By Francesca Hangeior

Suspended Labour MP Mike Amesbury has admitted to assaulting a man during a late-night dispute in Cheshire.

According to GB News, the Runcorn & Helsby representative pleaded guilty to a charge of assault by beating at Chester Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

The incident occurred on Main Street, Frodsham, at 2:48 a.m. on October 26, 2024. Amesbury, 55, punched 45-year-old Paul Fellows during the altercation, which was caught on video and widely circulated on social media.

In the wake of the assault, the Labour Party suspended Amesbury and removed the party whip in late October.

The MP was formally charged on October 29, after prosecutors received evidence of the incident three days earlier.

By Francesca Hangeior

President Bola Tinubu has expressed his condolences to the Lagos State Government and the All Progressives Congress over the death of an elder statesman and former head of service, Akinsanya Ajose.

Ajose, a native of Badagry Local Government Area of the state, died early on Thursday, January 16, 2025, at the age of 78.

He joined the Lagos Civil Service in 1979 and became head of service in 2004. He was a member of the Lagos State Governance Advisory Council.

“He was an astute administrator and dogged civil servant. When I appointed him as the head of the service, he became a rallying point. He had a considerable influence on the workers. He was pivotal in getting the civil service behind our policies and initiatives.

“Even after his tenure as the head of service, we remained very close because of his leadership qualities and because he was an important partner in development,” the President remarked, in a statement on Thursday by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.

While commiserating with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the government, and the people of the state, Tinubu prayed for strength and support for Ajose’s family and the deceased’s eternal rest.

Ajose was born on February 10, 1946, in Badagry. After his primary and secondary education in Nigeria, he went to the United States of America where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Science from the University of Illinois, Chicago, in 1973.

In 1974, he received a Master’s in Social Science from the Governors State University, United States.

By Francesca Hangeior

Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, has approved the recruitment of 3,000 teachers to be deployed to Junior and Senior secondary schools across the state.

The Project Coordinator, Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment in the state, Ali Gar, stated this on Thursday during a sensitisation meeting on the Girls Scholarship Programme with stakeholders from the Bauchi Local Government.

According to Gar, the move was part of the conditions for the implementation of the AGILE project in the state.

He explained that 2,000 teachers out of the figure would be deployed to Junior secondary schools while the remaining 1,000 would go to Senior secondary schools.

He said the move is to breach the pupils and students-teacher ratio gap across the benefitting schools under the project.

Gar emphasised “The teachers would be under the payroll of the state government and not AGILE Project.

“They would be recruited from the benefitting communities and this would ensure maximum participation on the side of the teachers, ease access, monitoring, and ensure ownership.”

The AGILE Project Coordinator equally revealed that the project would commence the payment of Conditional Cash Transfers to about 9,000 girls selected and registered as beneficiaries under the project in the next two weeks.

He explained that the conditional cash transfer scheme involved the payment of N15,000 as a registration fee to each of the beneficiaries and N20,000 as a stipend for the first term session.

He added that N10,000 would be paid to them for second and third term sessions respectively with the condition that each beneficiary must have 75 per cent attendance.

Gar, who said all ICT facilities, and skills acquisition tools for the project implementation have been procured, added that officials deployed to various communities were able to capture only 9,000 out of the 20,250 targeted beneficiaries in the past ten weeks.

He appealed to all stakeholders to monitor activities in their respective wards and communities to ensure that teachers perform their duties diligently.

On his part, while reacting to the development, the Executive Chairman, Bauchi Local Government, Mahmood Babama’aji commended the AGILE technical team for its effort toward the implementation of the project.

He expressed optimism in the capacity of all the School Based Management Committee members in delivering on their mandate.