O.K NEWS

A former acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Uche Secondus has challenged whoever wants to be chairman of the party to show proof that he is able to deliver not only his state but his zone to the party during next year’s general election. He spoke with Tobi Soniyi and a few political editors. Excerpts: At the botched Port Harcourt convention, you agreed to be deputy national chairman. Now you want to be chairman. What has changed? The truth is that, by last year I was gunning for the deputy. The arrangement was such that somebody from the South-west would emerge as the chairman. That time, we had two and a half years to the general election. But now, we don’t have time, therefore we need an experienced person who will start working from that the first day. The second reason is that, relatively you need a zone where there may not be crisis and I believe that in my state and in my zone, we don’t have crisis within the party unlike in other zones where they

Even though politicians are already realigning preparatory to the 2019 general election, Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal‎ has cautioned them not to get swept away by the distraction. He spoke with journalists in Sokoto. Mohammed Aminu was there and presents the excerpts: What is your assessment of President Muhammadu Buhari and the impact of his policies in Sokoto? Buhari campaigned on three issues namely to fight against insurgency, corruption and boost the economy. Sokoto has benefited tremendously from the efforts of the president to bring peace. We know what the situation was before 2015. Boko Haram has been almost been defeated. What we have now are sporadic attacks and not the usual suicide bombing that we had before. It is now only confined to Borno State. The fight against corruption is still ongoing and it has impacted on the issue of governance here. If you are talking on infrastructural development, I think the Sokoto-Illela, Sokoto-Jega road and Sokoto-Gusau ro

A British company has released the first pictures of a ‘smart condom’ which collects very intimate data about the sex life of anyone brave enough to wear it. The device is called the i.Con and can detect sexually transmitted infections as well as sending data about a sex session straight to the wearer’s smartphone. British Condoms said its ‘revolutionary wearable tech for the bedroom’ measures the number of calories burned during intercourse, the speed of a man’s thrusts, how long he lasts and even what positions are used. The condom firm said its invention would help men see how they ‘stack up to other people from around the world.’ Adam Leverson, lead engineer for the i.Con Smart Condom, said: “It’s here and it’s beautiful. We wanted the i.Con to look refined, non-intrusive and lightweight – the finished article is nothing short of any of those things. “There’s a lot of tech packed into the i.Con and for us to be able to deliver it in such a way that there is absolutely no

Chelsea kept alive their Premier League title hopes with a 1-0 win over Swansea as Blues boss Antonio Conte was sent to the stands for a furious touchline rant. Conte lost his cool late in the first half at Stamford Bridge, earning his marching orders after blasting fourth official Lee Mason following referee Neil Swarbrick’s failure to award Chelsea a clear corner. Chelsea weren’t troubled by their manager’s absence from the bench and clinched the points early in the second half when Germany defender Antonio Rudiger headed his first league goal since his pre-season move from Roma. Despite recording a fifth win in their last six league games, third placed Chelsea remain well behind leaders Manchester City and it will take a major surge for the champions to successfully defend the title. With a host of matches against teams outside the top half of the table coming up in December, they will hope to at least close the gap on City heading into the new year. Swansea stay second

Mesut Ozil produced a major second-half contribution as substitute Olivier Giroud scored twice in Arsenal’s 5-0 Premier League victory at home to Huddersfield Town on Wednesday. It was the Gunners’ seventh win out of seven at the Emirates Stadium in the league this season and Ozil was influential with two assists and a goal in a four-minute period as the Gunners remained in the top four. Alexandre Lacazette gave Arsenal an early lead before Ozil set up Giroud and Alexis Sanchez before scoring himself. Giroud then added a late fifth goal. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger played arguably his strongest side, with Ozil returning alongside Lacazette and Sanchez. But in this first meeting between these two sides since January 1972, Huddersfield manager David Wagner made six changes to his starting XI. It was a decision that appeared to backfire when Arsenal went ahead as early as the third minute when a superb move resulted in Lacazette’s seventh goal for Arsenal and fifth at

An expectant mother, a little child and four others were killed when a truck bearing granite rammed into  a Nissan Bluebird car at the mechanic village stretch of the OGTV – Ajebo road, Abeokuta, Ogun State. The accident which occurred on Tuesday night, also left two other persons with injuries. The Nation gathered that the truck marked  FD 638 EKY which had left a quarry site, lost control of the wheel, strayed into another lane and crashed into the on – coming  Nissan car with registration number KJA 731 XP. The truck crushing  to death, six of the eight persons in the car. According to the Public Relations Officer of the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps(TRACE), Babatunde Akinbiyi, nine people were involved in the accident. Akinbiyi who blamed cause of the accident on reckless driving by the truck driver,  said the dead comprised of three males, two females – including an expectant mother, and  a female child. “Reckless driving on the par

A Bosnian Croat war criminal has died in hospital after drinking poison during an appeal hearing in The Hague. Slobodan Praljak, 72, died in hospital, with the United Nations court announcing that the courtroom was now “a crime scene.” On hearing that his 20-year jail term had been upheld, the ex-commander of Bosnian Croat forces said he was not a criminal and then drank from a bottle, the BBC reports. In 2013, he was sentenced for crimes in the city of Mostar during the Bosnian war in 1992-95. Praljak was one of six former Bosnian Croat political and military leaders up before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). They were attending the final appeals judgment to be handed down by the court. Though allies against the Bosnian Serbs in the war, Bosnian Croats and Muslims also fought each other for a period of 11 months, with Mostar seeing some of the fiercest fighting.

One of the terrestrial PayTv service providers, Communication Trends Limited (CTL) in Umuahia, the Abia State capital on Wednesday lost property worth millions of naira as a mysterious fire gutted their property.  The cause of the fire incident at the time of the report was yet-to-be known, but sources around the area said that it took the timely intervention of men of Abia State Fire Service to stop the fire from damaging nearby properties.  According to an eyewitness, the staff of the cable television network, in charge of the studio located in caravan was said to be absent where the fire started.  The source who is staff of a firm near the studio said he got to know of the inferno when his office generating set started jerking outside the office.  The Source said, “We were inside our office and all of a sudden our generating set started jerking and by the time we went out to check what was happening we saw smoke all over the CTL office.  “We made efforts to stop the fir

The British Foreign Office said it has summoned the North Korean ambassador over Wednesday’s ballistic missile test. North Korea said it has successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile in a “breakthrough” that put the United States mainland within range of its nuclear weapons. “I summoned the North Korean Ambassador to the Foreign Office to make clear to him our condemnation of this latest ballistic missile test,” Reuters quoted the Minister for Asia and Pacific, Mark Field, as saying in a statement. “North Korea claims it wants to bring security and prosperity to its people. But its actions are creating only insecurity and deepening its isolation.” Britain is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The latest test was the highest and longest any North Korean missile had flown, and it landed in the sea near Japan. U.S President, Donald Trump, who has vowed to halt North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes, spoke with Chinese Preside

The Senate on Wednesday urged the Federal Government to summon the Libyan Ambassador to Nigeria over the slavery auctions of Nigerians in the North African country. The upper chamber also condemned in totality the current depravity and sheer animalism being exhibited by Libyans selling other Africans as slaves. The call followed a motion on “Urgent need to Protect Nigerian Citizens from the Libya Slavery Auctions,” sponsored by Senator Baba Garbai. He called for repatriation and rehabilitation of Nigerians caught up in the despicable treatment and human right abuses. “These are our people who are just trying to flee from poverty and deprivation,” he said. Garbai said the slave trade was not just a humiliation of Nigerians and Africans, but also to human civilisation and the fundamental principles of human rights under the United Nations Charter. He said: “Not long ago, about 4,000 Nigerians were intercepted when they were about to enter the Mediterranean Sea and deported

The Senator representing Ebonyi south, Sunny Ogbuoji, on Wednesday raised the alarm over the reinstatement of a Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations at the Federal Capital Territory Command, Danjuma Ibrahim, who was accused of involvement in the murder of six traders over 12 years ago. Ibrahim was the commander of the police patrol unit implicated in the gruesome killing of the traders in Apo area of the FCT in 2005. He was accused of conspiring with other police operatives to cause the death of suspects arrested in the Garki Division of FCT. The incident  led to Ibrahim’s suspension from the police. He was later arraigned in court over his role in the traders’ murder. Ogbuoji, who came under Order 43, (Personal explanation), said his personal explanation had to do with the traders’ gruesome murder at a police checkpoint. He said: “That incident involved Ifeanyi Ozo, Chinedu Meniru, Isaac Ekene, Paulinus Ogbonna, Anthony Nwokike and Augustina Arebun.”