Low turn out of voters on Saturday marked the Local Government election in Lagos, reports the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
NAN reports that there was low turnout of voters in many polling units visited in Badagry, Alimosho, Epe, Mushin and Odi-Olowo Local Government Councils.
At the Awhajigoh Ward C in Badagry, the electoral officers, who arrived at 8. 20 a.m, wearing face masks and gloves, came with two bottles of sanitisers, urging the voters to observe the COVID-19 guidelines.
Mr Monday Avoseh, a voter in Awhajigoh Ward, said the low turnout was due to the voter apathy in the Badagry Area.
According to Avoseh, voters should come out before 3 p.m to cast their votes.
At Ajara-topa Ward C, Mr Babatunde Hunpe, the lawmaker representing Badagry Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, said that it was not too late for voters to cast their votes.
Also, at Polling Unit 038A, Baruwa Road, Ward 07, Ipaja North in Aliomosho Local Government 03, the election commenced at about 9.30 a.m.
The officials of the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) arrived at the centre around 8.30 a.m, while election materials were delivered at about 9.05 a.m
Boko Haram militants overrun an army base in Cameroon’s Far North region on Saturday, killing at least seven soldiers and wounding several others, according to sources.
They hit the base in Sagme locality of the region by 4.00 a.m. local time on Saturday, two soldiers and a local resident told Xinhua.
The militants, well-armed, some of them in military camouflage arrived in a convoy of six vehicles, one of the soldiers said.
After several hours of fighting, the commander of the military base was killed alongside six of his colleagues.
“The soldiers were very brave and defended strongly.
“It is thanks to that they were able to repel the attackers and saved more lives,’’ a soldier, who opted for anonymity, told Xinhua.
The soldier added that casualties on the part of the militants remained unknown.
Saturday’s attack was the deadliest on Cameroon army in more than 10 months, according to security reports.
Boko Haram has plagued Cameroon’s Far North region since 2014, killing more than 2,000 people, according to security reports.
The Saturday local government elections in Ogun was largely characterised by low turnout of voters and logistic challenges at the early stage of the excercise in most council areas.
Correspondents of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who monitored the exercise across the state reports that the elections scheduled to hold between 8 a.m and 2.00 p.m did not start until 11.00 a.m in most of the polling centres.
NAN reports that most of the polling units visited at Itoku and Kobiti areas in Abeokuta South Local Government area, as well as Ewekero and Mowe areas in Obafemi-Owode Local Government, were virtually empty as at 10.00 a.m.
Some electoral officials were, however, on ground as early as possible in some of the polling units at Obantoko and Federal College of Education, Osiele in Odeda Local Government area with the election materials.
They were, however, seen sitting idle waiting for voters who were coming out in trickles.
Apathy also played out in other council areas like the Ado-Odo/Ota and Ikenne council areas in spite of the fact that the electoral officers were on ground.
NAN reports that the excercise was generally peaceful
in all the polling booths, in spite of minimal presence of security officials, including the Amotekun corps.
Colombia gave the green light Friday to export dried cannabis flowers for use in medical products in addition to allowing manufacturers to produce goods such as textiles or food containing the plant.
In a bold embrace of a booming global market, President Ivan Duque signed a decree ending “the ban on the export of dried flower” in an event organized at Clever Leaves, one of the 18 multinationals that grows medicinal cannabis in Colombia.
Colombia “is coming in as a major player in the international market” for cannabis, Duque said.
Colombia, the world’s top producer of cocaine and which has major cannabis production, legalized the production of medical marijuana in 2016.
Until now, however, it was only allowed to export extracts of the plant, not its flowers.
Authorities had feared that exportation of the flowers would allow them to be diverted to the illegal side of the trade.
In a letter sent to Duque on July 14, the cannabis cultivation company Canamonte argued that a rule against exportation of the flowers prevented growers from “accessing the largest and most profitable market segment of the medical cannabis industry.”
There were early gold medals for China, Iran and South Korea on a sweltering opening day of the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Athletes complained about exhausting conditions given the combination of high temperatures and humidity, with several tennis players asking for matches to be moved to start later in the day.
Cyclists in the men’s road race in particular felt the strain, but Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz managed to defy the conditions, convincingly winning his nation’s second ever gold medal.
China’s traditional early dominance of the medal table endured, with Yang Qian winning the first available gold in women’s 10m air rifle final.
Shortly afterwards, Hou Zhihui celebrated victory in the women’s -49kg weightlifting, with a combined score of 210, breaking the Olympic record.
Elsewhere, a nurse from Iran became the Olympic champion in the men’s 10m air pistol competition. Javad Foroughi only took up the sport in 2017, after he was shown how to use an air pistol in a basement under the hospital where he works.
South Korean pair An San and Kim Je-deok took gold in the mixed team archery.
World number one Novak Djokovic made a good start as he continues his bod for the ‘Golden Slam’, opening with a routine 6-2 6-2 win over Bolivia’s Hugo Dellien in the men’s singles.
But the Serb became the second player to question the scheduling of matches, after Russian Daniil Medvedev suggested a later start time would make conditions more bearable.
“Humidity is brutal… I agree with him 100%,” said Djokovic. “To be honest, I don’t understand why they don’t start matches at, say, 3pm.
“Maybe the ITF [International Tennis Federation] can give you a better answer to why they chose to be played in the middle of the day. I doubt they will change the decision, but we’re hoping that they will.”
The ITF has said the schedule has taken into account factors such as local authority restrictions around Covid-19 and the unpredictability of the weather.
It said player health was paramount, adding that there was an extreme weather policy in place, which allowed for drinks breaks and even suspension of play should certain conditions be reached.
One of the biggest shocks of day one came from Japan’s seven-time Olympic medallist, gymnast Kohei Uchimura.
The two-time all-around champion, who is 32, had elected to only compete in his preferred apparatus, the high bar. But after a fall in qualifying, he will not feature in the final.
“I hit my peak already,” said the veteran gymnast after he watched his team-mates produce a series of high-quality routines.
“It has been so tough to get selected as a national team member. That itself was already really tough.”
There was another shock exit for the host nation at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, as three-time world champion Daiya Seto, regarded as Japan’s best hope for gold in the pool, failed to qualify for the men’s 400m individual medley final.
For the first time 1972, Team USA have failed to win a medal of any colour on day one of the Games.
In the softball tournament, which got under way earlier in the week before the official opening ceremony, the gold medal favourites continued their winning start, beating Mexico 2-0 at the Yokohama Baseball Stadium.
But the US team have faced criticism for their slow and often defensive playing style, having only scored five runs in three games.
“All we care about is getting wins right now,” said catcher Aubree Munro.
“So we’re good, but we’re gonna keep plugging and we’re definitely waiting for that offence to bust open.”
Algerian judoka Fethi Nourine has been suspended and will be sent home from Tokyo 2020 after he withdrew from the competition to avoid a potential meeting with an Israeli opponent.
Nourine, 30, was due to face Sudan’s Mohamed Abdalrasool in Monday’s first round of the men’s -73kg class.
Victory would have meant he would take on Israel’s Tohar Butbul next.
Speaking to Algerian TV, he said his political support for the Palestinian cause made it impossible to compete.
Nourine pulled out of the 2019 world championships, also in Tokyo, after being paired with Butbul – who has a first-round bye.
Zambia captain Barbra Banda became the first woman to score back-to-back hat-tricks at the same Olympics in her side’s thrilling 4-4 draw with China.
Zambia, the only African team competing in women’s football, came from 3-1 down to lead 4-3, only for a controversial late penalty denying them a memorable first Group F win.
Striker Banda, 21, also scored a treble in their 10-3 loss to the Netherlands.
China’s Wang Shuang claimed all four of her country’s goals.
It was also the second successive game where a single player has scored four times against Zambia after Vivienne Miedema achieved the feat for the Netherlands in a riotous opening match.
1534 Jacques Cartier lands in Canada, claims it for France
1567 Mary Queen of Scots is forced to abdicate; her 1-year-old son becomes King James VI of Scots
1832 Benjamin Bonneville leads the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains by Wyoming’s South Pass
1911 American explorer Hiram Bingham discovers Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas
1943 Operation Gomorrah: RAF begins bombing Hamburg (till 3rd August), creating a firestorm and killing 42,600 people
1982 Single “Eye Of The Tiger” by Survivor from “Rocky III” soundtrack starts 6-week run at No. 1 on US charts (Grammy for Best Rock Performance)
2019 Global warming is the fastest in 2,000 years and scientific consensus that humans are the cause is at 99%, according to three major reports published in journals “Nature” and “Nature Geoscience”
Jul 24 in Film & TV 1952 “High Noon”, American Western film directed by Fred Zinnemann, starring Gary Cooper and Thomas Mitchell, is released
Jul 24 in Sport 2005 92nd Tour de France: no winner; Lance Armstrong retires after winning a record seventh consecutive victory but disqualified in 2012 for doping
Do you know this fact about today?Did You Know? Harrisburg Pennsylvanian newspaper publishes results of 1st public opinion poll, with a clear lead for Andrew Jackson
Would you believe this fact about today? Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the last Tsar of Bulgaria when he was a child, is sworn in as Prime Minister of Bulgaria, becoming the first monarch in history to regain political power through democratic election to a different office.
Famous Wedding – July 24 1554 Queen Maria of England marries Philip, king of Naples/Jerusalem
Thousands of Eritrean refugees are increasingly caught in the middle of the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, amidst reports of attacks, abduction and killing of some residents.
The refugees are among the most vulnerable groups in the Tigray conflict, which broke out in November between the region’s forces and Ethiopian federal troops. It has left thousands of people dead.
The refugees say they have been targeted by both sides. Troops from their native Eritrea, which sent forces over the border to support Ethiopian soldiers, have been accused of destroying a refugee camp and abductions.
And the refugees say they have also come under attack as scapegoats from Tigrayans, who allege widespread abuses by Eritrean soldiers.
According to the United Nations, before the conflict, around 50,000 Eritrean refugees — many of whom fled their country’s authoritarian government and its policy of indefinite military service — were present in four camps in Tigray,
Another 42,000 were scattered elsewhere in the region and the rest of Ethiopia. Two of the camps were destroyed early in the war, and the fate of thousands of their residents is unknown.
Last week, Tigray forces captured the remaining two camps, Mai Aini and Adi Harush, after launching an offensive against forces from the neighboring Amhara region as they sought to take back more territory following the retreat of Eritrean and Ethiopian federal forces from the region last month.
Residents of Adi Harush camp told Newsmen that Tigray forces have since abducted more than a dozen refugees and raided dozens of homes, stealing mobile phones, food and other supplies.
Funeral of the late Haitian President Moise got underway on Friday, two weeks after he was shot dead at home in an assassination still shrouded in mystery.
Pall bearers placed the polished casket on a dais garlanded with flowers while a Roman Catholic priest blessed the coffin and a Haitian flag was unfurled.
Foreign dignitaries including U.S. President Joe Biden’s top advisor for the Western Hemisphere flew to Cap-Haitien to pay their respects to Moise, joining mourners in a series of commemorations in Haiti this week.
Moise was gunned down in his home in Port-au-Prince before dawn on July 7, setting off a political crisis in the Caribbean country already struggling with poverty and lawlessness.
Protests by angry supporters of Moise convulsed the slain leader’s hometown, the northern city of Cap-Haitien, for a second successive day on Thursday as workers labored in preparation for the funeral.
The protesters set tires on fire to block roads on Thursday afternoon, while workers paved a brick road to Moise’s mausoleum on a dusty plot of several acres enclosed by high walls.
Set on land held by Moise’s family and where he lived as a boy, the partly built tomb stood in the shade of fruit trees, just a few steps from a mausoleum for Moise’s father, who died last year. Police controlled access to the compound through a single gate.
Screens inside an auditorium broadcast images of the late statesman and his meetings with world leaders including Pope Francis, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
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