There was some drama in Port Harcourt on Friday when supporters of the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike and those of the suspended governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, clashed in Port Harcourt.
The incident occurred during a town hall meeting which had supporters of both sides as well as other Rivers natives and residents in attendance.
Different attendees took turns to speak, expressing their views on the political crisis in the state. Trouble started when the President General of Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), Bright Amaewhule, took the stage and made the following comments “there’s no indigene of Rivers State that will not recognize the role GDI played in the emergence of Sim Fubara as governor of Rivers State. Before the campaign proper, we moved Sim from one local government to another, not the honorable minister.
“GDI was the group that propelled Sim into being accepted by the people of Rivers State even when he was rejected by the people who claim to be his brothers and sisters.
“Even when those who now came around him after he had become governor, asking him not to listen to any other person, asking him not to be loyal to the political party that brought him. These were the problems.”
Following the GDI president’s comments, the Rivers Labor Party Chairman, Hilda Dokubo, who was sitting in the front row, got up and walked out saying, “I can’t sit here and listen to this”. She was later prevailed upon by the organizers to return to her seat.
READ ALSO: ‘Do You Even Know If I Want To Go Back There?’ Fubara Speaks On State Of Emergency
The next speaker was Mr Kenwell Ibanibo, who while responding to Mr Amaewhule’s comments said, “I’ve heard the GDI Chairman say they supported Sim Fubara to become governor, but I’m asking you what did he do to warrant the 1st impeachment attempt after just 5 months?
“The point is somebody somewhere who thinks he’s the owner of Rivers state, took this position and influenced the impeachment”
At this moment, supporters of the FCT Minister led by Chibike Ikenga, the factional Rivers APC Chairman, interjected. They started remonstrating with Mr Ibanibo who kept insisting “you spoke, I didn’t interrupt you”.
Hot words were being exchanged by supporters of both groups, with a Wike supporter heard shouting “insult Wike now! Una go still beg, una go still come lie down. Person wey lie down never stand up una Dey talk!” To which the now returned Hilda Dokubo fired back “Him no go lie down! I say him no go lie down!” “No be Wike lie down for somewhere so!?”
As the melee went on, the anchor tried multiple times to regain control of the situation, appealing to everyone to take their seats. Even Mr Jake Epelle could be seen trying to calm frayed nerves as he appealed to the agitated individuals to sheath their swords. The tense situation even led to the bouncers coming into the hall and taking up strategic positions as they watched the tense situation.
After minutes of shouting and remonstration, Mr Ibanibo volunteered to temporarily leave the stage for peace to reign, this served to calm the tensions and the town hall continued.
That wasn’t the end of it though as there was a terse exchange when popular Niger Delta activist, Ann-Kio Briggs was interrupted by Mr Ikenga. She curtly shut him down saying, “I don’t know when you spoke, but I did not interrupt you, please leave me be. If I don’t speak for you, I speak for myself”.
Incidents like this highlight the tensions still simmering underneath in the state and fragility of the peace brought about by the state of emergency.
A pop sensation from the ’90s showcased her current look and left fans gobsmacked at how little their appearance had changed over 30 years since their smash hit that is still regularly played
Whigfield performing(Image: Redferns)
The pop sensation behind a huge 1994 hit has stunned fans with their appearance. Fans were left gobsmacked by how little Whigfield – the person behind the smash record Saturday Night – has appeared to defy time itself.
Posts showed the singer looking as youthful as ever over 30 years after becoming the first Danish artist to bag a UK number one in the charts. Nowadays, Sannie Charlotte Carlson, Whigfield’s real name, continues to dazzle, recently wowing her thousands of Instagram fans with her gorgeous makeup-free selfies. The star has continued to showcase her signature blonde tresses.
The 54-year-old singer radiated with a fresh-faced glow in the snapshot, which she simply captioned: “Hola Madrid.” Sannie has also been candid about her personal life, sharing the heartache of losing her beloved dog Olivia, confessing to her followers: “I haven’t really felt like posting anything these past few weeks. Still a bit down after losing my beloved doggie.”
Whigfield has barely aged (Image: Instagram)
Despite grappling with grief, the pop star is gearing up to return to the limelight, assuring her audience: “Gonna be good to getting back to work this weekend. Anyhow, wishing you a happy weekend whatever you’ve up to,” and ending her message with a black heart emoji, reports OK!.
Her loyal fanbase was quick to shower her with compliments on her enduring allure, with adoring comments such as: “Looking better than ever!”
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And she offered fans a “throwback” look recently on the social media platform. Sharing an “embarrassing interview”, the star seemed to cringe at her old self.
Whigfield shot to fame in 1994 with her dance-pop hit Saturday Night, which became the first UK number one by a Danish artist(Image: 2010 Getty Images)
The print article opened up about her holidays and explained her top beauty tip was “sleep”. She also gave an insight to her holiday playlist at the time. “I listened to Bump and Grind by R Kelly on my last hols,” she told the magazine. “It’s saucy music and I like that. I’m quite saucy myself, actually.”
Fans were loving the reminiscing post in the comments section with many sharing love heart emojis. Another wrote: “The best time,” alongside two emoji faces with love heart eyes.
On The Songs Are Spells Podcast, Whigfield previously recounted an interesting story to host Karlyn King about her unexpected rise to stardom: “What happened was, a lot of these holidaymakers came back to Britain and started calling into radio stations…”
She went on to explain the intrigue that surrounded her hit: “Everybody was calling about this Saturday Night and nobody knew what it was about. They had to go get it.”
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This curiosity helped her single Saturday Night shoot to number one: “That was the reason why it went straight to number 1, no one had heard it.”
Still active in the music scene, Whigfield, who also performs under the name Naan and her given name Sannie, continues to thrill fans with comeback tours. She’s not just remembered for Saturday Night; hits like Sexy Eyes and Think Of You also define her career.
This Morning star Alison Hammond managed to lose a seriously impressive 11 stone – which she puts down to managing to remove two foods in particular from her diet
Alison Hammond cut out two food types to meet her weight loss goals(Image: Lia Toby, Getty Images for the NTA’s)
TV personality Alison Hammond, 50, is a firm favourite of This Morning fans thanks to her candid and down-to-earth approach and now she’s back with her own series, Alison’s Big Weekend.
The new show will see the popular host spend an entire 48 hours with a celebrity, with the BBC describing it by saying: “Buckle up, babes – Alison’s coming for a sleepover! Expect laughs, juicy secrets, surprises and a few tears as she hangs out with celebs in the places that made them who they are.”
The first episode will see Alison spend the weekend with Perrie Edwards, which will see the Little Mix pop icon delve into her relationship with fame and her struggles with anxiety.
The host, who has also presented Great British Bake Off, rarely shies away from chatting about her own personal life and has even opened up about her journey to losing a seriously impressive 11 stone.
At one point, Alison revealed – per Birmingham Mail – that she weighed 28 stone, which led her to have a gastric band fitted, though, unfortunately, the procedure didn’t work out for the Birmingham native. “It’s actually quite a difficult thing. It just didn’t work for me. I didn’t like the feeling of it. You still feel hungry but you can’t eat,” she explained.
However, because her mother had suffered from Type 2 Diabetes, Alison was determined to shed some weight when she learned that she had become pre-diabetic herself, particularly after a conversation the mother and daughter had before her mum passed away back in 2020.
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“Mum said to me: ‘If you can, sort out your weight, Alison,’ and that really set it in my head. My mum had type 2 diabetes and she was worried for me, so when I then found out that I was pre-diabetic, that was frightening,” she told Good Housekeeping.
There were two food types in particular that Alison cut out that she found had some serious results when it came to her weight loss journey: fatty food and sweets. “I thought, I have to be an adult about this,” she added.
Alison revealed she works with a personal trainer twice a week, as well as incorporating home workouts into her routine(Image: Instagram)
After dropping an incredible 11 stone, she has revealed that she no longer is pre-diabetic, and along with managing her diet well she managed the impressive feat with the help of a personal trainer that she sees twice every week and by incorporating home workouts into her regular routine – including walking, stretching, and weight training.
The presenter has been clear that it was health concerns that were at the top of her agenda when it came to her weight loss journey. However, she has also revealed on This Morning there was one particularly “embarrassing” moment that occurred on a flight when she was at her heaviest, adding it is a situation that she no longer has to deal with since she lost the weight.
“I was nearly 28 stone I’ll be honest with you and that is morbidly obese. And I used to buy an extra seat because I didn’t want to put anyone in a situation where I was touching them…I was made to feel uncomfortable on one occasion when I was so close to someone’s seat and they asked to move but they ended up moving me into first class,” she explained.
Alison Hammond has shed 11 stone (Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
“It was embarrassing the whole thing and from that moment I just started buying two seats. I don’t do it anymore because I’ve lost a bit of timber but not everyone can afford to do that.”
Despite sharing the candid story and how it affected her emotionally, Alison made it clear during the chat with co-host Dermot O’Leary, and guests Tom Swarbrick and Gyles Brandreth, that her motivation was always to ensure better health when it came to losing weight.
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“I was in a situation where I was morbidly obese. I had to lose weight because I was dying, I really was dying,” she explained, adding: “People will still say I’m big but now I’m 17 stone rather than 28 stone and I’m comfortable with telling you my weight.”
Jesy Nelson has had a whirlwind few years since she left Little Mix – we’ve taken a look back at her bitter band departure, including Perrie Edwards’ sad admission
Perrie Edwards was overcome with emotion as she spoke about her former Little Mix star, Jesy Nelson(Image: Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place)
Jesy Nelson abruptly left Little Mix four years ago, and her former bandmate Perrie Edwards later opened up about the end of their friendship.
Jesy and Perrie, along with Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall, first shot to fame when they were put together as a band during the eighth series of The X Factor in 2011. During their time on the ITV show, Little Mix were mentored by N-Dubz star Tulisa Contostavlos, and they triumphantly became the first-ever girl group to win.
They went on to release huge hits such as ‘Shout Out To My Ex’, ‘Wings’, ‘Black Magic’ and ‘Woman Like Me’, quickly becoming one of the biggest girl groups in the UK. But ahead of their 10-year anniversary, Jesy announced she was quitting the band.
READ MORE: Jade Thirlwall drops huge career update as fans say she’s ‘saved music industry’
Little Mix, made up of Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock, shot to fame after they won The X Factor in 2011 (Image: Getty Images)
Fast forward to 2024, Perrie gave a rare insight into Little Mix’s rumoured feud and opened up about her friendship with Jesy while on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast. When asked how she felt about her former pal, Perrie shared: “I wrote a song about it, and it’s about a friendship that I had, which I no longer have. I mentioned it in an interview, and so many people reached out to me.
“It’s not really spoken about. When you hear a heartbreak song, it’s about a relationship or a significant other, and it’s like, ‘Unbreak my heart’.
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“But when it’s a friend, you don’t hear about it much in music, so I was like, ‘I am going to write something about it because it’s just as heartbreaking, if not worse’.”
Perrie continued: “When you have been in that person’s life for years, and they have had your back, and you have been through highs, lows, everything and all of these experiences, it’s a wild ride, but you are in it together, and then poof, they’re gone … That is hard to deal with. I struggled a lot with that.
Perrie opened up about Jesy while on the Happy Place podcast(Image: Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place)
“It was really sad, but at the same time, these things happen, and it makes you think, ‘Do we try to rectify the situation? Do I reach out? I feel like I should just stay away.’ It’s a really horrible dynamic to be in.”
She added: “You can’t force somebody to be friends with you. If they don’t want to be friends, they don’t want to be friends. But, yes, it’s really hard.”
Quitting Little Mix
After almost ten years together in December 2020, Jesy revealed her departure from the acclaimed band, citing that being in Little Mix had “taken a toll” on her mental health. Sharing the news in a statement on Instagram, Jesy wrote: “To all my Mixers. The past nine years in Little Mix has been the most incredible time of my life.
“We have achieved things I never thought possible. From winning our first Brit Award to our sold out shows at the O2. Making friends and fans all over the world I cant thank you all enough form the bottom of my heart for making me feel like the luckiest girl in the world. You have always been there to support and encourage me and I will never every forget it.”
Jesy Nelson left Little Mix four years ago(Image: Instagram/Jesy Nelson)
Jesy added: “The truth is recently being in the band has really taken a toll on my mental health. I find the constant pressure of being in a girl group and living up to expectations very hard. There comes a time in life when we need to reinvest in taking care of ourselves rather than focusing on making other people happy, and I feel like now is the time to begin the process. I need to spend some time with the people I love, doing thing that make me happy. I’m ready to embark on a new chapter in my life – I’m not sure what it’s going to look like right now, but I hope you’ll still be there to support me.
“I want to say thank you to everyone involved in our journey. All the hard work and dedication that went into making us a success. To every single fan who came to see us in concert, who listened to our songs and sung their hearts out, sent me messages and supported me along the way I want you to know I love you all so much and I could never have done this without you and I appreciate it endlessly. Most of all I want to say thank you to Jade, Perrie and Leigh-Anne for creating some of the most amazing memories I’l neve forget. I hope that you’ll continue to fufill all of your dreams and keep making music that people love. Love Jesy.”
‘We are fully supportive of Jesy’
A feud was rumoured between Perrie, Leigh-Anne and Jade, with Jesy following her exit from the group (Image: Getty Images)
The three remaining Little Mixers followed with their own joint statement and wrote: “After an amazing 9 years together Jesy has made the decision to leave Little Mix. This is an incredibly sad time for all of us but we are fully supportive of Jesy. We love her very much and agree that it is so important that she does what is right for her mental health and well-being. We are still very much enjoying our Little Mix journey and the 3 of us are not ready for it to be over.
They added: “We know that Jesy leaving the group is going to be really upsetting news for our fans. We love you guys so much and are so grateful for your loyalty and continued support of all of us. We’re looking forward to seeing so many of you on tour. Love always, Jade, Perrie and Leigh-Anne xxx.”
Rumoured feud
Speculation about a possible feud within Little Mix started to heat up following Jesy’s departure from the band. Gossip around a potential rift was fuelled when Jesy didn’t publicly congratulate Leigh-Anne and Perrie on their pregnancy announcements. Tensions seemed to come to a head a month later, in August 2021, as Jesy disclosed in an interview with The Guardian that she had stopped speaking to Leigh-Anne, Perrie and Jade.
When asked if she was in touch with the girls, Jesy explained: “No, not as much. Not now. I think we all need time. It’s a big thing that’s happened. I still love them to pieces. They were like my sisters.” Not giving up on her love for music, Jesy launched her own solo career with tracks like ‘Boyz’, featuring Nicki Minaj and ‘Bad Thing’.
Jesy later released her song ‘Boyz’(Image: Getty Images)
Things heated up in an alleged row when Jesy released the music video for her song ‘Boyz’, in which she was accused of Blackfishing – a term to describe a white person who alters their appearance to appear black or mixed-race. Later, Leigh-Anne was accused of slating Jesy in leaked direct messages shared by influencer NoHun. NoHun had asked fans if he should perform a routine to Jesy’s debut solo track, and Leigh-Anne replied saying “no”.
“Omg Leigh Anne I thought you were all ok,” he replied, to which Leigh-Anne said: “Do a video about her being a black fish instead.” She added: “She blocked us. Cut us off. Horrible person.” Nicki Minaj even got involved in the row, and slammed Leigh-Anne as a “jealous clown” in a live video. Jesy added of the allegations in the live video with Nicki, who featured in the track: “Thank you babe, honestly that really means a lot,” before explaining that she never wanted to “offend people of colour” from the music video.
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Mohamed Salah says Trent Alexander-Arnold did not deserve to be booed by some Liverpool fans after the defender announced he will leave his boyhood club this summer.
The right-back, 26, will depart the newly crowned Premier League champions when his contract expires at the end of June, and is expected to join Real Madrid.
Alexander-Arnold was born in Liverpool and came through the club’s youth system before making his professional debut in 2016.
He played for the first time since confirming his impending exit when he appeared as a substitute in the 2-2 draw against Arsenal on Sunday and received jeers from some supporters.
“I think somehow the fans were being harsh with him,” Salah told Sky Sports.
“I think he didn’t deserve it at the time, he deserved the fans to treat him the best way possible because he gave it all to the fans.
“We shouldn’t act this way with anyone who always appreciates the people, who came here even for six months.
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Alexander-Arnold has made 353 appearances for Liverpool in all competitions, scoring 23 goals.
He has helped them win two Premier League titles, the Champions League, the FA Cup and the League Cup, and Salah believes he deserves the best send-off possible given what he has helped the club achieve.
“I really love him,” he added.
“I think he deserves the best farewell leaving the club. He has done a lot for the city and done a lot for the club and he’s one of probably the best players in the club’s history. He gave it all.”
Salah, who signed a new two-year deal at Liverpool last month, said he talked with Alexander-Arnold about his decision, but did not try to convince him to stay.
“I think he needed a new challenge,” Salah said. “He spoke to me about it. It’s his decision for sure. He’s won it all twice or three times – what more can he have done?
Mourners gathered to celebrate the life of 23-year-old beauty influencer Valeria Marquez, who was shot dead during a TikTok livestream at her salon in Jalisco, Mexico. Her killing is being investigated as a possible femicide.
