A 30-year-old woman, Deveca Rose has been handed a 10-year jail term after her four sons died in a house fire after she locked them inside to go shopping at Sainsbury’s.

Rose left her two sets of twins alone in the unsafe terraced house in Sutton, south-west London when the huge blaze broke out on the evening of December 16, 2021.

Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and four-year-olds Kyson and Bryson Hoath screamed out for help, and a neighbour desperately tried to break down the front door.

Rose, who had split up with her partner and suffered from mental health problems, was found guilty of four counts of manslaughter.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC said: "There are no words to describe this case other than a deeply tragic one."

The children’s father, Dalton Hoath, said losing his four sons was "the worst day of my life".

Mr Hoath, who had split up with the defendant, added that he was "devastated" and his world had been turned "upside down" by the loss of his "young, boisterous lads".

In a statement read by a relative on his behalf, he said: "Their lives had just begun but were cut so short. It was every parent’s worst nightmare.

"I’m not a great talker but even if I was I could not put it in words. I simply want to join them.

"I will never recover from losing my funny, beautiful boys. I have to fight for all of us left behind and live with this massive pain in my heart before I meet them again."

Great-grandmother Sally Johnson wept in court and she told of the "horror" and "pain" of her loss.

She said: "The thought of them crying and screaming out will haunt me forever. My only comfort is they are now together forever and need never be alone again. I’m afraid I will never be able to forgive."

The judge noted Rose had already been to Sainsbury’s earlier that day and her return trip at the time of the fire was not to purchase any items that were essential or vital.

He told Rose: "You were not there and the children were too young to know what to do. As a result of what you did, they were all k!lled."

The Old Bailey heard Rose and the children had been living in squalor, surrounded by rubbish and human excrement before the boy’s de@ths.

There were no working toilets in the house, and buckets throughout the property were used instead.

The children had not attended school for three weeks before their de@ths.

Prosecutor Kate Lumsdon KC had told the court: "There was rubbish thickly spread throughout the house. The toilet and the bath were full of rubbish and could not be used. Buckets and pots were used as toilets instead."

When she arrived back at the property to the scene of the fire, she told firefighters she left her children in the care of a friend named Jade.

This prompted firefighters to go back into the house to search for her.

But police concluded she either did not exist or had not been at the house that day.

The Senate has alleged that some retired military generals might be responsible for illegal mining activities across Nigeria, which continue to undermine the country’s efforts to diversify its economy.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, made this allegation during the budget presentation by Senator Sampson Ekong, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals Development, to the Senate Committee on Appropriation.

Oshiomhole expressed frustration over the Federal Government’s inaction, urging President Bola Tinubu’s administration to address the illegal mining crisis decisively.

He compared the situation to the government’s robust measures against illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta and called for similar enforcement in the mining sector.

According to him, “the ongoing illegal mining across the country is being carried out by retired generals, and we know them. They use helicopters to cart away gold, making billions of dollars, while the country suffers”.

He further revealed that during his tenure as National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), he had written to former President Muhammadu Buhari about the situation, detailing how illegal miners arm local groups and use sophisticated equipment to exploit resources.

He added, “This issue has been left unchecked for too long. We have the data and surveys showing where these activities are happening. It’s time for the government to deploy Joint Task Forces, just as it has done in tackling oil theft.”

Meanwhile, Senator Ekong presented his committee’s recommendation for the 2025 budget of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development. The committee proposed an increase from the N9 billion capital vote initially allocated by the executive to N539 billion, emphasizing the sector’s potential.

Operatives of the Lagos State Police Command, on Friday, arrested two more suspects allegedly involved in the kidnapping of Mrs Folasade Odumosu, the wife of a former Assistant Inspector-General of Police, AIG Hakeem Odumosu.

The suspects are 27-year-old Agbojule Smart, and 30-year-old Keleke Michael.

They were arrested by operatives of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police Special Squad, the Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, confirmed in a statement issued at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.

According to the statement posted on the X handle of the Nigeria Police Force, two locally fabricated rifles, 11 live cartridges and N2.25 million were recovered from the suspects.

“In response to the directive of the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun, Ph.D., NPM., to go after the fleeing suspects in connection to the kidnap of the wife of retired Assistant-Inspector General, AIG Hakeem Odumosu, Mrs Odumosu, the operatives of the Lagos State CP Special Squad have apprehended 2 suspects identified as Agbojule Smart ‘m’, 27 years and Keleke Michael ‘m’, 30 years.

“The suspects were arrested in the early hours of today, Friday, January 24, 2025, while on their way out of Lagos State. Upon interrogation, they confessed to their crime; belonging to a gang of four, two of whom have been neutralised previously.

“Recovered from the suspects upon their arrest was the sum of Two Million, Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N2,250,000), which was part of the requested ransom, 2 locally fabricated rifles, and 11 live cartridges,” the statement partly read.

The statement added that the Inspector-General, Kayode Egbetokun, commended the operatives “for their gallantry in apprehending these suspects and encourages them to maintain this high standard of competence in the fight against crime in all its manifestations.”

Adejobi further stressed the police commitment to improving public security, as it remains steadfast in its commitment to “reducing crime to an absolute minimum and fostering the establishment of peace across the nation.”

The retired AIG’s wife, Folashade Odumosu was abducted last Thursday at the entrance of her residence in the Arepo, Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State.

The abductors took the former AIG’s wife through a swampy area to an unknown destination after dragging her out of her Lexus Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV).

Channels Television on Thursday reported that Mrs Odumosu was rescued by operatives of the Nigeria Police Force. She regained her freedom on Wednesday.

It was gathered that the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Lanre Ogunlowo, led the operation that saw to the rescue of the retired AIG’s wife. Some of the kidnappers were said to have been neutralised during the operation.

The Chief Of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa on Friday debunked claims that the military was involved in forceful abortions of babies fathered by Boko Haram insurgents in Northern Nigeria.

A Reuters report in February 2022 stated that the military ran a secret abortion programme in its fight against armed groups in the northeast, adding that the military abortion programme involved terminating at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls.

However, General Musa, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, slammed the allegations, indicating that they were machinations of NGOs who don’t wish Nigeria well

”I wish you could call them now and ask that question.  I was the theatre commander when they brought this accusation, and I felt very bad because I noticed most of these organisations don’t mean well for us,” the CDS said.

”Whenever we are making progress and succeeding, they throw this at us to look bad and demoralise our troops and the question is, what is the intent? Are they not happy we are succeeding?

”When that incident came in, I met the then Chief of Staff( Lucky Irabor). These guys have been doing this and we are quiet. Let us investigate because I am dead sure that nothing like this happened”

According to the CDS, the special panel instituted by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) found no evidence of any wrongdoing by the military. adding that a public apology was necessary.

”The Human Rights Commission set up an independent committee, and I was the first to testify in January 2023, It took them one and a half years to thoroughly investigate and we gave them unfettered access to anywhere they wanted to go to on their own they finished and brought out their report.”

”We have gone ahead and appealed to the Attorney General to take this to court since they maligned us falsely. Let them come and publicly apologise and say they were wrong about it,” he said.

”The unintended cause is that if you accuse us of doing that, we have been working with international organisations. local NGOs, the UN, are you saying we have been doing this for 10 years and yet they did not report? are you also indicting them? They refused to appear when the report was released.

He also claimed that there were certain NGOs involved in safe abortions for over 10,000 Nigerians, which could have been a likeable source for the report put out by the news outlet.

The Edo State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal says it is relocating from Benin City, the state capital to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

A notice dated January 24, 2025, and signed by the Tribunal Secretary, Mu’azu Bagudu, informed parties to the case of the relocation.

The notice read in part, “I am directed to notify all parties that the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Benin City, Edo State, has been relocated to Abuja at the National Judicial Institute (NJI), Airport Road, Abuja, effective from Monday, 27th January, 2025.”

There was no reason given in the notice for the relocation.

Gunshots disrupted the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which began hearing on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, in Benin City, the state capital.

Hoodlums were also reportedly seen outside the turbo-charged venue of the tribunal where gunshots rent the air, leaving people to scamper for safety.

The tribunal had commenced hearing on the petitions challenging the September 21, 2024, Edo governorship election where Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared as the winner. The main challenger at the tribunal is Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The electoral umpire INEC had declared Okpebholo winner of the poll with 291,667 votes, Ighodalo was said to have polled 247,274 votes while Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) came a distant third in the race with 22,763 votes.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-South state traded blames over the shooting incident at the tribunal venue.

Kenya will now permit citizens of nearly all African countries to visit without requiring prior authorisation.  

According to a BBC report, Kenya will now permit citizens of nearly all African countries to visit without requiring prior authorization, as per a new directive from the cabinet.

A cabinet statement clarified that the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) requirement will be abolished for all African countries, except Somalia and Libya, citing security concerns.

Under the revised system, citizens of most African nations will be allowed to enter and stay visa-free for up to two months.

Additionally, members of the East African Community—comprising Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi—will be permitted to stay for up to six months in line with the bloc’s policy.

Although no fixed timeline has been set for the policy’s implementation, Kenya plans to introduce an enhanced process enabling instant travel approval, with a maximum processing time of 72 hours.

Major Seun Fadipe (retd), a former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Lt-Gen Oladipo Diya, has recounted how the late ex-military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, escaped a planned abduction in Enugu State in 1997.

Fadipe was the CSO to Diya who was the Chief of General Staff, the then de facto vice president of Nigeria under the military administration of Abacha. Fadipe was a guest on the Friday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television.

Fadipe recalled how Diya and his co-travellers planned to abduct Abacha and force him to resign in Enugu but the then head of state caught wind of the development and aborted the trip at the last hour.

He said, “There was a coup, whether it was now a phantom one or it was a setup, it’s immaterial now because that’s the problem I had with my boss until he died. I was a major, if I wanted to be involved in a coup as a major, it would be a violent coup because there was no way I would do a palace coup because I had a lot of seniors ahead of me. I never planned any coup, I never intended to plan any coup but I got involved through my boss.”

“As of that time, Abacha was doing well but because he wanted to transmit to a civilian regime, things went haywire.”

Fadipe said it would have been easy for Diya and his co-coup plotters to take over in Abuja and control things from the nation’s capital but “maybe it was just providence or he (Abacha) got some information because all his advance parties had gone to the airport” yet he aborted the trip at the last minute.

“On the 9th of December 1997, we got to the office, and after the pleasantries with my boss, the ADC left. Once the ADC leaves, I will give my boss the security briefing for the period and after, he said: ‘Are you sure all is well?’ That was before the bomb attempt on the 13th of December 1997. That was the first time he told me directly that something was in the offing.

“A day before then, the Chief of Army Training Conference just took off in Enugu, and Abacha, being the C-in-C was supposed to open the event. The man had left the Villa and then on his way to the airport, all of a sudden, the man came back.

“So, after some time, my boss called me and told me that the man aborted his trip and he was back in the villa. My boss was a bit worried. I don’t know what was going on at that time. So I asked my boss to be on standby maybe the guy would still go back but to my surprise, that never happened.

“In the evening, Ishaya Bamiyi (then army chief) came to General Diya’s office. So, we were wondering, the chief of army staff, what’s he doing here? He was supposed to be in Enugu. So when he (Bamiyi) left, my boss called me and asked me to call him General Adisa Adisa.

“By then, Adisa had been removed as the Minister of Works and Housing. I called General Adisa and he came in almost immediately, this time around he was almost in mufti. So, on his way out, the man was asking me some questions but he discovered I was not privy to it.

“The next morning, my boss told me and a few security people: ‘If Oga had travelled yesterday, he would have been arrested and there would have been a change of government’. I just knew I was in trouble. He said if he (Abacha) had gone to Enugu, he would have been abducted and forced to resign and there would have been a change of government.”

Fadipe said he didn’t betray his former boss, stressing that he never disclosed any of the coup plans to the authorities.

“There was no way I would have betrayed my boss. A lot of things happened when we came out of detention; he was trying to malign me and all of that but I just know he was a man that was struggling to survive,” he said.

Fadipe and Diya, alongside over 200 others were arrested for treason and detained after the failed coup plot in 1997. Diya was tried by the military tribunal and was handed the death penalty but he was pardoned, alongside Fadipe, and others, by Abacha’s successor, Abdusalami Abubakar, after the sudden demise of Abacha in 1998. Diya died in March 2023 at the age of 78.

Veteran comedian Atunyota Akpobome, popularly known as Ali Baba, and his wife, Mary Bassey Akpobome, have shared adorable photos of their triplets as they celebrate their first birthday on Friday, January 24, 2025.

The couple, who welcomed their sons in 2024, revealed their faces for the first time in a heartfelt social media post.

Expressing her gratitude on Instagram stories, Mrs Akpobome praised God for His faithfulness, describing motherhood as a divine blessing. She also reaffirmed that “God is always on time” while wishing her boys: King Aaron, King Alexander, and King Andrew, a happy birthday.

Ali Baba also took to Instagram stories to share glimpses of the triplets.

NIGERIAN NI

President Bola Tinubu has commended the Finish government for the arrest and detention of Biafra agitator Simon Ekpa.

The President also described Ekpa’s arrest as well deserved.

Tinubu said his government has zero tolerance for actions and statements that could lead to divisiveness among citizens.

The Nigerian President spoke when he received the Letters of Credence from the Finnish Ambassador to Nigeria, Ms Sanna Selin, at the State House.

He said the Finnish authorities intervention was timely, because it safeguarded the nation’s integrity and mitigated an action that threatened peaceful coexistence.

Tinubu also received Letters of Credence from the Ambassador of the European Union, Mr Gautier Mignot, and the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of Algeria, Hocine Mezoued.

Speaking at the brief ceremony, Tinubu said, “I must thank you for your record on safeguarding human rights in our country with the trial of Simon Ekpa.

“Nigeria is indivisible. We have been through turbulent times and we don’t want to promote terrorism.

“I am a child born into activism, but not divisiveness. We need cohesion and cooperation to bring about development. Our watchword is stability and cohesion to move the country forward.

“The National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has informed me. I know what the rule of law means. The rule of law safeguards our democratic credentials, morals and values. We must respect the rule of law.”

The President noted that the ambassador’s priorities, including ICT, agriculture and education, will directly impact the country’s development.

“Nigeria is undergoing a series of necessary reforms to stimulate growth and prosperity. Thank you also for the humanitarian support in the North-East. I believe that we can work together,” he added.

The Ambassador of Finland extolled Tinubu for his courage in initiating reforms that will benefit the economy and ensure prosperity in the future.

“Simon Ekpa has been hindering bilateral relations. The cooperation between our two countries is going very well now, and the National Security Adviser has been providing all the

evidence,” the ambassador noted.

Indications emerged on Friday that the 2025 Appropriation Bill will no longer be passed by the National Assembly at the end of January 2025.

According to the Chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Akin Rotimi, the House leadership has approved the extension of the 2025 budget defence to give the Standing Committees sufficient time to conclude ongoing budget engagements with Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

He said: “The House of Representatives has announced the postponement of its plenary resumption, previously scheduled for Tuesday, January 28, 2025.

“The new date for resumption is now set for Tuesday, February 4, 2025.

“This development was communicated to Honourable Members through an internal memorandum issued by the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Dr. Yahaya Danzaria, Esq., on the directive of the House Leadership.

“The postponement is necessary to allow Committees sufficient time to conclude ongoing budget engagements and defences with Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

“This measure ensures a thorough and comprehensive approach to legislative responsibilities.

“The House remains committed to fulfilling its legislative mandate for the benefit of Nigerians and appreciates the understanding of all stakeholders,” he said