• Grace Adayilo

The Head of FCT Civil Service, Mrs Grace Adayilo, is dead.

She reportedly slumped and passed out early this morning.

Mrs Adayilo, an indigene of Abuja and incidentally, the first person ever to occupy the position in the FCT Administration, attended a church service on Sunday and even donated to the congregation.

The Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, confirmed her death Monday morning to our correspondent.

Barely 48 hours after residents and business owners around Jakande Estate Gate, Oke Afa, Isolo, raised alarms over heaps of refuse littering their estate road, the Lagos State Government has intensified enforcement against indiscriminate waste disposal across the state.

Residents had complained about the stench and health risks posed by uncleared refuse, blaming people from neighboring communities for dumping waste in the area. In response, the Lagos State Wastewater Management Office sealed off a residential property on Apongbon Street, Lagos Island, for discharging faeces into public drains.

The building, identified as Pa Kasumu Adepeju Olaniyonu House, was shut for causing public nuisance and environmental pollution.

In a coordinated operation on August 29, officials from the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) arrested over 40 individuals along Ozumba Mbadiwe Road and parts of Lekki for illegal dumping and street mischief. The suspects, aged between 18 and 45, are being processed for prosecution.

Additionally, LAWMA’s Waste Infractions Surveillance Investigation Team arrested eight people along the Lekki-Epe Expressway for disposing refuse at unauthorized sites, including 37-year-old Oluwamomi Mankinde and 39-year-old Martha Simon.

Tokunbo Wahab, Commissioner of Health and Water Resources, urged Lagosians to adopt proper waste and hygiene practices, warning that the government would not tolerate actions undermining environmental safety.

Residents of Isolo have expressed hope that the clampdown will extend to their community. Vulcaniser Kazeen Balogun said, “If LAWMA can arrest people in Lekki, they should also come here. The odour is a big health risk.” Another resident, Olayemi Abiodun, called for stricter monitoring to deter outsiders from dumping refuse in Jakande Estate.

For now, Lagos residents await whether the renewed enforcement will reach neglected communities overwhelmed by waste.

The Päijät-Häme district court in Finland has sentenced Simon Ekpa, pro-Biafra agitator, to six years in prison for terrorism offences.

In a ruling delivered on Monday, the court found Ekpa guilty of inciting terrorism and participating in the activities of a terrorist group.

According to a Finnish newspaper, the court said Ekpa had used his “significant social media following” to stoke tensions in Nigeria’s south-east region between August 2021 and November 2024.

In a unanimous ruling, the three-member panel of judges also stated that Ekpa was an influential member of a militant separatist movement whose goal was to actualise the carving out of a Biafra state from Nigeria.

The district court also noted that Ekpa had supplied certain groups with weapons, explosives, and ammunition “through his network of contacts in the region, and he was also found to have encouraged his followers on social media platform X to commit crimes in Nigeria”.

The court also convicted Ekpa of aggravated tax fraud and violating the provisions of the Attorneys Act.