Seven persons said to be students of the Niger Delta University, Yenagoa, were found dead inside a music studio on Tuesday morning after inhaling what is suspected to be generator fumes.

According to sources, the music studio along Transformer Road in the Amarata area of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, was operated by one of the deceased identified as Akpos Barakubo.

The deceased were said to be working in the studio on Monday night but fell asleep due to exhaustion without putting off the generator resulting in the sad incident.

It was gathered that six corpses were discovered in the morning and a seventh one who was unconscious was rushed to the hospital but later gave up the ghost.

Security operatives have cordoned off the area while the corpses have been evacuated to the mortuary.

A resident of the area, Damion Asamonye, blamed the federal and state governments as well as the Port Harcourt Power Electricity Distribution Company for their death saying if there was adequate power supply, there would not have been any need for the generator.

Asamonye lamented the situation in Bayelsa State where the electricity distribution company would only bring power when they wanted to collect bills and take it away shortly after customers had paid their bills.

He said, “Both the federal and state governments have failed us. If there was a public power supply, maybe these people wouldn’t have lost their lives in this circumstance.

“Seven able-bodied young men just died like that because of the failure of government. The most annoying thing is that tomorrow, the PHED officials will come with a ladder to disconnect the light that they are not supplying. How can people be spending their money on fuelling generators despite the current hardship in Nigeria even after paying bills?”

Another resident, Joy Reuben, said the neighbourhood woke up on Tuesday morning to witness the tragic incident and called on the state government to ensure that there was adequate power supply in the state so that the citizens would not be allowed to die in such circumstances again.

A Federal High Court sitting in Akure on Monday ordered the detention of the Oba-Elect of Araromi-Ekiti in Ijero Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Prince Babalola Adebomi.

The Oba-elect, Adebomi was arraigned at Federal High Court on Monday, over certificate forgery.

According to the charge sheet, Babalola, 48 was arraigned on two-count charge, bordering forging a certificate of University of Ibadan and presented same to University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti for job in 2008 and also forging his discharge certificate of National Youth Service Corps(NYSC) and presented same to the University Teaching Hospital for job.

The charges sheet NO:FHC/AK/16/2024 reads inter alia: “That you Babalola Babatunde on or about the 15th day of January, 2008 at the University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did make and uttered a forged University of Ibadan Result which you knew to be false and with intent that it may be used or acted upon as genuine by the University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti to offer you a job and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 1(2)(c) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act.

“That you Batalola Babatunde on or about the 15 day of January, 2008 at the University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did make and uttered a forged National Youth Service Corps Certificate which you knew to be false and with intent that it may be used or acted upon as genuine by the University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti to offer you a job and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 12 of the Miscellaneous Offences Act”.

However, Babalola pleaded not guilty to the charges while his attorney, Attah Paul said he had filed an application on notice and prayed the court to give the application hearing.

The prosection attorney, Itunun Osobu told the court that he was yet to read the issues raised by the Defendant’s attorney in his reply to the counter-affidavit he filed.

Osobu added that he would be presenting two witnesses before the court to prove the charges.

The Defendant’s attorney, therefore, prayed the court to release the Oba-Elect on bail, promising that he would not jump bail.

When asked if the defendant has any surety, Attah said Babalola has a younger brother who is a business man based in Akure, Ondo State capital, adding that the defendant’s in-law has a property in Akure and prayed the court to present the defendant to nearest police station pending the adjournment date.

In his ruling, Justice Owoeye ordered that the defendant, Babalola Babatunde be detained in Assistant Inspector General of Police’s office and adjourned the hearing till Thursday, May 23, 2024.

Over 40 persons have been reportedly killed by bandits in Zurak Kompani and Bandalala communities, Bashar District of Wase Local Government Area of Plateau State.

Some Wase residents who spoke to Channels Television on the phone said the attacks on the villages occurred on Monday night when residents were retiring from the day’s work.

The bandits, according to the residents, attacked the villages simultaneously. They set houses on fire, leading to pandemonium in which some of the residents were killed and others sustaining injuries.

Over thirty persons were reportedly killed in Kompani Zurak while another ten were killed in Bandalala with several others still missing.

Residents of the attacked communities have fled to neighbouring villages to seek refuge.

One of the residents of Wase town Audu Ummah said that some of the injured from the attacked communities are receiving treatment in various health centres while other survivors have moved to Wase and other villages.

Security agencies are yet to comment on the attacks as of the time of this report. The state government has yet to do the same.

The incident adds to the growing number of attacks in communities in the North-Central state which has been plagued by incessant clashes.

Plateau, which lies on the dividing line between Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south, is a flashpoint for intercommunal violence.

In December, several people were killed in raids on villages. Thousands of others were displaced in the attacks.

Clashes in Nigeria’s North-West and North-Central states have their roots in tensions over land between nomadic herders and pastoral farmers.

Competition for natural resources, intensified by rapid population growth and climate pressures, has spiralled into broader criminality.

Worried by the incessant attacks, the UN’s World Food Programme warned that conflict and insecurity, along with inflation and climate change, could sharply drive up hunger levels across the country.