NEWS

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 MapsThe 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...

Professor of political economy Pat Utomi says Nigeria would have been a “different place” if former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had not died in office. Speaking during an interview programme titled C-Suite Cafe, Utomi described Yar’Adua as a “committed patriot” who wanted to see Nigeria move forward.Yar’Adua died on May 5, 2010, and was succeeded by his then vice-president, Goodluck Jonathan. Utomi recalled that Yar’Adua once invited him to the Presidential Villa in an attempt to persuade him to join his cabinet as a minister. According to Utomi, he told the late president that he would rather offer advice when consulted than serve as a minister.Utomi said Yar’Adua, however, insisted that he could have a greater impact from within government. “Nigeria would have been a different ...

When "Good Morning, Tony" Becomes a National Conversation: Africa, the West, and the Widening Gap in What We Owe Our EldersThere 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...