Veteran Nollywood actor, John Okafor, better known as Mr Ibu, has been laid to rest in his hometown of Amuri, in the Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State.

Naija News recalls that Mr Ibu died on 2nd March 2024 at the age of 62 after a prolonged battle with illness.

The Nigeria Actors Guild (AGN), alongside the family of the late comic actor, has been involved in a series of events to pay tribute and last respect to him.

Videos that emerged online show moments from the ongoing funeral ceremony in Enugu as friends and family members bid farewell to the late thespian.

Watch the videos below.

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Ten officers of the Nigerian Army, all on the ranks of a general, have retired from active service after successfully serving out their required number of years.

The Generals, from the Nigerian Army Armoured Corps (NAAC), comprise six Major-Generals and four Brigadier-Generals.

They include: Major-General Nsor Okpa Ojiji, Major-General MH Magaji, Major-General GB Audu, Major-General M Danmadami, Major-General JG Mohammed and Major-General UI Mohammed.

Others are Brigadier-General A. Israel, Brigadier-General BA Mohammed, Brigadier-General D. Abdulsalam and Brigadier-General SP Akpan.

Speaking on behalf of the others who were also pulled out of service, Ojiji expressed delight at being able to complete the years of active service successfully and commended the Army leadership for the roles played.

He, however, appealed that more be done for those still in service to make them perform optimally in the service of the nation.

“We recall that the Nigerian Army Armoured Corps (NAAC) has a lot of challenges, which range from poor accommodation to inadequate professional and medical facilities, amongst a myriad of others.

“Today, however, I am happy to note that there are many very functional accommodation blocks; even the ambience of these barracks is very welcoming. Many resources and efforts have changed the situation. This is heartwarming.

“Kudos to commander NAAC, his team of officers, soldiers, and their families, who are determined together that things must improve in the corps,” he said.

Ojiji highlighted the need to address poor equipment grading, especially in formations and units and appealed to the Minister of Defence to look into it.

He added, “We hope that the minister of defence, Alhaji Badaru Abubakar, also make this his cardinal objective during his tenure. I plead with the Hon. Minister through this medium to deem it fit to do so.“

On his part, the commandant of the Armoured Corps, Major General Mohammed Ahmed, congratulated the retired officers, wished them well in their future endeavours and urged them to make themselves readily available for consultations and helpful advice on improving the Armoured Corps.

“We are happy we did what we should do. We carry out a lot of services to the community, ranging from free medical services to the provision of pipe-borne water, among others, and if they tell us about their problems, we promptly attend to those problems.

“There is no army in the world that has enough, and the Nigerian Army has developed its capacity to the level that you can see in most of our equipment, which is highly maintained,” Ahmed said.

The results of candidates of the supplementary Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME have been released by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB.

The supplementary UTME was conducted between Friday, June 21st and Saturday, June 22nd, 2024.

JAMB’s spokesman, Fabian Benjamin, directed candidates on how to check their results.

“To check their supplementary UTME results, candidates are to send UTMERESULT to either 55019 or 66019 through the same phone number they had used to generate their profile codes at the start of registration,” he stated.

Benjamin said the supplementary examination was conducted for 28,835 candidates, who were unable to be biometrically verified during the main 2024 UTME and were unable to take their examination.

A statement by Benjamin said: “Similarly, the other category of candidates were those suspected to have been involved in examination malpractices during the main UTME but who were given a second chance to sit the examination.

“The exercise, which recorded a huge success nationwide, was marked by heightened security measures put in place by the Board to preclude any instance of examination infractions. As such, some nefarious characters, who had attempted to impersonate bona fide candidates were apprehended and handed over to law enforcement agencies for further investigation and prosecution.

“The Board would continue to ensure that no candidate benefits from any acts of infractions through the deployment of state-of-the-art technology before, during and after its examinations.

“Candidates are, therefore, urged, in their own interest, to refrain from engaging in any form of irregularity during their examinations. They are also enjoined to desist from soliciting score upgrades from fraudsters or engage in the mutilation of their result sheets while trying to generate fake result sheets with higher scores.”

Nigerian-born British heavyweight boxer, Anthony Joshua, doesn’t want to wait for too long to fight a fellow British boxer, Tyson Fury.

The rivalry between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury has been raging for years but the two boxers haven’t been able to agree on a bout even though they were close to doing so a couple of times.

Due to the online banter between the boxers, especially from Fury, most boxing enthusiasts are anxiously looking forward to when the two Britons will finally clash in the ring.

Hence, it is expected to be one of the most talked about and lucrative fights of all time especially if it takes place now that they are still at the peak of their respective boxing career.

But currently, the two fighters are preparing for different bouts. 35-year-old Fury is preparing for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk in December, while 34-year-old Anthony Joshua is preparing for his IBF world title fight with Daniel Dubois on September 21.

If Fury beat Usyk and Joshua beat Dubois, the two British veteran boxers will finally face off in a unification bout. But AJ told the BBC that his meeting with Fury is long overdue.

“It’s a fight that’s been brewing for a long time,” Joshua said on Thursday.

“I can’t wait until I’m 50 to fight Fury because I’d have had so many wars, I can’t sit around and wait, I’ve got to continue to fight.”

BBNaija Season 4 winner, Mercy Eke has stated that she is ready to get married.

The entrepreneur shared her wish via Snapchat while attending the wedding of actress Sharon Ooja.

A follower wrote to Mercy,  "marry me."

And she replied, "I'm so ready... I don't mind the gender like this. Love is sweet. I'm so so ready."

Nigerian rapper and singer, Folarin Falana, also known as Falz, has disclosed that he has not had a relationship since he left the university.

According to the 33-year-old, he is still single because he does not want to marry the wrong person.

The ‘Marry Me’ crooner spoke during a recent interview with Naija 102.7 FM, Lagos.

Falz stated that his parents, especially his father, are pressuring him to get married.

He asserted that the last time he was in a serious relationship was during his undergraduate days.

The singer explained that his status as a celebrity makes finding the right woman for marriage difficult.

According to him, “I’m not yet married. I’m single to stupor. My dad expresses concern over my marital status daily. If I greet my dad good morning, he would say the morning will be good if you were married.

“Both my mum and dad are deeply concerned about my status, although my dad pressures me the most. My mum is a bit calm now. It seems like she has passed the baton to my dad. No one can pressure me into getting married, not even my dad [laughs].

“Currently, I’m not dating anyone. I’m a straight man. I like women. But for a while now, I haven’t experienced a serious relationship. I was still in the university the last time I had a serious relationship.

“My lifestyle as a celebrity is difficult to find someone to commit to. Also, there are a lot of happenings in the industry that make having a booming career and a healthy relationship seem difficult. So because of that, I’m trying to be careful. There’s no issue. I’m just trying to be careful.”

The Federal Government has through the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), relieved a senior officer at the level of Controller of Corrections and two other personnel of their service over alleged misconduct.

In a statement released on Thursday, the spokesperson for NCoS, ACC Abubakar Umar, said the service had conducted a thorough review of multiple instances of unprofessional conduct and improper behaviour exhibited by its personnel.

These misconducts encompass a range of offences such as unauthorized absence, severe negligence in performing duties, involvement in illicit item trafficking, and manipulation of results, among other transgressions.

The NCoS statement reads: “In a letter by the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire, and Immigration Services Board CDCFIB, a total of 20 personnel have been discharged and acquitted of the various offences for which they were accused, while an officer who was previously suspended was reinstated after the review exercise.

“Three personnel were compulsorily retired, 13 personnel attracted plain warning, while six had their ranks reduced.

“These are in line with the zero tolerance on staff misconduct, a cardinal mantra of the Controller General of Corrections, Haliru Nababa, and targeted toward ridding the Service of unscrupulous elements and misfits, so as to improve professionalism as well as to entrench discipline, ethics and excellence in its officers and men.”

The Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Emomotimi Agama, disclosed yesterday that Nigeria’s cryptocurrency market is estimated to be “worth over $400 million”.

Agama spoke at the 2024 Annual Conference of the Association of Capital Market Academics of Nigeria (ACMAN) in Abuja, themed “Crypto Assets and the Nigerian Economy: Implications for Financial Markets Regulation”.

Agama said a “significant portion of the population is involved in cryptocurrency trading and transactions”, predicting that the market volume “will reach $52.5 million by 2028”, representing “a 12.66 percent increase from 2024 to 2028”.

He noted that despite economic challenges, Nigeria has “emerged as one of the leading countries globally in terms of crypto adoption and volume of transactions”.

He stated further: “Reports indicate that Nigeria’s crypto transaction volume reached $56.7 billion between July 2022 and June 2023, representing a nine percent year-over-year growth.

“The country’s crypto market is estimated to be worth over $400 million, with a significant portion of the population involved in cryptocurrency trading and transactions.”

However, Agama acknowledged that challenges persist, including concerns over illicit activities, regulatory uncertainty, security concerns, and financial literacy.

“A balanced regulatory approach is essential to harness the benefits of crypto assets while mitigating risks,” he emphasized.

In his remarks, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Mairiga Katuka, said the introduction of crypto presents an advantage for the markets and urged all to chart a course forward for Nigeria with its vibrant financial markets.

President Joe Biden was supposed to put the nation’s mind at ease over his physical and mental capacity with his debate showing Thursday night. But from the onset of the debate, the 81-year-old struggled seemingly even to talk, mostly summoning a weak, raspy voice.

In the opening minutes, the president repeatedly tripped over his words, misspoke and lost his train of thought.

In one of the most notable moments, Biden ended a rambling statement that lacked focus by saying, “We finally beat Medicare,” before moderators cut him off and transitioned back to Trump.

While Biden warmed up and gained more of a rhythm as the debate progressed, he struggled to land a punch against Trump.

According to NBC news, Trump, unleashing a torrent of bad information — didn’t hesitate to pounce on Biden, saying at one point that he didn’t understand what Biden had just said with regard to the border.

“I don’t know if he knows what he said either,” Trump said.

Nearly an hour into the debate, a Biden aide and others familiar with his situation offered up an explanation for the president’s hoarseness: He has a cold.

Even the Biden campaign acknowledged that the debate would be a critical moment in the election, with officials hoping it could shake up the race to the president’s benefit. Most polls have found the race to be neck and neck, a razor-thin margin that has remained unchanged for months, even after a jury found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts.

Questions about Biden’s age and frailty have dragged down his polling numbers for months. The public concerns are exacerbated by deceptively edited videos, some of which have gone viral, that cut off relevant portions of an event, making it appear as if Biden is wandering or confused. This was Biden’s first opportunity — since the State of the Union speech — to dispel that narrative.

Instead of a new beginning, many Democrats saw it as a moment for panic.

“Democrats just committed collective suicide,” said one party strategist who has worked on presidential campaigns. “Biden sounds hoarse, looks tired and is babbling. He is reaffirming everything voters already perceived. President Biden can’t win. This debate is a nail in the political coffin.“

“It’s hard to argue that we shouldn’t nominate someone else,” a Democratic consultant who works on down-ballot races added.

Biden did ramp up as the debate progressed.

“Only one of us is a convicted felon, and I’m looking at him,” Biden said to Trump. That was one moment that tested really well with internal simultaneous Biden campaign polling at the time of the debate, according to a person familiar.

A Biden aide said that it was “not an ideal start” for the president at the beginning of the debate, but that there was “no mass panic” at the campaign headquarters in Delaware.

Trump, meanwhile, has fended off his own questions over whether he’s diminished by age, including that he struggles to stay on topic and meanders when speaking. Biden has posited that the former president “snapped” after his 2020 election loss and is unstable. Biden, though, had prepped for the possibility of “two Trumps” appearing on the debate stage Thursday, and had planned to try to bait him into revealing “the true Trump.”

The muting of the microphones, a stipulation agreed to before the debate by both campaigns, added a new dimension to the face-off. The two men’s first match-up in 2020 was marked by repeated interruptions by Trump, leading to moments of frustration for Biden.

“Will you shut up, man?” Biden complained in that first Cleveland debate.

“I’m thinking the Democrats are thinking about who the Barry Goldwater is who can walk in tomorrow and tell the president he needs to step aside,” Ben Proto, chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party, said.

In 1974, after key Watergate tapes were made public, then-Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., went to see President Richard Nixon along with other prominent lawmakers and told him that he would be convicted by the Senate and should step aside— which Nixon did

Martin Griffiths, United Nations (UN) under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, says $11 million has been allocated to support the fight against malnutrition in north-east Nigeria.

In a post on X on Thursday, Griffiths said: “Acute malnutrition is increasing rapidly in northeast #Nigeria and food insecurity has reached the highest level in 7 years.”

“To provide immediate support to the most vulnerable, I’ve allocated $11 million from @UNCERF. This is a start; more support is needed,” Griffiths wrote.

In 2023, the UN  listed Nigeria among the 15 countries where children would suffer acute malnutrition and wasting.

In June last year, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said over 700,000 kids in the north-east would require treatment for acute wasting.

In December 2023, Vice-President Kashim Shettima inaugurated the nutrition core working committee to address malnutrition prevalence in Nigeria.

Shettima said the cases of severe malnutrition in Nigeria were at 33 percent, adding that the country loses $2.5 billion to nutrition deficiency annually.

He said only 88 out of 100 children under the age of five can survive the nutrition crisis in Nigeria.