Naira tumbles to 402 on dollar scarcity, Explosion rocks Damaturu, photos from the Benin tanker fire accident and other major headlines you missed today!

Dear KFBers, we have got loads of interesting stories in tonight's #MajorHeadlinesYouMissedToday feature...enjoy   Naira tumbles ...

Dear KFBers, we have got loads of interesting stories in tonight's #MajorHeadlinesYouMissedToday feature...enjoy

 

Naira tumbles to 402 on dollar scarcity The naira tumbled to 402 against the dollar at the parallel market on Wednesday, a day after the Central Bank of Nigeria banned nine banks from the foreign exchange market for failing to remit $2.334bn to the Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The local currency had closed at 397/dollar on Tuesday.
At the interbank market, the naira closed at 315.93/dollar, lower than 305.5 it recorded on Tuesday.
The slide being witnessed by the naira has caused costs to soar with the inflation rate hitting an 11-year high at 16.5% in June.

Explosion rocks Damaturu, welder killed, Army officer injured

Huge fire after an exploded

A welder was killed in his workshop on Wednesday in Damaturu, Yobe State when an explosion went off. Three persons including an army officer were injured in the explosion.Investigation revealed that the explosion occurred when an army officer approached a welding shop to repair an equipment belonging to the military.
The welder, it was gathered, brought out his equipment to start work and it exploded killing him instantly while the soldier was seriously wounded.

One killed, 4 houses burnt in Benin tanker fire accident (photos)

The burning fuel tanker in Benin

More than four houses gutted by fire Wednesday morning at Upper Mission junction along the Benin-Auchi express road after a tanker carrying fuel fell and spill its contents.One life was reportedly lost in the incident. Witnesses said residents in other buildings are packing out their belongings to safe areas.
Three other persons were said to have sustained varying degrees of burns in the accident.
Meanwhile, shops and some vulcanisers, who were affected by the inferno have started counting their losses.
One of the shop owners, Mrs. Deborah Afubeli, whose provision shop was razed, said she lost goods worth N2 million in the fire.
Other residents of the area who spoke to journalists, blamed the condition of the expressway for the accident. They likened the road to a death trap.
When contacted, the Director of the Edo State Fire Service, Mr. Franklin Agbonlahor, said the fire was put out shortly after his team arrived the scene.
He blamed the driver of the Audi car for the accident, saying he refused to heed instructions when flagged down.
“The story is positive; the fire was brought under ‎control. A vehicle defied instructions of people that were flagging vehicles down when this happened. Immediately he came across the tanker, fire was ignited,” Agbonlahor said.
He advised road users to be patient while driving on the road, adding “When there is a distress situation, they should try and listen to anybody flagging you down. Life has no spare parts.”

Benin fuel tanker explosion

Benin Fuel tanker explosion: Sympathisers at the scene

Scene of the fuel tanker explosion

Damages caused by the fire

 Death toll in Italy’s earthquake rises to 120

Aerial view of the devastation of Central Italy caused by earthquake

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has confirmed that the death toll in the earthquake which devastated Central Italy has risen to 120.The magnitude 6.2 quake occurred early this morning. Many residents are still trapped under hills of rubble while thousands have been rendered homeless in the devastating quake.
The quake struck early today when most people were asleep, razing homes and buckling roads in a cluster of towns and villages some 140 km (85 miles) east of Rome.
The emergency services released an aerial photograph showing whole areas of the town of Amatrice flattened, while debris filled the streets of nearby Accumoli.
“Now that daylight has come, we see that the situation is even more dreadful than we feared, with buildings collapsed, people trapped under the rubble and no sound of life,” said Accumoli mayor Stefano Petrucci.
Wide cracks appeared like open wounds on the buildings that were still standing.
Residents sifted through the rubble with their bare hands before emergency services arrived with earth-moving equipment and sniffer dogs.

The quake hit during the summer when the populations of the communities in the area, normally low during the rest of the year, are swelled by vacationers.
Officials said six people were known to have died in Accumoli and a further six were reported dead in Amatrice. Sky Italia television said 10 had died in the nearby village of Pescara del Tronto. Some 100 people were still unaccounted for in the village of Arquata del Tronto.
“Three quarters of the town is not there anymore,” Amatrice mayor Sergio Pirozzi told state broadcaster RAI. “The aim now is to save as many lives as possible. There are voices under the rubble, we have to save the people there.”
A Reuters reporter said the town’s hospital had been badly damaged by the quake, with patients moved into the streets. RAI reported that two Afghan girls, believed to be asylum-seekers, were also missing in the town.
The earthquake caused damage to towns in three regions – Umbria, Lazio and Marche.
The U.S. Geological Survey, which measured the quake at 6.2 magnitude, said it struck near the Umbrian city of Norcia, while Italy’s earthquake institute INGV registered it at 6.0 and put the epicenter further south, closer to Accumoli and Amatrice.

The damage was made more severe because the epicenter was at a relatively shallow 4 km below the surface of the earth.
Residents of Rome were woken by the tremors, which rattled furniture, swayed lights and set off car alarms in most of central Italy.
“It was so strong. It seemed the bed was walking across the room by itself with us on it,” Lina Mercantini of Ceselli, Umbria, about 75 km away from the hardest hit area, told Reuters.
Olga Urbani, in the nearby town of Scheggino, said: “Dear God it was awful. The walls creaked and all the books fell off the shelves.”
INGV reported 60 aftershocks in the four hours following the initial quake, the strongest measuring 5.5.
Italy sits on two fault lines, making it one of the most seismically active countries in Europe.
The last major earthquake to hit the country struck the central city of L’Aquila in 2009, killing more than 300 people.
The most deadly since the start of the 20th century came in 1908, when an earthquake followed by a tsunami killed an estimated 80,000 people in the southern regions of Reggio Calabria and Sicily.

LASU sanctions 84 students over indecent dressing

Authorities of the Lagos State University (LASU) have issued warning letters to 84 students in different departments for indecent dressing even as it disqualified a student from contesting the forthcoming students’ union election.
The decision of the management is contained in a statement from the Centre for Information, Press and Public Relations (CIPPR) made available to Daily Sun disclosed that the Students Affairs Division (DSA) of LASU issued the warning letters to the 84 students for flouting the dress code of the institution.
A breakdown revealed that eight of the affected students are in the final year, three in 300 level, 20 in 200 level and 43 in 100 level.
Details of the students sanctioned showed that Faculty of Management Sciences to the list with 24 students, followed by Faculty of Arts with 18, Sciences 16, Social Sciences and Education recorded 11 students each and School of Communication has four students.
‘’The students have been magnanimously pardoned by the university authority and were warned to desist from the act of indecent dressing, henceforth or face disciplinary action, the CIPPR statement noted’’.
In a related development, the LASU management has disqualified one of the contestants from the Lagos State University Students Union (LASUSU) presidential race. The action Daily Sun gathered is generating ripples.
Yusuf Omotola, a 300 level Economic Education Department, a presidential candidate in the students union was disqualified by the students’ affairs division for concealing his suspension at Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka.
The statement alleged that Omotola was suspended from the college on allegation of breach of peace and cultism in 2012 stressing ‘’there is no documentary evidence to prove that he has been cleared of this allegation or that his suspension from FCE Technical, Akoka has been vacated’’.
‘’Mr. YUSUFF, Wasiu Omotola was given several opportunities to redeem himself by voluntarily and honourably opting out of the LASUSU presidential race. However, such magnanimous entreaties were met with utter disdain and unbridled arrogance.
‘’It is on record that Mr. YUSUFF, Wasiu Omotola flagrantly refused to complete the security background check form made available to all contestants in the LASUSU general election race, DSA office noted.’’
The statement explained that in consonance with LASU management’s policy of zero tolerance to cultism and other forms of gangterism, the presidential aspirant, stands disqualified pending when he can provide documentary evidence that the allegation against him is false.
When Daily Sun called his mobile line five time, Omotola did not respond.

from ICE