Author: Platform Times Newspaper

Daud Olatunji  Former Senator and an  Engineer, Dr. Iyiola Omisore, has charged Nigeria’s mechanical engineers to step up their role in rescuing the country’s struggling economy, stressing that without engineering-led innovation, the national budget risks becoming “a carcass of a vehicle with no wheels.” Delivering the keynote at the 15th Annual Mechanical Engineers Distinguished Lecture (MEDL) hosted by the Nigerian Institution of Mechanical Engineers in Abuja, Omisore made a compelling case for a strategic alignment between mechanical engineering innovation and Nigeria’s economic development agenda, anchored on the 2025 national budget. Speaking on the theme “Imperative Mechanical Engineering Strategies for Socio-Economic…

Feyisayo Ogunbiyi The Ogun State Government, through its Ministry of Health, has announced plans to test over 2,000 schoolchildren for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), specifically schistosomiasis and Soil-Transmitted Helminths (STH), across the 20 Local Government Areas of the state. The initiative, which aligns with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) roadmap for the global elimination of NTDs by 2030, is also aimed at assessing the impact of previously administered medications to schoolchildren under the state’s NTD control programme. During a stakeholders’ meeting held in Abeokuta on Wednesday, the NTDs team revealed that urine and stool samples will be collected from students…

The Senate President Godswill Akpabio has announced that President Bola Tinubu has given assent to the bill to upgrade Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro to Federal University of Technology, Ilaro. Akpabio disclosed this during the Senate plenary on Wednesday. The bill sponsored by the Senator representing Ogun West, Olamilekan Adeola. This development implies that the Bill is now an Act of the National Assembly. Details later…

Senator Lawal Adamu Usman, representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, has come down hard on a group identified as the Kaduna Central Movement for Development (KCMD) over allegations of non-performance, describing the group’s threat to mobilise against his re-election in 2027 as “laughable” and “infantile.” In a strongly worded statement issued through his Media and Publicity Office on Tuesday, the lawmaker dismissed the KCMD as a “faceless group” engaged in spreading “shameless lies,” insisting that he has redefined the political landscape of Kaduna Central with “unprecedented developments” in less than two years in office. Usman, popularly known as Senator LA, said…

A fire outbreak triggered by a diesel explosion at the Alake Sports Complex, Ijeja, Abeokuta, threw the ongoing 22nd National Sports Festival into chaos on Tuesday, forcing athletes and spectators to flee the venue in panic. The inferno, which reportedly started around 3pm, occurred when a diesel truck supplying fuel to the venue’s power generator caught fire. Eyewitnesses said the truck, with registration number LND 898 YJ, erupted in flames as sparks flew while fuel was being discharged into the generating set that powers the complex. The Alake Sports Complex, one of the key venues of the “Gateway Games 2024,”…

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has uncovered a phony medical outreach allegedly operated by self-acclaimed missionaries who were administering unregistered drugs to unsuspecting residents in Abuloma, a community in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. According to a statement issued by the agency on Tuesday, the illegal operation was taking place at the Community Town Hall under the guise of a free medical evangelism programme. NAFDAC said its enforcement team discovered various unregistered products, including items labelled as Evangelist Jenkins Supernatural Water and Evangelist Jenkins Eye Drops. The agency further disclosed that the fake health workers…

A tragic wave of sorrow swept through the Buncrana community in County Donegal, Ireland, following the death of a 16-year-old Nigerian boy, Emmanuel Familola, who drowned while swimming with friends. The incident occurred on Saturday, May 10, 2025, when Emmanuel and two other teenagers reportedly got into difficulty while swimming in Lough Swilly. One of the teenagers managed to swim to safety, while another was rescued from the water in critical condition and rushed to Letterkenny General Hospital. Emmanuel, however, was declared missing, prompting an extensive search and rescue operation involving air and sea units. The teen’s body was later…

A somber atmosphere enveloped the Catholic community in Anambra State on Tuesday following the sudden death of Rev. Fr. Anthony Nnaemeka Udogu, a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Awka, who slumped and died while playing lawn tennis. The incident, which occurred in the early hours of the day, sent shockwaves across Awka, where the late cleric served as the Parish Priest of St. Francis of Assisi Parish and Dean of Awka Deanery II. Confirming the development in an official statement, the Chancellor of the Diocese, Rev. Fr. Charles Ndubuisi, described the death as “a painful loss to the church…

Saudi Arabian authorities have arrested two women believed to be the wife and mother of one of Nigeria’s most wanted bandit kingpins, Ado Aliero. The duo was reportedly apprehended in an intelligence-led operation carried out in the holy city of Medina, where they had been living under false identities. Security analyst and counter-insurgency expert, Zagazola Makama, disclosed the arrest in a short video posted on May 18. According to Makama, sources familiar with the investigation confirmed that the operation was part of a broader effort to dismantle a network of fugitives with links to violent insurgent activities in Nigeria’s North-West…

A resident of Owo in Ondo State, Mr. Jide Ogundare* has recounted his harrowing experience in the hands of kidnappers who abducted him, his wife, and daughter on March 7, 2025, slamming the Nigerian police and Ondo State government for abandoning his family throughout the ordeal. Ogundare, who was kidnapped near his residence shortly after returning from evening prayers with his family, told SaharaReporters that their assailants—four heavily armed men—sprang from the shadows, seized them at gunpoint, and forced them into the surrounding forest. “They weren’t there to kill,” Ogundare said. “They made it clear they wanted money. But what…