News
Ember months: FRSC warns against night travels and speeding
The Federal Road Safety Corps has urged citizens to refrain from embarking on nighttime travel during the last four months of the year, citing poor visibility due to darkness and the increased number of road accidents emanating from nighttime travel and speeding.
The acting Corps Marshal, Ali Biu, stated this during a press conference with journalists in Abuja on Thursday while noting that the FRSC was targeting minimal road crashes and zero fatalities during the period. He added that the Corps had deployed massive personnel to all strategic roads across the nation, as part of the measures to achieve the target.
Biu said, “Worthy of note is the alarming rate of crashes and fatalities that occur as a result of night trips. The most recent crashes and fatalities recorded by the FRSC happened on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway in Ogun State; a situation that has become worrisome and demands an urgent need to be brought to a halt. During these ‘ember months,’ travellers must endeavour as much as possible to avoid night trips due to poor visibility, excessive speed, and other unhealthy driving behaviours associated with driving during dark hours on Nigerian roads. “Travelling at night is risky for all road users, and this must be avoided to save lives.”
He noted that as part of measures put in place to guarantee a safer motoring environment, especially during the Ember Months, the Corps came up with the idea of special patrols and mega public enlightenment rallies in motor parks, which involve the massive deployment of personnel and logistics to motor parks for aggressive sensitization and the roads, particularly around identified black spots, for the containment of the perennial traffic gridlocks and the accompanying hazards.
He added, “Toward this year’s exercise, we embarked on elaborate studies along identified black spots to determine the immediate and remote causes of the gridlocks and to mobilise relevant stakeholders to collectively address the challenges and embark on public enlightenment programmes. The Corps also came up with the idea of enhancing patrol operations by ensuring massive deployments of personnel and logistics along the major highways to minimise road crashes and achieve zero fatalities during the period.
“We urge drivers to avoid speeding, overloading, and the use of unsafe tyres. Given our findings that speed-related road crashes account for over 70% of the causative factors of road crashes, the Corps has initiated measures of speed control in collaboration with various stakeholders. Notable amongst these efforts is the introduction of a speed limiting device as approved by the Standard Organisation of Nigeria, with effective enforcement going on since 2015; and its compulsory usage by commercial drivers. This resolve was orchestrated to ensure that speed-related crashes and the fatalities they cause are adequately reduced.
Biu also noted that there’s been an aggressive clampdown on unregistered motorcycles across the country, adding that it was necessary for curbing the activities of criminals.
News
Lagos police spokesman Benjamin Hundeyin promoted to CSP
Public Relations Officer of Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, has been promoted to Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Hundeyin took over from Adekunle Ajisebutu as Lagos police spokesman in 2022 while he was Superintendent of Police (SP).
On Wednesday, he shared photos of himself being decorated by Lagos police commissioner, Ishola Olawale.
“Behold the latest Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) in town. It is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes,” Hundeyin wrote on X.
Hundeyin holds a BA (Hons) in English Language from the Lagos State University and an MSc in Legal Criminology and Security Psychology from the University of Ibadan.
He also holds a certificate in Civil-Military Coordination from the Martin Luther Agwai International Leadership and Peacekeeping Training Centre, Jaji, Kaduna.
He is an associate of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), member of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) and an associate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM).
Hundeyin was a one-time PPRO at the Zone 2 Command Headquarters, Onikan, Lagos and was a member of the Nigerian contingent to the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur, Sudan (UNAMID) in 2020.
He was the administration officer at the Force Public Relations Department, Force Headquarters, Abuja.
News
‘I am currently at my home in Onitsha’ — Obi debunks rumoured arrest in Abuja
Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party in 2023, has denied the recent rumour that he has been arrested in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
On Tuesday, some social media users claimed that Obi was purportedly arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services in Abuja.
In a statement published on his X handle on Wednesday, Obi condemned the “recurrently fake news” about his purported arrest by security operatives.
The former Anambra governor said he is currently at his residence in Onitsha, adding the motive of the fake news merchants cannot be positive.
“I have been made aware of a circulating fake news about my alleged arrest. Let me state unequivocally that these claims are entirely false,” Obi said.
“I am currently at my home in Onitsha. Anambra State. Such fake News on my person has become a pastime for some people.
“Recall last year September, when I was in Rwanda, similar lies had gone out that DSS invaded my house; now, while I was in my home in Onitsha, Anambra State, they said I was arrested in Abuja.”
“The motive of these peddlers cannot be positive but let us not allow baseless rumors to distract us from the critical challenges we face as a nation.”
News
OpenAI chief, Sam Altman, debunks sister’s sexual abuse accusations
Open AI CEO Sam Altman on Tuesday denied allegations from his sister Annie Altman, who has filed a complaint accusing him of childhood sexual abuse.
“…Annie has made deeply hurtful and entirely untrue claims about our family, especially Sam,” the boss of the California startup said in a letter co-signed by his mother and two brothers, and published on social platform X.
“Our family loves Annie and is very concerned about her well-being. Caring for a family member who faces mental health challenges is incredibly difficult,” they wrote.
One of Silicon Valley’s more charismatic figures, Altman shot to global fame with the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, which ignited a race to advance AI research and development.
A prolific entrepreneur and already a billionaire, Altman, 39, has set himself the mission of developing a so-called “general” AI, with cognitive abilities similar to those of humans and which “benefits all of humanity”.
The Altman family said that they have tried to help their daughter and sister, covering her expenses and guaranteeing her “monthly financial support, which we expect to continue for the rest of her life”.
“Despite this, Annie continues to demand more money from us,” they said, pointing out that they have decided to respond publicly following Anne’s legal complaint filed on Monday, and after years of tension.
“The worst allegation she has made is that she was sexually abused by Sam as a child,” said the family.
“Her claims have evolved drastically over time. Newly for this lawsuit, they now include allegations of incidents where Sam was over 18.
“All these claims are utterly untrue.”
According to the complaint, Annie — who is nine years younger than Sam Altman — alleges the assaults took place from 1997, when she was three, until 2006.
In a report for New York Magazine in 2023, a journalist who met Annie in Hawaii described her as an artist suffering from depression and the growing rift with her family and supporting herself mainly through online sex work.
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