Lightup Concepts

The only permanent thing in the world is change.  Less than four months after its inundation, the Enugu mystery pool has dried up triggering major soil excavation by new visitors who had come for healing in the pool. The town itself which became a tourist destination a few months back, has had a fair share of the change as it has become a ghostly abandoned place. No people and vehicular movement were  present; the motorcyclists have relocated to major towns while the plastic container’ sellers at the junction leading to the forest have abandoned the business. The dreaded path to the forest took 20 minutes walk to the pool with heart palpitation. When Saturday Vanguard visited the pool recently, it was found to be completely drained with trenches here and there dug by desperate visitors with a view to getting water from the soil for healing. Saturday Vanguard had earlier visited the pool which many claimed had healing powers. Thousands of people from far and near visited ...

The outlawed Boko  Haram sect launched attacks on troubled Borno villages and highways, killing more than 30 people including residents, motorists and passengers. This development has left the hope of early resolution of the continued crisis in the area hanging. The sect in the latest attacks on Thursday evening and yesterday morning invaded three towns of Borno: Dikwa (in the central); Gwoza and Kalabalge council area (both in South) as well as the deadly Maiduguri- Biu road which has remained under terrorists’ ambush almost on daily basis for the past one month. In the attack on Government Secondary school in Dikwa located along Gulumba road, some residents of the town who fled to Maiduguri revealed to journalists that the hoodlums came to the town in the thick of the night and disturbed the peace of everyone, after slaughtering eight teachers. One of them who spoke on condition of anonymity said some had to flee the town to Maiduguri. “We could not sle...

A London-born Nigerian Hollywood star, Chinwetel Ejiofor, on Friday said he was proud to be identified as a Nigerian. Ejiofor said this in Lagos at the premiere of a movie “Half of a Yellow Sun’’ based on a novel written by a Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Adichie. He said that there was a wrong impression that he claimed not to be a Nigerian. “During the period of publicising “Twelve Years a Slave”, I was asked where I was originally from. “I suppose I was trying to give an honest answer about where I was born, and so, I said London, which is where I was born. “And to me, it was a surprising reaction that people then concluded that I didn’t identify as Nigerian. “Of course, I am Nigerian-British, but if they ask me where I was born, I can’t say Enugu, because I wasn’t born in Enugu, but, it doesn’t mean that I don’t identify as Nigerian. “I am proud of being Nigerian that I am extraordinarily happy to be here to make this film. “We wanted to make a film in Nigeria ...

Jasvir Ram Ginday was found guilty at Wolverhampton Crown Court A bank worker has been jailed for life for murdering his wife in a bid to stop her revealing his homosexuality. Jasvir Ram Ginday, 29, from Walsall, attacked Varkha Rani at their home with a metal pipe from a vacuum cleaner. He strangled her then burnt her body in a garden incinerator, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard. Judge John Warner told the court Ginday had struggled “being a gay man in a straight world”. He told him he would serve a minimum of 21 years in prison. The jury of seven women and five men took about 17 hours to find Ginday guilty of murder after a three-week trial. He will be sentenced later on Friday. Ginday, of Victory Lane, had flown to attend his arranged wedding to Varkha, 24, from India, at a lavish ceremony attended by up to 700 guests last year. But he had told a friend he was attracted to men as early as 2008, said prosecutor Deborah Gould. West Midlands Police said Ginday was fr...

The Delta State Government has earmarked N6bn for the ongoing Bus Rapid Transit lane project in Warri. The Deputy Governor, Prof. Amos Utuama, made this known at the Palace of the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwase 11 on Friday. Utuama, accompanied by some members of the ad hoc committee on state sanitation, said the project would help to reduce traffic congestion being experienced in most parts of Warri metropolis. He said the BRT lane would start from Effurun and terminate at the Nigerian Port Authority. The deputy governor added that government had engaged 750 people to fortify its traffic control mechanism in the ancient city. Utuama also said the visit was to intimate the Ogiame of the activities of the ad hoc committee saddled with the responsibility of cleaning up the state and solicit for his support. “I apologise that we could not visit the Ogiame before the commencement of our operation in Warri South. “We are on environmental restoration mission in Warri South, Uvwi...

David Adeleke, better known as Davido, has become a force in the Nigerian music scene. Now, the young man wants to try his luck in the make-believe world as he launches into Nollywood. Courtesy of his cousin, Ikechukwu Ojeogwu, a rookie producer, Davido will be a part of  Ojeogwu’s debut film,  John Zerebe . Ojeogwu, who told Saturday Beats that Teco Benson would be directing the film, insisted he was featuring Davido in the movie because he (Davido) fitted the role. “I didn’t use him because he is my cousin. I didn’t use him to sell the movie as well. David fitted very well into the role and we had to use him as well,” Ojeogwu said. The young producer, who is also playing the lead role in the movie, said he was yet to get the lead actress in the movie. “I would have loved Genevieve to be the lead actress but I think everything depends on the director, Teco. He would be in a better position to know who should be the lead actress,” he said. The Babcock University ...

                             Isiaka Yusuf Punch reports: The family of the 32-year-old engineer, Isiaka Yusuf, being held by the State Security Service for posting pictures of the March 30 Abuja jailbreak on   Twitter,  is seeking legal assistance to ensure his release. The Electrical and Electronics Engineering graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, who works at the Aso Villa substation of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, had live-tweeted pictures from the scene of  the jailbreak by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect. The SSS headquarters, known as Yellow House, is located behind the Villa. As a shred of secrecy surrounds his incarceration by the SSS, his immediate younger brother, Sanusi, told  Saturday PUNCH  on Friday that he had yet to establish any form of contact with him. Noting that the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof. C...