The Director-General of NEMA, Mrs Zubaida Umar, disclosed this at the National Emergency Coordination Forum, ECF, in Abuja on Thursday.

Umar stated that 625,239 persons had been displaced and 259 lives lost to the disaster.

She commiserated with those affected and assured them that the federal government, through NEMA, would provide necessary support.

She said the main reason for convening the meeting was to receive updates on the flood situation and assign roles and responsibilities to stakeholders.

The NEMA boss noted that although flooding could not be totally prevented, efforts were being made to mitigate its impact.

According to the D-G, 29 states and 172 local government areas had been impacted by flooding, affecting 1,048,312 people, displacing 625,239, and resulting in 259 deaths.

She emphasized the need for a coordinated response to the disaster.

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“NEMA has activated Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in some states and deployed additional staff to support search and rescue operations.

“The agency has also provided water purification equipment and critical search and rescue tools to affected states.”

Umar appreciated the support of international partners and encouraged them to continue providing assistance while monitoring the situation.

She noted that the situation was not yet overwhelming for the Nigerian government to cope with.

The Assistant Director, Search and Rescue, Wagami Madu, presented an update on the flood, reporting seven deaths in Borno as of Saturday.

Madu also mentioned challenges in Maiduguri, including inadequate serving materials and wash facilities due to the high number of people in the camp.

Mrs Emmanuela Offiong, Assistant Director, Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, stressed the need for proper fact-checking and communication on disaster management to avoid disinformation and misinformation.

Source: NAN

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It was his dance teacher who filmed the young boy in June 2020 as he practised pirouettes barefoot in the rain.

Afterwards, he uploaded the video to social media where it caught the eye of Hollywood actress Viola Davis who shared it to her huge following on Twitter, now known as X – and the clip amassed 16 million views.

It led to Anthony being offered a scholarship at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre. However, Covid-19 restrictions at the time meant the training had to take place online.

“For the first year, it felt really, really hard trying to adjust to like the weather compared to Nigeria and also missing home as well,” he says.

It was then that Anthony was given a chance to study at Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham – which had seemed to him an unattainable dream.

“So when I got the scholarship, I was surprised but really happy,” the teenager, who has now been at Elmhurst for just over a year, tells the BBC.

Sitting in one of the school’s practice studios, he shyly admits it has not been an easy transition.

“For the first year, it felt really, really hard trying to adjust to like the weather compared to Nigeria and also missing home as well,” he says.

However he has now settled down and enjoys the strictures of his new dance regime.

“I video call my mum every day and hang out with my friends. Here, we do more classical ballet. It has to be precise, like having the arms right.”

Anthony grew up in a community with no dance schools, let alone classical ballet schools. Without the chance for formal training, he taught himself through watching videos and copying moves that fascinated him.

It was a hobby that surprised his family.

“When he was five years, I saw him dancing. I thought: ‘What is wrong with you?'” Ifeoma Madu, Anthony’s mother, who still lives in Lagos, tells the BBC.

“People were telling me that this type of dance is not for boys. But it’s what he loves doing, so I let him go for it,” she says.

As Anthony’s interest developed, his family moved to a different neighbourhood of the city so he could attend the Lagos Leap Dance Academy.

“The day the video went viral, I wasn’t meant to go for class that day. I was just doing the dance and then my dance teacher decided to film it,” he remembers.

“When I came for a practice the next day, he told me that it’s got over thousands of views.”

But most aspiring ballet dancers across Africa do not have Anthony’s luck or opportunities.

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Mike Wamaya, a ballet teacher in Kibera – Africa’s largest informal urban settlement – in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, is impressed by Anthony’s story.

“It is very rare to see young boys getting scholarships from Africa to go outside to dance,” the 48-year-old, who has more than 250 children taking his classes, tells the BBC.

“Over the years, ballet has been linked to only the elite community and now slowly we are breaking it.”

Mr Wamaya admits too that many young boys on the continent do not pursue ballet because of the social stigma associated with it.

“People are very homophobic and as a male dancer you are called gay. Because of the tights, showing our muscles,” he says.

“This built a lot of resilience in us. We got teased a lot but I’m very happy that my students used the teasing to prove those people wrong.”

Despite the challenges, the dance coach encourages gifted students like Anthony to keep focused and keep dancing.

“Take care of your mental health and your mental well-being because it’s so competitive,” he advises.

“But at the end of the day, it’s not about what people see. It’s about what you use dance for what is important.”

Siphesihle November, a South African dancer who has made it internationally, agrees about the image problem ballet has in Africa.

From South Africa’s Western Cape province, his talent was also spotted young. A Canadian couple in South Africa were so impressed when they saw him perform aged 11 that they initially sponsored his trip to Canada where he got a scholarship to the National Ballet of Canada.

Now a principal dancer there, the 24-year-old believes social media is helping to promote classical ballet in Africa.

“In my township and surrounding areas, it’s become more popular. But there’s a long way to go bridging the gap between those small schools and international schools,” he tells the BBC.

Anthony has already inspired other young people in Nigeria and the rest of Africa to pursue their dancing ambitions.

His journey is also to be shown to a much wider audience as Disney is making a documentary about it. Called Madu, it is currently in post-production and will be seen at film festivals in cinemas around the world when released.

“Anthony’s journey is a beautiful one, full of courage, growth and acceptance,” Disney’s Marjon Javadi said last year.

Pride in his success is not limited to his mother, who says Anthony wants to become a professional dancer when he grows up.

His ambitions have also caught the attention of Calvin Royal III – the third African-American ballet dancer to rise to the rank of principal with the American Ballet Theatre – and Anthony’s inspiration.

Life in Birmingham is also broadening Antony’s horizons, as there is more on offer academically at Elmhurst.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am of you,” Royal tells the BBC in a specially recorded message to the young dancer. “Keep going. Keep soaring.”

Life in Birmingham is also broadening Antony’s horizons, as there is more on offer academically at Elmhurst.

“When I was in Nigeria, I didn’t do things like art. But now I love drawing. And learning other dances too. Aside from ballet, contemporary is my favourite,” he says.

Though he admits his mother is less impressed by his changing accent, which now has an English lilt.

And as he absorbs Royal’s words – his advice to other aspiring dancers is similar: do not lose your tenacity.

“There might be struggles along the way but remember it’s just temporary and it will be worth it in the end.”

Source: BBC

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They were arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja, Lagos and in raids across 12 states in the past week, according to the spokesman of the agency, Mr. Femi Babafemi.

He said as part of ongoing operations to mop up illicit drugs across the country ahead of the next round of elections, NDLEA officers in the early hours of Friday March 10, stormed Kajola forest in Kajola community, a border town between Edo and Ondo states where they destroyed three cannabis farms measuring 39.801546 hectares.

The owner of the farms who claims to be the Baale of Kajola, Akinola Adebayo, 35, was arrested on the farm at 2:30am, while two other suspects believed to be his workers: – Arikuyeri Abdulrahman, 23 and Habibu Ologun, 25 – were also nabbed in a hut near the farms.

In the same vein, a 26-year-old Alayi Madu, who was a Boko Haram fighter for 15 years before he surrendered to the Nigerian military in 2021 was intercepted by NDLEA operatives on Thursday, March 9, along Abuja-Kaduna Expressway with 10 kilograms of skunk, which he said he bought in Ibadan, Oyo State and was taking the consignment concealed in a sack to Maiduguri, Borno State.

In his statement, Madu said he was from Banki town, Borno State and joined the notorious terrorist organisation, in 2006 when he was nine years old.

He said he repented and surrendered to the military in 2021, after which he underwent rehabilitation and de-radicalisation processes at Umaru Shehu rehabilitation centre, Maiduguri and Malam Sidi de-radicalization centre, Gombe before he was discharged after spending six months.

Thereafter, he travelled to Ibadan, Oyo State where he worked as commercial motorcycle rider (Okada rider) before going into drug trafficking and his eventual arrest along Abuja-Kaduna Expressway.

At the Lagos airport in Ikeja, operatives acting on intelligence intercepted a consignment of 11.90 kilograms of heroin and 500grams of skunk concealed in deep freezers, which were part of a cargo that arrived from South Africa on Tuesday, March 7, onboard Ethiopian airline via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Agency’s sniffer dogs were deployed to locate where the illicit drugs were hidden in the cargo and in no time, they identified the cartons packed in the deep freezers.

A total of four suspects that played active roles in the movement of the drugs and a truck driver have been arrested so far in connection with the seizure.

They include: Dairo Quam; Oluwaseun Ogunmene; Adeleke Abdulrasaq; Bamidele Adewale and Oluwafemi Ogunmeru.

Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives attached to the Gate C departure hall of the MMIA on Thursday, March 9, intercepted a passenger, Aigbedion Philomena, heading to Italy via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airline flight.

When her bags containing body cream, hair attachments, drinks, and some food items were searched, a total of 1.20kg tramadol capsules concealed inside gift wrapping sheet and covered with old daily newspapers were discovered.

At the Idiroko land border, NDLEA operatives acting on intelligence on Thursday, March 9, intercepted a commercial Toyota Camry Salon Car with registration number JJJ 756 HB (Lagos) along Ilase-Akoko road, Idiroko, with 34 compressed jumbo size wraps of imported skunk weighing 17kg and concealed in two cooking gas cylinders.

Two suspects in the car, Benjamin Ajose, 48 and Oluwatobiloba Ajayi, 37, were arrested.

In Akwa Ibom State, Mrs. Hope Iniobong David, 42, was arrested with bags of cannabis sativa weighing 1,112kg (1.1 tons) in her house at Ediene Abak in Abak local government area, while operatives in Kogi State on Thursday, March 9, recovered 25 cartons, containing 50,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection weighing 200kg in a Toyota Hiace bus marked LAM 652 LG, Kogi, travelling from Lagos to Abuja.

Also, in Ogun State, operatives arrested a female drug dealer, Bola Egbebi in Ota local government, with different quantities of Cannabis Sativa, Methamphetamine, Tramadol 225, Skuchies, Molly and Codeine cough syrup, while in Gombe State, another female drug dealer, Fatima Hassan (a.k.a Boss) was arrested on Saturday, March 11, in her house at New Mile 3 area of Akko local government area with three and half blocks of skunk weighing 3.245kg.

Two other female drug dealers – Folake Ladipo and Adeola Babatunde – were arrested with 49.5kg skunk on Friday, March 10, in Mushin area of Lagos State.

In Kwara, operatives on patrol along Ilorin-Jebba highway on Tuesday, March 7, arrested two suspects – Ismaila Saidu and Dahiru Abdullahi – with 50 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 578 kilograms, while in the FCT Abuja, 15 suspects were transferred by the Nigerian Army with 35 bags of cannabis weighing 384.3kg.

A 56-year-old suspect, Shinayemà Kelenku, was arrested at Tse-kelenku Village, Logo local government area, Benue State, with 36.7kg skunk, while in Delta State, operatives intercepted a suspect, Chimeze Ndukaire, 56, conveying psychotropic substances worth over N30 million in a white Toyota Hiace bus with registration number Lagos FST 279 XS coming from Onitsha to Warri.

The vehicle was intercepted on Friday, March 10, at G.S.M junction, Asaba based on a tip-off.

Recovered from the bus include 267.3 litres of codeine (2,673 bottles); 25,110 pills of tramadol and other opioids.

In Kano State, NDLEA operatives on Saturday, March 11, raided the Sabon-gari area of Kano where they arrested a suspect, Chukwuebuka Christopher, and recovered from him 7,740 bottles of Codeine based syrup, measuring 774 litres, concealed inside 43 sacks of garlic.

Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) commended the officers, men and women of MMIA, Idiroko, Edo, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Kogi, Ogun, Gombe, Lagos, Kwara, FCT, Benue, Delta and Kano commands of the agency for their diligence and commitment to work.

He charged them and their compatriots across other commands not to rest on their oars.

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