Ibadan Christmas Fire: We Lost N1bn, Not N250m- Union

Ibadan Christmas Fire: We Lost N1bn, Not N250m- Union

Mr Gbenga Fasoro, the Secretary of the traders’ union in the popular Ibadan plank market, Alaro, in Sango, where the December 25 fire incident occurred said traders didn’t lose N250m to the fire incident, but lost times four of with which has been approximated to N1bn.

Gbenga said the fire didn’t occur at the plank market but a nearby house but someone made it spread to the market when he threw a cooking gas cylinder into the plank market. Gbenga said he had come to visit the market for inspection when he heard a loud explosion and quickly went to his car to pick his fire extinguisher, but sadly the fire had gone beyond what that could control.

250 shops, generators, equipment and goods were all destroyed in the inferno.

Statue of Jesus promoted to army general

A beloved statue of Jesus looked likely to get an unsolicited promotion to general in the Guatemalan army — until the church and president stepped in, officials said Saturday.
The statue, known as Jesus de la Merced, is paraded through the streets of the capital ahead of Easter in centuries-old traditions brought in by former colonial power Spain.
The local parish priest in the neighborhood church where the statue is kept, Orlando Aguilar, said in a Christmas Eve mass that on January 3 the statue would be promoted to the rank of general in the Guatemalan army.
Many in the local media got rumors buzzing, and suggested that the honor was to be conferred ahead of the 300th anniversary of the blessing of the statue in 2017.
But the capital’s bishop was up-in-arms.
“Brothers and sisters, as I have said and repeated many times, nobody consulted me about ascending Jesus de la Merced to the rank of general in the army,” Archbishop Oscar Vian said on Twitter.
It’s not the first military promotion given to the statue.
During devastating cholera outbreaks in the 1800s, former president Rafael Carrera (1854-1865) gave the statue the rank of army colonel, and it was marched around Guatemala in an effort to combat cholera.
President Alejandro Maldonado said that he had not approved the promotion to general of the statue.
“As armed forces commander general, I have not sought to grant this symbolic rank to the religious symbol,” he said, stressing that he would never sign one unless Roman Catholic authorities had given their approval.

Wenger confident Arsenal will bounce back against Bournemouth

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger believes Arsenal will quickly put their 4-0 Boxing Day defeat at Southampton behind them when they face Bournemouth on Monday.
The Gunners would have gone top of the Premier League with a win at St Mary’s, but a poor display saw them return to North London reeling.
Shane Long’s brace complemented an exceptional Cuco Martina half-volley and Jose Fonte’s header as Saints ended a six-match winless run in some style.
Wenger is confident of a positive response at the Emirates Stadium when Eddie Howe’s team visits.
“I believe what I say to my players is between my players and myself,” he said after the match.
“These players have fantastic spirit and they can show that in 48 hours.
“We are in a job where we have to respond. We want to respond from disappointments.
“Unfortunately, there’s no possible career without disappointment. Nobody, not even the best players in the world, can have that.
“It’s down to how you respond and I trust my players to respond in a very strong way on Monday.”
Surprise leaders Leicester do not face Manchester City until Tuesday, so Arsenal have another chace to top the table, but Wenger is not concerned about their position this week.
“I said before the game, whether we are one point behind or one point in front it is not too important,” he said. “It is the quality of our performance that counts and we were not good enough to win the game [against Southampton].
“We have just to look at that. On the other side, we can’t dwell too much because in 48 hours we play again. We are disappointed and frustrated, but there’s only one way to respond in 48 hours.”
The Gunners boss downplayed speculation linking Arsenal to new signings in January and was keen to underline the quality that will be at his disposal once injuries have cleared.
“That’s always the question you get,” Wenger said. “We have many players who are injured and will come back soon.
“Buy, buy, buy, buy is always the solution that people see. I think it’s true that we couldn’t score, but we conceded goals [against Southampton] and we have enough defenders.”

Kenyan policemen killed in ambush – Red Cross

Gunmen killed two Kenyan policemen and wounded two others on Sunday, the Red Cross said, the latest in a string of killings in the troubled far northeast of the country.
“Two police officers killed and two others injured in an ambush along Lafey-Elwak road, Mandera county,” the Kenya Red Cross said in a statement.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Somali-led al-Shabaab have carried out a series of bombings and killings in Kenya, especially in Mandera district, which borders Somalia.
The Shabaab, East Africa’s long-time al-Qaeda branch, is headquartered in Somalia where it is fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu, which is protected by 22 000 African Union troops, including Kenyan soldiers.
But they have also staged attacks in Kenya, including the killing of at least 67 people at Nairobi’s Westgate Mall in 2013 and the massacre of 148 people at a university in Garissa in April.
Earlier this week, Kenyan police warned of the risk of fresh attacks by Shabaab insurgents, claiming they had split into rival factions inside Kenya, with some shifting allegiance from al-Qaeda to Islamic State.
Those now loyal to ISIS operate in the Mandera region, while the al-Qaeda force is based in the southeastern Boni Forest district, police said.
The attack on Sunday is in a similar area to an ambush last Monday, when Shabaab gunmen opened fire on a bus, killing two people at Elwak.
On Saturday, police said a suspected Shabaab fighter was killed nearby when a homemade roadside bomb he was planting exploded.

Fire razes Baboko market in llorin

A midnight inferno on Sunday consumed goods worth millions of naira at Baboko market in Ilorin, the Kwara capital.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 20 shops were completely razed by the inferno which lasted several hours.
NAN gathered that some shop owners left huge sums of money in their shops when the incident occurred.
Sources said that the inferno was triggered by a spark from an electric cable in one of the shops when electricity was restored.
Some night guards at the market were said to have noticed smoke billowing from one of the affected shops and drew the attention of leadership of the market to it
They alerted fire fighters who came to the scene and prevented the fire from spreading to other shops.
The chairman of Ilorin West Local Government Council, Alhaji Tajudeen Zulu-Oloje, visited the scene of the incident on Sunday.
He said that he received a distress call from one of the market officials around 2.00 am Sunday on the fire outbreak.
He said the local council would do its best to reconstruct the burnt shops and assist affected traders.
Zulu-Oloje commended men of the state fire service for the quick response.
Efforts to speak to the Special Adviser on Emergency and Relief to State Governor Alhaji Duro Mohammed, on the incident proved futile.

Anita Joseph Keeps Mum On Marriage, Speaks On N*dity

Anita Joseph Keeps Mum On Marriage, Speaks On N*dity

Nollywood Actress Anita Joseph who is rumoured to have once been married with a child has said she won’t say a word on that but will keep quiet and let people say whatever thing they like about her. She said this while speaking to Spice. Hear her;

I do not know how people arrived at the conclusion that I have a failed marriage. Some also say that I was once married with a child, and they also claim that I left my husband in the South-East. I simply like to keep my life private.

On Nudity

I have never been comfortable acting nude in movies. I can never act nude in a movie, no matter how much I am offered. My womanhood, dignity and pride are at stake and I can’t compromise. Money is transient; it comes and goes. At the end of the day, it will varnish, but my nudity that has been exposed will still remain for public consumption.

Wenger laments as Southampton massacre Arsenal

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said that his title-chasing team had been punished for lacking sharpness after they crashed to a damaging 4-0 defeat at Southampton on Boxing Day.

 

Having beaten Premier League title rivals Manchester City 2-1 on their previous outing, Arsenal were looking for a victory that would have sent them to the top of the table.
But instead they slumped to their heaviest league defeat since March 2014 courtesy of a jaw-dropping Cuco Martina strike, a second-half Shane Long brace and a Jose Fonte header at St Mary’s.
“We lost too many challenges today. They were sharper than us,” Wenger told BT Sport.
“I think we were unlucky as well. Their first shot on goal went into the top corner from the right-back (Martina), the second goal came after a foul on (Laurent) Koscielny.
“It’s a disappointing result, but I have to say well done to Southampton. The referee let a lot go, but when you’re not dominant in challenges, that is the price you have to pay.”
The result kept Arsenal in second place in the table, two points below Leicester City and a point above Manchester City, ahead of Monday’s home game with Bournemouth.
“The title is down to consistency to fight in every single game and produce a performance,” Wenger said.
“Today was a very physical game and we didn’t play well enough.”
Southampton manager Ronald Koeman, whose side had not won in their five previous league games, said that his players had produced a “perfect performance”.
He added: “We showed fantastic belief in everybody and showed how good we are today if we play at our level.”