A quick catch up on today’s top stories…
1) Nigeria’s Bauchi State set to marry off and sponsor weddings of at least 100 repentant sex workers
Bauchi State government, through the Hisbah Department of the state Shariah Commission, has pledged to marry off at least 100 repentant sex workers.
The Permanent Secretary in charge of the department, Alhaji Aminu Balarabe-Isah, disclosed this on Tuesday at the formal inauguration of vocational training for 575 repentant sex workers in Bauchi. He said the government would sponsor the weddings of both Muslim and Christian women among them, and provide them with dependable and reliable sources of livelihood.
2) Headmaster allegedly commits suicide at Hatsukorpe
The headmaster of the Hatsukorpe No.1 Basic school in the Ketu South Municipality of the Volta region, Mr. Israel Mawuli Afetorgbor has been found dead.
The body of the almost 60-year-old headmaster was found hanging on a rope tied to a mango tree on the compound of his residence at about 5:30 am on Monday, March 7, 2022, an incident considered to be a suicide.
Confirming the incident, Assemblyman for the Viepe-Tokor Electoral Area, Victor Ayaku said, “At about 5:30 am on Monday, I received a call from one of my Unit Committee members who informed me of the incident. I rushed to the scene and realised it was true, so I called the police who came to pick up the body.”
3) Blood flows as gunmen ambushed and massacred at least 62 vigilantes in Nigeria’s Kebbi State
Gunmen ambushed and killed at least 62 members of a volunteer vigilante group in Nigeria’s northwestern Kebbi state, the head of the group and a police spokesman said, in the worst violence to hit the state since mid-January.
Usman Sani, the head of the “Yan Sa Kai” vigilante group in Kebbi, told Reuters that his group had planned to attack bandits in the Sakaba area on Sunday night but someone tipped them off. “They lay in ambush, hid their motorcycles in the shrubs, circled us and opened fire from different directions,” Sani, a retired soldier, said on Tuesday. He said 62 people had been killed.
4) New study shows COVID-19 patients likely to suffer brain shrinkage, memory loss
COVID-19 can cause the brain to shrink, reduce grey matter in the regions that control emotion and memory, and damage areas that control the sense of smell, an Oxford University study has found.
The scientists said that the effects were even seen in people who had not been hospitalised with COVID, and whether the impact could be partially reversed or if they would persist in the long term needed further investigation. “There is strong evidence for brain-related abnormalities in COVID-19,” the researchers said in their study.
5) Zverev handed suspended eight-week ban by ATP for Acapulco outburst
Men’s tennis governing body has handed world number three Alexander Zverev a suspended eight-week ban for smashing his racket against the umpire’s chair at last month’s ATP 500 event in Acapulco, for which he was expelled from the tournament.
Zverev was fined $20,000 for verbal abuse, $20,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct and forfeited more than $31,000 in prize money and all rankings points earned from singles and doubles action at the Abierto Mexicano tournament.
Following a review, the ATP found the 24-year-old German had committed “aggravated behaviour” and issued an additional fine of $25,000 and an eight-week ban from any ATP-sanctioned event.
