The prime minister of the UK, Boris Johnson has weighed into the row over transgender rights saying biological males should not be allowed to compete in female-only sports events.


The UK leader said that parents should have ‘involvement at the very least’ in decisions made by children to alter their gender as transgender rights groups continue to spread their valued around the Western world..


Johnson's comments come as the government faces a backlash for excluding transgender people from a ban on conversion therapy.


Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual or their gender identity from transgender to cisgender using psychological, physical, or spiritual interventions.

The UK was forced to cancel an LGBT+ conference in response to changes to a promised ban on all conversion therapy, after more than 100 charities pulled out.


Speaking during a visit to a hospital in Welwyn Garden City on Wednesday, April 6, the Prime Minister said there are still things to be worked out, and that he was ‘sad’ at the reaction of the organisations involved.


‘I don’t think that it’s reasonable for kids to be deemed so-called Gillick-competent to take decisions about their gender or irreversible treatments that they may have. I think there should be parental involvement at the very least.’



‘I don’t think that biological men should be competing in female sporting events’.


He also defended the decision to exclude transgender people from the conversion therapy ban, despite backlash from some of his own MPs.



‘We will have a ban on gay conversion therapy, which to me is utterly abhorrent.


‘But there are complexities and sensitivities when you move from the area of sexuality to the question of gender. There, I’m afraid, there are things that I think still need to be worked out.’


The PM added that women should have spaces in hospitals, prisons and changing rooms which were ‘dedicated to women’.


‘That’s as far as my thinking has developed on this issue. If that puts me in conflict with some others, then we have got to work it all out,’ he said.


‘That doesn’t mean that I’m not immensely sympathetic to people who want to change gender, to transition.


‘It’s vital that we give people the maximum possible love and support in making those decisions.


‘But these are complex issues and I don’t think they can be solved with one swift, easy piece of legislation. It takes a lot of thought to get this right.’

Two persons in the entourage of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan died in Abuja after a convoy crash today Wednesday, April 6.



The convoy was involved in an accident while returning from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja to his residence in the Federal Capital Territory. He had barely returned from an international assignment when the accident happened.



The ex-President and his wife, Patience, have been to the emergency unit of the National Hospital, Abuja where all victims were evacuated to. Although Jonathan was not admitted into any of the units in the hospital, some members of his team were critically injured.



Confirming the accident, the spokesperson of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Bisi Kazeem said



“Two people died in the accident. It was the ex-President’s convoy that was involved but he was not in the car that had the accident.”

Russian oligarch and Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich has denied going cap in hand to wealthy US friends for financial help as the impact of state sanctions starts to bite.



His spokesman made the statement after reports emerged in the US claiming that Putin's former confidante was begging rich contacts including Hollywood director Brett Ratner for £765,000 ($980,000) loans to help him pay his staff after being sanctioned by London and Washington.



The Chelsea Football Club owner, who has been accused in Britain of being a close ally of Putin, had reportedly asked for huge loans from his celebrity friends to maintain his staff, who were said to be costing him £600,000 a week.



Abramovich's spokesperson denied there was any truth to the report, which was first broken by media outlet Page Six, and insisted they had not been approached for comment.



The spokesperson told radio station City AM that Abramovich had 'not spoken with, nor asked for funds from these individuals'.



'We have contacted the originating source Page Six as they did not reach out to us prior to publication,' they added.



Page Six alleged that Rush Hour director Ratner was among those Abramovich asked, along with members of the Rothschild family as well as other contacts in Hollywood and Silicon Valley. The oligarch was said to have made approaches after his assets in Britain and the US were seized last month. No one is thought to have agreed to give him the money.



A source told the website: ‘Roman is asking some of his closest powerful friends to let him borrow $1million. He is saying he has never missed payroll for his staff, which is $750,000 a week, and with his assets frozen, he can’t pay his people.



‘He has reached out to Hollywood producer and director Brett Ratner and the Rothschild family, among many others, for money, but – while they are good friends with Roman – they have not agreed to give him money, because either they do not have that in liquid cash, or moreover it is not clear what are the repercussions under international law.’

Forbes has released its annual World’s Billionaires List for the year 2022.



This year's list ranks 2,668 billionaires across the world.



Only three Africans — all Nigerians — were in the Top 500 of the list.



Aliko Dangote is the first African on the list at No. 130, making him the richest man in Africa, with a total earning of $14 billion.



Mike Adenuga, owner of Globacom, who is number 324 on the list, is the second African on the list, with his $7.3 billion fortune.



Abdulsamad Rabiu, BUA Group Chairman, was listed at number 350 with his $6.9 billion fortune.



Francoise Bettencourt Meyers with her $74.8 billion fortune was ranked as the richest woman on the planet for the second year running. She is number 14 in the general list.



She’s the granddaughter of the founder of beauty giant L’Oréal.

A dramatic scene played out at the House of Representatives today April 6, as the Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase refused a motion moved by a lawmaker due to noisemaking.



This occurred after Sergius Ogun notified Wase that his motion which was listed on the order paper, was skipped. The deputy speaker then informed him that it was done deliberately because he was making noise.



Displeased with the action of his colleague, Ogun, with a raised voice, insisted that he was not making noise. He also said that the House Rules do not stipulate such.



This led to an argument with Wase before the lawmaker issued an apology. This did not go well with the Leader of the House, Ado Doguwa, who noted that Ogun was erratic and disciplinary measures must be taken against him.



Wase, on his part, appealed for calm and urged the lawmakers to move past the issue. Shortly after this, Ogun's motion which centered on invasion of the Federal High Court in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, by police personnel on February 16, was considered.



The lawmakers were concerned that during the invasion, the defendant, a police officer accused of trafficking in persons, was taken away by the security operatives.



The lawmakers urged the Inspector General of Police to immediately produce the fleeing police officer and hand her over to the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for prosecution.

The U.K. has announced new measures to ban all new outward investment in Russia and froze the assets of the country’s biggest bank in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.



The British Govt moved to freeze the assets of Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, and the Credit Bank of Moscow in what Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said were 'some of our toughest sanctions yet'.



All new outward investment to Russia has been banned and the UK has also committed to end all imports of Russian coal and oil by the end of the year, with gas to follow as soon as possible.



Sanctions will also be imposed on eight more oligarchs, including Moshe Kantor, the largest shareholder of the fertiliser company Acron and Andrey Guryev, the founder of another key fertiliser company, whom the UK described as a close associate of Vladimir Putin.



Others oligarchs who have been placed under sanctions include Sergey Sergeyevich Ivanov, president of the world’s largest diamond producer, Alrosa, and Leonid Mikhelson, the founder and CEO of the leading Russian natural gas producer Novatek.



The announcement came alongside similar measures from western allies including the EU which has also banned imports of Russian coal. The US announced it was also imposing sanctions against Sberbank, Russian’s largest bank, along with the UK.



The UK will impose asset freezes on Sberbank and Credit Bank of Moscow and put in place an outright ban on all new outward investment in Russia, which was worth £11bn in 2020.



By the end of 2022, the UK would end all dependency on Russian coal and oil, the sanctions announcement said, with a pledge to end imports of gas “as soon as possible thereafter”.



Export bans will also be put in place on key oil refining equipment as well as a ban on imports of iron and steel products.



The White House, meanwhile, announced sanctions Wednesday targeting Russia's top public and private banks and two daughters of Vladimir Putin, adding more pressure on the country's economy and its elite over the invasion of Ukraine.



The new sanctions targeted Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, two adult daughters of Putin's with his former wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva.



Also hit with new sanctions were the wife and daughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and members of Russia's Security Council, including former President and Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

Seat of the member representing Nkwerre state Constituency in Imo state house of assembly, Obinna Okwara has been declared vacant by Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly, Kennedy Ibe.



Okwara's seat in the assembly was declared vacant after he joined the Peoples Democratic Party from the All Progressives Congress. He is also said to be among the six lawmakers suspended by the leadership of the assembly.



The speaker asked the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct a bye-election to fill the vacant seat.



The suspension slammed on Authur Egwium who represents Ideato North State Constituency has also been lifted.



Ibe said that Egwium had shown cogent remorse in an apology letter he wrote to the parliament and hence deserved to be pardoned.



The speaker and his deputy, Amara Iwuanyanwu had since 2019 defected to three political parties.

Zamfara Sate Governor, Bello Mohammed Matawalle, has distributed 260 cars including Cadillac to the traditional rulers in the state.



The distribution was done by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, at Government House, Gusau on Wednesday.

Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola has disclosed that some unqualified Nigerians applied for the recently concluded recruitment into the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC.



The Minister disclosed this at the Policy Dialogue on Entrenching Transparency in Public Service Recruitment in Nigeria, organised by the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria, an institution of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Relates Offences Commission (ICPC) in Abuja on Tuesday April 5.



Sola Fasure, the media adviser in a statement released on behalf of the minister said some applicants also came in wheelchairs demanding slots from the 5000 vacant positions.



The Minister also stated that the just concluded NSCDC recruitment was one of the fairest and most transparent in recent time.



Aregbesola said;



“A woman came with her son after getting very high up people to influence his appointment. But we discovered that the son was far, far below the required height of 1.7 metres.

“Some applicants on wheelchairs also came, demanding the statutory five per cent allocation for special people.

“We politely explained to them that the job is paramilitary, requiring strenuous physical exercise for which they are not eligible, given their physical condition.

“One of the lessons we learnt, which we have always known anyway, is that there is no part of this country where we cannot get merit if we want the best.

“We got people from all parts of the country who are qualified, including females, as certified by the Federal Character Commission that was part of the process from the beginning to the end.”

Minister of works and housing, Babatunde Fashola has outlined the need for politicians to use debates to connect with Nigerians and sell their ideas.



In his speech at the 12th-anniversary symposium of Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria, a civil society organisation, Fashola stated that he was not known in 2007 until he used the election debate to sell himself as the best candidate for the governorship election in Lagos state that year.



The Minister also encouraged groups and stakeholders to compel politicians to participate in them.



He said;



“In 2007, people didn’t know who I was politically. People who knew me were the judges and the lawyers in the court, and they said where did you bring this candidate from. And it was clear to me that the only way I was going to connect to the people was during that debate.

“Debates should take place in places like university campuses where some of the debates take place in the US. I think labour groups, manufacturers groups, interest groups, can organise debates.

“If there are candidates who seriously want to get the votes of those people, these are the platforms to speak to them.

“If a candidate persuades me at a debate, I’d likely go out to vote for him.

“On election day, what you’re probably likely to see is a ballot paper with the signs, symbols, possibly the names of the candidates, but doesn’t tell you what they do about your life, what they care about, how you feed them, doesn’t tell you whether they are God-fearing, whether they have empathy.

“So it is platforms like this that help you test ahead of making a choice, what kind of persons you are entrusting the most serious jobs either in your local government, your state or in your country. And that became very defining for me as a much younger person.”