Police blamed the accident, in which passengers burned to death, on speeding and reckless driving
At least 20 passengers burned to death when a bus collided with another vehicle and caught fire in south-west Nigeria, police and an official have said.
The accident at Lanlate in the Ibarapa area of Oyo state on Friday, is the latest road crash in the vast west African nation of 210 million people.
Continue reading...Free exhibition will include some of creative’s architectural projects and draw from his west African roots
The bold colours and striking patterns of Yinka Ilori’s furniture, homeware, textiles and billboard graphics are to be celebrated for the first time in a free museum exhibition.
Ilori, who grew up in a Nigerian household in north London, has drawn inspiration from west African textiles in his artwork and designs.
Continue reading...Three men arrested after bodies including those of children discovered during raid of building in Benin City
Police in Nigeria have discovered 20 mummified bodies including those of children in a building in Benin City, in a case that has shocked the country.
Three suspects were arrested during the raid in southern Nigeria, Jennifer Iwegbu, a police spokesperson said in a statement late Wednesday. Armed police officers raided the building in Benin City, the capital of Edo state, acting on intelligence that it was a “suspected ritual shrine”, she said.
Continue reading...Horniman museum is first government-funded institution to hand back artefacts looted by British forces in 1897
A London museum is to return 72 treasured artefacts, including its collection of Benin bronzes, to Nigeria in what experts described as an “immensely significant” moment.
The Horniman museum said it would transfer the ownership of the historic objects to the Nigerian government after an unanimous vote by its board of trustees.
Continue reading...University council supports claim for 97 artefacts, including bronzes, currently held in city’s museums
Oxford University could return almost 100 artefacts that were looted by British colonial forces in 1897, after Nigeria requested the repatriation of the cultural items this year.
The 97 objects, including bronzes, were taken from Benin City by British troops and are currently held in the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Continue reading...Kelvin Bilal Fawaz reveals how Farah’s TV interview was a reminder of how his own boxing career was lost to life in immigration limbo
A prodigious talent with the drive and ambition to make it all the way to the top, when Kelvin Bilal Fawaz got the chance to represent Team GB as a boxer at the 2012 Olympics in London it was a dream come true.
Trafficked as a child from Nigeria to the UK and forced into domestic servitude, Fawaz had the opportunity for Olympic glory in the place he now called home.
Continue reading...Inmates on the run after gunmen armed with explosives attack prison near capital, Abuja
Hundreds of prisoners, including scores of terrorists, were on the run in Nigeria after suspected Islamist militants attacked a prison near the capital, Abuja.
Gunmen armed with explosives blasted into Kuje medium-security prison, on the outskirts of Abuja, at about 10pm on Tuesday, freeing nearly 900 of the prison’s 994 inmates, government officials said.
Continue reading...Officials allege contract was corruptly procured by business duo behind P&ID as saga of energy project and secretive tribunal heads for high court
It has been described as one of the most extraordinary cases ever to come before the high court, involving an Irish impresario, an alleged $50,000 bribe stuffed into a bag and potentially one of the biggest payouts in legal history.
The saga of two Irish businessmen, Michael Quinn and Brendan Cahill, who promised to revolutionise Nigeria’s energy sector, will be at the centre of a high court trial early next year.
Continue reading...Two countries sign restitution agreement covering more than 1,000 items in German hands
Germany has physically handed over two Benin bronzes and put more than 1,000 other items from its museums’ collections into Nigeria’s ownership, more than a century after they were looted by British soldiers from the once powerful kingdom in west Africa.
The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, and the culture minister, Claudia Roth, signed a restitution agreement with their respective Nigerian counterparts, Zubairu Dada and Lai Mohammed, in Berlin on Friday afternoon.
Continue reading...Family of Nnamdi Kanu, a separatist leader, say he was seized and tortured in Kenya and then flown to Nigeria
The family of a British citizen have accused the foreign secretary of ignoring “overwhelming evidence” he was taken to Nigeria in an act of extraordinary rendition and failing to end his “unlawful” imprisonment there.
Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a prominent separatist movement proscribed in Nigeria, has been held there since June last year.
Continue reading...Interior ministry believes Iswap was behind attack in Ondo state on Sunday that killed 40 people
Nigerian security officials suspect extremists from Islamic State’s affiliate in west Africa were behind an attack on a Catholic church last weekend that killed dozens.
Forty people are now thought to have died after gunmen stormed St Francis Catholic church in Owo, Ondo State, on Sunday, and 61 survivors are still being treated in hospital, according to local authorities. The total is double an earlier estimate.
Continue reading...Witnesses describe how attackers detonated explosives and shot at those who tried to flee
Workers cleared the pools of blood and pieces of broken pews at the Saint Francis Catholic church in south-west Nigeria on Monday, as the local community mourned more than 50 parishioners shot dead in the final moments of mass a day earlier.
No one has claimed responsibility for the killings, and Nigeria’s authorities and the police have not named any suspects.
But new details of the brazen attack emerged on Monday, as authorities and witnesses described how the unidentified assailants detonated explosives and opened fire through the windows as the ceremony ended, before entering the church and shooting at those who tried to flee from two of three exits. The attack lasted for about 20 minutes and left scores wounded.
Continue reading...More than 50 killed with explosives reportedly detonated in attack during mass at church in Ondo state
Gunmen attacked a Catholic church in Ondo state, Nigeria, during mass on Sunday, leaving dozens dead, in a “satanic attack” local officials said.
The attackers targeted the St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in the town of Owo just as the worshippers gathered on Pentecost Sunday, state legislator Ogunmolasuyi Oluwole said.
Continue reading...Woman and four children among 14 victims of latest wave of killings in south-east Anambra State
A spate of killings in south-east Nigeria blamed on a prominent Biafran secessionist group has sparked outrage and added another layer of insecurity in the country, where kidnappings for ransom are common in the north-west and an Islamist insurgency has been going on for more than a decade in the north-east.
In one incident last week a pregnant mother and her four children were killed as they were travelling home from a visit to family members on a motorcycle taxi. At least seven other people were killed in Anambra state last Sunday, a day after the mutilated bodies of an abducted state lawmaker and his aide were discovered.
Continue reading...The programme, organised by Kings Assembly church in Rivers state, aimed to ‘offer hope’ to those in need
A stampede at a church charity event in southern Nigeria on Saturday left 31 people dead and seven injured, a shocking development at a programme that organisers said aimed to “offer hope” to those in need.
The stampede at the programme organised by the Kings Assembly pentecostal church in Rivers state involved many people who were seeking assistance, according to Grace Iringe-Koko, a police spokesperson.
Continue reading...Rumours spread online that the aircraft had crashed, but authorities said it was simply being delivered to its new owner
A plane that was towed along the side of a busy expressway in Lagos on Tuesday night has caused widespread confusion and amusement to commuters – and rumours it had crashed – before Nigerian authorities said that it was being delivered to its new owner via the busy road.
Several videos of the aircraft posted on social media showed it at various points along the side of a major road, within a mile of the international and domestic airport terminals and plane storage facilities in the Ikeja area of Lagos.
Continue reading...Close contacts of those infected with rare disease offered vaccines and told to isolate for up to 21 days
Public health officials are to announce more UK monkeypox cases on Monday, as efforts ramp up to contain the first multinational outbreak of the virus that has led to cases in at least 14 countries.
The unusual outbreak of the rare disease has sparked a wave of contact tracing and testing, with the closest contacts of confirmed cases – such as partners and people in the same household – offered a vaccine and told to isolate at home for up to 21 days.
Continue reading...Demonstrators demand release of two students held after murder of Christian woman in Sokoto
Hundreds of people in Nigeria’s north-western city of Sokoto demonstrated on Saturday over the arrest of two students after the murder of a Christian student accused of blasphemy, residents said.
Africa’s most populous country is roughly divided between Muslims and Christians but religious tensions and deadly clashes are not uncommon, particularly in the north.
Continue reading...Witnesses say police failed to disperse mob of fellow students in Sokoto who set victim on fire following WhatsApp comments
A female student in Nigeria was beaten to death and set on fire by fellow students who accused her of posting “blasphemous” statements in a WhatsApp group, two witnesses have said.
The school, located in Nigeria’s north-western state of Sokoto, was immediately closed down following the attack.
Continue reading...Osinachi Nwachukwu’s family and friends allege that she was a victim of domestic abuse
On most Sunday mornings, the searing voice of Osinachi Nwachukwu, one of Nigeria’s best-known gospel singers, filled the vast 100,000-seat auditorium of her church in Abuja.
Footage from one of the last times she led the choir at the Dunamis International Gospel Centre showed her singing the 2017 gospel hit Ekwueme, her eyes pressed closed and hand outstretched in prayer.
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