New Year's Eve Tragedy: 61 Dead, Several Injured In Stadium Stampede

More than 60 people, most of them children aged between eight and 15, have died in a New Year's Eve stampede at a stadium in Ivory Coast.

It happened in Abidjan at around 2am local time after crowds gathered to watch a fireworks display.

Officials said 61 people had died and around 50 were injured, although some estimates of the number hurt were much higher.

Rescue co-ordinator Lieutenant Colonel Issa Sako said the number of people trying to get into the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium to watch the fireworks had caused the accident.

He said: "In the crush people were walked over and suffocated by the crowd."

One woman, Assetou Toure, said her children had been at the event and she did not know if they had survived.

"My two children came here yesterday. I told them not to come but they didn't listen," she said.

"They came when I was sleeping. What will I do?"

A Reuters correspondent said there were bloodstains and abandoned shoes outside the stadium on Tuesday morning, and rescue workers and government officials were still on the scene.

skynews

Woman Kidnapped & Raped For 5 Hours By 3 Men On Christmas

Three teenage boys kidnapped woman, 22, on Christmas, robbed her and raped her for five hours even after she vomited on them.

A young woman’s Christmas—and her life—was shattered Tuesday when she was kidnapped, raped, robbed and beaten in her own car by three teenagers over the course of five hours, according to police.

"You’ll get sick in the stomach," said Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood, before reciting the facts of the case.

Around 11:40 p.m. Christmas night, the 22-year-old victim was in her Jeep Cherokee, waiting for her boyfriend to come out of a nearby bar, when three men—one of whom had a gun—forced their way inside of her vehicle, Chitwood said. They made the woman move to the back seat and drove her around Philadelphia for hours, police said. One by one, the men took turns in the back seat, forcing the victim to perform sex acts, even after she repeatedly vomited on them, according to court documents.

Nollywood actress Mercy Johnson delivers a baby girl in the US

Mercy and her baby

Nigeria’s Mercy Johnson’s new baby girl delivered at about 1pm Nigerian time today in a private hospital in the United States of America, has stirred web interest, with Mercy’s colleagues and fans sending congratulatory messages to the actress on the social media.

National President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, AGN, Ibinabo Fiberesima, believes that God decided to console the industry with the baby. “We lost some key members this year, but see how God has rewarded us? I’m extremely happy about this.”

Mercy’s publicist, Samuel Olatunji of Bigsam Media said that the actress and her baby will take time to relax in America before coming back to Nigeria.

“Yes, she was delivered of a baby girl, and both of them are in a good condition. But they will relax for some weeks before returning to Nigeria,” he said.

The photo of the baby and her proud mum has been posted on Mercy Johnson’s online celebrity magazine, www.mercyjohnson.com. The site has over 68, 000 followers on Facebook. The post already attracted over 800 comments, few minutes after the arrival of the baby was announced.

Mercy, who has been in America for over a month now, got married to Prince Odianose Okogie in 2011 under controversial circumstances.

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Robbery suspect narrowly escapes lynching

In an attempt to escape arrest by a team of policemen on patrol on the LASU-Isheri Expressway on Wednesday, a robbery suspect, Godwin Ibe, narrowly escaped death in the hands of a mob in Lagos.

Ibe, 29, was apprehended by some members of the Odua People’s Congress keeping the watch in the neighbourhood, in a manner that was reminiscent of the Aluu killings, at about 6 am with a shotgun and four live cartridges allegedly found on him.

Some moments before he was caught with the weapon, policemen patrolling the expressway had demanded to know the contents of the polythene bag in his possession. But scared that he might be discovered, he beat a hasty retreat and took to his heels.

CRIME DIGEST learnt that in order to prevent him from escaping, the patrolmen raised the alarm and followed him in a hot chase.

The sound of running feet attracted the attention of the resident OPC vigilante group. The latter joined in the chase and eventually caught up with the fleeing suspect.

But Ibe denied ownership of the gun found in his possession. In an interview with CRIME DIGEST, he said, “I came to that area in the morning at the behest of Moses, who is a friend of mine and a fellow armed robber.

Covenant University expels 200 students for not attending Church service

About 200 students may have been expelled by the authorities of Covenant University, Cannanland, Ota, Ogun State, recently for what was described as “disregard of paramount core values.”

Frustrated and angered by the development, some of the affected students who gave account of what happened battled emotions while narrating their situations to Saturday Vanguard recently. They however pleaded with the school authorities to tamper justice with mercy in order to save their future.

Saturday Vanguard investigation revealed that out of the figure, about 126 were expelled for not attending the ‘departure service’, meant to sign off from the school after the end of the Semester and Matriculation of students on November 30. Five other students were thrown out for smoking while unconfirmed source said additional 60 got the same fate for violating other rules bordering on the University’s core values. A few others were given four weeks suspension for failure to sign the head count that was conducted a couple of weeks earlier.

A letter of expulsion signed by the Registrar, Ntia Ubong, a copy which was made available to Saturday Vanguard stated that the affected students contravened Chapter 1, section 30, page 40 of the 2010-2014 Student Handbook.

We gathered that the massive expulsion was predicated on the anger of the Chancellor, Bishop David Oyedepo who was said to have been infuriated after seeing students loitering around when they were supposed to be at the Chapel for the Departure Service.

He was said to have personally chased students to the Chapel and ordered for a search into all the halls and colleges to fish out those who did not attend the service.

Several attempts to get the school authorities comment on the issue proved abortive. The Instituion’s Corporate Affairs Head, Mr Igban Emmaunel also refused to comment as calls pulled through to him were unanswered and text messages not replied.

How it happened

A few of the affected students gave account of what happened to Saturday Vanguard at different points. The similar accounts go thus: “On November 30, the last day of the semester, preceding our December break, there was also a Matriculation for the 100 level students; in fact some students had their last semester exams on that day, some of them finished around 3:00pm while the matriculation started around 8am. Some students retired to their rooms to relax while some engaged in some other activities jubilating the end of the semester.