NEWS

A fresh confrontation is brewing between the Lagos State Government and retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, as pensioners have issued an August 31 deadline for the payment of their outstanding pension enhancement and wage award. The retirees, under the Nigeria Union of Pensioners Contributory Pension Scheme, NUPCPS, said failure by the state government to meet their demand could trigger what they described as the “mother of all protests.” The chairman of the NUPCPS, Lagos State Council, Michael Omisande, disclosed the position of the pensioners after a meeting with the Permanent Secretary, Public Service Office, Sunkanmi Oyegbola. Omisande said the union had submitted a template to the state government in January 2026 outlining its proposal for implementing th...

US President Donald Trump has claimed that some people died by suicide over the way they were treated by the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden, but did not identify the individuals or provide evidence to support the allegation.  Trump made the claim during a full interview with WABC alongside former personal lawyer Michael Cohen on Sunday, August 23. “We had many suicides, people committed suicide over this,” Trump said, before blaming what he described as “vicious people” in the Biden administration. Trump also criticised the administration of former President Barack Obama and turned his attention to former government officials who have since moved into private-sector and media roles. He claimed that some former officials now work at Microsoft, while others a...

A Nigerian man, Olukanyinsola Odebode was jailed for 12 years in the United Kingdom after he r@ped one woman before going on to s3xually assault another while he was on bail.   DownloadingInteractive Geographic Maps The 30-year-old “humiliated and degraded” his two victims and filmed “some of the s3xual activity.", Swansea Crown Court heard on Friday, August 21, 2026.  The defendant, of Gainsborough Road, Cefn Golau, Tredegar, was found guilty by a jury of one count of rape and two counts of assault by penetration. Odebode had denied the allegations during his trial and continues to show a “lack of insight” into his offending, Swansea Crown Court heard. "The defendant humiliated and degraded his victims,” Mark Wyeth KC, prosecuting, said. “He is a danger to...

About one in four paternity tests conducted by Smart DNA Nigeria returned negative results in its 2025/2026 reporting period, its latest annual DNA Testing Report has revealed. The company, in a statement on Sunday, August 24, 2026 in Lagos, said the report confirmed that 23.6 per cent of recorded paternity test outcomes were negative, meaning the tested man was not the biological father. According to the report, the negative paternity outcome declined marginally from 24.0 per cent in the preceding year and 26.1 per cent in 2023. The report, however, cautioned against interpreting the figure as evidence that one in four Nigerian children is not biologically related to the man regarded as the father. It stressed that its clients were people who had already developed sufficient d...

When "Good Morning, Tony" Becomes a National Conversation: Africa, the West, and the Widening Gap in What We Owe Our Elders There is a particular kind of moment that says more about a society than a hundred think-pieces , a small, almost throwaway exchange that suddenly reveals a fault line everyone had been quietly standing on. Nigeria had one of those moments this week. *The Incident* At the graduation ceremony for United Bank for Africa's Graduate Management Accelerated Programme in Lagos, a young trainee stepped up to the microphone to address the bank's former Group Chairman, billionaire businessman Tony Elumelu. She opened simply: "Good morning, Tony." Elumelu, appearing to mishear her at first, asked "Toyin?" Then, once she clarified, he corrected her on the spot....

A small UK power generator was forced to shut down for four days after it was targeted in a cyberattack reportedly linked to Iranian hackers. The incident, which is reported to have taken place last month, is believed to be the first time Iranian-affiliated hackers have successfully shut down a UK facility of this kind. Sources did not name the facility, but it is understood to be a “small-scale energy generator” and the incident did not pose any risk to the wider grid, The Telegraph reports. It is thought to have been reported to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ, which responds to serious cyber incidents affecting UK organisations. In response, the government issued briefings to power companies and wrote to businesses with advice. Earlier th...

A 26-year-old Belgian car salesman, Clément Vandenkerckhove, has officially become a prince of Belgium after a paternity test confirmed that his biological father is Prince Laurent, the younger brother of King Philippe. The legal recognition took place during a low-key town hall ceremony six months ago following a DNA test, confirming Vandenkerckhove as the son and heir of the 63-year-old royal. His mother, Belgian singer Wendy Van Wanten (whose real name is Iris Vandenkerckhove), had a relationship with Prince Laurent during the 1990s after meeting at a Paris fashion show, but she only revealed the identity of his father to him when he turned 16. The legal process affords the new prince equal rights to Prince Laurent's private estate alongside his three half-siblings, Princess Louis...

The alleged fake National Brands Development and Made in Nigeria Special Project Office had a structure spanning several states and two foreign countries, with an acclaimed national coordinator, zonal directors, state coordinators and representatives in China and the United States.A check by Punch on Saturday found that the office’s website listed Hon. Nwabueze George as its “Executive Director, National Coordinator,” alongside a director of national administration, three zonal directors, 20 state coordinators and representatives for the United States and China.Recall that the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Musa Aliyu, disclosed on Friday that President Bola Tinubu had ordered the immediate arrest of George Nwabueze, id...

There was panic on Friday in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State, when chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the council, Oyewole Mayowa Solomon, collapsed and died during a party reconciliation meeting. According to TVC, report the incident occurred while the deceased was partaking in a meeting convened by one of his predecessors, Funsho Olumoko, aimed at fostering unity among APC stakeholders in the area. According to the report, Solomon suddenly fell while the meeting was going on, throwing the participants into confusion. It was learnt he was rushed to a hospital in Kabba for medical attention but passed away shortly after arriving at the hospital. At the time of filing this report, the circumstances surrounding his sudden death had not been officially di...

A United States Federal Court has blocked a policy introduced by President Donald Trump that banned immigrant visa processing for Nigerian citizens as well as those of 74 other countries. US District Judge Jeannette Vargas handed down the ruling on Friday in the Southern District of New York. According to the court, the policy, introduced by the US Department of State in January, was unlawful and went beyond the authority granted to Secretary of State Marco Rubio under federal immigration law. The policy had stopped the issuance of immigrant visas to applicants from 75 countries. Recall that the Trump administration had justified the move on concerns that applicants from the affected countries could become dependent on public assistance after entering the Unit...