Headline

Drama As Two Suspected Money Ritualists Run Mad, Die In Edo

Published

4 years ago

October 5, 2021

Joseph Kanjo

Two young men suspected to have been involved in money ritual have reportedly died in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area of Edo State.

The duo, Ebafor Abiye, 25 years old from Ogbe in Akoko-Edo LGA and mechanic by profession, and 36 years old Alex Benjamin said to be from Otuo in Owan East Local Government Area of the state, and a commercial bike rider mysteriously died in the same hospital few minutes away from Igarra town where they both stay after what is suspected to be ritual activities went sour.

An eyewitness who narrated the incident on phone said Abiye was with his Aunty drinking around 9pm when he suddenly acted funny and started shouting as if he saw plenty money, adding that he was repeatedly shouting ‘Alex you’re a bad friend’ but Alex was not known to anyone so he (Abiye) was rushed to the hospital.

The eyewitness narrated that, as this drama was unfolding at Abiye’s end, it was not known to them that Alex was at the middle of incarnations of his ritual where he was said to have called his wife not to come back home after her daily sales, but it was not clear what her husband meant so she went home after sales of the day where she meant him in his drama too.

She was said to have called neighbours who immediately came to the scene and rushed him to the hospital but fortunately he was rushed to same hospital where his name was repeatedly mentioned by Abiye.

“Ebafo was with his Aunty on Monday night drinking between 9 and 10 pm when he suddenly started shouting as if he see money, plenty money, Alex you are bad friend, bad friend’ and he started behaving hysterically, so they were trying to calm him down but he started vomiting blood and that is how he was rushed to the hospital. They got to the hospital at about 10pm and as the Doctor was doing preliminary checks, he started shouting Alex name in the hospital again so they were wondering whether it was the Alex he was mentioning that gave him something to eat.

“On the hand, Alex was in the middle of his own incantations when he was said to have called his wife who sells fruits by Afekhai junction in Igarra and told her that when she finishes her sales for the day, she should not come home. But his wife did not understand what her husband meant by that and went home after the sales only for her to get home and saw her husband stretching and talking incoherently.

“She summoned neighbours who helped rush him, coincidentally, to the same hospital.

“The wife was crying and shouting the name Alex and then the person brought in by the other people was also shouting the name Alex. The two of them started behaving the same way and in less than five minutes, the two of them were dead,” eyewitness narrated.

It was gathered that it was when his wife went home to bring cloth to cover him that she saw fire and a coffin in the floor of their room and when the people who brought Emafe went to his room, they were also said to have discovered several charms scattered in the floor of his room.

As at the time of filing this report, the police are said to have evacuated the corpses but that the Igarra community insisted that they remove the charms discovered in their houses.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer of Edo State Police Command, Bello Kontongs said he was yet to get a full briefing of the incident.

Headline

China, US Agree To Resume Trade Talks

Published

5 hours ago

October 18, 2025

Editor

China and the United States agreed on Saturday to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world’s two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle.

Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 percent tariffs on imports from China in retaliation.

Trump had also threatened to cancel his expected meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

In the latest indication of efforts to resolve their dispute, Chinese state media reported that Vice Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had “candid, in-depth and constructive exchanges” during a Saturday morning call, and that both sides agreed to hold a new round of trade talks “as soon as possible”.

On social media, Bessent described the call as “frank and detailed”, and said they would meet “in-person next week to continue our discussions”.

Bessent had previously accused China of seeking to harm the rest of the world by tightening restrictions on rare earths, which are critical to everything from smartphones to guided missiles.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer also participated in the call, according to the report by Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

Hours before the call, Fox News released excerpts of an interview with Trump in which he said he would meet Xi at the APEC summit after all.

Trump told the outlet that the 100 percent tariff on goods from China was not sustainable.

“It’s not sustainable, but that’s what the number is… They forced me to do that,” he said.

The high-level video call came as Washington worked to rally Group of Seven finance ministers in response to the latest Chinese export controls.

For now, the G7 ministers have agreed to coordinate a short-term response and diversify suppliers, the EU’s economy commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters in Washington.

Speaking after the grouping met this week, Dombrovskis noted the vast majority of rare earth supplies come from China, meaning that diversification could take years.

“We agreed, both bilaterally with the US and at the G7 level, to coordinate our approach,” he said on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s fall meetings.

Countries would also exchange information on their contacts with Chinese counterparts as they work out short-term solutions, he added.

German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told journalists he hopes that Trump and Xi’s meeting can help to resolve much of the US-China trade conflict.

“We have made it clear within the G7 that we do not agree with China’s approach,” he added, referring to the group of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva also expressed hope Friday for an agreement between the countries to cool tensions.

The US-China trade war reignited this year as Trump promised sweeping tariffs on imports soon after returning to office.

At one point, US-China tariffs escalated to triple-digit levels, effectively halting some trade as businesses waited for a resolution.

The two countries have since lowered their respective levies, but their truce has remained shaky.

AFP

Headline

Morocco Jails Student One Year Over Gen Z Protest

Published

1 day ago

October 17, 2025

Editor

A student arrested during Morocco’s youth-led protests has been sentenced to one year in prison, his lawyer told AFP on Friday.

The case marks the first publicly known prison sentence linked to the kingdom’s Gen Z demonstrations, which have been held near-daily between late September and last week to demand social and political reforms.

The student was charged with “participating in an unauthorised and unarmed gathering” and “insulting the judicial police by providing false information”, lawyer Mohamed Nouini said.

“The ruling is unfair, and we will appeal,” he added, arguing that sit-ins did not require authorisation as per a Supreme Court precedent.

The lawyer said his client was arrested on September 30, three days after the protests erupted in the North African country.

According to a report by news website Hespress, citing another lawyer, the student’s arrest was “an unfortunate coincidence” as he was in Casablanca for a family visit.

The other lawyer, Mohamed Lakhdar, told the judge the student had “not insulted” police nor provided false information, telling them he “was just a student”, according to the report.

Hundreds were arrested during the early days of the largely peaceful demonstrations.

Some cities had seen spates of violence and acts of vandalism, while authorities have said three people were killed by police acting in “self-defence” during clashes in a village near Agadir.

The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) has said roughly 550 people are facing prosecution on suspicion of joining the protests, with some still in detention.

The organisers of the online-based movement behind the nationwide protests, the GenZ 212 youth collective, remain unknown.

The collective has called for “peaceful sit-ins” on Saturday and demanded the release of those arrested during the demonstrations.

The protest came after the deaths of eight pregnant women during Caesarean sections at a hospital in Agadir.

But protesters have also demanded reforms to the education system and a change of government.
AFP

Headline

Trump Refiles $15bn Defamation Lawsuit Against New York Times

Published

2 days ago

October 17, 2025

Editor

US President Donald Trump has refiled a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, court documents show, weeks after it was thrown out by a federal judge.

Trump has intensified his long-established hostility toward the media since his return to the White House, and the suit is one of numerous attacks against news organizations he accuses of bias against him.

The Times’ complaint was thrown out in September because District Judge Steven Merryday took exception to its florid writing, repetitive and laudatory praise of Trump, and its excessive 85-page length.

The suit filed Thursday in Florida and seen by AFP runs to less than half the length, at 40 pages.

It takes aim at “false, defamatory, and malicious publications”, highlighting a book and two Times articles.

The lawsuit named the newspaper, three Times reporters and the publisher Penguin Random House as defendants.

It accuses them of making defamatory statements against Trump “with actual malice.”

“The statements in question wrongly defame and disparage President Trump’s hard-earned professional reputation, which he painstakingly built for decades” before entering the White House, the lawsuit says.

The court was asked to grant compensatory damages of not less than $15 billion and additional punitive damages “in an amount to be determined upon trial.”

Trump’s attacks on media outlets have seen him restrict access, badmouth journalists critical of his administration, and bring lawsuits demanding huge amounts of compensation.

In July, Trump sued media magnate Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal for at least $10 billion after it reported on the existence of a book and a letter he allegedly sent to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Paramount settled Trump’s lawsuit over election coverage on CBS News’ flagship show “60 Minutes” for $16 million the same month. He had alleged that the program deceptively edited an interview with his 2024 election rival, Kamala Harris, in her favor.

AFP