THE FIVE WIVES OF LATE OONI SIJUWADE TO MOURN FOR ONE YEAR.

The five wives (oloris) of the departed Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, would mourn for one year as a mark of respect for the monarch who passed away on July 28, 2015, a family member has said.

Speaking in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Thursday, the family member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said all the wives of the departed monarch were barred by Ife tradition not to speak to journalists for one year after the death of the king.

“The wives cannot talk to the press within one year of the monarch’s death. They cannot even attend flamboyant parties or events. There’s nothing the wives can do about that.

AGE CATCHES UP WITH 91-YR-OLD MUGABE AS HE READ WRONG SPEECH.

Zimbabweans generally don't laugh or get excited about President Robert Mugabe's speeches, given the level of poverty and reported human rights abuses in the southern African country.

But an unprecedented slip-up in a speech by the 91-year-old leader on Tuesday has changed the mix.

Instead of a speech officially opening Parliament, Mugabe read his State of the Nation Address, which he had already delivered on August 25.

After the incident, his spokesman George Charamba issued a statement saying: "There has been a mix-up of speeches resulting in a situation where His Excellency the President delivered the wrong speech.

"The mix-up happened in his secretarial office therefore the delivery in Parliament should be set aside. The error is sincerely regretted and corrective measures are being considered."

But commenters on social media would not let it go that easily.

"What if Mugabe had been given a speech about his resignation? We could be far by now," reads a message from Tomaz Madhuku he says he got from a WhatsApp group he belongs to.

Jonathan Moyo, former minister of information, struggled to defend his boss. He said U.S. President Barack Obama had had the same thing happen to him.

But critics of Mugabe weren't buying it.

"It doesn't help being defensive, this is a sign that he is too old and must resign!" wrote one person identified only as Mr X, responding to that tweet.

Mugabe, who turns 92 in February, rarely made this kind of mistake until recently.

Last December, he shouted, "Down with Zanu PF!" -- but Zanu PF, the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front, is his own party.

His critics say age is working against him. And with the Tuesday incident, the calls for his resignation got louder.

"He has seen better days. I think it is now clear that he is no longer fit for purpose. In fact if Zimbabwe was a democracy, Parliament was supposed to go and invoke Section 96 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe," said Obert Gutu, spokesman for the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, speaking to journalists on Wednesday in Harare.

"He should actually be impeached. He is now clearly unable to discharge his duties as head of state."

CNN

#CCBvsSARAKI - COURT SUMMONS SARAKI, CCB & OTHERS OVER FALSE ASSETS DECLARATION.

Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja, yesterday, summoned the Federal Ministry of Justice, Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, Mr. Sam Saba and that of the  Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, Justice Danladi Umar, to appear before the court on September 21, to show cause why Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki should be prosecuted.

Saraki is facing 13-count charge bordering on alleged corruption and false declaration of assets, levelled against him by the CCB.

Equally summoned to appear before the court was the deputy director in the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. M.S. Hassan, who signed the charge against Saraki. The court order was sequel to an ex-parte motion marked FHC/ABJ/CS/775/15, which was filed and moved in chamber, yesterday, by Saraki’s lawyer, Mr. Mahmud Magaji, SAN.

OONI'S THRONE - COURT STOP GIESI FAMILY FROM PRODUCING CANDIDATE.

Following the formal announcement by the kingmakers in Ile-Ife requesting nomination of candidates from the Giesi Ruling House for the selection process of the new Ooni of Ife, an Osogbo high court yesterday granted the Lafogido Ruling House of Ile-Ife an injunction restraining the Ife king makers and Osun state governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesolsa from allowing the Giesi ruling house from presenting candidates for the vacant stool of the Ooni of Ife.

The injunction, which was granted Wednesday evening by Justice A. A. Aderibigbe is sequel to a suit filed by the Lafogido ruling house seeking the restraining order against the Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola; the Obalufe of Ife, Oba Solomon Omisakin and the Lowa of Ile-Ife, Chief Joseph Ijaduola, pending the determination of the matter before the court.

BRIBE-TAKING POLICEMAN SHOOTS WOMAN TO DEATH, KILLS HUSBAND. CC: @POLICENG.

Motorcycle drivers on Thursday shut down the Ijegun Road in the Alimosho area of Lagos State, after a woman, Idongesit Ekpo, and her husband, Godwin, were shot by a team of policemen attached to the Isheri Osun Police Division.

While Idongesit died on the spot, Godwin was said to be in a critical condition at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, where he was taken for treatment.

It was learnt that the couple was returning from a church programme on Wednesday in a tricycle belonging to the family.

NDLEA ARREST SIX FOR SWALLOWING $156,000.

Operatives of the of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, yesterday arrested a Bureau De Change operator and five other suspected money laundering syndicate for   swallowing $156,000  (N31, 083, 000.00) at Excel Oriental Hotel along Airport Road, Lagos.

The six suspects were arrested in the hotel while they were busy swallowing the large sums of money with the intention of exporting $156,000 to Brazil.

Speaking on the arrest, the chairman of NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, said  the six suspected members of the group, including a Bureau de Change operator, had been apprehended in connection with swallowing $156,000.

SECRET LOVER SPENDS NIGHT ON LEDGE SEVEN FLOORS UP AFTER WOMAN'S HUSBAND ARRIVED UNEXPECTEDLY.

A man in China spent the night on a narrow ledge seven floors up when his lover's husband came home early.

He escaped out of the apartment window in Shishi, Fujian Province, in the early hours so that the unknowing spouse didn't catch them out.

The cheating wife only called the fire service to rescue her stranded lover once her husband had left for work the next morning.

MILITARY SEIZES POWER IN BURKINA FASO.

The military in Burkina Faso has taken to the airwaves to declare it now controls the country, confirming that a coup has taken place - just weeks before national elections.

In the announcement aired early on Thursday on national television and radio, the statement said that the transitional government had been dissolved.

The statement came a day after members of the elite presidential guard unit of the military arrested the transitional president and prime minister.

MY BEST FRIEND MARRIED THE MAN WHO RAPED ME. #SAYNOTORAPE.

RAPIST & HIS WIFE

A bridesmaid today revealed how her life was ruined after she was raped by the groom who went on to marry her best friend.

Army captain Daniel Howard, 29, was jailed for seven years last week for the sex attack but his new wife April, 26, has stood by him and dumped her friend.

Howard raped his victim when she was a guest at his home as his fiancée, now his wife, slept in the room next door.

NBA REJECTS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR CONVICTED RAPISTS.

The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) has opposed capital punishment for corruption  convicts.

NBA’s President Augustine Alegeh (SAN), who made the position known when he received the national president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) at the Bar House in Abuja, said other countries were moving away from capital punishment.

He said the government should evolve measures to prevent people from looting the treasury, adding that the  Treasury Single Account was a measure in the right direction.

OSUN STATE DRAMA - SALARIES AND PRIMARY SCHOOL CERTIFICATE SAGE.

Osun State is one of the states owing workers’ salaries for several months. Like in other affected states across the country, the situation has foisted untold hardship on the workers and their families. Some of them have been sending SOS to their friends and relations. Feeding has become difficult and their children sent out of schools over inability to pay fees.

It was therefore a great relief for all when the federal government bail-out came the way of the affected states.   However, reports emanating from Osun are totally at variance with the expectations of many, particularly the workers.

Much to the chagrin of many, the Osun    State Government (OSG) has instructed civil servants to produce their First School Leaving Certificate as a pre-condition for payment of their salary arrears. To this effect, screening forms were issued to some of the workers last week. The forms, according to reports, bear a specific instruction to attach the primary school certificates.

GOVERNOR "EL RUFAI" ORDERS IMMEDIATE CLOSURE OF 2 CHURCHES, SEMINARY & A CHURCH OWNED HOSPITAL.

Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State has orderd the immediate closure of two churches, a seminary and a church-owned hospitals and secondary school all in Saminaka, Lere Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

He said the closure was to avoid the eruption of violence among factions of the congregations whose leaderships’ positions he described as, “principally to preserve their personal interests with little concern for the common good, and the peace and security of Kaduna State”.

A statement on behalf of the governor sign by his spokesman, Samuel Aruwan Wednesday in Kaduna named the affected bodies as: Theological Seminary of Northern Nigeria, (TSNN), Shalom Comprehensive College, Assemblies of God Church, AGC, Nmbare all in Saminaka. The rest are: Assemblies of God Church (Jerusalem) and AGC Evangelist Hospital, also in Saminaka:

NIGERIAN COLLEGES DO NOT TAKE SEXUAL HARASSMENT OFFENSES SERIOUSLY.

A recent study has shown that college authorities in Nigeria might be culpable in providing a conducive atmosphere for sexual harassment and bribery due to passiveness in vigorously curbing sexual harassment and bribery.

According to a survey conducted by Dream Project for Africa during Phase I of the “End Sexual Harassment and Bribery in Nigerian Colleges” campaign, only 8% of students believe that school authorities take sexual harassment offenses seriously. The respondents in the survey were mainly students of the University of Lagos campus, where one of the lecturers in the Accountancy Department, Dr. Akin Baruwa was alleged to have raped an 18-year old student.

#CCBvsSARAKI - SENATE PRESIDENT BUKOLA SARAKI SET TO BE ARRAIGNED ON FRIDAY.

Senate President Bukola Saraki is likely to be arraigned on Friday before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for alleged false assets declaration, it was learnt yesterday.

The office of the Attorney General of the Federation has filed a 13-count charge against Saraki. The charges were endorsed by Muslim Hassan, a deputy director in the Federal Ministry of Justice.

The allegations are under Section 2 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act. The offences are punishable under paragraph 9 of the fifth schedule of the Constitution.

FAMILIES OF SIX NIGERIANS WHO DIED IN THE SAUDI CRANE ACCIDENT TO GET N7OM EACH.

Families of the six Nigerian pilgrims who died in the last Friday’s crane collapse in Saudi Arabia’s grand Mosque will get N70 million each.

They will also be entitled to two Hajj slots each next year to be fully paid for by the Saudi government.

The custodian of the two Holy Mosques, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Tuesday ordered that top officials of the Saudi Binladin Group be banned from traveling outside the kingdom after the probe of the incident partially blamed the construction company for the crane crash.

The Saudi authority announced that families of each of the 111 people who died in the accident will be paid a compensation of  one million Saudi Riyals.One Saudi Riyal is the equivalent to N70.

READ ABOUT THE CRANE ACCIDENT HERE.

Saudi local newspaper, Arab News, reported that ‘King Salman ordered the payment of the following to the families of the victims: SR1,000,000 to the family of each person killed in this accident; SR1,000,000 to each injured whose injury resulted in permanent disability; SR500,000 to each of the other injured.”

According to the report, such payment would not deprive the families of the deceased and the injured from claiming for private right before the competent judicial authorities.

“The king also issued directives to host two family members of the deceased as the king’s guests to perform Hajj next year.

“The injured who cannot perform Hajj this year can perform it next year as the king’s guests. The families of the injured who stay in hospitals for treatment shall be granted visiting visas to take care of the injured during the remaining period of Hajj and return to their country,” the royal court said.

A royal court announcement published by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said the king is reviewing the report of the Accident Investigation Committee, which suggested negligence on the part of the Saudi Binladin Group, but concluded that it found an “absence of criminal suspicion.”

The report said “the main reason for the accident is the strong winds while the crane was in a wrong position.”

Apart from the 111 people who were killed, 331 others were injured when the giant crane being used in the expansion project at the Grand Mosque toppled and crashed into a portion of the mataf (circumambulation area) around the holy Ka’aba on Sept. 11.

The Nation

MINISTERS ARE JUST NOISE MAKERS - PRESIDENT BUHARI.

President Muhamadu Buhari will appoint his ministers before month’s end as he promised although he believes technocrats do much of the job.

In a 12-minute interview with France 24 Television during his state visit to France from where he returned yesterday, the President was quoted to have said: “The ministers are there to make a lot of noise; for the politicians to make a lot of noise. But the work is being done by the technocrats. They are there to provide the continuity, dig into the records and then guide us, [those of us] who are just coming in.

“I think this question of ministers is political. People from different constituencies want to see their people directly in government, and see what they can get out of it

WIFE OF SUN NEWSPAPER'S DEPUTY MD HAS BEEN FREED BY HER ABDUCTORS AFTER 2 DAYS IN KIDNAPPER'S DEN.

After spending two days in kidnappers’ den, the wife of The Sun’s Deputy Managing Director ( DMD ), Steve Nwosu, Toyin, was in the early hours of Thursday freed.

She was abandoned by her abductors at Festac First Gate, Amuwo Odofin, where the police recovered her at about 2:20am.

The heavily armed kidnappers had whisked her away from her Ago Palace residence in Okota on Monday at about 1:50am, with a speed boat, after robbing her family and two other houses.

NIGERIA ARMY ARRESTS 33 FOOD SUPPLIERS OF BOKO HARAM.

The Nigerian Army said on Wednesday that its soldiers had arrested 33 suppliers of foodstuffs to the members of the Boko Haram Islamic sect.

The Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, said in an electronic mail on Wednesday that the insurgents were arrested around Azir-Wazikoro in the Damboa axis of Borno State.

Usman said that the suspects were caught with large quantity of foodstuffs at Korode during intensive patrol carried out by the troops.

VANDALS KILL SEVEN DSS OPERATIVES, ESCAPE WITH THEIR CORPSE & GUNS.

Seven operatives of the Department of State Services had been reportedly killed in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.

The security operatives were reportedly killed in the Ishawo Road area of Ikorodu on Tuesday during an encounter with suspected pipeline vandals. It was learnt that the incident happened around 7pm on Tuesday.

Correspondents were told that the vandals, who were suspected to be Ijaw youths, made away with the dead operatives’ weapons after killing them.

(HIGHLIGHTS) Olympiakos 0 Bayern Munich 3.

OLYMPIAKOS 0 BAYERN MUNICH 3