveshchensk opened fire at his college, killing one classmate and injuring three other people before shooting and killing himself.

In October 2018, another teenage gunman killed 20 people at a Kerch technical college in Crimea, the peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

He was shown in camera footage wearing a similar T-shirt to Eric Harris, one of the killers in the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in the United States, which left 13 people dead.

The Crimea shooter was able to legally obtain a gun licence after undergoing marksmanship training and being examined by a psychiatrist.

The country’s FSB security service says it has prevented dozens of armed attacks on schools in recent years.

The shooting took place as Russia was counting ballots following three-day parliamentary and local elections.

Russian policemen trying to stop a gun man 

Eight Killed After Gunman Opens Fire On Russian Campus

The bandits had requested a N50 million ransom for the release of the former NBC director and N20 million for his daughter's.

The kidnappers of a former director at the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Ahmad Abdulkadir, have released him after nine days in their captivity.

They, however, refused to release his 15-year-old daughter, Laila Ahmad, who was kidnapped alongside him in Bakori, Katsina.

Previous reports described how the gunmen attacked Bakori Housing Quarters and took away the duo with some neighbors.

The suspected bandits also requested a N50 million ransom for the release of the broadcaster and N20 million for his daughter’s.

A close associate of Mr Ahmed, who is also a broadcaster, told Premium Times that he was released Thursday evening by the bandits.

“Yes. He has been released but his daughter, Laila, who is seriously sick, is still with them,” the source, who asked to remain anonymous, said.

As usual in such cases, he did not say if ransom was paid before Mr Abdulkadir was released.

The police spokesperson in Katsina, Gambo Isa’s line was busy the three times this reporter called him.

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The bandits had requested a N50 million ransom for the release of the former NBC director's daughter 

Bandits release NBC ex-director, hold daughter

Hundreds of aid trucks have not returned from Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region, and their disappearance is “the primary impediment” to ramping up the humanitarian response, the United Nations said Friday.

The disclosure from the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) comes amid rising fears of starvation deaths in Tigray, where the UN has previously estimated that 400,000 people faced famine-like conditions.

Since July 12, 445 contracted non-WFP trucks have entered Tigray, but only 38 have returned, WFP spokeswoman Gemma Snowdon said in a statement.

“At the moment this is the primary impediment to moving humanitarian aid into Tigray. We are unable to assemble convoys of significant size due to lack of trucks,” Snowdon said.

“We are continuing to work with transporters and local authorities in Tigray for trucks to be released.”

WFP has no information about where the trucks are or what they are being used for, Snowdon said.

Tigray has been mired in conflict since November when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to topple the regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, a move he said came in response to TPLF attacks on army camps.

The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner promised a swift victory, but the TPLF retook much of Tigray including its capital Mekele in June and Abiy then declared a humanitarian ceasefire.

But the UN says Tigray remains under a “de facto blockade” and has warned of a “looming catastrophe” as fighting has dragged on and spread to neighboring regions.

The Ethiopian authorities and Tigrayan rebels have blamed each other for obstructing humanitarian convoys trying to reach Tigray.

A government Twitter account on Thursday referred to “suspicions that TPLF (is) seizing trucks for own logistics”.

But TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda cited obstacles drivers faced while entering Tigray from neighboring Afar region, adding they have “nothing to do” with Tigrayan officials.

“Drivers of trucks that UN has commissioned complain about fuel availability, (security) concerns, harassment at checkpoints, being stranded at Afar for months, etc.,” he said on Twitter.

A humanitarian official in Tigray, speaking on condition of anonymity, said many truck drivers were Tigrayan and had faced ethnically-motivated harassment at checkpoints while heading into the region.

Hundreds Of Aid Trucks ‘Not Returned’ From Tigray – UN

President Rodrigo Duterte was swept to power in 2016 on a promise to get rid of narcotics in the Philippines, unleashing an unprecedented campaign against suspected drug users and dealers. 

The authoritarian firebrand has defended the brutal crackdown — his signature policy — that rights groups estimate has killed tens of thousands of people.

More than five years after the bloody campaign began, the International Criminal Court on Wednesday authorised a full-blown investigation into the killings.

Here is a timeline of key events during the drug war:

Duterte is sworn into office on June 30, 2016, promising a ruthless and deeply controversial war on crime.

Security services are given shoot-to-kill orders and even offered bounties for the bodies of drug dealers.

The former city mayor tells ordinary Filipinos to kill drug users.

“If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful,” Duterte says.

Since then, at least 6,181 people die in over 200,000 anti-narcotics operations, official data show.

ICC prosecutors in court papers estimate the figure to be between 12,000 to 30,000.

Duterte orders police to take a step back from the drug war in January, describing them as “corrupt to the core” and instructing the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to lead after revelations that officers kidnapped and murdered a South Korean businessman.

It’s not long before Duterte reinstates the force and re-launches the war under the name “Double Barrel Reloaded” — so-called for the two-pronged police strategy to wipe out drugs.

He demotes the police again in October in the face of mounting public opposition to the drug war — before ordering them back to the frontlines of the crackdown less than two months later.

Three policemen are sentenced to decades in prison for murdering a teenager during an anti-narcotics sweep, marking the first conviction of officers carrying out Duterte’s drug war.

The 2017 killing of Kian delos Santos in a dank Manila alley sparks rare protests against the campaign.

Police say the 17-year-old was a drug courier who fired at them while resisting arrest. However, CCTV footage shows two of the policemen dragging the unarmed boy moments before he was shot dead.

The Philippines officially exits the International Criminal court in March, a year after telling the United Nations that it was quitting the world’s only permanent war crimes tribunal.

The move comes after the ICC launches a preliminary examination in 2018 into Duterte’s drug crackdown.

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The United Nations’ human rights office says in June the drug war has unleashed widespread and systematic killing with “near impunity” for offenders.

Calling for an independent probe into human rights abuses, the office says police have been encouraged by the highest levels of government to use lethal force on drug suspects and thousands have been killed by officers and unknown gunmen since 2016.

But the UN Human Rights Council, which had requested the review of the crackdown, later passes a resolution for the UN to provide “technical assistance” to the Philippines to improve human rights in the country.

The International Criminal Court approves a full-blown investigation into the drug war on September 15, after its judges say the crackdown could be a crime against humanity.

Duterte does not immediately respond, but his close advisers insist the tribunal has no jurisdiction in the Philippines and the president will not cooperate.

The announcement comes weeks after Duterte, who is barred under the constitution from seeking a second term, declares he will run for vice president in next year’s elections.

Critics say the move is partly driven by fear of criminal charges, though there is debate over whether the vice president enjoys legal immunity.

‘Kill Them’: Philippines’ Duterte Wages War On Drugs

The mystery of how the hugely courageous UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold died 60 years ago has only thickened since his plane crashed in the African bush, killing all on board. 

Was the Swede, who was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, murdered by rebels and mercenaries working in cahoots with Western intelligence agencies and mining companies, or was pilot error to blame?

A long-running investigation by the British newspaper The Observer found that London and Washington had much to answer for.

And an award-winning 2019 documentary “Cold Case Hammarskjold” pointed the finger at a Belgian mercenary pilot with links to British intelligence.

The tragedy happened on the night of September 17-18, 1961 as the UN’s DC-6 Albertina aircraft took Hammarskjold and his team to Ndola in what was then the British colony of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).

He was headed there to negotiate a ceasefire with Moise Tshombe, leader of the secessionist Katanga state that was seeking to break from the former Belgian Congo after independence that June.

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The Cold War was at its height and the dashing and dynamic Hammarskjold, the youngest person ever to lead the UN, was determined to defend the international body’s independence from Washington and Moscow as well as the old colonial powers.

The trip was being closely monitored by the big powers all of whom had an eye on Katanga’s vast mineral riches of copper, cobalt and uranium.

Mining consortiums fearing Congo’s independence were bankrolling Tshombe’s government which was also backed by Belgian colonists and European mercenaries.

Hammarskjold’s aircraft never arrived at its destination. At dawn calls to neighbouring airports all came back with the same answer: no radio contact had been made with the missing plane.

After several hours searching, the debris of the Albertina along with 16 bodies, including Hammarskjold and one sole survivor, were found in a forest about 12 km (7.5 miles) from Ndola airport.

Sergeant Harold Julian, an American serving as a UN security officer, was in a critical condition and he died days later, but he said there had been a strong explosion on board, followed by smaller blasts.

Rumours of sabotage were quickly denied and the initial investigations pointed to a pilot error as the cause.

Two former UN representatives in Katanga said in 1992 they were “convinced” the crash had been caused by shots fired by two planes chartered by “European industrialists” who “controlled Katanga”.

A fresh development came in 1998 when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up in South Africa to try the abuses committed under the apartheid regime.

It found documents implicating Pretoria, London and Washington in a plot to kill Hammarskjold code-named “How’s Celeste?”.

But the original documents unearthed by the commission have since disappeared and Britain’s Foreign Office has denied the accusations.

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In 2015 after a report carried out by independent experts, the UN accepted the theory that the plane was shot down and said the investigation should continue.

Then-UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged member states to disclose any information they may have had.

This was an allusion to cockpit recordings and radio messages the US intelligence agency NSA is said to have had in 1961.

But in 2019 Moon said no further information had been received.

Heel-dragging by the US and UK has also been at the heart of the investigation carried out over several years by The Observer.

In 2019 the paper cited a report from Mohamed Chande Othman, a former chief justice of Tanzania appointed by the UN to review the case.

Britain and the US, Othman suggested, were dragging their heels despite likely holding “important undisclosed information”.

The paper said the Belgian pilot suspected of shooting the plane down was not aware Hammarskjold was on board. He later confessed his part to a friend, who recorded the conservation.

French journalist Maurin Picard meanwhile concluded in his 2019 book that pro-Katangese foreign mercenaries were responsible.

The UN has extended its investigation and hopes for new leads are now pinned on the declassification of archives related to the case.

With Hammarskjold’s family holding a ceremony in Sweden to mark the anniversary, his cousin’s grandson Peder Hammarskiold, called on governments to finally come clean.

“Some countries in the UN investigation have not been forthcoming, such as Belgium and the US.

“We would welcome more openness, it has been a long time since his death.”

Mystery Still Surrounds Death Of UN Chief After 60 Years

Alhaji Audu Babale, a former Member of Yobe State House of Assembly, has defected along with hundreds of his supporters to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Damaturu.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Babale represented Goya/Ngeji Constituency in Fika Local Government.

A statement issued by Hussaini Mai-Suleh, the Press Secretary to Yobe State Deputy Governor on Tuesday said “the defectors’ decision was due to the exemplary leadership of Gov. Mai Mala Buni’’.

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“Babale said he defected to APC because of the leadership style of Mai Mala Buni, the Chairman, APC Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee.”

The statement also quoted the Yobe Deputy Governor, Alhaji Idi Gubana as “assuring the new entrants of equal and fair treatment to take the party to greater heights’’.

Gubana also said that the governor was capable of carrying everyone along, irrespective of any political differences.

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party member leaves one party for another 

JUST IN: Ex-Yobe lawmaker, others defect to APC

No fewer than 12 people have been killed following an attack by gunmen on Peigyim village, near Kibori at Atyap Chiefdom in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs in Kaduna, Samuel Aruwan, confirmed the attack in a statement on Monday.

He explained that the gunmen invaded the community on Sunday night and opened fire on the residents, leading to the death of 12 locals.

While two other residents who were injured during the attack have been taken to a hospital for treatment, security operatives were reported to be combing the area with a view to arresting the perpetrators.

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In his reaction, Governor Nasir El-Rufai condemned the attack and condoled with the grieving families of the victims.

He also prayed for the repose of the souls of the departed and wished those injured a quick recovery.

The attack comes barely 24 hours after a pastor of the ECWA Church was murdered in the same community.

Kaduna is one of the states in the North-West and North-Central that have been caught up in violence from heavily armed criminal gangs who loot villages, steal cattle, and carry out mass kidnappings.

The violence has its roots in years-long tensions and tit-for-tat raids between farmers and nomadic herders over grazing land and water resources.

The criminal gangs, also known as bandits, often attack in large numbers and arrive on motorbikes.

Typically motivated by financial gain, they have been targeting schools and colleges, kidnapping students and pupils for ransom.

On their part, security forces have carried out operations and airstrikes on the camps of the criminals which are hidden deep in the forests that span Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina, and Niger States.

This is, however, not enough to stop the violence from escalating.

While the Federal Government warned that paying ransoms would provoke more kidnappings, authorities in some states have tried to negotiate amnesty deals to stop the attacks.

But those accords have failed most of the time.

12 Killed As Gunmen Attack Kaduna Community

Venus Williams has a long list of accomplishments — on top of her nearly three-decade-long tennis career, she holds two degrees that she’s earned on the side and has launched three companies along the way.

 But at 41, the athlete is still facing pressure to settle down in a more traditional way, with a significant other and children of her own — something that she’s in no rush to do.

“I have a lot of friends who don’t believe me when I say that I like my life and I don’t want to change it for any reason. I’m not desperate and they don’t believe me,” she told  Cosmopolitan for the magazine’s October cover. “They say things like, ‘You’re going to miss your window.’ I’m like, ‘Please, relax. You might feel this way, but I don’t. I promise you I don’t.”